THE SARACENS
Both the name Saracen and the name Moor came to be used in a sense
much wider than their first significance. At first the Romans knew
as "Saraceni," a single tribe of Arabs living near Mount Sinai.
Later, the name Saracen was used by Europeans to mean any followers
of the religion of Mahomet. Moors, "Mauri" or "dark men," was a name
at first used only for a tribe that was also called Berbers, living
along the northern edge of the Sahara desert, in Africa. But they
were not of black skin, like the negroes, nor had they woolly hair.
Their complexion was darkened only by the sun's burning power, and
their hair was smooth. There were many of them in the forces that
invaded Spain and put an end to the Visigoths' kingdom there early in
the eighth century; and after a time all the Moslems, or Mahommedans,
in Spain came to be known as Moors.
[Sidenote: Mahomet]
The story of the rise of Mahomet and the spread of the religion that
he preached and the success of the armies by whose victories it was
so dispersed is one of the most wonderful, perhaps it is actually the
most astonishing, of all those that go to make up the great story.
The maker and preacher of the religion that we call, after him,
Mahommedanism, or Mohammedanism, began his preaching early in the
seventh century. He was a poor man, of no eminent family in Arabia.
Arabia had already come under Jewish influence in some parts, and
under Christian influence in others. Mahomet took the Bible as the
basis of his preaching, but it seems that he did not understand it
very well, {69} and he placed his own interpretation on much of it.
He supposed himself to be the prophet, or apostle, chosen by the only
God, whom he called Allah, to preach the true religion to the
Arabians.
Abraham, as we saw in the first volume of this great story, was
patriarch, or head, of a clan that came up out of the desert at first
to Ur of the Chaldees. Mahomet seems to have claimed to preach the
religion of Abraham. Moreover, there was a tradition that the
Arabians were descended from that Ishmael of whom the Bible tells us,
the son of Hagar, sent out into the wilderness, "whose hand was
against every man and every man's hand against him." If we accept
this story we shall perhaps wonder less that Mahommedanism was such a
martial, such a fighting religion. Mahomet preached that its
followers should fight to carry it over all the world.
You are not to understand from this, however, that it was a religion
which set out to make proselytes, as we call them; that is, to
convert others to the same way of thinking. In later days we shall
find that the Saracens were not very eager that the Christians of the
countries that they conquered should become Mahommedans, because it
was their custom to tax, at a certain sum, every one not of their
religion. They seem to have looked on this financial side of the
affair as being of more importance to them than any salvation of the
Christian people's souls.
But at the beginning of his preaching--or prophesying--Mahomet had
hard work to make his doctrine accepted, and himself acknowledged as
the prophet of the one and only God, even among his own people. He
had to fly from his native city of Mecca to the neighbouring Medina.
After a while he found supporters there, and by degrees they became
so many that he was able to go back and take Mecca. Then, again by
degrees, he was joined by so many of the {70} Arabian tribes that he
was able to send armies beyond the bounds of Arabia, into Syria
northward. They suffered defeat and check at times; but on the whole
they were extraordinarily victorious.
For their success there were several causes, all quite easy to
understand. They were a hardy people, accustomed to meagre fare and
to hard living in the desert. They were very fine horsemen. The
religion which their prophet preached to them promised untold joys in
Paradise for those who died fighting against the enemies of Islam.
(Islam was the prophet's name for the faith which he preached.) An
intense belief in this happy future, after death, made them fearless
in battle. Then they were a very poor people, and those against whom
Mahomet sent them were far richer, and to the Moslem soldier loot
from the enemy never was forbidden. They seem to have had a certain
sense that some justice and mercy were due to the conquered, for the
rule was that only four-fifths of the loot taken became the property
of the conquerors. The conquered were left with a fifth.
And most of those against whom they went at first were weak, owing to
lack of discipline and absence of strong government. The forces of
the Eastern Empire in Asia Minor and of the Persians had been
weakened by continuous fighting against each other. Syria had been
so hammered between the two that it had little strength of its own.
Egypt was feebly held. But it was not till after the death of the
prophet that the armies carried the green flag of Islam east and
west; and for a while after his death the succession to his religious
leadership was much disputed.
It may occur to you to ask what need there was for a successor to
such a position as that of Mahomet. He had preached his gospel. He
had laid down the laws that were to be followed. Was not that
enough? Why did he need a successor?
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The explanation is that while Mahomet was a great preacher, or
prophet, he also held a position of leadership over the Arabs which
we have no one word to express. Perhaps it can be stated best by
saying simply that the Arabs did what he told them to do. It also
looks as if he was wise enough to tell them to do things that they
were not likely to object to doing. I suppose we may state that he
was a ruler with the limits of his authority not very clearly
defined. But his influence was very powerful, because he gave out,
and probably believed, that whatever he told the people was put into
his mouth by Allah, the only God, whose prophet he claimed to be.
This "only God" was a phrase that was often repeated by the
Mahommedans in opposition to the "Trinity" of the Christians, to whom
the Deity was revealed as being "three Persons and one God."
[Sidenote: The caliphs]
Therefore, if Mahomet had died without a successor to an authority in
some part like his own, the people would have been quite at a loss
for a guide and ruler. He was in fact succeeded by "caliphs," as
they were, and as they still are, called, the word caliph actually
meaning "successor" or "representative." The caliphs were supposed
to be "representative" of Mahomet, to succeed to some of his
authority, rather as the Popes of Rome were deemed to succeed to and
be representative of the authority of St. Peter. They did not
pretend to receive messages from Allah, as Mahomet had received them,
but they would uphold the teaching of Mahomet; and their explanations
of doubtful points in his teaching were likely to be accepted by all
Mahommedans. And although they were not held in the same honour as
Mahomet, they were regarded as rulers of the nation whom all men
should obey for the sake of their good fortune both in this world and
in the next.
Now, in Syria and in Asia Minor generally, the {72} population was
probably far more nearly akin to the Arabians than to the Romans or
the Greeks. It was from Arabia that the Semitic tribes had come into
the country westward from the Euphrates and the Tigris and thence had
spread over Syria and Palestine. The Saracens had little difficulty
with them. The Persians had a stronger feeling of nationality and
made more resistance, but before the middle of the seventh century
Persia too was conquered.
The way of fighting of those early Arabian conquerors was to come
sweeping down in cavalry charges on the enemy. Their weapons were
the spear and the curved sword, called scimitar, with which they used
to smite as they galloped. They were very quick in movement, and if
they had a reverse they could withdraw and disappear over the desert
so swiftly that it was almost impossible to deal them any really
severe blows.
As they conquered lands where different methods of fighting were in
use, they learned to adopt those that would be of value to them, but
always their chief reliance was on the quick movement of their
cavalry and on the cavalry charge, with the spear and scimitar; and
even when they put on any defensive armour in addition to a light
shield, it was of a fine mail, or steel network, only. It did not
add greatly to their weight on horseback. The steel work of
Damascus, the capital of Syria, and the edge that was set on the
swordblades of that steel work, became famous very early.
They used the bow but little until the time when the Turk came into
the story; but he is not there yet.
Perhaps the most wonderful testimony to the intelligence and
enterprise of these children of the desert is that they fought a
great and successful naval battle with the fleet of the Eastern
Empire as early as 655. The Emperor himself was in command of the
defeated fleet. In all likelihood most of the victors {73} were
seamen of the Syrian coast who had become Mahommedans.
In one particular the rise of the Moslem power in Arabia, and its
northward and eastward expansion, were possibly more of a relief to
the Emperor at Constantinople than a menace. The Persians had
continually been threatening and giving trouble on his eastern
border. The Saracens attacked the Persians and within a very few
years completely conquered them so that the Persians troubled the
Empire no more. The Saracens seized Irak, which was the most
beautiful and richest province of all Persia. They pushed further
east, still conquering, into India, Tibet, and even to the borders of
China.
[Sidenote: The Moors in Spain]
This was the first direction of their expansion, but almost at the
same time they gained, easily, possession of Egypt, and then
proceeded westward along that fertile strip of Northern Africa
between the Mediterranean and the Sahara desert. Here they
encountered, conquered, and converted to Mahommedanism that tribe of
Berbers who were called the Moors, as I told you, and who were the
conquerors of Spain.
It was in 710, less than a hundred years after Mahomet became a power
in his native Arabia, that they went over into Spain to help the King
of the Visigoths, or one of the claimants to the Visigothic throne,
against his rival.
The Gothic power was broken by these dissensions, and the conquerors
had no great trouble in making good their conquest over the whole of
Spain, always excepting those strong mountainous places in the
Pyrenees where the Basques still live--a different people from any
that have entered Spain within the knowledge of our historical
records. Perhaps they are of the same race as the Celts--either as
the Brythons or as that older branch called Goidels--of whom {74} a
remnant held out in Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, and Brittany.
The Saracens had this advantage--call it luck, if you please--that
they came upon enemies whose government was weak, who were not united
or brought together by any feeling of patriotism or love of their
country or nation. The Roman soldiers, at the time when the legions
were made up of free citizens who owned land, had been able to feel
that they were fighting for their own property. But all that feeling
had long passed from the armies of the seventh and eighth centuries.
The Saracens had, in their religion, a sentiment which gave them
union, and inspired them with the idea that they were all fighting
for the same cause. We have seen how the prospect of joy in
Paradise, if they should die in battle, gave them courage.
Therefore, when we take these facts into consideration, their quick
and extensive victories do not appear so incredible. Their hordes
must have seemed almost invincible to the greatly alarmed people of
Europe as they went so easily through Spain; but when they pushed up
through the Pyrenees and came against a really strong and
well-governed people in the Franks they made no further way; they
were defeated. They were rolled back again across the Pyrenees and
left to make good their Empire in Spain.
[Sidenote: Moors independent of Bagdad]
They had this sentiment and inspiration common to them all--their
fighting religion; but the caliphs of Mahomet never showed any of
that power of organisation, any of that capacity for governing a
great empire from a single centre, which had been so remarkable in
the Romans during the first hundred years or so after the birth of
Christ. The capital, or chief place of residence of the caliphs,
became, after a while, Bagdad, on the Euphrates. It was more central
and convenient, no doubt, than a city in the Arabian desert. But,
first of all, the ruler of the {75} African province tried to assert
himself as independent of the caliph; then the ruler of Spain, more
distant still from the centre, claimed independence more strongly and
successfully; and so it was also with other provinces in the
circumference of the wide and constantly widening Empire. The links,
as we say, of the Empire chain were not very solid or strong. But
there was always this in common, to help keep all together--their
religion. If the caliph in Bagdad had little or no control over the
doings of the Moorish ruler of Spain, if the latter made war and
peace and so on as seemed good to him without referring for orders to
headquarters, the caliph still had some influence over him and his
followers in religious matters, as being the representative and
successor of Mahomet, who was Allah's prophet.
It was very like the power which the Roman Church, with the Pope at
its head, had over the Christians. The Roman Empire, in a military
sense, and in the sense of having Rome as the centre of its
government and laws, had gone to pieces. There was no more
"appealing unto Cæsar," or to any authority at Rome, from the
decision of a court of law in some far-off province--as St. Paul
appealed at Cæsarea--but still the Pope had his far-reaching power.
The officials of government had gone from the cities of Gaul or of
Britain or wherever it might be; but the clergy remained, and grew
more and more in number, and the authority of the Pope of Rome--or
even of the Pope from Avignon or Ravenna, for sometimes, as we shall
see, he was obliged to fly from Rome--had its power over these clergy
and through them over the laity. Ever since Constantine had made
Christianity the State religion they had been servants and officials,
in this manner, of the dying Empire and of the growing Church. The
caliph's power was a like power, because he was the successor of
Mahomet, though it {76} was never, in its spiritual influence, of
equal power with that of the successor of St. Peter. But the two may
be compared, and the comparison is very interesting.
[Sidenote: Charlemagne]
So now we have brought the story to a point when we may very well
pause a moment and take a look at the map, to see how things have
been arranging themselves--to ask ourselves "Who's who?" in A.D. 800
and "Who has what?" It is on Christmas Day of that year that the
mighty Charlemagne, the greatest king of the Franks, is consecrated
Emperor by the Pope at Rome. That fact in itself tells a story.
But as for the world map of that time, you will remember how it was
with our England, that the Anglo-Saxons, or one or other of those
tribes from Jutland, held all the east; that the boundaries of Wessex
went far west, where England is at its broadest; that Mercia was the
Middle England, and that in the north was Northumbria, which went up
to the southern limits of the Picts and Scots in Caledonia. The West
Country, as we call it now, and Wales and the West of Cumberland, as
well as Ireland, were still in the hands of the Celts.
There were Celts too on the Continent, in Brittany, and in parts of
Spain.
Spain itself, with little exception, was held by the Moors, but of
course the Gothic and Roman population, whom the conquering Moors
found there, still remained there too. The Saracens also had all
that Northern African strip as far east as Libya and Egypt. They had
Egypt itself, Palestine, Syria and away to the east into India and so
out of our picture. In Asia Minor they kept up a continual contest
for many years with the Eastern Empire.
That Eastern Empire itself has become a poor possession in comparison
with its extent at the date of the Roman Empire's division. It has a
hold on the extreme South of Italy and it also claims the islands
{77} of Sardinia, Sicily, and of the Ægean Sea. It holds Asia Minor
as far south as the borders of Mesopotamia and northwards to the
Black Sea; but in those regions it is continually menaced by the
Saracens. What we now call Turkey in Europe is within the Empire,
and also the greater part of Thrace. It retains Greece; but of
Macedonia it has scarcely any grip. Various barbarian tribes, Slavs,
Serbs, Bulgars, have possession of the country up to the Danube.
[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE'S SWORD. (From the Imperial Treasury,
Vienna.)]
And as for the rest of the map, all that matters, all that does not
belong to the north-eastern barbarians, falls into the Empire of
Charlemagne. Pepin, King of the Franks before Charlemagne, had all
that we call France and further had our Switzerland, Bavaria and, in
the north, the present Holland and Belgium. He also was king of
considerable territory east of the Rhine. But under Charlemagne
those large possessions were very largely increased, eastward, and
northward, and southward. Southward he held Italy right down to
Naples. Eastward he had all the old Roman province of Illyricum;
that is to say that his sovereignty extended to the Danube.
Northward of the Danube, where that great river makes its southward
bend, he held Bohemia. He had the land of the {78} Saxons up to and
beyond the Elbe. He ruled over Denmark and the south of Scandinavia.
The whole of the centre of the picture, in fact, is included in this
Carolingian Empire, as it was called, from Carolus, the Latin form of
Charles. And Charlemagne had been consecrated Emperor by the Pope at
Rome. The Visigoths had been Christians, but they had not been
orthodox Christians according to the opinion of the Church of Rome.
They had been Arians; that is, followers of what the Roman Church
considered the wrong and heretical opinion of a certain bishop called
Arius. The Roman Church and the Pope of Rome could not have used the
clergy of the Visigoths as their agents; the Pope could not have
acted through such agents or worked with them. But he did, and he
could, act through the Frankish clergy: and you see over how large a
space of the world he could thus act and make his power felt.
In the Eastern Empire the Patriarch at Constantinople was the head of
the Christian power. The Pope's authority did not extend there.
Neither had it authority in Spain under the Mahommedan Moors. Indeed
a large number of the Romans and Goths in Spain became Mahommedans,
in order to enjoy the privileges and the lighter taxes which the
Moslems imposed on Mahommedans. But the Pope had this very strong
position as the head of the Church all over Charlemagne's Empire and
beyond--for he was obeyed in Britain and in Ireland.
The great Empire of the great Charlemagne was not fated to last very
long, as you will see; but it had served to help in establishing over
all the central part of Europe the authority of the Church at Rome;
and when it broke up, that authority was still maintained over the
broken pieces of the Empire, no matter under what king they fell.
Charlemagne repaid the Pope well for his consecration at Rome on
Christmas Day of the year 800.
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