Moors in Spain - M. Florian |
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 simplicity 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 dissensions 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 nation, the Moslems had been actuated, were first manifested in the assassination of the Caliph Othman.
Ali, the friend, companion, and adopted son of the Prophet, whose courage, achievements and relationship to Mohammed, as the husband of his only daughter; had rendered him so dear to the Mussulmans, was announced as the successor of Othman.
But Moavias, the governor of Syria, refused to recognize the authority of Ali, 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 sustaining Ali, and those of Syria Moavias. The first took the name of Alides, the others styled themselves Ommiades, deriving their denomination from the grandfather 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 advantage 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 Caliphate of Damascus. It was during the reign of one of these princes, Valid the First, that the Arabian conquests 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 degenerated.
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 Ommiades, near relatives of Mohammed.
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 Tartar 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 eventually 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 arose 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 Abbassides 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 Damascus, he formed the horrible design of exterminating the Ommiades. These princes were very numerous. With 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 thousand individuals belonging to the same family.
Abdalla, despairing of effecting the destruction of the race of his enemies, dispersed as they were by terror, 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 fulfillment 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 presence. 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 authority 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. Abderamus 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 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 progress. 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 empire 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 independent 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 peacefully 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.
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 established 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 surrounded 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 Spaniards 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 Mohammed. Thither all the Mussulmans of Spain made pilgrimages, 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 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 permitted 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 benedictions of the poor mingled with the songs of rejoicing that everywhere ascended around them.
Abderamus, having imbibed with his Oriental education a fondness for these splendid fetes, first introduced a taste for them into Spain. Uniting, in his character of caliph, the civil and the sacerdotal authority in his own person, he regulated the religious ceremonies on such occasions, and caused them to be celebrated 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 deprived the bishoprics of their religious heads and the churches of their priests, and encouraged marriages between 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.
Under the reign of Abderamus, the successors of Pelagius, still retaining possession of Asturia, though weakened by the internal dissensions that already began 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 disturbed 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 succession 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, declaring himself its sovereign, took up arms in opposition to the authority of the caliph. From this arose the innumerable petty states that were created, annihilated, 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 arrangement and so monotonous in the perusal.
Hacchem, and, after him, his son Abdelazis-el-Hacchem, retained possession of the caliphate notwithstanding these unceasing dissensions. The former finished 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 predecessor, did not succeed in opposing the Spaniards and his refractory subjects with unvarying success. His existence terminated in the midst of national difficulties, and his son Abderamus became his successor.
Abderamus II. was a great monarch, notwithstanding 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 continual divisions which prevailed among their former conquerors. Alphonso the Chaste, king of Asturia, a valiant and politic monarch, had extended his dominions and refused to pay tribute of the hundred young maidens. Ramir, the successor of Alphonso, maintained 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 Debonnaire 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 adversaries, and obtained, by his warlike talents, the surname of Elmonzafi'er, which signifies the Victorious. And, though constantly occupied by the cares of government and of successive wars, this monarch afforded 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 beneficence 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 tenderness 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 apartment, 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 discourse, which he regarded as almost blasphemous, hastened to prostrate himself before the Prince of Believers, and to communicate to him the horrible purpose 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 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 possessing herself of the materials of which it was formed. The historian adds, that the same evening the caliph entered the apartments of the appeased favorite without opposition.
This prince left forty-five sons and nearly as many daughters. Mohammed, the eldest of his sons, succeeded him, A.D. 852, Heg. 238. The reigns of Mohammed 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 governors of the principal cities sought to render themselves independent.
Alphonso the Great, king of Asturia, profited by these dissensions the more effectually to confirm his own power. The Normans, from another side, ravaged Andalusia anew. Toledo, frequently punished, but ever rebellious, often possessed local sovereigns. Saragossa imitated the example of Toledo. The authority of the caliphs was weakened, and their empire, convulsed in every part, seemed on the point of dissolution, 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 Moslems, seemed to be an auspicious omen, took the title of Emir-al-Mumenim, which signifies Prince of true Believers.
Victory attended the commencement of his reign; 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 insignificance, 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 expense to which he was subjected by the maintenance of his armies and his naval force, and the purchase of military assistance from Africa, Emir-al-Mumenim supported a luxury and splendor at his court, the details of which would seem to be the mere creations of the imagination, were they not attested by every historian of the time.
The contemporary Greek emperor, Constantine XL, 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 request his support, signalized the occasion by the display 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 ambassadors. They prostrated themselves before Abderamus in amazement at the splendor of this array, and presented to the Moorish sovereign the letter of Constantine, written on blue parchment and enclosed in a box of gold. The caliph signed the treaty, loaded the imperial 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 fountains in the center of the public places. The houses, each built after the same model, were surmounted 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. Abderamus, as the ally of their Imperial master, demanded 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 hundred 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 alabaster 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 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 questioners 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 stupendous 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 in equally lavish proportion. The royal guard alone was composed of twelve thousand cavaliers.
When it is remembered, that, from being continually at war with the Spanish princes, Abderamus was obliged to keep numerous armies incessantly on foot, to support a naval force, frequently to hire stipendiaries from Africa, and to fortify and preserve in a state of defence the ever-endangered fortresses on his frontiers, it is hardly possible to comprehend how his revenues sufficed for the supply of such immense and varied demands. But his resources were equally immense 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 populous, and the Moors had attained the highest perfection in agriculture. Historians assure us, that there existed on the shores of the Guadalquiver twelve thousand villages; and that a traveler could not proceed through the country without encountering some hamlet every quarter of an hour. There existed in the dominions of the caliph eighty great cities, three hundred 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 their vanquished foes; the Spaniards, when they had subdued the Moors, oppressed and banished them.
The revenues of the caliphs of Cordova are represented 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 agricultural population, possessed of the most fertile country 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. Commerce, 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, yellow 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 Constantinople, always allied from necessity to the caliphs of Cordova, favored these commercial enterprises, and, by their countenance, assisted in enlarging, to a vast extent, the field of their operations; while the neighborhood 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 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 distinguished were the learned Moorish poets, philosophers, and physicians, that Alphonso the Great, king of Asturia, wishing to confide the care of his son Ordogno 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 Christian 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 degree 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:
"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-Munienim.
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, composed 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 deposited in the tomb of his ancestors.
Aboul-Abbas El Hakkam, equally wise with his father, but less warlike than he, enjoyed greater tranquillity during his reign. His was the dominion of justice and peace. The success and vigilance of Abderamus 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 entertained no designs of disturbing their infidel neighbors.
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 opponents.
During the remainder of his reign the Moorish sovereign applied himself wholly to promoting the happiness 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 application 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 punishment to be immediately inflicted. The governors placed by the sovereign over the different cities and provinces, commanded the military force belonging to each, collected the public revenues, superintended the administration of the police, and adjudged the offences committed within their respective governments. Public officers well versed in the laws discharged the functions of notaries, and gave a juridical form to records relating to the possession of property. When any lawsuits arose, magistrates called cadis, whose authority was respected both by the king and the people, could alone decide them. These suits were speedily determined; 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 complicated. 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 relations 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 homicide, 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 punishing certain crimes with death. Age alone conferred this supremacy. An old man was always an object of reverence. His presence arrested disorders: the most haughty young man cast down his eyes at meeting him, and listened patiently to his reproofs. In short, the possessor of a white heard 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 unimpaired at Cordova. That the wise Hacchem did nothing to enfeeble it, may be judged from the following illustration:
A poor woman of Zahra possessed a small field contiguous 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 superintendent 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 misfortune 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 property 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 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 filled 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 request, yielded to it, and attempted to raise the sack. Scarcely able to move it, he let it fall again, and, laughing, complained of its enormous weight. "Prince of Believers!" said Bechir then, with impressive gravity, "this sack, which thou findest so heavy, contains, nevertheless, but a small portion of the field thou hast usurped from one of thy subjects; how wilt thou sustain the weight of this entire field when thou shalt appear 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. 976, 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 celebrated Moor named Mohammed Almanzor, being invested with the important office of Hadjeb, governed the state with wisdom and success.
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 Moorish 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 Asturia: 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 energy, and forced the whole Peninsula to respect the rights of his feeble master, who, like another Sardanapalus, 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 redoubtable 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 uninterrupted 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 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 person of the monarch, A.D.1005, Heg. 596; and, though the rebellious prince dared not sacrifice the life of Hacchem, 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 Castile 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, poisoned, or otherwise murdered. Almundir, the last lingering 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.
Usurpers of momentary authority followed. Jaimar-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 Ommiades 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 themselves into independent sovereigns.—That city was therefore no longer the capital of a kingdom, though it still retained the religious supremacy which it derived from its mosque.
Enfeebled by divisions and subjected to such diversity of rule, the Mussulmans were no longer able successfully to resist the encroachments of the Spaniards. The Third Epoch of their history, therefore, will present nothing but a narrative of their rapid decline.