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[Illustration: THE ALPUXARRAS.]
THE STORY OF THE NATIONS
THE MOORS IN SPAIN
BY
STANLEY LANE-POOLE, B.A., M.R.A.S.
AUTHOR OF "THE BARBARY CORSAIRS,"
"TURKEY," "SALADIN," ETC.
WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE," "THE STORY OF
ROME," "THE STORY OF THE SARACENS," ETC.
NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
1903
COPYRIGHT
BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1886
_Entered at Stationers' Hall, London_
BY T. FISHER UNWIN
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
The history of Spain offers us a melancholy contrast. 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 Guadalquivir 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, astronomy and botany, history, philosophy and
jurisprudence 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 perfection 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 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 prevailed, that the new capital,
Madrid, possessed no public library in the eighteenth century, and even
the manuscripts of the Escurial were denied in our own 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
languished 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 present the most
salient points in the eight centuries of Mohammedan rule without
prejudice or extenuation, and while not neglecting the heroic characters
and 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
d'Espagne_ (4 vols., Leyden, 1861), and the same scholar's _Recherches
sur l'histoire et la litterature de l'Espagne pendant le moyen age_ (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. Professor Dozy was an historian as well as an Orientalist, and
his volumes are at once judicious and profound. Very useful, too, is Don
Pasqual de Gayangos's translation of El-Makkary's _History of the
Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain_ (2 vols., London, 1843), which has been
exposed to some needlessly acrimonious criticism 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 Pasqual's notes, moreover,
present a mass of valuable material which can be obtained nowhere else.
Beyond these two authorities there are many Arabic historians, whose
works have been consulted in the composition of the present 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 instructive
sketch of Arab civilization, with a glance at the Spanish development,
is found in August Bebel's _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 of 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 Espana_, 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 _Christians and Moors in Spain_ (the only popular history of
this period in English of which I have heard), I cannot 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 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 Mohammedan barbarism means. The fall
of Granada happened within forty years of the conquest of
Constantinople; 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,
_July, 1886_.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.
THE LAST OF THE GOTHS 1
The seclusion of Ancient Arabia, 1--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, 11--Count
Julian's revenge, 11--He joins the Arabs, 12--M[=u]sa son of
Noseyr, 12--First incursion into Spain under Tar[=i]f, 13--T[=a]rik's
invasion, 13--The Enchanted Tower, 14--Roderick's
vision, 18--Battle of the Guadalete, 20--Fate of Don Rodrigo,
21.
II.
THE WAVE OF CONQUEST 23
Subjugation of Spain, 23-- Capture of Cordova, Malaga,
Elvira, Murcia, 24--Theodemir's stratagem, 25--Flight of the
Goths, 26--M[=u]sa crosses over to Spain, 27--His jealousy of
T[=a]rik, 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.
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 character,
53--Berber insurrections in Africa and Spain, 54--Syrian
Arabs come to the rescue, 55--Their settlement in Andalusia,
56.
IV.
A YOUNG PRETENDER 58
The Khalifs of Damascus, 58--Overthrow of the Omeyyads,
59--Adventures of Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n the Omeyyad, 60--He
lands in Spain and is received with acclamation, 62--Foundation
of the Omeyyad kingdom of Andalusia, 63--Revolts
suppressed by Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n, 64--His character, 66--Hish[=a]m
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.
THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS 78
Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n II., 78--Queen Tar[=u]b, 81--Ziry[=a]b the exquisite,
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-Hafs[=u]n's rebellion, 102--Ibn-Hajj[=a]j of
Seville, 105--Cordova in danger, 106--Accession of Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n
III., 107--His courageous policy, 108--Submission of
the rebels, 109--Death of Ibn-Hafs[=u]n and conquest of
Bohastro, 110--Siege of Toledo, 110--Surrender, 113--Pacification
of Andalusia, 113.
VII
THE HOLY WAR 114
Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n's principle of government, 114--The Slavs,
114--Wars with the F[=a]timite 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-Rahm[=a]n retaliates, 120--Battle of the Val de
Junqueras and capture of Pamplona, 121--Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n
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 Khalif's
aid, 125--Their visit to Cordova, 126--Hazdai the physician,
126--Death of Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n III., 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-Zahr[=a], 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--Hish[=a]m II., 156--Seclusion
in the har[=i]m, 156--The Queen-mother Aurora, 156--Har[=i]m
influence, 157--Rise of Ibn-Ab[=i]-Amir, surnamed Almanzor,
157--His campaign with Gh[=a]lib against the Christians,
159--He becomes Prime Minister, 160--His absolute
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--Succession
of puppet Khalifs, 170--Misery of Hish[=a]m III., 171--Massacres
and pillaging, 173--The Slavs and the Berbers, 175--Sack
of the City of Ez-Zabr[=a], 175--Petty dynasties, 176--Advance
of the Christians of Leon and Castile, 176--Alfonso
vi., 177--The Cid, 177--The Moors call in the Almoravides,
178--Battle of Zall[=a]ka, 179--Character of the Almoravides,
180--They subdue Andalusia, 181--Their tyranny and
demoralization, 183--The expulsion of the Almoravides, 184.
XI.
MY CID THE CHALLENGER 185
State of the Christian powers in the North, 185--Fernando I.,
186--Vassalage of the Mohammedan princes, 186--Character
of the Christians and Moors contrasted, 189--The _chevaliers
d'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
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 246
Ferdinand's policy towards Boabdil, 246--Factions at Granada,
247--The Abencerrages, 247--Ez-Zaghal, 248--Ferdinand'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--M[=u]sa's reply, 260--The siege, 263--Exploit of Pulgar,
264--Boabdil capitulates, 266--Death of M[=u]sa, 266--Entry
of Ferdinand and Isabella into the Alhambra, 266--"The
last sigh of the Moor," 267.
XIV.
BEARING THE CROSS 269
Terms of surrender of Granada, 269--Archbishop Talavera's
toleration, 269--Cardinal Ximenes, 269--Revolt in the Alpuxarras,
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--Rejoicings
in Spain, 279--Retribution, 280.
INDEX 281
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
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 11TH 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 111
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. (_In the South Kensington Museum_) 149
ANCIENT KORAN CASE. (_Escurial Library_) 153
THE GIRALDA AT SEVILLE 173
BOTICA DE LOS TEMPLARIOS, TOLEDO 187
GATE OF SERRANO, VALENCIA 203
TOMB OF THE CID AT SAN PEDRO DE CARDENA 211
BANNER OF THE ALMOHADES 215
SHIELD OF A KING OF GRANADA 219
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
[Illustration]
THE STORY OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN.
I.
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 contemptuous 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
Imperator at Rome; Constantine became the first Christian emperor at
Byzantium; the hordes of the barbarians bore down upon the
wide-reaching provinces of the Caesars--and still the Arabs remained
undisturbed, unexplored, and unsubdued. 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, and 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. 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
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 opposite 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 Constantinople that it was
thrown upon the neighbouring kingdom of Spain for support, and, while
still nominally under the authority of the Emperor, looked really to the
King of Toledo for assistance and protection. 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 happened, 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 condition 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 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 continent. 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 cultivated 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. In a society so demoralized there were no elements
of opposition to a resolute invader. 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 arrangement 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 entered Spain with little trouble; the cities
willingly opened their gates, and the diseased civilization of 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
Hercules 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 civilization 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 root in the Western provinces. The advent of an
ignorant but devout race like the Goths might probably 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 repentance, and then they
sinned again without compunction. 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 endeavour 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 consequently 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
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 corruption. 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 Mussulman 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.
[Illustration: TOLEDO.]
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 surrounded 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.[2] The dishonour was the greater, since Julian's wife was
a daughter of Witiza, and the royal blood of the Goths had thus been
insulted 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; his own connection with the
deposed and probably murdered King Witiza forbade fellowship with the
usurper; and his daughter's dishonour fanned his smouldering rancour to
a blaze of vengeful 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 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 M[=u]sa, 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 M[=u]sa 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 Khalif
at Damascus, to ask for instructions, and meantime contented himself
with sending a small body of five hundred men, under Tar[=i]f, 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 M[=u]sa was unwilling to expose more than an insignificant part of his
army to the perils of the deep.
Tar[=i]f returned in July, having successfully accomplished his mission. He
had landed at the place which still bears his name, Tar[=i]fa, 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 M[=u]sa 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 Tar[=i]f's success, M[=u]sa 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, M[=u]sa despatched one
of his generals, the Moor T[=a]rik, with 7,000 troops, most of whom were
also Moors,[3] to make another raid upon Andalusia. The raid carried him
further than he expected. T[=a]rik landed at the lion's rock, which has
ever since borne his name, 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.
[Illustration: GATE OF BISAGRA, TOLEDO.]
But Roderick, when he had thought of all they had said, became filled
with a burning desire to enter the 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, accompanied 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 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
horseback, fierce of countenance, armed with bows and scimitars, 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 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."[4]
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 combat were cheered or
dismayed by omens of various kinds. The Prophet himself is said to have
appeared to T[=a]rik, 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. T[=a]rik, 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
Moslem domination.
When the Moors saw the mighty army that Roderick 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 T[=a]rik 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
they plucked up courage and shouted, "We will follow thee, O T[=a]rik," 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?"[5]
So runs the old Spanish ballad; but the fate of Roderick has remained a
mystery to this day. His 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 mystery 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
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
M[=u]sa, the Governor of Africa, to the Khalif Wel[=i]d, 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. T[=a]rik 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
time in following up his success. In defiance of an order from M[=u]sa, who
was bitterly jealous of the unexpected glory which had come to his
Berber lieutenant, 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. Mugh[=i]th, one of his officers, was
despatched with seven hundred horse to seize Cordova. Lying hid till
darkness came on, Mugh[=i]th 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 shepherd 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 surrendered, Cordova
was left in the keeping of the Jews, who had proved themselves staunch
allies of the Moslems in the campaign, and who ever afterwards enjoyed
great consideration at the hands of the conquerors. 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
the Arab fought, the Jew trafficked, and when the fighting was over, Jew
and Moor and Persian joined in that cultivation of learning and
philosophy, arts and sciences, which preeminently distinguished the rule
of the Saracens in the Middle Ages.