Chapter VIII: The Ommeyades; Reign of Abd-Al-Rahman I (2)

The reputation of Yusuf, and the habitual discontent of the masses, naturally inclined to disorder, soon provided him with a well-appointed force of twenty thousand men. With this he laid siege to Seville, whose governor at that time was Abd-al-Melik, an Ommeyade refugee. Scarcely had the Emir invested the city when he abandoned the undertaking, and attempted, by a rapid march, to seize Cordova before its garrison could be reinforced. He was too late; the army of Abd-al-Rahman was already in motion, and Yusuf retired only to meet the forces of Abd-al-Melik, whose son had come to his aid with a large detachment, enabling him to approach the enemy from the rear. A battle was fought, and Yusuf sustained a crushing defeat. With great difficulty the discomfited prince escaped the swords of the victors, and he had almost reached Toledo when he was intercepted and cut down by a party of Yemenites, who hoped by this important service to obtain favor for themselves and peace for their distracted country. Thus perished miserably the most formidable adversary of Abd-al-Rahman. His distinguished connexions; the military experience of half a century; the responsible commands which he had administered; the prestige that attached to him as the successful opponent of Charles Martel; the consideration resulting from the exercise and enjoyment of royal dignity; the numerous following which had shared his favor and hoped for the re-establishment of his power, had acquired for him a reputation and an influence far beyond his merits. His character was a strange compound of noble and vicious qualities. Courageous on the field of battle, in his tent he became the timorous dupe of every conjuror, the obsequious slave of every charlatan. While not destitute of resolution in moments of danger, he accepted, without question, the pernicious advice of evil counsellors. So absolute was this dependence that, during the latter years of his life, his vizier, Al-Samil, was recognized as the actual master of Spain. But, despite his failings, Yusuf was not deficient in generosity, nor in those qualifications which raise men to political eminence and military fame; and it was not without reason, when the events of his extraordinary career are considered, that popular rumor and personal esteem conferred upon him the flattering distinction of being one of the most accomplished rulers of his time.

As soon as he was informed of the death of his rival, Abd-al-Rahman, instructed by experience of the danger attending temporizing measures, proceeded to dispose permanently of those members of Yusuf’s party from whom he had reason to apprehend future annoyance. The vizier, Al-Samil, whose talents had long exercised a controlling influence in the state, and whose moroseness of temper had been aggravated by punishment, in all probability unmerited, was quietly strangled in prison. Abu-Zaid, the elder of the Emir’s sons, whose lives, as hostages, had been forfeited by their father’s rebellion, was beheaded. The extreme penalty was commuted, in the case of the younger, to perpetual imprisonment, and Abu-al-Aswad, who was indebted for this clemency to his tender age, was immured in one of the strongest towers of the citadel of Cordova.

These violent and decisive measures were productive of only temporary security. The sight of the grisly heads of the Fihrites nailed over the gates of the capital awakened resentment and horror rather than fear. The country still remained in a turmoil. Bands of marauding Berbers roamed far and wide, molesting the peasantry, threatening the cities, closing the avenues of trade, discouraging all the avocations of peace. The universal agitation at length developed into open rebellion. Hischem-Ibn-Ozra, a Fihrite chieftain, whose relationship to Yusuf, joined to an enterprising spirit, gave him considerable political influence, organized an insurrection in the North, and occupied Toledo. Strongly garrisoned by the insurgents, it had held out against the army sent to reduce it for more than a year, when tidings were received by the court of Cordova of the landing of a more dangerous enemy than had yet menaced the stability of the newly established kingdom. The Abbasides, whose capital had been removed from Damascus to Bagdad, had, under a succession of able princes, reached the summit of intellectual greatness and military renown. They had seen, with envy and indignation, the accomplishment of the ambitious designs of the most implacable enemy of their house. He had almost miraculously escaped the manifold snares which their ingenuity had laid for him. The magnificent reward which had been offered for his head had failed to corrupt the fidelity of the indigent and grasping Berbers, whose cupidity was seldom proof against the most insignificant bauble. If of sufficient importance to excite apprehension when a fugitive, how much more was to be feared from his ambition and revenge as a rival; the sovereign of a mighty kingdom, the claimant of the honors and dignity of the khalifate! Resolved to crush, if possible, the growing power of the Ommeyades before it became too strong to be successfully assailed, the Abbaside Khalif, Abu-Giafar-al-Mansur, ordered Ala-Ibn-Mugayth wali of Kairoan, to attempt the subjection of Spain. In order to inspire deeper confidence in the powers delegated to his lieutenant, a black silken banner, whose color was the emblem of his party, accompanied that officer’s commission. The details of this undertaking--the more ominous because it presented an opportunity for the reconciliation of factions; appealed strongly to the turbulent and rapacious spirit of the populace; and asserted a prescriptive claim of authority based upon conquest and dominion hitherto tacitly accorded to the monarch of the East--had been carefully pre-arranged. An understanding had been established between the malcontents of the Peninsula and the court of Bagdad. The rebels besieged in Toledo maintained, through their friends, frequent and uninterrupted communication with the Viceroy of Africa. When Ala-Ibn-Mugayth landed in the province of Beja, he was received with even more enthusiasm than had been manifested on the arrival of Abd-al-Rahman. The Khalif of Bagdad was proclaimed. The prince of the Ommeyades was not only declared a rebel and an usurper, but an effort was made to inflame the passions of the combatants, in a struggle already sufficiently malevolent, by investing it with a religious character, and Abd-al-Rahman was declared a schismatic and an infidel. A price was set upon his head, and the revered name and authority of the Successor of the Prophet was invoked to effect his assassination, which was to be rewarded with the distinguished favor of the sovereign, a treasure of gold and jewels, and, by what was of far more value to the devoted fanatic, eternal happiness in the life to come.

It soon became evident that this outbreak was no ordinary insurrection. The Yemenites, whose loyalty to the cause of Abd-al-Rahman had always been suspected; the Fihrites, who had recent grudges to satisfy; the Berbers, ever ready for bloodshed and rapine; the zealots of every faction, who regarded the title of the Ommeyades as a flagrant usurpation of divine authority, enrolled themselves in the ranks of the Abbasides. The constant defection of large bodies of troops made it necessary to draw on the army investing Toledo, and, in consequence, the rebel garrison of that city was soon united with the already immense host of the wali of Kairoan. Many of the towns of Andalusia were occupied. The fertile environs of the capital were swept by the Berber cavalry. Abd-al-Rahman was besieged in Carmona, whose garrison was soon reduced to extremity through lack of provisions. The siege had lasted two months when the Abbasides, confiding in their overwhelming numbers, began to grow careless. The officers neglected their duties. The sentinels relaxed their vigilance. With the proverbial inconstancy of the Oriental, discontented with delay and impatient of hardship, hundreds deserted their standards. Aware of these circumstances, Abd-al-Rahman, at the head of a picked band of warriors, made a sudden attack by night. The enemy was surprised; a panic seized the camp; all thought of resistance was abandoned, and at dawn the chieftains of the hostile army and seven thousand of their men lay dead on the field of battle. The commander and his principal officers were decapitated; and their heads, after having been thoroughly cleansed, were packed in camphor and salt, with a label fastened to an ear of each to designate the name and rank of the owner. These ghastly trophies were then placed in sealed bags, together with the commission of the wali and the standard of the Abbasides, and conveyed by a merchant to Kairoan, where they were secretly deposited at night in the market-place. When Abu-Giafar-Al-Mansur received intelligence of the catastrophe that had befallen his enterprise, and of the fearful manner in which that intelligence had been communicated, he exclaimed, “It is the act of a demon; God be praised who has placed the sea between me and such an enemy.”

The fate of the rebels before Carmona struck terror into the garrison of Toledo, again blockaded by a great army. Negotiations were opened with the besiegers, and favorable terms obtained, conditional upon the surrender of the most prominent leaders to the vengeance of the Emir. Orders were then received to conduct the prisoners to Cordova. At some distance from its destination the escort was met by a tailor, a barber, and a basket-maker, each provided with the implements of his calling. The soldiers halted, and the barber removed the hair and beards of the rebels. The tailor enveloped their bodies in strait-jackets of coarse cloth, and the basket-maker wove for each one a pannier, which, closely encircling his waist, rendered all movement of his lower extremities impossible. These grotesque figures were then slung on donkeys, and, after having been paraded through the streets of the city, accompanied by the taunts and missiles of a howling mob, were dragged to the place of public execution and crucified.

The Berbers, whose predatory habits kept the first emirs in a state of constant apprehension and whose savage instincts were the ultimate cause of the ruin of the Moslem empire in Spain, now once more took up arms in defiance of the sovereign authority. A shrewd adventurer, Chakya by name, of the tribe of Miknesa, had, by a spurious claim of descent from the Prophet, through Fatima his daughter, and by the assumption of miraculous gifts, succeeded in gaining the confidence of these superstitious barbarians. His profession of school-master acquired for him a reputation for extensive learning in an age of ignorance; and the assiduous study of the Koran invested his person with a sanctity whose advantages he did not underrate in the selection of means to be employed for the realization of his schemes of ambition. The extravagant veneration of the Berbers for individuals supposed to be possessed of supernatural endowments, a sentiment which, in this instance, perfectly coincided with their inclinations for war and rapine, caused them to hasten from all directions to support the claims of the impostor. The latter displayed no little political tact and generalship. His active emissaries tempted the fealty of every chieftain accessible to their insinuating arts. His armies, inspired with the ardor of fanaticism, and directed with an ability not to be expected from a leader hitherto without experience in the conduct of military operations, repeatedly defeated the forces of Abd-al-Rahman; ravaged his dominions to the very environs of the capital; and, secure in the mountains of the West, defied the entire power of the government for nearly ten years. The political situation was further complicated by the defection of the Yemenites, who, on the eve of a decisive battle, assailed the Emir in the rear. The remarkable prominence attained by Chakya was eventually fatal to the continuance of his power. A Berber chieftain of great influence was approached by the agents of Abd-al-Rahman and persuaded to betray his party. In the midst of a fiercely contested engagement the Berbers gave way; their lines were broken; and a frightful butchery ensued, in which the impostor lost thirty thousand of his followers. His control over the minds of his dupes was, however, not shaken by this disaster, and he maintained the struggle for four years longer, when he was murdered by his comrades in a private quarrel. The great mound enclosing the remains of these victims of treason and carnage was, more than two hundred years afterwards, a prominent feature of the landscape, and a significant memorial of the suicidal wars which consumed the resources and retarded the progress of the Moslems of Spain.

Notwithstanding the bloody retribution provoked by every attempt to overturn the throne of Abd-alRahman, conspiracy continued to follow conspiracy without interruption. Abu-al-Aswad, the surviving son of Yusuf, imprisoned at Cordova, had, under pretence of blindness, deceived his keepers and escaped by swimming the Guadalquivir. Incredulous at first, the guards subjected him to every test they could devise, all of which he endured with remarkable patience and without a murmur. The imposture was carried on for months, and in consequence of his supposed affliction he was less carefully watched, and was indulged with many unusual privileges. One morning, while bathing with other prisoners in the river, he took advantage of a favorable opportunity, and swam to the opposite shore without having been observed. His friends met him, provided him with clothes and a horse, and a few days found him safe in Toledo. In this city, the seat of Berber and Yemenite intrigue, an enterprise of great moment was then maturing. The chief parties to it were Ibn-Habib, the son-in-law of Yusuf, and Al-Arabi, the wali of Barcelona. These malcontents had for some time maintained a correspondence with Charlemagne. The escape of Abu-al-Aswad was part of the preconcerted design, his noble descent and his sufferings as a captive from childhood exciting the sympathies of the populace and rendering him an important ally. A treaty had already been executed, and presents and compliments had been exchanged between the Khalif of Bagdad and the Emperor. It was said that a secret understanding existed between these two potentates, and that the standard of the Abbasides was to be displayed by the insurgents, indirectly in aid of the Christians and with the tacit assent of the Moslem sovereign of the East. The principal conspirators sought the King of the Franks at Paderborn, where he was celebrating his triumph over the Saxons by the compulsory baptism of thousands of these Pagan barbarians. The ambition, the zeal, and the adventurous spirit of the Frankish monarch were aroused by consideration of the project, and he agreed to invade the Peninsula with a large force, which was to be supported by an uprising in the North. The plan having been minutely arranged, and the rôle of each conspirator assigned to him, the insurgent chieftains took their departure.

Implacable, indeed, must have been the resentment of the Commander of the Faithful, which could thus liberally contribute to surrender a territory, acquired by such an expenditure of Moslem blood, to the most relentless foe of Islam. The chances of success were largely in favor of the coalition. The martial superiority of the Franks had been signally displayed on the field of Poitiers over troops more warlike and formidable than those which Abd-al-Rahman could now bring into action. The country was exhausted by half a century of internecine conflict. Frequent insurrections had effaced alike the sentiment of loyalty and the reproach of treason. An undercurrent of disaffection pervaded even the society of the court; and the inconstancy of the Berbers, dangerous in itself, was even less to be feared than the deadly malice of tribal hatred, the confirmed habit of resistance, and the ruthless vengeance of disappointed ambition.

The motives which induced Charlemagne to undertake this expedition were of a religious as well as of a political nature; but he was impelled less by an ambition to rid the country of infidels and to exert the powers of compulsory proselytism than by an insatiable craving for territorial aggrandizement and military glory. The project was not an original one. It had been formed ten years previously by his father, and its prosecution had only been prevented by his death. The great sovereign so lauded as the champion of Catholicism was anything but a zealot. His orthodoxy was strongly suspected by the churchmen of his time; in fact, it was whispered that he was more than half a Pagan. His public conduct and private habits exhibited little evidence of the beneficent influence of the Christian virtues. His life was stained with deeds of perfidy and violence. The morals of his court were proverbial for their laxity, a condition to which the monarch himself afforded an unworthy example by the practice of extensive concubinage. The most intimate political connections were maintained between the courts of Aix-la-Chapelle and Bagdad, associations regarded by the devout of the age with pious horror. It is therefore absurd to suppose, as is repeatedly stated by ecclesiastical chroniclers, that the invasion of Spain by Charlemagne was mainly undertaken as a crusade, for the Franks were actuated by no prejudice against the Saracens as Mohammedans, and the relations of their king with the Khalifate of the East were more friendly than those he entertained towards any European power.

In the early months of the ensuing spring, the forces of Charlemagne were in motion. No important event of the Middle Ages has been more neglected by contemporaneous as well as subsequent historians than this expedition. The accounts of Christian writers are so defective and so overloaded with fable as to render them, as usual, thoroughly unreliable. The numbers of the invaders were so great that they were compelled to separate into two divisions and pass the Pyrenees by different routes. Converging towards Saragossa, the armies were united before its walls. The city was in the hands of their allies, but at the last moment the hearts of the latter failed them, when they considered the sacrifice of religion and the violation of every principle of honor and loyalty which a surrender implied. Other causes combined to shake their resolution. The results attending the preliminary steps of the conspiracy had proved disastrous. The leaders, suspicious of each other, were constantly apprehensive of treachery, while tribal prejudice and the irreconcilable spirit of discord prevented sincere co-operation in any measure. Ibn-Habib, the originator of the enterprise, convinced of the perfidy of Al-Arabi, and hoping to anticipate its results, rashly attacked his ally, was defeated, and soon after perished by the hand of an assassin. Long imprisonment had unfitted Abu-al-Aswad for decisive action, and he failed to meet the requirements of his position. Conscious of the miscarriage of their plans, discouraged, and apprehensive of the future, the garrison of Saragossa refused to open the gates of the city. Charlemagne, enraged by this breach of faith, made vigorous preparations for a siege. But the walls had hardly been invested when a despatch arrived announcing that the Saxons were again in rebellion, and had already advanced as far as the Rhine. The siege was raised, and the Franks retired, after an abortive and inglorious campaign, to once more defend their homes against the barbarians of Germany. The fortifications of Pampeluna--which city had surrendered at their approach--were dismantled, and the mighty host then defiled, with slow and painful steps, through the valley of Roncesvalles.

The pass grew more and more difficult and obscure, encompassed as it was by dense forests and precipitous mountains. The advance guard pursued its way without molestation, and had already reached the northern slope of the Pyrenees, when the rear, in whose custody was the baggage of the army, became engulfed in gloomy ravines, whose shadows concealed thousands of Basques lying in ambush. Suddenly the long and tortuous line was attacked by swarms of mountaineers. Hemmed in on all sides, the retreat of the Franks was cut off. Every advantage of surprise, of position, of familiarity with the ground, of experience in ambuscade and partisan warfare, was with the assailants. Resistance was vain. Bravery profited nothing where neither missile nor hand-to-hand weapons were available against an active and invisible enemy. The rear guard was absolutely annihilated. The baggage-train fell into the hands of the victors, who, after plundering the dead, quietly dispersed and sought their homes in the inaccessible recesses of the mountains. By this catastrophe Charlemagne lost nearly half of his army and many distinguished officers, among them the famous Roland, Prefect of the March of Brittany, whose career the poetic genius of bard and troubadour has adorned with many a romantic tale and fabulous legend.

No one reaped any advantage from the Frankish invasion except Abd-al-Rahman, whose destruction was its avowed object. While the enemy was in retreat, he advanced upon Saragossa; the city surrendered after a short resistance, and Al-Arabi, the insurgent chieftain, was assassinated while at prayer in the mosque. Before returning, the Emir marched into the country of the Basques, where he conquered the domain of the Count of Cerdagne, who became a tributary of the court of Cordova. Soon afterwards, Abu-al-Aswad once more tempted the evil fortune of his family by promoting another insurrection, which resulted in the defeat of Guadalimar, where he, with four thousand of his followers, lost their lives.

The last years of Abd-al-Rahman were embittered by disaffection among his kindred, whose political fortunes he had repaired, and who had been raised to wealth and influence by his boundless generosity. His nearest relatives conspired against him. Princes of the blood and nobles of the highest rank forgot the sacred ties of family and tribe in repeated attempts to overturn his power. But the wary monarch, equally proof against the schemes of both open and concealed hostility, easily triumphed over all his adversaries. His armies returned victorious from every campaign. The conspirators who plotted in the imaginary security of the palace were, sooner or later, betrayed by their accomplices, and punished with exemplary severity. His rebellious and ungrateful nephew, Ibn-Aban, was strangled. His brother, Walid, was exiled. Koreishite chieftains, convicted of treason, after having had their hands and feet cut off, were beaten to death with clubs. The remonstrances and threats of trusty councillors were repressed by banishment and studied neglect. Even the services of the faithful Bedr were not sufficient to atone for subsequent insolence; his property was confiscated, and he was confined in a dungeon where he ended his days in penury and disgrace.

Warned by the vicissitudes of a life of peril of the necessity of providing for the succession, and feeling the weight of physical infirmities induced by anxiety and exposure, the Emir, a short time before his death, summoned the officers of state and the nobles of the kingdom to swear allegiance to his third son, Hischem, whom he had chosen to succeed him. This ceremony performed, and the elder brothers of Hischem, Suleyman and Abdallah, having formally renounced their claims to the throne, Abd-al-Rahman withdrew to Merida, where he died a few months afterwards, at the age of fifty-eight, and in the thirty-third year of his reign.

The character of this great prince, gifted as he was by nature with the noblest qualities of mind and heart, was still materially affected by the circumstances of an adventurous career and the sentiments and habits of a turbulent age. His tastes inclined to literature and art, but necessity developed in him the talents of a cautious negotiator and skilful general. Of a generous and benevolent disposition, the proscription of his family, the perpetual hostility of his enemies, the treachery of his kindred, and the ingratitude of his friends embittered his spirit, and led to acts of cruelty, which, though justified by political expediency, have greatly tarnished the lustre of his fame. Reared amidst the splendors of the most polished and luxurious of courts, he bore with singular equanimity the reverses of fortune and the evils of abject poverty, trials which, by inculcating the virtue of philosophical resignation and acquainting him with the failings and inconsistencies of humanity, the better prepared him for the high and responsible position he was destined subsequently to occupy. Even before his power had been firmly established, he sent messengers to the remote regions of the East to search for the scattered members and dependents of the Ommeyades, who were conducted to Spain at the public expense, granted estates, and not infrequently appointed councillors or governors of cities and provinces. The versatility of his genius provoked the envy and elicited the admiration of his most determined foes. While his attention was still occupied by resisting the encroachments of the mountaineers of the Asturias and the suppression of formidable insurrections, he successfully repelled the invasions of two powerful and warlike sovereigns in whose jurisdiction were included the most opulent and productive regions of the globe. Charlemagne, the greater of these, offered him the hand of his daughter and urged the alliance, which was declined on account of his failing health. Fertile in resources, the privations and sorrows of youth had taught him to bear adversity in silence if not with complacency. Thorough familiarity with the character of Berber and Arab convinced him that the pretensions of the children of the Desert were incompatible with the submission requisite to the exercise of royal authority, and he did not hesitate to crush, with a relentless hand, the insolence or the presumptuous freedom of a tribesman or a friend. Popular at first, this unusual severity in time alienated the warmest supporters of his throne. Inexorable necessity, the principles of self-protection and self-preservation, dependent upon conditions not unusual after a protracted period of revolution and anarchy, rendered the establishment of a despotism imperative. Once founded, it was maintained by an army of forty thousand mercenaries, chiefly recruited from the barbarians of Africa, enlisted with multitudes of enfranchised slaves, who were bound to the interests of the monarchy by the double tie of dependence and gratitude. The romantic spirit of adventure often impelled Abd-al-Rahman, in the early years of his reign, to wander in disguise through the streets of his capital; but the animosity engendered by frequent revolutions soon rendered this diversion too hazardous, and he was compelled to adopt the seclusion and the military precautions which provide for the security of royalty in the kingdoms of the Orient. The gradations of official rank, the territorial divisions of the empire, the duties of the magistracy, the regulations of police, were also, with slight modifications, framed after the pattern of similar institutions in the East. In these details of political organization the number twelve and its factors, so popular among nations of Semitic origin, were especially prominent. The Peninsula was divided into six provinces, each of which was subject to the jurisdiction of a military governor. Under the control of this dignitary were two walis and six viziers, who administered affairs of minor importance in their respective districts. These officials were assisted in their labors by a host of kadis and secretaries, who sent, at stated periods, regular reports of their proceedings to the Council, or Divan, at Cordova. The available moments of leisure, during a life of almost incessant conflict, were employed by Abd-al-Rahman in works intended for the improvement of the masses; in the perfection of regulations which encouraged the accumulation and permitted the unrestricted enjoyment of property; and in the promotion of educational and literary facilities, as well as in the institution of measures upon whose enforcement absolutely depended the continuance of his power. He repaired the Roman highways that traversed the Peninsula. He established a system of couriers, with relays of post-horses, for the rapid transmission of important despatches. He ruled the fierce outlaws of the Peninsula, whose trade was rapine, and who considered mercy an indication of cowardice, by the only means they respected, the government of the sword. They hated and cursed him, they plotted against his life, they rejected his gifts and spurned his honors, but they obeyed his commands, for they stood in wholesome dread of his resentment, and had been taught, by many a bloody lesson, the consequences of disputing his authority. During his reign, for the first time since the Conquest, the nomadic propensity of the Berbers, the source of incessant disturbance and universal insecurity, was restrained, and these barbarians were compelled to conform to the laws and to choose a settled habitation. A code of judicature, adapted to the circumstances of a population composed of so many diverse and often hostile constituents, was framed, in whose statutes the useful institutions of the Visigoths were recognized under the general predominance of Moslem law.

Abd-al-Rahman made frequent excursions through his dominions, the better to familiarize himself with the conduct of his officers and the necessities of his subjects. His course was marked by charity to the needy; by munificent donations for public improvements; by institutions for the encouragement of the arts; by the erection of magnificent palaces and temples. But his generosity, ample elsewhere, was displayed with unprecedented lavishness in his capital, the object of his pride and of his peculiar affection. Its plan, its buildings, its fortifications, its suburbs, were modelled after those of beautiful Damascus. A palm-tree, the first ever seen in Spain, was brought from Syria, and planted in the court-yard of the royal palace as a memorial of the scenes of his childhood. In the environs of the city he laid out a garden, called Rusafah, after one formerly possessed by his grandfather, Hischem, and of which it was the counterpart. A mint was founded in Cordova, whose coins were identical in design, weight, and inscription with the pieces issued by the Ommeyade princes of Syria. The fame of the court and the reputation of the sovereign attracted to the Moslem capital of the West the learned and the polite of every clime. The spirit of literary emulation and philosophical inquiry, which attained such a remarkable development under succeeding khalifs, began to be awakened. The sovereign himself composed with facility and correctness verses of considerable merit. His sons were provided with the best instruction that the age afforded; were compelled to be present during the transactions of the Divan and the business of the courts; and were frequently entrusted with the negotiation of treaties and the administration of government. The public taste was cultivated by periodical literary contests, in which the most accomplished scholars and poets of the day participated; where splendid rewards for proficiency were distributed; and whose proceedings were invested with additional prestige by the presence and supervision of royalty.

Neither the brutal skepticism of the court of Damascus nor the prevalent idolatry and blasphemy of Spain seem to have affected the piety of Abd-al-Rahman. Whether induced by motives of interest or by sincere belief, it is certain that he ever observed with scrupulous exactness the ceremonial of his faith. Fully alive to the advantages--social, political, commercial, and religious--connected with a splendid temple, which, by reason of its magnificence and its sanctity, might become a place of pilgrimage, he had long meditated the construction of such an edifice, an aspiration whose fulfilment was deferred for many years by continuous reverses of fortune. The possession of the cities of Mecca and Jerusalem by a hostile dynasty had vastly increased the difficulties imposed upon such Mussulmans of the Peninsula as desired to make the arduous journey to the venerated shrines of the East. Moreover, the subjects of the Ommeyade ruler were regarded with suspicion and dislike by the sovereigns of Bagdad; and Abd-al-Rahman had, from every pulpit in the realm of the Abbasides, been proclaimed a usurper, a rebel, and an impostor. The success that finally attended his arms, and insured the permanent establishment of his authority, also rendered possible the realization of a project dictated by a more noble and lofty ambition. His political sagacity detected at a glance the influence such a temple would exert over the minds of a highly imaginative and superstitious people. Its erection would gratify their national pride. Its presence in the midst of the capital would consolidate and confirm the power of the state. The sentiment of loyalty still entertained by the descendants of Arabian exiles for the home of their fathers would be transferred to another land, whose shrine, if it did not equal that of Mecca in wealth, would certainly surpass it in grandeur and beauty. “My mosque,” said the great statesman, “will soon demand a khalif; my sons will assume that title; and the dispute between the East and West will be terminated forever. Our constitution is based entirely upon a religious principle, and my subjects will soon accustom themselves to see nothing beyond my children but the eye of Allah and the sword of the Prophet.”

In the turbulent times of the Conquest every place of worship possessed by the Christians in Cordova, save one, was destroyed. In the cathedral alone, whose ownership was insured by treaty, were the infidels permitted to perform the rites enjoined by their creed. In accordance with a custom prevalent in the East, where, however, it must be acknowledged, it was unusual, under ordinary circumstances, to violate engagements entered into with Christians, half of the cathedral had been forcibly appropriated and consecrated to the service of Islam. It was not many years, however, before its limited area was found inadequate to the requirements of the crowds of immigrants and proselytes that were daily added to the population of the growing capital. The location being the most desirable in the city, a proposition was made by Abd-al-Rahman for the purchase of the remaining half of the edifice. The bishop refused, on the reasonable ground that no other building would then be available for the celebration of the rites of the Christian faith. But the importunity of the Emir prevailed in the end; and the Christians obtained for their concessions the sum of a hundred thousand dinars, and, in addition, the extraordinary privilege of erecting a certain number of churches to replace those of which they had been deprived by the rage of fanaticism and the calamities of war.

The plan of the mosque was traced by Abd-al-Rahman himself, and the first stone of the foundation was laid by his own hands. Oppressed with age and physical infirmities, and haunted by a presentiment that he would not live to see his work completed, he exhausted every effort to accelerate its progress. A vast number of laborers were employed. The assistance of the governors of distant provinces was invoked for the collection and transportation of materials. The emulation of the artisans was excited by the example of the enfeebled sovereign, who, for one hour every day, personally shared the toil of his humble companions. The vaults of the public treasury were opened without restriction for the benefit of an undertaking which appealed alike to the patriotic impulses and the religious sentiment of the nation. The work progressed with astonishing rapidity, but not fast enough to satisfy the feverish impatience of the illustrious architect. It was his desire while he yet had strength to perform in those sacred precincts, as the representative of the Prophet, the simple ceremonial of the faith so dear to the heart of every Mussulman. A space was cleared within the enclosure. An awning was raised, and the unfinished walls were hung with tapestry from the palace. There, surrounded with heaps of materials, with half-chiselled capitals and naked columns, the Emir, in his snowy robes of office, ascended the temporary pulpit, led the prayers, and directed the devotions of a vast concourse assembled from every quarter of the Moslem capital. It was the last important act of his life. A few weeks later the multitudes who had listened with silent reverence to his discourse in the Djalma followed his remains to the tomb.

Thus, his destiny accomplished and his task performed, died the founder of one of the greatest dynasties that Europe has ever known. He possessed, in ample measure, the attributes of a wise, a politic, an enlightened sovereign. His spirit had been chastened and his courage tried by many years of persecution and misfortune. The cruelty with which he has been reproached was a necessary consequence of the turbulent condition of the society he was called upon to govern. The solution of the political problem which confronted him was not a mere question of supremacy; it involved the integrity of the Saracen domination in the Peninsula and his own existence as a ruler and as an individual. Force was the only argument used by his adversaries, and the only one they respected. The influence of the Koran was scarcely felt. The great majority of the inhabitants of Spain were Pagans and infidels. The Berbers, who largely preponderated, were fetich worshippers and believers in witchcraft and sorcery. Years of impunity and unrestricted license had rendered these wild barbarians more ferocious in disposition, more impatient of control. Public hostility and private feuds, the acrimonious disputes between contending sects, the alternate proscriptions of successful factions, the hope of future revenge, made permanent reconciliation impossible. In every community existed a large and compact body of enemies, different in nationality, antagonistic in faith, firmly united by the evils of common misfortune, who entertained, under a delusive aspect of submission, dangerous aspirations for political and religious liberty. Those nearest in blood to the monarch sought, with unnatural vindictiveness, the life of their kinsman and benefactor. In the Asturian mountains the power of a rising kingdom, established by a band of intrepid exiles, had begun seriously to encroach upon the Moslem possessions of the North. The arms of the most powerful sovereigns of Europe and Asia were directed, from the Mediterranean and from the Pyrenees, against a prince whose dominions were agitated and whose resources impaired by anarchy and sedition. Exasperated by the interference of the Abbasides, he long contemplated an expedition to the coast of Syria, a project which the obstinacy of his domestic enemies made impossible. Under such conditions government by the scimetar was certainly not inexcusable. These considerations demanded also the employment of foreign mercenaries. They stimulated the vigilance and justified the severity of the judicial tribunals. They prompted the cultivation of religious sentiments as an auxiliary of royal power by the erection of superb houses of worship. They suggested the statesmanlike expedient of diverting the attention of the populace from scenes of disorder, by the endowment of public institutions, by the cultivation of the arts, by the diffusion of knowledge.

Abd-al-Rahman was not, by nature, tyrannical. He was ever ready to listen to the complaints and redress the wrongs of the unfortunate. The most bitter partisanship never refused him the attribute of strict and impartial justice. If his severity was sometimes not tempered by compassion, it was never aggravated by deliberate cruelty. In his privacy he was affable; in his public conduct dignified; in his intercourse with his inferiors the embodiment of gentle courtesy. Temperate in his pleasures, the court of Cordova never exhibited the disgraceful scenes that offended religion and decency in the palaces and gardens of Damascus. Without him the Ommeyade dynasty of the West would never have existed; and without that dynasty a large portion of the treasures of ancient learning would have been forever lost; the spirit of scientific inquiry would have been crushed by ecclesiastical intolerance; the hopes of intellectual freedom suppressed; and the civilization of Europe retarded for many centuries.

From the accession of Abd-al-Rahman I. dates the autonomy of Moorish Spain under the Khalifate of the West. Its rulers, however, while enjoying all the power and attributes of independent sovereigns, and, as such, requiring the implicit obedience of their subjects and the recognition of foreign nations, did not, until the reign of Abd-al-Rahman III., publicly assume the title of Successors of the Prophet, but exercised their despotism under the less conspicuous appellation of Emirs, or Governors. Many inducements led to the adoption of this policy. Moslems still generally regarded the regions of the East as the source of orthodox belief and the seat of legitimate empire. The survivors of the House of Ommeyah were under the ban of the dynasty of Damascus and Bagdad. The conditions of society in the Peninsula were unsettled. Everywhere the slightest pretext for rebellion was welcomed with rejoicing by multitudes of desperate outlaws and fanatics. Ambitious enthusiasts lost no opportunity of inflaming the public mind, only too susceptible to agitation, whenever a revolt could increase their gains or contribute to their notoriety. The union of Church and State under the constitution of Islam made interference with the established order of affairs doubly perilous. The premature appropriation of the venerated title of Khalif by the exiled Ommeyade princes would have entailed the reproach of sacrilege, and might have overturned their empire, neither founded on prescriptive right, supported by popular affection, nor maintained by adequate military force. The assertion of pretensions far less obnoxious to religious prejudice had frequently produced serious disorders. By such a claim the dignity of the greatest of Mohammedan dynasties could receive no accession commensurate with the risk it involved. Its princes might well, for a time, forego the titles while in full possession of the substance of power. Such were some of the politic considerations which long retained, in a nominally subordinate capacity, the most despotic and irresponsible monarchs of Europe.

The awakening of the national spirit consequent upon the civil wars of Spain not only permitted the organization of the kingdom of the Asturias, but it was also productive of a disaster scarcely less serious,--the loss of the Moslem possessions in France. From the day of his accession, the energies of Pepin were devoted to the conquest and expulsion of the Moorish colonists of Provence and Languedoc. The treason of a Gothic chieftain delivered into his hands the principal cities of Septimania, except Narbonne. That capital sustained a siege of more than six years’ duration, an intense prejudice against the Franks inducing the Roman and Gothic inhabitants to support the efforts of the Arab garrison; but in the end, the popular discontent and the hopeless prospect of assistance from Cordova impelled the prominent citizens to propose terms of accommodation with the enemy. A capitulation was arranged by which the besieged were to be conceded the privilege of government by their own laws, but at the last moment the Saracens refused their assent; hostilities were resumed, and the garrison, greatly outnumbered by the Christian mob, was annihilated. For forty-one years the laws, the customs, and the religion of the Moslems had prevailed in Southern France. The traces of their domination, as disclosed by the physical and mental characteristics of the peasantry, have not been effaced by the vicissitudes of more than a thousand years. This temporary occupation, as will be seen hereafter, was also productive of a marked effect upon the manners and the polite literature of Europe, through the diffusion of Hispano-Arab culture, the influence of the lays of the troubadours, and the adoption of the laws of chivalry. The intercourse with the Khalifate of Spain, suspended for a period, was renewed; relations of even closer intimacy were established; a community of ideas, tastes, and sympathies developed sentiments of mutual esteem; and the characteristics of the brilliant and intellectual society of Cordova were reflected in the refined voluptuousness, the extensive learning, and the polished skepticism that subsequently distinguished the courts of the Albigensian princes.