REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN III.
912–961
Eminent Qualities of the New Ruler--His Firmness--Rapid
Subjection of the Rebel Territory--Dissensions of
the Christians--Defeat of Ibn-Abi-Abda--Death of
Ibn-Hafsun--Impaired Power of the Arab Nobles--War with the
Fatimites of Africa--Rout of Junquera--Abd-al-Rahman assumes the
Title of Khalif--Its Significance--Invasion of Castile--Reverse
of Alhandega--Civil Wars of the Christians--The Princes of Leon
and Navarre visit the Moslem Court--Abd-al-Rahman dies at the
Age of Seventy Years--His Remarkable Achievements--The Greek
and German Embassies--The Saracens in France and Italy--The
Slaves and their Influence--Plot of Abdallah--Condition of
the Country under Abd-al-Rahman III.--Cordova--Its Wealth
and Magnificence--The Royal Villas--The City and Palace of
Medina-al-Zahrâ--Melancholy Reflections of the Greatest of the
Khalifs.
The sceptre of the emirate had, by the choice of Abdallah, been
bequeathed to Abd-al-Rahman, his grandson, to the prejudice of his
second son, Al-Modhaffer, who stood next in the order of succession.
Mohammed, the heir to the throne, accused of treason, had perished in
a dungeon, the victim of the jealousy or the justice of his unfeeling
father. The circumstances attending this tragedy, as well as the
events which provoked it, are alike involved in uncertainty. That the
heir apparent should have allied himself with the Christians, have
served under the banner of Ibn-Hafsun, the implacable enemy of his
race, and have attempted to overturn the very government which it was
his duty as well as his interest to support, seems highly improbable.
Yet this is what we are led to infer from the obscure statements of
such chronicles as condescend to mention, even with meagre details,
this episode of the reign of Abdallah. That the deed was not entirely
without justification may be presumed from the fact that the latter has
not received, on this account, the denunciation of posterity. Reverence
for the greatest sovereign of the Western Empire has silenced the voice
of criticism, which might otherwise have arraigned the treachery and
ingratitude of a father. These motives have combined to invest with an
air of mystery an occurrence whose consequences were so momentous in
their subsequent influence on the history of the Peninsula.
The character of the young prince was conspicuous for every excellence
which could either be inherited or conferred by education. His person
was attractive, his manners affable and urbane, his talents conspicuous
in a court renowned for its wit, its learning, and its eloquence.
His skill in chivalrous exercises evoked the acclamations of the
soldiery. His knowledge of affairs, and his capacity to carry to a
successful issue the most delicate transactions of diplomacy, had
long been the admiration of venerable and distinguished statesmen.
The fond partiality of his grandfather, who was constantly haunted
by the memory of a crime induced by political necessity, had caused
the youthful heir to the throne to be instructed in all the knowledge
to be acquired in the most accomplished and enlightened society of
Europe. The fortunate object of this solicitude early demonstrated his
eminent fitness for the responsibilities of his exalted destiny. A
thirst for knowledge, combined with a precocious sedateness of demeanor
tempered by a sprightliness, which, while it had nothing in common
with frivolity, yet enlivened the discussion of the most serious and
prosaic questions of philosophical research, procured for him the love
of the scholars of Cordova; whose opinions were respected by even
the barbarian nations of Christendom. The general satisfaction with
which the accession of Abd-al-Rahman was received demonstrated not
only the propriety of the selection but also the great popularity of
the prince. Nothing occurred to disturb the public tranquillity. The
members of the royal family, who, with color of right and encouraged
by precedent, might have disputed the succession, were the first to
attest their loyalty to the new sovereign. A feeling of confidence
seemed to pervade all ranks of society, as the result of an event
which promised the reconciliation of long-existing enmities; the
submission of rebellious vassals; the encouragement of commerce; the
security of agriculture; the return of that long-banished and most
priceless of blessings, domestic peace. With the natural expectation
of these benefits were mingled not unreasonable visions of romantic
crusade and foreign conquest. The martial spirit of the nation had
been perverted rather than discouraged by the incessant religious
and political seditions of nearly half a century. There was scarcely
a family in which was not included at least one soldier whose scars
gave proof of his acquaintance with the perils and accidents of the
field of battle. The people were weary of intestine turmoil. The time
was most opportune for the exercise of the talents of a ruler whose
tact was equal to his courage, and whose magnanimity rose superior
to the mean and selfish gratifications of persecution and revenge. A
fortunate combination of circumstances prepared the way for the longest
and most brilliant reign of the Ommeyade Khalifate. The spirit of
rebellion was broken. Repeated reverses and an impolitic apostasy had
impaired the prestige and weakened the once invincible following of
the great partisan leader, Ibn-Hafsun. The few surviving heads of the
Arab aristocracy had lost the greater part of their influence. Weary
of strife, their families decimated, their possessions diminished, the
tribesmen of the Koreish began to seriously question the expediency of
incessant revolution, whose risks and privations offered such a marked
and unfavorable contrast to the undisturbed and luxurious enjoyment
of Andalusian civilization. The universal diffusion of knowledge, the
free discussion of scientific problems, the numerous schools, the
acknowledged supremacy of intellectual acquirements over blind and
unreasoning credulity, had perceptibly weakened the power of Islam.
The imams saw with dismay the portentous increase of skepticism, which
threatened alike the emoluments of their office and the foundations
of their faith. The congregations were as numerous, the donations as
liberal, the prayers to all appearances as fervent as formerly, but the
destructive poison of infidelity permeated and was fast corrupting the
entire mass of society. The Christians of the North, who had maintained
their independence through the dissensions of their neighbors, were
now themselves harassed by disastrous revolutions fomented by aspiring
princes who, regardless of the danger which constantly menaced their
territory, never hesitated to sacrifice the welfare of the nation for
the uncertain dignity of royal power. The ancient realm of the Asturias
had spread far beyond the limits of the sierras whose craggy solitudes
had protected its infancy, and had expanded into the kingdoms of Leon
and Navarre, whose petty monarchs wasted in attacks upon each other the
energy and the treasure which would have been more profitably employed
in thwarting the ambitious designs of the infidel.
The crafty and vacillating policy of Abdallah, who was ignorant of the
art of either conciliating or punishing his enemies, and whose crimes
excited the abhorrence of his rebellious subjects while they failed
to arouse their apprehensions, was repugnant to the open and fearless
nature of Abd-al-Rahman. The former had contented himself with the
doubtful evidence of vassalage implied by the payment of tribute.
But the lofty spirit of his grandson was not to be satisfied with
this ambiguous concession to sovereignty. No sooner had he ascended
the throne than he issued a proclamation requiring the unconditional
submission of his subjects, regardless of previous affiliations of
race or religion. To such as properly acknowledged his title he
extended his clemency; but those who persisted in defiance of the law
and in resistance to the constituted authority, he declared should
be removed beyond the pale of indulgence or mercy. This firmness,
which, in view of recent events and the power exercised by rebel
chieftains, seemed to partake of imprudence, not to say of audacity,
soon justified the wisdom and foresight of the prince who adopted it.
The large cities, whose population was most affected by the evils of
anarchy, were the first to return to their allegiance. Ecija, Jaen,
Archidona, and Elvira, whose seditions had long vexed the peace of the
empire, were the first places of importance to open their gates to the
new sovereign. The provinces of which the cities of Jaen and Elvira
were the capitals, dotted with countless strongholds and infested
with partisans leagued with Ibn-Hafsun, still, however, refused
to abandon their habits of rapine; and Abd-al-Rahman prepared, in
person, to reduce to subjection these turbulent vassals, whose habits
of independence, confirmed by almost unbroken success, had induced
them to regard their arms as invincible. But the bandit chieftains
of the Sierra Nevada and the Serrania de Ronda had not taken into
consideration the changes which had occurred in the rude society to
which they themselves belonged. The strong personality and remarkable
achievements of Ibn-Hafsun had hitherto kept united the lawless
elements, which, collected from every province of Africa and Spain,
had found a secure refuge in the mountains of Andalusia. Now, however,
the apostasy of their leader had diminished the confidence and relaxed
the enthusiasm of his followers. His summons to arms was unheeded,
or obeyed with ill-concealed marks of disaffection. The depleted
ranks of his army forced him to the employment of Berber mercenaries,
barbarians wholly destitute of attachment to the cause they served,
and who were always liable in the crisis of a battle to desert to the
enemy under the promise of higher pay. The knowledge that they might,
in the future, be enrolled in the ranks of their present adversaries,
thus hampered their efforts, and induced them to inflict the least
possible damage upon their tribesmen who fought under the standard of
the Emir. From furious battles, in which were often exhibited feats
of prowess worthy of a more chivalrous age, the conflicts with the
brigands of the sierras had become noisy and harmless encounters,
without spirit and without bloodshed. A feeling of mutual distrust,
which needed little provocation to ripen into acts of open hostility,
was engendered between Ibn-Hafsun and his subjects. A growing sense
of insecurity had, years before, caused the rebel leader to swear
allegiance to Obeydallah, the Schiite prince of Africa. Exasperated
by this confession of weakness, the officers of the army were further
alienated by the gifts and honors lavished upon the Pagan mercenaries,
who had supplanted in the favor of their commander the tried veterans
of many campaigns.
For thirty years the Spanish and Berber elements had exhausted every
resource in futile attempts to shake off the Arab yoke. No decisive
victory had ever attended their arms. The struggle never rose above a
merciless guerilla warfare. A large part of the province of Andalusia
was depopulated. Peasants were massacred by thousands. Harvests
were wantonly destroyed. Whenever a town was surprised or taken by
storm, the entire population was butchered. And yet, despite all
their efforts, the savage outlaws, who posed as the deliverers of the
Peninsula, seemed no nearer the attainment of their professed object
than at the beginning. In fact, with all his courage, activity, and
address, Ibn-Hafsun was deficient in the qualities indispensable to
leaders who aspire to organize revolutions and found great dynasties.
His chieftains were often guilty of flagrant insubordination. Some,
confiding in the impregnable situation of their castles, even
proclaimed their independence. The great body of the peasantry--whose
fathers had sympathized with the cause of rebellion and had been
plundered and murdered by their nominal protectors--regarded the
mountain robbers with unspeakable dread and abhorrence. To them the
disadvantages attending the exercise of despotic power were trifling
in comparison with the evils by which they were constantly menaced.
Similar sentiments had begun of late to be secretly entertained by
quite a respectable number of the brigands themselves. The disaffection
of the latter was increased by fears of the ultimate restoration of
Christianity.
Like all apostates, Ibn-Hafsun hastened to signalize his conversion and
confirm his sincerity by conspicuous acts of oppression. Renunciation
of Islamism was encouraged by promises of military honors and high
employments. Moslem officers of distinguished merit were neglected or
regarded with disfavor. To the horror of the disciples of Mohammed,
costly churches rose upon the sites of mosques which had existed since
the Conquest. The court of Ibn-Hafsun became the resort of ascetics,
who from conviction or policy aspired to martyrdom, and openly
performed, to the disgust of the orthodox beholder, the revolting
severities of monastic discipline. The daughter of the rebel chief
herself retired to a cloister, whence she was, years afterwards,
dragged forth to pay the penalty of apostasy, a fate eagerly welcomed
as the fulfilment of a prophecy pronounced by a vagrant monk. The cause
which popular enthusiasm had once invested with a national character,
supported by the traditions of Iberian, Roman, and Gothic dominion, and
which held out delusive hopes of national independence, had disappeared
in the atrocities of the worst of all struggles, a religious war
conducted by renegades. Another powerful element, once allied in
sympathy with the party of Ibn-Hafsun, was now with unbroken unanimity
arrayed against him. The Conquest had brought relief and liberty to
many thousands of families that for generations had groaned under the
oppressions of slavery and serfdom. The remembrance of their sufferings
had been bequeathed to their descendants, and the knowledge that the
restoration of the Christian religion would certainly be accompanied
with the enactment of laws depriving them of the freedom they enjoyed,
confirmed the loyalty of the latter, which had been temporarily
shaken by the disorders of the emirate. With feelings of mingled
apprehension and gratitude, they compared their present condition with
the degradation and miseries of their ancestors, whose most tyrannical
masters had been found in the ranks of the ecclesiastical order, now
seeking by every art of intrigue the re-establishment of the supremacy
of their Church, the recovery of their confiscated lands, and the
restoration of their ancient and irresponsible privileges. The bold
front presented by the rebel forces was formidable only in appearance.
The disintegration of the faction which had more than once threatened
the Moslem capital and the throne of the West was complete. It needed
but the presence of the sovereign to expose the hopeless condition
of an already abandoned cause. Such was the state of society in the
disaffected territory of the emirate, and such the character of the
adversaries with whom the youthful Abd-al-Rahman was now called upon to
contend.
The appearance of the royal standard was the signal for the voluntary
surrender of the greater part of the provinces of Jaen and Elvira. The
castles which had long been the seat of outlawry and brigandage were
razed. As soon as the open country had been secured, Abd-al-Rahman
pushed forward without hesitation into the heart of the sierra. At
first he met with stubborn opposition, but the capture of the strong
town of Finana was followed by the submission of every chieftain
whose proximity to the scene of action led him to fear the exemplary
vengeance of an exasperated master. In less than three months not
a single castle in the Sierra Nevada remained in possession of
the insurgents. Instructed by the experience of his predecessors,
Abd-al-Rahman adopted the most prudent and effective means for
retaining his conquests. The governors and their families were removed
to Cordova. The rebel garrisons were replaced by veterans whose
fidelity was unquestioned. Pardon was granted to all, excepting such
as had rendered themselves undeserving of clemency by the commission
of atrocious crimes. The dignity of the crown was further secured by
the re-establishment of judicial tribunals and the appointment of
magistrates whose reputation and experience were a guaranty of the
faithful discharge of their duties. The moral effect of these politic
measures, the amiable character of Abd-al-Rahman, and the reputation he
enjoyed for justice accomplished as much for the pacification of the
hostile territory as the fear inspired by his arms. His first important
act after assuming the regal office was the remission of taxes,
which, imposed by the necessities or the avarice of his predecessors,
weighed heavily upon a distracted and impoverished people. The general
amnesty which he had proclaimed; his solicitude for the welfare of
his subjects; his firmness in dealing with those who disputed his
authority; the spirit he manifested by appearing at the head of his
troops, who for years had not seen the face of their sovereign; the
physical attributes with which nature had adorned a noble and majestic
presence, all conspired to captivate the imagination and inspire
the respect of both the civilians and the soldiery. A confidence
mingled with enthusiasm and reverence was awakened at his approach,
and the useful members of every community, disheartened by years of
turmoil and misfortune, welcomed each bloodless and decisive victory
of the youthful monarch as an additional harbinger of a peaceful and
prosperous reign.
The city of Seville, now governed by the powerful family of the
Beni-Hadjadj, while a nominal dependency of the emirate, was, in all
respects save this dubious mark of subordination, the seat of an
independent principality. The authority of the Emir was not recognized
within its walls. The Divan had no voice in the appointment of the
officers charged with its government. The levying of troops for
service under the royal banners rested entirely upon the caprice or
discretion of the Arab princes, who had wrested from an enfeebled
dynasty the richest province of the empire. Even the collection of the
annual tax was considered a mere act of condescension and courtesy,
a privilege liable to be revoked at the pleasure of the haughty
tributary. But discord, arising from the ambitious and irreconcilable
pretensions of the Arab aristocracy, had invaded the councils of the
Beni-Hadjadj. The order of succession had been broken, and, through
fortune or by superior abilities, a collateral branch of the Koreishite
family which claimed the sovereignty had been elevated to power.
The unsuccessful competitor, Mohammed, sought the camp of the Emir,
promising his homage in consideration of assistance. The dignity of
Abd-al-Rahman not permitting him to countenance the equality of a
rebellious subject, the offer was rejected, but the Arab noble was
graciously permitted to enlist as a volunteer. A formidable army
besieged Seville, and Ibn-Maslama, the ruling prince of the House of
Hadjadj, saw with concern his newly acquired dignity menaced with
destruction. In his extremity he applied to Ibn-Hafsun. An attempt
by the latter to raise the siege resulted in the annihilation of his
army, and the insurgent leader, whose name had lost its terrors,
fled with a handful of followers to the fortress of Bobastro. Not
long after this event, abandoned by his allies and already feeling
the pangs of famine, Ibn-Maslama capitulated. Encouraged by his
success, with no enemy in his rear and the vast resources of the South
at his command, the way was now open to the Emir to carry the war
into the Serrania de Ronda, and to retaliate upon Ibn-Hafsun those
calamities which he had so long and so ruthlessly inflicted upon the
defenceless peasantry of Andalusia. His preparations were made with
all the prudence and sagacity of an experienced general. The bulk of
the population of the sierra was attached by interest or conviction
to the dogmas of the Christian faith, and the natural courage of the
mountaineer was animated by assurances of divine aid and a burning
desire for martyrdom. From the moment when he penetrated into the
defiles that traversed the domain of Ibn-Hafsun, the Emir experienced
a determined resistance. His foraging parties were ambushed and cut
off. His convoys were intercepted. Having formed the siege of Tolox,
where Ibn-Hafsun commanded in person, a sudden sally of the garrison
was planned with such boldness and success that a panic seized the
army, and a great disaster was narrowly averted. But the genius and
perseverance of Abd-al-Rahman eventually triumphed over all obstacles.
Tolox was taken. Castle after castle was stormed and demolished. The
supplies of the insurgents were exhausted, and they were compelled to
have recourse to the granaries of Africa. The foresight of the Emir
had, however, anticipated this measure of the enemy. The vigilance
of his cruisers blasted the hopes of the famishing rebels, and the
captured ships were added to the navy patrolling the Mediterranean,
while the provisions were conveyed to the royal camp. In time a
considerable extent of mountain territory was conquered; the cities
of Orihuela and Niebla, whose alluvial regions boasted an almost
perennial harvest, were again added to the dominions of the crown;
the tradesmen and the peasantry, alike weary of the contributions
levied by relentless brigandage, zealously co-operated with the
imperial magistrates in the restoration of order; and Abd-al-Rahman,
satisfied with the result of his first campaign and secure against any
attempt upon the capital, now began to meditate an expedition into the
Christian provinces of the North.
The truce negotiated between Abdallah and Alfonso III. was long
preserved by the political necessities which had originally dictated
its provisions. The Emir was fully occupied in a desperate attempt to
retain his crown amidst the commotions of almost universal rebellion
and anarchy. The Christian monarchs were unable to take advantage of
the helpless position of their adversary, on account of the plots and
crimes of princes of the royal house, the intrigues of the clergy,
and the insubordination of ambitious vassals. Alfonso III., compelled
by the unnatural cruelty and ingratitude of his sons to anticipate the
course of nature by resigning the supreme dignity, had descended into
the grave, broken rather by domestic sorrows than by the infirmities
of age. His efforts, when forced to an untimely abdication, had been
directed with many forebodings of evil to an equitable partition of his
dominions. His three eldest sons shared between them the principalities
of the royal patrimony. Garcia received Leon, to Ordoño was allotted
Galicia, Fruela remained at Oviedo. From this epoch dates the origin
of the kingdom of Leon, which, by its proximity to the frontier and
its more advantageous situation, soon absorbed and eventually eclipsed
the dignity and importance of its rivals. The short reign of Garcia
was occupied by a succession of expeditions into the enemy’s country,
which seem to have been attended with no decisive results. Dying,
after three years, without issue, his brother Ordoño received the
votes of the council, and was raised to the vacant throne amidst the
acclamations of the people. Thus the State of Galicia was merged into
that of Leon, and the two, henceforth existing under the name of the
latter, became in time an integral portion of the Spanish monarchy.
Ordoño was already renowned for his valor in an age of military
heroism and romantic enterprise. His accession was signalized by a
foray which laid waste the flourishing province of Merida. Pursuing
the savage policy inaugurated by Alfonso, he massacred all taken in
arms, and enslaved the non-combatants who were so unfortunate as to
fall into his hands. His retreat was purchased by the inhabitants
of Badajoz, who, collecting an immense treasure--to which the
members of the ecclesiastical order were unwilling but important
contributors--induced him to retire. Upon his return to the capital,
he devoted a considerable portion of the booty to the foundation of a
church, dedicated to the Virgin in acknowledgment of her influence and
protection, to which he attributed the auspicious commencement of his
reign.
Although the territory which had suffered from the recent incursion
of the Christians formed part of that region which still refused to
acknowledge his authority, Abd-al-Rahman was not slow to perceive the
advantages which must accrue to him from assuming the championship
of those who were nominally his enemies. The cause was one of vital
importance to all professing the religion of Mohammed. The dignity of
the emirate had been insulted by a troop of marauding barbarians, whom
the polished Arabs of Cordova with justice considered their inferiors
even in feats of martial prowess, and who, if secure of immunity,
would not only extend their ravages further, but also contract a
profound contempt for the inactive and pusillanimous character of their
adversaries. The fickle attachment of the insurgents of the West might
be regained, or at least their gratitude aroused, by a demonstration
in their favor; and the moral effect upon the enemies as well as upon
the partisans of the crown could not fail to be of great and permanent
value. An army was equipped and despatched under Ibn-Abi-Abda to lay
waste the plains of Leon. For fifteen years the Moslem standards
had not been seen on Christian soil, and the swarthy battalions of
Abd-al-Rahman, scarcely known except by fame to the subjects of Ordoño,
were the source of almost as much terror to the superstitious peasantry
as were their ancestors who served under the banner of the redoubtable
Tarik. The venture of the Emir was rewarded with abundant booty; the
avarice of the soldiery was at once aroused and gratified; and, in the
ensuing year, another expedition, organized on a much larger scale,
under pretext of avenging the wrongs of the oppressed people of the
border, but in reality assembled for purposes of rapine, entered the
dominions of the Christian king. Unfortunately for its success, the
bulk of the army was composed of Berber mercenaries--adepts in the
arts of robbery and murder, but deficient in the constancy and courage
requisite for the maintenance of a protracted conflict--and of refugees
not inferior in insubordination and poltroonery to their companions in
arms. This mob soon proved unequal to sustain the determined assaults
of the Leonese cavalry; the Arabs were attacked in their camp before
San Estevan, and a fearful defeat, with the loss of his general,
announced to the Emir the fatal policy of employing a herd of truculent
barbarians, without experience, discipline, or courage, to re-establish
the credit and assert the power of the Moslem arms.
The discouraging effects of this reverse were, to some extent,
counterbalanced by the intelligence of the death of Ibn-Hafsun, whose
operations had harassed, and whose ambition had menaced, the reigns
of three Moslem sovereigns. With the disappearance of their most
implacable enemy, the inhabitants of Andalusia flattered themselves
that they could hereafter pursue their avocations unmolested and enjoy
the results of their industry, hitherto subject to the extortions and
depredations of unrestricted brigandage. But the fallacy of these
hopes was soon demonstrated. The sons of the renowned partisan leader,
Giafar, Abd-al-Rahman, Suleyman, and Hafs, who inherited all his
audacity and no small share of his military genius, sustained for ten
years longer the unequal and hopeless struggle. The wretched peasantry
were again compelled to acknowledge the weakness of the government
and the uncertain tenure by which they held their property and their
lives. Gradually, however, the resources of the emirate, directed by
a firm and skilful hand, began to prevail in the Serrania. Three of
the sons of Ibn-Hafsun were removed by voluntary retirement, by death
in battle, by murder provoked by a double apostasy. The survivor
Hafs, reduced to extremity by the siege of Bobastro, submitted, and,
having become a loyal subject, served afterwards with distinction
in the imperial army. The fanatics who followed in the train of the
Emir, actuated by all the malignity of their kind, caused the tombs
of Ibn-Hafsun and Giafar to be opened; and Abd-al-Rahman, having
learned that the bodies had been interred according to the customs of
the infidel, ordered them to be nailed to stakes before the principal
gate of Cordova. The surrender of Bobastro was soon followed by the
submission of the entire Serrania. In the mean time, the insurgent
chieftains of the mountains of Priego, of Alicante, and other cities of
the opulent provinces of Tadmir, Merida, Santarem, Beja, and finally
of Badajoz, made humble professions of fealty and obedience to the
conqueror.
The rebel territory, which, not many years before, had extended almost
to the walls of the capital, was now limited to the narrow area
inclosed by the fortifications of Toledo. Anxious to avoid bloodshed,
the Emir attempted to open negotiations for the surrender of the city
without resorting to force. But his overtures were rejected; the
Toledans, whose natural inclination to turbulence had been encouraged
by long impunity, and whose taste for a lawless independence had
been strengthened by its enjoyment, dismissed the royal envoys with
haughty disdain. Abd-al-Rahman at once proceeded to invest the city.
The suburbs were devastated. All supplies were intercepted by a close
blockade. The sallies of the besieged were repulsed at every point.
Their last hope vanished with the defeat of a Christian army sent by
the King of Leon to assist them, and the distressed city, after an
obstinate resistance lasting two years, capitulated.
The fierce and bloody struggle which had decimated communities,
destroyed the accumulations of industry, and retarded national progress
for nearly half a century was finally at an end. From the confines
of the County of Barcelona to the shores of the Atlantic, from the
Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, the authority of Abd-al-Rahman was
now acknowledged as supreme. The danger of successful rebellion had
disappeared with the name and fortunes of Ibn-Hafsun. Since the time
of Sertorius, no leader had so ably defended the cause of the Spanish
people. The effect of the protracted contest in which the latter had
participated had been to raise them from the position of outcasts
to an equality with their ancient oppressors. The brigand chief of
the sierras had been, in a measure, the peculiar champion of their
rights. Though long a Moslem, his following had consisted largely of
Christians, and he had finally been received into their communion. His
sagacity and generous confidence had entrusted them with important
civil offices, with the conduct of delicate negotiations, with
embassies to Africa, with the command of armies. Experience in warfare
had brought with it the civilizing influences which develop, even in
the midst of destruction, increased intelligence, a more tolerant
spirit, a higher sense of personal dignity and honor. Accustomed
from the earliest times to an arbitrary government, while nominally
fighting for liberty, they yet saw nothing repugnant in the despotism
of the emirate. But it was different with the Koreishite nobles, whose
arrogant pretensions had provoked and precipitated the long series of
calamities now happily terminated. The licentious freedom of the Desert
was their ideal, the salutary restraints of authority their aversion.
The haughty pride engendered and transmitted through countless
generations of chieftains in whose veins coursed the purest blood of
Arabia, and whose achievements were recounted in the passionate strains
of famous poets, induced them to regard with ineffable disdain, and to
subject to every indignity, all who were not members of their exclusive
caste. The day of these insolent lords was now over. Of all the parties
whose quarrels had distracted society theirs had fared the worst.
Never strong in numbers, their ranks had been thinned by the ordinary
casualties of war; by the evils inseparable from poverty; by summary
executions for treason. Their power had been so effectually destroyed
that they appear no more as a disturbing element in the annals of
the Peninsula. Submitting, although with reluctance, to the force of
necessity, they by degrees contracted alliances with the faction once
the object of their scorn, and lent their unwilling aid to the noble
project of Abd-al-Rahman, which aimed at a complete fusion of races
and the obliteration of hereditary feuds and ancient prejudices. The
last important constituent of the population, the Berbers, preserved,
under apparent conformity to custom, their character of mercenary and
idolatrous barbarians, who, not amenable to the benefits of peace,
were destined erelong to demonstrate the suicidal policy which had
introduced such perfidious allies into the heart of the empire.
The pacification of the dominions of Abd-al-Rahman had not been
perfected a moment too soon. An enemy more dangerous than any that
had yet menaced the throne of the Ommeyades had appeared on the coast
of Africa. The Ismailians, a branch of the Schiite sect reformed
by a shrewd and ambitious charlatan in Persia, had, through its
missionaries, supplanted the dynasty of the Aghlabites, and now
ruled, with a splendor heretofore unknown in that country, the opulent
and fertile strip of territory extending from Mauritania to Egypt.
The same motives, the same aspirations to supreme power disguised
under professions of religious reformation which had prevailed in
Spain, inspired the leaders of this moral and political revolution.
The tyranny and pride of the Arab nobles had caused the formation of
secret societies, organized ostensibly for the purification of the
faith and the benefit of the oppressed, but in reality to further the
treasonable designs of able and daring conspirators. The hypocrisy of
the latter, who in secret scoffed at all religion, may be gathered from
the following saying current among them: “Prophets are nothing but
impostors, whose real object is to obtain pre-eminence over other men.”
The Fatimite dynasty in Africa had risen to power with a rapidity
astonishing even to an age accustomed to the ever-varying phenomena
of Moslem revolution. Its head, Obeydallah, who traced a fictitious
descent from Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet, assumed the sacred name
and character of Madhi,--the inspired and holy personage whose coming
had been announced by Mohammed. The cruelties perpetrated by the
Fatimites upon their enemies are incredible. No torture was too severe,
no persecution too sanguinary, for those who dared to resist their
demands. The world stood aghast at the horrors of the African conquest.
The prestige derived from a pretended origin gave the fanatics
encouragement to assert the Schiite pretensions to infallibility, and,
by the right of inheritance, to claim the dominion of the world. They
were thoroughly familiar with the politics, intrigues, and military
resources of the Peninsula. Their spies were to be found in every walk
of life. Merchants, travellers, soldiers, dervishes--many of them
men of great intelligence and observation--were in their pay, and
regularly transmitted reports of the condition of trade, the location
of treasure, the prospect of order, or the progress of revolution to
their employers at Kairoan. The famous geographer, Ibn-Haukal, was one
of these Fatimite emissaries, and his work contains many of the results
of his experience which are not complimentary to the general condition
of Mohammedan Spain, the capacity of its rulers, or the humanity of his
own intolerant sect. There is reason to believe that a considerable
party favorable to the reformers, and consisting largely of the better
classes, existed in that country; and it is certain that the Berbers,
whose sympathies were readily enlisted in favor of everything African,
would have deserted by thousands to serve under their banners. This
alarming state of affairs had been promoted by an obscure prediction
sedulously propagated by the agents of the Fatimites, which announced
that an African sovereign was one day to rule over the Peninsula,
and all who believed it confidently asserted that the time of its
realization was at hand.
Fully cognizant of the dangers attending the victorious progress of
the Ismailians, who were now engaged in the conquest of Mauritania,
Abd-al-Rahman heard with joy the appeal for assistance of the
exiled princes of Necour, whose family for more than a century had
been connected with his own by the closest ties of affection and
gratitude. The distinguished refugees who had with difficulty escaped
the vengeance of the tyrant of Kairoan were furnished with ships and
munitions of war, and, by the policy of their benefactor, soon regained
possession of their lost inheritance. Aware of the impossibility of
permanently holding an isolated province against the overwhelming
forces of the enemy, the Prince of Necour at once proclaimed the
authority of the Ommeyades throughout his dominions; and the prudent
generosity of Abd-al-Rahman was rewarded by the addition of a new
state--which embraced the larger part of Mauritania--to the already
extensive territory of his empire. Thus, by the interposition of a
tributary province between the frontiers of Eastern Africa and Spain,
the destructive advance of the Fatimites was stayed, and the permanence
of the Ommeyade dynasty assured for two centuries longer.
The dangerous ambition of the African fanatics having been checked,
Abd-al-Rahman was at liberty to turn his attention to the only foe who
now dared to make war upon him,--the Christians of the North. A great
victory was won by the minister Bedr at Mutonia; and the Leonese,
thoroughly humiliated and convinced of the mutability of fortune,
retired sullenly within the walls of their castles. Impatient of the
monotonous life of his capital and ambitious of military distinction,
Abd-al-Rahman now resumed command in person, and, entering the enemy’s
country, left in his wake the dreary evidence of rapine and desolation.
Osma, Clunia, and San Estevan--over whose gate the head of the
unfortunate general, Ibn-Abi-Abda, had been nailed--were stormed and
destroyed. Navarre was invaded; its king, Sancho, beaten in a pitched
battle and driven into the forests of the Pyrenees. The latter then
effected a junction with Ordoño, and the two monarchs offered battle in
the Valley of Junquera. Accustomed to ambuscade and to the protection
of their native rocks and defiles, the mountaineers proved no match for
the Moorish horsemen in the field. A more signal catastrophe than that
of Junquera had never afflicted the Christian cause. The slaughter was
appalling. The country for leagues was strewn with the bodies of the
slain. A great number of prisoners fell into the hands of the Moslems,
not the least important of whom were the militant bishops, Dulcidius of
Salamanca, and Hermogius of Tuy, who, following a custom ante-dating
the Battle of the Guadalete, were taken, sheathed in armor, and
fighting bravely in the front of battle.
After this victory, no serious resistance was offered to the Moslem
advance. The light Moorish cavalry swept like a hurricane along the
frontier of Navarre. The comparative poverty of the inhabitants
presented few attractions to the invaders, who were forced to content
themselves with flocks and the produce of the fields instead of
the more tempting booty offered by the opulence and luxury of more
civilized nations. The accumulation of provisions was so great in the
Arab camp that they could not be removed, and a vast quantity of wheat
was given to the flames to prevent it from falling into the hands
of the enemy. This campaign was characterized by all the ruthless
barbarity of the time. The women and children of the mountaineers were
enslaved. The unsuccessful resistance of a garrison was followed by its
extermination. The savage instincts of the Berbers were indulged by
tortures and all the arts of the most exquisite cruelty. Whenever these
barbarians encountered a monastery not one of the holy fathers was left
alive. There was now visited upon the Christians a severe retaliation
for the unspeakable horrors which they had been in the habit of
inflicting upon their infidel adversaries in the name of the Gospel of
Peace.
It is a striking peculiarity of the warfare so long waged between
Moslem and Christian in Spain that disasters of the greatest apparent
severity, no matter by whom endured, were productive of no substantial
advantage to the conqueror. Many causes conspired to produce this
anomalous result. The immense resources of the emirs were insufficient
to protect their extended frontier. The numerous castles erected by
the Kings of Leon and the Counts of Castile to retard the advance of
the Arab squadrons failed to intimidate the bold riders of Andalusia.
Thus the armies of either nation penetrated with trifling difficulty
into the heart of the other’s dominions. The extraordinary recuperative
power of the Christians was manifested during the following year
by an expedition of Ordoño, which carried the standard of Leon to
a point but one day’s journey from Cordova. Other evidences of the
indomitable character of his enemies--who continued to capture his
towns and carry off his subjects--having impressed Abd-al-Rahman
with the necessity for future reprisals, he entered Navarre with an
irresistible force. Pampeluna was taken, and its cathedral and many
of its houses destroyed. The attacks of the King of Navarre, whose
efforts were restricted to the feeble devices of guerilla warfare, were
invariably repulsed. The death of Ordoño, and the quarrels resulting
from a disputed succession which followed that event, paralyzed for a
time the efforts of the Christians, and enabled Abd-al-Rahman to take
an important and long meditated step for the increase of his greatness
and the consolidation of his power.
It had hitherto been a legal maxim promulgated by the jurists, and
unanimously recognized by the potentates, of the Moslem world that
the title of Khalif, or Successor of the Prophet, was the peculiar
attribute of that monarch whose dominions included the cities of
Medina and Mecca. The control of the territory of the Hedjaz was thus
considered to carry with it a degree of distinction and sanctity
corresponding to that now conferred upon the successors of St. Peter
by the choice of the conclave and the ceremonies of investiture
which attend the accession of the spiritual sovereigns of Rome. The
princes of the Abbaside dynasty had preserved their title, even
after they had been deprived of the greater part of their empire;
but now, descended to a state of tutelage to powerful vassals, and
restricted in jurisdiction to the walls of their capital, they appeared
to all true believers unworthy of an appellation which implied so
much responsibility and had been the incentive to so much renown.
Considerations of respect for ancestral greatness, the claims of
religious prejudice and established custom, so revered by the Oriental,
no longer existing in their former intensity, the Ommeyade Sultan did
not hesitate to appropriate, in the character of the most opulent
and distinguished of Moslem rulers, a title that had been virtually
abandoned by a dynasty whose degenerate princes had demonstrated their
incapacity to defend it, or even to appreciate the proud and holy
distinction which its possession implied. Conscious of his merits, and
believing that the past achievements of his reign had earned for him an
honor which the imbecility and dependence of the monarchs of Bagdad had
forfeited, Abd-al-Rahman issued an edict in which he assumed the titles
of Amir-al-Mumenin, Commander of Believers, and Al-Nassir-al-Din-Allah,
Defender of the Faith.
For three years the disorders which agitated the kingdom of Leon
suspended hostilities between the Christians of the North and
the khalifate. After many months of anarchy, defiled by horrible
crimes,--crimes which recall the worst scenes that disgraced the
revolutions of the Visigothic empire, assassinations, tortures, the
blinding of some royal captives, the poisoning and starvation of
others,--Ramiro II., a prince of great address and experience, ascended
the throne. Through his intrigues with the governor of Saragossa, of
the powerful family of the Beni-Haschim, he obtained the support,
and at length received the allegiance, of the latter. Garcia, King
of Navarre, was also induced to join the confederacy, which, thus
including all the provinces of the North, both Christian and Moslem,
offered an unbroken and formidable front to the power of the Khalif.
Once more the intrepid Abd-al-Rahman prepared for war. The issue of the
campaign was everywhere favorable to his arms. Ramiro was worsted in a
series of battles. Mohammed, the insurgent chief of the Beni-Haschim,
was besieged in his capital, and either the fears or the clemency of
his sovereign restored to him the trust he had so flagrantly betrayed.
The monarch of Navarre and his mother, whose ambition had taken
advantage of the youth and inexperience of her son, were compelled
to sue for pardon at the feet of the Khalif, and to receive from his
hands, as suzerain, the government of those states which had formerly
been transmitted by Sancho the Great as an independent kingdom.
Elated beyond measure by his triumphs, Abd-al-Rahman conceived the idea
of a grand expedition that might conquer the infidel states of the
North and exterminate, or expel forever, those obstinate and dangerous
enemies whose enterprise was a constant reproach to the zeal of the
Mohammedans and a menace to the prosperity and safety of the khalifate.
In accordance with this resolution the Djihad was proclaimed. A hundred
thousand men rushed to arms. Volunteers came from Egypt, Syria,
Mauritania, and the Libyan Desert to be present at the humiliation of
the infidel, and to share in the plunder of his fields, his churches,
his palaces. Great magazines of provisions and munitions of war were
collected in suitable localities. Pack-trains composed of thousands of
beasts of burden were assembled. No precaution was neglected to insure
success. Surrounded by his splendid body-guard, the Khalif appeared
in person at the head of this immense host, but, with a want of tact
which did little credit to his knowledge of human nature, he bestowed
the command upon Nadja, a Slave, to the exclusion of the nobles, who
saw with inexpressible indignation their hereditary pretensions to
command subordinated to the favor enjoyed by an officer of inferior
rank and of more than plebeian extraction. The Moslems came upon the
allied army of Leon and Navarre at the village of Alhandega, not far
from Salamanca. Undaunted by the superior numbers of the enemy the
Christians bravely sustained the attack. The treachery of the Arab
officers, invested with important commands, aided the intrepidity of
the Leonese; the aristocratic chieftains, preferring the gratification
of their resentment and defeat at the hands of the infidel to victory
under a general of base and ignoble lineage, withdrew, and the Moslems
underwent a terrible defeat. The commander-in-chief was killed. Whole
divisions were destroyed; many distinguished soldiers were dragged away
to the dungeons of Leon and Pampeluna; and the Khalif himself, with
only forty-nine survivors of his numerous escort, succeeded with the
greatest difficulty in escaping the swords of the Christian cavalry.
The imminent peril he had incurred, the sudden disappearance of his
magnificent army, and, perhaps, the consciousness of the impolicy of
his conduct or fear that fortune had averted her face from him, so
affected Abd-al-Rahman that he never again exposed his person in the
field of battle.
But the results of a victory which promised to be so advantageous to
the cause of Christendom was, as usual, nullified by the personal
quarrels and revolutionary proceedings of the conquerors. The County of
Castile, a dependency of the Asturian crown, grown powerful through the
signal abilities and eminent services of its present ruler, Ferdinand
Gonzalez, a personage famous in mediæval history and fable, aspired to
the name and privileges of an independent kingdom. Its governor was
a vassal whose fief was hereditary, but who held his office at the
pleasure of the monarch, and, so far as the scanty annals of the age
afford information, no province of the Peninsula was more inclined
to turbulence and sedition. To distract the attention and divert the
aims of this dangerous population, the Kings of Leon subdivided the
province into four portions; but the counts who subsequently ruled it
found no difficulty in reconciling their pretensions when resistance
to the central authority was involved. A new plan was then devised by
Ordoño II. The four counts were decoyed, upon a specious pretext, to
a conference at Tejiare, on the borders of Castile and Leon, and put
to death. The county now remained without a recognized leader until
the rise of Ferdinand, whom the admiring gratitude of the Spaniards
has exalted to the station of a demigod, and to whose prowess is to be
justly attributed the foundation of the famous monarchy of Castile.
The claims of Ferdinand Gonzalez to the affection and confidence of
his people had been established by many gallant deeds in war and by
noble acts of private munificence in peace. In the numerous campaigns
of Ramiro II. his voice had always been heard in the thickest of the
fray. The spoil he collected from the enemies of Christ he bestowed in
the erection of religious houses, in whose charters the name of the
founder’s suzerain was ostentatiously omitted. His influence was so
great that the sovereign was forced to overlook these insults to his
dignity, and to even seek to gain the support or secure the neutrality
of his formidable vassal by the marriage of his own daughter to the son
of Ferdinand. The attention of the count had been, of late, engrossed
by the expeditions of the Moslems which ravaged his territory, but the
rout of Alhandega gave him an advantage; and, formally revoking his
allegiance, he declared war against the King of Leon. Ramiro, however,
soon proved too strong for his rebellious vassal. Ferdinand was thrown
into prison, his estates were confiscated, and the government of his
dominions transferred to a stranger. But neither the promises nor the
threats of the sovereign could shake the fidelity of the Castilians. In
public acts and proclamations they defiantly effaced the name of Ramiro
and inserted that of Ferdinand. Their devotion carried them to the
verge of idolatry. They made a statue, arrayed in the habiliments of
the illustrious exile, and, on bended knee, proffered to the senseless
marble their unfaltering and reverent homage. Finally, their enthusiasm
impelled them to march in a great body to the capital and demand the
release of their lord, a request which the King of Leon saw proper to
grant, but only under conditions that deprived the Count of Castile of
much of his political influence and power.
The death of Ramiro was the signal for a bitter contest between his
sons, Ordoño and Sancho, for the possession of the throne of Leon. The
assistance of Ferdinand Gonzalez was invoked by the younger son Sancho,
and the Count of Castile, perceiving the advantages that he would enjoy
in the _rôle_ of king-maker and which must eventually lead to his
entire independence, seized without hesitation the golden opportunity.
A bloody civil war ensued, in which Navarre also became involved,
and hatred of the infidel was forgotten in the furious encounters
of domestic strife. In the meantime, the armies of Abd-al-Rahman
ravaged at will the Christian frontier. Raid followed raid with the
assurance derived from constant impunity. The market-places of the
Andalusian cities were heaped up with the significant trophies of
victory,--crosses and crucifixes, embroidered vestments and jewelled
censers, side by side with ghastly pyramids of heads, the number of
the latter in one instance reaching five thousand. Distracted by the
double peril of Castilian revolt and Moslem invasion, Ordoño III. sent
ambassadors to Cordova to solicit peace. A treaty was drawn up by which
the Leonese King agreed to surrender a number of the castles which
protected the frontier; but before this condition could be fulfilled
Ordoño died, and his brother Sancho, who succeeded him, peremptorily
refused to execute the treaty. Hostilities were thereupon renewed; an
Arab force invaded Leon; and a decisive victory gained by the general
of the Khalif, Abu-Ibn-Yila, taught the imprudent Sancho the folly of
resisting, without adequate resources and preparation, the growing
power of the Moorish sovereign.
Sancho appears to have been a prince of ability and resolution, but
his ideas of the royal prerogative were too decided for his age.
Ambitious to enjoy the arbitrary rights which had been conferred by the
ancient Visigothic system, he bent all his efforts to the suppression
of the aristocracy, and, what was more dangerous still, neglected to
conciliate the ecclesiastical order, whose wealth, and the veneration
with which it was regarded, would have made it a dangerous antagonist
for any monarch. The experiment, always a hazardous one, was doubly
so in the case of Sancho, to whom fortune had denied those personal
characteristics which elicit the applause or captivate the attention
of mankind. An excessive and increasing obesity rendered him incapable
of locomotion without assistance, and he had long since found it
impossible to mount a horse. Among an active and athletic people
whose trade was war, whose pastimes were found in the chase and the
field, and with whom all martial exercises were at once a pleasure
and a necessity, the spectacle of a helpless monarch, like Sancho the
Fat, was one calculated to excite only sentiments of the deepest
contempt. But when to this physical disadvantage were added an arrogant
and despotic bearing and an ill-concealed intention to retrench the
privileges of the nobility, whose members considered themselves, by
reason of the theoretically elective character of the crown, almost
equal in dignity, as many of them were superior in prowess, to the
princes of the reigning house, the disdain of the subjects of Sancho
was changed into apprehension lest the unwieldy monarch who excited
their ridicule might ultimately develop into a merciless tyrant. A
plot, to which Ferdinand Gonzalez, the professional agitator of the
time, was a party, was formed; Sancho was compelled to take refuge in
Navarre; and Ordoño IV., a hunchback, whose base and servile nature
corresponded with the deformity of his person, was raised to the
Leonese throne. Received with every demonstration of sympathy by his
grandmother, the martial Tota,--the virtual ruler of Navarre who,
for thirty years, had tried with various success the fortune of war
with the emirs of Cordova,--Sancho experienced little difficulty in
obtaining the promise of her aid in the recovery of his crown. But
Navarre, a mountainous and thinly peopled region, was now exhausted
by continued hostilities, and, indeed, had never been strong enough
to cope unaided with the more extensive kingdom of Leon. An alliance
with some foreign power was therefore an indispensable requisite for
the successful prosecution of the design. In the formation of this
alliance no choice was possible. One monarch alone, the Ommeyade
Khalif, whose resources were sufficient to accomplish the desired end,
could be approached, and that monarch was separated from the Navarrese
queen by the remembrance of all the outrages of incessant warfare,
of the enslavement and decapitation of thousands of her subjects, as
well as by the barrier of a hostile faith, whose ill-comprehended and
purposely distorted tenets were the abomination of every Christian.
Other considerations rendered the present concession to the demands
of a detested adversary even more galling. The warlike princess had
commanded the Navarrese at the rout of Alhandega. She had seen the
pride of the Ommeyades abased. She had trailed their banner in the
dust. Multitudes of captives and incalculable spoil had attested
the prowess of her subjects. The greatest of the Moslem sovereigns
had fled before her arms. The emergency, however, admitted of no
alternative, and demanded the sacrifice of pride and the oblivion
of past injuries, which, in the eyes of Tota, were eclipsed by the
present outrage upon her family. Another motive impelled her to have
recourse to Abd-al-Rahman. The infirmity of Sancho was certainly not
constitutional, and perhaps was not incurable. The reputation of the
Jewish and Arab physicians for learning and skill was unequalled in
the world, and the most eminent practitioners of that calling were
residents of Cordova. It was evident from the experience of Sancho
that the recovery of his health was an indispensable condition of
his restoration to power. Sacrificing her prejudices to imperative
necessity, and with a reluctance she could ill conceal, Tota despatched
a formal embassy to the capital of the khalifate.
Abd-al-Rahman received the envoys of the Queen of Navarre with
distinguished courtesy, and directed them to announce to their royal
mistress that he would at once send an ambassador to her court, who
would prescribe the conditions under which he would accede to her
requests.
The Jew Hasdai was the agent designated by the Khalif to discharge
the duties incident to this important mission. One of the most adroit
and experienced negotiators of the time, the versatile genius of
Hasdai had enabled him to attain to almost as exalted a rank in the
profession of medicine as he had reached in the arts of diplomacy. He
was further qualified for the post by his enjoyment of the confidence
of his sovereign; by his thorough acquaintance with foreign tongues,
including the idiom of the Christians; and by his vast erudition and
elegant manners, which fascinated all with whom he came in contact.
The occasion was one that required an emissary of more than ordinary
ability. The instructions of Hasdai included a demand for the cession
of ten fortresses in the territory of Leon, to be made as soon as
the usurper had been expelled; and that Sancho himself, his uncle
Garcia,--the nominal King of Navarre, in whose name Tota exercised
the royal authority,--and the Queen should come in person to Cordova
and sign the treaty. While no material objection was interposed to
the first condition, in the discussion of the second it required
all the address of Hasdai to overcome the repugnance of Tota to the
humiliation that such a step implied. Finally, however, the eloquence
and craft of the envoy prevailed, and, attended by a numerous company
of ecclesiastics and nobles, the three Christian monarchs began
their tedious journey. Their passage through the Moslem dominions
was attended with every manifestation of public curiosity that such
an extraordinary circumstance could excite. Immense crowds lined the
highways. Cities and villages were emptied of their population, whose
dense masses often seriously interfered with the progress of the
escort. The arrival of the sovereigns at Cordova was signalized by a
magnificent reception, more appropriate to victorious allies than to
petitioners for the recovery of a throne. But the tact of the Khalif
led him to disguise, as far as possible, the humiliating character he
had compelled his guests to assume; and his dignity was at the same
time enhanced by the exhibition of that opulence and grandeur which
the occasion enabled him to display. The treaty was duly signed, and
it was concerted between the parties that the power of the khalifate
should be directed against Leon, while the forces of Navarre made
simultaneously a diversion towards Castile, to prevent the co-operation
of Count Ferdinand with the enemy.
No event of his long and brilliant reign did more to increase the
prestige and strengthen the authority of the famous Moslem ruler than
this stroke of profound policy. The enthusiasm of the people was
unbounded. The feuds of centuries were, for the moment, forgotten in
the indulgence of the feelings of national pride and exultation. The
Jewish and Moslem poets contended with each other in celebrating a
triumph without parallel in the annals of Islam, and lauded the fortune
and the glory of a prince whose achievements had humbled the pride of
the common enemy of their respective sects.
Meanwhile, the medical skill of the accomplished Hasdai had perceptibly
reduced the enormous bulk which had virtually cost the unfortunate
Sancho his crown, and, by the time the Moslem army was ready to
march, he had fully recovered his former lightness and activity.
The campaign was of short duration. City after city was taken; the
entire kingdom renounced the usurper, and Ordoño was driven into the
Asturias. The expedition of the Navarrese was attended with equal
success. Ferdinand’s army was beaten, and he himself taken prisoner.
The mountaineers now refused to shelter any longer a dethroned monarch
whose personal character rendered him unworthy of their sympathy, and
Ordoño was compelled to flee into Castile.
This decisive campaign was the last of the warlike enterprises of the
great Abd-al-Rahman. An imprudent exposure brought on an attack of
pulmonary disease, which defied the skill of the ablest physicians,
and, after an illness of several months, the most renowned sovereign
who had occupied the Ommeyade throne of the West expired at the age of
seventy years.
His reign lacked but a few weeks of reaching the extraordinary length
of half a century. His deeds, however well authenticated, seem almost
to pass the bounds of human credulity. When he received the sceptre,
the regal authority was scarcely recognized within the narrow circuit
of the walls of the capital. When that sceptre fell from his palsied
grasp, the haughty descendants of the Visigoths, the champions of the
Christian faith, the hitherto invincible mountaineers whose pride
and bigotry exceeded even their valor, were his devoted vassals and
tributaries. The most formidable rebellion that had ever afflicted the
Peninsula--a rebellion of thirty years’ standing--was crushed. The
physical traces of that long and disastrous struggle were removed; the
hatred which sprang from it, more implacable than even the aversion of
sect to sect, was allayed. A foreign invasion which threatened not only
the destruction of his race, but the extirpation of all knowledge and
all civilization, was checked, and a long respite given to the cause
of science and the avocations of peace. His predecessor bequeathed
to him an uncertain revenue drawn from a precarious tribute; his own
genius, besides providing for the enormous expenses of government, for
the construction of great public improvements, and for the demands of
a luxury without precedent in its extravagance, was still enabled to
leave in the public treasury a sum equal to a hundred million dollars.
A powerful navy assured the safety of the coast from foreign attack,
and permitted the development of a commerce whose agents had already
established themselves in every province of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
As a result of this extensive trade, the bazaars of the Andalusian
cities abounded with objects of luxury, whose existence had hitherto
been unsuspected by the isolated population of the Peninsula. The
effects of this intimate and constant intercourse with many nations
were, moreover, disclosed by a marked refinement of manners, by
an increased degree of mental activity, by a high appreciation of
the benefits conferred by the possession of learning, and by the
emancipation of the human mind from those theological prejudices
which, in every age, have been at once the cause and the evidence of a
condition of abject intellectual servitude.
The fame of Abd-al-Rahman had penetrated the most remote and barbarous
regions of the globe. Princes of every rank in friendly rivalry
endeavored, by every resource of munificence and adulation, to secure
his friendship and promote his interests. Splendid embassies, bearing
rare and priceless gifts, were frequently seen in the streets of the
capital. The most remarkable of these was one despatched by Constantine
Porphryogenitus, the Byzantine emperor, whose pride made him ambitious
to surpass, in the superb appointments and pompous ceremonial of his
representatives, the reputed magnificence of his distant ally. But
exhibiting, as it did, all the evidences of the opulence and grandeur
of the master of the Eastern Empire, the embassy of Constantine was
eclipsed by the gorgeous blaze of the Ommeyade Court. Its reception
recalled the extravagant tales of Oriental romance. The approaches
to the palace were lined with the guards of the Khalif, whose gay
uniforms, burnished armor, and jewel-hilted scimetars glittered in
the dazzling rays of an Andalusian sun. Beautiful awnings of silk
were suspended over court-yard and archway. The halls of the Alcazar
were hung with cloth of gold and silver, and with tapestry whose
folds exhibited intricate patterns of the most exquisite arabesques.
Through gardens of aromatic plants, through colonnades of many-colored
marble, over floors of polished mosaic, the envoys were conducted to
the audience chamber. Here were seated the Khalif and the members of
his family, while ranged around them stood the great civil and military
dignitaries of the empire, the chiefs of the eunuchs, the officials
of the royal household. After a profound obeisance, the ambassadors
presented the letter of their sovereign. It was of sky-blue parchment,
inscribed with letters of gold. The seal was also of the same precious
metal; it bore on one side the effigy of the Saviour, and on the other
the medallions of Constantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a
golden box carved with wondrous skill, and it, in turn, was placed in a
case enveloped in tissue of silk and gold. On the lid of this case was
a mosaic portrait of the Greek emperor.