THE EMIRATE
713–755
Abd-al-Aziz--His Wise Administration--His Execution
ordered by the Khalif--Ayub-Ibn-Habib--His
Reforms--Al-Horr--Al-Samh--His Invasion of France--His
Defeat and Death--Abd-al-Rahman--Feud of the Maadites and
Kahtanites--Its Disastrous Effects--Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim--His
Ability--He penetrates to the Rhone and is
killed--Yahya-Ibn-Salmah--Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa--Hodheyfa-Ibn
-al-Awass--Al-Haytham-Ibn-Obeyd--Mohammed-Ibn-Abdallah
--Abd-al-Rahman--His Popularity--Proclaims the Holy War--Treason of
Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa--The Emir attempts the Conquest of
France--Character of Charles Martel--Battle of Poitiers--Death
of Abd-al-Rahman--Abd-al-Melik--Okbah-Ibn-al-Hejaj--His
Wisdom and Capacity--Charles Martel ravages
Provence--Berber Revolt in Africa--Victory of the
Rebels--Abd-al-Melik-Ibn-Kottam--Balj-Ibn-Beschr--Thalaba
--Abu-al-Khattar--Condition of Western Europe--Unstable and Corrupt
Administration of the Emirs--Importance of the Battle of Poitiers.
The principle of hereditary right, although it occupied no place in the
polity of Mohammed, was denounced by the Koran, and repudiated by the
Arabs of ancient times, had been, since the dynasty of the Ommeyades
attained to power, to a certain extent tacitly recognized by the
subjects of the khalifs. Although the latter dignity was among orthodox
Mussulmans still elective, like the office of an Arab sheik, the
Persian schismatics had, for some generations, accustomed themselves
to consider the descendants of Ali as the only legal Successors of the
Prophet, to whom had been transmitted the inalienable prerogatives of
regal power and even the sacred attributes of divinity. The ambition
of the sovereigns of Damascus had been occasionally gratified by the
accession of their sons to the throne, a result not unfrequently
accomplished by means of questionable character. When the loyalty
of the nobles and the obsequious devotion of the multitude were not
sufficient to enable him to attain the desired end, the Khalif did
not hesitate to use bribery, threats, and even assassination, to
perpetuate the coveted dignity in his family. From the monarch this
natural principle--a species of hero-worship, so common as to be almost
universal, and exhibiting its tendencies even in the administration of
the greatest of modern republics--descended to the prominent officials
of the empire and to their subordinates the walis, the governors of
provinces and cities. For these reasons, the appointment by Musa of
his three sons to be respectively emirs of East and West Africa and
Spain was regarded by the Moslem population of those countries and
by the army as the exercise of a prescriptive right which scarcely
required the formal confirmation of the sovereign. Notwithstanding
the ferocious and jealous temper of Suleyman, and the fact that he
had heaped upon Musa injuries which were unpardonable, he, for some
time, permitted the sons of the conqueror of Al-Maghreb and Andaluz to
exercise without molestation the functions of their several emirates.
Abd-al-Aziz, to whom had been assigned the difficult task of the
political reorganization of the Peninsula,--a task which involved the
erection of one system of government upon the ruins of another which
had nothing in common with, and much that was hostile to, it,--entered
upon his duties with all the energy and tact of an accomplished soldier
and statesman. Some cities removed from the immediate influence of the
conquerors had renounced their allegiance and refused the customary
tribute. These were speedily reduced to submission. The convention
of Musa with Theodomir, the Gothic tributary of Murcia, was solemnly
ratified. Detachments under different commanders were despatched to the
North and West, who carried the Moslem arms to the shores of Lusitania
and the mountains of Biscay and Navarre. Castles were built for the
protection of the frontiers, and garrisons of important towns placed
under the command of experienced officers of tried fidelity. A Divan
or Council was established. Receivers of taxes and magistrates were
appointed to conduct the civil departments of the administration.
Secure in the protection of their own laws and the enjoyment of their
ancient religious privileges, the Mohammedan yoke was hardly felt
by the Christian population, whose restrictions were confined to a
show of outward respect for the institutions of their masters and the
regular payment of tribute. All acts of violence and oppression were
punished, and public confidence was restored. The peasants rebuilt
their cottages; the labors of the agriculturist, interrupted by civil
commotion and foreign encroachment, were resumed; the grass-grown
thoroughfares of the cities once more echoed with the welcome sounds
of traffic, and the sad traces of many successive years of warfare and
devastation began to gradually disappear from the face of the Peninsula.
But, however equitable was the civil administration of Abd-al-Aziz,
its beneficent effects in the eyes of both Moslems and Christians
were more than neutralized by the excesses and licentious violence of
his private life. In the gratification of passions strong even for an
Oriental, his conduct surpassed the ordinary limits of brutal tyranny.
The fairest maids and matrons of the Gothic population crowded his
seraglio; and even the homes of noble Arabians were not secure from
the visitations of his eunuchs. Egilona, the queen of Roderick, having
fallen into his hands, became first his concubine and afterwards his
wife. She was indulged in the practice of her religion, an unusual
privilege for one in her position; and, by the unbounded influence she
soon acquired over her husband, succeeded in sensibly alleviating the
miseries of her countrymen. Her beauty, her vast wealth, which she
had secured by a timely submission and the payment of tribute, and
her talents, which appear to have been of no mean order, added to the
ambition once more to sit upon a throne, soon made themselves felt
in the affairs of government. She began to direct the policy of the
Emir, to the disgust and apprehension of the members of the Divan and
the officers of the army. She imprudently attempted to introduce the
ceremonial of the Visigothic court, which required the prostration of
all who approached the throne of the monarch; a custom repugnant as
yet both to the equality and independence recommended by the precepts
of the Koran and to the proud spirit of the Arab. By her advice the
treaty was concluded with Theodomir, who thereby acquired for life the
sovereignty of the beautiful province of Murcia. The exercise of such
authority was considered by pious Moslems as boding ill to the empire
of Islam when enjoyed by a woman and an infidel. The rumor spread that
Abd-al-Aziz, helpless under the fatal spell of this sorceress, was
meditating apostasy and aspiring to independent power. These reports,
which derived some color of probability from the universal belief of
the multitude, the personal popularity and well-known ambition of the
Emir, and his presumed desire to avenge the wrongs of his father,
were communicated to the Khalif, who determined to at once remove all
danger from any designs of the sons of Musa. Orders were accordingly
despatched to five of the principal officers of the army of occupation
in Spain to put Abd-al-Aziz to death. The first who opened and read
the commands of the Khalif was Habib-Ibn-Obeidah, an old and valued
friend of the family of Musa. His distress may be imagined; but the
order was peremptory, and the ties of friendship, the sentiments
of gratitude, the reminiscences of social intimacy, were not to be
considered by the devout Moslem when was interposed the imperious
mandate of the Successor of the Prophet of God. Having consulted with
each other, the executioners, who feared the vengeance of the army,
devoted as it was to its chief, determined to kill Abd-al-Aziz while
at his devotions. It was the custom of the Emir to pass much of his
time at a summer palace in the suburbs of Seville, attached to which
was a private mosque. Here, while upon his knees reciting the morning
prayer, he was attacked and despatched without resistance. His body was
buried in the court of the palace, and his head--a sanguinary proof of
the obedience of his assassins--was sent in a box filled with camphor
to Suleyman at Damascus. Thus perished one of the most distinguished
captains of the age, whose talents and dexterity promised a rapid
solution of the difficult questions of policy which confronted the new
rulers of Spain, and whose gentle and considerate treatment of the
vanquished--conspicuous amidst the repulsive asperity of barbarian
manners--proved his destruction. A few weeks elapsed, and his brethren,
the emirs of Africa, followed him by the hand of the executioner. The
fate of his unfortunate consort, Egilona, is unknown. In common with
King Roderick and his conqueror Tarik, with Count Julian and the sons
of Witiza, her future, after a remarkable career, passes into oblivion.
It is not a little singular that so many of the most conspicuous
personages of their time should all, one after another, without any
apparent reason, have been thus abruptly dismissed by the chroniclers
of the age.
The Khalif, in his haste to destroy the family of Musa, had neglected
to designate a successor to Abd-al-Aziz, and Spain remained for a
short time without a governor. Realizing the dangers of a protracted
interregnum among the heterogeneous elements of which the inhabitants
of the Peninsula were composed, a number of the Moslems most eminent
in rank and influence assembled, and, in accordance with the ancient
custom of the Desert, elected Ayub-Ibn-Habib provisional Emir. Ayub
was a captain of age and experience and the cousin of Abd-al-Aziz. His
first act was to remove the seat of government from Seville to Cordova,
on account of the more advantageous location of the latter city,
destined to remain during the domination of the conquerors the Mecca
of the Occident, the literary centre of the Middle Ages, the school of
polite manners, the home of science and the arts; to be regarded with
awe by every Moslem, with affectionate veneration by every scholar,
and with mingled feelings of wonder and apprehension by the turbulent
barbarians of Western Europe. For greater convenience in collecting
the revenue and restraining the indigenous population, the country
had been divided into numerous districts, governed by walis, inferior
officials responsible to the Emir. The lives of these magistrates,
passed amidst the turmoil of revolution, the sack of cities, and the
slaughter of infidels, rendered them but ill qualified to administer
the affairs of a nation in time of peace. The acts of cruelty and
extortion perpetrated by these petty tyrants, far removed from the eye
of the court, had become an intolerable grievance. It devolved on Ayub
to investigate their official conduct, and many of them were deposed
and punished. The new Emir travelled through his dominions, correcting
abuses, building fortresses, repairing the decaying walls of cities,
encouraging the development and cultivation of fields long since
abandoned by the farmer, redressing grievances without distinction of
creed or nationality, and by every means promoting the welfare of his
grateful subjects. In those provinces which had been depopulated, he
established colonies of immigrants and adventurers from Africa and
the East. In others, where the Christians preponderated, he settled
numbers of Jews and Moslems, whose presence might curb the enthusiasm
and check the aspirations of the implacable enemies of the Mohammedan
faith. The watch-towers which crowned the summits of the Pyrenees
and defended the passes leading to Narbonnese Gaul--that region of
mystery which the imperfect geography of the Arab had designated the
Great Land, and the imagination of the Oriental had peopled with
giants and fabulous monsters--were strengthened and garrisoned with
troops whose activity and vigilance had been tested in many a scene of
toil and danger. Scarcely had the administration of Ayub been fairly
established, before the vindictive spirit of the Khalif demanded his
removal. Mohammed-Ibn-Yezid, Emir of Africa, was ordered to deprive of
office all members of the tribe of Lakhm, to which Musa had belonged,
and Al-Horr-Ibn-Abd-al-Rahman was invested with the precarious dignity
of Viceroy of the Peninsula. Four hundred representatives of the
proudest of the Arabian nobility, whom zeal for the faith, the love of
adventure, or the hope of renown had attracted to the shores of Africa,
accompanied him; warriors, many of whose descendants were destined to
attain to distinction in every rank of civil and military life--even to
the royal dignity itself--and to become the most prominent members of
the Moslem aristocracy of Spain.
From the beginning, the arbitrary measures of the Emir carried distress
and anxiety into every town and hamlet of the country. His rapacity
knew no bounds. Under pretext of a deficiency in the collection of
tribute, the officials charged with that duty were imprisoned and
put to the torture. In the infliction of punishment no distinction
of religious belief was recognized; Moslem and Christian alike felt
the heavy hand of the tyrant; and even the oldest and most renowned
officers of the army, veterans who had served in Syria and Africa, the
companions of Tarik and Musa, were not exempt from the exactions of
his insatiable avarice. So intolerable did these oppressions become,
that the cause of Islam was seriously endangered; proselytism ceased;
no official, however high in rank, was secure in the possession of
liberty, property, and life; and the unfortunate Jews and Christians
were exposed to all the evils of the most cruel persecution. As the
Emir of Africa evinced a remarkable apathy when the removal of Al-Horr
was demanded by the outraged people of Spain, application was made to
the Khalif Omar in person, who at once deposed the offensive governor,
and appointed as his successor Al-Samh, the general commanding the
army of the northern frontier. This appointment did credit to the
discernment of the Khalif, for it proved eminently wise and judicious.
The first efforts of Al-Samh were directed to the correction of
irregularities in the administration of the revenue. Formerly the
large cities, where was naturally collected the most of the wealth of
the kingdom and hence the bulk of property liable to taxation, had
been required to contribute only one-tenth of their income towards the
expenses of government, while the villages and the cultivated lands
had been assessed at one-fifth. This inequality was due originally to
a desire to favor the Jews, whose love of traffic had induced them to
establish themselves in the principal towns, offering, as the latter
did, better facilities for the encouragement of commerce and the rapid
accumulation of property. In addition to this much-needed reform,
the able viceroy collected the bands of Moors and Berbers,--whose
nomadic habits and predatory instincts, inherited from a long line of
ancestors, had resisted former attempts at colonization,--settled them
upon unoccupied lands, and, by every possible inducement, tried to
impress upon the minds of these savage warriors the importance and the
superior advantages of civilization. He caused a census to be taken
of all the inhabitants of the Peninsula, and with it sent to Damascus
elaborate tables of statistics, in which were carefully described
the various towns, the topography of the coast, the situation of the
harbors, the wealth of the country, the nature of its products, the
volume of its commerce, and the extent of its mineral and agricultural
resources. The restoration of the magnificent bridge of Cordova,
constructed in the reign of Augustus, is of itself an enduring monument
to his fame. But the energies of Al-Samh were not expended solely in
the monotonous but beneficial avocations of peace. As the friend and
associate of Tarik he had seen service on many a stoutly contested
field, and now, when his dominions were tranquil and prosperous, he
received, with the exultation of an ardent believer, the order of the
Khalif to carry the Holy War beyond the Pyrenees.
The province of Narbonnese Gaul, once a part of the Visigothic empire,
and hitherto protected from the incursions of its dangerous neighbors
by the lofty mountain rampart which formed its southern boundary,
continued to cherish the traditions and to observe the customs of its
ancient rulers. It embraced the greater portion of modern Languedoc,
that smiling region which, watered by the Rhone, the Garonne, and
their numerous tributaries, had, through the fertility of its soil
and the advantages of its semi-tropical climate, early attracted the
attention of the adventurous colonists of Greece and Italy. The high
state of civilization to which this region attained, and its progress
in the arts, are manifested by the architectural remains which still
adorn its cities,--remains which, in elegance of design and imposing
magnificence, are unequalled by even the far-famed ruins of the
Eternal City. No structures in any country illustrate so thoroughly
the taste and genius of classic times as the arch of Orange, the Pont
du Gard, the temples and the amphitheatre of Nîmes, whose graceful
proportions and wonderful state of preservation never fail to elicit
the enthusiastic admiration of the traveller. The inhabitants also have
retained, through the vicissitudes of centuries of warfare and foreign
domination, the traits and features of their classic ancestry. In the
vainglorious pride of the Provençal and his neighbor the Gascon are
traceable the haughty demeanor of the Roman patrician; while the women
of Arles, in their symmetry of form, their faultless profiles, and
their statuesque grace, recall the beauties of the age of Pericles.
This territory was known to the Goths by the name of Septimania, from
the seven principal cities, Narbonne, Nîmes, Agde, Lodève, Maguelonne,
Béziers, and Carcassonne, included within its borders, and was still
governed by the maxims of the Gothic polity which formerly prevailed in
the Peninsula. Although divided into a number of little principalities,
whose chieftains promiscuously indulged their propensities to rapine
without fear of the intervention of any superior power, it had for
years preserved the appearance of a disunited but independent state.
In the North, the anarchy accompanying the bloody struggles of the
princes of the Merovingian dynasty, which preceded the foundation of
the empire of Pepin and Charlemagne, removed, for the time, all danger
of encroachment from that quarter. But the Gothic nobles, since the
battle of the Guadalete, had cast glances of anxiety and dismay upon
the distant summits of the Pyrenees. Innumerable refugees from Spain
had sought safety among their Gallic kinsmen, and the tales which
they related of the excesses of the invaders lost nothing in their
recital by these terror-stricken fugitives. Too feeble of themselves
to entertain hopes of successful resistance, the Goths suspended for
a time their hereditary quarrels, and, to avoid the impending ruin,
acknowledged the sovereignty of Eudes, the powerful Duke of Aquitaine.
Al-Samh, having completed his preparations, emerged from the mountain
passes at the head of a formidable army. After a siege of a month,
Narbonne, the capital of Septimania, surrendered to the Moslems, who
obtained from the churches and convents an immense booty, most of which
had been deposited by fugitive Spanish prelates in those sanctuaries as
places of inviolable security. Almost without a blow, the fortresses of
Béziers, Maguelonne, and Carcassonne accepted the liberal conditions of
Mohammedan vassalage. The flying squadrons of Arab cavalry now spread
ruin and alarm over the beautiful valley of the Garonne. So attractive
was the country and so lax the discipline, that it was with some
difficulty the Emir succeeded in collecting the scattering detachments
of his army, which had wandered far in search of plunder; and, resuming
his march, he at length invested the important city of Toulouse,
the capital of Aquitaine. The siege was pushed with vigor, and the
inhabitants, reduced to extremity, were already meditating a surrender,
when the Duke approached with a force greatly superior to that of the
Moslems. The latter, disheartened at the sight of such an overwhelming
multitude, were disposed to retreat, when the Emir, actuated by a
spirit worthy of the ancient heroes of Islam, roused their flagging
courage by an eloquent harangue, in which he artfully suggested both
the prizes of victory and the promises of the Faith. As the two hosts
ranged themselves in martial array, the priests distributed among the
Franks small pieces of sponge which had received the blessing of the
Pope; amulets more serviceable, it appeared, than the thickest armor,
for we are assured by the veracious chroniclers of the age that not a
Christian soldier who carried one of these valuable relics lost his
life in the battle. The contest was long and obstinate; the Moslems
performed prodigies of valor; but they had lost the religious fervor
which had so often rendered their arms invincible; and anxiety for
the safety of their spoils had greater influence upon them than the
security of their conquest or the propagation of their religion. The
issue long remained doubtful; but the Emir having exposed himself
too rashly fell pierced by a lance; and his army, completely routed,
retired from the field with the loss of two-thirds of its number.
Abd-al-Rahman-al-Ghafeki, an officer of high rank and distinguished
reputation, was invested with the temporary command by his associates,
and conducted the shattered remnant of the Moslems to Narbonne. Intent
on plundering the treasures of the enemy’s camp, which contained
the bulk of the portable wealth of Septimania, the Franks could not
be induced to reap the full advantages of victory. The retreat was
conducted with consummate skill, for the peasantry, aroused by the news
of the disaster, swarmed in vast numbers around the retreating Moslems,
who were often compelled to cut their way through the dense and ever
increasing masses, which immediately closed in and harassed their rear.
This was the first serious reverse which had befallen the hitherto
invincible arms of Islam. The tide had begun to turn, and the
implacable enmity cultivated for centuries between the two contending
nations of Arabia--which neither the precepts of a congenial form
of faith, nor military fame, nor uninterrupted conquest, nor the
possession of fabulous wealth, nor the enjoyment of the fairest
portions of the globe could eradicate--was now to exhibit to the
world the splendid weakness of the Successors of Mohammed. A glance
at the origin and progress of this barbarian feud, which survived
the impetuous ardor of proselytism, and had nourished for ages its
hereditary vindictiveness, and, arising in distant Asia, was destined
to be revived with undiminished violence upon the plains of Aragon and
Andalusia, is essential to a proper understanding of the causes to
which are to be attributed the downfall of the Moslem Empire of the
West.
As already mentioned, irreconcilable hostility had existed from time
immemorial between the inhabitants of Northern and Southern Arabia.
Due to a difference of origin, and probably based upon invasion and
conquest in a prehistoric age, this race-prejudice had been aggravated
by a feeling of mutual hatred and contempt, derived from the different
avocations of the people of Yemen and those of the Hedjaz, the peaceful
merchants and the lawless rovers of the Desert. The Maadites, to
whom the Meccans belonged, were shepherds and brigands. They prided
themselves upon being the aristocracy of Arabia; and the thrifty and
industrious dwellers of the South, the Kahtanites, who saw nothing
degrading in the tillage of their fields, in the care of their valuable
date plantations, and in the profits of commerce, could, in the
consciousness of superior wealth and culture, readily endure the scorn
of their neighbors, whose gains were obtained by overreaching their
guests, by extortions from pilgrims to the Kaaba, and by sharing in
the plunder of caravans. The Medinese, whose origin was partly Jewish,
whose pursuits were sedentary, and whose affiliations connected them
with the trading communities of Yemen, were classed with the Kahtanites
by the children of Maad. From this mutual antagonism the religion of
Mohammed received its greatest impulse and the power which enabled it
to overturn all its adversaries; and from it, also, are to be traced
the misfortunes which befell the empire of Islam even before it was
firmly established; which made every country and province in its wide
dominions the scene of civil strife and bloodshed; which profaned
with insult and violence the shrines of the most holy temples; which
annihilated whole dynasties by the hand of the assassin; and which,
far more potent than the iron hand of Charles Martel and the valor
of the Franks, lost by a single stroke the sceptre of Europe. Hence
arose the disputes which terminated in the murder of Othman and its
terrible retribution, the sack of the Holy Cities; the intrigues and
controversies which resulted from the election of Ali; the death
of Hosein; the insurrections of the fanatical reformers of Persia;
the proscription of the Ommeyades; the perpetual disorders which
distracted the Emirate of Africa. In Spain also, whither had resorted
so many of the fugitives of Medina and their Syrian conquerors, the
smouldering embers of national prejudice and religious discord were
rekindled. The most sacred ties of nationality, of religion, or of
kindred were powerless to counteract this deep-rooted antipathy, which
seems inherent in the two divisions of the Arab race. The most noble
incentives to patriotism, the pride of victory, the alluring prospects
of commercial greatness, of literary distinction, of boundless
dominion, were ignored in the hope of humiliating a rival faction and
of gratifying a ruthless spirit of revenge. At different times--such
is the strange inconsistency of human nature--the Maadites became
voluntary dependents of the kings of Yemen and Hira. In an age of
remote antiquity, the Himyarite dialect spoken in the South had been
supplanted by the more polished idiom of the Hedjaz.
The intensity and duration of the hatred existing between Maadite and
Yemenite are inconceivable by the mind of one of Caucasian blood, and
are without precedent, even in the East. It affected the policy of
nations; it determined the fate of empires; it menaced the stability of
long-established articles of faith; it invaded the family, corrupting
the instincts of filial reverence, and betraying the sacred confidences
of domestic life. Upon pretexts so frivolous as hardly to justify
a quarrel between individuals, nations were plunged into all the
calamities of civil war. A difference affecting the construction of a
point of religious discipline was sufficient to assemble a horde of
fanatics, and devote whole provinces to devastation and massacre. A
petty act of trespass--the detaching of a vine-leaf, the theft of a
melon--provoked the most cruel retaliation upon the community to which
the culprit belonged. The Maadite, inheriting the haughty spirit of
the Bedouin marauder, despised his ancestors if there was in their
veins a single drop of the blood of Kahtan; and, on the other hand,
under corresponding conditions of relationship, the Yemenite refused
to pray even for his mother if she was allied to the Maadites, whom
he stigmatized as a race of barbarians and slaves. And yet these
were divisions of the same people; with similar tastes and manners;
identical in dress and personal aspect; speaking the same tongue;
worshipping at the same altars; fighting under the same banners;
frequently united by intermarriage; actuated by the same ambitions;
zealous for the attainment of the same ends. The investigation of this
anomaly, an ethnical peculiarity so remarkable in its tenacity of
prejudice, and which, enduring for more than twenty-five hundred years,
the most powerful motives and aspirations of the mind have failed to
abrogate, presents one of the most interesting problems in the history
of humanity.
In the train of Musa had followed hundreds of the former inhabitants
of Medina, who carried with them bitter memories of ruined homes
and slaughtered kinsmen. The impression made by these enthusiastic
devotees--defenders of the sepulchre of the Prophet, and eloquent
with the traditions of the Holy City--upon the savage tribes of
Africa was far more deep and permanent than that of the homilies of
Musa delivered under the shadow of the scimetar. Their bearing was
more affable, their treatment of the conquered more lenient, their
popularity far more decided, than that of the haughty descendants of
the Koreish. With the memory of inexpiable wrong was cherished an
implacable spirit of vengeance. The name of Syrian, associated with
infidelity, sacrilege, lust, and massacre, was odious to the pious
believer of the Hedjaz. His soul revolted at the tales of ungodly
revels which disgraced the polished and voluptuous court of Damascus.
The riotous banquets, the lascivious dances, the silken vestments,
the midnight orgies, and above all the blasphemous jests of satirical
poets, struck with horror the abstemious and scrupulous precisians of
Medina and Aden. The Ommeyade noble was looked upon by them as worse
than an apostate; a being whose status was inferior to that of either
Pagan, Jew, or Christian. The feelings of the descendants of the proud
aristocracy of Mecca towards their adversaries were scarcely less
bitter. They remembered with contempt the obscure origin and plebeian
avocations of the first adherents of the Prophet. Their minds were
inflamed with rage when they recalled the murder of the inoffensive
Othman, whose blood-stained garments, mute but potent witnesses of his
sufferings, had hung for many months in the Great Mosque of Damascus.
With indignation was repeated the story of the cowardly attempt against
the life of Muavia, and of the poisoned thrust which brought him to
an untimely end. With but few exceptions, the Emirs of Spain were
stanch adherents of the line of the Ommeyades, and never failed to
discriminate against the obnoxious Medinese and their posterity. The
latter retaliated by secret treachery; by open rebellion; by defeating
vast schemes of policy before they were matured; by encouraging the
dangerous encroachments of the Asturian mountaineers. This sectional
strife early disclosed itself in the face of the enemy by fomenting
the quarrel between Tarik and Musa. It thwarted the plans of the great
Arab general, whose enterprising genius and towering ambition aimed
at the subjugation and conversion of Europe. It armed the hands which
struck down in the sanctuary the wise and capable Abd-al-Aziz. It
retarded the progress of Abd-al-Rahman, filled his camp with brawls
and confusion, increased the insubordination of his troops, and gave
time for the recall of the barbarian hosts of Charles Martel from the
confines of Gaul and Germany. In the Arabian population the Yemenite
faction largely preponderated, especially in Eastern and Western Spain,
which were almost exclusively settled by its adherents. In consequence
of their numerical superiority and political importance, they claimed,
certainly with some appearance of justice, the right to be governed
by an emir whose views and sympathies were in accordance with their
own. The court of Damascus, thoroughly cognizant of the uncertain hold
it maintained upon a distant and wealthy province, inhabited by a
turbulent rabble whose animosity towards the family of the Ommeyades
was thinly disguised by lukewarm professions of loyalty and occasional
remittances of tribute, had the sagacity to humor its prejudices, and
to appoint to the Spanish Emirate governors of the dominant party. In
the course of forty years, but three of the rulers of Spain out of
twenty traced their origin to the detested posterity of Maad. This
politic course preserved in its allegiance the wealthy provinces of
the Peninsula, until the influence of the Yemenites and the Berbers
was hopelessly weakened by the civil wars preceding the foundation
of the Western Khalifate. The effects of the latter, by the serious
disturbances they promoted and the consequent injury inflicted upon the
integrity of the Mohammedan empire, had awakened the hopes and revived
the faltering courage of the terrified nations of Christendom.
There is perhaps no recorded instance of a feud so obscure in
its origin, so anomalous in its conditions, so momentous in its
consequences, as this rancorous antagonism of the two divisions of the
Arabian people. It illustrates more clearly than an entire commentary
could do, the inflexibility of purpose, a trait conspicuous in the
Bedouin, which could sacrifice all the advantages and pleasures of
life, all the hopes of eternity, to the destruction of an hereditary
foe. For centuries, in an isolated and arid country of Asia, certain
hordes of barbarians, ignorant of the arts, careless of luxury, proud,
intrepid, and independent, had pursued each other with unrelenting
hostility. With the advent of a Prophet bringing a new revelation, the
most potent influences which can affect humanity are brought to bear
upon the nation. A whole people emigrates; is in time united with many
conquered races; appreciates and accepts the priceless benefits of
civilization; becomes pre-eminent in science, in letters, in all the
arts of war and government, in all the happy and beneficent pursuits
of peace. But amidst this prosperity and grandeur the hereditary feuds
of the Desert remained unreconciled. Neither the denunciations of
the Koran nor the fear of future punishment were able to more than
temporarily arrest this fatal enmity. Islam was in a few generations
filled with dangerous schismatics, whose tribal prejudice was, more
than devotion to any dogma, the secret of their menacing attitude
towards the khalifate. The mockery and sacrilege of the princes
of Damascus, scions of the ancient persecutors of Mohammed, were
caused by equally base, selfish, and unpatriotic motives. And the
people of Medina, without whose timely aid--induced, it is not to be
forgotten, by this perpetual feud between Kahtanite and Maadite---Islam
could never have survived, were doomed henceforth to a career of
uninterrupted misfortune. Their city, which had sheltered the Prophet
in his adversity, and had received his blessing, was sacked and laid
waste; and in the sacred mosque which covered his remains were stabled
the horses of the Syrian cavalry. The unhappy exiles, pursued in every
land by the impositions and cruelty of the tyrants of Syria, were,
despite their frequent efforts to throw off the yoke, finally cowed
into submission. In the long series of rulers, from Sad-Ibn-Obada,
surnamed The Perfect, the champion of Medina, whose election as the
first of the Khalifs the overbearing insolence of the Koreish was
scarcely able to prevent, to the effeminate Boabdil, his lineal
descendant, the conduct of the Defenders of the Prophet is marked
by errors of judgment, by want of tact, by defiance of law, and by
ill-timed enterprises prolific of disaster. No city, however, has
placed a deeper impress upon the history of nations and the cause
of civilization, since the immortal age of Athens, than Medina. Its
influence, although often of a negative character, while it was the
support of Islam in its period of weakness, was a serious impediment
in its day of power. The benefits it conferred upon a handful of
struggling proselytes were more than counterbalanced by the discord it
promoted in the camps and councils of Irac, Syria, Africa, and Spain.
The census taken by Al-Samh had disclosed the vast preponderance of
Christians who still adhered to their ancient faith, and the fears
of the Khalif Yezid were aroused by the presence of so many hostile
sectaries in the heart of his empire. To obviate this evil, and to
assure the future permanence of Moslem supremacy, he devised a scheme
which indicates a degree of worldly wisdom and political acuteness
rare in the councils of that age. He proposed that the Christian
population of Spain and Septimania be deported and settled in the
provinces of Africa and Syria, and the territory thus vacated be
colonized with faithful Mussulmans. Thus Spain would have become
thoroughly Mohammedan, and the establishment of armed garrisons in
Gaul would have been supplemented by the aid of a brave and active
peasantry, affording an invaluable initial point for the extension
of the Moslem arms in the north and east of Europe. But this was by
no means the greatest advantage of this bold and original stroke of
statesmanship. The penetrating eye of Yezid had already discerned
the dangerous character of the mountaineers of the Asturias, who had
preserved the traditions and inherited the valor of the founders of
the Gothic monarchy. The removal of this threatening element was
equivalent to its extirpation, and would probably have preserved for
an indefinite period the Moslem empire of Spain in its original
integrity. The province of Septimania, supported by the powerful
armies of a united and homogeneous nation, could then have defied the
desultory assaults of the Franks. The exiles, scattered in distant
lands, must by force, or through inducements of material advantage,
have gradually become amalgamated with their masters; their children
would have professed the prevailing faith; and the progenitors of
that dynasty whose policy controlled the destinies of Europe during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries would have disappeared from
the knowledge of man. The severity of this project, dictated partly
by religious zeal, but principally by political acumen, would have
been excessive, yet its beneficial effects upon the fortunes of Islam
must have been incalculable. But the mind of Al-Samh, incapable of
appreciating the paramount importance of the enterprise, despising
the Goths of the sierras as savages, and, like the majority of his
countrymen, underestimating their resolution and capacity for warfare,
induced him to discourage the plan of the Khalif, by representing that
it was unnecessary, on account of the daily increasing numbers of
converts to the doctrines of the Koran. The successful inauguration of
a similar policy by Cromwell in Ireland nine hundred years afterwards,
whose completion, fortunately for the rebellious natives, was defeated
by his death, demonstrates the extraordinary sagacity of the sovereign
of Damascus in devising a measure of statecraft whose execution
portended such important consequences to modern society, and which
has, for the most part, escaped the notice of the historians of the
Moorish empire. Before departing upon his unfortunate expedition,
Al-Samh had left Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim, one of his most trusty lieutenants,
in charge of the affairs of the Peninsula. The latter, learning of
the rout of Toulouse, without delay sent a large body of troops to
the North to cover the retreat of the defeated army; a precaution
rendered unnecessary by the generalship of Abd-al-Rahman, who was now
recognized as emir, the choice of his comrades being soon afterwards
confirmed by the Viceroy of Africa. The Christians of Gothic Gaul and
the Asturias, greatly elated by the disaster which had befallen their
enemies, soon manifested greater hostility than ever, and it required
all the firmness and prudence of Abd-al-Rahman to restrain them. The
insurrection which began to threaten the power of the Moslems in
the trans-Pyrenean province was, however, crushed before it became
formidable; the mountaineers were driven back into their strongholds;
the suspended tribute was collected, and an increased contribution was
levied upon such communities as had distinguished themselves by an
obstinate resistance.
Although the idol of his soldiers, Abd-al-Rahman was not a favorite
with the great officials of the government. They admired his prowess,
and were not disposed to depreciate his talents, but they hated him
on account of his popularity, for which he was mainly indebted to
his lavish donations to the troops. It was his custom, as soon as
the royal fifth had been set apart, to abandon the remainder of the
spoil to the army, a course so unusual as to provoke the remonstrances
of his friends, while it elicited the applause and secured the
undying attachment of the soldiery. Application was made by the
malcontents to the Viceroy of Africa, Baschar-Ibn-Hantala, for the
removal of Abd-al-Rahman, under the pretext that the Moslem cause
was becoming endangered through the prevalence of luxury introduced
by his unprecedented munificence. The charges were pressed with such
vigor that they prevailed, and Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim was raised to the
emirate. Abd-al-Rahman--such was the confidence of his opponents in
his integrity and patriotism--was reinstated in the government of
Eastern Spain, which he had held previous to the battle of Toulouse.
With the submission and piety of a faithful Moslem, he congratulated
his successor, swore fealty to him, and retired without a murmur to
reassume a subordinate position in a kingdom which he had ruled with
absolute power. Anbasah soon displayed by active and salutary measures
his fitness for his high office. The administration had become to
some extent demoralized by the easy temper and prodigal liberality
of Abd-al-Rahman, and Anbasah’s first care was to remodel the fiscal
department and adopt a new and more exact apportionment of taxation.
Carefully avoiding any appearance of injustice to the tributary
Christians, he divided among the immigrants--who now, in larger numbers
than ever before, poured into Spain from Africa and the East--the lands
which were unoccupied, and had hitherto served as pastures to the
nomadic Berbers, whose traditions and habits discouraged the selection
of any permanent habitation. While inflexibly just to the loyal and
obedient, Anbasah punished all attempts at insurrection with a rigor
akin to ferocity. Some districts in the province of Tarragona having
revolted on account of real or fancied grievances, the Emir razed their
fortifications, crucified the leaders, and imposed upon the inhabitants
a double tax, both as a punishment and a warning. In order to keep
alive the respect for the Moslem name, he sent frequent expeditions
into Gaul, whose operations, conducted upon a limited scale, were
mainly confined to the destruction of property and the seizure of
captives.
The Jewish population of the Peninsula, relieved from the vexatious
laws of the Goths and greatly increased in wealth and numbers by
foreign accessions, had already risen to exalted rank in the social
and political scale under the favorable auspices of Mohammedan rule.
It enjoyed the highest consideration with the Arabs, whose success
had been so largely due to its friendly co-operation. This community,
endowed with the hereditary thrift of the race, rich beyond all former
experience, still ardently devoted to a religion endeared by centuries
of persecution, and by the deeply grounded hope of future spiritual and
temporal sovereignty, was now startled by the report that the Messiah,
whose advent they had so long and so patiently awaited, had appeared
in the East. The highly imaginative temperament of the Oriental, and
the phenomenal success of the founders of religious systems in that
quarter of the world, had been productive of the rise of many designing
fanatics, all claiming the gifts of prophecy and miracle, and all
secure of a numerous following in an age fertile in impostors. In this
instance, the Hebrew prophet, whose name was Zonaria, had established
his abode in Syria; and thither in multitudes the Spanish Jews,
abandoning their homes and carrying only their valuables, journeyed,
without questioning the genuineness of their information or reflecting
upon the results of their blind credulity. No sooner were the pilgrims
across the strait, than the crafty Emir, declaring their estates
forfeited by abandonment, confiscated the latter, which included some
of the finest mansions and most productive lands in the Peninsula. This
fanatical contagion extended even into Gaul, and the Jewish colonists
of that region hastened to join their Spanish brethren in their
pilgrimage of folly, only to realize, when too late, that they had
lost their worldly possessions without the compensating advantage of a
celestial inheritance.
Having regulated the civil affairs of his government to his
satisfaction, the eyes of Anbasah now turned towards the North, where
lay the tempting prize of France, coveted by every emir since the
time of Musa. The prestige of the Arabs had been materially impaired
by the serious reverse they had sustained before Toulouse. The first
encounter with the fiery warriors of the South whom fear had pictured
as incarnate demons, and whose prowess was said to be invincible,
had divested the foes of Christianity of many of the terrors which
exaggerated rumor had imparted to them. Of the numerous fortified
places in Septimania which had once seemed to be pledges of a
permanent Mohammedan settlement, the city of Narbonne alone remained.
Its massive walls had easily resisted the ill-directed efforts of a
barbarian enemy, unprovided with military engines, and unaccustomed to
the protracted and monotonous service implied by a siege, while its
vicinity to the sea rendered a reduction by blockade impracticable.
Thus, protected by the natural advantages of its location and by
the courage of its garrison, Narbonne presented the anomaly of an
isolated stronghold in the midst of the enemy’s country. Traversing
the mountainous passes without difficulty the Emir took Carcassonne, a
city which had hitherto enjoyed immunity from capture; and by this bold
stroke so intimidated the inhabitants, that the whole of Septimania at
once, and without further resistance, returned to its allegiance to
the Khalif. No retribution was exacted for past disloyalty, as Anbasah
was too politic not to appreciate the value of clemency in a province
held by such a precarious tenure; the people were left as before to
the untrammelled exercise of their worship; but the unpaid tribute was
rigorously collected, and a large number of hostages, chosen from the
noblest families of the Goths, were sent to Spain.
The Moslem army, proceeding along the coast as far as the Rhone,
turned towards the interior, and ascended the valley of the river,
ravaging its settlements with fire and sword. Advancing to Lyons,
it took that city, and thence directing its course into Burgundy, it
stormed and pillaged the town of Autun. Hitherto the invaders had
encountered no organized opposition, but a hastily collected militia
now began to harass their march, encumbered as they were with a
prodigious booty; and, in a skirmish in which the peasantry displayed
an unusual amount of daring, Anbasah, having rashly exposed himself,
was mortally wounded. The dying Emir bequeathed his authority to
Odrah-Ibn-Abdallah, an appointment distasteful to the members of
the Divan; and, in accordance with their demands, the Viceroy of
Africa designated Yahya-Ibn-Salmah as the successor of Anbasah. The
austere and inflexible spirit of this commander, his keen sense of
justice, and his determination to enforce the strictest discipline
among the soldiery, made him everywhere unpopular. The pliant Viceroy
of Africa was once more appealed to, and such was his subserviency
to the clamors of the discontented chieftains that not only was
Yahya-Ibn-Salmah removed, but within a few months his two successors,
Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa and Hodheyfa-Ibn-al-Ahwass, were appointed and
deposed. Finally the Khalif himself sent to Al-Haytham-Ibn-Obeyd the
royal commission as his representative. This official was a Syrian
by birth, and inherited all the bitter prejudices of his faction
which had been fostered by the pride and insolence of the triumphant
Ommeyades. Merciless by nature, fierce and rapacious, Al-Haytham spared
neither Moslem nor Christian. Especially was his animosity directed
towards the descendants of the Companions of Mohammed, and their
proselytes and adherents, the Berbers. The complaints now lodged with
the Viceroy of Africa were unheeded, as the offensive governor had
received his appointment directly from the hands of the Commander of
the Faithful. In their extremity, the victims of Al-Haytham preferred
charges before the Divan of Damascus; and the Khalif Hischem, convinced
that the Emir was exceeding his authority, appointed one of the most
distinguished personages of his court, Mohammed-Ibn-Abdallah, as
special envoy to investigate the administration of Al-Haytham, and to
depose and punish him if, in his judgment, the well-being of Islam
and the interests of good government demanded it. Arriving incognito
at Cordova, the plenipotentiary of the Khalif, without difficulty or
delay, obtained the necessary evidence of the guilt of the unworthy
official. Then, exhibiting his commission, he publicly stripped the
latter of the insignia of his rank, and, having shaved his head,
had him paraded through the city upon an ass, amidst the jeers and
insults of the people he had robbed and persecuted. All his property
was confiscated, and Mohammed made amends as far as possible by
bestowing upon the surviving victims of the disgraced Emir the immense
treasures he had amassed during a reign of indiscriminate extortion.
Then placing Al-Haytham in irons he sent him under guard to Africa.
Two months sufficed to redress the grievances which had threatened a
revolution--to recompense the plundered, to liberate the imprisoned, to
console the tortured, to expel from their places the cruel subordinates
of the oppressor; and, having elicited the approbation and received
the blessings of all classes, including the hereditary enemies of his
tribe, Mohammed departed for Syria, after conferring the viceregal
authority upon the renowned captain Abd-al-Rahman, who thus a second
time ascended the throne of the Emirate of the West.
Of noble birth and distinguished reputation, Abd-al-Rahman united
to the eminent qualities of a successful ruler and general all the
insufferable arrogance of the Arab race. Connected by ties of the
closest friendship with one of the sons of the Khalif, Omar-al-Khattah,
he had received from him many particulars regarding the life and habits
of Mohammed, and this intimacy contributed to increase the feeling of
superiority, not unmingled with contempt, with which he regarded the
horde of barbarian proselytes attracted to his banner rather by thirst
for plunder than from religious zeal. His generosity endeared him to
the soldiery, but his inflexible sense of right alienated the powerful
officials of the Divan enriched by years of unmolested peculation.
The knowledge of his Syrian origin, constantly evinced by a marked
partiality for his countrymen, at once aroused the secret hostility of
the crowd of turbulent adventurers who, collected from every district
of Africa and Asia, composed his subjects, and who, destitute of
loyalty, religion, principle, or gratitude, regarded an Arab as their
natural enemy, an heterogeneous assemblage wherein the Berber element,
dominated by the rankling prejudices of the Yemenites, their spiritual
guides, greatly preponderated.
Visiting, in turn, the different provinces subject to his rule,
Abd-al-Rahman confirmed the good dispositions of his predecessor, the
plenipotentiary Mohammed-Ibn-Abdallah, and corrected such abuses as had
escaped the attention of the latter. In some instances, the injustice
of the walis had wantonly deprived the Christians of their houses of
worship, in defiance of the agreement permitting them to celebrate
their rites without molestation; in others, their rapacity had connived
at the erection of new churches, prohibited by the provisions of former
treaties, and in absolute contravention of Mohammedan law. This evil
of late years had become so general that scarcely a community in the
Peninsula was exempt from it. Through the care and firmness of the Emir
the confiscated churches were restored to their congregations; the
new edifices were razed to the ground; the bribes which had purchased
the indulgence of the walis were surrendered to the public treasury;
and the corrupt officials paid the penalty of their malfeasance with
scourging and imprisonment.
His reforms completed, and secure in the apparent submission and
attachment of his subjects, Abd-al-Rahman now turned his attention
to the prosecution of a design which, in spite of fearful reverses
in the past and of unknown dangers impending in the future, had long
been the cherished object of his ambition--the conquest of France. As
the representative of the Khalif, and consequently vested with both
spiritual and temporal power, he had caused to be proclaimed from the
pulpit of every mosque visited by him in his progress, the obligation
of all faithful Moslems to avenge the deaths of the martyrs fallen
in former invasions, and to add to the empire of Islam the rich and
productive territory of Europe.
Fully aware of the vast difficulties which would necessarily attend
such an undertaking, and enlightened by his former experience,
Abd-al-Rahman resolved to provide, as far as possible, against any
contingency that might arise from too hasty preparation, or an
inferiority in numbers, sent messengers to almost every country
acknowledging the authority of the Khalif, to proclaim the Djihad, or
Holy War, and to solicit the pecuniary aid of all devout and liberal
believers. The call was promptly answered. The riches of the East and
West poured in a constant stream into the treasury of Cordova. Wealthy
merchants sent their gold; female devotees their jewels; even the
beggar was anxious to contribute his pittance for the advancement of
the Faith and the confusion of the infidel. From neighboring lands, and
from the remotest confines of the Mohammedan world alike, from Syria,
Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Al-Maghreb, and Persia, military adventurers,
soldiers of fortune, desperate fanatics, half-naked savages from
Mauritania, the proud and ferocious tribesmen of the Desert, astonished
the inhabitants of the cities of Andalusia with their multitudes, their
tumultuous and unintelligible cries, and their fierce enthusiasm. The
entire force of the Hispano-Arab army, disciplined by many a scene
of foreign and internecine conflict, was marshalled for the coming
crusade, which, unlike those expeditions which had preceded it, aimed
not merely at the spoliation of cities and the enslavement of their
inhabitants, but at the permanent occupation and settlement of the
country from the Pyrenees to the frontier of Germany, from the Rhætian
Alps to the ocean.
The several walis had been ordered to assemble with their forces at
a designated rendezvous on the northern border of the Peninsula.
This district, which included the mountain passes and the fortresses
defending them, was then under the command of Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa, a
native of Africa, who had, for a few months, enjoyed and abused the
power of the emirate, and whom the generous policy of Abd-al-Rahman
had retained in this important post, bestowed upon the African
chieftain after his deposition. A man of violent passions and without
principle, Othman was, however, not deficient in those talents which
confer distinction upon soldiers of fortune. Of obscure birth and
low associations, he had, by sheer force of character and daring,
won the confidence of the Viceroy of Africa, who had conferred upon
him the government of Spain; a position from which he was barred by
the unwritten law of the Conquest, which discouraged the aspirations
of individuals of his nationality. Deeply chagrined that he had
not been reinstated in the office whose delights he had scarcely
tasted, and devoured by envy, whose bitterness was increased by the
antipathies of a party of which he was the acknowledged head, Othman
determined to revenge his fancied wrongs, and to secure for himself
the advantages of independent sovereignty. His influence extended even
to the Ebro, to the north and east of which stream the Berbers, who
were devoted to him, had established themselves in great numbers. At
that time the condition of the redoubtable Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine,
had become desperate. He had long waged a doubtful war with the
Franks, whose superior strength rendered his ultimate subjection
certain. Upon the south, he was menaced by the encroachments of the
marauding Arabs, whose expeditions kept his dominions in perpetual
turmoil. Thus placed between two fires, he readily hearkened to the
overtures of Othman, who proposed an alliance to be cemented by the
marriage of the wali with the daughter of the Gothic noble. A treaty
was made and ratified; the damsel--who was not compelled to renounce
her faith--was delivered to her father’s new ally; and the latter
returned to his government, resolving to baffle by diplomacy the design
of his master, and, if that were found impossible, confident that
the strength of his mountain defences was sufficient to defy all the
power of the emirate. To the orders of Abd-al-Rahman to attend him
with his troops he returned evasive replies, pleading the engagement
he had entered into, and his obligation to observe it. His repeated
commands being ignored, and the patience of the army to advance growing
uncontrollable, Abd-al-Rahman secretly despatched a squadron of light
horsemen, under Gedhi-Ibn-Zeyan, a Syrian officer, with directions to
bring in the refractory wali dead or alive. Pressing forward with the
utmost diligence, the troopers came suddenly upon Othman, at Castrum
Liviæ, before he was even aware of the intentions of the Emir. He had
barely time to take refuge with a few attendants and his bride in
the neighboring mountains, before his enemies entered the town and,
without halting, spurred on through the rugged defiles in hot pursuit.
Overtaken near a brook where the party had stopped from fatigue, the
rebel escort was killed or put to flight; the Gothic princess was
taken; and Othman paid the forfeit of his treason with his life. The
enterprising Gedhi cast at the feet of Abd-al-Rahman the head of the
traitor as the proof of his success; and the captive, whose wondrous
beauty charmed the eyes of all who saw her, was sent to grace the royal
harem at Damascus.
And now, the gateways of the Pyrenees being open, the mighty host of
Moslems poured through, like an inundation, upon the sunny fields of
France. No reliable basis is available by which we can even approach to
an accurate estimate of its numbers. Considering the publicity given
to the crusade, the different sources whence the foreign recruits
were drawn, the regular army of the Emir, and the bodies of cavalry
furnished by the Viceroys of Africa and Egypt, it would seem that the
invading army must have amounted to at least a hundred thousand men.
Assembled without order, and wholly intolerant of discipline, the
mutual jealousy and haughty independence of its unruly elements greatly
impaired its efficiency. The members of each tribe mustered around
their chieftain, who enjoyed but a precarious authority; while the
obedience which all professed to the representative of the majesty of
the Khalif was observed only so long as his commands did not clash with
their wishes or run counter to the indulgence of their passions and
inherited prejudices.
Meanwhile, the rumor of the approaching peril, exaggerated by
distance, had spread consternation through every Christian community.
It recalled the disastrous times of barbarian conquest, when the
ferocious hordes of Goths and Huns swept with ruin and death the
fairest provinces of the Roman Empire. Throughout the Orient, in the
lands which acknowledged the supremacy of the Successor of Mohammed,
the pious Moslem awaited, with confidence not unmingled with a feeling
of exultation, tidings of the anticipated triumph of his brethren.
The eyes of the entire world were turned in expectancy to the spot
where must speedily be tested the respective prowess of the North and
South; to the struggle which would forever determine the future of
Europe, and decide without appeal the fate of Christianity. Onward,
resistlessly, pitilessly, rolled the devastating flood of invasion.
The Duke of Aquitaine had bravely met his enemies on the very slopes
of the mountain barrier, but all his efforts were powerless to stay
their progress. Cities were reduced to ashes and their inhabitants
driven into slavery. The pastures were swept clean of their flocks; the
blooming hill-sides and fertile valleys of the Garonne were transformed
into scenes of desolation. Bordeaux, the populous and wealthy emporium
of Aquitaine, paid for a short and ineffectual resistance with the
plunder of its treasures, the massacre of its citizens, and its total
destruction by fire. The Moorish army, encumbered with thousands of
captives and the booty of an entire province, crossed the Garonne
with difficulty, and resumed its slow and straggling march towards
the interior. Upon the banks of the Dordogne Eudes had marshalled
his followers to contest its passage. A fierce battle ensued; the
Christians, overwhelmed by numbers, were surrounded and cut to
pieces; and the carnage was so horrible as to excite the pity of the
rude historians of an age prolific in violence and bloodshed. The
conquest of Aquitaine achieved, the Emir moved on to Poitiers, and
after ravaging the suburbs of that city, where stood the famous
Church of St. Hilary, which was utterly destroyed, planted the white
standard of the Ommeyades before its walls. That country, whose
hostile factions were subsequently reconciled and consolidated by the
genius of Charlemagne, and which is known to us as France, was, during
the seventh century, in a state of frightful anarchy. In the South,
the important province of Septimania had formerly acknowledged the
supremacy of the Visigoths, and after the overthrow of their empire had
enjoyed a nominal independence. Aquitaine was subject to its dukes, who
maintained an unequal contest with the growing powers of the North and
the insatiable ambition of the Saracens. Towards the East, the petty
lord of Austrasia was involved in perpetual intrigues and hostilities
with his turbulent neighbors, the princes of Neustria and Burgundy. In
the year 638, with the death of the renowned Dagobert, whose dominions
extended to the Danube, disappeared the last vestige of independence
and authority possessed by the monarchs of the Merovingian dynasty.
Henceforth the regal power was vested in, and practically exercised
by, the bold and able mayors of the palace, the prime ministers of
the _rois fainéants_, who, through indifference or compulsion,
were apparently contented with the titles and glittering baubles of
royalty. The superior talents of the priest were industriously employed
in enriching his church or his abbey, and the zeal and fears of the
devout co-operating with the avarice of the clergy, the sacred edifices
became depositories of treasures which dazzled the eyes of the greedy
freebooters of Abd-al-Rahman with their magnificence and value. No
sovereign in Europe could boast of such wealth as had been accumulated
through the lavish generosity of pilgrims and penitents by the shrines
of St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of Tours. The ecclesiastics
habitually represented themselves as the treasurers of heaven, the
chosen intermediaries with the saints; and the most costly gift was
scarcely considered an equivalent for a hasty blessing or a relic of
more than doubtful authenticity, graciously bestowed upon the humble
and delighted contributor to clerical rapacity and monkish imposture.
The manly vigor inherited from a barbarian ancestry, developed and
strengthened by military exercises, had formed of the Franks a nation
of heroes. Their gigantic forms, encased in mail, enabled them to
resist assaults which must have overwhelmed mortals of less ponderous
build. A phlegmatic temperament, joined to a devotion to their lords
which never questioned the justice of their commands, imparted to them
steadiness and inflexible constancy in the field. Their naturally
ferocious aspect was increased by grotesque helmets of towering height,
and by the skins of wild beasts which draped their massive shoulders,
while their weapons were of a size and weight that the demigods of
old alone might wield. Such were the warriors to whose valor were now
committed the destinies of the Christian world. The throne of the
Franks was then occupied by Thierry IV., one of a series of royal
phantoms, who had been exalted to this nominal dignity by a certain
mayor of the palace named Charles, the natural son of Pepin d’Heristal,
Duke of Austrasia. It was the policy of these officials, necessarily
men of talent, whose abilities had raised them to prominence, and
who controlled the empire of the state, to bestow the crown upon
princely youths purposely familiarized with vice, that every noble
aspiration might be stifled and every patriotic impulse repressed in
the indulgence of the most wanton and effeminate luxury. The profligate
habits of these sovereigns, which shortened their reigns, account for
their number and rapid succession in the annals of France.