No one was more disturbed than Motamid. By every device familiar to

that superstitious age, he endeavored to read the signs of futurity

and, with the aid of means emphatically condemned by his religion as

idolatrous, to ascertain the inscrutable will of God. His attendants

carefully noted the occurrence of every mysterious omen and augury. The

court astrologers were kept busy with gnomon and astrolabe observing

the positions of the planets and the propitious or unfavorable

indications of the heavens.

Before dawn, on the twenty-third day of October, 1086, word reached

the Moslem camp that the enemy was in motion. The suspicions of the

officers of Motamid were verified, and the appointment of a day for the

engagement had been only a ruse to facilitate a surprise. The situation

of the Andalusians was critical. Their camp was not fortified. Their

deficiency in numbers and lack of discipline rendered them ill-fitted

to withstand the attack of the entire Christian army. Messenger after

messenger was despatched to Yusuf representing the danger. But the

Berber chieftain, although his troops were under arms, still remained

inactive. He had matured a design of whose success he was confident,

and he now only awaited a favorable opportunity for its execution.

Without the least solicitude for his allies, whose sarcastic allusions

to the intellectual inferiority and uncouth manners of his race had

embittered the prejudice already existing between the two nations, he

was not unwilling that they should expose their weakness by vainly

imploring the aid of those whom they had repeatedly insulted. With

the first shock of battle the Andalusians were thrown into disorder,

and all, except the soldiers of Motamid, who were soon surrounded

and overwhelmed by numbers, fled ignominiously from the field. The

Prince of Seville and his followers, although taken at such a fatal

disadvantage, sustained with unshaken firmness the furious onslaught of

the Christian host. Motamid himself nobly redeemed upon that glorious

day the tarnished reputation of his house, and emulated the exploits of

the ancient heroes of the khalifate by the performance of prodigies

of valor. He courted death and martyrdom in the very thickest of the

fight. He was twice wounded, and had three horses killed under him.

His armor was broken; his sword dripped with the blood of his enemies;

and the heap of corpses which lay before him attested the strength

of his arm and the dauntless resolution of his spirit. At length a

large reinforcement of Africans arrived, and the diversion they caused

permitted the Andalusians a momentary respite. In the mean time the

crafty Yusuf, favored by intervening mountains, had gained the rear

of the army of Alfonso, and suddenly descended like an avalanche on

the Christian camp. Enveloped by thousands of ferocious warriors, the

guard was instantly cut to pieces. The tents were set on fire, and

the Castilians saw with astonishment and dismay the conflagration of

their camp and the plunder of their equipage. Day was breaking as the

forces of the Moslems bore down upon their rear. The strange aspect,

the odor, and the discordant cries of the camels, of which there were

hundreds in the Berber army, frightened the horses of the Christians

and threw them into confusion. Motamid’s division, now become the

assailants,--for the front of the battle had been reversed through the

unexpected manœuvre of the Africans,--inspired by the hope of victory,

redoubled its efforts. Thus taken unawares, crowded within a narrow

compass, and attacked on opposite sides, the numerical superiority of

the Christians was rather a serious impediment than an advantage. Their

ranks, disordered by the camels, doubled back upon each other; the

closeness of their array prevented effective action; and those exposed

to the scimetars of the Berber horsemen were unable either to retire

or to defend themselves. In the long series of sanguinary engagements

which marked the progress of the Reconquest, none was more stubbornly

contested than the battle of Zallaca. Time and again the Moslem

position was taken and lost. The pride and valor of the Castilians

contested with determined obstinacy the field which a few hours before

they had thought already won. The return of the fugitive Andalusians,

the prowess of the soldiers of Motamid, and the charge of the guards

of Yusuf decided the doubtful fortune of the day. The wavering of the

Christian army soon became a rout, the rout a massacre. The infuriated

Africans, unaccustomed to the usages of civilized warfare, gave no

quarter to their fleeing and helpless enemies. The flower of the

Castilian nobility perished. The entire loss of the Christians was

more than twenty thousand. The infantry was scattered, and Alfonso,

dangerously wounded with the dagger of one of Yusuf’s guards, succeeded

in escaping with but five hundred followers. The approach of darkness

alone prevented the utter annihilation of the Christian army.

The battle of Zallaca was not attended with the advantageous and

important results to the Moslem cause which its decisive character

would naturally indicate. Inordinate greed and official negligence

permitted the escape of the wounded monarch, whose capture would have

been a fitting termination to such a victory. The clumsy horses of the

Christian knights were no match in speed or endurance for the swift

coursers of the Desert. The condition and departure of Alfonso and his

escort--none of whom escaped unhurt--had been observed, yet the plunder

of the fallen and the rich spoils of the camp possessed greater charms

for the Berber soldiery than the seizure of a captive whose ransom

might be worth a kingdom. The call to prayer upon the battle-field was

made by the muezzin from an elevation formed of the heads of thousands

of slaughtered Christians.

The day after the battle, Yusuf, who had bestowed his share of the

booty on his Moorish allies, received intelligence of the death of

his son at Ceuta, and, his mission for the time accomplished and the

security of his allies assured, he returned to his dominions, leaving a

strong detachment of experienced troops under command of the Prince of

Seville.

The danger which had threatened the Moorish dominions on the northern

side having been disposed of, Motamid, elated by the distinction he had

gained at the battle of Zallaca, determined to attempt the expulsion of

the Christians from Eastern Spain. This, as he was well aware, would

prove no easy undertaking. The provinces of Valencia and Murcia were

at that time controlled by the most formidable bands of mercenaries,

adventurers, and outlaws in Europe. The principal seat of this military

banditti was Aledo, a fortress occupying the summit of an isolated

mountain, and whose defences, natural and artificial, were supposed

to be proof against the utmost skill of the mediæval engineer. Here

were conveyed indiscriminately the sacrilegious plunder of mosques and

churches, the hard-earned possessions of the husbandman, the enslaved

peasantry of the Valencian and Murcian villages, and the beautiful

female captives of Andalusia. The robbers domiciled in this fortress

served under Castilian officers and were nominally Christians, but

their allegiance to both creed and crown was precarious; destitute of

faith, religion, or loyalty they were composed of the dregs of every

nation, and even many renegade Moslems were enlisted in their ranks.

The garrison of Aledo could muster thirteen thousand fighting men.

The victory of Zallaca, whose consequences were not permanent even

in the region where it had been obtained, had in nowise affected the

distant provinces of Eastern Spain. The Moorish population were daily

more and more harassed by raids and enforced contributions; the

inhabitants of the most fertile districts were greatly diminished in

numbers by violence and flight; and it was evident that erelong the

feeble remnant of the industrious race which had transformed that

portion of the Peninsula into a paradise must be either enslaved or

exterminated by the outlaws of Valencia and Aledo.

Motamid, whose meritorious intention to avenge the injuries of the

Arabs of the eastern principalities was further justified by the fact

that Lorca and Murcia both owed him allegiance--the one by right of

inheritance, the other by the title of voluntary submission--and could

consequently demand his protection, having assembled his army, which

included the Almoravides whom Yusuf had placed under his command, began

his march towards Murcia.

But the expedition, commenced with overweening confidence and

vainglorious boasts of success, ended in disgrace and failure. The

presages declared by the astrologers to be favorable proved delusive.

In the first encounter with the Christians, three thousand of the

soldiers of Seville were cut to pieces by one-tenth of that number

of the enemy. The invasion of Murcia was productive of nothing

advantageous. The Berbers of Yusuf, ashamed of the pusillanimity of

their allies, sympathized with their adversaries; the designs of

Motamid were regularly communicated to the officials of the enemy;

and the Prince of Seville, alarmed by the mutinous clamors of his

followers, abandoned the enterprise in disgust.

It was now evident that the Christian power was firmly established in

the East, and that the unaided resources of the Moslems were unable to

overturn it. All eyes were again turned towards the court of Morocco,

and emissaries of the cities affected by the curse of Christian

brigandage importuned with repeated solicitations the intervention

of the redoubtable Sultan of Africa. The latter, however, while

receiving these petitions with courtesy, awaited the action of some

one high in authority. At length the exhortations of the faquis, who

saw with horror the encroachments of the infidel and the consequent

peril of their order, prevailed upon Motamid himself to assume the

office of representative of the religious and political interests of

the disheartened Moslems of Spain. Yusuf welcomed the royal ambassador

with every token of respect; he promised immediate compliance with

his request; and, his preparations completed, he again appeared in

Andalusia at the head of a well-appointed army.

The siege of Aledo was formed, but, as the place was impregnable to

escalade, it was found necessary to reduce it by siege, a proceeding

whose delay could not fail to operate to the injury of the allies,

impatient of discipline and unaccustomed to the monotonous and inactive

routine of the camp. Acting under the instruction of their masters, the

partisans of Yusuf, who abounded among the Spanish Moslems, promoted

by every resource of intrigue the aims of the ambitious Sultan.

His following, especially since his triumph over the infidels, was

formidable in numbers and influence. The great body of the nation,

taxed and re-taxed, alternately raided by Christians and robbed by

collectors of the revenue, oppressed with arbitrary impositions, their

privacy invaded, their families insulted, their children enslaved,

their property destroyed, were willing, in sheer desperation, to

welcome any change as a blessing. The government, which they paid so

dearly to maintain, was not able to protect them from outrage for a

single hour. In addition to this numerous body of partisans, Yusuf

could calculate on the support of the kadis, the muftis, the faquis,

and the imams,--all of the subordinate officers of the government,

all of the ecclesiastical guides of the people. These two classes

regarded the ignorant and fanatical Sultan almost in the light of

a Mussulman saint. The ministers of religion especially, whose

material interests were at stake in the struggle impending between

Moslem tyranny and Christian persecution, were among the most ardent

supporters of a change of dynasty. Their admiration was rewarded, and

in part created, by the attentive reverence with which Yusuf listened

to their admonitions and adopted their counsels. On the other side were

the philosophers and the poets, the scientific and literary society

of the various capitals, still animated by the intellectual principle

which had long been the boast and glory of the khalifate. As a rule,

the lords of the various principalities were then, and had been, almost

without exception, generous patrons of literary genius. The courts

of Seville, Malaga, Almeria, Murcia, and Toledo were inspired by the

example of their once celebrated prototype, Cordova. Freedom of opinion

was indulged without restraint. The inconsistencies and vices of the

theologians were held up to public derision by satirical poets amidst

the applause of sympathetic and delighted audiences. The atheistical

doctrines maintained by the philosophers with all the resources of

learning and eloquence were the scandal and aversion of the orthodox

and fanatical believer. The polished Andalusians ridiculed without

mercy the blunders and illiteracy of Yusuf. He was unable to express

himself fluently in Arabic; indeed, he was scarcely familiar with

the rudiments of that tongue. The similies and rhetorical beauties

of poetical diction he could neither understand nor enjoy. Like most

uneducated persons he was profoundly superstitious, a failing by which

his religious counsellors in case their expectations should be realized

would not be slow to profit. In his eyes, the opinions of the faquis

were oracular; and the promotion of this caste to the practical

control of the government boded no good to the favorites of royalty,

whose scornful speeches rankled in the minds of the objects of their

sarcasm and contempt. A large body of respectable citizens--merchants,

farmers, artificers--joined with the philosophers and the wits in

opposition to the establishment of an African dynasty. Long before

the fall of the khalifate,--a catastrophe not without reason imputed

to Berber agency,--that name had been a term of reproach. Savage

mercenaries from beyond the strait had repeatedly sacked the capital;

had destroyed the magnificent cities of Medina-al-Zahrâ and Zahira; had

spread desolation through every province of Andalusia; had swept away

forever the proud evidences of a civilization which had been the glory

of Europe for centuries. A series of disastrous civil wars had been the

consequence of the attempts of these odious foreigners to establish, at

the expense of the legitimate proprietors of the Peninsula, a vexatious

and intolerable tyranny. Such were the conflicting factions whose

machinations were carried on in the face of the enemy before the walls

of Aledo.

But a single consideration restrained, for the time, the impulses of

Yusuf. He had solemnly sworn before his first expedition that he would

attempt nothing to the prejudice of his allies. From that obligation

the most trusted of his ecclesiastical guides, with an effrontery

that would have done credit to a Jesuit, now promised to release

him. The prevailing arguments of their casuistry were based on the

necessity of protecting the transcendent interests of religion, which

were seriously threatened by the disorganized condition of the entire

country. The scruples of Yusuf were, however, not entirely removed

by these representations, and, while he was still hesitating, the

broils of the Andalusian princes turned aside his attention from the

engrossing projects of personal ambition. Motasim, the Berber lord

of Almeria, had for years been on friendly terms with Motamid. An

indiscreet remark of the latter reflecting on the Sultan was reported

to him; it was traced to Motasim; and the mutual denunciations of the

rivals distracted the peace of the camp. The claim of Seville to the

suzerainty of Murcia was another source of discord, which eventually

caused the defection of the people of that kingdom and the retention

of supplies vitally essential to the subsistence of the besiegers. The

dissensions of his allies, the inclemency of the season, the scarcity

of provisions, and the information that an army of Christians was

approaching induced Yusuf to raise the siege. The casualties of war

and famine had greatly reduced the garrison of Aledo during the four

months that the place was invested. The walls had been weakened by the

military engines, and a determined effort on the part of the besiegers

would have easily carried it by storm. Alfonso, finding its citadel

untenable, completed its destruction that it might not be occupied by

the enemy, and, without any further demonstration, returned to his

dominions.

The retreat of the Moorish army was the signal for fresh intrigues on

the part of the malcontents. They feared that the withdrawal of Yusuf

in the face of the enemy would redound to his injury by diminishing

his prestige and by impairing the confidence of the masses in his

ability to contend successfully with the power of Castile. The Kadi

of Granada was the most active of these conspirators. His treasonable

designs were detected by his sovereign, and he was imprisoned, but

afterwards escaped to Cordova. The fears of his comrades incited them

to redoubled energy. The princes of Malaga and Granada were declared

in an assembly of muftis and faquis to have forfeited their rights

on account of alleged breaches of the law and persecutions of the

expounders of religion; and Yusuf was enjoined, as the representative

of justice and the avenger of the Faith, to seize their dominions.

Encouraged by the assurances of these hypocritical partisans, the

African prince with his entire army marched on Granada. Abdallah,

the sovereign of that kingdom, was conspicuous for cowardice and

incompetency among the degenerate Moslems of his time. He had inherited

none of the martial virtues of his Berber ancestors. He was a patron

of letters, but his studies had not awakened in him either the desire

for glory or the patient resignation to the decrees of fate which are

among the fruits of assiduous research and meditation. The models

of Mohammedan greatness inspired him with no wish to imitate their

exploits. The sight of a drawn sword threw him into convulsions. His

habitual indecision, even in matters of trifling moment, provoked the

derision of his courtiers. Unlike his race, he was insensible to the

charms of female beauty, a defect which excited more contempt than

his pusillanimity among a people with whom impotence is considered a

judgment of God. He was able to write passable verses; he was familiar

with the most celebrated Arab authors; he excelled in the art of

chirography, and had copied and illuminated a Koran, whose reputed

perfection was probably not wholly due to flattery in an age fertile in

accomplished scribes. These arts, however meritorious, were far from

qualifying a ruler for governing a kingdom during a period of universal

disorder. To add to his embarrassment, the court of Abdallah was

permeated with treason. The nobility and the people hated each other,

but both hated and despised the King still more; and their mutual

animosities were, for the time, suspended that they might avenge their

wrongs on him whom they were accustomed to regard as a common enemy.

The viziers were in constant communication with Yusuf and with the

exiled Kadi, Abu-Giafar, who, from his refuge at Cordova, directed the

movements of the conspirators.

The Almoravides had already approached within a few miles of Granada,

which was almost defenceless. Alarmed by the suspicions and threats

of Abdallah, his councillors had secretly fled from the city. The

despairing monarch had previously implored the aid of Alfonso, but

the King of Castile had, for some unknown reason, neglected this

rare opportunity to enlarge his dominions and remained deaf to his

entreaties. A large force of artisans and slaves, whose fidelity

was more than suspicious, was enlisted, who, even had they been

so disposed, could not be expected to face with any prospect of

success the ferocious veterans of Yusuf. Finally, convinced of his

helplessness, Abdallah concluded to throw himself upon the generosity

of his powerful enemy. Surrounded with all the pomp afforded by the

richest principality in Spain, he rode out one morning from the

principal gate of his capital. The cavalcade was preceded by the

Christian guards equipped with a splendor not equalled since the time

of the Ommeyades. They were clothed in many-colored robes of silk;

their weapons sparkled with jewels; the housings of their white Arabian

horses were of brocade profusely embroidered with gold. In the rear

rode the monarch attended by his household and encompassed by eunuchs

with drawn scimetars. A multitude of citizens, including a considerable

number of the partisans of Yusuf, closed the splendid procession.

All this display, however, produced no other effect than to excite the

amazement and cupidity of the Sultan. Abdallah, in flagrant violation

of the rites of hospitality, was placed in chains, and his escort was

despoiled. The gates of Granada were thrown open; the Almoravides

entered in triumph; by public proclamation the exorbitant taxes which

had been such a prolific source of discontent were declared illegal

and abolished; and only those sanctioned by Mussulman laws and usages

were pronounced binding upon the people. The enthusiasm which greeted

the appearance of Yusuf after this concession to popular clamor was

unbounded. He was universally hailed as the champion of right, the

friend of the oppressed, the restorer of Islam. Vast crowds blocked

his passage through the streets. Thousands pressed forward to kiss

the hem of his garment. The satisfaction he derived from these

evidences of popularity--the more extraordinary considering the bitter

prejudice existing in Granada against the Berbers--was enhanced by the

contemplation of the riches of his new conquest. On the future site

of the Alhambra stood a palace, whose beauty made it a not unworthy

precursor of that incomparable abode of royal magnificence and luxury.

Within its vaults were treasures of inestimable value, fruits of the

rapacity exercised by many successive princes of Granada. There were

deposited heaps of precious stones; tapestry and hangings of the

finest silk blazing with jewels; a profusion of gold and silver plate;

weapons of marvellous workmanship; exquisite vessels of porcelain and

rock-crystal. No small portion of this treasure consisted of articles

of personal adornment,--chains, bracelets, necklaces, and amulets.

The gem of the collection was a string of pearls, four hundred in

number, perfectly matched in size and color, and each valued at a

hundred pieces of gold. These precious objects, however, were but

inconsiderable when compared with the mercantile and agricultural

wealth of the province from which they had been derived. The Vega,

or plain of Granada, had already reached that remarkable state of

cultivation which subsequently delighted the eyes and stimulated the

avarice of the subjects of Ferdinand and Isabella. Its broad expanse

was dotted with innumerable hamlets and plantations. Its divisions

were marked by hedges of odoriferous shrubs. The silver threads

of the canals with which it was everywhere intersected glittered

in the sunlight, whose intensity was softened by the light vapors

which constantly overhung the lovely valley. The numerous groves of

mulberry-trees scattered over the smiling prospect suggested the extent

and prosperity of the silk industry, while the vast plantations of

oranges and olives, the pomegranate orchards, the multiple harvests,

the gardens of valuable exotics, disclosed the opulence of the

proprietors and the exuberant fertility of the soil. The predominance

of Hebrew influence had raised the products of Granada to high

estimation in the commercial world. Its bazaars were well furnished

with every commodity which could satisfy the simple requirements of the

poor or the pampered luxury of the rich. The political commotions which

had for so long disturbed the Peninsula, while impairing the prosperity

of the kingdom, had by no means checked the enterprise or materially

damaged the resources of its population. The Jew always stood on

neutral ground. The victorious faction often applied to him for advice

and loans; the unsuccessful one was ever ready to pledge its valuables

with him on the hazard of a new revolution. The elevation of one of

his sect to the honorable dignity of vizier had been of incalculable

advantage to his social and mercantile interests. It had afforded

protection and respectability to his avocations; it had enabled him to

project and mature colossal financial enterprises. Thus he plundered

both sides and prospered. Citizens, proscribed for political offences,

and Christians, for whom ecclesiastical denunciation had no terrors,

transacted their affairs through his agency. His ships were to be found

in every harbor; his factors were established in every seaport; his

wares were exposed for sale in every capital of the Mediterranean and

its adjacent seas. At the period of the occupation of Granada by the

Almoravides, its commerce, in wealth and volume, probably exceeded

that of all the other states of the Peninsula, Christian and Moslem,

combined.

No one of ordinary intelligence could still be ignorant of the

intentions of Yusuf, yet the Andalusian princes, with obsequious

servility, felicitated him in the most flattering terms on his success.

The Sultan felt that it was now time to throw off his disguise. He

habitually treated his royal sycophants with marked discourtesy. The

capture of Granada was followed by that of Malaga. Then it was, when

too late, that the Moorish emirs took the alarm. They agreed among

themselves to withdraw their support from the Almoravides and to

suspend all intercourse with them. In their perplexity and despair

they adopted the fatal plan of soliciting a defensive union with the

Christians, an expedient which had invariably proved fatal to their

interests. The King of Castile readily consented to an alliance which,

whatever might be its result, must necessarily increase his power by

fostering the mutual enmity of the contending Moslems. Aware of the

profound importance of confirming his operations by the sanction of

judicial and ecclesiastical authority, Yusuf now demanded of the kadis

and the muftis an opinion on the legality of seizing the kingdoms

of his allies, which they had proved unable to either govern or to

defend. The opinion, when prepared, was all that the most scrupulous

casuist could desire. Its authors assumed responsibility for the

future acts of Yusuf, and declared it was not only his right but his

duty to dethrone and plunder his degenerate allies, who fortunately

no longer possessed the means of successful resistance. To avoid any

future complications which might affect his standing among the devout,

Yusuf caused this opinion of the highest authorities of Spain to be

submitted to the most distinguished jurists, divines, and scholars of

the Moslem world. All, without exception, confirmed it; and the African

Sultan, having in the mean time returned to Morocco, issued orders to

his lieutenant, Ibn-Abi-Bekr, to commence hostilities without further

delay. Tarifa, Cordova, Carmona were taken, and then the Almoravide

leader, determined to strike a decisive blow, pitched his camp before

Seville. The besiegers had many sympathizers in Motamid’s capital,

and their party had been greatly strengthened by the uniform success

which had hitherto attended their enterprises. The indecision and the

apprehensions of the Prince forbade the adoption of summary measures

against these conspirators, who prosecuted, almost without concealment,

their treasonable schemes in the face of the court and the garrison.

The last resource of Motamid depended on the movements of a Christian

force which the King of Castile sent to his aid; but the latter was

beaten in a decisive battle; the fleet which defended the city on the

side of the river was burned soon afterwards; the fortifications were

stormed; and the citizens, after a prolonged resistance, submitted to

the cruelties and the depredations of a barbarous and rapacious enemy.

Motamid with his family and his guards still held the citadel. The

last prince of the Beni-Abbad had displayed in his extremity the

courage and resolution of a Roman veteran. When at last convinced of

the futility of the astrological predictions which had deluded him, he

abandoned the society of his charlatans and exchanged the astrolabe

for the scimetar. With eagerness he courted death in the heat of the

assault, but, despite the most reckless exposure, he escaped without

a wound. Encompassed on all sides by the enemy, the citadel could not

long be defended, and all overtures for a capitulation were met by the

reply that no conditions would be granted. At length Motamid sought

the camp of the Almoravides alone; the citadel was surrendered; and

the instant evacuation of Ronda and Mutola, which were in charge of

two of his sons, was demanded by the imperious Yusuf. Motamid was sent

to Aghmat, a city near Morocco, where, strictly confined and his most

pressing wants neglected, it was with great difficulty that his family,

condemned by necessity to the most menial occupations and clothed in

rags, could obtain sufficient food for the sustenance of life.

The capture of Seville was immediately followed by the submission of

Almeria, Denia, Xativa, and Murcia. The principality of Badajoz, which

comprehended the greater portion of the modern kingdom of Portugal,

was overrun and conquered; the recent acquisitions of the Christians

shared the fate of the Moorish domain; and the court of Castile heard

with dismay of the sudden loss of a territory which had necessitated so

much labor and time to acquire. Motawakkil, Prince of Badajoz, after

his treasures had been wrung from him by torture, was put to death

on the highway by the express command of the Moslem general. Of the

important cities of the South, Valencia alone remained. It was held by

the Cid, who, with a heroism that largely redeemed his bad faith and

notorious inhumanity, defied for five years the combined resources of

the Almoravide monarchy.

In the annals of history or the creations of romance there exists no

individual whose personality is at once so well defined and so obscure

as that of Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar. Fiction has adorned his character

and his career with the noble attributes of piety, valor, generosity,

military genius, religious zeal. To the ignorant and pompous Castilian,

he is to-day the embodiment of chivalrous knighthood. The Church

still regards him as one of the earliest and most devoted of her

champions. Historical tradition represents him as one of the founders

of the Spanish monarchy. The oldest ballad in the Castilian language

was composed by some unknown genius to recount his exploits, which

have also been celebrated in innumerable dramas, epics, and romances.

Not less than a hundred and fifty of the latter have to-day a place

in the literature of Spain. On the other hand, respectable and

well-informed authorities have doubted his existence. Grave historians

and critics have disputed the evidence of his identity. Scholars whose

intellectual attainments entitle them to respect have pronounced the

famous hero a myth, and have strenuously maintained that the accounts

of his deeds which have descended to posterity are nothing more than

romantic fables. In all the domain of historical criticism, there is

no question more fascinating than that which involves the existence

and the achievements of the Cid. The fact is--and out of it has grown

all the ambiguity connected with his name--that this extraordinary

personage was made up of two distinct characters. The Cid of romance

was the exemplar of courtesy, of magnanimity, of honor, the chivalrous

avenger of the oppressed, the model of every Christian virtue. The Cid

of history was something very different, and it is with him alone that

we have now to deal.

The laborious investigations of distinguished Orientalists, and among

them the exhaustive and valuable researches of Dozy, have established

beyond peradventure the existence and the deeds of the Cid. From

Arabic manuscripts, undeciphered until the middle of this century,

have been gradually collected and compiled the incidents which

compose his eventful and stirring career. The evident authenticity

of these memorials, the absence of any motive to exaggerate the

prowess or the accomplishments of an enemy, the well-known accuracy

of the Arab historians, the interesting phases of life which they

depict, the honest indignation of the writers, unaccustomed to the

systematic disregard of solemn engagements, the detailed enumeration

of the spoils of the battle and the foray, place them among the most

valuable contributions of mediæval antiquity. Their publication and

study have removed the idle myths, the absurdities, the irreconcilable

contradictions, which until then had obscured the story of the idolized

hero of Old Castile.

Of his titles, by which he is much better known to readers than by

his family name, that of the Cid, now distinctively applied to him,

was an honorable appellation, a corrupted form of the Arabic Sidi, or

Lord, once given indiscriminately to persons of rank by the Moslems.

Its prevalent use during the Middle Ages was principally due to the

fact that public documents, epistles, and treaties, addressed to or

executed by Castilian and Moorish dignitaries, were drawn up conjointly

in Latin and Arabic, and not infrequently in the latter language alone.

The other title, Campeador, was derived from the custom of chosen

warriors defying each other to single combat in the face of their

respective armies, a favorite mode among semicivilized nations of

exhibiting individual bravery and address, and older than the famous

encounter between David and Goliath. The political disorganization of

the entire Peninsula, even more apparent in the Christian than in the

Moslem states, the still doubtful and unsettled relations between ruler

and subject, the dangerous liberties enjoyed by ambitious individuals

who had the courage and the insolence to demand them, the imperative

necessities the monarch was under to propitiate his powerful vassals,

the presence and example of foreign adventurers, unaccustomed to legal

restraint and acknowledging no authority but that of the sword, all

of these abnormal social conditions rendered it a matter of little

difficulty for a man of valor and energy to rise to great power and

eminence in the state. In those days personal prowess was the highest

title to distinction. There was no room in the disposition and calling

of the rude soldier of fortune for the exercise of the milder virtues.

War was conducted with a revolting brutality that would have disgraced

a race of savages. Familiarity with scenes of blood had blunted all the

nobler instincts of human nature, and even gentle women countenanced by

their presence and their approbation deeds from which they should have

recoiled with horror. The ecclesiastical order promoted by its advice

and absolved by its spiritual power the perpetration of massacres,

rapes, tortures, the starvation of prisoners, the repudiation of

treaties. No preponderating influence attached to the occupancy

of the throne. The prerogatives of the sovereign had not yet been

accurately determined. His authority, based upon ill-defined precedent

and tradition, was in general limited by his ability to enforce his

commands. The great vassals of the crown frequently defied him, cast

him into prison, drove him into exile. The offence of treason was

subjected to wide latitude of interpretation and to even greater

flexibility in the application of its punishment. Sometimes it meant

one thing, at other times another. The most notorious rebels were often

pardoned, and again received into favor. Insignificant culprits were

frequently condemned to endure the most severe penalties. A leader who

had distinguished himself in battle, who was indulgent to his followers

and liberal to the populace, who considered clemency as an evidence of

cowardice, and the extermination of an enemy as a military virtue, was

sure to excite more admiration than the pampered heir of a score of

kings.

The division of the Castilian territory into so many parts, each

claimed by numerous pretenders, was favorable to the independence of

captains who could command the support of a strong body of followers.

Under such circumstances, the royal power could not be centralized or

exerted with effect. While feudalism, in the strictest acceptation

of the term, never obtained in the Spanish monarchy,--and it was not

until the middle of the thirteenth century that the power of the

nobles began to antagonize that of the crown,--an analogous system

of protection and service was generally recognized by the laws as

controlling the relations of vassal and suzerain, a condition, indeed,

almost inevitable in the early stages of civilized society. The leaders

who had renounced these obligations, or were outlawed for crime,

constituted a formidable element of discord in the Peninsula. They

styled themselves “lords,” but they differed from highwaymen only

in that they exercised on a larger scale and with greater impunity

the popular occupation of robbery. They constructed their castles on

isolated and inaccessible eminences, whence they could discover from

afar the approach of danger or the welcome appearance of the rich and

unprotected traveller. Needy adventurers and proscribed criminals

of every nation and of every religion enlisted under their banners.

Prototypes of the Italian condottieri, their swords and their services

were for sale to the highest bidder. When unemployed and thrown upon

their own resources, they plundered indiscriminately without regard to

the nationality, religion, or calling of their victims. A successful

freebooter often commanded an army of thousands of desperadoes. The

most popular and renowned of these outlaws, in an age when judicial

restrictions and regal authority were subordinated to military force,

was Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, the Campeador.

The latter having incurred the hatred of Alfonso VI. on account

of the degradation of that monarch when forced to purge himself of

complicity in the death of his brother, which transaction the Cid was

believed to have suggested, or, at all events, to have favored, and

this prejudice having been aggravated by the alleged peculation of

treasure and tribute intrusted to the Cid by Motamid, the offender

was peremptorily banished from the realm of Castile. The disgraced

partisan, after an ineffectual attempt to enter the service of the

Count of Barcelona, applied for military command to the Emir of

Saragossa. That principality was then governed by the martial and

enlightened princes of the Beni-Hud, whose superiority over most of the

other Moslem dynasties had been demonstrated by the pre-eminence of

their literary accomplishments not less than by their renown in arms.

For more than thirty years, Moctadir, the reigning sovereign, had been

engaged in constant hostilities with his neighbors. In spite of the

present unpropitious condition of his fortunes, the Cid was attended by

a considerable number of followers, and his repeated experience with

Christian mercenaries had taught Moctadir that the services of such

allies were not to be despised. They were therefore received with every

mark of distinction, and were mustered into the army. This accession

proved a most valuable one to the Emir and his sons, among whom he soon

afterwards divided his kingdom. The arms of Rodrigo were everywhere

victorious. The partisan warfare by which the northern provinces of

the Peninsula were incessantly afflicted was thoroughly adapted to

the exercise of his malignant genius. His raids exceeded in boldness

and success the most venturesome enterprises hitherto undertaken by

the Moslems. His infidel comrades stood aghast at the atrocities

committed by his soldiers,--at the wholesale butchery of defenceless

captives, at the unblushing violation of solemn compacts, at the

ingenuity of tortures devised to compel the discovery of treasure.

The expeditions of Rodrigo were carried to the borders of France. He

repeatedly routed the Catalans, the hereditary enemies of his patron.

He captured the Count of Barcelona, an exploit which acquired for the

Emirate of Saragossa great political advantages through the negotiation

of a favorable treaty. He spread desolation far and wide through the

territory of Aragon. The wealth derived from these predatory excursions

was incredible. The Moorish prince regarded his ally with peculiar

favor because of the impartiality he displayed in the collection of

plunder. The vessels of the Christian altar were no more sacred in the

eyes of this impious freebooter than the spoils of a Moslem castle. As

a natural result of his achievements, his popularity among the Moslems

of Saragossa exceeded that enjoyed by any other individual. On his

return from a foray, the inhabitants of the capital received him with

acclamations that might well arouse the jealous envy of the sovereign.

The oppression of Valencia by bands of lawless soldiers of fortune

and brigands had been probably more severe than that endured by any

other province of the Peninsula. But the rapacity and fierceness of

these troublesome guests were now to be aggravated by the presence

and the counsels of a leader experienced in every device of warfare

and extortion. The opulence of Valencia and the presence of many of

his countrymen as the nominal guards of Kadir attracted the Cid to

that region, where his pre-eminent talents for intrigue and villany

soon gave him a decided ascendant over all competitors. He plundered

the defenceless inhabitants under pretence of punishing rebellion. He

extorted great sums from the rich ostensibly for the support of the

government. No class was exempt from his ruinous perquisitions. Even

the clergy were forced to surrender their treasures. He unblushingly

assumed the actual direction of affairs which were administered in the

name of the Prince of Valencia; and as a compensation for his valuable

services appropriated from the provincial treasury every month the

enormous sum of ten thousand pieces of gold.

The Cid had long coveted the possession of Valencia. That delightful

province, which, under the temperate zone and in the enjoyment of an

equable and salubrious climate, yields with lavish bounty the choicest

productions of every clime, had been the prey of many successive

adventurers. The richness of its agricultural resources, the variety

and frequency of its harvests, the excellence of its fruits, the

profits of its commerce, the beauty of its women, imparted to that

highly favored region a peculiar charm in the eyes of the profligate

soldier of fortune. The government of Kadir, sustained by Castilian

mercenaries, had been the scourge of the land. Wealthy nobles had

been impoverished by the exactions of the usurper. The Jews, at

first a most profitable source of revenue, had been driven away by

persecution. Extensive districts of inexhaustible fertility had been

entirely abandoned. The tyranny of the government, the depredations of

the mercenaries and the brigands, made property so insecure that rich

estates were disposed of for trifling sums by their frightened owners,

and the great quantity of land thrown upon the market caused it to

continually depreciate in value. The invasion of the Almoravides was

followed by the withdrawal of the Castilians from Valencia, and the

decisive action of Zallaca relieved the apprehensions of the people of

that kingdom from present danger of interference by the Christians. The

opportunity for relief was too favorable to be overlooked. Every vassal

and tributary of Kadir either declared his independence or placed

himself under the protection of some friendly neighbor. The defenceless

condition of that prince and the encouragement of disaffected citizens

impelled Mondhir, Lord of Denia, to besiege his capital with a strong

force of Arabs and Catalans. Kadir, driven to extremity, sent an envoy

to conclude an alliance with Mostain, Emir of Saragossa. The latter,

while expressing the greatest sympathy for the Prince of Valencia and

declaring his intention to relieve him at once from his danger, was

at the same time engaged in negotiations with the Cid with a view to

despoiling Kadir of his kingdom. By the terms of this agreement, the

capital and the province were to be delivered to the Emir and the

plunder of every description was to be the reward of the Cid. Mondhir,

unable to contend with such formidable antagonists, hastened to raise

the siege at their approach. The Prince of Valencia, while profuse in

his expression of gratitude, refused to comply with the provisions of

the treaty he had concluded with Mostain, being sure of the neutrality

of the Cid, which he had secretly purchased with gifts of enormous

value. Mostain, having thus rendered an important service to an

ungrateful and perfidious ally, returned in a rage to his capital.

The unexampled duplicity of the Cid was now manifested in his overtures

to different rulers whose interests he declared his readiness to

promote, but all of whom he was equally willing to betray for the

accomplishment of his own designs. He represented to the rival

monarchs, Mondhir and Mostain, that he would co-operate with either, at

any time, in besieging Valencia. Then he sent an embassy to Alfonso,

renewing his allegiance and promising him not only the dominions of

Kadir, but also those of the other two Moslem princes whose hospitality

and confidence he constantly enjoyed and abused. Notwithstanding their

repeated experience of his perfidy, these monarchs were led by their

fears and their aspirations to be again deceived by the Cid. It was not

strange, however, that his support should have been eagerly solicited

by every sovereign. No soldier made war with such ruthless barbarity.

When he took a city not one stone was left upon another. No commander

enjoyed such prestige. His consent had been necessary to secure the

accession of the King of Castile. His arms were regarded as invincible.

He had enriched the city of Saragossa with the plunder of its enemies.

The horrible crimes he had committed made his name a bugbear wherever

it was known, and had greatly dimmed the lustre of his renown. His

followers numbered three thousand well-equipped veterans, a force

superior to that controlled by any Moorish prince, and fully equal, man

for man, to the vaunted chivalry of Castile.

Having received assurances of the favorable disposition of Alfonso,

the Cid returned to the court of that monarch, who restored to him

his estates and presented him with a commission by which he was

invested with all the territory he might be able to conquer from the

Moslems, subject only to the obligations of vassalage. The presence

of the most famous military chieftain in Spain at the Castilian court

produced great enthusiasm. He received alike the congratulations of

the King, the compliments of the nobility, and the servile homage

of the multitude. The adventurous youth of the monarchy hastened to

enlist under his banner, and when he again advanced into the enemy’s

country his command had increased to seven thousand men. During his

absence, Mostain had renounced his alliance, and in company with

Berenger, Count of Barcelona, had formed the siege of Valencia. The

approach of the Castilians caused the abandonment of the enterprise,

and the Cid, as has been previously mentioned, established a military

protectorate over that kingdom. Summoned by Alfonso to assist in

raising the siege of Aledo, his dilatory proceedings aroused suspicions

of collusion with the enemy, and his indignant sovereign confiscated

his property and estates and cast his family into prison. The latter

were finally liberated, and the Cid, released from all responsibility

to superior or ally and in command of an army of devoted followers,

was free to prosecute without interference his atrocious schemes of

oppression and rapine. This great force was now afforded the congenial

employment of ravaging the provinces of Eastern Spain. The valleys of

Valencia, Xativa, Tortosa were pillaged without mercy. In the fertile

districts of Orihuela, outside of the city itself, not a single

habitation, not even a wall, was spared. The Count of Barcelona was

again beaten in a fiercely contested battle, and, taken prisoner with

five thousand of his troops, was only able to secure his release by

acknowledging himself the vassal of his conqueror. The power of the

Cid now increased apace. Without a court, or even a fixed residence,

he assumed the manners and displayed the arrogance of an independent

potentate. The weaker Moslem states, unable to contend with success

against his arms, purchased his forbearance by the payment of a ruinous

tribute. Valencia, Segorbe, Liria, Almenara, Xerica, Alpuente, Olacau,

Murviedro, Albarracin were included among his dependencies. Thousands

of Mussulmans served under the banner of the most relentless enemy

of their race. The family of Mondhir entreated him to assume the

guardianship of the infant heir of that prince. From these sources he

received an annual revenue of two hundred and twenty-five thousand

pieces of gold,--three million two hundred thousand dollars,--a sum

indicative of the vast wealth still possessed by provinces long subject

to the ills of extortion, pillage, and depopulation, as well as of

the power of a suzerain who, without the prestige of royal birth or

the support of an established government, was able to levy and collect

it. An expedition against the Moors of Granada, undertaken some time

afterwards by Alfonso, ended unfortunately for the Christians, and

the failure was, as usual, attributed to the treachery of the Cid. An

ineffectual attempt was made to arrest him, and the King of Castile,

assisted by a formidable fleet of four hundred vessels furnished by

the Genoese and Pisans, his allies, proceeded to revenge his offended

dignity by a determined attack on Valencia by sea and land. The Cid

being at that time at Saragossa, and unable to enter or to defend the

city which he already considered as his own, made a destructive raid

into the territory of Alfonso, who was reduced to the necessity of

withdrawing his forces to protect his own dominions. He sustained no

inconsiderable loss by this proceeding of his rebellious vassal in

the utter devastation of the country which marked his progress, as

well as in the ruin of the populous city of Logroño, which was stormed

and burnt to the ground by the army of Rodrigo. The abandonment of

the siege and the absence of the Cid inspired the people of Valencia

with the desire to again place that kingdom under Moslem rule.

Ibn-Djahhaf, the principal kadi, aspired to emulate the example of

Abul-Kasim-Mohammed, who, from the same office, had arisen to the

high position of virtual ruler of Seville. The uncertain temper of

their sovereign, himself an usurper and controlled by men foreign to

the country and enemies to its religion, the distress arising from

the incessantly interrupted operations of agriculture and trade,

the onerous financial burdens imposed by caprice and injustice,

the intolerable insults of the Christian soldiery, who habitually

treated them as inferiors and slaves, had more than once driven the

exasperated inhabitants to the verge of revolution. Now, encouraged

by the exhortations of a man of such prominence as Ibn-Djahhaf, they

eagerly welcomed the opportunity for revenge and independence. A picked

body of Almoravides was quietly admitted into the city; the people

rose in arms; the palace was sacked; Kadir escaped in the disguise of

a woman, only to be taken soon afterwards and beheaded; and a Council

of State, composed of nobles and modelled after the one which had

formerly administered the government of Cordova with such remarkable

success, was instituted. The authority of this august body was somewhat

hampered, however, by the claims of the Almoravide commander, Abu-Nasr,

who intimated that he would hold the city for his sovereign, as well as

by the ridiculous pretensions of the Kadi, who assumed all the credit

of the revolution, and whose incapacity became the more glaring when

observed in connection with his theatrical postures and his feeble

imitation of the dignity and attributes of royalty.

The Cid did not leave the new government long unmolested. His approach

was announced by the flames and smoke of burning villages, and by

the headlong flight of thousands of peasants who came pouring into

Valencia. That lovely city was soon surrounded by a wide belt of

blackness and desolation. Everything indicative of the bounty of nature

or the ingenuity and prosperity of man was ruthlessly swept away. The

settlements for miles around the capital were given to the torch. The

numerous mills which lined the banks of the Guadalaviar, the villas

of the wealthy citizens and the nobles, the boats, magazines, and

warehouses were reduced to ashes. The suburbs were stormed and taken.

Then the Valencians, without prospect of relief, opened negotiations

with the Cid. Their overtures were received with favor; the Almoravide

garrison retired; the former monthly tribute was renewed; and the city

once more recognized the authority of the Castilian adventurer. But the

Almoravide Sultan was not willing to abandon without a struggle such a

rich prize as the kingdom of Valencia. News soon reached the capital

that a powerful force was on the march to reduce it. The domination

of the hated Berber seemed preferable to the insatiable rapacity of

an infidel suzerain. The inhabitants rebelled, and the adherents and

officers of the Cid were driven away. The gates were then closed; the

supreme authority was vested in Ibn-Tahir by the tumultuous voice of

the people; and the latter awaited with anxiety the arrival of the

Almoravides. The Cid, who during the sedition was domiciled in one

of the suburban palaces of the kings of Valencia, while powerless

to prevent the defection of the city, was still able to retard the

approach of the enemy. He caused the bridges to be broken down, and

the dikes having been cut, the country, which for leagues had recently

presented the appearance of a garden, was now transformed into a lake.

Only a narrow causeway was left through the waters, and this approach

could be easily defended by a handful of determined men against a

numerous army.

These vigorous measures produced an unexpected result. Not willing to

incur the hazard of an attack, and their provisions falling short, the

Almoravides, whose watch-fires could already be seen from the towers

of the city, retired. Dismay and terror now filled the minds of the

Valencians. Unable to protect themselves, they knew not where to turn

for aid. Ibn-Tahir, the chief magistrate, did not possess the talents

necessary to inspire confidence in such a trying emergency, and his

unpopularity reflected upon his family. The tribe of the Beni-Tahir

was one of the oldest, the wealthiest, the most honorable in Valencia.

But these considerations for public favor could not preserve it from

the effects of the incompetency of its chief and the unreasoning fury

of the multitude. Ibn-Tahir was deposed, and Ibn-Djahhaf, who, for

his own ends, had diligently encouraged the prevailing discontent,

was raised to power. A mob attacked the palace of the Beni-Tahir, and

the members of that noble family were stoned, insulted, subjected to

the most humiliating indignities, and finally sent in chains to the

camp of the Cid. The latter offered his protection to Ibn-Djahhaf on

the same terms upon which it had formerly been accorded to Kadir, but

as he exacted the delivery of his son as a hostage, a condition which

the suspicious Arab refused to accede to, negotiations were abruptly

terminated. The army of the Cid now closely invested the city, which,

unprepared for a siege, was soon exposed to the most frightful of

calamities. The sufferings of the inhabitants became intense. The

increasing famine caused the most disgusting substances, the most

repulsive animals, to be eagerly devoured. Men fought for refuse in

the turbid current of the sewers. A rat, esteemed a great delicacy,

could hardly be procured for a piece of gold. The wealthy could still

obtain a small amount of grain, which was jealously hoarded by its

owners and only disposed of in small quantities and at fabulous prices.

An ounce of barley sold readily for three dinars. When this supply

was exhausted, they endeavored to sustain their failing strength with

pieces of leather, leaves, bark, and such vegetation as could be

gleaned in the gardens and court-yards of their mansions. The poor had

no resource but cannibalism. In the midst of the universal distress,

Ibn-Djahhaf, apparently unmindful of the future, maintained the state

of a monarch. Within his gates there was no evidence of the want

that was hourly driving thousands to despair and death, no sign of

approaching retribution. His palace was the daily scene of literary

discussions, of dances, of intoxication. A crowd of parasites enjoyed

his bounty. The subsistence of the court was secured by the plunder of

private granaries. The property of the dead and dying was confiscated.

Remonstrance against this tyranny was punished with imprisonment.

People fell and expired with hunger in the streets. Great crowds

seeking an opportunity of escape constantly besieged the gates of the

city. Those who succeeded in reaching the Christian lines were either

butchered or sold as slaves. Humanity had no place in the policy of

mediæval warfare, especially when conducted by banditti. Experience had

demonstrated that a prisoner in the last stages of famine was available

for neither service nor ransom, and that a speedy death was the most

natural and efficacious method of disposing of a captive in whose

maintenance there was no profit and whose days were already numbered.

The weakest and most emaciated of these wretches were therefore killed

at once without ceremony. The degenerate Moslems of the neighboring

provinces, who served in the army of the Cid, felt no compunctions

in profiting by the servitude of their countrymen, and few could

withstand the temptation of securing a slave for a trifle. Traders from

Constantinople, Damascus, and Alexandria were always present in the

camps of the armies which were contending for the possession of the

Peninsula, and to these such of the Valencian refugees whose resources

had in a measure exempted them from the misery of their townsmen

were sold, to be again exposed in the slave-markets of the East. The

general suffering finally became so great that the fugitives, enfeebled

by hunger, were not able to traverse the short distance between the

city and the camp,--the boundaries of famine and servitude or death.

The city was not so closely invested that communication was closed

with the besiegers or with the adjoining principalities. Ibn-Djahhaf

attempted, in vain, to secure relief by the most liberal promises to

the Emir of Saragossa and the King of Castile. They distrusted his

sincerity, and, above all, they feared the vengeance of the Cid, now

the greatest potentate in Spain. His emissaries, aided by sympathizers

among the inhabitants and the garrison, seemed to have entered the

gates of Valencia at will. By the unsparing use of money and promises,

they openly endeavored to advance the interests of their commander.

Several conspiracies to overthrow Ibn-Djahhaf were detected and

punished. Representations concerning the weakness and disaffection of

the garrison induced the Cid to attempt to take the city by storm. The

plan miscarried; the Christians were repulsed with great loss, and

their leader himself narrowly escaped capture. Fearing the intervention

of the Sultan of Africa, the Cid now had recourse to an expedient so

infamous that it would hardly be countenanced by barbarians. He issued

a proclamation that all the Valencians in his camp must return within

the walls or be burned alive, and that the same fate was thereafter

destined for every refugee without exception. Funeral pyres were raised

in places within full view of the ramparts, whence the citizens could

easily see the tortures and hear the shrieks of their relatives and

countrymen. This cruel edict made no distinction of age or sex, and

children and young girls, whose charms had been impaired or destroyed

by privation and hunger, were ruthlessly cast into the flames along

with the infirm and the aged. Eighteen of these victims underwent this

dire penalty of misfortune at once, and not a day elapsed without the

Valencians being called upon to witness the dreadful human sacrifice.

This relentless policy, aided by the increasing destitution and misery

of the inhabitants, soon accomplished its end. A truce for fifteen days

was agreed upon, followed on June fifteenth, 1094, by a capitulation,

whose terms, under the circumstances, were most favorable to the Moors.

The authority, both civil and military, was, by its provisions, vested

in the Moslem partisans of the Cid; the existing laws were to be

preserved; the mosques were to remain in possession of the votaries of

Islam, who were guaranteed the unmolested exercise of their worship;

the property of the citizens was to remain inviolate; and the garrison

was to consist of Christian residents of Valencia. For a time the

conditions of the treaty were strictly observed and the fair promises

of the conqueror fulfilled. But, as soon as he felt himself secure, the

contract--which had been concluded with the sanction of the clergy and

confirmed by the solemn ceremonies of religion--was repudiated, and

the open infraction of its provisions became notorious. The Castilians

occupied the citadel, where also the Cid took up his residence. The

houses of the wealthy citizens were searched for concealed hoards of

gold and jewels. Upon the most trifling pretext--the suspicion of magic

or the escape of a slave--the privacy of the Valencian nobles was

suddenly invaded by a band of ferocious men-at-arms. The estates, whose

restoration to their owners had been promised in a public assemblage

of the people, were suffered to remain in the hands of those whose

rapacity or injustice had secured them. Finally, the people were

assured that their city belonged to the Cid by the right of conquest,

and that he and his subordinates would, for the future, preside in the

tribunals of justice, impose taxes, collect tribute, and coin money.

All who were not willing to accede to these conditions were at liberty

to depart, without, however, taking with them a single article of their

personal property. So many refused to trust themselves to the caprices

of a ruler who had given such an exhibition of perfidy that two days

elapsed before the long and melancholy procession had passed out of

the city. Their places were supplied by Christian families collected

from the neighboring states, who, applauding the valor and piety of the

Cid, occupied, with unconcealed exultation, the elegant mansions and

lovely gardens of the Moorish exiles.

The tranquillity of the city being now assured, the Cid turned his

attention to Ibn-Djahhaf. He was horribly tortured to obtain a

statement of his wealth, which a diligent exploration of his palaces

and of those of his friends subsequently proved to be false. All the

possessions of those who had ever in any way befriended the former

master of Valencia were promptly confiscated. Then the Cid, who had

planned for his illustrious prisoner the most agonizing of deaths,

caused a pit to be dug in the principal square of the city and heaped

about with fagots; and Ibn Djahhaf, buried in it to the shoulders, was

slowly roasted to a crisp. The female members of his family, destined

for the same fate, were saved, with great difficulty, by the entreaties

of his Moorish subjects and the remonstrances of the Christian

soldiery, who, although daily participants in scenes of diabolical

cruelty, could not view unmoved the commission of such a crime. No such

exemption could be obtained, however, for the slaves, the friends, and

the literary associates of the unfortunate Kadi. They were all burned

on great funeral pyres in sight of the citizens and the army. In the

infamous record subsequently made by the Spaniards in the Old and the

New World, among the awful atrocities perpetrated by Alva, Cortés, and

Pizarro, none surpassed in cold-blooded brutality the conduct of the

Cid at the siege and capture of Valencia.

His ambition, far from being satisfied with the acquisition of one

of the richest provinces of the Peninsula, was only stimulated to

greater exertions. He extended his dominions on every side. He took

Murviedro, and, despoiling its inhabitants, sold them at auction,

after having made and broken a treaty similar to the one negotiated

at Valencia. His power was so great that kings did not disdain to

treat with him on an equality; and Pedro I. of Aragon solicited his

friendship in terms which indicated the fear with which he was regarded

by his neighbors. At last his army was utterly routed by the Almoravide

general Ibn-Ayesha, near Xativa, and heart-broken, the bold leader,

who had been for so long the idol of the Christians and the terror of

the infidel, was unable to survive the disaster. For two years his

courageous widow, Ximena, succeeded in repulsing the Almoravides, but

at last, compelled to abandon her position, Valencia was evacuated by

the Castilian amazon and set on fire.

Such was the career and such the end of an adventurer whose influence

and prestige often rose superior to those of royalty itself; who, by

a perverted sentiment of enthusiasm, has passed into history as the

exemplar of chivalry and the pattern of every martial excellence;

who, though the sacrilegious despoiler of cathedrals and monasteries,

is yet revered by the Church as one of her most devoted champions,

whose brutality is applauded as zeal, whose perfidy is held up to

public admiration as the highest development of worldly wisdom, and

who to-day enjoys in the minds of his vainglorious countrymen a

consideration not inferior to that accorded to the most venerated

saint in the Roman Catholic calendar. Ecclesiastical fictions and

popular ignorance prolonged the influence of the Cid far beyond the

term of his natural life. The absurd legend which recounted the rout

of Moorish armies at the sight of his corpse lashed to the saddle

and borne at the head of crusading squadrons on many occasions, in

subsequent times, inspired the Castilian chivalry with fresh devotion

to their cause. The fables attributed to his charger Babieca and

his sword Tizona--which, in imitation of Arabic custom, had each its

history--were related with awe in every peasant’s hut on the plain and

in the sierra. A sacred character attached to his remains. They worked

innumerable miracles. They confounded the designs of unbelievers.

Great virtue invested fragments of his coffin and of his garments.

They were powerful talismans against danger in battle. They foiled the

plots of conspirators. And yet there were few pious persons in the

most superstitious age who did not possess far better claims to the

attributes of a saint. The Cid was for the greater part of his life a

rebel. He defied and oppressed his king. He served the Mohammedans,

and, as their ally, invaded the Christian kingdom of France. Even

in the poems intended to glorify his exploits he is represented as

ridiculing the Pope. He burned churches and robbed the clergy. His

perfidy became proverbial. He betrayed everybody. The barbarities he

committed without compunction appalled even his own followers, long

accustomed to the remorseless butchery of the helpless and the old.

His cruelty was incredible. Of the virtues of patriotism, mercy,

forgiveness, he knew nothing. Even his orthodoxy was justly liable to

criticism. He was more indulgent to the infidel than, in the eyes of

the zealots, became a true believer. He maintained a harem. Moslems

formed a large proportion of his command. It was even suspected that

he was not buried with the rites of the Church. In 1541, when his tomb

was opened, his body was found wrapped in a Moorish mantle embroidered

with arabesques and Arabic inscriptions. Nevertheless, the universal

reverence in which he was held by the Spanish people, clergy and laity

alike, induced Philip II., the most austere of royal bigots, to demand

his canonization at the hands of the Pope, a ceremony which was only

prevented by political complications necessitating the sudden recall

of the Spanish ambassador from Rome.

The occupation of Valencia was the last achievement in the life of

Yusuf. With the exception of the city of Toledo, and the principality

of Saragossa soon to succumb to the arms of his son, the entire realm

of Moorish Spain was subject to his authority. This great conquest

had been accomplished in less than three years. His empire was equal

in magnitude to those of the Ommeyades and Abbasides combined. The

entire region of Northern Africa, from Tunis to the Atlantic, obeyed

his edicts. His dominions embraced an area more than ten times that

of the Western Khalifate during the era of its greatest prosperity.

Even the early princes of Islam, upon whom had descended the mantle

of the Prophet, had not claimed such a vast jurisdiction or wielded

such despotic authority. Every Friday his name was repeated, for the

homage and the prayers of the devout, from the pulpits of three hundred

thousand mosques. The provinces of Al-Maghreb, as well as those of

Spain, had been seriously affected by wars and revolutions; their

cities had been repeatedly plundered; their agricultural population had

been greatly reduced by enslavement and starvation. Yet such was the

wealth of the empire of Yusuf that, notwithstanding the expenditures of

a magnificent court and an imperfectly regulated system of taxation,

he was enabled to leave to his successor a treasure of seven and a

half million pounds’ weight of silver and a hundred and twenty-five

thousand pounds’ weight of gold. No less than thirteen princes, who had

inherited or usurped the titles of sovereignty, acknowledged him as

their lord. Under none of the khalifs of any dynasty had the burdens

of the people seemed so light. The necessaries of life were cheaper

than they had been within the memory of man. Bread was sold at a

nominal price, and for a trifle an armful of the choicest vegetables

and fruits could be purchased. The large majority of his subjects

paid no taxes. The ordinary expenses of the government were defrayed

by the tribute of Christians and Jews; the extraordinary demands

were readily met by the spoils of war. Universal demoralization had,

however, rendered a lasting reform impracticable among the antagonistic

states of the Peninsula accustomed for generations to the prevalence

of military excesses and anarchy. The hopes of public happiness and of

future security, which at times were entertained by the people, were

in the highest degree illusory. Theological influence, fatal to every

government, soon overturned the gigantic but unstable fabric of Yusuf.

With him and his successors the power of the faquis was paramount.

They dictated every measure, disposed of every office, shared in

every contribution. Their rapacity and tyranny increased with their

opportunities. Even without foreign interference, the African monarchy

must within a few years have fallen to pieces. The deterioration of

the Berber soldiery was so rapid and complete after its exposure to

the temptations and luxury of Andalusia that Ali was compelled to

enlist, for his own security, recruits from the infidel populations of

Europe. Even the Greeks of Constantinople, the most superstitious of

Christians, the most perfidious of men, were to be found in the armies

of the natural enemy of the Church and the reformer of the Mohammedan

religion. The government officials were selected by the women of the

harem, who sold lucrative employments to the highest bidder or shared

the profits of extortion, while the monarch prayed and fasted or

listened to the exhortations of the clergy. The Almoravide empire fell

with the same rapidity that was so conspicuous in its foundation. Not

many years were to elapse before its African domain was to be usurped

by a race of savage fanatics, and the kingdoms of Spain, with one

exception, be permanently subjected to the sceptre of the dreaded and

execrated Christian.

The years of Yusuf, prolonged far beyond the ordinary term of human

existence, included a full century, three ordinary generations of man.

His active life, his abstemious habits, his freedom from those vices

which waste the body and enfeeble the mind, enabled him to retain to

the last the enjoyment of all his faculties. Although pitiless in the

treatment of his enemies, it is related of him that during his entire

reign, through motives of mistaken humanity, he never signed the

death-sentence of a single criminal. Small indulgence was shown to the

two tributary sects which, under the law of Islam, were permitted the

exercise of their worship. From both, the contributions established

by the successors of Mohammed were rigorously exacted. The Christians

were prohibited from making proselytes. All their churches of recent

erection were destroyed. A tradition of obscure origin, long current

in the Peninsula, was made the excuse for a new and ingenious tax upon

the Jews. It was said that the Hebrews had promised Mohammed that if

the Messiah did not come before the year 500 of the Hegira their nation

would become Mussulman. The time had not yet expired, but Yusuf imposed

upon the Jews of his dominions the payment of an immense sum, by which

they and their descendants were released from an act of apostasy which

they had never contemplated, based upon a tradition probably invented

by some idle and mendacious theologian.

The phenomenal rise of the Almoravide empire, its marvellous opulence

and apparent stability, the suddenness of its collapse, demonstrate

the imperfect cohesion of the ill-balanced and misdirected elements of

Moslem society. The Arab and the Berber character, never voluntarily

amenable to the salutary restrictions of law and civilization, were now

wedded to that civil disorder and habitual freedom from control whose

indulgence offered a not imperfect resemblance to the conditions of

the predatory and independent life of the Desert. The career of Yusuf

was largely modelled after that of Mohammed. The reforms he instituted

were productive of temporary peace and of a delusive prosperity, but

the Spanish Moslems had become too degraded to appreciate the blessings

of tranquillity and order; and their princes, while fully alive to

the impending peril of Christian supremacy, unwisely permitted their

private feuds and personal prejudices to contribute directly to the

subversion of both their authority and their religion.

The sceptre of Yusuf descended to his son Ali, a young man of

twenty-three years, whose martial aspirations were constantly

subordinated to his religious duties and to his predilection for the

society of the clergy. The seat of government, as in the preceding

reign, remained at Morocco. The capitals of the various Spanish states

and provinces were held either by devoted vassals of the crown or

by military governors of established reputation and unquestionable

loyalty. Ali was scarcely seated upon the throne before the citizens

of Saragossa, weary of the tyranny of the Beni-Hud, solicited his

protection; and that city, the key of the valley of the Ebro and

the last of the great capitals of Moorish Spain to surrender its

independence, was incorporated, without bloodshed, into the colossal

Almoravide empire.

The possession of the territory once occupied by the khalifate did not

satisfy the restless spirit of Ali, whose policy aspired to so vast

and impracticable a scheme as the total annihilation of the Christian

power. His ambition was seconded, and indeed largely prompted, by his

zeal, which impelled him to the prosecution of incessant hostilities

against the enemies of Islam. The occupation of Saragossa by Temim,

the son of Yusuf and the governor of Valencia, was followed by an

invasion of the dominions of Alfonso VI. and the siege of Ucles. A

Castilian army sent to relieve that fortress encountered the Moslems

a short distance from its walls. A bloody battle was fought; and the

Christians, who far outnumbered their adversaries, underwent a crushing

defeat. Sancho, the favorite son of the King by his Moorish wife or

concubine, Zayda,--who was the daughter of Motamid, formerly Prince

of Seville,--was killed in the action, and the grief of Alfonso was

so intense that he only survived his bereavement a few months. To his

genius as a soldier and a ruler has been justly attributed a large

share of the greatness of the Castilian monarchy. He traversed the

territory of his Moslem enemies from one extremity of the Peninsula

to the other. In the course of his long and eventful reign he won

thirty-nine battles. Great in all the popular qualities of the time,

his deeds made a deep and lasting impression on the national character

of Spain.

The dissensions which followed the death of their sovereign seriously

threatened the integrity of the kingdom. The activity of Temim carried

dismay along the entire Christian frontier. Ocaña, Aurelia, Cuenca

were again subjected to Moslem authority. The policy of Al-Mansur,

which for a quarter of a century, without intermission, had maintained

the Holy War, was renewed. Ali reinforced his brother with an army of

a hundred thousand Africans, which, after desolating a large part of

Castile, formed the siege of Toledo. Unable to make any impression upon

that fortress, the invaders stormed and burned Talavera, Guadalajara,

Madrid, and many other less important cities. Ibn-Abi-Bekr invaded

Portugal and took Santarem and Lisbon. The remoteness of his capital,

the restless and impulsive character of his subjects, the danger

of sudden revolution, soon necessitated the return of Ali, whose

enterprise could not be dignified by the name of a campaign, and was,

in fact, nothing more than a gigantic foray. The number of Christian

captives who followed in the train of his army exceeded any that had

passed the strait since the invasion of Musa. Year after year the

lieutenants of the Sultan carried their ravages into the enemy’s

country. No quarter was given or expected in these expeditions. All

prisoners not available as slaves were inhumanly butchered, and the

women and children exhibited for sale in the markets of Al-Maghrab,

Egypt, and Syria.

The loss of Alfonso VI. of Castile was compensated by the rise

of another Alfonso, King of Aragon, surnamed from his fighting

proclivities El Batallador. Under the guidance of his genius, the

Christians began again to successfully arrest the progress of Moslem

conquest. The line of fortresses along the frontier gradually fell

into their hands. The great cities of Lerida and Saragossa were taken.

In many fiercely contested engagements, the furious assaults of the

Moslems were repulsed by the cool and determined courage of their

adversaries. On the bloody field of Cutanda, in an effectual attempt to

save the city of Calatayud, the Emir of Valencia left twenty thousand

of his bravest soldiers. The tide once turned, the misfortunes of the

Moslems followed each other in quick succession. The strongholds of the

North were absorbed by the increasing power of the kingdom of Aragon.

Portugal and much of the valley of the Douro, which had submitted to

Yusuf, were again incorporated into the states of Castile. The decadent

condition of his empire in the Peninsula provoked another raid from

Ali, at the head of a great African army, with even less decisive

results than had attended the former one. The incapacity of the

sovereign, in his far-distant capital, to protect his subjects from

the oppression of their governors, as well as to defend his frontiers

from the encroachments of the enemy, became daily more apparent.

The influence of the theologians, as might have been anticipated

from the peculiar disposition of Ali, was paramount. The faquis and

kadis were the true source of power, the dispensers of favor, the

pitiless instruments of oppression and vengeance. They stood at the

ear of every provincial magistrate and military commander,--officials

whose ignorance exaggerated the knowledge of their unprincipled

advisers,--and reaped the profits of spoliation and cruelty, while

their dupes bore the odium of their flagrant and shameless injustice.

Their intolerance arrayed them against all learning, even to the point

of decrying the most accomplished scholars of their own, the Malikite,

sect. No philosopher dared to openly entertain an heretical opinion.

Poets, formerly accustomed to affluence, wandered about clothed in

rags, and were constantly on the verge of starvation. The clerical

and judicial harpies who controlled the administration secured the

employment of Jews as farmers of the revenue, and divided with these

inexorable collectors the fruits of their rapacity and extortion. In

consequence of their rare opportunities, they soon became the richest

class in Andalusia. Ibn-Hamden, the Kadi of Cordova, surpassed all of

his brethren in wealth, his fortune being estimated at several million

pieces of gold. Encouraged by their example and success, the Berber

officers and soldiers robbed and persecuted the people, already driven

to despair by the exactions of corrupt functionaries acting under

the perverted authority of the law. They seized their property. They

intruded upon their privacy in the unrestrained indulgence of lust and

rapine. The wives and daughters of the most respected citizens could

not appear in the streets without danger of insult and violation. In

consequence of these abuses, the army became thoroughly demoralized,

the soldiers refused to face an enemy, and it became necessary to

enlist bands of mercenaries, gathered at random among the ports of

the Mediterranean, to garrison the principal cities. No attention was

paid to the remonstrances of the indignant and suffering victims. At

length the revolutionary spirit of Cordova again asserted itself. The

inhabitants rose, the Berbers were hemmed in and massacred, and not one

of the obnoxious race who dared to face the fury of the mob survived.

The appearance of Ali failed to awe the rebels, but the commencement

of a siege soon brought them to terms. Aware of the provocations they

had endured, the Sultan treated his seditious subjects with unusual

leniency, requiring only the pecuniary reimbursement of such of their

victims as had escaped with their lives and a liberal indemnity to

the families of the dead. It was while at Cordova that Ali received

the first intelligence of an insurrection in Africa, whose popularity

and progress were of evil augury for the permanence of the already

tottering Almoravide power.