IX. THE DECLINE OF THE MOSLEMS IN SPAIN…

IX. THE DECLINE OF THE MOSLEMS IN SPAIN

[Sidenote: [961-1492 A.D.]]

Al-Hakam II, the son and successor of Abd ar-Rahman, inherited all the great qualities of his father. He was, however, averse to war, fond of tranquillity, and immoderately attached to literature. His agents were constantly employed in the East in purchasing scarce and curious books; he himself wrote to every author of reputation for a copy of that author’s works, for which he paid royally; and wherever he could not purchase a book, he caused it to be transcribed. By this means he collected an extensive library, the unfinished catalogue of which, in the time of Ibn Hayan, reached forty-four volumes. On his accession, that he might devote his chief time to the public administration yet not neglect interests so dear to him, he confided to one of his brothers the care of his library, and to another the duty of protecting literary institutions and of rewarding the learned. His reign is the golden age of Arabian literature in Spain.

He appears never to have been engaged in war with the Christians; for though the Arabian writers mention the siege and reduction of an Estefano de Gormas by the king in person, no mention is made of such a fact by the contemporary bishop of Astorga. In Africa, his general, Khalib, successfully repressed an insurrection of two local governors, and rendered the walis of Fez again dependent on the throne of Cordova.

As Hisham II, the son and successor of Al-Hakam, was but eleven years old when he ascended the throne, the regency was conferred by the queen-mother on her secretary, Muhammed ben Abdallah, a man of great genius, valour, and activity. Muhammed, better known as Almansor, may, in fact, be regarded as the king; for he alone throughout life governed the realm. Hisham was too feeble, too despicable, too much addicted to slothful pleasures, to command even the passing notice of the people.

ALMANSOR

[Sidenote: [977-998 A.D.]]

The wars of Almansor with the Christians, which proved so fatal to them, occupy the most prominent part of his administration. Without acquainting them with his intention to disturb a peace which had continued during the reign of Al-Hakam, in 977 A.D. he penetrated into Galicia, where booty and captives in abundance rewarded the avarice of his followers. In the two years succeeding, he frequently renewed his incursions, both into Galicia and Tarragona, without encountering much opposition. Under an infant king, the Christians were too much occupied with their internal dissensions to unite even in defence of their country. In short, his destructive inroads are said to have occurred twice every year during a great part of his life.

In 981 Almansor not only reduced Zamora, but took possession of many other fortresses in the neighbourhood. The ensuing campaigns were no less successful; they are, however, too numerous to be particularised. It will be sufficient to state that in 983 A.D. he took Gormaz; in 984, Simancas; in 986, Sepulveda; in 987, he destroyed Coimbra, which, however, the Moors themselves soon rebuilt; in 989, he reduced Artienza, Osma, and Alcova; in 992, Montemayor; in 994, San Estevan and Corunna; in 995, Aguilar; in 996, the important cities of Leon and Astorga, with a great number of inferior places; and in the same year he laid waste the whole of Galicia, not sparing even the holy precincts of Compostella. His restless barbarity, and still more his innumerable acts of sacrilege, are dwelt upon with indignant wonder by the old chroniclers. But many precious things escaped his fury; and many more, such as the bodies of saints and kings, were removed by the terrified Christians from Leon to Oviedo--for the mountains of the Asturias again became the inaccessible asylum of the native monarchy. The bells of Compostella were sent to Cordova, to be melted into lamps for the famous mosque of that city. But the indignant saint sought for revenge; for, on their return to Cordova, the misbelievers were seized with a violent dysentery, which carried off the greater portion of them; comparatively few (if the bishop of Astorga[b] is to be believed, not one) returned to the Mohammedan capital. Later writers than Sampiro assign--perhaps with truth--much of the honour to the Christians, who, on learning the extent of the disease, pursued the misbelievers, and cut off such as Santiago would have spared. However this be, on the departure of the invaders, the Christians issued from their mountains, rebuilt their towns, and restored the church of Compostella.

During these successful operations against the kings of Leon, Almansor had time to signalise his administration in other parts. In 985 he seized on Barcelona; and would have carried his victorious banners to the Pyrenees, had not his march been arrested by intelligence from Africa. Al-Hasam, an emir of Almaghreb, who during the late reign had usurped the government of the whole province, and been expelled by Khalib, had fled to Egypt. By Nazar, the sultan of that country, he had been favourably received; and on his return he bore an order to the governor of Tunis to provide him with three thousand horse, and some Berber infantry. His little army was speedily reinforced; for in that country, more perhaps than any other on the face of the earth, he who endeavoured to disturb existing institutions was sure to receive some degree of co-operation. The general of Almansor--for Hisham was nobody--was defeated and compelled to seek refuge in Ceuta. But Abdul-Malik, the son of Almansor, hastened to the scene of strife, and in two battles annihilated the forces of his enemy, whom he made prisoner; and who, though relying on the faith of treaties, was sent to Spain and executed. With Al-Hasam ended the dynasty of the Edris, which had ruled in Fez about two hundred years. In 987, however, the flames of war were rekindled by Balkin ben Zeiri, and nourished by his son and successor. After various alternations of fortune the country was pacified by the victories of Abdul-Malik, who was rewarded by the dignity of emir of Almaghreb.

DECAY OF POWER

[Sidenote: [998-1009 A.D.]]

But the chief attention of the hajib was always turned to the natural enemy of his nation. From his elevation he had meditated the destruction of the Christian power. Now that Africa was pacified, and his son able to send him a supply of Berber troops, he resolved to execute his project, and as usual to commence with Leon. His preparations which he had been long making were immense; but this circumstance saved Spain. Terrified at the approaching danger, Sancho king of Navarre, and another of the same name, the count of Castile, entered into a confederacy with the regency of Leon (Alfonso V, who then reigned, was only in his eighth year), to repel the common foe. This was the first time during the administration of Almansor that the three powers thus united; they were, in fact, generally at war with one another; a circumstance which, coupled with the frequent minority of the kings of Leon, will fully account for the unparalleled triumphs of that hero.

In 1001 the Mohammedan army, in two formidable bodies, ascended the Duero, and encountered the Christians in the vicinity of Calatanazar, a place between Soria and Medina Cœli. When Almansor perceived the widespread tents of the Christians, he was struck with surprise. The battle commenced with break of day, and was maintained with unexampled obstinacy until darkness separated the combatants.

That the loss on both sides was immense, may well be conceived from the desperate valour of the two armies. If Almansor by his frequent and impetuous assaults broke the adverse line, it was soon reformed, and the next moment saw the Christian knights in the very heart of the infidels. Overcome with fatigue, with anxiety, and still more with the mortification of having been so unexpectedly repelled, he slowly retired to his tent, to await the customary visits of his generals. The extent of his disaster was unknown to him, until he learned, from the few who arrived, the fate of their brother chiefs. To hazard a second field, he well saw, would be destruction; and burning with shame he ordered a retreat. Whether the Mohammedans were disturbed or not in their retreat is uncertain, but Almansor himself proceeded no further than the frontiers of Castile, before he sank under the weight of his despair. Obstinately refusing all consolation--some accounts say all support--he died in the arms of his son Abdul-Malik, who had hastened from Africa to see him, the third day of the moon Shaffal (1002).

Almansor was formed for a great sovereign. He was not only the most able of generals, and the most valiant of soldiers, but he was an enlightened statesman, an active governor, an encourager of science and the arts, and a magnificent rewarder of merit. His loss was fatal to Cordova. The national sorrow was mitigated for a moment by the appointment of Abdul-Malik to the vacant post of hajib. This minister promised to tread in the steps of his illustrious father; his administration both in Africa and Spain was signalised by great spirit and valour; but, unlike Almansor, he found the Christians too well prepared to be taken by surprise. He was suddenly seized with excruciating pains--the effect, probably, of poison; and he died in 1008, in the seventh year of his administration. With him ended the prosperity of Mohammedan Spain.

[Sidenote: [1009-1012 A.D.]]

Abd ar-Rahman, the brother of Abdul-Malik, was next advanced to the post of hajib. He prevailed on the childless monarch to designate him as successor to the throne. This rash act occasioned his ruin, and was one of those which accelerated with fearful rapidity the decline of the state. The race of the Omayyads was not extinct; and Muhammed, a prince of that house, resolved to chastise the presumption of the hajib. He rapidly marched on the city, forcibly seized on the palace and king, and proclaimed the deposition of the hajib, who later was wounded, taken, and crucified by the barbarous victor.

Muhammed first caused himself to be appointed hajib; but the modest title soon displeased, and he aspired to that of king. He who had successfully rebelled against his sovereign, and who held that sovereign a prisoner in the palace, was not likely to hesitate at greater crimes. By his orders Hisham was secretly conveyed to an obscure fortress, and there confined. At the same time the death of the king was publicly announced; a person resembling him in stature and countenance was, we are told, substituted for him, and laid in the royal sepulchre; and Muhammed, in conformity with the pretended will of his predecessor, was hailed as prince of the believers.

But the usurper was far from secure in his seat of power. The dangerous example which he himself had set of successful rebellion, was too attractive not to be followed; and his own acts hastened the invitation. Incensed against the African guard which had supported the factions of Abd ar-Rahman, he dissolved that formidable body, and ordered them to be expelled the city. They naturally resisted; but with the aid of the populace he at length forced them beyond the walls, and threw after them the head of their chief. The exasperated Africans swore to be revenged, and proclaimed Suleiman, of the royal blood of the Omayyads, the successor of Hisham. As the forces of Suleiman were too few to make an open attack on Cordova, he traversed the country in search of partisans, and added greatly to the number of his followers. He even procured many Christian auxiliaries from Sancho, count of Castile. In an obstinately contended battle he overthrew the usurper; twenty thousand troops of the latter being left on the field. The victor hastened to Cordova, and assumed the reins of sovereignty. There, however, he did not long remain; he felt he was unpopular; and to avoid assassination, he shut himself up in the palace of Azhara.

The African domination--for such his was--became odious to the native Moslems; nor was the feeling lessened by the presence of the Christian auxiliaries. The latter were honourably dismissed; but still there was no solid security for Suleiman, against whom plots were frequent. To add to his vexations, Muhammed, aided by Count Raymond of Barcelona and several walis, advanced against Cordova. The African party was defeated, its chief forced to flee, and Muhammed again recognised as king. But throughout these contentions, the vicissitudes of success and failure followed each other with amazing celerity. Though pursued by a superior force headed in person by his bitter rival, Suleiman turned round and inflicted a terrible defeat on Muhammed, who precipitately fled, almost alone, to the capital. The victor followed him, seized on the heights in the vicinity of Cordova, and laid siege to the place. Muhammed was weakened by the desertion of his Christian allies, and still more by the disaffection of the mob, which bears about the same feeling to unfortunate princes as the kindred cur towards the meanly clad visitant. The hajib Uhada, a man who had contrived to keep his post in every recent change of government, took advantage of this alienation of popular feeling; he did not declare for Suleiman, as little of a favourite as the present ruler; but he suddenly drew Hisham from confinement, and showed him to the astonished populace. Astonishment gave way to transport; and transport, as usual, to excesses. Muhammed was beheaded, his corpse torn in pieces by the new converts to legitimacy (1012 A.D.), and the head thrown into the camp of Suleiman.

[Sidenote: [1012-1023 A.D.]]

But Suleiman refused to recognise the grandson of the great Abd ar-Rahman. Having formed an alliance with Obaid Allah, the son of Muhammed and wali of Toledo, he aimed at nothing less than the deposition of the king. At first his efforts were unpromising; his ally was defeated, made prisoner, and beheaded. Fortune favoured him in other respects. Suleiman marched on Cordova. In vain did the hajib Khairan, the successor of Uhada, whom Hisham in a fit of suspicion had put to death, attempt to defend the city. The inhabitants opened one of the gates; the Africans entered, fought, and conquered; their chief was a second time saluted as king, and Hisham forever disappeared from the stage of royalty--probably at the same moment from that of life.

Suleiman began his reign--for so long as Hisham lived he cannot be properly ranked among the kings of Cordova--by rewarding his adherents in the most lavish manner. He confirmed them, as he had promised, in the hereditary possession of their fiefs; thus engrafting on a strangely foreign stock the feudal institution of more northern nations. This was the signal for the creation of numerous independent sovereignties, and consequently for the ruin of Mohammedan Spain. The strength of the misbelievers had consisted in their unity under the religious sway of their caliphs; when this strong bulwark was dissolved the scattered fragments of their empire might for a moment resist the eager assaults of the Christians; but these must inevitably be swept away in the end by the overwhelming flood.

The hajib Khairan, who had escaped to his government of Almeria, swore to be revenged on this new usurper. As, however, no forces which he could bring into the field could contend for a moment with those of Suleiman, he passed over to Ceuta to interest the governor, Ali ben Hammud, in his project. Suleiman was forsaken by most of the walis, his allies--they can no longer be called subjects; his troops deserted to swell the ranks of his enemy; and in a battle near Seville, his Andalusian adherents turned against him, and thereby decided his fate.

Ali was proclaimed king of Mohammedan Spain, but not until search had been vainly made for Hisham. The crown was not destined to sit more lightly on his head than on that of his immediate predecessor. He found an enemy where he least expected one; he was stifled in the bath by his Slavonic attendants, and the report circulated that his death was natural.

Al-Kasim ben Hammud, brother of the deceased king, seized on the throne. A powerful conspiracy was formed to dethrone him. His palace was assailed; and though, by the valour of his guards, it held out fifty days, at the end of that time most of them fell in an attempt to effect their escape. Some of the more humane of the assailants secretly conveyed Kasim beyond the walls and provided him with a small escort of cavalry, which conveyed him to Xeres. When this intelligence was known at Cordova, the Alameris, or party of the family of the great Almansor, which acted a conspicuous part in all these commotions and which adhered to the fortunes of the Omayyads, proclaimed as king Abd ar-Rahman ben Hisham, brother of the usurper Muhammed.

Muhammed ben Abd ar-Rahman, cousin of the king, a man of boundless wealth, succeeded in corrupting the chief nobles of the city. In the silence of night he armed a resolute band of his creatures, who hastened to the palace, and massacred the soldiers on duty. After a reign of only forty-seven days, the king’s bedchamber was entered and he was pierced with a thousand wounds.

END OF THE OMAYYADS

[Sidenote: [1023-1238 A.D.]]

Muhammed II reaped the reward of his crime. His successor was Yahya, who perished in an ambuscade (1025). The next prince on whom the choice of the Cordovans fell, Hisham III, brother of Abd ar-Rahman al-Mortada, was naturally loth to accept a crown which had destroyed so many of its wearers. In the end, however, being rather forced than persuaded to relinquish his scruples, he left his retirement. Unhappily, he had but too much reason to find that neither private virtues nor public services have much influence over the bulk of mankind; and that the absolute king who has not the power to make himself feared will not long be suffered to reign. In 1031 a licentious mob paraded the streets of Cordova, and loudly demanded his deposition. He did not wait the effects of their violence; with unfeigned satisfaction he retired to private life, in which he passed unmolested the remainder of his days. The remembrance of his virtues long survived him; and by all the Arabic writers of his country he is represented as too good for his age.

With Hisham III ended the caliphate of the West, and the noble race of the Omayyads. If the succession was interrupted by Ali, and Al-Kasim, and Yahya, who though descended from a kindred stock were not of the same family, that interruption was but momentary; especially as Abd ar-Rahman IV reigned at Jaen, while the last two princes were acknowledged at Cordova. From this period 1031 A.D. to the establishment of the kingdom of Grenada in 1238 A.D., there was no supreme chief of Mohammedan Spain, if we except the fleeting conquerors who arrived from Africa, the fabric of whose dominion was as suddenly destroyed as it was erected.

Vicious as is the constitution of all Mohammedan governments, and destructible as are the bases on which they are founded, the reader cannot fail to have been struck with the fate of this great kingdom. It can scarcely be said to have declined; it fell at once. Not thirty years have elapsed since the great Almansor wielded the resources of Africa and Spain, and threatened the entire destruction of the Christians, whom he had driven into an obscure corner of this vast peninsula. Now Africa is lost; the Christians hold two-thirds of the country; the petty but independent governors, the boldest of whom trembled at the name of Almansor, openly insult the ruler of Cordova, whose authority extends little further than the walls of his capital. Assuredly, so astounding a catastrophe has no parallel in all history. Other kingdoms, indeed, as powerful as Cordova, have been perhaps as speedily deprived of their independence; but if they have been subdued by invading enemies, their resources, their vigour, to a certain extent their greatness have long survived their loss of that blessing. Cordova, in the very fullness of her strength, was torn to pieces by her turbulent children.

INDEPENDENT KINGDOMS

[Sidenote: [1031-1094 A.D.]]

The decline and dissolution of the Mohammedan monarchy, or western caliphate afforded the ambitious local governors throughout the peninsula the opportunity for which they had long sighed--that of openly asserting their independence of Cordova and of assuming the title of kings.

But Cordova, however weakened, was not willing thus suddenly to lose her hold on her ancient subjects; she resolved to elect a sovereign who should endeavour to subdue these audacious rebels, and restore her ancient splendour. The disasters which had accompanied the last reigns of the Omayyad princes had strongly indisposed the people to the claims of that illustrious house. Jehwar ben Muhammed surrounded himself by a council which comprised some of the most distinguished citizens, and without the advice of which he undertook no one thing, not even the nomination to public offices. Of that council he was but the president, possessing but one vote like the remaining members; so that Cordova presented the appearance rather of a republic than of a monarchy. He introduced a degree of tranquillity and commercial activity unknown since the death of the great Almansor. But the same success did not attend him in his efforts to restore the supremacy of Cordova. Whatever might be the internal dissensions of the petty kings, the success of some, the failure of others, none thought of recognising his superiority. To recount the perpetually recurring struggles of these reguli for the increase of their states, their alliances, their transient successes or hopeless failures, or even their existence, would afford neither interest nor instruction to the reader. Such events only can be noticed as are either signal in themselves, or exercised more than a passing influence on the condition of the Mohammedan portion of the peninsula.

After triumphing over some neighbouring kings, who dreaded his increasing power, the sovereign of Seville prepared to invade the possessions of Jehwar; but death surprised him before those preparations were completed. His son, Muhammed Al-Mucteded, who succeeded him, was as ambitious as himself, but more luxurious. All southern Andalusia came into the power of Al-Mucteded, yet his ambition was far from satisfied. For some time he remained in alliance with Muhammed, the son and successor of Jehwar, in the throne of Cordova; but he gained possession of that ancient capital by stratagem. After many years of continued warfare, the king of Seville and Cordova became, not merely the most powerful, but almost the only independent sovereign of Mohammedan Spain.

Yahya al-Kadi, the son and successor of Ibn Dylnun on the throne of Toledo, inherited neither the courage nor the abilities of that prince. Sunk in the lowest sensuality, he regarded with indifference the growing success of Muhammed. He became at length so contemptible that his very subjects rose and expelled him. He applied for aid to the ally of his father, Alfonso VI king of Leon; but that prince, though under the greatest obligations to the memory of the father, was persuaded by the king of Seville to adopt a hostile policy towards the son. It seems, indeed, as if Muhammed and Alfonso, in the treaty which they concluded at the instance of the former, had tacitly agreed not to interrupt each other in the execution of the designs each had long formed. The victorious Alfonso triumphed over all opposition, and prosecuted the siege with a vigour which might have shown the misbelievers how formidable an enemy awaited them all, and how necessary were their combined efforts to resist him. But Muhammed, the only enemy whom the Christian hero had to dread, was no less occupied in deriving his share of the advantages secured by the treaty--in reducing the strong towns of Murcia and Granada. After a siege of three years, Toledo was reduced to the last extremity, and was compelled to capitulate. On the 25th of May, 1085 A.D., Alfonso triumphantly entered this ancient capital of the Goths, which had remained in the power of the misbelievers about 374 years.

The conquest of Toledo was far from satisfying the ambition of Alfonso; he rapidly seized on the fortresses of Madrid, Maqueda, Guadalajara, and established his dominion on both banks of the Tagus. Muhammed now began seriously to repent his treaty with the Christian, and to tremble even for his own possessions. He vainly endeavoured to divert his ally from the projects of aggrandisement which that ally had evidently formed. Muhammed saw that unless he leagued himself with those whose subjugation had hitherto been his constant object,--the princes of his faith,--his and their destruction was inevitable. The magnitude of the danger compelled him to solicit their alliance. Such resistance as Mohammedan Spain alone could offer seemed hopeless. With this conviction in their hearts two of the most influential cadis proposed an appeal to the celebrated African conqueror, Yusuf ben Tashufin, whose arm alone seemed able to preserve the faith of Islam in the peninsula. The proposal was received with general applause by all present; they did not make the very obvious reflection that when a nation admits into its bosom an ally more powerful than itself, it admits at the same time a conqueror. The wali of Malaga alone, Abdallah ben Zagut, had courage to oppose the dangerous embassy under consideration. “You mean to call in the aid of the Almoravids! Are you ignorant that these fierce inhabitants of the deserts resemble their own native tigers? Suffer them not, I beseech you, to enter the fertile plains of Andalusia and Granada! Doubtless they would break the iron sceptre which Alfonso intends for us; but you would still be doomed to wear the chains of slavery. Do you not know that Yusuf has taken all the cities of Almaghreb, that he has subdued the powerful tribes of the East and West, that he has everywhere substituted despotism for liberty and independence?” The aged Zagut spoke in vain.

THE ALMORAVIDS

Beyond the chain of Mount Atlas, in the deserts of ancient Gætulia, dwelt two tribes of Arabian descent. At what time they had been expelled, or had voluntarily exiled themselves from their native Yemen, they knew not; but tradition taught them that they had been located in the African deserts from ages immemorial. Yahya ben Ibrahim, belonging to one of these tribes (that of Gudala), made the pilgrimage of Mecca. Being questioned by his new friend as to the religion and manners of his countrymen, he replied that they were sunk in ignorance, both from their isolated situation in the desert and from their want of teachers. He entreated the alfaqui to allow some one of his disciples to accompany him into his native country. With considerable difficulty Abdallah ben Yassim, the disciple of another alfaqui, was persuaded to accompany the patriotic Yahya. Abdallah was one of those ruling minds which, fortunately for the peace of society, nature so seldom produces. Seeing his enthusiastic reception by the tribe of Gudala, and the influence he was sure of maintaining over it, he formed the design of founding a sovereignty in the heart of these vast regions. He prevailed on his obedient disciples to make war on the kindred tribe of Lamtuna. His ambition naturally increased with his success; in a short time he had reduced, in a similar manner, the isolated tribes around him.

To his valiant followers of Lamtuna, he now gave the name of Al-Morabethun, or Almoravids, which signifies men consecrated to the service of God. The whole country of Darah was gradually subdued by this new apostle, and his authority was acknowledged over a region extensive enough to form a respectable kingdom. But though he exercised all the rights of sovereignty, he prudently abstained from assuming the title. He left to the emir of Lamtuna the ostensible exercise of temporal power; and when, in 1058 A.D., that emir fell in battle, he nominated Abu Bekr ben Omar to the vacant dignity. His own death, which was that of a warrior, left Abu Bekr in possession of an undivided sovereignty. The power, and consequently the reputation of the emir, spread far and wide. Abu Bekr looked around for a site on which he might lay the foundations of a great city, the destined metropolis of a great empire; and the city of Morocco began to rear its head from the valley of Eylana. Before, however, his great work was half completed, he received intelligence that the tribe of Gudala had declared a deadly war against that of Lamtuna. As he belonged to the latter, he naturally trembled for the fate of his kindred; and at the head of his cavalry he departed for his native deserts, leaving the command of the army, during his absence, to his cousin, Yusuf ben Tashufin.

[Sidenote: [1070-1103 A.D.]]

Whatever were Yusuf’s other virtues, it will be seen that gratitude, honour, and good faith were not among the number. Scarcely had his kinsman left the city than, in pursuance of the design he had formed of usurping the supreme authority, he began to win the affections of the troops, partly by his gifts and partly by affability. Nor was his success in war less agreeable to so fierce and martial a people as the Almoravids. The Berbers were quickly subdued by him. He had long aspired to the hope of marrying the beautiful Zainab, sister of Abu Bekr; but the fear of a repulse from the proud chief of his family had caused him to smother his inclination. He now disdained to supplicate for that chief’s consent; he married the lady. Having put the finishing touch to his magnificent city of Morocco, he transferred thither the seat of his empire. The augmentation of his army was his next great object; and so well did he succeed in it that he found his troops exceeded one hundred thousand.

Yusuf had just completed the subjugation of Fez when Abu Bekr returned from the desert, and encamped in the vicinity of Agmat. With a force so far inferior to his rival’s, so far from demanding the restitution of his rights, he durst not even utter one word of complaint; on the contrary, he pretended that he had long renounced empire, and that his only wish was to pass the remainder of his days in the retirement of the desert. With equal hypocrisy Yusuf humbly thanked him for his abdication; the sheikhs and walis were summoned to witness the renewed declaration of the emir, after which the two princes separated. The following day, however, Abu Bekr received a magnificent present from Yusuf, who, indeed, continued to send him one every year to the period of his death.

Yusuf had just exchanged his humble title of emir for that of al-muslimin, or prince of the believers, and of nazir ed-din, or defender of the faith, when letters from Muhammed reached him. Before he returned a final answer to the king of Seville, he insisted that the fortress of Algeciras should be placed in his hands, on the pretence that if fortune were unpropitious he should have some place to which he might retreat. That Muhammed should have been so blind as not to perceive the designs involved in the insidious proposal is almost enough to make one agree with the Arabic historians, that destiny had decreed he should fall by his own measures.

Alfonso was besieging Saragossa, which he had every expectation of reducing, when intelligence reached him of Yusuf’s disembarkation. He resolved to meet the approaching storm. At the head of all the forces he could muster he advanced towards Andalusia, and encountered Yusuf on the plains of Zallaka (1086). Alfonso was severely wounded and compelled to retreat, but not until nightfall, nor until he had displayed a valour worthy of the greatest heroes. Yusuf now proclaimed the Al-hijed, or holy war, and invited all the Andalusian princes to join him. But this demonstration of force proved as useless as the preceding; it ended in nothing; owing partly to the dissensions of the Mohammedans and partly to the activity of the Christians, who not only rendered abortive the measures of the enemy but gained some signal advantages over them. Yusuf was forced to retreat on Almeida. Whether through the distrust of the Mohammedan princes, who appear to have penetrated his intention of subjecting them to his empire, or through his apprehension of Alfonso, he again returned to Africa, to procure new and more considerable levies. He landed a third time at Algeciras, not so much with the view of humbling the Christian king as of executing the perfidious design he had so long formed. For form’s sake, indeed, he invested Toledo, but he could have entertained no expectation of reducing it; and when he perceived that the Andalusian princes refused to join him, he eagerly left that city, and proceeded to secure far dearer and easier interests. He openly threw off the mask, and commenced his career of spoliation. After the fall of Muhammed, Yusuf had little difficulty in subduing the remaining princes of Andalusia.

Thus ended the petty kingdoms of Andalusia, after a stormy existence of about sixty years, and thus commenced the dynasty of the Almoravids. For some years after the usurpation of Yusuf, peace appears to have subsisted in Spain between the Mohammedans and the Christians. Fearing a new irruption of Africans, Alfonso contented himself with fortifying Toledo; and Yusuf felt little inclination to renew the war with one whose prowess he had so fatally experienced. But Christian Spain was, at one moment, near the brink of ruin. The passion for the Crusades was no less ardently felt by the Spaniards than by other nations of Europe. Fortunately, Pope Paschal II, in answer to the representations of Alfonso, declared that the proper post of every Spaniard was at home, and there were his true enemies. Yusuf returned to Morocco in 1103, where he died in 1106, after living one hundred Arabian or about ninety-seven Christian years.

[Sidenote: [1103-1130 A.D.]]

Ali was only in his twenty-third year when he succeeded his father, whose military talents he inherited, and whom he surpassed in generosity. On the death of Alfonso, in 1109 A.D., Ali entered Spain at the head of one hundred thousand men, to prosecute in person the war against the Christians. But though he laid waste the territory of Toledo, and invested that city, he soon abandoned the siege. A second army sent by Ali had no better success. In 1118 Saragossa, after a siege of some months, fell into the power of the Christians, and the north of Spain was forever freed from the domination of the Mohammedans. The following year the Aragonian hero destroyed twenty thousand of the Africans, who had advanced as far as the environs of Daroca; while another division of the Almoravids, under Ali in person, was compelled to retreat before the army of Leon and Castile.

At this very time the empire of the Almoravids was tottering to its fall. It had never been agreeable to the Mohammedans of Spain, whose manners, from their intercourse with a civilised people, were comparatively refined. The sheikhs of Lamtuna were so many insupportable tyrants; the Jews, the universal agents for the collection of the revenues, were here, as in Poland, the most pitiless extortioners; every savage from the desert looked with contempt on the milder inhabitant of the peninsula. The domination of those strangers was indeed so odious that, except for the divisions between Alfonso and his ambitious queen, Donna Urraca, who was sovereign in her own right, all Andalusia might speedily have been subjected to the Christian yoke. Even while Ali remained in Spain, there was an open revolt of the inhabitants, who could not longer support the excesses of the barbarian guard.

But the cause which most menaced the existence of Ali’s throne, and which was destined to change the whole face of western Africa and southern Spain, originated, like the power of Yusuf ben Tashufin, in the deserts bordering on Mount Atlas. Muhammed ben Abdallah, the son of a lamp-lighter in the mosque of Cordova, was distinguished for great curiosity and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Whether Muhammed was a fanatic or a knave, or composed of a large mixture of both, is not easy to be determined. He wandered from place to place, zealously preaching doctrines dangerous to the faith of Islam. His reception, however, was long cool; and from one town, where he had held forth in the mosque, he was compelled to flee to Tlemcen. On his way he fell in with a youth, Abdul-Mumin by name, whom he persuaded to share his fortunes. The two friends subsequently travelled to Fez, and thence to Morocco.

The artful rebel was permitted to follow his vocation till the excitement produced by his fanatic appeals to the ignorant populace was too great to be overlooked, and he was ordered to leave Morocco. At a short distance from the city, however, probably in its public cemetery, he built a hut among the graves, as a residence for himself and his faithful Abdul-Mumin. As he had anticipated, he was soon followed by crowds who venerated his prophetic character, and who listened with pleasure to vehement denunciations which fell with terrific effect on their superiors. He inveighed against the impiety of the Almoravids, who appear not to have been more popular in Mauretania than in Spain. Ali ordered the rebel to be secured. Muhammed, who had timely notice of the fate intended him, fled to Agmat, accompanied by a host of proselytes; but finding that his liberty was still in danger, he hastily retreated to Tinmal in the province of Sus. His success in this region was so great that he had soon an army of disciples, all devoted to his will, because all believed in his divine mission. For some time he preached to them the coming of the great mahdi, who should teach all men the right way and cause virtue and happiness to reign over the whole earth; but he carefully refrained from acknowledging himself to be the mighty prophet, doubtless because he was fearful of shocking the credulity even of his own followers. One day, in conformity with a preconcerted plan, as he was expatiating on the change to be effected by the long-promised teacher and ruler, Abdul-Mumin and nine other men arose, saying: “Thou announcest a mahdi; the description applies only to thyself. Be our mahdi and imam; we swear to obey thee!” The Berbers, influenced by the example, in the same manner arose and vowed fidelity even unto death.

[Sidenote: [1130-1143 A.D.]]

From this moment he assumed the high title of mahdi, and proclaimed himself as the founder of a new people. He instituted a regular government, confiding the administration to Abdul-Mumin, his minister, with nine associates, but reserving the control to himself. Seventy Berbers or Alarabs formed the council of the new government. An army of ten thousand horse and a far greater number of foot was speedily organised, with which he took the road to Agmat just as Ali returned to Morocco from Spain. The Almohads [Unitarians], for such was the name assumed by the followers of Muhammed, defeated the troops of Ali four times.

At length Muhammed resolved to reduce the capital of Morocco. At his voice forty thousand men took the field. The preparations of Ali were immense; one hundred thousand men were ranged round his standard. They were again defeated, were pursued to the very walls of Morocco, and that capital was invested with a vigour which showed that the Almohads were intent on its reduction. But Ali led his troops against the rebels, whom he completely routed. Abdul-Mumin rallied the fugitives, and effected an orderly retreat. But time was necessary to repair the misfortune, especially as some of the savage tribes of the desert withdrew from Muhammed’s banner, on finding that his power was that of a mere mortal.

In 1130 the mahdi commanded all to assemble the following day near the great mosque, to bid adieu to their chief. All wondered at the command, except such as were acquainted with his long hidden disease. He exhorted them to persevere in the doctrine he had taught them; announced his approaching death; and when he saw them dissolved in tears, inculcated the duty of resignation to the divine will. He then retired with his beloved disciple, to whom he presented the book containing the tenets of his faith--a book which he had received from the hands of Al-Gazali. The fourth day he expired. The chiefs of the state were soon afterwards assembled to deliberate on the form of government; a monarchy was chosen; and by their unanimous suffrages Abdul-Mumin was proclaimed imam and almumenin.

For the next three years the new caliph was diligently employed in extending his conquests. The whole country, from the mountains of Darah to Salee, all Fez and Tasa, received his spiritual and temporal yoke. The empire of the Almoravids was now bounded within a narrow sphere. Ali became dejected and unhappy; his troops were everywhere defeated; his towns were rapidly delivered into the power of a savage enemy, who had vowed his destruction; and though, in compliance with the advice of his counsellors, he associated with him in the empire his son Tashufin, whose exploits in Spain had obtained him much celebrity, that prince was too busily occupied with the Christians and his discontented subjects of Andalusia to prop the declining empire in Africa.

[Sidenote: [1143-1145 A.D.]]

Tashufin ben Ali succeeded in 1143 to his father, who died at Morocco--more from grief at the declining state of affairs than from any other cause. His first object was to assemble an army to strike another blow for the defence of his empire. At first he was successful. Abdul-Mumin was compelled to fall back on his mountain; but in a second action Tashufin was defeated; in a third he was also compelled to retreat. Ali saw that his only hope of safety lay in an escape to Spain. One night he resolved to make a desperate effort to gain the port where his vessels were still riding at anchor. Unfortunately either he mistook his way or his mule was terrified by the roaring of the waves, for the next morning his mangled corpse was found at the foot of a precipice on the beach.

But Morocco, Fez, and some other cities were yet in the power of the Almoravids, who raised Ibrahim Abu Ishak, son of Tashufin, to the throne. The vindictive Abdul-Mumin, however, left them little time to breathe. Tlemcen he took by assault, and massacred the inhabitants; Fez he also reduced. The siege of Morocco was prosecuted with vigour. The inhabitants were so fatally repulsed in a sortie that they durst no longer venture outside the walls. Famine soon aided the sword; the number who died of starvation is said to have amounted to three-fourths of the whole population. Such a place could not long hold out; and accordingly it was carried in the first general assault. Ibrahim and the surviving sheikhs were instantly brought before the conqueror. Not only were he and his chiefs led out to instant execution, but a general massacre of the surviving inhabitants was ordered. The few who were spared were sold as slaves; the mosques were destroyed and new ones erected; and the tribes of the desert were called to re-people the now solitary streets.

During these memorable exploits in Africa, the Christians were rapidly increasing their dominions. Coria, Mora, etc., were in the power of Alfonso, styled the emperor; and almost every contest between the two natural enemies had turned to the advantage of the Christians. So long, indeed, as the walis were eager only to preserve or to extend their authority, independent of each other and of every superior, this success need not surprise us; we may rather be surprised that the Mohammedans were allowed to retain any footing in the peninsula. Probably they would at this time have been driven from it but for the seasonable arrival of the victorious Almohads. Both Christians and Africans now contended for the superiority. While the troops of Alfonso reduced Baeza, and with a Mohammedan ally even Cordova, Malaga and Seville acknowledged Abu Amram. Calatrava and Almeria next fell to the Christian emperor, about the same time that Lisbon and the neighbouring towns received Dom Henry (Henrique), the new sovereign of Portugal. Most of these conquests, however, were subsequently recovered by the Almohads. Being reinforced by a new army from Africa, the latter pursued their successes with greater vigour. They reduced Cordova, which was held by an ally of Alfonso; defeated, and forever paralysed, the expiring efforts of the Almoravids; and proclaimed their emperor Abdul-Mumin as sovereign of all Mohammedan Spain (1146).

DYNASTY OF THE ALMOHADS

[Sidenote: [1145-1198 A.D.]]

Abdul-Mumin, as if desirous of subduing not merely what had formed the empire of the Almoravids but all the regions which owned the faith of Islam, levied army after army; so that from Portugal to Tunis and Kairwan his wild hordes spread devastation and dismay. To detail the events of the wars sustained by his general, or his son the cid Yusuf, in Andalusia, would afford little interest to the reader. It will be sufficient to observe that, by slow but sure degrees, the whole of Andalusia was incorporated with his empire. Once only did he visit Spain, if remaining a few hours at Gibraltar can deserve the name. In 1162 he breathed his last. On his accession, Yusuf Abu Yakub dismissed the enormous army which had been collected. During the following few years he appears to have cultivated the blessings of peace; it was not until 1170 that he entered Spain, and all Mohammedan Spain owned the emperor.

Notwithstanding the destructive wars which had prevailed near a century, neither Moors nor Christians had acquired much advantage by them. From the reduction of Saragossa to the present time, the victory, indeed, had generally declared for the Christians; but their conquests, with the exception of Lisbon and a few fortresses in central Spain, were lost almost as soon as gained; and the same fate attended the equally transient successes of the Mohammedans. The reason why the former did not permanently extend their territories, was their internal dissensions. The Christians, when at peace among themselves, were always too many for their Mohammedan neighbours, even when the latter were aided by the whole power of western Africa.

Yakub ben Yusuf, from his victories afterwards named Al-Mansur, was declared successor to his father. For some years he was not personally opposed to the Christians, though his walis carried on a desultory indecisive war. In 1194 he landed in Andalusia, and proceeded towards Valencia, where the Christian army then lay. There Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, was awaiting the expected reinforcements from his allies, the kings of Leon and Navarre. Both armies pitched their tents on the plains of Alarcon. The chiefs of both naturally felt anxious for the result; but the charge of rashness cannot be erased from the memory of Alfonso, for venturing to withstand alone a conflict with the overwhelming force of the enemy, instead of falling back to effect a junction with his allies. His loss must have been immense, amounting probably to twenty thousand men. With a generosity very rare in a Mohammedan, and still more in an African, Yakub restored his prisoners to liberty--an action for which, we are informed, he received few thanks from his followers. After this signal victory Yakub rapidly reduced Calatrava, Guadalaxara, Madrid and Esalona, Salamanca, etc. Toledo, too, he invested, but in vain. He returned to Africa, caused his son Muhammed to be declared wali alhadi, and died (1199). He was, beyond doubt, the greatest and best of the Almohads.

[Sidenote: [1198-1212 A.D.]]

The character of Muhammed Abu Abdallah, surnamed An-Nasir, was very different from that of his great father. Much as the world had been astounded at the preparations of his grandfather Yusuf, they were not surpassed by his own, if, as we are credibly informed, one alone of the five divisions of his army amounted to 160,000 men. It is certain that a year was required for the assembling of this vast armament, that two months were necessary to convey it across the straits, and that all Christian Europe was filled with alarm at its disembarkation. Innocent III proclaimed a crusade to Spain; and Rodrigo of Toledo, the celebrated historian, accompanied by several prelates, went from one court to another to rouse the Christian princes. While the kings of Aragon and Navarre promised to unite their forces with their brother of Castile to repel the common danger, great numbers of volunteers from Portugal and southern France hastened to the general rendezvous at Toledo, the pope ordered fasting, prayers, and processions to be made, to propitiate the favour of heaven, and to avert from Christendom the greatest danger that had threatened it since the days of the emir Abd ar-Rahman.

THE BATTLE OF LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA (1212 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1212-1270 A.D.]]

Muhammed opened the campaign by the siege of Salvatierra, a strong but not important fortress of Estremadura, defended by the knights of Calatrava. That he should waste his forces on objects so incommensurate with their extent, proves how little he was qualified to wield them. The place stood out for several months, and did not surrender until the emperor had sustained a heavy loss, nor until the season was too far advanced to permit any advantage to be derived from this partial success. By suspending the execution of his great design until the following season, he allowed Alfonso time to prepare for the contest. The following June, the kings of Leon and Castile having assembled at Toledo, and been joined by a considerable number of foreign volunteers, the Christian army advanced towards the south.

On July 12th, the crusaders reached the mountainous chain which divides New Castile from Andalusia. They found not only the passes, but the summits of the mountains occupied by the Almohads. To force a passage was impossible; and they even deliberated on retreating, so as to draw out, if possible, the enemy from positions so formidable, when a shepherd entered the camp of Alfonso, and proposed to conduct the Christian army, by a path unknown to both armies, to the summit of this elevated chain--by a path, too, which would be invisible to the enemy’s outposts. A few companies having accompanied the man, and found him equally faithful and well informed, the whole army silently ascended, and entrenched themselves on the summit, the level of which was extensive enough to contain them all. Below appeared the widespread tents of the Moslems, whose surprise was great on perceiving the heights thus occupied by the crusaders. For two days the latter, whose fatigues had been harassing, kept their position; but on the third day they descended into the plains of Tolosa, which were about to be immortalised by their valour. Their right wing was led by the king of Navarre, their left by the king of Aragon, while Alfonso took his station in the centre. The attack was made by the Christian centre against that of the Mohammedans; and immediately the two wings moved against those of the enemy.

The struggle was terrific, but short; myriads of the barbarians fell, the boundary was first broken down by the king of Navarre, the Castilians and Aragonese followed, all opponents were massacred or fled, and the victors began to ascend the eminence on which Muhammed still remained. Muhammed mounted a mule and soon outstripped not only the pursuers but the fugitives. The carnage of the latter was dreadful, until darkness put an end to it. The victors now occupied the tents of the Mohammedans, while the two martial prelates sounded the Te Deum for the most splendid success which had shone on the banners of the Christians since the time of Charles Martel. The loss of the Africans, even according to the Arabian writers, who admit that the centre was wholly destroyed, could not fall short of 160,000 men.

The reduction of several towns, from Tolosa to Baeza, immediately followed this glorious victory--a victory in which Don Alfonso nobly redeemed his failure in the field of Zallaka, and which, in its immediate consequences, involved the ruin of the Mohammedan empire in Spain. After an unsuccessful attempt on Ubeda, as the hot season was raging, the allies returned to Toledo, satisfied that the power of Muhammed was forever broken. That emperor, indeed, did not long survive his disaster. Having precipitately fled to Morocco, he abandoned himself to licentious pleasures, left the cares of government to his son, or rather his ministers, and died in 1213, not without suspicion of poison.[c]

THE DECLINE OF ARAB POWER

After the dissolution of the Almohad empire Africa and Spain, without severing any of the ties that bound their populations together, ceased forever to obey the same government. This separation would have had no disastrous consequences for Islam if the tribes of Maghreb had not set so high a price upon their assistance that the Spanish Arabs were unable to accept it. The Maghrebites did indeed cross the strait several times after 1232, but these expeditions served merely to assure the triumphs of the Christians, who drew together in closer and closer union.

The defeat of Tolosa had, by demonstrating the incapacity of Muhammed an-Nasir, precipitated the insurrection of Andalusia; and in Africa the power founded by Abdul-Mumin was as rapidly declining, owing to the failure of the Almohad princes to display the necessary decision and address. As early as 1242 the wali of Tunis refused to renew the tribute which as vassal he was bound to pay, caused himself to be proclaimed an independent sovereign, and founded on the most solid basis the dynasty of the house of Abu Hass, which was destined to endure through several centuries. Farther to the west, in 1248, the Beni Zian family established their supremacy at Tlemcen, Algiers, and in the neighbourhood of Fez; while in the Maghreb the tribe of Beni Merin raised the standard of revolt and menaced Fez, Tasa, and Morocco. For twenty years the Almohads held their ground against their enemies; but all the courage they displayed was rendered useless by their own intestine strife, and in 1270 the Merinid, Abu Yusuf, received the allegiance of the Arabian Moors, or Berbers, of western Africa.

[Sidenote: [1270-1359 A.D.]]

It would be impossible to-day to determine exactly the extent of the territories controlled by the revolting tribes, but in the beginning their domains, without doubt, included Bougie and Algiers and extended from Tlemcen to the Atlantic. Their frontier lines must, in any case, have been constantly changing, as the rulers of the three states waged incessant war against each other, and emigration and displacements were continually taking place. A chronological list of the princes who succeeded each other at Tunis, Tlemcen, and Morocco, during the period that extended from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, would teach us little of an epoch concerning which very few documents exist. The most we know is that the cities of Tunis, Bougie, Algiers, Tlemcen, Fez, and Morocco retained under the Abu Hass, the Beni Zian, and the Beni Merin the importance and splendour that had been theirs under the Zairites and the Omayyads, and could still cite with pride the names of many great artists and scholars. The ancient maritime power of the Aghlabites had fallen never to rise again; but bands of pirates were organised which inflicted great damage on Christians, and vessels leaving the Atlantic ports began to descend the coasts of Africa to the tropics, where they carried on a great trade in gold, amber, and negro slaves.

Naturally the Arabs were drawn into all the disputes that arose between the different sovereigns of Africa, but they experienced no serious results from any of them. Once in 1347, and again in 1359, the Merinid chiefs had succeeded in overcoming Tlemcen and Tunis; but the deposed rulers soon recovered their thrones and continued to reign over the populations they had trained to obedience. Of the three African dynasties that of Abu Hass experienced the fewest turmoils and disorders. While in Maghreb two rivals of equal force disputed for supremacy over the capitals of Fez and Morocco, and in Tlemcen the Beni Zian were obliged to resist the encroachments of formidable neighbours, the kings in Tunis were powerful enough to command the respect of all other cities near, and to wrest Tripoli from the warlike mamelukes of Egypt, the rulers who had succeeded to the Eyyubid sultans.

Having apparently accomplished their mission, the Arabs no longer sought to make the cause of Islam triumph, but little by little withdrew to the obscurity and monotony of a desert life. Even in 1270, at the time of the last crusade of St. Louis, they displayed nothing like the courage that had characterised them on former occasions, being content to sign a disadvantageous treaty with Charles of Anjou, by which they bound themselves to receive French and Italian merchandise free of duty, and to permit the free practice of Catholicism throughout their states.

[Sidenote: [1343-1534 A.D.]]

Later the Spaniards and the Portuguese conquered the African cities which command the Straits of Gibraltar, and sent into the interior as many troops as the Africans had formerly sent into Spain. When they had become masters of Algeciras and Tarifa, the Portuguese, who first undertook these enterprises, seized Alemtejo and Algarve and then decided to carry into other countries that spirit of adventure which had led them to demand on sea the wealth and power that were denied them on land. In 1415 they took possession of Ceuta, which they had to defend against Edward, second of the house of Braganza, but were finally able to retain by allowing to remain in irons a child that they had delivered over as hostage. Between 1439-1481 Alfonso V conquered the important cities of Tangiers and Arzillo. Nevertheless the Portuguese had little thought of extending their conquests further, but were devoting themselves to commerce and navigation, in the interests of which they made those maritime discoveries that were to raise them so high among nations and send their ships into so many unknown waters of the globe.

It has not been sufficiently pointed out how fatal to the Arabs of Spain was the occupancy by the Portuguese of Tangiers, Ceuta, and Arzillo. Hitherto the Moslems in Maghreb could come to the assistance of their brothers in Spain without looking upon themselves as interested parties to the dispute. But after the Portuguese came to command the strait, with power to intercept all communications between the two continents, the last blow to Mohammedan unity was struck by the Christian princes.

Once the Catholic sovereigns had become masters of the Mediterranean ports of the peninsula, they enlarged their navy that the Moslem fleets might be constantly held in check, and after the fall of the monarchy of Granada they penetrated deep into Africa. In 1504 Diego of Cordova took several places between Ceuta and Oran, and in 1509 Cardinal Ximenes, minister to Ferdinand of Aragon, organised and directed a much more important expedition. Instead of attacking the younger branch of the Merinids at Morocco, he advanced on Tlemcen and Algiers, the double realm of the Beni Zian, and taking the city of Oran established there a strong garrison.

These encroachments on the part of Christians must be stopped at any cost. Meeting with nothing but supineness and indifference among the Moors and Arabs whom he approached, Eutemi, king of Algiers, finally implored the assistance of Horuj, the celebrated pirate of Mytilene, who was at the head of a considerable fleet. Accepting these overtures with alacrity, Horuj repaired to Algiers with a force of five thousand men (1516); but after entering the city he caused Eutemi to be assassinated, and himself usurped the government. He further profited by the terror he had caused to attack Tlemcen and drive forth the Beni Zian; but in 1518 the Spaniards engaged him in a battle in which he lost his life, leaving Tlemcen in the hands of his enemies.

In no wise discouraged by this reverse, the brother of Horuj, Khair ad-Din, better known under the name of Barbarossa, succeeded in getting himself acknowledged ruler by the inhabitants of Algiers and establishing his dominion on solid foundations throughout the country; he drove the Spaniards back into Oran, where he kept them confined. Fear, nevertheless, of the superior numbers of the Christians and the mutability of the Arab spirit caused him to seek for his states the protection of the supreme ruler who, at his request, sent him troops of Turkish militia from Constantinople. Barbarossa then took the title of regent, and in the name of the Ottoman sultan exercised the highest authority over all the states of Algiers.

We have witnessed in Asia the gradual substitution of the Turks for the Arabs as defenders of the Moslem faith; and we shall now assist at a repetition of the same process in Africa. This was, too, the epoch of greatest power of the sultans in Constantinople. Suleiman, master of Egypt, of Asia Minor, of Greece, and Bulgaria, threatened simultaneously Persia and Hungary, and he alone was capable of protecting Africa against the redoubtable might of Charles V. Far from injuring the cause of Islam, the arrival of these new auxiliaries in the Maghreb should have given it a fresh impetus; but exactly the reverse took place. From the day the Arabs came under subjection to the Turks, all the noble sentiments and generous impulses that had before characterised them gave place to a hopeless condition of servility and degradation; bowed under the yoke of an insolent military body that enforced obedience at the point of the sword, they lost that natural pride that had set them apart from other races, and little by little fell into the brutish torpor that has been their prevailing state in modern times, and which has caused us to judge them wrongfully as showing antagonism to all ideas of civilisation.

[Sidenote: [1534-1541 A.D.]]

The Turks had sway not only over Algiers but over Tunis and Tripoli, and it was to Barbarossa that they owed these further triumphs. Placed by Suleiman in command of the Ottoman fleet, the brother of Horuj thought it necessary to repay this distinction by brilliant services. Having given refuge in Algiers to a deposed prince of the house of Abu Hass, Barbarossa presented himself at Tunis, ostensibly for the purpose of re-establishing its legitimate ruler, but in reality to pave the way for Ottoman dominion. Suleiman, acquainted with his designs, publicly conferred the investiture on the restored prince, who was immediately afterward spirited away: and Barbarossa seized the fort and town of Goletta, and put down the revolt of the inhabitants in the name of the Ottoman ruler, to whom they remained long under subjection.

Meanwhile Christian sovereigns looked on with anxiety while the capitals of the Barbary states were passing into the possession of a power already so formidable; and Charles V, king of Spain and emperor of Germany, determined to check at once the increase of Ottoman dominion. Taking sides with the Abu Hass he embarked in 1535 with troops gathered from the Netherlands, Italy, and Sicily, and landed not far from the ruins of Carthage. Barbarossa had been able to provision the fort of Goletta, but could not rally to his standard the Arab tribes; and Goletta, bravely defended by Sinan, the renegade Jew, was taken by the Christian forces. Tunis itself, Barbarossa being defeated, was forced to open its doors to the victors, and all its riches became the prey of the European soldiers. The prince of the house of Abu Hass, whose interests Charles V had espoused, was reinstated on the throne under the following conditions: (1) that he was to hold the kingdom of Tunis as a fief to the crown of Spain; (2) that all Christian slaves should be restored to liberty without ransom; (3) that the subjects of the emperor in his domain should be free to engage in commerce and practise the Christian religion; (4) that twelve thousand crowns should be contributed towards the maintenance of a Spanish garrison in Goletta; and (5) that all the ports of the kingdom of Tunis should be delivered over into the hands of the emperor. Brilliant as was this expedition, it did not completely destroy African piracy, Algiers having been left still undisturbed. Barbarossa’s successor, Hassan Aga, committed new depredations, and soon intercepted all the commerce of the Mediterranean Sea. It became necessary to establish guards along the coasts of Italy, Sicily, and Spain to keep off the incursions of Barbary pirates who, it was asserted, were secretly encouraged by the Arabs still residing on the continent. Charles V got together a new fleet and undertook to reduce Algiers (1541). But the elements were against him from the start, and being assailed at a propitious moment by the Algerian Turks and certain tribes of Arabs whose religious fanaticism had been excited, the imperial army suffered complete and disastrous defeat.

[Sidenote: [1541-1800 A.D.]]

This unfortunate enterprise also restored the preponderance to the Turks. As soon as circumstances permitted they sent a fleet against the knights of St. John whom Charles V had made masters of Tripoli and reconquered the state in 1551. The government was given into the hands of the celebrated Dragut, who ten years later in concert with Piali Pasha was to achieve another great naval victory.

After the battle of Lepanto, John of Austria marched on Tunis, which offered but a feeble resistance; hardly had he turned his back, however, on the conquered domain, when Sinan Pasha hurried from Tripoli and everywhere re-established the authority of the sultan. Henceforth the Turks were masters over all Tunis and Algiers, and expeditions directed against them had no longer any object save to demand reparation or to punish them for acts of piracy.

Morocco, on the other hand, always remained independent of the Ottoman rule. The Merinids were succeeded in the fifteenth century by the Oatazes, who were in turn replaced by the Sherifs, whose dynasty continues to this day. The adroit personages who had created the grandeur of Morocco were looked upon as the legitimate descendants of Mohammed, and to the brothers of the reigning king, not his children, fell the succession to the throne. This law was the cause of much disturbance in the state, and in 1578 it formed the pretext for a famous expedition directed against Morocco by Dom Sebastian, king of Portugal. The sherif Abdallah having died, his son, Mulei Muhammed, had at first had the advantage over his uncle in the dispute for the succession; but being at last defeated Muhammed betook himself to Portugal, where he hoped to persuade the king, by the promise of large rewards, to assist him in gaining the crown. Carried away by enthusiasm, Sebastian embarked; and having in his possession the coat of arms worn by Charles V at his entry into Tunis, he imagined that he should exceed all that emperor’s exploits, and perhaps place the cross over the mosques of Morocco and Fez. He was taken at a disadvantage, however, by the Arabs at Kasr al-Kebir, and he and his little troop found themselves confronted by the dire alternative of achieving victory or meeting death. In this supreme moment Sebastian’s courage did not desert him; it served to make illustrious his defeat and dying moments. The two competitors also perished the same day; one by drowning in the river Mucazin, and the other as the result of a fever which he had disregarded in the haste and ardour of his preparations. Made wise by this terrible experience, the Portuguese did not renew their attempts against Africa, and the sherifs had further only to repress the internal dissensions that so frequently arose in their domains.

Such was the situation of the Arabs in Africa during the seventeenth century. They had still a sort of preponderance in Morocco; but in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli the Turks had become masters of the cities of the coast, and imposed upon them the severest rule. The different tribes, armed against each other by the astute policy of their oppressors, and terrorised by frequent and sanguinary executions, paid the tribute demanded of them without daring to murmur, and never even dreamed of throwing off the yoke under which they laboured.

We will return now to the Arabs in Spain, who had struck the first and most damaging blow at the empire of the Almohads. In addition to the garrisons the Africans placed among them, the populations had still to resist the domination of the Christians; and in order to effect this the most perfect unity would have been necessary, with the complete sacrifice of all private interests to the national welfare. But, as we have seen, instead of possessing a strongly constituted central government, the Spanish Arabs were divided up into a number of independent states, and the Catholic princes took advantage of this dismemberment to separately overcome them. James I, not content with the conquest of the Balearic Isles, undertook to gain possession of Valencia, and in his enthusiasm for this project abstained from urging against Thibaut de Champagne the rights his birth gave him to the crown of Navarre, thus gaining for himself an ally in the person of a prince who could furnish him with substantial aid. The king of Valencia struggled hard to defend his possessions, but the disunion among the Moslems and the bad faith of the walis, who for bribes delivered over to the enemy all the cities adjacent to the capital, caused Valencia finally to be invested both by land and by sea. Too feeble to resist longer, the Moslem king invoked the aid of the other sovereigns of Africa, but all were too busy with their own affairs, and Valencia fell into the hands of James (Jayme), under conditions that enabled the inhabitants to leave in freedom, or to remain with full protection for their property and religious liberty (1238).

[Sidenote: [1238-1245 A.D.]]

Valencia conquered, James next sought to extend his dominion over the kingdom of Murcia, but the king of Castile, by a powerful intervention (1241), succeeded in turning him from all schemes of aggrandisement. The kingdom of Murcia, less powerful than that of Valencia, was divided among a great many different tribes whose chiefs, all jealous of each other’s authority, hastened to submit to Ferdinand III under the best conditions they could obtain. The wali of Lorca alone held out for independence; but two years later his cities were also taken by assault, and the entire kingdom of Murcia passed over to the crown of Castile.

Another acquisition of far greater importance had, moreover, been made by this crown since 1232. In the coveted regions of Guadalquivir, Ibn Hud had at first been able to take an energetic stand against Ferdinand III; but lacking utterly the resources necessary for carrying on a protracted struggle, he was at last obliged to surrender Ubeda and Andujar, and could not prevent siege being laid to Cordova. The peril which threatened the capital should have aroused the courage and ardour of the Moslems in its defence, but nothing of the sort occurred; Ibn Hud was assassinated in the midst of his preparations for resistance, and the city was obliged to capitulate. Thus was extinguished the glory of the Islam metropolis in the West, the city of arts and Moslem luxury and magnificence. Ferdinand III placed the cross on the minarets of the great mosques, and returned to Compostella the bells of St. James that Almansor had carried away as trophies.

[Sidenote: [1245-1249 A.D.]]

The time had come for the Arabs to bid farewell to the memories of their past triumphs and glories; they witnessed the profanation of all their sanctuaries without venturing to make the supreme effort that might still have saved them. Ferdinand’s victories now followed in quick succession. After taking several cities he encountered and defeated, before Alcala, Muhammed ben al-Akhmar, who had gotten himself acknowledged in the states of Ibn Hud. The Moslems displayed great courage in this engagement; and Ferdinand, after taking possession of the vast domain ceded to him by Muhammed ben al-Akhmar, agreed to leave him in peace provided he would pay him an annual tribute, furnish a certain number of troops in case of war, and appear in person at the assemblies or cortes of Castile. He reserved to himself the right of aggression against the Arabs of the Algarve and Guadalquivir, who were still divided into many small states. Seville, the ancient capital of the Almoravids and the Almohads, the capture of which would forever prevent the union of the Algarve with the Sierra Nevada Moslems, was suddenly invested, and in the camp of the enemy were plainly to be seen Muhammed ben al-Akhmar and his five hundred horsemen. The city resisted long, being in constant receipt of supplies from Moslem sources by way of the Guadalquivir, and it was not until Ferdinand III equipped a small fleet and surrounded the mouth of the Guadalquivir that the inhabitants, threatened by famine, capitulated. The same favourable terms were accorded to them as to the Arabs of Valencia (1248).

Upon the taking of Seville ensued the submission of all the states lying upon the right bank of the Guadalquivir; hence the complete downfall of the Arab race could not be far distant. Yet the inevitable result was somewhat retarded by Muhammed ben al-Akhmar, whose courage and ability reminded the Arabs of the qualities of the famed Almansor, and who brought into being a powerful Moslem state which for a while opposed a formidable barrier to the spread of Christian influence. Granada, its capital, became soon the rallying-point of the Moslems dispersed all over the country, and the beneficence of this remarkable prince’s rule attracted to his states all who were not disposed to accept the Spanish domination. Emigrants from Cordova and Seville found a cordial welcome at Muhammed’s court, and their number was also increased by the Moslem population which James expelled, in 1249, from the plains about Valencia. It can readily be seen what an advantage to Granada was the presence of all these active, intelligent inhabitants; the elements of wealth and success that the Arabs had strewn all over the peninsula now returned upon them in a single flood; and Islam, rising once more under the astonished gaze of Spain, enjoyed a second period of glory (1238-1492).

The luxury and gallantry of the court of Granada have remained famous to this day. Tourneys and jousts were given, and frequent bull-fights and races. The people were often invited by the sovereign to solemn festivals and splendid banquets, and all this opulence was by no means the result of oppression, but sprang naturally from the condition of ease which prevailed among all classes. La Veja, the fertile plain which surrounds Granada, produced in that day three times what it does in this, and could easily support a considerable population. The manufacture of silks and other stuffs attained the highest point of excellence, the fine arts were cultivated as successfully as at Cordova, and to stimulate invention prizes were offered in every department of endeavour. The names Alhambra and Generalif awaken in the mind images of the greatest richness and splendour. The Alhambra was at once the palace and fortress of the Moorish kings; Generalif was a magnificent pleasure palace built near the Alhambra on the summit of a hill, and serving as a summer residence for the nobles of the court.

Astronomy, medicine, chemistry, and mathematics were widely encouraged, and from that period dates the discovery of gunpowder. In the universities, which were restricted in their method of instruction, were taught grammar, geography, dialectics, and an obscurely formulated system of theology; also a great impulsion was given to the writing of those stories and romances which, in spite of their numerous affectations, have so many warm admirers to-day. In regard to political institutions the sovereigns of Granada accomplished much that was too important to be passed by in silence. In every city they established a sort of national guard by placing all the citizens under arms; and in order that the frontiers might be more effectively protected, soldiers were given grants of land on the borders, sufficient to maintain themselves and their families. The price of the necessaries of life was never allowed to rise beyond a certain point, and the kings themselves saw to it that the markets were always well supplied.

All the details of life in the capital were strictly regulated, and a capital police force patrolled the streets at night. Certain of the princes, following the rigorous proscriptions of the Koran, prohibited the use of spirituous liquors; but for the most part it was the abuse alone that was severely punished. A successful effort was made to prevent Jews from practising usury with as great freedom as elsewhere; and to avoid litigation and dispute, public acts and private treaties were drawn up in terms of great clearness and precision. Wise measures were adopted in all that pertained to the practice of religion. The feasts of Ramadhan, instead of being set apart for folly and debauchery, were made the occasion of good deeds and charity toward the poor; and processions for the purpose of imploring rain were prohibited, as also all nocturnal public gatherings. Imprisonment was substituted for whipping in penal offences, and lapidation was completely abolished; criminals condemned to death were still buried alive, as was the law in all Moslem states.

[Sidenote: [1275-1432 A.D.]]

Strong as was Granada’s claim to an honourable place in history, it had no fixed laws of succession, and beside princes worthy of all admiration we see cruel and incapable despots who precipitated the ruin of the Moslem races. Muhammed ben al-Akhmar and Muhammed II (1273-1302) were able to repress all attempts at disorder in their states, but Muhammed III was not so fortunate. One of his brothers, Nasar Abul-Jinz, incited an insurrection in Granada and got himself proclaimed king, only to be deposed in his turn four years later by his nephew, Ismail ben Faraj. This prince reigned twelve years and was succeeded by his two sons, Muhammed IV (1325-1333) and Yusuf I (1333-1354). The latter was the author of many of the reforms we have noted above, and was, without doubt, the most remarkable of the rulers of Granada, notwithstanding the defeat he suffered at Rio Salado at the hands of the Christians. At the death of Yusuf, Muhammed (V) Guadix, his son, was excluded from the throne by family intrigues and jealousies, but finally mounted it in 1362 and reigned until 1391. The succession next fell to Yusuf II, and Muhammed VI, who condemned his elder brother Yusuf to death. Yusuf was playing chess when the executioner appeared before him; he asked and obtained leave to finish the game; but before it was ended messengers from the court arrived with the news that Muhammed VI was dead, and that he, Yusuf, was to ascend the throne. Yusuf III (1408) retained the crown until 1423, when there broke out all over the realm those civil dissensions that were to bring about the fall of Granada, and in which the powerful families of the Zegris, the Abencerrages, and the Vanegas played so prominent a part.

From the time of their accession to power the Castilians were the only enemies the kings of Granada had to fear; hence they strove to conciliate them by receiving them honourably at their court, or by arbitrating personally in any disputes that might arise. But the differences in race and religion were too great to allow of any real friendship being established, and the Castilians were only withheld by their own internal troubles from carrying out further the projects of Ferdinand III. If the princes of Granada had seized the opportunity offered them by these disorders among the Castilians, the standard of the prophet might yet have been raised in Spain; but the spirit of conquest had completely abandoned them, and the warfare in which they were engaged during a long period of time was confined to attacking a few places, among which were Gibraltar, Tarifa, and Almeria. One last effort was made, however, in 1275, by Muhammed II, who delivered over Tarifa and Algeciras to Abu Yusuf, and together the two princes invaded Algarve. Sancho the Brave was not intimidated, and successfully defended the interior of the country. Later, when the states had awarded him the crown as a return for his valour, his father, Alfonso X, begged aid of the king of Granada against his rebellious son, and if the Arab ruler had yielded his subjects would have had an excellent opportunity of penetrating to the heart of Castile. But Muhammed II preferred, by entering an alliance with Sancho, to gain for himself the friendship of a powerful warrior.

In 1308 the Castilians took Gibraltar and laid siege to Algeciras; to induce them to raise the siege it was necessary to cede to them several cities. During the minority of Alfonso XI two of the infante or regents of Castile united their forces and made a hostile advance on Granada; but their ardour made them neglect all prudence and they were completely defeated on the spot that is called to this day the Sierra de los Infantes (1319). This victory encouraged the king of Granada, who immediately sent out expeditions to reconquer the places he had lost, even Gibraltar. The advantage might have been pushed still further had the Africans supported Muhammed V, but on the contrary they took from him Algeciras, Marbella, and Ronda. It was not until the accession of Yusuf II that a genuine alliance united all the Moslems under one banner. In concert with the Merinid prince, Abul-Hassan, Yusuf attacked Tarifa; but the allied forces met with severe defeat and Abul-Hassan, after surrendering all his possessions to Spain, went to hide his shame in Fez (1340). His fleet was shortly afterward destroyed by the European galleys which had united to assure the empire of the sea to the Christians.

[Sidenote: [1432-1491 A.D.]]

Henceforth the Arabs in Spain were thrown entirely on their own resources, and situated as they were at the extremity of the peninsula, they asked for nothing but to remain in complete obscurity. Not until 1432 was war again resumed; at that time Yusuf IV and Muhammed VII disputed for the crown, and one of the two competitors implored aid of the Castilians, who assisted him to victory. Now followed a series of isolated frontier-combats caused by incursions of Castilian nobles and Arab sheikhs into one another’s territory; but they brought about no general war, being, as it were, preliminary jousts that served to prepare the public spirit for the supreme struggle that was to come.

Granada was in no condition to resist the Castilians when Mulei Hassan ascended the throne in 1466. Despite his courage and patriotism, that new king was not received with favour by the people, who accused him of cruelty and arrogance and resented the power he had allowed a Christian slave-woman to gain over him; many even went so far as to assert that he would name the son of this slave his successor, to the exclusion of Abu Abdallah (Boabdil), the son of the sultana Zoraya. In Castile, on the contrary, the nobles had united to form a faction around the infanta Isabella, who was married to Ferdinand, king of Sicily, who was, moreover, the heir presumptive to the crown of Aragon. Disposing of the revenues of three kingdoms, the husband and wife were about to establish forever the unity and power of Spain by destroying the Arab domination in the peninsula. Mulei Hassan aroused their resentment by refusing to pay the tribute agreed to by his father; he even carried hostilities to the point of attacking Zahara, which he took in 1480. But the ruins of the conquered city were destined to fall upon the heads of the victors; their own Alhama, the main support of Granada, was taken by the Castilians, who shortly afterward advanced upon the capital.

Here all was trouble, the partisans of Abu Abdallah having just deposed Mulei Hassan, who abandoned by the most of his supporters was obliged to retire to the provinces. The Castilians carried on the war for a while longer, but without great energy; and when Abu Abdallah finally fell into their hands they immediately restored him to liberty, thinking that his culpable ambitions would serve them better than the most signal victory. Mulei Hassan recovered the throne for a short time, but was forced to abdicate in favour of his uncle, Az-Zagal. Abu Abdallah, who had incurred the contempt of his compatriots, sought aid of Ferdinand; and that king immediately invaded the kingdom of Granada, taking the cities of La Vega, after which Az-Zagal delivered over to him Granada (1486). Ferdinand had attained the object of his expedition; but instead of retiring he concluded a new compact with Abdallah, which authorised him to pursue Az-Zagal and take from him all the strongholds in which he might seek refuge. Armed with this pretext he besieged and captured Malaga, then directed his troops against Almeria, Baza, and Vera. Convinced that further struggle was useless, Az-Zagal proposed a general capitulation to Spain. Ferdinand accepted and displayed great generosity and moderation. In return for all the states he delivered over, the Moslem king was to receive full proprietary right over vast domains, and his subjects were to become subjects of Castile, retaining all their property and liberties on payment of a tribute.

[Sidenote: [1491-1525 A.D.]]

The greater number of the Arabs of Granada saw in this treaty the assurance of future peace, and were willing to submit to the Christian domination; but the orthodox Moslems flew to arms, and forcing Az-Zagal to take flight in Africa they fortified Granada and determined to successfully defend it or be buried under its ruins. The 9th of May, 1491, Ferdinand appeared before the walls of the city at the head of eighty thousand men. The ablest of the Arab generals had organised the defence; but despite that fact and the bravery with which all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, endured the hardships and horrors of a siege, Ferdinand and Isabella had superior might on their side, as well as indomitable perseverance, and were bound to succeed.

As a proof of her determination not to recede until her purpose had been accomplished, Isabella built a town about Granada, which exists to this day under the name of Santa Fé. Moats and entrenchments guarded the Spanish camp from surprises in any direction, and Ferdinand occupied himself in intercepting all communication from outside. The Moslems risked their last chance of safety in a general battle which resulted in victory for the Christians. Contrary to the advice of many sheikhs, who preferred death to surrender, Abu Abdallah entered into negotiations with Ferdinand. The treaty ran that Granada was to be given up at the end of two months, provided reinforcements did not arrive by sea or land within that time. The Arabs had made appeal to the sovereigns of Africa, and even to the sultan of Constantinople, but none would undertake the risk of such an enterprise, and Granada was forced to succumb.

Not wishing to remain in the country that had witnessed his ignominy and disgrace, Abu Abdallah went to Africa to finish his days in the silence of the deserts. The inhabitants of Granada withdrew to the inmost chambers of their dwellings, and let the Christians take possession of their city, which had the air of being completely deserted. The banner of Castile was flown from the summit of the Alhambra, and the great mosque was straightway decorated with the ornaments of the Catholic religion. There was not one among the vanquished who raised a protesting voice at anything that took place; they even seemed indifferent to the terms of surrender by which they retained their personal liberty, their property, their religion, their usages, and even their former legislative institutions. The fall of Granada seemed to be the sentence of death of the whole Arab race, as indeed it did mark the end of their domination in Spain, which had lasted 781 years (711-1492).

Ferdinand had no intention of faithfully carrying out the terms of the contract; he possessed Granada--that was the end and aim of his ambition. Accustomed as he was in politics to sacrificing everything to his own interests, he determined to force the Arabs gradually to abjure their religion and mode of life until they became merged into the rest of the population. He went prudently to work by charging his inquisitioners to convert the Moslems to Catholicism only by degrees. The Jews were first to be attacked, and forced by tortures and horrible executions to deny the faith of their fathers, that the Arabs might see what fate was in store for them should they refuse allegiance to Christianity. A little later all Moslem religious exercises were prohibited in public, and in 1499 Ferdinand boldly threw aside the mask, and pronounced sentence of expulsion against any Moslems who should refuse to be baptised. In vain were the cries of indignation that arose in the kingdom of Granada; the inhabitants of the cities went to church to worship the Christian God, and then in the privacy of their own homes asked pardon of the prophet for the sacrilege they had committed. The mountaineers of Alpujarras, the most energetic among the Moslem populations, openly refused to obey, and took up arms; but Ferdinand marched upon them with a superior force, and after having devastated their lands added confiscation to the sentence of exile pronounced against them.

[Sidenote: [1525-1609 A.D.]]

The Moslems of Valencia, whose industries formed one of Spain’s principal sources of prosperity, were tolerated as late as the reign of Charles V. During that period the nobles of the country forced them to submit to baptism. In 1525 an edict, instigated by the archbishop of Seville who was grand inquisitor, called upon the Arabs of Seville to renounce immediately their customs, language, and style of dress. In 1565 the Moslems attempted to gain some amelioration of these hard conditions by paying Philip II the sum of eight hundred thousand ducats; but though the government and the inquisition relaxed their severity in some degree, the Spanish people, carrying intolerance to its highest limits, pursued even into their mountain fastnesses the unfortunate Arabs who refused to become converted.

In 1568 the few faithful Moslems who were left armed themselves for revolt and entered into relations with their co-religionists in Africa, hoping to surprise and take Granada. Under the leadership of Muhammed ben Omayyah, who claimed to descend from the Cordovan caliphs, the struggle was carried on for several years; but finally divisions arose in the rebel camp, and Muhammed was assassinated. Mulei Abdallah who succeeded him was outwitted by John of Austria, and most of his soldiers deserted him--some to submit to the Christian rule, others to be transported to Africa. Mulei himself was reduced to negotiating terms with his victor. The mountaineers of Alpujarras were dispersed through the provinces of Asturias, Galicia, and Castile, and there kept under close surveillance.

A last blow was dealt the Arabs in 1609. Despite the protestations of a few generous nobles, the Moslem populations of Murcia and Valencia were crowded, by order of Philip III, on transports which carried them to the shores of Africa. A great many passed over into the Pyrenees, where they were received with kindness by Henry IV; this generous king offered many of them a refuge in his own domains, and to others he gave means of embarking for the ports of Guienne and Languedoc. It has been calculated that, from the time of the conquest of Granada until 1609, three millions of Arabs were exiled from Spanish soil; and never have the plains of Valencia, Murcia, and Granada recovered the flourishing aspect that they wore when cultivated by their former masters. The decree of 1609 was as fatal to Spain as the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was to France nearly a hundred years later.[d]

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X. ARAB CIVILISATION

THE KORAN

The Koran is held by the Mohammedans in the greatest veneration. The book must not be touched by anybody but a Moslem; nor even by a believer, except he be free from pollution. Whether the Koran be created or uncreated, has been the subject of a controversy fruitful of the most violent persecutions. The orthodox opinion is that the original has been written from all eternity on the preserved table. Of this, they believe, a complete transcript was brought down to the lower heaven (that of the moon) by the angel Gabriel: and thence taken and shown to Mohammed once every year of his mission; and twice in the last year of his life. They assert however that it was only piecemeal, that the several parts were revealed by the angel to the prophet, and that he immediately dictated what had been revealed to his secretary, who wrote it down. Each part, as soon as it was thus copied out, was communicated to his disciples, to get by heart; and was afterwards deposited in what he called the chest of his apostleship. This chest the prophet left in the custody of his wife Hafsa. The present book was compiled, partly out of these detached scraps, and partly out of the memories of his companions.

When we consider the way in which the Koran was compiled, we cannot wonder that it is so incoherent a piece as we find it; the book is divided into chapters; of these some are very long; others again, especially a few towards the end, very short. Each chapter has a title prefixed, taken from the first word, or from some one particular thing mentioned in it, rarely from the subject-matter of it; for if a chapter be of any length, it usually runs into various subjects that have no connection with each other. A celebrated commentator divides the contents of the Koran into three general heads: (1) Precepts or directions, relating either to religion, as prayers, fasting, pilgrimages; or to civil polity, as marriages, inheritances, judicatures. (2) Histories--whereof some are taken from the Scriptures, but falsified with fabulous additions; others are wholly false, having no foundation in fact. (3) Admonitions: under which head are comprised exhortations to receive Islamism; to fight for it, to practise its precepts, prayer, alms, etc.; the moral duties, such as justice, temperance, etc., promises of everlasting felicity to the obedient, dissuasives from sin, threatenings of the punishments of hell to the unbelieving and disobedient. Many of the threatenings are levelled against particular persons, and those sometimes of Mohammed’s own family, who had opposed him in propagating his religion.

In the Koran, God is brought in, saying, “We have given you a book.” By this it appears that the impostor published early, in writing, some of his principal doctrines, as also some of his historical relations. Thus, in his Life, p. 16, we find his disciples reading the twentieth chapter of the Koran before his flight from Mecca; after which he pretended many of the revelations in other chapters were brought to him. Undoubtedly, all those said to be revealed at Medina must be posterior to what he had then published at Mecca; because he had not yet been at Medina. Many parts of the Koran he declared were brought to him by the angel Gabriel, on special occasions. Accordingly, the commentators on the Koran often explain passages in it by relating the occasion on which they were first revealed. Without such a key, many of them would be perfectly unintelligible.

There are several contradictions in the Koran. To reconcile these, the Moslem doctors have invented the doctrine of abrogation--i.e., that what was revealed at one time was revoked by a new revelation. A great deal of it is so absurd, trifling, and full of tautology, that it requires no little patience to read much of it at a time. Notwithstanding, the Koran is cried up by the Mussulmans as inimitable. Accordingly, when Mohammed was called upon, as he often was, to work miracles in proof of his divine mission, he excused himself by various pretences, and appealed to the Koran as a standing miracle. Each chapter of the Koran is divided into verses, that is, lines of different length, terminated with the same letter, so as to make a different rhyme, but without any regard to the measure of the syllables.

The Mohammedan religion consists of two parts, faith and practice. Faith they divide into six articles: (1) A belief in the unity of God, in opposition to those whom they call associators; by which name they mean not only those who, besides the true God, worship idols or inferior gods or goddesses, but the Christians also, who hold Christ’s divinity and the doctrine of the Trinity. (2) A belief in angels, to whom they attribute various shapes, names, and offices, borrowed from the Jews and Persians. (3) The Scriptures. (4) The prophets; on this head the Koran teaches that God revealed his will to various prophets, in divers ages of the world, and gave it in writing to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Abraham, etc.; but these books are lost; that afterwards he gave the Pentateuch to Moses, the Psalms to David, the Gospel to Jesus, and the Koran to Mohammed. The Koran speaks with great reverence of Moses and Jesus, but says the Scriptures left by them have been greatly mutilated and corrupted. Under this pretence, it adds a great many fabulous relations to the history contained in those sacred books, and charges the Jews and Christians with suppressing many prophecies concerning Mohammed (a calumny easily refuted, the Scriptures having been translated into various languages, long before Mohammed was born). (5) The fifth article of belief is the resurrection and day of judgment, while about the intermediate state Mohammedan divines have various opinions. The happiness promised to the Moslems in paradise is wholly sensual, consisting of fine gardens, rich furniture, sparkling with gems and gold, delicious fruits, and wines that neither cloy nor intoxicate; but above all, affording the fruition of all the delights of love in the society of women having large black eyes, and every trait of exquisite beauty, who shall ever continue young and perfect. Some of their writers speak of these females of paradise in very lofty strains; telling us, for instance, that if one of them were to look down from heaven in the night, she would illuminate the earth as the sun does; and if she did but spit into the ocean, it would be immediately turned as sweet as honey. These delights of paradise were certainly, at first, understood literally; however, Mohammedan divines may have since allegorised them into a spiritual sense. As to the punishments threatened to the wicked, they are hell-fire, breathing hot winds, the drinking of boiling and stinking water, eating briers and thorns, and the bitter fruit of the tree Zakum, which in their bellies will feel like boiling pitch. These punishments are to be everlasting to all except those who embrace Islamism; for the latter, after suffering a number of years, in proportion to their demerits, will then, if they have had but so much faith as is equal to the weight of an ant, be released by the mercy of God, and, upon the intercession of Mohammed, admitted into paradise.

The sixth article of belief is that God decrees everything that is to happen, not only all events, but the actions and thoughts of men, their belief or infidelity; that everything that has or will come to pass has been, from eternity, written in the preserved or secret table, which is a white stone of an immense size, preserved in heaven, near the throne of God. Agreeable to this notion, one of their poets thus expresses himself: “Whatever is written against thee will come to pass, what is written for thee shall not fail; resign thyself to God, and know thy Lord to be powerful, his decrees will certainly take place; his servants ought to be silent.”

Of their four fundamental points of practice, the first is prayer. This duty is to be performed five times in the twenty-four hours: (1) In the morning before sunrise; (2) when noon is past; (3) a little before sunset; (4) a little after sunset; (5) before the first watch of the night. Previous to prayer they are to purify themselves by washing. Some kinds of pollution require the whole body to be immersed in water, but commonly it is enough to wash some parts only, the head, the face and neck, hands and feet. In the latter ablution, called wodhu, fine sand or dust may be used when water cannot be had; in such case, the palm of the hand being first laid upon the sand, is then to be drawn over the part required to be washed. The Mohammedans, out of respect to the divine Majesty before whom they are to appear, are required to be clean and decent when they go to public prayers in their mosques; but are yet forbidden to appear there in sumptuous apparel, particularly clothes trimmed with gold or silver, lest they should make them vain and arrogant. The women are not allowed to be in their mosques at the same time with the men; this they think would make their thoughts wander from their proper business there. On this account they reproach the Christians with the impropriety of the contrary usage.

The next point of practice is alms-giving, which is frequently enjoined in the Koran, and looked upon as highly meritorious. Many of them have been very exemplary in the performance of this duty. The third point of practical religion is fasting the whole month Ramadhan, during which they are every day to abstain from eating, or drinking, or touching a woman, from daybreak to sunset; after that they are at liberty to enjoy themselves as at other times. From this fast an exception is made in favour of old persons and children; those also that are sick, or on a journey; and women pregnant or nursing are also excused in this month. But then, the person making use of this dispensation must expiate the omission by fasting an equal number of days in some other month, and by giving alms to the poor. There are also some other days of fasting, which are, by the more religious, observed in the manner above described. The last practical duty is going the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every man who is able is obliged to perform once in his life. In the ceremonies of it they strictly copy those observed by Mohammed. A pilgrimage can be made only in the month of Dhul-Hija; but a visitation to Mecca may be made at any other time of the year.[b]

DOZY’S ESTIMATE OF THE KORAN

The book which contains the revelations made to Mohammed, and which is, at the same time, if not the most complete, at least the most trustworthy source of his biography, presents more peculiarities and irregularities than any other. It is a collection of stories, exhortations, laws, etc., placed side by side without attempt at chronological order or any other order. The revelations were seldom long, most frequently they consist of simple verses which were put into writing in Mohammed’s life-time, or simply entrusted to memory; for, as is proved by the genealogies and poems of paganism, which for long were only preserved by oral tradition, Mohammed’s contemporaries had a memory of marvellous power, as is generally the case with people who write little. Mohammed called every complete revelation sura, or “koran.” The former of these two words is Hebrew, and it literally means a series of stones in a wall, and thence the line of a letter or of a book; in the Koran, as we possess it, it has the wider meaning of a chapter. The word koran, properly speaking, is an infinitive, and means “to read, to recite, to expose”; this word is also borrowed from the Jews, who use the verb kara (to read) especially in the sense of to study the Scriptures; but Mohammed himself included under the name Koran not only each separate revelation, but also the union of several or even of all of them.

However, in the time of Mohammed no complete collection of the texts of the Koran existed; and had it not been for the care of the first three caliphs it would have run a great risk of being forgotten. What reserves are needed in admitting the entire authenticity of the text of the sacred writings of the East! The example of the Jews shows this clearly. Already in the time of Mohammed it was known that the Jews had altered the text of the Old Testament in several places; they have been blamed for doing so, and the fact has been positively proved; at the same time in the history of Judaism itself reasons have been discovered for these alterations, which from a certain point of view appear necessary. The Mohammedans had not the same reason as the Jews for adding and altering; but that does not prove that they had no other reasons.

However that may be, and whatever may be the judgment which posterity will declare as to the greater or lesser authenticity of the Koran, it is quite certain that the arrangement of this book and its division into suras or chapters is entirely arbitrary. And it could not be otherwise; an arrangement according to subject was quite impossible, for Mohammed often spoke in the same revelation of totally different things. Still less could a chronological order be followed: first, because Mohammed himself, in many places, added new revelations to more ancient ones; next, because in those times there was no one still living who knew the exact moment when each verse had been revealed. It was with perfect justice that, at this period, a man who was asked if the fragments of the Koran were arranged in chronological order, replied: “Even if all men and all jinns (demons) attempted it, they could not succeed.” So the length of the suras was taken as a rule of the order to be followed, without keeping too strictly to it; the longest came first, then the one which was nearest in length, and so on; so that the last sura is at the same time the shortest. The consequence is that revelations dating from very different epochs are now mixed without order, so that a similar confusion is found in no other book; and this, above all else, makes the reading of the Koran so difficult and so tedious.

For believing Moslems the Koran, that is to say God’s Word which has not been created, is the most perfect book which exists, both in matter and form, and this opinion is what it should be in the natural order of things; but it is somewhat strange that the prejudice of the Moslems should have had more influence on us than would have been expected. The pompous rhetoric and the so frequently foolish accumulation of metaphors which are to be found in the Meccan suras have been taken seriously for poetry and admired in consequence; the style of the whole book has been considered a model of purity of language. It is difficult to argue on the question of taste; every man has his private opinion on this matter, and he can seldom be persuaded to change it. But if we must give our own, we must confess that, among the more famous of ancient Arab books, we know none so wanting in taste and originality, so exceedingly prolix and wearisome as the Koran.

Mohammed was not able to compose in verse, an art of which nearly all were masters at that time; so he did not speak in verse, and he even had a marked aversion for poetry. His taste was extremely peculiar; he preferred very mediocre poets who could express pious thoughts in bombastic verse, to the greatest Arab poets who were still living or who had only lately died. Generally speaking he was opposed to poetry, and very naturally; for it was the true expression of the former joyous life of paganism. He was therefore forced to employ rhymed prose for his revelations, which consists in using short sentences, two or more of which rhyme together. In the oldest suras Mohammed closely followed the rules of this style of writing so that they resemble the oracles of the old Arab soothsayers; later on however he neglected them more and more, made sentences longer than they should have been, and took many licences with the rhyme which, far from being attractive, are real blemishes. If they were found in any other book than the Word of God, they would have been severely criticised.

Moreover, he was not master of the language, which partly explains the frequent repetitions to be found in the Koran. Mohammed had much trouble in composing; he seldom found at once the right word to express his thought; so he tried all methods, and hence it is that in the Koran the same ideas recur continually and only the expression changes. The Koran is crowded with degenerate words, borrowed from the Jewish, the Syrian, and the Ethiopian languages; the Arab commentators, who knew no other language than their own, wearied their brains in trying to explain them, without succeeding, however, in finding the true meaning. Moreover the Koran contains more than one infraction of the rules of grammar; and if these are less noticeable, it is because Arab grammarians, wishing to justify them, made these errors into rules or exceptions to the rules.

The Koran had, moreover, very little influence on Mohammed’s contemporaries. The Arabs had reached a very high degree of civilisation and of development--I refer to intellectual and not to material civilisation; while Mohammed was a mere enthusiast, like many others elsewhere--a fanatic, who was surpassed in understanding, science, intelligence, and even in morality by more than one of his fellow-citizens. The greater number of his contemporaries were indifferent to his pious effusions. And, in short, to find the Koran fine and sublime, faith must first have stifled common sense. The majority of the nation had not yet reached that stage. So the conversions one reads of which are attributed to certain passages of the Koran belong chiefly to the domain of pious legend and not to history; history, in fact, teaches that the multitude knew little or nothing of the Koran, and that they were moreover not at all anxious to know it.

DOCTRINE OF ISLAMISM

There is no religion less original than Islamism. It has as base Hanifitism and Mosaism as it was developed under the influence of Parseeism, together with facts borrowed from the ancient Arabic religion and Christianity, with the additional dogma that Mohammed is the greatest and the last prophet of God. That was the sum of the system preached by the Meccan prophet.

The Koran contains no deep thoughts, no poetic theories depicted in sublime and moving language. It does not try to resolve great problems by clothing them in a borrowed symbolic form. Islamism is certainly the most prosaic and monotonous of religions, and at the same time the least susceptible of modification and development. How explain this phenomenon? By the very character of the Arab people, who, in effect, hold specially to the positive. They seek even poetry in the form rather than the substance; and, everything taken into consideration, they rather resemble a developed and reasoning people of the nineteenth century than an ancient nation, still animated by the poetry of youth which other religions have produced.

Again, Mohammed counts for much. He was not a profound thinker, but an enthusiast of mediocre talent. Far from aspiring to originality, his great glory was to avoid it, since he never ceased repeating that the doctrine he preached had been announced from all time by prophets of old. There is a third reason still which must not be lost sight of: In other countries religion developed gradually--it was not the founder who wrote, but his disciples; thus each author imprinted more or less his individuality on his book, and this circumstance, which naturally excludes uniformity, imposed on future ages the duty of not keeping to the letter but entering into the very spirit of the text. There was nothing of this kind in Arabia. There, a single man regulated everything--faith, customs, even the law. The Koran is a book made by one man who exposes the immutable will of God. Islamism has thus a great fixity. One knows not how to contest it; but, far from being a cause of satisfaction, this must be deplored; for continual progress is a task imposed on humanity.

The laws of the Koran still flourish and will do so as long as Islamism exists. That they were good for those times, and then constituted real progress, may be admitted without difficulty. But the laws of Charlemagne were just as excellent for their epoch; yet where would now be all the people over whom he reigned, had they been condemned always to preserve and follow these laws? Would not progress have been impossible for western Europe? The legislation of the Koran hardly enters into the scope of our subject, and we will keep to its doctrines. It has been so often analysed, and moreover presents so little originality, that we shall make a very rapid survey of it.

The unity of God is the first article of faith; the second, the divine mission of Mohammed. The God of Mohammed resembles the Allah Taala of the primitive Arabic religion, the Jehovah of Mosaism, and the Ahuramazda of the Parsee monotheist not yet corrupted. The story of creation is borrowed from the Jews. The jinns of primitive religion have been preserved, transformed into angels and demons. That is what Zoroaster did with regard to the Indian divinities, the devas. It is forbidden to honour the angels, they are perishable and will die in the day of judgment. The arch-fiend also has the Hebrew name of Satan and the Greek one of Iblis (Diabolos); but as Ahriman of the duallist Neopardism has never taken his true signification in Judaism, the idea the Koran gives of the arch-fiend and his subjects is more Christian than Jewish. However, Mohammed diverges in one point from church doctrine--the impossibility of converting devils. According to him devils may be converted, and he himself has converted many.

The revelations of God are worked by means of prophets and holy books. Each period has its revelation which God modifies according to the needs of the time, and this idea, beautiful in itself, would be fecund if Mohammed had not given his revelation as the last and most perfect. Adam had already received the gift of prophecy, and the number of prophets was not inconsiderable, seeing they were ordinarily reckoned at 124,000, but the six greatest are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. The Koran admits the miraculous birth of Jesus--for brevity’s sake we will not speak of all the others--but he was not the Son of God but a man in the proper sense of the word, and witnessed in speaking of himself that he was only a servant of the Divinity; he declares that not he but God alone is omniscient. On the judgment day, Allah will say: “Oh, Jesus, Son of Mary, hast thou said to men, place my mother and myself as gods by the side of God?” And Jesus will answer, “Far be the thought from me; how can I pretend to a name which does not belong to me?” It is not so clearly seen whether the Koran admits the Ascension. As to miracles, Jesus did a great number, even when his mother was still feeding him, and later he raised the dead, etc. To crown all, it was not he who was crucified, but a man whom they took for him. The principal object of his doctrine was, like that of all prophets, to announce the unity of God.

Man has five great duties to fulfil. He must admit the two principal dogmas of Islamism, pray, fast, give alms, and go on pilgrimage to Mecca. These duties are called the Pillars of Islamism. According to the revelation made to Mohammed when he journeyed to heaven, and which is not noted in the Koran (for this book only orders prayers three times a day), all believers ought, after having gone through the prescribed purifications, to pray at a given time for five minutes each day, by preference at the mosque. Mohammed is a great deal more occupied with the ceremonies of prayer than with the prayer itself, for there are designated passages of the Koran and consecrated formulas to be recited; so there can be no question of spontaneous prayer, and if in the Moslem countries the degenerate cult consists in a mechanical movement of the lips, the fault to a large extent must be attributed to the prophet himself. The attitudes, gestures, inflexions of the head and body are exactly regulated by Mohammed himself, and even more by theologians who came after. On Fridays there is gathering for common prayer, but the day is not a time of repose like the Jewish Sabbath or the Christian Sunday. With the exception of prayer-time, each follows his daily occupation.

Fasting is prescribed for the whole month of Ramadhan. It is only after sunset that eating and drinking are permitted. Mohammed decreed this law at Medina, in a time when the fixed lunar year was still followed--that is, when the solar year was made up by the intercalation of a supplementary month; consequently the month of Ramadhan regularly fell in winter. But when afterwards Mohammed had established the vague lunar year and the month of Ramadhan fell by chance in summer, it was a severe trial not to dare to take a drop of water all through the long and stifling summer day. It is not astonishing, then, that the Moslem is generally morose and bad tempered during the fast and awaits its end with impatience. But, once over, there is celebrated on the first day of the month of Khauwal, the most joyous fête known to Islamism, that of the fast-breaking (aid-al-fitr) or “little fête” (the little bairam of the Turks), which, in certain countries, lasts three days. The fifth great duty, which all Moslems of age and free, and of no matter which sex, have to accomplish once in a life-time is the pilgrimage to Mecca.

THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA

This pilgrimage was borrowed from the ancient religion with all the ceremonies which accompany it, although they have been modified in some respects and received a touch of Islamism. In spite of their great antiquity, they were not much observed by Arabs in the time of Mohammed except mechanically. But, as Islamism retained them, it was necessary to justify them.

When Adam had been driven from the terrestrial paradise and sent into the world, he lamented to God: “Alas! I shall hear no more the angels’ voices.” “That,” said God, “is the result of your sin. But build me a temple and walk around it thinking of me as you have seen the angels do around my throne.” Adam arrived in the neighbourhood of Mecca, and laid there the foundations of the holy temple whilst the angels, aiding him, brought large blocks of rock from five mountains. It was on to these foundations that the temple itself descended from heaven. Adam also received from paradise a tent formed of red hyacinth, in which the place of repose was the angular stone. Also a white hyacinth, only blackened because sinners had touched it. This is the famous Black Stone.

At the time of the deluge both temple and tent were taken up to heaven, but the Black Stone was hidden in the mountain of Abu Kobais, which is near Mecca. Afterwards the spot where the temple had stood remained known to men and was visited as a sacred place. It was there, in fact, that Abraham came with Hagar and Ishmael and left them to their fate. The water which Hagar had brought being soon exhausted, she and her son suffered greatly from thirst. As far as her eyes could see there was no living being near. So to get a wider view she climbed Mount Safa, then the Merwa heights which are opposite, but still saw no one. On returning she found her son dying of thirst. Not knowing what to do, she returned in haste to the two hills, and in her misery ran several times from one to the other. When in desperation she returned, there was water bubbling near her son. She hastened to pile sand round that it should not escape before she had filled her pitcher; then she and her son drank. This spring ran in that place where the wells of Zemzem were afterwards dug.

When on a visit to Ishmael, Abraham told him that God had ordered him to build a temple in a certain spot; father and son set immediately to work, and in digging came across the old foundations laid by Adam. Abraham wanted to set in one of the angles a recognisable stone to mark the spot where the procession should begin round the temple; but while Ishmael was seeking a suitable stone the angel Gabriel brought Abraham the Black Stone, which he had been to fetch from Mount Abu Kobais. Abraham took and placed it in the angle. When the wall was too high for him to reach up he mounted on a big stone which Ishmael placed before him and removed when necessary.

The temple finished, both father and son on Gabriel’s order walked round it seven times, carefully touching the four corners each time. Then, bowing twice, they prayed behind the large stone on which Abraham had stood. Gabriel also taught them the rites which they had to accomplish in other sacred spots. First they had to hurry rapidly seven times on the path between the two hills of Safa and Merwa, in memory of the journeys Hagar had made in her agony. Then he led them to the valley of Mina; but on their arrival the devil (Iblis) showed himself. “Throw something at him,” said Gabriel. Abraham obeyed by throwing seven little stones, upon which Iblis went away. In the middle and at the foot of the valley he was seen again, but each time Abraham drove him away with little stones. Thence arose the custom of throwing stones in the Mina valley during the pilgrimage. But when, led by Gabriel, he had also visited Mozdalifa and Arafa and learned what ceremonies there were to be performed he received orders to tell all men they were to go on a pilgrimage to the Kaaba and other sacred spots. “My voice cannot reach to them,” he answered. “Do what I command you,” then said God; “I know what to do so that they may hear.”

Abraham stood up on the big stone, and it rose so high that it was above all the mountains. Turning himself successively to the four cardinal points, he cried, “O men, a pilgrimage to the ancient house is ordered. Obey your Lord.” Then from all countries came the answer: “Labbaika, Allahomma, labbaika;” which means, according to the explanation which the Arabs love to give to this old formula: “We are ready to serve thee, O God, we are ready.” It is in perpetual memory of this fact that the print of Abraham’s feet have remained on this stone. Even to this day it is called Makam Ibrahim or “Abraham’s station.” This is how the theologians, aided by a well-known story in Genesis and a Jewish legend which speaks of Abraham making a journey into Arabia, came to resolve the difficult problem of making very old customs agree with the new religion and explain it. The explanation has not satisfied everyone, but it has sufficed for the majority, and must certainly be praised for its ingenuity. Being acquainted with what the majority think about pilgrimages and the meaning they set on ceremonies, we will here give a brief description of these customs:

First when the boundaries of the sacred territory are crossed and the pilgrim is purified, the ordinary clothes are doffed and the pilgrim’s garment or ihram is put on. This is composed of two pieces of linen, wool, or cotton; one tied round the loins, the other thrown over the neck and shoulders so as to leave bare a part of the right arm. All head-dress is forbidden, save for old men and invalids, who have to purchase this dispensation with alms. Instead of shoes sandals are worn, or the upper part of the boot is cut away so as to form a kind of sandal. The ihram for women is composed of a mantle and veil.

On the seventh day of the month of Dhul-Hija, the fête is opened by a sermon which the kadi of Mecca delivers after the midday prayer, and in which he reminds the worshippers of the ceremonies they have to accomplish. On the eighth all repair to Mina, arriving there after a slow walk of two hours. The journey continues to Mount Arafa, which is six hours’ march from Mecca. It is on this sacred mountain and in the long valley, that the night is passed, but very few think of sleep. The devout pray aloud, the others sing joyful songs, or pass the time in the cafés. The grand ceremony at Arafa consists in a long preaching which begins on the ninth at three in the afternoon and continues till sunset. This is regarded as so important that those who have not heard it, even if they have visited all the sacred spots in Mecca, cannot pretend to the title of haji (pilgrim). The preacher, who is generally the kadi of Mecca, is seated on a camel and reads his sermon in Arabic. Every four or five minutes he stops and raises his arms to implore the benediction of heaven. During this interval the audience flap the folds of their pilgrim’s garment and make the air resound with their cries of “Labbaika, Allahomma, labbaika.” According to the law the preacher must show visible signs of emotion, so he seldom ceases wiping his eyes with his handkerchief. The audience must also be deeply moved, recognise their deep sinfulness, and shed abundant tears.

When at last the sun has set behind the mountains, the preacher closes his book and the pilgrims run with all their might towards Mozdalifa. A scene of indescribable confusion arises, for everyone runs as hard as he can, and the caravans from different countries make it a point of honour to arrive first at the destination. Foot-travellers, litters, camels are always being knocked over, there is fighting with sticks and other weapons. At night there is a magnificent illumination, “so grand that one might imagine that all the stars from heaven had come down to earth.”

On the tenth is the greatest fête of the year, the “day of sacrifice,” or the great bairam of the Turks. At daybreak the kadi delivers another sermon of the same kind as that of the previous day, except that it is shorter; then the prayers for the fête are read, and when finished all go slowly to the narrow Mina valley, where there is a village. There they begin to throw stones about the size of a kidney bean, which, strictly, ought to have been picked up at Mozdalifa. But many get them in Mina or use them a second time, although this is forbidden by law. The first seven little stones are aimed against a species of pillar or altar of rough stone which is at the entrance of the valley, in the middle of the route, and which measures six or seven feet in height. Then seven stones are thrown in the middle of the valley against a pillar of the same kind, and seven more at the western end against a stone wall. At the same time they cry: “In the name of God! God is great! We throw stones to be safe against the devil and his hosts.”

After this the sacrifices begin. The pilgrims immolate the victims they have brought; and all Mohammedans, in whatsoever part of the world, sacrifice at the same time. That, generally speaking, ends the pilgrimage. The pilgrims’ robes may now be doffed, everyday clothes resumed, and many return to Mecca to make a tour of the Kaaba. But ordinarily a stay of another two days is made at Mina, and stone-throwing is recommenced. The eleventh is the day of rest, and a return to Mecca is made on the twelfth. The pilgrim goes to the Kaaba, which in the interval has received its new veil, says some prayers, stands in front of the Black Stone, touches it with the right hand or kisses it, if not hindered by the crowd, and begins the seven tours, the first three being made rapidly. To each tour belong certain prescribed prayers to be said; at the end of each one he again touches or kisses the stone. Then, asking pardon for his sins, he goes to the station of Abraham, which is quite near, and prays again. Thence he goes to the sacred well of Zemzem, from which he drinks as much as he wishes, or as much as the crowd permits; finally he runs seven times rapidly from the Safa to the Merwa hill. This done, he has accomplished all the ceremonies, which are so regulated as to their least details that few pilgrims know them by heart. The strangeness of these ceremonies has even struck some pious Moslem theologians who do not put very great faith in the legends. They admit that the act of walking round a temple, running swiftly between two hills, throwing little stones, etc., does not increase piety; but they get out of the difficulty by saying the ceremonies are a sign of divine wisdom, impenetrable to our weak understanding, or a trial of man’s submission to the mysterious and incomprehensible will of God.

We can pass over the other moral duties imposed by the Moslem religion, for morals do not vary much in any religion. There is just one peculiar duty, the holy war, of which we will say a few words.

THE HOLY WAR

European opinion for a long time has not been exact. The Koran, if its sequence of ideas is well studied, gives no order relative to this war against all infidels; and Mohammed, to begin with, shows himself extremely tolerant, admitting the possibility of salvation for all those who believe in God and the last judgment and practice virtue, whatever may be their form of worship. But the opposition he met with modified his way of looking at things, and it was then that Islamism became the only religion that could save. Nevertheless the holy war is not imposed as a duty except and only in the case of enemies to Islamism being the aggressors. Only an arbitrary interpretation by theologians can take the orders otherwise.

Another equal error is to think that Islamism has been propagated by force. Political power, certainly, has been extended in that way, not religion. The caliphs, far from seeking to make proselytes, for reasons of pecuniary interest saw with much displeasure the conversion of conquered peoples.

Mohammed also forbade games of chance and wine. As events then stood, he had to ask for all in order to obtain anything. The Arabs were great drinkers and took a certain pride in being so. Even among Mohammed’s disciples at Medina there were those who came drunk to the mosque. It was then necessary to agitate against drunkenness, and as warnings on the subject of this abuse of wine did not produce any effect, he forbade it altogether. Omar sanctioned the prohibition by adding the penalty of the whip. The success has not been great. All the time Islamism has existed wine has been drunk, a great deal of it, indeed; only, out of respect for the law, it has not been done openly. The alimentary laws are much less rigorous than with the Jews. Pork, for which moreover the Arabs had a repugnance, has been forbidden, and as the use of fat generally causes fearful and hideous diseases in hot countries, it must be recognised that the prohibition in question is a very wise law in Eastern religions.[c]

ARAB CULTURE

In the Middle Ages the Arabs were the sole representatives of civilisation. They opposed that barbarism which spread over Europe, shaken as it was by invasions of northern peoples, and went back to “the perennial source of Greek philosophy”; far from resting content with acquired treasures, they enlarged and opened up new ways to the study of nature.

Wars of invasion, scarcely interrupted by civil discord, far-away expeditions, and striking triumphs, filled the first century of the Hegira. Even in 760, after the fall of the Omayyads, there was no evidence that to the tumult of arms would succeed in the caliph empire a period noted only for intellectual progress. But under the Abbasids a noble emulation, and above all the example and protection of the sovereigns, dissipated the ignorance and coarseness with which the disciples of Mohammed were justly charged. Men’s minds were permeated with new ideas, a number of writings of all kinds sprang into existence and in their turn gave birth to an infinity of others, which made Arabic the medium of learning for the East and all the Moslem states. Nearly all these writings are still extant, and form one of the vastest literatures ever known.

To the caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur belongs the credit of the first impulse given to the study of exact science. Among the confused and incomplete traditions that exist concerning the ancient Arabs, one catches a glimpse of notions of practical astronomy. The spectacle of the heavens had attracted their attention, as it does that of all peoples enjoying a mild climate and clear air, although without invariably inspiring to consideration of the celestial laws. All that they had gathered in their intercourse with surrounding nations was a knowledge of the names of planets and certain stars, which they deified, an exact indication of the dwellings in the moon, and purely astrological learning. They went by the lunar year, but it does not appear they had ever tried to mark time by eras and epochs in general usage. Thus it is almost impossible to establish a regular order in the long series of facts which make up the Arabian annals, until that epoch when a timely revolution broke up the various beliefs of its nomad populations, writing them under the law of the Koran and developing new desires.

“The Arabs,” says Humboldt,[d] “were admirably adapted to the rôle of mediator and to influence the peoples included in the area between the Euphrates and the Guadalquivir and the southern part of central Africa. They possessed an unexampled activity which marked a distinct epoch in the world’s history, a tendency opposed to the intolerant spirit of the Jews, which led them to mingle with conquered peoples without always abjuring their national character or traditional remembrances of their native country, and this in spite of a perpetual change of land. Whilst the German races did not acquire polish until a long time after their migrations, the Arabs brought with them not only their religion but also a perfected language and a wealth of poetry, which was not to be forever lost but was to be found again among the troubadours and minnesingers of Provence.”

M. Girault de Prangey[e] has studied carefully Arab art, and compared the architectural monuments of Spain and the East. In the peninsula he distinguishes three successive epochs. The first, from the eighth to the tenth century, shows a badly disguised imitation of Christian and Roman buildings. The mosque of Cordova is doubtless in the same style as that of Damascus, which it surpassed in magnificence. There is no doubt that the churches described by Eusebius of Cæsarea,[f] with courts, porticoes, fountains, and priests’ lodgings, served as models for the mosques of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Byzantine mosaics are found in them. But already in 965 a sumptuous Greek ornamentation seemed insufficient. Details were multiplied, arches were complicated with festoons and varied curves, such as one sees at Cordova in the Villaviciosa chapel constructed in the caliphate of Hakim.

The second epoch, from the tenth to the twelfth century, marks the first development of that Moorish architecture encouraged by the Almoravid and Almohad princes. The Arabs then strayed from the beaten path. The ogee arch, porcelain mosaics, fantastic embroideries, ornaments run in stucco, became fashionable. Inscriptions abounded and became part of the decorations.

Finally the third epoch, when Arab art attained its apogee, was contemporary with the splendour of the kingdom of Granada. The Alhambra is the highest expression of it. The exterior of the palace, so simple yet imposing, is in conformity with the Moorish habit of hiding from the eyes of strangers. The entrance is only an immense arch decorated with some emblems and an inscription recording the founder’s name. The walls are of a species of mortar mixed with little pebbles which glint in the sunlight. In the interior, on the contrary, man’s genius has expended its utmost resources. Vast painted and gilded galleries, adorned with arcades of every shape cut up with festoons, in stalactites, and loaded with stucco open-work, the rooms lighted by uncasemented windows, the Ambassadors’ hall, that of the Two Sisters, the Infantes room, the Comares tower, the court and fountain of Lions, the Alberca court, below which are baths modelled in the ancient style--all offer admirable effects. Here water gushes among millions of beautiful little columns isolated or grouped picturesquely, there it flows in marble trenches, now forming cascades, now jets thrown in spray to feed the basins in the patios surrounded by shrubs and flowers. Everywhere inscriptions skilfully combined with sculptures express noble and elevated sentiments, adding fresh charm to the marvel of a palace which Christian kings partly destroyed.

The interior ornaments of the principal halls of this ancient residence of Moorish kings are in plaster. The fashion of the relief is geometrical, and although constantly repeated has none the less beauty and delicacy. The paintings, artfully distributed and protected by the Andalusian climate, are to-day as they were in the times of the Abencerrages. In some of the halls which surround the court of Lions the colours put on by the Arabs still retain their lustre. They are very pure, composed only of reds, blues, yellows, and greens. In a recent analysis the blue and red matter was found to be of ultramarine and vermilion or sulphate of mercury.

It is, moreover, to be regretted that a general study has not been made of the Arabic buildings in Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and even India, of the different epochs of Arabic rule. It would offer peculiar characters useful in an exact determination of style. We have reason to hope that skilful artists will soon supply this want.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

The empire of the caliphs, in its extent, its rich soil, varied climate, people, and regulated condition of its provinces, naturally excited commercial speculation. The productions of Spain, Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, Arabia, Persia, and Russia, those of countries bordering on the Caspian Sea, as well as all Indian and China merchandise, came to Mecca, Medina, Cufa, Bassorah, Damascus, Baghdad, Mosul, and Madain (Modein). The founding of colonies had created new business centres and opened up important routes.

The Arabs were, moreover, devoted to industry by that same law which made of work a duty, and commended commerce and agriculture as meritorious and pleasing to God. Merchants and their callings elicited equal respect. Governors of provinces, generals, and servants did not blush to be known as Khayat the tailor, Atari the druggist, Jauhari the jeweller, etc. Free passage for merchandise through armies and the safety of the high-roads were maintained at all points. Wells and cisterns were dug in the desert, caravanseries were built at certain distances where travellers could find necessary help at a moderate cost.

Relations existed between Spain and the limits of eastern Asia; an Arab fleet had gone through the Straits of Gibraltar, and a tempest which drove them ashore hindered the possible honour of discovering the Azores, and perhaps America. But though restricted to the old world, the Moslems gave a strong impulse to every kind of human industry. Spain enriched herself with the products of Arabian agriculture and manufactures. Cane sugar, rice, cotton, saffron, ginger, myrrh, ambergris, pistachio, bananas, henna for dyeing, mohaleb to promote plumpness, were objects of exchange in the peninsula; tapestry of Cordova leather, Toledo blades, Murcia cloth made from beautiful wool, Granadan, Almerian, and Sevillian silks, and gun-cotton were sought in all parts of the world. Sulphur, mercury, copper, iron were exploited successfully; the finely tempered Spanish steel caused the helmets and cuirasses coming from its foundries to be quickly bought up. The environs of Seville were covered with olive trees, and contained one hundred thousand oil farms or oil-mills. The province of Valencia gave to Europe southern fruits. From the ports of Malaga, Cartagena, Barcelona, and Cadiz there were large exportations; and Christian nations patterned their maritime regulations upon those of the Arabs.

Under the Moors, as M. Darny has said, Toledo had 200,000 inhabitants and Seville 300,000; to-day the population is rated at 21,000 for the one, and 143,000 for the other. Cordova was eight leagues in circumference, had 60,000 palaces, and 283,000 houses. To-day she has scarcely 56,000 inhabitants. The diocese of Salamanca then included 125 towns or boroughs; this number is now reduced to 13. Seville had 6000 workers on silk alone, yet in 1742 only 10,000 could be counted in the peninsula among both silk and wool factories.

The geographer Edrisi, who visited Spain in the middle of the eleventh century, assures us there were in the royal kingdom of Jaen more than 600 towns and hamlets working in silk. The expulsion of the Moors had for Spain as disastrous results as the revocation of the Edict of Nantes had for French commerce; and Cardinal Ximenes, desiring that even the remembrance of the service they had rendered should be destroyed, ordered in a decree worthy of barbarous times 84,000 Arabian manuscripts to be burned in the public squares of Granada.

The northerly coasts of Africa had also shown great commercial development. Numerous factories arose, and the Mauretanian Tingitana rivalled the peninsula in its manufacturing and rural activity. The country of Sous recalled Andalusia in its fertility and in the intelligence of its inhabitants. The East caught the infection of this general industry; at Siraf and Aden there was an exchange of goods between China, India, Persia, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Nubian slaves and Habasch, tiger skins, silk, cotton, ivory, and gold-dust from Zanzibar came from Ethiopia. India and China sent stuffs, saddles, sandalwood, spices, ebony, lead, tin, pearls, and precious stones. From Aden these goods were transported to Jiddah, then to Suez, and shared among Egyptian ports and Syrian coast towns. Countries bordering on the Caspian Sea bought stores at the Cabul fair; caravans from Samarcand to Aleppo distributed Chinese silks, cashmere cloth, musk, and medicinal drugs of Turkestan.

We have set forth the causes and principal effects of the great wave of civilisation poured forth in the Middle Ages by the Arabs, which rolled from the columns of Hercules to the confines of Asia. It remains, to complete this vast picture, only to say a few words on certain Arabian discoveries, which altered the literary, political, and military conditions of the entire world. These were paper, the compass, and gunpowder.

PAPER, COMPASS, AND GUNPOWDER

One has already seen how many useful and important inventions have been transmitted to us by the Arabs, and even although they were not perhaps the originators they must not be refused the glory of having brought them to the light and of having propagated them from one end of the world to the other. This is really what they did with paper, the compass, and gunpowder.

A belief, founded on certain apocryphal writing, that the Chinese knew the use thereof at a far distant epoch, has been considered sufficient to rob the Arabs of the honour of having bequeathed these inventions to Europe, but this is an injustice. It might be said that printing existed in China from the eighth century; yet the names of Gutenberg, Faust, and Schoeffer are not less illustrious. Would not the Arabs, if they had taken tissue paper from them, have also borrowed the art of printing had it then been known? Would those of the Celestial Empire ever practically have used chance discoveries? What use have they made of the compass, they who still believed in 1850 that there was a burning furnace at the South Pole; and have they ever applied gunpowder and utilized its power in as many ways as the Arabs?

It must be remembered that at the siege of Mecca in 690 a kind of bomb was already in use, and that in Egypt in the thirteenth century powdered nitre was used to throw projectiles to a great distance with a noise like thunder. It is also mentioned on the occasion of a naval battle between the king of Tunis and the emir of Seville in the eleventh century, in 1308 at the siege of Gibraltar, in 1324 at that of Baeza; also as used by Ismail, king of Granada in 1340 and by Algeciras in 1342, and Ferreras says positively that the balls were shot by means of powder. The Spanish thenceforth made use of it, and one sees the European armies little by little provided with cannon, while no mention is made of their trials and attempts which would necessarily have preceded the organisation of artillery if the actual invention of gunpowder had originated with Christian nations as some writers and historians have long claimed.

With regard to the compass, nothing proves that the Chinese used it for navigation, while we find the Arabs using it in the eleventh century, not only for sea voyages, but in caravan journeys through the desert, and to determine the azimuth of the Kiblah, that is the direction of the Moslem oratories towards Mecca. It was the same with paper. Towards the year 650 silk paper was already being made at Samarcand and Bokhara. In 706 Jusuf Amron at Mecca thought of substituting cotton for silk; hence the “damask paper,” of which Greek historians speak. In Spain, where linen and hemp were more common, arose factories for linen paper. “The Xativa paper,” says the geographer Edrisi, “is excellent and incomparable.” Valencia and Catalonia soon afterwards proved formidable rivals to Xativa (Jativa). In the thirteenth century Arabian paper was used at Castile, whence it penetrated into France, Italy, England, and Germany. But Arabian manuscripts always led in the fineness and glossiness of their paper, as well as in the choice of ornamentation in lively and brilliant colours.

It was thus that the influence exercised by the Arabs manifested itself in every branch of modern civilisation. From the ninth to the fifteenth century the most voluminous literature extant was formed, productions were multiplied; valuable inventions attested the wonderful activity of men’s minds at this epoch; and their influence, felt throughout Christian Europe, justified the opinion that the Arabs have led us in all things. On the one hand we find inestimable material for a history of the Middle Ages--narratives of voyages, the happy idea of the biographical dictionary; on the other, unequalled industry, buildings grandiose in thought and execution, important discoveries in the arts. Does not all this reveal the work of a people too long disdained?[g]

INFLUENCE OF THE ARABS ON EUROPEAN CIVILISATION

“The nations of Europe,” says Bailly in one of his letters to Voltaire, “after having grown old in barbarism, were only enlightened by the invasion of the Moors and the arrival of the Greeks.” We venture to add--and far more by the invasion of the Moors, or of those to whom Bailly gives the name, than by the arrival of the Greeks of the Lower Empire. And, indeed, one of the distinctive and prominent characteristics of the influence which the Arabs exercised on all branches of modern civilisation, is precisely that of having restored to Europe a knowledge of the ancient Greek authors, whose language, works, and even names, were completely forgotten.

It may be boldly asserted that the numerous translations and still more numerous commentaries which the Arabs wrote on all the works of Ancient Greece, and which makes their literature the second daughter of Greek literature, served to give the modern peoples their first notions of the sciences and letters of antiquity. It was only after having known them through the versions of the Arabs that the desire to possess and understand the original writers took shape, and that the language of Homer and Plato found several diligent interpreters. Indeed, “The greater part of Greek erudition,” according to Hyde,[h] “which we have to-day from those sources, we received first from the hands of the Arabs.”

In order to justify this assertion, which may seem a little paradoxical, it will be sufficient to call attention to the fact that the Arabs had transmitted to Europe, without disguising its origin, the knowledge they borrowed from the Greeks, long before Boccaccio’s guest, Leontius Pilatus, had started a course on the Greek language at Florence (about 1360), and the dispersal of the inhabitants of Constantinople, after the taking of that town by Muhammed II (1453), had rendered their idiom a common study in Europe. Indeed many Greek books, and notably those which treated of the sciences, were originally translated from Arab into Latin. Among others may be cited the earliest versions of Euclid and Ptolemy.

A not less certain proof that Greek letters first received an asylum from the Arabs, is that several works of Ancient Greece have been preserved by them, and discovered in their own works. Mathematicians, for instance, would never have possessed the Sphericals of the geometrician Menelaus of Alexandria, who was antecedent to Ptolemy, but for the Arab translation (Kitab al-Okar), which was afterwards translated into Latin, nor the eight books of Apollonius of Perga’s Conic Sections, if the Maronite, Abraham Ecchellensis, had not copied and translated (1661) the missing fifth and sixth and seventh books from an Arab manuscript in the Medici library in Florence; neither would the doctors have been able to complete Galen’s Commentaries on Hippocrates’ Epidemics without the Arab translation discovered in the Escurial, and the naturalists would not even possess an abridgement of Aristotle’s Treatise on Stones but for the Arab manuscript in our (the French) National library.

If we trace the whole history of human knowledge, and recall the fact that Greece survived Rome in Alexandria, we may well assign the Arabs the position of guardians to that sacred depôt between Greece and the Renaissance. “They merit,” says M. Libri,[i] “eternal gratitude for having been the preservers of the learning of the Greeks and Hindus, when those people were no longer producing anything and Europe was still too ignorant to undertake the charge of the precious deposit. Efface the Arabs from history and the Renaissance of letters will be retarded in Europe by several centuries.”

In the matter of science especially, and far more than their forerunners the Romans, the Arabs were the heirs of the Greeks. If they far preferred Aristotle’s philosophy to that of Plato, it may have been because they saw in Plato what he actually was, namely one of the fathers of the Christian church, but it was certainly because Aristotle mingled the positive sciences with metaphysical speculation. Nevertheless Plato (Aflathoun), as well as Aristotle (Aristhathlis or Aristou), received from them the surname of Al-Elahi, or the Divine. It was not only on the masters, principes Scriptores, on Aristotle, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Euclid, Ptolemy, Strabo, that their studies were directed and concentrated; there is no grammarian so mediocre, no rhetorician so poor, no sophist so subtle, that the Arabs have not translated and commented on him.

SCHOLASTICISM

It was in passing through their hands that the peripatetic doctrine engendered scholasticism. It is certain that, in the interminable wrangle between Realists and Nominalists the former leaned on the authority of Avicenna, the others on that of Averrhoës; it is certain, according to the observation of M. Hauréau,[j] that the philosopher Al-Kendi is often quoted by Alexander of Hales, Henry of Ghent and St. Bonaventura, whilst Al-Farabi furnished his aphorisms to William d’Auvergne, Vincent de Beauvais, and Albertus Magnus; and that this same William d’Auvergne prefers the Arabs far above the Greeks, finding the Greeks too much of philosophers and the Arabs more of theologians. Doubtless scholasticism was a vain and regrettable learning, for the schools of the Middle Ages, as Condillac says, resembled the knights’ tournaments, but, all the same, it produced some free thinkers, such as Johannes Scotus Erigena, Berengarius, Abélard, and William of Occam; and it was from it that, in after time, proceeded John Huss, Savonarola, Luther, Bruno, and Campanella.

After having laid hands on the various branches of the knowledge possessed by the ancient Greeks, who had remained superior to the Latins, in the sciences even more than in letters and not less than in the arts, and after having enlarged its domain in all directions, the Arabs laid it open to the nations of Europe, all of whom they had outdistanced. Spain was naturally the first to receive and spread their gifts. In the tenth century, in the most profound darkness of the Middle Ages, that country “to which,” says Haller,[o] “the humanities fled together,” was the only one which accepted and welcomed those solid studies, which were everywhere else repelled and destroyed, even in Constantinople, since the time of Leo the Isaurian (717). Indeed, as early as the tenth century, when the Muzarab, John of Seville, translated the Holy Scriptures into Arabic, and when another Muzarab, Alvaro of Cordova, reproached his compatriots with forgetting their language and their law (legem suam nesciunt christiani et linguam propriam non advertunt Latini), in order to train themselves in the Arab doctrine (Arabico eloquio sublimati), Spain counted several illustrious scholars, Ayton, bishop of Vich, a Lupit of Barcelona, and a Joseph, who instructed Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims, all versed in mathematics and astronomy.

MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE

To Spain then came the small number of foreigners who were tormented by the desire to know. Gerbert (born in Auvergne about 930, elected pope in 999, under the name of Silvester II, died in 1003), so celebrated for his adventures, his learning, and his labours, after going through all the schools of France, Italy, and Germany without being able to satisfy the passion for instruction which possessed him, came finally to Spain to seek that physical and mathematical knowledge which raised such admiration in France, Germany, and Italy, whither he returned to spread them, that the prodigies of his learning could only be explained by the accusation of having delivered himself over to the devil.

Gerbert is unanimously credited with having been the first to introduce the use of Arabic figures into these countries, and with having added some elementary notions of algebra to the calculations of arithmetic. He also passes as the first constructor of clocks. Whether, as most of his biographers affirm, Gerbert pursued his studies as far as the homes of the Arabs in Cordova and Seville, or whether he only made a long sojourn in Catalonia and associated with the scholars of that country, as is witnessed to by his collection of Epistles, addressed in great part to Catalans like Borrell, count of Barcelona, Ayton, Joseph, and Lupit, it is none the less certain that Gerbert learned all he knew from the Arabs, and that that knowledge, so prodigious as to appear supernatural, was, as William of Malmesbury says, “stolen from the Saracens.”

His example and his success roused other foreigners to come and glean, where he had made so ample a harvest. The German Hermannus-Contractus (who died in 1054), author of the book, De Compositione Astrolabii; the English Adelard, who translated the first Arabic Euclid into Latin (about 1130); the Italian Campano of Novara, who published a Theory of the Planets; Daniel Morley; Otto of Freising; with Hermann the German; Plato of Tivoli; Gerard of Cremona, who translated at Toledo itself, Alhazen; Avicenna, Rhazes, Albucasis, and even Ptolemy’s Almagest, not from the Greek, but from the Arabic--that Gerard of Cremona of whom it was said: “At Toledo he lived, Toledo he raised to the stars”--all went in succession to gather in Spain the elements of mathematics, physics, and astronomy, which they carried thence to their compatriots.

Montucla[k] not only says that “the Arabs were long the sole depositaries of learning, and that it is to their commerce that we owe the first rays of light which came to chase away the darkness of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries”; he adds that “during this period, all who obtained the greatest reputation in mathematics had been to acquire their knowledge amongst the Arabs.” It is asserted that all the authors who wrote on the exact sciences before the fifteenth century did nothing but copy the Arabs, or, at the most, enlarge upon their lessons. Such were the Italian Leonardo da Pisa, the Polish Vitellio, the Spaniard Raymond Lully, the English Roger Bacon, and finally the French Arnauld de Villeneuve, who is credited with having discovered spirits of wine, oil of turpentine, and other chemical preparations.

During the same period, the whole of European geography was limited to the Seven Climates of Edrisi, and, in the seventeenth century, when correcting by Abu Ishak Ibrahim ben Yahya certain geographical errors, Abraham Hinckelmann was able to say: “The greatest assistance and illumination for posterity we owe to Arabism.” As to the famous Astronomical Tables of Alfonso X, they, like his book on Armillaries or celebrated spheres, only sum up the discoveries of the Arabs previous to the thirteenth century. It was from their works that all his learning was drawn by that celebrated monarch, who received the surname of the Wise (or learned), and who did indeed effect some advancement in science, between the system of Ptolemy and that of Copernicus. The Alphonsine Tables are borrowed from the various Ziji or tables of the Arab astronomers, and reproduce their form and substance.

When Louis XIV had a degree of the meridian measured geometrically, in order to determine the size of the earth, he doubtless did not know that five centuries before, the caliph Al-Mamun had ordered the same operation to be performed by his astronomers at Baghdad. In the Middle Ages, according to Bailly,[l] “the first step taken towards the revival of learning was the translation of Alfergan’s Elements of Astronomy.” That famous Spanish rabbi, Aben-hezra (or Esdra), who was surnamed the Great, the Wise, the Admirable, on account of his book on The Sphere, was born at Toledo, in 1119, and had been a disciple of the Arabs in astronomy. He spread his masters’ lessons throughout Europe. It was from Albategnius, more than from Ptolemy, that Sacrobosco (John of Holywood) had drawn the materials for his book De Sphera Mundi; it was in Albategnius, too, that the commentator on that great astronomer, Regiomontanus (Johann Müller, of Königsberg, Regius Mons), had found the first notion of tangents. It was from Alhazen’s Twilight that the illustrious Kepler took his ideas of atmospheric refraction; and it may be that Newton himself owes to the Arabs, rather than to the apple in his orchard at Woolsthorpe, the first apperception of the system of the universe; for Muhammed ben Musa (quoted in the Bibliot. arab. Philosophorum) seems, when writing his books on The Movement of the Celestial Bodies and on The Force of Attraction, to have had an inkling of the great law of general harmony.

MEDICINE

The influence of the Arabs on all the natural sciences, chemical or medical, is not less incontestable than their influence on the mathematical sciences. Roger Bacon and Raymond Lully were as much their pupils in the attempted science of alchemy, the “grand art,” as in the actual science of numerical calculations. It was by them also that Albertus Magnus (Albrecht Grotus or Gross, born in Swabia in 1193), that universal scholar, the eminent master of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom, like Gerbert, men called “the magician,” was initiated into all the learning of the Aristotelian school. And even after the year 1600, Fabricius Acquapendente could say, “Celsus amongst the Latins, Paulus Ægineta amongst the Greeks, and Albucasis amongst the Arabs, form a triumvirate to whom I confess that I am under the greatest obligations.”

Even as the astronomer Albategnius in the domain of heaven, or the geographer Edrisi in that of the earth, so Avicenna and Averrhoës reigned supreme over medicine, during six hundred years, down to the sixteenth century. At Montpellier and Louvain, commentaries on Avicenna were still being made in the last century. Both Boerhaave and Haller concede this long predominance to Arab medicine, and Brucker could say with perfect truth: “Until the renascence of literature, not only among the Arabs, but also indeed among the Christians, Avicenna rules all but alone.” When, in the very beginning of the thirteenth century, the Portuguese doctor Pedro Juan, who was archbishop of Braga and then pope under the title of John XXI, wrote his Treasury of the Poor, or Remedies for all Maladies, his Treatise on Hygiene, and his Treatise on the Formation of Man, he was copying the Arabs.

It was from Spain then that all the doctors of Europe came, and that, through them, the taste for science and letters was extended. “The Spanish doctors,” says Haller, “while their people were gradually recovering the country, communicated the love of letters to the Italians.” It was to Spain, at all events, that the Jews, then so renowned for their healing art, went to study, to afterwards scatter, like young doctors leaving the university, through the various countries of Europe. Kings and popes took their doctors from the Jews. To cite only a few famous instances, we call attention to the fact that the physician of Alfonso the Fighter, king of Aragon, Pedro Alfonso, author of some Latin tales, part of which were translated in Francesco Sansovino’s Cento Novelle Antiche, was a converted Jew; and Paul Ricius, physician to the emperor Maximilian I, was a Jew who remained a Jew. The latter had studied in Spain, where he translated the at-Takrif of Albucasis, the book which Haller calls the “common fountain” of modern medicine. We have seen that the Arabs practised a multitude of surgical operations, unknown to the ancients, and in like manner enriched pharmacy by a multitude of new medicaments.

But one fact sums up in itself all the proofs of the influence which the Arabs exerted on the medical art, and that is that the famous school of Salerno, whose laws were once followed throughout Europe, owes its origin to the Arabs. When (about 1000) the Norman, Robert Guiscard, took Salerno from the people called Saracens, who had occupied the south of Italy for more than two centuries, he found a school of medicine established there by these infidels. He had the wisdom to preserve it, enrich it, and to give it Constantine Africanus as chief. This man was a Moor from Carthage, whom travels and adventures flung, like Edrisi, into the power of the Normans of Sicily; who took the cowl at the monastery of Monte Cassino under the celebrated abbot Desiderius, afterwards Pope Victor III; and, in his retreat, translated into Latin all his compatriots’ works on the healing art. He thus ended by founding the school of Salerno, for it was from his works that all the aphorisms of the Medicina Salertina were taken. As the University of Montpellier had for founders (about 1200) the Aragonese, to whom that town, which was then almost modern and had not yet inherited the bishopric of Maguelonne, at that time belonged, it may be asserted, according to the generally received tradition, that its faculty of medicine was founded at least indirectly by the Arabs, and that it was in that sense grounded on their teaching--the sole adopted, the sole reigning one, the most enlightened and scientific of the age.

ARCHITECTURE

As to the influence of Arabs on architecture, the only one of the fine arts which religion permitted Moslems to cultivate, it seems that it cannot be set in doubt that it appears with as much certainty as distinction. The question has often been asked: Whence came it that the architecture of the close of the Middle Ages, that which passed from the round to the pointed arch, and from basilicas to cathedrals, was called Gothic? As this name, if it implied a northern origin, would be in flagrant contradiction with the facts, the question has remained unanswered.

But we must remind ourselves that the name Gothic has not been given only to the architecture which the twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw prevailing. The handwriting and the missal, which in the year 1091 were replaced in Spain by the Latin (then called French) characters, and by the Roman ritual, were also called Gothic. They had received and preserved this name of Gothic because their use dated from the time when Spain was the domain of the Goths. Might it not also be because the first lessons in the new architecture came to Europe through Spain, that this architecture, e.g., like the Spanish handwriting and liturgy, was named Gothic?

This perfectly simple and natural explanation is, moreover, in complete accordance with history. The conjectures of men versed in the matter are agreed on this point--that modern architecture had its birth at Byzantium, that second Rome where the arts took refuge when they were driven out of Italy. The Byzantine architects, who were the first to mingle the capricious and flowery style of the East with the sober and regular style of ancient Greece, had two sorts of pupils--the Arabs and the Germanic peoples. The former first founded the architecture called Moorish or Saracen; and afterwards the latter, that which later on was called Gothic. Starting from the same point the two architectures remain analogous, almost similar, during two centuries, both preserving, with the differences imposed by the climate, the traditions of their common origin. Thus the mosque of Cordova, raised by a prince of Syria, and the old basilicas of Germany are equally sprung from the Byzantine style. Then they separate, to take each a style of its own. The Moslem architecture preserves the system of surbased naves, and takes as its special characteristic the horseshoe arch, that is to say, one narrowing at its base, and having the form of an inverted crescent.

Christian architecture adopts the system of high, pointed naves, and its distinctive characteristic becomes the pointed arch, substituted for the pagan round arch. But it must be noticed that the Arabs had employed the pointed arch before the Christians; that, in Spain especially, a multitude of monuments prove their use of this form which was unknown to antiquity; and that it is doubtless because the pointed arch, now become the striking and characteristic feature of Christian architecture, had passed from Spain into Europe, that the whole system was named Gothic. Finally, these two architectures derived from Byzantium, the Arab and the Germanic, becoming ever more and more assimilated, end by merging, at the close of eight centuries, into the style called Renaissance. No one denies, no one disputes, the striking resemblance which exists between the Arab monuments and those of Europe in the Middle Ages. This resemblance is not only found in the great edifices of the capitals, for the construction of which Saracen architects were sometimes called in, as happened in the case of Notre Dame de Paris itself. It can be traced even in the humblest buildings of the little towns.

“Thus,” says Viardot,[m] “I have found the multilobar arch of the Mezquita at Cordova in the cloisters of Norwich cathedral, and the delicate colonnette of the Alhambra in the church of Notre Dame at Dijon. This resemblance was, then, not merely casual and fortuitous; it was general and permanent. Nothing further is needed to prove the thesis. If Christian and Arab art resembled each other, and if one preceded the other, it is evident that of the two one was imitated and the other the imitator. Was it the Arab art which imitated the Christian art? No; for the priority of its works is manifest and incontestable; for Europe, in the Middle Ages, received all its knowledge from the Arabs, and must also have received from them the only art whose cultivation the law of religion permitted.”

MUSIC

The impossibility which exists, in spite of the efforts of all modern scholars, of our having an acquaintance, even an imperfect and approximate one, with the music of the Greeks, must teach and give a conception of the great difficulty of procuring proofs of the state of this art, or discovering and understanding monuments of it, once the traditions are interrupted. It is a dead language in which none can now read. In the preceding section we have had to limit ourselves to demonstrating that the Arabs cultivated music as a very important and very advanced art. In the archives of the chapter of Toledo, there exists a precious monument of the influence which they exercised on modern music. This is a manuscript, annotated in the hand of Alfonso the Wise himself, and including the canticles (cantigas) composed by that prince, with the music to which they were sung. In it we find not only the six notes ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, invented, towards 1030, by the monk Guido of Arezzo, but also the seventh note, the five lines, and the keys, whose discovery was subsequent, and even the upward and downward tails of the notes, the use of which was not introduced into the musical writing of the rest of Europe until much later. Up till then music had served only for the psalmodies of the church, for the plain chant of hymns and antiphons. This manuscript, copied and cited in the Paleographia Castellana is, according to all appearance, the most ancient monument of the regular application of music to ordinary and profane poetry.

As Alfonso X owes his prodigious learning chiefly to the study of the Arabs, it would be scarcely possible to doubt that, for this book as for all his works, he borrowed from them a science already formed and even then committed to writing by Al-Farabi, Abul-Faraj, etc., and which Alfonso might very well have understood with the help of the Muzarabs of Seville. This supposition, which would attribute to the Arabs a notable share in the creation of modern music, has all the more the appearance of truth since the first instruments adopted by the Spaniards, the French, and the other nations of Europe were named moresques in all languages. To this day the chirimia and dulzaina of the Moors, so often mentioned by Cervantes and his contemporaries, are still used in the country of Valencia. As to the modern stringed instruments, they all had as model the lute (al-aoud, whence laud in Spanish) of the Arabs, who have also given Spain the kitara (guitarra), since become the national instrument of the people whose masters they were in all things.

Several theorists, J. J. Rousseau amongst others, have proposed to write music in figures, assuredly without suspecting that the Arabs had already practised that mode of notation. Kiesewetter[n] calls attention to the fact that, the Arab scale having seventeen intervals, the Arabs were able to write and actually did write music with their figures, employing the numbers one to eighteen for the first octave, one to thirty-five for two octaves, and so on. May it not be from this ancient use of the Arab figures in musical writing that the employment of the same figures for the figured bass, in which a simple number denotes a chord, came into vogue? It is possible and very probable.

The old Spanish music, that which is preserved in Andalusia under the name of cañas, rondeñas, playeras, etc., differing greatly from the boleros of comic operas and eluding the modern notation, is certainly of Arab origin. Who are they who have preserved it in the tradition of this country? An eastern race, a nomadic race, that of those Bohemians who, coming from Egypt about the fourteenth century, and perhaps before that from India, spread themselves throughout Europe and were called gitanos in Spain, zingari in Italy, gipsies in England, zigeuner in Germany, and tzigani in Russia, whilst naming themselves pharaons.

These nomads, with their immutable customs, who are still to-day not only in Spain but in Russia the same in physique and moral character as Cervantes has depicted them, have carried and retained everywhere the ancient songs of their problematic country. As the musicians of the people, formed into troupes of singers and dancers, they have everywhere spread the form and sentiment of their antique melodies. “It was through them,” concludes Viardot, “that, in Russia as in Spain, popular music took or kept the oriental character; it was from them that in Moscow, at the foot of the towers of the Kremlin, I listened to the same songs as in the gardens of the Alhambra of Granada. In both places I had heard from their lips a living echo of the Arab music.”[m]

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XI. TRIBAL LIFE OF THE EPIC PERIOD

SPECIALLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE PRESENT WORK

BY DR. JULIUS WELLHAUSEN[41]

Professor in the University at Göttingen

People who are unlearned in the law, are apt to assume that it executes itself; or at least they think it absolutely necessary that law and the execution of law should go hand in hand. But in the primitive stages of human society it was not so. The law existed long before there was any magistracy to carry it into effect, and even after magisterial authority had been established, it frequently left, not only the pursuit, but the execution of law to the parties concerned. An instructive picture of such a state of things is found in the copious literature that has been preserved with regard to the Epic Period of the ancient Arabs, i.e., the period immediately preceding their amazing irruption into the world’s history through the gate of Islam.

The desert has imprinted its stamp upon the Arabs. They are particularly interesting for this very reason, that by the desert they have, so to speak, been arrested at what is in many respects a very primitive stage of development. Yet we must not imagine them roving about it like wild animals, gathering together for temporary ends and dispersing just as they please. As a matter of fact, they have no settled abodes, they are not tied to the soil nor linked with one another by a fixed domicile, and consequently they are not organised on the basis of locality, according to districts, towns, and villages. But they have instead an inner principle of association and organisation, of union and distinction, inherent in the very elements of race. It is the principle of consanguinity, of kinship. For the Arab, his political genus, his differentia specifica, are innate as indelible characteristics. He knows the clan to which he belongs, and the stock to which his clan belongs; the tribe or nation of which the stock is a part, and the larger group that includes the tribe or nation. Associations are regarded by them as natural units, founded on consanguinity, and they stand in a close and natural relationship, one to another, corresponding to nearer or remoter degrees of consanguinity (by the father’s side) so that their statistics assume the form of a genealogy.

Among the ancient Hebrews this form survived even after they had settled in towns and villages; Isaac was the father of the nations of Israel and Edom, Israel the father of twelve tribes, Judah the father of five lineages, and each lineage in its turn father or grandfather of clans and families. Such a principle of organisation is equally serviceable for settlement or migration, for war or peace; and being independent of all conditions of fixed localities, it makes the tribe as mobile as an army. For an army, too, must possess an organisation adaptable to every place, and as suitable to a hostile country as to its own. But an army is broken up into artificial divisions; the men may be put into one branch or another at will, and the place of the individual in the whole scheme is notified by artificial marks of distinction. With the Arabs, on the other hand, the form is indistinguishable from the substance, they are born into their cadres, and their uniform is, as it were, innate to them. The closer or remoter circles of kindred, from the clan to the nation, are their companies, battalions, and regiments, which include not only the fighting men, but their wives and children also, though the latter take no direct part in any fight.

The two most important stages of the political affinity are the highest and the lowest, the two poles, as it were, of the system; the intermediate stages are less important, because they assume the qualities of one pole or the other, according to circumstances. The highest association, which we call the tribe, includes all the families which migrate together regularly, i.e., which make the circuit of certain hunting-grounds, often great distances apart, according to the season of the year. One tribe will not contain more than a few thousand souls; if it exceeds that number, it becomes too large for common migration and pasturage and is obliged to divide. The lowest is the clan, which consists of families within the nearest degrees of kinship, which invariably pitch their tents close together in a common quarter (dâr).

Beyond the tribe the bond of consanguinity does not break off abruptly; it embraces also the group of such tribes which stand in any sort of historic relation to one another. But in this wider circle the ties of kinship cease to be really effective.

The Arabs as a whole, though linked together by community of speech, of intellectual acquirements and social forms, are not really a nation; neither can the larger groups into which they have split up be called nations; the nation is the tribe. The tribe is the source and the limit of political obligation; what lies outside the tribe is alien. This does not mean that a perpetual and open bellum omnium contra omnes prevails in Arabia; the relations of the tribes among themselves vary greatly, and may be friendly as a result of kinship and treaty. But inasmuch as the idea of common duty of man to man does not exist among them, and no moral law is valid beyond the tribe, everybody alien from the tribe is an enemy as a matter of course. If he is caught in the hunting-grounds of the tribe without a special security, he is an outlaw and fair game. “When I and my people were tormented with hunger,” says an old Bedouin, “God sent me a man who was travelling alone with his wife and his herd of camels; I slew him and took his wife and camels for my own.” He considers the murder perfectly lawful, and is only surprised that a stranger should presume to rove about the country with his wife and his cattle and without a strong escort.

Yet the narrow bounds of the tribal community are capable of enlargement. There are means whereby even the alien can attain the security of a member of the tribe. If he seizes the hem of his enemy’s garment from behind, or ties a knot in the end of his turban, or knots his rope with his own, he has nothing further to fear. If he succeeds in creeping into the other’s tent, or in being introduced and entertained there by the wife or child, his life is sacred. The sanctity of the hearth is unknown among the Arabs, even their altar is not a hearth and is without any fire; but, on the other hand, the tent and those within it are sacred, and even to touch the tent-cords from outside renders a stranger safe from attack. By a sacramental act, accompanied with a simple form of words, he disarms his enemy and assures his own safety. Of course protection is not always stolen, as it were, in this fashion, it may be extended voluntarily; for example, there are cases when the man who grants protection flings his mantle over the one who implores it, thus making him out as his own property which no man may injure.

If a foreign trader desires to travel through the tribe without peril, one of its members must give him a safe-conduct; very often he merely gives him some recognisable piece of his own property to take with him as a passport or charter of legitimation. The relations which arise in this manner are, for the most part, transitory.[42]

But there are also permanent and hereditary relations of this sort, based in part upon contract and oath. A member of a tribe may allow a stranger to sojourn permanently with his clan, and by adoption into the clan the sojourner is considered naturalised by the whole tribe. Not individuals only, but whole clans and families can thus be naturalised, and instances thereof are not uncommon. A fresh element is consequently grafted on the pure tribal stock in these sojourners or protégés. In a few generations they may amalgamate with the tribal stock, but as fresh batches are constantly coming in from without, the distinction between the two elements within the tribe remains.

Consanguinity and contiguity combine to weld the tribe together; external bonds there are none. Blood-relationship is the higher and stronger principle, and neighbourhood passes into brotherhood. All political and military duties are looked upon as obligations of blood or brotherhood. The relations of the individual to larger associations and the community as a whole are precisely the same in character, though less intimate in degree, as those which bind him to his own family. There is no res publica in contradistinction to domestic concerns, no difference, in fact, between what is public and what is private. In principle, at least, all men have the same rights and duties, and no man has one-sided rights or duties. Everything is based on reciprocity, on loyalty and fellowship, and the complementary notions of duty and right, of ruler and subject, of patron and client, are expressed by one and the same word. There are neither officers nor officials, neither jailers nor executioners. There is no magisterial authority, no sovereign power, separable from the association and the individual, with a revenue of its own drawn from taxation and an independent administration by official organisation. The functions of the community are exercised by all its members equally. The prerogative and obligations of the state as we understand it, which can only be fitly discharged by its civil officers, are to the Arab things that the individual is bound to do, not under compulsion from without, but from the corporate feeling of neighbourhood and brotherhood. By his own active exertions the individual has constantly to create afresh those things which with us are permanent organisations and institutions, which lead or seem to lead an independent life of their own. The Arabs stop at the foundations, building no upper story upon them which could be handed over ready-made to their heirs and in which they might live at their ease.

In other words, among the Arabs political relations are moral, for morality is confined within the limits of the tribe. Political organisation is represented by the corporate feeling which finds expression in the exercise of the duties of brotherhood. These require a man to say “good day” to his fellows, or “God bless you,” if anyone sneezes, not to shut himself up from others, nor to take offence easily, to visit the sick, to pay the last honours to the dead, to feed the poor in time of dearth, to protect and care for the widow and the orphan; likewise to slaughter a camel now and again in winter, to arrange sports and there regale the rest with its flesh, for no man slaughters for himself alone, and every such occasion is a feast for the whole company. Such are the common demonstrations of brotherly kindness by which corporate spirit is kept alive under ordinary circumstances. But the greatest duty in which all others culminate is to help a brother in need. Political duty therefore occupies an essentially subordinate place. The great thing in all cases is that the individual should act and should see himself how to get along, but, of course, he is quite at liberty to concert measures with his comrades. The rest are only bound to assist him in time of need, and then they must answer to his call without asking whether he is right or wrong; as he has brewed, so they must drink. The whole tribe does not always rise at once, the primary obligation rests with the clan. The clan has the right of inheritance together with the next duty of paying the debts of any member of it, delivering him from captivity, acting as his compurgators, and assisting him in procuring vengeance or paying mulcts. The larger associations only become involved when the need is great, and more particularly in cases of enmity with another tribe.

It will readily be imagined that a community based so exclusively on mutual fellowship does not fulfil its tasks very satisfactorily, and that the system is not particularly workable. There are many indolent or refractory members who do not fulfil their duties towards the community for lack of coercion from without, and because the only pressure that can be brought to bear upon them, the shame of falling short in the eyes of their kinsfolk or in public opinion, is of no avail against their cowardice or perverse obstinacy. Moreover, individual liberty of action is too little restricted by a due regard for the interests of the community. There is nothing to prevent a man from undertaking on his own account a raid which may kindle a flame of war that will wrap his whole tribe in its conflagration and even spread beyond. Or by the admittance of a stranger into his tent and his clan, which he regards as an obligation of honour and of religion, he may involve his tribe in great difficulties by imposing on them the burden of henceforth protecting the said stranger against his pursuers who may be seeking to arrest him for some crime.

But a more fruitful source of discord than individual cases of friction is the competition between the tribe and the clan. There is no doubt that these polar associations did not spring from the same root, but differ in their very origin; the tribe probably coalesced under the rule of a communistic matriarchal system (endogamous), while the clan is based on an aristocratic patriarchal system (exogamous). At the present time the tribe is regarded as merely an expansion of the clan, both being held together by the same paternal consanguinity. But the degrees of political kinship vary, the ties of blood have not the same force throughout; they act far more effectively in the smaller circle than in the larger. The individual stands in no direct relation to the tribe; his connection with it is through the intermediate links of the clan and the family; his membership in the community is conditioned by his membership of the subordinate groups. As a rule, therefore, the individual finds that his skin is nearer to him than his shirt whenever the interests of tribe and clan diverge. And it goes without saying that this is very often the case.

The defects of the system are to some extent compensated by certain rudiments of government to be found among the Arabs. There is a leading aristocracy; the clans have their chief, and a head chief, the said, is at the head of every tribe. The position of all these chiefs depends upon voluntary recognition of the fact that they are fitted to hold it by their personal qualities and their fortune. They are spontaneously appointed by the common voice, without election or any similar process, and though there is an inclination to make the authority hereditary and the sons reap the advantage of gratitude felt toward their fathers, yet each man must, by his own ability, anew make good his claim to the honours he has inherited if he is to remain in power and public esteem. The word of these chieftains carries most weight in the assemblies in which they meet every evening to talk, dispute, and deliberate. The said gives the casting vote. He decides, for instance, when the tribe shall start on its migrations and when it shall encamp. Generally speaking, however, the chiefs and the said have no advantage over the rest in privilege, but only in obligation. Among the Arabs noblesse oblige is no empty phrase, but a substantial truth. The nobles must distinguish themselves above the rest in the duties incumbent upon all; they must take on their shoulders the burden which others pass by, and out of their own abundance make good the deficit caused by lack of corporate feeling in the multitude. They must be liberal in all things; must not spare their blood in feud nor their goods in peace; they must entertain the stranger, maintain the widow and the orphan, feed the hungry and help the debtor to pay. The principal share in bearing the common burden falls to the said. In return he receives the fourth part of all booty, but he nevertheless often spends his whole fortune for the common stock; his position brings him honour and reputation, but never gain, and therefore does not procure him the envy of baser natures. But his most important duty is to maintain the unity of the tribe and to check the disintegration to which it is liable from individual selfishness and the particularism of the various clans. He is there to step into the breach, as the biblical phrase has it. He is the born mediator and peacemaker.

For all that, he can only negotiate and apply moral pressure. He is but the first among equals; he has great authority but no supreme power, and in the last resort that is not enough either for the external or internal affairs of the community. In war there is no thought of compulsory service, no idea of discipline, of absolute command and obedience. If one clan will not go out with the rest, it separates from them and hardens its heart against their mockery and contempt. If the men will not follow their leader, he sometimes has recourse to an attempt to put them to shame by setting up his sword and threatening to fall upon it, unless he is obeyed. Danger from without is, however, the readiest means of inducing them to submit to a single will, whereas the lack of a central sovereign authority is much more sorely felt in internal affairs.

The only function of the ancient community, apart from self-defence, is the maintenance of peace within its own borders, and the means to this end is the law. The Old Testament, for instance, knows nothing of administration as a function of the state; to rule is to judge, and the generic term for ruler is judge.

The Arabs are not without law, though with them its limits are wider and less strictly defined than with us and include the decision of questions which do not lead to impeachments and law-suits, but refer to duties, not rights.

They also have judges who administer justice. Disputes between fellow tribesmen are brought under discussion in the daily palaver and are there settled without any legal formalities. But international disputes, i.e., matters disputed between members of different tribes, may also be settled by law, if both parties agree to choose an arbitrator to whom they will refer the decision. Anyone may undertake this office; in difficult cases a seer or priest is frequently applied to, or some other man who enjoys general confidence and has a reputation for exceptional wisdom. The arbitrator sometimes makes the parties swear to accept his verdict, whatever it may be, but his business is merely to discover and interpret the law, and he has no power to enforce it. The disputants consequently apply to the judge merely to learn the rules of the law, not to sue for and obtain their rights. His judgment has no legal force and does not entail the execution of the sentence, with which, in fact, it has nothing to do.

An instance of what appears to us so singular a state of things, may make the matter clearer. Shortly before Mohammed’s arrival at Medina, a man of that city went to law with a Bedouin from the neighbourhood before a wise woman about a sum of money, i.e., camels. The woman decided in favour of the man of Medina; he was a well-known person, Suwaid, the son of Samit, by name. When they came to the parting of the ways, Suwaid said to the Bedouin, “Who will be surety that thou wilt pay me the camels?” The other promised to send them as soon as he reached home. But Suwaid, not satisfied with this, wrestled with his debtor, threw him, and bound him. He then carried him off to Medina and kept him in custody, until his kinsmen redeemed him by paying him what he owed.

Criminal jurisdiction, as we understand it, is rendered impossible by the absence of a supreme authority, a magisterial tribunal. Although fidelity to one’s kindred is a moral law and the violation of it a sin, yet the Arabs have not reached the abstract conception of crime against the community at large, still less of punishment inflicted by the community--since for the community to cast off a troublesome or unworthy member is not, strictly speaking, a punishment. They only recognise private offences, and the punishment of these is the business of the individual. There is no official process of investigation with the coercive methods of vigorous cross-examination. If anything is stolen, the owner proclaims his loss aloud and lays the thief under a curse unless he restores the missing article, and all his accomplices likewise, unless they tell what they know of it. If murder or manslaughter has been committed by an unknown hand and this or that man is suspected of being the perpetrator, his clan takes an oath of purgation for him, which may, however, be counterbalanced by an oath to the opposite effect on the part of the dead man’s clan.

The punishment of an offence is of course left to the sufferer. It is his business to see how he can best get compensation for the wrong done him and to seek for help wherever he may find it. He is not forbidden to take vengeance into his own hands, nor is there any compulsion to make him have recourse to law instead of so doing. The individual may, of his own free will, refrain from violent measures, if he pleases, and may enter into negotiations, which are then conducted on the basis of a legal principle, of an inner material law. But if, instead of avenging himself, he resorts to legal proceedings, the question is never one of the punishment of a crime,--which, indeed, could hardly be settled by agreement between the contending parties,--but merely of compensation for a loss. Compensation can be given for everything for which vengeance might be exacted. All crimes are treated in the same manner by the law, and assessed as economic damage. Every loss of honour, property, or life can be appraised by agreement; they all have their price in camels. Vengeance is not thereby appeased, but if revenge is relinquished, the law demands no more.

The worst and most serious crime is bloodshed. Malice or accident, war or peace, make no difference to this. Its natural and primary consequence is blood-revenge. This is, in the first place, the duty of the next heir, but it quickly extends to others, for the clan of the slayer does not desert him, but takes his part, and consequently also the slain man’s whole clan naturally helps the avenger against them. The result is a state of war between the two clans, which finds expression in occasional murders, often at long intervals. All members of the clan are considered accomplices; they espouse one another’s quarrel as in war, and fall victims to vengeance without distinction of persons. Every new member is a fresh motive for vengeance, and thus revenge incessantly breeds revenge. Thus blood-revenge necessarily results in blood-feud between the clans. It has been supposed that blood-feuds are only carried on between two hostile tribes, and not between kindred clans belonging to the same tribe, as that would constitute a breach of tribal unity. But the preservation of tribal unity is a moral axiom only, and incapable of keeping the centrifugal forces under effective control. The clan’s right of feud is undisputed, and, as a matter of fact, blood-feuds are carried on also within the tribe as well as without. The duty of vengeance is more vividly realised than duty to the tribe; it is a sacred primary law which takes precedence of all political considerations. Even if brother slays brother in the same clan, the result is a blood-feud, though the cases on record are as a rule supposititious, not real, just as similar cases are treated by the Greeks as tragic problems in the Oresteia and the Œdipodeia.

Law can be substituted for revenge in murder as in other crimes, that is to say, even blood-guiltiness can be paid off in money, i.e., in camels. This is done by agreement between debtor and creditor or between the clans of both; and when the agreement is brought about, the source of the blood-feud is estopped. In quarrels within the tribe it is the duty of the chiefs, and of the head chief more particularly, to induce the disputants to consent to an accommodation by law. They then negotiate as between two belligerent powers; they can only mediate for peace, not impose it. Sometimes they are successful, sometimes not. Mecca and Medina furnish the best instances of both results. Very often the disputants do not make peace until their strength is utterly exhausted. Then the balance-sheet is drawn up, the debit and credit in dead and wounded compared, and the difference made up in camels.

But it is obvious that in this case the incongruity between what vengeance demands and what the law accords is too glaring. The Arabs are keenly alive to this fact, and it is not considered honourable to accept camels as satisfaction for a murder--to sell blood for milk, as their phrase goes. Vengeance is far better appeased by positive amends on a less unequal scale, by blood for blood, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. This is sometimes made by peaceful means, and that is what is called talio. The criminal is not sheltered by his own people, but is handed over to the avenger that he may requite him for what he has done. If the heritage of vengeance has passed to a child, the execution is often deferred till his majority.

By this means the quarrel is confined to the parties immediately concerned, the clans are not implicated, blood-revenge does not degenerate into blood-feud, nor does it exceed in the heat of passion the measure of strict retribution. As a matter of fact talio appears to have been common in cases of mere bodily injury. An amusing instance is recorded in the life of Mohammed. At the battle of Bedr he ranged his men in a long straight row, forming them into line with the shaft of a spear. In so doing he struck somewhat heavily upon the body of a man whose figure projected beyond the straight line, and the individual, whose name and race are exactly recorded, complained of his violence. Mohammed promptly offered his own body and said, “Take unto thyself the talio,” which, however, the other magnanimously declined to do. From this we see that also a military commander in the exercise of his official functions differs in nothing from a private person in the eyes of the law. Imagine a scene of this sort between officer and private on a modern parade-ground!

If, however, it is not a question of satisfaction for mere corporeal injuries, but of blood for blood, the situation becomes far more difficult; for if mulct is unwillingly taken, talio is far more unwillingly given. It is the direst disgrace for any clan to give up one of its members, no matter what his crime, into the hands of another clan which intends to put him to death; rather will they slay him themselves. Hence the talio, though an efficacious means of keeping blood-revenge within bounds and blunting its dangerous edges as far as the peace and unity of the tribe are concerned, cannot be practically enforced in the ancient Arabic community, because it has no sovereign power over the tribe.

The first Arabic community with sovereign powers was established by Mohammed in the city of Medina, not upon the basis of blood, which naturally tends to diversity, but upon that of religion, which is equally binding on all. There for the first time the talio becomes effective, there it can be enforced. The community, at the head of which God stands, and the prophet as God’s representative, has power to deliver the shedder of blood over to the avenger, and it is the duty of the community to see that this is done. “In the talio ye have the life,” says the Koran; and a commentary is provided by the hideous anarchy, conjured up by blood-feuds, which prevailed in Medina before the coming of Mohammed--life was then indeed impossible. And in another place the Koran says, “If a man have slain one person unlawfully, it is as if he had slain all men.” In other words the murder of an individual is to be regarded as a crime committed against the whole community, and the whole body must see to it that lawful vengeance may have its course. The execution of vengeance is, however, still left to the rightful avenger; and he is at liberty to exercise his right or renounce it, either freely or for a price. The talio is not yet a punishment, it is only the transition stage to it from revenge.

Originally even Islam knew nothing of the capital punishment publicly inflicted, of a ritual execution by the community and its officers, at least not in cases of murder or manslaughter. Even in the earlier caliphate there were enormous difficulties in the way of the execution of a Moslem who had not shed innocent blood. Apart from the talio the official infliction of capital punishment was hardly possible, for as long as Arab sentiment survived, the people could not grasp the distinction between an executioner and a murderer. A change did not take place until with the accession of the Abbasids the Iranians took the reins of government from the Arabs and brought with them Iranian conceptions of state and law.

On the other hand, the Hebrews, near kinsmen of the Arabs, arrived at just conceptions of capital crime and capital punishment fifteen hundred years earlier than they. According to the Hebrew view, the guilt of sin, which is held to be an offence against the Deity, weighs upon the whole community, until the actual perpetrator of the crime is extirpated or purged out of its midst. The sentence of death is carried out by the whole community and takes the form of stoning, its characteristic features being that every man of the congregation takes part in it and casts his stone. Murder and manslaughter, indeed, are not as yet classed among the offences against God, for which capital punishment at the hands of the community is due; bloodshed is in the main a private wrong still, and its punishment is left to the injured person. But it is not associated with blood-feud between clans, and the criminal is not protected by his family. Blood-revenge is tamed already and restricted by law to what we know as the talio. The shedder of blood is abandoned by his family, the heir and avenger may pursue and slay him. Should he take refuge in a sanctuary, he is safe if he has shed blood by mischance only. Otherwise the sanctuary affords him no protection. It is the right and duty of the community, represented by its elders, to drag him away from the altar and hand him over to the avenger. The act of slaughter is always left to the latter; the ceremonial infliction of capital punishment, execution by the congregation, is never the penalty assigned for murder or manslaughter. But the avenger is not allowed to take a ransom for the murderer or give him his life. For here the idea insinuates itself that bloodshed is not only a wrong and injury done to the individual, but a crime, that is to say an offence against God. The murderer has sinned also against the Deity, and his guilt lies upon the whole community, until they are rid of him.

Thus the religious obligation of the community, to wash away the blood shed within its borders, goes hand in hand with the individual obligation of vengeance. If the murderer cannot be discovered, vengeance is impossible; but a symbolical ceremony is substituted for the purification of the community, and the city within whose borders a man is found dead by an unknown hand must slay a cow in place of the murderer.

We see that among the Hebrews the ideas of crime and punishment had their root in religion; the crime is an offence against God, and its punishment is the purging of the community from this offence; execution is the only real punishment, and must be distinguished from talio on the one hand and mere chastisement on the other.

Among the Arabs the religious root of the penal law has withered away and nothing but human vengeance is left. This can hardly be the ancient conception. Vengeance itself is in its origin not a human passion merely, it is likewise a religious duty. True, this duty was originally believed to have been imposed, not by the Almighty, but by a demon. And this demon was the wrathful spirit of the murdered man himself, who would not let his clan rest until they had given him to drink the murderer’s blood for which he thirsted. We can still find traces of this belief among the Arabs. Amongst them the avenger of blood is under a solemn vow, exactly like the man who has to offer sacrifice or fulfil any other religious duty; he may not wash nor comb his hair, nor drink wine, with many other prohibitions of the same kind. As he accomplishes the act of vengeance, he must call upon the name of him for whom he takes it, in a brief form of words; then he is free and returned from the state of sanctification and uncleanness to that of cleanness and common life; exactly like a sacrificer after he has made a sacrifice.

But these are petrified remains, as it were, of a motive that has no present potency. The poetry which has come down to us invariably speaks only of the ungovernable rage of the avenger, not of the person to be avenged; of burning pain in the breast of the survivor, which demands relief at any price; and of the shame which weighs him down as long as the murderer still treads the earth alive. Moreover--and this is a particularly striking point--religion has not retained any influence upon actual law amongst the ancient Arabs, apart, perhaps, from the process of inquiry by curse and oath.

Ancient Arab law is singularly profane, dry, and formless; it is throughout a matter of bargain and contract, for even the penal law operates only through compensation and payment.

Such, in brief outline, is the picture of the Arabic community, a community devoid of supreme authority and executive power. We are fond of calling it patriarchal, but what do we mean by the phrase? Of the amenities of family life we find no trace, nor any trace of patriarchal guardianship. Each man has to give his help, if anything is to be done. There is more scope in such a community for the display of courage, self-sacrifice, and brotherly kindness than in our own, where the state seems to work like a machine for which we have merely to provide the fuel. It is a pity, however, that so fair an opportunity is not put to the fullest use. In critical cases, the corporate feeling on which the whole system depends is often shown by but few. There are hitches and difficulties everywhere, though in the desert the conditions of life are very simple, narrow, and easy to understand, its interests very uniform. No progressive civilisation can develop in this fashion; the desert is enough in itself to render development difficult. These weak foundations will bear no aspiring superstructure. Not even individual liberty, as we understand it, reaps advantage from the absence of the coercion of the state. For if the sense of kinship be too weak to control the wicked and force the indolent to fulfil the duties incumbent upon them, yet it is strong enough to prevent the growth of intellectual freedom in circles that possess and exercise it. Such liberty can only thrive in a state which, like Noah’s ark, contains all kinds of animals and lets them do as they please, not in a society of kinsmen which lays a spell upon their members from within, though it can impose no coercion from without.

The communities of Europe started, as there are many evidences to show, from primitive conditions like those in which the Arabs of the desert have remained. It is well that we should bear this in mind, and so estimate, quantæ molis erat romanam condere gentem, what amount of labour was required to create a stable system of law, independent of the individual.

FOOTNOTES

[41] [The subject-matter of this article originally appeared as an address delivered January 27th, 1900, at the university at Göttingen. It was published in pamphlet form, but is now for the first time translated and given wider currency by special arrangement with the author.]

[42] A guest whom the shadow of the tent has rendered sacred is after a certain time dismissed and resumes his journey.

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