A.D. 714.] HIS DEATH. 101 reign the spectacle of victory. Had Walid recovered, the delay of Muza would have been criminal: he pursued his march, and found an enemy on the throne. În his trial before a partial judge, against a popular antagonist, he was convicted of vanity and falsehood; and a fine of two hundred thousand pieces of gold either exhausted his poverty or proved his rapaciousness. The unworthy treatment of Tarik was revenged by a similar indignity; and the veteran commander, after a public whipping, stood a whole day in the sun before the palace-gate, till he obtained a decent exile, under the pious name of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the caliph might have been satiated with the ruin of Muza; but his fears demanded the extirpation of a potent and injured family. A sentence of death was intimated with secrecy and speed to the trusty servants of the throne both in Africa and Spain; and the forms, if not the substance, of justice were superseded in this bloody execution. In the mosch or palace of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by the swords of the conspirators; they accused their governor of claiming the honours of royalty; and his scandalous marriage with Egilona, the widow of Roderic, offended the prejudices both of the Christians and Moslems.* By a refinement of cruelty, the head of the son was presented to the father, with an insulting question, whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel? "I know his features," he exclaimed with indignation: "I assert his innocence; and I imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death." The age and despair of Muza raised him above the power of kings; and he expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart. His rival was more favourably treated: his services were forgiven; and Tarik was permitted to mingle with the crowd of slaves.t *[She is called Ayela by the Arabians; on her marriage with Abdelaziz, she received the name of Omalisam-"the lady of the precious necklace." Condé, p. 83.-ED.] I much regret our loss, or my ignorance, of two Arabic works of the eighth century, a life of Muza, and a poem on the exploits of Taric. Of these authentic pieces, the former was composed by a grandson of Muza, who had escaped from the massacre of his kindred; the latter by the vizir of the first Abderahman caliph of Spain, who might have conversed with some of the veterans of the conqueror. (Bibliot Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 36. 139.) 102 PROSPERITY OF SPAIN [CH. LI. I am ignorant whether count Julian was rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though not from the hands of the Saracens; but the tale of their ingratitude to the sons of Witiza is disproved by the most unquestionable evidence. The two royal youths were reinstated in the private patrimony of their father; but on the decease of Eba the elder, his daughter was unjustly despoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the caliph Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her inheritance; but she was given in marriage to a noble Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were received in Spain with the consideration that was due to their origin and riches. A province is assimilated to the victorious State by the introduction of strangers and the imitative spirit of the natives; and Spain, which had been successively tinctured with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic, blood, imbibed, in a few generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. The first conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs, were attended by a numerous train of civil and military followers, who preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home; the private and public interest was promoted by the establishment of faithful colonies; and the cities of Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of their Eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley bands of Tarik and Muza asserted, by the name of Spaniards, their original claim of conquest; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their establishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was planted at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered around Toledo and the inland country; and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand horsemen of Syria and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble of the Arabian tribes. A spirit of emulation, * Bibliot. Arab.-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 32. 252. The former of these quotations is taken from a Biographia Hispanica, by an Arabian of Valencia (see the copious extracts of Casiri, tom. ii. p. 30-121); and the latter from a general chronology of the caliphs and of the African and Spanish dynasties, with a particular History of the Kingdom of Grenada, of which Casiri has given almost an entire version. (Bibliot. A.D. 714.] UNDER THE ARABS. 103 sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to the caliph the seas, the rivers, and the harbours, the inhabitants and cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.* In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by the agriculture,† the manufactures, and the commerce of an industrious people; and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by the idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain solicited the support of the Christians; and, in his edict of peace and protection, he contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as many mules, one thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets and lances. The most powerful of his succesArabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 177-319.) The author, Ebn Khateb, a native of Grenada, and a contemporary of Novairi and Abulfeda (born A.D. 1313, died A.D. 1374), was an historian, geographer, physician, poet, &c. (tom. ii. p. 71, 72). * Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 116, 117. + A copious treatise of Husbandry, by an Arabian of Seville, in the twelfth century, is in the Escurial library, and Casiri had some thoughts of translating it. He gives a list of the authors quoted, Arabs, as well as Greeks, Latins, &c.; but it is much if the Andalusian saw the strangers through the medium of his countryman Columella. (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 323-338.) Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 104. Casiri translates the original testimony of the historian Rasis, as it is alleged, in the Arabic Biographia Hispanica, pars 9. But I am most exceedingly surprised at the address, Principibus cæterisque Christianis Hispanis suis Castellæ. The name of Castellæ was unknown in the eighth century; the kingdom was not erected till the year 1022, a hundred years after the time of Rasis (Bibliot. tom. ii. p. 330), and the appellation was always expressive, not of a tributary province, but of a line of castles independent of the Moorish yoke. (D'Anville, Etats de l'Europe, p. 166-170.) Had Casiri been a critic, he would have cleared a difficulty, perhaps of his own making. [Mariana derives the name of Castella from its numerous castles, ab arcium frequentia. (De Reb. Hisp. 1. 1, c. 4, p. 7.) In the second chapter of his eighth book (p. 320), he says that from a very early period it was a distinct province, but within narrow limits, having its own counts (Castellæ comites) subordinate to the kings of Oviedo. Roderic, the first of these counts, he makes a contemporary of Alfonso II., who began his reign in 790. After many struggles, a treaty was concluded in 965, between its count Ferdinand Gonsalvo and Sancho the Fat, by which it was declared independent. Ib. 1. 8, c. 7, p. 333.—ED.] 101 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. [CH. LI. sors derived from the same kingdom the annual tribute of twelve millions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of gold, about six millions of sterling money;* a sum which, in the tenth century, most probably surpassed the united revenues of the Christian monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained six hundred moschs, nine hundred baths, and two hundred thousand houses: he gave laws to eighty cities of the first, to three hundred of the second and third, order; and the fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they created and they describe the most prosperous era of the riches, the cultivation, and the populousness of Spain.t The wars of the Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but among the various precepts and examples of his life, the caliphs selected the lessons of toleration that might tend to disarm the resistance of the unbelievers. Arabia was the temple and patrimony of the God of Mahomet; but he beheld with less jealousy and affection the nations of the earth. The Polytheists and idolators who were ignorant of his name, might be lawfully extirpated by his votaries ; but * Cardonne, tom. i. p. 337, 338. He computes the revenue at one hundred and thirty millions of French livres. The entire picture of peace and prosperity relieves the bloody uniformity of the Moorish annals. + I am happy enough to possess a splendid and interesting work, which has only been distributed in presents by the court of Madrid; Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, operâ et studio Michaelis Casiri, Syro-Maronitæ: Matriti, in folio, tomus prior, 1760, tomus posterior, 1770. The execution of this work does honour to the Spanish press: the MSS. to the number of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, are judiciously classed by the editor, and his copious extracts throw some light on the Mahometan literature and history of Spain. These relics are now secure, but the task has been supinely delayed till, in the year 1671, a fire consumed the greatest part of the Escurial library, rich in the spoils of Grenada and Morocco. [Condé, in his Preface, p. 15, criticizes severely this work of Casiri, in which he says, "there are many errors and much confusion respecting persons, places, and times." He cites several instances of these, and adds that to enumerate them all, many pages would be required.-ED.] The Harbii, as they are styled, qui tolerari nequeunt, are, 1. Those who, besides God, worship the sun, moon, or idols. 2. Atheists. Utrique, quamdiu princeps aliquis inter Mohammedanos superest, oppugnari debent donec religionem amplectantur, nec requies iis concedenda est, nec pretium acceptandum pro obtinendâ conscientiæ libertate (Reland, Dissertat. 10, de jure militari Mohammedan. tom. iii. A.D. 714.] PROPAGATION OF THE ISLAM. 105 a wise policy supplied the obligation of justice; and after some acts of intolerant zeal, the Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan have spared the pagods of that devout and populous country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and of Jesus, were solemnly invited to accept the more perfect revelation of Mahomet; but if they preferred the payment of a moderate tribute, they were entitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship. In a field of battle, the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the profession of Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion of their masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multiplied by the education of the infant captives. But the millions of African and Asiatic converts, who swelled the native band of the faithful Arabs, must have been allured, rather than constrained, to declare their belief in one God and the apostle of God. By the repetition of a sentence and the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave, the captive or the criminal, arose in a moment the free and equal companion of the victorious Moslems. Every sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved: the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of nature; the active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by the trumpet of the Saracens; and in the convulsion of the world, every member of a new society ascended to the natural level of his capacity and courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted by the invisible as well as temporal blessings of the Arabian prophet; and charity will hope, that many of his proselytes entertained a serious conviction of the truth and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an inquisitive Polytheist, it must appear worthy of the human and the divine nature. More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal that the law of Moses, the religion of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reason, than the creed of mystery and superstition, which, in the seventh century, disgraced the simplicity of the gospel. In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa, the na p. 14): a rigid theory! * The distinction between a proscribed and a tolerated sect, between the Harbii and the people of the Book, the believers in some divine revelation, is correctly defined in the conversation of the caliph Al Mamun with the idolaters, or Sabæans, of Charræ. Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 107, 108. |