THE INVASION FROM AFRICA.
Within ninety years after _El Hijra_—the “flight of Mohammed”—which
occurred A.D. 622, Syria, Persia, and North Africa were brought under
the control of his fanatical followers. The city of Damascus was taken
in 634; in 640, Alexandria, when six million Copts are said to have
embraced the religion of their conquerors. Moslem bigotry, ignorance,
and fanaticism are well illustrated in the burning of the famous
Alexandrian Library, according to the decree of Omar the Califa: “If
these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, they are useless and
need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought
to be destroyed!”
North Africa at that time was known by the names of its Roman
provinces, such as Numidia, Mauritania, and Tingitania, and these were
successively overrun and subjugated by the trusted general Musa (or
Moses), who was made Emir of Africa and supreme commander. One of his
six noble sons captured the coast city of Tangier, command of which was
given to a veteran of Damascus named Tarik Ibn Zeyad, who had lost an
eye in the wars and was known as _el Tuerto_, or “Tarik the One–eyed.”
His force was small, but composed mainly of Berbers, or natives of
North Africa recently converted to the Moslem faith, and as fierce and
fanatical as himself.
At that time the chief Gothic stronghold in Africa was Ceuta,
the ancient Abyla of the Greeks, and forming, with Gibraltar, or
Calpa, on the European side of the straits, the famed “Pillars of
Hercules”—mentioned in our account of the Phœnician voyages. In command
of the forces at Ceuta was Count Julian, who for reasons not known, but
probably because he was a relative of the late King Witica and wanted
to punish Don Roderick, offered to lead the Moslems to conquest in
Spain if they would reward him as his treason deserved. So, under his
directions, Tarik the One–eyed was sent across the Straits of Hercules
and landed with a small force at Tarifa, the southernmost town in Spain
as well as in all Europe. It is said to have derived its name from the
Moslem commander Tarif, or Tarik, and this name also is perpetuated in
our word “tariff.” But however it was, Tarik saw enough to convince him
that Spain could be easily invaded, if not readily conquered, and so
went back with a report to that effect to Musa the emir, laden with the
spoils of his ravage.
Having received permission from the Califa at Bagdad to invade the
country across the straits, Musa gathered an army of twelve thousand
men and sent it over under the command of the fierce Tarik, who
landed this time at Calpa, since named, after him, _Gebel el Tarik_,
or Gibraltar, and made that the base of his operations against the
unfortunate country. The apostate Count Julian joined him and served
as a guide in this the first real invasion of Spain by a Moslem army.
In short, the invaders were strongly re–enforced by the discontented
masses of that section of Spain, the maltreated Jews and the debased
agricultural classes, who saw, or thought they saw, freedom from
a yoke that had galled them for generations and had grown heavier
with succeeding years. Besides, they did not think that the Moslems
would more than ravage the country and perhaps attempt to destroy the
military power of the Goths, and then would retire to the land from
which they had come. There are two things, at least, we should note:
first, that the army of Tarik was composed mainly of native Africans,
then called Moors or Berbers; and that they had come with the settled
purpose of conquest and plunder. In order to enforce upon his men the
desperate nature of their task, Tarik caused his ships to be burned,
and thus impressed them with the fact that they must either conquer or
be destroyed—for they could not retreat.
Meanwhile, the gallant but unfortunate King Roderick had done his best
to arouse the disunited kingdom to a sense of its impending danger,
and had gathered an army of one hundred thousand men to resist the
approaching infidels. The opposing forces met on a plain near Xeres,
on the banks of the river Guadalete, and, after two days of desperate
fighting, victory crowned the efforts of Tarik and his traitorous
allies. Owing to the defection of Bishop Oppas, a brother of King
Witica, and the latter’s two sons, at a most critical moment, when they
and all their followers went over to the enemy, the field was lost to
King Roderick, who vanished from the scene completely, and was never
seen or heard of more.
The base Julian, the bishop, and the two princes were rewarded for
their perfidy, it is related, by a gift of the three thousand farms
pertaining to the crown. Thus, after three centuries of dominion,
extending from about 410 to 711 A.D., the Goths were driven from the
throne they had won by the sword and held by force; for the battle of
Guadalete was a decisive blow to the disintegrating kingdom, and after
that the advance of the Moorish armies was almost unopposed. It may
well be imagined that the warlike Tarik was not satisfied to rest here,
when before him was all Spain, with wealthy cities to sack, fertile
regions to be possessed, and a numerous population to be converted to
Islamism or to escape only by paying tribute.
Although the conquerors professed the same religion, bowed to the same
prophet, and waged war for the same great calif in the East, yet they
were not all of the same nationality, for in the army of invasion were
not only Arabs, but Moors, Egyptians, and Syrians. In time, however,
all came to be called by the name of Moors, though their differences
of birth and divergence of views led to serious quarrels among them.
The first estrangement was when Musa, the emir, finding that Tarik
had disobeyed his orders, and, instead of returning to Africa after
defeating the Goths in battle and acquiring vast plunder, had pursued
his conquests toward the north, hastily gathered another army and
followed on his tracks.
Musa found, however, that though Tarik had followed up his victory by
effectually scattering the defeated Goths, and even taking the capital
city, Toledo, there was yet room for another conqueror to operate;
so, instead of immediately pursuing Tarik, after he had landed he
made a detour through Andalusia and took Medina Sidonia and the rich
Roman city of Seville. Then, though gorged with plunder enough to have
satisfied a king, he pushed on after and overtook the recreant Tarik
at the city of Toledo. “I gave thee orders to make a foray only, then
return to Africa,” he said to the veteran, “yet thou hast marched
through all this territory without my permission.” The warrior received
this reproof in silence, and for a time a truce was made between them;
they pushed on their conquests, the one into the northwest, the other
into the north and east, until only the Pyrenees separated them from
the country of the Gauls.
Between them they brought all Spain under subjection, with the
exception of certain remote districts, which they thought too small or
too distant to be attacked. But it was within the confines of these
small mountain valleys of the northwest that, protected by their
rugged barriers, the defeated Goths halted and found a home, and
gathered as a nucleus for future forays upon their enemies; as we shall
see.
When the country had been practically conquered, the quarrel between
Musa and Tarik was renewed; finally it reached the ears of the Calif
at Bagdad that his most valiant generals were fighting like jackals
over their prey, and he summoned them both to the Orient, there to give
account of themselves. It would seem that gratitude was a sentiment
entirely foreign to the Arab character, as instanced not only on this
occasion, but on many another during the conquest and continuance of
the Moors in Spain; for, in spite of his inestimable services to the
califate, notwithstanding he had given to the Moslems a new country as
their own, and had extended the sway of Islam westward to the Atlantic,
Musa was degraded, even sentenced to death, and finally ended his life
in poverty.
But despite the severity of Oriental rule, Spain continued a tributary
to the Eastern califs until about the middle of the century in which
it was conquered, when (as we shall see in due course) an independent
califate was established in Cordova. Musa had left as emir in his
absence his favourite son Abdalasis, who governed the conquered
territory wisely, but had the misfortune, during his father’s absence,
to see and fall in love with beautiful Exilona, the unhappy widow of
the departed King Roderick. They were married; but as he was a Moslem
and she a Christian, soon there began murmurs among their subjects,
notwithstanding the generous nature of Abdalasis, who had ever in mind
their well–being. These rumours reached the ears of the Calif, cruel
and bloodthirsty Suleiman, and he sent orders that the devoted pair
should be murdered. His commands were obeyed: both were basely killed
while at morning prayers, and the head of Abdalasis was embalmed and
sent in a casket to Syria, to the court of the Calif. The unfortunate
Musa was in attendance at the court, and when the casket arrived the
Calif took out the head of Abdalasis and held it up before his victim:
“Dost thou know this head?” he demanded. Musa gazed in anguish. “Yes,”
he murmured, “well do I know it; and may the curse of God light upon
him who has destroyed a better man than himself!” The stricken father
did not long survive this terrible stroke; but the wrath of Suleiman
was not appeased until the other sons of Musa, whom he had left at
important posts in Africa, were also numbered with the dead.
Still, despite the ingratitude and cruelty of the Califas, able
generals were found to carry on the war for Islam, until even the
Pyrenees were leaped and the Moslem hosts invaded France. It seemed as
though all Europe would become subject to the bonds of the Arabs, and
soon be brought to acknowledge the “one God and Mohammed his prophet.”
But in the year 732, twenty–one years after the invasion of Spain, the
tide was turned at Tours, when Charles Martel slew thirty thousand
Moslems and turned back the remainder, eventually to retreat to the
land whence they had come. No other country suited them so well, and
here they lived, they and their descendants, from first to last, more
than eight hundred years.
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