UCSB LIBRARY
 
 THE BEST BOOKS SERIES 
 
 MOORS IN SPAIN 
 
 A Wonderful Chapter of the 
 World's Civilization 
 
 GREAT WARRIORS AND 
 STATESMEN -PROMOTERS 
 OF SCIENCE AND ARTS 
 THEIR HISTORY AND 
 ACHIEVEMENTS 
 
 rr 
 
 M. FLORIAN 
 
 THE NEW WERNER COMPANY 
 
 BOOK MANUFACTURERS 
 AKRON OHIO
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1910, Br 
 
 THE WERNER COMPANY 
 
 k 
 
 THE WERNER COMPANY, AKROH, OHIO
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 " HISTORY OF M0ORS IN SPAIN." 
 
 WE ARE accustomed to look upon the followers of 
 the Arabian Prophet as little better than barbarians, 
 remarkable chiefly for ignorance, cruelty, and a bloody 
 and persecuting spirit of fanaticism. As it regards the 
 character of the Mohammedans at the present day, 
 and, indeed, their moral and intellectual condition for 
 the last two centuries, there is no great error in this 
 opinion. But they are a degenerated race. There has 
 been a period of great brilliancy in their history, when 
 they were distinguished for their love of knowledge 
 and the successful cultivation of science and arts ; nor 
 -is it too much to say, that to them Christian Europe 
 is indebted for their deservedly generous impulse in 
 geography, history, philosophy, medicine, physics, 
 and mathematics, which led to the revival of learning 
 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Of the 
 various nations of the great Moslem family, none were 
 more renowned in arts, as well as arms, than the 
 Moorish conquerors in Spain. Their famous, though 
 little known history, which is contained in the follow- 
 ing pages, treats of a people who bore little resem- 
 blance to any other; who had their national vices and 
 virtues, as well as their characteristic physiognomy ; 
 and who so long united the bravery, generosity and 
 chivalry of the Europeans, with the excitable tempera- 
 ment and strong passions of the Orientals.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 To render the order of time more intelligible, and 
 the more clearly to elucidate facts, this historical 
 sketch will be divided in four principal Epochs. 
 
 The first wjll extend from the beginning of the 
 Conquests of the Arabs to the Establishment of 
 the Dynasty of the Ommiade Princes at Cordova; the 
 second will include the reigns of the Caliphs of the 
 West; in the third will be related all that concerns 
 the various small kingdoms erected from the ruins of 
 the Caliphate of Cordova ; and the fourth will compre- 
 hend a narration of the prominent events in the lives 
 of the successive sovereigns of the Kingdom of Gren 
 ada, until the period of the final expulsion of the Mus- 
 sulmans from the country.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Origin of the Moors The Arabs The Birth of Mohammed Relig- 
 ion of Mohammed The Progress of Islamism Victories of the 
 Mussulmans New Conquests of the Mohammedans The Moors be- 
 come Mussulmans Condition of Spain under the Goths Conquest 
 of Spain by the Moors The Viceroys of Spain Insurrection of 
 Prince Pelagius Abderamus attempts the Conquest of 'France He 
 penetrates as far as the Loire The Battle of Tours Civil Wars dis- 
 tract Spain 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Kings of Cordova become the Caliphs of the West The Asiatic 
 Mussulmans divide The Dynasty of the Ommiades lose the Caliph- 
 ate Horrible Massacre of the Ommiades An Ommiade Prince re- 
 pairs to Spain Abderamus, the first Caliph of the West Reign of 
 Abderamus I. Religion and Fetes of the Moors of Spain Civil Wars 
 arise among the Moors The Reigns of Hacchem I. and of Abdelazis 
 Reign of Abderamus II. Condition of the Fine Arts at Cordova 
 Anecdote of Abderamus Reigns of Mohammed, Almouzir, and Ab- 
 dalla Reign of Abderamus III. Embassy from a Greek Emperor 
 Magnificence and Gallantry of the Moors Description of the City 
 and Palace of Zahra Wealth of the Caliphs of Cordova The Fine 
 Arts cultivated at Cordova Reign of El Hacchem Laws of the 
 Moors and their Mode of administering Justice Authority possessed 
 by Fathers and Old Men An Illustration of the Magnanimity of 
 El Hakkam Reign of Hacchem III. Successful Rule of Mohammed 
 Almonzir as Hadjeb under the imbecile Hacchem Disorders at Cor- 
 dova End of the Caliphate 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The principal Kingdoms erected from the Ruins of the Caliphate of the 
 West Condition of Christian Spain at this Juncture The Kingdom 
 of Toledo; its Termination Success of the Christians The Cid 
 The Kingdom of Seville The Dynasty of the Almoravides hold Su- 
 premacy in Africa Conquests of the Almoravides in Spain French 
 Princes repair to Spain Extinction of the Kingdom of Saragossa 
 Foundation of the Kingdom of Portugal State of the Fine Arts 
 among the Moors at this Period Abenzoar and Averroes Dissensions 
 between the Moors and Christians The Africans, under Mohammed 
 the Green, land in Spain Battle of Toloza Tactics of the Moors 
 The discomfited Mohammed returns to Africa Extent of the Terri- 
 tories still retained by the Moors in Spain St. Ferdinand and Jaques 
 I. Valencia is attacked by the Aragonians Siege of Cordova Sur- 
 render of Valencia 45 
 
 (iii)
 
 iv CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Kings of Grenada The Condition of the Moors ; their Despondency 
 Mohammed Alhamar ; his Character and Influence with his Country- 
 men He founds the Kingdom of Grenada Description of the City 
 of Grenada and its Vega Extent and Resources of this Kingdom 
 Reign of Mohammed Alhamar I. The Moorish Sovereign becomes 
 the Vassal of the King of Castile Ferdinand III. besieges Seville 
 The Taking of Seville Revenues of the King of Grenada Military 
 Forces Cavalry of the Moors Disturbances in Castile-^-Reign of 
 Mohammed II. El Fakik He forms a League with the King of Mo- 
 rocco Misfortunes of Alphonso of Castile Interview between Al- 
 phonso and the Sovereign of Morocco State of Learning and the 
 Fine Arts under Mohammed al Mumenim Description of the Alham- 
 bra The Court of Lions' The Generalif Mohammed III. El llama, 
 or the Blind, ascends the Throne of Grenada Troubles in Grenada 
 Reign of Mohammed IV. Abenazar Reign of Ismael Reign of Mo- 
 hammed V. and of Joseph I. The Battle of Salado Successive Reigns 
 of Mohammed VI. and Mohammed VII. Horrible Crime of Peter the 
 Cruel of Castile Condition of Spain ; of Europe in general Moham- 
 med VI. reassumes the Crown Reign of Mohammed VIII. Abouhad- 
 jad Favorite Literary and Scientific Pursuits of the Moors under the 
 munificent Rule of Abouhadjad Universal Prevalence of a Taste for 
 Fiction among the Arabs Music and Gallantry of the Moors The 
 Mixture of Refinement and Ferocity in the Character of the Moors 
 Description of the Women of Grenada The National Costume of 
 both Sexes Moorish Customs Folly of the Grand-master of Alcantara 
 The Result of his Expedition Dreadful Death of Joseph II. Mo- 
 hammed IX. usurps the Throne Singular Escape of a Condemned 
 Prince Generous Disposition of Joseph III. Disturbed Condition of 
 the Kingdom after his Death A rapid Succession of Rulers Reign of 
 Ismael. II. The Miseries of War most severely felt by the Cultivator 
 of the Soil Mulei-Hassem succeeds Ismael II. Marriage of Ferdinand 
 and Isabella The respective Characters of these Sovereigns They de- 
 clare \\ ar against the Grenadians Statesmen and Soldiers of the 
 Spanish Court Stern Reply of the Grenadian King Alhama is sur- 
 prised Civil War is kindled in Grenada by the Feuds of the Rdyal 
 Family Boabdil is proclaimed King Cause of the ambitious Hopes 
 of Zagal Boabdil is taken Prisoner by the Spaniards The Politic 
 Spanish Rulers restore Boabdil to Liberty The Moors become their 
 own Destroyers Death of Mulei-Hassem Boabdil and his Uncle di- 
 vide the Relics of Grenada between them Baseness of Zagal Boabdil 
 reigns alone at Grenada Ferdinand lays Siege to the City of Gren- 
 ada"; Condition of the City The Spanish Camp Isabella repairs to 
 the Camp She builds a City Surrender of Grenada Departure of Bo- 
 abdil from the City The Entrai>ce of the Spanish Conquerors into the 
 City Summary of the Causes of the Ruin of the Moors Character- 
 istics of the Moors 7 Anecdote illustrative of their Observance of the 
 Laws of Hospitality Christian Persecution of the Moors Revolts of 
 the Moors, and their Results Final Expulsion of the Moors from 
 Spam eg
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MOORS OF SPAIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONQUESTS OF THE ARABS OR MOORS. 
 Extending from the end of the Sixth Century to the middle of the Eighth. 
 
 THE primitive Moors were the inhabitants of the 
 vast portion of Africa bounded on the east by 
 Egypt, on the north by the Mediterranean, 
 on the west by the Atlantic, and on the south by the 
 deserts of Barbary. 
 
 The origin of the Moors, or Mauritanians, is, like 
 that of most other ancient nations, obscure, and the 
 information we possess concerning their early history 
 confusedly mingled with fables. The fact, however, 
 appears to be established, that Asiatic emigrations 
 were, from the earliest times made into Africa. In ad- 
 dition to this, the historians of remote ages speak 
 of a certain Meleck Yarfrick, king of Arabia Felix, who 
 conducted a people called Sabtri into Libya, made him- 
 self master of that country, established his followers 
 there, and gave it the name of Africa. It is from these 
 Sabians or Sabcci that the principal Moorish tribes 
 pretend to trace their descent. The derivation of the 
 
 M. of H. 1 xxxiv. -i
 
 2 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 name Moors is also supposed, in some degree, to con- 
 firm the impression that they came originally from 
 Asia. 
 
 But, without enlarging upon these ancient state- 
 ments, let it suffice to say, that nearly certain ground 
 exists for the belief that the original Moors were 
 Arabians. In confirmation of this impression, we find 
 that, during every period of the existence of their 
 race, the descendants of the primitive inhabitants of 
 Mauritania have, like the Arabs, been divided into 
 distinct tribes, and, like them, have pursued a wild 
 and wandering mode of existence. 
 
 The Moors of Africa are known in ancient history 
 under the name of Nomades, Numidas or Numidians, 
 Getulje, and Massyli. They were by turns the sub- 
 jects, the enemies, or the allies of the Carthaginians, 
 and with them they fell under the dominion of the 
 Romans. 
 
 After several unsuccessful revolts, to which they 
 were instigated by their fiery, restless, and inconstant 
 temper, the Moors were at length subjugated by the 
 Vandals, A. D. 427. 
 
 A century afterward these people were conquered 
 by r.elisarius: but the Greeks were in their turn sub- 
 dued by the Arabs, who then proceeded to achieve the 
 conquest of Mauritania. 
 
 As, from the period when that event occurred, the 
 Mauritanians or Moors, who were thus suddenly 
 converted to Mohammedanism, have frequently been 
 confounded with the native Arabians, it will be proper 
 to say a few words concerning that extraordinary 
 people : a people who, after occupying for so many 
 centuries an insignificant place among the nations of
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 3 
 
 the earth, rapidly rendered themselves masters of the 
 greater part of the known world. 
 
 The Arabs are, beyond question, one of the most 
 ancient races, of men in existence; and have, of all 
 others, perhaps, best preserved their national inde- 
 pendence, and their distinctive character and manners. 
 Divided from the most remote times into tribes that 
 either wandered in the desert or were collected to- 
 gether in cities, and obedient to chiefs who in the 
 same person united the warrior and the magistrate, 
 they have never been subjected to foreign domination. 
 The Persians, the Romans, and the Macedonians 
 vainly attempted to subdue them : they only shattered 
 their weapons in fragments against the rocks of the 
 Nabatheans. Proud of an origin which he traced back 
 even to the patriarchs of olden time, exulting in his 
 successful defence of his liberty and his rights, the 
 Arab, from the midst of his deserts, regarded the rest 
 of mankind as consisting of mere bands of slaves, 
 changing masters as chance or convenience directed. 
 Brave, temperate, and indefatigable, inured from in- 
 fancy to the severest toil, fearing neither thirst, hun- 
 ger, nor death itself these were a people by whose 
 assistance a leader suitably endowed could render 
 himself master of the world. Mohammed appeared: 
 to him nature had accorded the requisite qualifications 
 for executing such a design. Courageous, sagacious, 
 eloquent, polished, possessed in an eminent degree of 
 the powers which both awe and delight mankind, 
 Mohammed would have been a great man had he be- 
 longed to the most enlightened age among an ignor- 
 ant and fanatical people he became a prophet. 
 
 Until Mohammed arose among them, the Arab
 
 4 THE MOORS OF SPAIX 
 
 tribes, surrounded by Jews, Christians, and idolaters, 
 had entertained a superstitious faith, compounded of 
 the religious belief of their various neighbors and that 
 of the ancient Sabsei. They fully credited the exist- 
 ence of genii, demons, and witchcraft, adored the stars, 
 and offered idolatrous sacrifices. But Mohammed 
 after having devoted many years to profound and 
 solitary meditation upon the new dogmas he designed 
 to establish ; after having either convinced or won to 
 his interests the principal individuals of his own fam- 
 ily, possessing pre-eminent consequence among their 
 countrymen suddenly began to preach a new relig- 
 ion, opposed to all those with which the Arabs were 
 hitherto familiar, and whose principles were well- 
 adapted to inflame the ardent temper of that excitable 
 people. 
 
 Children of Ishmael, said the Prophet to them, I 
 bring you the faith that was professed by your father 
 Abraham, by Noah, and by all the patriarchs. There 
 is but one God, the Sovereign Ruler of all worlds : he 
 is called THE MERCIFUL; worship Him alone. Be 
 beneficent toward orphans, slaves, captives, and the 
 poor: be just to all men justice is the sister of piety. 
 Pray and bestow alms. You will be rewarded in 
 Heaven, by being permitted to dwell perpetually in 
 delicious gardens, where limpid waters will for ever 
 flow, and where each one of you will eternally enjoy 
 the companionship of women who will be ever beau- 
 tiful, ever youthful, ever devoted to you alone. Coura- 
 geously combat both the unbelieving and the impious. 
 Oppose them until they embrace Tslamism or render 
 you tribute. Every soldier who dies in battle will 
 share the treasures of God ; nor can the coward pro-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 5 
 
 long his life; for the moment when he is destined to 
 be smitten by the angel of death is written in the Book 
 of the Eternal. 
 
 Such precepts, announced in majestic and highly 
 figurative language, embellished with the charms of 
 verse, and presented by a warrior, prophet, poet, and 
 legislator, professing to be the representative of an 
 angel, to the most susceptible people in the world to 
 a people possessing a passion alike for the marvellous 
 and the voluptuous, for heroism and for poetry could 
 scarcely fail to find disciples. Converts rapidly 
 crowded around Mohammed, and their numbers were 
 soon augmented by persecution. His enemies obliged 
 the Prophet to fly from his native Mecca and take 
 refuge in Medina. This flight was the epoch of his 
 glory and of the Hegira of the Mussulmans. It oc- 
 curred A. D. 622. 
 
 From this moment Islamism spread like, a torrent 
 over the Arabias and Ethiopa. In vain did the Jewish 
 and idolatrous tribes attempt to maintain their ancient 
 faith ; in vain did Mecca arm her soldiers against the 
 destroyers of her gods ; Mohammed, sword in hand, 
 dispersed their armies, seized upon their cities, and 
 won the affections of the people whom he subdued, by 
 his clemency, his genius, and his fascinating address. 
 
 A legislator, a pontiff, the chief of all the Arab 
 tribes, the commander of an invincible army, respected 
 by the Asiatic sovereigns, adored by a powerful nation, 
 and surrounded by captains who had become heroes 
 in serving under him, Mohammed was on the point of 
 marching against Heraclius, when his designs were 
 for ever interrupted by the termination of his exist- 
 ence. This event took place at Medina, A. D. 632,
 
 6 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Hegira ii, and was the effect of poison, which had, 
 some time before, been administered to this extraordinary 
 man by a Jewess of Rhaibar. 
 
 The death of the Prophet arrested neither the 
 progress of his religion nor the triumphs of the Moslem 
 arms. 
 
 Abubeker.^he father-in-law of Mohammed, became 
 his successor, and assumed the title of Caliph, which 
 simply signifies vicar. During his reign the Saracens 
 penetrated into Syria, dispersed the armies of Herac- 
 lius, and took the city of Damascus, the siege of which 
 will be for ever celebrated in consequence of the 
 almost superhuman exploits of the famous Kaled, sur- 
 named the Sword of God. 
 
 Notwithstanding these successive victories, ajid 
 the enormous amount of booty thus taken from the 
 enemy and committed to his keeping, Abubeker appro- 
 priated to his own particular use a sum scarcely equiv- 
 alent to forty cents a day. 
 
 Omar, the successor of Abubeker, commanded 
 Kaled to march against Jerusalem. That city soon 
 became the prize of the Arabs; Syria and Palestine 
 were subdued ; the Turks and the Persians demanded 
 peace ; Heraclius fled from Antioch j and all Asia 
 trembled before Omar and the terrible Mussulmans. 
 
 Modest, in spite of the triumphs that everywhere 
 attended them, and attributing their success to God 
 alone, these Moslems preserved unaltered their austere 
 manners, their frugality, their severe discipline and 
 their reverence for poverty, though surrounded by the 
 most corrupt of the nations of the earth, and exposed 
 to the seductive influences of the delicious climates' 
 and the luxurious pleasures of some of the richest and
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 7 
 
 * ' 
 
 most beautiful countries in the world. During the 
 sacking of a city, the most eager and impetuous 
 soldier wouM be instantly arrested in the work of pil- 
 lage by the word of his chief, and would, with the 
 strictest fidelity, deliver up the booty he had obtained, 
 that it might be deposited in the general treasury. 
 Even the most independent and magnificent of the 
 heroic chiefs would hasten, in accordance with the 
 directions of the caliph, to take the command of an 
 army, and would become successively generals, private 
 soldiers, or ambassadors, in obedience to his slightest 
 wish. In fine, Omar himself Omar, the richest, the 1 
 greatest, the most puissant of the monarchs of Asia, 
 set forward upon a journey to Jerusalem, mounted 
 upon a red camel, which bore a sack of barley, one of 
 rice, a well-filled water-skin, and a wooden vase. Thus 
 equipped, the caliph traveled through the midst of 
 conquered nations, who crowded around his path at 
 every step, entreating his blessing and praying him 
 to adjudge their quarrels. At last he joined his army, 
 and, inculcating precepts of simplicity, valor, and 
 humility upon the soldiers, he made his entrance into 
 the Holy City, liberated such of its former Christian 
 possessors as had become the captives of his people, 
 and commanded the preservation of the churches. 
 Then remounting his camel, the representative of the 
 Prophet returned to Medina, to perform the duties of 
 the high-priest of his religion. 
 
 The Mussulmans now advanced towards Egypt. 
 That country was soon subdued. Alexandria was 
 taken by Amrou, one of the most distinguished gen- 
 erals of Omar. It was then that the famous library 
 was destroyed, whose loss still excites the profound
 
 8 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 regrets of the learned. The Arabians, though such 
 enthusiastic admirers of their national poetry, despised 
 the literature of all the rest of the world. Amrou 
 caused the library of the Ptolemies to be burned, yet 
 this same Amrou was nevertheless celebrated for his 
 poetical effusions. He entertained the sincerest affec- 
 tion and respect for the celebrated John the Gram- 
 marian, to whom, but for the opposing order of the 
 caliph, he would have given this valuable collection of 
 books. It was Amrou, too, who caused the execution 
 of a design worthy of the best age of Rome, that of 
 connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean by 
 means of a navigable canal, at a point where the 
 waters of the Nile might be diverted from their course 
 for its supply. This canal, so useful to Egypt, and so 
 important to the commerce of both Europe and Asia, 
 was accomplished in a few months. The Turks, in 
 more modern times, have suffered it to be destroyed. 
 
 Amrou continued to advance into Africa, while the 
 other Arabian commanders passed the Euphrates and 
 conquered the Persians. But Omar was already no 
 more, and Othman occupied his place. 
 
 It was during the reign of this caliph that the 
 Saracens, banishing for ever its enfeebled Greek mas- 
 ters conquered Mauritania, or the country of the 
 Moors of Africa, A. D. 647, Heg. 27. 
 
 The invaders met with serious resistance only from 
 the warlike tribes of the Bereberes. That bold and 
 pastoral people, the descendants of the ancient inhab- 
 itants of Numidia, and preserving, even to this day, a 
 species of independence, intrenched as they are in the 
 Atlas Mountains, long and successfully resisted the 
 conquerors of the Moors. A Moslem general named
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 9 
 
 Akba finally succeeded in subjugating them, and in 
 compelling them to adopt the laws and faith of his 
 country. 
 
 After that achievement Akba carried his arms to 
 the extreme western point of Africa, the ocean alone 
 resisting him in his progress. There, inspired by 
 courage and devotion with feelings of the highest en- 
 thusiasm, he forced his horse into the waves, and, 
 drawing his sabre, cried, "God of Mohammed, thou be- 
 holdest that, but for the element which arrests me, I 
 would have proceeded in search of unknown nations, 
 whom I would have forced to adore thy name !" 
 
 Until this epoch, the Moors, under the successive 
 dominion of the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Van- 
 dals, and the Greeks, had taken but little interest in 
 the affairs of their different masters. 
 
 Wandering in the deserts, they occupied them- 
 selves chiefly with the care of their flocks; paid the 
 arbitrary imposts levied upon them, sometimes pas- 
 sively enduring the oppression of their rulers, and 
 sometimes assaying to break their chains; taking 
 refuge, after each defeat of their efforts, in the Atlas 
 Mountains, or in the interior of their country. 
 
 Their religion was a mixture of Christianity and 
 idolatry; their manners those of the enslaved Nom- 
 ades : rude, ignorant, and wretched, their condition was 
 the prototype of what it now is under the tyrants of 
 Morocco. 
 
 But the presence of the Arabs rapidly produced a 
 great change among these people. A common origin 
 with that of their new masters, together with similar- 
 ity of language and temperament, contributed to bind 
 the conquered to their conquerors.
 
 10 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 The announcement of a religion which had been 
 preached by a descendant of Ishmael, whom the Moors 
 regarded as their father; the rapid conquests of the 
 Mussulmans, who were already masters of half of Asia 
 and a large portion of Africa, and who threatened to 
 enslave the world, aroused the excitable imaginations 
 of the Moors, and restored to their national character 
 all its passionate energy. They embraced the dogmas 
 of Mohammed with transport; they united with the 
 Arabs, volunteered to serve under the Moslem ban- 
 ners, and suddenly became simultaneously enamored 
 with Islamism and with glory. 
 
 This reunion, which doubled the military strength 
 of the two united nations, was disturbed for some time 
 by the revolt of the Bereberes, who never yielded their 
 liberty under any circumstances. 
 
 The reigning caliph, Valid the First, despatched 
 into Egypt Moussa-ben-Nazir, a judicious and valiant 
 commander, at the head of a hundred thousand men, 
 A. D. 708, Heg. 89. 
 
 Moussa defeated the Bereberes, restored quiet in 
 Mauritania, and seized upon Tangier, which belonged 
 to the Goths of Spain. 
 
 Master of an immense region of country, of a re- 
 doubtable army, and of a people who considered his 
 supremacy as essential to their well-being, the Saracen 
 general from this period contemplated carrying his 
 arms into Spain. 
 
 That beautiful kingdom, after having been suc- 
 cessively under the yoke of the Carthaginians and the 
 Romans, had finally become the prey of the Barbar- 
 ians. The Alani, the Suevi, and the Vandals had 
 divided its provinces among them; but Euric, one of
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 11 
 
 the Visigoths, who entered the country from the south 
 of Gaul, had, towards the end of the fifth century, 
 gained possession of the whole of Spain, and trans- 
 mitted it to his descendants. 
 
 The softness of the climate, together with the 
 effects of wealth and luxury, gradually enfeebled 
 these conquerors, creating vices from which they had 
 been previously free, and depriving them of the war- 
 like qualities to which alone they had been indebted 
 for their success. Of the kings who succeeded Euric, 
 some were Arians and others Catholics, who aban- 
 doned their authority to the control of bishops, and 
 occupied a throne shaken to its center by internal dis- 
 turbances. Roderick, the last of these Gothic sov- 
 ereigns, polluted the throne by his vices ; and both his- 
 tory and tradition accuse him of the basest crimes. 
 Indeed, in the instance of nearly all these tyrants, their 
 vices either directly occasioned, or were made the pre- 
 text of their final ruin. 
 
 The fact is well established, that Count Julian and 
 his brother Oppas, archbishop of Toledo, both of them 
 distinguished and influential men, favored the irrup- 
 tion of the Moors into Spain. 
 
 Tarik, one' of the most renowned captains of his 
 time, was sent into Spain by Moussa. He had at first 
 but few troops ; but he was not by this prevented from 
 defeating the large army that, by command of Roder- 
 ick, the last Gothic king, opposed his course. 
 
 Subsequently, having received re-enforcements 
 from Africa, Tarik vanquished Roderick himself at the 
 battle of Xeres, where that unfortunate monarch per- 
 ished during the general flight in which the conflict 
 terminated, A. D. 714, Heg. 96.
 
 12 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 ' After this battle, the Mohammedan general, profit- 
 ing by his victory, penetrated into Estremadura, Anda- 
 lusia, and the two Castiles, and took possession of the 
 city of Toledo. Being soon after joined by Moussa, 
 whose jealousy of the glory his lieutenant was so rap- 
 idly acquiring, prompted him to hasten to his side, 
 these two remarkable commanders, dividing their 
 troops into several corps, achieved, in a few months, 
 the conquest of the whole of Spain. 
 
 It should be observed, that these Moors, whom 
 several historians have represented as bloodthirsty 
 barbarians, did not deprive the people whom they had 
 subjugated either of their faith, their churches, or the 
 administrators of their laws. They exacted from the 
 Spaniards only the tribute they had been accustomed 
 to pay their kings. One cannot but question the exist- 
 ence of the ferocity that is ascribed to them, when it is 
 remembered that the greater part of the Spanish cities 
 submitted to the invaders without malting the least 
 attempt at resistance; that the Christians readily 
 united themselves with the Moors ; that the inhabitants 
 of Toledo desired to assume the name of Musarabs; and 
 that Queen Egilona, the widow of Roderick, the last 
 of the Gothic sovereigns, publicly espoused, with the 
 united consent of the two nations, Abdelazis, the son 
 of Moussa. 
 
 Moussa, whom the success of Tarik had greatly 
 exasperated, wishing to remove a lieutenant whose 
 achievements eclipsed his own, preferred an accusation 
 against him to the caliph. Valid recalled them both, 
 but refused to adjudge their difference, and suffered 
 them to die at court from chagrin at seeing themselves 
 forgotten.
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 13 
 
 Abdelazis, the husband of Egilona, became gov- 
 ernor of Spain A-. D. 718, Heg. 100, but did not long 
 survive his elevation. Alahor, who succeeded him, 
 carried his arms into Gaul, subdued the Warbonnais, 
 and was preparing to push his conquests still farther, 
 when he learned that Pelagius, a prince of the blood- 
 royal of the Visigoths, had taken refuge in the moun- 
 tains of Asturia with a handful of devoted followers; 
 that with them he dared to brave the conquerors of 
 Spain, and had formed the bold design of attempting 
 to rid himself of their yoke. Alahor sent some troops 
 against him. Pelagius, intrenched with his little army 
 in the mountain gorges, twice gave battle to the Mus- 
 sulmans, seized upon several castles, and, reanimating 
 the spirits of the Christians, whose courage had been 
 almost extinguished by so long a succession of re- 
 verses, taught the astonished Spaniards that the Moors 
 were not invincible. 
 
 The insurrection of Pelagius occasioned the recall 
 of Alahor by the Caliph Omar II. Elzemah, his suc- 
 cessor, was of the opinion that the most certain means of 
 repressing revolts among a people is to render them 
 prosperous and contented. He therefore devoted him- 
 self to the wise and humane government of Spain ; to 
 the regulation of imposts, until then quite arbitrary; 
 and to quieting the discontents of the soldiery, and 
 establishing their pay at a fixed rate. A lover of the 
 fine arts, which the Arabs began from that time to cul- 
 tivate, Elzemah embellished Cordova, which was his 
 capital, and attracted thither the savans of the age. 
 He was himself the author of a book containing a 
 description of the cities, rivers, provinces, and ports of 
 Spain ; of the metals, mines, and quarries it possesses ;
 
 14 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 and, in short, of almost every object of interest either 
 in science or government. 
 
 But little disturbed by the insurrectionary move- 
 ments of Pelagius, whose power was confined to the 
 possession of some inaccessible mountain fortresses, 
 Elzemah did not attempt to force him from his strong- 
 holds, but, impelled by the ardent desire of extending 
 the Moorish conquests into France, with which the 
 governors of Spain were ever inflamed, he passed the 
 Pyrenees, and perished in a battle fought against 
 Eudes, duke of Aquitania, A. D. 722, Heg. 104. 
 
 During the remainder of the Caliphate of Yezid II., 
 several governors followed each other in rapid succes- 
 sion after the death of Elzemah. None of their actions 
 merit recital ; but, during this period, the brave Pe- 
 lagius aggrandized his petty state, advancing into the 
 mountains of Leon, and, in addition, making himself 
 master of several towns. 
 
 This hero, whose invincible daring roused the 
 Asturians and Cantabrians to struggle for liberty, laid 
 the foundations of that powerful monarchy whose war- 
 riors afterward pursued the Moors even to the rocks 
 of the Atlas. 
 
 The Moslems, who dreamed only of new conquests, 
 made no considerable efforts against Pelagius : they 
 were confident of checking his rebellion with the ut- 
 most ease when they should have accomplished the 
 subjugation of the French dominions; and that desire 
 alone fired the ardent soul of the new governor Abdal- 
 rahman. or, as he is commonly called, Abderamus. 
 
 His love of glory, his valor, his genius, and, above 
 all, his immeasurable ambition, made the Mussulman 
 governor regard this conquest as one that could be
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 15 
 
 easily effected; but he himself was destined to be the 
 vanquished. 
 
 Charles Martel, the son of Pepin d'Heristal, and 
 the grandfather of Charlemagne, whose exploits effaced 
 the recollection of those of his father, and whose fame 
 was not eclipsed by that of his grandson, was at this 
 time mayor of the palace, under the last princes of the 
 first race ; or, rather, Charles was the real monarch of 
 the French and German nations. 
 
 Eudes, duke of Aquitania, the possessor of Gas- 
 cony and Guienne, had long maintained a quarrel with 
 the French hero. Unable longer, without assistance, 
 to resist his foe, he sought an alliance with a Moor 
 named Munuza, who was the governor of Catalonia 
 and the secret enemy of Abderamus. These two pow- 
 erful vassals, both discontented with their respective 
 sovereigns, and inspired as much by fear as dislike, 
 united themselves in the closest bonds, in despite of 
 the difference in their religious faith. The Christian 
 duke did not hesitate to give his daughter in marriage 
 to his Mohammedan ally, and the Princess Numerance 
 espoused the Moorish Munuza, as Queen Egilona had 
 espoused the Moorish Abdelazis. 
 
 Abderamus, when informed of this alliance, imme- 
 diately divined the motives which had induced it. He 
 soon assembled an army, penetrated with rapidity into 
 Catalonia, and attacked Munuza, who was wounded 
 in a fruitless endeavor to fly, and afterward perished 
 by his own hand. His captive wife was conducted into 
 the presence of the victorious governor. Abderamus, 
 struck with her beauty, sent the fair Numerance as a 
 present to the Caliph Haccham, whose regard she 
 elicited; and thus, by a singular chance, a princess of
 
 16 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Gascony became an inmate of the seraglio of a sov- 
 ereign of Damascus. 
 
 Not content with having so signally punished Mun- 
 uza, Abderamus crossed the Pyrenees, traversed Na- 
 varre, entered Guienne, and besieged and took the City 
 of Bordeaux. Eudes attempted, at the head of an 
 army, to arrest his progress, but was repelled in a 
 decisive engagement. Everything yielded to the Mus- 
 sulman arms : Abderamus pursued his route, ravaged 
 Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou, appeared in triumph 
 in Touraine, and paused only when within view of the 
 streaming ensigns of Charles Martel. 
 
 Charles came to this rencounter followed by the 
 forces of France, Asturia, and Bourgogne, and at- 
 tended by the veteran warriors whom he was accus- 
 tomed to lead to victory. The Duke of Aquitania was 
 also in the camp. Charles forgot his private injuries 
 in the contemplation of the common danger: this dan- 
 ger was pressing: the fate of France and Germany 
 indeed, of the whole of Christendom, depended on the 
 event of the approaching conflict. 
 
 Abderamus was a rival worthy of the son of Pepin. 
 Flushed, like him, with the proud recollection of nu- 
 merous victories; at the head of an innumerable army; 
 surrounded by experienced captains, who had been the 
 frequent witnesses of his martial triumphs ; and long 
 inspired with the Avarmest hopes of finally adding to 
 the dominion of Islamism the only country belonging 
 to the ancient Roman empire that still remained un- 
 subdued by the Saracens, the Moorish leader met his 
 brave foe, upon equal terms, on the battle-field of 
 Tours, A. D. 733, Heg. 114. 
 
 The action was long and bloody. Abderamus was
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 17 
 
 Iain ; and this dispiriting loss, without doubt, decided 
 he defeat of his army. Historians assert that more 
 ban three hundred thousand men perished. This 
 tatement is probably exaggerated; but it is certainly 
 rue, that the Moors, who had thus penetrated into the 
 nidst of France, were relentlessly pursued after their 
 lef*eat, and many of them were unable to escape from 
 he arms of the victors and the vengeance of the 
 eople. 
 
 This memorable battle, of which we possess no de- 
 ails, saved France from the yoke of the Arabs, and 
 jffectually arrested their spreading dominion. 
 
 Once again, subsequent to this reverse, the Moors 
 ittempted to penetrate France, and succeeded in seiz- 
 ing upon Avignon ; but Charles Martel defeated them 
 mew, retook the captured city, drove them from Nar- 
 Donne, and deprived them forever of the hope with 
 which they had so often flattered themselves. 
 
 After the death of Abderamus, Spain was torn by 
 dissensions between the two governors named succes- 
 sively by the caliph. A third pretender arrived from 
 Africa. A fourth added himself to the list; factions 
 multiplied ; the different parties often had recourse to 
 arms ; chiefs were assassinated, cities taken, and prov- 
 inces ravaged. 
 
 The details of these events are variously related by 
 different historians, but possess little interest in the 
 narrations of any. 
 
 These civil wars lasted nearly twenty years. The 
 Christians, who had retired into Asturia, profited by 
 them to the utmost. Alphonso I., the son-in-law and 
 successor of Pelagius, imitated the career of that hero. 
 He seized upon a part of Galicia and Leon, repulsed 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 2
 
 18 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 the Mussulman troops who were sent to oppose him, 
 and rendered himself master of several towns. 
 
 The Moors, occupied by their domestic quarrels, 
 neglected to arrest the progress of Alphonso, and from 
 that time the growth of a miniature kingdom com- 
 menced, whose interests were inimical to those of the 
 Saracens in Spain. 
 
 After many crimes and combats, a certain Joseph 
 had succeeded in triumphing over his different rivals, 
 and was at last reigning supreme in Cordova, when 
 there occurred a memorable event in the East, which 
 was destined greatly to affect the condition of Spain. 
 
 From that period, A. D. 749, Heg. 134, commences 
 the second epoch of the empire of the Moors of Spain, 
 which makes it necessary to revert briefly to the his- 
 tory of the Eastern caliphs.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE KINGS OF CORDOVA BECOME THE CALIPHS OF 
 THE WEST. 
 
 Extending from the middle of the Eighth to the commencement of the 
 Eleventh Century. 
 
 WE HAVE seen that, under their first three 
 caliphs, Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, 
 the Arabian conquerors of Syria, Persia, 
 and Africa preserved their ancient manners, their sim- 
 plicity of character, their obedience to the successors 
 of the Prophet, and their contempt for luxury and 
 wealth : but what people could continue to withstand 
 the influence of such an accumulation of prosperity? 
 These resistless conquerors turned their weapons 
 against each other: they forgot the virtues which had 
 rendered them invincible, and assisted by their dis- 
 sensions in dismembering the empire that their valor 
 had created. 
 
 The disastrous effects of the baneful spirit that had 
 thus insidiously supplanted the original principles of 
 union, moderation, and prudence, by which, as a na- 
 tion, the Moslems had been actuated, were first man- 
 ifested in the assassination of the Caliph Othman. 
 
 All, the friend, companion, and adopted son of the 
 Prophet, whose courage, achievements, and relation- 
 ship to Mohammed, as the husband of his only 
 daughter, had rendered him so dear to the Mussul- 
 mans, was announced as the successor of Othman.
 
 20 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 But Moavias, the governor of Syria, refused to rec- 
 ognize the authority of AH, and, under the guidance 
 of the sagacious Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt, 
 caused himself to be proclaimed Caliph of Damascus. 
 Upon this, the Arabians divided : those of Medina sus- 
 taining Ali, and those of Syria Moavias. The first took 
 the name of Alides, the others styled themselves Om- 
 miades, deriving their denomination from the grand- 
 father of Moavias. Such was the origin of the famous 
 schism which still separates the Turks and Persians. 
 
 Though Ali succeeded in vanquishing Moavias in 
 the field, he did not avail himself judiciously of the ad- 
 vantage afforded him by his victory. He was soon 
 after assassinated, and the spirit and courage of his 
 party vanished with the occurrence of that event. The 
 sons of Ali made efforts to reanimate the ardor of his 
 partisans, but in vain. 
 
 Thus, in the midst of broils, revolts, and civil wars, 
 the Ommiades still remained in possession of the Cal- 
 iphate of Damascus. It was during the reign of one of 
 these princes, Valid the First, that the Arabian con- 
 quests extended in the East to the banks of the Ganges, 
 and in the West to the shores of the Atlantic. The 
 Ommiades, however, were for the most part feeble, but 
 they were sustained by able commanders, and the 
 ancient valor of the Moslem soldiers was not yet de- 
 generated. 
 
 After the Ommiades had maintained their empire 
 for the space of ninety-three years, Mervan II., the 
 last caliph of the race, was deprived of his throne and 
 his life through the instrumentality of Abdalla, -a chief 
 of the tribe of the Abbassides, who were, like the Om- 
 miades, near relatives of Mohammed.
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 21 
 
 Aboul-Abbas, nephew of Abdalla, supplanted the 
 former caliph. With him commenced the dynasty of 
 the Abbassides, so celebrated in the East for their love 
 of science and their connection with the names of 
 Haroun Al Raschid, Almamon, and the Bermasides. 
 
 The Abbassides retained the caliphate during five 
 successive centuries. At the termination of that 
 period, they were despoiled of their power by the Tar- 
 tar posterity of Gengis Khan, after having witnessed 
 the establishment of a race of Egyptian caliphs named 
 Fatimites, the pretended descendants of Fatima, the 
 daughter of Mohammed. 
 
 Thus was the Eastern empire of the Arabs event- 
 ually destroyed : the descendants of Ishmael returned 
 to the country from which they had originally sprung, 
 and gradually reverted to nearly the same condition as 
 that in which they existed when the Prophet aros< 
 among them. 
 
 These events, from the founding of the dynasty of 
 the Abbassides, have been anticipated in point of time 
 in the relation, because henceforth the history of Spain 
 is no longer intermingled with that of the East. 
 
 After having dwelt briefly upon an event intimately 
 connected as well with the establishment of the Ab- 
 bassides upon the Moslem throne as with the history 
 of Spain, we will enter continuously upon the main 
 subject of our work. 
 
 To return, then, for a moment, to the downfall of 
 the Ommiade caliphs. 
 
 When the cruel Abdalla had placed his nephew, 
 Aboul-Abbas, on the throne of the Caliphs of Damas- 
 cus, he formed the horrible design of exterminating the 
 Ommiades. These princes were very numerous. With
 
 22 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 the Arabs, among whom polygamy is permitted, and 
 where numerous offspring are regarded as the peculiar 
 gift of Heaven, it is not unusual to find several thous- 
 and individuals belonging to the same family. 
 
 Abdalla, despairing of effecting the destruction of 
 the race of his enemies, dispersed as they were by ter- 
 ror, published a general amnesty to all the Ommiades 
 who should present themselves before him on a certain 
 day. Those ill-fated people, confiding in the fulfilment 
 of his solemn promises, hastened to seek safety at the 
 feet of Abdalla. The monster, when they were all 
 assembled, caused his soldiers to surround them, and 
 then commanded them all to be butchered in his pres- 
 ence. After this frightful massacre, Abdalla ordered 
 the bloody bodies to be ranged side by side in close 
 order, and then to be covered with boards spread with 
 Persian carpets. Upon this horrible table he caused a 
 magnificent feast to be served to his officers. One 
 shudders at the perusal of such details, but they serve 
 to portray the character of this Oriental conqueror. 
 
 A solitary Ommiade escaped the miserable fate of 
 his brethren; a prince named Abderamus. A fugitive 
 wanderer, he reached Egypt, and concealed himself in 
 the solitary recesses of its inhospitable deserts. 
 
 The Moors of Spain, faithful to the Ommiades, 
 though their governor Joseph had recognized the au- 
 thority of the Abbassides, had no sooner learned that 
 there existed in Egypt a scion of the illustrious family 
 to which they still retained their attachment, than they 
 secretly sent deputies to offer him their crown. Ab- 
 deramus foresaw the obstacles with which he would be 
 compelled to struggle, but. guided by the impulses of a 
 soul whose native greatness had been strengthened and
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 23 
 
 purified by adversity, he did not hesitate to accept the 
 proposal of the Moors. 
 
 .The Ommiade prince arrived in the Peninsula A. D. 
 755, Heg. 138. He speedily gained the hearts of his 
 new subjects, assembled an army, took possession of 
 Seville, and, soon after, marched towards Cordova, the 
 capital of Mussulman Spain. Joseph, in the name of 
 the Abbassides, vainly attempted to oppose his prog- 
 ress. The governor was vanquished and Cordova 
 taken, together with several other cities. 
 
 Abderamus was now not only the acknowledged 
 king of Spain, but was proclaimed Caliph of the West, 
 A. D. 759, Heg. 142. 
 
 During the supremacy of the Ommiades in the em- 
 pire of the East, Spain had continued to be ruled by 
 governors sent thither from Asia by those sovereigns; 
 but it was now permanently separated from the great 
 Arabian empire, and elevated into a powerful and inde- 
 pendent state, acknowledging no farther allegiance to 
 the Asiatic caliphs either in civil or religious matters. 
 Thus was the control hitherto exercised over the affairs 
 of Spain by the Oriental caliphs for ever wrested from 
 them by the last surviving individual of that royal race 
 whom Abdalla had endeavored to exterminate. 
 
 Abderamus the First established the seat of his new 
 greatness at Cordova. He was not long allowed peace- 
 fully to enjoy it, however. Revolts instigated by the 
 Abbassides, incursions into Catalonia by the French, 
 and wars with the kings of Leon, incessantly demanded 
 his attention ; but his courage and activity gained the 
 ascendency even over such numerous enemies. He 
 maintained his throne with honor, and merited his 
 beautiful surname of The Just.
 
 24 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Abderamus cultivated and cherished the fine arts, 
 even in the midst of the difficulties and dangers by 
 which he was surrounded. It was he who first estab- 
 lished schools at Cordova for the study of astronomy, 
 mathematics, medicine, and grammar. He was also 
 a poet, and was considered the most eloquent man of 
 his age. 
 
 This first Caliph of the West adorned and fortified 
 his capital, erected a superb palace, which he sur- 
 rounded by beautiful gardens, and commenced the 
 construction of a grand mosque, the remains of which 
 continue, even at this day, to excite the admiration of 
 the traveler. This monument of magnificence was 
 completed during the reign of Hacchem, the son and 
 successor of Abderamus. It is thought that the Span- 
 iards have not preserved more than one-half of the 
 original structure, yet it is now six hundred feet long 
 and two hundred wide, and is supported by more than 
 three hundred columns of alabaster, jasper, and marble. 
 Formerly there were twenty-four doors of entrance, 
 composed of bronze covered with sculptures of gold; 
 and nearly five thousand lamps nightly served to 
 illuminate this magnificent edifice. 
 
 In this mosque the caliphs of Cordova each Friday 
 conducted the worship of the people, that being the 
 day consecrated to religion by the precepts of Moham- 
 med. Thither all the Mussulmans of Spain made pil- 
 grimages, as those of the East resorted to the temple 
 at Mecca. There they celebrated, with great solemnity, 
 the fete of the great and the lesser Beiram, which 
 corresponds with the Passover of the Jews ; that of the 
 New Year, and that of Miloud, or the anniversary of 
 the birth of Mohammed. Each of these festivals lasted
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 25 
 
 for eight days. During that time all labor ceased, the 
 people sent presents to each other, exchanged visits, 
 and offered sacrifices. Disunited families, forgetting 
 their differences, pledged themselves to future concord, 
 and consummated their renewed amity by delivering 
 themselves up to the enjoyment of every pleasure per- 
 mitted by the laws of the Koran. 
 
 At night the city was illuminated, the streets were 
 festooned with flowers, and the promenades and public 
 places resounded with the melody of various musical 
 instruments. 
 
 The more worthily to celebrate the occasion, alms 
 were lavishly distributed by the wealthy, and the ben- 
 edictions of the poor mingled with the songs of re- 
 joicing that everywhere ascended around them. 
 
 Abderamus, having imbibed with his Oriental edu- 
 cation a fondness for these splendid fetes, first intro- 
 duced a taste for them into Spain. Uniting, in his 
 character of caliph, the civil and the sacerdotal author- 
 ity in his own person, he regulated the religious cere- 
 monies on such occasions, and caused them to be cele- 
 brated with all the pomp and magnificence displayed 
 under similar circumstances by the sovereigns of 
 Damascus. 
 
 Though the caliph of Cordova was the enemy of the 
 Christians, and numbered many of them among his 
 subjects, he refrained from persecuting them, but de- 
 prived the bishoprics of their religious heads and the 
 churches of their priests, and encouraged marriages be- 
 tween the Moors and Spaniards. By these means the 
 sagacious Moslem inflicted more injury upon the true 
 religion than could have been effected by the most 
 rigorous severity.
 
 26 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Under the reign of Abderamus, the successors of 
 Pelagius, still retaining possession of Asturia, though 
 weakened by the internal dissensions that already be- 
 gan to prevail among them, were forced to submit to 
 to the payment of the humiliating tribute of a hundred 
 young females, Abderamus refusing to grant them 
 peace except at this price. 
 
 Master of entire Spain, from Catalonia to the two 
 seas, the first caliph died A. D. 788, Heg. 172, after a 
 glorious reign of thirty years, leaving the crown to his 
 son Hacchem, the third of his eleven sons. 
 
 After the death of Abderamus the empire was dis- 
 turbed by revolts, and by wars between the new caliph 
 and his brothers, his uncles, or other princes of the 
 royal blood. These civil wars were inevitable under a 
 despotic government, where not even the order of suc- 
 cession to the throne was regulated by law. To be an 
 aspirant to the supreme authority of the state, it was 
 sufficient to belong to the royal race ; and as each of the 
 caliphs, almost without exception, left numerous sons, 
 all these princes became the head of a faction, every 
 one of them established himself in some city, and, de- 
 claring himself its sovereign, took up arms in opposi- 
 tion to the authority of the caliph. From this arose 
 the innumerable petty states that were created, annihi- 
 lated, and raised again with each change of sovereigns. 
 Thus also originated the many instances of conquered, 
 deposed, or murdered kings, that make the history of 
 the Moors of Spain so difficult of methodical arrange- 
 ment and so monotonous in the perusal. 
 
 Hacchem, and, after him, his son Abdelazis-el-Hac- 
 chem, retained possession of the caliphate notwith- 
 standing these unceasing dissensions. The former fin-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 27 
 
 ished the beautiful mosque commenced by his father, 
 and carried his arms into France, in which kingdom 
 his generals penetrated as far as Narbonne. The latter, 
 Abdelazis-el-Hacchem, less fortunate than his prede- 
 cessor, did not succeed in opposing the Spaniards and 
 his refractory subjects with unvarying success. His 
 existence terminated in the midst of national difficul- 
 ties, and his son Abderamus became his successor. 
 
 Abderamus II. was a great monarch, notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that, during his reign, the power of the 
 Christians began to balance that of the Moors. 
 
 The Christians had taken advantage of the con- 
 tinual divisions which prevailed among their former 
 conquerors. Alphonso the Chaste, king of Asturia, 
 a valiant and politic monarch, had extended his domin- 
 ions and refused to pay tribute of the hundred young 
 maidens. Ramir, the successor of Alphonso, main- 
 tained this independence, and several times defeated 
 the Mussulmans. Navarre became a kingdom, and 
 Aragon had its independent sovereigns, and was so 
 fortunate as to possess a government that properly 
 respected the rights of the people. The governors of 
 Catalonia, until then subjected to the kings of France, 
 took advantage of the feebleness of Louis le Debon- 
 naire to render themselves independent. In fine, all 
 the north of Spain declared itself in opposition to the 
 Moors, and the south became a prey to the irruptions 
 of the Normans. 
 
 Abderamus defended himself against all these ad- 
 versaries, and obtained, by his warlike talents, the 
 surname of Elmonzaffer, which signifies the Victorious. 
 And, though constantly occupied by the cares of gov- 
 ernment and of successive wars, this monarch afforded
 
 28 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 encouragement to the fine arts, embellished his capital 
 by a new mosque, and caused to be erected a superb 
 aqueduct, from which water was carried in leaden 
 pipes throughout the city in the utmost abundance. 
 
 Abderamus possessed a soul capable of enjoying 
 the most refined and elevated pleasures. He attracted 
 to his court poets and philosophers, with whose society 
 he frequently delighted himself; thus cultivating in his 
 own person the talents he encouraged in others. He 
 invited from the East the famous musician Ali-Zeriab, 
 who established himself in Spain through the benefi- 
 cence of the caliph, and originated the celebrated 
 school whose pupils afterward afforded such delight 
 to the Oriental world. 
 
 The natural ferocity of the Moslems yielded to the 
 influence of the chivalrous example of the caliph, and 
 Cordova became, under the dominion of Abderamus, 
 the home of taste and pleasure, as well as the chosen 
 abode of science and the arts. 
 
 A single anecdote will serve to illustrate the ten- 
 derness and generosity that so strongly characterized 
 this illustrious descendant of the Ommiades. 
 
 One day a favorite female slave left her master's 
 presence in high displeasure, and, retiring to her apart- 
 ment, vowed that, sooner than open the door for the 
 admittance of Abderamus, she would suffer it to be 
 walled up. The chief eunuch, alarmed at this dis- 
 course, which he regarded as almost blasphemous, 
 hastened to prostrate himself before the Prince of Be- 
 lievers, and to communicate to him the horrible pur- 
 pose of the rebellious slave. Abderamus smiled at the 
 resolution of the offended beauty, and commanded the 
 eunuch to cause a wall composed of pieces of coin to
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 29 
 
 be erected before the door of her retreat, and avowed 
 his intention not to pass this barrier until the fair 
 slave should have voluntarily demolished it, by pos- 
 sessing herself of the materials of which it was formed. 
 iThe historian adds, that the same evening the caliph 
 entered the apartments of the appeased favorite with- 
 out opposition. 
 
 This prince left forty-five sons and nearly as many 
 daughters. Mohammed, the eldest of his sons, suc- 
 ceeded him, A. D. 852, Heg. 238. The reigns of Mo- 
 hammed and his successors, Almanzor and Abdalla, 
 offer to the historian nothing for a period of fifty years 
 but details of an uninterrupted continuation of 
 troubles, civil wars, and revolts, by which the gov- 
 ernors of the principal cities sought to render them- 
 selves independent. - 
 
 Alphonso the Great, king of Asturia, profited by 
 these dissensions the more effectually to confirm his 
 own power. The Normans, from another side, rav- 
 aged Andalusia anew. Toledo, frequently punished, 
 but ever rebellious, often possessed local Sovereigns. 
 Saragossa imitated the example of Toledo. The au- 
 thority of the caliphs was weakened, and their empire, 
 convulsed in every part, seemed on the point of disso- 
 lution, when Abderamus III., the nephew of Abdalla, 
 ascended the throne of Cordova, and restored for some 
 time its pristine splendor and power, A. D. 912, 
 Heg. 300. 
 
 This monarch, whose name, so dear to the Mos- 
 lems, seemed to be an auspicious omen, took the title 
 of Emir-al-Mmnenim, which signifies Prince of true Be- 
 lievcrs. 
 
 Victory attended the commencement of his reign;
 
 30 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 the rebels, whom his predecessors had been unable to 
 reduce to submission, were defeated ; factions were 
 dissipated, and peace and order re-established. 
 
 Being attacked by the Christians soon after he had 
 assumed the crown, Abderamus applied for assistance 
 to the Moors of Africa. He maintained long wars 
 against the kings of Leon and the courts of Castile, 
 who wrested Madrid, then a place of comparative in- 
 significance, from him, A. D. 931, Heg. 319. Often 
 attacked and sometimes overcome, but always great 
 and redoubtable notwithstanding occasional reverses, 
 Abderamus knew how to repair his losses, and -avail 
 himself to the utmost of his good fortune. A profound 
 statesman, and a brave and skilful commander, he 
 fomented divisions among the Spanish princes, carried 
 his arms frequently into the very center of their states, 
 and, having established a navy, seized, in addition, 
 upon Ceuta and Seldjemessa on the African coast. 
 
 Notwithstanding the incessant wars which occupied 
 him during the whole of his reign, the enormous ex- 
 pense to which he was subjected by the maintenance 
 of his armies and his naval force, and the purchase of 
 military assistance Jtom Africa, Emir-al-Mumenim 
 supported a luxury and splendor at his court, the de- 
 tails of which would seem to be the mere creations of 
 the imagination, were they not attested by every his- 
 torian of the time. 
 
 The contemporary Greek emperor, Constantine XI., 
 wishing to oppose an enemy capable of resisting their 
 power, to the Abbassides of Bagdad, sent ambassadors 
 to Cordova to form an alliance with Abderamus. 
 
 The Caliph of the West, flattered that Christians 
 should come from so distant a part of the world to
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 31 
 
 request his support, signalized the occasion by the dis- 
 play of a gorgeous pomp which rivaled that of the most 
 splendid Asiatic courts. He sent a suit of attendants 
 to receive the ambassadors at Jean. Numerous corps 
 of cavalry, magnificently mounted and attired, awaited 
 their approach to Cordova, and a still more brilliant 
 display of infantry lined the avenues to the palace. 
 The courts were covered with the most superb Persian 
 and Egyptian carpets, and the walls hung with cloth 
 of gold. The caliph, blazing with brilliants, and seated 
 on a dazzling throne, surrounded by his family, his 
 viziers, and a numerous train of courtiers, received the 
 Greek envoys in a hall in which all his treasures were 
 displayed. The Hadjeb, a dignitary whose office 
 among the Moors corresponded to that of the ancient 
 French mayors of the palace, introduced the ambassa- 
 dors. They prostrated themselves before Abderamus 
 in amazement at the splendor of this array, and pre- 
 sented to the Moorish sovereign the letter of Constan- 
 tine, written on blue parchment and enclosed in a box 
 of gold. The caliph signed the treaty, loaded the im- 
 perial messengers with presents, and ordered that a 
 numerous suite should accompany them even to the 
 walls of Constantinople. 
 
 Abderamus III., though unceasingly occupied either 
 by war or politics, was all his life enamored of one of 
 his wives named Zahra. He built a city for her two 
 miles distant from Cordova, which he named Zahra. 
 
 This place is now destroyed. It was situated at the 
 base of a high mountain, from which flowed numerous 
 perpetual streams, whose waters ran in all directions 
 through the streets of the city, diffusing health and 
 coolness in their course, and forming ever-flowing
 
 32 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 fountains in ..the center of the public places. The 
 houses, each built after the same model, were sur- 
 mounted by terraces and surrounded by gardens 
 adorned with groves of orange, laurel, and lime, and 
 in which the myrtle, the rose, and the jasmine mingled 
 in pleasing confusion with all the varied productions 
 of that sunny and delicious clime. The statue of the 
 beautiful Zahra was conspicuously placed over the 
 principal gate of this City of Love. 
 
 But the attractions of the city were totally eclipsed 
 by those of the fairy-like palace of the favorite. Ab- 
 deramus, as the ally of their Imperial master, de- 
 manded the assistance of the most accomplished of the 
 Greek architects ; and the sovereign of Constantinople, 
 which was at that time the chosen home of the fine 
 arts, eagerly complied with his desires, and sent the 
 caliph, in addition, forty columns of granite of the 
 rarest and most beautiful workmanship. Independent 
 of these magnificent columns, there were employed in 
 the construction of this palace more than twelve hun- 
 dred others, formed of Spanish and Italian marble. 
 The walls of the apartment named the Saloon of the 
 Caliphate, were covered with ornaments of gold; and 
 from the mouths of several animals, composed of the 
 same metal, gushed jets of water that fell into an ala- 
 baster fountain, above which was suspended the famous 
 pearl that the Emperor Leo had presented to the caliph 
 as a treasure of inestimable value. In the pavilion 
 where the mistress of this enchanting abode usually 
 passed the evening with the royal Moor, the ceiling 
 was composed of gold and burnished steel, incrusted 
 with precious stones. And in the resplendent light 
 from these brilliant ornaments by a hundred crystal
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN . 33 
 
 lustres, flashed the waters of a fountain, formed like a 
 sheaf of grain, from polished silver, whose delicate 
 spray was received again by the alabaster basin from 
 whose center it sprung. 
 
 The reader might hesitate to believe these recitals ; 
 might suppose himself perusing Oriental tales, or that 
 the author was indebted for his history to the Thousand 
 and One Nights, were not the facts here detailed attested 
 by the Arabian writers, and corroborated by foreign 
 authors of unquestionable veracity. It is true that the 
 architectural magnificence, the splendid pageantry, the 
 pomp of power that characterized the reign of this 
 illustrious Saracenic king, resembled nothing with 
 which we are now familiar; but the incredulous ques- 
 tioners of their former existence might be asked 
 whether, had the pyramids of Egypt been destroyed by 
 an earthquake, they would now credit historians who 
 should give us the exact dimensions of those stupen- 
 dous structures? 
 
 The writers from whom are derived the details that 
 have been given concerning the court of the Spanish 
 Mussulmans, mention also the sums expended in the 
 erection of the palace and city of Zahra. , The cost 
 amounted annually to three hundred thousand dinars 
 of gold, and twenty-five years hardly sufficed for the 
 completion of this princely monument of chivalrous 
 devotion. 
 
 To these enormous expenditures should be added 
 the maintenance of a seraglio, in which the women, the 
 slaves, and the black and white eunuchs amounted to 
 the number of six thousand persons. The officers of 
 the court, and the horses destined for their use, were 
 /*r. of H. xxxiv 3
 
 34 
 
 in equally lavish proportion. The royal guard alone 
 was composed of twelve thousand cavaliers. 
 
 When it is remembered, that, from being contin- 
 ually at war with the Spanish princes, Abderamus was 
 obliged to keep numerous armies incessantly on foot, 
 to support a naval force, frequently to hire stipendiar- 
 ies from Africa, and to fortify and preserve in a state 
 of defence the ever-endangered fortresses on his fron- 
 tiers, it is hardly possible to comprehend how his rev- 
 enues sufficed for the supply of such immense and 
 varied demands. But his resources were equally im- 
 mense and varied ; and the sovereign of Cordova was 
 perhaps the richest and most powerful monarch then 
 in Europe. 
 
 He held possession of Portugal, Andalusia, the 
 kingdom of Grenada, Mercia, Valencia, and the greater 
 part of New Castile, the most beautiful and fertile 
 .countries of Spain. 
 
 These provinces were at that time extremely pop- 
 ulous, and the Moors had attained the highest perfec- 
 tion in agriculture. Historians assure us, that there 
 existed on the shores of the Guadalquiver twelve 
 thousand villages; and that a traveler could not pro- 
 ceed through the country without encountering some 
 hamlet every quarter of an hour. There existed in the 
 dominions of the caliph eighty great cities, three hun- 
 dred of the second order, and an infinite number of 
 smaller towns. Cordova, the capital of the kingdom, 
 enclosed within its walls two hundred thousand houses 
 and nine hundred public baths. 
 
 All this prosperity was reversed by the expulsion of 
 the Moors from the Peninsula. The reason is apparent : 
 the Moorish conquerors of Spain did not persecute
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 35 
 
 their vanquished foes; the Spaniards, when they had 
 subdued the Moors, oppressed and banished them. 
 
 The revenues of the caliphs of Cordova are repre- 
 sented to have amounted annually to twelve millions 
 and forty-five thousand dinars of gold. Independent of 
 this income in money, many imposts were paid in the 
 products of the soil; and among an industrious agri- 
 cultural population, possessed of the most fertile coun- 
 try in the world, this rural wealth was incalculable. 
 The gold and silver mines, known in Spain from the 
 earliest times, were another source of wealth. Com- 
 merce, too, enriched alike the sovereign and the people. 
 The commerce of the Moors was carried on in many 
 articles: silks, oils, sugar, cochineal, iron, wool (which 
 was at that time extremely valuable), ambergris, yel- 
 low amber, loadstone, antimony, isinglass, rock-crystal, 
 sulphur, saffron, ginger,, the product of the coral-beds 
 on the coast of Andalusia, of the pearl fisheries on that 
 of Catalonia, and rubies, of which they had discovered 
 two localities, one at Malaga and another at Beja. 
 These valuable articles were, either before or after 
 being wrought, transported to Egypt or other parts of 
 (Africa, and to the East. ' The emperors of Constanti- 
 nople, always allied from necessity to the caliphs of 
 Cordova, favored these commercial enterprises, and, by 
 their countenance, assisted in enlarging, to a vast ex- 
 tent, the field of their operations; while the neighbor- 
 hood of Africa, Italy, and France contributed also to 
 their prosperity. 
 
 The arts, which are the children of commerce, and 
 support the existence of their parent, added a new 
 splendor to the brilliant reign of Abderamus. The 
 superb palaces he erected, the delicious gardens he
 
 36 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 created, and the magnificent fetes he instituted, drew 
 to his court from all parts architects and artists of 
 every description. Cordova was the home of industry 
 and the asylum of the sciences. Celebrated schools of 
 geometry, astronomy, chemistry, and medicine were 
 established there schools which, a century afterward, 
 produced such men as Averroes and Abenzoar. So dis- 
 tinguished were the learned Moorish poets, philoso- 
 phers, and physicians, that Alphonso' the Great, king 
 of Asturia, wishing to confide the care of his son Or- 
 dogno to teachers capable of conducting the education 
 of a prince, appointed him two Arabian preceptors, 
 notwithstanding the difference of religious faith, and 
 the hatred entertained by the Christians towards the 
 Mussulmans. And one of the successors of Alphonso, 
 Sancho the Great, king of Leon, being attacked by a 
 disease which it was supposed would prove fatal in its 
 effects, went unhesitatingly to Cordova, claimed the 
 hospitality of his national enemy, and placed himself 
 under the care of the Mohammedan physicians, who 
 eventually succeeded in curing the malady of the Chris- 
 tian king. 
 
 This singular fact does as much honor to the skill 
 of the learned Saracens as to the magnanimity of the 
 caliph and the trusting confidence of Sancho. 
 
 Such was the condition of the caliphate of Cordova 
 under the dominion of Abderamus III. He occupied 
 the throne fifty years, and we have seen with what de- 
 gree of honor to himself and benefit to his people. 
 Perhaps nothing will better illustrate the superiority 
 of this prince to monarchs generally than the following 
 fragment, which was found, traced by his own hand, 
 among his papers after his death :
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 37 
 
 " Fifty years have passed away since I became 
 caliph. Riches, honors, pleasures, I have enjoyed them 
 all : I am satiated with them all. Rival kings respect 
 me, fear, and envy me. All that the heart of man can 
 desire, Heaven has lavishly bestowed on me. In this 
 long period of seeming felicity I have estimated the 
 number of days during which I have enjoyed perfect 
 happiness: they amount to fourteen ! Mortals, learn to 
 appreciate greatness, the world, and human life ! " 
 
 The successor of this monarch was his eldest son, 
 Aboul-Abbas El Hakkam, who assumed, like his father, 
 the title of Emir-al-Mumenim. 
 
 The coronation of El Hakkam was celebrated with 
 great pomp in the city of Zahra. The new caliph there 
 received the oath of fidelity from the chiefs of the 
 scythe guard, a numerous and redoubtable corps, com- 
 posed of strangers, which Abderamus III. had formed. 
 The brothers and relations of El Hakkam, the viziers 
 and their chief, the Hadjeb, the white and black 
 eunuchs, the archers and cuirassiers of the guard, all 
 swore obedience to the monarch. These ceremonies 
 were followed by the funeral honors of Abderamus, 
 whose body was carried to Cordova, and there depos- 
 ited in the tomb of his ancestors. 
 
 Aboul-Abbas El Hakkam, equally wise with his 
 father, but less warlike than he, enjoyed greater tran- 
 quillity during his reign. His was the dominion of jus- 
 tice and peace. The success and vigilance of Abder- 
 amus had extinguished, for a time, the spirit of revolt, 
 and prepared the way for the continued possession of 
 these great national blessings. 
 
 Divided among themselves, the Christian kings en-
 
 38 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 tertainecl no designs of disturbing their infidel neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 The truce that existed between the Mussulmans and 
 Castile and Leon was broken but once during the life 
 of El Hacchem. The caliph then commanded his army 
 in person, and completed a glorious campaign, taking 
 several cities from the Spaniards, and convincing them, 
 by his achievements, of the policy of future adherence 
 to the terms of their treaty with. their Saracen oppo- 
 nents. 
 
 During the remainder of his reign the Moorish sov- 
 ereign applied himself wholly to promoting the happi- 
 ness of his subjects, to the cultivation of science, to the 
 collection of an extensive library, and, above all, to 
 enforcing a strict observance of the laws. 
 
 The laws of the Moors were few and simple. It 
 does not appear that there existed among them any 
 civil laws apart from those incorporated with their 
 religious code. Jurisprudence was reduced to the ap- 
 plication of the principles contained in the Koran. The 
 caliph, as the supreme head of their religion, possessed 
 the power of interpreting these principles ; but even he 
 would not have ventured to violate them. At least as 
 often as once a week, he publicly gave audience to his 
 subjects, listened to their complaints, examined the 
 guilty, and, without quitting the tribunal, caused pun- 
 ishment to be immediately inflicted. The governors 
 placed by the sovereign over the different cities and 
 provinces, commanded the miltary force belonging to 
 each, collected the public revenues, superintended the 
 administration of the police, and adjudged the offences 
 committed within their respective governments. Pub- 
 lic officers well versed in the laws discharged the func-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 39 
 
 tions of notaries, and gave a juridical form to records 
 relating to the possession of property. When any law- 
 suits arose, magistrates called cadis, whose authority 
 was respected both by the king and the people, could 
 alone decide them. These suits were speedily deter- 
 mined ; lawyers and attorneys were unknown, and there 
 was no expense nor chicanery connected with them. 
 Each party pleaded his cause in person, and the decrees 
 of the cadi were immediately executed. 
 
 Criminal jurisprudence was scarcely more compli- 
 cated. The Moors almost invariably resorted to the 
 punishment of retaliation prescribed by the founder of 
 their religion. In truth, the wealthy were permitted to 
 exonerate themselves from the charge of bloodshed by 
 the aid of money; but it was necessary that the rela- 
 tions of the deceased should consent to this : the caliph 
 himself would not have ventured to withhold the head 
 of one of his own sons who had been guilty of homi- 
 cide, if its delivery had been inexorably insisted upon. 
 
 This simple code would not have sufficed had not 
 the unlimited authority exercised by fathers over their 
 children, and husbands over their wives, supplied the 
 deficiencies of the laws. With regard to this implicit 
 obedience on the part of a family to the will of its chief, 
 the Moors preserved the ancient patriarchal customs 
 of their ancestors. Every father possessed, under his 
 own roof, rights nearly equal to those of the caliph. 
 He decided, without appeal, the quarrels of his wives 
 and those of his sons : he punished with severity the 
 slightest faults, and even possessed the power of pun- 
 ishing certain crimes with death. Age alone conferred 
 this supremacy. An old man was always an object of 
 reverence. His presence arrested disorders: the most
 
 40 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 haughty young man cast down his eyes at meeting him, 
 and listened patiently to his reproofs. In short, the 
 possessor of a white beard was everywhere invested 
 with the authority of a magistrate. 
 
 This authority, which was more powerful among 
 the Moors than that of their laws, long subsisted unim- 
 paired at Cordova. That the wise Hacchem did noth- 
 ing to enfeeble it, may be judged from the following 
 illustration : 
 
 A poor woman of Zahra possessed a small field con- 
 tiguous to the gardens of the caliph. El Hacchem, 
 wishing to erect a pavilion there, directed that the 
 owner should be requested to dispose of it to him. 
 But the woman refused every remuneration that was 
 offered her, and declared that she would never sell the 
 heritage of her ancestry. The king was, doubtless, not 
 informed of the obstinacy of this woman ; but the su- 
 perintendent of the palace gardens, a minister worthy 
 of a despotic sovereign, forcibly seized upon the field, 
 and the pavilion was built. The poor woman hastened 
 in despair to Cordova, to relate the story of her misfor- 
 tune to the Cadi Bechir, and to consult him respecting 
 the course she should pursue. The cadi thought that 
 the Prince of true Believers had no more right than any 
 other man to possess himself by violence of the prop- 
 erty of another, and he endeavored to discover some 
 means of recalling to his recollection a truth which the 
 best of rulers will sometimes forget. 
 
 One day, as the Moorish sovereign was surrounded 
 by his court in the beautiful pavilion built on the 
 ground belonging to the poor woman, the Cadi Bechir 
 presented himself before him, seated on an ass, and 
 carrying in his hand a large sack. The astonished
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 41 
 
 caliph demanded his errand. " Prince of the Faithful ! '* 
 replied Bechir, " I come to ask permission of thee to fill 
 this sack with the earth upon which thou standest." 
 The caliph cheerfully consented to this desire, and the 
 cadi rilled his sack with the earth. He then left it 
 standing, and, approaching his sovereign, entreated 
 him to crown his goodness by aiding him in loading his 
 ass with its burden. El Hacchem, amused by the re- 
 quest, yielded to it, and attempted to raise the sack. 
 Scarcely able to move it, he let it fall again, and, laugh- 
 ing, complained of its enormous weight. " Prince of 
 Believers ! " said Bechir then, with impressive gravity, 
 " this sack, which thou findest so heavy, contains, nev- 
 ertheless, but a small portion of the field thou hast 
 usurped from one of thy subjects ; how wilt thou sus- 
 tain the weight of this entire field when thou shalt ap- 
 pear in the presence of the Great Judge charged with 
 this iniquity?" The caliph, struck with this address, 
 embraced the cadi, thanked him, acknowledged his 
 fault, and immediately restored to the poor woman the 
 field of which she had been despoiled, together with the 
 pavilion and everything it contained. 
 
 The praise due to a despotic sovereign capable of 
 such an action, is inferior only to that which should be 
 accorded to the cadi who induced him to perform it. 
 
 After reigning twelve years, El Hakkam died, A. D. 
 9?'6, Heg. 366. His son Hacchem succeeded him. 
 
 This prince was an infant when he ascended the 
 throne, and his intellectual immaturity continued 
 through life. During and after his minority, a cele- 
 brated Moor named Mohammed Almanzor, being in- 
 vested with the important office of Hadjeb, governed 
 the state with wisdom and success.
 
 42 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Almanzor united to the talents of a statesman the 
 genius of a great commander. He was the most 
 formidable and fatal enemy with whom the Christians 
 had yet been obliged to contend. He ruled the Moor- 
 ish empire twenty-six years under the name of the 
 indolent Hacchem. More than fifty different times he. 
 carried the terrors of war into Castile or Asturfa: he 
 took and sacked the cities of Barcelona and Leon, and 
 advanced even to Compostella, destroying its famous 
 church and carrying the spoils to Cordova. 
 
 The genius and influence of Mohammed temporarily 
 restored the Moors to their ancient strength and en- 
 ergy, and forced the whole Peninsula to respect the 
 rights of his feeble master, who, like another Sardan- 
 apalus, dreamed away his life in the enjoyment of 
 effeminate and debasing pleasures. 
 
 But this was the last ray of unclouded splendor that 
 shone upon the empire of the Ommiades in Spain. The 
 kings of Leon and Navarre, and the Count of Castile, 
 united their forces for the purpose of opposing the re- 
 doubtable Almanzor. 
 
 The opposing armies met near Medina-Celi. The 
 conflict was long and sanguinary, and the victory 
 doubtful. The Moors, after the termination of the 
 combat, took to flight, terrified by the fearful loss they 
 had sustained ; and Almanzor, whom fifty years of un- 
 interrupted military success had persuaded that he was 
 invincible, died of grief at this first mortifying reverse. 
 
 With this great man expired the good fortune of the 
 Saracens of Spain. From the period of his death, the 
 Spaniards continued to increase their own prosperity 
 by the gradual ruin of the Moors. 
 
 The sons of the habjeb Almanzor successively re-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 43 
 
 placed their illustrious father; but, in inheriting his 
 power, they did not inherent his talents: Factions were 
 again created. One of the relations of the caliph took 
 up arms against him, and possessed himself of the per- 
 son of the monarch, A. D. 1005, Heg. 596 ; and, though 
 the rebellious prince dared not sacrifice the life of Hac- 
 chem, he imprisoned him, and spread a report of his 
 death. 
 
 This news reaching Africa, an Ommiade prince 
 hastened thence to Spain with an army, under pretext 
 of avenging the death of Hacchem. The Count of Cas- 
 tile formed an alliance with this stranger, and civil war 
 was kindled in Cordova. It soon spread throughout 
 Spain, and the Christian princes availed themselves of 
 its disastrous effects to repossess themselves of the 
 cities of which they had been deprived during the- 
 supremacy of Almanzor. 
 
 The imbecile Hacchem, negotiating and trifling 
 alike with all parties, was finally replaced on the 
 throne, but was soon after forced again to renounce 
 it to save his life. 
 
 After this event a multitude of conspirators were 
 in turn proclaimed caliph, and in turn deposed, pois- 
 oned, or otherwise murdered. Almundir, the last lin- 
 gering branch of the race of the Ommiades, was bold 
 enough to claim the restoration of the rights of his 
 family, even amid the tumult of conflicting parties. 
 His friends represented to him the dangers he was 
 about to encounter. " Should I reign but one day," 
 replied he, "and expire the next, I would not murmur 
 at my fate ! " But the desire of the prince, even to 
 this extent, was not gratified ; he was assassinated 
 without obtaining possession of the caliphate.
 
 44 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Usurpers of momentary authority followed. Jal- 
 mar-ben Mohammed was the last in order. His death 
 terminated the empire of the Caliphs of the West, 
 which had been possessed by the dynasty of the Om- 
 miades for the period of three centuries, A. D. 1027, 
 Heg. 416. 
 
 With the extinction of this line of princes vanished 
 the power and the glory of Cordova. 
 
 The governors of the different cities, who had 
 hitherto been the vassals of the court of Cordova, 
 profiting by the anarchy that prevailed, erected them- 
 selves into independent sovereigns. That city was 
 therefore no longer the capital of a kingdom, though 
 it still retained the religious supremacy which it de- 
 rived from its mosque. 
 
 Enfeebled by divisions and subjected to such diver- 
 sity of rule, the Mussulmans were no longer able suc- 
 cessfully to resist the encroachments of the Spaniards. 
 The Third Epoch of their history, therefore, will pre- 
 sent nothing but a narrative of their rapid decline.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGDOMS 
 THAT SPRANG FROM THE RUINS OF THE CALIPHATE. 
 
 Extending from the Commencement of the Eleventh to the Middle of the 
 Thirteenth Century. 
 
 A.T THE commencement of the eleventh century, 
 when the throne of Cordova was daily stained 
 by the blood of some new usurper, the gov- 
 ernors of the different cities, as has been already re- 
 marked, had assumed the title of kings. Toledo, Sar- 
 agossa, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Huesca, and several 
 other places of inferior importance, each possessed in- 
 dependent sovereigns. 
 
 The history of these numerous kingdoms would be 
 nearly as fatiguing to the reader as to the writer. It 
 presents, for the space of two hundred years, nothing 
 but accounts of repeated massacres, of fortresses taken 
 and retaken, of pillages and seditions, of occasional in- 
 stances of heroic conduct, but far more numerous 
 crimes. Passing rapidly over two centuries of mis- 
 fortunes, let it suffice to contemplate the termination 
 of these petty Moorish sovereignties. 
 
 Christian Spain, in the meantime, presented nearly 
 the same picture as that exhibited by the portion of 
 the Peninsula still in possession of the Mohammedans. 
 The kings of Leon, Navarre, Castile, and Aragon were 
 almost always relatives, and sometimes brothers; but 
 they were not, for that reason, less sanguinary in their 
 
 45
 
 46 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 designs toward each other. Difference of religion did 
 not prevent them from uniting with the Moors, the 
 more effectually to oppress other Christians, or other 
 Moors with whom they chanced to be at enmity. 
 Thus, in a battle which occurred A. D. 1010 between 
 two Mussulman leaders, there were found among the 
 slain a count of Urgel and three bishops of Catalonia. 
 And the King of Leon, Alphonso V., gave his sister 
 Theresa in marriage to Abdalla, the Moorish king of 
 Toledo, to convert him into an ally against Castile. 
 
 Among the Christians, as among the Moors, crimes 
 were multiplied ; civil wars of both a local and general 
 nature at the same time distracted Spain, and the un- 
 happy people expiated with their property and their 
 lives the iniquities of their rulers. 
 
 While thus regarding a long succession of melan- 
 choly events, it is agreeable to find a king of Toledo 
 called Almamon, and Benabad, the Mussulman king 
 of Seville, affording an asylum al their courts, the 
 one to Alphonso, the young king of Leon, and the 
 other to the unfortunate Garciua, king of Galicia, both 
 of whom had been driven from their kingdoms by their 
 brother Sancho, of Castile, A. D. 1071. Heg. 465. San- 
 cho pursued his brothers as though they had been his 
 most implacable enemies; and the Moorish monarchs, 
 the natural enemies 6f all the Christians, received these 
 two fugitive princes as brothers. Almamon, especially, 
 lavished the most affectionate attention upon the un- 
 fortunate Alphonso: he endeavored to entertain him at 
 Toledo with such varied pleasures as should banish 
 regret for the loss of a throne : he gave him an income, 
 and, in short, treated the prince as though he had been 
 a near and beloved relative. When the death of the
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 47 
 
 cruel Sancho (A. D. 1072, Heg. 466) had rendered 
 Alphonso king of Leon and Castile, the generous Al- 
 mamon, who now had the person of the king of his 
 enemies in his power, accompanied the prince to the 
 frontiers of his kingdom, loaded him with presents and 
 caresses, and, at parting, offered the free use of his 
 troops and treasures to his late guest. 
 
 While Almamon lived, Alphonso IV. never forgot 
 his obligations to his benefactor. He maintained peace 
 with him, aided him in his campaigns against the King 
 oi Seville, and even entered into a treaty with Hac- 
 chem, the son and successor of his ally. But, after a 
 brief reign, Hacchem left the throne of Toledo to his 
 youthful brother Jahiah. That prince oppressed the 
 Christians, who were very numerous in his city; and 
 they secretly implored Alphonso to make war upon 
 Jahiah. The memory of Almamon long caused the 
 Spanish monarch to hesitate in relation to this subject. 
 Gratitude impelled him not to listen to the suggestions 
 of ambition and the prayers of his countrymen ; but 
 the arguments of gratitude proved the least strong, and 
 Alphonso encamped before Toledo. 
 
 After a long and celebrated siege, to which several 
 French and other foreign warriors eagerly hastened, 
 Toledo finally capitulated, A. D. 1085, Heg. 478. 
 
 The conqueror allowed the sons of Almamon to go 
 and reign at Valencia, and engaged by an oath to pre- 
 serve the mosques from destruction. He could not, 
 however, prevent the Christians from speedily vio- 
 lating this promise. 
 
 Such was the end of the Moorish kingdom of To- 
 ledo. This ancient capital of the Goths had belonged 
 to the Arabs three hundred and eighty-two years.
 
 48 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Several other less important cities now submitted 
 to the Christian yoke. The kings of Aragon and Na- 
 varre, and the Count of Barcelona, incessantly har- 
 assed and besieged the petty Mussulman princes who 
 still remained in the north of Spain. The attacks of 
 the kings of Castile and Leon afforded sufficient occu- 
 pation for those of the south, effectually to prevent 
 their rendering any assistance to their brethren. Above 
 all, the Cid, the famous Cid, flew from one part of 
 Spain to another, at the head of the invincible band 
 with whom his fame had surrounded him, everywhere 
 achieving victories for the Christians, and even lending 
 the aid of his arms to the Moors when they were in- 
 ternally divided, but always securing success to the 
 party he favored. 
 
 This hero, one of the most truly admirable of those 
 whom history has celebrated, since in his character 
 were united the most exalted virtue and the highest 
 qualities of the soldier; this simple Castilian cavalier, 
 upon whom his reputatibn alone bestowed the control 
 of armies, became master of several cities, assisted the 
 King of Aragon to sieze upon Huesca, and conquered 
 the kingdom of Valencia without any other assistance 
 X than that of his men-at-arms. Equal in power with his 
 sovereign, of whose treatment he frequently had rea- 
 son to complain, and envied and persecuted by the 
 jealous courtiers, the Cid never forgot for a moment 
 that he was the subject of the King of Castile. Ban- 
 ished from court, and even exiled from his estates, he 
 hastened, with his brave companions, to attack and 
 conquer the Moors, and to send those of them whom 
 he vanquished to render homage to the king who had 
 deprived him of his rights.
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 49 
 
 Being soon recalled to the presence of Alphonso, in 
 consequence of the king's needing his military aid, 
 the Cid left the scenes of his martial triumphs, and, 
 without demanding reparation for the injuries he had 
 sustained, returned to defend his persecutors; ever 
 ready, while in disgrace, to forget everything in the 
 performance of his duty to his king, and equally ready, 
 when enjoying the favor of the sovereign, to displease 
 him, if it should be necessary to do so, by advocating 
 the cause of truth and justice. 
 
 While the prowess of the Cid maintained the con- 
 test, the Christians had the advantage ; but a few years 
 after his death, which occurred in the year 1099, and 
 the 492d of the Hegira, the Moors of Andalusia 
 changed masters, and became, for a time, more formid- 
 able than ever to their Spanish foes. 
 
 After the fall of Toledo, Seville had increased in 
 power. The sovereigns of that city were also masters 
 of ancient Cordova, and possessed, in addition, Estre- 
 madura and a part of Portugal. Benabad, king of Se- 
 ville, one of the most estimable princes of his age, was 
 now the only one of its enemies capable of disturbing 
 the safety of Castile. Alphonso IV., desirous of ally- 
 ing himself with this powerful Moor, demanded his 
 daughter in marriage. His proposal was acceded to, 
 and the Castilian monarch received several towns as 
 the dowry of the Moorish princess; but this extraor- 
 dinary union, which seemed to ensure peace between 
 the two nations, nevertheless soon became either the 
 cause or the pretext of renewed contests. 
 
 Africa, after having been separated from the vast 
 empire of the Caliphs of the East by the Fatimite 
 caliphs, and being, during three centuries of civil war, 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 4
 
 50 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 the prey of a succession of conquerors more ferocious 
 and sanguinary than the lions of their deserts, was 
 now subjected to the family of the Almoravides, a pow- 
 erful tribe of Egyptian origin. Joseph-ben-Tessefin, 
 the second prince of this dynasty, founded the king- 
 dom and city of Morocco. 
 
 Endowed with some warlike talents, proud of his 
 power, and burning to augment it, Joseph regarded 
 with covetous eye the beautiful European provinces 
 which had formerly been conquered by the Mussul- 
 mans of Africa. 
 
 Some historians assert that the King of Castile, 
 Alphonso IV., and his father-in-law Benabad, King 
 of Seville, having formed the project of dividing Spain 
 between them, committed the capital error of summon- 
 ing the Moors of Africa to their assistance in this 
 grand design. But others, founding their assertions 
 upon more plausible reasoning, say that the petty Mus- 
 sulman kings, who were the neighbors or tributaries 
 of Benabad, justly alarmed at his alliance with a Chris- 
 tian king, solicited the support of the Almoravide. 
 
 But, be that as it may, the ambitious Joseph eagerly 
 availed himself of the fortunate pretext presented by 
 the invitation he had received, and crossed the Medi- 
 terranean at the head of an army. He hastened to at- 
 tack Alphonso, and succeeded in overcoming him in a 
 battle that took place between them, A. D. 1097, Heg. 
 490. Then turning his arms against Benabad, Joseph 
 took Cordova, besieged Seville, and was preparing for 
 the assault of that city, when the virtuous Benabad, 
 sacrificing his crown and even his liberty to save his 
 subjects from the horrors that threatened them, deliv-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 51 
 
 ered himself up, together with his family of a hundred 
 children, to the disposal of the Almoravide. 
 
 The barbarous African, dreading the influence of a 
 monarch whose virtues had rendered him so justly 
 dear to his people, sent him to end his days in an 
 African prison, where his daughters were obliged to 
 support their father and brothers by the labor of their 
 hands. 
 
 The unfortunate Benabad lived six years after the 
 commencement of his imprisonment, regretting his lost 
 throne only for the sake of his people, and beguiling the 
 period of his protracted leisure by the composition of 
 several poems which are still in existence. In them he 
 attempts to console his daughters under their heavy 
 afflictions, recalls the remembrance of his vanished 
 greatness, and offers himself as a warning and ex- 
 ample to kings who shall presume to trust too confi- 
 dently to the unchanging continuance of the favors of 
 fortune. 
 
 Joseph-ben-Tessefin, after he had thus become mas- 
 ter of Seville and Cordova, soon succeeded in subju- 
 gating the other petty Mussulman states; and the 
 Moors, united under a single monarch as powerful as 
 Joseph, threatened again to occupy the important posi- 
 tion they had sustained during the supremacy of their 
 caliphs. The Spanish princes, alarmed at this pros- 
 pect, suspended their individual quarrels, and joined 
 Alphonso in resisting the Africans. 
 
 At this particular juncture, a fanatical love of relig- 
 ion and glory induced many European warriors to take 
 up arms against the infidels. Raymond of Bourgogne, 
 and his kinsman Henry, both French princes of the 
 blood, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, count of Toulouse,
 
 53 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 with some other cavaliers from among their vassals, 
 crossed the Pyrenees with their retainers, and fought 
 under the banners of the King of Castile. Thus as- 
 sisted, that sovereign put the Egyptian commander to 
 flight, and compelled him, soon afterward, to recross 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 The grateful Alphonso gave his daughters as a 
 recompense to the distinguished Frenchmen who had 
 lent him the aid of their arms. The eldest, Urraca, 
 espoused Raymond of Bourgogne, and their son after- 
 ward inherited the kingdom of Castile. Theresa be- 
 came the wife of Henry, and brought him as a dowry 
 all the land he had thus far conquered or should here- 
 after conquer in Portugal : from thence originated that 
 kingdom. Elvira was given to Raymond, count of 
 Toulouse, who carried her with him to the Holy Land, 
 where he gained some possessions by his valor. 
 
 Excited by these illustrious examples, other French 
 cavaliers resorted soon after to the standard of the 
 King of Aragon, Alphonso I., who made himself mas- 
 ter of Saragossa, and for ever destroyed that ancient 
 kingdom of the Moors, A. D. 1118, Heg. 512. 
 
 The son of Henry of Bourgogne, Alphonso I., king 
 of Portugal, a prince renowned for his bravery, availed 
 himself of the presence of a combined fleet of English, 
 Flemings, and Germans, who had anchored in the har- 
 bor of that city on their way to the Holy Land, to lay 
 siege to Lisbon. He carried that place by assault,. in 
 spite of its great strength, and made it the capital of 
 his kingdom, A. D. 1147, Heg. 541. 
 
 During this period the kings of Castile and Navarre 
 were extending their conquests in Andalusia. 
 
 The Moors were attacked on all sides, and their
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 53 
 
 cities were everywhere compelled to surrender, now 
 that they were no longer materially aided by the Al- 
 moravides. Those African princes were at this time 
 sufficiently occupied at home in opposing some new 
 sectaries, the principal of whom, under pretext of rein- 
 itiating the people in a knowledge of the pure doctrines 
 of Mohammed, , opened for themselves a path to the 
 throne, and, after many struggles, ended by effectually 
 driving the family of the Almoravides from its posses- 
 sion. The new conquerors, becoming by these means 
 masters of Morocco and Fez, destroyed, according to 
 the African custom, every individual of the supplanted 
 race, and founded a new dynasty, which islcnown un- 
 der the name of the Almohades, A. D. 1149, Heg. 543. 
 
 In the midst of these divisions, these wars and com- 
 bats, the fine arts still continued to be cultivated at 
 Cordova. And though they were no longer in the 
 flourishing condition in which they were maintained 
 during the reigns of the several caliphs who bore the 
 cherished name of Abderamus, yet the schools of phi- 
 losophy, poetry, and medicine had continued to exist. 
 These schools produced, in the twelfth century, several 
 distinguished men, among the most celebrated of whom 
 were the learned Abenzoar and the famous Averroes. 
 The former, equally profound in medicine, pharmacy, 
 and surgery lived, it is said, to the age of one hundred 
 and thirty-five years. Some estimable works which he 
 produced are still extant. Averroes was also a phy- 
 sician, but he was more of a philosopher, poet, lawyer, 
 and commentator. He acquired a reputation so pro- 
 found, that passing centuries have only served more 
 firmly to establish it. The disposition made by this 
 remarkable man of his time during the different peri-
 
 54 
 
 ods of his existence, will illustrate his mental char- 
 acter. In his youth he was the passionate votary of 
 pleasure and poetry: in more mature age he burned the 
 verses he had previously composed, studied the prin- 
 ciples of legislation and discharged the duties of a' 
 judicial officer: having advanced still farther in life, he 
 abandoned these occupations for the pursuit of med- 
 icine, in which he attained very great eminence: at last 
 philosophy alone supplied the place of every earlier 
 taste, and wholly engrossed his attention for the re- 
 mainder of his life; It was Averroes who first created 
 among the Moors a taste for Greek literature. He 
 translated the works of Aristotle into Arabic, and 
 wrote commentaries upon them. He also published 
 several other works upon philosophy and medicine, 
 and possessed the united glory of having both en- 
 lightened and benefited mankind. 
 
 As Africa, distracted by the long war of the Almor- 
 avides and the Almohades, was unable to offer any op- 
 position to the progress of the Christians in Spain, 
 these last, availing themselves of this condition of 
 affairs, continued to extend their conquests in Andalu- 
 sia. If the Spanish princes had been less disunited, and 
 had acted in concert against the infidels, they would 
 have been able at this period to deprive the Mussul- 
 mans of their entire dominions in the Peninsula. But 
 these ever-contending princes had no sooner taken a 
 Moorish city than they began to dispute among them- 
 selves about its possession. 
 
 The newly-created kingdom of Portugal, estab- 
 lished by the military prowess of Alphonso, was soon 
 at war with that of Leon. Aragon and Castile, after 
 many bloody quarrels, united in a league against Na-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 55 
 
 varre. Sancho VIII., the sovereign of that little state, 
 was forced to resort to Africa for assistance, and im- 
 plored the aid of the Almohades. But they, being but 
 recently established on the throne of Morocco, .were 
 still employed in exterminating the dismembered frag- 
 ments of the party of the Almoravides, and could not, 
 in spite of their eager desire to do so, establish any 
 claim to their assumed rights in Spain. Nevertheless, 
 two kings of the race of the Almohades, both named 
 Joseph, passed the Mediterranean more than once with 
 numerous armies. The one was successfully opposed 
 by the Portuguese, and did not survive his final defeat ; 
 the other was more fortunate, and succeeded in van- 
 quishing the Castilians, but was soon after obliged to 
 accept a truce and return in haste to Morocco, to which 
 new disturbances recalled him, A. D. 1195, Heg. 591. 
 
 But these useless victories, these ill-sustained 
 efforts, did not permanently disable either the Mussul- 
 mans or the Christians. On both sides, the vanquished 
 parties soon re-entered the field, in utter neglect of the 
 treaties into which they might ever so recently have 
 entered. The sovereigns of Morocco, though regarded 
 as the kings of Andalusia, nevertheless possessed only 
 a precarious authority in that country, which was al- 
 ways disputed when they were absent, and acknowl- 
 edged only when necessity forced the Mussulman in- 
 habitants to have recourse to their protection. 
 
 At last Mohammed El Nazir, the fourth prince of 
 the dynasty of the Almohades, to whom the Spaniards 
 gave the name of the Green, from the color of his tur- 
 ban, finding himself in quiet possession of the Moorish 
 empire of Africa, resolved to assemble all his forces, to 
 lead them into Spain, and to renew in that country the
 
 56 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 ancient conquests of Tarik and Moussa. A holy war 
 was proclaimed, A. D. 1211, Heg. 608, and an innumer- 
 able army crowded around the ensigns of Mohammed, 
 left the shores of Africa under the guidance of that 
 monarch, and safely arrived in Andalusia. There their 
 numbers were nearly doubled by the Spanish Moors, 
 whom hatred to the very name of Christian, arising 
 from the vivid remembrance of accumulated injuries, 
 induced to join the bands of El Nazir. 
 
 The sanguine Mohammed promised an easy tri- 
 umph to his followers, together with the certainty of 
 rendering themselves masters of all that their ancestors 
 had formerly possessed; and, burning to commence the 
 contest, he immediately advanced towards Castile at the 
 head of his formidable army, which, according to the 
 reports of historians, amounted to more than six hun- 
 dred thousand men. 
 
 The king of Castile, Alphonso the Noble, informed 
 of the warlike preparations of the King of Morocco, 
 implored the assistance of the Christian princes of 
 Europe. Pope Innocent III. proclaimed a crusade and 
 granted indulgences most lavishly. Rodrique, arch- 
 bishop of Toledo, made in person a voyage to Rome, 
 to solicit the aid of the sovereign pontiff ; and, return- 
 ing homeward through France, preached to the people 
 on his route, and induced many cavaliers to proceed at 
 the head of bands of recruits to Spain, and join the 
 opponents of the Mussulmans. 
 
 The general rendezvous was at Toledo, at which 
 point there were soon coHected more than sixty thou- 
 sand crusaders from Italy and France, who united them- 
 selves with the soldiers of Castile. The King of Ara- 
 gon, Peter II., the same who afterward perished in the
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 57 
 
 war of the Albigense, led his valiant army to the place 
 of meeting 1 , and Sancho VIII., king of Navarre, was 
 not backward in presenting himself at the head of his 
 brave subjects. The Portuguese had recently lost their 
 king, but they despatched their best warriors to To- 
 ledo. In short, all Spain flew to arms. There was gen- 
 eral union for the promotion of mutual safety; for 
 never, since the time of King Rodrique, had the Chris- 
 tians been placed in such imminent danger. 
 
 It was at the foot of the Sierra Morena, at a place 
 named Las Navas ^de Toloza, that the three Spanish 
 princes encountered the Moors, A. D. 1212, Heg. 609. 
 
 Mohammed El Nazir had taken possession of the 
 mountain gorges through which it had been the inten- 
 tion of the Christians to approach his camp. The adroit 
 African thus designed, either to force his opponents to 
 turn back, which would expose them to the danger of 
 a failure of provisions, or to overwhelm them in the 
 pass if they should attempt to enter it. Upon discov- 
 ering this circumstance, a council was called by the 
 embarrassed Christian leaders. Alphonso was desir- 
 ous of attempting the passage, but the kings of Navarre 
 and Aragon advised a retreat. In the midst of this 
 dilemma, a shepherd presented himself before them, 
 and offered to conduct them through a defile of the 
 mountain, with which he was familiar. This proposal, 
 which was the salvation of their army, was eagerly 
 accepted, and the shepherd guided the Catholic sover- 
 eigns through difficult paths and across rocks and tor- 
 rents, until, with their followers, they finally succeeded 
 in attaining the summit of the mountain. 
 
 There, suddenly presenting themselves before the 
 eyes of the astonished Moors, they were engaged for
 
 58 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 the space of two days in preparing themselves for the 
 conflict, by prayer, confession, and the solemn recep- 
 tion of the holy sacrament. Their leaders set an ex- 
 ample to the soldiers in this zealous devotion ; and the 
 prelates and ecclesiastics, of whom there were a great 
 number in the camp, after having absolved these de- 
 vout warriors, prepared to accompany them into the 
 midst of the conflict. 
 
 Upon the third day, the sixteenth of July, in the 
 year twelve hundred and twelve, the Christian army 
 was drawn up in battle array. The troops were formed 
 into three divisions, each commanded by a king. Al- 
 phonso was in the center, at the head of his Castilians 
 and the chevaliers of the newly-instituted orders of 
 Saint James and Calatrava; Rodrique, archbishop of 
 Toledo, the eyewitness and historian of this great bat- 
 tle, advanced by the side of Alphonso, preceded by a 
 large cross, the principal ensign of the army ; Sancho 
 and his Navarrois formed the right, while Peter and 
 his subjects occupied the left. The French crusaders, 
 now reduced to a small number by the desertion of 
 many of their companions, who had been unable to en- 
 dure the scorching heat of the climate, marched in the 
 van of the other troops, under the command of Arnault, 
 archbishop of Narbonne. 
 
 Thus disposed, the Christians descended towards 
 the valley which separated them from their enemies. 
 
 The Moors, according to their ancient custom, 
 everywhere displayed their innumerable soldiers, with- 
 out order or arrangement. An admirable cavalry, to 
 the number of a hundred thousand men, composed their 
 principal strength : the rest of their army was made up 
 of a crowd of ill-armed and imperfectly trained foot-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 59 
 
 soldiers. Mohammed, stationed on a height, from 
 which he could command a view of his whole army, 
 was encompassed by a defence made of chains of iron, 
 guarded by the choicest of his cavaliers on foot. Stand- 
 ing in the midst of this enclosure, with the Koran in 
 one hand and an unsheathed sabre in the other, the 
 Saracen commander was visible to all his troops, of 
 whom the bravest squadrons occupied the four sides 
 of the hill. 
 
 The Castilians directed their first efforts towards 
 this elevation. At first they drove back the Moors, 
 but, repulsed in their turn, they recoiled in disorder 
 and began to retreat. Alphonso flew here and there, 
 attempting to rally their broken ranks. "Archbishop," 
 said he to the prelate wKb everywhere accompanied 
 him, preceded by the grand standard of the Cross, 
 "Archbishop, here are we destined to die!" "Not so, 
 sire," replied the ecclesiastic ; "we are destined here to 
 live and conquer!" At that moment the brave canon 
 who carried the chief ensign threw himself with it into 
 the midst of the infidels ; the prelate and the king fol- 
 lowed him, and the Castiliari soldiers rushed forward 
 to protect their sovereign and their sacred standard. 
 The already victorious kings of Aragon and Navarre 
 now advanced at the head of their wings to unite in 
 the attack upon the height. The Moors were assaulted 
 at all points : they bravely resisted their opponents ; 
 but the Christians crowded upon them the Ara- 
 gonais, the Navarrois, and the Castilians endeavoring 
 mutually to surpass each other in courage and daring. 
 The brave King of Navarre, making a path for himself 
 through the midst of its defenders, reached the en- 
 closure, and struck and broke the 'chains by which the
 
 60 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Moorish commander was surrounded. Mohammed 
 took to flight on beholding this catastrophe ; and his 
 soldiers, no.longer beholding their king, lost both hope 
 and courage. They gave way in all directions, and 
 fled before the Christians. Thousands of the Mussul- 
 mans fell beneath the weapons of their pursuers, while 
 the Archbishop of Toledo, with the other ecclesiastics, 
 surrounding the victorious sovereigns, chanted a Te 
 Dcum on the field of battle. 
 
 Thus was gained the famous battle of Toloza, of 
 which some details have been given in consequence 
 of its great importance, and in illustration of the mil- 
 itary tactics of the Moors. With them the arts of war 
 consisted solely in mingling with the enemy, and 
 fighting, each one for himself, until either the strong- 
 est or the bravest of the two parties remained masters 
 of the field. 
 
 The Spaniards possessed but little more military 
 skill than their Moslem neighbors; but their infantry, 
 at least, could attack and resist in mass, while the dis- 
 cipline of that of the Saracens amounted to scarcely 
 anything. On the other hand, again, the cavalry of 
 the Moors was admirably trained. The cavaliers who 
 composed it belonged to the principal families in the 
 kingdom, and possessed excellent horses, in the art of 
 managing which they had been trained from childhood. 
 Their mode of combat was to rush forward with the 
 rapidity of light, strike with the sabre or the lance, 
 fly away as quickly, and then wheel suddenly and re- 
 turn again to the encounter. Thus they often suc- 
 ceeded in recalling victory to their standard when she 
 seemed just about to desert them. The Christians, 
 covered as they were with iron, had in some respects
 
 61 
 
 the advantage of these knights, whose persons were 
 protected only by a breastplate and headpiece of steel. 
 The Moorish foot-soldiers were nearly naked, and 
 armed only with a wretched pike. It is easy to per- 
 ceive that, when involved in the melee, and, above all, 
 during a route, vast numbers of them must have per- 
 ished. This, too, renders less incredible the seemingly 
 extravagant accounts given by historians of their 
 losses in the field. They assert, for example, that, at 
 the battle of Toloza, the Christians killed two hun- 
 dred thousand Moors, while they lost themselves but 
 fifteen hundred soldiers. Even when these assertions 
 are estimated at their true value, it remains certain 
 that the infidels sustained an immense loss; and this 
 important defeat, which is still celebrated yearly at 
 Toledo by a solemn fete, long deprived the kings of 
 Morocco of all hope of subjugating the Spaniards. 
 
 The victory of Toloza was followed by more fatal 
 consequences to the unfortunate Mohammed than to 
 the Moors of Andalusia; for the latter retired to their 
 cities, defended them by means of the remains of the 
 African army, and successfully resisted the Spanish 
 princes, who succeeded in taking but few of their 
 strong places, and, speedily dissolving their league, 
 separated for their respective kingdoms. But Mo- 
 hammed, despised by his subjects after his defeat, and 
 assailed by the treachery of his nearest relations, lost 
 all authority in Spain, and beheld the principal Moors, 
 whom he had now no power to control, again forming 
 little states, the independence of which they were pre- 
 pared to assert by force of arms. The discomfited El 
 Nazir consequently returned to Africa, where he soon 
 after died of chagrin.
 
 62 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 With Mohammed the Green vanished the good 
 fortune of the Almohades. The princes of that house, 
 who followed El Nazir in rapid succession, purchased 
 their royal prerogatives at the expense of continual 
 unhappiness and danger, and were finally driven from 
 the throne. The empire of Morocco was then divided, 
 and three new dynasties were established ; that of Fez, 
 of Tunis, and of Tremecen. These three powerful and 
 rival sovereignties greatly multiplied the conflicts, 
 crimes, and atrocities, the narration of which alone 
 constitutes the history of Africa. 
 
 About this period some dissensions arose in Cas- 
 tile, which, together with the part assumed by the 
 King of Aragon in the war of the Albigense in France, 
 allowed the Moors time to breathe. The Moslems 
 were still masters of the kingdoms of Valencia, Mur- 
 cia, Grenada, and Andalusia, with part of Algarva and 
 the Balearic Isles, which last, until that time, had con- 
 tinued to be but little known to the Christians of the 
 Continent. 
 
 These states were divided between several sover- 
 eigns, the principal of whom was Benhoud, a descend- 
 ant of the ancient kings of Saragossa, a sagacious 
 monarch and a great commander, who by his genius 
 and courage had obtained dominion over all the south- 
 eastern part of Spain. Next to Benhoud in rank, the 
 most important of these Mohammedan princes were 
 the kings of Seville and Valentia. The barbarian who 
 reigned at Majorca was a mere piratical chief, whose 
 enmity was formidable only to the inhabitants of the 
 neighboring coast of Catalonia. 
 
 Such was the condition of Moorish Spain, when 
 two young heroes seated themselves, nearly at the
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 63 
 
 same time, on the thrones of the two principal Chris- 
 tian states ; and, after having allayed the commotions 
 created during the period of their minority, directed 
 their concentrated efforts against the Mussulmans, 
 A. D. 1224, Heg. 621. 
 
 These princes, who were mutually desirous to emu- 
 late each other in fame, but were never rivals in inter- 
 est, both consecrated their lives to the extirpation of 
 the inflexible enemies of their native land. One of 
 these sovereigns was Jacques I., king of Aragon (a son 
 of the Peter of Aragon who distinguished himself on 
 the field of Toloza), who united to the courage, grace, 
 and energy of his father, a greater degree of genius 
 and success than fell to the lot of that sovereign. The 
 other was Ferdinand III., king of Castile and Leon, a 
 discerning, courageous, and enterprising monarch, 
 whom the Romish Church has numbered with its 
 saints, and history ranks among its great men. 
 
 This prince was the nephew of Blanche of Castile, 
 queen of France, and cousin-german of St. Lewis, 
 whom he nearly resembled in his piety, his bravery, 
 and the wise laws he framed for the benefit of his sub- 
 jects. 
 
 Ferdinand carried his arms first into Andalusia. 
 When he entered the territories of the infidels, he re- 
 ceived the homage of several Moorish princes, who 
 came to acknowledge themselves his vassals. As he 
 proceeded, he seized upon a great number of places, 
 and, among others, the town of Alhambra, whose 
 frightened inhabitants retired to Grenada, and estab- 
 lished themselves in a portion of that city, which thus 
 obtained the name by which it was afterward so much 
 celebrated.
 
 64 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Jacques of Aragon, on his part, set sail with an 
 army for the Balearic Isles. Though impeded in his 
 progress by contrary winds, he succeeded at last in 
 reaching Majorca, on the shore of which island he de- 
 feated the Moorish force that attempted to oppose his 
 landing, and then marched towards their capital and 
 laid siege to it. 
 
 The chivalrous Jacques, who, when danger was to 
 be encountered, always took precedence of even his 
 bravest officers and most daring soldiers, was, as 
 usual, the first to mount the walls in the assault upon 
 this city. It was carried, notwithstanding its great 
 strength, the Mussulman king driven from the throne, 
 and this new crown permanently incorporated with 
 that of Aragon, A. D. 1229, Heg. 627. 
 
 Jacques had long been meditating a most important 
 conquest. Valencia, after the death of the Cid, had 
 again fallen into the hands of the Moors. This beauti- 
 ful and fertile province, where nature seemed to. de- 
 light herself by covering anew with fruit and flowers 
 the soil that man had so often deluged with blood, was 
 now under the dominion of Zeith, a brother of Mo- 
 hammed El Nazir, the African king who was van- 
 quished at Toloza by the Christians. A powerful fac- 
 tion, inimical to the power of Zeith, wished to place 
 upon the throne a prince named Zean. The two com- 
 petitors appealed to arms to decide their respective 
 claims. The King of Aragon espoused the cause of 
 Zeith, and, under pretext of marching to his assist- 
 ance, advanced into the kingdom of Valencia, several 
 times defeated Zean, seized upon his strong places, 
 and, with the active intrepedity that rendered him so
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 6R 
 
 formidable a foe, invested the capital of his enemy,, 
 A. D. 1234, Heg. 632. 
 
 Thus pressed by the sovereign of Aragon, Zean im- 
 plored the aid of Benhoud, the most puissant of the: 
 kings of Andalusia. But Benhoud was at this time 
 occupied in resisting the encroachments of Ferdinand., 
 The Castilians, under the conduct of that valiant 
 prince, had made new progress against the Moors. 
 After possessing themselves of a great number of 
 other cities, they had now laid siege to ancient Cor- 
 dova. 
 
 Benhoud had been often vanquished, but always 
 retained the affections of a people who regarded him, 
 as their last support. He had again collected an army,, 
 and, though possessed with an equally earnest desire 
 to relieve both Cordova and Valencia, was about ta 
 march toward the latter, from a belief that he was- 
 most likely to be there successful, when his life was. 
 treacherously terminated by one of his lieutenants. 
 
 The Catholic kings were by this means delivered 
 from the opposition of the only man who was capable 
 of impeding the accomplishment of their wishes. 
 
 The death of Benhoud deprived the inhabitants of 
 Cordova of all courage and hope. Until then they had' 
 defended themselves with equal courage and con- 
 stancy; but they offered to capitulate upon receivimg 
 intelligence of this disastrous event. 
 
 The Christians made the most rigorous use of their 
 victory, granting only life and liberty of departure t 
 the unfortunate disciples of the Prophet. An innumer- 
 able host of these wretched people came forth from 
 their former homes, weeping, and despoiled of all their 
 possessions. Slowly they left the superb city which 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 6
 
 66 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 had been for more than five hundred and twenty years 
 the principal seat of their national greatness, their 
 luxurious magnificence, their cherished religion, and 
 their favorite literature and fine arts. 
 
 Often did these desolate exiles pause on their way, 
 and turn their despairing eyes once again towards the 
 towering palaces, the splendid temples, the beautiful 
 gardens, that five centuries of lavish expense and toil- 
 some effort had served to adorn and perfect, only to 
 become the spoil of the enemies of their faith and their 
 race. 
 
 The Catholic soldiers who were now the occupants 
 of these enchanting abodes, were so far from appre- 
 ciating their loveliness and value, that they preferred 
 rather to destroy than inhabit them ; and Ferdinand 
 soon found himself the possessor of a deserted city. 
 He was therefore compelled to attract inhabitants to 
 Cordova from other parts of his dominions, by the 
 offer of extraordinary immunities. But, notwithstand- 
 ing the privileges thus accorded them, the Spaniards 
 murmured at leaving their arid rocks and barren fields, 
 to dwell in the palaces of caliphs and amid nature's 
 most luxuriant scenes. 
 
 The grand .mosque of Abderamus was converted 
 into a cathedral, and Cordova became the residence of 
 a bishop and canons, but it was never restored to the 
 faintest shadow of its former splendor. 
 
 Not long after the fall of Cordova, Valencia also 
 submitted to the Christian yoke. Zean, besides being 
 assailed externally by the force of the intrepid Jacques, 
 had, in addition, to oppose within his walls the faction 
 of Zeith, whom he had dethroned. The king of Tunis, 
 too, had been unsuccessful in an attempt to send a fleet
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 67 
 
 to the relief of Valencia : it at once took to flight on the 
 appearance of the vessels of Jacques. Abandoned by 
 the whole world, disheartened by the fate of Cordova, 
 and betrayed by the party of his competitor, Zean 
 offered to become the vassal of the crown of Aragon, 
 and to pay a tribute in acknowledgment of his vassal- 
 age ; but the Christian monarch was inflexible, and 
 would accede to no terms that did not include a stipu- 
 lation to surrender the city. 
 
 Fifty thousand Moors, bearing their treasures with 
 them, accompanied the departure of their sovereign 
 from Valencia. Jacques had pledged his royal word 
 to protect the rich booty which they so highly valued 
 from the cupidity of his soldiers, and he faithfully per- 
 formed his promise. 
 
 After the destruction of the two powerful king- 
 doms of Andalusia and Valencia, there seemed to exist 
 no Moorish power capable of arresting the progress of 
 the Spanish Arms. That of Seville, which alone re- 
 mained, was already menaced by the victorious Ferdi- 
 nand. But, just at this period, a new state rose sud- 
 denly into importance, which maintained a high de- 
 gree of celebrity for two hundred years, and long pre- 
 vented the final ruin of the Moors.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE KINGS OF GRENADA. 
 
 Extending from the Middle of the Thirteenth Century to the period of tke 
 
 Total Expulsion of the Moors from Spain, A. D. 1492. 
 
 
 
 THE unprecedented success of the Spaniards, 
 and, above all, the loss of Cordova, spread 
 consternation among the Moors. That ardent 
 and superstitious people, who were ever equally ready 
 to cherish delusive hopes, and to yield to despondency 
 when those anticipations were disappointed, looked 
 upon their empire as ruined the moment the Christian 
 cross surmounted the pinnacle of their grand mosque, 
 and the banner of Castile waved over the walls of their 
 ancient capital those walls on which the standards of 
 the Caliphs of the West and of their Prophet had for 
 centuries floated in triumph. 
 
 Notwithstanding this national dejection, however, 
 Seville, Grenada, Murcia, and the kingdom of Algarva 
 still belonged to the Mussulmans. They possessed all 
 the seaports, and the whole maritime coast of the south 
 of Spain. Their enormous population, and great 
 national wealth and industry, also secured to them im- 
 mense resources ; but Cordova, the holy city, the rival 
 of Mecca in the West Cordova was in the possession 
 of the Christians, and the Moors believed that all was 
 lost. 
 
 But the hopes of these despairing followers of Is- 
 lam were rekindled by the almost magical influence of 
 a single individual, a scion of the tribe of the Alhamars,
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 6* 
 
 named Mohammed Aboussaid, who came originally 
 from the celebrated Arabian city of Couffa. 
 
 Several historians, who speak of Mohammed under 
 the title of Mohammed Alhamar, assure us that he com- 
 menced his career as a simple shepherd, and that, hav- 
 ing afterward borne arms, he aspired to the attainment 
 of royal power in consequence of his martial exploits- 
 Such an incident is not extraordinary among the Arabs,, 
 where all who are not descended either from the family 
 of the Prophet or from the royal race, possessing none 
 of the privileges of birth, are esteemed solely according; 
 to their personal merits. 
 
 But, be that as it may, Mohammed Aboussaid pos- 
 sessed sufficient intellectual powers to reanimate the 
 expiring courage of the vanquished Moslems. He as- 
 sembled an army in the city of Arjona, and, well know- 
 ing the peculiar character of the nation that he wished 
 to control, proceeded to gain over to his interests a 
 santon, a species of religious character highly venerated 
 among the Moors. This oracular individual publicly- 
 predicted to the people of Algarva that Mohammed 
 Alhamar was' destined speedily to become their king. 
 Accordingly, he was soon proclaimed by the inhabi- 
 tants, and several other cities followed the example 
 thus set them. 
 
 Mohammed now filled the place of Benhoud, to 
 whom he possessed similar talents for government; 
 and, feeling the necessity of selecting a city to replace 
 Cordova in the affections of the Moors, to become the 
 sacred asylum of their religion, and the centering- 
 point for their military strength, he founded a new 
 kingdom, and made the city of Grenada its capital,. 
 A. D. 1236, Heg. 634.
 
 70 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 This city, powerful from the remotest times, and 
 supposed to be the ancient Illiberis of the Romans, 
 was built upon two hills, not far distant from the 
 Sierra Nevada, a chain of mountains whose summits 
 are covered with perpetual snow. The town was 
 traversed by the river Darra, and the waters of. the 
 Xenil bathed its walls. Each of the two hills was 
 crowned by a fortress ; on the one was that of the Al- 
 hambra, and on the other that of the Albayzin. These 
 strongholds were either of them sufficient in extent to 
 accommodate forty thousand men within their walls. 
 The fugitives from the city of Alhambra, as has 
 already been stated, had given the name of their former 
 home to the new quarters that they peopled ; and the 
 Moors who had been driven from Baeca when Ferdi- 
 nand III. became master of that place, had established 
 themselves, in a similar manner, in the quarter of the 
 Albayzin. 
 
 This city had also received many exiles from Valen- 
 cia, Cordova, and other places which the Mussulmans 
 had deserted. 
 
 With a population whose numbers were daily aug- 
 mented, Grenada, at the period of which we now speak, 
 was more than three leagues in circuit, surrounded by 
 impregnable ramparts, defended by many strong 
 towers, and by a brave and numerous people, whose 
 military prowess seemed to ensure their safety and 
 independence. 
 
 Various were the advantages that combined in giv- 
 ing to Grenada the supremacy she had assumed. Her 
 location was one of the most agreeable and beautiful 
 in the world, and rendered her mistress of a country 
 on which nature had lavished her choicest gifts. The
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN M 
 
 famous vega, or plain, by which the city was sur- 
 rounded, was thirty leagues in length and eight in 
 breadth. It was terminated on the north by the 
 mountains of Elvira and the Sierra Nevada, and en- 
 closed on the remaining sides by hills clothed with the 
 verdure of the olive, the mulberry, the lemon, and the 
 vine. 
 
 This enchanting plain was watered by five small 
 rivers and an infinite number of gushing springs, 
 whose streams wandered in graceful meanderings 
 through meadows of perpetual verdure, through for- 
 ests of oak and plantations of grain, flax, and sugar- 
 cane, or burst forth in the midst of gardens, and or- 
 chards, and orange-groves. 
 
 All the rich, and beautiful, and varied productions 
 of the soil required but little attention in their culture. 
 The earth was continually covered with vegetation, in 
 myriads of changing forms, and never knew the repose 
 of winter. 
 
 During the heat of summer, the mountain breezes 
 spread a refreshing coolness through the air of this 
 lovely vega, and preserved the early brilliancy and 
 beauty of the flowers, that were ever mingled in de- 
 lightful confusion with the varied fruits of a tropical 
 region. 
 
 On this celebrated plain, whose charms no descrip- 
 tion can embellish ; on this enchanting vega, where 
 nature seemed to have exhausted her efforts in lavish- 
 ing all that the heart of man could desire or his imag- 
 ination conceive, more blood has been shed than on 
 any other spot in the world. There where, during 
 two centuries of unceasing warfare, whose baleful 
 effects extended from generation to generation, from
 
 72 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 ity to city, and from man to man there does not 
 exist a single isolated portion of earth where the trees 
 have not been wantonly destroyed, the villages re- 
 duced to ashes, and the desolated fields strewn with 
 the mingled corses of slaughtered Moors and Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Independent of this vega, which was of such inesti- 
 mable value to Grenada, fourteen great cities and more 
 than one hundred of smaller size, together with a pro- 
 digious number of towns, were embraced within the 
 'boundaries of this fine kingdom. 
 
 The extent of Grenada, from Gibraltar (which was 
 mot taken by the Christians until long after this period) 
 to the city of Lorca, was more than eighty leagues. It 
 was thirty leagues in breadth from Cambril to the 
 ^Mediterranean. 
 
 The mountains by which the kingdom of Grenada 
 was intersected, produced gold, silver, granite, ame- 
 Tthysts, and various kinds of marble. 
 
 Among these mountains, those of the Alpuxaries 
 alone formed a province, and yielded the monarch of 
 ^Grenada more precious treasures than their mines 
 could furnish active and athletic men, who became 
 either hardy and industrious husbandmen, or faithful 
 and indefatigable soldiers. 
 
 In addition to all this, the ports of Almeria, Malaga, 
 and Algeziras received into their harbors the vessels 
 of both Europe and Africa, and became places of de- 
 posite for the commerce of the Mediterranean and the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Such, at its birth, was the kingdom of Grenada, 
 and such it long continued. Mohammed Alhamar, 
 from the period of its establishment, made useless
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 73 
 
 efforts to unite all the remaining dominions of the 
 Mussulmans of Spain under one scepter, as the only 
 means of successfully resisting the encroachments of 
 the Christians. But the little kingdom of Murcia and 
 that of Algarva were each governed by separate 
 princes, who persisted in maintaining their independ- 
 ence. This was the cause of their ruin, for they thus 
 became more readily the prey of the Spaniards. 
 
 Alhamar signalized the commencement of his reign 
 t>y military achievements. In the year 1242, Heg. 640, 
 he gained some important advantages over the troops 
 of Ferdinand. But repeated revolts in the capital and 
 disturbances in other parts of his new empire, event- 
 ually compelled Mohammed to conclude a dishonorable 
 peace with the King of Castile. He agreed to do hom- 
 age for his crown to the Castilian sovereign, to put the 
 strong place of Jaen into his hands, to pay him a trib- 
 ute, and to furnish him with auxiliary troops for any 
 wars in which he should engage. On these conditions 
 Ferdinand acknowledged him King of Grenada, and 
 even aided him in subduing his rebellious subjects. 
 
 The sagacious Ferdinand thus established a truce 
 with Grenada, that he might the more effectually con- 
 centrate his forces against Seville, which he had long 
 entertained hopes of conquering. 
 
 The important city of Seville was no longer under 
 the dominion of a king, but formed a kind of republic, 
 governed by military magistrates. Its situation at no 
 great distance from the mouth of the Guadalquivir, its 
 commerce, its population, the mildness of its climate, 
 and the fertility of the environs, rendered Seville one 
 of the most flourishing cities of Spain. 
 
 Ferdinand, foreseeing a long resistance, commenced
 
 74 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 the campaign by seizing upon all the neighboring 
 towns. 
 
 Finally, he laid siege to Seville itself, and his fleet, 
 stationed at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, closed the 
 door to any assistance which might be sent from 
 Africa in aid of the beleaguered city. 
 
 The siege was long and bloody. The Sevillians 
 were numerous and well skilled in the arts of war, and 
 their ally, the King of Algarva, harassed the besiegers 
 unceasingly. Notwithstanding the Extreme bravery 
 displayed by the Christians in their assaults, and the 
 scarcity of provisions which began to be felt within 
 the walls, the city, after an investment of a whole year, 
 still refused to surrender. 
 
 Ferdinand then summoned the King of Grenada to 
 come, in accordance with their treaty, and serve under 
 his banners. Alhamar was forced to obey, and soon 
 presented himself in the Christian camp at the head of 
 a brilliant army. The inhabitants of Seville lost all 
 hope after this occurrence, and surrendered to the Cas- 
 tilian monarch. The King of Grenada returned to his 
 own dominions with the humiliating glory of having 
 contributed, by his assistance, to the ruin of his coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 Ferdinand, with more piety than policy, banished 
 the infidels from Seville. One hundred thousand of 
 that unfortunate people left the city, to seek an exile's 
 home in Africa or in the provinces of Grenada. 
 
 The kingdom of Grenada now became the sole and 
 last asylum of the Spanish Moslems. The little king- 
 dom of Algarva was soon obliged to receive the yoke 
 of Portugal, and Murcia, in consequence of its separa- 
 tion from Grenada, became the prey of the Castilians.
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 75 
 
 During the life of Ferdinand III., nothing occurred 
 to interrupt the good understanding that existed be- 
 tween that monarch and Mohammed Alhamar. 
 
 The King of Grenada wisely took advantage of this 
 peaceful period more effectually to confirm himself in 
 the possession of his crown, and to make preparations 
 for a renewal of hostilities against the Christians, who 
 would not, he foresaw, long remain his friends. 
 
 Mohammed, by this means, ultimately found him- 
 self in a condition that would enable him long to de- 
 fend his power and dominions. He was master of a 
 country of great extent, and he possessed considerable 
 revenues, the amount of which it is now difficult cor- 
 rectly to estimate, in consequence of the ignorance 
 which prevails on the subject of the peculiar financial 
 system of the Moors, and the different sources from 
 which the public treasury was supplied. Every hus- 
 bandman, for example, paid the seventh part of the 
 produce of his fields to his sovereign ; his flocks even 
 were not exempted from this exaction. The royal do- 
 main comprised numerous valuable farms ; and, as 
 agriculture was carried to the highest degree of per- 
 fection, the revenues from these, in so luxuriant a 
 country, must have amounted to a very large sum. 
 The annual income of the sovereign was augmented 
 by various taxes levied on the sale, marking, and pas- 
 sage from one point to another of all kinds of cattle. 
 The laws bestowed on the king the inheritance of such 
 of his subjects as died childless, and gave him, in addi- 
 tion, a portion in the estates of other deceased persons. 
 He also possessed, as has been already shown, mines 
 of gold, silver, and precious stones; and though the 
 Moors were but little skilled in the art of mining, still
 
 76 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 there was no country in Europe in which gold and sil- 
 ver were more common than among them. 
 
 The commerce carried on in their beautiful silks, 
 and in a great variety of other productions ; their con- 
 tiguity to the Mediterranean and Atlantic ; their activ- 
 ity, industry, and astonishing population ; their super- 
 ior knowledge of the science of agriculture; the so- 
 briety natural to all the inhabitants of Spain ; and that 
 peculiar property of a southern climate, by which much 
 is produced from the soil, while very little suffices for 
 the maintenance of its possessor; all these, united with 
 their other national advantages, will furnish some idea 
 of the great power and resources of this singular 
 people. 
 
 Their standing military force it can scarcely be 
 said in times of peace, for they rarely knew the bless- 
 ings of that state amounted to nearly a hundred 
 thousand men ; and this army, in case of necessity, 
 could easily be increased to double that number. The 
 single city of Grenada could furnish fifty thousand 
 soldiers. Indeed, every Moor would readily become a 
 soldier to oppose the Christians. The difference of 
 faith rendered these wars sacred in their eyes ; and the 
 mutual hatred entertained by these two almost equally 
 superstitious nations never failed to arm, when neces- 
 sary, every individual of both sides, even from children 
 to old men. 
 
 Independent of the numerous and brave, but ill- 
 disciplined troops, who would assemble for a campaign, 
 and afterward return to their homes without occasion- 
 ing any expense to the state, the Moorish monarch 
 maintained a considerable corps of cavaliers, who were 
 dispersed along the frontiers, particularly in the direc-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 77 
 
 tions of Murcia and Jaen, those parts of the country 
 being most exposed to the repeated incursions of the 
 Spaniards. Upon each of these cavaliers the king be- 
 stowed for life a small habitation, with sufficient ad- 
 joining ground for his own maintenance, and that of 
 his family and horse. This method of keeping soldiers 
 in service, while it occasioned no expense to the public 
 treasury, served to attach them more firmly to their 
 country, by identifying their interests with hers; and 
 it held put to them the strongest motives faithfully to 
 defend their charge, inasmuch as their patrimony was 
 always first exposed to the ravages of the enemy. 
 
 At a time when the art of war had not reached the 
 perfection it has now attained, and when large bodies 
 of troops were not kept continually assembled and ex- 
 ercised, the system of stationing this peculiar guard 
 along the frontiers was of admirable effect. 
 
 The knights who composed this unrivalled- cavalry 
 were mounted on African or Andalusian chargers, 
 whose merits in the field are so well known, and were 
 accustomed from infancy to their management; treat- 
 ing them with the tenderest care, and regarding them 
 as their inseparable companions : by these means they 
 acquired that remarkable superiority for which the 
 Moorish cavalry is still so celebrated. 
 
 These redoubtable squadrons, whose velocity of 
 movement was unequalled ; who would, almost at the 
 same moment, charge in mass, break into detached 
 troops, scatter, rally, fly off, and again form in line; 
 these cavaliers, whose voice, whose slightest gesture, 
 whose very thoughts, so to speak,, were intelligible to 
 their docile and sagacious steeds, and who were able 
 to recover a lance or sabre that had fallen to the earth
 
 78 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 while in full gallop, constituted the principal military 
 force of the Moors. Their infantry was of little value ; 
 and their ill-fortified towns, surrounded only by walls 
 and moats, and defended by this worthless infantry, 
 could offer but an imperfect resistance to that of the 
 Spaniards, which began already to deserve the repu- 
 tation it afterward so well sustained in Italy, under 
 Gonzalvo, the Great Captain. 
 
 After the death of St. Ferdinand, his son Alphonso 
 the Sage, mounted the throne, A. D. 1252, Heg. 650. 
 The first care of Mohammed Alhamar after this event 
 was to go in person to Toledo, followed by a brilliant 
 retinue, to renew the treaty of alliance, or, rather, of 
 dependence, by which he was united to Ferdinand. 
 The new king of Castile remitted on this occasion a 
 part of the tribute to which the Moors had been sub- 
 jected. 
 
 But this peace was not of long continuance ; and 
 the two contending nations now recommenced the war 
 with nearly equal advantages. 
 
 An incident is related as having occurred during 
 this war, which reflects equal honor on the humanity 
 of the Moors and the courage of the Spaniards. It 
 refers to Garcias Gomes, governor of the city of Xeres. 
 He was besieged by the Grenadians, and his garrison 
 nearly destroyed, but still he refused to surrender; 
 and, standing on the ramparts covered with blood, and 
 literally bristling with arrows, he sustained alone the 
 onset of the assailants. The Moors, on seeing him in 
 this situation, agreed, with one accord, to spare the 
 life of so brave a man. Garcias then threw himself 
 from the walls upon some iron hooks ; but he was res- 
 cued alive in spite of his efforts to prevent it, treated
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 79 
 
 with respect by his captors, and, after his wounds were 
 healed, dismissed with presents. 
 
 Alhamar could not prevent Alphonso from adding 
 the kingdom of Murcia to his dominions ; and the for- 
 tunes of war compelled him to obtain peace by sub- 
 mitting anew to the payment of tribute to the Catholic 
 sovereign, A. D. 1266, Heg. 665. 
 
 But some dissensions which soon after arose be- 
 tween the Castilian monarch and some of the grandees 
 of his kingdom, inspired the Grenadian king with the 
 hope of repairing the " loss he had sustained. The 
 brother of Alphonso, together with several noblemen 
 belonging to the principal Castilian families, retired to 
 Grenada in open defiance of the authority of the Span- 
 ish monarch, and materially aided Mohammed Al- 
 hamar in repressing the insurrectionary movements of 
 two of his rebellious subjects, who were countenanced 
 in their attempts by the Christians. 
 
 But, just at this juncture, the wise and politic King 
 of Grenada died, leaving the throne that he had ac- 
 quired and preserved by his talents to his son Mo- 
 hammed II., El Fakik, A. D. 1273, Heg. 672. 
 
 The new Mussulman king, who took the title of 
 Emir al Mumcnim, adopted in all respects the policy of 
 his father. He took every advantage in his power of 
 the discord which reigned at the Castilian court, and 
 of the ineffectual voyages undertaken by Alphonso in 
 the hope of being elected emperor. Finally, during 
 the absence of his enemy, Mohammed formed an 
 offensive league with Jacob, the king of Morocco, a 
 prince of the race of the Merines, the conquerors and 
 successors of the Almohades. The Grenadian sover- 
 eign ceded to his African ally the two important places
 
 80 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 of Tariffe and Algeziras, on condition of his crossing 
 the Mediterranean to the Peninsula. 
 
 Jacob, in accordance with this agreement, arrived 
 in Spain, at the head of an army, in the year 1275 (the 
 675th of the Hegira) ; and the two Moorish leaders, by 
 acting in concert, gained some important advantages. 
 
 But the criminal revolt of Sancho, the Infant of 
 Castile, against his father Alphonso the Sage, soon 
 afterward divided these Mussulman monarchs. The 
 King of Grenada took the part of the rebellious son, 
 while Alphonso, reduced to extremity by the abandon- 
 ment of his subjects, implored the assistance of the 
 King of Morocco. Jacob recrossed the sea with his 
 troops, and met Alphonso at Zara. At that cele- 
 brated interview, the unfortunate Castilian wished to 
 concede the place of honor to the king, who was there 
 as his defender. " It belongs to you," said Jacob to 
 him, "because you are unfortunate ! I came here to 
 avenge a cause which should be that of every father. 
 I came here to aid you in punishing an ingrate, who, 
 though he received life from you, would still deprive 
 you of your crown. When I shall have fulfilled this 
 duty, and you are again prosperous and happy, I will 
 once more become your enemy, and contest every point 
 of precedence with you." 
 
 The soul of the Christian prince was not sufficiently 
 noble, however, to prompt him to confide himself to 
 the monarch who had uttered these sentiments, and 
 he escaped from the camp. Alphonso died soon after 
 this event, disinheriting his guilty son before he ex- 
 pired, A. D. 1284, Heg. 683. 
 
 Sancho reigned in his father's stead, however, not-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 81 
 
 withstanding this prohibition, and international 
 troubles convulsed Castile anew. 
 
 Mohammed seized this moment to enter Andalusia. 
 He gained several battles, and took some important 
 places in that kingdom, and thus victoriously termin- 
 ated a long and glorious reign, A. D. 1302, Heg. 703. 
 
 This Mohammed Emir al -Mumenim, the principal 
 political events of whose life have now been briefly 
 narrated, was a munificent patron of the fine arts. He 
 added their charms to the attractions of a court which 
 poets, philosophers, and astronomers alike contributed 
 to render celebrated. 
 
 As an illustration of the scientific superiority that 
 the Moors still maintained over the Spaniards, the fact 
 may be mentioned that Alphonso the Sage, king of 
 Castile, availed himself, in the arrangement of his 
 astronomical tables (still known as the Alphonsine 
 Tables), of the assistance of some contemporary Mos- 
 lem savans. 
 
 Grenada began by this time to replace Cordova. 
 Architecture, above all, made great advances. It was 
 during the reign of Mohammed II. that the famous pal- 
 ace of the Alhambra was commenced, a part of which 
 still remains to astonish travelers, whom its name 
 alone suffices to attract to Grenada. 
 
 To prove to what a height of perfection the Moors 
 had succeeded in carrying the art, then so little known 
 to Europeans, of uniting the magnificent and the lux- 
 urious, a few details may perhaps be pardoned con- 
 cerning this singular edifice, and as an illustration, 
 also, of the particular manners and customs of the 
 Moors. 
 
 The Alhambra, as has been said, was at first only 
 
 M. ef H. XXX IV 6
 
 82 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 a vast fortress, standing upon one of the two hills en- 
 closed within the city of Grenada. This hill, though 
 environed on every side by the waters either of the 
 Darra or the Xenil, was defended, in addition, by a 
 double enclosure of walls. It was on the summit of 
 this elevation, which overlooked the whole f city, and 
 from which one might behold the most beautiful pros- 
 pect in the world, in the midst of an esplanade covered 
 with trees and fountains, that Mohammed selected the 
 site of his palace. 
 
 Nothing with which we are familiar in architecture 
 can give us a correct idea of that of the Moors. They 
 piled up buildings without order, symmetry, or any 
 attention to the external appearance they would pre- 
 sent. All their cares were bestowed upon the interior 
 of their structures. There they exhausted all the re- 
 sources of taste and magnificence, to combine in their 
 apartments the requisites for luxurious indulgence 
 with the charms of nature in her most enchanting 
 forms. There, in saloons adorned with the most beau- 
 tiful marble, and paved with a brilliant imitation of 
 porcelain, couches, covered with stuffs of gold and 
 silver, were arranged near jets d'eau, whose waters 
 glanced upward toward the vaulted roof, and spread 
 a delicious coolness through an atmosphere embalmed 
 by the delicate odors arising from exquisite vases of 
 precious perfumes, mingled with the fragrant breath 
 of the myrtle, jasmine, orange, and other sweet-scented 
 flowers that adorned the apartments. 
 
 The beautiful palace of the Alhambra, as it now 
 exists at Grenada, presents no facade. It is approached 
 through a charming avenue, which is constantly inter- 
 sected by rivulets, whose streams wander in graceful
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 83 
 
 curves amid groups of trees. The entrance is through 
 a large square tower, which formerly bore the name of 
 the Hall of Judgment. A religious inscription announces 
 that it was there that the king administered justice 
 after the ancient manner of the Hebrew and other Ori- 
 ental nations. Several buildings, which once adjoined 
 this tower were destroyed in more recent times, to 
 give placa-to a magnificent palace erected by Charles V., 
 a description of which is not necessary to our sub- 
 ject. Upon penetrating on the northern side into the 
 ancient palace of the Moorish kings, one feels as if 
 suddenly transported to the regions of fairyland. The 
 first court is an oblong square, surrounded on each side 
 by a gallery in the form of an arcade, the walls and 
 ceiling of which are covered with Mosaic work, fes- 
 toons, arabesque paintings, gilding, and carving in 
 stucco, of the most admirable workmanship. All the 
 plain spaces between these various ornaments are 
 filled with passages transcribed from the Alkoran, or 
 by inscriptions of a similar character to the following, 
 which will suffice to create some idea of the figurative 
 style of Moorish composition : 
 
 " Oh Nazir ! thou wert born the master of a throne, 
 and, like the star th^t announces the approach of day, 
 thou art refulgent with a brilliancy that belongs to 
 thee alone ! Thine arm is the rampart of a nation ; thy 
 justice an all-pervading luminary. Thou canst, by thy 
 valor, subdue those who have given companions to 
 God ! Thy numerous people are thy children, and thou 
 renderest them all happy by thy goodness. The bright 
 stars of the firmament shine lovingly upon thee, and 
 the glorious light of the sun beams upon thee with 
 affectiojn. The stately cedar, the proud monarch of the
 
 .84 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 forest, bows his lofty head at thy approach, and is 
 again uplifted by thy puissant hand !" 
 
 In the midst of this court, which is paved with 
 white marble, is a long basin always filled with run- 
 ning water of sufficient depth for bathing. It is bor- 
 dered on each side by beds of flowers, and surrounded 
 by walks lined with orange-trees. The place was 
 called the Mesuar, and served as the common bathing- 
 place of those who were attached to the service of the 
 palace. 
 
 From thence one passes into the celebrated Court 
 of Lions,. It is a hundred feet in length and fifty in 
 breadth. A colonnade of white marble supports the 
 gallery that runs around the whole. These columns, 
 standing sometimes two and sometimes three together, 
 are of slender proportions and fantastic design ; but 
 their lightness and grace afford pleasure to the eye of 
 the wondering beholder. The walls, and, above all, 
 the ceiling of the circular gallery, are covered with em- 
 bellishments of gold, azure, and stucco, wrought into 
 arabesques, with an exquisite delicacy of execution 
 that the most skillful modern workmen would find it 
 difficult to rival. In the midst of these ornaments of 
 ever-changing variety and beauty are inscribed 
 passages from the Koran, such as the following, which 
 all good Mussulmans are required frequently to repeat: 
 God is great : God alone is supreme : There is no god but 
 God: Celestial enjoyment, gratifications of the heart, de- 
 lights of the soul to all those who believe. 
 
 At either extremity of the Court of Lions are 
 placed, within the interior space enclosed by the gal- 
 lery, and, like it, supported by marble columns, two 
 elegant cupolas of fifteen or sixteen feet in circumfer-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 85 
 
 cnce. These graceful domes form a covering for beau- 
 tiful jets d'eau. In the center of the lengthened square, 
 a superb alabaster vase, six feet in diameter, is sup- 
 ported in an elevated position in the midst of a vast 
 basin by the forms of twelve lions sculptured from 
 white marble. This vessel, which is believed to have 
 been modelled after the design of the "molten sea" of 
 the Temple of Solomon, is again surmounted by a 
 smaller vase, from which shoot forth innumerable tiny 
 cascades, which together present the form of a great 
 sheaf; and, falling again from one vase into another, 
 and from these into the large basin beneath, create a 
 perpetual flow, whose volume is increased by the floods 
 of limpid water which gush in a continual stream from 
 the mouth of each of the marble lions. 
 
 This fountain, like each of the others, is adorned 
 with inscriptions ; for the Moors ever took pleasure in 
 mingling the eloquence of poetry with the graces of 
 sculpture. To us their conceptions appear singular 
 and their expressions exaggerated; but our manners 
 are so opposite to theirs ; the period of their existence 
 as a nation is so far removed, and we know so little of 
 the genius of their language, that we have, perhaps, no 
 right to judge the literature of the Moors by the severe 
 rules of modern criticism. And, indeed, the specimens 
 we possess of the French and Spanish poetry of the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are, many of them, 
 little superior to the verses engraven on the Fountain 
 of Lions, of which the following is a translation: 
 
 " Oh thou who beholdest these lions ! dost thou not 
 perceive that they need only to breathe to possess tke 
 perfection of nature? Oh Mohammed! Oh potent 
 sovereign ! God originated and prolonged thy exist-
 
 6 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 cnce, that thou mightest be inspired with the genius 
 to conceive and accomplish these novel and beautiful 
 embellishments ! Thy soul is adorned by the most en- 
 nobling qualities of humanity. This enchanting spot 
 pictures thy admirable virtues. Like the lion, thou art 
 terrible in combat; and nothing can be more justly 
 compared to the bountiful and unceasing profusion of 
 the limpid waters which gush from the bosom of this 
 fountain, and fill the air with glittering and brilliant 
 particles, than the liberal hand of Mohammed." 
 
 We will not attempt a description in detail of such 
 other portions of the palace of the Alhambra as still 
 exist. Some of these served as halls of audience or of 
 justice; others enclosed the baths of the king, the 
 queen, and their children. Sleeping apartments still 
 remain, where the couches were disposed either in 
 alcoves, or upon platforms covered with the peculiar 
 pavement already alluded to; but always near a foun- 
 tain, the unceasing murmur of whose dreamy voice 
 might sooth the occupants to repose. 
 
 In the music saloon of this once luxurious royal 
 abode are four elevated galleries, which, ere the glory 
 of the Alhambra had passed away, were often filled by 
 Moorish musicians, the delightful strains of whose 
 varied instruments enchanted the court of Grenada. 
 Then the fair and brave reclined in graceful groups in 
 ihe center of the apartment, upon rich Oriental car- 
 pets, surrounding the alabaster fountain, whose balmy 
 breath diffused refreshing coolness, and whose softly 
 gurgling sounds mingled with the gentle music which 
 was ever the accompaniment of repose and enjoyment. 
 
 In an apartment which was at the same time the 
 oratory and dressing-room of the queen of this mag-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 87 
 
 nificent residence, there still exists a slab of marble, 
 pierced with an infinite number of small apertures, to 
 admit the exhalations of the perfumes that were inces- 
 santly burning beneath the lofty ceiling. From this 
 part of the palace, too, the views are exquisitely beau- 
 tiful. The windows and doors opening from it are so 
 arranged, that the most agreeable prospects, the mel- 
 lowest and most pleasing effects of light, perpetually 
 fall upon the delighted eyes of those within, while 
 balmy breezes constantly renew the delicious coolness 
 of the air that breathes through this enchanting re- 
 treat. 
 
 Upon leaving the marble halls and lofty towers of 
 the Alhambra, one discerns, on the side of a neighbor- 
 ing mountain, the famous garden of the Generalif, 
 which signifies, in the Moorish tongue, the Home of 
 Love. In this garden was the palace to which the kings 
 of Grenada repaired to pass the season of spring. It 
 was built in a style similar to that of the Alhambra: 
 the same gorgeous splendor, the same costly magnifi- 
 cence reigned there. The edifice is now destroyed; 
 but the picturesque situation, the ever-varied and ever- 
 charming landscape, the limpid fountains, the spark- 
 ling jets d'eaii, and tumbling waterfalls of the Generalif, 
 are still left to excite admiration. 
 
 The terraces of this garden are in the form of an 
 amphitheatre, and the lingering remains of their once 
 beautiful Mosaic pavements are still to be seen. The 
 walks are now darkly umbrageous, from the inter- 
 woven branches of gigantic cypresses and aged myr- 
 tles, beneath whose grateful shades the kings and 
 queens of Grenada have so often wandered. The 
 blooming groves and forests of fruit-trees were agree-
 
 88 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 ably intermingled with graceful domes and marble 
 pavilions: then the sweet perfume of the countless 
 flowers that mingled their varied dyes in delightful 
 confusion, floated in the soft air.. Then the delicate 
 tendrils of the vine clasped the supporting branches 
 of the orange, and both together hung the mingled 
 gold and purple of their clustering fruits over the 
 bright waters that from marble founts 
 
 "Gushed up to sun and air!" 
 
 Then valor and beauty strayed side by side, beneath 
 embowering branches, the fire of the one attempered 
 to gentleness by the softer graces of the other, and the 
 souls of both elevated and purified by nature's holy 
 and resistless influences. 
 
 But now the luxuriant vine lies prostrate, its climb- 
 ing trunk and clinging tendrils rudely torn from their 
 once firm support : even the voice of the fountain no 
 longer warbles in the same gladsome tone as of yore ; 
 the mouldering fragments of the polished column and 
 sculptured dome are now strewed on the earth ; the 
 sighing of the gentle breeze no longer awakens the 
 soft breath of responding flowers ; the loveliness and 
 the glory of the Home of Love are vanished away for 
 ever ; and the crumbling stones of the tesselated pave- 
 ments echo naught but the lingering footfall of the sol- 
 itary stranger, who wanders thither to enjoy those 
 mournful charms of which the destroyer cannot divest 
 a spot that must ever appeal so strongly to the vision 
 and the heart, to the memory and the imagination. 
 
 It is painful to quit the Alhambra and the Generalif, 
 to return to the ravages, incursions, and sanguinary 
 quarrels of the Moors and Christians.
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 89 
 
 It was the fate of Mohammed III. (surnamed the 
 Blind), to be obliged at the same time to repress the 
 rebellious movements of his own subjects and repel 
 the invasions of his Catholic neighbors. Compelled by 
 the infirmity from which he derived his appellation to 
 chose a prime minister, he bestowed that important 
 post upon Farady, the husband of his sister, a judicious 
 statesman and a brave soldier, who for some time pros- 
 perously continued the war against the Castilians, and 
 finally concluded it by an honorable peace. 
 
 But the courtiers, jealous of the glory and envious 
 of the good-fortune of the favorite, formed a conspiracy 
 against his master, and instigated revolts among the 
 people. To complete his calamities, foreign war again 
 broke forth ; the King of Castile, Ferdinand IV., sur- 
 named the Summoned, united with the King of Aragon 
 in attacking the Grenadians. 
 
 Gibraltar was taken by the Castilians, and the con- 
 queror expelled its Moorish inhabitants from its walls. 
 Among the unfortunate exiles who departed from the 
 city was an old man, who, perceiving Ferdinand, ap- 
 proached him, leaning on his staff: "King of Castile," 
 he said to him, "what injury have I done to thee or 
 thine? Thy great-grandfather Ferdinand drove me 
 from my native Seville: I sought an asylum at Xeres; 
 thy grandfather Alphonso banished me from thence : 
 retiring within the walls of Tariffe, thy father Sancho 
 exiled me from that city. At last I came to find a 
 grave at the extremity of Spain, on the shore of 
 Gibraltar ; but thy hatred hath pursued me even here : 
 tell me now of one place on earth where I can die un- 
 molested by the Christians !"
 
 90 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 "Cross the sea!" replied the Spanish prince; and he 
 caused the aged petitioner to be conveyed to Africa. 
 
 Vanquished by the Aragonians, harassed by the 
 Castilians, and alarmed by the seditious proceedings 
 which the grandees of his court were encouraging 
 among his own subjects, the King of Grenada and his 
 prime minister were forced to conclude a shameful 
 peace. 
 
 The intestine storm, whose gathering had long dis- 
 turbed the domestic security of the kingdom, soon after 
 burst forth. Mohammed Abenazar, brother of Mo- 
 hammed the Blind, and the head of the conspiracy, 
 seized the unfortunate monarch, put him to death, and 
 assumed his place, A. D. 1310, Heg. 710. 
 
 But the usurper himself was soon driven from his 
 throne by Farady, the ancient minister, who, not dar- 
 ing to appropriate the crown to himself, placed it on 
 the head of his son Ismael, the nephew of Mohammed 
 the Blind, through his mother, the sister of that mon- 
 arch. 
 
 This event took place A. D. 1313, Heg. 713. From 
 that period the royal family of .Grenada was divided 
 into two branches, which were ever after at enmity 
 with each other ; the one, called the Alhamar, included 
 the descendants of the first king through the males of 
 the line, and the other, named Farady, was that of such 
 of his offspring as were the children of the female 
 branches of the royal race. 
 
 The Castilians, whose interests were always pro- 
 moted by cherishing dissensions among their Moorish 
 neighbors, lent their countenance to Abenazar. who 
 had taken refuge in the city of Grenada. The Infant 
 Don Pedro, uncle to the youthful King of Castile, Al-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 91 
 
 phonso the Avenger, as he was surnamed, took the field 
 against Ismael, and several times gave battle to the 
 followers of the Crescent. Then joining his forces to 
 those of another Infant named Don Juan, the two 
 friends carried fire and sword to the very ramparts of 
 Grenada. The infidel warriors did not venture to sally 
 from their walls to repel the invaders; but when, 
 loaded with booty, the Christians had commenced their 
 return to Castile, Ismael followed on their route with 
 his army, and, soon overtaking his ruthless foes, fell 
 suddenly upon their rear. It was now the 26th of June, 
 and the time chosen by the Mussulmans for the attack 
 was the hottest hour of a burning day. The two Span- 
 ish princes made such violent efforts to reorganize their 
 scattered bands and to recover their lost authority, 
 that, exhausted at last by thirst and fatigue, they both 
 fell dead without having received a wound. 
 
 The dismayed and exhausted Spaniards could now 
 no longer offer any resistance to their furious enemies. 
 They betook themselves to flight, leaving their bag- 
 gage, with the bodies of the two unfortunate Infants, 
 on the field of battle. Ismael caused the remains of 
 these princes to be conveyed to Grenada and deposited 
 in coffins covered with cloth of gold : he then restored 
 them to the Castilians, after having bestowed on them 
 the most distinguished funeral honors. 
 
 This victory was rapidly followed by the conquest 
 of several cities and the establishment of an honorable 
 truce. But Ismael did not live to enjoy the fruits of 
 his success : being enamored of a young Spanish cap- 
 tive, who had fallen, in the Division of the spoils, to the 
 share of one of his officers, the king so far forgot the 
 laws of justice and honor as to possess himself by force
 
 92 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 of the beautiful slave. Such an insult among 1 the fol- 
 lowers of Islam can only be expiated by blood : the 
 monarch was assassinated by his exasperated officer. 
 His son Mohammed V. mounted the throne in his 
 stead, A. D. 1322, Heg. 722. 
 
 The reign of Mohammed V. and that of his suc- 
 cessor Joseph I., both of whom perished in the same 
 manner (being murdered in their palace), present 
 nothing during thirty years but an unbroken series of 
 ravages, seditions, and combats. 
 
 At the request of the Grenadians, Abil-Hassan, king 
 of Morocco, of the dynasty of the Merinis, landed in 
 Spain at the head of innumerable troops, with whom 
 he joined the army of Joseph. The kings of Castile 
 and Portugal unitedly gave battle to this immense 
 army on the shores of Salado, not far from the city of 
 Tariffe. This encounter, equally celebrated with the 
 victory of Toloza in the history of Spain, terminated 
 in the defeat of the Moors. Abil-Hassan returned 
 hastily to Morocco, to conceal within his own domin- 
 ions his chagrin at its unexpected and disastrous issue. 
 
 The strong place of Algeziras, the bulwark of Gren- 
 ada, and the magazine in which was deposited the 
 necessary supplies received by that kingdom from 
 Africa, was besieged by the Castilians A. D. 1342, Heg. 
 742. Several French, English, and Navarrois cavaliers 
 resorted on this occasion to the camp of the beleaguer- 
 ing army. The Mussulmans availed themselves of the 
 use of cannon in the defence of their city; and this is 
 the first time that the employment of that description 
 of ordnance is spoken of in history. We are told that 
 it was used at the battle of Cressy by the English ; but 
 that event did not take place until four vears after the
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 93 
 
 date of the present siege. It is, then, to the Spanish 
 Moors that we owe, not the "discovery of gunpowder 
 (for that is attributed by some to the Chinese, by 
 others to a German monk named Schwartz, and by 
 others again to Roger Bacon, an Englishman), but the 
 terrible invention of artillery. It is at least certain, 
 that the Moors planted the first cannon of which we 
 have any account. But, in spite of the advantages it 
 thus possessed, Algeziras was taken by the Christians, 
 A. D. 1344, Heg. 745. 
 
 About ten years after this event, the unfortunate 
 Joseph, vrho had been so often attacked by foreign 
 enemies, met his death from the hands of his own 
 subjects. 
 
 It may have been remarked by the reader, that no 
 established law regulated the regal succession among 
 the Moors. Yet, notwithstanding the perpetual con- 
 spiracies and intrigues which rendered the possession 
 of the crown so insecure and of such uncertain dura- 
 tion, a prince of the royal race always occupied the 
 throne. We have seen Grenada divided, since the vio- 
 lent termination of the reign of Ismael, between the 
 factions of the Alhamar and the Farady, and the former 
 deposed by the latter, who always regarded the Alham- 
 ars as usurpers. This unhappy contest was the source of 
 numberless disorders, conspiracies, and assassinations. 
 
 The monarch next in order to Joseph I. on the 
 throne of Grenada was his uncle, a Farady prince 
 named Mohammed VI., and called the Old, in conse- 
 quence of his succeeding at a somewhat advanced period 
 of life. 
 
 Mohammed the Red, a scion of the Alhamar race,
 
 94 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 drove his cousin, Mohammed the Old, from the throne, 
 A. D. 1360, Heg. 762, and retained it for some years, 
 through the protection of the King of Aragon. 
 
 Peter the Cruel, then king of Castile, espoused the 
 cause of the banished Farady, supported his claims by 
 warlike arguments, and so closely pressed Mohammed 
 the Alhamar, that he adopted the resolution of repair- 
 ing to Seville, and abandoning himself to the mag- 
 nanimity of his royal foe. 
 
 Mohammed arrived at the court of Seville accom- 
 panied by a suite composed of his most' faithful friends, 
 and bearing with him vast treasures. He presented 
 himself with noble confidence in the presence of the 
 monarch.. " King of Castile !" said he to Peter, "the 
 blood alike of Christian and Moor has too long flowed 
 in my contest with the Farady. You protect my rival ; 
 yet it is you whom I select to adjudge our quarrel. 
 Examine my claims and those of my enemy, and pro- 
 nounce who shall be the sovereign of Grenada. If you 
 decide in favor of the Farady, I demand only to be 
 conducted to Africa; if you accord the preference to 
 me, receive the homage that I have come to render 
 you for my crown !" 
 
 The astonished Peter lavished honors upon the 
 Mussulman king, and caused him to be seated at his 
 side during the magnificent feast by which he signal- 
 ized the occasion. But, when the Alhamar retired from 
 the entertainment, he was seized and thrown into 
 prison. From thence he was afterward conducted 
 through the streets of the city, seated, half naked, upon 
 an ass, and led to a field termed the Tablada, where 
 thirty-seven of his devoted followers were deprived of 
 their heads in his presence. The execrable Peter,
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 95 
 
 envying the executioner the pleasure of shedding his 
 blood, then thrust through the unfortunate King of 
 Grenada with his own lance. The dying sovereign 
 uttered only these words as he expired : "Oh Peter, 
 Peter, what a deed for a cavalier!" 
 
 By a very extraordinary fatality, every throne in 
 Spain was at this period occupied by princes whose 
 characters were blackened by the most atrocious 
 crimes. Peter the Cruel, the Nero of Castile, assassin- 
 ated the kings who confided themselves to his protec- 
 tion, put to death his wife Blanche of Bourbon, and, in 
 short, daily imbrued his hands in the blood of his rela- 
 tives or friends. Peter IV. of Aragon, less violent than 
 the Castilian, but equally unfeeling and even more per- 
 fidious, despoiled one of his brothers of his kingdom, 
 commanded another to be put to death, and delivered 
 his ancient preceptor to the executioners. Peter I., 
 king of Portugal, the lover of the celebrated Inez de 
 Castro, whose ferocity was doubtless excited and in- 
 creased by the cruelty that had been exercised against 
 his mistress, tore out the hearts of the murderers of 
 Inez, and poisoned a sister with whom he was dis- 
 pleased. Finally, the contemporary King of Navarre 
 was that Charles the Bad, whose name alone is suffi- 
 cient still to cause a shudder. All Spain groaned be- 
 neath the iron rule of these monsters of cruelty, and 
 was inundated by the blood of their victims. If it be 
 remembered that, at the same time, France had become 
 a prey to the horrors which followed the imprisonment 
 of King John ; that England witnessed the commence- 
 ment of the troubled reign of Richard II. ; that Italy 
 was delivered up to the contentions of the rival fac- 
 tions of the Guelfs and Ghibelines, and beheld two
 
 9 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 occupants at the same time upon the papal throne ; that 
 two emperors disputed the right to the imperial crown 
 of Germany ; and that Timurlane ravaged Asia from 
 the territories of the Usbeks to the borders of India, it 
 will not be disputed that the history of the world re- 
 cords the annals of no more unhappy epoch in its 
 affairs. 
 
 Grenada was at last tranquil after the crime of Peter 
 the Cruel. Mohammed the Old, or the Farady, being 
 now freed from the rival claims of his competitor, re- 
 mounted the throne without opposition. 
 
 Mohammed was the only ally of the King of Castile 
 who remained faithful to that inhuman monster up to 
 the period of his death. Peter was at last the victim 
 of a crime similar to those of which he had so often 
 himself been guilty : his illegitimate brother, Henry de 
 Transtamare, deprived him of his crown and his life, 
 A. D. 1369, Heg. 771. 
 
 The King of Grenada made peace with the new 
 sovereign of Castile, maintained it for several years, 
 and finally left his kingdom in a flourishing condition 
 to his son Mohammed VIII., Abouhadjad, called by the 
 Spanish historians Mohammed Gaudix. 
 
 This prince commenced his reign A. D. 1379, Heg. 
 782. He was the best and wisest of the Spanish Mo- 
 hammedan kings. Intent only upon promoting the 
 happiness of his people, he was desirous of securing to 
 them the enjoyment of that foreign and domestic peace 
 to which they had so long been almost utter strangers. 
 The more effectually to ensure this, Abouhadjad com- 
 menced his reign with fortifying his towns, raising a 
 strong army, and .allying himself with the King of 
 Tunis, whose daughter Cadiga he espoused. When
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 97 
 
 well prepared for war, the Moorish sbvereign sent am- 
 bassadors to the King of Castile, to solicit his friend- 
 ship. Don Juan, the son and successor of Henry de 
 Transtamare, being sufficiently occupied by his quar- 
 rels with Portugal and England, readily signed a treaty 
 with the royal follower of the Crescent ; and Abouhad- 
 jad, on his part, kept it unbroken. Secured from the 
 inroads of the Christians, this wise monarch now occu- 
 pied himself in promoting the increase of agriculture 
 and commerce: he likewise diminished the rates of im- 
 posts, and soon found his income increased in conse- 
 quence of this judicious measure. Beloved by a people 
 whom he rendered happy, respected by foreign neigh- 
 bors whom he had no reason to fear, and possessed of 
 an amiable wife, who alone engaged his affections, this 
 excellent Mussulman prince spent the wealth and 
 leisure that he could with propriety devote to such 
 objects, in adorning his capital, in cherishing the fine 
 arts, and in cultivating architecture and poetry. Sev- 
 eral monuments of his munificence existed at Grenada, 
 and at Gaudix, a city in favor of which he entertained 
 strong predilections. His court was the favored abode 
 of genius and elegance. 
 
 The Moors of Spain still possessed poets, physi- 
 cians, painters, sculptors, academies, and universities. 
 And these were all liberally encouraged and endowed 
 by Mohammed Gaudix. 
 
 Most of the productions of the Grenadian authors 
 of this period perished at the final conquest of their 
 country; but some of them have been preserved, and 
 still exist in the library of the Escurial. They chiefly 
 treat of grammar, astrology (then greatly esteemed), 
 and, above all, of theology, a study in which the Moors 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 7
 
 98 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 excelled. That people, naturally gifted with discrim- 
 inating minds and ardent imaginations, produced many 
 distinguished theologians, who may easily be supposed 
 to have introduced into Europe the unfortunate scho- 
 lastic taste for subtle questions and disputes, which 
 once rendered so celebrated, men whose names and 
 achievements have since sunk for ever into oblivion. 
 The pretended secrets of the cabal, of alchymv, of 
 judicial astronomy, of the divining rod, and all the ac- 
 counts, formerly so common, of sorcerers, magicians, 
 and enchanters, are derived from these descendants of 
 the Arabs. They were a superstitious race from the 
 remotest times; and it is probable that to their resi- 
 dence in Spain, and their long intercourse with the 
 Spaniards, is owing that love for the marvellous, and 
 that well-deserved reputation for superstitious cre- 
 dulity, with which philosophy still reproaches a 
 sprightly and intellectual nation, upon whom nature 
 has bestowed the germs of the best qualities that a lorn 
 humanity. 
 
 A kind of literature which was common ; ng 
 these Saracens, and for which the Spaniards w ; n- 
 dcbted to them, was that of novels or romances '^he 
 Arabs were ever, as they still are, passionate 1 of 
 
 story-telling. As well in the tents of the wild ' un 
 as in the palaces of the East, alike under the 'ed 
 domes and peasant roofs of Grenada, this tastf -ire- 
 vailed. Everywhere they assembled nightly to l ; sten 
 to romantic narratives of love and valor. Everywhere 
 they listened in silent attention, or wept from sympa- 
 thetic interest in the fate of those whose adventures 
 formed the subject of the tale. The Grenadians joined
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 99 
 
 with this passion for exciting incident, a taste for 
 music and singing. Their poets imbodied in verse 
 these favorite recitals of love and war. Musicians 
 were employed in composing suitable airs for them, 
 and they were thus sung by the youthful Moors with 
 all the enthusiasm that passion, poetry, and dulcet har- 
 mony can unitedly inspire. From this national custom 
 are derived the multitude of Spanish romances, trans- 
 lated or imitated from the Arabic, which, in a simple 
 and sometimes touching style, recount the fierce com- 
 bats of the Moors and Christians, the fatal quarrels of 
 jealous and haughty rivals, or the tender conversation 
 of lovers. They describe with great exactness every- 
 thing relating to the peculiar manners and amusements 
 of this interesting and extinguished nation : their fetes, 
 their games of the ring and of canes, and their bull- 
 fights, the latter of which they adopted from the Span- 
 iards, are all portrayed. Thus we learn that their war- 
 like equipments consisted of a large cimeter, a slender 
 lance, a short coat of mail, and a light leathern buckler. 
 We have descriptions of superb horses, with their 
 richly-jeweled and embroidered housings sweeping the 
 earth in ample folds, and of the devices emblazoned on 
 the arms of the graceful Moorish cavaliers. These last 
 consisted frequently of a heart pierced by an arrow, or 
 perhaps of a star guiding a vessel, or of the first letter 
 of the name of the fair recipients of their vows of love. 
 We learn, too, that their colors each bore a peculiar 
 signification: yellow and black expressed grief; green, 
 hope ; blue, jealousy ; violet and flame color, passionate 
 love. 
 
 The following abridged translation of one of these 
 little compositions will produce a more correct idea of
 
 100 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 them in the mind of the reader than any description 
 could convey : 
 
 GONZULO AND ZELINDA. 
 
 A MOORISH ROMANCE. 
 
 In a trasport of jealousy and pride 
 Zelinda spurned her lover from her side! 
 His cruel doom Gonzulo heard 
 With bosom wrung; and disappeared! 
 But the fair maid soon deeply felt 
 The torturing wound herself had dealt; 
 As glides the snow from mountain crest, 
 So fled resentment from her breast. 
 
 They tell her that the Moor's proud heart 
 Is pierced by grief's most poisoned dart, 
 And that he'd doffed, when flying from her side* 
 The tender colors that were once his pride; 
 That green, of hope the cherished emblem gay, 
 To sorrow's mournful hues had given way. 
 A badge of crape nis lance's point now wears, 
 A blackened crown his shield as emblem bears! 
 
 To proffer gifts with different meaning fraught, 
 Zelinda now her errant lover sought: 
 The blue of jealousy she had united 
 \ With all the hues most dear to lovers plighted; 
 A violet gem, entwined with gold, 
 Gleamed mid a brqidered turban's fold; 
 And every silken riband that she bore, 
 Of lovely innocence the symbol wore. 
 
 Zelinda reached the soft retreat 
 
 Where Gonzulo his fate must meet! 
 
 O'erwhelmed with doubt, the dark-eyed maid 
 
 Reclined beneath a myrtle shade, 
 
 And sent a faithful page to guide 
 
 Her banished lover to her side. 
 
 Gonzulo scarce the message would receive, 
 
 For woe had taught his heart to disbelieve! 
 
 But soon he flew, on wings of love, 
 To seek Zelinda's chosen grove. 
 Then tearful glances of regret
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 101 
 
 By words of tenderness were met; 
 And ne'er did guardian nymphs record 
 More ardent vows than there were poured! 
 'Twas thus triumphant love repaired 
 The cruel wrongs that each had shared! 
 
 The delicate and peculiar gallantry, which rendered 
 the Moors of Grenada famous throughout Europe, 
 formed a singular contrast to the ferocity that is so 
 natural to all nations of African origin. These Islam- 
 ites, whose chief glory it was dexterously to deprive 
 their enemies of their heads, attach them to their sad- 
 dle bows, and afterward display them as trophies on 
 the battlements of their towers or at the entrance of 
 their palaces; these restless and ungovernable war- 
 riors, who were every ready to revolt against their 
 rulers, to depose or to murder them, were the most 
 tender, the most devoted, the most ardent of lovers. 
 Their wives, though their domestic position was little 
 superior to that of slaves, became, when they were 
 beloved, the absolute sovereigns, the supreme divin- 
 ities of those whose hearts they possessed. It was to 
 nlease these idolized beings that the Moorish cavaliers 
 sought distinction in the field ; it was to shine in their 
 eyes that they lavished their treasures and their lives 
 that they mutually endeavored to eclipse each other in 
 deeds of arms, in the splendor of their warlike ex- 
 ploits, and the Oriental magnificence of their fetes. 
 
 It cannot no'w be determined whether the Moors 
 derived this extraordinary union of softness and 
 cruelty, of delicacy and barbarity this generous 
 rivalry in courage and in constancy, from the Span- 
 iards, or whether the Spaniards acquired these charac- 
 teristics from the Moors. But when it is remembered 
 that they do not belong to the Asiatic Arabs, from
 
 102 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 whom these gallant knights originally sprang; that 
 they are found, even in a less degree, if possible, among 
 these followers of Mohammed in that portion of Africa 
 where their conquests have naturalized them ; and, that 
 after their departure, from Spain, the Grenadians lost 
 every trace of the peculiarly interesting and chivalrous 
 qualities by which they had previously been so remark- 
 ably distinguished, there is some ground for the opin- 
 ion that it was to the Spaniards that their Moslem 
 neighbors were indebted for the existence of these 
 national attributes. In truth, before the invasion ol 
 Spain by the Arabs, the courts of the Gothic kings had 
 already offered knightly examples of a similar spirit. 
 And after that event we find the cavaliers of Leon, 
 Navarre, and Castile equally renowned for their 
 achievements in war and their romantic devotion to 
 the fair sex. The' mere name of the Cid awakens in the 
 mind recollections alike of tenderness and bravery. It 
 should be remembered, too, that, long after the expul- 
 sion of the Moors from the Peninsula, the Spaniards 
 maintained a reputation for gallantry far superior to 
 that of the French, some portion of the spirit of which, 
 though extinct among every other European nation, 
 still lingers in Spain. 
 
 But, be this point decided as it may, it is not to b 
 disputed that the daughters of Grenada merited the 
 devotion which they inspired: they were perhaps the 
 most fascinating women in the woJd. We find in the 
 narrative of a Moorish historian, who wrote at Grenada 
 during the reign of Mohammed the Old, the following 
 description of his countrywomen : 
 
 " Their beauty is remarkable ; but the loveliness 
 which strikes the beholder at first sight afterward re-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 103 
 
 ceives its principal charm from the grace and gentle- 
 ness of their manners. In stature they are above the 
 middle height, and of delicate and slender proportions. 
 Their long black hair descends to the earth. Their 
 teeth embellish with the whiteness of alabaster, ver- 
 million lips, which perpetually smile with a bewitching 
 air. The constant use which they make of the most 
 exquisite perfumes, gives a freshness and brilliancy to 
 their complexions possessed by no other Mohammedan 
 women. Their walking, their dancing, their every 
 movement, is distinguished by a graceful softness, an 
 ease, a lightness, which surpasses all their other 
 charms. Their conversation is lively and sensible, and 
 their fine intellects are constantly displayed in brilliant 
 wit or judicious sentiments " 
 
 The dress of these elegant females was composed, 
 as that of the Turkish women still is, of a long tunic of 
 linen confined by a cincture, of a doliman or Turkish 
 dress with close sleeves, of wide trousers and Morocco 
 slippers. The materials of their clothing were of the 
 finest fabric, and were usually woven in stripes: they 
 were embroidered with gold and silver, and profusely 
 spangled with jewels. Their waving tresses floated 
 over their shoulders ; and a small cap, adorned with the 
 richest gems, supported an embroidered veil, which fell 
 nearly to the feet. The men were clothed in a similar 
 manner: with them were carried in the girdle the purse, 
 the handkerchief, and the poniard : a white, and some- 
 times a colored, turban covered the head ; and over the 
 Turkish doliman they wore in summer a wide flowing 
 white robe, and in winter the albornos or African man- 
 tle. The only change made in their dress by the Moor- 
 ish cavaliers when preparing for battle was the addi-
 
 104 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 tion of a coat of mail, and an iron lining within their 
 turbans. 
 
 It was the custom of the Grenadians to repair every 
 year, during the autumn, to the charming villas by 
 which the city was surrounded. There they yielded 
 themselves up to the pursuit of pleasure. The chase 
 and the dance, music and feasting, occupied every hour. 
 
 The manners of those who participated in these 
 national dances were in a high degree unreserved, as 
 was the language of the songs and ballads in which 
 they joined. Were it not for the contradictions in the 
 human character, one might be surprised at this want 
 of delicacy in a people who were capable of so much 
 refinement of feeling. But, in general, nations of Ori- 
 ental origin possess but little reserve in their manners : 
 they have more of passion than sentiment, more of 
 jealousy than delicacy in their haughty and excitable 
 natures. 
 
 In giving these details, we have perhaps trespassed 
 too long on the period of calm repose enjoyed by the 
 kingdom of Grenada during the reign of Abouhadjad. 
 That excellent sovereign, after having filled the throne 
 for thirteen years, left his flourishing dominions to his 
 son Joseph, who succeeded him without opposition, 
 A. D. 1392, Heg. 795. 
 
 Joseph II. was desirous, in imitation of the course 
 pursued by his father, of maintaining the truce with the 
 Christians. It was, however, soon disturbed by a 
 fanatical hermit, who persuaded the Grand-master of 
 Alcantara, Martin de Barbuda, a Portuguese, that he 
 had been selected by Heaven as the chosen instrument 
 for expelling the infidels from Spain. He promised the 
 credulous Martin, in the name of God, that he should
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 105 
 
 succeed in conquering the enemies of the Cross, and in 
 carrying the city of Grenada by assault, without the 
 loss of a single soldier. The infatuated grand-master, 
 convinced of the certainty of the fulfilment of this 
 promise, immediately sent ambassadors to Joseph, with 
 orders to declare to that sovereign, in his name, that, 
 since the religion of Mohammed was false and de- 
 testable, and that of Jesus Christ the only true and 
 saving faith, he, Martin de Barbuda, defied the King of 
 Grenada to a combat of two hundred Mussulmans 
 against one hundred Christians, upon condition that 
 the vanquished nation should instantly adopt the faith 
 of the conquerors. 
 
 The reception these ambassadors met with may be 
 easily imagined. Joseph could scarcely restrain the in- 
 dignation of his people. The envoys, driven con- 
 temptuously away, returned to the presence of the 
 grand-master, who, surprised at receiving no response 
 to his proposal, soon assembled a thousand foot-sol- 
 diers and three hundred cavaliers, and hastened to the 
 conquest of Grenada under the guidance of the 
 hetic hermk. 
 
 The King of Castile, Henry III., who desired to 
 preserve peace with the followers of the Prophet at the 
 commencement of a reign during which his own domin- 
 ions were but ill at rest, was no sooner informed of the 
 enterprise of Barbuda, than he sent him positive orders 
 not to cross the frontiers ; but that dignitary replying 
 that he ought to obey the commands of J ehovah rather 
 than those of any earthly master, proceeded on his way. 
 The governors of the different cities through which he 
 passed on his route endeavored, though vainly, to 
 arrest his progress; but the people overwhelmed him
 
 106 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 with homage, and everywhere added to the number of 
 his forces. 
 
 The army of the grand-master amounted to six 
 thousand men, when, in A. D. 1394, Heg. 798, he en- 
 tered the country which his folly taught him to regard 
 as already in his possession. In attacking the first 
 castle at which he arrived, three soldiers were killed and 
 their fanatical commander himself wounded. Surprised 
 beyond measure at beholding his own blood flow and 
 three soldiers fall, he summoned the anchorite into his 
 presence, and sedately demanded what this meant, after 
 his express promise that not a single champion of the true 
 faith should perish. The fanatic replied, that the word 
 he had pledged extended only to regular battles. Bar- 
 buda complained no more, and presently preceived the 
 approach of a Moorish army composed of fifty thou- 
 sand men. The conflict soon commenced : the grand- 
 master and his three hundred mounted followers per- 
 ished in the field, after having performed prodigies of 
 valor. The remainder of the Spanish army were either 
 taken prisoners or put to flight; and the silence of: 
 torians respecting the hermit, leads to the opinionj 
 he was not among the last to seek safety at a di 
 from the scene of action. 
 
 This foolish enterprise did not interrupt the good 
 understanding subsisting between the two nations. 
 The King of Castile disavowed all approval of the con- 
 duct of Martin de Barbuda, and Joseph long continued 
 to reign with honor and tranquillity. But he was at last 
 poisoned, it is said, by a magnificent robe which he re- 
 ceived from his secret enemy, the King of Fez, through 
 the ambassadors of that sovereign. Historians assert 
 that this garment was impregnated with a terrible
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 107 
 
 poison, which caused the death of the unfortunate 
 Joseph by the most horrible torments. The peculiar 
 effect it produced was that of detaching the flesh from 
 the bones, the misery of the wretched sufferer endur- 
 ing for the protracted period of thirty days. 
 
 Mohammed IX., the second son of this hapless 
 monarch, who, even during the lifetime of his father, 
 had excited commotions in the realm, usurped the 
 crown that of right belonged to his elder brother 
 Joseph, whom he caused to be confined in prison. 
 
 Mohammed was courageous and possessed some 
 talents for war. Allied with the King of Tunis, who 
 joined his fleet with that of Grenada, he broke the truce 
 maintained with Castile during the two preceding 
 reigns, and at first gained some advantages over his 
 adversaries; but the Infant Don Ferdinand, the uncle 
 and tutor of the young king John II., was not long in 
 avenging the cause of Spain. 
 
 Mohammed IX. died in the year 1408, Heg. 811. 
 When the expiring monarch became conscious that his 
 end was rapidly approaching, desirous of securing the 
 crown to his son, he sent one of his principal officers to 
 the prison of his brother Joseph, with orders to cut off 
 the head of the royal occupant. The officer found Jos- 
 eph engaged in a game of chess with an iman (Moham- 
 medan priest) : he sorrowfully announced the mourn- 
 ful commission with which he was charged. The prince, 
 without manifesting any emotion at the communication, 
 only demanded time to conclude his game ; and the officer 
 could not refuse this slight favor. While the philosoph- 
 ical Mussulman continued to play, a second messenger 
 arrived, bearing the news of the death of the usurper,
 
 108 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 and of the proclamation of Joseph as his successor to 
 the throne. 
 
 The people of Grenada were happy under the rule 
 of the good King Joseph III. So far was he from 
 avenging himself upon those who had aided his brother 
 in depriving him of his rights, that he lavished favors 
 and offices on them, and educated the son of Moham- 
 med in the same manner as his own children. When 
 his councillors blamed him for a degree of indulgence 
 which they regarded as hazardous, "Allow me," replied 
 the sovereign, "to deprive my enemies of all excuse for 
 having preferred my younger brother to me !" 
 
 This excellent prince was often obliged to take arms 
 against the Christians. He was so unfortunate as to 
 lose some cities, but he preserved the respect and affec- 
 tion of his subjects, and died lamented by the whole 
 kingdom, after a reign of fifteen years, A. D. 1423, 
 Heg. 927. 
 
 After the death of Joseph the state was distracted 
 by civil wars. Mohammed X. Abenazar, or the Left- 
 handed, the son and successor of that benevolent king, 
 was banished from the throne by Mohammed XL, El 
 Zitgair, or the Little, who preserved his ill-gotten 
 power but two years. The Abencerrages, a powerful 
 tribe at Grenada, re-established Mohammed the Left- 
 handed in his former place, and his competitor per- 
 ished on the scaffold. 
 
 About four years after the death of Joseph, the 
 Spaniards renewed their inroads into Grenada, and 
 carried fire and sword to the very gates of the capital. 
 All the neighboring fields were devastated ; the crops 
 were burned and the villages destroyed. John II., who 
 then reigned in Castile, wishing to add to the miseries
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 109 
 
 he had already occasioned these unhappy people the 
 still greater misfortune of civil war, instigated the 
 proclamation at Grenada of a certain Joseph Alhamar, 
 a grandson of that Mohammed the Red, so basely 
 assassinated at Seville by Peter the Cruel. 
 
 All the discontented spirits in the kingdom joined 
 the faction of Joseph Alhamar ; and the Zegris, a pow- 
 erful tribe, who were at enmity with the Abencerrages, 
 lent their aid to the usurper. Mohammed Abenazar 
 was again driven from the capital, A. D. 1432, Heg. 
 836, and Joseph IV. Alhamar possessed his dominions 
 six months. At the termination of that time he ex- 
 pired. 
 
 Mohammed the Left-handed once more resumed his 
 royal seat ; but, after thirteen years of misfortune, this 
 unhappy prince was again deposed for the third time, 
 and imprisoned by one of his nephews, named Moham- 
 med XII. the Osmin' who was himself afterward de- 
 throned by his own brother Ismael, and ended his days 
 in the same dungeon in which his uncle Mohammed 
 Abenazar had languished. 
 
 All these revolutions did not prevent the Christian 
 and Moorish governors who commanded on their re- 
 spective frontiers from making incessant irruptions into 
 the enemy's country. Sometimes a little troop of cav- 
 alry or infantry surprised a village, massacred the in- 
 habitants, pillaged their houses, and carried away their 
 flocks. Sometimes an army suddenly appeared in a 
 fertile plain, devastated the fields, uprooted the vines, 
 felled the trees, besieged and took some town or fort- 
 ress, and retired with their booty. This kind of war- 
 fare was ruinous, most of all, to the unfortunate cul- 
 tivator of the soil. The Grenadian dominions suffered
 
 110 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 so much during the reign of Ismael II., that the king 
 was compelled to cause immense forests to be cleared 
 for the support of his capital, which then drew scarcely 
 any supplies from the vast and fertile vega which had 
 been so often desolated by the Spaniards. 
 
 Ismael II. left the crown to his son Mulei-Hassem, 
 a young and highly courageous prince, who, profiting 
 by the disastrous condition of Castile under the deplor- 
 able reign of Henry IV. the Impotent, carried his arms 
 into the center of Andalusia. The success that marked 
 the commencement of the reign of this sovereign, to- 
 gether with his talents and warlike ardor, tempted the 
 Moors to believe that they might yet recover their 
 former greatness. But the occurrence at this juncture 
 of a great and unlooked-for event, arrested the vic- 
 torious progress of Mulei-Hassam, and prepared the 
 way for the total ruin of his kingdom. 
 
 Isabella of Castile, the sister of Henry the Impotent, 
 notwithstanding the opposition of her brother and the 
 intervention of almost insurmountable obstacles, 
 espoused Ferdinand the Catholic, the king of Sicily, 
 and heir presumptive of the kingdom of Aragon. This 
 marriage, by uniting the two most powerful monarchs 
 of Spain, gave a fatal blow to the prosperity of the 
 Moors, which they had been able to maintain, even in 
 the degree in which it now existed, only through the 
 divisions which had hitherto perpetually prevailed 
 among their Christian opponents. 
 
 Either of the two enemies, now unitedly arrayed 
 against them, had been singly sufficient to overwhelm 
 the Mussulmans. Ferdinand was alike politic, able, 
 and adroit. He was pliant, and, at the same time, firm ; 
 cautious to a degree sometimes amounting to pusil-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 111 
 
 lanimity; cunning even to falsehood, and endowed in 
 an extraordinary degree with the power of discerning 
 at a single glance all the various means of attaining a 
 particular end. Isabella was of a prouder and more 
 noble nature; endowed with heroic courage and the 
 most unyielding constancy of purpose, she was admir- 
 ably qualified for the pursuit and accomplishment of 
 any enterprise to which she might direct the energies 
 of her powerful mind. The exalted endowments of one 
 of these royal personages have been employed to en- 
 noble the character of the other. Ferdinand often 
 played the part of a weak, perfidious woman, nego- 
 tiating only to deceive ; whereas Isabella was always 
 the high-souled sovereign, advancing openly to her pur- 
 poses, and marching directly to honorable conflict and 
 generous triumph. 
 
 No sooner had these distinguished individuals se- 
 cured possession of their respective kingdoms, sup- 
 pressed all domestic disturbances, and effected peaceful 
 arrangements with foreign powers, than they mutually 
 resolved to concentrate all their efforts for the annihila- 
 tion of the Mohammedan dominion in Spain. 
 
 This century seemed destined to be marked by the 
 glory of the Spaniards. In addition to the immense 
 advantages afforded them by the union of their forces, 
 Ferdinand and Isabella were surrounded by the wisest 
 and most experienced advisers. The celebrated Car- 
 dinal Ximenes, at one time a simple monk, was now at 
 the head of their councils ; and that able minister "led," 
 as he himself averred, "all Spain by his girdle!" The 
 civil wars with which the Peninsula had been so long 
 disturbed, had created among the Christian powers a 
 host of brave soldiers and excellent commanders.
 
 X13 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Among the latter were particularly distinguished the 
 Count de Cabra, the Marquis of Cadiz, and the famous 
 Gonzalvo of Cordova, whose just claim to the surname 
 of the Great Captain, given him by his countrymen, the 
 lapse of time has only served to confirm. The public 
 treasury, which had been exhausted by the lavish 
 prodigality of Henry, was soon replenished by the 
 rigid economy of Isabella, aided by a bull from the 
 pope, permitting the royal appropriation of the eccle- 
 siastical revenues. The troops were numerous and ad- 
 mirably disciplined, and the emulation which existed 
 between the Castilians and Aragonians redoubled the 
 valor of both. Everything, in short, prognosticated the 
 downfall of the last remaining throne of the Moors. 
 
 Its royal champion, Mulei-Hassem, was not dis- 
 mayed, however, even by such an accumulation of dan- 
 ger. He was the first to break the truce, by taking 
 forcible possession of the city of Zahra, A. D. 1481, 
 Heg. 886. Ferdinand despatched ambassadors to the 
 Moslem court to complain of this breach of faith ; with 
 orders, at the same time, to demand the ancient tribute 
 which had been paid by the kings of Grenada to the 
 sovereigns of Castile. 
 
 "I know," replied Mulei-Hassem, when the envoys 
 of the Spanish prince had delivered their message, "I 
 know that some of my predecessors rendered you trib- 
 ute in pieces of gold ; but this is the only metal now 
 coined in the national mint of Grenada !" And, as he 
 spoke, the stern and haughty monarch presented the 
 head of his lance to the Spanish ambassadors. 
 
 The army of Ferdinand first marched upon Alha- 
 mar, a very strong fortress in the neighborhood of 
 Grenada, and particularly famous for the magnificent
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 113 
 
 baths with which it had been embellished by the Moor- 
 ish kings. The place was taken by surprise, and thus 
 a war was lighted up that was destined to be extin- 
 guished only with the last expiring sigh of Grenada. 
 
 Victory seemed at first to be equally poised between 
 the two contending powers. The King of Grenada pos- 
 sessed ample resources in troops, artillery, and treasure. 
 He might long have maintained the contest, but for an 
 act of imprudence which precipitated him into an abyss 
 of misfortune from which he was never afterward able 
 to extricate himself. 
 
 The wife of Mulei-Hassem, named Aixa, belonged, 
 before her marriage with the king, to one of the most 
 important of the Grenadian tribes. The offspring of 
 this marriage was a son named Boabdil, whose right 
 it was to succeed to his father's throne. But the reck- 
 less Mulei repudiated his wife at the instance of a 
 Christian slave, of whom he became enamored, and 
 who governed the doting monarch at will. This act of 
 cruelty and injustice was the signal for civil war. The 
 injured Aixa, in concert with her son, excited her rela- 
 tives and friends, and a large number of the inhabitants 
 of the capital, to throw off their allegiance to their sov- 
 ereign. 
 
 Mulei-Hassem was eventually driven from the city, 
 and Boabdil assumed the title of king. Thus father and 
 son were involved in a contest for the possession of a 
 crown, of which Ferdinand was seeking to deprive 
 them both. 
 
 To add to the misfortunes which were already fast 
 crushing this distracted and miserable country beneath 
 their weight, another aspirant to the throne presented 
 himself, in the person of a brother of Mulei-Hassem 
 
 M. { H. XXXIV
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 named Zagel. This prince, at the head of a band of 
 Moorish adventurers, had succeeded in obtaining some 
 important advantages over the Spaniards in the defiles 
 of Malaga, A. D. 1483, Heg. 888. 
 
 His achievements having won for him the hearts 
 of his countrymen, Zagel now conceived the design of 
 dethroning his brother and nephew, and of appropria- 
 ting the dominions of both to himself. Thus a third 
 faction arose to increase the dissensions of the state. 
 
 Boabdil still held insecure possession of the capital ; 
 and, desirous of attempting some action, the brilliancy 
 of which would reanimate the hopes and confidence of 
 a party that was ready to abandon him, he sallied forth 
 at the head of a small force, with the intention of sur- 
 prising Lucena, a city belonging to the Castilians. 
 
 But the ill-fated Boabdil was made a prisoner in this 
 expedition. 
 
 He was the first Moorish king who had ever been a 
 captive to the Spaniards. Ferdinand lavished. on him 
 the attentions due to misfortune, and caused him to be 
 conducted to Cordova, attended by an escort. 
 
 The old king, Mulei-Hassem, seized this oppor- 
 tunity to repossess himself of the crown of which his 
 rebellious son had deprived him, and, in spite of the 
 party of Zagel, he again became master of his capital. 
 But the restored monarch could oppose but a feeble 
 resistance to the progress of the Spaniards, who were 
 rapidly reducing his cities and advancing nearer to his 
 devoted capital. Within the walls of that city the 
 wretched inhabitants were madly warring against one 
 another, as if unconscious of the destruction that was 
 fast approaching them from without. To increase the 
 sanguinary feuds which already so surely presaged
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 115 
 
 their destruction, the Catholic sovereigns had become 
 the allies of the captive Boabdil, engaging to assist him 
 in his efforts against his father on condition that he 
 should pay them a tribute of twelve thousand crowns 
 of gold, acknowledge himself their vassal, and deliver 
 certain strong places into their hands. The base 
 Boabdil acceded to everything; and, aided by the politic 
 Spanish princes, hastened again to take arms against 
 his father. 
 
 The kingdom of Grenada was now converted into 
 one wide field of carnage, where Mulei-Hassem, Boab- 
 dil, and Zagel were furiously contending for the mourn- 
 ful relics of their country. 
 
 The Spaniards, in the meantime, marched rapidly 
 from one conquest to another, sometimes under pretext 
 of sustaining their ally Boabdil, and often in open 
 defiance of the treaty they had formed with that prince ; 
 but always carefully feeding the fire of discord, while 
 they were despoiling each of the three rival parties, and 
 leaving to the vanquished inhabitants their laws, their 
 customs, and the^free exercise of their religion. 
 
 In the midst of these frightful scenes of calamity 
 and crime, old Mulei-Hassem died, either worn out by 
 grief and misfortune, or through the agency of his am- 
 bitious brother. This event occurred A. D. 1485, 
 Heg. 890. 
 
 Ferdinand had now rendered himself master of all 
 the western part of the kingdom of Grenada, and Boab- 
 dil agreed to divide with Zagel the remnant of this 
 desolated state. The city of Grenada was retained by 
 Boabdil, while Gaudix and Almeria fell to the share of 
 Zagel. The war was not the less vigorously presecuted 
 in consequence of this arrangement; and the unprin-
 
 116 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 cipled Zagel, doubting his ability long to retain the 
 cities in his possession, sold them to King Ferdinand 
 in consideration of an annual pension. 
 
 By virtue of this treaty, the Catholic sovereigns 
 took possession of the purchased cities ; and the traitor 
 Zagel even lent the aid of his arms to the Christian 
 army, the more speedily to overthrow the royal power 
 of his nephew, and thereby terminate the existence of 
 his expiring country. 
 
 All that now remained to the Mussulmans was the 
 single city of Grenada. There Boabdil still reigned; 
 and, exasperated by misfortune, he vented his rage and 
 despair in acts of barbarous cruelty towards its 
 wretched inhabitants. 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, disregarding the conditions 
 of their pretended alliance with this now powerless 
 prince, summoned him to surrender his capital, in com- 
 pliance, as they said, with the terms of a secret treaty, 
 which they affirmed had been concluded between them. 
 Boabdil protested against this perfidious conduct. But 
 there was no time allowed for complaint : he must suc- 
 cessfully defend himself, or cease to reign. The Moor- 
 ish prince adopted, therefore, to say the least, the most 
 heroic alternative; and resolved to defend to the last 
 what remained to him of his once beautiful and flour- 
 ishing country. 
 
 The Spanish sovereign, at the head of an army of 
 sixty thousand men, the flower and chivalry of the 
 united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, laid siege to 
 Grenada on the 9th of May, 1491, and in the 897th year 
 of the Hegira. 
 
 This great city, as has been already mentioned, was 
 defended by strong ramparts, flanked by a multitude of
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 117 
 
 towers, and by numerous other fortifications, built one 
 above the other. Notwithstanding the civil wars 
 which had inundated it with blood, Grenada still en- 
 closed within its walls more than two hundred thou- 
 sand inhabitants. Every brave Moorish cavalier who 
 still remained true to his country, its religion, and its 
 laws, had here taken refuge. Despair redoubled their 
 strength in this last desperate struggle ; and had these 
 fierce and intrepid warriors been guided by a more 
 worthy chief than Boabdil, their noble constancy might 
 still have saved them; but this weak and ferocious 
 monarch hesitated not, on the slightest suspicion, to 
 consign his most faithful defenders to the axe of the 
 executioner. Thus he became daily more and more 
 an object of hatred and contempt to the Grenadians, 
 by whom, he was surnamed Zogoybi, that is to say, the 
 Little King. The different tribes now grew dissatisfied 
 and dispirited, especially the numerous and powerful 
 tribe of the Abencerrages. The alfaquis and the imans, 
 also, loudly predicted the approaching downfall of the 
 Moorish empire ; and nothing upheld the sinking cour- 
 age of the people against the pressure of a foreign foe 
 and the tyranny of their own rulers but their uncon- 
 querable horror of the Spanish 3 r oke. 
 
 The Catholic soldiers, on the other hand, elated by 
 their past success, regarded themselves as invincible, 
 and never for a moment doubted the certainty of their 
 triumph. They were commanded, also, by leaders to 
 whom they were devotedly attached : Ponce de Leon, 
 marquis of Cadiz, Henry de Guzman, duke of Medina, 
 Mendoza, Aguillar, Villena, and Gonzalvo of Cordova, 
 together with many other famous captains, accom- 
 panied their victorious king. Isabella, too, whose vir-
 
 118 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 tues excited the highest respect, and whose affability 
 and grace won for her the affectionate regard of all, 
 had repaired to the camp of her husband with the In- 
 fant and the Infantas, and attended by the most bril- 
 liant court in Europe. This politic princess, though 
 naturally grave and serious, wisely accommodated her- 
 self to the existing circumstances. She mingled fetes 
 and amusements with warlike toil : jousts and tourna- 
 ments delighted at intervals the war-worn soldiery; 
 and dances, games, and illuminations filled up the deli- 
 cious summer evenings. 
 
 Queen Isabella was the animating genius that di- 
 rected everything; a gracious word from her was a 
 sufficient recompense for the most gallant achieve- 
 ment ; and her look alone had power to transform the 
 meanest soldier into a hero. 
 
 Abundance reigned in the Christian camp ; while 
 joy and hope animated every heart. But within the 
 beleaguered city, mutual distrust, universal conster- 
 nation, and the prospect of inevitable destruction, had 
 dampened the courage and almost annihilated the 
 hopes of the wretched inhabitants. 
 
 The siege, nevertheless, lasted for nine months. 
 The cautious commander of the Christian army did 
 not attempt to carry by assault a place so admirably 
 fortified. After having laid waste the environs, there- 
 fore, he waited patiently until famine should deliver the 
 city into his hands. Satisfied with battering the ram- 
 parts and repelling the frequent sorties of the Moors, 
 he never engaged in any decisive action, but daily 
 hemmed in more closely the chafed lion that could not 
 now escape his toils. 
 
 Accident one night set fire to the pavilion of Isa-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN . 119 
 
 bella, and the spreading conflagration consumed every 
 tent in the camp. But Boabdil derived no advantage 
 from this disaster. The queen directed that a city 
 should supply the place of the ruined camp, to con- 
 vince the enemies of the cross that the siege would 
 never be raised until Grenada should come into pos- 
 session of the conquering Spaniards. This great and 
 extraordinary design, so worthy the genius of Isa- 
 bella, was executed in eighty days. The Christian 
 camp thus became a walled city; and Santa Fe still 
 exists as a monument of the piety and perseverance of 
 the heroic Queen of Castile. 
 
 At last, oppressed by famine, less frequently suc- 
 cessful than at first in the partial engagements that 
 were constantly taking place under the walls, and 
 abandoned by Africa, from which there was no at- 
 tempts made to relieve them, the Moors now felt the 
 necessity of a surrender. 
 
 Gonzalvo of Cordova was empowered by the con- 
 querors to arrange the articles of capitulation. These 
 provided that the people of Grenada should recognize 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, and their royal successors, as 
 their rightful sovereigns ; that all their Christian cap- 
 tives should be released without ransom ; that the 
 Moors should continue to be governed by their own 
 laws; should retain their national customs, their 
 judges, half the number of their mosques, and the free 
 exercise of their faith ; that they should be permitted 
 either to keep or sell their property, and to' retire to 
 Africa, or to any other country they might choose, 
 while, at the same time, they should not be compelled 
 to leave their native land. It was also agreed that 
 Boabdil should have assigned to him a rich and ample
 
 120 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 domain in the Alpuxares, of which he should possess 
 the entire command. 
 
 Such were the terms of capitulation, and but ill 
 were they observed by the Spaniards. Boabdil fulfilled 
 his part of the stipulations some days before the time 
 specified, in consequence of being informed that his 
 people, roused by the representations of the imans, 
 wished to break off the negotiations, and to bury 
 themselves beneath the ruins of the city rather than 
 suffer their desolate and deserted homes to be pro- 
 faned by the intruding foot of the spoiler. 
 
 The wretched Moslem prince hastened therefore 
 to deliver the keys of the city, and of the fortresses 
 of the Albazin and the Alhambra, into the hands of 
 Ferdinand. 
 
 Entering no more, after this mournful ceremony, 
 within the walls where he no longer retained any au- 
 thority, Boabdil took his melancholy journey, accom- 
 panied by his family and a small number of followers, 
 to the petty dominions which were now all that re- 
 mained to him of the once powerful and extensive 
 empire of his ancestors. 
 
 When the cavalcade reached an eminence from 
 which the towers of Grenada might still be discerned, 
 the wretched exile turned his last sad regards upon the 
 distant city, amid ill-suppressed tears and groans. 
 "You do well," said Aixa, his mother, " to weep like a 
 woman for the throne you could not defend like a man! " 
 
 But the now powerless Boabdil could not long en- 
 dure existence as a subject in a country where he had 
 reigned as a sovereign : he crossed the Mediterranean 
 to Africa, and there he ended his days on the battle- 
 field.
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 121 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella made their public entrance 
 into Grenada on the 1st of January, 1492, through 
 double ranks of soldiers, and amid the thunder of 
 artillery. The city seemed deserted; the inhabitants 
 fled from the presence of the conquerors, and con- 
 cealed their tears and their despair within the inner- 
 most recesses of their habitations. 
 
 The royal victors repaired first to the grand 
 mosque, which was consecrated as a Christian church, 
 and where they rendered thanks to God for the bril- 
 liant success that had crowned their arms. While 
 the sovereigns fulfilled this pious duty, the Count de 
 Tendilla, the new governor of Grenada, elevated the 
 triumphant cross, and the standards of Castile and St. 
 James, on the highest towers of the Alhambra. 
 
 Thus fell this famous city, and thus perished the 
 power of the Moors of Spain, after an existence of 
 seven hundred and eighty-two years from the first 
 conquest of the country by Tarik. 
 
 It may now be proper briefly to remark upon the 
 principal causes of the extinction of the national inde- 
 pendence of the kingdom of Grenada. 
 
 The first of these arose from the peculiar character 
 of the Moors : from that spirit of inconstancy, that love 
 of novelty, and that unceasing inquietude, which 
 prompted them to such frequent change of their rulers ; 
 which multiplied factions among them, and constantly 
 convulsed the empire with internal discords, expending 
 its strength and power in dissensions at home, and 
 thus leaving it defenceless against foreign enemies. 
 The Moors may also be reproached with an extrava- 
 gant fondness for architectural magnificence, splendid 
 fetes, and other expensive entertainments, which aided
 
 122 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 in exhausting the national treasury at times when 
 protracted warfare scarcely ever permitted this most 
 fertile region of the earth to reproduce the crops the 
 Spaniards had destroyed. But, more than all, they 
 were a people without an established code of laws, that 
 only permanent basis of the prosperity of nations. 
 And then, too, a despotic form of government, which 
 deprives men of patriotism, induced each individual to 
 regard his virtues and attainments merely as afford- 
 ing the means of personal consideration, and not, 
 as they should be considered, the property of his 
 country. 
 
 These grave defects in the national character of 
 the Moors were redeemed by many excellent qualities, 
 which even the Spaniards admitted them to possess. 
 In battle they were no less brave and prudent than 
 their Christian antagonists, though inferior in skill and 
 discipline. They excelled them, however, in the art of 
 attack. Adversity never long overwhelmed them ; they 
 saw in misfortune the will of Heaven, and without a 
 murmur submitted to it. Their favorite dogma of 
 fatalism doubtless contributed to this result. Fer- 
 vently devoted to the laws of Mohammed, they obeyed 
 with great exactness his humane injunctions respect- 
 ing almsgiving: they bestowed on the poor not only 
 food and money, but a portion of their grain, fruit, and 
 flocks, and of every kind of merchandise. In the towns 
 and throughout the country, the indigent sick were 
 collected, attended, and nursed with the most assiduous 
 care. Hospitality, so sacred from the remotest time 
 among the Arabs, was not less carefully observed 
 among the people of Grenada, who seemed to take 
 peculiar pleasure in its exercise. The following touch-
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 123 
 
 ing anecdote is told in illustration of the powerful in- 
 fluence of this principle. A stranger, bathed in blood, 
 sought refuge from the officers of justice under the 
 roof of an aged Moor. The old man concealed him in 
 his house. But he had scarcely done so before a guard 
 arrived to demand possession of the murderer, and, at 
 the same time to deliver to the horror-stricken Mus- 
 sulman the dead body of his son, whom the stranger 
 had just assassinated. Still the aged father would not 
 give up his guest. When the guard, however, was 
 gone, he entreated the assassin to leave him. " Depart 
 from he," he cried, " that I may be at liberty to pursue 
 thee!" 
 
 These Moslems were but little known to the his- 
 torians by whom they have been so often calumniated. 
 Polished, enthusiastic, hospitable, brave, and chival- 
 rous, but haughty, passionate, inconstant, and vindic- 
 tive, their unfortunate fate entitles them, at least, to 
 compassion and sympathy, while their virtues may 
 well excite respect and interest. 
 
 After their final defeat, many of the followers of 
 the Prophet retired to Africa. Those who remained in 
 Grenada suffered greatly from the persecution and op- 
 pression to which they were subjected by their new 
 masters. The article in their last treaty with the Span- 
 iards, which formally ensured their religious freedom, 
 was grossly violated by the Catholics, who compelled 
 the Mussulmans to abjure their national faith by force, 
 terror, and every other unworthy means. 
 
 At last, outraged beyond endurance by this want of 
 good faith, and wrought to desperation by the cruelties 
 they were compelled to endure, in the year 1500 the 
 (Moors attempted to revolt against their oppressors.
 
 124 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 
 
 Their efforts were, however, unavailing : Ferdinand 
 marched in person against them, repressed by force of 
 arms the struggles of a people whom he designated as 
 rebels, and, sword in hand, administered the rite of 
 baptism to more than fifty thousand captive Moslems. 
 
 The successors of Ferdinand, Charles V. and especi- 
 ally Philip II., continued to harass the Moors. The In- 
 quisition was established in the city of Grenada, and 
 all the terrors of that dreaded institution were added to 
 gentler means for the conversion of the infidels to 
 Christianity. Their children were taken from them to 
 be educated in accordance with the precepts of that 
 religion whose Adorable Founder enjoined peace, 
 mercy, and forbearance upon his followers, and for- 
 bade the practice of injustice and cruelty in every 
 form. 
 
 Yielding to the promptings of despair, this crushed 
 and wretched remnant of a once powerful and glorious 
 nation again flew to arms in the year 1569, and executed 
 the most terrible vengeance upon the Catholic priest- 
 hood. Mohammed-ben-Ommah, the new king whom 
 they chose to direct their destinies, and who was said to 
 have sprung from the cherished race of the Ommiades, 
 several times gave battle to his opponents in the moun- 
 tains of the Alpuxares, where he sustained the cause of 
 his injured countrymen for the space of two years. At 
 the end of that time he was assassinated by his own 
 people. His successor shared the same fate, and the 
 Mussulmans were again compelled to submit to a yoke 
 their revolt had rendered even more intolerable than 
 before. 
 
 Finally, King Philip III. totally banished the Moorg 
 from Spain. The depopulation thus produced inflicted
 
 THE MOORS OF SPAIN 125 
 
 a wound upon that kingdom, from the effects of which 
 it has never since recovered. 
 
 More than one hundred and fifty thousand of this 
 persecuted race took refuge in France, where Henry 
 IV. received them with great humanity. A small num- 
 ber also concealed themselves in the recesses of the 
 Alpuxares; but the greatest part of the expatriated 
 Islamites sought a home in Africa. There their de- 
 scendants still drag out a miserable existence under 
 the despotic rule of the sovereigns of Morocco, and 
 unceasingly pray that they may be restored to their 
 beloved Grenada.
 
 A 
 
 BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Extent of the Arabian Empire. Causes which led to that Extent. Con- 
 tinuance of Mohammedanism. Decay of the Empire. What led 
 to it. Spain revolts and sets up a separate Caliph. Africa. Egypt. 
 Bagdad. Fall of the House of the Abbassides. 
 
 
 
 THE first battle in which the Arabs tried their 
 power against the disciplined forces of the 
 Roman empire was the battle of Muta. 
 Though on that occasion they were successful, the 
 most sanguine could not have ventured to predict that, 
 before the close of a century, their empire would be- 
 come more extensive than any that had ever before 
 existed. Yet such was the fact. It overthrew the 
 power of the Romans, and rendered the successors of 
 the Prophet the mightiest and most absolute sovereigns 
 on earth. 
 
 Under the last monarch of the Ommiade race, the 
 Arabian empire, excepting only an obscure part of 
 Africa, of little account, embraced a compact territory 
 equal to six months' march of a caravan in length and 
 four in breadth, with innumerable tributary and de- 
 pendant states. In the exercise of their power, the 
 
 126
 
 CAUSE OF MOHAMMED'S SUCCESS 127 
 
 caliphs were fettered neither by popular rights, the 
 votes of a senate, nor constitutional laws: the Koran 
 was indeed, their professed rule of action ; but, inas- 
 much as they alone were its interpreters, their will was 
 in all cases law. The loss of Spain to the empire was 
 more than made up by the conquests in India, Tartary, 
 and European Turkey. Samarkand and Timbuctoo 
 studied with equal devotion the language and religion 
 of the Koran, and at the temple of Mecca the Moor and 
 the Indian met as brother pilgrims. Throughout the 
 countries west of the Tigris, the language of Arabia 
 became the vehicle of popular intercourse ; and, al- 
 though in Persia, Tartary, and Hindostan the native 
 dialects continued in common use, the Arabic was also 
 there the sacred tongue. 
 
 We will advert to some of the causes which led to 
 this astonishing success. The leading article of the 
 Mohammedan faith, the unity of God, harmonized with 
 what Jews and Christians universally believed. Mo- 
 hammed propounded this doctrine, by excluding the 
 Deity of Jesus Christ, so as to fall in with the views 
 of the greater number of the Christian sectaries. He 
 moreover enjoined practices which, in the then corrupt 
 state of religion, were beginning widely to prevail. 
 To the untutored mind of the desert wanderer, his doc- 
 trine would thus possess all the attractiveness he might 
 have heard ascribed to Christianity, while his being of 
 the same country would secure for him the greater 
 attention. Systems in which truth and error have been 
 combined are by no means unwillingly received, es- 
 pecially by those who -are already superstitious and 
 fanatical, and such was pre-eminently the character of 
 the Arabians. Mohammed's religious, moral, and jurid-
 
 128 WARLIKE CHARACTER OF THE ARABS 
 
 ical system was in general accordance with Asiatic 
 opinions; it provided a paradise exactly suited to the 
 imagination and taste of the Orientals; and, as the 
 superstitious are always more powerfully influenced 
 by that which awakens apprehension and appeals to 
 fear than by what enkindles hope, his hell contributed 
 even more than his heaven to multiply disciples. 
 
 Still, had no resort been had to arms, the Moham- 
 medan faith would in all probability have been confined 
 to the deserts of Arabia. The whole of Asia was at 
 that time in a state of unprecedented military inactiv- 
 ity, and opportunity was thus afforded for the success 
 of his enterprise. Empires were tottering and power- 
 less ; political wisdom had almost disappeared ; and to 
 military talents and courage the Arabs alone could 
 make any pretensions. Previous contentions between 
 the Persian and Byzantine empires had entirely de- 
 stroyed what little remains of internal vigor those 
 governments might otherwise have possessed. Civil 
 revolts, tyranny, extortion, sensuality, and sloth, had 
 annihilated the ambition of universal rule which the 
 Greek and Roman governments had once cherished; 
 and their provinces, neglected or oppressed, became an 
 easy prey to the Moslem power. 
 
 The nations were the more rapidly subdued, since 
 to the indomitable ferocity of the desert wanderer the 
 Saracens added those other features which complete a 
 warlike character. They despised death, and were self- 
 denying and energetic to a degree far beyond the sol- 
 diers of civilized countries, while they were scarcely 
 less familiar with the military art. The lieutenants of 
 the caliphs soon vied with the Romans generals in 
 skill; and it is by no means difficult to explain their
 
 FANATICISM OF THE ARABS 129 
 
 almost uniform superiority, when we bear in mind the 
 character of the armies they respectively commanded. 
 Terror, moreover, is epidemic ; and a force already suc- 
 cessful commonly finds its victorious progress greatly 
 aided by the prevailing notion of its prowess. Thus we 
 have witnessed, in the wars of more disciplined troops, 
 the tremendous effect of a name alone. 
 
 It may be added, also, that the Saracen success is 
 greatly attributable to that ardent and impetuous spirit 
 of religious enthusiasm with which they fought. They 
 deemed their cause the cause of God ; heaven, they were 
 persuaded, was engaged in their behalf; every one who 
 fell in their wars was a martyr; and cowardice was 
 tantamount to apostacy. 
 
 The religious ardor of the Crusaders, in the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries, to exterminate Mohammedan- 
 ism, did not exceed, if it even equalled, that of the 
 Arab soldiers by whom that system had been origin- 
 ally propagated. Whatever secular \principles and 
 ambition influenced them, they took credit for fight- 
 ing in the support of truth and virtue. The sword and 
 the Koran were equally the companions and the instru- 
 ments of their wars. ' The circumstance," says Paley, 
 in his admirable exhibition of the Evidences of Chris- 
 tianity, " that Mohammed's conquests should carry his 
 religion along with them, will excite little surprise 
 when we know the conditions which he proposed to 
 the vanquished : death or conversion was the only 
 choice offered to idolators. To the Jews and Chris- 
 tians was left the somewhat milder alternative of sub- 
 jection and tribute if they persisted in their own reli- 
 gion, or of an equal participation of the rights and 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 9
 
 130 PERMANENCY OF THE MOSLEM FAITH 
 
 liberties, the honors and privileges of the faithful if 
 they embraced the religion of their conquerors." 
 
 Literature, in the days of Mohammed, was as little 
 regarded as was pure and practical Christianity. His 
 followers everywhere met with an ignorant and easily- 
 deluded people. Both the monuments of science and 
 the means of freedom had been abolished by the bar- 
 barians of the North. Philosophy and the liberal arts 
 found no patrons among indolent and luxurious em- 
 perors and nobles. Superstition, therefore, naturally 
 took possession of the minds of men, and, as neither 
 fears nor hopes were moderated by knowledge, idle, 
 preposterous, and unnecessary ceremonies easily ob- 
 tained currency. Mohammed merely changed one set 
 of ceremonies for another ; and in this there was little 
 difficulty, since, in the a^nost universal darkness of 
 mankind, terror and credulity everywhere prevailed. 
 The continuance of the religion of Mohammed in 
 countries after the Arab dominion over them had 
 ceased, may be also easily accounted for. "Everything 
 in Asia is a matter of regulation ; and freedom of 
 opinion being but little permitted or encouraged in 
 the despotic governments of the East, Mohammedan- 
 ism, when once received, became stationary. The 
 human code is mingled with the divine, and the ideas 
 of change and profanation are inseparable. As the 
 unsettling of the political and social fabric might en- 
 \sue from a change of modes of faith, all classes of men 
 are interested in preserving the national religion." Be- 
 sides this, in their own nature religious doctrines are 
 more permanent in their hold than forms of civil gov- 
 ernment : it may be questioned, for instance, whether, 
 whatever civil changes Scotland might undergo, Pres-
 
 DECLINE OF THE ARABIAN EMPIRE 131 
 
 byterianism would ever cease to be the prevalent 
 faith of its inhabitants. A people may, with the over- 
 throw of usurped civil power, return to their ancient 
 religion, whatever it is : but when once a religion has 
 become, so to speak, indigenous, it is likely to be 
 permanent. Such is the religion of the Koran both in 
 Asia and Africa. 
 
 The elements of political weakness and decay soon 
 began to be developed in the chief seat of the Saracen 
 empire. In the earliest days of the caliphate, after the 
 accession of the Ommiade dynasty, the princess of 
 Damascus were regarded as the heads of the Moslem 
 faith: while the governors of Arabia successively ob- 
 tained, as to civil rule, their independence. To this 
 the widely-extended wars in which the caliphs were 
 engaged no doubt contributed. Other provinces fol- 
 lowed the example : and, as' the empire enlarged, the 
 remoteness and degeneracy of the Syrian court en- 
 couraged the governors to assume to themselves every- 
 thing except the name of king, and to render their dig- 
 nities hereditary. All the provinces were nominally 
 connected with the empire by the payment of tribute ; 
 but means were easily devised to withhold this, under 
 pretence of prosecuting the wars of the caliph, though 
 really to strengthen his rebellious deputies against 
 him. If in this we discover a want of efficiency in the 
 government, we need not be surprised : the systems of 
 the Macedonian hero and of the Roman conquerors 
 were equally defective ; and perhaps we should attrib- 
 ute such deficiency to a wise and beneficent arrange- 
 ment of Providence, which, that oppression may never 
 become permanent and universal, permits not any 
 empire for a very long time to hold dominion over
 
 132 MAGNIFICENCE OF THE CALIPHS 
 
 countries dissimilar in their habits and character, and 
 independent of each other. 
 
 To the establishment of these separate states, the 
 luxury and effeminacy of the court at Damascus in 
 no small degree contributed. In the early periods of 
 the caliphate, simplicity and charity chiefly distin- 
 guished their rulers ; but, as the wealth and power of 
 the Saracens increased, they imitated the splendor and 
 magnificence of the monarchs of Persia and Greece. 
 Abulfeda says of the court in trie year 917: "The 
 Caliph Moctadi's whole army, both horse and foot, 
 were under arms, which together made a body of one 
 hundred and sixty thousand men. His state officers 
 stood near him in the most splendid apparel, their 
 belts shining with gold and gems. Near them were 
 seven thousand black and white eunuchs. The porters 
 or doorkeepers were in number seven hundred. Barges 
 and boats, with the most superb decorations, were 
 swimming on the Tigris. Nor was the palace itself 
 less splendid, in which were hung thirty-eight thou- 
 sand pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand five hundred 
 of which were silk embroidered with gold. The car- 
 pets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. A hun- 
 dred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each 
 lion. Among the other spectacles of rare and stupend- 
 ous luxury was a tree of gold and silver, which opened 
 itself into eighteen larger branches, upon which and 
 the other smaller branches sat birds of every sort, 
 made also of gold and silver. The tree glittered with 
 leaves of the same metals ; and while its branches, 
 through machinery, appeared to move of themselves, 
 the several birds upon them warbled their natural 
 notes."
 
 When, moreover, decline had once commenced, its 
 progress was accelerated by the means taken to arrest 
 it. After the regular troops had been corrupted by 
 faction, the caliphs, for the defence of their person and 
 government, formed a militia ; but the soldiers compos- 
 ing this force, not unfrequently foreigners, soon gov- 
 erned with a military despotism similar to that of the 
 janizaries of Turkey, the Mamelukes of Egypt, or the 
 praetorian guards of Rome ; and, in addition to these 
 causes of decay, a furious spirit of sectarianism tore 
 asunder the very strength and heart of the empire. 
 The colossal power of the successors of Mohammed, 
 suddenly towering to its awful height, almost as sud- 
 denly fell, as if to yield more perfect confirmation of 
 the truth, that all earthly things are destined to pass 
 away, while the word of the living God abideth for 
 ever. 
 
 Spain, as has been seen, was the first distant prov- 
 ince of the Arabian empire which succeeded in separ- 
 ating itself and setting up an independent caliph. As. 
 this country had been brought under the Moslem yoke 
 by means chiefly furnished from the northern states 
 of Africa, its independence was likely to produce a 
 corresponding effect upon those states. They were 
 governed in the name of the Bagdad caliphs ; but for 
 nearly a century they had been growing into independ- 
 ence, under rulers usually known, from the name of 
 their progenitor, as the Aglabite dynasty. Early in 
 the ninth century, the throne of Mauritania, Massilia, 
 and Carthage was seized by Obeidollah, whose succes- 
 sors assumed the title of Mihidi, or directors of <he 
 faithful. The districts of Fez and Tangiers, which 
 had been already wrested from the princes of Bagdad
 
 134 THE AFRICAN PROVINCES REVOLT 
 
 by the real or pretended posterity of AH, were soon 
 brought under his dominion ; and, before the end of 
 the tenth century, all acknowledgment of the Abbas- 
 sidan rule was obliterated by the suppression of public 
 prayers for the princes of that race. A succession of 
 changes distracted the country for some five centuries 
 afterward; but, about the year 1516, the descendants 
 of Mohammed were raised to the throne of Morocco, 
 which has been transmitted, without interruption, in 
 the same line, to its present possessors. Moez, the 
 last of the African princes of the house of Obeidollah, 
 who seems to have depended for his dominion more 
 on his prowess than on his supposed descent from Mo- 
 hammed, transferred his court to Grand Cairo, a city 
 which he had built in Egypt after his conquest of that 
 country. Africa was to he held as a fief of this new- 
 empire. Large tracts of Syria and the whole of Pales- 
 tine acknowledged the supremacy of his descendants, 
 commonly known as Fatimites, from their supposed 
 relationship to Ali, and to Fatima, the Prophet's 
 daughter. They possessed also the sovereignty of the 
 Holy Land : against them, therefore, the crusades of 
 Europe were chiefly directed. During these formidable 
 wars the caliphs of Egypt sought assistance from those 
 of Bagdad ; and Noureddin, a prince of that empire, 
 protected them against their Western assailants. The 
 weakness of Egypt, however, came thus to be known 
 to the crafty and powerful caliphs of Bagdad, and in a 
 short time its Asiatic dominions were seized upon by 
 Noureddin and Saladin. As Adhed, the last caliph of 
 Egypt, was dying in the mosque of Cairo, these gen- 
 erals proclaimed Morthadi, the thirty-third caliph of 
 Bagdad, as his successor. Saladin, whose name, from
 
 FIRST DYNASTY OF THE ABBASSIDES 135 
 
 his activity, courage, and success against the crusaders, 
 is better known to the readers of European history 
 than that of almost any other Mohammedan prince, 
 soon made himself master of Egypt ; but his successors 
 could not maintain the power he had acquired. The 
 country was afterwards governed by the celebrated Mo- 
 hammed Ali, nominally as viceroy of the Turkish em- 
 peror, though he was in reality a sovereign and inde- 
 pendent prince. 
 
 The caliphs of the house of Abbas, having built 
 the city of Bagdad soon after their accession to the 
 throne, transferred thither their court and the seat o 
 power. For five centuries they reigned there with 
 various degrees of authority ; but foreign wars and 
 domestic revolts gradually dissolved the empire, and 
 their dominion at length passed away. Radhi, the 
 twentieth caliph of the race, was " the last," says 
 Abulfeda, " who harangued the people from the pulpit ; 
 who passed the cheerful hour of leisure with men of 
 learning and taste; whose expenses, resources, and 
 treasures, whose table and magnificence, had any re- 
 semblance to those of the ancient caliphs." " During 
 the next three centuries," says a modern historian of 
 the Arabian empire, " the successors of Mohammed 
 swayed a feeble sceptre. Sometimes their state was so 
 degraded that they were confined in their palaces like 
 prisoners, and occasionally were almost reduced to the 
 want of corporeal subsistence. The tragic scences of 
 fallen royalty at length were closed; for, towards the 
 middle of the seventh century of the Hegira, the me- 
 tropolis of Islamism fell into the hands of Houlagou 
 Khan, the grandson of Zenghis Khan, and emperor of 
 the Moguls and Tartars, who reigned at that period
 
 136 SECOND DYNASTY OF THE ABBASSIDES 
 
 with absolute and unmixed despotism over every 
 nation of the East. The caliph Mostasem, the thirty- 
 seventh of his house, was murdered under circum- 
 stances of peculiar barbarity, and the caliphate of 
 Bagdad expired. Though the dignity and sovereignty 
 of the caliphs were lost by this fatal event, and the soul 
 which animated the form had fled, yet the name existed 
 for three centuries longer in the eighteen descendants 
 of Mostanser Billah, a son, or pretended son, of Daker, 
 the last but one of this race of princes. 
 
 "Mostanser Billah and his successors, to the num- 
 ber of eighteen, were called the second dynasty of 
 the Abbassides, and were spiritual chiefs of the Mo- 
 hammedan religion, but without the slightest vestige 
 of temporal authority. When Selim, emperor of the 
 Turks, conquered Egypt and destroyed the power of 
 the Mamelukes, he carried the caliph, whom he found 
 there a prisoner, to Constantinople, and accepted from 
 him a<renunciation of his ecclesiastical supremacy. On 
 the death of the caliph, the family of the Abbassides, 
 once so illustrious, and which had borne the title of 
 caliph for almost eight hundred years, sunk with him 
 from obscurity into oblivion."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Literature and Science of the Arabs. Their Facilities for Literary and 
 Scientific Pursuits. Patronage of Literature by the Princes of the 
 House of Abbas. Almamoun. Arabian Schools. Eloquence. 
 Poetry. The Arabian Tales. History. Geography. Speculative 
 Sciences. Astrology. Mathematical Knowledge of the Arabs. As- 
 tronomy. Architecture. The Fine Arts. Agriculture. Medicine. 
 Chemistry. Our obligations to Arab Literature. 
 
 THE early followers of the Arabian prophet were 
 only enthusiastic military adventurers, subdu- 
 ing in their wide and rapid progress most of 
 the nations of the then known world. The lust of 
 power, and successful military enterprise, are com- 
 monly unfavorable to the cultivation of the liberal 
 arts, so that a conquering people usually exhibit but 
 little taste for science or literature. The Goths and the 
 Huns, for instance, were among the most implacable 
 foes of knowledge. Nor did the early Arabs regard it 
 with more favor. Mohammed found his countrymen 
 sunk in the deepest barbarism : he was incapable of 
 any direct effort to raise them ; and, from the ruthless 
 destruction of the Alexandrean library by Omar, one 
 of his earliest 'successors, they appear not to have been 
 in a much better condition after the close than at the 
 commencement of his eventful career. 
 
 Their settlement in the countries they had sub- 
 dued, the unlimited resources which their widespread 
 conquests, placed within their reach, and probably the 
 leisure which their almost universal dominion afforded, 
 speedily led to a change in their character in relation 
 
 137
 
 138 PHILOSOPHY OF THE HINDUS 
 
 to literary pursuits, of which the more enlightened 
 nations of the West are still reaping the advantage. 
 It was about the middle of the seventh century that 
 Omar committed the famous library -of Alexandria to 
 the flames: before the end of the eighth, literature 
 began to enjoy the munificent patronage of the caliphs 
 of the Abbassidan race, who superinduced upon the 
 stern fanaticism of the followers of the Prophet the soft- 
 ening influences of learning; and, by an anomaly in 
 the history of mankind, the most valuable lessons in 
 science and the arts have been received from a people 
 who pursued with relentless hostility the religion and 
 liberties of every other nation. 
 
 The Greeks were the most distinguished patrons 
 of literature and science. Among them philosophy 
 found its earliest home, and the arts are commonly 
 supposed to have sprung up chiefly under their foster- 
 ing care, though modern researches have shown that 
 much of their knowledge was derived from still more 
 ancient sources. Their philosophy, though greatly im- 
 proved by them, was borrowed from the mysteries of 
 the Egyptian priests and the Persian magi. Their 
 system of the universe, which made the nearest ap- 
 proach to the more correct discoveries of modern 
 times, was previously known to the learned Hindus; 
 and it may admit of question whether their whole my- 
 thology, allowing for the additions which a chastened 
 and vivid imagination would make to it, had not its 
 prototype in some Asiatic religio-philosophical system. 
 A learned writer on the erudition of the Asiatics says, 
 that the whole of the theology of the Greeks, and part 
 of the philosophy of modern scientific research, may be 
 found in the Hindu Vedas. He adds, " That most sub-
 
 MOHAMMED ENCOURAGES LEARNING 139 
 
 tile spirit which Newton suspected to pervade natural 
 bodies, and to lie concealed in them so as to cause 
 attraction and repulsion, the emission, reflection, and 
 refraction of light, electricity, calefaction, sensation, 
 and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus as 
 a fifth element, endued with those very powers ; and 
 the Vedas abound with allusions to a force universally 
 attractive, which they chiefly attribute to the sun." 
 The extension, therefore, of the Arabian victories over 
 the Eastern world, and their entire command, after the 
 overthrow of the Greek empire, of the resources pos- 
 sessed by that people, gave them access to all the liter- 
 ary stores then in existence. 
 
 It has been said, and probably not without good 
 reason, that Mohammed himself saw and felt the im- 
 portance of literary distinction. Among the sayings 
 attributed to him, the following has been considered 
 as evincing his sense of the value of learning: "A 
 mind without erudition is like a body without a soul. 
 Glory consists not in wealth, but in knowledge ;" and, 
 as the Koran affords abundant proof, he was by no 
 means unmindful of that mental cultivation, of which 
 the means were within his reach. His immediate fol- 
 lowers, occupied only with the ideas of conquest and 
 conversion, despised equally the religion and learning 
 of the nations they subdued ; but when the age of 
 rapine and violence yielded at length to comparative 
 security and quiet, and the fair and splendid city of 
 the Oriental caliphs arose, the Muses were courted 
 from their ancient temples, and by the rnilder and more 
 graceful achievements of literature and science, efforts 
 were made to expiate the guilt of former conquest, and 
 to shed a purer lustre over the Mohammedan name.
 
 140 HAROUN AL RASCHID 
 
 Almansor, the second of the dynasty of the Abbas- 
 sides, whose reign commenced A. D. 754, and lasted 
 twenty-one years, was among the first of the Arab 
 princes to foster learning and the arts. Jurisprudence 
 and astronomy were the principal subjects of his study, 
 which, however, through the instruction of a Greek 
 physician in his court, he extended to the art of heal- 
 ing, and probably to those kindred arts with which, in 
 all ages and countries, medical science has been con- 
 nected. What progress was made by himself or his 
 subjects, we cannot now ascertain. His two immediate 
 successors seem not to have trodden in his steps, 
 though it is probable they did not undo what he had 
 done ; for the next caliph, Haroun al Raschid, is re- 
 nowned as one of the most munificent patrons that 
 literature ever enjoyed. He was fond of poetry and 
 music : he is said to have constantly surrounded him- 
 self with a great number of learned men ; and to him 
 the Arabs were deeply indebted for the progress in 
 knowledge which they were enabled to make. Every 
 mosque in his dominions had a school attached to it 
 by his order ; and, as if his love of learning were 
 superior even to his hereditary faith, he readily toler- 
 ated men of science who refused to yield to the bold 
 pretensions of the Prophet. A Nestorian Christian 
 presided over his schools, and directed the academical 
 studies of his subjects. His successor imitated his 
 wise and generous course ; and thus knowledge ex- 
 tended from the capital to the most distant extremities 
 of the empire. 
 
 But it was during the reign of Almamoun, the 
 seventh of the Abbassidan princes, A. D. 813-833, that 
 literature flourished most among the Arabs. Learned
 
 ALMAMOUN 141 
 
 men, professors of the Christian faith, had multiplied 
 at Bagdad under the tolerant reigns of his predeces- 
 sors, and they were now liberally encouraged to un- 
 fold their ample stores of knowledge. The copious 
 language of Arabia was employed to communicate 
 whatever that of the Greeks had hitherto concealed, 
 though, with a barbarism for which it is difficult to 
 account, many of the original works were destroyed as 
 soon as translations of them were made. Almamoun in 
 his youth had associated with the most eminent 
 scholars of Greece, Persia, and Chaldea; and he now 
 invited them to his court. Bagdad was resorted to by 
 poets, philosophers, and mathematicians, from every 
 country and of every creed. Armenia, Syria, and 
 Egypt were explored by his agents for literary treas- 
 ures, which were amassed with infinite care, and pre- 
 sented at the foot of the throne as the richest and most 
 acceptable tribute that conquered provinces could 
 render. Camels, hitherto employed exclusively in 
 traffic, were seen entering the royal city laden with 
 Hebrew, Persian, and Grecian manuscripts. The court 
 assumed the appearance rather of an academy than of 
 a council guiding the affairs of a luxurious and warlike 
 government, and all classes were encouraged to apply 
 themselves to the acquisition of knowledge with a zeal 
 commensurate to the advantages thus afforded. " I 
 chose," said Almamoun, when remonstrated with for 
 appointing a learned Christian to an office of no small 
 influence over the intellectual pursuits of his people, 
 " I chose this learned man, not to be my guide in reli- 
 gious affairs, but to be my teacher of science; and it 
 is well known that the wisest men are to be found among 
 the Jews and Christians."
 
 142 TWO CLASSES OF SCHOOLS 
 
 Under such favorable auspices, it is not to be won- 
 dered at that the Saracens became a literary people. 
 The caliphs of the West and of Africa imitated their 
 brethren of the East. "At one period, six thousand 
 professors and pupils cultivated liberal studies in the 
 college of Bagdad. Twenty schools made Grand Cairo 
 a chief seat of letters; and the talents of the students 
 were exercised in the perusal of the royal library, 
 which consisted of one hundred thousand manuscripts. 
 The African writers dwell with pride and satisfaction 
 on the literary institution which adorned the towns on 
 the northern coast of their sandy plain. The sun of 
 science arose even in Africa, and the manners of the 
 Moorish savage were softened by philosophy. Their 
 brethren in Europe amassed numerous and magnificent 
 collections ; two hundred and eighty thousand volumes 
 were in Cordova, and more than seventy libraries were 
 open to public curiosity in the kingdom of Andalusia." 
 
 We know but little of the internal government of 
 the Arabian schools, or of the studies actually pursued. 
 Aristotle, no doubt, was the great master to whom, in 
 philosophy, all deference was paid. The Prophet had 
 prescribed their religion. Their schools were of two 
 kinds, or rather classes ; the one comprehending the in- 
 ferior institutions, in which elementary branches of 
 instruction, such as reading, writing, and religious 
 doctrine were chiefly attended to; the other, called 
 Madras, mostly connected with the mosques, as were 
 all the schools of the former class, included those in- 
 stitutions in which the higher departments of knowl- 
 edge were explored. Here grammar, logic, theology, 
 and jurisprudence were studied. The management 
 of each school was confided to a principal of known
 
 ELOQUENCE AND POETRY OF THE ARABS 143 
 
 ability, and not always a Mohammedan. The pro- 
 fessors lectured on the several sciences ; and the pupils, 
 if not in every department, of which there is some 
 doubt, certainly in that of medicine, were publicly ex- 
 amined, and diplomas were given under the hand of 
 the chief physician. , 
 
 Of elegant composition, the Koran was universally 
 esteemed the model. Hence it was studied with the 
 most diligent care by all who sought to distinguish 
 themselves in the art of eloquence, one of the leading 
 acquirements of Arab scholars. Subordinate to this 
 pre-eminent composition, their schools of oratory 
 boasted of models scarcely inferior to the celebrated 
 orators of antiquity. Malek and Sharaif, the one for 
 pathos, the other for brilliancy, are the chief of these. 
 Horaiai was esteemed as the compeer of Demosthenes 
 and Cicero. Bedreddin, of Grenada, was their " torch 
 of eloquence ;" and Sekaki obtained the honorable des- 
 ignation of the Arabian Quinctilian. 
 
 The ancient Arabs were much inclined to poetry. 
 The wild, romantic scenery of the land they inhabited, 
 the sacred recollections of their earliest history, the 
 life they led, everything around them, contributed to 
 poetic inspiration. After the revival of letters, this 
 art was cultivated with enthusiasm. The heroic meas- 
 ures of Ferdousi, the didactic verses of Sadi, and the 
 lyric strains of Hafiz, even through the medium of im- 
 perfect translations, discover animated descriptions, 
 bold metaphors, and striking expressions, that at once 
 delight and surprise us. In splendor, if not in strength, 
 the poets of the courts of Haroun and Almamoun, or 
 those of the Ommiades of Spain, have, perhaps, in no 
 age been excelled. In this art, as among other people,
 
 144 CHARACTER OF ARAB POETRY 
 
 so among the Arabs, the fair sex have distinguished 
 themselves. Valadata, Aysha, Labana, Safia, and 
 others, ha^e obtained the highest encomiums. 
 
 So great is the number of Arabian poets, that Abul 
 Abbas, a son of Motassem, who wrote an abridgment 
 of their lives in the ninth century, numbers one hun- 
 dred and thirty. Other authors have occupied twenty- 
 four, thirty, and one no less than fifty volumes, in 
 recording their history. 
 
 The Arabs, however, are entirely without epic 
 poetry, so important a department of the art ; nor have 
 they anything that may be properly ranked as dramatic 
 composition. Sophocles, Euripides, Terence, and 
 Seneca, the classic models of Greece and Rome, they 
 despised as timid, constrained, and cold; and under 
 whatever obligation to these ancient nations the Arabs 
 may have been in other departments of literature, they 
 owe them nothing, or next to nothing, in this. Their 
 poetry was original and local ; their figures and com- 
 parisons were strictly their own. To understand and 
 properly appreciate them, we must have a knowledge 
 of the productions of their country, and of the char- 
 acter, institutions, and manners of its inhabitants. 
 The muse delights in illustrations and figures bor- 
 rowed from pastoral life ; that of Judea revels among 1 
 the roses of Sharon, the verdant slopes of Carmel, and 
 the glory of Lebanon ; while the Arab muse selects for 
 her ornaments the pearls of Omar, the musk of Hadra- 
 maut, the groves and nightingales of Aden, and the 
 spicy odors of Yemen. If these appear to us fantastic, 
 it must be remembered they are borrowed from ob- 
 jects and scenes to which we are almost utter strangers. 
 
 Who is not familiar with the Alif lita wa lilin, or
 
 HISTORICAL WORKS OF THE ARABS 145 
 
 the thousand and one tales, commonly known as the 
 Arabian Nights' Entertainment? Some have ques- 
 tioned whether they are an original work, or a trans- 
 lation from the Indian or Persian, made in the Augus- 
 tan age of Arab literature : a doubt certainly not war- 
 ranted by any want of exactness in their description 
 of Arabian life and manners. They seem to have been 
 originally the legends of itinerant story-tellers, a class 
 of persons still very numerous in every part of the 
 Mohammedan world. The scenes they unfold, true to 
 nature; the simplicity displayed in their characters, 
 their beauty and their moral instruction, appeal irre- 
 sistibly to the hearts of all; while the learned concede 
 to them the merit of more perfectly describing the 
 manners of the singular people from whom they 
 sprung, than the works of any traveler, however ac- 
 complished and indefatigable. 
 
 Of history the ancient Arabs were strangely negli- 
 gent; but, by the modern, this department of knowl- 
 edge has been cultivated with greater care and success. 
 Annals, chronicles, and memoirs, almost numberless, 
 are extant among them; kingdoms, provinces, and 
 towns are described, and their history is narrated in 
 volumes, a bare catalogue of which would extend to a 
 wearisome length. They abound, however, more in 
 the fanciful than in the substantial and correct. Of 
 this, the titles of some of the most approved works of 
 this kind may be taken as specimens: A chronology 
 of the Caliphs of Spain and Africa is denominated " A 
 Silken Vest, embroidered with the Needle ;" a History 
 of Grenada, "A Specimen of the Full Moon;" Ibn 
 Abbas and Abu Bakri are authors of historical collec- 
 tions, entitled respectively, " Mines of Silver," and 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 10
 
 146 KNOWLEDGE OF GEOGRAPHY 
 
 " Pearls and Picked-Up Flowers." Yet some of their 
 writers, as Ibn Kutaiba, are chiefly remarkable for the 
 extent and accuracy of their historical knowledge ; and 
 some of their 'works are exceedingly voluminous. A 
 full history of Spain occupied six authors in succes- 
 sion, and cost the labor of one hundred and fifteen 
 years to complete. Their biography was not confined 
 to men. Ibn Zaid and Abul Mondar wrote a genealog- 
 ical history of distinguished horses ; and Alasucco and 
 Abdolmalec performed the same service for camels 
 worthy of being held in remembrance. Encyclopaedias 
 and gazetteers, with dictionaries of the sciences and 
 other similar works, occupied Arabian pens long before 
 they came into vogue among more modern literati. 
 Every species of composition, indeed, and almost every 
 subject, in one age or another, have engaged the at- 
 tention of learned Mohammedans. 
 
 Geography they did not so well understand, their 
 means of acquiring knowledge on this subject being 
 exceedingly limited. Yet their public libraries could 
 boast of globes, voyages, and itineraries, the produc- 
 tions of men who traveled to acquire geographical in- 
 formation. With statistics and political economy they 
 had but an imperfect acquaintance ; yet so early as the 
 reign of Omar II., we find a work devoted to these 
 subjects, giving an account of the provinces and cities 
 of Spain, with its rivers, ports, and harbors; of the 
 climate, soil, mountains, plants, and minerals of that 
 country ; with its imports, and the manner in which its 
 several productions, natural and artificial, might be 
 manufactured and applied to the best advantage. 
 Money, weights, and measures, with whatever else 
 political economy may be understood to include, were
 
 STUDY OF ASTROLOGY 147 
 
 also subjects which employed their ingenious specula- 
 tions, and, in some cases, their laborious research. 
 
 The speculative sciences, scarcely less than polite 
 literature, flourished among the Arabs. Indeed, what 
 superstitious, enthusiastic people has ever neglected 
 these? Their ardor in the more dignified of these pur- 
 suits was badly regulated ; subtleties were preferred to 
 important practical truths ; and, frequently, the more 
 ingenious the sophism, constructed after the rules of 
 Aristotle, the more welcome was it to men who ren- 
 dered to that philosopher a homage almost idolatrous^ 
 The later Arabs, and the Turks of the present day, pay 
 no little attention to astrology, though it is strongly 
 prohibited by their Prophet. This science was univer- 
 sally employed by the idolaters, against whom his 
 denunciations are scarcely less inveterate than are 
 those of the inspired voltrme ; and doubtless he appre- 
 hended that its prevalence would hazard the integrity, 
 if not the very existence, of his own system of religion. 
 For many ages, therefore, it was discountenanced; 
 but, at length, the habit of consulting the stars on im- 
 portant public occasions became frequent, and was 
 attended with as much anxiety and as many absurd 
 ceremonies as disgraced the nations of antiquity. 
 Among the modern Mohammedans, no dignity of state 
 is conferred ; no public edifice is founded, except at a 
 time recommended by astrologers. These pretenders 
 to knowledge are supported by persons of rank ; and in 
 vain do the more enlightened part of the community 
 exclaim that astrology is a false science. " Do not 
 think," said a prime minister, who had been consulting 
 a soothsayer as to the time of putting on a new dress, 
 " that I am such a fool as to put faith in all this non-
 
 148 MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE 
 
 sense ; but I must not make my family unhappy by 
 refusing to comply with forms which some of them 
 deem of consequence." 
 
 After^hese references to the polite literature of the 
 Arabs, it will be expected that they should have paid 
 attention to the natural sciences. They were not, in- 
 deed, discoverers and inventors, but they considerably 
 improved upon what they acquired in their extensive 
 intercourse with other nations ; and, as forming the link 
 which unites ancient and modern letters, they are en- 
 titled to our respect and gratitude. We derive our 
 mathematics from them ; and to them, algo, we owe 
 much of our astronomical knowledge. Almamoun, by 
 a liberal reward, sought to engage in his service a 
 famous mathematician of Constantinople; and Ibn 
 Korrah enriched the stores of his country in this de- 
 partment with translations of Archimedes and the 
 conies of Apollonius. Some have said that, on the 
 revival of European literature in the fifteenth century, 
 mathematical science was found nearly in the state in 
 which it had been left by Euclid ; and the justly cele- 
 brated Brucker contends, that the Arabs made no 
 progress whatever in this most important branch of 
 knowledge ; later writers, however, and particularly 
 Montucla, the author of the Historic des Mathemat- 
 iques, have done ample justice to their researches. 
 Numerical characters, without which our study of the 
 exact sciences were almost in vain, beyond all doubt 
 came to us from the Arabs: not that they invented 
 them it is probable they were originally words, per- 
 haps Hindu words, expressing the quantities they 
 respectively represent, but abbreviated and brought to 
 their present convenient form by the followers of the
 
 ASTRONOMY OF THE ARABS 149 
 
 Prophet. Trigonometry and algebra are both indebted 
 to their genius. The sines of the one of these sciences 
 instead of the more ancient chord, and the representa- 
 tives of quantities in the other, descend through the 
 Arabs to us, if they did not at first invent them. 
 Original works on spherical trigonometry are among 
 the productions of Ibn Musa and Geber, the former of 
 whom is accounted the inventor of the solution of equa- 
 tions of the second degree. The University of Leyden 
 still retains a manuscript treatise on the algebra of 
 cubic equations, by Omar .Ibn Ibrahim ; and Casiri, 
 who preserved and classed 1851 manuscripts, even 
 after a fire had destroyed the magnificent collection of 
 the Escurial, informs us, that the principles and praises 
 of algebraic science were sung in an elaborate poem by 
 .Alcassem, a native of Grenada. These departments of 
 knowledge were studied by the Arabs as early as the 
 eighth and ninth centuries. 
 
 Astronomy, the science of a pastoral people, and 
 eminently so in regions with an almost cloudless sky, 
 like the East, was studied with great eagerness by 
 Arabian philosophers. Almamoun, who has been be- 
 fore mentioned, was ardently devoted to it: at his cost 
 the necessary instruments of observation were pro- 
 vided, and a complete digest of the science was made. 
 The land where, many ages before, this science had 
 been successfully studied by the Chaldeans, was in his 
 power, and upon its ample plains a degree of the 
 earth's circle was repeatedly measured, so as to deter- 
 mine the whole circumference of the globe to be 
 twenty-four thousand miles. The obliquity of the 
 ecliptic they settled at twenty-three degrees and a half: 
 the annual movement of the equinoxes and the dura-
 
 150 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ARABS 
 
 tion of the tropical year were brought to within a very 
 little of the exact observations of modern times, the 
 slight error they admitted resulting from the prefer- 
 ence they gave to the system of Ptolemy. Albathani, 
 or, as his name has been Latinized, Albatenius, in the 
 ninth century, after continuing his observations for 
 forty years, drew up tables, known as the Sabean 
 tables, which, though not now in very high repute be- 
 cause of more accurate calculations, were for a long 1 
 time justly esteemed. Other Arabian astronomers 
 have rendered considerable service to this science. 
 Mohammedanism did not, like ancient paganism, adore 
 the stars; but its disciples studied them with a dili- 
 gence, without which, perhaps, Newton, Flam-stead, 
 and Halley had observed and calculated almost in vain. 
 Architecture was an art in which the Arabs greatly 
 excelled ; their wide extension gave them command of 
 whatever was worthy of observation, and their vast 
 revenues afforded the most abundant means of indulg- 
 ing a taste thus called into exercise. The history of 
 Arabian architecture comprises a period of about eight 
 centuries, including its rise, progress, and decay : their 
 building materials were mostly obtained from the 
 ruined structures and cities that fell into their hands; 
 and if no one particular style was followed by them, 
 it was because they successfully studied most of the 
 styles then known. On their buildings but little ex- 
 ternal art was bestowed ; all their pains were exhausted 
 on the interior, where no expense was spared that 
 could promote luxurious ease and personal comfort. 
 Their walls and ceilings were highly embellished, and 
 the light was mostly admitted in such manner as, by 
 excluding all external objects, to confine the admira-
 
 THE FINE ARTS AMONG THE ARABS 151 
 
 tion of the spectator to the beauties produced within. 
 With the art of preserving their structures from decay 
 they must have had an adequate acquaintance. Their 
 stucco composition may still be found as hard as stone, 
 without a crack or flaw : the floors and ceilings of the 
 Alhambra, the ancient palace of Grenada, have been 
 comparatively uninjured by the neglect and dilapida- 
 tion of nearly seven centuries ; while their paint retains 
 its color so bright and rich as to be occasionally mis- 
 taken for mother-of-pearl. Sir Christopher Wren de- 
 rives the Gothic architecture from the Mohammedans ; 
 and the crescent arch, a symbol of one of the deities 
 anciently worshipped throughout the heathen world, 
 was first adopted by the Arabs of Syria, and invariably 
 used on all the edifices erected during the supremacy 
 of the Ommiades. 'The succeeding dynasty declined 
 following this model ; but, during the reign of the 
 house of Moawiyah, in Spain, it was imitated from the 
 Atlantic to the Pyrenees. 
 
 The fine arts, paintings, and sculpture, were not so 
 much cultivated among the early Mohammedans : they 
 were thought to involve a breach of the divine law. In 
 this particular they agreed with the Jews. Subse- 
 quently, however, these scruples were, by degrees, 
 overcome ; that style of embellishment denominated 
 Arabesque, which rejects figures of men and animals, 
 being first adopted, and afterward sculpture, more 
 nearly resembling that of modern times. The Alham- 
 bra, or palace of that suburb, had its lions, its orna- 
 mented tiles, and its paintings. Abdal-Rahman III. 
 placed a statue of his favorite mistress over the palace 
 he erected for her abode. Music was ardently culti- 
 vated. At first, in the desert, its strains were rude
 
 152 MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE AKABS 
 
 and simple ; subsequently, the professors of the art 
 were as much cherished, honored, and rewarded, as 
 were the poets in the courts of the Arab sovereigns. 
 Many were celebrated for their skill in this art, 
 especially Isaac Almouseli. Al Farabi has been de- 
 nominated the Arabian Orpheus : by his astonishing 
 command of the lute, he could produce laughter, or 
 tears, or sleep in his auditors at pleasure. He wrote a 
 considerable work on music, which is preserved in the 
 Escurial. Abul Faragi is also a famous writer among 
 the Mohammedans on this subject. To them we are 
 indebted for the invention of the lute, which they ac- 
 counted more perfect than any other instrument; the 
 use, also, of many of our modern instruments, as the 
 organ, flute, harp, tabor, and mandoline, was common 
 among them. Some say that the national instrument 
 of the Scottish highlander is taken from them. 
 
 In many of the useful arts of modern days the Arabs 
 were proficients ; as agriculture, gardening, metallurgy, 
 and the preparing of leather. The names Morocco and 
 Cordovan are still applied, in this latter art, to leather 
 prepared after the Arabian method. They manufac- 
 tured and dyed silk and cotton, made paper, were ac- 
 quainted with the use of gunpowder, and have claims 
 to the honor of inventing the mariner's compass. But 
 perhaps there is no art in which their knowledge is so 
 much a subject of curious inquiry as medicine. Their 
 country was salubrious, their habits simple, and their 
 indulgences few ; so that large opportunities of prac- 
 tically studying the art* at least among the Arabs of 
 earlier date, would not occur. Anatomy, except that 
 of the brute creation, was shut up from their study by 
 the prejudices of their creed ; yet they excelled in med-
 
 CHEMISTRY AMONG THE ARABS 153 
 
 ical skill. Hareth ibn Kaldar, an eminent practitioner 
 settled at Mecca, was honored with the conversation 
 and applause of Mohammed. Honain was an eminent 
 Arab physician in the middle of the sixth century ; 
 Messue, the celebrated preceptor of Almamoun, be- 
 longed to this profession;. and a host of others adorn 
 the early annals of the Saracens. Al Rhagi, or Rhages, 
 as commonly called, and Abdallah Ibn Sina, or Avi- 
 cenna, are names to which, for centuries, deference was 
 paid by professors of the healing art throughout 
 Europe, though it would not be difficult to show that 
 their doctrines and practice must have been beyond 
 measure absurd. They administered gold and silver, 
 and precious stones to purify the blood. 
 
 Of chemistry, so far as it relates to medicine, the 
 Arabs may be considered as the inventors ; and botany, 
 in the same connection, they cultivated with great suc- 
 cess. Geber, in the eighth century, is known as their 
 principal chemical writer ; he is said to have composed 
 five hundred volumes, almost every one of which is 
 lost. The early nomenclature of the science indicates 
 how much it owes to this people. Alcohol, alembic, 
 alkali, aluclel, and other similar terms, are evidently of 
 Arabic origin ; nor should it be forgotten that the char- 
 acters used for drugs, essences, extracts, and medicines, 
 the import of which is now almost entirely unknown 
 (and which are consequently invested, in vulgar esti- 
 mation, with occult powers), are all to be traced to the 
 some source. 
 
 It may be impossible now to estimate accurately the 
 extent of our obligations to Arabian literature. An 
 empire so widely spread, by the encouragement it gave 
 to letters, must have had a beneficial influence on
 
 154 OBLIGATIONS OF SCIENCE TO THE ARABS 
 
 almost every country. Europeans, whether subject to 
 its sway or only contemplating it from a distance, 
 copied or emulated the example. Gerbert, who sub- 
 sequently occupied the papal chair as Sylvester II., ac- 
 quired the Arabic method of computation during his 
 travels in Spain, previously to his elevation. Leon- 
 ardo, a Pisan merchant, obtained a knowledge o^the 
 same art in his intercourse with the Mohammedans on 
 the coast of Africa ; and by him it was introduced into 
 his own native republic, from whence it was soon com- 
 municated to the Western World. In the city of 
 Salernum, a port of Italy, Mussulmans and Christians 
 so intermixed as to communicate insensibly the litera- 
 ture of the Saracens to the Italians, and in the schools 
 of that city students were collected from every quarter 
 of Europe. Arabic books, by command of Charle- 
 magne, were translated into Latin for the use of learned 
 men throughout his vast empire ; and, without exagger- 
 ating the merits of the followers of the Prophet, it may 
 be admitted that we are indebted to them for the re- 
 vival of the exact and physical sciences, and for many 
 of those useful arts and inventions that have totally 
 changed the aspect of European literature, and are still 
 contributing to the civilization, freedom, and best inter- 
 ests of man.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The present Condition of Mohammedanism. In Turkey. The Doctrines 
 believed there. Their Forms of Devotion. Lustrations. Prayer. 
 Mohammedan Sabbath. Fast of Ramadan. Meccan Pilgrimage. 
 Proselytism. Mohammedan Hierarchy. Islamism in Tartary. In 
 Hindustan. In China. In Persia. In Africa. In the Indian Archi- 
 pelago. The Sooffees. The Wahabees. 
 
 THE present condition of the Mohammedan faith, 
 with some account of the standing it maintains 
 in the world, will not be deemed an inappro- 
 priate subject for the closing pages of this volume. Its 
 votaries have long ceased to spread alarm through the 
 nations by their victorious and devastating progress ; 
 the fire of its fanaticism is almost extinct ; nevertheless, 
 its doctrines prevail over a number of mankind almost 
 equal to any other system of false religion ; they are 
 professed in nations and countries remote from each 
 other, and having no other mutual resemblance than 
 that involved in their common superstition. In Spain, 
 indeed, Christianity has triumphed over Islamism ; and 
 in the inhospitable regions of Siberia, a part of the 
 ancient Tartary, its advance has been somewhat 
 checked ; but in middle and lower Asia, and in Africa, 
 the number of Mohammed's followers has increased. 
 We cannot state with accuracy the number either of 
 Mohammedan or of nominal Christians; but, looking 
 at religion geographically, while Christianity has al- 
 most entire dominion in Europe, in Asia Islamism is one 
 of the dominant, religions: in America the cross is 
 
 155
 
 156 TURKISH EMPIRE 
 
 rapidly becoming the symbol of faith throughout both 
 its vast continents ; but in Africa the crescent waves 
 to the almost entire exclusion of every other emblem. 
 
 It is in Turkey that Mohammedanism, exists at the 
 present day in its most perfect form. To this country, 
 therefore, our attention shall be first directed. 
 
 Constantinople, anciently called Byzantium, and 
 the countries over which the Greek emperors residing 
 in that city reigned, were subdued by the powerful 
 caliphs of Bagdad, while those of Spain and the West 
 were endeavoring to push their conquests over the 
 fairest portions of Europe. The situation of Constanti- 
 nople and the surrounding empire lay especially open 
 to the Eastern Mohammedans, whose warlike incur- 
 sions were incessant. Tartars from Asia overran the 
 empire. Othman, in the early part of the thirteenth 
 century, laid the foundation of Turkish greatness. Or- 
 chan, Amurath, and Bajazet, his successors, amid both 
 foreign and domestic wars, greatly contributed to its 
 establishment and increase. The children of the last 
 of these conquerors threw the empire into a frightful 
 state of distraction by their unnatural quarrels, till, at 
 last, the youngest of them, named after the Prophet, 
 restored its integrity, and established something like 
 domestic tranquillity. Under a grandson of his, Mo- 
 hammed II., whom Bayle describes as one of the great- 
 est men recorded in history, the Morea was subjugated, 
 and the Greek empire, so long shaken by internal dis- 
 sensions, and tottering to dissolution by its luxury, was 
 trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors. Con- 
 stantinople at last yielded to their power, and a palace 
 for the victor was erected on the very spot which Con- 
 stantine had chosen for his magnificent abode.
 
 RELIGIOUS CREED OF THE TURKS 157 
 
 From this time to that of Solyman the Magnificent, 
 to whom the Turks owe their laws and police, the em- 
 pire continued to prosper, but immediately afterward 
 its decline commenced. Letters and science have made 
 but little progress among that people, and their sultans 
 have possessed none of the martial enterprise and en- 
 ergy of their early predecessors ; still the faith of Mo- 
 hammed has maintained, and down to this day con- 
 tinues to maintain, a hold which it enjoys in almost no 
 other country. 
 
 The Turks generally repose the most implicit faith 
 in the two leading articles of the Mohammedan creed, 
 that there is but one God, and that Mohammed is his 
 Prophet; and since, in the opinion of the Moslems, a 
 simple assent to these doctrines comprises all that is 
 valuable in religion, and will be surely followed by the 
 possession of heaven, either immediately or remotely, 
 it is readily conceivable that infidelity will be exceed- 
 ingly rare. In religious matters, the heart opposes not 
 so much what is to be believed as what is to be done. 
 
 Minor points of their theology have been from time 
 to time disputed, but these may be regarded as gen- 
 erally settled. Predestination is one of the chief dog- 
 mas on which the faith of the Turk is as firmly fixed 
 as on the most momentous article in his creed. Fatal- 
 ism was the great engine employed by Mohammed in 
 establishing his religion ; and among the Turks this doc- 
 trine is received as regulating their destiny, controlling 
 all events, and determining the results of every individ- 
 ual's actions ; thus unnerving the soul for generous and 
 manly enterprise, and casting a lethargy on the whole 
 nation. In everything the operations of reason are 
 checked, and even made to wait for the imagined man-
 
 158 DOCTRINE OF FATALISM 
 
 ifestations of Deity. According to the creed of the 
 Turks, not only is everything foreknown to God, but 
 everything is predetermined, and brought about by his 
 direct and immediate agency. 
 
 The Turk is keen and wise in his ordinary transac- 
 tions; in promoting his own interests, he knows how 
 to exercise the powers of his mind ; but, when difficulty 
 or doubt overtakes him, he makes no effort. The thick 
 cloud of his misfortunes is suffered to remain; his 
 troubles are yielded to with sullen indifference ; he con- 
 siders it impious to oppose the determinations of the 
 Most High. To all improvement, such a doctrine is a 
 decided and invincible foe; in some circumstances, 
 however, it appears to have its advantages. Does a 
 Mohammedan suffer by calamity? Is he plundered or 
 ruined? He does not fruitlessly bewail his lot. His 
 answer to all murmuring suggestions is, " It was writ- 
 ten ;" and to the most unexpected transition from 
 opulence to poverty, he submits without a sign. The 
 approach of death does not disturb his tranquillity; he 
 makes his ablution, repeats his prayers, professes his 
 belief in God and his Prophet, and in a last appeal 
 to the aid of affection, he says to his child, " turn my 
 head towards Mecca," and calmly expires. 
 
 A people's religion is traced in their established 
 and common forms of devotion, and none are more 
 attentive to these than the Turks. To neglect any 
 ceremony which their religion prescribes, is deemed a 
 mark either of inferior understanding or of depraved 
 character. Public decorum is everywhere observed; 
 and though both moral and religious precepts are vio- 
 lated with impunity and without remorse, they are 
 always spoken of with great respect. A Mohammedan
 
 PURIFICATIONS AMONG THE TURKS 159 
 
 is never ashamed to defend his faith ; and of his sin- 
 cerity and firmness, the earnestness of his vindication 
 may be taken as sufficient proof: he not unfrequently 
 interrupts the progress of conversation by repeating his 
 religious formula. In the Turkish towns, travelers are 
 incessantly met with the cry of Allah Ackbar ; and by 
 Mussulmans, who would be esteemed pious, the divine 
 name is as frequently repeated as if reverent and de- 
 vout thoughts were habitually uppermost in their 
 minds. 
 
 Purifications are constantly, and with great strict- 
 ness, performed by the Mussulmans of every country, 
 but especially by those of Turkey. Their professed ob- 
 ject is to render the body fit for the decorous perform- 
 ance of religious duties; no act being praiseworthy or 
 acceptable, in their estimation, unless the person of the 
 performer be in a condition of purity. Some have 
 thought, but without sufficient grounds, that these ex- 
 ternal purifications are believed to supersede an inward 
 cleansing of the heart. Fountains placed round their 
 mosques, and numerous baths in every city, enable the 
 devout to perform their five prayers daily, during 
 which, if they chance to receive pollution from any- 
 thing accidentally coming in contact with them, their 
 devotions are suspended till the offensive inconvenience 
 is removed by water or other means. 
 
 At the appointed hour, the Maazeens or criers, with 
 their faces towards Mecca, their eyes closed, and their 
 hands upraised, pace the little galleries of the minarets 
 or towers of the mosques, and proclaim in Arabic, the 
 Moslem language of devotion, that the season of prayer 
 has arrived. Instantly, every one, whatever may be his 
 rank or employment, gives himself up to it. Ministers
 
 160 FREQUENT PRAYERS 
 
 of state suspend the most important affairs, and pros- 
 trate themselves on the floor ; the tradesman forgets his 
 dealings, and transforms his shop into a place of devo- 
 tion; and the student lays aside his books, to go 
 through his accustomed supplications. " Never to fail 
 in his prayers " is the highest commendation a Turk 
 can receive; and so prejudicial is the suspicion of irre- 
 ligion, that even libertines dare not disregard the 
 notices of the Maazeen. The mosques, like chapels in 
 Catholic countries, are always open, and two or three 
 times every day prayers are offered within their walls. 
 It has often been remarked, that the devotions of 
 Christians might acquire something valuable from the 
 gravity, the decorum, and the apparently intense occu- 
 pation of mind in Turkish worship. The Jews trod 
 their holy place barefoot: the Turks, on the contrary, 
 keep on their boots and shoes. Christians uncover 
 their heads in prayer; the Moslems seldom lay aside 
 their turbans ; but for hours they will remain prostrate, 
 or standing in one position, as if absorbed in the most 
 intense abstraction. They have neither altars, pictures, 
 nor statues in their places of worship. Verses of the 
 Koran, the names and personal descriptions of their 
 Prophet, of Ali and his two sons, Hassan and Hosein, 
 with other Moslem saints, are sometimes inscribed in 
 letters of gold on their walls. All distinctions of rank 
 and profession are forgotten when they pray. Per- 
 sons of every class, on the first sound of the accus- 
 tomed cry, cast themselves on the ground, and thus 
 declare their belief in the equality of mankind, in the 
 sight of the great Father of all. 
 
 The Mohammedans of Turkey have a Sabbath, for 
 which the Jewish or Christian may be supposed to
 
 SABBATH OF THE TURKS 161 
 
 have furnished the model. Friday is their day of rest, 
 which commences on the preceding evening, when the 
 illuminated minarets and colonnades of the mosques 
 give to their cities the appearance of a festival. At 
 noon, on Friday, all business is suspended, the mosques 
 are filled, and prayers are read by the appointed officers, 
 accompanied by the prostrations of the people. Dis- 
 courses are likewise frequently delivered on practical 
 points in their theology ; and, sometimes, in the ardor 
 of excitement, political corruption and courtly de- 
 pravity are fiercely assailed. A voluptuous sultan has 
 been known, under the effect of these discourses, to 
 tear himself from the soft indulgences of his harem and 
 court, to lead his martial subjects to war and victory 
 on the plains of their enemies. As soon as the public 
 religious services are concluded, all return to their 
 ordinary pursuits; the day, however, is strictly ob- 
 served by all classes in the manner prescribed by law, 
 it being a received maxim that he who, without legiti- 
 mate cause, absents himself from public devotion on 
 three successive Fridays, abjures his religion. It is 
 worthy of observation, that the prayers of the Turks 
 consist chiefly of adoration, of confessions of the 
 divine attributes and the nothingness of man, and of 
 homage and gratitude to the Supreme Being. A Turk 
 must not pray for the frail and perishable blessings of 
 this life ; the health of the sultan, the prosperity of his 
 country, and divisions and wars among the Christians 
 alone excepted. The legitimate object of prayer they 
 hold to be spiritual gifts, and happiness in a future 
 state of being. 
 
 No one of their religious institutions is more 
 strictly observed by the Turks than the fast of Ram- 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 11
 
 162 FAST OF RAMADAN 
 
 adan. He who violates it is reckoned either an infidel 
 or an apostate; and if two witnesses establish his 
 offense, he is deemed to have incurred the severest 
 penalty of the law. Abstinence from food, and even 
 from the use of perfumes, from sunrise to sunset, is 
 enjoined. The rich pass the hours in meditation and 
 prayer, the grandees sleep away their time, but the 
 laboring man, pursuing his daily toil, most heavily 
 feels its rigor. " When the month of Ramadan hap- 
 pens in the extremities of the seasons, the prescribed 
 abstinence is almost intolerable, and is more severe 
 than the practice of any moral duty, even to the most 
 vicious and depraved of mankind." During the day 
 all traffic is suspended ; but in the evening, and till late 
 at night, it is actively carried on in the streets, shops, 
 and bazars, most splendidly illuminated. From sunset 
 to sunrise, revelry and excess are indulged in. Every 
 night there is a feast among the great officers of the 
 court: the reserve of the Turkish character is laid 
 aside, and friends and relations cement their union by 
 mutual intercourse. Sumptuous banquets and con- 
 vivial hilarity are universal ; and, were not women 
 everywhere excluded from the tables of the men, the 
 pleasure of the festivals would amply compensate the 
 rigorous self-denial of their fasts. 
 
 The pilgrimage to Mecca is with the Turks more 
 a matter of form than of reality. Its importance as a 
 part of the Moslem ritual is admitted, and apparently 
 felt, but the number of pilgrims annually decreases. 
 The sultan, having dominion over the country through 
 which the pilgrims must pass, preserves the public 
 ways leading to the venerated city; the best soldiers 
 of his empire are charged with the protection of the
 
 PROSELYTISM AMONG THE TURKS 163 
 
 caravans, which are sometimes numerous; but of his 
 own subjects, properly so called, few comparatively 
 accompany them ; they are made up of devotees from 
 a greater distance. The sultan, no doubt, encourages 
 the pilgrimage as much on commercial as on religious 
 grounds. The Koran has determined it to be very 
 proper to intermingle commerce and religion: 
 shall be no crime in you," it says, " if ye seek an in- 
 crease from your Lord by trading during the pilgrim- 
 age." Accordingly, articles of easy carriage and ready 
 sale are brought by the pilgrims from every country. 
 The productions and manufactures of India thus find 
 their way into other parts of Asia and throughout 
 Africa. The muslins and chintses of Bengal and the 
 Deccan, the shawls of Cashmere, the pepper of Mala- 
 bar, the diamonds of Golconda, the pearls of Kilkau, 
 the cinnamon of Ceylon, and the spices of the Mo- 
 luccas, are made to yield advantage to the Ottoman 
 empire, and the luxury of its subjects is sustained by 
 contributions from the most distant nations. 
 
 Mohammedans of the present day, at least those of 
 Turkey, are less anxious to make proselytes than were 
 those of a former age. Those of India and Africa, how- 
 ever, to a great extent, still retain the sentiment, that 
 to convert infidels is an ordinance of God, and must be 
 observed by the faithful in all ages; but in Turkey 
 little desire of this kind is felt, chiefly because, by a 
 refinement of uncharitableness, the conversion of the 
 world is deemed unworthy of their endeavors. Now 
 and then a devout Moslem, instigated by zeal or per- 
 sonal attachment, may offer up this prayer for a Jew 
 or a Christian: "Great God, enlighten this infidel, 
 and graciously dispose his heart to embrace thy holy
 
 164 THE OULEMA 
 
 religion ; " and perhaps to a youth, esteemed for his tal- 
 ents or knowledge, the language of persuasion may 
 occasionally be addressed with an air of gentleness 
 and urbanity; but the zeal of the missionary is in such 
 cases commonly subject to what are conceived to be 
 the rules of good breeding, and a vague reply or silence 
 is regarded as an indication that the subject is dis- 
 agreeable, and should not be continued. A Mussulman 
 may pray for the conversion of infidels, but, till they 
 are converted, no blessing may be supplicated in their 
 behalf. " Their death is eternal, why pray for them? " 
 is the language of the Mohammedan creed : do not 
 " defile your feet by passing over the graves of men 
 who are enemies of God and of his Prophet." 
 
 Of the Mohammedan hierarchy, some idea may be 
 obtained from the form it assumes in Turkey. The 
 Koran is considered the treasure of all laws, divine 
 and human, and the caliphs as the depositaries of this 
 treasure ; so that they are at once the pontiffs, legisla- 
 tors, and judges of the people, and their office com- 
 bines all authority, whether sacerdotal, regal, or judi- 
 cial. To the grand sultan titles are given, styling him 
 the vicar, or the shadow of God. The several powers 
 which pertain to him in this august^capacity are dele- 
 gated to a body of learned men, called the Oulema. In 
 this body three descriptions of officers are included: 
 the ministers of religion, called the Imams ; the ex- 
 pounders of the law, called the Muftis; and the min- 
 isters of justice, called the Cadis. The ministers of 
 religion are divided into chief and inferior, the former 
 of whom only belong to the Oulema. Both classes are 
 made up of Sheiks, or ordinary preachers ; the Khatibs, 
 readers or deacons; the Imams, a title comprising
 
 MINISTERS OF RELIGION 165 
 
 those who perform the service of the mosque on or- 
 dinary days, and those to whom pertain the ceremonies 
 of circumcision, marriage, and burial; the Maazeens, 
 or criers, who announce the hours of prayer; and the 
 Cayuns, or common attendants of the mosque. The 
 idea of this classification was, perhaps, taken from the 
 Mosaic priesthood; the Khatib being the Aaron, and 
 the next four the several orders of the Levites, with 
 their servants or helpers. The imperial temples have 
 one Sheik, one Khatib, from two to four Imams, 
 twelve Maazeens, and twenty Cayuns, among whom, 
 except in a few of the chief mosques of Constantinople, 
 the Khatibs have the pre-eminence. All these min- 
 isters are subject to the civil magistrate, who is looked 
 upon as a sort of diocesan, and who may perform at 
 any time all the sacerdotal functions. The ministers 
 of religion are not distinguishable from other people; 
 they mix in the same society, engage in similar pur- 
 suits, and affect no greater austerity than marks the 
 behavior of Mussulmans generally. Their influence 
 depends entirely on their reputation for learning and 
 talents, for gravity and correct moral conduct; their 
 employment is, for the most part, very simple, as 
 chanting aloud the public service, and performing such 
 offices as every master of a family may discharge. As 
 Mohammedanism acknowledges no sacrifices, it ap- 
 points no priests; the duties performed by the min- 
 isters of religion being seemingly devolved on them 
 more as a matter of convenience than on account of 
 any sacredness attaching to their order. 
 
 The vast country to which the general name of 
 Tartary has been given, is that from whence Mo- 
 hammedanism has gone forth to the East, the West,
 
 166 EXTENT OF THE MOHAMMEDAN FAITH 
 
 and the South. In Thibet, the Grand Lama and vari- 
 ous national idols hold divided empire with the 
 Prophet; and in the inhospitable regions of Siberia, 
 the churches of Greece and Russia have successfully 
 promulgated the Christian doctrines; while the Cir- 
 cassians, with some other Tartar races, are almost 
 without religion. In the Crimea, the people are Mus- 
 sulmans, as rigid and devoted as the Turks; and over 
 the vast tract called by modern geographers Russian 
 and Chinese Tartary, the crescent triumphantly waves. 
 From these regions sprung, in the earlier ages of Mo- 
 hammedan conquest, those vast empires which, in the 
 East, comprise so large a number of the professors of 
 the faith of Islam. The first sovereign of this country, 
 to whom the title of sultan was awarded early in the 
 tenth century, conducted several expeditions into Hin- 
 dustan, and secured the 'homage of many of the cities. 
 The ancient Indian superstition was in a great measure 
 overturned by his victorious arms. Long and fierce 
 contests ensued : the princes of the subdued provinces, 
 often throwing off their forced allegiance, endeavored 
 to regain their independence and re-establish their 
 ancient faith, till, at length, the great Timtirlane, hav- 
 ing overrun the country with his legions, received at 
 Agra the title of Emperor of Hindustan. Scarcely, 
 however, had two centuries and a half rolled away, 
 when his successors fell in their turn under the Per- 
 sian power; and the empire he established was weak- 
 ened, and ultimately destroyed. As the result of these 
 conquests, Mohammedanism prevailed to a great ex- 
 tent, but rather nominally than really, among the mil- 
 lions of India: it was the religion of the court and gov- 
 ernment; but, either from indifference or timidity in
 
 HINDUSTAN TARTARS AND PERSIANS 167 
 
 the Moslem conquerors, the ancient idols still held ex- 
 tensive influence, and were at length gradually re- 
 stored. In the twelfth century, Benares, the ancient 
 seat of Brahminical learning and of Hindu idolatry, 
 fell into the hands of the conqueror, who destroyed its 
 numerous objects of popular adoration. Yet, soon 
 afterward, the religious character of the place was 
 restored, and the demolished idols were replaced by 
 others, that were as eagerly resorted to as had been 
 their predecessors. To this consecrated metropolis, 
 a pilgrimage was regarded by the millions of India as 
 imperatively commanded, and as necessary as was a 
 visit to Mecca by the Mohammedans ; and the weak- 
 ness or the policy of its Moslem conquerors did not 
 long withhold from them this valued privilege; the 
 government of the city was committed to the Hindus, 
 and their conquerors, in the plenitude of their bigotry, 
 pride, and power, never thought of suffering their own 
 magistrates to exercise authority within its walls. 
 Thus Mohammedanism is the religion, not of the 
 ancient inhabitants of India, but of the descendants of 
 the millions of Tartars, Persians, and Arabians who, 
 at various periods, have left their native seats to par- 
 ticipate in the riches of these far-famed plains. The 
 north and northwestern parts are filled with them, and 
 from thence they have wandered over the whole of 
 that vast country. Perhaps their numbers may now 
 amount to nearly sixty-three millions, among whom, 
 however, though they are mostly of foreign extraction, 
 are many converts from Hinduism. They form separate 
 communities, amalgamating in some parts of the coun- 
 try, and living as sociably with Hindus as the differ- 
 ences in their respective faiths will permit. Hindu
 
 168 THE SIKHS OF INDIA 
 
 princes have at times paid their devotions at Mo- 
 hammedan shrines, and observed their feasts ; while 
 Mohammedans have relaxed somewhat the strictness 
 of their observances, and manifested an inclination to 
 conform, as far as possible, to their Hindu neighbors. 
 Some five centuries ago, the Borahs, a people who 
 once occupied the kingdom of Guzerat, were converted 
 en masse to Islamism. The Arab traders to the coasts 
 of Malabar have always been exceedingly earnest in 
 their endeavors to convert the natives, in which they 
 have been greatly aided by the facility with which 
 they have been allowed to purchase the children of the 
 poorer classes, to educate them in the principles of 
 their faith, and also by the frequency with which the 
 inhabitants of those districts lose caste. This badge 
 of the Hindu faith is often forfeited by the people mix- 
 ing with those of other countries, and when it is lost 
 they easily become Moslems. 
 
 It has been maintained that the native inhabitants 
 of India are absolutely unchangeable in their sacred, 
 domestic, and political institutions, and, at first sight, 
 there would appear to be much to warrant such an 
 opinion; but the history of many of them, and 
 especially of the Sikhs, who inhabit the provinces of 
 the Panjab, between the rivers Jumna and Indus, may 
 be alleged as proofs to the contrary. Still, in the relig- 
 ion of the Sikhs, Mohammedan fable and Hindu ab- 
 surdity are mixed ; its founder wishing to unite both 
 these prevalent systems in one. He had been educated 
 in a part of the country where these two religions ap- 
 peared to touch each other, if not commingle, and he 
 was no stranger to the violent animosity existing be- 
 tween their respective professors ; he sought, therefore,
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM IN CHINA 169 
 
 to blend the jarring elements of both in peaceful union 
 The Hindu was required to abandon his idols, and to 
 worship the one Supreme Deity whom his religion 
 acknowledged; while the Mohammedan was to ab- 
 stain from such practices (especially the killing of 
 cows) as were offensive to the superstition of the 
 Hindus. This plan so far prevailed, that, without ac- 
 knowledging the Prophet, the Sikhs became more Mo- 
 hammedans than Hindus; and though the institutions 
 of Brahma are not admitted among them, they insult 
 and persecute true Moslems more fiercely and cruelly 
 than any other people. They compel them to eat that 
 which is forbidden by their law; animals which they 
 account unclean are frequently thrown into their 
 places of public assembly, and they are prohibited from 
 proclaiming the hour of prayer to the faithful. 
 
 China is one of those countries to which Mo- 
 hammedanism was carried by the hordes of Tartary. 
 From the scrupulous jealousy with which this vast 
 empire is guarded from observation, it is difficult to 
 say to what extent the Mohammedan faith, or, indeed, 
 any other, prevails among its numberless inhabitants; 
 but beyond question, it is tolerated. 
 
 The irruption of the Saracens into China under 
 Walid can scarcely be termed a conquest. Subse- 
 quently, the successors'of Genghis Khan seated them- 
 selves on the throne of Pekin, and opened the country 
 to an intercourse with all nations. The commercial 
 Arabs had visited the ports and cities in the south of 
 China; and, now that access to the capital was un- 
 restrained, multitudes of them repaired thither. They 
 acquired the language, and adopted the dress and man- 
 ners of the people, to whom also they rendered valuable
 
 170 MOHAMMEDANISM IN PERSIA 
 
 aid in adjusting their chronology, and making the 
 necessary calculations for their calendar. Intercourse 
 with the Chinese made the Mohammedans desirous of 
 effecting their conversion, the means adopted for 
 which were both wise and humane. Deserted children 
 were taken under their protection, and educated in 
 Islamism ; while in other ways they, sought to com- 
 mend themselves to confidence, and their religion to 
 respect, by alleviating the wretchedness induced by a 
 cruel superstition. The Mohammedans of China seem 
 to partake of the mild and quiet character of the inhab- 
 itants generally, and are therefore tolerated; though 
 there have been some exceptions to this encomium. 
 
 In the year of 1784 they were instrumental in pro- 
 moting an unsuccessful rebellion, and the Emperor 
 Kien Long, after suppressing it, ordered one hundred 
 thousand of them to be put to death. 
 
 Persia, from an early period, has been almost en- 
 tirely a Mohammedan country. On its conquest by 
 the Saracens, the religion of Zoroaster, which had till 
 then prevailed, was nearly abolished. Those who per- 
 severed in retaining it were obliged to flee to the 
 mountains or to the western parts of India, where their 
 old forms of worship still linger. In the disputes 
 which ensued on the death of Mohammed concerning 
 the caliphate, the Persians espoused the cause of AH, 
 the Prophet's son-in-law, and to his memory they are 
 still attached. " May this arrow go to the heart of 
 Omar," is a frequent expression among them in draw- 
 ing a bow ; and not long since, when Mr. Malcolm, dur- 
 ing his travels in Persia, was praising Omar, the an- 
 tagonist of Ali, as the greatest of the caliphs, a Persian, 
 overcome by the justice of his observations, yet still
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM IN AFRICA 171 
 
 adhering to his rooted prejudices, replied. " This is all 
 very true, but he was a dog after all." 
 
 Here Mohammedanism exists in a less rigorous 
 form than in Turkey. Its ceremonies are observed by 
 those who are little disposed to practice its moral 
 code : they say their prayers at the appointed season, 
 and make a show of devotion to prevent their being 
 suspected of irreligion; but the people generally are 
 little concerned about the pilgrimage to Mecca, and 
 other matters on which, in the Koran, much stress is 
 laid. They choose rather to resort to the tomb of Ali, 
 and to that of his son Hosein, whose name is rever- 
 enced among them with a feeling approaching to 
 adoration. 
 
 In Africa, Mohammedanism has very widely pre- 
 vailed. Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, all the northern parts 
 of this continent, acknowledge its sway. From 
 Arabia and Egypt it spread west and south nearly to 
 the great rivers. It is the established religion of 
 Morocco; and in Western Barbary and in many re- 
 gions of the interior the Arabic language is spoken, 
 the Koran believed, and the Prophet almost wor- 
 shipped. The Senegal, up to the small Moorish state 
 of Gedumah, is the line of division between the Mo- 
 hammedans and the Negroes : from thence the line 
 passes eastward of north, through Nigritia and Nubia 
 to the Nile. As yet, however, it is but indistinctly 
 marked, it being doubtful whether Timbuctoo is a Mo- 
 hammedan or Negro town. The courts of Bornou and 
 Cassina are Mohammedan, but a majority of their sub- 
 jects are pagans. Islamism in these vast territories is 
 in an exceedingly degenerate state when compared 
 with either its first development in the Arabian desert,
 
 172 MOHAMMEDANISM IX ARABIA 
 
 or with what now obtains in Turkey. It is said that 
 but little more than its exclusive persecuting spirit re- 
 mains : the Oriental lustrations are almost unknown, 
 Mohammedan temperance is neglected, arfd the great 
 doctrine of the unity of God is confounded with, or 
 supplanted by, the polytheism of the native inhab- 
 itants. The Mussulman is more depraved than the 
 pagan ; so that, while travelers frequently mention the 
 hospitality they received from the latter, by the former 
 they were constantly insulted and annoyed on account 
 of their religion. In no quarter of the world does the 
 faith of the Prophet wear so frightful an aspect as in 
 Africa. 
 
 The region from which Mohammedanism first 
 sprung has not remained in all respects faithful to the 
 precepts of the Prophet. In Mecca and Medina, in- 
 deed, his name and system are held in the profoundest 
 veneration ; and no wonder, since both these cities are 
 mainly supported by the superstitious observances en- 
 joined in the Koran ; but the Bedouins are as licentious 
 in their religion as in their policy and habits. On the 
 Turkish frontiers they keep up an appearance of re- 
 spect for the name of the Prophet and his doctrines; 
 but. in answer to all reproaches for their unfaithful- 
 ness, they say in words worthy a better taught and 
 more civilized race, " The religion of Mohammed could 
 never have been intended for us. We have no water 
 in the desert. How, then, can we make the prescribed 
 ablutions? We have no money. How, then, can we 
 give alms? The fast of Ramadan is a useless command 
 to persons who fast all the year round ; and, if God be 
 everywhere, why should we go to Mecca to adore 
 him?"
 
 SOOFFEES AND WAHABEES 173 
 
 From the southernmost part of Hindustan, Mo- 
 hammedanism made its way to the Malayan peninsula ; 
 to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Manilas, and the 
 Celebes : Goram, one of the Spice Islands, is its eastern 
 boundary. In the interior of these islands it prevails 
 less than on the shores. To these remote regions 
 Islamism has been carried more by the commercial than 
 the military enterprise of its votaries. What is its 
 present condition there, it is difficult, perhaps impos- 
 sible, accurately to ascertain. In Java it was the es- 
 tablished religion ; but, when the Dutch settled that 
 island early in the seventeenth century, many of the 
 natives were converted. Little respect is paid by the 
 Javans of the present day either to their ancient pagan- 
 ism, or to Mohammedanism which took its place ; 
 though some of the forms of the latter are still in 
 force, and its institutions are said to be gaining ground. 
 
 The reader of Mohammedan history will meet with 
 the terms Sooffee and Wahabee, as designating cer- 
 tain divisions of the disciples of the religion of the 
 Prophet. It will not, therefore, be inappropriate to 
 close with a brief account of these respective sects. 
 
 Sooffee is a term originating in Persia, meaning 
 enthusiasts or mystics, or persons distinguished by ex- 
 traordinary sanctity. The object of the Sooffee is to 
 attain a divine beatitude, which he describes as con- 
 sisting in absorption into the essence of Deity. The 
 soul, according to his doctrine, is an emanation from 
 God, partaking of his nature; just as the rays of light 
 are emanations from the sun, and of the same nature 
 with the source from whence they are derived. 
 The cifature and the Creator are of one substance. 
 No one can become a Sooffee without strictly conform-
 
 174 SOOFFEES OF PERSIA 
 
 ing to the established religion, and practicing every 
 social virtue ; and when, by this means, he has gained 
 a habit of devotion, he may exchange what they style 
 practical for spiritual worship, and abandon the ob- 
 servance of all religious forms and ceremonies. He at 
 length becomes inspired, arrives at. truth, drops his 
 corporeal veil, and mixes again with that glorious es- 
 sence from which he has been partially and for a time 
 separated. The life of the Sooffees of Persia, though 
 generally austere, is not rendered miserable, like that 
 of the visionary devotees of Hinduism, by the practice 
 of dreadful severities, their most celebrated teachers 
 have been famed for knowledge and devotion. The 
 Persians are a poetic people, and the very genius of 
 Sooffeeism is poetry. Its raptures are the raptures of 
 inspiration ; its hopes are those of a highly sensitive 
 and excited imagination ; its writers in the sweetest 
 strains celebrate the Divine love, which pervades all 
 nature: everything, from the very highest to the low- 
 est, seeking and tending towards union with Deity as 
 its object of supreme desire. They inculcate forbear- 
 ance, abstemiousness, and universal benevolence. They 
 are unqualified predestinarians. The emanating prin- 
 ciple, or the soul, proceeding from God, can do nothing, 
 they say, without his will, nor refuse to do anything 
 which he instigates. Some of them, consequently, 
 deny the existence of evil ; and the doctrine of rewards 
 and punishments is superseded by their idea of re- 
 absorption into the Divine essence. The free opinions 
 of this class of enthusiasts subvert the doctrines of 
 Islamism, yet they pay an outward respect to them; 
 they unsettle the existing belief, without providing an 
 intelligible substitute; they admit the divine mission
 
 WAHABEES, ABDOL WAHAB 175 
 
 of the Prophet, but explain away the dogmas he ut- 
 tered; and while they affect to yield him honor as a 
 person raised up by God, to induce moral order in the 
 world, they boast their own direct and familiar inter- 
 course with Deity, and claim, on that account, un- 
 qualified obedience in all that relates to spiritual in- 
 terests. 
 
 The similarity of Sooffeeism to the ancient Pytha- 
 gorean and Platonic doctrines will occur to every one 
 at all acquainted with the religion and philosophy of 
 antiquity. It as closely resembles some of the dis- 
 tinguishing tenets of the Brahminical faith. In fact, 
 it seems as if designed, in conjunction with the refined 
 theology of ancient, and the sublime visions of modern 
 idolaters, to teach us that, without Divine guidance, 
 the loftiest human conceptions on subjects connected 
 with God and religion invariably err ; the ignorant and 
 the instructed are equally wrong; "the world by wis- 
 dom knows not God." 
 
 The Wahabees are a modern sect of Mohammedan 
 reformers, whose efforts have considerably changed 
 the aspect of the religion of the Prophet. Perhaps to 
 them may be owing much of that rigid adherence to 
 Mohammedan doctrine and practice which prevails 
 in those parts where their influence has been felt. 
 They are the followers of Abdal Wahab, who com- 
 menced his career in the region where, during the life- 
 time of the Prophet, Moseilama had threatened a con- 
 siderable division among his followers. Wahab was 
 an ambitious fanatic, who aimed, nevertheless, at re- 
 forming the national religion. He was aided by pow- 
 erful princes of the province of Nejed; and, within a
 
 176 DOCTRINES OF THE WAHABEES 
 
 short time, the tenets he maintained spread throughout 
 the peninsula. His fundamental principle, like that of 
 Mohammed, was the unity of God. The Koran he re- 
 garded as divine, rejecting all the glosses which ig- 
 norance and infatuation had put upon it, and holding 
 in utter contempt all the traditions and tales concern- 
 ing its author, which the devout of every generation 
 had eagerly received. The reverence, approaching to 
 adoration, which the Arabs were wont to pay to the 
 name of Mohammed, all visits to his tomb, and all 
 regard to the tombs and relics of Arab saints, he de- 
 nounced; and the costly ornaments with which a mis- 
 taken piety had enriched these sacred spots, he thought 
 might be appropriated to ordinary purposes. Wahab 
 would not suffer the common oath of, by Mohammed, 
 or by Ali, to be used among his followers, on the very 
 rational ground that an oath is an appeal to a witness 
 of our secret thoughts, and who can know these but 
 God? The title of Lord, generally given to the 
 Prophet by his followers, Wahab rejected as impious. 
 He was commonly mentioned by this zealous re- 
 former and his adherents by his simple name, without 
 the addition of " our Lord, the Prophet of God." All 
 who deviated in any degree from the plain sense of the 
 .Koran, either in belief or practice, were infidels in 
 their esteem ; upon whom, therefore, according to its 
 directions, war might be made. Thus was the martial 
 spirit of the early Saracens again called into exercise; 
 and with the ardor that characterized the days of the 
 immediate successors of the Prophet, they were pre- 
 pared at once to assail the consciences and the property 
 of men not exactly of their own faith.
 
 MILITARY SUCCESS OF THE WAHABEES 177 
 
 At the call of their leader, they assembled first in 
 the plain of Draaiya, some 400 miles east of Medina, 
 armed and provided at their own expense for war. 
 Bagdad and Mecca in vain attempted to suppress them ; 
 the seraglio itself was filled with their formidable war- 
 cry ; the sultan trembled on his throne ; and the cara- 
 vans from Syria suspended' their usual journeys. The 
 imperial city suffered from their ravages in its usual 
 supplies of coffee; and the terror of their name was 
 widely spreading among -devout Mohammedans of 
 every country, for they had violated the shrines of 
 saints, and leveled to the ground the chapels at Mecca, 
 which devotion had consecrated to the memory of the 
 Prophet and his family. At the commencement of the 
 present century, however, Mecca was recovered from 
 {.hem by the Turkish arms, and the plague, with the 
 smallpox, breaking out just at this time among the fol- 
 lowers of Wahab, probably saved the mighty fabric of 
 Islamism. These reverses did not quench, however, 
 the ardor of the Wahabees. Their leader had been 
 assassinated, but his son, already distinguished for his 
 prudence and valor, succeeded him in the command. 
 Medina fell beneath his power, and from thence to the 
 Persian Gulf he seemed likely to reign lord paramount. 
 In 1805 he was able to impose a heavy tax on the car- 
 avan of pilgrims from Damascus to the Holy City, and 
 declared that thenceforth it should consist of pilgrims 
 alone, without the pride and pomp of a religious pro- 
 cession. Soon afterward they again entered Mecca, 
 and immediately threatened with destruction every 
 sacred relic; but they did not put their threats into 
 execution. Various conflicts between them and the 
 
 M. of H. XXXIV 12
 
 178 INTOLERANCE OF THE \YAIIABEES 
 
 orthodox Mohammedans have since ensued, the gen- 
 eral result of which has been to break the martial and 
 fanatical spirfl of the Wahabees, and to re-establish 
 the power of the grand sultan in cities and districts 
 where it had been placed in jeopardy. They are still, 
 indeed, dreaded as plunderers, but no great national 
 convulsion has resulted from their efforts. 
 
 Some writers regret the suppression of this once 
 powerful sect of Mohammedans, believing that, if con- 
 tinued, they would have been instrumental in over- 
 throwing the Moslem faith, and making way for a 
 purer religion ; but for ourselves, we see little occasion 
 for these regrets. The Wahabees must not be sup- 
 posed more favorable to a pure faith than are those by 
 whom they have been overthrown. If they must be 
 regarded as reformers, they only attempted to correct 
 a few absurb and scandalous practices : the impious 
 and abominable dogmas of the Koran they left un- 
 touched ; or, if they touched them, it was only to en- 
 force their observance with greater rigor. Their creed 
 was even more sanguinary and intolerant than that of 
 the ancient Mohammedans, and probably the continu- 
 ance of their power would have been nothing more than 
 the continuance of injustice, cruelty and persecution. 
 We do not look for the overthrow of Mohammedanism 
 by such means. One system of error may sometimes 
 destroy another, but the pure faith, which blesses a 
 miserable world by directing men in the path of safety, 
 knowledge, and happiness, will extend only as the 
 sacred volume is diffused, and as that holy influence 
 from God accompanies it by which the understanding 
 is illuminated and the heart renewed. Fanaticism is 
 no auxiliary of the religion of the Bible ; it neither pre-
 
 RELIGION OF THE BIBLE 
 
 179 
 
 pares its way nor accelerates its progress. Violence 
 and war are utterly rejected by this divine system, as 
 alien from its spirit and character. " My kingdom," 
 says its founder, " is not of this world : if my kingdom 
 were of this world, then would my servants fight ; but 
 now is my kingdom not from hence."
 
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