were rigidly excluded in other Mohammedan countries. They appeared
everywhere unveiled. As mentioned in a previous chapter, public
opinion not only permitted, but openly encouraged, their participation
in the national and provincial contests for the palm of literary
excellence. The rare educational facilities of the khalifate were
at their disposal. Many--proficient in poetry, philosophy, grammar,
and rhetoric--excited universal admiration by the scope and variety
of their mental accomplishments. Some even became the political
advisers of great sovereigns. These circumstances, so favorable to
the development and exaltation of the female character, eventually
procured for the sex a consideration elsewhere denied. As Mohammedanism
was the first of creeds to spontaneously recognize the right of woman
to an amelioration of her social condition, so in the Peninsula the
Hispano-Arab invested her personality with a dignity and an importance
heretofore not conceded to her merits by members of any race or
religion. From such novel doctrines were evolved those chivalrous
sentiments which, imparted to Europe, effected such a salutary
reformation in the intercourse and social usages of mediæval society.
Mohammedan Spain presents the only instance, in ancient or modern
history, of a country under whose laws and customs woman did not exist
in a state of tutelage. The quality of infant or chattel has, to a
greater or less extent, always seemed inseparable from her condition.
Among races highest in the scale of civilization, her inferiority
appeared the more striking, partly from actual legal disabilities,
partly from contrast. It is true that among the Greeks, when Athens was
at the summit of her renown, there were females of polished education,
of extensive knowledge, gifted with talents of the highest order, able
to cope in every intellectual exercise with the most distinguished
scholars, philosophers, and statesmen. But these were few in number,
and belonged to a class which modern prejudice has branded as infamous;
the Athenian wife of the time of Pericles was little better than
a slave. Charlemagne is generally conceded to have been the most
enlightened Christian sovereign of his epoch. The civilization of his
dominions offers a vivid contrast to the darkness which enveloped
contemporaneous states and kingdoms. He professed at least a nominal
respect for the precepts of Christianity. He publicly avowed himself
the champion of the Holy See. To the policy inherited by his successors
is largely due the subsequent increase of authority which rescued
the Papacy from contempt and made the Bishop of Rome for centuries
the dictator of Europe. The learning of his court, modified and in a
measure directed by Arabic influence, was far from mediocre. And yet
the old chronicles inform us that this great prince in the presence of
his courtiers engaged with his sister in a personal encounter, whose
result was doubtful until the vigorous use of his steel gauntlet, which
knocked out several teeth of his amazonian adversary, gave him the
advantage. If such was the treatment accorded to ladies of the highest
rank in the Middle Ages, the degradation of women belonging to the
remaining orders of society can scarcely be conceived. Nor were these
conditions materially improved for centuries. Even so late as 1750, the
laws of England permitted women to be treated with a severity almost
barbarous; nor have the humiliating restrictions born of masculine
superiority been in our age entirely removed. During the reign of
Charles II. illiteracy was almost universal; learning in the sex was
decried as pedantry or worse; it was rarely that a housewife could
write her name; and even the princesses of the royal blood were unable
to speak or spell grammatically. This condition, born of ecclesiastical
precept derived from the customs of a remote and barbarous age and
confirmed by national depravity whose tendency was to depreciate and
ridicule female virtue, is an unfailing sign of moral perversity and
intellectual decadence. Eight hundred years before, women of Cordova
had established an enviable reputation for their proficiency in all
the arts which contribute to the culture of nations; for the skill
which they exhibited in every department of scientific research; for
their profound acquaintance with the models of classic antiquity;
for their originality in poetical composition; for the signal success
they achieved in the literary congresses, wherein they were forced to
compete with the assembled genius and learning of the empire. They
were treated with the dignified respect and courtesy which were due
to high mental attainments, as well as dictated by the regulations of
chivalry which governed the conduct of every Moorish cavalier. These
demonstrations of gallantry never degenerated, however, into the
fulsome adulation and the worship, half mystical, half sensual, and
expressed in terms of florid hyperbole, that prevailed in the social
life of the Limousin and Provençal courts, whose development marked an
age unique for its extravagance, its epicureanism, its licentiousness;
an age of ostentatious asceticism and secret indulgence; an age when
ballad-singers moralized and bishops abandoned the crosier for the
lute; an age of arduous pilgrimage and romantic exploit; the age of
Jongleur, Knight-errant, Crusader, and Troubadour.
In spite of the distinguished consideration they evinced for woman,
the Moslems of Spain were unable to divest themselves of the prejudice
regarding the fickleness of the sex, which, from immemorial antiquity,
had been accepted as one of its prominent characteristics. The position
she occupied in the social polity was anomalous. Her features were
exposed to the public gaze; she was permitted to attend the lectures
of the University; she participated in academical exhibitions. But
the liberty she enjoyed was only apparent. Her steps were constantly
guarded by eunuchs. Her lord was not less suspicious than his Oriental
brethren, and she, if the literature of the time is to be credited,
probably for fear of disappointing him, not infrequently gave abundant
cause for jealousy. Nothing discloses the general sentiment of a
people upon any given subject so comprehensively as its proverbs and
epigrams. The estimation in which the Spanish Arabs held the feminine
character is indicated by the following saying, often quoted by them,
and which is as old as the Pharaohs, “Never trust in women, nor rely
upon their vows, for their pleasure and displeasure depend upon their
passions. They offer a false affection, while perfidy lurks within
their garments. By the tale of Joseph be admonished, and guard against
their stratagems.”
The question of polygamy is one which is almost universally viewed
through a false medium. Its existence in the torrid climates of the
East from a period of unknown antiquity would seem to demonstrate
at least the practical usefulness, if not the supreme physiological
necessity, of a system which has endured for so many ages. It is
eminently unfair for us to condemn a practice sanctioned by Holy Writ
and recognized by the patriarchs, without an accurate knowledge of the
ethnological conditions under which it is perpetuated. What public
opinion, custom, and long experience have found to be beneficial and
have pronounced not inconsistent with morality, is very often not a
question of ethics, but merely a matter of expediency. Institutions
which nations inhabiting the tropics defend as necessary could not be
adopted without injury by the sluggish races of the North; and of their
propriety, we at a distance of eight thousand miles are incompetent,
not to say prejudiced, judges. The women who rose to such distinction
under the khalifate were, without exception, members of polygamous
households, a circumstance which would seem to effectually contradict
the prevalent idea that the system of the harem inevitably tends to
intellectual debasement. The standard of morals under the Hispano-Arab
domination was probably much superior to that which now obtains in the
great capitals of Europe. The deplorable condition of modern society,
even among the highly cultivated, where monogamy nominally exists,
is disclosed by the frequency of divorce cases and the significant
revelations of criminal statistics. It demonstrates that the primitive
impulse which among barbarians leads to communal marriage--the original
social state of man--is not only not extinct, but even generally
prevails, although decorously concealed, and, however repugnant to
every principle of morality, must be recognized as a powerful and
retarding element of our boasted civilization.
The chivalrous courtesy born of intellectual culture and refined
surroundings which distinguished the Spanish Moslems in all the phases
of their social life was, as above stated, eminently conspicuous in
their treatment of females. The latter were, for the most part, highly
educated. Even to-day, in the harems of Constantinople, it is not
unusual to see women fine musicians, excellent conversationalists,
familiar with the principles of art, able to express themselves
fluently in three or four languages. Such accomplishments are still
sufficiently rare to confer distinction upon their possessors in
London, Paris, and New York. Under the khalifs of the House of Ommeyah,
the mental faculties of the sex were cultivated to a marked degree; no
field of literature was closed to those who aspired to eminence. They
were everywhere received with great respect. They were never insulted
in public. They traversed districts in revolt without molestation.
The laws protected them against the excesses of marital jealousy. If
divorced, the wife was certain of maintenance. It was she who, at
marriage, received the dowry. Public opinion denounced as infamous the
husband who permitted his spouse to labor in order that he might profit
by her earnings. In case of his death she was entitled to a share of
his estate. All things considered, the legal status of woman under the
khalifate appears to advantage when compared with that to which she is
restricted by modern legislation. If polygamy entailed the unhappiness
which foreign prejudice is accustomed to attribute to it, the practice
would long since have been abolished. It is but a natural result of
climatic and physiological conditions, an apparently indispensable
factor in the maintenance of Oriental life.
Slavery in Europe under the Moslems brought with it the numerous
privileges and indulgent treatment enjoined by the Prophet. The
Mohammedan slave was rarely abused or persecuted. His acceptance of the
faith of Islam rendered his manumission easy. No stigma attached to
his condition. He could aspire to the most noble matrimonial alliance.
He was eligible to the most important political employments. While
his master was entitled to exercise despotic authority over him, the
patriarchal customs of the Orient discouraged all exhibitions of
unmerited severity, and designated the slave rather as a companion
than a dependent in the household. It was contrary to law to put him
in chains. His personality was never sacrificed to the convenience of
trade; his classification as a chattel would have been abhorrent to all
Mussulman ideas of justice and humanity; and in this respect the laws
of the Koran are immeasurably superior to the provisions of Roman and
Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. An obligation, whose force the lapse of time
could never diminish, was imposed upon the descendants of a freedman to
assist and protect at the risk of their lives all members of the family
which had liberated their ancestor from bondage. The dignity of human
nature was never outraged by the infliction of torture upon those whom
fate had condemned to a state of helpless subjection; on the contrary,
the slave was usually educated by his master; he became his secretary,
his agent, his counsellor; he superintended the affairs of his family;
he executed with diligence and fidelity important commissions in
distant lands.
The cheapness of slaves indicates their abundance; their price was
within reach of the humblest laborer. After the battle of Zallaca, an
ordinary captive could be obtained for a dirhem. Many inmates of the
harems came from the East. Circassian and Georgian girls, purchased in
the markets of Constantinople, were imported into Spain as early as the
ninth century. In Mussulman law a distinction existed between slaves
bought for service and prisoners taken in battle. The latter shared
few of the privileges of the ordinary bondman, and, strictly speaking,
could never be liberated or ransomed.
The amusements of the Spanish Arabs were derived from the East. There
was nothing in Roman tradition or Visigothic inheritance which appealed
to their imagination like the diversions of the idle and sensuous
races that inhabited the tropics, and which, with other congenial
customs, they had appropriated. They felt but a languid interest
in the chase of ferocious beasts. They shrank with horror from the
gladiatorial contests of the arena and their scenes of blood and
butchery. Exhibitions of strength, where muscular superiority carried
off the palm, were scarcely less distasteful to a people accustomed to
rely for success on fertility of resource and personal agility. While
active exercise was not neglected, those pastimes were in highest
favor which required the least physical exertion. Among these, the
principal one was the game of chess. Of unknown but high antiquity,
it had been brought by Arabic merchants from India. In that country
it had long been used as an instrument of divination, and, in time of
war, the movements of its pieces frequently directed the evolutions of
armies on the march and in battle. A part of the sacred furniture of
every Hindu temple, the board had also a cabalistic and astrological
significance. Long before the appearance of Mohammed, this game was
the solace of the vagrant sheiks of the Desert and the delight of the
wealthy traders of Yemen. It followed everywhere in the train of the
Moslem armies. In Spain it was universally popular. The chessmen of the
khalifs were not inferior in richness to the other accessories of royal
luxury,--the arms, the plate, the furniture of the palace. Some were
made of the precious metals; others were curiously carved of ivory;
most of them were incrusted with gems. The boards were of ebony and
sandalwood inlaid with gold. In this instance, also, as in many others,
the prohibition of the Koran relating to the representation of animal
forms was disregarded. The Spanish Moslems were passionately fond of
chess. It became one of the favorite diversions of the court; and it
was no unusual occurrence for players to pass the entire day engrossed
by its fascinations and entirely oblivious of their surroundings.
The story, already related, of the prince who pleaded for time to
finish his game after his death-warrant had been read to him, is an
example of the absorbing interest excited by this scientific pastime
in the mind of the Moor. Cards were known to the Arabs long before
the Hegira. Naipe, the Spanish name for them, is from the Arabic word
naib, “viceroy,” whence comes the English “nabob.” Introduced into
Italy by the Saracens, they were at first called The Game of the Kings.
They were not generally used in Europe until the latter part of the
fourteenth century. Backgammon and draughts were also familiar to the
Moors of Spain. The genius of Mohammed recognized the hidden danger
which beset his followers when he forbade indulgence in all games of
chance. To such a temptation the ardent and romantic nature of the
Oriental is peculiarly susceptible. No information, in this respect, is
now obtainable concerning the Mohammedan population of the Peninsula,
but the copious accounts of the prevalence of other vices under the
domination of the emirs and the khalifs would seem to indicate, from
the general silence on this point, that gaming was not commonly
practised.
The feats of jugglers were a source of popular amusement in mediæval
Cordova. These mountebanks were intimately associated with itinerant
minstrels and extemporaneous rhymers, whose coarse effusions, while
they could scarcely be dignified by the name of poetry, yet often
contributed to the diversion of the court, and whose calling and
example produced the troubadour, such an important agent in the
civilization of Europe. The lascivious contortions of the dancers of
ancient Gades, immortalized in the epigrams of Martial, and which have
been transmitted with probably trifling changes through the Phœnician,
Carthaginian, Roman, Gothic, and Mussulman dominations to the Spanish
gypsies of our day, were constantly exhibited, in all their suggestive
indecency, before the appreciative audiences of Moorish Spain. Nothing
can indicate more positively the general relaxation of manners
than the popularity of such an amusement. Even the indulgent and
profligate spirit of Roman society eyed it with marked disfavor. The
poets lampooned those who patronized or encouraged it. Moralists and
legislators condemned it as a prolific source of corruption. Mohammed
forbade it to his followers as a relic of Paganism and an incentive
to immorality. Under no circumstances did men participate in it, or,
indeed, in any of the terpsichorean exercises practised by Orientals.
The dance, as we understand it, was unknown to the Moslems. Among them
the practice was abandoned to female professionals, who constituted a
caste, who were distinguished by a peculiar costume, and whose calling
was infamous. This prejudice, descended from a remote antiquity, exists
in full force in all Eastern countries to-day. The degradation of
Herodias was far more reprobated by the Hebrews than her inhumanity.
The character of the bayadere of India, of the ghawazee of Egypt, of
the Jewess of Tunis, of the gypsy of Spain, inheritors of the lewd
Phœnician positions and gestures, is familiar to all travellers.
In the dances of Mohammedan Spain, as in those still practised at
Cairo, the lower limbs were stationary, and all movements were
performed with the body and the arms. Their impropriety generally
consisted rather in their suggestiveness than in any flagrant personal
exposure. Rarely were they performed in a condition of nudity; as a
rule, the form was completely enveloped in graceful folds of silk and
linen. The dancers kept time with castanets, which were originally
small copper cymbals, and every motion was made in perfect cadence
with the music. The extraordinary effect of these exhibitions upon the
imagination, even when represented by women not adepts in the art, can
be understood only by those who have witnessed them.
The taste for improvisation pervaded the music of the Hispano-Arabs
as it did their poetry. Although to foreign ears it might appear
wholly destitute of measure and harmony, the monotonous execution of
the performer impressed the feelings of his audience to an extent
incomprehensible to nations of northern blood. The profoundly emotional
nature of the Moor, readily susceptible to every kind of mental
excitement and passionately devoted to rhyme, at one time roused him
to frenzy, at another deprived him of consciousness. No race has ever
enjoyed to an equal degree with the Arabs the faculty of investing
fiction with the semblance of truth, of transforming images created by
an inexhaustible fancy into the realities of life, of giving
--“to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.”
The music of the khalifate was largely derived from Greek and Roman
sources. Its peculiarities, inherited by the Spaniards, have imparted
a national character to their minstrelsy, as well as measures unknown
to the other nations of Europe. It had nothing in common with our ideas
of harmony. It consisted principally of monotonous chants, whose time
was marked by rude instruments of percussion; whose melody was partly
classic, partly barbaric; and which disclosed none of that novelty
and variety which constitute the greatest charm of modern music. The
Spanish Arabs had no theory, used no notes, and possessed no means of
preserving musical compositions except by memory and oral tradition.
Under these disadvantages, improvement in one of the most pleasing
of sciences was impossible, and most pieces rarely survived their
composers. The musical instruments of the Spanish Moslems were of many
kinds; there were thirteen different varieties--among them viols,
lutes, dulcimers, harps--made in Seville, which was the most celebrated
seat of their manufacture in the world. The great Ziryab, who lived at
the court of Abd-al-Rahman II., added a fifth string to the lute, to
which, as to the others, the Moors attached a symbolic significance.
The remaining strings, which were of different colors, represented the
supposed four humors of the human body; that of Ziryab was presumed to
represent the soul. The school of music which he founded at Cordova
endured until the last days of the khalifate, to which is no doubt
due the fact that the writers of Spain on this subject are the most
numerous and prolific of any age.
The antipathy with which this science was regarded by theologians
did not prevent it from being the delight of the prince and an
indispensable diversion of the people. Its power was so great that it
early invaded the shrines of the religion that condemned it, and for
centuries the verses of the Koran have been intoned in the mosques.
The story-teller recited his tales to music; the itinerant buffoon
interspersed his coarse but expressive pantomime with rhyming jests and
ribald songs. The Arab notes are harsh, nasal, and guttural, unpleasant
beyond measure to European ears. Their scale includes seventeen
intervals in the octave, and it is said by learned authority on the
subject that the Italian, from which ours is derived, was originally
copied, without alteration, from that of the Arabs of Sicily and Spain.
The Moors thoroughly understood the almost magical effects which follow
the judicious employment of music. Not only was it indispensable on all
festive occasions, but its notes brought consolation and comfort to the
house of bereavement. It was considered an important remedial agent in
disease. It was used to correct the distressing condition of insomnia.
In the hospitals of great cities bands were constantly entertained,
because it was well known that harmony of sound promoted convalescence.
Its aphrodisiacal qualities were appreciated and utilized to fully as
great an extent as those of perfumes,--the delight of the Oriental. It
was a favorite maxim of the Mussulman doctors that “to hear music is to
sin against the law; to make music is to sin against religion; to take
pleasure in it is to be guilty of infidelity.” Notwithstanding this,
and the fact that it was anathematized by Mohammed, no people were
more fond of it than the Arabs; and the professional musician, whose
talents had raised him above mediocrity, was sure of distinguished
attention at the court of the khalifs; and, once become famous, he was
the recipient of honors elsewhere reserved for the descendants and the
representatives of royalty. It was not unusual for a master of his
art to receive ten thousand pieces of gold for a single performance.
Instruments of percussion, and especially drums and tambourines, were
most employed by the Spanish Moslems, but their constructive genius
produced radical changes in others; they improved the guitar, the
flute, and the clarionet; they were the inventors of the mandolin and
the organ.
In equestrian sports, which required the highest degree of adroitness
and agility, the Moors of Spain had no superiors. First among their
pastimes of this description was the bull-fight, which had little in
common with the modern spectacle, whose revolting characteristics are
the result of long-continued sanguinary and brutalizing influences.
The performers were all of noble birth; they were splendidly mounted;
their equipments were of the most sumptuous description. No weapon
was allowed them but a short, heavy javelin, whose point was partly
encased in leather. The rules of the sport required that the animal be
killed by a thrust along the spine in front of the shoulder, to deliver
which properly demanded great skill and almost superhuman strength. If
a blow was landed elsewhere, the knight was compelled to retire from
the arena; if his weapon was broken or lost, he was adjudged to have
sustained an irretrievable disgrace. The intelligence and training of
the horse and the dexterity of the rider were ordinarily sufficient
guarantees against disaster; but the occasional sacrifice of a cavalier
reminded the survivors of the fearful dangers of the encounter.
Trained from early childhood to the use of the horse and the javelin,
accustomed to every manly exercise, adepts in the arts of the tourney
and the chase, the Spanish Moslems found in the bull-fight the climax
of enjoyment, second only to the martial pleasures and excitements
of war. With such an education, it is not strange that they were
recognized as the finest light cavalry in Europe.
Of equal interest, and of even greater magnificence, was the spectacle
presented by the tilt of reeds. In its exhibition and accessories
were displayed the inexhaustible profusion and opulence of Moorish
luxury. The scene was laid in one of the many squares of the vast
Moslem capital. A series of arcades and galleries, supported by columns
of colored marble, brilliant with mosaics and gilded stuccoes, were
crowded with an enthusiastic audience representing the noblest families
of the court and the wealth and fashion of the principal city of the
empire. The Khalif was there, surrounded by his body-guard, gigantic
blacks from the Atlas and the Soudan, with gem-studded weapons and
armor damascened with gold. The balustrades of the galleries were
hung with scarlet, emerald, and sky-blue velvet. The inmates of the
harems, models of the voluptuous type of Andalusian beauty, unveiled,
revealed their smiling features to the public gaze,--a sight to be
witnessed in no other quarter of the Mohammedan world. Their silken
cloaks striped with every color of the rainbow; their strings of
superb jewels, whose collection was an absorbing passion with every
Moorish woman of rank; the golden belts and bracelets gleaming in the
sunlight; the personal charms of their owners, enhanced to the utmost
by every resource of attire and adornment, presented a splendid and
enchanting picture unsurpassed in either classic or mediæval times. In
the audience, sometimes by courtesy among the cavaliers in the arena
were to be seen Castilian knights exiled for political reasons, or
competitors for distinction in the national sports of their hereditary
foes. The parapets and terraces which commanded the amphitheatre,
the arches of the aqueducts, the minarets, the trees, even the spurs
of the distant sierra, were white with the robes and turbans of the
populace, attracted by the novelty and magnificence of the scene. The
performers, in whom all interest centred, were worthy of the attention
they excited. Twenty-four in number, they included the flower of the
Moorish warriors selected from two of the principal tribes composing
the aristocracy of the Peninsula. All were clad in flexible coats of
mail covered with tunics of blue or crimson velvet sowed with stars of
gold. Their heads were protected by silken turbans; their waists were
encircled by sashes of the same material; upon the small buckles worn
by each horseman were emblazoned his motto and family crest, from which
custom Christian chivalry borrowed its heraldic devices and its coats
of arms. The horses of one division were white, those of the other
black; they were almost concealed by embroidered housings; the bridles
were enriched with jewels, the bits were of massy gold. A short lance,
whose point was blunted, was the sole arm upon which the cavalier was
permitted to rely for attack or protection; to it were attached the
colors of his mistress,--sometimes represented by a knot of ribbons,
but more frequently by a scarf of silken tissue, upon which she had
traced in golden embroidery the characters of some amorous legend. In
the fantastic devices of Oriental imagery, which originated in the
voluptuous regions where love is an art, each color, each gesture,
even the most prosaic of objects, is invested with more than a passing
significance.
These equestrian diversions of the Spanish Moslems, unlike the
tournaments of the Middle Ages, which were derived from them, were
never polluted by the wanton shedding of blood. They represented all
the exciting phases of battle,--the attack, the mêlée, the retreat. In
the confusing movements of each encounter every facility was afforded
for the exhibition of the highest degree of strength, activity, and
skill. Their object was not the disabling of an antagonist, but the
seizure and retention of the decorations which adorned both horse and
rider; and in the evolutions performed for the accomplishment of these
ends the most daring feats of horsemanship were exhibited. The course
of the rings terminated the brilliant festival. Among the branches of a
tree, planted at one extremity of the arena, were suspended a number of
rings of gold. One after another the competitors for knightly honors,
moving at the greatest speed, endeavored to bear away these trophies of
adroitness upon the point of the slender reed which served the purpose
of a lance. A magnificent prize, usually a golden vase enriched with
jewels, was awarded the victor, who in turn was expected to present it
to the lady whose colors he had worn in the contest. The talents of the
most famous poets of the khalifate were exercised in the celebration of
these splendid spectacles, wonderful exhibitions of human dexterity,
whose attractiveness was not marred by suffering, and which revealed to
the greatest advantage the chivalrous sentiments and martial ardor of a
refined and polished race.
Nor were these the only sports which occupied the leisure of the
elegant society of the Moslem court. Its members rarely participated
in the chase. Hawking, introduced by Abd-al-Rahman I., was, however,
a favorite diversion with them; their hawks were the finest and best
trained in Europe, and they constituted an important article of
commerce, especially with Italy, France, and England. In the extensive
gardens of Granada and Palermo were artificial lakes, where naval
spectacles were frequently given upon a much larger scale than in the
amphitheatre of Titus during the palmy days of Imperial Rome.
Under a government whose beneficent policy provided work for the
industrious and shelter for the helpless, it may well be supposed
that mendicancy was neither an honorable nor a lucrative profession.
The horrible exhibitions of real or simulated deformity which in
Southern Europe now shock the eyes of the traveller were not tolerated
under the Moslem domination. While the bestowal of alms is a cardinal
principle of the Mohammedan religion, its objects, when worthy, were
not permitted to openly solicit the aid of the generous and sympathetic
passer-by. The suffering and the crippled were carried to hospitals,
where every means was applied to effect their restoration to health;
while the impostor, seized by the police, expiated in prison or under
the scourge the penalty of his idleness and fraud. Conducted on a plan
of boundless charity, no factitious impediments of race or religion
interposed to exclude from the public institutions those unfortunates
whose physical afflictions claimed the indulgence or the generous
solicitude of mankind. Hospitals were open to the worthy applicant, and
the Jew, the Christian, even the idolater, received within their walls
the same assiduous care bestowed upon the most orthodox Moslem.
In all its tendencies the spirit of Moorish civilization was eminently
practical. Even its speculative labors were rather serious than
sportive,--the occasional relaxations of arduous and prolonged
mental effort. Its grand aims were the security of the individual,
the dispensation of impartial justice, the systematic development of
the noblest faculties of the human intellect, the amalgamation of
the heterogeneous constituents of a proud and turbulent society, the
progressive improvement and durable prosperity of a vast and populous,
but constantly disintegrating, empire. In the accomplishment of
these ends, war, while presumed to be an object, was in reality but
an instrument. Public policy required the occupation of the streams
of restless barbarians and needy adventurers incessantly pouring
into the Peninsula. For their employment in foreign campaigns, the
Koranic injunction of perpetual hostility offered a plausible and
convenient excuse. This practice, while appealing at once to the
religious enthusiasm of the fanatic and the cupidity of the warrior,
insured the succession of the dynasty and the permanence of the throne.
Without its aid even the administration of Al-Mansur, directed by
the consummate ability of that leader, must speedily have fallen. It
required semi-annual campaigns, followed by an unbroken succession
of victories, to restrain the native insubordination of the African
immigrants, whose multitudes, constantly recruited from the innumerable
tribes of Mauritania, constituted not only the bulk of the army, but
the predominant element of the population.
This mingling of races and the resultant prevalence of crosses,
combined with the influence of climate and the stimulants of military
and commercial activity, will readily account for the versatility
of the Hispano-Arab mind, which was among its most prominent
characteristics. No greater contrast in comparative ethnology can be
drawn than that presented by the precarious and barbaric existence of
the Desert and the polished and highly cultivated life of the Western
Khalifate in its most glorious days. And yet but a comparatively
insignificant period of time separates the vagrant Bedouin, whose
favorite occupation was the plunder of his neighbors and who
resented the interference of even his acknowledged chieftain as an
infringement of his liberties, and the Spanish Arab, whose despotic
government insured the enjoyment of personal freedom and public
tranquillity, where intelligence, order, prosperity, took the place
of insubordination and discord, and the prestige of foreign conquest
and the blessings of civilization travelled in parallel lines and side
by side. To the development of that civilization every people became
tributary, coincident with its subjection to the Moslem arms. In the
character of the conqueror was revealed a spirit of acquisition in no
wise inferior to its inventive faculty, and which at once appropriated,
and often improved, all that was useful in the systems of others while
forming and developing new ideas of its own.
It is with mingled sentiments of admiration and regret that we
contemplate the phenomenal rise, the dazzling splendor, the rapid fall,
of the Moslem empire in Spain. The material relics which remain to
tell the story of its architectural grandeur, of the munificence of
its sovereigns, of the acquirements of its scholars, of the skill of
its artisans, are few and widely scattered. The destruction has been
most complete. The supremacy of Christian ideas and Castilian customs,
enforced by diligent persecution, was in all instances necessary
before the intellectual aspirations fostered during nine generations
of august and learned princes could be subordinated to the sacerdotal
ignorance and military ferocity of the age. Some edifices defaced by
malice or neglect, their apartments so altered by barbarous innovators
that their original plans and the purposes of their construction
can often no longer be traced or even conjectured; their delicate
ornamentation concealed by many successive layers of lime and plaster;
their precincts abandoned to the vilest uses; a meagre collection
of manuscripts, whose characters are half obliterated by moisture
and rough usage; an occasional trophy rusting in the solitude of the
museum, are all the tangible evidences extant of a monarchy once the
marvel of Europe. It is elsewhere that we must look for the proofs of
its greatness and the trophies of its glory. Its salutary influence
in modifying the debased instincts and savage manners of mediæval
society is no longer questioned. The enduring impulse it imparted to
philosophical investigation, its prosecution of the exact sciences,
the consideration in which it held intellectual ability, the honors
with which it rewarded proficiency in literature, transmitted through
many generations, have placed their seal upon the civilization of
the twentieth century. The obligations we are under to the Spanish
Arabs cannot be too frequently nor too generally acknowledged; and in
ascribing the origin of our progress to the nation whose genius was its
inspiring spirit, we are only offering a just and well deserved tribute
of gratitude.
It was said by Seneca, “Wherever the Roman conquers, he inhabits.” It
might, with almost equal truth, be asserted of the Arab that, wherever
his religion and his language are once established, there they will
forever prevail. The countries originally subdued by the lieutenants of
the Prophet are still Mohammedan. The idiom of Mecca is still spoken
from the eastern shore of the Atlantic to the China Sea. Nor does
Islam seem to have lost its power of expansion. Its progress has never
been arrested. It has penetrated to Central Russia,--in that empire
its votaries number eleven millions. It is the faith of hundreds of
thousands of Negroes at the equator. In Europe there are seven million
Mussulmans, in India fifty-three million, in China twenty-two million.
The people of Sicily and Spain alone of the great colonies founded
by the Moslem--the seat of his most highly developed civilization,
the home of races equally accomplished in learning, advanced in arts,
illustrious in arms--were compelled to go into exile or renounce their
faith and abandon their language. In neither of these countries have
the discoveries, the inventions, and the experience of six centuries,
which have long been the common property of all nations, exerted any
appreciable effect in repairing the awful damage consequent on Moorish
expulsion.
The propagators of a form of religion which relies for its success
upon the extermination of all who refuse assent to its dogmas have
certainly little faith in the truth or the celestial inspiration of the
maxims which they deem it necessary to resort to force to inculcate.
During the ascendency of the papal power no one within its reach could
publicly profess heretical doctrines and live. Under the Ommeyades and
the Aghlabites both the misbeliever and the infidel were safe on the
payment of tribute. The occasional outbursts of Moslem fanaticism were
directed against literature; the spirit of Christian persecution--a
spirit sadly at variance with that evinced by the gentleness and
meekness of its Divine Founder--raged fiercely against both literature
and humanity. Amru and Al-Mansur burned books. Innocent III. and Calvin
tortured men.
The Assyrian, Carthaginian, Roman, and Hispano-Arab empires lasted each
about eight hundred years. Of two of these the memory alone survives.
A number of defaced monuments, a fragmentary literature, preserve
the traditions of the third. The genius of the Moslem, superior
to those of all his predecessors, has perpetuated itself in the
scientific inspiration and progressive energy of every succeeding age.
Remarkable for its unparalleled success, while hampered by tremendous
obstacles,--war, sedition, disorder, barbarian supremacy,--it is
instructive to reflect what it might have accomplished under the
most favorable auspices, when at the height of their prosperity the
Moors of Europe controlled the Mediterranean. The latter occupied
and colonized in turn the important posts of Sardinia, Corsica,
Cyprus, Malta. Their revenues were tenfold greater than those of any
contemporaneous state. The inexhaustible population of Africa could
be constantly drawn on for hundreds of thousands of soldiers, whose
abstemious lives, blind fanaticism, and reckless bravery made them most
formidable adversaries. The fleets of the Sicilian emirs threatened
the coast of Asia Minor. The Arab governors of Spain established
permanent outposts as far as Lyons. The pirates of Fraxinet fortified
and held for many years the passes of the Alps. The tracks of the
Saracen armies marching northward from Calabria and southward from
Provence and Switzerland overlapped on the plains of Lombardy. Such
opportunities for conquest have rarely been enjoyed or neglected by
any military power. Civil discord and tribal jealousy were all that
prevented Europe from being Mohammedanized. In the polity of the
Arabs, wherever domiciled, the traditions of the Desert invariably
prevailed. The organization of the state was modelled after those
of the family and the tribe. No allowance was made for the changed
conditions resulting from the extension of dominion and the increase of
knowledge. Under such circumstances there could be no cohesion among
the parts of the constantly tottering fabric of Moslem power, which, in
fact, was undermined from the very beginning. From this instability,
the Western Khalifate has been, with some truth, compared to a Bedouin
encampment. The defects of an anomalous constitution were aggravated
by intestine conflict. Factional hostility in Arabian Spain was always
more pronounced and bitter than hatred of the Christian foe.
A great victory and a few unimportant skirmishes gained for the Moslems
in less than two years control of the richest kingdom in Europe. To
reconquer it required eight centuries and more than five thousand
battles. The followers of Pelayus, when the long struggle for Christian
supremacy began, were but thirty in number. The host mustered by
Ferdinand and Isabella before Granada amounted to nearly a hundred
thousand men. The religious character which invested the Reconquest,
and from which its prosecution eventually became inseparable, has
stamped itself indelibly and ruinously upon the Spanish people. The
cost of the triumph was incalculable. It impoverished forever great
provinces. It drenched the soil of the entire Peninsula with blood. A
single campaign often destroyed an army. The casualties of a single
siege sometimes swept away numbers equal to the inhabitants of a
populous city. At Baza alone, in the short space of seven months,
twenty-one thousand Castilians perished.
The almost universal disbelief in Moorish civilization is hardly
less remarkable than its creation and progress. Sectarian prejudice,
ignorance of Arabic, and a fixed determination to acknowledge no
obligation to infidels have concurred to establish and confirm the
popular opinion. To this end the Church has always lent its powerful,
often omnipotent, aid. Yet, in spite of systematic suppression of facts
and long-continued misrepresentations, it cannot now be denied that
no race effected so much for all that concerns the practical welfare
of mankind as the Spanish Mohammedans; that no race of kings has
deserved so large a measure of fame as that which traced its lineage to
Abd-al-Rahman I.
Such was the civilization which the Spanish and Sicilian Arabs
bequeathed to Europe. Their conquests and their influence, their
progress in the arts of peace, their industrial and economical
inventions, the precocity of their mental development, the perpetuation
of their advanced ideas under the most discouraging conditions which
can be conceived, present an example without parallel in the history
of nations. Their origin had nothing in common with that of any
European people. Their religion was avowedly inimical to the one which
was professed from the Mediterranean coast to the verge of the Arctic
Circle. Their political and domestic institutions were abhorrent to the
feelings of their neighbors, their allies, their enemies. From the hour
when Tarik landed at Gibraltar to that when Boabdil surrendered the
keys of the Alhambra was a period of constant and relentless hostility.
Such circumstances as these are not ordinarily propitious to the
material or intellectual advancement of mankind.
In the face of such formidable obstacles a mighty empire was founded.
The very causes which seemed liable to seriously affect its integrity
and permanence in reality increased its strength. Its military power
became a standing menace to every state of Christendom. Its fleets of
armed galleys dominated the seas. The Saracens of Sicily sacked the
suburbs of Rome and insulted the sacred majesty of the Holy Father
in the Vatican. In every trade-centre of the East and West, in the
streets of Canton and Delhi, in the bazaars of Damascus, along the
crowded quays of Alexandria, beside the scattered wells of the Sahara,
at the great fairs of Sweden, Germany, and Russia, in the splendid
markets of Constantinople, the Moorish merchants and Hebrew brokers
of Spain outstripped all commercial competitors in the amounts of
their purchases and the shrewdness of their bargains. The wealth which
resulted from this vast system of trade was almost inconceivable. In
addition, the agricultural and mineral resources of the country, great
in themselves, were developed beyond all precedent. The treasures
thus amassed were expended in public works, whose neglected ruins
amaze the traveller; in the promotion of educational advantages that
modern experience and energy have never been able to surpass; in the
collection of immense libraries; in the maintenance of a court with
whose magnificence the traditional luxury of the Byzantine princes
was not worthy of comparison; in the celebration of a worship whose
furniture and appointments transcended, in richness and beauty, the
vaunted pomp and semi-barbaric ceremonial of pontifical Rome.
It is both popular and fashionable to ascribe to the influence of the
Crusades the awakening of the spirit of progress which ultimately led
to the revival of letters and to the political and social regeneration
of Europe. But the Crusades were only, in an indirect and secondary
manner, a factor of civilization. On the other hand, their general
tendency was signally destructive. Their track has been compared to
that left by a swarm of locusts. Many works of classic genius perished
in the sack of Constantinople. The Moslem library of Tripoli, which
contained two hundred thousand volumes, was burned when that city was
taken by the soldiers of the Cross. It is a well-established fact that
few of the latter were actuated by religious motives. Their crimes cast
discredit upon their cause and secured the eternal contempt of the
Oriental; for even the name of Christianity was unworthily degraded
by such vile associations. The results produced upon Europe by these
expeditions, instead of being humanizing, were most disastrous. Whole
districts were depopulated. The hereditary estates of the nobility were
transferred to the Church, whose ministers alone possessed the means of
purchase, and who, through promoting the insane spirit of fanaticism
by which they subsequently profited, secured a double measure of
consequence and power. The Papacy soon controlled the wealth of
Christendom, and its irresponsible authority increased in proportion to
its influence. With despotism came tyranny, with tyranny persecution.
The principle of forcing the acceptance of religious dogmas upon armed
enemies was extended to the conviction of recalcitrant sectaries
by torture. The atrocities of religious conflict, the war of the
Albigenses, the unspeakable horrors of the Inquisition, the massacre
of St. Bartholomew, are largely attributable to the sanguinary tastes
engendered by the Crusades. In other respects, as well, their influence
was highly detrimental to humanity. They introduced vices hitherto
confined to the East, and which are to this day blots upon the society
of the great European capitals. They filled Europe with leprosy or with
an affection similar to it, from which eminent medical authorities have
deduced the origin of the most obstinate and loathsome of contagious
diseases. They introduced the plague, one visitation of which swept
away thirteen million persons. The rupture of family ties occasioned by
the absence of such multitudes fostered every form of licentiousness.
In some provinces vast tracts of fertile soil, soon overgrown with
brushwood, relapsed into primeval wildness. In others, deprived of the
means of preserving order, the country became a prey to outlaws. While
tens of thousands of armed fanatics were fighting for the Christian
cause in Syria, the barbarians of Northern Europe were worshipping
idols and serpents and offering human sacrifices.
The Crusades, however, were not wholly an unmixed evil. They increased
the power of the clergy, but they exterminated a large part of the
most worthless elements of society. It has been estimated that six
million persons perished in these expeditions. They made the Papacy
autocratic; but, by destroying feudalism through the alienation of
the estates of the barons, they greatly improved the condition of the
serf. The necessity for treating victims of the horrible maladies
contracted in Palestine led to the foundation of the first hospitals
in Christendom. They directed the attention of scholars to the study
of works in Arabic, a language hitherto unknown outside of Mussulman
countries. It was in 1142 that Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny,
went to Toledo and made a translation of the Koran into Latin, in order
that he might demonstrate the falsity of the doctrines of Islamism.
Had these successive deluges of fanatics been poured upon the Spanish
Peninsula instead of upon the Holy Land, not the slightest trace of
Moslem learning and civilization could have survived their attack.
The benefits arising from the Crusades were far from sufficient to
counterbalance their injurious effects. They gave, however, a great
impetus to commerce, especially through the enterprise of the Italian
republics. They awakened a taste for luxuries which had been hitherto
unknown, even to royalty. They stimulated manufactures, particularly
those connected with the ornamental arts of glass, wood, ivory, and
metals. In one respect, their influence promoted immensely the cause of
civilization. Familiarity with Moslem valor, politeness, and culture
removed the prejudices maintained through centuries of priestcraft
and ignorance by the benighted nations of Europe. Returning pilgrims
and adventurers brought back from the Holy Land tales of magnificent
cities, of incredible treasures, of deeds of heroism and chivalry,
which had no counterparts in any state of Christendom. Accounts of
these marvels awakened not only a desire to imitate them, but aroused
an involuntary admiration for the superiority of their authors. At
the time of the first Crusade, in the closing years of the eleventh
century, Moorish civilization in the Peninsula had attained its highest
perfection. While its influence had long been imperceptibly exerted
upon the populations of France and Italy, deep-seated hatred of
the followers of Mohammed had retarded the general diffusion of its
benefits. In consequence of the repeated expeditions to Palestine, an
increased demand for the manufactures and the agricultural products
of Moorish Spain was created. Its language, its improvisations, its
literature, soon became familiar to Europe. Even its sports were
borrowed, and the graceful courses of the arena, adapted to the rude
and ferocious tastes of baronial society, became the most popular of
mediæval diversions. The chivalric sentiments inseparable from knightly
exercises contributed to social refinement and to the exaltation of
woman. The troubadour carried everywhere the amatory songs which had
long enchanted the polished society of Andalusia. The coarseness and
asperity of feudal manners were softened, and a marked improvement
characterized every form of official and domestic intercourse. It is
beyond the Pyrenees, and not to the Orient, that the historian must
look for the origin of modern civilization.
In rapidity of conquest, in extent of dominion, in successful
propagation of religious belief, in ability to profit by the resources
of Nature, in profundity of knowledge and versatility of intellect, no
people have ever approached the Arabs. Their conquests were secured,
and their government made permanent, by that peculiar provision of
their civil polity which, appealing to the strongest of human passions
and sanctioned by the injunctions of their Prophet, permitted the
appropriation of the women of vanquished nations. Their commerce, to
which in a land destitute of agricultural resources they were impelled
by necessity, developed their trading propensities, and by association
from a remote age with their enterprising neighbors, the Phœnicians,
familiarized them with the men of all races and the products of all
countries; enlarged their faculties; sharpened their intellects; and
made them capable of becoming, in after times, the conquerors and the
lawgivers of the world. Prodigious energy and aggressiveness were their
leading characteristics. These traits were intensified by various,
sometimes by unworthy, motives,--by the love of pleasure, the thirst
of avarice, the fire of ambition,--as well as by the precepts and
promises of a religion congenial to their tastes, their habits, and
their excessively romantic and adventurous nature. Of all the dynasties
established by the Successors of the Prophet, that of the Ommeyades of
Spain is indisputably entitled to the most exalted rank.
The foundation of that dynasty marks a great epoch in the history of
Europe. Of its noble deeds, in both war and peace, every individual
of Moslem faith or Arab lineage may well be proud; proud of its long
line of illustrious princes; proud of its conquests; proud of its
civilization, which surpassed the splendors of Imperial Rome, and
whose arts modern science has found it impossible to successfully
imitate; proud of its unequalled agricultural prosperity; proud of the
exquisite beauty of its edifices, still pre-eminently attractive even
in their decay; proud of its mighty capital; proud of its academical
system, with its perfect organization, its colleges, its lyceums, its
libraries; proud of the vast attainments of its scholars, its surgeons,
its chemists, its botanists, its astronomers, its mathematicians;
proud of the theories of its philosophers, which for a thousand years,
amidst the incessant fluctuations of human opinion and the infinite
variations of religious belief, have retained their original form, and
are accepted as correct by the most enlightened thinkers of the present
age. The destruction of this wonderful empire was an event of more than
national significance; it was a misfortune to be deplored by every
lover of learning for all coming time. For evil was the day for human
progress when from his battlemented walls the Moor looked down upon the
signing of a truce craftily devised for the betrayal of his kindred;
evil was the day when upon the red towers of the Alhambra, decorated
by the emirs with profuse and unexampled magnificence, and which for
seven centuries had been the stronghold of Moslem power, the home of
Moslem art, were raised the victorious banners of the Spanish monarchy,
suggestive, it is true, of incredible achievement, of undaunted valor,
of heroic self-sacrifice, of imperishable renown, yet at the same time
harbingers of an endless train of national calamities which, like
avenging and relentless furies, stalked unseen in the wake of the
exultant conqueror.
INDEX
[Illustration]
A
Abbeys of France and England, their extent and wealth, iii. 351.
Abd-al-Aziz, first Emir of Spain, i. 267;
marries widow of Roderick, 269;
is assassinated, 271.
Abdallah gains crown by treachery, i. 535;
character of, 561.
Abd-al-Melik, emir, i. 306;
is impaled, 317.
Abd-al-Mumen, ruler of the Almohades, ii. 259;
conquers Spain, 287.
Abd-al-Rahman-al-Ghafeki conducts retreat, i. 277;
becomes emir and is deposed, 287;
is again raised to that office, 292;
attempts conquest of France, 295;
defeated and killed at Poitiers, 305.
Abd-al-Rahman I., his early career, i. 384, 385;
escapes to the Desert, 385;
lands in Spain, 389;
conquers the Peninsula, 393, 394;
his death and character, 408–411.
Abd-al-Rahman II., ability of, i. 475;
receives embassies from the East, 478, 479;
builds a navy, 491;
his death, 494.
Abd-al-Rahman III. ascends the throne, i. 563;
his noble qualities, 564;
subdues the rebels, 567;
death of, 596;
his fame, 597;
domestic policy of, 605;
his patronage of letters, 631.
Abd-al-Rahman IV., ii. 85;
his independence, 93.
Abd-al-Rahman V., ii. 99.
Abu-Abdallah, the Mahdi, ii. 249;
character of, 250.
Abu-Bekr, chief of Almoravides, ii. 194;
deposed, 196.
Abul-Hassan, Sultan of Fez, invades Spain, ii. 476.
Abul-Kasim-Mohammed, Kadi of Seville, great power of, ii. 116;
death of, 140.
Abu-Said betrayed by Pedro el Cruel, ii. 492.
Africa, innate barbarism of, ii. 88.
Agriculture, system of the Arabs, its perfection, iii. 599–601.
Aguilar, Alonso de, death of, iii. 250.
Ajarquia, rout of, ii. 562, 563.
Alarcos, battle of, ii. 311.
Albigenses, rise and doctrines of, iii. 90;
crusade against, 95, 96.
Alfonso I., King of Aragon, raid of, ii. 263, 264;
defeated and killed at Fraga, 269.
Alfonso I., King of the Asturias, i. 357;
his expeditions, 359;
his death, 361.
Alfonso III., exploits of, i. 532.
Alfonso VI., reforms of, ii. 162;
prowess of, 183;
enters Toledo, 185.
Alfonso VIII. wins battle of Las Navas, ii. 331.
Alfonso X., great talents of, ii. 441;
literary works, 443;
his death, 444.
Alfonso XI., death of, before Gibraltar, ii. 483.
Al-Hakem I. ascends the throne, i. 440;
defeats his uncles, 443, 444;
quells rebellion of southern suburb, 466;
his sufferings and death, 474.
Al-Hakem II., accession of, i. 636, 637;
character of, 668;
his love of learning, 670;
his great library, 672;
his erudition, 673;
attempts at reform, 676;
public works, 677.
Alhambra, origin of, i. 547;
magnificence, ii. 525;
gardens, 529.
Alhandega, battle of, i. 588.
Al-Haytham-Ibn-Obeyd appointed emir by the Khalif, i. 290.
Al-Horr appointed emir by the Viceroy of Africa, i. 272.
Ali, ruler of Spain, ii. 87;
his severe measures, 89, 90;
his death, 93.
Al-Maghreb, its extent and fertility, i. 134;
invasion of, by Abdallah, 138;
by Ibn Hajij, 141;
is conquered by Okbah, 143;
is invaded by Hassan, 145;
is finally subjugated by Musa, 162.
Al-Mansur--_see_ Ibn-abi-Amir.
Almohades, rise of, ii. 255.
Al-Mondhir, character of, i. 533;
is poisoned, 535.
Almoravides, origin of, ii. 191;
they conquer Africa, 194;
their immense empire, 239.
Al-Morthada, ii. 91.
Al-Nazer, King of Granada, ii. 454.
Al-Samh, Emir, i. 273;
invades France, 276;
is killed, 277.
Al-Zagal defeats Christians, ii. 563;
becomes king, 591;
abdication of, 664.
Al-Zarkal, clepsydra of, ii. 164;
quadrant of, iii. 435;
suggests elliptical orbit, 477.
Amulets of Arabs, i. 36.
Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim succeeds Abd-al-Rahman, i. 287;
his severity, 288;
invades Septimania, 290.
Arabia, topography of, i. 1;
dearth of history, 4;
visited by Phœnicians, 5;
its great wealth, 7;
exemption from foreign influence, 10.
Arabs, their prominence in antiquity, i. 16;
their energy, 16;
predatory instincts predominant, 16;
influence of the sheik, 19;
difference from other pastoral nations, 19;
blood revenge, 25;
habits of life, 27, 28;
treatment of woman, 28;
idolatry, 30;
relationship with Jews, 32;
trade of, 39;
wonderful career of the race, 54;
rebel after death of Mohammed, 128.
Architecture under the Moors of Spain, iii. 537–540.
Art, absence of, in Arabia, iii. 535.
Asturias, foundation of the kingdom of, i. 341.
Aurora, sultana, intrigues with Ibn-abi-Amir, i. 691;
opposes the latter, 735.
Averroes, iii. 473–475.
Ayub-Ibn-Habib, provisional emir, i. 271;
is deposed by the Khalif, 272.
B
Badis, King of Granada, ii. 134.
Balj-Ibn-Beshr besieged in Ceuta, i. 314;
relieved by Abd-al-Melik, 316;
seizes authority, 317.
Barcelona taken by the Franks, i. 450.
Baths, iii. 643;
luxury of, 644.
Baza, siege of, ii. 651;
capitulation of, 663.
Bedouins, life and character of, i. 17.
Beni-Khaldun, clan of, i. 552.
Berbers, origin and characteristics of, i. 136;
language and government, 137, 138;
oppressed by Arabs, 313, 325.
Bermudo, King of Leon, renders homage to Al-Mansur, i. 727.
Bernhart, count of Barcelona, killed, i. 492.
Béziers, destruction of, iii. 98.
Biscay, its ruggedness and severe climate, i. 338.
Black Stone of Kaaba, i. 35.
Boabdil taken prisoner at Lucena, ii. 568;
released, 572;
his worthless character, 594.
Botany of Spanish Moslems, iii. 486, 487.
Byzantine Empire, condition of, after barbarian conquest, i. 70;
its society and its policy, iii. 370–372;
degradation of all classes, 381, 382.
C
Calligraphy, skill in, iii. 590.
Carmona taken by Arabs, i. 235;
its siege raised by Abd-al-Rahman I., 400.
Carthage, the ancient city, its origin and splendor, i. 147, 148;
trade, 148;
religion, 151;
buildings, 152;
the Megara, 152;
the Roman city, its arts, its learning, and its vices, 153;
stormed by Hassan, 154.
Castrogiovanni, first attack on, ii. 18;
surprised by Moslems, 29.
Chakya, the impostor, rebels against Abd-al-Rahman I., i. 401;
his defeat and death, 402.
Charlemagne invades Spain, i. 405.
Charles Martel, character of, i. 302;
hated by the clergy, 303;
invades Provence, 309.
Chemistry, its great progress in the Peninsula, iii. 490–492.
Chess, game of, introduced by the Arabs, iii. 661, 662.
Christian tributaries of the Moors, iii. 183;
their tribute and their privileges, 184, 185;
disabilities of, 186, 189;
persecution of, by the khalifs, 204–206.
Christianity made no progress in Arabia, i. 41.
Church, condition of, before Mohammed, i. 66.
Cid, rise of, ii. 160;
character and career of, 220;
valor of, 224;
duplicity of, 226;
takes Valencia, 235;
horrors of the siege, 236;
his death, 237.
Civil organization of the Arabs, iii. 638.
Clergy, influence of, among the Visigoths, i. 175;
their luxury, 194, 211;
increasing power of, ii. 420;
wealth of, 422.
Commerce, its great extent under the Moors, iii. 616–619.
Cordova, beauty and wealth of, under the Ommeyades, i. 618, 619;
suburbs of, 622;
taken by Ferdinand III., ii. 366.
Count Julian resents outrage on his daughter, i. 221;
enters Spain, 224;
retires to Ceuta, 259.
Covadonga, battle of, i. 350.
D
Damascus, beauty and wealth of city, i. 370–372.
Dances derived from the Orient, iii. 663.
De Hauteville, House of, ii. 54.
E
Edrisi, geography of, ii. 71.
Egilona, queen of Roderick, captured at Merida, i. 246;
marries Abd-al-Aziz, 269.
Egiza, his tyranny, i. 216.
Egypt, effect of its civilization on the Arabs, i. 132.
Elvira, foundation and wars of, i. 542–549;
surrenders to Abd-al-Rahman III., 567.
Emirate, disorders of, i. 322.
Equestrian sports, their magnificence, iii. 491, 492.
Ervigius, reign and death of, i. 214.
F
Fatimites of Africa, i. 580;
remove capital to Egypt, 646.
Favila, King of Asturias, i. 356.
Fayic and Djaudar, eunuchs, conspiracy of, i. 697.
Ferdinand Gonzalez, Count of Castile, his character, i. 589;
power and exploits of, 603, 604.
Ferdinand III., character of, ii. 416.
Ferdinand the Catholic, character of, ii. 539;
defeated at Loja, 559.
Festivals, iii. 667–669.
Force, worship of, by man, i. 121.
Forum Judicum, i. 178;
procedure it enjoins, 179, 180;
foundation of modern jurisprudence, 181;
precepts, 185–189.
France, South of, its traditions and civilization, iii. 61;
literary and social condition, 64, 65.
Franks, the character and institutions of, i. 300.
Fraxinet, colony of, i. 602.
Frederick II., Emperor, first defiance of the Pope, iii. 31, 33;
his genius, 35;
laws of, 36;
commercial regulations instituted by, 39;
his intimacy with the Moslems, 39;
his power and dignity, 54;
his character, 56–59.
G
Galera, siege of, iii. 287.
Garcia, King of Leon, i. 575.
Gerbert, his origin, iii. 483;
educated at Cordova, 484, 485.
Ghalib subdues Africans, i. 649;
feud with Ibn-abi-Amir, 719, 720.
Giralda, construction of, ii. 316.
Gothic March, i. 446, 447;
conquered by the Franks, 448.
Granada (city), siege and capture of, ii. 677, 683.
Granada (kingdom), dawning greatness of, ii. 131;
taken by Almoravides, 214;
condition of, in fifteenth century, 513, 514;
palaces of, 525.
Guadalete, battle of, i. 230.
H
Hamet-al-Zegri, raid of, ii. 574;
severity of, 634;
sold as a slave, 641.
Harrani, Syrian physician, i. 502.
Haschim, vizier of Mohammed, defeated by the Christians, i. 519.
Hasdai, ambassador of the Khalif, i. 593;
cures Sancho the Fat, 595.
Hegira, i. 88.
Hischem I., Emir, i. 421;
his character, 422;
war with his uncles, 425;
his armies invade France, 429;
his death, 439.
Hischem II. kept in tutelage, i. 716;
severe restraints imposed on him, 717;
disappearance of, 761.
Hischem III., ii. 71;
death of, at Saragossa, 108.
Human sacrifices of Arabs, i. 37.
I
Iberians, their rudeness and ignorance, i. 339, 340.
Ibn-Abbas, minister of Zohair, ii. 129.
Ibn-abi-Abda invades Leon and is defeated, i. 576, 577.
Ibn-abi-Amir sent on mission to Africa, i. 649;
his boast in the garden, 686;
early career of, 688, 689;
conduct of, in Africa, 693, 694;
becomes vizier, 701;
appointed hajib, 707;
burns books of the library, 710;
reorganizes the army, 711;
becomes ruler of Moorish Spain, 720;
his campaigns, 723, 724;
named Al-Mansur, 724;
his invasion of Galicia, 738;
his death, 744;
his character, 744, 745.
Ibn-Abu, death of, iii. 301.
Ibn-al-Awam, botanical work of, iii. 607.
Ibn-Djahwar, rise of, ii. 106;
great talents of, 112.
Ibn-Forat, Kadi of Tunis, invades Sicily, ii. 12;
his death, 17.
Ibn-Habib, Viceroy of Africa, pursues Abd-al-Rahman, i. 387.
Ibn-Hud, family of, ii. 115.
Ibn-Kenun, his revolt, i. 647;
defeats Al-Hakem, 647;
taken to Cordova, 651;
put to death, 730.
Ibn-Shobeyd, wealth of, i. 615.
Improvisation prized by Arabs, i. 50.
Industrial arts in Spain, iii. 575–577.
Innocent III., ability of, ii. 30.
Interdict, its terrors, iii. 335.
Irrigation in Moorish Spain, iii. 601, 602.
Isabella, character of, ii. 539;
her popularity, enters the camp before Malaga, 632;
aids army before Baza, 661.
Islam, its unprecedented career, i. 61, 63;
slow progress of, when first promulgated, 86;
its meaning, 113;
duties enjoined by it, 114, 115;
the benefits it conferred on the Arabs, 116, 117;
its grand achievements, 125.
Ismail I., King of Granada, ii. 459.
J
Jaime I. of Aragon, ii. 351;
character of, 394, 395.
Jews, persecution of, by Visigoths, i. 173;
influence of, on civilization, iii, 105, 106;
early commerce of, 109;
prejudice against, in antiquity, 113;
prosperity and power of, in the Middle Ages, 118, 119;
good influence of, in Spain, 127;
great scholars, 141;
the depositaries of mediæval culture, 149;
expulsion from Spain and Portugal, 171, 174.
John de Gorza, ambassador of the German Emperor, i. 600.
Junquera, battle of, i. 583.
K
Kadir, ruler of Toledo, ii. 179;
expelled, 184.
Kahtanites, feud with Maadites, i. 278;
its duration and intensity, 279, 280.
Kairoan founded by Okbah, i. 143.
Khadijah marries Mohammed, i. 84.
Khairan, governor of Malaga, ally of Ali, ii. 87.
Khalifs, general character of, ii. 596.
Koceila conspires against Okbah, i. 144;
is killed, 144.
Koran, its origin, i. 104;
its contents, 106;
allegorical imagery, 108;
benign precepts, 109.
Koreish, guardians of temple of Mecca, i. 81.
L
Las Navas de Tolosa, battle of, ii. 331.
Leon taken by Al-Mansur, i. 732.
Libraries of the Arabs, iii. 470.
Literature of the Arabs, iii. 457–460.
Loja carried by storm, ii. 600.
Love, Courts of, iii. 80.
Lucera, Saracen colony of, iii. 52.
M
Magic of the Arabs, i. 36.
Maimonides, iii. 142;
his learning and his works, 143, 144.
Majorca taken by the Aragonese, ii. 322.
Malaga, city of, its wealth and prosperity, ii. 618;
manufactures, 619;
siege of, 625;
surrender of, 641.
Malik-Ibn-Anas, sect of, i. 435.
Manufactures, iii. 622–625.
Marquis of Cadiz takes Alhama, ii. 547, 548.
Mecca, its situation and climate, i. 39;
conquest by Mohammed, 90.
Medicine, its advancement and perfection among the Spanish Arabs,
iii. 511–516.
Medina-al-Zahrâ, origin of, i. 625;
extent and magnificence, 626;
pavilion, 628;
destroyed by the Berbers, 758.
Mendoza, Cardinal, his greatness and character, iii. 234, 237.
Merida, its splendid monuments, i. 244;
taken by Musa, 245.
Moallakat, i. 46, 49.
Mohammed-al-Ahmar pays homage to Ferdinand, ii. 404.
Mohammed, birth and childhood of, i. 82, 84;
marriage of, 84;
his hallucinations, 85;
death, 91;
character, 92;
distrust of himself, 96;
his personal appearance and manners, 98.
Mohammed, eldest son of Abd-al-Rahman II., i. 501, 503;
obtains the emirate, 505–507;
his zeal, 508;
death of, 525.
Mohammed II., King of Granada, ii. 436.
Mohammed III., deposed, ii. 450.
Mohammed IV., ascends the throne, ii. 459.
Mohammed V., his love of peace, ii. 487.
Mohammed VI., visits Toledo, ii. 496.
Mohammed VII., pride of, ii. 503.
Monasticism, wealth of, iii. 351, 365;
its corruption, 349.
Monastic life, its pomp and luxury, iii. 364.
Montfort, Earl of Leicester, his character, iii. 96.
Montpellier, University of, ii. 76;
high attainments of its professors, 78, 79.
Moriscoes, persecution of, by Ximenes, iii. 242, 243;
banished to Leon and Castile, 244;
attempted reform of, 259;
their property confiscated, 266;
rebellion of, 268;
exiled from Granada, 277;
chased through the mountains, 299;
final expulsion from the Peninsula, 318, 319.
Moshafi, vizier of Al-Hakem II., i. 651;
rivalry with Ibn-abi-Amir, 707;
ruin and death of, 708.
Mosque of Cordova founded by Abd-al-Rahman I., i. 414, 415, 654;
minaret, 665;
description of, 657–667.
Motadhid, Prince of Seville, talents and vices of, ii. 141, 142.
Motamid ascends the throne of Seville, ii. 168.
Muley Hassan, enmity of, to the Christians, ii. 505;
domestic troubles of, 542, 552;
death of, 633.
Musa-Ibn-Nosseyr, his origin, i. 157;
appointed general in Africa, 158;
his character, 158, 159;
builds and equips a fleet, 161;
enters Spain, 243;
his return through Africa, 253;
his punishment and death, 256, 257.
Museum of Alexandria, iii, 437–440.
Music, popularity of, among the Moors, iii. 664–666.
N
Naples, University of, iii. 44.
Narbonnese Gaul, known as “The Great Land,” i. 272.
Normans invade Peninsula, i. 489, 490, 516;
character of, ii. 54;
conquer Sicily, 55;
adopt Moslem customs, iii. 16–18.
O
Okbah Ibn-al-Hejaj, Emir, i. 307;
his discipline, 308.
Okhad, fair of, i. 53.
Omar-Ibn-Hafsun, rise of, i. 521;
his antecedents, 522;
his stronghold at Bobastro, 522;
duplicity of, 540;
defeated at Aguilar, 558;
death of, 577.
Ommeyades, origin of, i. 367;
profligacy of the Syrians, 375, 376, 379.
Ordoño IV. visits court of Cordova, i. 640;
his baseness, 641, 642.
Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa, Emir, i. 291;
governor of Gijon, 343, 355.
P
Palermo taken by the Moslems, ii. 21;
reduced by the Normans, 56;
luxury of, under the Moors and the Normans, 66;
beauty of the city, 67.
Pampeluna destroyed by Abd-al-Rahman I., i. 585.
Papacy, corruption of, iii. 327, 328.
Paraclete, tradition of, i. 77.
Pedro el Cruel ascends throne of Castile, ii. 487.
Pelayus, his origin, i. 344;
organizes an army, 345;
becomes king, 354.
Phallicism of Arabs, i. 34.
Phœnicians, their trade in Arabia, i. 8.
Poetry of ancient Arabs, i. 43–46;
great influence of the poet, 51;
his license, 51;
that of the Spanish Moslems, iii. 448–450.
Poitiers, battle of, i. 305.
Polygamy of Arabs, i. 28;
its universal practice in the Orient, 102.
Pope Joan, story of, iii. 330, 331.
Popes, character of, iii. 332, 338.
Population of Moorish Spain, i. 613;
its great cities, 614.
Pottery, perfection in, attained by Moors, iii. 585, 586.
Public works of the Moors, i. 614, 618.
Pulgar, exploit of, ii. 676.
Q
Quadros, ii. 449.
Quesada taken by Sancho el Bravo, ii. 447.
R
Redwan Venegas, commander in fight of the Ajarquia, ii. 563.
Revenues of the khalifs, i. 614.
Roderick, accession of, i. 219;
his character, 220;
violates daughter of Count Julian, 221.
Roncesvalles, rout of, i. 406.
Rusafah, garden of, i. 412, 624.
S
Saba, i. 7;
its ancient civilization, 8.
Salado, battle of the, ii. 481.
Salerno, Medical School of, iii. 45;
its contributions to medicine and surgery, 46, 47.
Samuel, Rabbi of Granada, learning and power of, ii. 131.
Sancho-el-Bravo, King of Castile, ii. 445.
Sancho the Fat, i. 592;
visits Cordova, 594.
Santiago destroyed by Al-Mansur, i. 740.
Saragossa taken by Musa, i. 249;
under the Beni-Hud, iii. 448.
Science in Arabian Spain, iii. 476, 477.
Science, its achievements, iii. 527–530.
Seigniorial rights, iii. 387, 388.
Septimania, its origin and extent, i. 274, 275.
Serfs, condition of, in Europe, iii. 395, 396;
degradation of, 397.
Seville captured by Musa, i. 244;
surrenders to Ferdinand, ii. 411.
Sicily, great natural advantages of, ii. 1;
classic traditions of, 2;
condition of, at time of Moorish invasion, 7;
invasion of, by Moslems, 9, 10;
mixed population of, 62;
scientific progress of its people, 69.
Sidi-Yahya, treason of, ii. 493.
Silk manufacture, iii. 625.
Sisebert, Archbishop of Toledo, heads conspiracy, i. 215.
Slaves, caste of, i. 606;
power and influence of, 607.
Social life of the Hispano-Arab, iii. 652, 653.
Spain, condition of, under the khalifs, i. 614–616.
St. James the Apostle, legend of, i. 471.
Stucco, iii. 549.
Suleyman, Khalif, his character, ii. 85.
Sword venerated in Arabia, i. 94;
importance of, among the Arabs, iii. 580, 581.
Syracuse, first siege of, by the Moors, ii. 13;
stormed by them, 38–40.
T
Talavera, Archbishop of Granada, his character, iii. 240.
Tarik invades Spain, i. 225;
marches northward, 237;
quarrels with Musa, 248.
Tarub, treachery of, i. 501.
Taxation of tributaries, i. 260.
Tendilla, Count of, Captain-General of Granada, iii. 240.
Textile fabrics, iii. 627.
Thalaba raised to power, i. 318;
his cruelty, 318.
Theodomir surrenders Murcia to the Arabs, i. 247.
Theology in Arabian Spain, iii. 460.
Toledo, its strength and antiquity, i. 238;
massacre of its citizens by Al-Hakem, 460;
becomes independent, 513.
Tota, Queen of Navarre, her ability, i. 592;
visits Cordova, 594.
Tribunal of the Waters, iii. 602, 603.
Troubadours, influence of, iii. 82, 83.
U
Ubeda sacked by the Christians, ii. 340.
Utrera, Gomez-Mendez, governor of, killed in the Ajarquia, ii. 563.
V
Valencia taken by Jaime, ii. 382;
expulsion of Moors from, iii. 314.
Vases of the Hispano-Arabs, iii. 585.
Visigoths, origin and migrations of, i. 166, 167;
constitution and government, 169, 170;
councils, 171;
churches, 195;
arts, 196;
manufactures, 196;
medicine, 197;
dress, 199;
profligacy, 227;
causes of the decline of their power, 263.
W
Wadhih, governor of Cordova, i. 759.
Water, symbolic use of, among Oriental nations, iii. 573, 574.
Witiza becomes king, i. 217;
his wise measures, 218;
his excesses, 219.
Women under the Arabs, iii. 446, 447;
privileges of, 655–657.
X
Xativa, prosperity of, ii. 387;
besieged by Jaime, 389;
surrender of, 391.
Ximenes, Cardinal, character and origin of, iii. 235, 236;
burns Arabic manuscripts at Granada, 243.
Y
Yahya, faqui, leads a rebellion, i. 465;
becomes a favorite of Abd-al-Rahman II., 468.
Yahya-Ibn-Salmah, Emir, i. 291.
Yakub-al-Mansur invades Andalusia, ii. 307;
death of, 314.
Yusuf-al-Fehri, Emir, i. 320;
abdicates, 394;
is killed, 396.
Yusuf, King of Granada, at the battle of Salado, ii. 480;
character of, 484.
Yusuf, Sultan of Almohades, ii. 299;
public works of, at Seville, 301;
is killed near Lisbon, 304.
Yusuf, the Almoravide, invades Spain, ii. 199;
death and character of, 241.
Z
Zahira founded by Al-Mansur, i. 717.
Zaid, wali of Barcelona, his heroic defence, i. 449.
Zallaca, battle of, ii. 204.
Zamora stormed by the Moors, i. 732.
Zeyd-Ibn-Kesade overruns Andalusia, i. 238.
Ziadet-Allah, Sultan of Africa, ii. 10.
Ziryab, the musician, i. 496;
his versatility, 497.
Ziyad-Ibn-Aflah, prefect, aids conspiracy, i. 709.
Zobeir, Ibn-al-, his success during the invasion of Africa, i. 140.
Zonaria, Hebrew prophet, i. 289.
END OF VOLUME III.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.