Chapter XVI: The Principalities of Moorish Spain (2)

But the character of Hischem, while weak, was far from despicable. At times, despite the blandishments of the inmates of his harem, he came forth from his retirement and mingled with the people. He dispensed with liberal and indiscriminating hand the alms whose bestowal is one of the cardinal virtues of the faith of Islam. He visited the hospitals and brought hope and consolation to the couch of the sick and the dying. His generosity relieved the necessities of impecunious pilgrims. The kindness and urbanity he manifested, even to the most degraded, acquired for him the respect and esteem of his subjects. Many a malefactor condemned to an inglorious death had reason to applaud his noble but often mistaken clemency. These estimable qualities, however, could not, in the eyes of the indignant aristocracy, compensate for the habitual neglect of public duty displayed by the Khalif, nor for his complacent resignation of the destinies of the empire into the hands of a low-born subordinate, whose creatures monopolized the highest employments and exacted the unwilling homage of cavaliers whose lineage antedated the Conquest by centuries. A number of nobles, whose influence had been secretly but effectively exerted during the recent disturbances, again met for consultation. The deposition of Hischem was resolved upon, and it was also determined that they themselves should hereafter be the sole depositaries of power. The method they pursued to accomplish their end affords a significant illustration of the low standard of public morals which at that time universally prevailed. It must be remembered that these men were no vulgar conspirators. Of the distinctions conferred by birth, education, political experience, and military renown none possessed a larger share. They belonged to the most haughty and exclusive of the patricians. Their blood had never been contaminated by degrading alliances with African, Jew, or Spaniard. Aside from the losses incurred through enforced contributions, their wealth had not been sensibly impaired by the destructive accidents of revolution and civil war. Their attainments would have been respectable even when Cordova was the most enlightened community in Europe, and now, in its age of degeneracy, few indeed could be found to rival them in acuteness and erudition. Some were descended from a line of courtiers for generations employed in the diplomatic service of the khalifate. Others had exercised their military talents against the Christian chivalry on the frontiers of Aragon and Catalonia. A few theologians were to be found among them whose religious principles had not escaped the vicious contagion of the age, and with whom questions of casuistry were invariably subordinated to the alluring claims of pecuniary interest and worldly ambition. It would naturally be presumed that men of this character would be solicitous to maintain a high standard of personal honor and political integrity. But constant familiarity with treason in its most repulsive forms; with the organized hypocrisy that permeated every department of the government and every rank of society; with the savage tyranny of princes, who themselves did not hesitate to assume the hateful office of executioner; with the deliberate malice of assassins, who without compunction thrust the dagger into the vitals of their unsuspecting friends; with the irreconcilable enmities of the nearest kindred; with the spirit of anarchy ripe among the masses, had produced such complete demoralization that no caste or individual was uncontaminated by its pernicious influence. The association of nobles, above alluded to, had organized itself into a semi-official body under the designation of the Council of State. At its head was Ibn-Djahwar, a statesman of great talents, of large experience, of exquisite tact, of indefatigable energy. The antagonism between this powerful junta and the minister became each day more bitter, as each endeavored, with industrious malignity, to subvert the authority of the other. The influence of his favorite was paramount with the Khalif, but the Khalif was a cipher. The nobles possessed the sympathy of their order and the deferential admiration of the masses, who always looked to the aristocracy for advice and leadership. They artfully stimulated the discontent of the people, already sufficiently grievous, by representing the public distress and the decline of commercial prosperity--legitimate results of a long series of national misfortunes--as the work of the obnoxious hajib. They aroused the feeling against the Berbers, some of whom Hakem had intrusted with important employments. Then, with an ingenious refinement of treachery, they engaged a young adventurer named Ommeya, a collateral descendant of the dynasty of Cordova, to head a revolution with the hope of ascending the throne. Every facility was afforded him by his shrewd but perfidious allies. They secretly distributed emissaries through every quarter of the capital and the provinces. They contributed gold with profuse liberality. The officers of the army were corrupted by bribery and by promises of promotion. At length the long-expected signal was given. The mob rose and killed the minister as he issued from the palace. The venerable Khalif was seized and confined in his apartments while the nobles assembled to determine his fate. Ommeya, wholly unconscious of the duplicity of which he was the victim, had already began to arrogate to himself the prerogatives of imperial power by the issuing of commands, the appointment of officials, and the distribution of rewards. The members of the Council of State, attended by an armed escort, now appeared upon the scene. With a solemnity that awed the multitude, they declared the khalifate abolished, and assumed, by virtue of their self-established dignity, the responsibilities of government and the supreme direction of affairs. In a proclamation addressed to the inhabitants of Andalusia, they recounted the calamities which had ensued from the broken and disordered succession of the empire; the repeated disappointments resulting from the elevation of incompetent and dissolute pretenders; the insecurity of the present and the uncertainty of the future which paralyzed all branches of commerce and industry; the absolute hopelessness of improvement under the worthless princes of a decrepit and unstable dynasty. With modesty and firmness they enumerated their own qualifications for the discharge of the functions they had usurped. They promised the maintenance of order, the regulation of police, the removal of the burdens imposed by immoderate and arbitrary taxation. They pledged themselves to the faithful execution of the laws. The well-known and eminent character of the nobles composing the Council of State procured for their statements a respectful hearing, and their power, long exercised in an advisory capacity, had prepared the way for the unreserved assumption of authority. Without either remonstrance or enthusiasm, the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the Peninsula transferred their alliance from a line of monarchs, rendered illustrious by the glorious traditions of nearly three centuries, to the irresponsible members of a precarious and self-constituted oligarchy.

The dupe of the conspirators, Ommeya, who with mingled rage and terror had seen his delusive hopes of empire vanish in an instant, was forcibly expelled from the city. His part having been played, and his insignificance rendering him unworthy of further attention, he remained at liberty, until, having tried to secretly enter the capital, he was arrested, and his disappearance from that moment was attributed, not without probability, to the sanguinary precautions of the Council of State.

Hischem was condemned to imprisonment for life in an isolated fortress of the Sierra Ronda. The negligence or the corruption of the guard, however, enabled him to escape after a few months’ detention, and he passed the five remaining years of his existence in the city of Lerida, a dependency of the princely family of Ibn-Hud, Emirs of Saragossa.

With Hischem III. finally disappeared the dynasty which had ruled, for the most part with phenomenal success and splendor, the powerful empire of Moorish Spain. In the space of two hundred and sixty-seven years, fourteen khalifs of the House of Ommeyah had guided the destinies of that empire. Of these princes, six pre-eminent in executive ability, in intellectual culture, in military genius, in political sagacity, had ascended, one after another, to the foremost rank among the great sovereigns of the earth. They had founded magnificent cities. They had erected palaces, whose crumbling ruins suggest the creations of the genii. They had collected vast libraries. Their commercial establishments were to be found among the most remote nations. The prowess of their captains had been recognized on the banks of the Rhone, on the plains of Lombardy, in the provinces of the Atlas, in the islands of the Mediterranean. Their munificence and culture had made the imperial city of the Guadalquivir a shrine of literary pilgrimage. In that city the aristocracy of intellect was even more esteemed than nobility of descent. Its possessors were the companions, the favorites, the councillors of kings. In singular contrast to the prejudices of subsequent ages, the edifices of religion were made subservient to the interests of science, and the minarets of mosques were furnished with astronomical apparatus. In the ability to erect stupendous monuments of mechanical and agricultural industry, in the perfection of hydraulic engineering, in the skilful employment of the principles of fortification, the subjects of these polished rulers were the superiors of any of the nations of antiquity. In such of the arts as were not proscribed by the doctrines of their religion, they produced models of unapproachable excellence. And, while these great advances in civilization were being made under the auspices of Islam, the European world was plunged in the darkness of barbarism and superstition. Of the great capitals of Europe, to-day the renowned seats of art and learning, London and Paris were the only ones whose population was sufficiently numerous to raise them to the dignity of cities. Within their precincts the most ordinary conveniences of life were practically unknown. The intercourse of the people was dominated by the brutal instincts of savage life; property was at the mercy of the strongest; and society was conjointly ruled by the sword of the baron and the crucifix of the monk. The vicious tendencies of the Moslem system; the participation of barbarians in a government whose mechanism they had neither the capacity to understand nor the judgment to direct; the corruption of public morals, inevitable in a state which has reached the highest degree of civilization attainable under its institutions; the gradual relaxation and final rupture of the ties of allegiance which bind the subject to the sovereign; the decrepitude of a nation which, in obedience to the inexorable necessity resulting from its political and social conditions, had completed its existence and fulfilled its destiny in the history of the world, had undermined the foundations and demolished the imposing fabric of the Ommeyade empire. The time had long since passed when the magic of a name, whose owners had accomplished so much for the cause of human progress, had ennobled the pursuits of learning and assumed the patronage of art,--a name almost synonymous with national prosperity and regal grandeur,--could inspire the respect of foreign nations or arouse the dormant enthusiasm of the multitude. No member of that dynasty, however talented, could now have restored the monarchy of his ancestors, whose reminiscences, for centuries refused the sanction of history among Christian nations and imperfectly preserved even by Arab authors, were destined to be largely transmitted to future ages through the suspicious medium of romantic and exaggerated tradition.

The relation of Moorish affairs in the Peninsula becomes henceforth necessarily desultory and disconnected. The authority, once central at Cordova, was distributed among a hundred states, whose rulers, mutually hostile and aspiring to individual supremacy, constantly enlisted Christian auxiliaries in a struggle which must eventually terminate in the contraction of their dominions, the impairment of their sovereignty, and the destruction of their faith. The blessings of peace, the preservation of order, were forgotten in a fierce contest for power inspired by revenge and ambition. Prejudices of race and religion, engendered by ages of unremitting hostility, were discarded by unnatural coalitions of Moslem usurpers and Castilian adventurers, whose only bond of alliance was a community of spoliation and infamy. The intrigues of one faction planted the banners of the Cross on the shores of the Mediterranean. The blind animosity of another permitted the desecration of the noblest monument of Moslem piety. Professed disciples of the religion of Mohammed saw with complacent indifference the horses of Christian knights tethered to the columns of the mosque of Abd-al-Rahman, while the sanctuary, which still contained the sacred Koran of the Khalif Othman, resounded with the clanking tread of the curious and scoffing infidel.

The disintegrated sections of the empire were now to witness the trial of a form of government hitherto unknown to the Moslem constitution. The very essence of the polity of Islam had always been the concentration of power in a single individual, who exercised conjointly the functions appertaining to the official head of both Church and State. The assumption of authority by an association of nobles, while the result of political necessity, was none the less an act of flagrant usurpation. It was repugnant to the principles, the traditions, the legal and religious maxims upon which the organization of Moslem society was based, and by which it had always been maintained. It had not received the sanction of popular approbation or consent. The dethronement of Hischem was an arbitrary deed of violence unconfirmed by any evidence of voluntary abdication. As there had been no formal renunciation of vested rights, those rights were only suspended, and the subjects of the Khalif were not, in law, absolved from their allegiance.

The constitution of the Council of State, whose jurisdiction extended but a short distance beyond the walls of Cordova, was partly oligarchical and partly democratic. A formal assemblage of citizens conferred upon Ibn-Djahwar, the most prominent member of that body, an office whose powers and privileges appertained to the anomalous dignity of the autocratic supreme magistrate of a republic. The course of Ibn-Djahwar was characterized by the greatest moderation and justice. Unlike the Cæsars of Rome, whose despotic edicts were registered by an obsequious senate, the president of the Moorish Council of State refused, of his own volition, to decide or even to examine any question until it had been publicly presented to his associates, and he required that all official communications should be addressed to them. This habitual deference to the opinions of his colleagues, which, however, invariably coincided with his own, increased the consideration in which he was held by the nobility, the army, the clergy, and the people. The new magistrate, in addition to the eminent qualifications which both suggested and justified his promotion, was aided by many adventitious circumstances which rarely fail to elicit the admiration or the homage of mankind. He belonged to a family of ancient and distinguished lineage. His ancestors had served the khalifs in the departments of finance and war. He was the most opulent citizen of the capital, and had managed, by an exercise of thrift and economy unusual in his station, to make vast accumulations to his wealth without ever incurring the suspicion of corruption or tyranny. The measures he adopted for the public welfare were dictated by the most exemplary prudence and wisdom. Taxes were reduced. Mercantile enterprise was promoted by the assurance of public security, derived from the protection of the highways and the repression of crime. Intimate commercial relations were established between Cordova and the other principalities of Andalusia, resulting in the interchange of commodities and the extension of trade. With a prudent regard for future contingencies, he provisioned the principal cities and forts under his jurisdiction. The magazines of the capital alone contained supplies for the entire population of the kingdom for many months. Important reforms were instituted in the army. The Berbers, ever an element of discord, were disbanded. Such as had been notorious for their atrocities were exiled. Their places were filled by a volunteer soldiery, which, in its general character, corresponded to our militia, and in whose organization the sentiments or the prejudices of no single faction were allowed to predominate. One division of this force, commanded by an officer of experience and ability, was made responsible for the peace of the city. The most distinguished citizens were enrolled in the guard of public safety, and by turns patrolled the streets. Public business was transacted with no more ceremony than was required to make it impressive by commanding respect. The numerous throng of parasites and dependents usually considered an indispensable appendage to the royal dignity no longer encumbered the antechambers of the palace. The formerly lucrative profession of informer, patronized by even the greatest khalifs as a precaution against treason, became deservedly infamous. The judicial tribunals were organized in the interests of equity. Competent advocates, who received compensation from the public treasury, were appointed to prosecute the causes of such as were too poor to employ counsel. Immigration was encouraged, and a considerable portion of the capital which had been demolished during the civil wars was rebuilt by the colonists, who, weary of perpetual strife, sought the protection of a new government which seemed to offer to its subjects the fairest hopes of peace and tranquillity. The administration of the finances was conducted in accordance with the strictest principles of economy, and officials charged with the collection of taxes were compelled to render accounts at stated times, and were held responsible, under heavy penalties, for the performance of their duties. The extraordinary and illegal burdens which had been imposed upon the mosques were abolished, and the clergy once more entered upon the enjoyment of the revenues of which they had been arbitrarily deprived. The disorders of the times had raised up a great number of impostors,--half physicians, half sorcerers,--who, to the great detriment of medical science and of the public health, plied their trade, sustained by the ignorance and credulity of the populace, ever easily deluded by the arts of charlatans. These were prosecuted by the government for magic, and to provide against a recurrence of the evil a college of physicians was organized, who passed upon the knowledge and the qualifications of every future practitioner. Such were the reforms effected by the prudence and the sagacity of Ibn-Djahwar. Although they produced for a time a semblance of prosperity, this was delusive and rather apparent than real. The calamities which had, almost without intermission, afflicted Cordova for a quarter of a century had forever degraded her from the proud rank of imperial cities. Her inhabitants had been massacred. Her wealth had been dispersed. Her trade had been destroyed. The literary prestige which had exalted her name far above even those of the polished capitals of the Moslem empire of the East had been swept away amidst the turmoil of barbarian supremacy. Henceforth the political eminence which she had once enjoyed was to be transferred to the cities of Toledo, Saragossa, Almeria, Badajoz, Seville, and Granada.

The policy of the early khalifs, who thoroughly appreciated the dangerous character of their African allies, had established the Berber hordes on the northern and western frontiers of their dominions, and as far as possible from their capital. The incessant warfare maintained by the Christians, as had been foreseen, so occupied these barbarians that their attention was diverted from the provinces of the South by the circumstances of their location, and the consequent demand for unremitting vigilance required by the proximity of an audacious and persevering enemy. The loyalty of the governors of this territory, whose capital was Saragossa, had never been above suspicion. The propensity of the Africans to rebellion was habitually indulged by their chieftains, who carried into the distant North the licentious independence of the Desert. During the existence of the khalifate, the Emirs of Saragossa conceded to the Ommeyade princes the doubtful allegiance of tributary vassals rather than the implicit obedience of faithful subjects. Their martial instincts, their predatory inclinations, and their constant familiarity with danger made them a race of formidable and experienced warriors. The family of Ibn-Hud, whose most distinguished ancestor was appointed governor of the frontier by the Khalif Abdallah, was the founder of the dynasty which raised Saragossa to great political influence among the independent estates of Moorish Spain. By political alliances with its Christian neighbors, it long preserved the integrity of its domain. It encouraged agriculture, commerce, manufactures. It patronized the arts. The portal of the palace mosque, still intact, conveys an idea of the barbaric extravagance of its architecture. Its princes were far from considering the pursuits of science as incompatible with regal dignity. One composed a work on mathematics. Another delighted to pass the hours of darkness in the study of the heavens. It was a singular destiny which had transformed the seat of these ferocious nomads--as a rule so insensible to extraneous influences--into one of the centres of Moslem civilization.

The fortunate experiment of Cordova in abolishing the empire--a measure which resulted in the restoration of peace--was imitated by Seville, a city which in population, opulence, and commercial resources had always been a powerful rival of the capital, and was now destined to assume a pre-eminent rank among the ephemeral dynasties of the Peninsula.

The expulsion of Kasim by the infuriated mob of Cordova was followed by his exclusion from the territory of Seville. Popular indignation had been aroused by a tyrannical order requiring that a thousand houses should forthwith be vacated by the citizens for the accommodation of his African followers. A garrison of Berbers had already exasperated the inhabitants by its repeated acts of insolence and cruelty. The prospect of an army of privileged banditti being quartered in their homes, an occupancy which was equivalent to absolute confiscation, drove the people of Seville to revolt. Abul-Kasim-Mohammed, the Kadi, and other representatives of the malcontents by promises of military promotion and pecuniary rewards easily induced the Berber governor to renounce the service of a master whom fortune seemed about to abandon. The gates were closed in the very face of the Emir. The walls were occupied by thousands of armed citizens prepared to defend, at all hazards, their newly obtained liberty. Kasim, after stipulating for the delivery of his treasures and the restoration of his sons who happened to be at that time in the city, consented to retire forever from the scenes of his former power. His rear-guard had scarcely been lost sight of from the battlements before the Berber garrison was notified to depart, and, relieved from apprehensions of hostile interference, the Sevillians proceeded without delay to the task of political reorganization.

By the unanimous voice of the multitude, prompted by the nobles, who, nevertheless, regarded his wealth with envy and his popularity with disdain, the Kadi was offered the supreme magistracy. The character of this personage, whose descendants played a prominent part in the subsequent events of Andalusia, was a singular compound of executive ability, profound dissimulation, and insatiable avarice. Unlike the aristocratic ruler of Cordova, his origin was mean and plebeian. The eminent genius of his father Ismail, who attained to equal distinction in the widely different professions of arms, theology, and law, first attracted public notice to a family inconspicuous as yet except for the honorable principles and the plodding industry of its members. He had transmitted to his son a large share of his talents; but Abul-Kasim was deficient in those virtues which in a responsible station often compensate for the absence of distinguished abilities. His office of kadi, which he had secured by flattery and retained by treason, he valued only as a stepping-stone to absolute power. Aware that the tender of sovereignty was not a recognition of superior merit, but a shrewd artifice of the nobles by which, in case of the restoration of the House of Ibn-Hamud to the throne, their caste might contrive to escape and the wrath of the avenger be concentrated on the head of an individual whose obscure birth, dignified by immense possessions and ever-increasing influence, rendered him peculiarly obnoxious to the aristocratical order, Abul-Kasim declined the invidious distinction. When urged to reconsider his decision, he finally consented to accept, provided councillors of his own choice were associated with him in the administration. This having been readily conceded, he appointed several of the most prominent and haughty members of the Sevillian nobility, whose protection might be secured or their treasonable complicity established in the event of a counter-revolution, together with a number of his own dependents, who had little to recommend them but a talent for intrigue and a blind devotion to the interests of their patron.

The first efforts of Abul-Kasim were directed to the establishment of a military force. For the first time since the Conquest, Seville was left absolutely destitute of the ordinary means of defence. With the expulsion of the Berbers, the last individual trained in the profession of arms had disappeared. The arsenal was well provided with military supplies, but neither the magistrate nor the people had the least practical knowledge of the equipment or the discipline indispensable for the effective organization of an army. The genius of Abul-Kasim was, however, not daunted by even apparently insuperable obstacles. He established recruiting stations in every settlement which acknowledged the jurisdiction of Seville. The tempting inducements offered--pay greatly exceeding that usually allowed the soldiers of the khalif and the assurance of unrestricted pillage--soon lured to his standard crowds of needy and rapacious adventurers. The exigencies of the occasion forbade a critical scrutiny of the nationality or the antecedents of these volunteers. Arabs, Berbers, Christians, and foreigners were enlisted without hesitation. In accordance with a well-established precedent, the slave-markets were ransacked and the warlike natives of Nubia and the Soudan purchased, and marshalled side by side with political refugees, escaped criminals, and the dregs of the Sevillian populace. The excesses of military license, long practised with impunity, had rendered the profession of a soldier highly unpopular and even disreputable, and few citizens of honorable connections and irreproachable character could now be induced to voluntarily incur the odium attaching to a class universally regarded as the scourge of society. By untiring diligence and lavish expenditure, Abul-Kasim finally succeeded in collecting a force of a few hundred men. No more significant indication of the decadence of the Moslem empire could be adduced than the fact that among a people renowned for martial ardor and long accustomed to warfare an army of sufficient strength to defend the most populous city of the Peninsula could not be raised even by bounties, by the hope of plunder, or by purchase.

The difficulties arising from the anomalous political condition of Seville were well known to the petty princes of the shattered khalifate. The prize which the rich and defenceless city offered to the ambition of an enterprising commander was too tempting to long remain secure. Yahya, the son of Ali, the Edrisite Khalif who had recently refused to trust his person among the perfidious inhabitants of Cordova after they had tendered him the government and who now ruled the principality of Malaga, suddenly appeared with a powerful Berber army before the walls of Seville. Resistance was impossible, and Yahya was informed that the city would acknowledge his pretensions if his soldiers were not permitted to enter the gates. This proposition he was not unwilling to accept, but demanded, as an indispensable preliminary, the delivery of hostages, to be selected from the families of the most prominent citizens and the nobility. When this condition was proposed, negotiations were at once suspended, for no one was prepared to incur the risk. The Berbers had never renounced their savage practices. They were not accustomed to observe the faith of treaties, even where their own interests were concerned. The massacre of captives and hostages was in perfect accordance with their sanguinary instincts, and a sudden caprice, or the fear of escape, might in an instant cause the annihilation of the flower of the Sevillian youth. In this trying emergency neither the patriotism nor the confidence of Abul-Kasim in his good fortune deserted him. He placed his own son in the hands of the Berber prince, and removed the apprehensions of his countrymen by convincing Yahya that this pledge was a sufficient warrant for the fidelity of the people. Relying on the authority vested in a nominal sovereign, the Kadi now seized the opportunity of delivering himself from his councillors, and they were, one after another, under various pretexts, dismissed from office. Animated by the hope of one day being able to assert his independence, he next devoted his energies to the acquisition of new territory and the consolidation of his power. The noble self-sacrifice he had exhibited in exposing his son to danger for the public welfare had raised his character in the estimation of every class of citizens. The nobility regarded him with undisguised gratitude and admiration. His popularity with the masses, now liberated from the insults of the soldiery, was unbounded. The faquis extolled the justice and generosity of a magistrate who had removed the tyrannical exactions imposed on their order. Secure of the devotion of the army, whose interests he was careful never to neglect, the Kadi, having formed an alliance with the governor of Carmona, began to make incursions into the dominions of the princes who surrounded him. He overran the province of Beja. He plundered the settlements on the sea-coast west of Cadiz. The son of the Emir of Badajoz was defeated by his troops and taken prisoner. He even menaced Cordova, and compelled Ibn-Djahwar and his colleagues to enlist Berber mercenaries for its defence. He projected an expedition against the Christians, which failed on account of the treachery of the Emir of Badajoz, who repaid the previous misfortune to his arms with an ambuscade, which inflicted serious injury on the forces of Abul-Kasim and caused his retreat.

Meanwhile, the isolated states and communities of the ancient khalifate were threatened with the recurrence of a deplorable political and social calamity. The depopulated provinces of Southern Spain, the incessant prevalence of hostility, the desire of sharing in the spoils of a country where their race had obtained incalculable wealth and absolute power, the insatiable thirst of military adventure, had produced, since the exaltation of the House of Ali, an enormous African immigration. The Berbers now swarmed in countless numbers over the plains to the south and west of the Sierra Morena, a region once considered the garden of Andalusia, and where their flocks still found a rich and abundant pasturage. Heretofore the allegiance of these unruly adventurers had been divided among a hundred petty chieftains, apparently incapable of harmony and united in nothing save an undying hatred of the indigenous population. Now, however, the case was altered. A national sentiment had arisen, which was soon confirmed by the inspiration of numbers, by the consciousness of strength, by the remembrance of injury, and by the hope of revenge. All eyes were turned towards Yahya, the ruler of Malaga, who, a Berber by descent and traditions, was also the representative of an African dynasty, and, for that reason, admirably qualified to be the leader of a national movement. The universal enthusiasm was artfully encouraged by the secret emissaries of the prince. The chieftains, with singular accord, surrendered their precarious authority. The passions of the barbarians were inflamed with the prospect of booty, and Yahya was publicly recognized as the head of the entire Berber party.

No such unanimity of thought and action had, before this time, ever been evinced by the turbulent and mutually jealous colonists from Africa. The alliances of the various tribes had always been of temporary duration, formed and maintained by necessity in the face of an enemy. At the conclusion of a campaign each clan resumed the unrestrained liberty and patriarchal independence incident to a pastoral life. But the present organization promised to be permanent, and was consequently fraught with danger. It augured ill for the prevalence of civilized institutions in Europe that the country which, even under the most adverse political conditions, had preserved in a large measure its intellectual superiority and its artistic excellence should become the prey of ruthless barbarians, who had already desolated its fairest provinces and levelled its most beautiful architectural monuments with the earth. The moment was a most favorable one for the realization of this ominous scheme of barbarian ambition. The people of the Moslem States of Spain were inflamed with sentiments of mutual suspicion and hatred. The two great cities of Cordova and Seville were experimenting with a novel and untried form of government. The only ally of the latter, the governor of Carmona, had recently been disposed of by the conquest of his territory and its annexation to the principality of Malaga. But one possibility existed of counteracting the impending ruin. Could a coalition of the parties hostile to Berber supremacy be formed, the destruction of all the beneficial results accomplished by the Ommeyade dynasty might be averted. This plan, however, despite its obvious necessity, seemed impracticable. The reciprocal enmity maintained by citizens of the various principalities was far more violent than the apprehension with which they regarded the possible restoration of African tyranny. Some had sustained, others had inflicted, unpardonable injuries upon their neighbors. In many instances the despised Christian had been called in to contribute to the humiliation of an execrated but too powerful adversary. By this means, so repugnant to the principles of a conscientious Moslem, the coveted vengeance had been secured. Fine estates had been laid waste. Families had been extirpated. Entire districts had been swept by conflagration. The sanctity of the harem, so dear to every Oriental, had been profaned by the cruel insults and shameless lubricity of the gigantic and repulsive barbarians of the North, and their blasphemous jests had echoed through the stately colonnades of Moslem temples, the desecration of whose hallowed precincts by infidels was, under the law of Islam, punishable with death.

The penetrating sagacity of Abul-Kasim had early foreseen the impending misfortune as well as the appropriate remedy. The method he pursued in the application of that remedy does great credit to his political ingenuity and administrative genius. It was apparent at a glance that he himself, as the head of a coalition, would not receive the support of even those whose property and liberties were in imminent peril. Prejudice against the obscurity of his birth, jealousy of his talents and his authority, fear of the consequences of his ambition, would prevent that general co-operation of all factions indispensable to success. He therefore resolved to avail himself of a threadbare artifice, which had already more than once been practised with surprising results by unscrupulous aspirants to power. He determined to again resurrect the unfortunate Hischem II., by the assistance of his name rescue the Peninsula from the threatened Berber domination, and, having consolidated its scattered fragments, to claim as his own reward the sovereignty of the restored khalifate. The fate of the royal puppet of Al-Mansur had never been absolutely ascertained. One account--probably the most correct one--declared that he had perished when Cordova was sacked by the Berbers. Another attributed his death to the relentless cruelty of the tyrant Suleyman. The tales of mendacious travellers, who declared that they had seen and conversed with him in Arabia and Palestine, were eagerly received and industriously circulated by the ignorant populace, powerfully influenced by every tale of wonder and mystery. The attachment of all classes to the memory of this degenerate monarch was extravagant and almost inexplicable. He was endowed with none of those splendid qualities which are commonly associated with the office of royalty. Retained for years in rigid seclusion and veiled whenever he appeared in public, his features and his demeanor were alike unfamiliar to his subjects. The selfish and unprincipled ambition of an aspiring minister had, by the application of every device of sensual pleasure, reduced a mind of more than ordinary parts to the verge of imbecility. Of the innumerable and brilliant achievements of his nominal reign not one could be even indirectly attributed to his personal influence or to his counsel. The lustre which illuminated the throne of Hischem II., whose victorious standards moved forward with unbroken success for almost a generation, was only the reflected glory of the hajib, Al-Mansur. But personal disadvantages and misfortune rather enhanced than diminished his popularity, which grew with the progress of time. Amidst the confusion and wide-spread disaster of foreign invasion and intestine conflict, the intellectual defects and abandoned vices of the last of the Ommeyades were forgotten. Only the military triumphs and domestic security of a period made illustrious under his auspices now appealed to the sympathy and the pride of the persecuted nobles, citizens, and peasantry. They remembered that during his reign, twice in every year for a quarter of a century, the Christian frontier had receded for many leagues before the irresistible impetus of the Moslem arms. They recalled with exultation that the trophies of the holiest of Spanish shrines had been suspended in the magnificent mosque of their capital. There existed still in the memory of the aged reminiscences of great military displays on the eve of a Holy War; of convoys guarding the rich spoils wrested from the infidel; of splendid embassies which proffered the friendship or the allegiance of distant kingdoms; of interminable processions of manacled and dejected captives; of the impressive chants which, publicly recited on the occasion of a triumph, attested the gratitude of the fanatical and the devout; of the deafening acclamations of assembled thousands. Repetitions of the romantic fables which purported to relate the wanderings and the distress of Hischem had invested these accounts with a plausibility which their manifold inconsistencies never merited. The impossibility of some, the obvious contradictions of others, the uncertain and suspicious origin of all, were overlooked. It was sufficient for the uncritical and excitable masses that a khalif whose reign had been identified with the most famous epoch of Moslem greatness might possibly be still alive. Under these circumstances, every ridiculous legend concerning his appearance and his occupations, every new tale of his condition and his movements, invented by imaginative foreigners, obtained the ready credence of persons whose education and whose knowledge of the world should have at once detected their absurdity.

In the city of Calatrava there had lived for several years a weaver of mats, who in age, mental characteristics, and personal appearance was said to bear an extraordinary resemblance to the missing Hischem. The birthplace and the antecedents of this individual, whose name was Khalaf--an appellation in itself suggestive from its similarity to the title of sovereignty--were unknown. His reticence on this point confirmed the rash assumption of his imperial descent, and the consideration with which he was regarded by his townsmen having aroused his ambition, he publicly declared his identity with the Ommeyade prince. The people, already half convinced, supported the imposture, which rested upon no tangible evidence whatever, and, in their enthusiasm, they even went so far as to declare their independence of their suzerain, the Emir of Toledo. On the appearance of the latter at the head of an army, however, the Calatravans repented of their indiscretion, promptly expelled the aspiring mat-maker, and, with many protestations of repentance, returned to their allegiance.

Intelligence of these events having been communicated to Abul-Kasim, he caused search to be made for the unsuccessful impostor. In due time his retreat was discovered, and he was conducted to Seville. There he was submitted to the inspection of the concubines and slaves of Hischem; their perplexity, their interest, or their fears prevailed over their penetration; and the illiterate and obscure mechanic was declared by those who were the best qualified to judge to be the undoubted descendant of a line of celebrated kings. This important preliminary having been accomplished, Abul-Kasim announced the alleged discovery of Hischem by letter to all of the princes and dignitaries of Moorish Spain. The result, while creditable to their patriotism and national pride, did little honor to the keenness of their wits or the accuracy of their perceptions. In Cordova alone the elation of the populace overcame the authority but not the discretion or the judgment of the magistrate; and Ibn-Djahwar, while he might condemn the propagation of a contemptible political fraud, was forced to recognize its utility in effecting a union of factions whose combined influence might prevent the destruction of organized government in the Peninsula and the consequent retardation of the social and intellectual progress of Europe. With the wildest demonstrations of joy, the inhabitants of the old Ommeyade capital evinced their loyalty to a dynasty whose princes they had so often adored and so often defied; the powers of the Council of State were popularly supposed to be merged into those of the empire; and Ibn-Djahwar and his aristocratic colleagues announced themselves the servants of the plebeian impostor, who held a mimic court in the palace of his master, the shrewd and intriguing Kadi of Seville. The example of Cordova was speedily followed by the states of Denia and the Balearic Isles, Tortosa, and Valencia.

Yahya, from his stronghold at Carmona, saw with wonder and dismay the establishment and progress of the formidable confederacy which had already thwarted his projects and threatened the speedy overthrow of his power. The intoxication to which he was habitually addicted caused him to neglect the precautions dictated by ordinary prudence. While overcome with wine he was lured into a nocturnal ambuscade and killed, with the larger portion of his command; and Ismail, the son of the Kadi, who had charge of the victorious detachment, returned to receive the congratulations of the people of Seville.

The death of Yahya was a fatal blow to the hopes of the Berber party. None of his family possessed, in an equal degree, talents for organization or the confidence of their followers, advantages which had so effectually promoted the fortunes of the deceased commander. His death was no sooner known than the Berbers disbanded, and with characteristic inconstancy returned to the tranquil pursuits of pastoral life. Even the integrity of his own dominions could no longer be maintained. His brother Edris was raised to the throne of Malaga, but Mohammed, a cousin of the latter, had already received the homage of the garrison of Algeziras; the Africans of the province began to show signs of insubordination, and Edris saw himself confronted at the outset of his reign with difficulties which already seemed to portend a disastrous termination of the projected Berber empire. The impatience of Abul-Kasim soon outstripped his discretion as well as his resources. He endeavored to secure for his puppet the prestige which would attach to his cause by the occupation of Cordova, but the authorities of that city peremptorily refused him admittance, and their temporary support of the false Hischem having, in their judgment, served its purpose, they formally renounced their allegiance to the impostor.

The centre of political disturbance in the Peninsula now shifts to the Mediterranean coast and to the eastern confines of Andalusia. Almeria had, since the dissolution of the khalifate, enjoyed, to a remarkable degree, immunity from the prevalent disorders. That city was the largest and the most opulent commercial emporium of the Spanish Mohammedans. So far from having been injured by the evils afflicting every other principality, she seemed to have profited by the misfortunes of her neighbors. Her governors had been neither conquered nor deposed, and her Emir still held the commission bestowed by a khalif. The insecurity of other ports had practically driven the commerce of the country to the protection of the mighty castle which commanded her harbor. She had experienced few of the political vicissitudes which had distracted the provinces of the North and West. While they had fallen under African or Jewish influence, she had retained all the traditions, the pride, and the exclusiveness of a community where the Arab element predominated. The nominal ruler was Zohair, a prince of mediocre talents and effeminate character; but the control of the government was substantially vested in the vizier, Ibn-Abbas, who united great literary accomplishments and executive ability with boundless avarice and a fertile genius for intrigue. He was one of the most learned of men. The elegance of his epistolary style was famous. He was a distinguished composer and improvisatore. His person was strikingly handsome. His family traced their origin to the Defenders of the Prophet. The vanity and presumption which he constantly displayed were as offensive as his talents and accomplishments were remarkable. His affluence and the state which he maintained in an era of national decadence convey some idea of the prodigal splendor exhibited by the Arab nobility in the prosperous days of the empire. His palace equalled in extent and in the magnificence of its appointments the most sumptuous abodes of royalty. The gardens with which it was surrounded recalled, by their profusion of rare and delicious flowers, the teeming wealth of tropical vegetation. Crowds of slaves ministered to the caprices of a haughty but indulgent master. Among the beauties of his harem were numbered five hundred singers, selected as much for loveliness of feature and symmetry of form as for their proficiency in the art of music. In one of the noblest apartments of this princely mansion was the library. It contained eighty thousand volumes, without including the separate and unbound manuscripts,--if these were considered the figure exceeded a hundred thousand. No room in the palace was furnished with more splendor and extravagance. The shelves were of aromatic woods inlaid with various precious materials, such as ivory, tortoise-shell, and mother-of-pearl. The ornamentation was of gold. Enamels glittered upon the walls. The floor was composed of great slabs of white marble. In this elegant retreat the vizier, with whom the love of literature was a passion, passed no inconsiderable portion of his time. The fortune which enabled him to maintain such regal luxury was estimated at the enormous sum of five hundred thousand ducats, equal to seven million dollars of our money.

The policy of Ibn-Abbas had always been characterized by unrelenting hostility to the members of other factions. Berbers, Christians, and Jews had been repeatedly visited with decided marks of his disfavor. His representations had induced Zohair, alone of all the Arab princes, to hold aloof from the alliance formed against the Africans. Hebrews were the especial objects of his antipathy. The influence of this race, paramount in the adjacent principality of Granada, and which had at different times interfered with the accomplishment of his ambitious projects, now led indirectly to important events, seriously affecting the stability of existing institutions as well as the ultimate political destinies of the Peninsula.

Wonderfully favored by nature, as well as by the industry of a numerous population, the province of Granada early began to give evidence of that greatness which culminated in its erection into an independent and powerful kingdom. The Jews, attracted by the productiveness of its soil, the salubrity of its climate, and the mercantile advantages of its situation, had settled there in such numbers that the capital was, even before the accession of the first Abd-al-Rahman, known as a Jewish city. The financial ability and enterprise of their race had enabled them to surpass all commercial rivals, and the trade of the province eventually passed into their hands. Their wealth was beyond computation; their Semitic affiliations protected them from political outrage and religious persecution; while the experience and the abilities of their leaders were often employed by the illiterate princes who, either as vassals or petty sovereigns, occupied the throne of Granada. During the period under consideration that state was ruled by Habus, a monarch of African origin, and the influence of the Berber party was predominant and unquestioned throughout his dominions, although they contained many sympathizers with the fallen dynasty and thousands of Christian tributaries.

At the head of the Hebrews of Granada was the famous Rabbi Samuel, of the family of Levi, who enjoyed the unusual distinction of being the chief councillor of a Mussulman sovereign. Born in an humble station at Cordova, he early developed a taste for literature, and had profited to the utmost by the admirable educational facilities afforded by the schools of the capital. His diligence had been rewarded by the acquisition of vast stores of knowledge. He was an accomplished linguist, a talented poet. His conversation and his writings demonstrated his thorough acquaintance with all the learning of the time. His official correspondence, for felicity of expression and purity of diction, was the envy of the scholars of every Andalusian court. In the perfection of his chirography, he excelled the performance of experts in that art, an extraordinary attainment in an age when the greatest importance was attached to regularity in the characters and beauty in the ornamentation of books and inscriptions. The controversial works of Samuel enjoyed a high reputation among the theologians and philosophers of his sect, while his patronage of the learned and the liberality with which he rewarded the struggling efforts of aspiring genius endeared his name to every member of the commonwealth of letters. His familiarity with the most abstruse branches of science, his proficiency in rhetoric, mathematics, and astronomy were considered almost supernatural by his contemporaries. He educated at his own expense deserving but indigent youths of his nation; a number of secretaries were kept constantly employed under his direction in transcribing copies of the Talmud, to be presented to the poor; and afflicted and destitute Jews of such distant countries as Egypt, Palestine, and Persia had frequent reason to applaud the generous and charitable conduct of the Chief Rabbi of Granada.

The advancement of Samuel to a position demanding the exercise of the highest diplomatic talents, as well as the possession of extensive knowledge and a profound acquaintance with human nature, was due in a great measure to his own genius and to the reputation his abilities had already acquired. He owed nothing to the fortuitous advantages of rank or fortune. His family was poor. His ancestors could boast of no connection with either the kings of Judea or the priests of the ancient hierarchy. For years he had maintained himself by the sale of spices in a little shop in the bazaar of Malaga. An accident brought him to the notice of Al-Arif, Vizier of the King of Granada, and he became the secretary of that official, who, upon his death-bed, recommended him to his sovereign as a servant eminently worthy of confidence. The event justified the wise advice of the vizier. The rabbi of a detested race inspired the respect and received the willing homage of the proudest Arab nobles, who could not but admire the unaffected dignity with which he bore the honors of his exalted station. He was the only prime-minister of his sect mentioned in history who ever openly directed the policy of a Moslem government. Such was his unerring sagacity that one of his countrymen said that his counsels were such as might have been directly inspired by the omniscience of God. He conducted the administration of public affairs with the most consummate wisdom, and the subsequent power and grandeur of the kingdom of Granada were largely attributable to the genius of this eminent Hebrew statesman.