NEW YORK
Reading edition
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
329 & 331 PEARL STREET,
FRANKLIN SQUARE
[Transcriber's note: This book contains a number of variations in the spelling of some words/names, e.g. Haccham/Hacchem, Gengis/Zengis (Khan), etc.]
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840 by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York
{v}
PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.
We are accustomed to look upon the followers of the Arabian Prophet as little better than barbarians, remarkable chiefly for ignorance, cruelty, and a blind 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 the arts; nor is it too much to say, that to them Christian Europe is indebted for the generous impulse 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 {vi} renowned in arts, as well as arms, than the Moorish conquerors of Spain, whose history is contained in the following pages. The French original of this work has long enjoyed a deservedly high reputation; and the translation here offered is by an American lady, whose literary taste and acquirements well qualified her for the task.
A sketch of Mohammedan history, &c., from Rev. S. Greene's Life of Mohammed, has been appended at the close of the volume, to present to the reader a comprehensive view of that very remarkable people, of whom the Moors of Spain formed so distinguished a branch.
H. & B.
New York, October, 1840.
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CONTENTS
FIRST EPOCH
PAGE
The Origin of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Arabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Birth of Mohammed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Religion of Mohammed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Progress of Islamism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Victories of the Mussulmans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 New Conquests of the Mohammedans . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Moors become Mussulmans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Condition of Spain under the Goths . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Conquest of Spain by the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Viceroys of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Insurrection of Prince Pelagius . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Abderamus attempts the Conquest of France . . . . . . . . 39 He penetrates as far as the Loire . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The Battle of Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Civil Wars distract Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
SECOND EPOCH.
The Kings of Cordova become the Caliphs of the West . . . 45 The Asiatic Mussulmans divide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 The Dynasty of the Ommiades lose the Caliphate . . . . . . 48 Horrible Massacre of the Ommiades . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 An Ommiade Prince repairs to Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Abderamus, the first Caliph of the West . . . . . . . . . 53 {viii} Reign of Abderamus I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Religion and Fetes of the Moors of Spain . . . . . . . . . 55 Civil Wars arise among the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The Reigns of Hacchem I. and of Abdelazis . . . . . . . . 58 Reign of Abderamus II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Condition of the Fine Arts at Cordova . . . . . . . . . . 60 Anecdote of Abderamus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Reigns of Mohammed, Almouzir, and Abdalla . . . . . . . . 62 Reign of Abderamus III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Embassy from a Greek Emperor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Magnificence and Gallantry of the Moors . . . . . . . . . 64 Description of the City and Palace of Zahra . . . . . . . 65 Wealth of the Caliphs of Cordova . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 The Fine Arts cultivated at Cordova . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Reign of El Hacchem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Laws of the Moors, and their Mode of administering Justice 75 Authority possessed by Fathers and old Men . . . . . . . . 77 An Illustration of the Magnanimity of El Hakkam . . . . . 78 Reign of Hacchem III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Successful Rule of Mohammed Almonzir as Hadjeb under the imbecile Hacchem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Disorders at Cordova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 End of the Caliphate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
THIRD EPOCH.
The principal Kingdoms erected from the Ruins of the Caliphate of the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Condition of Christian Spain at this Juncture . . . . . . 88 The Kingdom of Toledo; its Termination . . . . . . . . 87, 88 Success of the Christians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 The Cid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 The Kingdom of Seville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 The Dynasty of the Almoravides hold Supremacy in Africa . 92 {ix} Conquests of the Almoravides in Spain . . . . . . . . . . 93 French Princes repair to Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Extinction of the Kingdom of Saragossa . . . . . . . . . . 95 Foundation of the Kingdom of Portugal . . . . . . . . . . 95 State of the Fine Arts among the Moors at this Period . . 97 Abenzoar and Averroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Dissensions between the Moors and Christians . . . . . . . 98 The Africans, under Mohammed the Green, land in Spain . 100 Battle of Toloza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102-104 Tactics of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 The discomfited Mohammed returns to Africa . . . . . . . . 109 Extent of the Territories still retained by the Moors in Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 St. Ferdinand and Jaques I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Valencia is attacked by the Aragonians . . . . . . . . . . 113 Siege of Cordova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Surrender of Valencia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
FOURTH EPOCH.
The Kings of Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 The Condition of the Moors; their Despondency . . . . . . 118 Mohammed Alhamar; his Character and Influence with his Countrymen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 He founds the Kingdom of Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Description of the City of Grenada and its Vega . . . . 121 Extent and Resources of this Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Reign of Mohammed Alhamar I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 The Moorish Sovereign becomes the Vassal of the King of Castile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Ferdinand III. besieges Seville . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 The Taking of Seville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Revenues of the Kings of Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Military Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Cavalry of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 {x} Disturbances in Castile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Reign of Mohammed II. El Fakik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 He forms a League with the King of Morocco . . . . . . . . 134 Misfortunes of Alphonso of Castile . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Interview between Alphonso and the Sovereign of Morocco . 134 State of Learning and the Fine Arts under Mohammed al Mumenim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Description of the Alhambra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 The Court of Lions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 The Generalif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Mohammed III. El Hama, or the Blind, ascends the Throne of Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Troubles in Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Reign of Mohammed IV. Abenazar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Reign of Ismael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Reign of Mohammed V. and of Joseph I. . . . . . . . . . . 152 The Battle of Salado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Successive Reigns of Mohammed VI. and Mohammed VII. . . . 154 Horrible Crime of Peter the Cruel of Castile . . . . . . . 150 Condition of Spain—of Europe in general . . . . . . 156, 157 Mohammed VI. reassumes the Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Reign of Mohammed VIII. Abouhadjad . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Favourite Literary and Scientific Pursuits of the Moors under the munificent Rule of Abouhadjad . . . . . . . . 160 Universal prevalence of a Taste for Fiction among the Arabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Music and Gallantry of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 The mixture of Refinement and Ferocity in the Character of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Description of the Women of Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . 169 The national Costume of both Sexes . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Moorish Customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Folly of the Grand-master of Alcantara . . . . . . . . . . 172 The Result of his Expedition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Dreadful Death of Joseph II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Mohammed IX. usurps the Throne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Singular Escape of a condemned Prince . . . . . . . . . . 176 {xi} Generous Disposition of Joseph III. . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Disturbed Condition of the Kingdom after his Death . . . . 177 A rapid Succession of Rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177, 178 Reign of Ismael II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 The Miseries of War most severely felt by the Cultivator of the Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Mulei-Hassem succeeds Ismael II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 The respective Characters of these Sovereigns . . . . . . 181 They declare War against the Grenadians . . . . . . . . . 182 Statesmen and Soldiers of the Spanish Court . . . . . . . 182 Stern Reply of the Grenadian King . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Alhama is Surprised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Civil War is kindled in Grenada by the Feuds of the Royal Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Boabdil is proclaimed King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Cause of the ambitious hopes of Zagal . . . . . . . . . . 185 Boabdil is taken Prisoner by the Spaniards . . . . . . . . 186 The politic Spanish Rulers restore Boabdil to Liberty . . 187 The Moors become their own Destroyers . . . . . . . . . . 187 Death of Mulei-Hassem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Boabdil and his Uncle divide the Relics of Grenada between them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Baseness of Zagal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Boabdil reigns alone at Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Ferdinand lays Siege to the City of Grenada . . . . . . . 189 Condition of the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 The Spanish Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Isabella repairs to the Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 She builds a City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Surrender of Grenada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Departure of Boabdil from the City . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The entrance of the Spanish Conquerors into the City . . . 195 Summary of the Causes of the Ruin of the Moors . . . . . . 196 Characteristics of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 {xii} Anecdote illustrative of their Observance of the Laws of Hospitality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Christian Persecution of the Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Revolts of the Moors, and their Results . . . . . . . . . 199 Final Expulsion of the Moors from Spain . . . . . . . . . 201 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
A Brief Account of the Rise and Decline of the Mohammedan Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Chapter I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Chapter II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Chapter III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
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INTRODUCTION.
The name of the Moors of Spain recalls recollections of gallantry and refinement, and of the triumphs of arts and arms. But, though thus celebrated, not much is generally known of the history of that remarkable people.
The fragments of their annals, scattered among the writings of the Spanish and Arabian authors, furnish little else than accounts of murdered kings, national dissensions, civil wars, and unceasing contests with their neighbours. Yet, mingled with these melancholy recitals, individual instances of goodness, justice, and magnanimity occasionally present themselves. These traits, too, strike us more forcibly than those of a similar description with which we meet in perusing the histories of other nations; perhaps in {xiv} consequence of the peculiar colouring of originality lent them by their Oriental characteristics; or perhaps because, in contrast with numerous examples of barbarity, a noble action, an eloquent discourse, or a touching expression, acquire an unusual charm.
It is not my intention to write the history of the Moors in minute detail, but merely to retrace their principal revolutions, and attempt a faithful sketch of their national character and manners.
The Spanish historians, whom I have carefully consulted in aid of this design, have been of but little assistance to me in my efforts. Careful to give a very prominent place in their extremely complicated narratives to the various sovereigns of Asturia, Navarre, Aragon, and Castile, they advert to the Moors only when their wars with the Christians inseparably mingle the interests of the two nations; but they never allude to the government, customs, or laws of the enemies of their faith.
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The translations from the Arabian writers to which I have had recourse, throw little more light upon the subject of my researches than the productions of Spanish authors. Blinded by fanaticism and national pride, they expatiate with complacency on the warlike achievements of their countrymen, without even adverting to the reverses that attended their arms, and pass over whole dynasties without the slightest notice or comment.
Some of our savans have, in several very estimable works, united the information to be collected from these Spanish and Arabian histories, with such additional particulars as they were able to derive from their own personal observations.
I have drawn materials from all these sources, and have, in addition, sought for descriptions of the manners of the Moors in the Spanish and ancient Castilian romances, and in manuscripts and memoirs obtained from Madrid.
It is after these long and laborious researches {xvi} that I venture to offer a brief history of a people who bore so little resemblance 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 temperament and strong passions of the Orientals.
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 will extend from the commencement 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 can now be ascertained concerning the various small kingdoms erected from the ruins of the Caliphate of Cordova: and the fourth will comprehend a narration of the prominent events in the lives of the successive sovereigns of the Kingdom of Grenada, until the {xvii} period of the final expulsion of the Mussulmans from that country.
Care has been taken to compare the dates according to the Mohammedan method of computing time, with the periods fixed by the ordinary mode of arrangement. Some of the Spanish historians, Garabai for instance, do not agree with the Arabian chronologists in relation to the years of the Hegira. I have thought proper to follow the Arabian authorities, and have adopted, with occasional corrections, the chronological arrangements of M. Cardonne, whose personal assurance I possess, that he attaches high importance to his calculations on this subject. I have thus reason to hope that this little work will serve to elucidate many points hitherto doubtful in relation to this matter.
The proper names of the Moors vary even more in the different authorities than their statements respecting the date of events, either in consequence of the difficulty of pronouncing them, or from ignorance of their proper {xviii} orthography. In instances of this character I have always given the preference to such as appeared to be most generally adopted, and were, at the same time, most harmonious in sound.
{19}
A HISTORY OF THE MOORS OF SPAIN.
FIRST EPOCH.
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 addition to this, the {20} historians of remote ages speak of a certain Meleck Yarfrick, king of Arabia Felix, who conducted a people called Sabaei[1] into Libya, made himself master of that country, established his followers there, and gave it the name of Africa. It is from these Sabians or Sabaei that the principal Moorish tribes pretend to trace their descent. The derivation of the name Moors[2] is also supposed, in some degree, to confirm the impression that they came originally from Asia.
But, without enlarging upon these ancient statements, 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 {21} history under the name of Nomades, Numidae or Numidians, Getulae, and Massyli. They were by turns the subjects, 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 Belisarius: but the Greeks were in their turn subdued 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 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;[3] and {22} have, of all others, perhaps, best preserved their national independence, and their distinctive character and manners. Divided from the most remote times into tribes that either wandered in the desert or were collected together 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.[4] 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 {23} convenience directed. Brave, temperate, and indefatigable, inured from infancy to the severest toil, fearing neither thirst, hunger, nor death itself—these were a people by whose assistance a leader suitably endowed could render himself master of the world. Mohammed appeared:[5] 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 belonged to the most enlightened age—among an ignorant and fanatical people he became a prophet.
Until Mohammed arose among them, the Arab tribes, surrounded by Jews, Christians, and idolaters, had entertained a superstitious faith, compounded of the religious belief of their various neighbours and that of the ancient Sabaei. They fully credited the existence 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 {24} or won to his interests the principal individuals of his own family,[6] possessing pre-eminent consequence among their countrymen—suddenly began to preach a new religion, 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 towards 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 beautiful, ever youthful, ever devoted to you alone. Courageously combat both the unbelieving and the impious. Oppose them until they {25} embrace Islamism[7] or render you tribute. Every soldier who dies in battle will share the treasures of God; nor can the coward prolong 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 occurred A.D. 622.
From this moment Islamism spread like a torrent over the Arabias and Ethiopia. In vain did the Jewish and idolatrous tribes attempt to maintain their ancient faith; in vain did Mecca {26} 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 existence. This event took place at Medina, A.D. 632, Hegira 2, 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, the 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 Heraclius, and took the {27} city of Damascus, the siege of which will be for ever celebrated in consequence of the almost superhuman exploits of the famous Kaled, surnamed the Sword of God.[8]
Notwithstanding these successive victories, and the enormous amount of booty thus taken from the enemy and committed to his keeping, Abubeker appropriated to his own particular use a sum scarcely equivalent 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; 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 most {28} beautiful countries in the world. During the sacking of a city, the most eager and impetuous soldier would be instantly arrested in the work of pillage 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 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 travelled 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, valour, and humility upon the soldiers, he made his entrance into the Holy City, liberated such of its former Christian possessors as had become {29} 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. Alexandrea was taken by Amrou, one of the most distinguished generals of Omar. It was then that the famous library was destroyed, whose loss still excites the profound 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 affection and respect for the celebrated John the Grammarian, 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 {30} 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 masters, 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.[9] That bold and pastoral people, the descendants of the ancient inhabitants 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 Akba finally succeeded in subjugating them, and in compelling them to adopt the laws and faith of his country.
{31}
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 enthusiasm, he forced his horse into the waves, and, drawing his sabre, cried, "God of Mohammed, thou beholdest 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 Vandals, and the Greeks, had taken but little interest in the affairs of their different masters.
Wandering in the deserts, they occupied themselves chiefly with the care of their flocks; paid the arbitrary imposts levied upon them, sometimes passively enduring the oppression of their rulers, and sometimes essaying 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 Nomades: rude, ignorant, and wretched, {32} 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 similarity of language and temperament, contributed to bind the conquered to their conquerors.
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 banners, and suddenly became simultaneously enamoured 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.
{33}
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 redoubtable 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 successively under the yoke of the Carthaginians and the Romans, had finally become the prey of the Barbarians. The Alains, the Suevi, and the Vandals had divided its provinces among them; but Euric, one of 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 transmitted 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 {34} them of the warlike qualities to which alone they had been indebted for their success. Of the kings who succeeded Euric, some were Arians and others Catholics, who abandoned their authority to the control of bishops, and occupied a throne shaken to its centre by internal disturbances. Roderick, the last of these Gothic sovereigns, polluted the throne by his vices; and both history 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 pretext 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, favoured the irruption of the Moors into Spain.
Tarik, one of the most renowned captains of his time,[10] 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 Roderick, the last Gothic king, opposed his course.
Subsequently, having received re-enforcements {35} from Africa, Tarik vanquished Roderick himself at the battle of Xeres, where that unfortunate monarch perished during the general flight in which the conflict terminated, A.D. 714, Heg. 96.
After this battle, the Mohammedan general, profiting by his victory, penetrated into Estremadura, Andalusia, 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 rapidly 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 existence of the ferocity that is ascribed to them, when it is remembered that the greater part of the Spanish cities submitted to the invaders {36} without making 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.
Abdelazis, the husband of Egilona, became governor 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 mountains 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 {37} 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 Mussulmans, seized upon several castles, and, reanimating the spirits of the Christians, whose courage had been almost extinguished by so long a succession of reverses, 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 successor, was of opinion that the most certain means of repressing revolts among a people is to render them prosperous and contented. He therefore devoted himself 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 cultivate, 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 {38} possesses; and, in short, of almost every object of interest either in science or government.
But little disturbed by the insurrectionary movements of Pelagius, whose power was confined to the possession of some inaccessible mountain fortresses, Elzemah did not attempt to force him from his strongholds, 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.,[11] several governors followed each other in rapid succession after the death of Elzemah.[12] None of their actions merit recital, but, during this period, the brave Pelagius 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 {39} whose warriors 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 utmost ease when they should have accomplished the subjugation of the French dominions; and that desire alone fired the ardent soul of the new governor Abdalrahman, or, as he is commonly called, Abderamus.
His love of glory, his valour, his genius, and, above all, his immeasurable ambition, made the Mussulman governor regard this conquest as one that could be easily effected; but he himself was destined to be the vanquished.
Charles Martel, the son of Pepin d'Heristel, 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 Gascony and Guienne, had long maintained a quarrel with the French hero. Unable longer, {40} 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 powerful 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, immediately 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 endeavour 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 Gascony became an inmate of the seraglio of a sovereign of Damascus.
{41}
Not content with having so signally punished Munuza, Abderamus crossed the Pyrenees, traversed Navarre, 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 Mussulman 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 attended by the veteran warriors whom he was accustomed 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 danger 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 numerous victories; at the head of an innumerable army; surrounded by experienced captains, who had been the frequent {42} witnesses of his martial triumphs; and long inspired with the warmest hopes of finally adding to the dominion of Islamism the only country belonging to the ancient Roman empire that still remained unsubdued 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 slain; and this dispiriting loss, without doubt, decided the defeat of his army.[13] Historians assert that more than three hundred thousand men perished. This statement is probably exaggerated; but it is certainly true, that the Moors, who had thus penetrated into the midst of France, were relentlessly pursued after their defeat, and were many of them unable to escape from the army of the victors and the vengeance of the people.
This memorable battle, of which we possess no details, saved France from the yoke of the Arabs, and effectually arrested their spreading dominion.
Once again, subsequent to this reverse, the Moors attempted to penetrate into France, and {43} succeeded in seizing upon Avignon; but Charles Martel defeated them anew, retook the captured city, drove them from Narbonne, 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[14] named successively by the Caliph. A third pretender arrived from Africa. A fourth added himself to the list;[15] factions multiplied; the different parties often had recourse to arms; chiefs were assassinated, cities taken, and provinces 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 the Mussulman troops who were sent to oppose him, and rendered himself master of several towns.
The Moors, occupied by their domestic {44} quarrels, neglected to arrest the progress of Alphonso, and from that time the growth of a miniature kingdom commenced, 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 history of the Eastern caliphs.
[1] The Sabaei, according to the best ancient authorities, were the inhabitants of the extensive Arabian kingdom of Saba.—Translator.
[2] The term Moors, according to Bochart, comes from a Hebrew word, Mahuran, which signifies Western.
[3] It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that these Children of the Desert are supposed to be the lineal descendants of Ishmael, the wandering, outcast son of the patriarch Abraham and the much-abused Hagar.—Translator.
[4] The primitive name of the Arabs, from Nabathaea, an appellation for their country which is probably derived from Nabath, the son of Ishmael. The capital city of Nabathaea was that Petra, of whose present appearance and condition our eminent countryman, Stephens, has given his readers so graphic a sketch in his "Travels," &c.—Translator.
[5] A.D. 569.
[6] The Coheshirites, the guardians of the Temple of the Caaba at Mecca.
[7] See Note A, page 203.
[8] See Note B, page 206.
[9] See note C, page 207.
[10] See note D, page 208.
[11] See Note E, page 308.
[12] Ambeza, Azra, Jahiah, Osman, Hazifa, Hacchem, and Mohammed.
[13] It was in this battle that Charles acquired the title of Martel, or the Hammer.
[14] Abdoulmelek and Akbe.
[15] Aboulattar and Tevaba.
{45}
SECOND EPOCH.
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 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 valour 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 {46} 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 recognise 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,[1] and the spirit and courage of his party vanished with the {47} occurrence of that event. The sons of Ali made efforts to reanimate the ardour 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.[2] 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 {48} ancient valour of the Moslem soldiers was not yet degenerated.
After the Ommiades had maintained their empire for the space of ninety-three years, Mervan II.,[3] the last caliph of the race, was deprived of his throne and his life[4] through the instrumentality of Abdalla, a chief of the tribe of the Abbassides, who were, like the Ommiades, near relatives of Mohammed.
Aboul-Abbas, the 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 connexion with the names of Haroun Al Raschid, Almamon, and the Bermasides.[5]
The Abbassides retained the caliphate during five successive centuries.[6] At the termination of {49} that period, they were despoiled of their power by the Tartar posterity of Gengis Khan, after {50} 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. {51} 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 {52} 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 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 recognised 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 {53} 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 {54} affairs of Spain by the Oriental caliphs forever wrested from them by the last surviving individual of that royal race whom Abdalla had endeavoured 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,[7] incessantly demanded his attention; but his courage and activity gained the ascendency even over such numerous enemies. He maintained his throne with honour, 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 {55} remains of which continue even at this day to excite the admiration of the traveller. 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 Newyear, and that of Miloud, or the anniversary of the birth of Mohammed. Each of these festivals lasted for eight days. During that time {56} all labour 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 {57} 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 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 {58} 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 {59} 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 the 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.[8] 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, {60} 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 Elmonzaffer, 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[9] 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 {61} 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 favourite 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 {62} historian[10] adds, that the same evening the caliph entered the apartments of the appeased favourite 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 splendour and power, A.D. 912, Heg. 300.
{63}
This monarch, whose name, so dear to the Moslems, seemed to be an auspicious omen, took the title of Emir-al-Mumenin, 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 counts 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 centre of their states, and, having established a navy, seized, in addition, upon Ceuta and Seldjemessa on the African coast.
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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 splendour 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 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 request his support, signalized the occasion by the display of a gorgeous pomp which rivalled 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 {65} 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 splendour 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 enamoured of one of his wives named Zahra.[11] He built a city for her two miles distant from Cordova, which he named Zahra.
This place is now destroyed. It was situated {66} 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 centre 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[12] 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 favourite. 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 {67} 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 reflected 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 centre 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 {68} 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,[13] and twenty-five years hardly sufficed for the completion of this princely monument of chivalrous devotion.
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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.[14]
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.
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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 traveller 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.[15] Independent of this income in money, many imposts were paid in the products of the soil; and among an industrious agricultural {71} 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, favoured these commercial enterprises, and, by their countenance, assisted in enlarging, to a vast extent, the field of their operations; while the neighbourhood 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 {72} a new splendour 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, chymistry, 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.
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This singular fact does as much honour 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 honour 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, honours, 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 {74} 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, 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 honours 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 neighbours.
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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 {76} 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 {77} 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 beard {78} 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 endeavoured to {79} 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 {80} 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 {81} 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.[16]
But this was the last ray of unclouded splendour 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 {82} 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 hadjeb Almanzor successively replaced their illustrious father; but, in inheriting his power, they did not inherit 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 {83} 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[17] 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 lie, "and expire on 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. Jalmar-ben-Mohammed was the last in order. His death terminated the empire of the Caliphs {84} 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.
[1] See Note A, page 208.
[2] The dynasty of the Ommiades, whose capital, as M. Florian informs us, was Damascus, is most familiarly known in history as that of the Caliphs of Syria; and the Abbassides, who succeeded them upon the throne of Islam, are usually designated as the Caliphs of Bagdad, which city they built, and there established the seat of their regal power and magnificence. It may be observed, in connexion with this subject, that though the authority of the Caliphs of Damascus continued to be disputed and resisted after the death of Ali, yet with that event terminated the temporary division of the civil and sacerdotal power which had been at first occasioned by their usurpation of sovereignty. The political supremacy of the party of Ali ceased with his existence, and the authority that had belonged to the immediate successors of Mohammed long continued to centre in the family of the Ommiade princes.—Trans.