The Moors in Spain

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THE MOORS IN SPAIN.

THE STORY OF THE NATIONS.

ROME. By ARTHUR OILMAN,

M.A.
THE JEWS, By Prof. J. K.

HOSMER.

GERMANY. By Rev. S. BAKING-
GOULD, M.A.

CARTHAGE. By Prof. ALFRED
J. CHURCH.

ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. By
Prof. J. P. MAHAFKY.

THE MOORS IN SPAIN. By
STANLEY LANE-POOLE.

ANCIENT EGYPT. By Prof.
GEORGE RAWLINSON.

HUNGARY. By Prof. ARMINIUS
VAMBERY.

THE SARACENS. By ARTHUR

GlLMAN, M.A.

IRELAND. By the Hon. EMILY
LAWLESS.

CHALDEA. By ZENAIDE A.
RAGOZIN.

THE GOTHS. By HENRY BRAD-
LEY.

ASSYRIA. By ZENAIDE A. RA-
GOZIN.

TURKEY. By STANLEY LANE-
POOLE.

HOLLAND. By Prof. J. E.
THOROLD ROGERS.

MEDL/EVAL FRANCE. By
GUSTAVE MASSON.

PERSIA. By S. G. W. BEN-

JAMIN.

PHOENICIA. By Prof. GEO.
RAWLINSON.

MEDIA. By ZENAIDE A. RA-
GOZIN.

THE HANSA TOWNS. By
HELEN ZIMMERN.

EARLY BRITAIN. By Prof.
ALFRED J. CHURCH.

THE BARBARY CORSAIRS.
By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.

RUSSIA. By W. R. MORFILL,
M.A.

THE JEWS UNDER THE
ROMANS. By W. D. MORRI-
SON.

SCOTLAND. By JOHN MACKIN-
TOSH, LL.D.

SWITZERLAND. ByMrsLiNA
HUG and R. STEAD.

MEXICO. By SUSAN HALE.

PORTUGAL. By H. MORSE
STEPHENS.

THE NORMANS. By SARAH
ORNE JEWETT.

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
By C. W. C. OMAN.

SICILY : Phoenician, Greek
and Roman. By the late

Prof. E. A. FREEMAN.
THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS.
By BELLA DUFFY.

POLAND. By W. R. MORKILL,
M.A.

PARTHIA. By Prof. GEORGE
RAWLINSON.

AUSTRALIAN COMMON-
WEALTH. By GREVILLE
TREGARTHEN

SPAIN. By H. E. WATTS.

JAPAN. By DAVID MURRAY,
Ph.D.

SOUTH AFRICA. By GEORGE
M. THEAL.

VENICE. By ALETHEA WIEL.

THE CRUSADES. By T. A.
ARCHER and C. L. KINGS-
FORD.

VEDIC INDIA. By Z. A. RA-
GOZIN.

WEST INDIES AND THE
SPANISH MAIN. By JAMES

RODWAY.

BOHEMIA. By C. EDMUND
MAURICE.

THE BALKANS. By W.
MILLER, M.A.

CANADA. By Sir J. G. BOURI-
NOT, LL.D.

BRITISH INDIA. By R. W.
FRAZER, LL.B.

MODERN FRANCE. By ANDRE
LE BON.

THE FRANKS. By LEWIS SER-
GEANT.

AUSTRIA. By SIDNEY WHIT-
MAN.

MODERN ENGLAND. Before
the Reform Bill. By JUSTIN
MCCARTHY.

CHINA. By Prof. R. K.
DOUGLAS.

MODERN ENGLAND. From
the Reform Bill to the Pre-
sent Time. By JUSTIN
MCCARTHY.

MODERN SPAIN. By MARTIN
A. S. HUME.

MODERN ITALY. By PIETRO
ORSI.

NORWAY. By H. H. BOYE-

SEN.

WALES. By O. M. EDWARDS.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.G.

THE ALPUXARRAS.

THE

MOORS IN SPAIN

BY

STANLEY LANE-POOLE

Attthor of " The Life of Viscount Stratford de Reddi/e" " The
Art of the Saracens in Egypt" "Turkey" &c.

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF

ARTHUR OILMAN, M.A.

EIGHTH EDITION

lonton

T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

Copyright by T. FISHER UNWIN, 1888.

PP

/-3r

PREFACE.

THE history of Spain offers us a melancholy con-
trast. Twelve hundred years ago, Tarik the Moor
added the land of the Visigoths to the long catalogue
of kingdoms subdued by the Moslems. For nearly
eight centuries, under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain
set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized
and enlightened State. Her fertile provinces, rendered
doubly prolific by the industry and engineering skill
of her conquerors, bore fruit an hundredfold. Cities
innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys of the
Guadelquivir and the Guadiana, whose names, and
names only, still commemorate the vanished glories
of their past. Art, literature, and science prospered,
as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe.
Students flocked from France and Germany and
England to drink from the fountain of learning which
flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons
and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science :
women were encouraged to devote themselves to
serious study, and the lady doctor was not unknown
among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, as-

Vlll PREFACE.

tronomy and botany, history, philosophy and juris-
prudence were to be mastered in Spain, and Spain
alone. The practical work of the field, the scientific
methods of irrigation, the arts of fortification and
shipbuilding, the highest and most elaborate products
of the 'loom, the graver and the hammer, the potter's
wheel and the mason's trowel, were brought to per-
fection by the Spanish Moors. In the practice of
war no less than in the arts of peace they long stood
supreme. Their fleets disputed the command of the
Mediterranean with the Fatimites, while their armies
carried fire and sword through the Christian marches.
The Cid himself, the national hero, long fought on
the Moorish side, and in all save education was more
than half a Moor. Whatsoever makes a kingdom
great and prosperous, whatsoever tends to refinement
and civilization, was found in Moslem Spain.

In 1492 the last bulwark of the Moors gave way
before the crusade of Ferdinand and Isabella, and
with Granada fell all Spain's greatness. For a brief
while, indeed, the reflection of the Moorish splendour
cast a borrowed light upon the history of the land
which it had once warmed with its sunny radiance.
The great epoch of Isabella, Charles V., and Philip
II., of Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro, shed a last
halo about the dying moments of a mighty State.
Then followed the abomination of desolation, the rule
of the Inquisition, and the blackness of darkness in
which Spain has been plunged ever since. In the
land where science was once supreme, the Spanish
doctors became noted for nothing but their ignorance
and incapacity, and the discoveries of Newton and

PREFACE. ix

Harvey were condemned as pernicious to the faith.
Where once seventy public libraries had fed the minds
of scholars, and half a million books had been
gathered together at Cordova for the benefit of the
world, such indifference to learning afterwards pre-
vailed, that the new capital, Madrid, possessed no
public library in the eighteenth century, and even the
manuscripts of the Escurial were denied in our owa
days to the first scholarly historian of the Moors,
though himself a Spaniard. The sixteen thousand
looms of Seville soon dwindled to a fifth of their ancient
number ; the arts and industries of Toledo and
Almeria faded into insignificance ; the very baths
— public buildings of equal ornament and use —
were destroyed because cleanliness savoured too
strongly of rank infidelity. The land, deprived of the
skilful irrigation of the Moors, grew impoverished and
neglected ; the richest and most fertile valleys lan-
guished and were deserted ; most of the populous
cities which had filled every district of Andalusia fell
into ruinous decay ; and beggars, friars, and bandits
took the place of scholars, merchants, and knights.
So low fell Spain when she had driven away the
Moors. Such is the melancholy contrast offered by
her history.

Happily we have here only to do with the first of
these contrasted periods, with Spain in her glory
under the Moors, not with Spain in her degradation
under the Bourbons. We have endeavoured to pre-
sent the most salient points in the eight centuries 'of
Mohammedan rule without prejudice or extenuation,
and while not neglecting the heroic characters and

i*

X PREFACE.

legends which appeal to the imagination of the
reader, we have especially sought to give a clear
picture of the struggle between races and creeds
which formed the leading cause of political movement
in mediaeval Spain. The student who wishes to
pursue the subject further than it has been possible
to carry it in the limits of this volume should read
the following authorities, to which we are deeply
indebted. The most important is the late Professor
Dozy's Histoire des Musulmans cTEspagne (4 vols.,
Leyden, 1861), with the same scholar's Recherches sur
rhistoire et la litterature de r Espagne pendant le moyen
dge (2 vols., 3rd ed., Paris and Leyden, 1881). These
works are full of valuable information presented in a
form which, though somewhat fragmentary, is equally
pleasing to the literary and the historical sense. Pro-
fessor Dozy was an historian as well as an Orientalist,
and his volumes are at once judicious and profound.
Very useful, too, is Don Pascual de Gayangos*s trans-
lation of El-Makkary's History of the 'Mohammedan
Dynasties in Spain (2 vols., London, 1843), which has
been exposed to some needlessly acrimonious criti-
cism by Professor Dozy and others on the score of
certain minor inaccuracies, but which none the less
deserves the gratitude of all students who would
rather have half a loaf than no bread, and are glad to
be able to read an Arabic writer, even imperfectly, in
a European tongue. Don Pascual's notes, moreover,
present a mass of valuable material which can be ob-
tained nowhere else. Beyond these two authorities
there are many Arabic historians, Whose works have
been consulted in the composition of the present

PREFACE. XI

volume, but who can hardly be recommended to the
general student, as very few of them have found
translators. A slight but very readable and instruc-
tive sketch of Arab civilization, with a glance at the
Spanish development, is found in August BebePs Die
Mohammedanisch-arabische Kulturperiode (Stuttgart,
1884). For the last days of the Moorish domination,
Washington Irving's picturesque Conquest of Granada,
,and Sir W. Stirling Maxwell's admirable Don John oj
Austria, largely drawn upon in this volume, deserve
separate reading. All histories of the Moors written
before the works of Gayangos and Dozy should be
studiously avoided, since they are mainly founded
upon Conde's Dominacion de los Arabes in EspaHa, a
book of considerable literary merit but very slight
historical value, and the source of most of the errors
that are found in later works. Whether it has been
in any degree the foundation of Miss Yonge's Chris-
tians and Moors in Spain (the only popular history of
this period in English of which I have heard), I can-
not determine : for a glance at her pages, while
exciting my admiration, showed me that her book
was written so much on the lines which I had drawn
for my own work that I could not read it without risk
of involuntary imitation.

Besides my indebtedness to the works of Dozy
and Gayangos, and to the kind collaboration of Mr.
Arthur Gilman, I have gratefully to acknowledge the
assistance of my friend Mr. H. E. Watts, especially in
matters of Spanish orthography.

In conclusion, those who are inclined to infer, from
the picture here given of Moorish civilization, that

Xll PREFACE.

Mohammedanism is always on the side of culture
and humanity, must turn to another volume in this
series, my Story of the Turks, to see what Moham-
medan barbarism means. The fall of Granada hap-
pened within forty years of the conquest of Constanti-
nople ; but the gain to Islam in the east made no
amends for the loss to Europe in the west : the Turks
were incapable of founding a second Cordova.

S. L-P
RICHMOND. SURREY.

CONTENTS.

PAGB

THE LAST OF THE GOTHS ....

The seclusion of Ancient Arabia, I — Change caused by the
Prophet Mohammed, 2— The Saracen conquests, 3 — Ceuta
attacked, 4 — Condition of Spain, 4 — Effects of Roman
rule, 5 — The Visigoths, 6 — Demoralization of all classes, 7
— Witiza, 8— Roderick, 8 — Story of Florinda, 1 1 — Count
Julian's revenge, II — He joins the Arabs, 12 — Musa son of
Noseyr, 12 — First incursion into Spain under Tarif, 13 —
Tank's invasion, 13— The Enchanted Tower, 14 — Roderick's
vision, 1 8 — Battle of the Guadalete, 20— Fate of Don Rod-
rigo, 21.

II.

THE WAVE OF CONQUEST

Subjugation of Spain, 23 — Capture of Cordova, Malaga,
Elvira, Murcia, 24 — Theodemir's stratagem, 25 — Flight of the
Goths, 26 — Musa crosses over to Spain, 27 — His jealousy of
Tarik, and recall, 28 —Invasion of Aquitaine, and capture of
Narbonne, 28 — Battle of Tours, 29 — A boundary set to
the Moorish advance by Charles Martel, 30 — Charlemagne
invades Spain, 33 — The Pass of Roncesvalles, 34 — Death of
Roland, 36.

XIV CONTENTS.

III.

THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA .... 39

The limits of the Moorish territory, 39— Division between the
north and the south, 40 — Andalusia, 43 — Condition of the
people after the Conquest, 44 — Taxation, 47 — Moderation of
the Moors, 47 — State of the slaves, 48 — The renegades, 49 —
Factions among the victors, 50 — Arab tribal jealousies, 51 —
The Berbers or Moors proper, 52 — Their superstitious charac-
ter, 53 — Berber insurrections in Africa and Spain, 54 — Syrian
Arabs come to the rescue, 55 — Their settlement in Anda-
lusia, 56.

IV.

A YOUNG PRETENDER 58

The Khalifs of Damascus, 58 — Overthrow of the Omeyyads,
59 — Adventures of Abd-er- Rahman the Omeyyad, 60 — He
lands in Spain and is received with acclamation, 62 — Founda-
tion of the Omeyyad kingdom of Andalusia, 63 — Revolts
suppressed by Abd-er-Rahman, 64— His character, 66—
Hisham I., 71— His piety and virtues, 71 — Power of the
priests, 72 — Yahya the theologian, 73 — Accession of Hakam
74 — His genial character, 74 — Revolt of the zealots, 75 —
Burning of the southern suburb of Cordova, 76.

V.

mi CHRISTIAN MARTYRS .... 78

Abd-er-Rahman II., 78 — Queen Tarub,,8i— Ziryab the ex-
quisite, 81 — Frivolity of the Court, 82 — Christian fanaticism,
84 — A race for martyrdom, 85 — St. Eulogius and Flora, 86 —
Death of Perfectus, 89 — More "martyrs, ".90— Indifference of
the majority of the Christians, 90 — Moderation counselled by
the Church, 91 — Flora and Eulogius in prison, 92 — Their
martyrdom, 93.

VI.

THE GREAT KHALIF ..... 96

Large movements of race and creed in Andalusia, 96 — The
need of a great king, 98 — Abdallah's weakness, 98— General
anarchy, 101— Ibn-Hafsun's rebellion, 102— Ibn-Hajjaj of

CONTENTS. XV

Seville, 105 — Cordova in danger, 106 — Accession of Abd-er-
Rahman in., 107 — His courageous policy, 108 — Submission of
the rebels, 109 — Death of Ibn-Hafsun and conquest of
Bobastro, no — Siege of Toledo, no— Surrender, 113 — Paci-
fication of Andalusia, 113.

VII.

HOLY WAR 114

•Rahman's principle of government, 1 14 — The Slavs,
t— Warswith the Fatimite Khalifs of Africa, 115— Pelayo
and the Christians of the Asturias, 116 — Growth of the Christian
power, 117 — Alfonso's campaigns, 118 — The soldiery of Leon,
119— Ordono's forays, 119— Battle of St. Estevan de Gormaz,
120— Abd-er-Rahman retaliates, 120 — Battle of the Val de
i Junqueras and capture of Pamplona, 121 — Abd-er-Rahman
assumes the title of Khalif, 121 — Annual campaigns against
the Christians, 122 — Ramiro defeats him at Alhandega, 123 —
^ Jealousies among the Christians, 123 — Fernando Gonzalez,
"" 123— Queen Theuda and Sancho the Fat invoke the KhaliPs
aid, 125 — Their visit to Cordova, 'J26 — Hazdai the physician,
126— Death of Abd-er-Rahman ill., 126— His achievements
and character, 127.

VIII.
THE CITY OF THE KHALIF . . . 129

Beauty of Cordova, 129— Gardens, 131 — Palaces, 132 — Baths,
135— The Great Mosque, 136— "The City of the Fairest," 139
— Reception at Medinat-ez-Zahra, 142 — Science and letters
cultivated under the Moors, 144 — Condition of the arts in
Andalusia, 147.

IX.

THE PRIME MINISTER 152

Hakam II., 152— His library, 155— Hisham II., 156 — Se-
clusion in the harim, 156 — The Queen-mother Aurora, 156 —
Harim influence, 157 — Rise of Ibn-Abl-Amir, surnamed Al-
manzor, J57 — His campaign with Ghalib against the Chris-
tians, 159— He becomes Prime Minister, 160 — His absolute

T,

CONTENTS.

rule, 161— Policy, 162— Fortitude, 162— Resource, 162— The
new army, 163 — Campaigns against the Christians of the
North, 164 — Invasion of Leon, Barcelona, and Galicia, 165 —
Capture of St. Santiago de Compostella, 165 — Unchecked
victories, 166— Death, 166— " Buried in Hell,'/ 166.

X.

THE BERBERS IN POWER . . . . . 167

Anarchy after Almanzor's death, 167 — His sons, 169 — Suc-
cession of puppet Khalifs, 170— Misery of Hisham in., 171 —
Massacres and pillaging, 172— The Slavs and the Berbers, 175
—Sack of the City of Ez-Zahra, 175— Petty dynasties, 176—
Advance of the Christians of Leon^and Castile, 176— -Al-
fonso VI., 177— The Cid, 177— The Moors call in the Almora- \
vides, 178— Battle of Zallaka, 179— Character of the Almora-,
^ vides, j 80— They subdue Andalusia,' 181 — Their tyranny and
demoralization, 183 — The expulsion of the Almora vides, 184.

XI.

MY CID THE CHALLENGER . . . . 185

State of the Christian powers in the North, iS^-^FeraajadflLW..
186 — Vassalage of the Mohammedan princes, 1 86— Character
of the Christians and Moors contrasted, 189— The chevaliers
~3> Industrie, 191— The Cid Rodrigo de Bivar, 191 — His title of
Campeador, 191 — His panegyrists, 192 — Dozy's "real Cid,"
192 — The Chronicle of the Cid, 193— Heroic character, 193—
The Cid's first appearance in history, 195 — His services to
Castile, 195— His banishment, 195 — Takes service with the
Moorish king of Zaragoza, 200— Fights against the Christians
of Barcelona, 201 — At Valencia, 205 — Raid upon Leon, 206
— Siege of Valencia, 206— Battle with the Almoravides, 209—
Death and burial of the Cid, 213.

XII.

THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA . , . , 214

Invasion of Andalusia by the Almohades, 214 — Victory at
Alarcos, 217— Defeat at Las Navas, 217— Expulsion of the

CONTENTS. XV 11

Almohades, 217— Advance of the Christians, 217— Granada '
alone left to the Moors, 218 — Dynasty of the Beny-Nasr of \
Granada, 218— Their tribute to Castile, 221 — The Alhambra,
221 — Ferdinand and Isabella, 232— Abul- Hasan (Alboacen)
throws off his allegiance, 232— Capture of Zahara, 233— Fall of
Alhama, 235— Disasters of the Christians in the mountains of
Malaga, 236 — Defeat of the Moors at Lucena, 242 — Boabdil
made prisoner, 245.

. '__ XIII.

THE FALL OF GRANADA

Ferdinand's policy towards Boabdil, 246— Factions at Gra-
nada, 247 — The Abencerrages, 247— Ez-Zaghal, 248 — Ferdi-
nand's campaigns, 251 — Siege of Velez and Malaga, 251 — Ez-
Zegry's defence, 253 — The surrender, 254 — Siege of Baza, 258
— Ez-Zaghal submits, 259 — His fate, 259 — Granada threatened,
260— Musa's reply, 260 — The siege, 263 — Exploit of Pulgar,
264 — Boabdil capitulates, 266 — Death of Musa, 266 — Entry
of Ferdinand and Isabella into the Alhambra, 266 — "The
last sigh of the_Mppr, "^267.

XIV.

BEARING THE CROSS ..... 269

Terms of surrender of Granada, 269 — Archbishop Talavera's
toleration, 269 — Cardinal Ximenes, 269 — Revolt in the Al-
puxarras, 271 — Defeat and death of Aguilar, 271 —Persecution
of the Moriscos, 272 — Second revolt in the Alpuxarras, 274 —
Character of the country, 274 — Heroism of the Christians, 276
—The plank of Tablete, 276— Massacre of the Moors in the
Albaycin gaol, 277 — Aben Umeyya and Aben Abo, 277 — Don
John of Austria, 278 — Banishment of the Moors, 279 — Rejoic-
ings in Spain, 279 — Retribution, 280.

INDEX . . . , ... . 281.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FAGB

THE ALPUXARRAS ..... Frontispiece

TOLEDO 9

GATE OF BISAGRA, TOLEDO 15

PUERTO DEL SOL, TOLEDO 27

ARCH IN THE ALJAFERIA OF ZARAGOZA . . . 31

ALCANTARA 41

THE SIERRA NEVADA . 45

THE BRIDGE OF CORDOVA 69

MOORISH IVORY CASKET OF THE IITH CENTURY IN

THE CATHEDRAL OF PAMPLONA ... 79

THE GOLDEN TOWER, SEVILLE 99

DOOR OF THE MAIDEN'S COURT, ALCAZAR OF SEVILLE 103

AQUEDUCT NEAR GRANADA Ill

EXTERIOR OF THE GREAT MOSQUE AT CORDOVA . 133
GATE OF THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA . . . .137

HISPANO-MORESCO VASE. (Preserved at Granada} . 145

HISPANO-MORESCO LUSTRED PLATE, WITH ARMS OF
LEON, CASTILE, AND ARAGON. (/;/ the South

Kensington Museum] 149

ANCTENT KORAN CASE. (Escurtal Library) . . 153

XX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THE GIRALDA AT SEVILLE 173

BOTICA DE LOS TEMPLARIOS, TOLEDO . . . .187

GATE OF SERRANO, VALENCIA . 203

TOMB OF THE CID AT SAN PEDRO DE GARDEN A . 211

BANNER OF THE ALMOHADES 215

SHIELD OF A KING OF GRANADA 2IQ

THE COURT OF THE LIONS IN THE ALHAMBRA . . 223

GARDEN OF THE GENERALIFE, GRANADA . . . 229

A WINDOW IN THE ALHAMBRA 243

MOSQUE LAMP FROM GRANADA 249

MALAGA 255

SWORD OF BOABDIL ( Villaseca Collection^ Madrid?) . 261

THE STORY
OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN.

THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

WHEN the armies of Alexander the Great were
trampling upon the ancient empires of the East, one
country remained undisturbed and undismayed. The
people of Arabia sent no humble embassies to the
conqueror. Alexander resolved to bring the con-
temptuous Arabs to his feet : he was preparing to
invade their land when death laid its hand upon him,
and the Arabs remained unconquered.

This was more than three hundred years before
Christ, and even then the Arabs had long been
established in independence in their great desert
peninsula. For nearly a thousand years more they
continued to dwell there in a strange solitude. Great
empires sprang up all around them ; the successors
of Alexander founded the Syrian kingdom of the
Seleucids and the Egyptian dynasty of the Ptolemies ;
Augustus was crowned Imperatorat Rome; Constan-
tine became the first Christian emperor at Byzantium ;

2 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

the hordes of the barbarians bore down upon the
wide-reaching provinces of the Caesars — and still the
Arabs remained undisturbed, unexplored, and unsub-
dued. Their frontier cities might pay homage to
Chosroes or Caesar, the legions of Rome might once
and again flash across their highland wastes ; but
such impress was faint and transitory, and left the
Arabs unmoved. Hemmed in as they were by lands
ruled by historic dynasties, their deserts and their
valour ever kept out the invader, and from the days
of remote antiquity to the seventh century of the
Christian era hardly anything was known of this
secluded people save that they existed, and that no
one attacked them with impunity.

Then suddenly a change came over the character
of the Arabs. No longer courting seclusion, they came
forth before the world, and proceeded in good earnest
to conquer it. The change had been caused by one
man. Mohammed the Arabian Prophet began to
preach the religion of Islam in the beginning of the
seventh century, arid his doctrine, falling upon a
people prone to quick impulses and susceptible of
strong impressions, worked a revolution. What he
taught was simple enough. |He took the old faith
of the Hebrews, which had its disciples in Arabia,
and, making such additions and alterations as he
thought needful, he preached the worship of One God
as a new revelation to a nation of idolaters, j It is
difficult for us in the present time to understand the
irresistible impulse which the simple and unemotional
creed of Mohammed gave to the whole people of
Arabia ; but we know that such religious revolutions

THE RELIGION OF ISLAM. 3

have been, and that there is always a mysterious and
potent fascination in the personal influence of a true
prophet Mohammed was so far true, that he taught
honestly and strenuously what he believed to be the
only right faith, and there was enough of sublimity in
the creed and of enthusiasm in the Prophet and his
hearers to produce that wave of overmastering popular
feeling which people call fanaticism. The Arabs
before the time of Mohammed had been a collection
of rival tribes or clans, excelling in the savage virtues
of bravery, hospitality, and even chivalry, and devoted
to the pursuit of booty. The Prophet turned the Arab :>
tribes, for the nonce, into the Moslem people, filled/
them with the fervour of martyrs, and added to the >
greed of plunder the nobler ambition of bringing all
mankind to the knowledge of the truth.

Before Mohammed died he was master of Arabia,
and the united tribes who had embraced the Moslem
or Mohammedan faith were already spreading over
the neighbouring lands and subduing the astonished
nations. Under his successors the Khalifs, the armies
of the Mussulmans overran Persia and Egypt and
North Africa as far as the Pillars of Hercules ; and
the Muezzins chanted the Call to Prayer to the
Faithful over all the land from the river Oxus in
Central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Mohammedans, or Saracens (a word which
means " Easterns "), were checked in Asia Minor by
the forces of the Greek Emperor ; and it was not till
the fifteenth century that they at last obtained the
long - coveted possession of Constantinople, by the
valour of the Ottoman Turks. So, too, at the oppo-

4 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS

site extremity of the Mediterranean, it was an officer
of the Greek Emperor who for a while held the Arab
advance in check. The conquerors swept over the
provinces of North Africa, and, after a long struggle,
reduced the turbulent Berber tribes for a while to
submission, till only the fortress of Ceuta held out
against them. Like the rest of the southern shore of
the Mediterranean, Ceuta belonged to the Greek
Emperor ; but it was so far removed from Constanti-
nople that it was thrown upon the neighbouring
kingdom of Spain for support, and, while still nomi-
nally under the authority of the Emperor, looked
really to the King of Toledo for assistance and pro-
tection. It is not likely that all the aid that Spain
could have given would have availed against the
surging tide of Saracen invasion ; but, as it hap-
pened, there was a quarrel at that time between Julian
the governor of Ceuta and Roderick the King of
Spain, which opened the door to the Arabs.

Spain was then under the rule of the Visigoths, or
West Goths, a tribe of barbarians, like the many
others who overran the provinces of the Roman
Empire in its decline. The Ostrogoths had occupied
Italy; and their kinsmen the Visigoths, displacing
or subduing the Suevi (or Swabians) and other rude
German tribes, established themselves in the Roman
province of Iberia (Spain) in the fifth century after
Christ. They found the country in the same condi-
tion of effeminate luxury and degeneracy that had
proved the ruin of other parts of the empire. Like
many warlike peoples, the Romans, when their work
was accomplished and the world was at their feet, had

THE ROMANS IN SPAIN. 5

rested contentedly from their labours, and abandoned
themselves to the pleasures that wealth and security
permit. They were no longer the brave stern men
who lived simple lives and left the ploughshare to
wield the sword when a Scipio or a Caesar summoned
them to defend their country or to conquer a con-
tinent. In Spain the richer classes were given over to
luxury and sensuality ; they lived only for eating and
drinking, gambling and all kinds of excitement. The
mass of the people were either slaves, or, what was
much the same thing, labourers bound to the soil,
who could not be detached from the land they cul-
tivated but passed with it from master to master.
Between the rich and the slaves was a middle class
of burghers, who were perhaps even worse off : for on
their shoulders lay all the burden of supporting the
State ; they paid the taxes, performed the civil and
municipal functions, and supplied the money which
the rich squandered upon their luxuries. [Jn a society
so demoralized there were no elements of opposition
to a resolute invadenj The wealthy nobles were too
deeply absorbed in their pleasures to be easily roused
by rumours of an enemy ; their swords were rusty
with being too long laid aside. The slaves felt little
interest in a change of masters, which could hardly
make them more miserable than they already were ;
and the burghers were discontented with the arrange-
ment of the burdens of the State, by which they had
to bear most of the cost while they reaped none of
the advantages.

Out of such men as these a strong and resolute
army could not be formed ; and the Goths therefore

6 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

entered Spain with little trouble ; the cities willingly
opened their gates, and the diseased civilization oi
Roman Spain yielded with hardly a blow. The truth
was that the road of the Goths had been too well
prepared by previous hordes of barbarians — Alans,
Vandals, and Suevi — to need much exertion on
their own part. The Romanized Spaniards had fully
learned what a barbarian invasion entailed : they had
seen their cities burnt, their wives and children carried
captives, those few leaders who showed any manly
resistance massacred ; they had seen the consequences
of the barbarian scourge — plague and famine, wasted
lands, starving inhabitants, and everywhere savage
anarchy. They had learned their lesson, and meekly
admitted the Goths.

In the beginning of the eighth century, when the
Saracens had reached the African shore of the
Atlantic and were looking across the Straits of Her-
cules to the sunny provinces of Andalusia, the Goths
had been in possession of Spain for more than two
hundred years. There had been time enough to
reform the corrupt condition of the kingdom and to
infuse the fresh vigour of youth which an old civiliza-
tion sometimes gains by the introduction of barbarous
but masculine races. There were special reasons
why the Goths should improve the state of Spain.
They were not only bold, strong, and uncorrupted by
ease of life ; they were Christians, and, in their way,
very earnest Christians. Spain was but nominally
converted at the time of their arrival : Constantine
had indeed promulgated Christianity as the religion
of the Roman Empire, but it had taken very little

THE WEST GOTHS. 7

root in the Western provinces. The advent of an
ignorant but devout race like the Goths might pro-
bably arouse a more earnest faith in the new religion
amid the worn-out paganism of the kingdom, and the
Catholic priests were full of hope for the future of
their church. The result did not in any way justify
the anticipation. The Goths remained devout indeed,
but they regarded their acts of religion chiefly as
reparation for their vices ; they compounded for
exceptionally bad sins by an added amount of repent-
ance, and then they sinned again without com-
punction. They were quite as corrupt and immoral
as the Roman nobles who had preceded them, and
their style of Christianity did not lead them to endea-
vour to improve the condition of their subjects. The
serfs were in an even more pitiable state than before.
Not only were they tied to the land or master, but
they could not marry without his consent, and if
slaves of neighbouring estates intermarried, their
children were distributed between the owners of the
several properties. The middle classes bore, as in
Roman times, the burden of taxation, and were con-
sequently bankrupt and ruined : the land was still
in the hands of the few, and the large estates were
indifferently cultivated by crowds of miserable slaves,
whose dreary lives were brightened by no hope of
improvement or dream of release before death. The
very clergy, who preached about the brotherhood of
Christians, now that they had become rich and owned
great estates, joined in the traditional policy and
treated their slaves and serfs as badly as any Roman
noble. The rich were sunk in the same slough of

I 8 \ THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

sensuality that had proved the ruin of the Romans,
and the vices of the Christian Goths rivalled, if they
did not exceed, the polished wickedness of the pagans.
" King Witiza," says the chronicler, anxious to find
some reason for the overthrow of the Christians by
the Saracens, " taught all Spain to sin." Spain, indeed,
knew only too well how to sin before, and Witiza
may have been no worse than his predecessors ; but
the Goths gave a fresh license to the general corrup-
tion. The vices of barbarians show often a close
resemblance to those of decayed civilization, and
in this instance the change of rulers brought no
amelioration of morals.1

Such was the condition of Spain when the Mussul-
man approached her borders. A corrupt aristocracy
divided the land among themselves ; the great estates
were tilled by a wretched and hopeless race of serfs ;
the citizen classes were ruined. On the other side of
the straits of Gibraltar were the soldiers of Islam, all
hardy warriors, fired with the fervour of a new faith,
bred to arms from their childhood, simple and rude
in their life, and eager to plunder the rich lands of
the infidels. Between two such peoples there could
be no doubt as to the issue of the fight; but to remove
the possibility of doubt, treachery came to the aid of
the invaders.

Witiza had been deposed by Roderick, a prince
who seems to have begun his reign well, but who
presently succumbed to the temptations of wealth
and power. His selfish pleasure-loving disposition
set fire to the combustible materials that sur-

1 Dozy : Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, livre ii. ch. i,

COUNT JULIAN. II

rounded him and that needed but a spark to explode
and destroy his kingdom. It was then the custom
among the princes of the State to send their children
to the court, to be trained in whatever appertained to
good breeding and polite conduct. Among others,
Count Julian, the governor of Ceuta, sent his daughter
Florinda to Roderick's court at Toledo to be educated
among the queen's waiting women. The maiden was
very beautiful, and the king, forgetful of his honour,
which bound him to protect her as he would his own
daughter, put her to shame.1 The dishonour was the
greater, since Julian's wife was a daughter of Witiza,
and the royal blood of the Goths had thus been in-
sulted in the person of Florinda. In her distress the
young girl wrote to her father, and, summoning a
trusty page, bade him, if he hoped for knightly
honour or lady's favour, to speed with all haste,
night and day, over land and sea, till he placed the
letter in Count Julian's hand.

Julian had no reason to love King Roderick;
hfs own connection with the deposed and pro-
bably murdered King Witiza forbade fellowship
with the usurper ; and his daughter's dishonour
fanned his smouldering rancour to a blaze of venge-
ful fury. He had so far successfully resisted the
attacks of the Arabs ; but now he resolved no longer
to defend the kingdom of his daughter's destroyer.
The Saracens should have Spain if they would, and

1 I reproduce this celebrated legend without vouching for its truth.
Florinda, or Cava as the Moslems call her, plays too prominent a part
in the first chapter of Andalusian history to be ignored ; and, if hei
part be fictitious, her father's treachery at least is certain.

12 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

he was ready to show them the way. Full of a passion
for revenge, Julian hastened to the Court of Roderick,
where he so skilfully disguised his mind that the king,
who felt some remorse and trusted that Florinda had
kept the secret, heaped honours upon him, took his
counsel in everything relating to the defence of the
kingdom, and even by his treacherous advice sent the
best horses and arms in Spain to the south under
Julian's command, to be ready against the infidel
invaders. Count Julian departed from Toledo in the
highest favour of the king, taking his daughter with
him. Roderick's parting request was that the Count
would send him some special kind of hawks, which he
needed for hunting ; Julian made answer, that he
would bring him such hawks as he had never in his
life seen before, and with this covert hint of the
coming of the Arabs he went back to Ceuta.

As soon as he had returned, he paid a visit to
Musa, the son of Noseyr, the Arab governor of North
Africa, with whom his troops had many times crossed
swords, and he told him that war was now over
between them — henceforth they must be friends. Then
he filled the ears of the Arab general with stories of
the beauty and richness of Spain, of its rivers and
pastures, vines and olives, its splendid cities and
palaces, and the treasures of the Goths : it was a land
flowing with milk and honey, he said, and Musa had
only to go over and take it. Julian himself would
show him the way, and lend him the ships. The
Arab was a cautious general, however ; this inviting
proposal, he considered, might cover a treacherous
ambuscade ; so he sent messengers to his master the

TARIK THE MOOR. 13

Khalif at Damascus, to ask for instructions, and
meantime contented himself with sending a small
body of five hundred men, under Tarif, in 710, to
make a raid, in Julian's four ships, upon the coast of
Andalusia. The Arabs had not yet become used to
the navigation of the Mediterranean, and Musa was
unwilling to expose more than an insignificant part
of his army to the perils of the deep.

Tarif returned in July, having successfully accom-
plished his mission. He had landed at the place
which still bears his name, Tarifa, had plundered
Algeciras, and seen enough to assure him that Count
Julian's tale of the defenceless state of Spain was
true, and that his own loyalty to the invaders was to
be depended upon. Still Musa was not disposed to
venture much upon the new conquest. The Khalif
of Damascus had enjoined him on no account to
risk the whole Moslem army in unknown dangers,
and had only authorized small foraying expeditions.
Still, encouraged by Tarlfs success, Musa resolved
upon a somewhat larger venture. In 711, learning
that Roderick was busy in the north of his dominions,
where there was a rising of the Basques, Musa de-
spatched one of his generals, the Moor Tarik, with
7,000 troops, most of whom were also Moors,1 to
make another raid upon Andalusia. The raid carried
him further than he expected. Tarik landed at the
lion's rock, which has ever since borne his name,

1 The word Moor is conveniently used to signify Arabs and other
Mohammedans in Spain, but properly it should only be applied to
Berbers of North Africa and Spain. In this volume the term is used in
its common acceptation, unless the Arabs are specially distinguished
from the Berbers.

14 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

Gebal-Tarik, Gibraltar, and after capturing Carteya,
advanced inland. He had not proceeded far when he
perceived the whole force of the Goths under Roderick
advancing to encounter him. The two armies met on
the banks of a little river, called by the Saracens the
Wady Bekka, near the Guadalete, which runs into the
Straits by Cape Trafalgar.

The legend runs that some time before this, as
King Roderick was seated on his throne in the
ancient city of Toledo, two old men entered the
audience chamber. They were arrayed in white robes
of ancient make, and their girdles were adorned with
the signs of the Zodiac and hung with innumerable
keys. " Know, O king," said they, " that in days of
yore, when Hercules had set up his pillars at the
ocean strait, he erected a strong tower near to this
ancient city of Toledo, and shut up within it a
magical spell, secured by a ponderous iron gate with
locks of steel ; and he ordained that every new king
should set a fresh lock to the portal, and foretold woe
and destruction to him who should seek to unravel
the mystery of the tower. Now, we and our ancestors
have kept the door of the tower from the days of
Hercules even to this hour ; and though there have
been kings who have sought to discover the secret,
their end has ever been death or sore amazement
None ever penetrated beyond the threshold. Now,
O king, we come to beg thee to affix thy lock upon
the enchanted tower, as all the kings before thee have
done." Whereupon the aged men departed.

But Roderick, when he had thought of all they had
said, became filled with a burning desire to enter the

THE ENCHANTED TOWER. IJ

enchanted tower, and despite the warnings of his
bishops and counsellors, who told him again that none
had ever entered the tower alive, and that even great
Caesar had not dared to attempt the entrance —

Nor shall it ever ope, old records say,

Save to a king, the last of all his line,
What time his empire totters to decay,

And treason digs, beneath, her fatal mine,
And high above, impends avenging wrath Divine —

despite all admonition, he rode forth one day, ac-
companied by his cavaliers, and approached the tower.
It stood upon a lofty rock, and cliffs and precipices
hemmed it in. Its walls were of jasper and marble,
inlaid in subtle devices, which shone in the rays of
the sun. The entrance was through a passage cut in
the stone, and was closed by the great iron gate
covered with the rusty locks of all the centuries from
the time of Hercules to Witiza ; and on either hand
stood the aged men who had come to the audience
hall. All day long did the two old janitors, though
foreboding ill, aided by Roderick's gay cavaliers,
labour to turn the rusty keys, until, when it was near
sundown, the gate was undone, and the king and his
train advanced to the entrance. The gate swung
back, and they entered a hall, on the other side of
which, guarding a second door, stood a gigantic
bronze figure of terrible aspect, which wielded a huge
mace unceasingly and dealt mighty blows upon the
earth around

When Roderick saw this figure, he was dismayed
awhile ; but seeing on its breast the words, " I do
my duty," he plucked up courage and conjured it to

3

1 8 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

let him pass in safety, for he meant no sacrilege, but
only wished to learn the mystery of the tower. Then
the figure stood still, with its mace uplifted, and the
king and his followers passed beneath it into the
second chamber. They found this encrusted with
precious stones, and in its midst was a table, set there
by Hercules, and on it a casket, with the inscription,
"In this coffer is the mystery of the Tower. The
hand of none but a king can open it ; but let him
beware, for wonderful things will be disclosed to him,
which must happen before his death."

When the king had opened the coffer, there was
nothing in it but a parchment folded between two
plates of copper ; on it were figured men on horse-
back, fierce of countenance, armed with bows and sci-
mitars, and above them was the motto, " Behold, rash
man, those who shall hurl thee from thy throne and
subdue thy kingdom." And as they gazed upon the
picture, on a sudden they heard the sound of warfare,
and saw, as though in a cloud, that the figures of the
strange horsemen began to move, and the picture
became a vision of war :

So to sad Roderick's eye, in order spread,
Successive pageants filled that mystic scene,

Showing the fate of battles ere they bled,
And issue of events that had not been.

"They beheld before them a great field of battle,
where Christians and Moors were engaged in deadly
conflict. They heard the rush and tramp of steeds,
the blast of trump and clarion, the clash of cymbal,
and the stormy din of a thousand drums. There was
the flash of swords and maces and battle-axes, with

RODERICK'S VISION. ig

the whistling of arrows and the hurling of darts and
lances. The Christians quailed before the foe. The
infidels pressed upon them and put them to utter
rout ; the standard of the Cross was cast down, the
banner of Spain was trodden under foot ; the air
resounded with shouts of triumph, with yells of fury,
and with the groans of dying men. Amidst the flying
squadrons King Roderick beheld a crowned warrior,
whose back was turned towards him, but whose
armour and device were his own, and who was
mounted on a white steed that resembled his own
war-horse Orelia. In the confusion of the fight, the
warrior was dismounted, and was no longer seen
to be, and Orelia galloped wildly through the field of
battle without a rider." x

When the king and his attendants fled dismayed
from the enchanted tower, the great bronze figure
had disappeared, the two aged janitors lay dead at
the entrance, and amid various stormy portents of
nature the tower burst into a blaze, and every stone
was consumed and scattered to the winds ; and it is
related that wherever its ashes fell to the earth there
was seen a drop of blood.

The mediaeval chroniclers, both Christian and Arab,
delighted to relate portents such as these :

Legend and vision, prophecy and sign,
Where wonders wild of Arabesque combine
With Gothic imagery of darker shade ;

and we read how both sides of the approaching com- •
bat were cheered or dismayed by omens of various

1 Washington Irving : The Conquest of Spain, Bonn's ed., 378 ff. ;
American edition, Spanish Papers, vol. i. p. 42.

20 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

kinds. The Prophet himself is said to have appeared
to Tarik, and to have bidden him be of good courage,
to strike, and to conquer ; and many like fables are
related. But whatever may have been the dreams
and visions of the armies then encamped over against
one another near the river Guadelete, the result of the
combat was never doubtful. Tarik, indeed, although
he had been reinforced with 5,000 Berbers, commanded
still but a little army of 12,000 troops, and Roderick
had six times as many men to his back. But the
invaders were bold and hardy men, used to war, and
led by a hero ; the Spaniards were a crowd of ill-
treated slaves, and among their commanders were
treacherous nobles. The kinsmen of Witiza were
there, obedient to the summons of Roderick ; but they
intended to desert to the enemy's side in the midst of
the battle and win the day for the Saracens. They
had ,no idea that they were betraying Spain. They
thought that the invaders were only in search of
booty ; and that, the raid over and the booty secured,
they would go back to Africa, when the line of Witiza
would be restored to its ancient seat. And thus they
lent a hand to the day's work which placed the fairest

-' provinces of Spain for eight centuries under the

j Moslem domination.

When the Moors saw the mighty army that Rode-
rick had brought against them, and beheld the king
in his splendid armour under a magnificent canopy,
their hearts for a moment sank within them. But
Tarik cried aloud, " Men, before you is the enemy,
and the sea is at your backs. By Allah, there is no
escape for you save in valour and resolution." And

THE GUADALETE. 21

they plucked up courage and shouted, " We will follow
thee, O Tarik," and rushed after their general into the
fray. The battle lasted a whole week, and prodigies
of valour are recorded on both sides. Roderick rallied
his army again and again ; but the desertion of the
partisans of Witiza turned the fortune of the field
and it became the scene of a disastrous rout

The hosts of Don Rodrigo were scattered in dismay,
When lost was the eighth battle, nor heart nor hope had they ;
He, when he saw that field was lost, and all his hope was flown,
He turned him from his flying host, and took his way alone.

All stained and strewed with dust and blood, like to some smouldering

brand

Plucked from the flame, Rodrigo showed : his sword was in his hand,
But it was hacked into a saw of dark and purple tint :
His jewelled mail had many a flaw, his helmet many a dint.

He climbed into a hill-top, the highest he could see,
Thence all about of that wide rout his last long look took he ;
He saw his royal banners, where they lay drenched and torn,
He heard the cry of victory, the Arab's shout of scorn.

He looked for the brave captains that led the hosts of Spain,

But all were fled except the dead, and who could count the slain ?

Where'er his eye could wander, all bloody was the plain,

And while thus he said, the tears he shed ran down his cheeks like rain :

" Last night I was the King of Spain — to-day no king am I ;
Last night fair castles held my train — to-night where shall I lie ?
Last night a hundred pages did serve me on the knee —
To-night not one I call my own — not one pertains to me.

O luckless, luckless was the hour, and cursed was the day,
When I was born to have the power of this great seniory !
Unhappy me, that I should see the sun go down to-night !
O Death, why now so slow art thou, why fearest thou to smite ? '

So runs the old Spanish ballad ; but the fate of
Roderick has remained a mystery to this day. His

1 Lockhart : Spanish Ballads.

22 THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

horse and sandals were found on the river bank the
day after the battle ; but his body was not with them.
Doubtless he was drowned and washed out to the
great ocean. But the Spaniards would not believe
this. They clothed the dead king with a holy mys-
tery which assuredly did not enfold him when alive.
They made the last of the Goths into a legendary
saviour like King Arthur, and believed that he would
come again from his resting-place in some ocean
isle, healed of his wound, to lead the Christians once
more against the infidels. In the Spanish legends,
Roderick spent the rest of his life in pious acts of
penance, and was slowly devoured by snakes in
punishment for the sins he had committed, until at last
his crime was washed out, " the body's pang had spared
the spirit's pain," and " Don Rodrigo " was suffered
to depart to the peaceful isle, whence his countrymen
long awaited his triumphant return.

II.

THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

" O COMMANDER of the Faithful, these are not
common conquests ; they are like the meeting of
the^nations on the Day of Judgment." Thus wrote

(Musa, the Governor of Africa* to the Khalif Welld,
describing the victory of the Guadalete. There is
little wonder that the Saracens stood amazed at the
completeness of their triumph. Leaving the regions
of myth, with which the Spanish chroniclers have
surrounded the fall of Roderick, it is matter of sober
history that the victory of the Guadalete gave all Spain
into the hands of the Moors. Tarik and his twelve
thousand Berbers had by a single action won the
whole peninsula, and it needed but ordinary energy
and promptness to reduce the feeble resistance which
some of the cities still offered. The victor lost no

r time in following up his success. In defiance of an
order from Musa, who was bitterly jealous of the un-
expected glory which had come to his Berber lieu-
tenant, and commanded him to advance no further,
the fortunate general pushed on without delay.
Dividing his forces into three brigades, he spread
them over the peninsula, and reduced city after city
with little difficulty. Mughlth, one of his officers,

THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

was despatched with seven hundred horse to seize
Cordova. Lying hid till darkness came on, Mughlth
stealthily approached the city. A storm of hail, which
the Moslems regarded as a special favour of Providence,
muffled the clatter of their horses' hoofs. A shep-
herd pointed out a breach in the walls, and here the
Moors determined to make the assault. One of them,
more active than the rest, climbed a fig-tree which
grew beneath the breach, and thence, springing on
to the wall, flung the end of a long turban to the
others, and pulled them up after him. They instantly
surprised the guard, and threw open the gates to the
main body of the invaders, and the town was captured
with hardly a blow. The governor and garrison took
refuge in a convent, where for three months they
were closely beleaguered. When at length they sur-
rendered, Cordova was left in the, keeping of
Jews^ who had proved themselves staunch alllelfof the
Moslems in the campaign, and who ever afterwards
enjoyed great consideration at the hands of the con-
querors. The Moors admitted them to their intimacy,
and, until very late times, never persecuted them as the
Gothic priests had done. Wherever the arms of the
Saracens penetrated, there we shall always find the
Jews in close pursuit : .while theArab fought, the Jew
traffickedj-fffldr when^thejfightmg was over, Jew and
Moor and Persian joined in that cultivaticui oHearning
and philosophy, arts and sciences, which preeminently
distinguished the rule of the Saracens in the Middle

With the cooperation of the Jews, and the terror
of the Spaniards, Tank's conquest proceeded apace.

THEODEMIR IN MURCIA. 25

Archidona was occupied without a struggle : the
inhabitants had all fled to the hills. Malaga surren-
dered, and Elvira (near where Granada now stands)
was stormed. The mountain passes of Murcia were
defended by Theodemir for some time with great
valour and prudence ; but at last, being over-persuaded
into offering a pitched battle on the plain, the Chris-
tian army was cut to pieces, and Theodemir escaped
with a single page to the city of Orihuela. There he
practised an ingenious deception upon his pursuers.
Having hardly any men left in the city, for the youth
of Murcia had fallen in the field, he made the women
put on male attire, arm themselves with helmets and
long rods like lances, and bring their hair over their
chins as though they wore beards. Then he lined the
ramparts with this strange garrison, and when the
enemy approached in the shades of evening, they were
disheartened to see the walls so well defended. Theo-
demir then took a flag of truce in his hand, and put
a herald's tabard on his page, and they two sallied
forth to capitulate, and were graciously received by the
Moslem general, who did not recognize the prince. "I
come," said Theodemir, " on behalf of the commander
of this city to treat for terms worthy of your magnani-
mity and of his dignity. You perceive that the city
is capable of withstanding a long siege ; but he is
desirous of sparing the lives of his soldiers. Promise
that the inhabitants shall be at liberty to depart un-
molested with their property, and the city will be
delivered up to you to-morrow morning without a
blow ; otherwise we are prepared to fight until not a
man be left," The articles of capitulation were then

26 THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

[rawn out ; and when the Moor had affixed his seal,
Theodemir took the pen and wrote his signature.
" Behold in me," said he, " the governor of the city ! "
At the dawn of day the gates were thrown open, and
the Moslems looked to see a great force issuing forth,
but beheld merely Theodemir and his page, in bat-
tered armour, followed by a multitude of old men,
women, and children. " Where are the soldiers,"
asked the Moor, "that I saw lining the walls last
evening ? " " Soldiers have I none," answered Theo-
demir. "As to my garrison, behold it before you.
With these women did I man my walls ; and this
page is my herald, guard, and retinue ! " So struck
was the Moorish general with the boldness and inge-
nuity of the trick which had been played upon him,
that he made Theodemir governor of the province
of Murcia, which was ever afterwards known in
Arabic as " Theodemir's land." Even in these early
days the Moors knew and practised the principles of
i true chivalry. They had already won that title to
\ Joiightliness which many-centuries-later compelled the

victorious Spaniards to address them as " Knights-erf^'
{ Granada, Gentlemen, albeit Moors : "

Caballeros Granadinos
Aunque Moros hijos d'algo.

Meanwhile Tank had pressed on to Toledo, the
capital of the Goths. He was seeking for the Gothic
nobles. At Cordova he had looked to meet them,
but they had fled : at Toledo, which the Jews
delivered into his hands, the nobles were not to be
found ; they had fled further, and taken refuge in the

FLIGHT OF THE GOTHS. 27

mountains of the Asttirias. Traitors, like the family
of Witiza and Count Julian, alone remained, and
these were rewarded with posts of government. The
rest of the nobility -had disappeared ; the country
was abandoned to the Moors. Spain had become, in
fact, a province of the vast empire of the Arab Khalifs,

.

_ --i - ;j>v-

PUERTO DEL SOL, TOLEDO.

who held their court at Damascus and swayed an
empire that stretched from the mountains of India to
the pillars of Hercules. What remained to be done
towards the pacification of Spain was effected by
Musa, who, when he heard of Tank's continued
career of success, sailed in all haste across the
Straits, followed by his Arabs, to take his full share

28 THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

of the glory. He crossed in the summer of 712
with eighteen thousand men, and, after reducing Car-
mona, Seville, and Merida, joined Tarik at Toledo.
The meeting between the conqueror and his superioi
officer was not friendly. Tarik went forth to receive
the governor of the West with all honour, but Musa
struck him with a whip, overwhelmed him with repri-
mands for exceeding his instructions, and, declaring
that it was impossible to entrust the safety of the
Moslems to such rash and impetuous leading, threw
him into prison. When this act of jealous tyranny
came to the ears of the Khalif Welid he summoned
Musa to Damascus, and restored Tarik to his com-
mand in Spain.

Before returning to Syria, Musa had stood upon
the Pyrenees and seen a vision of European conquest.
His recall interrupted his further advance ; but others
soon pushed forward. An Arab governor, as early
as 719, occupied the southern part of Gaul, called
a, with the cities of Carcasonne and Nar-

bonne, and from these centres he began to make
raids upon Burgundy and Aquitania. Eudes, Duke
of Aquitania, administered a total defeat to the
Saracens under the walls of Toulouse in 721, but
this only diverted their course more to the west.
They sacked Beaune, exacted tribute from Sens,
seized Avignon in 730, and made numerous raids
upon the neighbouring districts. The new governor
of Narbonne, Abd-er- Rahman, resolved upon the
conquest of all Gaul. He had already checked the
operations of Eudes, who presumed, after his victory
at Toulouse, to carry the war into the Saracens' coun-

BATTLE OF TOURS. 2Q

try ; and now he attacked the Tarraconaise, and
boldly invaded Aquitaine, defeated Eudes on the
banks of the Garonne, captured Bordeaux by assault
and in 732 marched on in triumph towards Tours,
where he had heard of the treasures of the Abbey of
St. Martin. Between Poictiers and Tours he was
met by Charles, the son of Pepin the Heristal, then
virtual King of France, for the feeble Merovingian
sovereign, Lothair, had no voice to oppose the will of
his powerful Mayor of the Palace. The Saracens
went joyfully to the fight. They expected a second
field of the Guadalete, and looked to see fair France
their prey from Calais to Marseilles. An issue
momentous for Europe was to be decided, and
the conflict that ensued has rightly been numbered
among the fifteen decisive battles of the world. The
question to be judged by force of arms was whether
Europe was to be Christian or Mohammedan —
whether the future Notre Dame was to be a church
or a mosque — perhaps even whether St. Paul's, when
it came to be built, should echo the chant of the
Agnus Dei or the muttered prayers of Islam. Had
not the Saracens been checked at Tours there is
no reason to suppose that they would have stopped
at the English Channel. But, as fate decreed,
the tide of Mohammedan invasion had reached its
limit, and the ebb was about to set in. Charles
and his Franks were no emasculate race like the
Romanized Spaniards and Goths. They were a£
least as hardy and valorous as the Moors themselves,
and their magnificent stature gave them an advantage
which could not fail to tell. Six days were spent in

30 THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

partial engagements, and then on the seventh came a
general melley. Charles cut through the ranks of
the Moslems with irresistible might, dealing right and
left such ponderous blows that from that day he was
called Charles Martel, " Karl of the Hammer." His
Prankish followers, inspired by their leader's prowess,
bore down upon the Saracens with crushing force ;
and the whole array of the Moslems broke and fled in
utter rout. The spot was long and shudderingly
known in Andalusia by the name of the " Pavement
of Martyrs."

The danger to Western Europe was averted. So
crushing was the disaster that the Moors of Spain
never again, during all the centuries that they ruled
in the south, attempted to invade France. They
retained, indeed, their hold of Narbonne and the dis-
tricts bordering the northern slopes of the Pyrenees
for some time longer (until 797), and even ventured
upon foraying raids into Provence. But here their
ambition ceased. The battle of Tours had once for
all vindicated the independence of France, and set a
bound to the Moslem conquests. Like the swelling
tide of the sea, the Saracen hordes had poured over
the land ; and now, through the Hammerer of the
Franks, a voice had spoken : " Hitherto shalt thou
come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves
be stayed."

On the other hand, the kings of France were so
deeply impressed with the courage of their Moslem
neighbours, that, though they too delighted in occa-
sional forays, once only did they attempt the subjuga-
tion of Spain. Charlemagne, the second Alexander,

ill

ARCH IN THE ALJAFERJA OF ZARACOZA.

CHARLEMAGNE. 33

could not contemplate with composure the immunity
of the Moslem power on the other side of the Pyrenees.
As a good Christian he was pledged to extirpate the
infidel ; and, as an imperial conqueror, the existence
of the independent kingdom of Andalusia was hateful
to his pride. His opportunity came at last — when the
accession of the first Spanish prince of the Omeyyad
stock roused the hostility of some of the factions
which were always prone to revolt in Spain. Charle-
magne was invited to interfere and drive out the
usurper. The Spanish chroniclers make Alfonso, King
of the Asturias and heir of Pelagius,1 summon the
Prankish emperor to his aid ; but there is more
reason to believe that the invitation came from cer-
tain disappointed Moslem chiefs, who could not brook ^
the authority of Abd-er-Rahman the Omeyyad, and I
who were ready to submit even to the sworn enemy
of Islam, rather than recognize the new ruler. The )
moment of their appeal was propitious ; Charle-
magne had just completed, as he thought, the subju-
gation of the Saxons ; their chief Wittekind had
been banished, and thousands of his followers were
coming to Paderborn to be baptized. The conqueror's
hands were thus free to turn to other schemes of
victory. It was arranged that he should invade Spain,
while the factious Moslem chiefs should make diver-
sions in his favour at three different points. Fortu-
nately for the newly-founded dynasty of Cordova, this
formidable coalition came to naught. The allies in'
Spain miscalculated their time, and fell to blows with
one another ; and when Charlemagne crossed the

1 On Pelayo or Pelagius, see below, ch. vii.
4

34 THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

Pyrenees in 777, he found himself unsupported. He
began the siege of Zaragoza, when news was brought
him that Wittekind had returned and raised the
Saxons, who were again in arms, and had advanced
as far as Cologne. There was nothing for it but to
hurry back and defend his dominions. He rapidly
retraced his steps, and the main part of his army had
already crossed the mountains when disaster overtook
the rear in the Pass of Roncesvalles. The Basques,
who nourished an eternal hatred against the Franks,
had laid a skilful ambuscade among the rocky defiles
of the Pyrenees, and, allowing the advanced part of
the army to march through, waited till the rear-guard,
encumbered with baggage, began slowly to thread its
way through the pass. Then they fell upon it hip
and thigh, so that scarcely a Frank escaped. The
Christian chroniclers tell terrible tales of the slaughter
done that day. According to them it was the Sara-
cens, side by side with the knights of Leon, who
wrought this havoc upon King Charles. We read in
the old Spanish ballad how the legendary hero Ber-
nardo del Carpio led the chivalry of Leon to the
massacre of the Frankish host :

With three thousand men of Leon from the city Bernard goes,
To protect the soil Hispanian from the spear of Frankish foes ;
From the city which is planted in the midst between the seas,
To preserve the name and glory of old Pelayo's victories.

Free were we born, 'tis thus they cry, though to our king we owe
The homage and the fealty behind his crest to go :
By God's behest our aid he shares, but God did ne'er command
That we should leave our children heirs of an enslaved land.

Our breasts are not so timorous, nor are our arms so weak,
Nor are our veins so bloodless, that we our vow should break,

RONCESVALLES. 35

To sell our freedom for the fear of prince or paladin :

At least we'll sell our birthright dear — no bloodless prize they'll win.

At least King Charles, if God decrees he must be Lord of Spain,
Shall witness that the Leonese were not aroused in vain :
He shall bear witness that we died as lived our sires of old —
Nor only of Numantium's pride shall minstrels' tale be told.

The LION that hath bathed his paws in seas of Lybian gore,
Shall he not battle for the laws and liberties of yore ?
Anointed cravens may give gold to whom it likes them well,
But steadfast heart and spirit, Alfonso ne'er shall quell.

Side by side with the doughty warriors of Leon,
who thus refused to join the Prince of the Asturias in
his homage to Charlemagne, were (according to the
romances) a host of valiant Saracens, who joined in
the onset upon the retiring Franks. Pseudo-Turpin's
legendary history of Charles and Orlando tells
of a " fresh body of thirty thousand Saracens, who
now poured furiously down upon the Christians,
already faint and exhausted with fighting so long,
and smote them from high to low, so that scarcely one
escaped. Some were transpierced with lances, some
killed with clubs, others beheaded, burnt, flayed alive,
or suspended on trees." The massacre was horrible,
and the memory of that day has never faded from the
imagination of the peasantry of the district. When
the English army pursued Napoleon's- marshals
through the pass of Roncesvalles, the soldiers heard
the people singing the old ballad of the fatal field ;
and Spanish minstrels have recorded many incidents,
true or false, of the fight. One of the most famous '
is the ballad of Admiral Guarinos, which Don Quixote
and Sancho Panza heard sung at Toboso, according
to the veracious history of Cervantes :

36 THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

The day of Roncesvalles was a dismal day for you,

Ye men of France, for there the lance of King Charles was broke in

two :

Ye well may curse that rueful field, for many a noble peer
In fray or fight the dust did bite beneath Bernardo's spear.

There captured was Guarinos, King Charles's Admiral :

Seven Moorish kings surrounded him, and seized him for their thrall.

And the ballad goes on to tell the tale of Guarinos'
captivity, and of his revenge at the tourney, when he
slew his captor, and rode free for France.

Among the slain that day was Roland, the redoubt-
able Paladin, commander of the frontier of Brittany.
He is the Sir Launcelot of the Charlemagne romance,
and many are the doughty deeds recorded of him. He
had fought all day in the thickest of the fray, dealing
deadly blows with his good sword Durenda ; but all
his prowess could not save the day. So, wounded to
death, and surrounded by the bodies oi his friends, he
stretched himself on the ground, and prepared to
yield up his soul. But first he drew his faithful sword,
than which he would sooner have spared the arm
that wielded it, saying, " O sword of unparalleled
brightness, excellent dimensions, admirable temper,
and hilt of the whitest ivory, decorated with a
splendid cross of gold, topped by a berylline apple,
engraved with the sacred name of God, endued with
keenness and every other virtue, who now shall wield
thee in battle, who shall call thee master ? He that
possessed thee was never conquered, never daunted by
the foe ; phantoms never appalled him. Aided by
the Almighty, with thee did he destroy the Saracen,
exalt the faith of Christ, and win consummate

THE DEATH OF ROLAND. 37

glory. O happy sword, keenest of the keen, never
was one like thee ; he that made thee, made not thy
fellow ! Not one escaped with life from thy stroke."
And lest Durenda should fall into the hands of a
craven or an infidel, Roland smote it upon a block of
stone and brake it in twain. Then he blew his horn,
which was so resonant that all other horns were split
by its sound ; and now he blew it with all his might,
till the veins of his neck burst. And the

blast of that dread horn,
On Fontarabian echoes borne,

reached even to King Charles's ear as he lay en-
camped and ignorant of the disaster that had befallen
the rear-guard eight miles away. The king would have
hastened to answer the forlorn blast, that seemed to tell
of a tragedy ; but a traitor told him that Roland
was gone a-hunting, and Charlemagne was persuaded
not to answer the summons of his faithful paladin ;
who, after prayer and confession, gave up the ghost.
Then Baldwin, another of the peers of France, came
running to the king and told him of what had befallen
the rear of his army, and the death of Roland and
Oliver. Whereupon the king and all his army turned
and marched back to Roncesvalles, where the ground
was strewn with dead, and Charles himself was the first
to descry the body of the hero, lying in the form of a
cross, with his horn and broken sword beside him.
Then did Great Charles lament over him with bitter
sighs and sobs, wringing his hands and tearing his
beard, and crying, " O right arm of thy Sovereign's
body, honour of the Franks, sword of justice, in-

38 THE WAVE OF CONQUEST.

flexible spear, inviolable breastplate, shield of safety,
noble defender of the Christians, scourge of the
Saracens, a wall to the clergy, the widow's and
orphan's friend, just and faithful in judgment ! Re-
nowned Count of the Franks, valiant captain of our
armies, why did I leave thee here to perish ? How
can I behold thee dead, and not die with thee ? Why
hast thou left me sorrowful and alone, a poor miser-
able king ? But thou art exalted to the kingdom of
heaven, and dost enjoy the company of angels and
martyrs ! " Thus did Charles mourn for Roland to
the last day of his life. On the spot where he died
the army rested, and the body was embalmed with
balsam, aloes, and myrrh. The whole army of the
Franks watched by it that night, honouring the corse
with hymns and songs, and lighting fires on the
mountains round about. Then they took him with
them, and buried him right royally. Thus ended
the fatal day —

When Roland brave and Oliver,
And every paladin and peer,
On Roncesvalles died.

No action of so small importance has ever been made
the theme of so many heroic legends and songs.
It is the Thermopylae of the Pyrenees, with none of
the glory or the significance, but all the glamour, of
its prototype-

III.

THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

THE victory of Charles Martel, in 733, had set a
bound to the Saracens' invasion of Europe ; they no
longer thought of further conquest, but turned to the
work of consolidating the kingdom they had acquired.
After the brief and disastrous incursion of Charle-
magne, they were left in almost undisturbed posses-
sion of their new territory for a period of three
hundred years. It is true the descendants of the
expelled Goths still held out in stubborn indepen-
dence in the mountainous districts of the north, and
from time to time recovered a portion of their ancient
dominion ; but these inroads, while they gave some
trouble, did not materially endanger the domination
of the Moors over the greater part of Spain until the
eleventh century. The conquerors accepted the inde-
pendence of the northern provinces as an inevitable
evil, which would cost more blood to remove than the
feat was worth ; and leaving Galicia, Leon, Castile,
and the Biscayan provinces to the Christians, they
contented themselves with the better part of the land :
the Christians might enjoy the dreary wastes and
rocky defiles of the north, provided they did not
interfere with the Moors' enjoyment of the warm and

THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

fertile provinces of the south and east. ^JFrom the end
^ofLthe^eighth century, when the MooTisTfboundaries
took a tolerably final^shape, to the time of the ad-
vance of the Christian kingdoms in the eleventh
centurj£r~the division between the Christian north and
the Moslem south maybe roughly placed at the great
range of mountains called the Sierra de Guadarrama,
which runs in a north-easterly direction from Coimbra
in Portugal to Zaragoza, from whence the Ebro
may be taken as a rough boundary. The Moors
thus enjoyed the fertile valleys of the Tagus, the
Guadiana, and the Guadalquivir — the very name
of which bears witness to its Arab owners, for
Guadalquivir is a corruption of the Arabic Wady-
1-kebir, or the " Great River " — besides possessing the
famous cities of Andalusia, the wealth and commerce!
and climatic advantages of which had been cele- '
brated from Roman times. The division was a
natural one ; the two parts have been distinguished
geographically from time immemorial, on account of
their climatic differences. The north is bleak and
exposed to biting winds, subject to heavy rains and
intense cold ; a good pasturage country, but in most
parts ill to cultivate. The south, while tormented by
the hot winds that blow over from Africa, is genial,
well watered, and capable of high cultivation. A great
plateau divides the two, and though this fell chiefly
on the Moorish side, it was to some extent debatable
land and insecurely held. Its chilly heights rendered
it distasteful to lovers of sunshine like the Moors, and
they confided it chiefly to the care of the Berber
tribes who had first come over with Tarik, and who

ANDALUSIA.

were always held in poor estimation by the true
Arabs who reaped the fruits of the conquest.

In the two-thirds of the peninsula thus marked off
by nature for their habitation, which the Arabs always
called "Andalus," and we shall call Andalusia, to
distinguish it from the entire peninsula, the Moors
organized that wonderful kingdom of Cordova which
was the marvel of the Middle Ages, and which, when
all Europe was plunged in barbaric ignorance and
strife, alone held the torch of learning and civilization
bright and shining before the Western world. Ifrnust
not be supposed that the Moors, like the barbarian
hordes who preceded them, brought desolation and
tyranny in their wake. On the contrary, never was
Andalusia so mildly, justly, and wisely governed as
by her Arab conquerors. Where they got their
talent for administration it is hard to say, for they
came almost direct from their Arabian deserts, and
the rapid tide of victories had left them little leisure
to acquire the art of managing foreign nations. Some
of their counsellors were Greeks and Spaniards, but
this does not explain the problem ; for these same
counsellors were unable to produce similar results
elsewhere, and all the administrative talent of Spain
had not sufficed to make the Gothic domination toler-
able to its subjects. Under the Moors, on the other
hand, the people were on the whole contented — as J
contented as any people can be whose rulers are of a
separate race and creed, — and far better pleased than J
they had been when their sovereigns belonged to the
same religion as that which they nominally professed-
Religion was, indeed, the smallest-difficulty- which

44\ THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

the Moors had to contend with at the outset, though
it became troublesome afterwards. The Spaniards
were as much pagan as Christian ; the new creed
promulgated by Constantine had made little impres-
sion among the general mass of the population, who
were still predominantly Roman. What they wanted
was, not a creed, but the power to live their lives in
peace and prosperity. This their Moorish masters
gave them.

At first of course there was a brief period of con-
fusion, some burning, pillaging, massacring ; but this
was soon checked by the Arab governors. When
things had settled down again, the subject populations
found themselves at least no worse off than before, and
they shortly began to perceive that they had benefited
by the change of rulers. They were permitted to re-
tain their own laws and judges ; governors -of, their
own race administered the districts, collected the
taxes, and determined such differences as arose
amongst themselves. The citizen classes, instead of
bearing the whole burden of the State expenditure, had
only to pay a poll-tax of no very exacting amount,
and they were free of all obligations ; unless they held
cultivable land, in which case they paid the Kharaj 'or
land-tax as well. The poll-tax was graduated accord-
ing to the rank of the payer, from twelve to forty-eight
dirhems a year, or from about three to twelve pounds
at our present purchasing power of money ; and its
collection in twelve monthly instalments made it the
easier to meet. The poll-tax was an impost upon
heresy ; it was levied only upon Christians and Jews :
the land-tax, on the other hand, which varied accord-

THE SIERRA NEVADA.

TAXATION. 47

ing to the productiveness of the soil, was assessed
equally on Christians, Jews, and Moslems. As a rule
the old proprietors and cities preserved their property
as before the conquest The lands of the Church,
indeed, and of those landowners who had fled to the
mountains of the north, were confiscated, but even then
their serfs were left upon them as cultivators, and were
only required to pay a certain proportion, varying from
a third to four-fifths, of the produce, to their new
Moslem lords. Sometimes the cities, such as Merida
and Orihuela, had been able to obtain exceptionally
favourable terms from the conquerors, and were
suffered to retain their goods and lands upon the pay-
ment of a fixed tribute. At the worst, beyond the
poll-tax, the Christians were in no way subject to
heavier exactions than their Moslem neighbours. They
had even gained a right which had never been per-
mitted them by the Gothic kings : they could alienate
their lands.1 In religious toleration they had nothing
to regret. Instead of persecuting them, and forcing
upon them a compulsory conversion, as the Goths had
upon the Jews, the Arabs left them free to worship ^\
whom or what they pleased ; and so valuable was the /
poll-tax to the treasury, that the Sultans of Cordova /
were much more disposed to discourage than to wel- V
come any considerable missionary fervour that might
deprive the State of so useful a source of revenue. The 1
result was that the Christians were satisfied with the J
new regime, and openly admitted that they preferred
the rule of the Moors to that of the Franks or Goths.
Even their priests, who had lost most of all, were at

1 Dozy : Hist, des Musulmans d'Espagne, livre ii. ch. ii.

48 THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

first but little incensed with the change, as the old
chronicle, ascribed to Isidore of Beja, written at
Cordova in 754, shows. The good monk is not even
scandalized at so unholy an alliance as the marriage
between Jloderick's widow and the son ^O/Uisa. But
the best proof of the satisfaction of the Christians
with their new rulers is the fact that there was not a
single religious revolt during the eighth century.

Above all, the slaves, who had been cruelly ill-
used by the Goths and Romans, had cause to con-
gratulate themselves upon the change. Slavery is a
very mild and humane institution in the hands of a
good Mohammedan. The Arabian Prophet, while
unable to do away with an ancient institution, which
was nevertheless repugnant to the socialistic principles
of Islam, did his utmost to soften the rigours of slavery.
"God," said he, "hath ordained that your brothers
should be your slaves : therefore him whom God hath
ordained to be the slave of his brother, his brother
must give him of the food which he eatetn himself, and
of the clothes wherewith he clotheth himself, and not
order him to do anything beyond his power. ... A
man who ill-treats his slave will not enter into Para-
dise." There is no more commendable action in
Mohammedan morals than to free slaves, and such
enfranchisement is enjoined by the Prophet especially
as an atonement for an undeserved blow or other in-
justice. In Andalusia, the slaves upon the estates/
that had passed from the Christians into the possession
of Moslems were almost in the position of small
farmers ; their Mohammedan masters, whose trade was\
war, and who despised heartily such menial occupa-

RENEGADES. 49

tions as tilling the soil, left them free to cultivate the
land as they pleased, and only insisted on a fair return
of products. Slaves of Christians, instead of being
hopelessly condemned to servitude for all their lives,
were now provided with the simplest possible road to
freedom : they had only to go to the nearest Moham-
medan of repute, and repeat the formula of belief,
" There is no god but God, and Mohammed is His
Prophet," and they became immediately free. Con-
version to Islam thus carried with it enfranchisement,
and it is no wonder that we find the Spanish slaves
hastening to profess the new faith and thus to become
free men. The Catholic priests had taken small
pains to graft the Christian religion into their hearts ;
they had enough to do to look after their estates and the
souls of the nobles without troubling themselves about
the spiritual wants of the ignorant ; and the change
from semi-pagan, semi-Christian, vacuity to a perhaps
equally unintelligent apprehension of Islam was no
very severe wrench to the servile mind. Nor were the
slaves by any means the only converts to the new
religion. Many of the large proprietors and men of
position became Mohammedans, either to avoid the
poll-tax, or to preserve their estates, or because they
honestly admired the simple grandeur of this latest
presentment of theism. These converts or renegades
were destined to cause some trouble in the State, as
will presently be seen. While admitted to the
equality involved in conversion, they were not really
allowed equal rights and privileges ; they were ex-
cluded from the offices of State, and regarded with
suspicion by the Moslems de la vielle roche as interested

5

5Q/ THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

converts, people who would sell their souls for pelf.
In the end these distinctions died out, but not before
they had produced serious dissensions and even insur-
rections.

As far as the vanquished were concerned, we have
seen that the conquest of Andalusia by the Arabs
was on the whole a benefit. It did away with the
overgrown estates of the great nobles and churchmen,
and converted them into small proprietorships ; it
removed the heavy burdens of the middle classes, and
restricted the taxation to the test-tax per poll levied
on unbelievers, and the land-tax levied equally on
Moslem and Christian ; and it induced a wide-spread
emancipation of the slaves, and a radical improvement
in-the condition of the unemancipated, who now be-
came almost independent farmers in the service of
their non-agricultural Mohammedan masters.

It was otherwise with the victors. There is no
greater mistake than to imagine that the Arabs,
who spread with such astonishing rapidity over half
the civilized world, were in any real sense a united
people. So far was this from being the truth, that it
demanded all Mohammed's diplomatic skill, and all
his marvellous personal prestige, to keep up a sem-
blance of unity even while he was alive. The Arabs
were made up of a number of hostile tribes or clans,
many of whom had been engaged in deadly blood-
feuds for several generations, and all of whom were
moved by a spirit of tribal jealousy which was never
entirely extinguished. HaoVthe^ newly-founded Mo_-_
hammedan State been restrained within the borders of
Arabia, there can be no doubt that it would speedily

ARAB FACTIONS. 51

have collapsed in the rivalry of the several clans.-; as
it was, the death of the Prophet was followed by a
general rising of the tribes. Islam became a perma-
nent and world-wide religion only when it clothed
itself with armour and became a church militant.
The career of conquest saved the faith. The Arabs^
JaicTasTde for awhile their internecine jealousies, to
join together in a grand chase for booty. There was
of course a strong fanatical element in the enthusiasm
of conquest. JTheyjought- partly because they were
contending with the enemies of God and His Prophet,
because a martyr's Benjamin's cup of happiness
awaited those who fell in " the path of God," as they
termed the religious war ; but there is no denying
that the riches of Caesars and Chosroes, the fertile
lands and prosperous cities of the neighbouring king-
doms, formed a very large element in the Moslems'
zeal for the spread of the faith.

As soon as the career of conquest was exchanged
for the quiet of settled possession, the various jealou-
sies and dissensions which the tumult and profits of
invasion had kept to some degree in abeyance broke
forth into dangerous activity. The party spirit of
the Arab tribes extended to all parts of the vast
empire they had subdued, and influenced even the
Khalifat Damascus; the nomination of the governors
of the most distant provinces was actuated by mere
factious motives. In Spain, where the "Emir of
Andalus," as he was styled, was appointed either'
by the Governor of Africa or by the Khalif of
Damascus himself, these party differences worked
havoc with the peace and order of the kingdom

52 THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

during the first fifty years of Moorish rule. Gover-
nors were appointed, deposed, or murdered, in defer-
ence to the mandates of some faction, who resented the
government being entrusted to a man of the Medina
faction, or would not have a clansman of Kays, or
objected to the nomination of a member of the
Yemen party ; and,! throughout the history of the
domination of the Moors in Spain, these baleful
influences continued to work injury to the State.1 1

In Andalusia, moreover, there was another and
very important party to be reckoned with, besides
the various Arab factions. The conquest of the
peninsula had been effected almost entirely by Tarik
and his Berbers, and these Berbers (who are the Moors
proper, though the word is conveniently employed to
denote the mixture of Arabs and Berbers) formed a
leading factor in the new state of things. They were
not an effete nation like the Romanized Spaniards ;
but a people full of life and martial energy. In their
mountain fastnesses, and ranging the plains from
Egypt to the Atlantic, in their numerous and widely
distinguished clans, the Berbers had offered to the
Arabs a much more formidable resistance than the
trained soldiers of Persia or Rome. In many ways
they resembled their invaders : they were clansmen
like the Arabs ; their political ideas were democratic
like theirs, with the same reverence for noble families,
which took away the dangerous qualities of pure
democracy among an ignorant people. Their very
manner of warfare was almost Arab. For seventy
years the two races of nomads fought together, and

1 Dozy Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, livre i.

THE BERBERS.

53

when at last the Arabs obtained the upper hand, it
was rather by the acquiescence of their foes than by
any distinct submission. The Berbers permitted the
Arab governor to hold his court near the coast, but
insisted on preserving their own tribal government
among themselves, and demanded to be treated as
brothers, not as servants, by their antagonists. This
fraternal system worked fairly well for a time. ^The
Berbers, always a marvellously credulous people, were
quick to accept any new faith, and embraced Islam
with a fervour far exceeding anything the more
sceptical mind -of -the Arab could evoke. Very soon
Barbary became the hotbed of religious nonconform-
ity ; the arid doctrines of Islam were supplemented
by those more mystical and emotional elements which
imaginative minds soon engraft upon any creed so-
ever ; and the Mohammedan dissenter, expelled from
the more rigid regions of orthodoxy, found a singu-
larly productive soil for his doctrines in the simple
minds of the Berbers. The same susceptibility to
religious emotion, which had produced so general a
conversion that the conquest of Spain was effected
by a Berber general and twelve thousand Berber
troops, soon led to further movements. .The Mara^
hzit^ 'mint, minionnry, or priest — came to exercise a
more potent influence over this credulous people than
tribal_chief or Arab governor couldever acquire. It
needed but a few mock miracles to bring a host of
gaping devotees about the shrine of the marabout,
and so clearly had an Arab general realized this
condition of popularity that, when he perceived the
influence which a priestess exercised over the people

54. THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

by her jugglery, the subtle Moslem set to work in the
same manner, and soon became an adept at legerde-
main or whatever corresponded to spirit-rapping in
those days, with the very best results. But a people
so easily influenced by such means, a priest-ridden
nation, is always liable to sudden and violent revolu-
tions, which its priests can stimulate by a single word.
The marabouts among the Berbers were responsible
for most of the later changes that took place in
North Africa : they set up the Fatimites, sent the
Almoravides victorious through Barbary and Spain,
and then put them down by the Almohades. They
began very early to work against the Arab governors,
and when one of these had indulged his passion for
luxury at the expense of a cruel oppression of his
subjects, the priests set the Berbers in revolt, and in a
moment the whole of the western half of the Mediter-
ranean coast was up in arms, and the Arabs were
terribly defeated. Thirty thousand fresh troops were
sent from Syria to recover the provinces, but these,
joined to the Arabs that still remained in Africa, were
repulsed with great slaughter, and the remnant were
cooped up in Ceuta, where they daily awaited famine
and massacre.

The Berbers in Andalusia, always in intimate touch
with their kinsmen over the water, were quick to feel
the influence of such a revolution as was then (741)
going forward in Africa. They had cause to grudge
the Arabs their lion's share of the spoils of Spain,
which had been the trophies of the Berbers' bow and
spear. While the Arabs, who had only arrived in
time to reap the advantages of the conquest, had ap-

BERBER REVOLT. 55

propriated all the most smiling provinces of the
peninsula, the Berbers found themselves relegated
to the most unlovely parts, to the dusty plains of
Estremadura, or to the icy mountains of Leon, where
they had to contend with a climate which severely
tried natures brought up in African heats, and where,
too, they had the doubtful privilege of forming a
buffer between their Arab allies and the Christians of
the North. Already there had been signs of dis-
affection. One of Tank's Berber generals, Monousa,
who had married a daughter of Eudes, Duke of
Aquitaine, raised the standard of revolt when he
heard of the oppression of his countrymen in Africa ;
and now, when the Berber cause was triumphant
across the Straits, a general rising took place among
the northern provinces ; the Berbers of the borders,
of Galicia, of Merida, Coria, and all the region round
about, took up arms, and began to march south upon
Toledo, Cordova, and Algeciras, whence they intended
to take ship and go to join their compatriots in
Barbary.

The situation was full of peril, and the Arab Emir
of Andalusia, Abd-el-Melik, who had sternly refused to
lend any assistance to the Syrian Arabs shut up in
Ceuta, now found himself in this dilemma, that either
he must submit to his own rebellious Berbers, or he
must invite the co-operation of the very Syrians
whom he had persistently refused to succour, and
who, when they arrived, might possibly turn out to
be a worse plague than that they came to remove".
In grave apprehension, he sent ships and brought
over the Syrians, after first making them promise to

56 THE PEOPLE OF ANDALUSIA.

go back when their work was done. JDiijs_reiiTforcedf
(" the Arabs of Andalusia put the Berbers to utter-rout,
hunted them like wild beasts through the country to
their mountain fastnesses, and gratified their ven-
geance to the full. And then the event which Abd-
el-Melik had endeavoured to guard against came to
pass. The Syrian auxiliaries refused to exchange
the rich lands of Andalusia for the deserts of Africa
and the spears of triumphant Berbers ; they defied
and murdered Abd-el-Melik, and set up their own
chief in his stead. The result was a long and obsti-
nate struggle between the old Arab party and the
new-comers, accompanied by much bloodshed and
devastation. The struggle was only decided when
the Khalif of Damascus sent over a new and able
governor, who divided the hostile factions by giving
them settlements in cities far apart from each other,
and banished the more turbulent of their leaders.
Thus the Egyptian contingent of the Syrian army
was settled in Murcia, which they re-christened "Misr "
or Egypt ; the men of Palestine at Sidonia and
Algeciras ; the people of the Jordan at Regio
(Malaga), those of Damascus in Elvira (Granada),
and the battalion of Kinnesrin at Jaen.1 From this
time one of the causes of faction in Andalusia
was removed, but party spirit still ran high, and
government was often changed to anarchy, until a
ruler armed with peculiar prestige, carrying in his
person the authority and blood of the Khalifs of
Damascus, came to take into his hands the sceptre of

1 Makkary : History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain (Gay-
angos), vol. ii. p. 46. Dozy : Hist.des Mus. d'Espagne, livrei. ch. xii.

ARAB TRIBES.

57

the disturbed country and to unite for awhile all
factions under the standard of the Sultan of Cordova.
This young man was the new ruler whom Charlemagne
had so unsuccessfully come to expel, and his name
was Abd er-Rahman the Omeyyad.

IV.

A YOUNG PRETENDER.

FOR six hundred years the greater part of the
Mohammedan Empire was nominally under the
authority of a central ruler called a Khalif, a title
which signifies a " successor " or " substitute." At
first this authority was real and powerful : the Khalif
appointed the governors of all the provinces, from
Spain to the borders of the Hindu Kush, and removed
any of them at his pleasure. But the empire was too
large to hold together round a central pivot for any
length of time, and gradually various local governors
made themselves virtually independent, although they
generally professed the utmost devotion to the Khalif
and paid him every honour except obedience. By
degrees even this show of respect was thrown off, and
dynasties arose which espoused heretical tenets, re-
pudiated the spiritual supremacy of the Khalif, and
denounced him and all his line as usurpers. Finally
the time came when the Khalifs were as weak in tem-
poral authority as the Pope of Rome, and were even
kept prisoners in their palace by the mercenary body-
guard they had hired to protect them against their
rebellious nobles. This took place about three
hundred years after the foundation of the Khalifate ;

THE KHALIFS OF DAMASCUS. 59

and for the second half of their existence the Khalifs
were little more than ciphers to be played with by
the great princes of the empire and to contribute a
little pomp to their coronations. Finally the Khalifate
was abolished in Asia by the Mongol invasion in the
thirteenth century, and though the title is still claimed
by the Sultan of Turkey, there is no Khalif now in
the old comprehensive sense of the word.1

The earliest province to shake off the authority of
the Khalif was Andalusia. To understand how this
happened, we must remember that the Khalifs did not
succeed one another in one unbroken line of family
inheritance. After the first four (or u orthodox ")
Khalifs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, Othman, and Aly, who
were elected more or less by popular vote, the Syrian
party set up Moawia as Khalif at Damascus, and
from him sprang the family of the Omeyyad Khalifs,
so called from their ancestor Omeyya. There were
fourteen Omeyyad Khalifs, who reigned from 66 1 to
750, when they were deposed by Es-Seffah, "the
Butcher," who was the first of the second dynasty of
Khalifs, called Abbaside, after their ancestor Abbas,
an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. The Abbaside
Khalifs transferred the seat of government from
Damascus to Baghdad, and held the Khalifate until
its destruction by the Mongols in 1258. Among the
members of the deposed family of the Omeyyads
was Abd-er-Rahman, a name which means " Servant
of the Merciful God." Most of his relations were

1 For an account of the power of the body-guard and the fall of the
Khalifate, the reader is referred to The Story of the Saracens, by
Arthur Oilman.

60 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

exterminated by the ruthless Abbaside ; they were
hunted down in all parts of the world and slain
without mercy. Abd-er- Rahman fled like the rest,
but with better fortune, for he reached the banks of
the Euphrates in safety. One day, as he sat in his
tent watching his little boy playing outside, the child
ran to him in affright, and, going out to discover the
cause, Abd-er-Rahman saw the village in confusion,
and the black standards of the Abbasides on the
horizon. Hastily seizing up his child, the young
prince rushed out of the village, and reached the river.
Here the enemy almost came up with them, and
called out that they need have no fear, for no injury
would be done to them. A young brother, who had
accompanied him, and who was exhausted with swim-
ming, turned back, and his head was immediately
severed from his body; but Abd-er-Rahman held
on till he reached the other side, bearing his child,
and followed by his servant Bedr. Once more on
firm earth, they journeyed night and day till they
came to Africa, where the rest of his family joined
them, and the sole survivor of the Omeyyad princes
had leisure to think of his future.

He was but twenty years of age, and full of hope
and ambition. His mental powers were considerable,
and to these he added the advantages of a noble
stature and great physical energy and courage The
Arab historians, however, add the unfavourable details
that he was blind of one eye and devoid of the sense
of smell. In his childhood wise men had predicted
great things of his future, and in spite of the ruin
of his family he was not yet daunted. His first

THE LAST OMEYYAD. 6 1

thoughts turned to Africa ; for he clearly perceived
that the success of the Abbasides had left him no
chance in the East. But after five years of wandering
about the Barbary coast he realized that the Arab
governor was not easily to be overturned, and that
the already revolted Berbers in the West would not
willingly surrender their newly-won independence for
the empty glory of being ruled by an Omeyyad.
His glance, therefore, was now directed towards An-
dalusia, where the various factions, in their perpetual
strife, offered an opening to any clever pretender, and
much more to one who could bring such hereditary
claims as Abd-er-Rahman. He therefore sent his
servant Bedr to the chiefs of the Syrian party in
Spain, among whom many were freedmen of the
Omeyyads and were thus bound by the Arab code
of honour to succour any relation of their former
patrons. Bedr found these chiefs willing to receive
the young prince, and, after some negotiation with
the hostile factions, the support of the men from the
Yemen was also promised. Upon this Bedr returned
to Africa.

Abd-er-Rahman was saying his prayers on the sea-
shore when he saw the vessel approaching which
brought him the good news ; and, prone as all
Easterns are to draw omens from insignificant cir-
cumstances, the name of the first envoy from Anda-
lusia who was presented to him, Abu-Ghalib Temmam
(which means Father of Conquest Attainment) sug«-
gested a happy fate : "We shall attain our object," cried
the prince, "and conquer the land! " Without delay he
stepped on board, and they sailed for Spain in Sep-

62 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

tember, 755. The coming of the survivor of the
Omeyyads to Andalusia was like a page of romance,
like the arrival of the Young Pretender in Scotland
in 1745. The news spread like a conflagration through
the land ; the old adherents of the royal family
hurried to pay him homage : the descendants of the
Omeyyad freedmen put themselves under his orders.
Even the Yemen clans, though they could not be
expected to feel any peculiar sentiment for the
young prince, were sufficiently infected by the zeal
of his adherents to keep to their promise and band
together for his support. The Governor of Andalusia
found -himself deserted by most of his troops and
forced to wait for a new army ; and meanwhile the
winter rains made a campaign impossible, and left
Abd-er- Rahman leisure to recruit and organize his
forces.

In the spring of the following year the struggle
began in earnest. Abd-er-Rahman was received
with enthusiasm at Archidona and Seville, and
thence prepared to march on Cordova. Yusuf, the
governor, advanced to resist him, but the Guadel-
quivir was swollen with rains, and the two armies,
on opposite banks, raced with each other who should
first arrive at Cordova. At length Abd-er-Rahman,
by means of a deceitful stratagem, unworthy of a
prince of romance, induced Yusuf to let him cross
the now falling river under pretext of peace; and once
on the other side, he fell upon the unsuspecting
enemy. Victory declared itself for the prince, and
he entered Cordova in triumph. He had the grace
to exert himself to arrest the plundering passions of

ABD-ER-RAHMAN I. 63

his troops, and to place the harlm or women-folk of
the ex-governor in safety. Before the year was out
he was master of all the Mohammedan part of Spain,
and the dynasty of the Omeyyads of Cordova, des-
tined to endure for nearly three centuries, was es-
tablished.1

The King of Cordova, however, was not firmly
seated without many a struggle. Abd-er-Rahman
had indeed been placed on the throne, but the feat
had been accomplished by a small faction out of the
numerous parties that divided the land. The new
Sultan was, however, better able than most princes to
hold his own amidst the striving elements of his king-
dom. Prompt and decisive in action, troubled by
few scruples, by turns terribly severe and perfidiously
diplomatic, his policy was always equal to an emer-
gency ; and there were not a few occasions on which
it was put to the test. He had not been long in
Andalusia when Ibn-Mughlth sailed from Africa to
set up the black standards of the Abbasides in Spain.
He landed in the province of Beja, and soon found
supporters among the disaffected, always ready to join
in some new thing. Abd-er-Rahman was besieged
for two months in Carmona. The situation was
perilous in the extreme, for every day gave the
enemy more opportunity of increasing their forces.
Abd-er-Rahman, ever full of resource, hearing that
the enemy had somewhat relaxed their precautions,
gathered together seven hundred of his bravest fo\-
lowers, kindled a great fire, and, saying that it was
now a question of death or victory, flung his scabbard

1 Dozy: Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, livre i. ch. xiii.-xvL

64 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

into the flames. The seven hundred followed his
example, in token of their resolution never to sheathe
their swords again till they were free, and, sallying
out after their leader, fell upon the besiegers tooth
and nail. The Abbaside invasion was utterly annihi-
lated. Abd-er-Rahman, with the ferocity that occa-
sionally disfigured him, put their leaders' heads in a
bag, with descriptive labels attached to their ears, and
confided the precious parcel to a pilgrim bound for
Mekka, by whom it was put into the hands of the Ab-
baside Khalif Mansur himself. When the Khalif had
seen the contents of the bag, he was very wroth ; but
he could not help exclaiming, " Thank God there is a
sea between that man and me ! " While cordially
detesting the successful Sultan of Cordova, his Ab-
baside foe was forced to render homage to his skill
and courage. He called Abd-er-Rahman " the hawk
of the Koreysh," the falcon of the Prophet's own
tribe. " Wonderful," he would exclaim, " is the dar-
ing, wisdom, and prudence, he has shown ! To enter
the paths of destruction, throw himself into a distant
land, hard to approach, and well defended ; there to
profit by the jealousies of the rival parties, to make
them turn their arms against one another instead of
against himself ; to win the homage and obedience
of his subjects ; and, having overcome every difficulty,
to rule supreme lord of all 1 Of a truth, no man
before him has done this ! "

The defeat of the Abbaside invasion was followed
by other successes on the part of the new Sultan. He
induced the people of Toledo, who had long held out
against him, to consent to a peace and deliver up

REDUCTION OF ANDALUSIA. 65

their chiefs ; and the leaders were grossly humiliated
and then crucified. The chief of the Yemenite faction
proving dangerous, Abd-er-Rahman gave him a safe-
conduct, and thus enticed him into his palace, where
he tried to stab him with his own hand, but finding
the Arab too vigorous, called in the guard and
had him assassinated. Almost immediately, a great
revolt of the Berbers of the northern borders occurred.
Ten years were occupied in reducing them to obedi-
ence, and meanwhile the Yemenites, burning with
vengeance for the murder of their chief, took advan-
tage of the Sultan's absence in the north to rise. They
had not yet realized the energy or the astuteness 01
the man. He had already set the revolted Berbers
by the ears by playing upon their petty jealousies ;
and he now exerted his diplomacy to breed discord
among the Yemenites. He tampered with the
Berbers who formed a large part of their army, so
that they deserted in the midst of the fray, and Abd-
er- Rahman's soldiers fell upon the flying multitude,
until thirty thousand bodies lay on 'the field : their
huge grave long remained a sight to be seen by the
curious. Then followed that formidable coalition
between three disaffected Arab chiefs and Charle-
magne, which was so near destroying the fabric that
Abd-er-Rahman had painfully built up, but collapsed
before Zaragoza and at Roncesvalles without a single
blow from the very person they had assembled to
destroy.

Henceforward the Sultan was allowed to enjoy in
comparative peace the fruits of his victories. He had
subdued all the hostile elements in Spain to his iron

6

66 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

will ; he had cast down the proud Arab chiefs who
had dared to measure swords with him ; he had mas-
sacred, or assassinated, the leaders of rebellion, and had
proved himself master of the position. JBiUJ

cruel and perfidious as his, brings its own^ punish-
ment. The tyrant may force the submission, but he
cannot compel the devotion of his people, and the
empire that is won by the sword must be sustained

by the same weapon. Honest men refused to enter
into the service~of a lord who could betray and
slay as did this Sultan ; his old supporters, those
who had first welcomed him to Spain, now turned
coldly away when they saw the tyrant in his naked
cruelty ; his own relations, who had flocked over to
his Court, as an asylum from the Abbasides, found
his despotism so intolerable that they plotted again
and again to depose him, with the inevitable result of
losing their heads. Abd-er-Rahman was left in
mournful solitude. His old friends had deserted
him ; his enemies, though helpless, cursed him none
the less ; his very kinsmen and servants turned
against him. It was partly that the long war with
faction had spoilt a fine nature ; partly that the cha-
racter was relentless. No longer could he mingle
as before in the crowds that thronged the streets
of Cordova ; suspicious of every one, wrapped in
gloomy thoughts and distracted by bloody memories,
he rode through the streets surrounded by a strong
guard of foreigners. Forty thousand Africans, whose
devotion to their paymaster was equalled by their
hatred of the whole population whom they repressed,
formed the Sultan's protection against the people

ABD-ER-RAHMAN'S CHARACTER. 67

whom he ground under his heel. In his desolation he
wrote a poem on a palm which he transplanted from
the land of his ancestors — for, like most Andalusian
Arabs, he was something of a poet — in which he com-
passionated the tree for its exile : " Like me, thou art
separated from relations and friends ; thou didst grow
in a different soil, and now thou art far from the
land of thy birth." He had accomplished the object
which he had set before himself in the days of his
young ambition, when he came a stranger and alone
to subdue a kingdom : he had brought the Arabs
and Berbers into subjection, and restored order and
peace in the land ; but he had done it all at the
expense of his subjects' hearts. The handsome youth
who had come like " the young chevalier " to win the
homage and devotion of the Spanish Arabs, after
thirty-two years went down to his grave a detested
tyrant, upheld in his blood-stained throne only by the
swords of mercenaries whose loyalty was purchased
by gold. He had inaugurated the sway of the sword
in Spain, and his successors would have to maintain
the principle. As the great historian of the Moors
has observed, it is not easy to see by what other
means the turbulent factions of Arabs and Berbers
were to be kept in order, or how anarchy was to
be averted without severe measures of repression :
neither of these races was accustomed to monarchy.
Nevertheless a tyranny so sustained formed a melan-
choly spectacle, despite all the glories and triumphs
that illumined it.

An ancient Arab historian, Ibn-Hayyan, gives
the following portrait of the first Sultan of Cordova :

68 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

" Abd-er- Rahman was kind-hearted and well disposed
to mercy. He was eloquent in his speech, and en-
dowed with a quick perception. He was very slow
in his determinations, but constant and persevering
in carrying them into effect. He was active and
stirring ; he would never lie in repose, or abandon
himself to indulgence. He never entrusted the affairs
of government to any one, but administered them
himself; yet he never failed to consult in cases of
difficulty the men of wisdom and experience. He
was a brave and intrepid warrior, always the first in
the battle-field ; terrible in his anger, and intolerant
of opposition : his countenance inspired awe in those
who approached him, friends and foes alike. He was
wont to follow biers and pray over the dead, and in the
mosque on Fridays he would often enter the pulpit
and address the people. He visited the sick, and
mixed with the people in their rejoicings." This
is doubtless the young Abd-er-Rahman, before oppo-
sition and conspiracy had made him suspicious and
cruel. Power has often a terrible manner of punishing
its possessors. _

The usual question that is asked, when a despot
dies, is, Who will succeed him ? And the common
answer is, Revolution and anarchy. A throne that
is set upon steel edges does not readily pass from
father to son. Yet the dynasty of Abd-er-Rahman
did not collapse with the death of its despotic
founder. It was to be expected that the many
hostile forces which he had with difficulty restrained,
when released by his death, would have sprung into
redoubled activity. Such, however, was not the case.

HISHAM I. 71

Partly because he had too thoroughly terrified the
people for them easily to recover their courage, and
partly because in his successor they recognized the ,
very antithesis of his father — a prince to be loved and f
honoured — the people remained quiet for some years.
Hisham, who in 788 succeeded his father, at the age
of thirty, was a model of all the virtues ; and, as if to
make sure that he should practise them with assiduity
during his brief reign, an astrologer predicted that he/
had but eight years to live. The Sultan naturally
devoted this short space to preparing for the next
world. In his^youth jiis^ palace had been filled with
men of science, poets, and sages ; and the boy was
father of the man. His acts of piety were number-
less, and in him the indigent and the persecuted had
a sure refuge. He would send trusty emissaries into
all parts of his dominions to seek out wrong-doing
and repress it, and to further the cause of righteous-
ness. He had the streets patrolled at night to pre-
vent riotous and vicious conduct ; and the fines they
levied on the evildoers were distributed among those
good souls whom rain and cold could not deter from
attending the mosques at night-time. The Sultan
himself visited the sick, and would often go forth on
stormy nights to carry food to some pious invalid and
to watch beside his bedside. With all this he was no
poltroon. He would lead his armies against the
Christians of the North, like the thoroughbred Arab
he was ; and, though the people affectionately dubbed
him " The Amiable " and " The Just," he could show
sufficient firmness when his reign was menaced by
the conspiracies of his uncles. He increased the

72 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

number of his mamluks, or body-guard, and a thou-
sand of them were always on duty day and night on
both sides of the river to protect his palace. He was
a huntsman ; yet so scrupulous was he that when he
rebuilt the bridge of Cordova, which still stands to
this day, hearing that his subjects murmured that he
only built this great work to make his hunting parties
more convenient, he vowed he would never cross it
again ; and he never did. Before the eight years had
quite expired, this exemplary prince was gathered to
his well-earned paradise ; and then it became appa-
rent that his very goodness had but served to stir up
a new factor of rebellion in the State.

This new danger was the power_of _the_Moham-
medan priests. The term is hardly an accurate one,

tor in Islam there is no priesthood in the strict
sense of Catholic Christianity. The men who recite
the prayers and preach the weekly sermons in the
mosques are laymen taken from their shops or other
occupations, and appointed for the time to lead the
congregations. There is no distinction between laic
and cleric in Islam. Nevertheless, there is something
which tallies more or less with what we mean by a
priesthood. There is always in Mohammedan
countries a body of men whose lives are specially
devoted to religion ; they may be dervishes with
peculiar rites, or they may be merely theological
students, pupils of some renowned teacher, whose
doctrine fills them with unwonted zeal and enthu-
siasm ; they may be reciters of the Koran, or school-
masters. Such a body is found throughout the
Moslem world, and it has to be reckoned with in every

PRIESTLY INFLUENCE. 73

Mohammedan country. The students of the Azhar
mosque at Cairo, the Softas of Constantinople, the
Mullas of many an Eastern city, have shown what
the force of fanaticism can avail in times of excite-
ment. In Andalusia this power was now about
to be displayed. The first rebellion after Abd-er-
Rahman's death came from the least expected quarter;'
not from the Christians, nor from any special political
party of Arabs or of Berbers, but from the devout
sons of Islam, the theological students of Cordova.

These students were largely composed of rene-
gades, or the sons of renegades. It has already been
seen that the Spaniards cheerfully adopted Islam,
and, like most converts, became more Moslem than
the Moslems themselves. Abd-er- Rahman was far
too wise, and also far too worldly, to permit the
theologians — especially those of Spanish blood —
any preponderating influence in his kingdom ; but
the pious Hisham neither saw the danger, nor,
had he perceived it, would have regarded it as a
danger at all. He loved to place his confidence in
holy men, whose conduct was dictated by the strict
observance of their religion, and in whom he failed
to detect the germs of common worldly ambition
and love of power. It happened, too, that at this
time the theologians were headed by a singularly
gifted and active mind, a favourite pupil of one
of the lights of the Holy City Medina, where the
Arabian Prophet was buried, and a man whose soul
was devoured by that mixture of religious fervour and
political ambition which has so often made havoc 01
nations. This doctor, Yahva, profited by the devotion

74 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

and piety of Hisham to raise the theologians of Cor-
dova to a height of influence and power that might
have made his shrewd father, Abd-er-Rahman, turn
in his grave. So long, indeed, as they had their own
way, all went well. But in 796, when the good
Hisham departed in the odour of sanctity, a complete
change came over the Court. The new Sultan,
J-Iakani^/was not indifferent to religion or in any
way a reprobate ; but he was gay and sociable, and
enjoyed life as it came to him, without the slightest
leaning towards asceticism. Such a character was
wholly objectionable to the_bigot£d dnctor-fr-of theo-
logy. They spoke of the Sultan with pious horror,
publicly prayed for his conversion, and even reviled
and insulted him to his face. Finding him incurable
in his levity, they plotted to set up another member
of his family on the throne. The conspiracy failed,
and many of the leading nobles, who had joined
in the plot, together with a number of fanatical doc-
tors, were crucified. Undeterred by this, in 806 the
people, stirred up by the bigots, rose again, only to
be as summarily repressed as before. Even the ter-
rible fate of the nobles of Toledo, — who had rebelled,
as was their wont, and were at this time treacherously
inveigled into the hands of the Crown Prince and
massacred to a man, — did not deter the Cordovans
from another revolt.

For seven years, indeed, the memory of the " Day
of the Foss," as the massacre at Toledo was called,
kept the fanatics of Cordova within bounds ; but as
the recoflection of that fearful hole into which the
murdered bodies of all the nobility of Toledo had

HAKAM. 75

been cast, grew fainter, there were symptoms of a
fresh insurrection at the capital. Popular feeling ran
very high, not only against the Sultan, because he
would not wear sackcloth and ashes or pretend to be
an ascetic, but still more against his large body-guard
of " Mutes," so called because, being negroes and the
like, they could not speak Arabic. The Mutes dared
not venture in the streets of Cordova except in
numbers ; a single soldier was sure to be mobbed,
and might be murdered. One day a wanton blow
struck by a member of the guard roused the whole
people. They rushed with one accord to the palace,
led by the thousands of theological students who
inhabited the southern suburb of the city, and
seemed bent on carrying it by assault in spite o\
its fortifications and garrison. The Sultan Hakam
looked forth over the sea of faces, and watched
with consternation the devoted mob repulsing the
charge of his tried cavalry; but even in this hour
of desperate peril he did not lose the sang-froid
which is the birthright of great men. Retiring to
his hall, he told his page Hyacinth to bring him a
bottle of civet, with which he proceeded calmly to
perfume his hair and beard. The page could not
repress his astonishment at such an occupation, when
the cruel mob was even then battering at the gates ; but
Hakam, who was fully aware of his danger, replied :
" Silence, rascal ! How do you suppose the rebels
would be able to find out my head among the rest, if
it were not distinguished by its sweet odour ? " He
then summoned his officers, and took his measures
for the defence. These were simple enough ; but

76 A YOUNG PRETENDER.

they proved effectual. He despatched his cousin with
a force of cavalry, by a roundabout way, to the
southern suburb, which he set in flames, and when
the people turned back in terror from the besieged
palace to rescue their wives and children from their
burning homes, Hakam and the rest of the garrison
fell on them in the rear. Attacked on both hands,
the unfortunate rebels were cut to pieces ; the grim
Mutes rode through them, slashing them down by the
hundred, and disregarding, if they understood, their
prayers for mercy. Hakam's manceuv^ saved foe
palace and the dynasty ; and the insurre€4iofr"was /-^\
converted into a wholesale massacre.1

Yet in the moment of his triumph the Sultan t
stayed his hand ; he did not press his victory to the
last limits, but was content with ordering the destruc-
tion of the rebellious suburb and the exile of its
inhabitants, who were forced to fly, some to Alex-
andria, to the number of fifteen thousand, besides
women and children, whence they eventually crossed
to Crete ; others, eight thousand in all, to Fez, in
Africa. The majority of the exiles were descendants
of the old Spanish population, who had embraced
Islam, but were glad of a pretext to assert their
racial antipathy for the Arab rule. The chief
offenders, the fakis, or theological students, however,
were left unpunished, partly, no doubt, because many
of them were Arabs, and partly in deference to their
profession of orthodoxy. To one of their leaders,
who was dragged before Hakam, and who told the
Sultan, in the heat of his fanatical rage, that in

1 Dozy: Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, livre ii. ch. iii., iv.

THE REVOLT OF THE ZEALOTS.

77

hating his king he was obeying the voice of God,
Hakam made the memorable reply : " He who com-
manded thee, as thou dost pretend, to hate me,
commands me to pardon thee. Go and live, in
God's protection ! "

V.

THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

THE Sultan Hakam died in 822, after a reign of
twenty-six years. He left a comparatively tranquil in-
heritance to his son Abd-er-Rahman II.; the renegades
of Cordova had been subdued and exiled, the bigots
had been given a lesson that they were not likely to
forget, and there only remained the chronic disturb-
ances on the Christian borders to be occasionally
repressed. Abd-er-Rahman II. inherited his father's
talent for enjoyment, but not that strength of character
by which self-indulgence was preserved from degene-
rating into weakness. The new Sultan converted
Cordova into a second Baghdad, and imitated the
prodigalities of the great Harun-er-Rashid, who had
recently left the scene of his fantastic amusements
for, let us hope, a better world. Abd-er-Rahman
built palaces, laid out gardens, and beautified his
capital with mosques, mansions, and bridges. Like
all cultivated Moslem sovereigns, he was a lover of
poetry, and claimed to be no mean poet himself,
though his verses were sometimes written by other
pens whom he paid to compose for him. His tastes
tvere refined, and his nature was gentle and easily led.
Four people ruled him throughout his career : one

ZIRYAB THE EXQUISITE.

Si

was a singer, the second a theologian, the third a
woman, and the fourth a black slave. The most
influential of these was the theologian Yahya,
the same who had before stirred up the students
against Hakam, and who now acquired an absolute
ascendency over the mind of the new Sultan. The
Queen Tarub and the slave Nasr, however, exercised
no light authority in political matters ; but the singer
Ziryab confined his interest to matters of taste and
culture, and refused to meddle in the vulgar strife of
politics. He was a Persian, and had been a pupil of
the famous musician of Baghdad, Isaac the Mosilite,
until one day he had the misfortune to excel his
master in a performance before the Khalif Harun, and
had immediately afterwards been offered by the
jealous Mosilite the choice of death or banishment.
He accepted the latter ; and, arriving in Spain, was
received with effusion by the cultivated Sultan, who
assigned him a handsome pension, supplies of food,
houses, and other privileges and allowances, so that
the fortunate singer counted an immense income. So
delighted was the Sultan with Ziryab's talents that
he would seat him beside him, and share his meals
with him, and would listen for hours to his songs
and to the wonderful tales he could tell of bygone
times, and the wise sayings he could relate from his
boundless stores of reading. He knew more than a
thousand songs by heart, each with its separate tune,
which he said the spirits of the air taught him; he-
added a fifth string to the lute, and his style of play-
ing was quite unlike any one else's, so that people
who had heard him would listen to none other after -

7

82 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

wards. He had a curious way with his musical
pupils. He used to make the would-be singer sit
down and try to sing his loudest. If the voice was
weak, he told him to tie a band round his waist to
increase the volume of sound ; if he stammered or
had any defect in his speech, Ziryab made him keep
a piece of wood in his mouth till his jaws were
properly stretched. After this, if the novice could
shout Ah at the top of his voice, and keep the
sound sustained, he took him as a pupil and trained
him carefully ; if not, he dismissed him.1 Never was
any one so polished, so witty, so entertaining as
Ziryab ; he soon became the most popular man
in Andalusia, and held the position of arbiter of
fashion, like Petronius or Beau Brummell. He made
the people change their manner of wearing their hair.
He introduced asparagus and force-meat balls to An-
dalusia, and a dish was long afterwards known as
" Ziryab's fricassee." He set the example of drinking
out of glass vessels instead of metal, of sleeping on
leather beds, dining off leather mats, and a host of
other refinements ; while he insisted on a careful
gradation of clothes, diminishing by slow degrees
from the thick of winter to the thin of summer,
instead of the abrupt change which the people had
hitherto made. Whatever he prescribed, the fashion-
able world followed ; there was nothing that this
delightful epicure could not persuade them to think
both necessary and charming.

But while the Court was preoccupied with the
tasting of new dishes, 01 the cut of its hair, there

1 Makkary : ii. 121. Dozy: livre ii. ch. v.

CHRISTIAN DISAFFECTION. 83

were earnest people among the subjects of the Sultan,
in Cordova itself, who were absorbed by much deeper
thoughts. It was not the external enemy that thus
endangered the peace of the Moorish kingdom. Many
a time, indeed, did Abd-er-Rahman II., who was not
wanting in personal courage and love of military
glory, lead his armies with success against the Chris-
tians of the north, who, aided by Louis the Debonnaire,
were continually making some expedition or foray
over the frontiers. These petty campaigns were not
yet serious enough to shake the stability of the Moslem
rule. The trouble in these early days always came
from within. In the present instance it arose from
the too exalted spirit of a small number of Christians
at Cordova. Most of the Christians, indeed, were by
no means anxious to emphasize their creed ; they
found themselves well treated, free to worship as they
pleased, with no hindrance from their rulers ; and
also free to trade and get rich, as well as their Moslem
-neighbours.^ What more could be desired, unless the
recovery of their ancient kingdom ? And as that
was impossible just then, they were content to let
well alone, and make the best of their mild and
tolerant governors.

This temper was very general in Andalusia, but
there were here and there ambitious or enthusiastic
spirits that chafed against such compliance with the
rule of the " infidel." They remembered_the former
power and prosperitY_of their churdL. and the priests
especially could no longer restrain their hatred of
the Moslems who had taken away from them their
authority and substituted a false creed for the religion-

84 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

of Christ. The very tolerance of the Moors only
exasperated such fervent souls ; they preferred to be
persecuted, like the saints of old ; they longed to be
martyrs, and they were indignant with the Moslems,
because they would not " persecute them for right-
eousness' sake" and ensure them the kingdom of
heaven. Especially hateful to these earnest people
was the open gaiety and sensuous refinement of the
Moors; their enjoyment of life and all its pleasure,
their music and singing, their very learning and
science, were abhorrent to these ascetics. Life, to the
true believer, meant only scourges and fasts, penances
and confessions, purification through suffering, the
mortifying of the flesh and sanctifying of the spirit.
What happened was, in truth, nothing but the mani-
festation of the ascetic or monastic form of Christianity

f^ among the subject populations. A sudden and violent
\ \ enthusiasm took the place of the indifference that had

J hitherto been the prevailing characteristic of Spanish
Christianity, and a race for martyrdom began.

\ ] It was a grievous pity to see good people throwing
away their lives, and the lives of others, for a dream.

If The suicides of Andalusia were really no whit more

^-reasonable or truly religious than the sufferings of the
priests of Baal who cut themselves with knives, or of
the Indian ascetics who let their nails grow through
the palms of their hands. The fact that the Spanish
" martyrs " were mad in a better cause does not
make them less insane. Christianity does not teach
its disciples to fling away their lives wantonly, out of
mere joy in being tortured and killed. Jt was not as
if the Christians were persecuted or hindered in the

THE RACE FOR MARTYRDOM. 85

exercise of their faith ; it was not as if -the" Moors
were ignorant of Christianity and needed __ to. -be

preached to. They knew more of the Scriptures than

many of the Christians themselves, and they never
spoke the name of Jesus Christ without adding, " May
God bless him." Mohammedanism jrec Jgnizes LJhe
inspired nature of Christ, and inculcates -profound
reverence towards him. The Moslems were not
ignorant of ChristianityT but they preferred their own
creed ; and while they let the Christians hold to theirs,
there was no excuse for the latter posing- in the
heroic character of persecuted believers. Indeed
there was no rational way of getting martyred ;--•
since Christians were allowed free exercise of their
religious rites, might preach and teach without let or
hindrance, they could not find a legal ground for
"being persecuted unless they left the paths of the
Gospel and set aside the great lesson of Christ, " Love
your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute
you." |^They were not despitefully used or persecuteoTp^X
the mass of the Christians were entirely unmolested/
and though the priests were sometimes subjected toS
some public ridicule by the street boys and common 1
people, the better class of Moslems never joined in
this ; yet so far were the poor Christians from at- /
tempting to love these mild adversaries that they/
went out of their way to curse them and blaspheme
their religion, with the simple intention of being
martyred for their pains. Now it is a well-known
law in Moslem countries that he who blasphemes the
Prophet Mohammed or his religion must die. It is a

86 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

stern and barbarous law, but the world has seen as
bad principles carried into effect over the faggots of
Smithfield and Oxford in later ages than that 01
which we are writing. Wilfully to stir up religious
strife and injuriously to abuse another faith are no
deeds for Christians ; voluntarily to transgress a law
which carries with it capital punishment is not
martyrdom, but suicide ; and the pity we cannot help
feeling for the " martyrs " of Cordova is the same that
one entertains for many less exalted forms of
hysterical disorder. The victims were, indeed, martyrs
to disease, and their fate is as pitiable as though they
had really been martyrs for the faith.

The leading spirit of these suicides was Eulogius,1
a priest who belonged to an old family ot Cordova;
always noted for its Christian zeal. Eulogius had
spent years in prayer and fasting, in bitter penance
and self-mortification, and had reduced himself to the
ecstatic condition which leads to acts of misguided
but heroic devotion. There was nothing worldly left
in him, no thought for himself or personal ambition ;
to cover the false faith of the Moors with contumely,
and to awaken a spirit of exalted devotion among his
co-religionists, such were his aims. In these he had
throughout the cordial support of a wealthy young
man of Cordova, Alvaro by name, and of a small but
fervid body of priests, monks, and women, with a few
laymen. Among those who found a close affinity to
the devoted young priest, was a beautiful girl named
Flora. She was the child of a mixed marriage, and
hei Christian mother had brought her up secretly in

1 Dozy: Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, ch. vi.-ix.

FLORA. 87

her own faith. For many years Flora was to all
outward appearance a Mohammedan ; but at length,
moved by the same spirit of sacrifice and enthusiasm
which had stirred Eulogius, and excited by such
passages in the Bible as, " Whoso shall deny Me
before men, him will I also deny before My Father
which is in heaven," she fled from her brother's house
— her father was dead — and took refuge among the
Christians. The brother, a Mohammedan, searched
for her in vain ; many priests were thrown into prison
on the charge of being accomplices in the abduction ;
and Flora, unwilling that others should suffer through
her fault, returned to her home and confessed herself
a Christian. Her brother tried the sternest means at
his disposal to compel her to recant, and at last, in a
rage at her obstinacy, brought her before the Kady, or
Mohammedan judge, and accused her of apostacy.
The child of a Moslem, even though the mother be a
Christian, is held in Mohammedan law to be born a
Moslem, and apostacy has always been punishable by
death. Even now in Turkey the law holds good,
though there has been a tacit understanding for the
last forty years that it shall not be enforced ; and a
thousand years ago we must expect to find less
tenderness towards renegades. Yet the judge before
whom Flora was thus arraigned displayed some com-
punction towards the unhappy girl. He did not
condemn her to death — as he was in law bound to do
— or even to imprisonment ; he had her severely
beaten, and told her brother to take her home and
instruct her in the Mohammedan religion. She
escaped, however, again, and took refuge with some

88 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

Christian friends, and here for the first time she met
Eulogius, who conceived for the beautiful and unfor-
tunate young devotee a pure and tender love such as
angels might feel for one another. Her mystical
exaltation, devout piety, and unconquerable courage,
gave her the aspect of a saint in his eyes, and he
had not forgotten a detail of this first interview six
years later when he wrote to her these words : " Thou
didst deign, holy sister, to show me thy neck torn by
the scourge, and shorn of the beautiful locks that
once hung over it. It was because thou didst regard
me as thy spiritual father, and believe me to be pure
and chaste as thyself. Softly did I lay my hand on thy
wounds ; I had it in me to seek to heal them with
my lips, had I dared. . . . When I parted from thee I
was as one that walketh in a dream, and I sighed
without ceasing." Flora and a sister who shared her
enthusiasm were removed to a safe place of conceal-
ment, and Eulogius did not see her again for some time.
Meanwhile the zeal of the Cordovan Christians
was bearing fruit. A foolish priest, JPerfectuSj jiad
been led into cursing the dominant religion, and had
been executed on a great Mohammedan feast-day,
when all the world was rejoicing at the termination
of the rigorous fast of Ramadan, which had lasted a
whole month. The Moslems, men and women, made
this feast a special occasion of merry-making, and the
execution of the offending priest added a new subject
of excitement to the crowds that thronged the streets
and sailed on the river and frolicked on the great
plain outside the city. The poor priest died bravely}
cursing Mohammed and his religion with his last

THE DEATH OF PERFECTUS. 89

breath, surrounded by a vast crowd of scoffing and
pitiless Moslems. The Bishop of Cordova, followed
by an army of priests and devotees, took down his
body, buried him with the holy relics of St. Acisclus,
a martyr of Diocletian's persecution, in whose church
he had officiated, and forthwith had him made a
saint. The same evening two Moslems were
drowned, and this was at once accepted as the judg-
ment of God on the murderers of Perfectus. The
black slave, Nasr, who had superintended the execu-
tion, died within the year, and the Christians trium-
phantly declared that Perfectus had predicted his
decease : " It was another judgment ! "

Soon a monk named Isaac sought an interview with
the Kady, on the pretext of wishing to be converted
to the Mohammedan religion ; but no sooner had the
learned judge explained the doctrines of Islam than
the would-be convert turned round, and began to heap
maledictions upon the creed which he had asked to
be taught. It was no marvel that the astonished
Kady gave him a cuff. "Do you know," said he>
" that our law condemns people to death for daring to
speak as you have spoken?" "I do," answered the
monk ; " condemn me to death ; I desire it ; for I
know that the Lord said, ' Blessed are they who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.' " The Kady was sorry for the
man, and begged the Sultan to overlook his crime, but
in vain. Isaac was decapitated, and thereupon became
a saint, and it was proved conclusively that he had
worked many miracles, not only ever since his child-
hood, but even before he came into the world.

go THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

Presently one of the Sultan's guards, Sancho, a
pupil of Eulogius, blasphemed Mohammed, and lost
his head. Next Sunday six monks rushed before the
Kady and shouted, "We, too, say what our holy
brothers Isaac and Sancho said," and forthwith fell to
blaspheming Mohammed, and to crying, "Avenge your
accursed Prophet ! Treat us with all your barbarity ! "
Their heads were cut off. Three more priests or monks,
infected with the fever of suicide, rushed excitedly to
present their necks to the headsman. Eleven thus
fell in less than two months during the summer of 851.

The great body of the Christians were dismayed at
the indiscreet zeal of their brethren. It must not be
forgotten that the Spaniards had not so far ^een
remarkable for religious fervour. Their creed sat lightly
upon them, and so many of them had been converted
to Islam, that the two creeds and the two peoples had
become to a considerable extent mixed together in
friendly intercourse. The Christians had come to
despise their old Latin language and literature ; they
learned Arabic, and soon were able to write it as well
as the Arabs themselves. Eulogius himself deplores
this change.L-The Christians, he says, delight in the
Arabic poems and romances instead of the Holy
Scriptures and the works of the Fathers. The
younger generations know only Arabic ; they read the
Moslems' books with ardour, form great libraries 01
them, and find them admirable ; while they will not
glance at a Christian book. They are forgetting their
own language, he adds, and hardly or^e in a thousand
can write a decent Latin letter ; yet they indite excel-/^
lent Arabic verse. The Christians, in fact, found Arab\

MODERATE COUNSELS. QI

romances and poetry much more entertaining than the \
writings of the Fathers of the Church. They were
growin^Lm^re^Lnd more Arab; more civilized, more;
refined, and also more indifferent to distinctions oO
faith. They were grateful to the Moors for treating
them well, and the sudden animosity displayed by
their excited brethren amazed and shocked them. \
They endeavoured to avert the threatening storm by
showing their brethren the futility of their conduct.
They argued with them ; reminded them how tolerant
the Moslems had always been to the Christians ;
recalled to them the peaceful teaching of the gospel,
and the words of the apostle, that " Slanderers shall
not enter the kingdom of heaven ; " and told them
how the Moslems regarded these deaths with no dis-
quietude, for they argued, "If your religion were true,
God would have avenged His martyrs."

These worthy Christians of the common kind, who
knew not the force of spiritual exaltation for good and
for evil, and only did their duty to their neighbours
and said their prayers in the simple, old-fashioned
manner, tried in vain to restrain the zealots. They
perceived that these continued insults and swift-
following punishments must at last end in real perse-
cution. Eulogius, on the contrary, who set himself to
answer their objections with texts out of the Bible
and the Lives of the Saints, coveted such a result,
and the zealots desired nothing better than the fire
of persecution. The ecclesiastical authorities, worked
upon by the moderate party, and also by the Moorish
government, could not permit the spirit of revolt to
continue much longer unreproved ; the bishops met

92 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

in council under the presidentship of the Metropolitan
of Seville, and though they could not precisely
repudiate the former "martyrdoms," since the Church
had already canonized the sufferers, yet they ordained
that no more exhibitions of the kind should be made,
and in furtherance of this decision the leaders of the
zealots were thrown into prison. Here Eulogius met
Flora again. She had been praying earnestly one day
in a church, when she saw beside her a fellow-
enthusiast, a sister of that monk Isaac who had been
one of the earliest " martyrs." Mary wanted to join
her brother in the kingdom of heaven, and Flora
resolved to accompany her. They went before the
Kady and did their best to excite his anger by
blaspheming the name of Mohammed and his religion.
Two young and beautiful girls, professing most
sincerely the religion of " peace on earth and goodwill
towards men," stood before the magistrate with lips
full of cursing and bitterness, reviling his faith as " the
work of the devil." But the good judge was not to be
roused so easily. He was weary of all this hysterical
mania, and had many a time pretended to be deaf when
people thrust themselves upon death ; he thought it
was a pity of these two girls, and wished they would
not be so foolish. He would try to induce them to
retract, or make as though he had not heard. But
they persisted in their heroic purpose, and he had to
put them in prison.

Here, in the long confinement, the maidens were
daunted, and almost inclined to waver in their sacri-
ficial ardour, when Eulogius came to strengthen and
destroy them. His task was the hardest in the world :

DEATH OF FLORA. 93

to encourage the woman whom he loved with all his
soul to go to the scaffold ; yet, in spite of every
natural and human feeling, this man of iron nerved
himself to fan the flame of enthusiasm to the point
of martyrdom. It was a daily agony to the unhappy
priest, but he never relaxed his efforts in what he
believed to be the good cause. He even wrote an
entire treatise to convince Flora — who needed it but
little — of the supreme beauty and glory of martyr-
dom for the faith. He spent his days and nights in
reading and writing, to banish from his heart those
feelings of compunction and love which threatened
to shake his resolution. But it was only too firm.
Flora and Mary remained constant and undismayed
in spite of the anxious efforts of the Kady to help
them to save themselves ; and after the final interview,
when sentence of death was pronounced, Eulogius
saw Flora : — " She seemed to me an angel," he
wrote afterwards, glorying in the spiritual triumph.
"A celestial illumination surrounded her; her face
lightened with happiness ; she seemed already to be
tasting the joys of the heavenly home. . . . When I
heard the words of her sweet mouth, I sought to
stablish her in her resolve by showing her the crown
that awaited her. I worshipped her ; I fell down
before this angel, and besought her to remember me
in her prayers ; and, strengthened by her speech, I
returned less sad to my sombre cell." Flora and her
companion Mary were executed at last, 24th Novem-
ber, #51, and Eulogius wrote a paean of joy to cele-
brate what he deemed a great victory of the Church.
Soon after this, Eulogius and the other priests were

94 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

released from prison, and the next year Abd-er-
Rahman II. died, and was succeeded by his son
Mohammed, a rigid, cold-hearted egotist, who screwed
"Savings out of the salaries of his ministers, and was
universally detested for his meanness and unworthi-
ness. The theologians alone liked him, for he seemed
likely to avenge to the full the insults which the
excited Christians had poured upon the Mohammedan
religion. Churches were demolished, and such severe
persecutions were set on foot, that though many
Christians had become Moslems when the bishops had
officially condemned suicidal martyrdom, many more
now followed their example ; indeed, according to
Eulogius and Alvaro, the majority recanted. The
wise and kindly policy of Abd-er- Rahman and his
ministers, who shut their eyes when the Christians
were wantonly committing themselves, was now
exchanged for a policy of cruel repression, and it is
no wonder that apostacy was the rule.

Still, the influence of the little band of zealots was
powerful, and had already extended far beyond the
limits of Cordova. Toledo made Eulogius its bishop,
and when the Sultan refused his consent, the primacy
was kept vacant until the zealot should be permitted
to occupy it. Two French monks came to Cordova
to beg some relics of the holy martyrs, and went back
to St. Germain-des-Pres with a handsome bag of
bones, which were presently displayed to the faithful
at Paris. But a heavy bio was about to fall upon
the enthusiasts. Another girl deserted her parents to
follow Eulogius ; and this time she and her teacher
were brought before the Kad , Eulogius was guilty

DEATH OF EULOGIUS. 95

only of proselytizing, and his legal punishment was
but a scourging. But the priest was not made of
the stuff that endures the whip. Humble and long-
suffering before his God, willing to inflict any torture
on his own body for the sake of the faith, he could not
submit to be flogged by the infidel. " Make sharp
thy sword, judge," he cried ; " send my soul to meet
my Creator ; but think not that I will suffer my body
to be lacerated with whips." And here he burst into
a flood of maledictions against Mohammed and his
religion.

The Kady would not take upon himself the
responsibility of executing the sentence upon so
prominent a leader as Eulogius, and the priest was
accordingly brought before the privy council. One
of the body expostulated with him, and asked
why a man of sense and education should volun-
tarily run his head into peril of death ; he could
understand fools and maniacs doing so, he said, but
Eulogius was of a different stamp. " Listen to me,"
he added, " I entreat you ; yield for once to necessity;
retract what you said before the Kady ; say but the
word, and you shall go free." But it was too late.
Eulogius, though he preferred the position of trainer
of martyrs to setting the example himself, could not
retreat from his ground with dignity. He must go
on to the bitter end. And refusing to retract any-
thing, he was forthwith led out to execution, and
died with courage and devotion on March II, 859.1

Deprived of their leader, the Christian martyrs lost
heart, and we do not hear of their mad devotion again.

1 Dozy : livre ii. ch. ix.

VI.

THE GREAT KHALIF.

MY readers may perhaps be disappointed that so
far we have but few records of noble deeds or great
wars, and that instead of individual heroes we have
been chiefly interested in large movements of races
and religions. We had, it is true, a stirring outset
with Tarik and his Berbers, whose brilliant conquests
are no more legendary than is the history of the
nineteenth century. We had the great and decisive
battle of Tours, but of this the details, which might
have proved of surpassing interest, are wanting ; and
the other engagement with the Franks, the field of
Roncesvalles, errs in the opposite direction, for it is
overclouded with myth. Since that day, a hundred
years have now passed, and we have come to the
death of Eulogius and the consequent decline of the
Christian martyrs ; and in all that century we have
been reading of nothing but the struggle between the
different races and creeds that made up the mixed
population of the Spanish peninsula. But after all,
golden deeds are rare, and are too often the invention
of poets, whose spiritual minds clothe with the attri-
butes of ideal chivalry what are really the ordinary
events of war ; while the struggle of race with race and

WEAKNESS OF ABDALLAH. QJ

creed with creed is what the world has been inces-
santly witnessing ever since man came into existence.
We must not allow ourselves to think that the
history of these large movements is uninteresting
because it has not the personal charm of individual
acts of heroism. In the devotion of countless un-
noticed men and women during the piteous epoch of
martyrdom at Cordova there was perhaps more real
heroism than in the impetuous deeds of chivalry
displayed by rude warriors on the battle-field. It is
much easier to be brave in hot blood than to endure
the alarms and sufferings of long imprisonment, to
look forward with undaunted courage to the day of
execution, and keep a firm heart through it all. Thel
Christian martyrs were misguided, they threw away
their lives without cause ; but their courage is as I
worthy of admiration as their wisdom is to be pitied.
Flora was as real a heroine as if she had sacrificed
herself for a worthy sake. Eulogius, with all his
bigotry, was of the true hero's mould. And in all
these great movements of race or faith there are
numberless acts of devotion and fortitude which,
though they may escape the eye of the historian, call
for as much resolution and endurance as the most
brilliant exploits of the soldier. It is often in the
little acts of heroism that the hardest duties of man-
kind are found ; and in the conflicts between large
bodies of people there are endless opportunities for
their exercise.

It is much easier to realize heroic character in a
person than in a whole people or even a city ; and
we are now coming to the career of a man who ap-

g?5 THE GREAT KHALIF.

preached as few have ever done the high ideal of kingly
greatness. A great king is the result of a great need.
When the nation is sore beset, when the times are
full of presage of disaster, and ruin hangs ominously
on the horizon ; then the great king comes to rescue
his people from danger, to restore order and well-
being, and to reign over a realm once more made
happy and prosperous by his efforts. The need of
such a ruler was anxiously felt at the beginning of
the tenth century in Spain. The excited conduct of
the Christians of Cordova had been followed by a still
more dangerous and widespread rebellion in the
provinces. The throne was occupied by incapable
sovereigns ; for the energetic policy of Mundhir, who
had succeeded his father Mohammed in 886, was
arrested by his assassination in 888, and his brother
Abdallah, who had instigated the murder, was in-
capable of dealing courageously with the numerous
sources of danger which then menaced the kingdom.
His policy was shifty and temporizing ; he alternately
tried the effects of force and conciliation, with the
usual consequence that both policies failed ; and he
was personally so despicable, cruel, and vile, that all
parties in his dominions seemed for once to be agreed
in their detestation of him, and their resolve to cast
off his rule. He had hardly been reigning three
years when the greater part of Andalusia was
virtually independent. All the various factions of
the State were now again in active opposition to the
central power. Every nobleman or chief, were he
Arab, Berber, or Spaniard, seized the opportunity ot
a bad and weak sovereign, and general anarchy, to
appropriate a portion of the land for his own exclusive

GENERAL ANARCHY. IOI

benefit, and from behind his ramparts to defy the
Sultan. The old Arab aristocracy, the descendants of
the Arab tribes who completed the conquest of Spain,
were few and greatly outnumbered by the other races;
but though their weakness should have kept them
loyal to the Arab kingdom of Cordova, they too
turned against it, and established themselves in inde-
pendent princedoms, especially at Seville, which now
became a formidable rival to Cordova. In other
cities, though the Arabs were not strong enough to
break openly with the Sultan, they gave him but
a nominal homage ; and the governors of Lorca and
Zaragoza were really quite independent of their feeble
king. In no place, outside Cordova, where the mer-
cenary guards of the Sultan compelled a certain
outward submission, were the Arabs to be counted
upon for the defence of the Omeyyad. power.

The Berbers were more numerous than the Arabs,
and at least equally disaffected. They had aban-
doned any pretence of submission to the Sultan's
authority, and had returned to their old political
system of clan government. The western provinces
of Spain, such as Estremadura, and the south of
Portugal, were now the independent possessions of
the Berbers ; and they also held various important
posts, such as Jaen, in Andalusia itself. The Berber^
family of Dhu-n-Nun, consisting of the father Musa,
M a~great scoundrel and an abominable thief," and his
three sons, who resembled him in their physical
strength and their unrivalled brutality, carried fire
and sword through the land, and burnt, sacked, and
massacred wherever they went.

102 THE GREAT KHALIF.

The Mohammedan Spaniards, who had put on
something of Arab civilization along with their new
faith, were by no means barbarians like the Berbers ;
but they were not the less hostile to the central power.
The province of Algarve, at the south-west corner
of the peninsula, was entirely in their power; and
they held numerous independent cities and districts
throughout Andalusia. Indeed all the most im-
portant cities were in secret or open revolt Arab
governors, Berber chiefs, Spanish renegades, alike
joined in repudiating or disregarding the sovereign
authority of Abdallah ; and most powerful of all,
Ibn-Hafsun, a Christian, who had raised the moun-
taineers of the province of Elvira (Granada), reigned
in perfect security in his rocky fastness, Bobastro, and
gave laws to the regions around. Again and again
had the Sultan attacked him, and each time suffered
defeat ; now he was disposed to try the ignominious
policy of conciliation, only to find Ibn-Hafsun quite
ready to trick him at that. Murcia, the " land of
Theodemir," was independent under a mild and cul-
tivated renegade prince, who governed his subjects
wisely, and was beloved by them ; who was devoted
to poetry, but did not neglect to keep up a con-
siderable army, which included five thousand horse-
men. Toledo was, as usual, in revolt, and nothing
but the jealousies and divisions of the Christians of
the north prevented them from reconquering their
long lost territory. Split up as it was into numberless
little seigniories, resembling rather the estates or
counties of feudal barons than portions of a once
powerful realm, Andalusia could have offered

DOOR OF THE MAIDENS COURT, ALCAZAR OF SEVILLE.

SEVILLE. 105

but an ill-directed resistance to a determined in
vader.1

There were of course some gleams of light amidst
all this anarchy. We have said that the province of
Murcia was ruled by an enlightened and benevolent
prince. The lord of Cazlona was also distinguished
for his patronage ot poets and the arts : his halls
were raised upon marble pillars, and the walls were
encrusted with marble and gold ; all that makes life
enjoyable was to be found within his palace. Ibn-
HaijaLlpo, the Arab king — for he was nothing less—
of Seville, who had compelled the Sultan to come to
terms with him and make him his friend, exercised
his unbounded authority in the noblest manner. His
city was admirably governed, order reigned there
undisturbed, and evil-doers were sternly but justly
punished. He kept his state like an emperor ; five
hundred cavaliers formed his escort, and his royal robe
was of brocade, with his name and titles embroidered
on it in gold thread. Kings from over the sea sent
him presents : silken stuffs from Egypt, learned
doctors of the law from Medina, and matchless sjngers
from Baghdad. The beautiful lady " Moon," re-
nowned for her lovely voice, her eloquence, and poetic
fire, sang of him thus : " In all the west I find no
right noble man save Ibrahim, but he is nobility itself.
When one has known the delight of living with him,
to dwell in any other land would be misery." The
very poets of Cordova were attracted to his brilliant
court, where they were sure of a princely welcome.
Once only did a poet receive a cold greeting from

1 Dozy : Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, Hvre ii. ch. xi. ff.

106 THE GREAT KHALI F.

Ibrahim the son of Hajjaj. This was one who
thought to please the prince by reciting a scurrilous
poem on the nobles of Cordova, to whom the ruler of
Seville was not well disposed. "You are mistaken,"
was Ibn-Hajjaj's comment, " if you think that a man
like myself can find any gratification in listening to
these base calumnies."

Yet these occasional flashes of enlightenment cannot
make amends for the general condition of anarchy to
which Andalusia had become a prey, by the weakening
of the central power, and the aggrandisement of
countless petty rulers and brigand chiefs. The coun-
try was in a deplorable state, and Cordova itself,
now threatened even with conquest at the hands
of Ibn-Hafsun and his bold mountaineers, was
given over to mournful sadness. " Without being yet
actually besieged, she was already suffering all the ills
of beleaguerment." " Cordova," said the Arab his-
torians, " was in the condition of a frontier town ex-
posed to all the attacks of the enemy." Time after
time the inhabitants were startled from their sleep, in
the midst of night, by the cries of distress raised by the
wretched peasants across the river, when the horsemen
of Polei were setting the sword to their throats. " The
State is menaced with total dissolution," wrote a con-
temporary witness ; " disasters follow one another /
ceaselessly ; thieving and pillaging go on ; our wives I
and children are dragged into slavery." There were \
universal complaints of the Sultan's want of energy,
of his weakness, and his baseness. The troops were
grumbling because they were not paid. The provinces
had stopped the supplies, and the treasury was empty.

ABD-ER-RAHMAN III. IOJ

What money the Sultan had been able to borrow, he
spent to bribe the few Arabs who still affected to
support him in the provinces. The deserted markets
showed how trade had been destroyed. Bread had
reached a fabulous price. Nobody believed any
longer in the future ; despair had sunk into all hearts.
The bigots, who regarded all public misfortunes as
the chastisement of God, and called Ibn-Hafsun the
scourge of the divine wrath, afflicted the city with
their doleful prophecies. " Woe to thee, Cordova ! "
they cried, " woe to thee, sink of defilement and
decay, abode of calamity and anguish, thou who hast
neither friend nor ally ! When the Captain, with his
great nose and ugly face, he who is guarded before
by Moslems and behind by idolaters — when Ibn-
Hafsun comes before thy gates, then will thy awful
fate be accomplished !'"

When things were at the worst, a gleam of hope
shone upon the miserable inhabitants of the royal city.
Abdallah, who was quite as despairing as his subjects,
tried for once a bold policy, and in spite of the dis-
couragement of his followers, and the overwhelming
numbers of the enemy who surrounded him on every
side, he contrived to win a few advantages. Then he
did the best thing that he could do for his country :
he died on October 15, 912, aged sixty- eight, after
a reign of twenty-four unhappy years. His life had
seen the fall of the Omeyyad power, a fall sudden
and apparently irremediable. The reign of his suc-
cessor was destined to see as sudden, as complete, a
restoration of that power.

The new Sultan was Abd-er- Rahman III., a grand-

I08 THU GREAT KHALIF,

son of Abdallah. He was only twenty-one when he
came to the throne, and there were several uncles and
other kinsmen who might be expected to oppose the
succession of a mere youth at so troublous a time. Yet
no one made any resistance ; on the contrary, his ac-
cession was hailed with satisfaction on all sides. The
young prince had already succeeded in winning the
favour of the people and the court. His handsome
presence and princely bearing, joined to a singular
grace of manner and acknowledged powers of mind,
made him generally popular, and it was with a feeling
of renewed hope that the Cordovans, who were
almost the only subjects he had left, watched the first
proceedings of the new Sultan. Abd-er-Rahman
made no attempt to disguise his intentions. He
abandoned once and for all the policy of his grand-
father, which, in its alternate weakness and cruelty,
had worked such injury to the State ; and in its
place he announced that he would permit no dis-
obedience throughout the dominions of the Omey-
yads ; he summoned the disaffected nobles and
chieftains to submit to his authority ; and he let it be
clearly understood that he would leave no portion of
his kingdom under the control of rebels. The pro-
gramme was bold enough to satisfy the most sanguine ;
but there seemed every probability that it would unite
all the rebels in all parts in one great league to crush
the dauntless young prince. But Abd-er-Rahman
knew his countrymen, and his boldness was well
founded. Nearly a generation had passed since Ibn-
Hafsun and the other rebels had raised the standard
of insurrection, and every one had come to feel that

SUBMISSION OF THE REBELS. IOQ

there had been enough of it. The early zeal that had
prompted the Spaniards, Moslem and Christian alike,
to strike a blow for their national independence, had
now cooled, — such movements never last unless they
achieve a complete success at the first white heat of
enthusiasm ; the leaders were either dead or aged,
and a calmer spirit had come over their followers.
People had begun to ask themselves what was the
good that they had obtained by their fine revolutions ?
They had not freed Andalusia from the " infidel," but
had contrariwise given her over to the worst members
of the infidel ranks — to brigand chiefs and adven-
turers of the vilest stamp. The country was harried
from end to end by bands of lawless robbers, who
destroyed the tilled fields and vineyards, and turned
the land into a howling wilderness. Anything was
better than the tyranny of brigandage. The Sultan
of Cordova could not make matters worse than they
were, and there was a general disposition to see whether
he might not possibly improve them.

Consequently, when Abd-er-Rahman began to lead
his army against the rebellious provinces, he found
them more than half willing to submit. His troops
were inspirited to see their gallant young sovereign at
their head — a sight that Abdallah had not permitted
them for many years — and they followed him with
enthusiasm. The rebels, already tired of their anar-
chic condition, opened their gates after a mere show
of resistance. One after another the great cities of
Andalusia admitted the Sultan within their walls.
The country to the south of Cordova was the first to
submit ; then Seville opened her gates ; the Berbers

110 THE GREAT KHALI P.

of the west were reduced to obedience ; and the prince
of Algarve hastened to offer tribute. Then the Sultan
advanced against the Christians of the province of
Regio, where for thirty years the mountain fastnesses
had protected the bold subjects of Ibn-Hafsun, and
where no one knew better than Abd-er- Rahman that
no speedy victory was to be won. Yet step by step this
difficult region was subdued. Seeing the scrupulous
justice and honour of the Sultan, who kept his treaties
with the Christians in perfect good faith, and observed
the utmost clemency to those who submitted to him,
fortress after fortress surrendered. Ibn-Hafsun himself,
in his fastness, remained unconquered and defiant
as ever, but he was old, and soon he died, and then it
was only a matter of time for the arms of the Sultan
to penetrate even into Bobastro. When the Sultan
stood at last upon the ramparts of this redoubtable
fortress, and looked down from its dizzy heights upon
the cliffs and precipices that surrounded the rebel
stronghold, he was overcome with emotion, and fell
upon his knees to render thanks to God for the great
victory.1 Then he turned to acts of mercy and pardon,
and all the days he stayed in the fort he observed a
solemn fast. Murcia had now given in its allegiance to
the Sultan, and Toledo alone remained unsubdued.
The proud city on the Tagus haughtily rejected Abd-
er- Rahman's offer of amnesty, and confidently awaited
the siege. But it had to do with a different as-
sailant from the feeble generals who had from time
to time reaped disgrace beneath the walls of the
Royal City. To prove to its defenders that his

1 Dozy : Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, livre ii. ch. xvii.

AQUEDUCT NEAR GRANADA.

TOLEDO CAPITULATES. 113

siege was no transitory menace, the Sultan quickly
built a little town, which he called JEl-Feth f"Vic-
tory "), on the opposite mountain, and there he resided
in calm anticipation of the result. Pressed by famine,
the city surrendered, and Abd-er-Rahman III. entered
the last seat of rebellion in the dominions which he
had inherited from his namesake, the first Abd-er-
Rahman, which now (930) once more reached to
their full extent.

It had taken eighteen years to recover the whole
breadth of dominion which his predecessors had lost ;
but the work was done, and the royal power was
firmly established over Arabs, Berbers, Spaniards,
Moslems and Christians alike. Henceforward Abd-
er-Rahman permitted no special prominence to any
party ; he kept the old Arab nobility in severe re-
pression ; and the Spaniards, who had always been
treated by them as base canaille, rejoiced to see their
oppressors brought low. Henceforth the Sultan was ~)
the sole authority in the State ; but his authority was ^>
just, enlightened, and tolerant. After so many years j
of confusion and anarchy, the people accepted the new
despotism cheerfully. There were no more brigands
to destroy their crops and vines ; and if the Sultan
was absolute in his power, at least he did not abuse
it. The country folk returned to the paths of peace
and plenty ; they were at last free to get rich and to
be happy after their own way.

VTI.

THE HOLY WAR.

ABD-ER-RAHMAN m.'s principle of government
consisted in retaining the sovereign power entirely
in his own hands, and administering the kingdom by
officers who owed their elevation wholly to his favour.
Above all, he took care to leave no power in the hands
of the old Arab aristocracy, who had so ill served
previous rulers. The men he appointed to high
places were parvenus, people of mean birth, who were
the more attached to their master because they knew
that but for him they would be trampled upon by
the old Arab families. The force he employed to
sustain the central power was a large standing army,
at the head of which stood his select body-guard
of Slavs, or purchased foreigners. They were
originally composed chiefly of men of Slavonian
nationality, but came by degrees to include Franks,
Galicians, Lombards, and all sorts of people, who
were brought to Spain by Greek and Venetian
traders, and sold while still children to the Sultan,
to be educated as Moslems. Many of them were
highly cultivated men, and naturally attached to
their master. They resembled in many respects the
corps of Mamluks which Saladin's successors intro-

ABD-ER-RAHMAN'S POLICY. 115

duced into Egypt as a body-guard, and which subse-
quently attained such renown as Sultans of Egypt
and Syria. Like that body of purchased Turkish
and Circassian slaves, they had their own slaves under
them, were granted estates by the Sultan, and formed
a sort of feudal retainers, prepared to serve their lord
at the head of their own followers whenever he might
call upon them. Like the Egyptian Mamluks, too,
they came after a while to such a pitch of influence
that they took advantage of the decay of the central
power, which followed upon the death of Abd-er-
Rahman in. and his successor, to found independent
dynasties for themselves, and thus contribute to the
final overthrow of the Moslem domination in Spain.

With the aid of his " Slavs," the Sultan not only
banished brigandage and rebellion from Spain, but
waged war with the Christians of the north with
brilliant success. The Mohammedan realm was
menaced by more dangers than those of internal
anarchy. It was pressed between two threatening
and warlike kingdoms, each of which required to be
kept in watchful check. To the south the newly
founded empire of the Fatimite Khalifs in North
Africa was a standing menace. It was natural that the
rulers of the Barbary coast should remember that the
Arabs before them had used Africa as a stepping
stone to Spain ; the traditional policy of the African
dynasties was to compass, if possible, the annexation
of the fair provinces of Andalusia, it was only by
skilfully working upon the sectarian schisms, and
consequent insurrections, which divided the Berbers
of Africa, that the Sultan succeeded in keeping the

Il6" THE HOLY WAR.

Fatimites at a distance. He did succeed, however,
so well, that at one time a great part of the Barbary
coast paid homage to the ruler of Spain, who also
obtained possession of the important fortress of Ceuta.
A great part of the Spanish revenue was devoted to
building a magnificent fleet, with which Abd-er-
Rahman disputed with the Fatimites the command
of the Mediterranean.

On the opposite side, on the north, the Moslem
power had to deal with an even more threatening
enemy. The Christians of the Asturias had sprung
from very small beginnings, but they were now in-
creasing in strength, and they had the stimulating
thought to spur them on, that they were recon-
quering their own land. When first they had felt the
shock of the Moslem invasion, their rout had been
utter and complete. They had fled to the mountains
of the Asturias, where their trifling numbers and the
inaccessibility of their situation gave them safety from
the Mohammedan attack. Pelagius, the " old Pelayo "
of the ballad, had- but thirty men and ten women
with him in the cave of Covadonga, which became
the refuge of the Gothic Christians ; and the Arabs
did not think it worth while to hunt down the little
remnant of refugees. Here, in the recesses of the
cave, which was approached through a long and
narrow mountain pass, and entered by a ladder of
ninety steps, a handful of men might have set an
army at defiance.

The Arab historian x thus contemptuously describes
the origin of the Christian kingdom: "During

1 Ibn-Hayyan, in Makkary, ii. 34.

GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN POWER. II 7

Anbasa's administration a despicable barbarian,
whose name was Pelayo, rose in the land of Galicia,
and, having reproached his countrymen for their
ignominious dependence and their cowardly flight,
began to stir them up to avenge their past injuries and
to expel the Moslems from the land of their fathers.
Fromjhat moment the Christians of Andalus began
to resist the attacks of the Moslems on such districts
as had remained in their possession, and to defend
their wives and daughters. The commencement of
tfierebellion happened thus : there remained no city,
town, or village in Galicia but what was in the hands
of the Moslems, with the exception of a steep moun-
tain on which this Pelayo took refuge with a handful
of men ; there his followers went on dying through
hunger, until he saw their numbers reduced to about
thirty men and ten women, having no other food for
support than the honey which they gathered in the
crevices of the rock which they themselves inhabited
like so many bees. However, Pelayo and his men
fortified themselves by degrees in the passes of the
mountain, until the Moslems were made acquainted
with. their preparations ; but, perceiving how few they
were^,they heeded not the advice conveyed to them,
and allowed them to gather strength, saying, * What
are thirty barbarians, perched up on a rock ? They
must inevitably die ! ' " " Would to God ! " adds
another historian — " Would to God that the Moslems
had then extinguished at once the sparks of a fire
which was destined to consume the whole dominions
of Islam in those parts ! "

The little band of refugees was strengthened from

fl8 THE HOLY WAR.

time to time by fresh accessions, and, by degrees
waxing more confident, came forth from their strong-
hold, and began to harass the Berbers who formed
the frontier settlers. The Moors were at length com-
pelled to seek out the intrepid raiders in their cavern ;
but the result was discouraging ; they were driven
back pell-mell with great loss. In 751 Alfonso of
Cantabria (where the Moslems haoTnever penetrated),
having married the daughter of Pelayo and thus
united the Christian forces, roused the northern
provinces against the Moors, and, joined by the
Galicians of the west, began a series of brilliant
campaigns, by which the enemy was driven step by
fep further south. One after the other the cities of
Braga, Porto, Astorga, Leon, Zamora, Ledesma, Sala-
manca, Saldafia, Segovia, Avila, Osma, Miranda, were
recovered from the Moslems, ^and the Christian fron-
tier was now pushed as far as the great Sierra, and
Coimbra, Coria, Talavera, Toledo, Guadalaxara, Tu-
dela, and Pamplona became the Moslem border fort-
xesses.- Alfonso had in fact recovered the provinces
of Old Castile, Leon, Asturias, and Galicia ; but the
scanty band of Christians had neither money nor
serfs wherewith to build fortifications and cultivate
the fields over so immense an area : they contented
themselves with leaving the conquered country as a
debatable land between them and the Moors, and
retired to the districts bordering the Bay of Biscay
until such time as their numbers should justify the
occupation of a wider area.

" In the ninth century they were in a position to
advance upon the territory they had already in part

WAR WITH LEON.

119

recovered from the Moors. TJiey spread over Leon
and built the fortresses of Zamora, San Estevan dc
Gormaz, Osma, and Simancas, to overawe the enemy.
The debatable land was now much narrower, and the
hostile forces were almost in contact at various places
along the frontier. At the beginning of the tenth
century the Moors of the borders made a strenuous
effort to ^regain their lost dominions ; but the Chris-
tians, aided by the men of Toledo, and by Sancho,
King of Navarre, who had become the bulwark of Chris-
tianity in the north, defeated them severely, and began
to harry the country over the border. The forays
of the Christians were a terrible curse to their victims;
they were rude, unlettered people, and few of them
could even read ; their manners were on a par with
their education ; and their fanaticism and cruelty
were what might be expected from such uncouth
barbarians. Seldom did the soldiery of Leon give
quarter to a defenceless foe, and we may look in vain
for the fine chivalry and toleration of the Arabs ; /1\
where the latter spared nobly, the_ rough ^robbers of
Leon and Castile massacred whole garrisons, cities
full of inhabitants, and those whom they did not
slaughter they made slaves.

Abd-er- Rahman III. had hardly been seated two
years on the throne when Ordofio II. of Leon carried
a devastating foray to the walls of Merida ; and so
affrighted were the people of Badajoz that they
hastened to conciliate him with blackmail. These
cities are not very far from Cordova ; only the lofty
heights of the Sierra Morena separated the capital of
the Omeyyads from the companies of Ordofio. The

120 THE HOLY WAR.

situation was fraught with danger. .The young Sultan,
had he been a coward, might have excused himself
from instant action on the plea that Merida had not
yet recognized his authority, and that it was not his
affair if the Christians harried rebellious provinces.
This, however, was not Abd-er-Rahman's policy or
temper. He collected his troops and sent an expedi-
tion to the north, which made a successful raid into
the Christian territories ; and the following year, 917,
he ordered a second attack. This was defeated with
heavy loss by Ordono before the walls of San Estevan
de Gormaz, and the brave Arab general, seeing that
the fight was lost, threw himself among the enemy,
and died sword in hand. The King of Leon had the
pitiful cowardice to nail the head of this gallant soldier
to the gate of the fortress, side by side with that of a
pig. Encouraged by this success^Jihe armies of Leon
and Navarre ravaged the country about Tudela in
the following year, but not with equal impunity, for
they were twice beaten by the Cordovan troops.
Seeing, however, that it took a good deal of defeat to
daunt the Christians, Abd-er-Rahman resolved upon
stronger measures. In 920 he took command of the
army himself, and by rapid marches and skilful
strategy surprised Osma, and razed the fortress to
the ground ; destroyed San Estevan, which he found
deserted by its garrison ; and then turned towards
Navarre. Twice liiclhe drive Sancho from the field,
and when the forces of Navarre were reinforced by
those of Leon, and the Christians had the best of the
natural position, the Sultan delivered battle with
them in the Val de Junqueras (Vale of Reeds), and

/AL DE yUNQUERAS. 121

totally routed their combined array. Incensed__by
the obstinate defence of the borderers, the Moslems
put the garrison of Muez to the sword ; and it is un-
fortunately true that in some of these campaigns the
Moors imitated the barbarities of their antagonists,
especially when their armies included a considerable
admixture of African troops, who were notoriously
savage.

Nothing could exceed the heroic determination of
the defeated Christians ; barbarous they were, but
they had the courage of men : routed again and
again, they ever rose with fresh heart from the disaster.
The very year after the fatal battle in the Valley of
Reeds, Ordoiio, who was the soul of the Christian
resistance, led his men on another raid over the
borders ; and in 923 Sancho of Navarre, not to be
behindhand, recaptured some strong castles. Thus
roused once more, the Sultan set out for the north,
mTed with a stern resolve ; he sacked and burned all
that came in his way; the cities emptied as he
approached, so terrible was the dread he inspired ; and
he entered the deserted capital of Pamplona, driving
Sancho away in confusion as he approached. _The
cathedral and maay .of -the houses of the capital were
ruthlessly destroyed, and Navarre was at his feet
About the Same time Ordono of Leon died, and the
civil war which arose between his sons gave the Sultan
time to attend to other matters.

On his return from this triumphant campaign,
Abd-er-Rahman III. assumed a new title. Hitherto
the rulers of Andalusia had contented themselves with
such titles as Emir (governor), Sultan (dominator),

122 THE HOLY WAR.

" son of the Khalifs." Although they were the heirs
of the Omeyyad Khalifs, and never recognized the
Abbasides who had overturned them, the Andalusian
Sultans had not hitherto asserted their claim to the
spiritual title : they had considered that the name of
Khalif should not be held by those who had no
authority over the Holy Cities of Islam, Mekka and
Medina, and had been content to leave the Abbasides
in undisputed possession of the name. Now, how-
ever, when it was known in Spain that the Abbaside
Khalifs no longer exercised any real authority outside
the city of Baghdad, and were little better than
prisoners even there, in consequence of the growing
independence of the various local dynasties, Abd-
er-Rahman, in 929, assumed his title of Khalif with
the style of En-Ndsir li-dmi-lld/i, " The Defender of
the Faith of God." *

The Khalif had still thirty years more to reign
when he adopted this new name ; and they were filled
chiefly with wise and cultivated administration at
home, and with constant, even annual, expeditions
against the Christians, against whom he was indeed a
" Defender " of his religion. .The civil war, which had
for a time neutralized the power of the Leonese, had
nowgiven place to the authority of a worthy successor
of the great Ordono._Jgjimiro II. succeeded in_mj.
and his warlike character soon asserted itself in resolute
opposition to the Khalif's armies. Not long after-
wards TTbrmidable league was formed in the north
between the Christians and the

Zaragoza^an d Abd-er- R ah m an hastened to demolish

1 Dozy, livre iii.

FERNANDO GONZALEZ.

the coalition. In ^337 he reduced Zaragoza,
marching on Navarre, spread such terror around his
way that the Queen Regent, Theuda, hastily paid him
homage as her suzerain. Kamiro, however wag tin
party to this surrender. He gathered his men to-
geth er, and inflicted a tremendous defeat on tHe~
Moslems in 939 at Alhandega. Fifty thousandJVIoors
~fell upon the field : the Khalif himself barely escaped
with his life, and found himself flying through the
country with less than htty horsemen. -fhat disastrous
year was long known in Andalusia as the " Year ol
Alhandega."

HaH tV|fi QmgHang prfgg^rL^tb^iti>-Afhzantagef a

different history of Spain would perhaps have had to
be written ; but, as usual, internecine jealousies .among
the Christian princes came to the help of the Khalif,
and while his foes quarrelled among themselves he
repaired his disaster, recruited his army, and made
ready for another campaign. The civil war which
tFusinHelThim had its origin in the revolt of Castile
from the Leonese supremacy. The Count of Castile
at this time was the celebrated Fernando Gonzalez, of
whom many minstrels have sung. He is one of the
great Spanish heroes, and was mated to a heroine.
Twice did his wife rescue him from the prison into
which he had been cast by his jealous neighbours of
Navarre and Leon, and the second time she did it by
exchanging clothes with her husband and exposing
herself to the fury of his jailers. The earlier occasion
was before their marriage, when he was on his way to
her father Garcia's court at Navaiie, to ask her hand
in marriage, and the perfidious king laid hands upon
him. A ballad tells the story of his release :

124 THE HOLY WAR.

They have carried afar into Navarre the great Count of Castille,
And they have bound him sorely, they have bound him hand and

heel. . . .

And there is joy and feasting because that lord is ta'en,
King Garci in his dungeon holds the doughtiest lord in Spain.

The poet goes on to tell how a Norman knight was
riding through Navarre —

For Christ his hope he came to cope with the Moorish scimitar ;

and how he told Garcia's daughter of the captivity of
Gonzalez, and how grievous an injury it was to the
cause of Christian Spain —

The Moors may well be joyful, but great should be our grief,
For Spain has lost her guardian, when Castile has lost her chief;
The Moorish host is pouring like a river o'er the land —
Curse on the Christian fetters that bind Gonzalez' hand !

And the Norman knight prayed the princess to set
the prisoner free.

The lady answered little, but at the mirk of night,
When all her maids are sleeping, she hath risen and ta en her flight ;
She hath tempted the Alcayde with her jewels and her gold,
And unto her his prisoner that jailor false hath sold.1

So the princess took the Count out of his dungeon,
and together they rode to Castile.

At the time we have now reached, this is an old
story, for Gonzalez had been married many a year,
and had determined that Castile should be a separate
kingdom, no longer under the suzerainty of Leon.
For this he was again captured and imprisoned by
Ramiro, and only released when it was apparent that
the people of Castile would have no other lord but
him, and would even pay their homage to a mere

- ' Lockhart : Spanish Ballads.

QUEEN THRU DA AT CORDOVA. 125

statue of their Count sooner than recognize a Leonese
governor. Then the king let him out, after making
him swear to remain subject to the kingdom of Leon
and to give his daughter in marriage to Ordofio the
son of Ramiro. After this humiliation, Fernando
Gonzalez was less eager to fight beside the men of
Leon against the Moors ; he resolved to let the
Leonese take their share of humiliation. But this
was not to be in the days of the great Ramiro ; for he
won another victory over the Moslems, near Talavera,
in 950, and the next year he died in undiminished
glory.

On his death, Gonzalez began to play the part
of king-maker. He espoused the cause of Sancho
against his brother, Ordofio in., and when Sancho
succeeded 'the latter, in 957, Gonzalez turned about
and expelled the new king from Leon, and set
up a wretched cripple, Ordofio IV., surnamed the
Wickedr in his sfrarl. Sanchojtook refuge wjthJii.q
grandmother, Theuda, the Queen of Navarre, and
they presently appealed to the Khalif of Cordova to
help them in their difficulties. Sancho was a martyr
to corpulency ; he could not even walk without being
held up. He resolved to consult the eminent
doctors of Cordova, whose skill was famous over all
the world. So Queen Theuda sent ambassadors to
Abd-er- Rahman, who in return despatched the great
Jewish physician, Hasdai, to undertake the cure of
Sancho the Fat But he laid down certain condi-
tions, among which was the surrender of a number
of castles, and the personal appearance of Sancho and
the Queen Theuda at Cordova. It was a hard thing to

126 THE HOLY WAR.

make the long journey to the Moorish Court, and to
feel that she was there as a sort of show, in witness to
the Khalif s power ; but the Queen went, with her son,
the King of Navarre, and her grandson, the exiled
King of Leon. Abd-er-Rahman received them with
all the gorgeous ceremony and all the native courtesy
which belonged to him ; and not only did Sancho
speedily get rid of his fatness under the care of
Hasdai, but he returned to the nortlv supported by
the armies of the Khalif, who restored him to the
throne of Leon in 960.

In the following year the great Khalif died. He
was seventy years old, and his reign, of nearly fifty,
had brought about such a change in the condition of
/"""Spain as the wildest imagination could hardly conjure
up. When he came to the throne, a youth of twenty-
one, his inheritance was the prey to a thousand brigand
chiefs or local adventurers ; the provinces had set up
their own rulers ; the many factions into which the
population was divided had each and all defied the
authority of the Sultan ; and anarchy and plunder
devastated the land. On the south the African
dynasty of the Fatimites threatened to engulf Spain
in their empire ; on the north the Christian princes
seemed ready to descend upon their ancestral domi-
nions and drive the Moors from the land. Out of
this chaos and vision of imminent destruction Abd^
er-Rahman had evolved order and prosperity. Before
half his reign was over he had restored peace and
good government throughout the length and breadth
of the Moslem dominions ; he had banished the
authority of parties, and established the absolute

DEATH OF ABD-ER-RAHMAN. I2J

power of the Sultan over all classes of his subjects.
In the second half he maintained the dignity and
might of his State against outside foes ; held the
African despots at a distance, planted a garrison at
Ceuta to withstand their advance, and contended with
them on equal terms on the sea; ajid_jn_Jhe_jiorth
he curbed the^growirig. ..power of the Christians of
Leon, Castile, and Navarre, and so ^convinced them
of_his_superionty that they even came to him to
settle their differences and restore them to their
rights. He had rescued Andalusia both from herself /
and from subjection by the foreigner.1 And he/
had not only saved her from destruction ; he had
made her great and happy. Never was Cordova so
rich and prosperous as under his rule ; never was
Andalusia so well cultivated, so teeming with the gifts
of nature, brought to perfection by the skill and indus-
try of man ; never was the State so triumphant over
disorder, or the power of the law more widely felt and
respected. Ambassadors came to pay him court
from the Emperor of Constantinople, from the kings
of France, of Germany, of Italy. His power, wisdom,
and opulence, were a byword over Europe and Africa,
and had even reached to the furthest limits of the
Moslem empire in Asia. And this wonderful change
had been wrought by one man, with everything against
him : the restoration of Andalusia from Jhe hopeless
depths of misery to the height of power and prosperity
Jiad been effected by the intellect and will alone of the
Great Khalif Abd-er-Rahman III.

The Moorish historians describe this resolute man

1 Dozy : Hist, des Mus. d'Espagne, livre iii. p. 90.

128 THE HOLY WAR.

in colours that seem hardly consistent with his strong
imperious policy : nevertheless, they describe him
faithfully as " the mildest and most enlightened
'sovereign that~ever ruled "a country. His meekness,
his generosity, and his love of justice became prover-
bial. None of his ancestors ever surpassed him in
courage in the field and zeal for religion ; he was fond
of science, and the patron of the learned, with whom
loved to converse." Many anecdotes are told of
as strict justice and impartiality.

The Arab historian tells us that after his death
a paper was found in the Khalif's own handwriting,
in which he had carefully noted those days in his long
reign which had been free from all sorrow ; they
numbered only fourteen. " O man of understanding,
wonder and observe how small a portion of un-
clouded happiness the world can give even to the
most fortunate ! " x

1 Makkary : Hist. Moh. Dynast, ii. 146, 147.

VIII.

THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

" CORDOVA," says an old Arab writer, " is the Bride
of Andalusia. To her belong all the beauty and the
ornaments that delight the eye or dazzle the sight.
Her long line of Sultans form her crown of glory ;
her necklace is strung with the pearls which her poets
have gathered from the ocean of language ; her dress
is of the banners of learning, well knit together by her
men of science ; and the masters of every art and
industry are the hem of her garments." So did the
Oriental historian clothe the city he loved with the far-
fetched imagery of the East. Cordova, under the rule
of the Great Khalif, was indeed a capital to be proud
of ; and except perhaps Byzantium, no city of Europe
could compare with her in the beauty of her buildings,
the luxury and refinement of her life, and the learning,
and accomplishments of her inhabitants. When we
remember that the sketch we are about to extract
from the records of Arabian writers, concerning the
glories of Cordova, relate to the tenth century, whei
our Saxon ancestors dwelt in wooden hovels anc
trod upon dirty straw, when our language was ui
formed, and such accomplishments as reading and
writing were almost confined to a few monks, we can

10

130 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

to some extent realize the extraordinary civilization
of the Moors. And when it is further recollected that
all Europe was then plunged in barbaric ignorance
and savage manners, and that only where the remnants
of the Roman Empire were still able to maintain some
trace of its ancient civilization, only in Constantinople
and some parts of Italy, were there any traces of
refinement, the wonderful contrast afforded by the
capital of Andalusia will be better appreciated.

Another Arab writer says that Cordova " is a forti-
fied town, surrounded by massive and lofty stone walls,
and has very fine streets. It was in times of old the
residence of many infidel kings, whose palaces are still
visible within the precincts of the walls. The inhabi-
tants are famous for their courteous and polished
manners, their superior intelligence, their exquisite
taste and magnificence in their meals, dress, and horses.
There thou wouldst see doctors shining with all sorts
of learning, lords distinguished by their virtues and
generosity, warriors renowned for their expeditions into
the country of the infidels, and officers experienced in

'all kinds of warfare. To Cordova came from all parts
of the world students eager to cultivate poetry, to
study the sciences, or to be instructed in divinity or
law; so that it became the meeting -place of the
eminent in all matters, the abode of the learned, and
the place of resort for the studious ; its interior was
always filled with the eminent and the noble of aL
countries, its literary men and soldiers were con-
tinually vying with each other to gain renown, and
its precincts never ceased to be the arena of the dis-
tinguished, the racecourse of readers, the halting-

CORDOVA. 13!

place of the noble, and the repository of the true and
virtuous. Cordova was to Andalus what the head is
to the body, or what the breast is to the lion." I

Oriental praise is apt to be somewhat high flown ;
but Cordova really deserved the praise that has been
lavished upon it. In its present state it is impossible
to form any conception of the extent and beauty of the
old Moorish capital in the days of the Great Khalif.
Its narrow streets of whitewashed houses convey but a
faint impression of its once magnificent extent ; the
palace, Alcazar, is in decay, and its ruins are used for
the vile purpose of a prison ; the bridge still spans the
Guadalquivir, however, and the noble mosque of the first
Omeyyad is still the wonder and delight of travellers.
But in the time of Abd-er-Rahman III., or perhaps
a little later, when a great minister added a new-
faubourg, it was at its best. Historians are divided
as to its extent, but a length of at least ten miles
seems to be the most probable dimension. The banks
of the Guadalquivir were bright with marble houses,
mosques, and gardens, in which the rarest flowers and
trees of other countries were carefully cultivated,
and the Arabs introduced their system of irrigation,
which the Spaniards, both before and since, have never
equalled. The first Omeyyad Sultan imported a
date tree from Syria, to remind him of his old home ;
and to it he dedicated a sad little poem to bewail his
exile. It was planted in the garden which he had
laid out in imitation of that of his grandfather Hisham
at Damascus, where he had played as a child. He
sent agents all over the world to bring him the rarest

' Makkary, i. book iii.

132 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

exotics, trees, plants, and seeds ; and so skilful were
the Sultan's gardeners that these foreign importations
were speedily naturalized, and spread from the palace
over all the land. The pomegranate was thus intro-
duced by means of a specimen brought from Da-
mascus. The water by which these numerous gardens
were supplied was brought from the mountains (where
vestiges of hydraulic works may still be seen) by
means of leaden pipes, through which it was conducted
to numerous basins, some of gold or silver, others of
inlaid brass, and to lakes, reservoirs, tanks, and foun-
tains of Grecian marble.

The historians tell us marvellous things about the
Sultan's palaces, with their splendid gates, opening
upon the gardens or the river, or again giving entrance
to the Great Mosque, whither the Sultan betook himself
on Fridays, over a path covered from end to end with
rich carpets. One of these palaces was called the Palace
of Flowers, another the Palace of Lovers, a third the
Palace of Contentment, and another the Palace of the
Diadem, and so forth, while one retained the name of
the old home of theOmeyyads,and was called "Damas-
cus." Its roofs rested upon marble columns, and its
floors were inlaid with mosaics ; and so beautiful was
it, that a poet sang, "All palaces in the world are
nothing when compared to Damascus, for not only
has it gardens with the most delicious fruits and sweet-
smelling flowers, beautiful prospects and limpid run-
ning waters, clouds pregnant with aromatic dew, and
lofty buildings ; but its night is always perfumed, for
morning pours on it her grey amber, and night her
black musk." Some of the gardens of Cordova had

THE PALACES OF THE SULTAN. 135

tempting names, which seem to invite one to repose
beside the trickling waters and enjoy the sweet scent
of the flowers and fruit. The " Garden of the Water-
wheel " gives one a sense of lazy enjoyment, listening
to the monotonous creaking of the wheel that pumped
up the water to the level of the garden beds ; and the
" Meadow of Murmuring Waters " must have been an
entrancing spot for the people of Cordova in the hot
weather. The quiet flow of the Guadalquivir was a
constant delight to the inhabitants ; for the Eastern
(and the Moors of Spain were Easterns in everything
but longitude) loves nothing better than a view over
a rippling stream. It was spanned by a noble bridge
of seventeen arches, which still testifies to the engi-
neering powers of the Arabs. The whole city was
full of noble buildings, among which were counted
more than fifty thousand houses of the aristocracy and
official classes, more than a hundred thousand dwell-
ings for the common people, seven hundred mosques,
and _ nine hundred public baths. The last were an
important feature in all Moslem towns, for among the
Mohammedans cleanliness is not " next to godliness,"
but is an essential preparation for any act of prayer
or devotion. While the mediaeval Christians forbade
washing as a heathen custom, and the monks and,
nuns boasted of their filthiness, insomuch that a lady'
saint recorded with pride the fact that up to the age
of sixty she had never washed any part of her body,
except the tips of her fingers when she was going
to take the Mass — while dirt was the character-
istic of Christian sanctity, the Moslems were careful
in the most minute particulars of cleanliness, and

136 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

dared not approach their God until their bodies were
purified. When Spain had at last been restored to
Christian rulers, Philip II., the husband of our English
Queen Mary, ordered the destruction of all public
baths, on the ground that they were relics of infi-
delity.

Among the great architectural beauties of Cordova,
the principal mosque held, and still holds, the first
place. It was begun in 784 by the first Abd-er-
Rahman, who spent 80,000 pieces of gold upon it,
which he got from the spoils of the Goths. Hisham,
his pious son, completed it, in 793, with the proceeds
of the sacking of Narbonne. Each succeeding Sultan
added some new beauty to the building, which is one
of the finest examples of early Saracenic art in the
world. One put the gold on the columns and walls ;
another added a new minaret ; another built a fresh
arcade to hold the swelling congregations. Nineteen
is the number of the arcades from east to west, and
thirty-one from north to south ; twenty-one doors
encrusted with shining brass admitted the wor-
shippers ; 1,293 columns support the roof, and the
sanctuary was paved with silver and inlaid with rich
mosaics, and its clustered columns were carved and
inlaid with gold and lapis-lazuli. The pulpit was
constructed of ivory and choice woods, in 36,000
separate panels, many of which were encrusted with
precious stones and fastened with gold nails. Foui
fountains for washing before prayer, supplied with
water from the mountains, ran night and day ; and
houses were built at the west side of the mosque,
where poor travellers and homeless people were

GATE OF THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA

THE GREAT MOSQUE. I3Q

hospitably entertained. Hundreds of brass lanterns,
made out of Christian bells, illumined the mosque at
night, and a great wax taper, weighing fifty pounds,
burnt night and day at the side of the preacher
during the month of fasting. Three hundred at-
tendants burnt sweet -smelling ambergris and aloes
wood in the censers, and prepared the scented oil
which fed the ten thousand wicks of the lanterns.
Much of the beauty of this mosque still remains.
Travellers stand amazed among the forest of columns,
which open out in apparently endless vistas on all
sides. The porphyry, jasper, and marbles are still in
their places ; the splendid glass mosaics, which artists
from Byzantium came to make, still sparkle like
jewels on the walls ; the daring architecture of the
sanctuary, with its fantastic crossed arches, is still as
imposing as ever; the courtyard is still leafy with the
orange-trees that prolong the vistas of columns. As
one stands before the loveliness of the Great Mosque,
the thought goes back to the days of the glories of
Cordova, the palmy days of the Great Khalif, which
never will return.

Even more wonderful, though not more beautiful,
was the city and palace nf Fi<f.-7a^r5j whirh Abd-er-
Rahman III. built as a suburb to Cordova. One of
his wives, whose name was Ez-Zahra, " the Fairest,"
to whom he was devotedly attached, once begged him
to build her a city which should be called after her
name. The Great Khalif, like most Mohammedan
sovereigns, delighted in building, and he adopted
the suggestion. He at once began to found a city at
the foot of the mountain called the " Hill of the

140 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

Bride," over against Cordova, and a few miles distant.
Every year he spent a third of his revenues upon this
building ; and it went on all the twenty-five remaining
years of his reign, and fifteen years of the reign of his
son, who made many additions to it. Ten thousand
workmen laboured daily at the task, and six thousand
blocks of stone were cut and polished every day for
the construction of the houses of the new city. Some
three thousand beasts of burden were daily used to
carry the materials to the spot, and four thousand
columns were set up, many of which were presents
from the Emperor of Constantinople, or came from
Rome, Carthage, Sfax, and other places, besides the
home marbles quarried at Tarragona and Almeria.
There were fifteen thousand doors, coated with iron
or polished brass. The Hall of the Khalifs at the
new city had a roof and walls of marble and gold,
and in it was a wonderful sculptured fountain, a
present from the Greek Emperor, who also sent the
Khalif a unique pearl. In the midst of the hall was
a basin of quicksilver ; at either side were eight doors
set in ivory and ebony, and adorned with precious
stones. When the sun shone through these doors,
and the quicksilver lake was set quivering, the whole
room was filled with flashes like lightning, and the
courtiers would cover their dazzled eyes.

The Arabian authors delight in telling of the won-
ders of this " City of the Fairest," Medinat-Ez-Zahra,
as it was called, after the Khalifs mistress. " We might
go to a great length were we only to enumerate all
the beauties, natural as well as artificial, contained
within the precincts of Ez-Zahra," writes one : " the

EZ-ZAHRA. 141

running streams, the limpid waters, the luxuriant
gardens, the stately buildings for the household
guards, the magnificent palaces for the high function-
aries of State; the throng of soldiers, pages, and
slaves, of all nations and religions, sumptuously
attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to and
fro through its broad streets ; or the crowd of judges,
theologians, and poets, walking with becoming gravity
through the magnificent halls and ample courts of
the palace. The number of male servants in the
palace has been estimated at thirteen thousand seven
hundred and fifty, to whom the daily allowance of
flesh meat, exclusive of fowls and fish, was thirteen
thousand pounds ; the number of women of various
kinds and classes, comprising the harlm of the Khalif,
or waiting upon them, is said to have amounted to six
thousand three hundred and fourteen. The Slav
pages and eunuchs were three thousand three hundred
and fifty, to whom thirteen thousand pounds of flesh
meat were distributed daily, some receiving ten
pounds each, and some less, according to their rank
and station, exclusive of fowls, partridges, and birds
of other sorts, game and fish. The daily allowance
of bread for the fish in the pond of Ez-Zahra was
twelve thousand loaves, besides six measures of black
pulse which were every day macerated in the waters.
These and other particulars may be found at full
length in the histories of the times, and recorded by
orators and poets who have exhausted the mines of
eloquence in their description ; all who saw it owned
that nothing similar to it could be found in the terri-
tories of Islam. Travellers from distant lands, men

142 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

of all ranks and professions in life, following various
religions, — princes, ambassadors, merchants, pilgrims,
theologians, and poets — all agreed that they had never
seen in the course of their travels anything that could
be compared to it. Indeed, had this palace possessed
nothing more than the terrace of polished marble
overhanging the matchless gardens, with the golden
hall and the circular pavilion, and the works of art of
every sort and description — had it nothing else to
boast of but the masterly workmanship of the struc-
ture, the boldness of the design, the beauty of the
proportions, the elegance of the ornaments, hangings,
and decorations, whether of shining marble or glit-
tering gold, the columns that seemed from their
symmetry and smoothness as if they had been turned
by lathes, the paintings that resembled the choicest
landscapes, the artificial lake so solidly constructed, the
cistern perpetually filled with clear and limpid water,
and the amazing fountains, with figures of living
beings — no imagination however fertile could have
formed an idea of it. Praise be to God Most High
for allowing His humble creatures to design and
build such enchanting palaces as this, and who per-
mitted them to inhabit them as a sort of recompense
in this world, and in order that the faithful might
be encouraged to follow the path of virtue, by the
reflection that, delightful as were these pleasures, they
were still far below those reserved for the true believer
in the celestial Paradise ! "

In the palace of Ez-Zahra the Khalif received the
Queen of Navarre and Sancho, and gave audience to
great persons of State. Here he sat to welcome the

A STATE RECEPTION, 143

ambassadors which the Greek Emperor sent to his
court at Cordova :

" Having appointed Saturday the eleventh of the
month of Rabi' el-Awwal, of the year 338 [A.D. 949],
and fixed upon the vaulted hall in his palace of
Ez-Zahra as the place where he would rece'ive their
credentials, orders were issued to the high function-
aries of State and to the commanders of the forces to
prepare for the ceremony. The hall was beautifully
decorated, and a throne glittering with gold and
sparkling with gems was raised in the midst. On
either hand of the throne stood the Khalif s sons ;
next to them the vizirs, each in his post to the right
and left ; then came the chamberlains, the sons of
vizirs, the freedmen of the Khalif, and the officers of
the household. The court of the palace was strewn
with the richest carpets and most costly rugs, and
silk awnings of the most gorgeous kind were thrown
over the doors and arches. Presently the ambassa-
dors entered the hall, and were struck with astonish-
ment and awe at the magnificence displayed before
them and the power of the Sultan before whom they
stood. Then they advanced a few steps, and pre-
sented a letter of their master, Constantine, son of
Leo, Lord of Constantinople, written in Greek upon
blue paper in golden characters."

Abd-er- Rahman had ordered the most eloquent
orator of the court to make a suitable speech upon
the occasion ; but hardly had he begun to speak,
when the splendour of the scene, and the solemn
silence of the great ones there assembled, so overawed
him, that his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth

144 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

and he fell senseless on the floor. A second essayed
to fill his place, but he had not got very far in his
address when he too suddenly broke down.

So interested was the Great Khalif in building his
new palace that he omitted to go to the mosque for
three successive Fridays ; and when at last he made
his appearance, the preacher threatened him with the
pains of hell for his negligence.

Beautiful as were the palaces and gardens of Cor-
dova, her claims to admiration in higher matters
were no less strong. The mind was as lovely as the \
body. Her professors and teachers made her the
centre of European culture ; students would come
from all parts of Europe to study under her famous
doctors, and even the nun Hroswitha, far away in her
Saxon convent of Gaudersheim, when she told of the
martyrdom of St. Eulogius, could not refrain from
singing the praises of Cordqva, " the brightest splen-
dour of the world." Every branch of science was
seriously studied there, and medicine received more
and greater additions by the discoveries of the doc-
tors and surgeons of Andalusia than it had gained
during all the centuries that had elapsed since the
days of Galen. Albucasis (or Abu-1-Kasim Khalaf,
to give him his proper name) was a notable surgeon
of the eleventh century, and some of his operations
coincided with the present practice. Avenzoar (Ibn
Zohr) a little later made numerous important medical
and surgical discoveries. Ibn__Bey_tar, the botanist,
travelled all over the East to find medicinal herbs, on
which he wrote an exhaustive treatise ; and Averroes,
the philosopher, formed the chief link in the"chain

ISPANO-MORESCO VASE. (Preserved at Granada.)
II

SCIENCE AND LETTERS. '( 147 J

which connects the philosophy of ancient Greece with
that of mediaeval Europe. Astronomy, geography
chemistry, natural history — all were studied with
ardour at Cordova ; and as for the graces ofjiterajiire^-
there never was a time in Europe when poejjy became
so much the speech of everybody, when' people of all
ranks composed those Arabic verses which perhaps
suggested models for the ballads and canzonettes of
the Spanish minstrels and the troubadours of Pro-
vence and Italy. No speech or address was complete
without some scrap of verse, improvised on the spur
of the moment by the speaker, or quoted by memory
from some famous poet. The whole Moslem world
seemed given over to the Muses ; Khalifs and boatmen
turned verses, and sang of the loveliness of the cities
of Andalusia, the murmur of her rivers, the beautiful
nights beneath her tranquil stars, and the delights of
love and wine, of jovial company and stolen meetings
with the lady whose curving eyebrows had bewitched
the singer.

In thejirts Andalusia was pre-eminent ; such build-
ings as the " City of the Fairest," or the mosque of
Cordova, could not have been erected unless her
workmen had been highly skilled in their handicrafts.
Silk weaving was among the most cherished arts of
Andalusia ; it is said that there were no less than
one hundred and thirty thousand weavers in Cordova
alone ; but Almeria had the greatest name for her
silks and carpets___J^Qttery_vvas carried to great per-
fection, and it was from the island of Majorca, where
the potters had attained to the art of producing a ware
shining with iridescent gold or copper lustre, that

148 THE CITY OF THE KHALIF.

the Italian pottery obtained its name of Majolica.
Glass vessels, as well as others of brass and iron, were
made at Almeria, and there are some beautiful speci-
mens of delicate ivory carvings still in existence,
which bear the names of great officers of the court of
Cordova. JThese arts were no doubt imported from
the East, but the Moorish workmen became apt pupils
of their Byzantine, Persian, and Egyptian masters. In
jewellery an interesting relic of the son of the Great
"Rhaiif is preserved on the high altar of the cathedral
of Gerona ; it is a casket, plated with silver gilt, and
adorned with pearls, bearing an Arabic inscription
invoking blessings upon the Prince of the Faithful,
Hakam II., which reads rather curiously upon a
Christian altar. The sword-hilts and jewels of the
Moors were very elaborate, as the sword of Boabdil,
the last King of Granada, shows. The Saracens were
always renowned for their metal work, and even such
small things as keys were beautifully ornamented.
How exquisitely the Spanish Moors could chase
bronze is proved by the engraving in chapter xi.
of the beautiful mosque lamp which was made for
Mohammed III. of Granada, and is still to* be seen
at Madrid. The delicacy of the open filigree work is
only surpassed by similar work made at Damascus
and Cairo. Over and over again we read the same
Arabic inscription, the motto of the kings of Granada,
" There is no conqueror but God." We have already
spoken of the brass doors of the palaces of Cordova ;
and some remains of these are still to be seen in the
Spanish cathedrals. Every one has heard of the
Toledo sword-blades, and though the tempering of

rilSPANO-MORESCO LUSTRED PLATE, WITH ARMS OF LEON, CASTILE,

AND ARAGON. (/;/ the South Kensington Museum.}

ART 151

steel is older in Spain than the invasion of the
Arabs, the skill of the Toledo armourers was fostered
by the Khalifs and Sultans of Cordova. Almeria,
Seville, Murcia, and Granada were also famous places
for armour and weapons. The will of Don Pedro in
the fourteenth century runs : " I also endow my son
with my Castilian sword, which I had made at
Seville, ornamented with stones and gold." In arts,
sciences, and civilization generally, the Moorish city
of Cordova was indeed " the brightest splendour of
the world."

IX.

THE PRIME MINISTER.

ABD-ER-RAHMAN in. was the last great Sultan of
Cordova, of the family of the Omeyyads. His son,
Hakam II., was a bookworm, and although bookworms
are very useful in their proper place, they seldom
make great rulers. A king cannot be too highly edu-
cated ; he may know everything under the sun, and,
like several of the Cordovan Sultans, he may employ
his leisure in music and poetry ; but he must not bury
himself in his library, or care more for manuscripts
than for campaigns, or prefer choice bookbinding to
binding up the sore places of his subjects. Yet this
was what Hakam did. He was not a weak man, or
at all regardless of his great responsibilities ; but he
was too much absorbed in his studies to care about the
glories of war ; and his other delight, which consisted
in building, was so far akin to his studious nature
that it involved artistic tastes, which are often allied
to those of literature. Hakam's peaceful, studious
temperament did no great harm to the State. He
was son enough of the Great Khalif to lead his
armies against the Christians of Leon when they did
not carry out their treaties ; and so overwhelming was
the awe that his father had inspired, so universal the

ANCIENT KORAN CASE. (Escurial Library.}

HAKAM'S LIBRARY. 155

sentiment of his crushing power, that the Christian
princes of the north submitted to Hakam's inter-
ference with their affairs, and one of them even
came to Cordova, and with many abject genuflexions
implored the aid of the Sultan to restore him to
his throne. Peace was soon signed between all the
parties, and Hakam had leisure to collect his fa-
mous library. He sent agents to all parts of the
East to buy rare manuscripts, and bring them back
to Cordova. His representatives were constantly
searching the booksellers' shops at Cairo and Damas-
cus and Baghdad for rare volumes for the Sultan's
library. When the book was not to be bought at any
price, he would have it copied ; and sometimes he
would even hear of a book which was only in the
author's brain, and would send him a handsome
present, and beg him to send the first copy to Cor-
dova. By such means he gathered together no fewer
than four hundred thousand books, and this at a time
when printing was unknown, and every copy had to
be painfully transcribed in the fine clear hand of the
professional copyist. Not only did he possess all
these volumes, but, unlike many collectors, he is said
to have read them all, and even to have annotated
them. So learned was he that his marginal notes
were greatly prized by scholars of after times, and the
destruction of a great part of his library by the
Berbers was a serious loss to Arab literature.

It was possible for one successor of the Great
Khalif to rest upon his father's laurels, and enjoy his
studious tranquillity, while the enemy without was
watching for an opportunity of renewing his attacks ;

156 THE PRIME MINISTER.

but two such sovereigns would undo the great work
which Abd-er-Rahman had accomplished, and bring
the Cordovan empire tumbling down to the ground
again. Hakam II. only reigned fourteen years, and
his son, Hisham II., was a boy of twelve when he
ascended the throne. What the young Sultan might
have been, had he been allowed fair play, no one can
say ; but it is recorded that he exhibited many signs
of intelligence and sound judgment in his childhood,
and showed some promise of following in the bril-
liant steps of his grandfather. Hakam's easy-going
scholar's rule had, however, deprived his son and suc-
cessor of any chance of real power. While the student
Sultan was anxiously collating a manuscript, or giving
directions to a copyist or bookbinder, the great officers
of the State were gradually attaining a degree of
authority which Abd-er-Rahman III. would have
instantly checked. The ladies of the Sultan's harim
also began to exercise an influence upon the govern-
ment of the country. Abd-er-Rahman built a city to
please his wife, but he would have been very much
astonished if Ez-Zahra had ventured to dictate to him
who was to be the prefect of police. When Hakam
died, however, the harim influence was very strong, and
the Sultana Aurora, mother of the young Khalif Hisham,
was perhaps the most important person in the State.
There was one, however, a favourite of hers, who was
destined soon to become even more influential. This
was a young man called^ Ibr^Aby^nur^or the " Son
of the Father of Amir," but whom (since this is rather
a roundabout name) we shall call by the title he after-
wards adopted, when he had won many victories over

HARIM INFLUENCE. 157

the Christians-^4taaszor> which means " the victori-
ous by the grace of God." Almanzor started in life as
an insignificant student at the university of Cordova,
where his father was known as a learned lawyer of
good but not influential family. The young man,
however, had no intention of restricting his ambition
to the modest elevation which his father had attained.
While still a student he dreamed of power, and con-
fidently predicted that one day he would be master
of Andalusia ; he even asked his schoolfellows — for
they were little more than boys — what posts they
would prefer to have when he came to power, and it
is worth noticing that when that event came to pass
he did not forget his promises. His career is an in-
teresting example of what pluck, talent, and selfish-
ness could do in a Moslem State, where the road to
power was open to genius, however unpromising the
beginnings. Almanzor, who was at first merely a
professional letter-writer to the court servants, in-
gratiated himself with the Grand Chamberlain, who
exercised the functions which would nowadays be
held by a Prime Minister, and in due course he was
appointed to some small offices about the court.
Here his charm of manner and skilful flatteries gained
him the favour of the ladies of the royal harlm, and
especially of Aurora, who fell in love with the brilliant
young man. Step by step, by dint of paying his
court to the princesses, and making them magnificent
presents (for which he had sometimes to draw upon
public funds), he rose to higher offices ; and by the
age of thirty-one he enjoyed a comfortable plurality
of posts, including that of superintendent of the pro-

158 THE PRIME MINISTER.

perty of the heir-apparent, a judgeship or two, and the
office of commander of a division of the city guard.
Everybody was charmed with his courtesy, his prodi-
gal generosity, and the kindness with which he helped
the unfortunate. He had already succeeded in at-
taching to himself a large number of persons, some of
whom were of very high rank, when the death of the
Khalif Hakam placed Aurora in a position of great
importance, as mother of the boy Khalif, and gave
Almanzor the opportunity he needed of making his
power felt. The two worked together, and after
establishing the child Hisham on the throne, which
was only effected by the murder of a rival claimant,
he quickly suppressed the conspiracy of the palace
" Slavs," who would have nothing to say to the ac-
cession of Hisham. The head of the government was
Mus-hafy, the chamberlain who had helped Almanzor
to climb the first rung of the ladder of power ; and
his junior readily joined him in his policy. The re-
pression of the Slavs, many of whom were now
banished, made the two officials very popular with
the people of Cordova, who cordially hated the
foreign mercenaries. But this alliance was only for a
time : as soon as he saw his way to get rid of the
chamberlain, Almanzor was determined to do so
without scruple. The first thing, however, was to in-
crease his own popularity. An occasion immediately
happened, which the young official boldly seized.
The Christians were again becoming overweening on
the northern marches, and the Chamberlain Mus-hafy,
being^o^Qldiej^didnot knowjiow to cope with their
aggressions Almanzorf who had been a judge and

ALMANZOR. 159

an inspector, was no more a soldier than the_ cham-
Jberlaiu ; but he came of a sound old stock, and his
ancestor had been one of the few Arabs who had
accompanied Tarik and his Berbers in the first in-
vasion of Spain. Without a moment's hesitation or
self-distrust, he volunteered to lead the army against
the Christians ; and so successful was the raid he

made upon Leon, and so liberal was his largesse
to the soldiery, that he returned to Cordova, not only
triumphant — a civilian general — but also the idol of
ie army.

A second campaign was undertaken against, -the
Christians of the north, in which the generalship was
really done by Ghalib, the commander of the frontier
forces, a brave officer, whom Almanzor adroitly made
his friend. Ghalib^protested so warmly that the^^j^
Jongs were the fruit of the young civilian's talents,
and vaunted his sagacity so highly, that the court and
people came to believe that there lay a military genius
under the cloak of the ex-lawyer — as, indeed, there
was. Strengthened by this series of successes, and
by Ghalib's support, Almanzor next ousted the son of
the chamberlain from the post of prefect of

Imd took his place ; and/£b admirably jdid he exert his
authority, that never hacKlbGcji^rjeen so orderly or
the law so justly administered. Even his own son was
beaten, till he died, because lie had transgressed. His
father, like Junius Brutus, allowed no exceptions in
the execution of the law. By this policy he added to
his laurels ; he had already won over the army and
pleased the populace, and now he had won the favour
of all law-abiding citizens. The time had come for a

l6o THE PRIME MINISTER.

great stroke of diplomacy. He played the chamber,
lain off against Ghalib so skilfully, that he widened
the breach that already existed between the scarred
man of arms and the nerveless clerk who held the
functions of Prime Minister, and by inducing the
former to throw over an engagement he was making
with the chamberlain for an alliance between their
families, and to give his daughter to Almanzor instead,
he gave the last blow to the old minister. In 978,
only two years after the death of Hakam, Almanzor
had played his cards so ably, that he was in a position
to accuse Mus-hafy of peculation — not without ample
reason — and have him arrested, tried, and condemned.
For five years the once powerful chamberlain led a
wretched life at the heels of Almanzor, and then he
died in prison, poisoned probably by his conqueror, in a
state of utter destitution, covered only by an old
tattered cloak of the jailor. Such was the fate of all
who came between Almanzor and his ambition. The
chamberlain, from the summit of glory and power,
when thousands would come on bended knee to beg
his favour, and when even an ex-king of Leon
had sought humbly to kiss his hand, had been re-
duced to want and degradation by a young upstart
whose insignificant origin had not crushed his
genius.

That same day on which the chamberlain was dis-
graced, Almanzor stepped into his place. He was
now at the height of power, and enjoyed the posi-
tion of virtual ruler of all Mohammedan Spain. The
government of Andalusia consisted of the Khalif in
council ; but Almanzor had buried the Khalif in his

ALMANZOR AS PRIME MINISTER. l6l

seraglio ; and as for the Council of Vizirs who should
advise him concerning affairs of State, Almanzor
virtually united it in his own person. From his palace
in the suburbs he ruled the whole kingdom ; letters
and proclamations were issued in his name ; he was
prayed for from the pulpits and commemorated on
the coinage ; and he even wore robes of gold tissue
woven with his name, such as kings only were wont to
wear. He was not, however, safe from the attacks of
his enemies. Ambition brings its own dangers, and
those who have been trampled upon are apt to turn
and avenge themselves. Such was the case with
Almanzor. One of the " Slavs," whom he had sum-
marily deposed when they were planning a change in
the succession, made an attempt to assassinate him ;
but it failed, and its author, along with a number of
influential persons who had abetted the conspiracy,
were arrested, condemned, and crucified.

In Cordova Almanzor was now supreme, for the
young Khalif showed no symptoms of rebelling
against the tutelage to which he was subjected, and
the queen of the harlm, Aurora, was still the great
minister's friend. One man only could pretend to
any sort of equality with Almanzor, and this was
Ghalib, his father-in-law. The army admired Alman-
zor, and wondered at his daring in taking the com-
mand of campaigns against the Christians without
military experience ; but they loved and adored
Ghalib, as a type of the true warrior, bred to arms,
and unconquerable in personal prowess. Ghalib was
therefore a formidable rival, and Ghalib must be
removed. The Prime Minister set about this task

12

162 THE PRIME MINISTER.

with his usual quiet determination. Whatever he
undertook he carried out with the same immovable
composure and iron will. A proof of his character was
shown very strikingly one day, when he was seated
with the Council of Vizirs, who formed the Cabinet
of the Moorish government. They were discussing
some public question, when a smell of burnt flesh
rose in the chamber, and it was discovered that the
minister's leg was being cauterized with red-hot iron
while he was calmly debating the affairs of State !
Such a man would find little difficulty in disposing of
any obstacle — even General Ghalib. He laid his plans
carefully, and they never failed. When his measures
were a little too strong to be immediately approved
by the people, he always had a plan ready for restor-
ing the mob to acquiescence. Thus, when the revolt
of several leading men had culminated in the at-
tempted assassination already mentioned, he perceived
that he had enemies among the theological and legal
classes, and he lost no time in making his peace with
them. Summoning a meeting of the chief doctrinal
authorities, he asked them to make a list of those
works on philosophy which they considered dangerous
and heretical. The Moslems of Spain were famous
for their rigid orthodoxy, and the philosophers re-
ceived very harsh treatment from them. They soon
decided upon what the Roman Catholic Church calls
an "Index Expurgatorius," or list of condemned books,
and Almanzor forthwith had the proscribed works
publicly burnt. By this simple means, although
really a man of broad views and perfectly tolerant
of philosophical speculation, he succeeded in making

ALMANZOR AS GENERAL. 163

himself the champion of orthodoxy : the theologians
conspired no more against him.1

A man so fertile in expedients would not find
\nuch difficulty in getting rid of Ghalib. He first began
a series of army reforms, by which he reduced the in-
fluence of individual commanders and gained for him-
'self the devotion which had previously been bestowed
upon captains of divisions. This he accomplished
by drawing his recruits from Africa and from among
the Christians of the north, who were of course with-
out any prejudice in favour of any particular Moslem
leader, and soon became attached to Almanzor, when
they understood his liberality, and were convinced by
repeated proofs of his military genius. He was a
stern commander, and had been known to cut a man's
head off with the culprit's own sword, because the
same weapon had been seen gleaming in the dressed
ranks when it should have been in its scabbard. But
while a martinet in matters of drill and discipline, he
was a father to his soldiers so long as they fought
well and maintained order. His influence was un-
bounded. Once, when he sat in camp and saw his
men in panic, running in, with the Christians at their
heels, he threw himself from his throne, flung his
helmet away, and sat down in the dust. The soldiers
understood the despairing gesture of their general, and,
suddenly turning about, fell upon the Christians,
routed them, and pursued them even into the streety
of Leon. Moreover, no one could lead them to such
vast stores of booty as the man who made more than
fifty successful campaigns against the princes of the

1 Dozy : Hist -des Mus. d'Espagne, livre iii. ch. vi.-xii.

164 THE PRIME MINISTER.

north. The army thus formed of new levies became
devoted to their master, and Ghalib and his veterans
of the frontier were speedily beaten ; Ghalib himself
died in an engagement. One other leader,Jja/far, the
. Priace of Zab, threatened the peace of Almanzor by
his extreme popularity with the troops ; and he was
presently invited to the minister's hall, made very
drunk, and assassinated on his way home. This was
by no means a solitary instance of Almanzor's
treachery and bloodguiltiness ; such acts deprive
him of the title of hero to which his many brilliant
qualities almost attain, and it is impossible to like
him. Yet, with all his sternness and unscrupulous-
ness, Almanzor brought Andalusia to a pitch of glory
such as even the great Khalif, Abd-er-Rahman III.,
had hardly contemplated. While keeping such hostile
factions as remained in Cordova tranquil and power-
less ; whilst conciliating the people by making splen-
did additions to the great mosque of Cordova, when
he found that they were beginning to grow indignant
at the seclusion in which their young Khalif was kept,
and were listening to the insinuations of Aurora and the
palace party, who had grown tired or jealous of Alman-
zor; whilst overawing the Khalif himself by his personal
influence ; whilst keeping a watchful eye, that nothing
escaped, upon every department of the administra-
tion, and devoting no little time to the cultivation of
literature and poetry — amid all these various employ-
ments, this indefatigable man waged triumphant war
in Africa and spread the dominion of the Khalif
along the Barbary coast ; and twice a year, in spring
and autumn, led his troops, as a matter of course,

ALMANZOR'S CAMPAIGNS. 165

against the Christians of Leon and Castile. Like a
man of culture, he took his books along with his
sword — his books were the poets who always accom-
panied his campaigns. Never was a general so con-
stantly victorious. Supported by hisjiardy^foreigners,
and also by many Christians who were attracted by
his pay and the sure prospect of booty, he carried fire
and sword through the lands of the north. He cap-
tured Leon, and razed its massive walls and towers to
the ground ; he seized Barcelona ; and, worst of all,
he even ventured into the passes of Galicia, and
levelled to the ground the splendid church of Santiago
de Campostella, which was the focus of countless
pilgrimages and almost formed the Kaaba of Europe.
The shrine of St. James, however, where numerous
miracles attested the presence of the saint's relics,
was spared. It is said that when the conqueror
entered the deserted city he found of all its inhabi-
tants but a solitary monk, who still prayed before the
holy shrine. " What doest thou here ? " demanded
Almanzor. " I am at my prayers," replied the old
monk. His life was immediately spared, and a guard
was set round the tomb to protect him and it from the
violence of the soldiery, who proceeded to destroy
everything else in the city. Almanzor well deserved
his title of " Victorious," which was assumed after
one of these campaigns. Sojong as his armies .made
their half-yearly expeditions, the Christian princes
were paralysed, and Leon and the neighbouring
country became a mere tributary province of the
kingdom of Cordova. Castile, Barcelona, and Navarre
were repeatedly defeated. He had taken the very

l66 THE PRIME MINISTER.

capitals — Leon, Pamplona, Barcelona, and even
Santiago de Campostella. Once he had brought the
King 'of Navarre to his knees simply because the
uncompromising Minister learned that there remained
one captive Moslem woman in his kingdom. She was
instantly delivered up, and many apologies were ten-
dered for the inadvertence. Another time Almanzor
found himself and his army cut off by the Christians,
who had occupied an impregnable position in his
rear, and barred his return to Cordova. Nothing
daunted, he ordered his troops to foray the country
round about, and collect materials for sheds, and im-
plements of husbandry. Soon the Christians, who
dared not attack, but believed they held the Moslems
in their grasp, perceived them deliberately setting up
barracks, and contentedly tilling the soil and pre-
paring for the various operations of agriculture. Their
astonished inquiries were answered by the cool reply,
" We do not think it is worth while to go home, as
the next campaign will begin almost immediately ;
so we are making ourselves comfortable for the in-
terval ! " Filled with consternation at the prospect of
a permanent Moslem occupation, the Christians not
only abandoned their strong position and allowed the
enemy to go scot free, laden with booty, but even sup-
plied them with baggage mules to carry off the spoils !
Almanzor, however, though invincible by man, was
not proof against death. After a last victorious cam-
paign against Castile, he was seized with mortal ill-
ness, and died at Medinaceli. The relief of the
Christians is expressed in the simple comment of the
monkish annalist : " In 1002 died Almanzor, and was
buried in hell."

X.

THE BERBERS IN POWER.

THE best constituted countries will occasionally fall
into anarchy when the will that has guided them is
removed ; and this is one of the strong arguments of
those who hold that a State is best governed by the
mass of its people. Keep a people in leading strings,
it is said, and the moment the strings break, or are
worn out, the people will not know where to go. The
theory, however, is only a general statement of an
obvious truth, and its application depends greatly
upon the character of the people. Some nations
seem always to need leading strings, and none has
yet become absolutely independent of the guidance
of a dominant mind ; nor would such independence
be desirable, unless a dead level of mediocrity be
our ideal of a State. Andalusia, at all events, could
not dispense with her leaders ; and the instant her
leader died, down fell the State. When " great Caesar
fell," then " I and you and all of us fell down," not so
much for sympathy as incapacity. The multiplicity
of mutually hostile parties and factions made any-
thing resembling a settled constitution impossible 'in
the dominion of the Moors. Only a strong hand
could restrain the animosity of the opposing creeds

1 68 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

and races in Andalusia ; and those who have con-
sidered the character and history of Ireland, and the
irreconcilable enmity which prevails between the
north and the south in that island of factions, will
allow that the Arabs were not the only people who
found mixed races and religions impossible to govern
with the smoothness of a homogeneous nation.

The history of Andalusia, so far as we have told

"it, has been a series of ups and downs. First we saw
a magnificent raid, led by born soldiers, ending in an
unexpected conquest. Hardly was the peninsula won,
when the jealousies and divisions of the various ele-
ments that made up the invading host bade fair to

/destroy the harvest just reaped by the sword. Then
the strong man, the born king, appeared in the person
of the first Abd-er-Rahman, and Andalusia once more
became, outwardly, one dominion. " O King, live for
ever ! " was the conventional form of address to the
Persian monarch, and one is tempted to think that
its realization might be the solution of all political
troubles, provided the right king was chosen for im-
mortality. The first king of Andalusia was naturally
not immortal ; and the consequence of his death was
what always happens when a strong repressing force
is withdrawn : the people fell again into civil war
and anarchy. Yet again the God-gifted king came to
rescue the nation. The Great Khalif imposed law and
order throughout his dominions, beat back the in-
vader, and trod the rebel under foot. For fifty years
Andalusia was a paradise of peace and prosperity ;
had the third Abd-er-Rahman been immortal she
might have been peaceful to this day, and we should

ANARCHY IN SPAIN. 169

never have heard of the persecutions of Jews and
Moors, of the terrible work of the Inquisition, or even
(to come to very small things) the Carlists. It is a
pity that such dreams cannot be true. But the Great
Khalif had not left the country unprovided with a
leader. A king had saved Spain twice, and now it
was a prime minister who held the State together.
Almanzor, the unconquerable minister, was able to
make his masterful will felt to every corner of the
peninsula ; but Almanzor, too, was mortal, and when
he died, and (as the monk piously hoped) "was buried
in hell," the land which owed him her prosperity and
wealth, her perfect orderliness and security, became
a prey to all the hostile forces which only his iron
hand could repress. For eighty years Andalusia was
torn to pieces by jealous chiefs, aggressive and quarrel-
some tyrants, Moors, Arabs, Slavs, and Spaniards ;
and though many of the old roots of dissension had
been plucked up by time, and the jealousies that arose
from memories of tribal glories were sometimes for-
gotten because men had lost their pedigrees, there
were enough rivalries, personal, racial, and religious,
to make Andalusia as much a hell upon earth as even
the monkish chronicler could have desired for a burial-
place for Almanzor.

For six years after the Prime Minister's death, his
son Muzaffar maintained the unity of the kingdom.
Then followed the deluge of greedy adventurers, rival
khalifs, and impudent pretenders. The__5paniardfi,
who formed after all the bulk of the population in
which they were merged, loved to be ruled by a
king ; they liked a dynasty, and were proud of the

170 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

memories of the great Omeyyad house. The rule
of a minister, however just and good, was not their
idea of government ; the king must rule by himself.
So they rebelled against the authority of a second
son of Almanzor, who had provoked them by publicly
putting in his claim to succeed to the throne, and
they insisted on the Khalif taking the reins of State
into his own weak hands. The unfortunate Hisham,
thus suddenly dragged out of the seclusion of his
harim, where he had been a happy prisoner for thirty
years, in vain implored the people not to demand im-
possibilities of him ; they would have him rule, and
when it became clear to everybody that the feeble
middle-aged man was as helpless as an infant, they
made him abdicate, and set up another member of his
family in his place. This was really the end of the
Omeyyad dynasty of Andalusia. _ jChalif after khalif
was set up for the next twenty years ; oneTwasTfte
puppet of the Cordovans, another was the puppet of
the Slav guards ; a third was the puppet of the
Berbers ; a fourth was a sort of figure-head to mask
the ambition of the ruler of Seville ; but
puppets of some faction, and had no vestige of rea

authority.. The throne-room in the palace became

the scene of murder after murder, as khalif succeeded
khalif.. One poor wretch hid himself in the oven of
the bath-room, till he was discovered, dragged out, and
butchered before the eyes of his successor, whose turn
was not far off. Hisham II., the poor creature who
had been kept in a state of perpetual infancy by
Almanzor and the queen-mother Aurora, was forced
to play his part in the raree-show. He was again set

PUPPET KHALIFS. 171

up, and again pulled down ; and the silken chains ol
his imprisonment among the beauties of his harim
were exchanged for the gloomy walls of a real dun-
geon. What became of him afterwards is unknown.
His women said that he had contrived to escape, and
had taken refuge in Asia, or at Mekka. The throne
possessed few attractions for the miserable Khalif, who
loved seclusion and pious duties ; and he must have
known that his presence in Andalusia gave a rallying
cry to ambitious partisans, and could only lead to
further strife. It was natural that he should prefer to
end his days in the exercise of devotion at the holy
temple of Islam. An impostor, who closely resembled
Hisham in person, set himself up as the Khalif at
Seville, and was acknowledged as a convenient puppet
by the powerful lord of that city ; but the real Hisham
had disappeared for ever, and no one heard of him
again.

How pitiful was the fate of the unhappy Omeyyads,
who allowed the ferocious Moors, or Slavs, in turn, to
use them as pieces on their chess-board, may be
seen from what happened at the deposition of the
third Hisham. By order of the chief men of the
city, this milcTand humane prince was dragged with
his family to a dismal vault attached to the great
mosque of Cordova. Here, in total darkness, half
frozen with the cold and damp, and poisoned by
the foul air of the place, the wretched Khalif sat,
holding his only child, a little girl, to his breast, while
his wives hung round him in scanty clothing, weeping,
shivering, and dishevelled. They had been long with-
out food, and their inhuman jailers had left them

172 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

unnoticed for hours. The sheykhs then came to
announce to Hisham the decision of the council
which had been hastily summoned to debate upon
his fate ; but the poor Khalif, who was trying to re-
store a little warmth to the child in his arms, inter-
rupted them : " Yes ! yes ! I will submit to their
decision, whatever it is ; but for God's sake get me
some bread ; this poor child is dying of hunger." The
sheykhs were touched — they had not designed such
torments — and the bread was brought. Then they
began again : " Sire, they have determined that you
shall be taken at daybreak to be imprisoned in such
and such a fortress." " So be it," answered the Khalif;
" I have only one favour to ask : permit us to have
a lantern, for the darkness of this dismal place appals
us." The lord spiritual and temporal of the Mussul-
mans of Spain had fallen to such straits that he had
to beg for bread and a candle.

Such scenes as this were now frequent in Cordova.
Each revolution brought its fresh crop of horrors.
The people of Cordova, who had greatly increased in
numbers, had also nourished those independent sen-
timents which the immense development of trade
and manual industry, and the consequent creation of
a prosperous artisan class, generally promote ; and
when they overturned Almanzor's dynasty, the mob
broke out in the usual manner of mobs, and wreaked
their vengeance by pillaging the beautiful palace
which the great Minister had built in the neighbour-
hood of the capital for the use of himself and the
government officials. When they had ransacked the
priceless treasures of the palace, they abandoned it to

i »

THE G1RALDA AT SEVILLE.

SACK OF EZ-ZAHRA. 175

the flames. Massacres, plundering, and assassination
went on unchecked for four days. Cordova became a
shambles. Then the Berbers had their turn ; the im-
perious Slav guards, who had won the cordial detes-
tation of the people, were succeeded by the brutal
Berbers, who rioted in the plunder of the city.
Wherever these barbarians went, slaughter, fire, and
outrage followed. Palace after palace was ransacked
and burnt, and the lovely city of Ez-Zahra, the de-
light of the Great Khalif, was captured by treachery,
sacked, and set on fire, so that there remained of all
the exquisite art that two khalifs had lavished upon
its ornament nothing but a heap of blackened stones.
Its garrison was put to the sword ; its inhabitants fled
for refuge to the mosque ; but the Berbers had neither
scruples nor bowels, and men, women, and children
were butchered in the sacred precincts (1010).

While the capital was torn to pieces by savage bands
of Slavs and Berbers, and was setting up one khalif
after another, varying the family of Omeyya with that
of Hammud, or trying the effect of a governing town
council, the provinces had long thrown off all allegi-
ance to the central State. Every city or district had
its own independent lord — so soon had the consoli-
dating effects of Almanzor's rule disappeared. The
Spaniards themselves enjoyed little of this sudden
accession of small powers. They had to look on
and lament, while foreigners divided their land among
them. Berber generals fattened upon the South ; the
Slavs subdued the East ; " the rest fell to parvenus or
to the few noble families who had by some accident
survived the blows which Abd-er-Rahman III. and

176 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

Almanzor had dealt at the aristocracy. Cordova and
Seville, the two most important cities of Andalus
had set up republics,"1 in name, however, rather than
fact ; for the Moslem First Consul was a very close
likeness of the Emperor. In the first half of the
eleventh century some twenty independent dynasties
came into power in as many towns or provinces,
among which the Abbadites of Seville, the Hammud
family at Malaga and Algeciras, the Zirites at Gra-
nada, the Beny Hud at Zaragoza, the Dhu-n-Nun
dynasty at Toledo, and the rulers of Valencia,
Murcia, and Almeria, were the most important.
Some of these dynasts were good rulers, most of
them were sanguinary tyrants, but (curiously) not the
less polished gentlemen, who delighted to do honoui
to learning and belles lettres, and made their courts
the homes of poets and musicians. Mo'temid of
Seville, for instance, was a prince of many accom-
plishments, yet he kept a garden of heads, cut off his
enemies' shoulders, which he regarded with great
pride and delight. As a whole, however, the country
was a prey to disorder as intolerable and as dangerous
as that which had prevailed when the Great Khalif
came to the throne. It was not quite the same in
character ; for there was no great Christian rebellion
like that of Ibn-Hafsun ; but the anarchy_jwas__as_
universal, and the danger of a total collapse more
imminent than ever.

For the Christians of the north were now on the
move. They saw their opportunity, and they made
the most of it. Alfonso VI., who had united under

1 Dozy, livre iii.

ADVANCE OF THE CHRISTIANS. IJ?

his sway the three kingdoms of the Asturias, Leon,
anH^CastileTlmclersLuud his pail perfectly. He saw
that he only had to allow the various Moslem princes
rope enough, and they would proceed to hang them-
selves with the utmost expedition. These short-
sighted tyrants, indeed, caring only for their petty
individual power, and eagerly aiding in anything
that could weaken their rivals, threw themselves at
Alfonso's feet, and implored his assistance whenever
they found themselves overmastered by a more
powerful neighbour. Partly in consequence of acts
of this kind, and partly in terror at the furious raids
which the Castilians made throughout the country,
even as far as the port of Cadiz, the Moslem States
were almost all tributaries of the King of Castile, who
took care to annually demand heavier and more heavy
tribute, as the_jprice of his friendship, in order to lay
up stores for the great conquest which he had in
mjud. The north^was poor, and with a fine irony
he trusted to the immense contributions of his vassals
among the Andalusian princes to provide the sinews
of the war which should destroy them. Divided and
jealous as were the Mohammedan dynasts, there was
a limit to their patience. When Alfonso had bathed
in the ocean by Hercules' Pillars, rejoicing that at
last he had traversed all Spain and touched the
watery border ; when he had established a garrison of
more than twelve thousand daring men in the fort-
ress of Aledo, in the very midst of the Moslem,
territories, whence they ruthlessly emerged to harry
the whole country and commit every sort of savage
outrage ; when Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, " my Cid the

13

178 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

Challenger," had established himself in Valencia with
his Castilians, and laid waste the neighbouring lands ;
when it became clear to every one that Alfonso meant
nothing less than the reconquest of all Spain, and the
extermination of all Moslems — then at last the
Mohammedan princes awoke to their danger, and
began to take measures for their defence. Helpless
in themselves and, in spite of the common danger,
despairing of any firm collected action among so
many and such hostile factions, they took the only other
course possible — they called in the aid of the foreigner.
Some, indeed, foresaw dangers in such aid ; but Mo'te-
mid, the King of Seville, silenced them: "getter
be a camel-driver in African djeserts," he said, "than
a swineherd in Castile!" The power they required
was not far off. A new Berber revolution had taken
place in North Africa, and a sect of fanatics, called the
marabouts or sa\ni£^Almoravides\ as the Spaniards
named them), had conqueTeTTTEewhole country from
Algiers to Senegal. They were much the same sort
of people as Tarik and his followers, and they were
ready enough to cross the water and conquer the
fertile provinces of Spain. They made it a favour,
indeed, and evinced supreme indifference to the
attractions of Andalusia ; but they came, and it was
easy to see that they meant to stay.
^When the Almoravides first came over like a cloud
of locusts to devour the country thus offered to their
/appetite, they found the way perfectly open. The
mass of the people of Andalusia rejoiced to see once
more a strong arm coming to repress the disorder
which had destroyed their well-being ever since the

BATTLE OF ZALLAKA. 179

death of the great Almanzor ; thejaetty tyrants either
had invited them or could not resist them, and were,
at all events, glad to see the Castilians successfully
repelled. The AlmoravJde king.Yjlsjj£ the son of
Teshfln, after appropriating Algfeciras, as a harbour
and necessary basis of operations*, marched unopposed
through the provinces, and me^Alfonso at Zallaka,
or, as the Spaniards call- it. Sacralias, near Badajoz.
October 2^ 1086. Alfonso, as he looked upon his
own splendid army, exclaimed, " With men like these
I would fight devils, angels, and ghosts ! " Neverthe-
less he resorted to a ruse to score a surprise over the
joint forces of the Berbers and Andalusians ; but
Yusuf was not easily disconcerted. He took the
Castilian army skilfully in front and rear, and, thus
placed between two fires, in spite of the obstinate
resistance which the tried warriors of Castile knew
hoAxTtn offer, hrnsh^ th^m nttfifj- Alfonso

barely escaped with some five hundred horsemen.
Many thousands of the best sword-arms in Castile la^
stiff and nerveless on that fatal field.

After the victory, Yusuf the Almoravide returned
to Africa, leaving three thousand of his Berbers to
help the Andalusians. He had promised to make no
annexations, and, except in retaining the harbour
of Algeciras, he had so far kept his word. The
Andalusians were delighted with him ; they praised
his valour and exulted over the saving of the land ;
they admired his simple piety, which let him do
nothing without the advice of his priests, and which^
had induced him to abolish all taxes in Spain except
those few authorized by the Khalif Omar in the

l8o < THE BERBERS IN POWER.

earliest days of Islam. The upper classes, indeed,
ridiculed his ignorance and rough manners ; he could
speak but little Arabic, and when the poets recited
their charming verses in his honour he generally
missed the point of the compliment — no slight offence
to the polished and elegant Andalusians, who never
forgot their poetry even when they were up to their
knees in blood. Yusuf was to them a mere barbarian.
But their contempt for his education did not greatly
matter ; they could not do without his sword, and the
vast mass of the people, thinking rather of comfort
than culture, were ready to receive him joyfully as
sovereign of Andalusia. In 1090 the King of Seville
again prayed the Almoravide to come over and help
him against the Christians, who were as bold as ever,
and carried on a perpetual guerilla warfare from their
stronghold of Aledo. He acceded, with assumed
unwillingness, and this time he directed his attacks
quite as much against the Andalusian princes as
against the Christians of Castile. These foolish
tyrants dinned into his ears innumerable complaints
against each other, and mutually betrayed themselves
to such an extent, that Yusuf very soon had grounds
for distrusting the whole body of them. He had on
his side the people, and, above all, the priests. These
soon absolved him from his promise not to annex
Andalusia, and even went so far as to urge him that
it was his duty, in God's name, to restore peace and
happiness to the distracted land. Always under the
influence of his spiritual advisers, and sufficiently
prompted by his own ambition without any such
external impetus, Yusuf readily fell in_with this vJew_

SECOND INVASION. l8l

and before the year 1090 was out he had begun
the subjugation ot Spain. He entered Granada in

November, and distributed its wonderful treasures —
its diamonds, pearls, rubies, and other precious
jewels, its splendid ornaments of gold and silver,
its crystal cups, and gorgeous carpets, its unheard-of
riches of every sort — among his officers, who had
never in their lives seen anything approaching such
magnificence.^ Tarlfajell in December, ana tne next
saw the capture of Seville and many of the chief
nf AnHalnsia. ftp ^rmy^^nt by Alfonso, under
the famous captain, Alvar Fanez, was defeated, and all
the south lay at the feet of the Almoravides — save
only Valencia, which no assault could carry so lojng as
the Cid Hyed to direct the defence. In 1102, after
the hero's death, Valencia succumbed, and now the
whole of Mohammedan Spain, with the exception of
Toledo, had become a province of the great African
empire of the Almoravides.

Trie mass of the people had reason to be satisfied, for
a time, with the result of their appeal to the foreigner.
A minority, consisting of all the men of position and
of education, were not so well pleased with the experi-
ment. The reign of the Puritans had come, and
without a Milton to soften its austerity. The poets
and men of letters, who had thriven at the numerous
little courts, where the most bloodthirsty despot had
always a hearty and appreciative welcome for a man
of genius, and would generally cap his verses with
impromptu lines, were disgusted with the savage Ber-
bers, who could not understand their refinements,
and who, when they sometimes attempted to form

l82 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

themselves upon the model of the cultivated tyrants
who had preceded them, made so poor an imitation
that it was impossible to help laughing. The free-
thinkers and men of broad views saw nothing very
encouraging in the accession to power of the fanatical
priests who formed the Almoravides' advisers, and
who were not only rabidly opposed to anything that
savoured of philosophy, but read their Koran exclu-
sively through the spectacles of a single commentator.
Thejews and Christians soon discovered what the
tolerance of the Almoravides was : they were cruelly
persecuted, massacred, or else transported. The old
noble families, the few that remained, and the rem-
nants of the petty princes, were in despair when they
saw the stranger, whom they had bidden to their aid,
taking up his permanent station in their dominions,
and recalled with terror the doings of similar hordes
of Berbers in the latter days of the Cordovan
Khalifate. But the mass of the people were glad
enough to see the Almoravides staying in the land ;
their lives and goods were at last safe, which _had
never been the case when the country was cut up
into a number of separate principalities, few of which
were strong enough to protect their subjects outside
the castle gates ; the roads were free from the
brigands who had made travelling impossible for

rmany years, and the Christians, instead of pouncing
upon unsuspecting villages and harrying the land,
were driven back to their own territory, where a
wholesome dread of the Berbers, and a long strife
among themselves, kept them at a safe distance.
Order and tranquillity reigned for the moment ; the

DEMORALIZATION OF THE BERBERS. 183

law was respected, and the people once more dreamed
of wealth and happiness.

The dream was a delusion. There was no pros-
perity in store for the subjects of the Almoravides.
What had happened to the Romans and the Goths
now happened to the Berbers. They came to Spain
hardy rough warriors, unused to ease or luxuries,
delighting in feats of strength and prowess, filled
with a fierce but simple zeal for their religion. They
had not been long in the enjoyment of the fruits of
their victory when all the demoralization which the
soft luxuries of Capua brought upon the soldiers of
Hannibal came also upon them. They lost their
martial habits, their love of deeds of daring, their
pleasure in enduring hardships in the brave way of
war — they lost all their manliness with inconceivable
rapidity. In twenty years there was no Berber army
that could be trusted to repel the attacks of the
Castilians ; in its place was a disorganized crowd of.
sodden debauchees, miserable poltroons, who had
"drunk and fooled away their manhood's vigour and
become slaves to all the appetites that make men
cowards. Instead of preserving order, they had now
~ become the disturbers of order ; brigands, when they
couIcTpluck up courage to attack a peaceful traveller ;
\ thieves on all promising opportunities. The country
was worse off than ever it had been, even under the
petty tyrants. The enfeebled Berbers were at the
beck and call of bad women and ambitious priests,
and they would counterorder one day what they had
commanded the day before, guch^ rulers do not_rujfi.
for long. A great revolution was sappingfThe power

184 THE BERBERS IN POWER.

of the Almoravides in Africa, and the Castilians under
Alfonso the Battler resumed their raids into Andalusia
In 1125 they harried the south for a whole year. In
1133 they burnt the very suburbs of Cordova, Seville,
and Carmona, and sacked Xeres and set it in a blaze.
The Christian forays now extended from Leon to the
Straits of Gibraltar, yet the besotted government did
nothing to meet the danger. Exasperated at its
feebleness, the people finally rose in their wrath and
drave their impotent rulers from the land.

"At last," says the Arab historian, "when the
people of Andalus saw that the empire of the Almo-
ravides was falling to pieces, they waited no longer,
but, casting away the mask of dissimulation, broke
out into open rebellion. Every petty governor, chief
or man of influence, who could command a few
followers and had a castle to retire to in case of need,
styled himself Sultan, and assumed the other insignia
of royalty ; and Andalus had as many kings as there
were towns in it. Ibn-Hamdm rose at Cordova, Ibn-
Maymun at Cadiz, Ibn-Kasy and Ibn-Wezir Seddaray
held the west, Lamtuny Granada, Ibn-Mardanlsh.
Valencia; some Andalusians, others Berbers. All,
however, shortly disappeared before the banners of
Abd-el-Mumin, who deprived every one of them of
tneir dominions, and subjected the whole of Andalus
to his rule." Abd-el-Mumin was the leader of the
Almohades, who succeeded to the Almoravide power
in Africa and Spain,

XL

MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

IT is time to glance at the opponents of the Moors
in the North. We have seen how Pelayo gathered
together the remnant of the Goths in the inaccessible
caves and fastnesses of the Asturian mountains ; how
this remnant soon advanced beyond its early bound-
aries, and, taking courage from the indifference or the
disunion of the Berber tribes who were quartered on
the frontiers of the Mohammedan dominions, gradually
recovered most of the territory north of the Sierra de
Guadarrama, and there established the kingdom of
Leon and the county of Castile; while the separate
kingdom of Navarre arose further east, beneath the
Pyrenees. We have also seen how these Christian
kingdoms were in a. state of almost constant war with
their Moorish neighbours, and might have beep
seriously dangerous bqt for the no less constant
divisions which neutralized the various Christian
tatcs. So long as the kingdom of Cordova re-
lained strong and undivided, while the Christians of
Leon, Castile, and Navarre wasted their vigour in
'civil wars, the Moors were fully equal to the task of
preserving their dominions. But when the kingdom
of Cordova fell, and Andalusia .bpram>~ a""prpy tn

l86 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

petty dynasties, each of which thought first of its own
interests, and then perhaps of the interests of the
Mohammedan power at large, the Christians became
more venturesome, and were enabled to wring from
the Moors a considerable accession of territory.
During the confusion of the eleventh century, when
almost every city in Andalusia formed a State by
itself, we have seen that the Christians scoured the
land of the Moslems with their victorious armies, and
exacted tribute from many of the most important
Moorish princes. At this time Fernando the First
had united the greater part of the north under
his own sceptre. He had combined the conflicting
provinces of Leon and Castile, and incorporated the
Asturias and Galicia in his dominions. Fernando "
was undoubtedly the most powerful monarch in all
Spain at this time ; he had annexed Lormego, Viseu,
and Coimbra in Portugal, and took tribute from the
kings of Zaragoza, Toledo, Badajoz, and Seville;
and though his imprudent division of his dominions
among his three sons and two daughters involved the
north in a series of civil wars after his death, Alfonso
VL_" the Valiant " eventually succeeded in cementing
the scattered fragments together again, and hence-
forward the progress of the Christian power in Spain
was inevitable. It was only jthe. immense^Bribes of
the Mohammedan princes (who paid blackmail to
a fabulous amount to buy off the Christians), and the
armies of the Almoravides in the background, that
prevented the entire reconquest of Andalusia by the
Christians at this period of Moorish weakness. As it
was, the Moors were in no sense their own masters ;

THE SOLDIERS OF LEON. 189

they were harassed between the dread of Alfonso and
the scarcely less alarming supremacy of their Almo-
ravide ally ; jmdjn the ^ncQheylHad^to succumb ^to
the latter. £t this time we find the Christians
interfering in most of the political affairs of the
Mohammedan states ; Christian armies overrunning
their territories and demanding heavy tribute for
their goodwill ; and so complicated became the
alliances between the two parties that many Christian
mercenaries were to be found in the armies of the
Moors, vigorously assisting in campaigns of devas-
tation and sacrilege through Christian provinces,
while Moors were ready to join the Castilians against
their fellow-Moslems. It was, in short, a time of
adventurers, of paid mercenaries, of men who fought
for personal interest and profit, instead of for king
^nd^cpuntry.

^^e should make a great mistake if we regarded
the warriors of Leon and Castile as anything ap-
proaching an ideal of knightly honour and chivalry,
and a still greater error would be to imagine them
polished, cultivated gentlemen. The Christians of
the north formed the most striking possible contrast
to their Moorish rivals. The Arabs, rough tribes-
men as they had been at their first arrival, had
softened, by contact with the Andalusians and by
their own natural disposition to enjoyment and
luxury, into a highly civilized people, delighting in
poetry and elegant literature, devoted to the pursuit
of learning, and, above all, determined to enjoy life
to the utmost. Their intellectual tastes were un-
usually fine and delicate ; they were moved by

IQO MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

emotions which could only be felt by men of taste
and savoir vivre. They were romantic, imaginative,
poetical, speculative, and would bestow on a well-
turned epigram what would have sufficed to pay a
regiment of soldiers. The most tyrannical and blood-
thirsty among their despots was held in some con-
tempt if he were not also something of a poet, or at
least instinctively appreciative of polished wit and
courtly eloquence. Music, oratory, as well as the
severer pursuits of science, seemed to come naturally
to this brilliant people ; and they possessed in a high
degree that quality of critical perception and delicate
appreciation of the finer shades of expression which
in the present day we associate with the French
nation.

The Christians of the north were as unlike this as
can well be conceived. Though descended from an
older kingdom, the northern states had most of the
qualities of new nations. They were rude and uncul-
tivated ; few of their princes possessed the elements
of what could be called education, and they were too
poor to indulge in the refined luxuries of the Moorish
sovereigns. The Christians were simply rough
warriors, as fond of fighting as even their Moslem
antagonists, but even better prepared by their hard
and necessarily self-denying lives for the endurance
of long campaigns and the performance of desperate
deeds of valour. They had no idea of the high
standard of chivalrous conduct which poets afterwards
infused into their histories; they were men of the
sword, and little besides. Their poverty made them
any man's servants ; they sold their valour to him

RODRIGO THE CID. Igl

who paid them best ; they fought to get a livelihood
We have seen how the great minister Almanzor won
his victories against Leon and took Santiago with the
aid of a large contingent of the Leonese themselves,
who perceived clearly enough on which side their for-
tunes were to be made. The history of the eleventh
century in Spain is full of such examples of the
employment of Christian chevaliers d'industrie by
Moorish princes ; but of these none has ever attained
such celebrity as the Cid, the national hero of Spain.

The Cid's proper name was Rodrigo Diaz of Bivar,
and he was called the Cid because that was the title
which his Moorish followers naturally gave him. A
Mohammedan gentleman is still addressed in Egypt
and elsewhere by the title Szdy which is a corruption
of the word Seyyid> meaning " master." The Cid, or
" master," was also styled Campeador, which signifies
" champion," or, more accurately, " challenger," be-
cause his exceeding prowess made him the natural
challenger in those single combats which in Spanish
wars commonly preceded a general engagement
between two armies. A famous warrior would ad-
vance before the ranks, as Goliath of Gath stood forth
before the armies of Israel, and challenge the oppos-
ing forces to send him out a champion ; and none
was more renowned for his triumphs in this manner
of warfare than Rodrigo Diaz, " myo Cid el Cam-
peador," as the old chronicler affectionately calls
him. It is not easy to decide how much of the
splendid history which has gathered round the ex-
ploits of the Cid is true. The Christian chroniclers
stopped at nothing when they began to describe

IQ2 MY CID THE CHALLENGER. *

their national hero ; and the enthusiasm that did not
shrink from relating how the King of Leon seized
Paris, and conquered the French, Germans, Italians,
and even the Persians, can be trusted still less when
it sounds the glories of the beloved Cid. The Spanish^
ballads surround their hero with a saintly aureole of
all_the virtues, and forget that many of these virtues
would not have been understood or appreciated by
the Cid himself or his contemporaries in Castile. The
Arabic writers are generally more trustworthy, but
their judgment can hardly have been unbiassed when
they spoke of a Christian who worked such misery to
the Moslems of Valencia as did the famous Cam-
peador. Yet even they call him a "miracle of God."
In this critical age we are frequently obliged to
abandon with regret the most charming traditions of
our childhood's histories ; and the Cid has not been
spared. A special book has been written by an
eminent Orientalist to prove that the redoubtable
Challenger was by no means the hero he was sup-
posed to be ; that he was treacherous and cruel,
a violater of altars, and a breaker of his own good
faith. Professor Dozy maintains that the romantic
history of the Cid is a tissue of inventions, and he has
written an account of " the real Cid " to counteract
these misleading narratives. He founds his criticisms
mainly on the Arabic historians, in whom, despite
their national and religious bias, he places as blind
a reliance as less learned people have placed in the
Chronicle of the Cid. Yet it is surprising how trifling
are the differences that can be detected between
his " real Cid " and that romantic Chronicle of the Cid

193

the substance of which was compiled by Alfonso the
Learned only half a century after the Cid's death,
and which Robert Southey translated into English in
1805 with sucn skM and charm of style that his
version has ever since been almost as much a classic
as the original. Every one can separate for himself
the obviously legendary incidents in the delightful
old Chronicle without any assistance from the Arabic
historians, who deal chiefly with one period alone of
the Cid's career ; and the best popular account of the
hero, in discriminating hands and with due allowances,
is still Southey's fascinating Chronicle. The Cid of the
Chronicle is not at all the same as the Cid of the
Romances ; and while we cheerfully abandon the
latter immaculate personage, we may still believe in
the former. Of course our Cid had his faults, and
was guilty of not a few thoroughly indefensible
acts. He was no very orthodox champion of the
faith, for he fought as well for the Moors as for the
Christians, and would as dispassionately rob a church
as a mosque. But all this is clear enough to any
one who reads the Chronicle , and it does not make the
Cid anything but what he always was — a hero of the
rude days of yore. If we are to limit our definition
of heroism to characters that display all Christian
virtues, long-suffering, gentleness, and pity, we shall
have to dismiss most of our old friends. Achilles was
not very gentle or compassionate when he dragged
the body of Hector round the walls of Troy : but
Achilles is the hero of the Iliad. Nine out of ten
of the heroes of antiquity committed a host of acts
which we moderns, with our superfine sensibilities,

14

IQ4 My CID THE CHALLENGER.

call cruel, ungenerous, even dastardly. It is a pure
perversion of history to apply latter-day codes of
morality to the heroes of bygone ages. Let us admit
that they are not all gold ; and then let us delight
m their great deeds, the mighty swing of their
sword-arm, the crushing shock of their onset, their
tall stature and flashing eyes as they ride to meet
their foes. We do not expect them to be philosophers
or strict advocates of the theories of political economy.
We are quite satisfied with them as they are : heroes,
— brave, gallant leaders of men.

The Cid was a real hero to the Spaniards : first,
because he fought so magnificently, and that used
once to be title enough to reverence ; secondly,
because, like the mythical Bernardo del Carpio
and the real Fernando Gonzalez, he was the cham-
pion of Castile, and had bearded the King of
Leon, and thus represented the immemorial jealousy
which the Castilians entertained for the powerful
neighbours who absorbed their province ; and thirdly,
because the minstrels forgot his long alliance with the
Moors, or contrived to give it a disinterested aspect,
and remembered him only as the great champion
of the Christian people against the infidels. But
the very cause which specially commended him to
the Castilians, his insubordination to King Alfonso,
made him a less perfect hero to the writer of the
Cronica General^ from which the Chronicle of the Cid
was extracted. That writer or compiler, Alfonso
the Learned, King of Leon and Castile, could not
approve the haughty independence of the Cid towards
his own forerunner the sixth Alfonso. Hence in

THE CAMPEADOR. 195

Southey's version of the Chronicle (which is enriched
with many extracts from the Poem of the Cid and
other sources) we have a check upon the excessive
adulation of the ballads and romances. There is no
lack of details in the work which are anything but
creditable to the Cid ; but, nevertheless, the true
heroic character, with all its faults and limitations, is
well sustained, and the record forms a wonderfully
interesting picture of a stirring time and the greatest
figure among the Spanish chevaliers.

The story of the Cid would fill a volume by itself;
all we can attempt here is to extract a few of the
most striking passages of the Chronicle. The youth
of the hero is, to a large extent, merged in myth ; he
first comes into historical documents in 1064, when,
though scarcely more than twenty, he had already
won his title of Challenger by a triumphant single
combat with a knight of Navarre, and was soon after-
wards appointed commander-in-chief of the forces of
Castile. He helped Sancho of Castile to overcome
his brother Alfonso of Leon, by a surprise which
savoured strongly of treachery, but which passed for
good strategy in those rough-and-ready times. , After
the murder of Sancho by Bellido, under the walls of
Zamora, the Cid passed into the service of his suc-
cessor, the very Alfonso whom he had before driven
into exile. The king at first welcomed the invincible
knight of Castile~to hls~court, and married him to his
own cousin ; but jealous rivals poisoned his mind,
already filled with the memory of past wrongs, against
Rodrigo (or Ruy Diez, as he is styled in the Chronicle),
and in 1081 the Cid was banished from his dominions.
The Chronicle must tell the story of his farewells :

196 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

" And the Cid sent for all his friends and his kins-
men and vassals, and told them how King Don Alfonso
had banished him from the land, and asked of them
who would follow him into banishment, and who
would remain at home. Then Alvar Fafiez, who was
his cousin-german, came forward and said, Cid, we
will all go with you, through desert and through
peopled country, and never fail you. In your service
will we spend our mules and horses, our wealth and
our garments, and ever while we live be unto you
loyal friends and vassals. And they all confirmed
what Alvar Fafiez had said ; and the Cid thanked
them for their love, and said that there might come a
time in which he should guerdon them.

" And as he was about to depart he looked back
upon his own home, and when he saw his hall
deserted, the household chests unfastened, the doors
open, no cloaks hanging up, no seats in the porch, no
hawks upon the perches, the tears came into his eyes,
and he said, My enemies have done this. . . . God
be praised for all things. And he turned toward the
East and knelt and said, Holy Mary Mother, and all
Saints, pray to God for me, that He may give me
strength to destroy all the Pagans, and to win enough
from them to requite my friends therewith, and all
those who follow and help me. Then he called for
Alvar Fafiez and said unto him, Cousin, the poor
have no part in the wrong which the king hath done
us ; see now that no wrong be done unto them along
our road ; and he called for his horse. And then an
old woman who was standing at her door said, Go in
a lucky minute, and make spoil of whatever you wish

THE CID BANISHED. IQ7

And with this proverb he rode on, saying, Friends,
by God's good pleasure we shall return to Castile
with great honour and great gain. And as they went
out from Bivar they had a crow on their right hand,
and when they came to Burgos they had a crow on
the left.

"My Cid Ruydiez entered Burgos, having sixty
streamers in his company. And men and women
went forth to see him, and the men of Burgos and the
women of Burgos were at their windows, weeping, so
great was their sorrow ; and they said with one
accord, Dios ! how good a vassal if he had but a good
lord ! and willingly would each have bade him come
in, but no one dared so to do. For King Don Alfonso
in his anger had sent letters to Burgos, saying that no
man should give the Cid a lodging ; and that whoso-
ever disobeyed should lose all that he had, and more-
over the eyes in his head. Great sorrow had these
Christian folk at this, and they hid themselves when
he came near them because they did not dare speak
to him ; and my Cid went to his Posada, and when
he came to the door he found it fastened for fear of
the king. And his people called out with a loud
voice, but they within made no answer. And the Cid
rode up to the door, and took his foot out of the
stirrup, and gave it a kick, but the door did not open
with it, for it was well secured ; a little girl of nine
years old then came out of one of the houses and said
unto him, O Cid, the king hath forbidden us to
receive you. We dare not open our doors to you, for
we should lose our houses and all that we have, and
the eyes in our head. Cid, our evil would not help

198 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

you, but God and all His saints be with you. And
when she had said this she returned into the house.
And when the Cid knew what the king had done he
turned away from the door and rode up to St. Mary's,
and there he alighted and knelt down, and prayed
with all his heart ; and then he mounted again and
rode out of the town, and pitched his tent near
Arlanzon, upon the Glera, that is to say, upon the
sands. My Cid Ruydiez, he who in a happy hour
first girt on his sword, took up his lodging upon the
sands, because there was none who would receive him
within his door. He had a good company round
about him, and there he lodged as if he had been
among the mountains. . . .

" The cocks were crowing amain, and the day began
to break, when the good Campeador reached St.
Pedro's. The Abbot Don Sisebuto was saying matins,
and Dona Ximena (the Cid's wife) and five of her
ladies of good lineage were with him, praying to God
and St. Peter to help my Cid. And when he called
at the gate and they knew his voice, Dios ! what a
joyful man was the Abbot Don Sisebuto ! Out into
the courtyard they went with torches and with tapers,
and the Abbot gave thanks to God that he now beheld
the face of my Cid. And the Cid told him all that
had befallen him, and how he was a banished man ;
and he gave him fifty marks for himself, and a hundred
for Dona Ximena and her children. Abbot, said he,
I leave two little girls behind me, whom I commend
to your care. Take you care of them and of my wife
and of her ladies : when this money be gone, if it be
not enough, supply them abundantly ; for every mark

DOtiA XIMENA. IQ9

which you expend upon them I will give the monas-
tery four. And the Abbot promised to do this with a
right good will. Then Dona Ximena came up, and
her daughters with her, each of them borne in arms,
and she knelt down on both her knees before her
husband, weeping bitterly, and she would have kissed
his hand ; and she said to him, Lo, now you are
banished from the land by mischief-making men, and
here am I with your daughters, who are little ones
and of tender years, and we and you must be parted,
even in your life-time. For the love of St. Mary tell
me now what we shall do. And the Cid took the
children in his arms, and held them to his heart and
wept, for he dearly loved them. Please God and St.
Mary, said he, I shall yet live to give these my
daughters in marriage with my own hands, and to do
you service yet, my honoured wife, whom I have ever
loved even as my own soul.

" A great feast did they make that day in the monas-
tery for the good Campeador, and the bells of St.
Pedro's rung merrily. Meantime the tidings had gone
through Castile how my Cid was banished from the
land, and great was the sorrow of the people. Some
left their houses to follow him, others forsook their
honourable offices which they held. And that day a
hundred and fifteen knights assembled at the bridge
of Arlanzon, all in quest of my Cid ; and there Martin
Antolinez joined them, and they rode on together to
St. Pedro's. And when he of Bivar knew what a
goodly company were coming to join him, he rejoiced
in his own strength, and rode out to meet them and
greeted them full courteously ; and they kissed his

200 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

hand, and he said to them, I pray to God that I may
one day requite ye well, because ye have forsaken
your houses and your heritages for my sake, and I
trust that I shall pay ye twofold. Six days of the
term allotted were now gone, and three only remained :
if after that time he should be found within the king's
dominions, neither for gold nor for silver could he
then escape. That day they feasted together, and
when it was evening the Cid distributed among them
all that he had, giving to each man according to what
he was ; and he told them that they must meet at
mass after matins, and depart at that early hour.
Before the cock crew they were ready, and the Abbot
said the mass of the Holy Trinity, and when it was
done they left the church and went to horse. And
my Cid embraced Dona Ximena and his daughters,
and blessed them ; and the parting between them was
like separating the nail from the quick flesh : and he
wept and continued to look round after them. Then
Alvar Fafiez came up to him and said, Where is your
courage, my Cid ? In a good hour were you born of
woman. Think of our road now ; these sorrows will
yet be turned into joy."

The Cid offered his services to the Moorish King
of Zaragoza, the most powerful of the northern
Moslem princes ; and they were joyfully accepted.
At the head of his own followers, who were the more
devoted to him since they lived by the booty he pro-
cured them, he made a raid through Aragon, and so
rapid was his riding that he harried a vast tract of
country in five days, and was off before the Christia
could sound the alarm. He led the Moors against

ON THE WAR-PATH. 2OI

Count of Barcelona, won a signal victory, and made
the Count his ally. How the Cid and his merry men
triumphed in the battle-field, let the Chronicle again
relate :

" Pero Bermudez could not bear this, but hold-
ing the banner in his hand, he cried, God help you,
Cid Campeador ; I shall put your banner in the
middle of that main body ; and you who are bound
to stand by it — I shall see how you will succour it.
And he began to prick forward. And the Campeador
called unto him to stop as he loved him, but Pero
Bermudez replied he would stop for nothing, and away
he spurred and carried his banner into the middle of
the great body of the Moors. And the Moors fell
upon him that they might win the banner, and beset
him on all sides, giving him many and great blows to
beat him down ; nevertheless, his arms were proof,
and they could not pierce them, neither could they
beat him down, nor force the banner from him, for he
was a right brave man and a strong and a good
horseman, and of great heart And when the Cid
saw him thus beset, he called to his people to move
on and help him. Then placed they their shields be-
fore their hearts, and lowered their lances with the
streamers thereon, and, bending forward, rode on.
Three hundred lances were they, each with its pen-
dant, and every man at the first charge slew his Moor.
Smite them, knights, for the love of charity ! cried
the Campeador. I am Ruydiez, the Cid of Bivar!
Many a shield was pierced that day, and many a false
corselet was broken, and many a white streamer dyed
with blood, and many a horse left without a rider.

202 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

The misbelievers called on Mahomet, and the Chris-
tians on Santiago, and the noise of the tambours and
of the trumpets was so great that none could hear his
neighbour. And my Cid and his company succoured
Pero Bermudez, and they rode through the host of
the Moors, slaying as they went, and they rode back
again in like manner ; thirteen hundred did they kill
in this guise. If you would know who they were,
who were the good men of that day, it behoves me to
tell you, for though they are departed, it is not fitting
that the names of those who have done well should
die, nor would they who have done well themselves,
or who hope so to do, think it right ; for good men
would not be so bound to do well if their good feats
should be kept silent. There was my Cid, the good
man in battle, who fought well upon his gilt saddle ;
and Alvar Fafiez Minaya, and Martin Antolinez the
Burgalese of prowess, and Muno Gustios, and Martin
Munoz who held Montemayor, and Alvar Alvarez,
and Alvar Salvadores, and Galin Garcia the good one
of Aragon, and Felez Munoz the nephew of the Cam-
peador. Wherever my Cid went, the Moors made a
path before him, for he smote them down without
mercy. And while the battle still continued, the
Moors killed the horse of Alvar Fanez, and his lance
was broken, and he fought bravely with his sword
afoot. And my Cid, seeing him, came up to an
Alguazil, who rode upon a good horse, and smote him
with his sword under the right arm, so that he cut
him through and through, and he gave the horse to
Alvar Fanez, saying, Mount Minaya, for you are my
right hand."

w li /'i?' <

if p j <

THE CID AT VALENCIA. 205

The great feat of the Cid's career was the conquest
of Valencia. By force of political troubles he came
to occupy the position of protector of the Moorish
King of Valencia in the name of the King of Zaragoza.
His first entry was peaceful and unopposed :

" Then the Cid went to Valencia, and King Yahya
received him full honourably, and made a covenant
with him to give him weekly four thousand maravedis
of silver, and he on his part was to reduce the castles
to his obedience, so that they should pay the same
rents unto him as had been paid unto the former
kings of Valencia; and that the Cid should protect
him against all men, Moors or Christians, and should
have his home in Valencia, and bring all his booty
there to be sold, and that he should have his granaries
there. This covenant was confirmed in writing, so
that they were secure on one side and on the other.
And my Cid sent to all those who held the castles,
commanding them to pay their rents to the King of
Valencia as they had done aforetime, and they all
obeyed his command, every one striving to have his
love."

From the vantage post of Valencia the Cid carried
his triumphant arms against the neighbouring king-
doms. He " warred against Denia and against
Xativa, and abode there all the winter, doing great
hurt, insomuch that there did not remain a wall stand-
ing from Orihuela to Xativa, for he laid everything
waste, and all his booty and his prisoners he sold in
Valencia." On one of these expeditions, however, he
lost his capital for a while. Alfonso, in 1089, has
received him back to favour, given him castles, and

206 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

decreed that all the Cid's conquests should be his own
property. In other words, he recognized the Cid as
an almost independent prince. Almost immediately,
however, the king became again suspicious of his
powerful vassal, and seized the opportunity of the
Cid's absence in the north to besiege his peculiar
possession, the city of Valencia. When the Campe-
ador heard this he was very wroth, and, by way of
retaliation, carried fire and sword through Alfonso's
districts of Najera and Calahorra, razed Logrono to
the ground, and, in the words of the old Latin Gesta,
" with terrible and impious despoilment he wasted
and harried the land, and stripped it bare of its riches
and seized them for himself." Alfonso hastily aban-
doned the siege of Valencia, and returned to defend
his own country. But the Cid, having effected his
purpose, came back another way, and found the gates
of Valencia closed against him.

Then began that memorable siege of nine months,
during which the people of Valencia suffered agonies
of hunger and thirst, while the Cid maintained his
remorseless leaguer round the walls. The besieged
were reduced to the agonies of starvation, and those
who rushed out, or were thrust forth as useless burdens
by the townspeople, were massacred or sold into
slavery by the Cid's soldiers. It is even said by the
Moorish historians that the Cid had many of them
burnt alive. The Chronicle pathetically records :
" Now there was no food to be bought in the city, and
the people were in the waves of death ; and men were
seen to drop and die in the streets." Thus wrote a
poet of the devoted city :

SIEGE OF VALENCIA. 2OJ

" Valencia ! Valencia ! trouble is come upon thee^
and thou art in the hour of death ; and if peradventure
thou shouldst escape, it will be a wonder to all that
shall behold thee.

" But if ever God hath shown mercy to any place,
let Him be pleased to show mercy unto thee ; for thy
name was joy, and all Moors delighted in thee and
took their pleasure in thee.

** And if it should please God utterly to destroy
thee now, it will be for thy great sins, and for the
great presumption which thou hadst in thy pride.

" The four corner stones whereon thou art founded
would meet together and lament for thee, if they could !

" Thy strong wall which is founded upon these four
stones trembles, and is about to fall, and hath lost all
its strength.

" Thy lofty and fair towers which were seen from
far, and rejoiced the hearts of the people, . . . little
by little they are falling.

" Thy white battlements which glittered afar off,
have lost their truth with which they shone like the
sunbeams.

" Thy noble river Guadalaviar, with all the other
waters with which thou hast been served so well, have
left their channel, and now they run where they should
not.

" Thy water-courses, which were so clear and of such
great profit to so many, for lack of cleansing are
choked with mud.

" Thy pleasant gardens which were round about
thee ; . . . the ravenous wolf hath gnawn at the roots,
and the trees can yield thee no fruit.

208 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

" Thy goodly fields, with so many and such fair
flowers, wherein thy people were wont to take their
pastime, are all dried up.

" Thy noble harbour, which was so great honour to
thee, is deprived of all the nobleness which was wont
to come into it for thy sake.

" The fire hath laid waste the lands of which thou
wert called Mistress, and the great smoke thereof
reacheth thee.

" There is no medicine for thy sore infirmity, and
the physicians despair of healing thee.

" Valencia ! Valencia ! from a broken heart have I
littered all these things which I have said of thee.

" And this grief would I keep unto myself that none
should know it, if it were not needful that it should
be known to all."

At last, in June, 1094, Valencia surrendered, and
the Cid stood once more upon her towers and ram-
~parts. He made hard conditions with the people,
many of whom he sent away to the suburbs to make
room for his Castilians. But if he was harsh and not
quite honest in his dealings with the vanquished, his
triumph was stained by no wholesale butchery. The
people were sometimes ruined ; but their lives, except
their leader's, were safe. The Cid had now attained
the summit of his power. He sent for his wife and
daughters from the abbey, and established himself
permanently as King of Valencia and suzerain of the
country round about. The King of Aragon besought
his alliance. He exacted heavy tribute from his
neighbours; his revenue included 120,000 pieces ot
gold yearly from Valencia, io,ooc from the lord of

THE FIGHT WITH THE ALMORAVIDES. 2Og

Albarracin, 10,000 from the heir of Alpuente, 6,000
from the Master of Murviedro, and so forth. He
dreamed of reconquering all Andalusia. " One Rode-
rick," he said, " lost Spain ; another shall recover it."
When the Almoravides came against him, he put
them to rout. The Chronicle tells the story :

" Day is gone, and night is come. At cock-crow
they all assembled together in the Church of St.
Pedro, and the Bishop Don Hieronymo sang mass,
and they were shriven and assoyled and howselled.
Great was the absolution which the bishop gave them :
He who shall die, said he, fighting face forward, I
will take his sins, and God shall have his soul. Then
said he, A boon, Cid Don Rodrigo ; I have sung
mass to you this morning : let me have the giving the
first wounds in this battle ! and the Cid granted him
this boon in the name of God. Then, being all ready,
they went out through the gate which is called the
Gate of the Snake, for the greatest power of the
Moors was on that side, leaving good men to guard
the gates. Alvar Fanez and his company were already
gone forth, and had laid their ambush. Four thousand,
lacking thirty, were they who went out with my Cid,
with a good will, to attack fifty thousand. They went
through all the narrow places and bad passes, and,
leaving the ambush on the left, struck to the right
hand, so as to get the Moors between them and the
town. And the Cid put his battles in good array,
and bade Pero Bermudez bear his banner. When the
Moors saw this they were greatly amazed ; and they
harnessed themselves in great haste, and came out of
their tents. Then the Cid bade his banner move on,

15

210 MY CID THE CHALLENGER.

and the Bishop Don Hieronymo pricked forward with
his company, and laid on with such guise, that the
hosts were soon mingled together. Then might you
have seen many a horse running about the field with
the saddle under his belly, and many a horseman in
evil plight upon the ground. Great was the smiting
and slaying in short time ; but by reason that the
Moors were so great a number, they bore hard upon
the Christians, and were in the hour of overcoming
them. And the Cid began to encourage them with a
loud voice, shouting God and Santiago ! And Alvar
Fanez at this time issued out from ambush, and fell
upon them, on the side which was nearest the sea ;
and the Moors thought that a great power had arrived
to the Cid's succour, and they were dismayed, and
began to fly. And the Cid and his people pursued,
punishing them in a bad way. If we should wish to
tell you how every one behaved himself in this battle,
it is a thing which could not be done, for all did so
well that no man can relate their feats. And the Cid
Ruydiez did so well, and made such mortality among
the Moors, that the blood ran from his wrist to his
elbow ! Great pleasure had he in his horse Bavieca
that day, to find himself so well mounted. And in
the pursuit he came up to King Yusuf, and smote him
three times ; but the king escaped from under the
sword, for the horse of the Cid passed on in his course,
and when he turned, the king being on a fleet horse
was far off, so that he might not be overtaken ; and
he got into a castle called Guyera, for so far did the
Christians pursue them, smiting and slaying, and
giving them no respite, so that hardly fifteen thou-
sand escaped of fifty that they were."

TOMB OF THE CID AT SAN PEDRO DE CARDENA,

BURIAL OF THE CID. 213

But the fortune of war is fickle. The troops of the
Cid were defeated at last by the invaders ; and the
Campeador died of grief in July, 1099. They took
his body and embalmed it, and kept vigil by its side ;
then, in the legend of the poets, they did as the Cid
had bidden them : they set him upon his good horse
Bavieca, and fastened the saddle well, so that he sat
erect, with his countenance unchanged, his eyes bright
and fair, and his beard flowing down his breast, and
his trusty sword Tizona in his hand. No one would
have known that he was dead. And they led Bavieca
out of the city : Pero Bermudez in front with the banner
of the Cid and five hundred knights to guard it, and
Dona Ximena behind with her company and escort.
Slowly they cut a path through the besiegers, and
took the road to Castile, leaving the Moors in sore
amazement at their strange departure : for they did
not know that the Cid was dead. But the body of
the hero was set in an ivory chair beside the great
altar of San Pedro de Cardefia, under a canopy
whereon were blazoned the arms of Castile and Leon,
Navarre and Aragon, and of the Cid Campeador.
Ten years the Cid sat upright beside the altar, his
face still noble and comely, when the signs of death
at last began to appear ; so they buried him before
the altar, where Dona Ximena already lay ; and they
left him in the vault, still upright in the ivory chair,
still in his princely robes with the sword Tizona in
his hand,— still the great Campeador whose dinted
shield and banner of victory hung desolate over his
tomb.

XII.

THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

WITH such soldiers as the Cid, and such kings as
Fernando and Alfonso, the recovery of all Spain by
the Christians was only a matter of time. Every
nation, it appears, has its time of growth and its
period of efflorescence, after which comes the age of
decay. As Greece fell, as Rome fell, as every ancient
kingdom the world has known has risen, triumphed,
and fallen, so fell the Moors in Spain. Their time
was now near at hand. They had been divided and
undisciplined before the Almoravide annexation :
they were not less so when their Berber masters had
been expelled. But_hard]y _had the : Almoravides_dist_
appeared, when a new enemy came on the scene. The
Almohades, or fanatical " Unitarians," who had over-
thrown the power of the Almoravides in Africa,
V resolved to imitate their vanquished predecessors by
including Andalusia in their empire^ The dissensions
among the princes of the long-shattered kingdom of
the Moors made the task an easy one. In 1 145 the
Almohades took Algeciras ; in 1146 they occupied
Seville and Malaga, and the next four years saw
Cordova and the rest of southern Spain united under
their sway. Some princes, indeed, held out for a while,

LAS NAVAS. 217

but the hordes of African fanatics were too overpower-
ing for any single chief to make a protracted stand
against them.

Thg^AlronhaHeSj hnwe.vprT had no thnnorht of making
Andalusia the centre of their government. They,
ruled it from Africa, and the consequence was that
their hold upon Spain was weak. The disturbed
provinces of Andalusia were not easily to be retained
by princes who contented themselves with deputies
sent from Morocco, and with an occasional expedition
to repel the -attacks of the Christians. When jthey-
came in force their efforts were generally crowned,
with success. They won a splendid victory over the
Christians in 1195 at Alarcos, near BadajoZj where,
thousands of the enemy were slain, and immense
spoils fell into the hands of the fanatics. J3ut_jthe
fortune of war changed when, in 1212, the disastrous
field of Las Navas decided the faje of the Almo-
hades. Of 600.000 men, few escaped to tell the
tale of slaughter. City after city fell into the hands
of the Christians ; and family dissensions among the
foreigners, and the attacks of rival dynasties in Africa,
enabled the chiefs of Andalusia, who had grown im-
patient of the spasmodic rule of their foreign masters,
in 1235, to drive the Almohades out of the peninsula.
An Arab chief, Ibn-Hud, then made himself master
of most of the south of Spain, and even of Ceuta in
Africa; but he died in 1238, and the command of
Andalusia now devolved upon the Beny-Nasr of
Granada.

Tjie.-kingdom of Granada was the last bulwark of
the Moors in Spain. It^was not much that was now

2l8 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

left to them. Between 1238 and 1260, Fernando
III. of Castile ancPJayme I. of Aragon conquered
Valencia, Cordova, Seville, and Murcia ; and the rule
of the Moors was now restricted to the present pro-
vince of Granada, /.*., the country about the Sierra
Nevada and the sea coast from Almeria to Gibraltar.
Within this limit, however, their kingdom was des-
tined to endure for another two centuries and a half.
Though hemmed in on all sides, the Moors were well
served by soldiers. The people of the conquered
cities, the most valiant warriors of the vanquished
Moslem states, came to place their swords at the dis-
posal of the one remaining Mohammedan king. Fifty
thousand Moors are recorded to have fled to his pro-
tection from Valencia, and three hundred thousand
from Seville, Xeres, and Cadiz. Nevertheless, Granada
was forced to become tributary to the Castilian crown.
The founder of the dynasty of theBeny-Nasr, an
-Arahjiamed lbn-el-Ahmar^ or the "^R.ed man," b(T-
cause of his fair skin and hair, was a vigorous
sovereign, but he could not withstand the power of
the Christians, who now held nearly the whole of
Spain. He paid homage and tribute to Fernando
and his son Alfonso the Learned, not, however, without
more than one struggle to free himself from their yoke ;
and from that time forward Granada with its surround-
ing territory was generally^ let alone by the Christian
kings, who had enough to do to settle their already
vast acquired territory and to do away with local pre-
tenders. From time to time the Moors made war
upon their Christian neighbours, but eventually they
'liad to make up their minds to a secondary position

SHIELD OF A KING OF GRANADA.

ALHAMBRA. 221

/ The sum of twelve thousand gold ducats was

l< tribute paid by Mohammed X., in 1463, as a condition/1

/of peace. During these two centuries the Moorish

Territory had suffered little diminution. Gibraltar

had been lost and won and lost again ; other places,

notably Algeciras, had become part of the Christian

dominions ; but the general extent of the Moslem

realm remained in the third quarter of the fifteenth

century much what it had been in the first half of the

thirteenth.

During this period of comparative tranquillity,
Granada had taken the place of Cordova as the home
of the arts and sciences. Its architects were renowned
throughout Europe ; they had built the marvellous
" Red Palace," Alhambray so called from the colour of
the ferruginous soil on which it stands, and they had
covered it with the splendid gold ornament and Ara-
besque mouldings which are still the wonder of artists
of all countries.1 Granada itself, with its two castles,
was a pearl of price. It stands on the border of a
rich plain, the famous " Vega," lying at the feet of the
snowy " mountains of the moon," the Sierra Nevada.
From the heights of the city, and still better from the
Alhambra, which stands sentinel over the plain like
the Acropolis of Athens, the eye ranges over this
beautiful Vega, with its streams and vineyards, its
orchards and orange groves. No city in Andalusia
was more favoured in site or climate ; the breezes

1 The Alhambra was begun in the thirteenth century and completed
in the fourteenth. Washington Irving, who visited it in 1829, in com-
pany with Prince Dolgorouki, has given an interesting account of his
life there, which combines the romance nnd the history of the place.

222 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

from the snow mountains made the hottest summer
tolerable, and the land was fertile beyond compare.

The site chosen by the Moors for their celebrated
Red Palace is a terrace bounded by precipitous ravines,
at the foot of which, to the north, flow the waters ol
the river Darro. Solid walls of stone covered with
stucco, and strengthened at frequent intervals by
towers, surround the terrace. The enclosed space
is somewhat of the form of a lanceolate leaf lying
on the table-land, with its greatest length (about
half a mile) from east to west.

The visitor finds his way into the enclosure through
a massive embattled tower of orange and red pierced
by the Gate of Justice under which the khalifs, like
the judges of the Hebrews, were wont to sit in judg-
ment. Twenty-eight feet above the pavement, over
the horseshoe arch, a cabalistic key and a gigantic
hand are carved on two stones. Once inside the
walls, the visitor finds himself in a square, on one
side of which is an unfinished palace designed by
Charles the Fifth. The corridor through which
entrance is now gained to the Alhambra crosses
an angle of this ruined structure and admits the
visitor to the Court of the Myrtles, so called from the
profusion of those shrubs which adorn its sides.
A narrow passage ushers us into a court one hundred
and forty feet long, and half as broad, flooded with
sunlight and gay with gold-fish, which disport them-
selves in a long pond that fills the larger part of the
space. Pillars and galleries adorn the sides and ends
of the enclosure, and on the north the great square
tower of Comares rises against the horizon. The

ALHAMBRA. 22$

court is a place of peace ; the water scarcely makes a
ripple as it gently oozes into the ample reservoir, and
leaves it without a gurgle ; the multitudinous gold-
fishes gleam and glitter in the profusion of sunshine ;
no suggestion of the outer world penetrates the
stillness.

All is calm, but it is not the dull, cold calm of ruin
and death ; we can but feel a sense of companionship
with the former masters of the palace and the grounds.
We walk through the Barca, or boat-shaped ante-
chamber, to the Hall of the Ambassadors, and imagine
the khalif of the Omeyyads seated upon his throne
at the end ; while we gaze up into the lofty dome
and allow our eyes to wander about the great apart-
ment as we admire the medallions, the graceful cha-
racters of the Arabic inscriptions, the delicate patterns
of the plaster-work with which the walls are adorned ;
the balconies, the white, blue, and gold of the cornice
and ceiling ; the circles, crowns, and stars moulded to
imitate the vault of heaven. We stop before the
window looking over the Darro to think how Ayesha
once let Boabdil down in a basket from it five cen-
turies ago ; how Charles the Fifth said of the unfor-
tunate Moor, " Ill-fated was the man who lost all this ! "
We bring up before us the discoverer of America,
as tradition paints him, pleading in this place with
the good Isabella for gracious permission to add
another jewel to her crown — the bright gem of a New
World. We climb to the terraced roof of the tower,
following the narrow windings of the steep stairway
once trodden by fair lady and gallant prince as they
hastened to the lofty battlement to watch the approach

16

226 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

of some army or anxiously to study the progress of a
battle on the Vega. Our eyes search the broad ex-
panse for that bridge of Pinos where Moor and
Christian more than once fought for the mastery.
We remember that it was at that spot that Isabella's
messenger overtook the despairing Columbus, as he
conveyed to him the queen's recall, when the mariner
was plodding towards other realms to carry his bold
proposition to other and, as he hoped, more gracious
sovereigns. We care not that it is tradition only
which fixes the spot ; tradition and romance are a
portion of the charm of the Alhambra.

In our search through the intricate plan of the
pile, we find ourselves in the boudoir of the Sultana,
the windows of which command the same prospect
over the Vega, a scene to which distance lends its
greatest charm. We are reminded on every side of
the luxury of the olden time, when we see the
apertures in the white marble floor near the entrance,
through which perfumes arose from drugs, which
tradition says were burned beneath the floor to make
the air of the lady's apartment redolent with their
sweet scents. We look down into the garden of the
Lindaraja, upon which Irving also looked when he
occupied those apartments which have become historic
on his account. The garden itself is scarcely worthy
of notice, for it is a little-cultivated court ; but near
by are the baths of the Sultans, with their delicate
filigree work, intricate tracery, and brilliant mosaics.
There is the fountain which ripples in gentle cadence,
as if keeping time to the harmony that the musicians
poured down from the balconies when the ladies oi

COURT OF THE LIONS. 227

the harim enjoyed the pleasures of the Oriental bath,
or rested themselves upon cloth of gold. Each bath,
cut from a single mass of white marble, was placed in
its own vaulted chamber, and lighted through open-
work of stars and roses.

Perhaps the most celebrated portion of the entire
palace is the Court of the Lions, which occupies a
space somewhat smaller than that of the Court of the
Myrtles. One hundred and twenty-eight white marble
columns, arranged by threes and fours in symmetrical
fashion, support galleries which rise to no very lofty
height ; but the extreme gracefulness and elegance
of their varied capitals, the delicate traceries, the
remnants of gold and colour, the raised orange-shaped
cupolas, the graceful minarets, the innumerable arches,
beautiful in their labyrinthine design, the empty basin
into which the twelve stiff and unnatural " lions" once
poured their constant streams of cooling waters, the
alabaster reservoir, constitute a whole that poetry and
romance have lauded even to extravagance.

From this beautiful court, through a door orna-
mented with rare designs, one is ushered into the Hall
of the Abencerrages, named from the legend that in
its precincts the chiefs of that family were beheaded
by order of Boabdil. Convenient spots in the stone
floor are exhibited to credulous visitors as evidence?
that the blood was there spilt. The sweet and
peaceful light which enters the apartment by sixteen
airy windows in the star-shaped stalactite roof,
illuminating its arches ornamented in azure and
scarlet, seem all inappropriate to such a scene of
slaughter, and charity would lead us, if history did

228 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

not, to doubt that the stain should rest upon the
memory of Boabdil.

Time would fail us to go through all the courts and
halls of the comprehensive building, and we must
make our way over the road that crosses the ravine
of Los Molinos, bordered with figs and pistachios,
laurels and roses, to the other palace, the Generalife,
or " Garden of the Surveyor." This is the " Country
House " of the greater palace, and, so far as the exterior
of the building is concerned, presents the usual
simplicity of Oriental structures. Here are the walls
without windows, the terraces, the galleries, the
arcades — all of which are in a state of ruin. The
delicate arabesques are covered with thick layers of
whitewash ; the fine sculptures have disappeared, and
the internal beauty of the edifice has long since
departed ; but the charm of the gardens and waters
remains. A rapid stream runs through an artificial
channel of marble the entire length of the enclosure
under a series of arcades and leafy screens formed by
curiously twisted yews, while cypresses and orange
trees cast their cooling shadows upon the waters. Jets
and fountains, rapid-flowing streams and placid ponds,
little basins nestling under ancient bays, murmuring
rivulets and winding courses reflecting the blue of the
sky, are intermingled with the utmost perfection of
skill, and the combination forms one of the most
charming effects that can be imagined.

" Here," says Irving, " is everything to delight a
southern voluptuary : fruits, flowers, fragrance, green
arbours and myrtle hedges, delicate air and gushing
water. Here I had an opportunity of witnessing

GARDEN OF THE GENERALIFE, GRANADA.

THE GENERALIFE. 23!

those scenes which painters are fond of depicting
about southern palaces and gardens. It was the
saint's day of the Count's daughter, and she had
brought up several of her youthful companions from
Granada to sport away a long summer's day among
the breezy halls and bowers of the Moorish palace.
A visit to the Generalife was the morning's entertain-
ment. Here some of the gay companions dispersed
themselves in groups about the green walks, the bright
fountains, the flight of Italian steps, the noble terraces,
and marble balustrades. Others, among whom I was
one, took their seats in an open gallery or colonnade,
commanding a vast prospect ; with the Alhambra, the
city, and the Vega far below, and the distant horizon
of mountains — a dreamy world, all glimmering to the
eye in summer sunshine. While thus seated, the
all-pervading tinkling of the guitar and click on the
castanets came stealing up the valley of the Darro,
and half-way down the mountain we descried a festive
party under the trees enjoying themselves in true
Andalusian style; some lying on the grass, others
dancing to the music."

From the ruined building one gains, perhaps, the
most satisfactory view of the Alhambra, as its reddish
line of half-demolished walls is traced along the
undulations of the mountain on which it stands ; while
the white ridges of the Sierra Nevada furnish a
magnificent background for the picture, and set off
the heavy mass of the unfinished palace of Charles
the Fifth,

Two centuries of prosperity, with a powerful Chris-
tiarTStateT almost at bow-shot, were as much as the

232 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

Moors had any right to expect ; and towards the
third quarter of the fifteenth century there were signs
that their knell was about to sound. The union of
Aragon with Castile by the marriage of Ferdinand
.and Isabella was the note of doom. Two such
sovereigns could not long leave the Moors undisturbed
in their corner of the peninsula. Muley Aly, gene-
rally known by his surname, Abu-1-Hasan (which the
Spaniards change into Alboacen, and many English
writers into Aben Hasan), who was of a fiery and
warlike nature, resolved to be beforehand with their
Catholic majesties in opening the game of war. He
refused to pay the customary tribute, and when the
ambassador of Ferdinand came to insist, he made
answer;, "Tell your sovereigns that the kings of
Granada who paid tribute are dead : our mint now
coins nothing but sword-blades!" To. make his
meaning unmistakable, he proceeded to carry a raid
into the lands of the Christians. Zahara was the spot
he selected for attack. A gifted American author has
told the story of the last wars of the Moors in his own
eloquent style ; and we must follow Washington
Irving in relating the assault of Zahara.1

" In^the year of our Lord one thousanjLjmirhut|r
dred and eighty one, .and but a night or two after the
festival of the most blessed Nativity, the inhabitants
of Zahara were sunk in profound sleep ; the very sen-
tinel had deserted his post, and sought shelter from a
tempest which had raged without for three nights in
succession ; for it appeared but little probable that
an enemy would be abroad during such an uproar of

1 Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, chap. iv.

ZAHARA. 233

the elements. But evil spirits work best during a
storm. In the midst of the night an uproar rose
within the walls of Zahara, more awful than the raging
of the storm. A fearful alarm-cry, * The Moor ! '
1 The Moor ! ' resounded through the streets, mingled
with the clash of arms, the shriek of anguish, and
the shout of victory. Muley Abu-1-Hasan, at the head
of a powerful force, had hurried from Granada, and
passed unobserved through the mountains in the ob-
scurity of the tempest. While the storm pelted the
sentinel from his post and howled around tower and
battlement, the Moors had planted their scaling-
ladders, and mounted securely into both town and
castle. The garrison was unsuspicious of danger
until battle and massacre burst forth within its very
walls. It seemed to the affrighted inhabitants as if
the fiends of the air had come upon the wings of the
wind, and possessed themselves of tower and turret.
The war-cry resounded on every side, shout answer-
ing shout, above, below, on the battlements of the
castle, in the streets of the town ; the foe was in all
parts, wrapped in obscurity, but acting in concert by
the aid of preconcerted signals. Starting from sleep,
the soldiers were intercepted and cut down as they
rushed from their quarters ; or, if they escaped, they
knew not where to assemble, or where to strike.
Whenever lights appeared, the flashing scimitar was
at its deadly work, and all who attempted resistance
fell beneath its edge. In a little while the struggle
was at an end. Those who were not slain took
refuge in the secret places of their houses, or gave
themselves up as captives. The clash of arms ceased,

234 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

and the storm continued its howling, mingled with
the occasional shout of the Moorish soldiery roaming
in search of plunder. While the inhabitants were
trembling for their fate, a trumpet resounded through
the streets, summoning them all to assemble, unarmed,
in the public square. Here they were surrounded by
soldiery, and strictly guarded until daybreak. When
the day dawned, it was piteous to behold this once
prosperous community, which had lain down to rest
in peaceful security, now crowded together without
distinction of age, or rank, or sex, and almost without
raiment, during the severity of a winter storm. The
fierce Muley Abu-1-Hasan turned a deaf ear to all
remonstrances, and ordered them to be conducted
captives to Granada. Leaving a strong garrison in
both town and castle, with orders to put them in a
complete state of defence, he returned flushed with
victory to his capital, entering it at the head of his
troops, laden with spoil, and bearing in triumph the
banners and pennons taken at Zahara. While prepa-
rations were making for jousts-and-other festivitk&oa
honour of this victory over the Christians, the captives
of Zahara arrived — a wretched train of men, women,
and children, worn out with fatigue and haggard with-
despair, and driven like cattle into the city gates by a
detachment of Moorish soldiery."

The civilized people of Granada were shocked at
the cruelty of Abu-1-Hasan, and felt that this was the
beginning of the end. " Woe to Granada ! " they
cried. " The hour of its desolation is at hand. The
ruins of Zahara will fall upon our own heads ! "

Retribution was not far off. The redoubtable

ALHAMA. 235

Marquess of Cadiz captured the castle of Alhama by
surprise, and thus planted a Christian garrison in the
heart of the Moslem territory, within a short distance
of Granada itself. In vain did Muley Abu-1-Hasan
invest the captured castle ; the Christians within
performed prodigies of valour in its defence, and held
the place till their friends came to their support.
Ay de mi Alhama ! " Woe for my Alhama ! " was the
cry that arose in Granada ; " Alhama is fallen ; the
key of Granada is in the hands of the infidels ! "
Byron has made every one familiar with the plain-
tive ballad which he mistranslated :

Paseabase el rey Moro
For la ciudad de Granada,
Desde las puertas de Elvira
Hasta las de Bivarambla.

Ay de mi Alhama !

Henceforward, the castle proved a sore thorn in the
side of the Moorish kings ; for thence the brave
Count of Tendillo harried the Vega and wrought
infinite destruction. " It was a pleasing and refreshing
sight," says the Jesuit chronicler1 invented by Wash-
ington Irving, "to behold the pious knight and his
followers returning from one of these crusades,
leaving the rich land of the infidel in smoking de-
solation behind them : to behold the long line of
mules and asses laden with the plunder of the

1 Mr. Irving says of his "chronicler": "In constructing my
chronicle, I adopted the fiction of a Spanish monk as a chronicler.
Fray Antonio Agapida was intended as a personification of the monkish
zealots who hovered about the sovereigns in their campaigns, marring
the chivalry of the camp by the bigotry of the cloister, and chronicling
in rapturous strains every act of intolerance towards the Moors." (In-
troduction to the revised edition of the Conquest of Granada, 1850.)

336 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

Gentiles, the hosts of captive Moors, men, women,
and children ; droves of sturdy beeves, lowing kine
and bleating sheep — all winding up the steep acclivity
to the gates of Alhama, pricked on by the Catholic
soldiery. ... It was an awful spectacle at night to
behold the volumes of black smoke, mingled with
lurid flames, that rose from the burning suburbs, and
the women on the walls of the towns wringing their
hands and shrieking at the desolation of their
dwellings."

Inflamed by their respective conquests, both sides
busied themselves in raids such as these, with little
result, save general devastation and exasperation.
The Christians at last attempted a movement on a
larger scale. They resolved to invade the province
of Malaga, and, marshalling the forces of the south,
led by the Marquess of Cadiz and other noted
warriors, they set out upon their fateful march. " It
was on a Wednesday2 that the pranking army of
high-mettled warriors issued forth from the ancient
gates of Antequera. They marched all day and
night, making their way secretly, as they supposed,
through the passes of the mountains. As the
tract of country they intended to maraud was far
in the Moorish territories, near the coast of the
Mediterranean, they did not arrive there till late in
the following day. In passing through these stern
and lofty mountains, their path was often along the
bottom of a barranca, or deep rocky valley, with a
scanty stream dashing along it, among the loose
rocks and stones which it had broken and rolled

9 Washington Irving : Conquest of Granada, chap. xii.

THE MOUNTAINS OF MALAGA. 237

down in the time of its autumnal violence. Some-
times their road was a mere rambla, or dry bed of a
torrent cut deep into the mountains and filled with
their shattered fragments. These barrancas and
ramblas were overhung by immense cliffs and pre-
cipices, forming the lurking-places of ambuscades
during the wars between the Moors and Spaniards, as
in after times they have become the favourite haunts
of robbers to waylay the unfortunate traveller.

" As the sun went down, the cavaliers came to a lofty
part of the mountains, commanding, to their right, a
distant glimpse of a part of the fair Vega of Malaga,
with the blue Mediterranean beyond, and they hailed
it with exultation, as a glimpse of the promised land-
As the night closed in they reached the chain 01
little valleys and hamlets, locked up among those
rocky heights, and known among the Moors by the
name of Axarquia. Here their vaunting hopes were
destined to meet the first disappointment. The
inhabitants had heard of their approach ; they had
conveyed away their cattle and effects, and with their
wives and children had taken refuge in the towers and
fortresses of the mountains.

" Enraged at their disappointment, the troops set fire
to the deserted houses, and pressed forward, hoping
for better fortune as they advanced. Don Alonzo de
Aguilar, and the other cavaliers in the van-guard,
spread out their forces to lay waste the country,
capturing a few lingering herds of cattle, with the
Moorish peasants who were driving them to some
place of safety.

" While this marauding party carried fire and sword

238 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

in the advance, and lit up the mountain cliffs with
the flames of the hamlets, the Master of Santiago,
who brought up the rear-guard, maintained strict
order, keeping his knights together in martial array,
ready for attack or defence should an enemy appear.
The men-at-arms of the Holy Brotherhood attempted
to roam in quest of booty ; but he called them back
and rebuked them severely.

" At last they came to a part of the mountain com-
pletely broken up by barrancas and ramblas, of vast
depth, and shagged with rocks and precipices. It
was impossible to maintain the order of march ; the
horses had no room for action, and were scarcely
manageable, having to scramble from rock to rock,
and up and down frightful declivities, where there was
scarce footing for a mountain goat. Passing by a
burning village, the light of the flames revealed their
perplexed situation. The Moors, who had taken
refuge in a watch-tower on an impending height,
shouted with exultation when they looked down upon
these glistening cavaliers, struggling and stumbling
among the rocks. Sallying forth from their tower,
they took possession of the cliffs which overhung the
ravine, and hurled darts and stones upon the enemy.

"In this extremity the Master of Santiago despatched
messengers in search of succour. The Marquess of
Cadiz, like a loyal companion-in-arms, hastened to
his aid with his cavalry. His approach checked the
assaults of the enemy, and the master was at length
enabled to extricate his troops from the defile. . . .

" The Adalides, or guides, were ordered to lead the
way out of this place of carnage. These, thinking to

THE MOUNTAINS OF MALAGA. 239

conduct them by the most secure route, led them by
a steep and rocky pass, difficult for the foot soldiers,
but almost impracticable to the cavalry. It was
overhung with precipices, from whence showers of
stones and arrows were poured upon them, accom-
panied by savage yells, which appalled the stoutest
heart. In some places they could pass but one at a
time, and were often transpierced, horse and rider, by
the Moorish darts, impeding the progress of their
comrades by their dying struggles. The surrounding
precipices were lit up by a thousand alarm fires ;
every crag and cliff had its flames, by the light of
which they beheld their foes bounding from rock to
rock, and looking more like fiends than mortal men.
Either through terror and confusion, or through real
ignorance of the country, their guides, instead of
conducting them out of the mountains, led them
deeper into their fatal recesses. The morning dawned
upon them in a narrow rambla ; its bottom formed
of broken rocks, where once had raved along the
mountain torrent ; while above them beetled huge
arid cliffs, over the brows of which they beheld the
turbaned heads of their fierce and exulting foes. . . .

"All day they made ineffectual attempts to extricate
themselves from the mountains. Columns of smoke
rose from the heights where, in the preceding night,
had blazed the alarm fire. The mountaineers as-
sembled from every direction : they swarmed at every
pass, getting in the advance of the Christians, and
garrisoning the cliffs, like so many towers and battle-
ments.

" Night closed again upon the Christians, when they

240 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

were shut up in a narrow valley traversed by a deep
stream, and surrounded by precipices which seemed
to reach the sky, and on which the alarm fires blazed
and flared. Suddenly a new cry was heard resounding
along the valley. Ez-Zagel ! Ez-Zagel ! echoed from
cliff to cliff. * What cry is that ? ' said the master of
Santiago. ' It is the war-cry of Ez-Zagel, the Moorish
general/ said an old Castilian soldier; * he must
be coming in person with the troops of Malaga.1

" The worthy Master turned to his knights : * Let us
die/ said he, ' making a road with our hearts, since
we cannot with our swords. Let us scale the moun-
tains, and sell our lives dearly, instead of staying here
to be tamely butchered/

"So saying, he turned his steed against the mountain,
and spurred him up its flinty side. Horse and foot
followed his example, eager, if they could not escape,
to have at least a dying blow at the enemy. As they
struggled up the height, a tremendous storm of darts
and stones was showered upon them by the Moors.
Sometimes a fragment of rock came bounding and
thundering down, ploughing its way through the
centre of their host. The foot soldiers, faint with
weariness and hunger, or crippled by wounds, held
by the tails and manes of their horses, to aid them in
their ascent, while the horses, losing their footing
among the loose stones, or receiving some sudden
wound, tumbled down the steep declivity, steed, rider,
and soldier rolling from crag to crag, until they were
dashed to pieces in the valley. In this desperate
struggle the Alferez, or standard-bearer of the Master,
with his standard was lost, as were many of his

THE MOUNTAINS OF MALAGA. 24!

relations and dearest friends. At length he succeeded
in attaining the crest of the mountain ; but it was
only to be plunged in new difficulties. A wilder-
ness of rocks and rugged dells lay before him, beset
by cruel foes. Having neither banner nor trumpet,
by which to rally his troops, they wandered apart,
each intent upon saving himself from the precipices
of the mountains and the darts of the enemy. When
the pious Master of Santiago beheld the scattered
fragments of his late gallant force he could not
restrain his grief. * O God ! ' exclaimed he, ' great
is Thy anger this day against Thy servants ! Thou
hast converted the cowardice of these infidels into
desperate valour, and hast made peasants and boors
victorious over armed men of battle ! '

"He would fain have kept his foot soldiers and
gathered them together, and have made head against
the enemy ; but those around him entreated him to
think only of his personal safety. To remain was to
perish without striking a blow ; to escape was to
preserve a life that might be devoted to vengeance on
the Moors. The Master reluctantly yielded to their
advice. ' O Lord of Hosts,' exclaimed he again,
'from Thy wrath do I fly, not from these infidels.
They are but instruments in Thy hands to chastise
us for our sins ! ' So saying, he sent the guides in
advance, and, putting spurs to his horse, dashed
through a defile of the mountain before the Moors
could intercept him. The moment the Master put
his horse to speed, his troops scattered in all direc-
tions : some endeavoured to follow his traces, but were
confounded among the intricacies of the mountain.

17

242 THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA.

They fled hither and thither, many perishing among
the precipices, others being slain by the Moors, and
others taken prisoners."

The horrors of that night among the mountains of
Malaga were not speedily forgotten by the Christians.
They burned for vengeance ; and when " Boabdil "
(properly Abu-Abdallah), the King of Granada, who
had temporarily ousted his father from the sovereignty*
sallied forth on a sweeping raid into the lands of the
Christians, they took a signal revenge. Boabdil
marched secretly by night ; but his movements were
not long undetected. Beacon fires blazed from the
hill-tops, and the Count of Cabra, aroused by their
flames, sounded the alarm, and assembled the chiefs
of the district. They fell upon the Moors near
Lucena, and, aided by the cover of the woods, made
so skilful an attack, that the enemy turned. " Re-
member the mountains of Malaga ! " was the ominous
cry, as the Christian knights set spurs to their horses
in pursuit of the Moslems : with shouts of St. James
they dashed upon them, and the retreat became an
utter rout. When the fugitives entered the gates of
Granada a great wave of lamentation passed through
the city : " Beautiful Granada, how is thy glory faded !
The flower of thy chivalry lies low in the land of the
stranger ; no longer does the Bivarambla echo to
the tramp of steed and sound of trumpet ; no longer
is it crowded with thy youthful nobles, gloriously
arrayed for the tilt and tourney. Beautiful Granada !
the soft note of the lute no longer floats through thy
moonlit streets ; the serenade is no more heard beneath
thy balconies ; the lively castanet is silent upon thy

A WINDOW IN THE ALHAMBRA.

BOABDIL A PRISONER. 245

hills ; the graceful dance of the Zambra is no more
seen beneath thy bowers. Beautiful Granada ! why is
the Alhambra so forlorn and desolate ? The orange
and myrtle still breathe their perfumes into its silken
chambers ; the nightingale still sings within its
groves ; its marble halls are still refreshed with the
plash of fountains and the gush of limpid rills ! Alas !
the countenance of the king no longer shines within
those halls. The light of the Alhambra is set for
ever ! "

Boabdil, indeed, had been made prisoner and was
now a captive on his way to Cordova, while Ferdinand
ravaged the Vega, and old Muley Abu-1- Hasan, who
now returned to his kingdom, ground his teeth in
impotent rage behind his stout ramparts.

XIII.

THE FALL OF GRANADA.

THE capture of Boabdil by the Christian sovereigns
was a fatal blow to the Moorish power. The loss of
the prince himself was the smallest part of the mis-
fortune. Boabdil, though he could show true Moorish
courage in the battle-field, was a weak and vacillating
man, and was perpetually oppressed by the conviction
that destiny was against him. He was known as
Ez-Zogoiby, "the Unlucky;" and he was ever
lamenting his evil star, against which he felt it was
useless to struggle. " Verily," he would exclaim,
after every reverse, " it was written in the book of
fate that I should be unlucky, and that the kingdom
should come to an end under my rule ! " Boabdil
could easily be spared ; but innocuous as he was in
himself, he might become dangerous in the hands of
a clever adversary ; and events showed that Boabdil's
subjection to Ferdinand contributed as much as any
other cause to the overthrow of the Moorish power in
Andalusia. The Catholic sovereigns received him
with honour at Cordova, and, by friendly persuasion
and arguments drawn from his own desperate situa-
tion and the strongly contrasted successes of the
Christians, they induced him to become their instru-
ment and vassal.

THE ABENCERRAGES. 247

As soon as they felt that they^had completely
mastered^Their tool, the politic king and queen
suffered him to return to Granada, where his, father,
Abu-1-Hasan, once more held the fortress of the
Alhambra. Favoured by his old supporters in the
Albaycin quarter of the city, Boabdil managed to
effect an entrance, and to seize the citadel or keep
called Alcazaba, whence he carried on a guerilla
warfare with his father in the opposite fort. _The
quarrel was further embittered by the rivalry between
the wives of Abu-l-HasaiL. . .Ayesha, the mother. _of
Boabdil, was intensejyi_jealous of a Christian lady^
1 Zoraya, whom Abu-1-Hasan loved far beyond his
other wives ; and the chief courtiers took up the cause
of eitherqueen. Thus arose the celebrated antagon-
ism between the Zegris, a Berber tribe from Aragon,
who supported Ayesha, and the Abencerrages, or
Beny-Serraj, an old Cordovan family, which ended
in the celebrated massacre of the Abencerrages in
the Palace of Alhambra, though whether Boabdil
was the author of this butchery is still matter of
doubt. Supported by the Zegris, Boabdil for some
time held his ground in the citadel. Old Abu-1-Hasan
was too strong for him, however, and the son was
soon compelled to take refuge at Almeria. Hence-
forward_there were always_two kings of Granada :
Boabdil, on the one hand, always unlucky, whether
in policy or battle, and despised by good Moors
as the vassal of the common enemy ; on the other,
Abu-1-Hasjji, or rather his brother Ez-Zagha-1,
" the Valiant/HoFthe old" king did not long~survfve~
the~~mislortunes which his son's rebellion had brought

248 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

upon the kingdom. He lost his sight, and soon
afterwards died, not without suspicion of foul play.

In Ez-Zaghal we see the last great Moorish King
of Andalusia. He was a gallant warrior, a firm ruler,
and a resolute opponent of the Christians. Had he
been untrammelled by his nephew, Granada might
have remained in the hands of the Moors during his
life, though nothing could have prevented the final
triumph of the Christians. Instead of delaying that
victory, however, the kings of Granada did their best
to further and promote it by their internal disputes.
Quern Dens vult perdere, prius dementat : when the
gods have decreed that a king must fall, they fill him
first with folly. Such a suicidal mania now invaded the
minds of the rulers of Granada: at a time when every
man they could gather together was needed to repel
the invasion of the Christians, they wasted their
strength in ruinous struggles with each other, and
one would even intercept the other's army when it
was on the march against the common enemy. The
people of Granada, divided into various factions,
aided and abetted the jealousy of their sovereigns :
always fickle and prone to any change, good or bad,
the Granadinos loved nothing better than to set up
and put down kings. So long as a ruler was for-
tunate in war, and brought back rich spoils from the
territories of the " infidels," they were well pleased to
submit to his sway ; but the moment he failed, they
shut the gates in his face and shouted, Long live
the other ! — who might be Boabdil or Ez-Zaghal, or
any one else who happened for the moment to possess
Granada's changeable affections.

While Boabdil the Unlucky was doing his best to

MOSQUE LAMP FROM GRANADA.

FERDINAND ADVANCES. 251

foil the erforts__oLJiis_ .brave., uncle Ez-Zaghal, the
Christians were gradually narrowing the circle that
they had drawn round the doomed kingdom. City
after city fell into their hands. Alora and other
forts were taken in 1484, with the aid of Ferdinand's
heavy " lombards " — a new and destructive form of
artillery. Coin, Cartama, Ronda, followed in the
next year, not without some vigorous reprisals on the
part of Ez-Zaghal, who caught the knights of Cala-
trava in an ambush, and effected a terrible slaughter.
Still the^course of Christian conquest steadily con-
tinued. Loxa fell in 1486, when an English Earl,
Lord Scales, with a company of English archers, led
the attack. Illora and Moclin succumbed; "the
right eye of Granada is extinguished," cried the
Moors in consternation ; " the Catholic sovereigns
have clipped the right wing of the Moorish vulture,"
was the Christian comment. The western part of
the kingdom had, indeed, been absorbed by Ferdinand
and his intrepid consort. The pomegranate (granadd)
was being devoured grain by grain. Ez-Zaghal be-
came unpopular with the people, who could not brook
disappointment, and they received Boabdil once more__
into their city. He fniinH ifr frarH work fo maintain

/his toothold there against his uncle ; but \vith the
help of some troops furnished by the Christians he
contrived to stand awhile at bay. Just then Ferdinand
was laying siege to Velez, near Malaga, and the news
roused the strongest feeling of indignation in Granada ;
for Malaga was the second city of the kingdom. Its
site, shut in by mountains and the sea, its vineyards
and orchards, gardens and pastures, and its fine de-

252 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

fensive works, made it the right hand of the Moslem
kingdom. If Malaga fell, then the Alhambra must
also pass into the hands of the " eaters of swineflesh."
Moved by the general emotion, and ever ready to
break lance with the invader, Ez-Zaghal boldly led
his troops to the relief of Velez. He knew that his
treacherous nephew was in Granada, ready to take
advantage of his absence to recover his old supremacy;
but Ez-Zaghal was rightly called the Valiant ; he put
aside all thoughts of self, and set out to save Malaga.
But he had to deal with a shrewd opponent ; and
wliITeTie took his measures for a combined attack
from the besieged and the relieving army, Ferdinand
intercepted his messages and countermined his plans.
One night the people of Velez saw the hosts of
Ez-Zaghal gathered in long array upon the neigh-
bouring heights ; the next morning not a soul re-
mained ; the night attack had failed, and the relieving
army had melted like the mist before the resolute
onslaught of the Marquess of Cadiz. When the
dejected stragglers began to steal sadly into the gates
of Granada, the populace easily threw off their old
allegiance, and breaking into furious indignation
against Ez-Zaghal, denounced him as a traitor, and
proclaimed Boabdil king in his stead. As Ez-Zaghal
drew near to the gates of Granada with the remnant
of his army, he found them closed in his face, and
looking up he saw the standard of Boabdil floating
above the towers of the Alhambra. His city, always
intolerant of failure, had shut its heart against him
in his day of trouble, so he turned away and es-
tablished his court at Guadix.

MALAGA. 253

The siege of Malaga itself was now begun, but the
strength of its defences rendered it a formidable ob-
stacle. It was surrounded by mountains, defended
by stout walls, overshadowed by the citadel and the
still loftier Gibralfaro, or " Hill of the Beacon," whence
its garrison could pour down missiles upon the Chris-
tians in the plain. Moreover, the defence was led
by Ez-Zegry, an heroic Moor, who had been Alcayde
of Ronda and could not forgive the Christians for
wrenching that famous rocky fortress from him, and
who now inspired the citizens and his following of
African troops with a spirit of daring and endurance
which the Catholic sovereigns in vain tried to subdue.
Commanding the Gibralfaro, he was able to defend
the city in spite of the peaceful inclinations of its
trading, classes. When the king attempted to bribe
him, he dismissed the messenger with courteous dis-
dain ; and when the city was summoned to surrender,
and the merchants eagerly acquiesced, Ez-Zegry said :
" I was set here not to surrender but to defend." Fer-
dinand concentrated his attack upon the Gibralfaro ;
his terrible cannon, known as the " Seven Sisters
of Ximenes," wrapped the castle in smoke and flame ;
night and day the artillery blazed to and fro. The
Christians attempted to take the place by assault, but
Ez-Zegry and his undaunted followers poured boiling
pitch and rosin upon the assailants, hurled huge stones
upon their heads as they climbed the ladders, and
transfixed them with well-aimed arrows from the
tower above, till the storming party were compelled
to retire with heavy loss. Mines were tried with
better success, and some of the fortifications were

254 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

blown up with gunpowder, for the first time in Spanish
history ; but still the garrison held out. The chivalry
of Spain was now gathered about the waTIs^ of Ma-
laga ; Queen Isabella herself came, and her presence
infused a fresh spirit of enthusiasm into her knights
and soldiers. Wooden towers were brought to bear
upon the battlements ; a testudo of shields was used as
cover for the men who undermined the walls ; but
Ez-Zegry was still unsubdued. At last ..there_ ap-
peared a worse enemy than cannon and gun^
powder : famine began to distress the people of
Malaga, and they were more inclined now to listen to
the pacific policy of the traders than to the bold
counsels of the commander. Help from without was
not to be expected. Ez-Zaghal had, indeed, once
more made an effort to save the besieged city. He
_had^ gathered together what was left of his army and
gone forth from Guadix to succour Malaga ; but his
ill-starred nephew again proved his title to the name
"Unlucky," for in a fit of insensate jealousy he ordered
out the troops of Granada, intercepted Ez-Zaghal's
small force as it was on its way to Malaga, and dis-
persed it. Ez-Zegry's last sally was repulsed with
terrible slaughter ; the people were starving, and
mothers cast their infants before the governor's horse,
lamenting that they had no more food and could not „
bear to hear their children's cries. Xje citj^at last
surrendered, and Ez-Zegry, who still held out in the
Gibralfaro, was forced by his soldiers to open the
gates, and was rewarded for his heroism by being cast
into a dungeon, never to be heard of again.

The long siege was over ; the famished people

FALL or MALAGA.

fought with one another to buy food from the Chris-
jjans. The African garrison, who still kept their proud
look, though worn and enfeebled with their long
struggle and privations, were condemned to slavery ;
the rest of the inhabitants were permitted to ransom
themselves, but on these insidious terms — that all their
goods should at once be paid over to the king as part
payment, and that if after eight months the rest were
not forthcoming, they should all be made slaves.
They were numbered and searched, and then sent
forth. " Then might be seen old men and helpless
women and tender maidens, some of high birth and
gentle condition, passing through the streets, heavily
burdened, towards the Alcazaba. As they left their
homes they smote their breasts, and wrung their
hands, and raised their weeping eyes to heaven in
anguish ; and this is recorded as their plaint : O
Malaga ! city so renowned and beautiful, where now
is the strength of thy castle, where the grandeur of
thy towers ? Of what avail have been thy mighty
walls for the protection of thy children ? . . . They
will bewail each other in foreign lands ; but their
lamentations will be the scoff of the stranger." The
poor people were sent to Seville, where they were kept
in servitude till the eight months had expired, and
then, since they had no money to pay the remainder of
their ransoms, they were one and all condemned to
perpetual slavery, to the number of fifteen thousand
souls. Ferdinand's ungenerous ingenuity was thus
rewarded.

The western part of the kingdom of Granada was
now entirely in the hands of the Christians. ^

18

258 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

famous Moorish^ fortresses of the-Serrania de Ronda
and the beautiful city of Malaga held Christian gar-
rfsons. Granada itself was in the hands of Boabdil,
who hastened to congratulate his liege lord and lady
upon their triumph over Malaga. But in the east
old Ez-Zaghal still turned a bold front to the invader,
and gathered around his standard all that remained
of patriotism among the disheartened Moors. From
Jaen in the north, to Almeria, the chief port of Anda-
lusia on the Mediterranean coast, his sway was undis-
puted ; he held the important cities of Guadix and
Baza ; and within his dominion the rugged ridges of
the Alpuxarras mountains, the cradle of a hardy and
warlike race of mountaineers, sheltered countless val-
leys, fed with cool waters from the Sierra Nevada's
snowy peaks, where flocks and herds, vines, oranges,
pomegranates, citrons, and mulberry trees provided
wealth for a whole province.

In 1488 Ferdinand turned his victorious arms,
towards this undisturbed portion of the Moorish
dominion. Assembling his troops at Murcia, he
marched westwards into Ez-ZaghaPs territory, and
attacked Baza. Here his advance was sternly
checked ; Ez-Zaghal's hand had not lost its ancient
cunning, and he drove the Christians back from the
walls of Baza, and began to retaliate by making raids
into their own country. In the following year Ferdi-
nand, nothing disheartened, renewed his attack on
Baza ; but instead of sacrificing his troops in vain
assaults, he laid waste the fertile country round about, '
and so starved the city into submission. It took six
months, and the Christians lost twenty thousand men

SURRENDER OF BAZA.

fromjiisease and exposure, joined to the accidents of
war ; but in December, 1489. Baza finally submitted^
and with the loss of this chief city Ez-Zaghal's power
was broken. * The castles that dominated the

'nesses of the Alpuxarras yielded one by one to Ferdi-
nand's prestige or gold. Ez-Zaghal perceived that
the rule of the Moors was doomed : reluctantly he
gave in hissubmjssion to Ferdinand, and surrendered
the city of Almeria. He was allotted a small territory
iit^ the Alpuxarras, with the title of King of Andarax.
He did not long remain in the land of his lost glory
and present shame; he sold his lands and went to
Africa, where he was cruelly blinded by the Sultan of
Fez, and passed the remainder of his days in misery
and destitution, a wandering outcast, — pitied by
those who could recognize the hero in a mendicant's
rags, or read the badge which he wore, whereon was
written in the Arabic character, " This is the hapless
King of Andalusia."

Granada alone remained to the Moors. Boabdil
had been well pleased to see his old rival Ez-Zaghal
dethroned by their Catholic Majesties : " Henceforth,'
he cried to the messenger who brought him the news,
"let no man call me Zogoiby, for my luck has
turned : " to which the other made answer that the
wind which blew in one quarter might soon blow in
another, and the king had best reserve his rejoicings
for more settled weather. Boabdil, though he heard
his name cursed in the streets of his capital as a
traitor in league with the infidels, indulged in blind
confidence, now that his detested uncle was powerless;
as the vassal of Ferdinand and Isabella he believed that

260 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

hejiad nothing^toJJear. He had forgotten that when,
in his fatuous hatred of Ez-Zaghal, he incited the
Christian sovereigns to subdue his rival's dominions, he
had engaged by treaty that should Ferdinand succeed
in reducing Ez-Zaghal's country, with the cities of
Guadix and Almeria, he would on his part surrender
Granada. He was not, however, long left without a
spur to his memory. Ferdinand wrote to inform him
that the conditions named in the treaty had been ful-
filled" oh his side, and demanded the surrender of
Granada in accordance with the terms then laid down.
Boabdil in vain implored delay ; the king was de-
termined, and threatened to repeat the example of
Malaga if the capital were not immediately given up.
Boabdil did not know what to reply ; but the people
of Granada, led by Musa, a brave and gallant knight,
took the matter into their own hands, and told his
Catholic Majesty that if he wanted their arms he must
come and take them !

When these bold words were said, the beautiful
Vega of Granada was waving with crops and fruit;
it had recovered from the devastationswhicrT accom-
panied the struggle between Ez-Zaghal and Boabdil,
and a splendid harvest was awaiting the sickle. <£er:
dinand saw his opportunity, and, adopting his usual
tactics, poured his troops, twenty - five thousand
strong, over the Vega, and for thirty days abandoned
it to their destroying hands. When he turned back
towards Cordova, the Vega was one great expanse of
desolation. It was enough for one season ; yet once
more was the cruel work of destruction carried out in
that year of grace 1490.

SWORD OF BOABDIL (Villaseca Collection, Madrw).

MUSA'S DEFENCE. 263

jfoabdil had at last been roused to a desperate
courage. Guided by Musa, whose mettle was of the
finest, he girded on his armour, and began to carry
the war into the enemy's quarters. The Moors round"
about, who had given in their submission to Ferdi-
nand, were heartened by the sight of the King of
Granada once more on the war path, and, hastily con-
signing their promises to the winds, rose up and joined
It really seemed as if the good old days of
ranada were returning; some fortresses were re-
covered from the Christians, and the Moorish army
ravaged the borders. It was but the last gleam of light
before the final setting of the sun. In April, 1491,
Ferdinand and Isabella set forth upon their annual
^crusade, resolved not to return till Granada was in their
power. The king led an army of forty thousand foot
and ten thousand horse, with such commanders as
the famous Ponce de Leon, Marquess of Cadiz, the
Marquess of Santiago, the Counts, of Tendilla and
Cabra, the Marquess of Villena, and the redoubtable
KmgKtpDon Alonzo de Aguilar. Boabdil held a
council in the Alhambra, whence the clouds of dust
raised by Christian horsemen could be seen on the
Vega ; somejorged-the futility of resistance, but Musa
got up and bade them be true to their ancestors and
never despair while they had strong arms to fight and
fleet horses wherewith to foray. The people caught
Musa's enthusiasm, and there was nothing heard in
Granada but the sound of the furbishing of arms and
the tramp of troops.

Musa was in chief command, and the gates were in
his charge. They had been barred when the Christians

264 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

j:ame in view 4, but Musa threw them open. "Our
bodies," he said, " will bar the gates." The young
men were kindled by such words, and when he told
them, "We have nothing to fight for but the ground
we stand on ; without that we are without home or
country," they made ready to die with him. With such
a leader, the Moorish cavaliers performed prodigious
feats of valour in the plain which divided the city

'from the Christian camp. Single combats were of
daily occurrence ; the Moors would ride almost
among the tents of the Spaniards, and tempt some
knight to the duel, from which he too often did not
return. Ferdinand found his best warriors were
being killed one by one, and he straitly forbade
his knights to accept the Moors' challenge. It was
hard for the Spanish chivalry to sit still within their
tents, while a bold Moorish horseman would ride
within hail and taunt them with cowardice ; and when
at length one of the Granadinos waxed so venture-
some that he cast a spear almost into the royal pavi-
lion, Hernando Perez de Pulgar, surnamed " He of
the Exploits," could no longer contain himself, but
gathering a small band of followers, rode in the dead
of night to a postern gate in the walls of Granada, and,
surprising the guards, galloped through the streets
till he came to the chief mosque, which he forthwith
solemnly dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and in token
of its conversion nailed a label on the door inscribed
with the words Ave Maria. Granada was awake by
this time, and soldiers were gathering in every direc-
tion ; but Pulgar put spurs to his horse, and, amid the
amazement of the people, plunged furiously through

SANTA FE. 265

the crowd, overturning them as he galloped to the
gate, and, fighting his way out, rode back in triumph
to the camp. The Pulgars ever after held the right
to sit in the choir of the mosque-church during the
celebration of High Mass.

Such feats of daring, however, did little to advance
the siege, nor were the few engagements conclusive.
IJerdinand renewed his old tactics. He sallied forth
from his camp, which had accidentally been burnt to
the ground, and proceeded to lay waste what re-
mained of the fertility of the Vega. The Moors made
a last desperate sally to save their fields and orchards,
and Musa and Boabdil fought like heroes at the head
of their cavalry ; but the foot soldiers, less steadfast,
were beaten back to the gates, whither Musa sadly

^followed them, resolved never again to risk a pitched
battle with such men behind him. It was the last
fight of the Granadinos. For ten years they had
disputed every inch of ground with their invaders ;
wherever their feet could hold they had stood firm
against the enemy. But now there was left to them
tiothmg beyond their capital, and within its walls they
shut themselves up in sullen despair. To starve them
out was an agreeable task for the Catholic king ; and

^following the precedent of the third Abd-er-Rahman
in the siege of Toledo, he built in eighty days a be-
sieging city over against Granada, and called it Santa
Fe, in honour of his " Holy Faith," and there to this
day it stands, a monument of Ferdinand's resolution.
Famine did the work that no mere valour could effect.
The people of Granada implored Boabdil to spare
them further torture and make terms with the be-

266 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

siegers, and at last the unlucky king gave way. Musa
would be no party to the surrender. He armed him-
self cap-a-pie^ and mounting his charger rode forth
from the city never to return. It is said that as he
rode he encountered a party of Christian knights, half
a score strong, and, answering their challenge, slew
many of them before he was unhorsed, and then, disdain-
ing their offers of mercy, fought stubbornly upon his
knees, till he was too weak to continue the struggle :
then with a last effort he cast himself into the river
Xenil, and, heavy with armour, sank to the bottom.

On the 25th of November, 1491, the act of capitu-
lation was signed, and a term was fixed during which
a truce was to be observed, after which, should no aid
come from outside, Granada was to be delivered up
to their Catholic Majesties. In vain the Moors
watched for a sign of the help they had sought from
the Sultans of Turkey and Egypt. No aid came,
and at the end of December Boabdil sent a message
to Ferdinand to come and take possession of the city.
^The Christian army filed out of Santa Fe, and ad-
vanced across the Vega, watched with mournful eyes
by the unhappy Moors. The leading detachment
entered the Alhambra, and presently the great silver
cross was seen shining from the summit of the Torre
de la Vela ; beside it floated the banner of St. James,
while shouts of "Santiago!" rose from the army in the
plain beneath ; and lastly, the standard of Castile and
Aragon was planted by the side of the cross. Ferdinand
and Isabella fell on their knees and gave thanks to
God ; the whole army of Spain knelt behind them, and
the royal choir sang a solemn Te Deum. At the foot

267

>^

of the Hill of Martyrs, Boabdjl^attended by a small
band of horsemen, met the royal procession. He
gave Ferdinand the keys of Granada, and, turning
his back upon his beloved city, passed on to the
mountains. There, at Padul, on a spur of the Al-
puxarras, Boabdil stood and gazed back upon the
kingdom he had lost : the beautiful Vega, the towers
of Alhambra, and the gardens of the Generalife ;
all the beauty and magnificence of his lost home.
" Allahu Akbar," he said, " God is most great/' as he
burst into te^rs. His mother Ayesha stood beside
him : " You may well weep like a woman," she said,
"for what you could not defend like a man." The
spot whence Boabdil took his sad farewell look at his
city from which he was banished for ever, bears to
this day the name of el ultimo sospiro del Moro, " the
last sigh of the Moor." He soon crossed over to
Africa, where his descendants learned to beg their
daily bread.

There was crying in Granada when the sun was going down ;
Some calling on the Trinity — some calling on Mahoun.
Here passed away the Koran — there in the Cross was borne —
And here was heard the Christian bell — and there the Moorish horn :

Te Deum Laudamus ! was up the Alcala sung :

Down from the Alhambra's minarets were all the crescents flung ;

The arms thereon of Aragon they with Castile display ;

One king comes in in triumph — one weeping goes away.

Thus cried the weeper, while his hands his old white beard did tear,
Farewell, farewell, Granada ! thou city without peer !
Woe, woe, thou pride of heathendom ! seven hundred years and more
Have gone since first the faithful thy royal sceptre bore !

Thou wert the happy mother of a high renowned race ;
Within thee dwelt a haughty line that now go from their place ;
Within thee fearless knights did dwell, who fought with mickle glee,
The enemies of proud Castile, the bane of Christentie.

268 THE FALL OF GRANADA.

Here gallants held it little thing for ladies' sake to die,
Or for the Prophet's honour, and pride of Soldanry ;
For here did valour flourish and deeds of warlike might
Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight.

The gardens of thy Vega, its fields and blooming bowers-
Woe, woe ! I see their beauty gone, and scattered all their flowers 1
No reverence can he claim — the king that such a land hath lost —
On charger never can he ride, nor be heard among the host ;
But in some dark and dismal place, where none his face may see,
There weeping and lamenting, alone that king should be. *

1 Lockhart : Spanish Ballads.

XIV.

BEARING THE CROSS.

BOABDIL'S " last sigh " was but the beginning of a
long period of mourning and lamentation for the
luckless Moors he had ushered to destruction. At
first, indeed, it seemed as if the equitable terms upon
which Granada had capitulated would be observed,
and freedom of worship and the Mohammedan law
would be upheld. The first archbishop, Hernando de
Talavera, was a good and liberal-minded man, and
forcible conversion formed no part of his policy. He
strictly respected the rights of the Moors, and sought
to win them over by force of example, by uniform
justice and kindness, and by conforming as far as
possible to their ways. He made his priests learn
Arabic, and said his prayers in the same ungodly
tongue, and by such concessions " so wrought on the
minds of the populace that in 1499, when Cardinal
Ximenes was sent by the queen to aid him in the
work, it seemed as if the scenes which occurred at
Jerusalem in the infancy of the Faith were about to
be reenacted at Granada. In one day no less than
3,000 persons received baptism at the hands of the
Primate, who sprinkled them with the hyssop of col-
lective regeneration."1 Ximenes was little in harmony

1 Sir W. Stirling Maxwell : Don John of Austria, i. 115.

270 BEARING THE CROSS.

with the archbishop's soft ways : he was the apostle
of the Church Militant, always most active when
militant meant triumphant, and would have the souls
of these " infidels " saved from hell fire whether they
liked it or no. He insinuated in Isabella's holy mind
the pernicious doctrine that to keep faith with infidels
was breaking faith with God ; and it is one of the
few blots on the good queen's name that she at length
consented to the persecution of the Moors — or
" Moriscos," as they now began to be called.

The first attempt to coerce the Granadinos was
a failure. Some of the straiter Moslems expressed
their repugnance to the new conversions to Christi-
anity, and these malcontents were arrested. A woman
being haled to prison on such a pretext roused the
people of the Albaycin ; they rose in arms and rescued
her, and Granada was filled with uproar and barri-
cade-fights. The garrison was hopelessly outnum-
bered ; Ximenes raged with impotent fury ; but the
peaceful archbishop went forth, followed only by his
cross-bearer, and, fearlessly entering the Albaycin, was
at once surrounded by the people, who kissed his
garments, and laid their wrongs before him in whom
they accepted a just and generous mediator. Talavera
composed the disputes, and the Cardinal had to
retire.

Ximenes was, however, not a man to be easily
deterred from his purpose. He induced the queen to
promulgate a decree by which the Moors were given
their choice of baptism or exile. They were reminded
that their ancestors had ( nee been Christian, and
that by descent they themselves were born in the

REVOLT IN THE ALPUXARRAS. ^f^\

Church, and must naturally profess her doctrine. The
mosques were closed, the countless manuscripts that
contained the results of ages of Moorish learning
were burnt by the ruthless Cardinal, and the unhappy
"infidels" were threatened and beaten into the
Gospel of Peace and Goodwill after the manner
already approved by their Catholic Majesties in
respect of the no less miserable Jews. The majority
of course yielded, finding it easier to spare their
religion than their homes ; but a spark of the old
Moorish spirit remained burning bright among the
hillmen of the Alpuxarras, who for some time held
their snowy fastnesses against their persecutors. The
first effort to suppress the rebellion ended in disaster.
Don Alonzo de Aguilar, whose fame in deeds of
derring-do had been growing for forty years of valiant
chivalry, was sent into the Sierra Bermeja in 1501,
and sustained a terrible defeat at the hands of the
Moriscos, who crushed his cavalry with the massive
rocks which they hurled down upon them.

Beyond the sands, between the rocks, where the old cork trees grow,
The path is rough, and mounted men must singly march and slow ;
There o'er the path the heathen range their ambuscado's line,
High up they wait for Aguilar, as the day begins to shine.

There naught avails the Eagle eye, the guardian of Castile,

The eye of wisdom, nor the heart that fear might never feel,

The arm of strength that wielded well the strong mace in the fray,

Nor the broad plate from whence the edge of falchion glanced awa>

Not knightly valour there avails, nor skill of horse and spear ;
For rock on rock comes rumbling down from cliff and cavern drear :
Down, down like driving hail they come, and horse and horseman die
Like cattle whose despair is dumb when the fierce lightnings fly.

272 BEARING THE CROSS.

Alonzo with a handful more escapes into the field,
There like a lion, stands at bay, in vain besought to yield *,
A thousand foes around are seen, but none draws near to fight
Afar with bolt and javelin, they pierce the steadfast knight.

A hundred and a hundred darts are hissing round his head ;
Had Aguilar a thousand hearts, their blood had all been shed j
Faint and more faint he staggers upon the slippery sod —
At last his back is to the earth, he gives his soul to God.

Another and more probable legend, however, tells
how Aguilar was killed in fair fight by the commander
of the Moors. He was the fifth lord of his line who
died in combat with the infidels.

This temporary success, however, only aggravated
the reprisals of the now exasperated Christians. The
Count of Tendilla stormed Guejar ; the Count of
Serin " blew up the mosque in which the women and
children of a wide district had been placed for
safety," and King Ferdinand himself seized the key
of the passes, the castle of Lanjaron. The remnant of
the rebels fled to Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey, where
their skill as artificers secured them a living. Thus
the first revolt in the Alpuxarras was suppressed.

Half a century of smouldering hatred ensued. The
Moriscos grudgingly fulfilled the minimum of the
religious duties imposed on them by their outward
conversion ; but they took care to wash off the holy
water with which their children were baptized as
soon as they were out of the priest's sight ; they
came home from their Christian weddings to be
married again after the Mohammedan rite ; and they
made the Barbary corsair at home in their cities, and
helped him to kidnap the children of the Christians.
A wise and honest government, respecting its pledges

PERSECUTION OF THE MORISCOS. 273

given at the surrender of Granada, would have been
spared the dangers of this hidden disaffection ; but the
rulers of Spain were neither wise nor honest in their
dealings with the Moriscos, and as time went on they
became more and more cruel and false. The " infidels "
were ordered to abandon their native and picturesque
costume, and to assume the hats and breeches of the
Christians ; to give up bathing, and adopt the dirt of
their conquerors ; to renounce their language, their
customs and ceremonies, even their very names, and to
speak Spanish, behave Spanishly, and re-name them-
selves Spaniards. The great Emperor Charles V.
sanctioned this monstrous decree in 1526, but he had
the sense not to enforce it ; and his agents used it
only as a means of extorting bribes from the richer
Moors as the price of official blindness. The In-
quisition was satisfied for the time with a " traffic in
toleration " which filled the treasury in a highly satis-
factory way. It was reserved for Philip II. to carry
into practical effect the tyrannical law which his
father had prudently left alone. In 1567 he enforced
the odious regulations about language, customs, and
the like, and, to secure the validity of the prohibition
of cleanliness, began by pulling down the beautiful
baths of the Alhambra. The wholesale denationali-
zation of the people was more than any folk — much
less the descendants of the Almanzors, the Abd-er-
Rahmans, and the Abencerrages — could stomach. A
fracas with some plundering tax-gatherers set light to
the inflammable materials which had long been ready
to burn up : some soldiers were murdered by peasants
in whose huts they were billeted ; a dyer of Granada,

19

274 BEARING THE CROSS.

Farax Aben Farax, of the blood of the Abencer-
rages, gathered together a band of the disaffected,
and escaped to the mountains before the garrison had
made up their minds to pursue him ; Hernando de
Valor, of the race of the Khalifs of Cordova, a man of
note in Granada, but brought to disgrace by his
dissolute habits, was chosen King of Andalusia, with
the title of Muley Mohammed Aben Omeyya ; and
in a week the whole of the Alpuxarras was in arms,
and the second Morisco rebellion had begun (1568).

The district of the Alpuxarras was well fitted to
harbour a revolt. The stretch of high land between
the Sierra Nevada and the sea, about nineteen miles
long and eleven broad, is " so rudely broken into
rugged hill and deep ravine, that it would be hard to
find in its whole surface a piece of level ground,
except in the small valley of Andarax and on the
belt of plain which intervenes betwixt the mountains
and the sea. Three principal ranges, spurs of the
Sierra Nevada, and themselves spurred with lesser
offshoots, intersect it from north to south. Through
the glens thus formed a number of streams — torrents
in winter but often dry in summer — pour the snows
of Muleyhacen and the Pico dela Veleta into the
Mediterranean. . In natural beauty, and in many
physical advantages, this mountain land is one of the
most lovely and delightful regions of Europe. From
the tropical heat and luxuriance, the sugar-canes and
the palm-trees, of the lower valleys and of the nar-
row plain which skirts the sea like a golden zone, it
is but a step, through gardens, steep cornfields, and
olive groves, to fresh Alpine pastures and woods of

THE ALPUXARRAS. 275

pine, above which vegetation expires on the rocks
where snow lies long and deep, and is still found in
nooks and hollows in the burning days of autumn.
When thickly peopled with laborious Moors, the
narrow glens, bottomed with rich soil, were terraced
and irrigated with a careful industry which com-
pensated for want of space.1 The villages, each
nestling in its hollow, or perched on a craggy height?
were surrounded by vineyards and gardens, orange
and almond orchards, and plantations of olive and
mulberry, hedged with the cactus and aloe; above,
on the rocky uplands, were heard the bells of sheep
and kine ; and the wine and fruit, the silk and oil, the
cheese and the wool of the Alpuxarras, were famous
in tht markets of Granada and the seaports of Anda-
lusia." 2 It was this beautiful province that the
bigotry of the priest was about to deliver over to the
sword and brand of the soldier.

The great rebellion in the Alpuxarras lasted for
two years, and its repression called forth the utmost
energy of the Spaniards. Its records are full of
deeds of reckless bloodshed, of torture, assassination,
treachery, and horrible brutality on both sides ; but
they are relieved by acts of heroism and endurance
which would do honour to any age and any nation.
The struggle was fierce and desperate : it was the
Moors' last stand ; they felt themselves at bay, and

1 The Spaniards were never able to do justice to the rich soil of
Andalusia. So little did the Crown think of the fertile country about
Granada that in 1591 the royal domains there were sold, because they
cost more than the Spaniards could make them yield ! In the time of
the Moors the same lands were gardens of almost tropical luxuriance.

2 Sir W. Stirling Maxwell : Don John of Austria, i. 126-8.

276 BEARING THE CROSS.

they avenged in their first mad rush of fury a hun-
dred years of insult and persecution. Village after
village rose against its oppressors ; churches were
desecrated, Our Lady's picture was made a target,
priests were murdered, and too often horrid torture
was used against the Christians, who, for their part,
took refuge in belfries and towers, and valiantly
resisted the sudden assault of the enemy. We read
how two women, left alone in a tower, fastened the
door, and armed only with stones which they aimed
from the battlements, wounded by arrows, and sup-
ported by nothing save their own brave hearts, kept
out their assailants from dawn till noon, when relief
fortunately came. Another golden deed is told of the
advance of the Christian expedition to put down
the revolt. The troops had arrived at the ravine of
Tablate, a grim chasm, a hundred feet deep, with a
roaring torrent at the bottom. The Moriscos had
destroyed the bridge, and only a few tottering planks
remained, by which a venturesome scout might cross
if needful. On the other side of these planks Moorish
archers kept their bows at stretch. It is not surpris-
ing that the soldiers recoiled from such a crossing ;
the dancing plank, the torrent's roar, and the Moorish
arrows, were enough to daunt the bravest. While the
army stood irresolute, a friar came to the front, and
calmly led the way across the plank over the torrent,
to the very arrows of the enemy, who were too much
struck with admiration to think of shooting. Two
soldiers sprang after the devoted friar — one reached
the other side, the other fell into the hissing flood
beneath. Then the whole army plucked up heart,

ABEN ABO. 277

and crossing as quickly as they could, and mustering
on the other side, charged up the slope, and carried
the position. It was a Thermopylae reversed, with a
friar for its Leonidas ; a Balaclava galloped upon
quicksands ; and it redeems a long catalogue of
baseness.

The Marquess of Mondejar, who commanded at
Granada, endeavoured by conciliation and generosity
to calm the rebellion, which his resolute march into
the mountains at the head of four thousand men had
to a great extent suppressed ; but an accidental
massacre at Jubiles, and an act of treachery at
Laroles, rekindled the flame of revolt which had been
partly extinguished ; and the ruthless murder of one
hundred and ten Moriscos by their Christian fellow-
prisoners in the jail of the Albaycin still further
exasperated the persecuted race. Mondejar was
innocent of any share in this bloody work, and was
marching with his guard to the prison to quell the
disturbance, when the Alcayde met him with the
remark : " It is unnecessary ; the prison is quiet — the
Moors are all dead" After this the Moriscos gained
daily in strength, and Aben Umeyya became really
lord of the whole district of the Alpuxarras. This
incapable and profligate sprig of Cordovan nobility
enjoyed his power for a very brief period, however ;
for in October, 1 569, private spite and suspicion led to
his being strangled in bed by his own followers, when
an able and devoted man, the true leader of the rebel;
lion, and one who could even dare to die for his
friend, assumed the title of king as Muley Abdallah
Aben Abo.

278 BEARING THE CROSS.

Aben Ab6 had to deal with a new opponent. The
king's half-brother, Don John of Austria, a young
man of twenty-two, but full of promise, superseded
Monde*jar as commander-in-chief against the Moriscos,
and after a protracted war of letters he convinced
Philip of the gravity of the situation and the neces-
sity for strong measures. At last Don John received
his marching orders, and after that, it was but a short
shrive that the Moriscos had to expect. In the winter
of 1569-70 he began his campaign, and in May the
terms of surrender had been arranged. The months
between had been stained with a crimson river of
blood. Don John's motto was " no quarter " ; men,
women, and children were butchered by his order
and under his own eye ; the villages of the Al-
puxarras were turned into human shambles.

Even when the rebellion seemed at an end, a last
feeble flicker of revolt once more sprang up : Aben
Ab6 was not yet reconciled to oppression. Assas-
sination, however, finally convinced him : his head
was exhibited over the Gate of the Shambles at
Granada for thirty years. The Grand Commander,
Requesens, by an organized system of wholesale
butchery and devastation, by burning down villages,
and smoking the people to death in the caves where
they had sought refuge, extinguished the last spark of
open revolt before the 5th of November, 1570. The
Moriscos were at last subdued, at the cost of the
honour, and with the loss of the future, of Christian
Spain.

Slavery and exile awaited the survivors ot the
rebellion. They were not very many. The late wars,

BANISHMENT OF THE MOORS.

it was said, had carried off more than twenty thou-
sand Moors, and perhaps fifty thousand remained in
the district on that famous Day of All Saints, 1570,
when the honour of the apostles and martyrs of Chris-
tendom was celebrated by the virtual martyrdom ot
the poor remnant of the Moors. Those taken in open
revolt were enslaved, the rest were marched away into
banishment under escort of troops, while the passes
of the hills were securely guarded. Many hapless
exiles died by the way, from want, fatigue, and
exposure ; others reached Africa, where they might
beg a daily pittance, but could find no soil to till ; or
France, where they received a cool welcome, though
Henry IV. had found them useful instruments for his
intrigues in Spain. The deportation was not finished
till 1610, when half a million of Moriscos were exiled
and ruined. It is stated that no less than three
million of Moors were banished between the fall of
Granada and the first decade of the i/th century.
The Arab chronicler mournfully records the coup-de-
grdce ; " The Almighty was not pleased to grant them
victory, so they were overcome and slain on all sides,
till at last they were driven forth from the land of
Andalusia, the which calamity came to pass in our
own days, in the year of the Flight, 1017. Verily to
God belong lands and dominions, and He giveth them
to whom He doth will."

The misguided Spaniards knew not what they were
doing. The exile of the Moors delighted them ;
nothing more picturesque and romantic had occurred
for some time. Lope de Vega sang about the sen-
tencia justa by which Philip III., despreciando sus

280 BEARING THE CROSS.

barbaros tesoros, banished to Africa las ultimas
reliquias de los Moros ; Velazquez painted it in a
memorial picture ; even the mild and tolerant Cer-
vantes forced himself to justify it. They did not
understand that they had killed their golden goose.
For centuries Spain had been the centre of civiliza-
tion, the seat of arts and sciences, of learning, and
every form of refined enlightenment. No other
country in Europe had so far approached the culti-
vated dominion of the Moors. The brief brilliancy
of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the empire of
Charles V., could found no such enduring pre-
eminence. The Moors were banished ; for a while
Christian Spain shone, like the moon, with a borrowed
light ; then came the eclipse, and in that darkness
Spain has grovelled ever since. The true memorial
of the Moors is seen in desolate tracts of utter barren-
ness, where once the Moslem grew luxuriant vines and
olives and yellow ears of corn ; in a stupid, ignorant
population where once wit and learning flourished;
in the general stagnation and degradation of a people
which has hopelessly fallen in the scale of the nations,
and has deserved its humiliation.

INDEX TO THE TEXT AND THE
NOTES.

Abbadites, 176

Abbaside, 59, 60, 63-4

Abdallah, 98-107

Abd-el-Melik, 55, 56

Abd-er- Rahman I., 33, 57, 59-68,

I3L 136

Abd-er- Rahman II., 78-94
Abd-er-Rahman III., 107-128
Abd-er-Rahman of Narbonne, 28
Aben Abo, 277-8
Abencerrages, 227, 247
Aben Dmeyya, 274
Abu-1-Hasan (Alboacen), 232^,

247

Acisclus, St., 89
Aguilar, Don Alonzo de, 237,

271-2

Ahmar, Ibn-el-, 218
Alans, 6
Alarcos, 217
Albarracin, 209
Albaycin, 247, 271, 277
Albucasis, 144
Alcazar of Cordova, 131
Aledo, 177, 1 80
Alexander the Great, I
Alexandria, 76
Alferez, 240
Alfonso I., 33
Alfonso IV., 176-181, 1 86, 194-

196, 206

Alfonso the Battler, 184
Alfonso the Learned, 194, 218

Algarve, no

Algeciras, 13, 179, 214, 221

Alhama, 235

Alhambra, 221 ff.

Alhandega, 123

Almanzor, 156-166

Almeria, 148, 151, 176

Almohades, 214

Almoravides, 178-184

Alpuente, 209

Alpuxarras, 259, 271-280

Alvar Fanez, 181, 196

Alvaro, 86

Amir, Ibn-Aby-, 156-166

Andalus, Emir of, 51

Andalusia, 43

Andarax, 259

Antequera, 236

Aquitaine, 28, 29

Arabic Studies, 90

Arabs, pre-Mohammedan, I

Aragon, 208, 218

Archidona, 25, 62

Arts in Andalusia, 147

Asturias, 27, 33, 35, ii6/!, i8£

Aurora, 156, 157, 158, 161, 164

Avenzoar, 144

Averroes, 144

Axarquia, 237

Ayesha, 225^ 247

B

Badajoz, 119, 179, 186, 217
Barcelona, 165, 166, 201

282 INDEX TO THE TEXT AND THE NOTES.

Basques, 13, 34

Bavieca, 210, 213

Baza, 258, 259

Beaune, 28

Bedr, 61

Beja, 63

Bellido, 195

Berbers, 4, 13^., 20, 40, 52-6,

65, 101, 109, 167-184
Bermudez, Pero, 201, 213
Bernardo del Carpio, 34
Beytar, Ibn-, 144
Boabdil, 225, 242, 245, 246^".,

267

Bobastro, 102, no
Body-guard, 66, 75, 114, 158
Bordeaux, 29
Burgos, 197
Burgundy, 28

Cabra, Count of, 242, 263

Cadiz, 177-8, 184

Cadiz, Marquess of, 235, 236, 238,

252, 263
Calahorra, 206
Calatrava, 251
Campeador, 192, 195
Carcasfonne, 28

Cardena, St. Pedro de, 199, 213
Carmona, 28, 63, 184
Castile, I2$ff.t 165, 189
Cava, 1 1 n.
Cazlona, 105
Ceuta, 4, 54, 55, 217
Cid, The, 177, 178, 181, 191-213
Charlemagne, 30, 33-8, 57, 65
Charles V., 222, 225, 231, 273
Charles Martel, 29, 30
Christian disaffection, 83 ff.
Christian power, 116^.',
Christianity in Roman and Gothic

Spain, 6-8

Chronicle of the Cid, 192, 195 ff.
Coimbra, 1 86
Cordova, 24, 26, 62, 74, 78, 106-

7, 129-145, 184, 218
Coria, 55
Covadonga, 116-7

Darro, 225

Dhu-n-Nun, 101, 176

Dozy, 47, 52, 56, 63, 76, 122,

127, 163, 176, 192
Durenda, 36-7

E

Elvira, 25, 56, 102
Emir, 121

Estevan de Gormaz, San, 119,
120

Estramadura, 101
Eudes, 28, 29, 55
Eulogius, 86-95

Fakis, 76

Farax, 274

Fatimite Khalifs, 115

Ferdinand and Isabella, 232, 251,

257, 260^.
Fernando I. of Leon and Castile,

186

Fernando TIL, 218
Feth, E1-, 113
Fez, 76
Flora, 86-93
Florinda, n
Foss, Day of the, 74
France, Arab advance into, 28-30
Franks, 29

Galicia, 55, 118, 165, 186
Garcia, 123
Garonne, 29
Gayangos, $6n
Gebal-Tarik (Gibraltar), 14
Generalife, 228, 231
Gerona, 148
Ghalib, 159
Gibralfaro, 253, 254
Gonzalez, Fernando, 123-5
Goths, 4-8, 26

Granada, 25, 102, 184, 217 ff.,
267

INDEX TO THE TEXT AND THE NOTES. 283

Greek ambassadors, 143
Greek Empire, 3, 4
Guadalete, 14, 23
Guadarrama, 40, 185
Guadelquivir, 40, 131, 135
Guadix, 252, 254, 258
Guarinos, 35

II

Hafsun, Ibn-, 102, 106, 107, 1 10
Hajjaj, Ibn-, 105-6
Hakam I., 74-7, 78
Hakam II., 152-6

his library, 155

Hamdin, Ibn-, 184
ITammud, 175, 176
Harun-er-Rashid, 78, 81
Hasdai, 125-6
Hayyan, Ibn-, 67, 1 16
Henry VI., 279
Hisham I., 71-4, 136
Ilisham II., 156-171
Hisham III., 171
Hroswitha, 144
Hud, Ibn-, 217

Isaac the monk, 88, 89
Isaac the Mosilite, 81
Isabella, 232, 251, 254, 260, 269
Isidore of Beja, 48
Islam, 2

Irving, Washington, 19, 221 Jf.t
232 ff.

Jaen, 56

iayme I., 218
ews of Spain, 24
ohn of Austria, Don, 278
Julian, 4, n, 12, 13, 27

K

Kady, 87

Kasy, Ibn-, 184

Khalif, 23, 27, 51, 56, 58-60

Khalif of Spain, 122

Kharaj. 44

Lamtuny, 184

Lanjaron, 272

Laroles, 277

Leon, 34, 35, 118, 159, 163, 189

Leon chivalry, 119, 190

Library of Hakam, 155

Lockhart, 21, 34-5, 124, 267, 271

Lorca, 101

Lormego, 186

Lothair, 29

Louis the Debonnaire, 83

Loxa, 251

Lucena, 242

Majolica, 148
Makkary, 56^, 128, 131
Malaga, 25, 56, 214, 251, 257
Malaga, the mountains of, 236 jj.
Mamluks, 114
Mansur, the Khalif, 64
Marabout, 53
Mardanish, Ibn-, 184
Martin, Abbey of St., 29
Mary, 92-3

Maxwell, Sir W. Stirling, 269. 275
Maymun, Ibn-, 184
Medina, 73
Medinaceli, 166
Merida, 28,47, 55- I!9
Mohammed I., 94, 98
Mohammed the Prophet, 3
Mahammedanism, 2
Mohammedan conquests, 3
Mondejar, Marquess of, 277
Monousa, 55
Moor, I3»
Moriscos, 270^
Mosque of Cordova, 136 ff.
Mo'temid, 176, 178, 180
Muez, 121
Mughith, 23, 24
Mughith, Ibn-, 63
Mundhir, 98

Murcia, 25, 103, no, 176, 218
Murviedro, 209
Miisa of Granada, 263-6
Musa, son of Noseyr, 12, 13, 23,
27, 28

284 INDEX TO THE TEXT AND THE NOTES.

Mushafy, 158-160
Mutes, 75, 76
Muzaffar, 169

N

Najera, 206

Narbonne, 28, 30, 136

Nasir-li-dmi-llah, En-, 122

Nasr, 8 1, 89

Nasr, Beny-, 217^.

Navarre, 119-121, 165, 166

Navas, Las, 217

Oliver, 37

Omeyyads, 33, 57, 59, 60, 62. #.

Ordono II., 119, 120, 121

Ordono, IV., 125

Orelia, 19

Orihuela, 25, 47

Osma, 119, 1 20

Ostrogoths, 4

Paderborn, 33

Padul, 267

Pamplona, 166

Pavement of Martyrs, 30

Pelagius, or Pelayo, 33, 1 16-7

Perfectus, 89

Philip II., 273

Philip III., 279

Pinos, 226

Poictiers, 29

Pulgar, 264

Quixote, Don, 35

Ramiro II., 122
Regio, no
Renegades, 48, 102
Requesens, 278
Roland, 36-8
Roderick, 4, 8, 11-22. 48

Roderick's vision, 18, 19
Roncesvalles, 34-8, 65
Ronda, 251, 258

Sacralias, 179
Sancho, 90

Sancho of Navarre, 1 19-121
Sancho of Castile, 195
Sancho the Fat. 125
Santa Fe, 265
Santiago, Master of, 238 ff.
Santiago de Compostella, 165
Saracens, ^3^
Science, 147^
^Setldaray, 184
Septimania, 28
Seville, 28, 62, 105, 109, 170-1,

176, 180, 184, 1 86, 214, 218
Sierra Nevada, 274
Simancas, 119
Slaves, 48
Slavs, 114, 158, 161, 170, 171,

'75

Southey's Cid, 193

Spain under the Romans and the

Goths, 4, 5-8
Suevi, 4, 6
Sultan, 121

Tablete, 276

Talavera, Archbishop, 269, 270

Tarif, 13

Tarlfa, 13, 181

Tarik, 13, 20, 21, 23-28

Tarraconaise, 29

Tarub, 8 1

Taxes, 44

Tendilla, Count of, 235, 263

Theodemir of Murcia, 25

Theological students, 73-6, 161

Theuda, 123

Tizona, 213

Toledo, 12, 14, 26, 28, 64, 74,

94, 102, no, 148, 176, 186
Toledo, enchanted tower, 14-19
Toulouse, 28
Tours, 29, 30

INDEX TO THE TEXT AND THE NOTES. 285

Tribes, Arab, 50-2, 56, 101
Tudela, 120
Turpin, pseudo-, 35

Ximena, 198, 199, 200, 213
Ximenes, Cardinal, 269, 270
Ximenes. Seven Sisters of, 253

V

Val de Junqueras, 120
Valencia, 176, 178, 182, 184,205-

213, 218
Vandals, 6
Vega, 221, 260
Velez, 251
Visen, 1 86
Visigoths, 4-8

W

Wady Bekka, 14
Welid the Khalif, 23, 28
Wittekind, 33, 34
Witiza, 8, n, 20. 21, 27

Xativa, 205
Xcres, 184

I Vahya,73
Yahya of Valencia, 205
Yemen tribes, 61, 65
Yusuf the Almora vide, 179-181
Yusuf, 62

Zab, Prince of, 164

Zaghal, Ez-, 240, 247 ff.t 259

Zahara, 232-4

Zahra, Medinat-ez-, 140-4, 175

Zallaka, 179
| Zamora, 119, 195
i Zaragoza, 34, 65, 101, 122-3, 176

1 86, 200
! Zegris, 247
! Zegry, Ez-, 253, 254
I Ziryab, 81-2
j Zogoiby, 246
! Zoraya, 2^7

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

TARIK : Battle of the Guadalete
CHARLES MARTEL : Battle of Tours
CHARLEMAGNE : Pass of Roncesvalles

OMEYYAD KINGS .

Abd-er- Rahman I
Hisham I.
Hakam I.

Abd-er-Rahman II .
Mohammad
Mundhir
Abdallah

8. Abd-er-Rahman III., the Great

9. Hakam II.

10. Hisham II., &c.

A.lmanzor Vezir
Berbers and Slavs .

TheCid

Invasion of Almoravides : Battle of Zallaka

Invasion of Almohadt-s .

Battle of Las Navas

Fall of Granada .....

Revolts in the Alpuxarras

Final Expulsion of the Moors from Spain

A.D.
. 711

• 733

• 777

755 — 1008

755
788

796
822

. 852
886
888
912
961
976

978 - 1002
I008

1064 - 1099
. 1086

1212

. i49T

1501 & 1568

1610

1 9 1990