AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE OF
THE EUROPEAN MOSLEMS. THEIR MANNERS,
CUSTOMS, AND AMUSEMENTS
750–1609
Disappearance of the Memorials of Arab
Civilization--Agricultural System of the Spanish Moors--Its
Wonderful Perfection--Irrigating Apparatus--The Tribunal
of the Waters--The Works of Ibn-al-Awam--Universal
Cultivation of the Soil--Mineral Resources of the
Peninsula--Manufactures--The Great Moslem Emporiums of the
Mediterranean--Commerce--Its Extensive Ramifications--Articles
of Traffic--Commercial Prosperity of Sicily--The Magnetic
Needle--Gunpowder and Artillery--War--Coinage--Characteristics
of the Khalifs--Demoralization of the People--The
Bath--General Prevalence of Superstition--Social Life of
the Moslems of Europe--Privileges of Women--Polygamy and
Morals--Slavery--Amusements--The Game of Chess--Other
Pastimes--Dances--Music--Equestrian Sports--The Bull-Fight--The
Tilt of Reeds--The Course of the Rings--Hawking--Peculiarities
of Hispano-Arab Civilization--The Crusades--Their Effect
on Christendom--Unrivalled Achievements of the Moors in
Europe--Conclusion.
In all the vast domain of historical inquiry there is probably no
subject which has been treated with such studied neglect, with such
flagrant injustice, as the civilization of the Arabs in the Spanish
Peninsula. Its story has been written in the majority of instances
by the implacable enemies of those who founded and promoted it.
Theological hatred has lent its potent aid to the prejudice of race and
the envy arising from conscious inferiority to deny or belittle its
achievements. The greatest of Moorish princes have been represented by
zealous but malignant churchmen as barbarians, persecutors, idolaters.
The accumulated wisdom and labor of centuries manifested in rare
copies of the literary treasures of antiquity, chronicles descriptive
of epochs now veiled in hopeless obscurity, elegant productions of
the most accomplished poets of Cordova and Seville, innumerable
treatises of mathematical and physical science, have been consigned
to the flames by ignorant prelates, who regarded these precious works
as copies of the Koran or works on magic and necromancy. Others,
which the negligence of clerical enmity permitted to escape for the
time, were subsequently ruined by damp, by insects, by accidental
conflagration. The carelessness of inappreciative governments, aided
by the stupidity of the masses and the innate levelling tendencies of
the uneducated, the invasions of foreign armies and the vicissitudes
of revolution, have wrought the partial or complete destruction of
many of the noblest monuments of architectural genius that ever
illustrated the history of any people. The defiled ruins of mosque and
palace, the mutilated fragments of products of the industrial arts
whose form and materials indicate the highest degree of mechanical
knowledge and classical culture, the remains of that wonderful system
of irrigation, whose perfection was the secret of Moorish prosperity
and opulence, constitute almost all the remaining data by whose aid
we may attempt to picture the splendors and the glory of the mighty
Khalifate of the West. No just idea of the greatness and power of the
Peninsula under the Ommeyade sovereigns can be formed from the present
condition of even those states whose inhabitants in physical aspect,
mental disposition, manners, habits, and industry have preserved, in a
striking degree, the characteristics of their Mohammedan progenitors.
It has been happily remarked that “facts are the mere dross of
history.” The rise and fall of dynasties, the evolutions of armies,
the recital of battles, sieges, and skirmishes, the enumeration of
captives and booty, the exultation of the victor, the distress of the
vanquished, the crimes and excesses engendered by sedition, have,
it is true, in all periods of the world, been considered the most
important, often the only, subjects worthy of historical narration.
These, however, are but the manifestations of conditions upon which
are dependent all that is valuable and all that is instructive in the
noble science which depicts the occurrences of past ages. The true
interest and utility of that science, the benefits to be derived from
the lessons it teaches, the warnings pronounced by the triumphs or
the disgrace of its heroes, the application of principles by which
universal prosperity may be advanced and national disaster diminished
or wholly averted, are not usually apparent to the superficial and
careless observer. They are to be laboriously traced in the analysis
of the incentives of human actions; in the gradual development of
schemes of ambition; in the contention of religious sects for political
supremacy; in the exhibition of the prejudices, the foibles, the
superstitions of mankind; in the incessant mutations of social life;
in the delineation of manners. No event is too trivial, no custom too
unimportant for notice, which, by even its most remote consequences,
may serve to disclose the motives of a government or illustrate the
policy of a nation. The prevalence of certain habits, the existence of
certain inclinations are often of more weight in determining the career
of a people than the fortunate issue of a campaign or the disastrous
result of a revolution. It is in the chronicle of prosaic, every-day
existence that we must search for the origin of momentous events, that
we must study the philosophy of history.
One great cause of the phenomenally rapid establishment of Islam was
polygamy, which absolutely confiscated the means of racial propagation.
Mohammed, like Moses and all other ancient lawgivers, recognized and
inculcated the supreme importance of the increase of mankind,--a
principle on which was founded Phallic Worship as well as the widely
diffused practice of Communal Marriage. The vast power of its empire
was dependent upon the culture of the soil and the marketing of the
products of labor, in which no people were more successful than the
Arabs. Its decline is attributable to the many inherent faults of its
political and religious organization; to the uncertain course of royal
succession; to the implacable spirit of tribal enmity which survived
and dominated every other feeling; to the inevitable want of harmonious
co-operation existing between the numerous and conflicting elements
representing a score of nations governed by force; to the treasonable
schemes of zealots, envious of the consideration extended to literary
merit; to the social corruption incident to a society abandoned to
boundless prodigality, vice, and luxury.
The agricultural system of the Spanish Mohammedans, who understood the
soil and the resources of their country better than any nation that
has ever inhabited it, was the most complex, the most scientific, the
most perfect, ever devised by the ingenuity of man. Its principles
were derived from the extreme Orient, from the plains of Mesopotamia,
and from the valley of the Nile,--those gardens of the ancient world
where, centuries before the dawn of authentic history, the cultivation
of the earth had been carried to a state of extraordinary excellence.
To the knowledge thus appropriated were added the results obtained
from investigation and experiment; from the introduction of foreign
plants; from the adoption of fertilizing substances; from close and
intelligent observation of the effects of geographical distribution and
climatic influence.
The statesmanlike policy pursued by the khalifs was productive of
incalculable advantage to every branch of agriculture. As previously
stated, accomplished botanists, provided with unlimited funds, were
regularly despatched to the most fertile regions of the East,--to
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hindustan,--under instructions to collect seeds
of useful plants and fruits for experimental cultivation in the royal
demesnes. There is scarcely a country in the temperate zone to-day
which has attained to even a moderate degree of civilization, whose
inhabitants are not the beneficiaries of this zeal for agricultural
improvement constantly manifested by the sovereigns of Moorish Spain,
nor one, unhappily, which is willing to even reluctantly concede to
those entitled to the gratitude of nations credit for that progressive
spirit which has contributed so essentially to the physical well-being
and advancement of mankind.
The divine origin assigned to agriculture by Arabic as well as by
Persian tradition had almost as much to do with its development as the
imperative necessity which demanded its practice. The rural economy
of every people was diligently explored for advantageous suggestions
by the Moors of the Peninsula. Their tastes, although the pursuits of
their ancestors were pastoral and manual labor of every description is
distasteful to a nomadic and predatory race, seemed to adapt themselves
at once to the circumstances of their new environment. Their progress
in that science is not less striking than the rapid succession of
their military triumphs. No nation in so short a period achieved such
extensive and important conquests. No people so quietly abandoned the
excitements resulting from the profession of arms and embraced the
toils of a sedentary life as the Arabs of the Peninsula. No sooner
did they change their mode of existence than they began to excel in
the new pursuits to which they devoted themselves. Many inducements
were afforded by the cultivation of the soil, whose results, despite
its hardships, seemed to more than counterbalance the benefits to be
derived from life in large communities. The Koran declared it to be
especially meritorious. The air of the country, like the atmosphere of
the Desert, seemed congenial to independence. The vast estates acquired
by the followers of Musa, their wealth, and the social superiority
which they assumed, did much to incite others to emulate their example.
In villages and on plantations larger harems could be maintained, and
more numerous families could be reared than in cities,--considerations
of great weight in the mind of the luxurious and ambitious Moslem.
Every encouragement was afforded by a succession of wise and generous
rulers to those who embraced an agricultural life. A considerable
portion of the country which had never been subjected to tillage
because of its aridity became suddenly metamorphosed, as if by the
wand of an enchanter. Barren valleys were transferred into flourishing
orchards of olives, oranges, figs, and pomegranates. Rocky slopes were
covered with verdant terraces. In districts where, according to ancient
tradition, no water had ever been seen, now flowed noisy rivulets and
broad canals. Where marshes existed, the rich lands they concealed
were drained, reclaimed, and placed under thorough cultivation. On all
sides were visible the works of the hydraulic engineer,--which supplied
the necessary moisture to the fields by every device then known to
human skill,--the reservoir, the well, the sluice, the tunnel, the
siphon, the aqueduct. The ingenuity of the Moors improved methods of
terrestrial culture, for centuries regarded as perfect by many highly
civilized nations. They adopted and extended the irrigating system of
Egypt. They appropriated the Persian wheel, which, with the rows of
jars on its periphery and propelled by cattle, served as a pump; or,
driven by the rapid current of streams, distributed the waters of the
latter through lands of higher level. Some of these wheels were very
large, not infrequently attaining a diameter of seventy feet; one at
Toledo was ninety cubits high. Their number was immense; within an area
of a few square leagues five hundred might often be counted. Fields
were surveyed and grades ascertained by means of the astrolabe. The
public works constructed for irrigating purposes were on a gigantic
scale. The artificial basin near Alicante, elliptical in shape, is
three miles in circumference and fifty feet deep; the dam at Elche
is two hundred and sixty-four feet long, fifty-two feet high, and
a hundred and fifty feet wide at the bottom; that over the Segura,
near Murcia, is seven hundred and sixty feet long and thirty-six feet
in height. The aqueduct at Manesis, in Valencia, is seven hundred
and twenty feet long, and is supported by twenty-eight arches. The
principle of the siphon, familiar to the Arabs eight hundred years
before it was known in France, was utilized to a remarkable degree in
the Moorish hydraulic system. The length of the curve in the great
siphon at Almanzora is five hundred and seven feet; the diameter of
the latter is six feet, and it passes ninety feet under the bed of a
mountain stream. The subterranean aqueduct at Maravilla, which waters
the plain of Urgel, is a mile long and thirty feet in diameter; that of
Crevillente, north of Orihuela, is fifty-five hundred and sixty-five
feet long and thirty-six feet in diameter. All of these underground
conduits are cut through the solid rock. The masonry of the reservoirs
is of the finest description, and the cement made use of has become
harder than stone itself. Contingencies are provided for with such
skill and foresight that no overflow occurs, and no damage ever
results, even in time of the greatest inundations. The excellence
of construction which characterizes these massive works of Arab
engineering genius is demonstrated by the fact that they have needed
practically no repairs in a thousand years.
As was necessary under the conditions which prevailed in a region
where water was so valuable, the greatest care was exercised in its
apportionment and distribution. The irrigating system of the khalifate
was governed by a peculiar code of laws, perfect familiarity with
whose provisions was only to be obtained by a life-long experience.
The strictest economy was enforced. All waste was forbidden. The water
conducted from one canal to another was used again and again. The
sluices were opened at certain times, the quantity furnished being
accurately graduated according to the requirements of the cultivator.
Theft was punished with exemplary severity. In some provinces those
whose crops for the time did not need irrigation might dispose of their
diurnal supply to their neighbors; in others this privilege was not
conceded. No one could be served out of his turn. The complexity of
the system may be inferred from the variety of distributing outlets
dependent upon the extent and character of the soil to be watered.
There were two hundred and twenty-four of these, all different, and
each designated by a separate name. Under the especial care of the
imperial authorities, a vigilant police patrolled the canals and
guarded the reservoirs of every district. All disputes and violations
of law were passed upon by a court--whose judges were chosen by the
farmers themselves--called The Tribunal of the Waters, which sat on
Thursdays at the door of the principal mosque. The place where its
sessions were held imparted to it a semi-religious character. To
it the complicated and expensive organization of modern judicature
was unknown, and, secure in the good sense and integrity of its
magistrates, it was equally free from royal interference, political
interest, judicial corruption, absurd technicalities, and legal
chicanery. Its proceedings were not embarrassed by vexatious delays.
No official was required to preserve order. No record was kept of
its deliberations. No costs were incurred. No advocate was present
to perplex by subtle arguments and frivolous distinctions the plain
interpretation of the law. Each party stated his own case. The accused
conducted his own defence. Judgment was rendered after a brief
consultation, and from it there was no appeal. The most exalted rank,
the greatest wealth, the most distinguished public service, did not
confer exemption from the jurisdiction of the court or affect the
impartiality of its decrees. The noble was summoned to its bar with
but little more ceremony than the slave. Infractions of the various
ordinances which protected the canals and their supply were punished
by fines. Where the offence was repeated, the culprit was deprived of
the right to enjoy the privileges upon which the existence of his crop
depended.
The wisdom of these regulations is demonstrated by their longevity.
Preserved by tradition, they have descended to our times almost
unchanged, and The Tribunal of the Waters still sits every Thursday,
the last day of the Mussulman week, at the door of the Cathedral of
Valencia, as it did before the portals of the Great Mosque under the
rule of the famous Ommeyade monarchs ten centuries ago.
In the distribution of water the measurement was by volume, a certain
quantity being allotted to a stated area during a given period of
the day or night at intervals of ten to fifteen days. The sides of
the canals were provided with flood-gates, kept under lock and key,
by which the adjoining fields could be submerged at the proper time.
Drains carried the surplus back into the original channels, so that
there was the least possible loss.
The same care and economy were observed in fertilizing the soil, which
the requirements of a dense population never permitted to rest. Unlike
the policy adopted under the Roman and Gothic dominations, there were
few large estates. The land was divided into small tracts, and for that
reason was much more thoroughly tilled. Manure and dust were collected
from the highways. The contents of sewers and vaults were preserved,
desiccated, and, mingled with less powerful substances, were used to
supply the impairment consequent upon incessant cultivation. Ashes,
the burned and pulverized seeds of fruits, the blood and bones of
slaughtered animals, all played an important part in the intelligent
and systematic treatment of the rich and productive valleys of the
South, whose surface, resting on an impenetrable subsoil of clay,
required continual renovation. The curious and minute investigations of
the skilled agriculturist had determined the best composts, the most
advantageous modes of applying them, the kind of vegetation to which
they were specially adapted.
Manures were deposited in stone reservoirs contrived to prevent
evaporation or leakage. Nothing was wasted; every substance available
for the fertilization of crops was carefully preserved, the different
varieties being separated and applied to such soils as experience had
taught were most productive under their use. No natural obstacle was
sufficiently formidable to check the enterprise and industry of the
Moorish cultivator. He tunnelled through mountains. His aqueducts
traversed deep ravines. He levelled with infinite patience and labor
the rocky slopes of the sierra. Where the vast public works of
Roman genius could be utilized, they were repaired and extended. The
vegetable products of the remotest countries of the globe--the grains
of Asia, the nuts and berries of Europe, the luscious fruits of the
African coast--were transported to Andalusia.
Profound botanical knowledge, which went hand in hand with Arab
horticulture, wonderfully promoted these researches. The Spanish
Moslems were perfectly familiar with the circulation of the sap,
with the difference of sex in plants, with the process of artificial
fecundation. They invested them with the conditions of activity and
repose, of motion and sleep. They employed eight distinct methods
of grafting; and the injurious effects of the sun were obviated by
the use of a perforated vessel, from which the water fell drop by
drop upon the graft, which, without this precaution, would have been
withered by the heat. The Moorish gardeners devised numerous expedients
for the improvement of their products, not a few of which modern
ignorance has assigned to a more recent date. An example of these was
the removal from the tree of a portion of the fruit before maturity
to insure the superior size and excellence of that which remained.
They cultivated such dye-stuffs as madder and indigo, products of
India. They introduced on a diminished scale the hanging gardens of
Babylon. In floral ornamentation they had no superiors. They contrived
labyrinths, artificial grottoes, concealed fountains. They traced
texts and inscriptions by means of gorgeous blossoms on a ground
of living emerald. The intricate designs of tapestry were imitated
by an infinite variety of flowering plants, whose tints blended in
perfect harmony, like the colors of the material they were intended
to represent. They acquired such dexterity in the culture of roses
that, at all seasons of the year, they bloomed in profusion in every
garden. Like our modern florists, they endeavored to produce them of
unusual tints, and met with corresponding failures. They understood
how to extract opium from the poppy, but the process they employed has
not come down to us. They treated with success the diseases of all the
known species of the vegetable kingdom. They were exceedingly skilful
in the distillation and refining of essences, and great plantations of
flowers were cultivated for the sake of the exquisite perfumes they
afforded. Twenty-five different kinds of these are mentioned, and
they were so abundant and cheap that they were scarcely accounted a
luxury. In all the multifarious duties of his occupation the Moorish
horticulturist possessed expert knowledge. He could preserve fruits for
an indefinite period; banish noxious insects; expel poisonous gases
from wells and excavations. He was versed in meteorology, and could
foresee atmospheric changes with an accuracy incomprehensible to those
whose daily pursuits did not require familiarity with the varying
aspects of the seasons and the annual recurrence of natural phenomena.
In the principal cities of the Peninsula were schools where practical
instruction in the various departments of husbandry was given.
As the Koran explicitly forbade the exportation of grain, the surplus
of the harvests was deposited in subterranean granaries hewn in the
rock. When a child attained his majority, one of these magazines
was presented to him, and such was the dryness of the receptacles
that wheat in perfect preservation was found in some of them near
Granada, where it had lain two centuries after the capture of that
city. The wisdom of this arrangement was apparent during the famines
which, despite the industry of the people, occasionally afflicted the
Peninsula. Reliance was sometimes placed upon less palatable food,
however, and near Pedroche, from time immemorial, forests of giant oaks
were carefully preserved for the sake of their acorns, which furnished
a coarse but nutritious diet when all other resources failed.
The great work of Ibn-al-Awam, of Seville, a vast monument of industry
and erudition embracing every conceivable branch of the subject, shows
to what extraordinary perfection the science of agriculture had been
carried in the twelfth century by the Spanish Mohammedans. It treats,
in a comprehensive and exhaustive manner, not only of the methods
found by the experience of centuries to be the best adapted to the
sowing and harvesting of grain, to the planting and cultivation of
orchards, to the propagation of edible and aromatic plants; but it
also, with infinite minuteness of detail, describes the breeding and
care of every species of domestic animals, their qualities, their
relative excellence, their defects, their habits, their diseases. It
discourses at length upon the different breeds of horses and upon the
rearing of that useful animal so prized by the Arab. It explains the
details of artificial incubation, a process borrowed from Egypt. It
directs how to produce in geese the abnormal hepatic conditions which
induce the _foie gras_, that artificial delicacy so dear to the
epicure, and a thousand years ago, as to-day, an invaluable adjunct to
fashionable gluttony. It teaches different methods of cooking and the
preparation of various confections, jellies, syrups, and sweetmeats of
every description. The manufacture of wine, so rigidly forbidden to
the Moslem, and whose immense consumption had already, in the time of
the khalifate, scandalized the pious, is detailed in all its stages
in this remarkable book. In it are given recipes for cordials of many
kinds, cooling beverages, and hydromel. It also prescribes the rules
by which the household of the farmer should be governed, and defines
the reciprocal duties of employer and employee. In every operation of
rural life and domestic economy, it enforces by repeated admonition the
necessity for cleanliness, system, and order.
From the treatise of Ibn-al-Awam we learn that much of his information
was derived from Sicilian sources, where agriculture and its dependent
occupations were fully as advanced as in the Peninsula. In that
rich island, saffron and numerous other herbs were indigenous, and
thence with many vegetables and fruits were carried into Spain. The
vineyards and the wines of Sicily, famous in antiquity, maintained
their reputation during the Moslem and Norman dominations, but, during
the contest of the Empire with the Papacy, the culture of the grape
declined and was practically extinct for more than a century.
To Moorish enterprise Europe owes such fruits as the strawberry, the
lemon, the quince, the date, the fig, the mulberry, the banana, the
pomegranate; such nuts as the pistachio and the almond; such cereals
as rice, sesame, buckwheat; such vegetables as spinach and asparagus;
such spices as mace, nutmeg, and pepper; such condiments as the caper
and saffron. The coffee and the cotton plant, which grew wild in
Arabia; the sugar-cane, whose product bears, almost unaltered, the
name bestowed by those who were the first to extract it, were also
introduced by the Arabs. The olive plantations in the vicinity of
Seville alone, containing millions of trees, indicate the estimation
in which its culture was held, and the enormous profits it must have
yielded the owners. Grapes were so abundant at Ubeda that there was no
market for them; at Malaga, Ibn-Batutah says, eight pounds sold for
a dirhem. Al-Makkari refers to the prodigious size of the melons of
Cintra. The pears grown at Daroca, unequalled in richness of flavor,
weighed three pounds. The apples of Santarem were thirty inches in
circumference. Oranges were of not inferior dimensions; and to-day
in Southeastern Spain it is not unusual to see them eight inches in
diameter. It is impossible at the present time to realize the extent
and thoroughness of the culture of the soil which obtained under the
Moslem domination in the Peninsula. The southern portion, in its
exuberant fertility now the admiration of the traveller, was under
the Moors infinitely more productive. La Mancha, the Castiles, and
Estremadura, which offer at present an unhappy picture of sterility
and want, were as late as the twelfth century covered with luxuriant
harvests, interspersed with groves and orchards, amidst which nestled
countless villages, farm-houses, towers, and hamlets.
These scenes of rural thrift and beauty were traversed by thousands
of canals and conduits diffusing on every side their refreshing and
fertilizing waters. The gardens were enclosed by trellises made of
reeds woven together and covered with trailing roses and climbing
vines, the mingled odors of whose blossoms filled the air. Salamanca,
now the centre of one of the most poverty-stricken and deserted
districts in Spain, was in the tenth century a populous and flourishing
provincial capital with a hundred and twenty-five towns, many of them
of considerable magnitude, subject to its jurisdiction. Segovia, whose
present condition is even more deplorable, was during the khalifate
the centre of the woollen manufacture of the country, a source of
great wealth to all who embarked in it. Horticulture in Aragon, where
every product of the vegetable world not prohibited by the asperity
of the climate grew in profuse abundance, reached its climax in the
exquisite scenery of the valley of the Ebro, called the River of
Fruits, from the interminable orchards that lined its banks. The entire
kingdom was formerly dotted with forests, and in its deserts are to
be discerned the clay-beds of many a lake and water-course, whose
moisture once brought prosperity to a numerous Moorish population.
The capital, Saragossa, long the seat of an enlightened dynasty, was
celebrated far and near for the accomplishments of its princes, the
learning of its scholars, the skill of its artisans, the wealth of
its Jews, and the superb decorations of its mosques. No city of the
khalifate possessed a better class of inhabitants, greater wealth, or
a higher degree of civilization. Its walls were nearly two leagues in
circuit. Its gardens extended for a distance of eight miles in every
direction. Its atmosphere was perfumed by the flowers which covered
its plain. A territory of great extent containing many villages and
castles acknowledged the authority of the Beni-Hud, its rulers. The
entire region was a paradise, which foreigners compared to Chaldea
on account of its fertility, its numerous groves, and its profusion
of waters. In its climate wood did not decay or grain mildew, and
provisions might be kept for years without deterioration. The royal
palace, called the Abode of Pleasures, contained a magnificent hall
of state, whose marbles and arabesques were one of the wonders of the
Peninsula. Abulfeda refers to the Moorish capital of Aragon as, “the
Silver City surrounded by emeralds mingled with gold.” The present
dreary aspect of Toledo offers no suggestion of its former grandeur
under Arab rule when its population numbered two hundred thousand, and
from the towers of its citadel a succession of farms and plantations
could be discerned stretching away to the verge of the horizon. It was
in the tropical South, however, that the inexhaustible resources of the
Moorish agriculturist rioted in the exhibition of their amazing power.
The Mediterranean coast from Gibraltar to Barcelona was an unbroken
belt of verdure. For fifteen miles below Seville the Guadalquivir
was shaded by a succession of orchards. Near that city the district
of the Axarafe--which embraced fifty square leagues and was thickly
planted with olive- and fig-trees--in the twelfth century contained a
thousand thriving villages, two hundred and twenty-five years after
the dismemberment of the Ommeyade empire. Here flourished in close
proximity representatives of the vegetable kingdom collected from the
most widely separated portions of the globe. Here were to be seen
hundreds of varieties of plants, some gathered on the slopes of the
Himalayas, others collected in the forests of Germany; others again
transplanted with infinite labor from Ethiopia and the sources of the
Nile. Here were propagated the orange and the pomegranate of Syria; the
palm of Egypt; the tamarind of Barbary; the fragrant balsam of Arabia.
Vast groves of mulberries indicated the importance attached to the
manufacture of silk.
In the manifold avocations either connected with or dependent upon the
pursuit of agriculture,--in the rearing of cattle and horses, in the
breeding of sheep, in the culture of bees,--the Moor of the Peninsula
attained to the highest degree of proficiency. The Arabian horse lost
none of his incomparable qualities in the climate of Andalusia, and
to his swiftness and endurance are to be attributed many of the most
signal victories which attended the progress of the Moslem arms. The
silky and abundant fleece of the merino sheep owes its fineness as well
as its name to the peculiar method by which flocks were tended and
propagated under the laws of the Western Khalifate. Immense numbers
were conducted twice each year between the Pyrenean slopes and the
plains of Estremadura, by this means securing fresh and continual
pasturage, and equally avoiding the droughts of summer and the storms
of winter. The organization which controlled these migrations,
protected by the authority of the government, eventually acquired the
importance and the power of a political institution. It was designated
the Mesta, and, adopted by the Castilians, its privileges, become
oppressive through abuses long practised with impunity, were, until the
middle of the last century, when they were largely curtailed, one of
the most intolerable grievances endured by the Spanish peasantry.
The richness of the Peninsula in valuable minerals not only facilitated
the development of the arts, but aided materially in the establishment
of commerce with foreign nations. The silver mines of Iberia were
famous from all antiquity, and after centuries of neglect under
barbarian misrule their treasures were again made available under the
energetic administration of the Khalifs of Cordova. In the neighborhood
of Linares are still to be traced the square pits of the Arab, side
by side with the circular excavations of the Roman; and their number,
exceeding five hundred in this single locality, indicates the magnitude
of mining operations, a pursuit whose intelligent prosecution and
economical management contribute so much to the material wealth
of a community. From the sands of the Darro and the Tagus were
extracted considerable quantities of gold. In Spain, the centre of
the largest deposits of cinnabar in the ancient world, the production
of quicksilver was one of the most profitable employments of Moorish
industry. At Abâl, a day’s journey from the capital, were mines where
a thousand workmen were constantly employed. The superior quality of
the copper utensils, the unrivalled temper of the steel blades, for
which Andalusia especially was renowned, attest not only the excellence
of the respective ores from which those metals were obtained, but
the skill required for the fabrication of the latter into objects of
utility and beauty in the workshops and armories of Almeria, Seville,
Granada, and Toledo.
For leagues before approaching the great Andalusian cities the
traveller traversed by highways covered with arching foliage districts
so thickly settled as to resemble a succession of contiguous hamlets.
The air was sweet with the fragrance of flowers; the murmur of waters
was everywhere; along each stream was a row of picturesque mills; on
one side rose the towers and cupolas of some palace rich with gilding
and sparkling tiles; on the other a line of cottages embowered in
jasmine and roses. Nothing impressed him more forcibly than the thrift
which seemed to universally prevail. Every foot of land susceptible of
cultivation was carefully tilled. Every drop of water was used. Great
crowds filled the narrow streets. No beggars plied their annoying
trade on the thoroughfares or infested the portals of the mosques.
The teeming population of the country was the best indication of the
general prosperity. In the year 910, there were more people in any one
of the Hispano-Arab provinces bordering on the Mediterranean than there
were in all Great Britain at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Every indulgence and encouragement was afforded by the laws to the
Moorish cultivator. The independence so necessary to the successful
prosecution of agricultural pursuits, he enjoyed to the utmost degree
compatible with the maintenance of social order. For the most part, he
himself instituted the regulations of husbandry, which were enforced by
magistrates taken from his class and of his own selection. His taxes
were not oppressive. The productiveness of the soil, the equability of
the climate, never permitted his labors to go unrewarded. In Valencia,
where each week yielded a new crop to the farmer, rest of the land,
essential to the preservation of fertility elsewhere, was unknown.
In Murcia, the wonderful vegetation had given to the country a name
suggested by its resemblance to the luxuriant Valley of the Nile.
The annual yield of oil by the Axarafe at Seville was two million one
hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred gallons; every day
during the olive harvest a hundred and twenty-five thousand gallons
were brought into the city. All Africa, Asia, and Europe were supplied
with this useful article of food by the plantations of Southern Spain.
It was not without reason that the olive-tree--the source of such
wealth, the emblem of peace--should have been regarded as blessed by
both the Moslem and the Jew. Roses were so abundant at Cordova that
twenty-five pounds of the leaves only brought two dirhems, and every
one was at liberty to pluck all the flowers he desired from the hedges
that bordered the highways or in private grounds, a privilege which was
never abused. In localities unfavorable to cultivation the deficiencies
of the soil were supplied by untiring industry. Walls of ponderous
masonry supported terraces where the very cliffs were made productive,
and where only a bush or a vine could be planted the narrow space was
utilized. Not only water, but loam and fertilizing materials were
brought from great distances.
The dimensions, the splendor, the opulence, of the principal cities
amazed the foreigner accustomed to the crowded quarters and squalid
wretchedness of the European capitals. All were surrounded by suburbs,
themselves of vast extent, stretching as far as the eye could reach.
The mountain slopes of Almeria and Malaga were covered with vineyards;
in the plains were thousands of acres of sugar-cane; in the marshes,
rice plantations. The gardens of Almeria extended for a radius of
twenty miles north, east, and west from the harbor. The supreme
importance of the agricultural interest as affecting the general
welfare of a community was never more conclusively demonstrated than
by the disastrous results consequent upon the expulsion of the Jews
and the Moriscoes. These results have already been alluded to in these
pages. The destructive policy which blotted out a great civilization
brought with it its own punishment. Extensive regions, which under the
Moslems produced immense revenues, are at the present day barren and
uninhabited. The sole traces of former prosperity in districts now
relinquished to the bandit and the smuggler are disclosed by mounds
designating the sites of former villages. Where were once endless
plantations of valuable trees are now dreary wastes destitute of all
vegetation, incapable of supporting animal life, cursed with eternal
drought and hopeless sterility. The cities have lost by far the
greater portion of their inhabitants; the villages have dwindled to
hamlets; the ancient hamlets have disappeared. In the Peninsula, under
the Arabs, there were no uncultivated tracts except those covered by
the forests; in the middle of the last century in Estremadura--not
including the mountain regions which embraced one-third of the area
of the province--there were two hundred thousand acres abandoned; in
La Mancha forty-five thousand; in the district of Utrera thirty-one
thousand. The only localities where agriculture still flourishes
are those where Nature has distributed her choicest favors; where
the necessity for arduous labor does not tax the capacity of native
indolence; where the products of the earth grow in spontaneous
profusion; where the systems of irrigation and tillage introduced by
the Moors still prevail without substantial alteration, disclosing
their unrivalled adaptability to the purposes of rural industry.
The great productiveness of the soil and the proximity of the
Mediterranean naturally suggested the development of natural resources
and the extension of commerce in Moorish Spain. With the ancient
Arab, the predatory instinct alone took precedence of the mercantile
propensity. That propensity received a tremendous impulse from the
foundation of Islam. Encouraged by the precepts and example of the
Prophet, who, as the factor of Khadijah, had visited the cities
of Syria, the calling of the merchant soon came to be regarded by
every Moslem as a profession of honor as well as of profit. The
inhabitants of the Desert were, for the most part, divided into two
classes,--those who organized caravans and those who plundered them.
Centuries before the Hegira, a lucrative trade was carried on between
the districts of Mecca and Yemen and the rich cities of India, Assyria,
and Egypt. Little effort therefore was required for the establishment
of profitable commercial intercourse between the seaports of the
Spanish Peninsula and those which at frequent intervals dotted the
shores of the Mediterranean. Almost coincident with the Conquest an
extensive trade was inaugurated. The control of the sea by the navy
of the khalifs extended immeasurably the facilities of mercantile
intercommunication. The great markets of Christendom maintained the
closest relations with the opulent houses of Almeria and Malaga; the
wares of Constantinople, Venice, and Genoa found ready purchasers
in the bazaars of Cordova as well as in those of the provincial
capitals of Andalusia and Al-Maghreb. But the dauntless spirit of
the Moorish Moslem was not limited to maritime trade; his factors
were to be found in every country accessible to the influences and
the enterprise of civilization; his caravans traversed with equal
rapidity and perseverance the forests of Europe, the deserts of
Ethiopia, the illimitable plains of Central Asia, the marshes and
jungles of Hindustan. The mysterious perils of unexplored seas, the
fierce aspect and savage manners of wild and barbarous tribes, the
formidable obstacles presented by trackless wastes and pestilential
swamps, were all forgotten in the thirst for gain and the excitement
of adventure. The memory of the expeditions periodically despatched by
their ancestors from the cities of Arabia, the sight of the enormous
profits accumulated by the Jews, at once their instructors, their
allies, and their competitors, stimulated the ambition of the Spanish
Arabs, already predisposed to mercantile occupations, and whose
extraordinary energy seemed to promise success in every undertaking.
Mussulman legislation, so eminently favorable to the requirements of
internal and foreign commerce, offered aid to the followers of the
Prophet in a more effective manner than had ever been suggested by
the founders of other religions. The duties imposed by the pilgrimage
to Mecca and Medina were intimately connected with the conditions of
traffic. Long before Mohammed, the altar and the bazaar had been placed
in a position of mutual dependence by the sagacious and thrifty traders
of Yemen. The idolatrous shrine of Mecca looked for its support to the
pilgrims who, allured partly by superstition, partly by avarice, at
regular intervals swarmed within the walls of the Holy City. The Koran
enjoins under all circumstances the strict observance of contracts and
the practice of honesty, and menaces with the justice of heaven such as
violate the principles of equitable dealing in business transactions.
In addition to the general principles of Mohammedan law which promoted
the intercourse of nations, the Ommeyade khalifs of Spain exempted from
taxation many products of manufacture and objects of luxury,--among
them weapons, armor, and jewelry,--aware that the increased wealth
which must result from this privilege would enure to the benefit of the
people far more in the end than the transitory advantage resulting from
the imposition of taxes or duties.
The sea, as well as the land, was made tributary to the enterprise of
the Saracens. Amber was thrown up in considerable quantities around
Lisbon. The pearl fishery was an important occupation of the natives
of Valencia and Alicante. In the neighborhood of Almeria quantities of
exquisite onyx and agates were found. Rock salt was abundant,--a great
hill of it stood near Saragossa. The mountains of Alhama were composed
of gypsum, which afforded the finest quality of plaster. Deposits of
lapis-lazuli existed at Lorca. At Macael were inexhaustible beds of
white marble that rivalled in lustre and beauty the product of the
Grecian quarries of Pentelicus. The mountains of Andalusia abounded
with jasper. Carthagena yielded amethysts. Rubies were mined near
Malaga.
Inland traffic was assisted by means of fairs,--those popular
mercantile expedients which foster trade and at the same time develop
the social instincts of humanity,--institutions especially acceptable
to semi-barbarous nations and long familiar to the people of Arabia.
Ease of communication, the most potent of civilizing influences,
promoted this national interchange of both commodities and ideas. The
disposition of merchandise, profitable as it was, while the ostensible
motive, was by no means the most important object of these popular
assemblies. Familiarity with distant communities, the conversation
of strangers, the varying panorama of novel and interesting scenes,
the excitement and bustle attendant upon the congregation of vast
multitudes, are wonderful stimulants to the intellectual faculties. The
literary contests for poetical supremacy which were said to have formed
a distinctive feature of the mighty concourse of Okhad were revived in
the fairs of Andalusia. While the latter were designed for provincial
benefit, they, in fact, partook largely of a cosmopolitan character.
Their fame attracted commercial speculators from the most distant
countries. Articles of great rarity and value were exposed for sale
in their booths. The transactions concluded within their limits were
not inferior in importance to those which had created the commercial
prosperity of Malaga and Almeria. The circumstances incident to their
institution and surroundings offered representations of tropical life
strange to the eyes of Christendom. The endless lines of plodding
camels, loaded with precious stuffs; the splendidly caparisoned
horses; the sumptuous litters enclosing the beauties of the harem; the
sullen and ferocious eunuchs; the retinues of the nobles glittering
with steel and gold; the swarming crowds in the white robes of the
Oriental; the enchanting landscape, with its groves of palm, orange,
and pomegranate, its rippling waters, its fragrant exotics; the narrow
streets covered with awnings to exclude the sun; the gay pavilions; the
strange costumes of luxurious Asia and barbaric Africa; the mingled
accents of a score of idioms, manifested on highway, thoroughfare, and
plain the foreign influence which, apparently established forever,
had obliterated the Roman and Gothic traditions of the Peninsula. No
such spectacle could be elsewhere exhibited unless in countries where
Eastern customs had held sway from time immemorial. The effect of these
periodical assemblies upon the commercial, literary, and social life of
Mohammedan Spain was of the highest importance.
Great as was its internal traffic, it was necessarily to its foreign
mercantile connections that the Moorish empire looked for its most
profitable returns. Its geographical position was unusually favorable
for the prosecution of maritime enterprise. The Mediterranean gave
its traders ready access to all the most civilized countries of
the world. But a few hours’ sail separated them from the ports of
Northern Africa, where were amassed the rich commodities of that vast
continent. The Bay of Biscay afforded a passage for their vessels to
the harbors of France and Britain. According to Edrisi, they explored
Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores four hundred years before those
islands were occupied by Europeans. Through the passes of the Pyrenees
they could reach the markets of Northern Europe. Thus brought in
contact with remote nations which had no other means of communication,
the European Moors enjoyed peculiar commercial advantages which they
were not slow to improve. The carrying trade of the Peninsula was
largely in the hands of the Jews. The latter had been a lucrative
source of revenue to the Goths, as they were subsequently to the
persecuting Spaniards. They were the bankers, the importers, the
carriers of the empire. They imparted a large share of their energy
and enterprise to the Moslems, already envious of their success and
their opulence. In the ninth century an extraordinary impetus was
communicated to the intercourse with the Orient; in the tenth the
merchants of Spain and Sicily practically engrossed the commerce of
the Mediterranean. Every provision was made for both security and
profit. Armed galleys patrolled the coasts and convoyed the fleets
of merchantmen as they traversed the seas. The inland mercantile
transactions of the Spanish Moslems were probably not inferior in
importance to their maritime ventures. The discovery of innumerable
coins and pieces of jewelry on the coast of Scandinavia and along
the rivers of Germany and Poland indicates, more certainly than any
historical record could do, the former presence of the adventurous
traders of the Peninsula. The khalifs had consular agents in India,
China, and Persia. They sent magnificent gifts to Oriental potentates.
They negotiated treaties with the barbarian princes of Central Africa.
Tribal hostility was forgotten in the mutual advantages arising
from traffic with the Mussulman cities of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia,
and with the settlements of the Indian archipelago. Policy as well
as interest confirmed the friendship early established between the
Moslem sovereigns of Spain and the Greek emperors of Constantinople.
They exchanged presents, despatched special embassies, received
the representatives of imperial dignity and hostile faith with
every demonstration of honor and respect. The exclusive commercial
privileges enjoyed by the merchants of the two empires gave them a
vast superiority over all competitors. Colonies of foreign Christians
who occupied quarters by themselves and were governed by their own
laws were established in all the seaports and in many of the inland
cities. The number of these in Granada at the time of the Conquest
was twenty-five thousand, the majority of whom were Italians. The
traders of the Bosphorus were frequently seen at the fairs of Castile;
the great houses of Almeria and Barcelona maintained agencies in the
Byzantine capital which controlled the rich commerce of the Euxine and
the Baltic.
In the great markets of the East and West the choicest articles of
luxury passed through the hands of the shrewd and enterprising dealers
of Mohammedan Spain. From the borders of the Arctic Circle came the
precious furs of the lynx, the fox, and the ermine, the least valuable
of which was worth a hundred dinars; from Norway and Siberia stores of
fossil ivory; from Arabia balsams and aromatics; from Germany honey
and wax; from the countries of the Baltic mastic, storax, and amber;
from China tea and porcelain; from Ethiopia gold-dust and asbestos;
from Persia perfumes; from India spices and sandalwood; from Sweden
and Finland female slaves with faultless complexions and flaxen
tresses, whose ordinary price in the bazaars of Cairo and Cordova was
a thousand pieces of gold. The Jews and the monks of France, adepts
in an execrable occupation, provided the harems with white eunuchs.
Timbuctoo and the districts of the Niger contributed blacks of gigantic
proportions and ferocious aspect, to be enrolled in the body-guard of
the khalifs. The hawks, so generally used in the sport of the Middle
Ages, were for the most part bred or furnished by the Moslem merchants.
They also imported from Africa wild animals, such as lions, giraffes,
and leopards, for zoological collections and for sale in distant
countries. A lion in the markets of China was valued at thirty thousand
rolls of silk. The camel, easily domesticated in Andalusia, always
commanded a high price as a beast of burden. The principal emporiums of
mediæval commerce and international exchange, where were collected the
most valuable products of a hundred kingdoms, all of which paid tribute
to Moorish enterprise and wealth, were Constantinople, Alexandria,
Malaga, and Palermo.
The great centres of manufacturing and mercantile activity were
situated on the Mediterranean. Of these, Almeria was the most
important. From the extreme East, from the Nubian deserts, from the
coast of Guinea, from distant Britain, from the frozen regions of the
North, traders crowded her streets and markets. In her harbor were to
be encountered the ships of every maritime nation. Her eight hundred
silk factories, employing more than eight thousand looms, sent forth
gold and silver tissues, carpets, curtains, robes,--whose delicate
texture and exquisite designs excelled the finest products of the
Orient. The iron and copper utensils made by her artisans enjoyed an
extensive reputation for durability and finish. The influx of strangers
who contributed to her wealth and shared her hospitality may be
conjectured from the fact that nine hundred and seventy caravansaries
within her walls were registered to pay the excise on wine.
At Malaga, another great seaport, were situated the largest potteries
in Andalusia, where was manufactured the porcelain whose surface of
enamelled gold, silver, and copper was due to a process known only
to the Arabs of Spain. The clay found in the vicinity was peculiarly
adapted to the purposes of the potter, and had centuries before assumed
the symmetrical forms of classic elegance under the dexterous hands of
the Roman. The efforts of antiquity had, however, been surpassed by the
Moors, who in time brought this industry to a perfection heretofore
unknown. In other towns, such as Valencia, Murcia, Murviedro, and
Calatayud, it was also pursued with great success. The resources
of modern ingenuity have been taxed in vain to discover the secret
which could give to a porcelain vase the peculiar finish which, while
preserving unchanged the colors of the metals, increased far more than
any burnishing could effect the lustre of its brilliant surface. In
no city in the world, excepting those of China, was the fabrication
of porcelain pursued with such skill and profit as at Malaga. Its
exportation was one of the most lucrative sources of wealth enjoyed
by the kingdom of Granada. With the people, this industrial pursuit
was not merely a vulgar trade carried on for mercenary motives, but
an occupation which permitted and encouraged the development of the
highest scientific and artistic instincts of humanity. The vases of
graceful form and exquisite decoration which came from the Malagan
potteries were eagerly sought after by the opulent and luxurious of
every land. The perfection of this branch of the ceramic art with the
secret of the metallic enamel disappeared with the final conquest of
the city. This fact is not in itself remarkable, for the advent of the
Spanish domination was signalized by the destruction of many forms of
useful industry; but it is absolutely unprecedented that a manufacture
of such magnitude, whose extent and perfection were established by so
many indisputable proofs, should not have left intact to posterity
a single specimen of its excellence. There is not positively known
to be a genuine piece of the famous metallic pottery of Malaga in
existence. Some fragments have been found in that city, whose glassy
surface displayed the brilliant lustre which excited the wonder of
contemporaneous nations; but no European museum or private collection,
it is almost certain, now possesses an article which exhibits this
marked peculiarity, or whose origin, with any degree of probability,
can be assigned to the greatest centre of the ceramic art in the
mediæval world.
Not for the fabrication of silks and pottery alone was Malaga famous.
Her glass and paper, her utensils of iron and copper, the complex and
elegant labors of her cabinet-makers and joiners, also enjoyed a wide
and deserved celebrity.
The use of metals as a means of ornamentation was also frequently
applied to leather. This was for the most part made at Cordova, whose
products were conceded to be of superior quality, and commanded the
highest price in every market. Some of the tanning vats, huge vessels
of terra-cotta, in which this material was prepared, are still to be
seen in Spain. The leathern hangings produced in the capital were
justly ranked among the most important of its numerous manufactures.
By some ingenious process the skins were rendered as soft and pliable
as the finest cloth, and were then decorated in accordance with the
canons of Arabic taste, which, without offending the eye with glaring
contrasts, could blend in harmony the richest tints and the sheen of
the brightest metals. The gold and silver were applied with stamps; the
colors were laid on with the brush; and the gorgeous designs produced
an almost magical effect when viewed amidst the varied magnificence
of a Moorish palace. This art, like that of the metallic glaze of
porcelain, also appears to be irretrievably lost. The torn and faded
fragments of ornamented leather which have descended to us prove not
only the durability and excellence of the material, but indicate
a skill beside which the efforts of the most accomplished modern
bookbinders seem clumsy in comparison. It was often impressed with
colored figures in relief, which added greatly to its beauty, imparting
to it the appearance of brocade. The finer grades were perfumed with
amber. The artisans of Cordova also excelled in the carving and
engraving of vessels of silver and gold.
The manufacture of silk at Seville gave employment to a hundred
and sixty thousand weavers, a number of whom were employed in
the fabrication of the stuff called tiraz, whose use was a royal
prerogative. Xativa was long the seat of the first paper factory in
Europe,--that substance whose invention has contributed so greatly to
the dissemination of knowledge and the progress of civilization. For
ages known to the Chinese, the Arabs substituted linen, and finally
cotton, for the silk which had been employed in the Celestial empire.
Its introduction by the Spanish Moors into Europe is indisputable, a
manuscript of cotton paper dating from the eleventh century having been
discovered in the library of the Escorial. Although used at Mecca in
710, it was practically unknown in Europe until the fifteenth century,
and was not manufactured in London before 1690. The extraordinary
impulse imparted to letters by the khalifs, the countless volumes
contained in the imperial libraries, the transcriptions of rare
manuscripts, and the constant publication of new works for whose
composition, if possessed of merit, incredible premiums were paid,
must have caused an immense consumption of paper. A profession held in
such honor, and whose productions were rewarded with such munificence,
naturally attracted to its ranks the noble and the learned of every
Moslem nation; and especially was this the case in the Peninsula, where
the highest literary advantages were enjoyed even by families of humble
rank; and where education among all classes was not only a religious
duty, but a stigma attached to its neglect. In consequence of this,
literary pursuits became not only a fashion but a pleasure; a correct
taste was formed; popular emulation was aroused; the manufacture of
books was multiplied; and the palaces of the rich, irrespective of
their nationality, were filled with collections which would have
provoked the astonishment of a learned “clerk” of France or Britain,
whose superiority over his parishioners consisted in his ability to
write an illegible scrawl and to intone the service--whose meaning he
often did not comprehend, and the application of whose teachings was a
matter of conjecture--in a barbarous jargon of monkish Latin. Care for
the preservation, and facilities for the purchase, of these literary
treasures kept pace with their original production. Binding in leather
was perfectly understood, and the elaborately decorated cases in which
the volumes were often enclosed were deposited upon shelves of aromatic
and precious woods, such as cedar, aloe, ebony, and sandal.
The change from the roll of the ancients to the square form of books
now used dates from the middle of the fifth century. The art had
already reached a high degree of perfection before the establishment of
Islamism. Its best efforts were originally, as might be conjectured,
confined to works on sacred subjects. Bindings enriched with ivory,
gems, cameos, medallions, and clasps of the precious metals were
adorned with the utmost skill of the goldsmith and the lapidary. The
Arabs, and especially those of Spain,--the seat of the greatest culture
of the race,--excelled in this art, as in all others to which they
diligently applied their talents and their industry. The superiority
of their materials, the beauty of their designs, the brilliancy of
their colors, and the profusion of their ornamentation were proverbial.
The value of their covers caused the disappearance and mutilation of
great numbers of works, now either entirely lost or existing only in
a fragmentary condition. At the sack of Cordova, the Berbers used
the leather of priceless volumes for sandals. The Castilian invader
stripped others of their gold and jewels and contemptuously cast the
manuscripts away. The magnificence of those sacrificed to the malignant
energy of Ximenes in the destruction of Moslem learning at Granada only
intensified the prejudice existing against Arabic literature in the
mind of every ignorant and infuriated bigot of the time.
The trade in books held a high rank in the commercial world; its
profits corresponded with its mercantile importance; and in the time of
Al-Hakem II. the booksellers in Cordova alone numbered more than twenty
thousand.
The various kinds of textile fabrics manufactured by the Spanish
Arabs embraced every species of stuffs and every style of pattern. In
addition to silk, the fine merino wools of Lusitania and the cotton
and flax for which Andalusia was long famous furnished to the weaver
supplies of raw material unsurpassed in strength and delicacy of fibre.
Silk introduced into Spain by the Moors had for centuries been known
to the inhabitants of Yemen, who had become familiar with it through
their trade with China. Its use was forbidden to men by Mohammed,
in whose time it was a mark of effeminacy; but this prohibition was
constantly and systematically evaded by the artifice of mingling a
few threads of wool or cotton in the web of the fabric. Essentially
an article of luxury, the amount consumed in the Peninsula indicated
the prosperous condition of a society which could afford to purchase
in such quantities a material that in many countries commanded
extravagant prices. As an article of export none was more in demand or
more profitable. The broad and discerning government of the khalifs,
which, in accordance with the true principles of political economy,
promoted every important branch of commerce, regarded its culture and
manufacture with peculiar favor. It was by an especial provision of the
law exempted from taxation. They encouraged by bounties the planting
of mulberry-trees. In addition to the incredible numbers of these to
be encountered in the valleys of Granada, Valencia, and Almeria, the
city of Jaen, whose climate and situation were remarkably propitious
to the rearing of silk-worms, was the centre of three thousand hamlets
devoted to this lucrative industry. While in Spain silk was a common
material for the apparel of the rich, elsewhere in Europe it was one of
the rarest of commodities and a commercial curiosity. It formed part
of the most precious booty of the Crusaders. Relics were enclosed in
its folds as the most costly of fabrics. It was spread upon the altars
of noble cathedrals. Monarchs were delighted with the possession of a
small piece of a stuff which for generations had filled the shops and
furnished the wardrobes of wealthy citizens of Granada, Cordova, and
Seville.
By the cultivation of a single branch of manufactures in a particular
locality, the subjects of the khalif, profiting by experience, by
the transmission of hereditary talent to successive generations, by
the improvement in mechanical processes which from time to time
spontaneously suggested themselves, attained in many departments of
industry to an almost unprecedented degree of dexterity. Water-power
was used to drive machinery in all the Andalusian manufacturing
centres; in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella looms were still
operated by means of it at Cordova. Nearly every city was noted for a
specialty in whose fabrication it excelled. The armorers of Seville
were famous for their coats of mail and armor inlaid and embossed
with gold. The swords of Toledo were considered unapproachable for
the elegance of their chasing, the keenness of their edge, and the
fineness of their temper. At Almeria were made articles of gilded
and decorated glass, the method of whose manufacture, carried by the
Moors to Italy, is now possessed in its perfection by the Venetians
alone. The superiority of the woollens of Cuenca and the cottons of
Beja was undisputed. Bocayrente produced a linen fabric of gossamer
lightness, which resembled the meshes of a spider’s web in strength
and in delicacy. The carpets of Murcia had no equals except in Persia.
The silken gauzes and sumptuous caparisons of Granada were sent as
presents to kings. In its Alcaiceria, or Silk Market, were two hundred
shops for the exclusive sale of that staple. It is said that in this
beautiful city edifices built for the transaction of business resembled
palaces in their splendor. Its tapestries and brocades were wonderful
specimens of the weaver’s skill, and their designs were subsequently
used as models by the artisans of Italy and France. There also were
made exquisite enamels and vases of rock-crystal. The Moorish jewellers
of Granada were the most celebrated in Europe. Among the specimens
of their handiwork is mentioned a necklace containing four hundred
pearls, each worth a hundred and fifty dinars. Alicante enjoyed a
monopoly in its mats and baskets of esparto, that tough African
grass, whose employment dates from the occupation of Iberia by the
Carthaginians, and whose manifold uses are so admirably adapted to
the requirements of a tropical climate. The mills of Saragossa and
Murcia, built upon boats moored over the rapid currents of the Ebro
and the Guadalaviar, were renowned for the excellent character of
their flour. The drug-market of Lorca was universally resorted to by
physicians, aware that their reputation depended on the purity of the
medicines they administered and relying upon the official supervision
of the government as a sufficient guaranty of their excellence. No such
organized and co-operative system for the production of commodities
and fabrics had at that time been adopted by any other nation in the
world. The founder’s art, particularly exemplified in the casting of
ponderous pieces of metal, was practised with a surprising degree
of skill. Cordova contained at least one establishment of this
description, where were made the figures for the decoration of the
fountains at Medina-al-Zahrâ. The usual difficulties attending the even
distribution of the molten metal during the operation of casting seem
to have been entirely overcome in the examples to be met with in the
museums of Europe, and the results appear to have been as complete and
satisfactory as in the perfected processes of the present day.
In every department of scientific labor, in every practical operation
of life demanding a high degree of mechanical skill, the Spanish Moor
exhibited on all occasions a precocious and remarkable ingenuity.
There was no field too extensive, no detail too insignificant, to
be investigated by his enterprising genius. The marvellous scope of
his powers was the greatest factor of his success. Like the famous
English philosopher, he seemed to have “taken all knowledge to be
his province.” His intellectual faculties grasped and utilized in an
instant conceptions that individuals of other nations would have,
and, in fact, often did, cast aside with contempt. The pioneer of
modern progress, the permanent traces he has left upon civilization,
and his salutary customs, adopted by posterity in defiance of popular
odium and traditional prejudice, are unwilling tributes of national
and ecclesiastical hostility to the talents and greatness of an
accomplished people to whom history is indebted for the sole bright
spot on the dark map of mediæval Europe.
For the commodities of European convenience and Oriental luxury
were bartered innumerable products of Moorish agriculture, mining
enterprise, and manufacturing skill,--the oils, the fruits, the sugar,
the rice, the cotton, of Andalusia and Valencia; cochineal, which
abounded in many parts of the Peninsula; the antimony and quicksilver
of Estremadura; the rubies, amethysts, and pearls of Alicante and
Carthagena; the linens of Salamanca; the woollens of Segovia; the silks
of Granada; the damasks of Almeria; the blades and armor of Seville and
Toledo. The product of the paper-mills of Xativa, famous throughout the
East, was annually exported in large quantities. Malaga disposed of the
most of its exquisite ceramic manufactures in Syria and Constantinople.
From Cordova came the enamelled leather, long famous from the name
of the Ommeyade capital. The horses of the Hispano-Arab breed were
transported in great numbers even as far as Persia. In the kingdom of
Granada a hundred thousand were regularly maintained for the use of
the crown. Andalusia enjoyed an infamous celebrity as the principal
market for eunuchs in the world. The supply came from France, Galicia,
and Barbary, through the medium of Christian and Hebrew dealers, by
whose instrumentality, also, these unfortunates were prepared for the
humiliating service of the seraglio. Vast multitudes of other slaves,
the produce of foray and conquest, were also disposed of from time
to time; a single expedition of Al-Mansur conveyed to Cordova nine
thousand Christian captives. Thus, exclusive of other booty, prisoners
of war were a source of constant and enormous revenue to the state.
The natural resources of Sicily and its fortunate position, as the
entrepôt of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, were the means of
enriching its people beyond that of any territory of equal area known
in any age. The harbors of Palermo and Syracuse were constantly crowded
with shipping. Sicilian merchantmen were to be encountered in every
European port; they brought cargoes of slaves, ivory, and gold-dust
from the coast of Guinea; they traversed the canal of Suez,--reopened
by the Egyptian khalifs,--and, braving the tempests of the Red Sea and
the Indian Ocean, penetrated to the Spice Islands of the far distant
East. The intimate relations of the Moorish princes of Sicily with
the khalifs of Cordova and the Byzantine emperors placed within reach
of their merchants every article of popular research and commercial
value. In exchange for these, they exported the vegetable and mineral
productions of the island,--cotton, hemp, grapes, oranges, sugar, wine,
and oil; copper, lead, iron, and mercury; rock-salt, sal-ammoniac, and
vitriol; cattle and horses; and the shell-fish from which was extracted
the Tyrian purple. The profits of this extensive commerce were
naturally productive of enormous wealth; the warehouses of the Sicilian
cities were crowded with valuable merchandise of every conceivable
description; the houses of the Palermitan merchants rivalled the
palaces of sovereigns; and the people in effeminacy and voluptuousness,
in no respect surpassed by the inhabitants of ancient Sybaris, were
proverbial for their opulence, their refinement, their extravagance,
and their luxury.
It will appear from the foregoing observations that the energy
manifested by the European Moslems in mercantile pursuits was
fully equal to their industrial and literary activity. In neither
the ancient nor the mediæval world did any nation--excepting the
Phœnicians--approach the Spanish and the Sicilian Arabs in craft, in
foresight, in enterprise, in accuracy of judgment, in that singleness
of purpose which is indispensable to success. Their Midas touch turned
everything to gold. They were familiar with Oriental countries at a
period when the very existence of the latter was unknown to Europe
or was considered fabulous. The number of shops for the sale of
merchandise which existed in the great cities indicated the immensity
of the traffic of which they were the centres; of these Cordova
contained more than eighty thousand. The rules which governed the
transactions of commercial intercourse in the markets of the Peninsula
were so simple, convenient, and equitable that they were subsequently
adopted by many other nations. The learned French writer, Sédillot, is
authority for the statement that Europe has borrowed from the Arabs
some of its most important principles of finance as well as its present
code of maritime law.
To the Moslems we owe the adaptation of the magnetic needle to the
purposes of navigation, an invention long erroneously attributed to the
sailors of Amalfi. Its peculiar properties, familiar for ages to the
Chinese, were probably communicated by them to the Arabs. Originally
inserted in a cork and permitted to float on the surface of water, the
Moors were the first to mount it on a pivot, thereby vastly increasing
its utility and accuracy. They were evidently acquainted with it before
the twelfth century, as Arab writers of that epoch allude without
comment to the compass as an instrument perfectly familiar to the
seamen of the Mediterranean. To the Mussulman the magnet possessed
a threefold significance and value. It guided his vessel across
the trackless waters independently of the appearance of the stars.
It indicated unerringly the course of the caravan in the Desert,
constantly menaced by the perils of thirst and of the simoom. And it
enabled the pious worshipper, however distant from the Mosque of Mecca,
to ascertain in an instant the point to which he should direct his face
during the hours of prayer.
The laborious and exhaustive investigations of Reinand, Favé, Le Bon,
and Viardot have demonstrated beyond dispute that the Arabs were the
inventors of gunpowder and artillery. While it was admitted that
these destructive agents were introduced into Europe by the Moors of
Spain, their discovery was long universally ascribed to the Chinese.
As a matter of fact, they were first made use of in Syria and Egypt,
probably as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century. The
primitive lombards of the Sultan of Egypt, which cast great balls of
stone, terrified the army of St. Louis in 1249. Artillery was employed
by the Moors, besieged in Niebla by Alfonso X., in 1257. According to
Ibn-Khaldun, it was used by Abu-Yusuf, Emir of Morocco, at the siege
of Sidjilmesa, in 1273. Ibn-al-Khatib says that cannon were made in
Granada before 1300, and mentions Ibn-al-Hadj as famous for his skill
in their manufacture. After that time they are frequently mentioned
by the Spanish historians of the Reconquest. Their first appearance
in the wars of France was in 1338. The Earls of Salisbury and Derby,
who served in the army of Alfonso XI., before Algeziras, in 1342,
carried the knowledge of the invention to England four years before
the battle of Crecy, an epoch which marks its general adoption in
Europe. Considering the immense military superiority which we should
naturally attribute to a people exclusively acquainted with the formula
for the manufacture of gunpowder and experienced in its application
to fire-arms, it is remarkable that this enormous power was not more
profitably utilized by the Spanish Arabs, who possessed it a century
before the portentous secret became known to the nations of Christendom.
Among the Moslems, the operations of war were rarely carried on
according to a definite plan. Military service was not merely a matter
of patriotism or loyalty, it was a religious duty imposed by his faith
upon every Mussulman, and from which only the infirm and the aged were
exempt. As of old in the Desert, each clan marched under its hereditary
commander. In important campaigns the army was marshalled in five
grand divisions, symbolical of the five cardinal precepts of Islam,
an arrangement by which the valor of the warrior was strengthened by
the stimulus of fanatical zeal. The Koran was always in sight, either
borne like a standard on the point of a lance or held in the hand of
the general, as he directed the manœuvres of the field. There was no
regular attempt at organization. The troops depended largely on the
enemy for subsistence. The cavalry were generally clad in mail; the
infantry were, as a rule, little better than a half-armed rabble. If
repulsed at the first onset, it was almost impossible to rally a Moslem
army.
Among the most remarkable institutions of the Arabs of Spain was
the Ribat, or station on the frontier of the enemy, which formed
the model of the orders of military monks of the Middle Ages. These
establishments were strongly fortified castles, garrisoned by devout
soldiers, who expected the recompense promised by the Koran for
constant service against the infidel. The leisure time of their
occupants was spent in religious exercises. Many pious volunteers
sought glory and holiness in the dangerous life which the exposed
position of these outposts afforded. The latter guarded the passes
of every hostile country; they were found on the borders of Italy,
Languedoc, Castile, Aragon, Portugal. Their rules of discipline, their
vows, and their penances presented a striking analogy to those of the
orders of Santiago, Alcantara, and Calatrava, whose organization they
evidently suggested. Their foundation preceded those of the Hospital
and the Temple by more than two hundred and fifty years.
The coinage of the Ommeyades of Spain was the purest, the most artistic
in design, the most elegant in execution, which had to that time been
known in Europe. It was composed of the dinar, of gold, equal to two
dollars; the dirhem, of silver, equal to twelve cents; and various
small pieces of copper of fluctuating value.
The balance, whose value to the merchant would not be fully apparent
unless he were deprived of it, is also an invention of the Arabs. The
Moorish unit of linear measure was represented by a horsehair. Six
of these placed together were equal to a grain of barley; six grains
of barley made a finger-breadth; four fingers a palm; six palms a
cubit. Of modern weights in ordinary use, the grain, represented by
a barley-corn, and the carat, adapted from the seed of the pea, have
descended without alteration from the Arabs to our goldsmiths and
jewellers.
The political, religious, and domestic institutions of the Arabs, which
account in a measure for the amazing rapidity of their progress in
Europe as elsewhere, were also largely responsible for the downfall
of their power. Their government, derived from the patriarchal
organization of the Desert and confirmed by the revered precepts of
Islam, placed absolutely unlimited authority in the hands of the
sovereign. The khalif, as the word implies, was the Successor of
the Prophet. Fortune was long eminently propitious to the Ommeyade
dynasty in providing it with a line of kings even more distinguished
in the arts of peace than in the arduous and uncertain achievements of
conquest. But these talents for administration and war, it is obvious,
could not be indefinitely transmitted. With the first appearance of
royal incapacity, the sceptre passed into the hands of ambitious
statesmen, ready to sacrifice the claims of religion and hereditary
descent to considerations of private emolument and distinction. The
epoch included in the reign of Hischem II. is the most glorious in
Moslem annals. But that renown was achieved not by the Khalif in
person, nor even under his direction, but by Al-Mansur, his Prime
Minister, who, although of obscure birth, guided, as did the Frankish
Mayors of the Palace, by his transcendent and unaided genius the
destinies of the empire. The example of his success and the attempt to
bequeath to his son the power which he alone was able to wield were
fatal to the Moslem domination, and contributed with other causes of
equal gravity to its ultimate overthrow.
In the civil and military organization of the government the
patriarchal traditions of the Bedouin were preserved, under
circumstances little suggestive of his origin and highly incongruous
and inexpedient, amidst the results of an advanced civilization. The
authority and office of the sheik were reproduced under other names,
which, even to the ignorant foreigner, did not serve to disguise their
identity. Founded equally upon the legislation of the Koran, the
administrations of the Sultans of Bagdad and the Khalifs of Cordova
differed only in the most trifling details. Under both, the prince
was daily accessible to the complaints, and redressed in person the
grievances of his subjects. Under both, the kadi, whose office was
invested with a certain degree of sanctity as well as of secular power,
dispensed justice at the portals of the mosque. His position was rather
sacerdotal than judicial. He was one of the interpreters of the Koran,
the original source of all Moslem jurisprudence. In his appointment
the greatest care was exercised. Only individuals conspicuous for
learning, experience, and integrity were considered eligible to such a
responsible employment. Even the Khalif obeyed his summons. The Chief
Kadi, who had supervision over all the others, was the most powerful
dignitary of the empire.
The Arabs left no extensive code of laws like that of the Visigoths,
wherein the rights of persons and the penalties of crimes are
systematically enumerated and defined. As their government was presumed
to be theocratic, its principles were necessarily unalterable. Of
legislation, in the modern understanding of the term, they knew
nothing. The decrees of the khalifs, based upon the construction of
the Koran and the traditionary opinions of the Prophet embodied in
the Sunnah, formed the entire body of legal principles and precedents
available for the instruction and guidance of magistrates.
Among the other officials of the administration were the Hajib, or
Prime Minister; the Viziers, who composed the Divan or Council;
and the Katibs, or Secretaries. All of them were mere advisers of
the sovereign, and their authority was, except under extraordinary
circumstances, only nominal.
The most important subordinate office was that of the Mohtesib, or
Supervisor of Markets, who held court at the gate of the mosque.
His emissaries paid frequent visits to all provision merchants and
druggists, prevented the use of false weights and measures, the sale of
damaged food and adulterated medicines, the overcharging and cheating
of purchasers. Their duties also extended to the protection of beasts
of burden from the inhumanity of their drivers, and of children from
cruel punishment by parents and school-masters. They dispersed street
crowds. They prescribed sanitary regulations. The authority of the
Mohtesib was enforced by fines and scourging, and, like most Arab
judicial functionaries, from his decision there was no appeal.
In the demeanor of the Spanish khalifs there was little of that haughty
reserve which we are accustomed to associate with the exercise of the
imperial dignity. For generations no atmosphere of exclusion surrounded
the monarch. As a rule, he was easy of access to the meanest of his
subjects. With the patriarchal condescension of his forefathers, he
frequently sat in judgment at the gate of his palace. He delighted in
assuming disguises and in visiting by night the most humble precincts
of his capital. He superintended in person the construction of great
public works; in the erection of religious edifices, it was not unusual
for him to labor, for a certain time each day, with his own hands. His
charity, a duty enjoined by the faith of which he was the national
representative, was boundless, and was greatly abused. In the execution
of the laws, his sentence was often cruel even to ferocity; but an apt
quotation or a well-turned couplet often turned aside the axe of the
executioner. A fortunate event--the birth of an heir, a recovery from
illness, the tidings of an important victory--afforded an occasion for
a noble exhibition of gratitude and mercy, the pardon of criminals,
the liberation of Christian captives, the lavish distribution of alms.
The high and generous qualities which distinguished the princes of
the Ommeyade line--qualities confirmed and developed by a learned
education---prevented the exercise of those acts of tyranny which
often spring from the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power.
But with all their greatness, their clemency, their generosity, the
khalifs were universally hated. The obsequious submission exacted
by their office was highly repugnant to the native independence of
the Arab, whose cherished traditions required obedience only to the
chieftain of his tribe. The doctors of the law, who regarded all
learning inconsistent with the Koran as heretical or suspicious, had no
admiration for a sovereign who collected great libraries, translated
the infidel works of antiquity, and patronized studies whose results
savored of magic and sorcery. Among the aristocracy the spirit of
insubordination, always strong, was intensified by the vigilance and
severity with which it was suppressed, by the memory of past renown,
and by the hope of future revolution that might open an avenue to
the throne. The incongruous elements composing the masses, held
together solely by fear, incapable of fusion, detesting each other
with unquenchable hatred, yet joining in the universal execration
of their rulers, were ready for any emergency which might afford an
opportunity for bloodshed and rapine. It was the intolerant faquis who
were responsible for the deluge of African barbarians that overwhelmed
the empire. It was the populace which renounced its allegiance to the
government in the hour of national peril. The ambition of rival nobles
established the score of petty kingdoms whose dissensions and weakness
made possible the success of the common enemy.
Nor were the characters of the khalifs always such as inspire respect.
Considerations of political expediency, if not of unquestioning
religious belief, enforced their strict observance of the ceremonies
of public worship. But with this concession to popular prejudice, the
apparent devotional obligations of the Successors of the Prophet not
infrequently terminated. Some, indeed, were men of eminent piety and
zeal. Others, however, were considered of suspicious orthodoxy. The
preferment of Jews and infidels to posts of high responsibility was
looked upon as inconsistent with the professions of a devout Mussulman.
The pursuit of philosophy, the mysterious studies of the laboratory,
the toleration of pantheistic doctrines, were regarded with equal
distrust and disfavor. It was known that thousands of works in the
libraries of the empire treated of prohibited subjects. It was more
than suspected that certain Commanders of the Faithful were addicted
to the habitual use of wine, and sometimes surpassed the limits of
moderation in its indulgence. There were other Koranic admonitions
of even graver importance flagrantly defied. It is evident, from the
unmistakable allusions of Arab historians, that many of the wisest
and most distinguished princes of Mohammedan Spain were given to the
practice of unspeakable vices of Oriental origin, and that these
crimes against decency were of such frequent occurrence as scarcely to
elicit a passing notice. The greatest tyrants among them were slaves
to the foolish vagaries of women. A single instance will suffice to
show this fond subserviency to feminine caprice. Romequia, wife of
Motamid, Prince of Seville, who was famed for his learning and wisdom,
having one day from her windows seen some children wading in the mud,
expressed a desire to divert herself in the same manner. Thereupon
Motamid caused the floor of the principal court of the palace to be
thickly covered with a paste of musk, camphor, ambergris, and spices,
mixed with rose-water; and the favorite with her attendants disported
themselves for a few hours in this precious mud, at an expense of tens
of thousands of pieces of gold.
Guarded in his public utterances, sentiments expressed by the khalif
in the privacy of the palace, and which conveyed no exalted idea
of his sincerity as the venerated head of a great religious system,
often reached the outside world. Music, reprobated by the Koran
as an incentive to idleness and vice, was one of the most popular
amusements of the imperial court. The licentious dances of the East,
which had rendered Spain infamous from the days of the Phœnicians,
were daily performed in the presence of aristocratic assemblies. The
palace swarmed with catamites and buffoons. Astrology and divination,
especially condemned by Mohammed as reminiscences of Paganism
and offensive to God, were practised everywhere, almost without
concealment. While these violations of Moslem law by its representative
horrified the devout, it afforded a pernicious example to the people,
ever ready to profit by the foibles of their superiors. Under the
later khalifs, Moorish society in the Peninsula became frightfully
corrupt. The secret contempt for religion was only accentuated by the
apparent regard manifested for its outward observances. Infidelity
was rife among all classes. The people, from the noble to the beggar,
indulged in brutalizing sensuality. In their excesses they once more
demonstrated the truth of the principle that the highest civilization
as well as the most degraded ignorance are equally unfavorable to the
development of principles of morality; that the hardships endured by
races the least removed from the brute creation and the profligacy
engendered by the splendors of the most polished societies are alike
destructive of the noblest instincts of mankind; or, in the language
of the great Dutch historian, “that a singular analogy exists between
the vices of decadence and the vices of barbarism.” The heartless,
cynical, and debauched atmosphere which enveloped the court of Hischem
II., and whose evil effects upon the nation the great abilities of
Al-Mansur were not sufficient to redeem, offered no suggestion of
the pious spirit under whose influence the khalifate was founded. The
enormous wealth of the country permitted a display of license and
luxury of which the annals of degenerate Rome alone can furnish a
parallel. The markets were crowded with female slaves collected from
such distant regions as Finland, Ethiopia, Hindustan, and the Caucasus.
Of these the harem of the Khalif absorbed a large proportion; that of
Al-Nassir contained nearly seven thousand. In an age when intellectual
accomplishments were valued almost as highly as the charms of person
and manner, it was no unusual circumstance for an educated slave to
bring four thousand pieces of gold. The dress of even the ordinary
female servitors of the harem exceeded in richness the attire of
wealthy ladies of to-day; that of the favorites of the prince displayed
the prodigal magnificence of the most opulent and powerful of empires.
In the celebration of public festivals the pomp of the nobles and
merchants--the gorgeous appointments of their households, their
imposing array of slaves and eunuchs, the beauties of their seraglio,
the glittering damascened armor, the silks embroidered with gold, the
sheen of priceless gems--awakened the astonishment of the stranger
and provoked the sullen and impotent anger of the populace. In the
homes of the wealthy, the rarest perfumes--essences of rose, jasmine,
and orange, the incense of musk and ambergris--diffused through
the palatial apartments the odors so grateful to the senses of the
voluptuous Arab. The bath, at once a religious necessity, a hygienic
institution, and an instrument of luxurious pleasure, vied in the
splendor of its equipment and furniture with the most sumptuous
establishments of imperial Rome. The public baths were used--as they
still are in all Moslem countries--not alone for the purposes of rest
and ablution, but for gossip, entertainment, and intrigue. It was
usual for women to pass many hours within their precincts attended
by their slaves, to be regaled with delicate confections, and to be
soothed by the music of itinerant musicians. The pernicious effects of
the presence of evil genii, who, according to an ancient superstition,
were believed to haunt these localities, were averted by the repetition
of pious texts and by the wearing of amulets. Mohammedan prejudice,
not without cause, regarded the public bath with suspicion as a
convenient means of moral corruption; and those whose circumstances
permitted it, surrounded this institution of personal enjoyment and
religious necessity with the privacy of domestic life. In the abodes
of the rich it was invested with all the splendor which the command
of unlimited means could provide. The tessellated floor was composed
of the rarest marbles. The walls were encrusted with mosaic. Through
curiously wrought windows of colored glass the tempered light broke
into a thousand variegated hues. The pipes were of massy silver, the
vessels not infrequently of gold. In the outer apartments the floors
were covered with silken carpets, and tapers, from which emanated the
most exquisite and costly perfumes, burned slowly in glittering lustres
of rock-crystal and alabaster. The luxury of the Moslem culminated in
the bath. The latter, borrowed from the Romans, was invested with a
magnificence unknown even to the sumptuous thermæ of the Cæsars. The
ancients, with all their civilization, were unacquainted with soap,
which is an invention of the Arabs. An indispensable appendage to the
worship of Islam, the first building erected in a city occupied by the
Mussulman arms, was one designed for purposes of public ablution. In
some respects it even took precedence of the mosque, for a Christian
church could be purified and consecrated to religious service, but no
corresponding substitution of the bath was possible among infidels,
who regarded evidences of filthy habits as an infallible criterion of
orthodoxy; and without complete lustration on Fridays no Mohammedan was
fit to enter the temple of God. So important was this duty considered,
that it was not unusual for persons in the humblest walks of life to
sacrifice even their physical wants for the sake of cleanliness and to
spend their last dirhem for soap, preferring rather to endure the pangs
of hunger than to incur the reproach incident to personal neglect.
With the frequent use of the bath was also introduced the practice
of wearing underclothing, which, often changed, is so conducive
to physical purity. The domestication of the cotton plant in the
Peninsula, which cheapened the soft and delicate fabrics woven from its
fibre, promoted the adoption of this custom even among Christians; and
the name of the now indispensable undergarment worn next the skin by
both sexes in every civilized country has passed almost unaltered into
the principal languages of Europe. In most of its details the dress of
the Spanish Arabs was borrowed from the Orient. Their flowing robes
were generally white, the peculiar color of the reigning family, as
well as that best adapted to the temperature of a southern climate. The
turban was considered the appropriate badge of the learned professions,
whose members would have regarded its assumption by persons of another
calling as an unpardonable breach of privilege. Individuals of the
middle class wore caps of green or red; in later times the Jews, as
a distinguishing mark of their race, were restricted to yellow. The
common people went bareheaded or bound a silken scarf about their
temples, as is still to be seen in many parts of Andalusia. All who
could afford it displayed a profusion of rings, many of them talismans;
there were few, however poor, without a signet of some description.
The maxims of philosophy, the enjoyment of unequalled educational
privileges, the enlargement of the mental faculties obtained by travel,
were alike unable to divest the Spanish Arabs of puerile superstitions.
The tenacity with which human nature clings to these legacies of
ignorance was well understood by Mohammed, who incorporated many of
them into his religion. The ordinary Moor of the epoch of Al-Hakem
II. was as sincere a believer in the importance of dreams, in the
significance of omens, in the occult virtues of amulets, as the Bedouin
who roamed over the Desert five hundred years before the Hegira. Even
the most wise and philosophical of the khalifs entertained diviners and
astrologers. It will require but an instant’s reflection to recall to
the mind of the reader events in his own experience which demonstrate
the ineradicable character of similar superstitions, a weakness
incident to humanity from which no race, age, or civilization seems to
be entirely free. There were many kinds of magic and enchantment for
the counteraction of whose effects various ceremonies were prescribed.
The most dreaded of these was the evil-eye, a belief in whose
influence, for centuries prevalent among Orientals, was recognized by
Mohammed himself. Of sovereign efficacy in averting its consequences
were the ejaculation of well-known texts and the possession of certain
talismans. The hand, which represented symbolically the five cardinal
principles of Islam, was one of the most popular forms of the latter.
Long before the invasion of Tarik, it had been the most generally
adopted emblem for protection against malign influence used in the
Moslem world. It was probably of Pagan origin, like many of the ancient
symbols of Islam. The Romans may have received it from the Arabs, for
it appears in the centre of a laurel wreath on an imperial standard
upon the column of Trajan. Kings sculptured it on the keystones of
their palaces. Peasants painted it over the doorways of their hovels.
It was one of the devices of the khalifs. Carved in jet, carnelian,
or agate, it was prized by women more highly than the costliest gem.
At the time of the Conquest of Granada it was so frequently worn that
the suppression of its use claimed the attention of the ecclesiastical
authorities, and severe penalties were denounced against all in whose
possession it was found. In defiance of these obstacles, however, the
custom survived, and the talismanic hand--along with the crucifix,
the Agnus Dei, the rosary, and other accessories of Christian
superstition--is still to be met with among the mountain peasantry of
Spain.
The fertile mind of the Arab, whose early existence had been passed
amidst the impressive solitude of the Desert, delighted to people
with imaginary beings the limitless domain of the invisible world.
The learned society of Cordova was far from renouncing a belief
sanctioned by the religion of the state and entertained for centuries
by the aristocracy of Arabia. The mysteries of demonology exerted an
uncontrollable fascination over the multitude. An infinite gradation
of power and malignity characterized the vast array of spirits, from
the hideous ghoul that haunted the charnel-house and the cemetery to
the majestic genii that stood in the presence of the celestial throne,
whose armor blazing with light and jewels recalls the panoply of
Milton’s angels; whose gigantic forms assumed at will the shapes of
seraphs or pillars of vapor; and whose martial hosts, invested with a
strange reality, appeared to the excitable Arab an army of sentient
beings rather than the gorgeous phantoms of an enchanted vision.
The civil organization of the Spanish Khalifate was one of the
prodigies of the age. Order was enforced by regulations whose effects
were experienced equally in the capital and in the extreme frontier
outpost of the empire. Justice was administered quickly, wisely,
impartially. Taxes were regularly apportioned, and the laborer was
always sure of the enjoyment of the product of his toil. By means
of watch-towers and beacons, information could be transmitted over
great distances in a short time. In a few hours the approach of an
enemy was known throughout all Andalusia. As early as the reign of
Abd-al-Rahman II. an extensive system of posts was established. The
stations, where relays of swift horses were kept for the service of
the government, were each under charge of an officer whose duty it was
to correspond directly with the khalif, and to inform him of all that
transpired in the vicinity which might come to his knowledge. Where
more rapid communication was necessary, carrier-pigeons were employed
for the transmission of important despatches, a custom introduced from
Sicily. Six hundred years after this there was no postal system in any
country of Europe. The highways were protected by barracks, from which
patrols were regularly detailed to watch over the safety of travellers
and to keep order in the surrounding country. All officials, without
exception, were directly responsible to the sovereign, and held their
places during his pleasure. An army of spies in every foreign court
and in the council and household of every provincial governor kept the
court informed not only of matters which affected the policy of great
kingdoms, but of the most trivial circumstances growing out of the
intercourse of daily life. When a new province was conquered, it was
the first duty of the imperial secretaries to prepare schedules of its
agricultural and mineral resources, its commerce, its wealth, and its
population.
The character of the Mussulmans of Spain was defiled by all the vices
which follow in the train of prodigal luxury and boundless wealth.
Among these drunkenness was one of the most common. Personages of the
highest rank were not ashamed to appear in public while intoxicated.
Wine was often served at the royal table. Al-Mansur indulged in its
use habitually. His son, Abd-al-Rahman, was a confirmed drunkard.
Once when the muezzin announced the hour of prayer, this young
reprobate exclaimed, “Were he to say ‘Come to drink!’ it would sound
much better.” Many of the rulers of the Moorish principalities were
notorious for their excesses. Some Moslems drank white wine, as they
declared that the prohibition of the Prophet only applied to red.
Hypocrites used vessels of metal for their libations, so that their
shortcomings might not be detected by their neighbors.
In Arabian Spain, which inherited many of the diabolical arts of
Asia, poisoning was a most popular mode of revenge. Deadly substances
were conveyed or administered to the victim by methods against which
no precautions could avail,--in robes of honor, in golden caskets,
in suits of armor, in perfumed gloves, in flowers, in delicious
sweetmeats. They were often enclosed under the jewels of rings for use
in sudden emergency. The barbarous practice of using poisoned weapons
long prevailed. The mountaineers of Granada during the Conquest dipped
their arrow-heads in aconite and hellebore, and the wounds which they
inflicted generally ended in torture the life of the stricken enemy.
The people of the different cities of Andalusia had each their
peculiarities, few of which elicited complimentary notices from
strangers. The inhabitants of Cordova were famous for their lawlessness
and their hypocrisy, their pomp and their epicureanism; in those of
Seville voluptuousness, indolence, and frivolity were predominant
traits; those of Granada were proverbial for vindictiveness and
turbulence; those of Xeres for politeness and elegance of manners.
National degeneracy early indicated the approaching and inevitable
dissolution of the empire. The posterity of the conquerors, who in
three years had marched from Gibraltar to the centre of France, became
in the course of a few generations cowardly, effeminate, corrupt.
The geographer Ibn-Haukal, who visited Spain in the tenth century,
described the people of the Peninsula as feeble in body and light
and vacillating in character. Ibn-Said, who wrote in the eleventh,
expresses surprise that the Castilians had not long before expelled
them from the land. Even in an age of decadence, however, the influence
of former traditions was not easily obliterated. Despite revolution,
conflagration, and African barbarity, Cordova in the twelfth century
was still the intellectual centre of Spain. The difference between the
two great cities of Andalusia was from the beginning indicated by the
fact that when a scholar died his books were sent to Cordova to be
sold; but the instruments of a musician were always disposed of to the
best advantage at Seville.
With the Spanish Moors a plurality of names was considered an
indication of social importance, an opinion which has been transmitted
to the Spaniards. The beard, also, from remote antiquity regarded as a
sign of dignity and wisdom among Orientals and often reaching to the
girdle, was, according to universal custom among learned Moslems of
the Peninsula, restricted in length to a palm. Only the faquis and the
doctors of the law wore long hair. No one except slaves was shaven. To
seize a person by the beard was an unpardonable outrage, and even to
touch a woman’s hair was an insult which might have cost the offender
his life at the hands of the mob. The khalifs and all personages of
rank dyed their beards red with henna to distinguish themselves from
the Christians and the Jews, who were never permitted to use it.
No characteristic of the Arabs of Spain was more marked than their
passionate love of jewels and perfumes. According to their belief and
traditions every precious stone had its peculiar virtue. The emerald
banished evil spirits; the ruby possessed the property of magnifying
objects; the turquoise afforded immunity from misfortune. The cat’s-eye
was supposed to render the wearer invisible. Mohammed had declared that
the carnelian conferred happiness upon its possessor. The sapphire
banished melancholy. The diamond was beneficial in insanity; the opal
cured sore eyes; the red-bezoar was a safeguard against poison. The
talismanic qualities presumed to be inherent in many gems were partly
attributed to the astral influence supposed to affect inanimate objects
as well as living organisms, and partly ascribed to the Divine Essence
believed to pervade all matter. To be efficacious, it was indispensable
that the cutting or engraving of a stone should be done while certain
constellations were in the ascendant. The Moorish lapidaries were
experts in their art. With the aid of the bow, copper wheels, and
emery, they produced work little inferior to that of the most skilful
diamond-cutter of to-day. Even in the seal, an indispensable mark of
consequence with the Moslem, the shape had ordinarily an important
significance. Those of the khalifs were usually round or polygonal;
those of diplomatists square; those of financiers oval.
Love of flowers was a veritable passion among the Spanish Moslems.
As they were the greatest botanists in the world, so no other nation
approached them in the perfection of their floriculture and the ardor
with which they pursued it. The profusion and variety of blossoms
of every description were marvellous and enchanting; each had a
meaning, by whose aid tender sentiments could be conveyed without the
instrumentality of speech; they were associated with every public
ceremony and with the most prosaic occurrences of domestic life; they
dispensed their fragrance from the priceless vase of the palace; they
covered the cottage of the laborer; they formed the daily decoration of
the luxuriant tresses of the princess and the peasant; their garlands
were the common playthings of the infant; on the marble column which
marked the sepulchre of a virgin was sculptured a single rose.
The social life of the Moors of Spain and Sicily presents us with a
picture at once lively, sensual, intellectual,--where the highest
physical enjoyment, divested of every feature of coarseness, was varied
by the constant exhibition of wit and learning. To a considerable
extent,--yet far less than at the present day in Mohammedan lands,--it
was, as a necessary result of their domestic regulations, bounded by
the walls of the harem. A feverish activity, such as pervades the
atmosphere of our modern cities and which shows no abatement after
sunset, was unknown to the Moslem residents of Cordova and Palermo.
The streets of those great capitals, almost impassable by day, were at
night deserted save by the guardians of the peace. In the court-yards
of private mansions, on the other hand, all was mirth and gayety.
Lamps of colored glass were suspended from the balconies. The air was
laden with the grateful odors of countless blossoms. From the terrace
which crowned every Moorish dwelling could be traced the silvery
Guadalquivir, as it wound its tortuous way through endless olive and
pomegranate plantations, and the glimmering rows of lights belonging to
the suburban villas which extended to the distant slopes of the Sierra
Morena. From the deep shadows of the palm- and orange-trees came the
harmonious strains of lute and mandolin mingled with the gentle murmur
of the fountains. In one gallery of the arcade women of exquisite
grace and beauty executed the voluptuous dances which had charmed the
people of Tyre and Carthage fifteen centuries before; in another,
the professional story-teller recounted tales of wonder with their
fascinating accessories of astrologers, genii, magicians, fairies,
and enchanters. During the holy festival of Ramadhan, when the Moslem
indemnified himself at night for the abstinence and privations of the
day, Andalusian life in the gay capital of the khalifate was seen to
its highest advantage. The city was illuminated. The mosques were never
closed. The baths were crowded. In the seclusion of domestic privacy
there were feasting, dissipation, often unseemly orgies, until dawn.
Buffoons and jugglers entertained with indelicate jests and antics the
groups of hilarious loungers in the parks and on the corners. Itinerant
minstrels, progenitors of the troubadour, chanted in monotonous
accents romantic ballads of love and chivalry. Gilded litters,
guarded by eunuchs with drawn scimetars, traversed the streets. On
the Guadalquivir, lighted by the brilliant radiance of the moon and
perfumed with the odors of a thousand gardens, floated innumerable
boats hung with many-colored lanterns and garlanded with flowers. Among
the graver part of the population, the gratification of the senses was
discarded for the more profitable diversions of the intellect,--for
philosophical experiments, learned discussions, literary contests. In
the library, the scholar collated the historians of Greece and Egypt.
In the caravansary, the man of leisure played chess and backgammon
or watched the swaying movements of the half-nude dancing-girls. On
all sides resounded the clapping of hands,--the Oriental call for
servants,--still heard to-day in every public place in Southern Spain.
The women donned their richest apparel. Their forms were enveloped in
chemises of the finest linen; their trousers, which reached to the
knee, were blue, green, yellow, or scarlet; their tunic, of two colors,
was richly embroidered with gold. Leggings in many folds imparted to
their lower limbs a singularly clumsy and awkward appearance. Their
feet were enclosed in slippers. An ample garment which could be used
for both a cloak and a veil effectually concealed the identity of
the owner in the moving crowds. To a comb placed at the back of the
head was attached a scarf of elegant material and gauzy texture,
the prototype of the Spanish mantilla. The material of the costume
common to every class was ordinarily of silk. For ornaments, the rich
displayed a profusion of dazzling gems; the poor were forced to be
content with jingling coins and amulets. All, without exception, like
the Moslem females of to-day, heightened the lustre of their eyes with
antimony and stained their finger-tips with henna. Their nomenclature
was suggestive of the romantic character which invested their beautiful
country. Such names as Saida, “Happy;” Sobeiha, “Aurora;” Safia,
“Pure;” Romman, “Pomegranate;” Lonilion, “Pearl;” Zahrâ, “Flower,” were
common among the Saracens of Spain.