CHAPTER X

REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN II.; REIGN OF MOHAMMED

822–886

Accession of Abd-al-Rahman II.--Defection of

Abdallah--Invasion of the Gothic March--Embassy from the Greek

Emperor--Revolt of Merida--Sedition at Toledo--Incursion

of the Normans--Persecution of the Christians--Death of

Abd-al-Rahman--His Love of Pomp--His Virtues--His Patronage

of Art and Letters--Ziryab--His Versatility---Conspiracy

of Tarub--Stratagem of Mohammed--His Bigotry--Toledo again

Revolts--Rise of the Beni-Kasi--War with the Asturias--Rebellion

of Ibn-Merwan--The Serrania de Ronda--Ibn-Hafsun, his Origin and

Exploits--Death and Character of Mohammed--Incipient Decadence

of the Moslem Power.

At the mature age of thirty-one, endowed with every talent which

contributes to political success and intellectual eminence, accustomed

for many years to the arduous details of civil affairs as well as

to the direction of important military operations and the command

of armies, Abd-al-Rahman II. ascended the throne of the emirate. A

handsome person and an engaging address aided not a little to increase

the general esteem which had been evoked by his capacity for business

and his great services to the state. An index to his popularity may be

discovered in the honorable titles bestowed upon him by the admiration

and love of his subjects. While a youth he was known as Al-Modhaffer,

The Victorious, and his benevolence and generosity had, long before his

accession, acquired for him the suggestive appellation of the “Father

of the Poor.” The physical and mental infirmities of Al-Hakem had,

for years before his death, induced him to relinquish the cares of

government, and to practically abandon to his son and successor all the

power, the duties, and the responsibilities of sovereignty.

Domestic discord, which seemed to be a necessary incident of the

inauguration of every prince of the Ommeyades, was not wanting to that

of Abd-al-Rahman. His great-uncle, Abdallah, in whose breast the fires

of ambition still burned fiercely in spite of his advanced age, leaving

his home at Tangier accompanied by a considerable band of friends and

retainers, landed in Andalusia and proclaimed himself Emir by virtue of

his relationship to the founder of the dynasty. His prospect of success

he regarded as the more certain on account of the positions occupied by

his three sons, who had enjoyed the confidence and shared the favor of

Al-Hakem, and who now exercised the most important commands in the gift

of the monarch.

The sanguine hopes of the venerable Abdallah were soon shown to be

fallacious. No sooner had he landed when, attacked by the cavalry of

Abd-al-Rahman, his forces were put to flight, and, driven from point to

point, he was finally compelled to take refuge in Valencia. His sons,

so far from sympathizing with his aspirations, did all in their power

to thwart them, and by personal appeals to his interest and affection

urged him to abandon his treasonable enterprise. Persuaded by their

entreaties, which were materially promoted by the timely occurrence of

an unfavorable omen,--a portent never unheeded by the superstitious

Oriental,--he reluctantly consented to forego his pretensions to the

crown and to swear fealty to his nephew. An interview was arranged;

Abdallah was escorted by his sons into the presence of the Emir, and

the latter, embracing him, not only pardoned his offence, but conferred

upon him the government of Murcia, where he remained in peace until his

death.

The embarrassment of Abd-al-Rahman, who, at the moment of his

accession, found himself confronted with an insurrection whose

consequences threatened to be serious, was not lost upon his

enterprising neighbors of the Gothic March. They raised a numerous

army, ravaged the Moorish territory at the North as far as the left

bank of the Segre, returning without having encountered any opposition

and laden with the spoils of war. This expedition was commanded by

Bernhart, Count of Barcelona, son of the renowned William of Toulouse,

upon whom Louis had conferred the fief; the former suzerain, Bera,

having been accused of treason and convicted by wager of battle,

according to the martial customs of the age. The substitution of a

foreigner for a native Goth whose aspirations for independence were

a title to favor rather than a reproach with his subjects, who, for

the most part of Spanish extraction, cherished the traditions and

indulged the pleasing but delusive hope of the ultimate restoration

of the organization and power of the ancient Visigothic empire, was a

stroke of policy which augured ill for the success or perpetuity of the

Frankish domination.

Abd-al-Rahman, aware of the political necessity of making a

demonstration to counteract the effects of the inroads that his

helpless situation had invited, and not unwilling to inaugurate his

reign with a brilliant military exploit, prepared to invade the Gothic

March with the army already collected for the suppression of the

insurrection fomented by Abdallah. The advance guard, commanded by the

wali Abd-al-Kerim, approaching from Valencia met the Christians not

far from Barcelona, and, after a short but hotly contested engagement,

drove them inside the gates. The Emir having arrived soon after with

the main body, the city was besieged. A number of determined attempts

to carry it by escalade having failed, and the force of Abd-al-Rahman

not being sufficient to maintain a thorough blockade, the intrenchments

were finally abandoned; and the Moslem army, pouring over the country,

in a few months succeeded in occupying the entire territory subject to

the Count of Barcelona. The Christians, repulsed in every encounter,

sought, in dismay and confusion, the most inaccessible heights and

defiles of the mountains. The castles were stormed and their garrisons

massacred. A feeling of terror seized the population, which included

many of the most experienced warriors of the Frankish empire, who,

allured by the princely grants held out to colonists and the prospect

of a life of excitement and adventure, had established themselves in

the Gothic March. But the expedition of the Moslems, although attended

with such successful results, did not rise above the dignity of a

foray. No attempt at a permanent occupation was made. The capital,

which alone maintained its independence and which, deprived of all

prospect of relief, could not have resisted a second attack, was not

compelled to again endure the horrors of siege. Satisfied with the

advantages he had gained and with the vengeance he had inflicted,

Abd-al-Rahman returned in triumph to Cordova, which he entered amidst

the plaudits and congratulations of the people.

The declining fortunes of the Byzantine Empire, whose sovereign,

Michael the Stammerer, found himself unequal to the task of coping

with his redoubtable adversary, Al-Mamun, Khalif of Bagdad, induced

him, during the second year of the reign of Abd-al-Rahman, to despatch

an embassy to Cordova to conclude an alliance with the Sultan of the

Ommeyades, the fame of whose dynasty had already reached the extreme

limits of the Orient. The envoys of the Emperor of Constantinople

were received with every evidence of distinction. A vast multitude

attended their entrance into the capital. They were lodged in the

royal palace, and all the pomp of the most splendid and luxurious court

in Europe was exhibited upon the occasion of their reception by the

Emir. The magnificence of the gifts which they brought--among which are

mentioned a number of beautiful horses caparisoned with cloth-of-gold

and silver--excited the wonder of the multitude, for no such treasures

had ever before been seen in Spain. An alluring prospect of conquest

was held out by the subtle Greeks, accompanied by the tender of troops

and munitions of war for the recovery of the lost inheritance of the

Ommeyades in Syria; but the precarious condition of the Emir, barely

able to maintain his authority against the plots of his disaffected

subjects, forbade, for the present, the formation of an offensive

league with the monarch of the East, and the ambassadors were dismissed

with a profusion of compliments and indefinite and conditional

assurances of support in the future. A special envoy of the Emir,

Yahya-al-Ghazzali, so named for his extraordinary charms of person and

manner, and equally famous as a poet and a diplomatist, accompanied

them, charged with the thanks of Abd-al-Rahman, and commissioned to

present to the Emperor some scimetars and trinkets of the finest

workmanship which the skill of the artisans of the Peninsula had been

able to produce.

During the same year an ambassador of a far different character,

and representing a power numerically inferior to the smallest city

acknowledging the sovereignty of the Emperor of the East, but whose

geographical position imparted to its advances a peculiar and weighty

significance, visited Cordova upon a similar errand. The recently

organized duchy of Navarre, an appanage of the Frankish empire, had

grown restive under the extortions of its suzerain. Accustomed to

the largest individual liberty, the mountaineers could ill endure

the exactions of irresponsible tyranny which the example of their

neighbors and a delusive pretence of public advantage had insensibly

imposed upon them. The bond of a common religious belief which united

them with the Franks was but weak when compared with the deeply rooted

national prejudice which the assumption of superiority by the vassals

of Charlemagne and Louis did much to promote, and which caused the

latter to be regarded with a far greater degree of execration than

was entertained against the Mohammedans, the natural enemies of their

country and their faith.

The Navarrese envoy, whose uncouth manners exhibited a striking

contrast to the courtly graces of the Byzantine nobles, was received

by the Moorish sovereign, if not with distinguished ceremony, yet with

courtesy and royal hospitality. A treaty was negotiated, which assured

the mountaineers of the aid of the government of Cordova, and a free

passage was granted to the Moslems for any expedition whose destination

lay beyond the Pyrenees. The effects of the judicious policy which

dictated this alliance soon became manifest. A few months afterwards

a great army, under the Counts Eblus and Asenarius, dependents of the

King of Aquitaine, traversed the sierra and invaded Spain. The city

of Pampeluna was taken, and, after some desultory operations yielding

little profit or glory, the Franks retired in imaginary security.

The defile of Roncesvalles once more became the scene of a fearful

disaster; the invaders, surrounded by a host of mountaineers and Arabs,

were cut to pieces, and the prisoners divided among the allies, the two

counts being among those who survived the disgrace of incompetency and

defeat. This military success was contemporaneous with the assertion

of the independence and political organization of the principality of

Navarre, which were maintained thereafter with the exception of a few

years of nominal subordination to the Crown of the Asturias until its

final incorporation into the dominions of France and Spain.

The catastrophe of Roncesvalles encouraged the Moors to prosecute

with greater activity the operations against the Christians, whom the

unsettled condition of affairs in the east and south of the Peninsula

had long permitted to rest in peace. Three successive expeditions,

all commanded by Obeydallah-Ibn-Abdallah, were sent to invade the

enemy’s country, but the campaigns were not distinguished by any

important action, and the determination and well-known ferocity of the

mountaineers appear to have succeeded in preventing the Moslems from

inflicting any serious damage upon the hostile territory.

The vast system of public works inaugurated by Abd-al-Rahman, the

splendor of his court, and the prodigal munificence with which

he rewarded his favorites, entailed an immense expense upon the

administration, and necessitated a new and oppressive burden of

taxation to meet the constantly increasing demands on the treasury. The

authorities, regardless of the experience of former reigns, augmented

the public discontent by levying the bulk of the taxes on indispensable

articles of daily consumption. The Jewish and Christian tributaries,

by whom these exactions were most severely felt, were loud in their

clamors, and it was not long before the Moslem population of the

different cities joined in the increasing remonstrances against the

arbitrary measures resulting from the unprecedented extravagance of

the court. The dissatisfaction was most pronounced at Merida, and this

fact having been communicated, either orally or by correspondence, by

the clergy of that city to their brethren at the court of Louis, the

Frankish monarch determined to avail himself of the information in

furtherance of his own designs and for the confusion of his infidel

neighbors. He therefore addressed a letter to the people of Merida,

professing great sympathy with them on account of the impositions of

the government, exhorting them to exert their rights and regain their

liberties, and promising that, in case they made an open demonstration

to redress their grievances, he would march to their support across

the Pyrenees. The sincerity of Louis in making this offer may well

be questioned. Whether or not his tender was made in good faith is

of little consequence, as his attention was immediately distracted

from foreign intrigue by serious disturbances in his own dominions. A

Gothic officer of rank named Aizon, having incurred the displeasure of

his sovereign, fled from the court of Aix-la-Chapelle, and, betaking

himself to the Gothic March, declared his enmity to the Franks, and

especially to the Count of Barcelona. Through the influence of his name

and nationality, aided by the habitual inconstancy of the restless

adventurers who composed the frontier population and the general

prejudice existing against the domination of the Franks, he soon found

himself at the head of a powerful faction. Having seized the fortress

of Ausona by treachery, and destroyed the town of Rosas which attempted

to resist him, he sent his brother to Cordova with a request for aid,

accompanied with an assurance that the disaffection was such as to

warrant the hope of an easy recovery of the country by the Moslems. The

appeal of Aizon was not suffered to pass unheeded. A considerable body

of troops was assembled under the command of the veteran Obeydallah;

the party of the malcontents increased daily in numbers and influence,

and it was not long before the Count of Barcelona found himself

deprived of authority over all his domain except Gerona and the city

from which he derived his title.

Louis, who was then in Germany engaged in the settlement of a quarrel

between two chieftains whose untamed spirits menaced the peace of

the empire, had neither time nor available resources to suppress by

arms an insurrection, however dangerous, in the other extremity of

his dominions. But what he could not accomplish by military force he

determined to attempt by negotiation, and three commissioners were

accordingly appointed to persuade the colonists of the Gothic March to

return to their allegiance.

The embassy, composed of a priest and two nobles, received, as might

have been expected, small consideration in an age where the arts

of peace were held in disrepute and the palm of popular esteem was

accorded to deeds of martial heroism, and the envoys accomplished

nothing. They managed, however, to widely disseminate the report that

an army of Franks was about to invade the country, a rumor which

so alarmed Aizon and his followers that a second appeal was sent

to Cordova, and a portion of the Emir’s body-guard was ordered to

reinforce the allies of the Moslems without delay. The army of the

Franks arrived; but the enemy had retired to Saragossa, either dreading

the result of an encounter with the hardy warriors of the North,

or unwilling to incur the hazard of being compelled to relinquish

the valuable booty which he had so easily secured. The suspicious

conduct of the generals of the Frankish army in permitting the Moslems

to retreat without molestation brought upon them the reproach of

treachery, an accusation which was so far sustained the following year

in the National Council as to subject the culprits to the deprivation

of their commands.

Abd-al-Rahman had projected an invasion of France, and the preparations

were completed; the advance guard under Abd-al-Ruf--who had filled

the position of vizier under Al-Hakem--was already on the way to the

Pyrenees, and the Emir himself was about to depart with the main body

of the army, when the unwelcome news reached him that Merida was in

rebellion.

The unpopular system of taxation, already referred to, aggravated by

the brutal conduct of the officials charged with its enforcement,

had almost assumed the character of a persecution, while the public

mind was agitated by the plausible representatives of demagogues

and deluded with the hope of protection and encouragement from the

powerful vassals of the Emperor. A certain Mohammed Ibn-Abd-al-Jebir,

formerly a collector of the revenue, was the originator of the

conspiracy. The governor, Ibn-Masfeth, saved himself by a hasty

flight. The houses of the viziers were sacked, and their owners put

to death or driven from the city. Mohammed appointed himself wali,

seized the magazines and arsenals, and, having divided their contents

among the inhabitants without distinction of creed, as a return for

this act of generosity appealed to the populace to confirm him in

his usurped authority. The resolution of the insurgents, sustained

by the knowledge of their resources and the impregnable character of

their defences, was encouraged by the arrival of fierce adventurers,

who were attracted in multitudes by the prospect of rebellion and

pillage. The garrison increased until it reached the number of forty

thousand. No insurrection of a local character had ever presented so

menacing a front to the power of the emirate. The occasion demanded

the exertion of the most prompt and energetic measures. The command

of Abd-al-Ruf was hastily recalled, and that officer was entrusted

with the conduct of the siege. The hardened veteran carried on his

operations as he would have done in an enemy’s country. The beautiful

villas and gardens that surrounded the city were burned and laid waste.

The growing crops were cut down. Preparations were made to carry the

place by storm, which would necessarily have entailed the destruction

of an immense amount of property and a massacre in which the innocent

must have suffered equally with the guilty. Abd-al-Rahman, averse to

an exercise of severity which threatened to weaken one of the greatest

cities of the kingdom, and knowing that the unequal contest could not

be long maintained, ordered Abd-al-Ruf to reduce the place by famine.

A strict blockade was accordingly established. The ruffian soldiery

of the garrison, cooped up within the walls, condemned to inaction

and suffering for provisions, indulged their predatory inclinations

by robbing and maltreating the citizens. The better class of the

inhabitants, which had been induced to favor the insurrection by the

expectation of compelling the withdrawal of oppressive edicts, saw,

when too late, that it had exchanged a condition of comparative safety

and prosperity for one of anarchy and the irresponsible despotism

of armed banditti. A movement for the surrender of the city to the

besiegers was quietly inaugurated by some loyal subjects of the

Emir who had been forced to enlist under the banner of the rebels.

Communication was opened with Abd-al-Ruf. Favored by the darkness of

the night, a strong detachment was admitted; the walls were occupied,

the armed mob was put to flight, the leaders escaped in the general

confusion, and daybreak found the authority of Abd-al-Rahman once more

established over the city of Merida. Resistance had been slight owing

to the surprise, and but seven hundred rebels paid the penalty of

treason. The fears of the people were soon allayed by the publication

of a general amnesty, for the gentle disposition of Abd-al-Rahman

revolted at the prospect of exemplary punishment for a rebellion which

subsequent events demonstrated would have justified the most sanguinary

retribution.

Order had scarcely been restored at Merida when it became known

that the contagion of insurrection had again spread to Toledo. A

renegade named Hashim, who had long in secret meditated vengeance for

persecution suffered by his family under Al-Hakem, taking advantage

of some trifling cause of popular discontent, raised the standard of

revolt. The wali being absent, the mob, who welcomed with eagerness

every occasion of opposing the authorities, found little trouble in

expelling the garrison and the adherents of the Emir. Hashim, whose

success had surpassed all expectations, as soon as his partisans were

organized, extended his operations to the surrounding country. His

following received accessions daily from the brigands who infested

the mountain districts, and the floating population, always on the

alert for plunder, that swarmed in the purlieus of the great cities.

Mohammed-Ibn-Wasim, the wali of the frontier, having attacked the

rebels, was beaten in several engagements; exulting in the promises of

its citizens, Toledo maintained a successful resistance against the

entire resources of the emirate, and Ommeyah, the son of Abd-al-Rahman,

was forced to retire in disgrace from before its walls. At length

the army of Hashim fell into an ambuscade planned by an officer who

commanded a force stationed at Calatrava, the Toledans were defeated

with great loss, and, soon afterwards, the city was taken by storm.

Accounts vary as to the fate of Hashim, but it appears from the most

reliable sources that he fell into the hands of the troops of the Emir

and was beheaded without ceremony. The incapacity of the government

of Cordova to deal with its domestic foes may be inferred from the

duration of this outbreak, whose importance must have called forth

the most vigorous attempts to suppress it, for during a period of

eight years Toledo enjoyed absolute independence in the heart of a

hostile monarchy. This immunity was, in some degree, due to a second

insurrection which broke out in Merida while the prestige of the

victorious Toledans was at its height. Mohammed, who had fled to

Lisbon when the city had been taken, returned unexpectedly; having

again summoned the populace to arms, he divided the contents of the

magazines as before, and, calling together his outlaws, renewed the

scenes of license and disorder which had formerly led to his expulsion.

Abd-al-Rahman, apprized of this new disaster, raised an army of forty

thousand men, of which he assumed command in person, and, arriving at

the city, made several ineffectual attempts to carry it by storm. The

walls, however, were too strong and too well defended to be scaled,

and the besiegers were reduced to employ the more difficult operation

of mining to open a breach. When all was ready, the Emir harangued

the troops, reminded them that their adversaries were Moslems like

themselves, and exhorted them to avoid all violence except against such

as offered resistance. As a last resort, to prevent bloodshed and the

lamentable consequences of an assault, Abd-al-Rahman ordered arrows to

which scrolls were attached to be shot over the walls. These scrolls

conveyed the information that the walls were undermined, that an attack

was impending, and that an amnesty would be granted the inhabitants

upon the surrender of their leaders. Some of these proclamations

fell into the hands of the chiefs of the rebellion; their fears were

aroused, and they lost no time in making good their escape, which they

readily effected either through the negligence or the connivance of the

besiegers. The damages resulting from the siege were repaired; the

fortifications strengthened; the wants of the poor, who were suffering

from hunger, supplied; and Merida, having for a second time experienced

the extraordinary clemency of her sovereign, returned to her doubtful

allegiance.

Fortunately for the Saracens, the commotion excited throughout the

Frankish empire by the rebellion of the sons of Louis prevented the

Christians from profiting by the misfortunes of their enemies, harassed

as they themselves were by the revolt of great capitals and the growing

disaffection of the people.

The disturbances once quelled and the country apparently at peace,

the pious and ambitious spirit of Abd-al-Rahman, actuated by motives

entertained since the day of his accession, induced him to pursue the

traditional policy of Islam and inaugurate a campaign against the

infidel. Expeditions were despatched into Galicia and the Gothic March,

which were generally successful, but which exhibited only the grievous

and transitory effects of predatory warfare, despite the accounts of

monkish chroniclers, whose love of the marvellous has embellished

their pages with accounts of great victories and miraculous events

recorded with all the circumstantial minuteness which not infrequently

characterizes these narratives. The fleet of the emirate, which had no

rival on the Mediterranean, co-operated with its armies, and, landing

a detachment on the coast of France, overran the country and plundered

the suburbs of Marseilles.

The martial enterprise and increasing arrogance of the Khalifate of

Bagdad, which had stripped the Byzantine Empire of its possessions

in Asia Minor and had frequently threatened Constantinople itself,

led the Emperor Theophilus to imitate the example of his predecessor

and solicit the aid of the Emirate of Spain, whose power had attained

a greater reputation in the East than was warranted either by the

character of its population, the stability of its civil institutions,

or the extent of its military resources. The result of this embassy

corresponded with that of the one sent by Michael the Stammerer. The

envoys were received and dismissed with honor; costly gifts were

exchanged between the two sovereigns; and the most flattering promises

of assistance were given by Abd-al-Rahman contingent on the security

of his own dominions, whose fulfilment was prevented, however, by the

incessant agitation of domestic foes and the apprehension of foreign

invasion. The measures of the Byzantine court were counteracted by the

political intrigues of the Abbasides, who maintained a close alliance

with the Franks; lavished upon the semi-barbaric monarchs of the Rhine

the curiosities and luxuries of the Orient; and, in the treaties with

their Christian auxiliaries, stigmatized the Ommeyades as schismatics,

blasphemers, and traitors, objects of abhorrence to orthodox Moslems

and entitled to no consideration from an adversary.

The hopes of relief entertained by the Greeks, sufficiently unpromising

before, were now rendered entirely vain by the appearance of a strange

and terrible enemy, who descended like a destructive tempest upon the

coast of Lusitania. The Normans, a branch of the Germanic race, whose

origin was identical with that of the Franks, but who cherished the

most uncompromising hostility towards the latter on account of their

conversion to Christianity, had, for half a century, been the terror

of the maritime countries of Northern Europe. Inhabiting the bleak and

inhospitable coasts of Scandinavia, instinct and necessity had early

taught them the science of navigation, and experience had shown the

facility by which the richest spoils might be wrested from the less

warlike nations of the South. Their boats were of the rudest type, of

small dimensions, constructed of osier and hides, propelled by oars

and sails of skins, yet such was the daring of these sailors that

they did not hesitate to encounter in their frail vessels, during the

most inclement seasons, the storms of the English Channel and the Bay

of Biscay. They had already carried their terrible inroads far into

the most accessible provinces of England and France. The swiftness of

their movements, their frightful aspect, and the ferocity of their

manners imparted to their incursions the character of a visitation of

incarnate demons. The votaries of the savage Woden, the Teutonic God of

War, they seemed totally deficient in the attributes of humanity and

mercy. More ruthless than other barbarians, the infirmities of age,

the helplessness of sex, received no indulgence at their hands. Women,

children, and old men were butchered with the same relentless animosity

as the warrior disabled in the field of battle. They took no prisoners.

All animals that they encountered were killed. Their brutal natures

were displayed even in their amusements; and, amidst the drunken

orgies of their festivals, their gods were pledged in draughts of mead

quaffed from the skulls of slaughtered enemies. Their lofty stature

and gigantic strength; their adventurous spirit, which carried them

across seas where experienced mariners scarcely dared to venture; their

courage, which inspired them to contend with tenfold odds, combined to

increase the terror derived from their sudden appearance and mysterious

origin. They had infested the shores of England during the last years

of the preceding century. Encouraged by success and tempted by the

prospect of booty, their expeditions had alarmed the provinces of

Western France during the reign of Charlemagne, and had desolated a

region where their descendants were destined to found a principality to

which they gave their name, and with whose fortunes, in after times,

were associated, in no small degree, the social organization, the laws,

the glories, and the misfortunes of the people of Great Britain. They

had at first effected a landing on the coast of the Asturias, whence

they soon retired, prompted to this step rather by the poverty of the

country, which held out no inducements to their avarice, than through

any apprehension from the well-known prowess of its defenders. Not long

after this, a fleet of fifty-four Norman vessels swept down upon the

shores of Lusitania. The environs of the city of Lisbon experienced the

full effects of the destructive instincts of these enemies of mankind.

Expelled by the uprising of the population of the neighborhood, they

sailed around the Peninsula; extended their depredations to the coast

of Africa; plundered Cadiz, and finally entered the Guadalquivir.

Ascending that stream, they occupied and sacked the suburbs of Seville,

whose inhabitants had fled at the first intelligence of their approach.

In their encounters with the troops of Abd-al-Rahman, the pirates had

in almost every instance a decided advantage; but news having reached

them that a fleet of fifteen vessels, supported by a powerful army,

was preparing to intercept their retreat, they hastily set sail and

effected their escape with insignificant loss. The facility with which

these ferocious adventurers had penetrated into his dominions, and the

damage inflicted by their pitiless hostility, convinced the Emir of the

necessity of increasing his naval power, the only effectual means of

protecting the vulnerable points of his kingdom and of preventing the

recurrence of such a calamity. Vessels were accordingly constructed

in the dock-yards of the Mediterranean; watch-towers were erected at

frequent intervals; a system of signals and posts was established; and

the coast defences in each military district were placed in charge

of an experienced officer, with whose command the naval forces were

directed to co-operate. The wisdom of these precautions was soon

demonstrated, and the Normans, warned by the formidable preparations

everywhere in readiness to oppose their landing, ceased to seriously

molest the shores of the Peninsula.

In the division of the vast and unwieldy empire of Charlemagne, which

scarcely preserved its original boundaries until the second generation,

France and the Gothic March fell to the share of Charles the Bald, the

eldest son of the weak and amiable Louis. The discord which had arisen

between Frankish and Gothic aspirants to power in the fief that the

foresight of the Emperor had founded beyond the Pyrenees, grew more

bitter with the progress of time and the infliction of mutual injury.

The intrigues of Count Bernhart, formerly chamberlain at the court

of Aix-la-Chapelle, who represented the national party against the

Frankish usurpation, were principally responsible for the manifestation

of the independent spirit which not infrequently ignored the rights of

the foreign suzerain, and even maintained amicable relations with the

infidels of Cordova. Charles, aware of the intrepid character of his

secret enemy whose popularity made him still more dangerous, inveigled

him into his power by flattering promises of favor and promotion; and,

as the unsuspecting victim bent the knee before his master, the latter

stabbed him with his own hand. The enormity of the deed was aggravated

by the horrible suspicion of parricide, as popular opinion, based upon

his former intimacy with the Empress Judith, had long ascribed to Count

Bernhart the paternity of the Frankish sovereign.

This act of perfidy, so far from appeasing the discontent that pervaded

the turbulent society of the Gothic March, contributed greatly to its

encouragement. The populace, as well as the nobles, whose opinions

had changed, and who now regarded Bernhart as the champion of their

liberties instead of an intruder, were thoroughly exasperated. The

country became a prey to anarchy, where the rule of the strongest

prevailed. This favorable opportunity, aided perhaps by suggestions

of sympathizers with the government of Cordova and individuals who

had suffered from the rapacity of the feudal lords, invited another

invasion by the Saracens. The land was again devastated. Barcelona was

delivered to the troops of the Emir through the connivance of the Jews,

whose trade was seriously affected by the interminable disputes and

broils which had interrupted foreign communications and shaken public

confidence. The Moslem occupation of the Gothic March, like others that

had preceded it, was, however, but temporary. The walis of the border

cities, to all intents and purposes paramount, were often united by the

closest ties of interest with the Counts of Barcelona, and therefore

thwarted every attempt at the recovery of the Gothic territory by the

emirs as having a tendency to ultimately curtail their privileges and

diminish their power. The existence of a foreign nation within the

borders of the emirate, which could be at once appealed to for support

in case of an attempt by the court of Cordova to enforce its authority,

was a practical guarantee of independence.

The closing years of the reign of Abd-al-Rahman were clouded by a

persecution of the Christians provoked by the obstinacy and presumption

of aggressive fanatics who violated the laws, profaned the mosques, and

insulted the memory of Mohammed through an insane desire for notoriety

and martyrdom. The most severe punishments as well as the most noble

clemency failed alike to suppress this new and increasing disorder. The

nature of the Emir, always averse to cruelty, hesitated to inflict the

penalties imperatively demanded by the outraged feelings of all true

believers. Deeply affected by the troubles which oppressed his kingdom

and cast a shadow over his domestic life, his health became impaired,

and he died suddenly of apoplexy in the year 822, at the age of sixty

years.

The luxurious tastes and the love of pomp, which were prominent traits

in the character of Abd-al-Rahman, produced greater changes in the

social and political aspect of the court of Cordova than had been

known under his predecessors. He was the first of the Moslem rulers

of Spain in whose robes were interwoven the royal cipher and the

device selected by the monarch at his accession. He assumed a dignity

and a mystery in his demeanor that had heretofore been the peculiar

attributes of the despotisms of the Orient. Habitually secluded from

the eyes of his subjects, he never went abroad without a veil, which

effectually concealed his features from the public gaze. He increased

the body-guard, formed by his father, and spared no expense in securing

its devotion and perfecting its equipment. He established a mint in

Cordova, and greatly improved the coinage, both in the purity of the

metal and the elegance of the inscriptions. Under his supervision

two sides of the court-yard of the Mosque were enclosed with

beautiful peristyles, corresponding with the finish and decorations

of the interior. He added to the magnificence of the capital by the

construction of public baths and fountains, fed by leaden pipes,

through which were conducted into every quarter of the city the crystal

waters of the Sierra Morena. The demands of religion and piety were

gratified by the foundation and endowment of innumerable mosques,

whose materials were composed of costly woods, variegated jasper, and

exquisite marbles, and to each of these houses of worship was attached

either a school or a hospital. Upon the banks of the Guadalquivir

stretched an endless series of gardens devoted to the recreation of the

people, and within whose delightful precincts were displayed all the

resources of the picturesque horticulture of the Orient. Abd-al-Rahman

rivalled the most enlightened khalifs of the East in his zeal for the

encouragement of learning; in his patronage of science and the arts; in

his admiration for the works of the Greek philosophers, which, during

his reign, were introduced into the Peninsula. One of his greatest

pleasures was to listen to the reading of the productions of the great

scholars of antiquity. In every town schools sufficient to meet the

requirements of the population, and provided with the best available

facilities for the imparting of instruction, arose. All children whom

misfortune had left destitute were cared for in charitable institutions

maintained by the government.

The system of highways, a precious heritage of the Cæsars, was

diligently inspected; the roads which had fallen into decay were

repaired; new ones were projected and completed; and the means of

intercommunication with the most remote provinces of the emirate

brought to a degree of perfection unknown even in the most flourishing

days of the Roman Empire. Many of these great works were undertaken

to relieve the universal distress induced by national calamities. A

withering drought had destroyed the crops and swept away the flocks

and herds in Andalusia. Swarms of locusts then settled over the

land, and turned the once smiling landscape into a desert. Unable

to sustain life, multitudes of the starving peasantry emigrated to

Africa, where they found an hospitable welcome and abundance of food

to supply their necessities. To the poor who remained, the customary

taxes were remitted and regular employment given, the expense being

met by disbursements from the private purse of the Emir. The public

granaries and magazines were opened, and supplies distributed to the

helpless and unfortunate. Thus, by the encouragement of industry, the

promotion of important public improvements throughout the country, and

the embellishment of the city of Cordova and its environs, the mournful

consequences incident to inevitable public disasters were largely

averted, and the very events which, at first sight, seemed to threaten

the life of the nation were, through the beneficence and wisdom of a

great monarch, made to contribute to its profit and permanent advantage.

The kindness and generosity of Abd-al-Rahman at times degenerated

into weakness, which made him the facile victim of the occupants of

his household and his harem. Constitutionally averse to any display

of severity, acts of insubordination and dishonesty were suffered, in

his very presence, to pass without a reprimand. A passion for music,

which dominated his very being, made him the munificent patron of

every minstrel, whose influence at court was usually proportionate

to his talents as a singer or as a performer on the lute. A famous

musician named Ziryab, whom Al-Hakem had invited from Bagdad but who

arrived too late to enjoy the favor of his royal host, was received by

his successor with honors worthy of the ambassadors of the greatest

princes. The walis of the cities through which he was to pass on his

way to Cordova were directed to extend to him every courtesy; he was

furnished with an escort, and his retinue was increased by a number of

eunuchs with whom the Emir had presented him. A magnificent residence

was assigned to him in the capital. His pension amounted to the annual

sum of forty thousand pieces of gold, derived from one of the most

valuable estates of the kingdom. Ziryab, while distinguished for his

musical talents, was also one of the most profound scholars of his

time. His wonderful memory retained without difficulty the words and

airs of ten thousand different songs. The pupil of the most eminent

doctors of the East, he was equally well versed in the sciences of

history, geography, philosophy, and medicine. So versatile were his

talents and so varied his accomplishments, that not only the populace,

but even learned writers, gravely attributed the achievements of his

extraordinary intellectual powers to communion with the genii. His

extensive acquirements made him the chosen companion of Abd-al-Rahman,

who delighted in his conversation; and, while the power of the favorite

over his master was unbounded, it must be said to his credit that it

was never abused or exerted for any base or mercenary purposes. His

exquisite taste and dignified courtesy were not long in producing an

impression upon the society of Andalusia. The manners of the people

insensibly grew refined and elegant. Customs savoring of the barbaric

life of the Desert, which the stubborn persistence of the Arab and

Berber natures had retained through many generations, were by degrees

abandoned. The prolific genius of this wonderfully gifted personage

prescribed different modes of dress, adapted to the changing seasons;

improved regulations in the diplomatic service; innovations in the

methods of private entertainments; dignified and urbane laws for

formal and social intercourse. It revealed the valuable character of

plants and vegetables whose names were familiar to the Spanish Arabs,

but whose uses as food, or whose medicinal virtues, had hitherto

remained unknown. It added a fifth string to the lute, thereby greatly

increasing the compass and harmony of that instrument. It bestowed

upon the toilets of the harem harmless and refreshing perfumes and

cosmetics. It supplied the banquets of the rich with savory dishes,

worthy of the most fastidious epicure, some of which bear to this

day the name of their inventor. It devised means for increasing the

comfort and cleanliness of the poor. It suggested sanitary arrangements

which might promote the healthfulness of great cities by an improved

system of drainage. The wit of Ziryab which delighted the court was

not inferior to his learning, nor to the wonderful ingenuity which

applied to the various concerns of life the valuable principles of

practical philosophy. His epigrams are still repeated as proverbs by

the Mohammedans of Africa. His skill in the art of improvisation was

phenomenal. A couplet appropriate to every occasion, a witticism in

rhyme which enlivened the most ordinary discourse, were never wanting

to his ready and active intellect. His mental powers were unconsciously

employed while those of others slumbered, and he not infrequently

aroused his female slaves in the middle of the night in order to seize

and memorize the harmonious creations of his tireless brain. The

creed of the Moslem peremptorily forbids the adoration of its heroes,

but the justice of humanity has immortalized the name of Ziryab by

transmitting it to after-ages in the same category with those of its

most illustrious philosophers, and has thus indemnified itself for the

privation of a useful custom which would elsewhere have honored the

object of its admiration and gratitude with splendid statues of bronze

and marble, and with an eternal abiding-place in both the visible and

invisible heavens.

The intercession of Ziryab with his royal master, whose mind was

absolutely dominated by the brilliant talents and courtly graces of his

favorite, was often invoked by applicants for pecuniary emoluments and

official distinction, but generally in vain. The hazardous game of

politics offered no allurements to the polished and dainty epicurean.

Secure in the possession of wealth and fame, he cheerfully abandoned

the intrigues, the vexations, and the dangers of political life to

another personage whose abilities, in their peculiar sphere, not

inferior to his own, bore the stamp of a dark and sinister character.

The ambition of the faqui Yahya-Ibn-Yahya, the leader of the revolt

of the southern suburb of Cordova, which caused the depopulation

of one-fifth of the area of the capital and the expatriation of

twenty thousand industrious subjects of the emirate, has already

been mentioned in these pages. The nationality of this fanatic,

and the address which he displayed in excusing his crimes, had,

strangely enough, exempted him from the punishment he merited. Having

regained, to a certain extent, the favor of the proud and arbitrary

Al-Hakem, whose inclinations were never to the side of mercy, he

had obtained a singular ascendant over the mind of the more pliable

Abd-al-Rahman. Instructed by experience that open opposition to the

constituted authority was not the surest method of attaining to

distinction, he changed his tactics; courted the approbation of the

monarch by subservience and flattery, varied at times by fits of

insolence, which were overlooked as eccentricities or manifestations

of righteous indignation provoked by the depravity of mankind; and,

while he appeared to figure only as an occasional adviser of the Emir,

he in reality engrossed the entire political and judicial power of

the State. His ostentatious humility procured for him the reverent

esteem of the populace. The superiority of his intellect and his vast

attainments were tacitly acknowledged by the learned. The prestige he

had acquired as the founder of the Malikites in Spain made him the

oracle of every student and doctor of theology. It was by means of

this latter distinction that he was enabled to immeasurably extend

and confirm his influence. Ambitious men soon perceived that the great

civil dignitaries of the realm--the chief kadis and the subordinate

officials of the courts of judicature--were invariably selected from

the fashionable sect, and were individuals who stood highest in Yahya’s

favor. As a natural consequence, the popularity of the doctrines of

Malik-Ibn-Anas increased daily, and the adherents of the Medinese sage,

in a few years, outnumbered all other sectaries combined. The policy of

Yahya led him to decline the exercise of all official employments, an

example of self-denial which, while it served to disguise his ambition,

greatly strengthened his authority. In the exalted sphere in which he

moved his power was autocratic. He imposed degrading penances upon his

sovereign, who performed them with patience and humility. He exacted

from the people those outward signs of reverence which superstition

is accustomed to accord to the favorites of heaven and which are but

one degree below idolatry. The ecclesiastical affairs of the Peninsula

were absolutely subject to his control. He dictated the most important

decisions emanating from the courts of justice; and, when a magistrate

ventured to assert his independence by the promulgation of an opinion

which had not been approved by the arrogant faqui, he at once received

a slip of paper on which was written the single word, “Resign!”

The plastic nature of Abd-al-Rahman, utilized for the profit of a

musician and a religious impostor, also exposed him to the artifices

of a petulant and selfish woman. An ardent temperament rendered him

peculiarly susceptible to the attractions of the sex. Among the

numerous beauties of his harem was one named Tarub, who was equally

dominated by the absorbing passions of ambition and avarice. Infatuated

with her charms and beguiled by her caresses, the Emir became her

slave. His prodigal generosity towards this unworthy favorite, which

threatened to deplete the treasury, frequently, but in vain, elicited

the remonstrances of his councillors. On one occasion her blandishments

induced him to present her with a necklace valued at a hundred thousand

dinars. On another, she refused to open her door until it had been

entirely concealed by bags of money heaped up against it. Utterly

destitute of affection or gratitude, she endeavored to perpetuate her

influence by a crime which reveals the incredible cruelty and infamy

of her character. Of the forty-five sons of Abd-al-Rahman, the eldest,

Mohammed, had been selected by his father to succeed him. Tarub, who

had employed all her arts, but without success, to obtain the crown

for her own son, Abdallah, now determined to secure by murder what her

powers of persuasion had failed to accomplish. The services of the

eunuch Nassir, who exercised the office of chamberlain, was devoted to

the interests of his mistress, and bore no good-will to the Emir, were

employed in this emergency. Nassir was of Spanish origin, hated the

sect of his ancestors with peculiar animosity, and had been the willing

instrument of the recent persecution which the mistaken policy of the

government had deemed it necessary to inflict upon the Christians.

Under the direction of Tarub, the eunuch paid a visit to Harrani, a

distinguished Syrian physician, who had recently begun the practice of

his profession at Cordova. Nassir, having assured Harrani of his esteem

and hinted that the conferring of the favor he was about to ask would

enure to his future advantage, presented him with a purse containing a

thousand pieces of gold, and requested him to have ready by a certain

day a quantity of one of the most deadly poisons known to science.

The natural acuteness of the physician, increased by long experience

in the sinister transactions of courts, was at no loss to detect the

object for which these preparations were intended. The character of

the perfidious Tarub and her inordinate ambition were, moreover,

no secret in Cordova; but, while the politic Harrani had no desire

to, even by implication, connive at the death of the Emir, he was

equally averse to compromise his prospects and imperil his own safety

by openly denouncing the eunuch, whose friends would not fail to

avenge the betrayal of his treason. He therefore caused a warning to

be secretly conveyed to Abd-al-Rahman not to taste anything offered

him by the chamberlain. The declining health of the monarch favored

the designs of the conspirators, and the eunuch seized the first

opportunity to recommend, with every expression of solicitude, the

poison to his master as a potent remedy which he had procured from a

famous practitioner. The Emir, upon whom the warning of Harrani had not

been lost, and who seemed to the attendants to be merely adopting a

salutary and not unusual precaution, directed the eunuch to drink some

of the potion himself. Unable to refuse, Nassir swallowed a part of

the contents of the phial. Then, withdrawing from the royal presence,

he sought in terror the aid of the physician. An antidote was promptly

administered, but the poison had done its work, and, the victim of his

own perfidiousness, Nassir expired in horrible agony.

The enfeebled constitution of Abd-al-Rahman was unable to sustain

the revelation of the malice and dishonor of those whom he loved and

trusted; and the amiable monarch who had not, by many years, reached

the allotted term of human life, a few weeks after the exposure of the

conspiracy followed his chamberlain to the grave.

The jealousy of the Ommeyades, following the example of the Khalifs

of Damascus, early introduced into their dominions the employment of

eunuchs, and these creatures almost immediately assumed and exercised a

secret, but none the less dangerous, power in the administration of the

government as well as in the intrigues and plots of the harem. Their

mutilation, which, according to common belief, was presumed to insure

absolute fidelity to their masters’ interests, made them the enemies of

the human race. An insatiable thirst for gold, a vindictiveness only to

be appeased by the destruction of the objects of their displeasure, had

supplanted in their breasts those sentiments of natural affection which

had been forever eradicated by the barbarity of man. The confidants and

constant associates of the sultanas, they became the tools of every

conspiracy, and not infrequently the originators of measures involving

the most important political consequences.

The support of these vile instruments, indispensable to the designs

of criminal ambition, had been already secured by the Princess

Tarub, whose rapacity had, for once, yielded to her greed for power.

Undismayed by the fate of Nassir, and ignoring the suspicions aroused

by his sudden death, she, by every artifice at her command, by promises

of future favors and concessions and by a prodigal liberality, had

enrolled among her partisans the potent and unscrupulous guardians of

the harem.

The careless Abd-al-Rahman, whose condition had not warranted any

expectation of his untimely end, had neglected to officially designate

his successor to the throne. His choice, however, was well known

to have been fixed upon his eldest son, Mohammed, a cold, sordid,

narrow-minded, but able prince; penurious to a degree unprecedented

among youths of royal lineage, but of large experience in the arts

of war and government, and of unquestioned orthodoxy. Abdallah, on

the other hand, was a devotee of pleasure. His palace was nightly the

scene of boisterous revels, that were protracted until long after

sunrise. He shunned all serious occupations. His intimate friends

were debauchees and parasites, whose conversation was seasoned with

licentious jests which did not spare either the officials of state

or the ministers of religion. Rarely was he seen to enter the door

of the mosque, or to assist at the ceremonies of public worship.

Despised by the populace and abhorred by the devout, his pre-eminent

unfitness for the responsibilities of empire was also recognized by

the eunuchs, whom nothing but the prodigality of his mother could ever

have induced to espouse his cause. Abu-al-Mofrih, one of the former,

who possessed great influence among his fellows, determined, with the

proverbial inconstancy of his kind, to gratify his malice and provide

for the future by the commission of a double treason. The heterodox

opinions of Abdallah afforded a plausible excuse for the perfecting

of his scheme. By constant insinuations of the dangers to which the

emirate would be exposed if he were raised to power, and by descanting

with pious horror upon the sacrilegious life of that profligate

prince, he excited apprehensions in the minds of the eunuchs that

their own interests might be seriously endangered by a ruler whose

previous career had been directed by unbelievers and by persons who

had frequently evinced marked contempt for their order. The harshness

and notorious parsimony of Mohammed were at first declared by the

eunuchs to render him ineligible; serious impediments to success,

indeed, in a court governed to a great extent by the soft influences

of the seraglio and by the unsparing use of gold. The objections

were soon answered by the wily Abu-al-Mofrih, whose experience and

reputation gave him a right to take the lead in a project demanding

courage and tact, and it was quietly understood that Mohammed was the

candidate for whom the empire was reserved. The death of Abd-al-Rahman

occurred after midnight. According to Oriental custom, the gates of the

palace--which was walled and moated like a castle--were closed, and no

one was permitted to leave or enter without satisfactory explanation

of his errand and proof of his identity. By a time-honored practice

that prescriptive usage had confirmed as legal, the prince who first

after the monarch’s death obtained possession of the royal residence

was considered to have the presumptive right to the crown. Sadun, a

eunuch, who had reluctantly assented to the rejection of Abdallah, but

who had lately become a firm partisan of his brother, was selected to

inform Mohammed of his good fortune. The villa of the latter was on the

opposite bank of the Guadalquivir, and the eunuch, providing himself

with the keys of the city gate, which opened upon the bridge, traversed

the silent streets until he reached the palace of Abdallah, in front

of which he was forced to pass. The halls were aglow with light and

the noise of drunken revelry rang upon the air, as the muffled figure

of the eunuch glided stealthily by the portals on its mysterious

errand. Mohammed, summoned from the bath, received the message with

surprise and incredulity. Even the production of his father’s signet,

which Sadun exhibited as a token of good faith, was not sufficient to

convince him. Regarding the eunuch as an executioner sent by Abdallah

to take away his life, he abjectly implored the mercy of the messenger,

who, so far from intending injury, had been deputed to tender him a

crown. The protestations of Sadun finally prevailed, and the steward

of Mohammed’s household was called to assist in devising means to

enter the royal palace, an indispensable preliminary to success. His

suggestion to apply to the governor of the city was adopted, but that

cautious functionary declined to compromise himself by countenancing

an enterprise whose issue was so hazardous. The night was fast passing

away, and it was evident that something must be done quickly, as dawn

would bring discovery, and perhaps death, to all concerned. Again the

fertile invention of the steward, Ibn-Musa, came to the aid of his

master in his deep perplexity. “Thou knowest, O my Lord,” said he,

“that I have often conducted thy daughter to the royal palace. Disguise

thyself at once in her garments, and God willing we shall pass the

guards.” The advice being approved, Mohammed was speedily enveloped in

the veil and flowing robes of the inmates of the harem and mounted upon

an ass. The animal was led by the steward, Sadun marching in front; the

sentinels were passed without difficulty; but the wary eunuch, fearful

of being followed, directed Ibn-Musa to remain near Abdallah’s mansion,

while he conducted the prince alone. Arriving at the palace, the knock

of Sadun was answered by the porter, an old man who had long served

the emirs in that responsible capacity. Peering cautiously through the

postern and recognizing the eunuch, he exclaimed, “Whom have you there,

O Sadun?” The latter responded, “The daughter of our prince Mohammed;

make haste and admit us!” Smiling, as he suspiciously examined the

lofty stature and ample proportions of the supposed damsel, the porter

rejoined, “Verily, O Sadun, the lady has grown to almost twice her

size since she was here a few days since; let her raise her veil that

I may see her face.” The eunuch demurred; but the porter threatening

to withdraw, Mohammed himself lifted the veil, and disclosed to the

astonished gaze of the porter the well-known features of the eldest

son of Abd-al-Rahman. “My father is dead,” said the prince, “and I

have come to take possession of the palace.” “I do not doubt thy word,”

replied the porter, “but mine own eyes must convince me of the truth of

thy statement before I can admit thee.” “Then come at once,” exclaimed

Sadun, and, leaving Mohammed in the street, the eunuch led the way to

the death-chamber of the Emir. “I am satisfied,” said the faithful

servitor, bursting into tears, and returning, he opened the gate and

kissed the hand of the prince with every protestation of loyalty and

obedience. The household was aroused; the officials of state were

summoned in haste to the palace, and required to swear allegiance

to the new sovereign; and thus, through the address of a handful of

eunuchs, who dispensed with equal alacrity the penalties of hatred and

the offices of friendship, a serious revolution was averted, and a turn

given to national affairs that permanently influenced the future of the

Saracen empire.

The first acts of Mohammed after his accession gave undoubted proof of

his zeal, and elicited the enthusiastic applause of the theologians,

who henceforth became his most devoted subjects. Every official and

every public servant who was even suspected of a leaning towards

Christianity was discharged without ceremony, and their places were

filled with Mussulmans of the most pronounced orthodoxy. The law which

forbade the erection or the enlargement of churches--a fundamental

article of the convention of Musa--had been to a great extent ignored

by the emirs, even under the aggravation of treason and conspiracy;

and, as a consequence of this indulgence, new places of worship had

arisen in those localities where an increasing Christian population

required greater facilities for the services of its religion. By a

sweeping edict, Mohammed directed every church and chapel built since

the invasion of Tarik to be razed to the ground. The officers who were

charged with the execution of this order, more zealous for their faith

than solicitous for the honor of their sovereign, waged indiscriminate

destruction against all edifices set apart by the Christians for sacred

uses, regardless of the sanctity of their traditions or the date of

their foundation. A persecution, encouraged by the faquis, was also

inaugurated against the obstinate sectaries, who continued to solicit

with so much ardor the crown of martyrdom, in comparison with which

the severity of Abd-al-Rahman assumed the appearance of moderation.

The evidence of the Fathers of the Church, so suspicious in regard

to all that reflects upon the credit of their profession or decries

the triumphs of their enemies, may perhaps be received to confirm the

statement of the Arabs that an immense number of Christians, alarmed

by the tortures inflicted upon their fellow communicants, yielded to

temptation and apostatized.

But it was not among the infidels alone that it was found necessary

to invoke the intervention of the sovereign authority. In the bosom

of Islam, a serious dispute had arisen concerning the interpretation

of the Koran and the settlement of certain controverted points of

doctrine that, in their theological importance and general relation

to the Faith, bore no proportion whatever to the virulent animosity

exhibited by their several advocates. As the Ommeyades of Spain had

early arrogated to themselves, without exception, the functions and

privileges of the exalted office of khalif, in which were united

the most despotic powers of Church and State, Mohammed, whose

discrimination showed him the necessity of deciding this religious

controversy before its champions appealed to arms, asserted his

prerogative by ordering the rival doctors to respectively plead their

cause in his presence. The arguments were heard, and the Malikites,

whose prosperity under the former reign had greatly increased their

pride and insolence, sustained a signal defeat in their attempt to

refute the doctrines of the Hanbalites, their adversaries. With a

liberality not to be expected in a ruler whom posterity, perhaps

not without injustice, has agreed to stigmatize with the name of

bigot, Mohammed decided that the objections urged against the

creed of the Hanbalites as preached by Al-Baki, the leader of that

sect, were frivolous, and that its tenets were neither based upon

misinterpretation of the texts of the Koran nor antagonistic to the

generally received tradition.

With the double object of diverting the minds of his subjects from

theological disputes and projects of sedition and to repress the

encroaching spirit of the Christian princes of the North, whose

conquests were making serious inroads on the Moslem territory, Mohammed

proclaimed the Holy War, the forces destined for this purpose being

placed under the command of the walis of Merida and Saragossa. The

Gothic March once more underwent the frightful evils of invasion, and

the Saracen army again penetrated the enemy’s country to the very

walls of Narbonne. The wali of Saragossa, Musa-Ibn-Zeyad, entrusted

with the conduct of the campaign against the King of the Asturias,

after some unimportant successes in Galicia, was defeated with great

loss at Albeyda, which town, having been taken by King Ordoño, and the

Arab garrison massacred, was abandoned to the tender mercies of the

barbarous soldiery.

The populace of Toledo, whose implacable hatred of its Saracen masters

no exhibition of clemency could diminish and no example of severity

intimidate, having learned of the persecution of their Christian

brethren at Cordova, and apprehensive lest the zealous efforts of

the faquis--whose influence at that time dominated the policy of the

government--might be extended to their own city, organized a revolt,

seized the Arab governor, and demanded of the Emir in exchange for

that official the hostages whom they had given to Abd-al-Rahman II.

as security for their loyalty and good behavior. With a weakness that

formed no part of his character, and for which no historical account

affords an explanation, Mohammed acquiesced. The fierce Toledans then

began to carry on war in earnest. Accustomed from childhood to the use

of arms and the exposure of a military life, they repeatedly proved

more than a match for the disciplined veterans of the emirate. They

drove out the garrison of Calatrava and demolished its walls. Then,

suddenly traversing the passes of the Sierra Morena, they surprised at

Andujar a detachment of the royal forces sent to attack them, captured

its baggage, and plundered its camp. Never before in the history of

Toledan rebellions had the insurgents ventured so near the capital. The

Emir keenly felt the insult to his dignity, and, at the head of all

the troops he could collect in such an emergency, advanced to punish

the rebels. The latter retired, and their leader, Sindola, whose name

indicates his Gothic descent, sent an envoy to the King of the Asturias

for aid. The Christian prince, perceiving at a glance the extraordinary

benefits which would result from an alliance with a powerful faction in

the heart of the Moslem dominions, responded at once to the appeal with

a strong body of veterans, who succeeded in entering the city before

the arrival of Mohammed.

The strength of the walls and the prowess of the garrison forbade the

hope of a successful assault, and induced Mohammed to have recourse

to a stratagem worthy of the cunning and astuteness of an Arab.

Concealing his troops in the ravine traversed by the Guadacelete, he

appeared before Toledo with a squadron of cavalry and made preparations

to encamp. The rebels, seeing what was apparently an excellent

opportunity to cut off this vanguard before the arrival of the main

body, made a sally, and, before they were aware of their danger, were

drawn into the trap laid for them and surrounded. Dreadful carnage

followed; but few escaped, and a ghastly heap of eight thousand heads,

collected in the field of battle, attested the animosity of the

victors and the misfortune of the vanquished. These sinister trophies,

ranged along the battlements of Cordova and other Andalusian cities,

were long an admonition to traitors of the terrible lesson that the

Toledans and their infidel allies had received on the banks of the

Guadacelete. The great loss sustained by the insurgents,--amounting to

twenty thousand, for only the Christians and such Mussulman leaders

as were killed or taken prisoners were decapitated,--so far from

crushing the obstinate spirit of the inhabitants of the imperial city

of the Visigoths, only served to increase their fury and confirm their

resolution. Their offensive operations were, however, effectually

checked. The garrison, reduced to less than one-third of its number,

was forced to remain inactive behind the fortifications. It was with

mingled feelings of rage and despair that the industrious as well as

the wealthy part of the population, whose possessions had hitherto been

respected in the hope of timely submission, beheld the desolation of

their gardens, the uprooting of their vineyards, the burning of their

villas,--those evidences of prosperity and luxury that embellished

for many a mile the banks of the famous Tagus. Their thoughts were

further embittered by the consciousness that these ravages were not

inflicted through any fault of theirs, but through the turbulence

and ill-directed ambition of Jews and renegades, whose numbers were

swelled by a crowd of vagabonds and criminals attracted by the evil

reputation of the city, the worst elements of a lawless population,

the refuse of a score of great communities. An additional advantage

gained by the troops of Mohammed served to still further depress the

spirits of the Toledans, although no disaster seemed sufficient to

impel them to a voluntary return to their allegiance. The principal

bridge that gave access to the city was secretly mined. An attack was

then made on one of the gates; the assailants retired in apparent

disorder; the besieged pursued; and, at the proper instant, the wooden

supports were removed from the piers, and the whole structure, crowded

with the soldiers of the enemy, was precipitated into the waters

of the Tagus. Not an individual escaped, for such as were able to

save themselves from the rapid current of the river were shot by the

archers of the Emir, stationed on the banks for that purpose. These

repeated misfortunes impressed the Toledans with the necessity of

peace. Their valor and their constancy under the most discouraging

circumstances, although exhibited in an evil cause, cannot but excite

the admiration of every reader. For the long period of twenty years

Mohammed made incessant but vain attempts to subdue them. They defied

the utmost efforts of his power. They menaced him in his very capital.

They routed his armies, often commanded by princes of the blood. They

dismantled his strongholds. The most overwhelming reverses only nerved

them to greater exertions. Great losses in the field, the tortures of

famine, the murmurs of their disaffected townsmen, could not shake

their determination or excite their fears. The attempts to storm their

fortifications were repulsed with heroic courage. Their decimated

ranks were recruited from the sturdy mountaineers of Leon and the

Asturias. It is in vain that the modern historian searches for the

motives that inspired and sustained this sentiment of independence,

this habitual defiance of authority. The ancient Gothic spirit was

not sufficient to account for such an anomalous condition of affairs,

although the Christians greatly outnumbered the members of all other

sects. There existed no unity of religious feeling which might actuate

zealots to deeds of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. The population of

Toledo is represented by all writers as a remarkably heterogeneous one.

The Christians mention it freely with contempt. The Moslems, without

exception, allude to it as a faithless and turbulent rabble. The reason

for the suicidal policy that neglected to demolish the fortifications

of this centre of sedition, and did not resort to the drastic measure

of wholesale expatriation when milder means had repeatedly failed,

also remains a mystery. It required no great degree of statesmanship

to perceive the inevitable consequences of the irrepressible spirit

of rebellion encouraged, as it was, by the ill-timed clemency and

indulgence of the sovereign. At length, emboldened by their alliance

with the Christians of the North, and taking advantage of the

embarrassments of their antagonist, harassed by enemies at home and

abroad, they extorted from the Emir a treaty which virtually conceded

their independence. It allowed them to select their own magistrates,

including the governor, and to regulate without interference their

municipal and ecclesiastical affairs. Toledo, by the payment of an

annual tribute, was thus placed upon the same political footing as

that of a province recently subjected to the arms of Islam, and must

henceforth, for many years, cease to be regarded as an integral part of

the Moorish empire.

In the meantime, the example of Toledo had been followed by other

cities, whose inhabitants, exasperated by their grievances and

instigated by the ambition of daring chieftains, kept the country

in continued disorder and exercised to the utmost the energy and

abilities of Mohammed. The evil consequences of that pernicious system,

peculiar to the Arabs, of entrusting important commands to renegades

without previous satisfactory tests of their fidelity, were once more

demonstrated. Musa-Ibn-Zeyad, who traced his descent from the branch

of the Visigothic nobility known to the Arabs as the Beni-Kasi, and

whom we have seen defeated at Albeyda, was soon afterwards, through the

intrigues of fanatical courtiers who accused him of treason, removed

from his post of wali of Saragossa and disgraced. This officer, whose

military talents and political capacity were far above the average,

seeing all avenues for promotion under the emirate closed, and keenly

feeling the injustice of the treatment he had received, proceeded at

once to organize an insurrection, an easy matter among the adventurers

of the frontier naturally prone to inconstancy and insubordination.

Popular among his subjects, almost the entire province of which

Saragossa was the capital declared for his cause. Tudela, Huesca,

Toledo, solicited his alliance. Having baffled the efforts of the

Emir to crush him, he transmitted his authority to his son Musa. The

latter, securing the friendship and support of the Navarrese, crossed

the Pyrenees, and carried fire and sword into Southern France. His

success was so remarkable, and the resources of the French monarchy

were so inadequate to resist the progress of this enterprising

partisan, that Charles the Bald not only condescended to treat with

him on equal terms, but purchased immunity from future inroads by the

payment of a large sum of money and the bestowal of magnificent gifts.

The distinction acquired by Musa from the results of this expedition

indirectly produced great accessions to his power. His son Lope became

one of the magistrates of Toledo. The restless population of the

border flocked to his standard by thousands. His army was further

augmented by numbers of Christians,--Mozarabes as well as Gascons and

Navarrese,--whose former habits and experience made them valuable

soldiers. The martial spirit of Musa was displayed indiscriminately

against Christian and Moslem; his prowess was respected and his

independence reluctantly acknowledged alike by the courts of Cordova,

Aix-la-Chapelle, and Oviedo. With a pardonable vanity, justified by

actual power and the possession of territory, he assumed the title

of Third King of Spain. His death in 862 was followed by a partial

dismemberment of his dominions, which enabled Mohammed to recover

Saragossa, Tudela, and a few other places of minor importance; but only

a few years elapsed before the family of Musa, endeared to the people

by the exploits of its founders, regained its former ascendency, and

once more expelled the forces of the emirate. Although nothing is said

of the religious belief of the Beni-Kasi, it may be inferred that they

had returned to the Christian communion, as Alfonso III., their close

ally, entrusted to these distinguished princes the education of his son

Ordoño, heir to the crown of the Asturias and Leon.

The Norman pirates, familiar to the reader of Arab chronicles as

Magioges,--a name derived from the fabulous Gog and Magog, whose

descendants they were, according to the doubtful authority of mediæval

tradition,--seven years after Mohammed ascended the throne made a

second descent upon the shores of the Peninsula. The spoil which they

had collected in their first excursion and the facility with which

they had penetrated into the heart of France and Spain excited their

insatiable cupidity, and inspired them with the hope of even more

profitable adventures. But these expectations were defeated by the

valor of the Galicians and by the prudence of Abd-al-Rahman II.,

who, as already related, had established a coast-guard, and disposed

the naval forces of the emirate to intercept the landing and chastise

the audacity of these intrepid and mysterious rovers of the seas. The

fame of their former success had increased their numbers, and, after

an ineffectual and disastrous attempt to plunder the seaport towns

of Galicia, seventy well-manned vessels of their fleet appeared off

the coast of Andalusia. Disembarking at various points, the Normans

effected considerable damage, but, not venturing inland, their booty

bore no comparison in quantity or value to that obtained by their

former visitation, and meeting with a resistance entirely unexpected,

they retired to try their fortunes on the coast of Africa. In that

country many settlements suffered the dreadful evils consequent upon

such attacks, and, after destroying whatever they could not carry

away, they ravaged the Balearic Isles, and, steering eastward, swept

along the shores of the Mediterranean as far as Sicily and Malta. The

unprotected regions of Italy and Greece again experienced the dire

effects of barbarian malevolence, this time unmitigated by the sympathy

of a common religious belief; the instinctive antipathy of the savages

of the North to all that bore the stamp of civilization was gratified

without restraint; and, laden with plunder of incalculable value and

for once satiated with blood and havoc, the pirates directed their

course homeward through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The incessant hostilities maintained by Ordoño with the kingdom of

Cordova were, in general, favorable to the Christian arms. Encouraged

by the victory he had obtained at Albeyda, the Asturian monarch

extended his operations far to the south of the Douro. The knowledge of

the growing weakness of their enemies, and the consciousness of their

own valor and resources, impelled the mountaineers to still greater

exertions. The expeditions which had been at first but mere predatory

incursions, now assumed the character of enterprises looking towards

a permanent occupation of the country. Every advantageous post beyond

the border which it was thought possible to retain was thoroughly

fortified and garrisoned immediately after its capture. The walls of

dismantled Moorish fortresses were repaired. In those towns where the

Arab inhabitants preponderated, the latter were replaced by Galician

and Asturian colonists. In all cases where a place was taken by storm,

the male population was exterminated, and the women and children led

into slavery. Many important cities, including, among others, Coria

and Salamanca, fell into the hands of the Christians. The effects of

this vigorous policy began to be felt so seriously at Cordova that the

government summoned all its energies in an endeavor to counteract it,

and a powerful army was assembled under the orders of Al-Mondhir, heir

presumptive to the crown. That warlike and experienced prince met the

forces of the enemy on the banks of the Douro; the Christians sustained

a disastrous defeat; the larger part of the lost territory was

recovered; and Al-Mondhir, relieved of further care in this quarter,

turned his attention to Alava and Navarre. The victorious banners of

the Moslems were next displayed before Pampeluna. The environs of that

city were devastated; some castles throughout the province which had

sheltered formidable bands of marauders were taken and dismantled; and

Al-Mondhir, after a campaign unattended by a single disaster, returned

in triumph to Cordova.

These reverses, while not sufficient to deter the indomitable

mountaineers from repeating their forays, had at least the effect

of changing their direction and limiting their extent. Lusitania,

formerly invaded with impunity, was again selected as the object of

their attack. The fields and vineyards of Lisbon were trampled down

by the Christian squadrons; the town of Cintra was burned, and every

hamlet accessible to the fury of a pitiless enemy was depopulated and

destroyed. But the salutary lesson the Asturians had been recently

taught was not lost upon them, and, without waiting for the army that

Mohammed despatched in all haste to intercept their retreat, they

retired with the same celerity which had marked their appearance.

Unable to arrest these inroads by ordinary means, Mohammed determined

to have recourse to his navy, and disembark a force in the centre of

the enemy’s country. The fleet reached the western coast in safety, but

before a landing could be effected was destroyed by a hurricane. The

more rigid Moslems, whose strict ideas had been shocked by the braving

of an element of which the Prophet had stood in wholesome dread,

regarded this catastrophe as a well-merited chastisement from heaven

for disobedience to the Koran.

The revolt of Toledo had, from time to time, been followed by the

defection of other cities, whose disorders, while important in the

aggregate, were singly of little moment in their effects upon the

affairs of the Peninsula. One, however, in some respects greatly

resembling that by which the old capital of the Visigoths had secured

its independence, deserves to be related, as it demonstrates,

more thoroughly than an entire chronicle could do, the deplorable

helplessness into which the empire founded by Abd-al-Rahman had

fallen. Ibn-Merwan, a renegade prominent in former rebellions, and

whom the foolish policy of the Moslems has again entrusted with a

position of responsibility, aggrieved by some petty insult, deserted,

and, accompanied by a few of his retainers, seized the castle of

Alanje, near Merida. Besieged before he had time to collect supplies,

he nevertheless held out for three months, when he surrendered on

condition of his retirement to Bagdad. No sooner was he free, however,

than he proclaimed himself the apostle of a new religion, whose

doctrines were borrowed from those of both Christianity and Islamism;

increased his following by the enlistment of bandits and outlaws;

and, imitating the example of the Toledans, strengthened his cause by

an alliance with the King of the Asturias. His depredations became

so annoying that an army under Haschim, Mohammed’s favorite vizier,

was despatched against him. The wily partisan found little trouble in

decoying the vizier into an ambuscade; his command was annihilated; and

he himself was sent as a trophy to the court of Alfonso. When the Emir

made proposals for the ransom of Haschim, the Christian king demanded

the immense sum of a hundred thousand pieces of gold. Much as he

desired the release of his minister, the parsimony of Mohammed, which

had increased with years, deterred him from so profuse an expenditure.

For many months Haschim remained in captivity, but at length the

entreaties of his family overcame the reluctance of the Emir, and he

consented to send a portion of the ransom. The balance was secured by

the delivery of hostages, and the vizier was finally liberated.

On his return to Cordova, Haschim found that his ancient enemy, with

whom even Mohammed himself was unable to cope, had, during his absence,

attained to the dignity of an independent prince. The Emir, intimidated

by the menaces of Ibn-Merwan, had been compelled to conclude a peace

with that chieftain; to cede to him the strong city of Badajoz;

to release him from the payment of tribute; and to accede to such

conditions as virtually dispensed with the duties of the subject, as

well as abrogated the authority of the sovereign.

The effect of this pusillanimous conduct upon the malcontents and

fanatics who infested every community of the emirate--a society the

amalgamation of whose elements seemed utterly impracticable; destitute

of religious unity; without the slightest idea of political virtue

or patriotism; and acknowledging no incentive to subordination but

that suggested by the employment of military force--may readily be

imagined. Few cities preserved even the appearance of order. Every

lawless passion raged without control. Feuds were prosecuted without

interference. The functions of the magistrate, the obligations of the

people, were suspended. The empire, shattered in every part, seemed on

the verge of dissolution. Neither proximity to the seat of government,

the prospect of royal favor, nor fear of the consequences of treason

sufficed to retain the states in their allegiance. Andalusia alone

sustained with apparent fidelity the cause of Islam and the dignity and

fortunes of the monarch; but even this province was now destined to be

the seat of an insurrection whose consequences threatened to involve

the civilization of the West and the dynasty of the Ommeyades in sudden

and irretrievable ruin.

From the time of the Cæsars, that picturesque chain of mountains now

known as the Serrania de Ronda, which traverses the southern part of

the Peninsula, has been the scene of insurrection and of lawless deeds

which no government has ever been able to thoroughly suppress. The

proverbial reluctance of the mountaineer to conform to established laws

was, in this region especially, encouraged by the savage character of

the country, which, to all unacquainted with its intricate paths and

gloomy fastnesses, offered an aspect as forbidding as it was pregnant

with danger. The population of these mountains, in love of freedom, in

strength of body, in military prowess, was the counterpart of that of

the Asturias, while in graceful bearing, in beauty of form and feature,

and, above all, in intelligence, it far excelled the uncouth barbarians

of the North. It united the various qualities of Roman courage,

Punic shrewdness, and Arab temperance and agility. The difficulty of

enforcing obedience to the constituted authority was vastly increased

by the close relations maintained by even the most remote settlements,

leagued together in a confederacy which was, in all but name and

acknowledged leadership, an independent republic. The brigand who

swooped down upon the flocks of the Roman shepherd, or pillaged the hut

of the Visigothic peasant, has his worthy counterparts to-day in the

smuggler and highwayman. It has not been many decades since the robber

chieftain of the Serrania de Ronda levied blackmail on the posts and

convoys of the Spanish government; and the contraband traffic of that

region at present exceeds in importance the legitimate trade of any

other district of equal area and wealth in the Peninsula.

On the slope of this mountain range, not far from Malaga, lived in the

reign of Mohammed a youth of fiery temper and dissolute habits, named

Omar-Ibn-Hafsun. His father, descended from a distinguished Gothic

family, like many others, had renounced his faith rather with a view

to future advantage than from belief in the doctrines of Islam. His

son, concerned in frequent broils with the hot-headed peasantry of

the neighborhood, had, while but a child, obtained a most unenviable

reputation for cruelty and violence. At length, in an encounter with

one of his most redoubtable antagonists, the latter paid the penalty of

his rashness with his life. Ibn-Hafsun fled to the sierra and joined

a gang of banditti, but was eventually seized by the authorities and

scourged into insensibility. Escaping from the clutches of the law,

he sought the presence of his father, who disowned him and drove him

from his home. Knowing that he could not for a great while longer

elude the search of the officers who were scouring the country in all

directions, he embarked for Tahort in Africa, where he found refuge in

the house of a tailor who knew of his family but was ignorant of his

recent history, and who willingly accepted him as an apprentice. Here

he was soon after recognized by an acquaintance, and, apprehensive

of being denounced as a fugitive from justice and surrendered for

execution, he left his benefactor and secretly returned to Andalusia.

Impelled, perforce, to the profession of an outlaw, he assembled a

number of adventurous spirits, repaired an old Roman fort on the summit

of Mount Bobastro, and entered upon a life of rapine. The great plain

stretching from the foot of the sierra to the capital was soon at his

mercy. His band increased with the fame of his exploits; the cities

of Andalusia trembled at his name; the governor of the province, who

had ventured to attack him with a strong body of regular troops, was

reduced to the humiliation of seeing his soldiers routed and his

camp pillaged by a handful of daring marauders. This official, whose

incompetency was presumed to be the cause of his misfortune, was

removed, but his successor, an experienced veteran, fared no better.

After a time, the rebel was surrounded by a strong force under the

vizier Haschim, and compelled to surrender. His bravery and talents

had so excited admiration of the latter that he induced the Emir to

offer him an important command in the army. Between the acceptance

of this unexpected favor and confinement in a dungeon there could be

no hesitation in making a choice, and the former brigand was duly

commissioned an officer of the emirate. In many engagements with the

insurgents and mountaineers of the North, he bore himself with a

self-respecting dignity little to be expected from his former lawless

behavior. Admired by his general, respected by his comrades, and feared

by his enemies, there seemed to unfold before him the flattering

prospect of speedy promotion and all the honors and wealth incident

to a distinguished military career. But the petty jealousies of rival

courtiers could not brook the sudden elevation and rising prosperity of

this new favorite of Haschim. The party opposed to the vizier employed

every means to annoy and humiliate the haughty renegade. The governor

of the city, under various pretexts, compelled him to constantly move

his quarters. The purveyors of the army, instigated by the enemies of

his patron, regularly furnished him with rations unfit for consumption.

His complaints were ineffectual; even his patron told him that he must

avenge his own wrongs. Exasperated by such treatment, above all as it

was in no wise deserved, and unwilling to longer submit to the insults

that every day became less endurable, Ibn-Hafsun deserted, and again

sought the protecting solitudes of the Serrania de Ronda. His band

was soon reassembled; the fortress of Bobastro, which the prudence

of Mohammed had greatly strengthened, was surprised; and the daring

partisan, in the space of a few weeks, became once more the idol of

the mountaineers and the terror of the peasantry of Andalusia. But

his service in the army of the Emir had wrought a remarkable change

in the sentiments and conduct of the outlaw. He proclaimed himself

the champion of freedom, the avenger of all who had suffered from the

extortions and injustice of the reigning family. In this capacity he

was recognized as the representative of the renegades, the Christians,

and the Berbers, who thus formed an incongruous, but, for a time, an

effective alliance against the dominant Arab aristocracy. By assuming

the character of a defender of the oppressed, he invested his cause

with a national importance, and relieved it, to a great extent, from

the disgraceful imputation of brigandage. The members of his band were

subjected to the most severe restraint. Robbery and insubordination

were punished with instant death. The entire mountain district was

gradually included within his jurisdiction, and security of property

and life, such as that region never knew before, existed. It became a

common saying among the Andalusians that a woman loaded with silver

might cross any portion of the Serrania de Ronda without the least

danger of molestation. Such a demonstration of security would have been

elsewhere impracticable, even in the populous districts of the emirate

patrolled by a vigilant police, and its attempt would have invited

certain death in the distant and unprotected provinces of the empire.

In the control of his soldiers, Ibn-Hafsun adopted all those politic

expedients which raise commanders to popularity and renown,--inexorable

justice, unstinted liberality, prompt recognition of efficient

service, merciless punishment of serious infractions of discipline.

His increasing power invited the adherence of malcontents who held

responsible posts under the government, among them not a few renegades,

those pests of every administration whose credulous weakness heeded

their protestations or trusted their loyalty. In the year 886,

Ibn-Hafsun was assisting one of these traitors in the defence of

Alhama against the prince Al-Mondhir. The bandit chieftain had been

wounded in a sally, and the garrison was about to surrender, when

news reached the prince of the death of his father, and necessitated

his immediate return. This unhoped-for change in his fortunes offered

an opportunity which the wily Ibn-Hafsun was not slow to appreciate.

By plausible representations he induced many towns to submit to his

authority, and the accession of Al-Mondhir found him at once confronted

with a powerful enemy, whose military genius and fertility of resource

promised a long and doubtful struggle for supremacy.

The death of Mohammed was sudden and peaceful. His reign of thirty-four

years was the most stormy and unfortunate of any hitherto directed by

the Ommeyade monarchs. In addition to manifold political calamities, it

was afflicted with a drought severe beyond all hitherto mentioned in

the annals of Spain, with famine and pestilence, and with earthquakes

that increased the mortality to an appalling degree.

This epoch is conspicuous for the shameful degradation of the Ommeyade

dynasty of Spain. In its general features, it also presents an epitome

of the evils which afflicted the Hispano-Arab domination under every

ruler and in every age. The inherent vices of the Moslem system; the

irreconcilable character of the constituents of Moslem society--their

turbulence, malignity, and faithlessness--were discernible alike under

the administration of Abd-al-Aziz, the first of the emirs, and of

Boabdil, the last of the kings. The condition of Mohammed at times

seemed desperate. The majority of his subjects were in rebellion.

Twenty years of warfare had failed to subdue Toledo, which, with the

extensive territory subject to it, was now practically independent. The

power of the Christians was increasing daily. Their boundaries were

steadily advancing southward. Their banners had even been seen from

the walls of the capital. The Franks had obtained a permanent foothold

in the Gothic March, forever lost to the jurisdiction and the faith

of Islam. The mighty kingdom which had once reached from the banks of

the Garonne to the Mediterranean had shrunk to the dimensions of an

insignificant principality. Septimania, Leon, Aragon, Catalonia, and a

large portion of Castile were in the hands of the enemy. In the North,

the walis of the scattered fortresses which still preserved a nominal

allegiance to the Emir were secretly leagued with the infidel. In the

West, the audacious Ibn-Merwan plundered at will the rich settlements

of Estremadura and Lusitania. Valencia and Murcia, the nurseries of

many a serious revolt, exhibited unconcealed signs of disaffection,

caused by the imposition of excessive taxes and the uncontrolled

rapacity of their governors. In the South, the daring Ibn-Hafsun, the

representative of the prejudices and the aspirations of a numerous

and growing faction, exercised despotic rule over the greater part of

Andalusia. Brigands swarmed on the highways. Travel was impossible,

except under the protection of a strong escort. Communication between

the great cities of the Peninsula was as difficult as if they had been

separated by vast continents or seas. At one time, for eight years,

intercourse was entirely suspended between Saragossa and Cordova. In

every community an ill-defined but universal presentiment of impending

evil prevailed. Society was distracted by the quarrels of theologians,

frivolous in their nature, but often serious in their consequences.

In the history of Islam, a dispute concerning a religious formula or

the authenticity of a tradition had, more than once, led to a bloody

proscription, or involved entire nations in war. While the majority

of the Christian tributaries acquiesced in the conditions imposed

by the Moslem laws, numbers of deluded fanatics, resorting to every

species of outrage and blasphemy, courted the tortures and the fame of

martyrdom. Much of the country was depopulated. Where the inhabitants

remained, agricultural and commercial operations greatly declined,

and in some districts were absolutely suspended. The public revenues

were diminished to such an extent that even the penuriousness of the

Emir, aided by the extortions of his merciless officials, could with

difficulty provide for the necessary expenses of the royal household.

At the death of Mohammed, scarcely one-fourth of the territorial

area over which he claimed sovereign jurisdiction acknowledged the

legitimacy of his title or contributed to the maintenance of his power.

The evidences of national decadence are only too perceptible in

the disappearance of public spirit and military virtue; in the

incessant prosecution of intestine warfare; in the almost unresisted

encroachments of the Christian arms; in the habitual treachery of

officers entrusted with high commands; in the jealousies of courtiers

and the intrigues of fanatics; in the feigned enthusiasm of crusades

inaugurated in obedience to the principles of Islam, sometimes crowned

with partial success, but often terminating in disgrace and disaster.

The character of Mohammed was principally remarkable for irresolution

and parsimony. He surrendered whole provinces and degraded his dignity

by humiliating concessions extorted by the threats of insolent chiefs

of banditti. Such was his meanness that, in a transaction involving

the payment of more than a hundred thousand dinars, he defrauded the

treasury officials of a few pieces of copper. He reduced the pay of

his soldiers. He condescended to share the salaries of government

employees, whom he appointed conditionally upon the division of

their earnings. Yet, with these serious faults, he was the patron of

science, the friend of the learned, a graceful poet and orator, and

one of the most accomplished calligraphists of his time. The lack

of effective organization; the secret and implacable hostility that

pervaded every branch of the body politic; the boldness and tenacity

of the Asturians, aided by the sympathy of an innumerable body of

Christian ecclesiastics domiciled in every city and village of the

empire; and the unavoidable catastrophes of nature, render it extremely

problematical whether, under similar circumstances, a prince possessed

of greater ability than Mohammed could have better sustained the

declining fortunes of the emirate.