affected to disguise his age by coloring with a red powder the whiteness
of his beard. But in the love of action and glory, his breast was
still fired with the ardor of youth; and the possession of Spain was
considered only as the first step to the monarchy of Europe. With
a powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing to repass the
Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining kingdoms of the
Franks and Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the
Vatican. From thence, subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed
to follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea,
to overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and returning
from Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch and the
provinces of Syria. But his vast enterprise, perhaps of easy execution,
must have seemed extravagant to vulgar minds; and the visionary
conqueror was soon reminded of his dependence and servitude. The friends
of Tarik had effectually stated his services and wrongs: at the court
of Damascus, the proceedings of Musa were blamed, his intentions were
suspected, and his delay in complying with the first invitation
was chastised by a harsher and more peremptory summons. An intrepid
messenger of the caliph entered his camp at Lugo in Gallicia, and in
the presence of the Saracens and Christians arrested the bridle of his
horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated the duty of
obedience: and his disgrace was alleviated by the recall of his rival,
and the permission of investing with his two governments his two
sons, Abdallah and Abdelaziz. His long triumph from Ceuta to Damascus
displayed the spoils of Africa and the treasures of Spain: four hundred
Gothic nobles, with gold coronets and girdles, were distinguished in his
train; and the number of male and female captives, selected for their
birth or beauty, was computed at eighteen, or even at thirty, thousand
persons. As soon as he reached Tiberias in Palestine, he was apprised
of the sickness and danger of the caliph, by a private message from
Soliman, his brother and presumptive heir; who wished to reserve for his
own reign the spectacle of victory. Had Walid recovered, the delay of
Musa would have been criminal: he pursued his march, and found an enemy
on the throne. In his trial before a partial judge against a popular
antagonist, he was convicted of vanity and falsehood; and a fine of two
hundred thousand pieces of gold either exhausted his poverty or proved
his rapaciousness. The unworthy treatment of Tarik was revenged by a
similar indignity; and the veteran commander, after a public whipping,
stood a whole day in the sun before the palace gate, till he obtained
a decent exile, under the pious name of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The
resentment of the caliph might have been satiated with the ruin of Musa;
but his fears demanded the extirpation of a potent and injured family.
A sentence of death was intimated with secrecy and speed to the trusty
servants of the throne both in Africa and Spain; and the forms, if not
the substance, of justice were superseded in this bloody execution. In
the mosch or palace of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by the swords of
the conspirators; they accused their governor of claiming the honors of
royalty; and his scandalous marriage with Egilona, the widow of Roderic,
offended the prejudices both of the Christians and Moslems. By a
refinement of cruelty, the head of the son was presented to the father,
with an insulting question, whether he acknowledged the features of the
rebel? "I know his features," he exclaimed with indignation: "I assert
his innocence; and I imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the
authors of his death." The age and despair of Musa raised him above
the power of kings; and he expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken
heart. His rival was more favorably treated: his services were forgiven;
and Tarik was permitted to mingle with the crowd of slaves. I am
ignorant whether Count Julian was rewarded with the death which he
deserved indeed, though not from the hands of the Saracens; but the
tale of their ingratitude to the sons of Witiza is disproved by the most
unquestionable evidence. The two royal youths were reinstated in the
private patrimony of their father; but on the decease of Eba, the elder,
his daughter was unjustly despoiled of her portion by the violence of
her uncle Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the caliph
Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her inheritance; but she was
given in marriage to a noble Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and
Ibrahim, were received in Spain with the consideration that was due to
their origin and riches.
A province is assimilated to the victorious state by the introduction of
strangers and the imitative spirit of the natives; and Spain, which had
been successively tinctured with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood,
imbibed, in a few generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. The
first conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs,
were attended by a numerous train of civil and military followers, who
preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home: the private and public
interest was promoted by the establishment of faithful colonies; and the
cities of Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of their
Eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley bands of Tarik and
Musa asserted, by the name of _Spaniards_, their original claim of
conquest; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their
establishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was
planted at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or
Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The
natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round Toledo and the inland
country, and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand
horsemen of Syria and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble
of the Arabian tribes. A spirit of emulation, sometimes beneficial, more
frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten
years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to the
caliph: the seas, the rivers, and the harbors, the inhabitants and
cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.
In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by
the agriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce, of an industrious
people; and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by the
idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain
solicited the support of the Christians; and in his edict of peace and
protection, he contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand
ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as
many mules, one thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets
and lances. The most powerful of his successors derived from the same
kingdom the annual tribute of twelve millions and forty-five thousand
dinars or pieces of gold, about six millions of sterling money; a sum
which, in the tenth century, most probably surpassed the united revenues
of the Christians monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained six
hundred moschs, nine hundred baths, and two hundred thousand houses; he
gave laws to eighty cities of the first, to three hundred of the second
and third order; and the fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned
with twelve thousand villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate
the truth, but they created and they describe the most prosperous Êra of
the riches, the cultivation, and the populousness of Spain.
The wars of the Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but among the
various precepts and examples of his life, the caliphs selected the
lessons of toleration that might tend to disarm the resistance of the
unbelievers. Arabia was the temple and patrimony of the God of Mahomet;
but he beheld with less jealousy and affection the nations of the earth.
The polytheists and idolaters, who were ignorant of his name, might
be lawfully extirpated by his votaries; but a wise policy supplied
the obligation of justice; and after some acts of intolerant zeal, the
Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan have spared the pagods of that devout
and populous country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and of
Jesus, were solemnly invited to accept the more _perfect_ revelation of
Mahomet; but if they preferred the payment of a moderate tribute, they
were entitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship. In a
field of battle the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the
profession of _Islam_; the females were bound to embrace the religion of
their masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multiplied
by the education of the infant captives. But the millions of African
and Asiatic converts, who swelled the native band of the faithful Arabs,
must have been allured, rather than constrained, to declare their belief
in one God and the apostle of God. By the repetition of a sentence and
the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave, the captive or
the criminal, arose in a moment the free and equal companion of the
victorious Moslems. Every sin was expiated, every engagement was
dissolved: the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of
nature; the active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by
the trumpet of the Saracens; and in the convulsion of the world, every
member of a new society ascended to the natural level of his capacity
and courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted by the invisible as
well as temporal blessings of the Arabian prophet; and charity will
hope that many of his proselytes entertained a serious conviction of
the truth and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an inquisitive
polytheist, it must appear worthy of the human and the divine nature.
More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the law of
Moses, the religion of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reason
than the creed of mystery and superstition, which, in the seventh
century, disgraced the simplicity of the gospel.
In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa, the national religion
has been eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The ambiguous theology
of the Magi stood alone among the sects of the East; but the profane
writings of Zoroaster might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be
dexterously connected with the chain of divine revelation. Their evil
principle, the dÊmon Ahriman, might be represented as the rival, or as
the creature, of the God of light. The temples of Persia were devoid of
images; but the worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as a
gross and criminal idolatry. The milder sentiment was consecrated by
the practice of Mahomet and the prudence of the caliphs; the Magians or
Ghebers were ranked with the Jews and Christians among the people of the
written law; and as late as the third century of the Hegira, the city
of Herat will afford a lively contrast of private zeal and public
toleration. Under the payment of an annual tribute, the Mahometan law
secured to the Ghebers of Herat their civil and religious liberties: but
the recent and humble mosch was overshadowed by the antique splendor of
the adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Iman deplored, in his sermons,
the scandalous neighborhood, and accused the weakness or indifference of
the faithful. Excited by his voice, the people assembled in tumult; the
two houses of prayer were consumed by the flames, but the vacant ground
was immediately occupied by the foundations of a new mosch. The injured
Magi appealed to the sovereign of Chorasan; he promised justice and
relief; when, behold! four thousand citizens of Herat, of a grave
character and mature age, unanimously swore that the idolatrous fane had
_never_ existed; the inquisition was silenced and their conscience was
satisfied (says the historian Mirchond ) with this holy and meritorious
perjury. But the greatest part of the temples of Persia were ruined
by the insensible and general desertion of their votaries. It was
_insensible_, since it is not accompanied with any memorial of time or
place, of persecution or resistance. It was _general_, since the whole
realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the faith of the Koran; and the
preservation of the native tongue reveals the descent of the Mahometans
of Persia. In the mountains and deserts, an obstinate race of
unbelievers adhered to the superstition of their fathers; and a faint
tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the province of
Kirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in
the colony which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Abbas at
the gates of Ispahan. The chief pontiff has retired to Mount Elbourz,
eighteen leagues from the city of Yezd: the perpetual fire (if it
continues to burn) is inaccessible to the profane; but his residence is
the school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage of the Ghebers, whose hard
and uniform features attest the unmingled purity of their blood. Under
the jurisdiction of their elders, eighty thousand families maintain an
innocent and industrious life: their subsistence is derived from some
curious manufactures and mechanic trades; and they cultivate the earth
with the fervor of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood the
despotism of Shaw Abbas, who demanded with threats and tortures the
prophetic books of Zoroaster; and this obscure remnant of the Magians is
spared by the moderation or contempt of their present sovereigns.
The Northern coast of Africa is the only land in which the light of
the gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been totally
extinguished. The arts, which had been taught by Carthage and Rome, were
involved in a cloud of ignorance; the doctrine of Cyprian and Augustin
was no longer studied. Five hundred episcopal churches were overturned
by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors.
The zeal and numbers of the clergy declined; and the people, without
discipline, or knowledge, or hope, submissively sunk under the yoke
of the Arabian prophet Within fifty years after the expulsion of the
Greeks, a lieutenant of Africa informed the caliph that the tribute of
the infidels was abolished by their conversion; and, though he sought to
disguise his fraud and rebellion, his specious pretence was drawn from
the rapid and extensive progress of the Mahometan faith. In the
next age, an extraordinary mission of five bishops was detached from
Alexandria to Cairoan. They were ordained by the Jacobite patriarch
to cherish and revive the dying embers of Christianity: but the
interposition of a foreign prelate, a stranger to the Latins, an enemy
to the Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of the African
hierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successor of St. Cyprian,
at the head of a numerous synod, could maintain an equal contest
with the ambition of the Roman pontiff. In the eleventh century, the
unfortunate priest who was seated on the ruins of Carthage implored the
arms and the protection of the Vatican; and he bitterly complains that
his naked body had been scourged by the Saracens, and that his authority
was disputed by the four suffragans, the tottering pillars of his
throne. Two epistles of Gregory the Seventh are destined to soothe the
distress of the Catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince. The pope
assures the sultan that they both worship the same God, and may hope to
meet in the bosom of Abraham; but the complaint that three bishops could
no longer be found to consecrate a brother, announces the speedy and
inevitable ruin of the episcopal order. The Christians of Africa and
Spain had long since submitted to the practice of circumcision and
the legal abstinence from wine and pork; and the name of _Mozarabe_
(adoptive Arabs) was applied to their civil or religious conformity.
About the middle of the twelfth century, the worship of Christ and the
succession of pastors were abolished along the coast of Barbary, and in
the kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, of Valencia and Grenada. The throne
of the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded on the blindest fanaticism,
and their extraordinary rigor might be provoked or justified by the
recent victories and intolerant zeal of the princes of Sicily and
Castille, of Arragon and Portugal. The faith of the Mozarabes was
occasionally revived by the papal missionaries; and, on the landing of
Charles the Fifth, some families of Latin Christians were encouraged to
rear their heads at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was
quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripoli to the Atlantic
has lost all memory of the language and religion of Rome.
After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of the
Turkish empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by the
Arabian caliphs. During the first age of the conquest, they suspected
the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their
secret attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians and
Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere and
voluntary friends of the Mahometan government. Yet this partial jealousy
was healed by time and submission; the churches of Egypt were shared
with the Catholics; and all the Oriental sects were included in the
common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic
jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy, were
protected by the civil magistrate: the learning of individuals
recommended them to the employments of secretaries and physicians: they
were enriched by the lucrative collection of the revenue; and their
merit was sometimes raised to the command of cities and provinces. A
caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare that the Christians
were most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia. "The
Moslems," said he, "will abuse their present fortune; the Magians regret
their fallen greatness; and the Jews are impatient for their
approaching deliverance." But the slaves of despotism are exposed to
the alternatives of favor and disgrace. The captive churches of the
East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their
rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the
pride, or the zeal, of the Christians. About two hundred years after
Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow-subjects by a turban or
girdle of a less honorable color; instead of horses or mules, they were
condemned to ride on asses, in the attitude of women. Their public and
private building were measured by a diminutive standard; in the streets
or the baths it is their duty to give way or bow down before the meanest
of the people; and their testimony is rejected, if it may tend to the
prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions, the sound
of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship; a decent
reverence for the national faith is imposed on their sermons and
conversations; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosch, or to
seduce a Mussulman, will not be suffered to escape with impunity. In a
time, however, of tranquillity and justice, the Christians have never
been compelled to renounce the Gospel, or to embrace the Koran; but the
punishment of death is inflicted upon the apostates who have professed
and deserted the law of Mahomet. The martyrs of Cordova provoked the
sentence of the cadhi, by the public confession of their inconstancy,
or their passionate invectives against the person and religion of the
prophet.
At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the caliphs were the most
potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. Their prerogative was not
circumscribed, either in right or in fact, by the power of the nobles,
the freedom of the commons, the privileges of the church, the votes of
a senate, or the memory of a free constitution. The authority of the
companions of Mahomet expired with their lives; and the chiefs or emirs
of the Arabian tribes left behind, in the desert, the spirit of equality
and independence. The regal and sacerdotal characters were united in the
successors of Mahomet; and if the Koran was the rule of their actions,
they were the supreme judges and interpreters of that divine book. They
reigned by the right of conquest over the nations of the East, to whom
the name of liberty was unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud in
their tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were exercised at
their own expense. Under the last of the Ommiades, the Arabian empire
extended two hundred days' journey from east to west, from the confines
of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And if we
retrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their writers, the
long and narrow province of Africa, the solid and compact dominion from
Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, will spread on every side to
the measure of four or five months of the march of a caravan. We should
vainly seek the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded
the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but the progress of the
Mahometan religion diffused over this ample space a general resemblance
of manners and opinions. The language and laws of the Koran were studied
with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor and the Indian
embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca; and the
Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces
to the westward of the Tigris.
Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.--Part I.
The Two Sieges Of Constantinople By The Arabs.--Their
Invasion Of France, And Defeat By Charles Martel.--Civil War
Of The Ommiades And Abbassides.--Learning Of The Arabs.--
Luxury Of The Caliphs.--Naval Enterprises On Crete, Sicily,
And Rome.--Decay And Division Of The Empire Of The Caliphs.--
Defeats And Victories Of The Greek Emperors.
When the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have been
surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But when they
advanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus and the
summit of the Pyrenees; when they had repeatedly tried the edge of their
cimeters and the energy of their faith, they might be equally astonished
that any nation could resist their invincible arms; that any boundary
should confine the dominion of the successor of the prophet. The
confidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed be excused, since the
calm historian of the present hour, who strives to follow the rapid
course of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church
and state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, from
this inevitable, danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be
guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty, and the courage
of the northern shepherds; China was remote and inaccessible; but
the greatest part of the temperate zone was subject to the Mahometan
conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war and the
loss of their fairest provinces, and the Barbarians of Europe might
justly tremble at the precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this
inquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain,
and our neighbors of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the
Koran; that protected the majesty of Rome, and delayed the servitude
of Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the Christians, and
scattered among their enemies the seeds of division and decay.