All things considered, it is a matter for surprise that these two peoples, so unlike in race, habits, prejudices, and religion, lived so comparatively quietly side by side in spite of a perpetual state of warfare between the Arabs and the Christians in the North, which tended to keep alive the animosities of the two races in that part of Spain which was under Mohammedan rule.[1] Moreover, the pride of race was very strong in the pure-blooded Arabs. Thus the poet Said ibn Djoud, in a poem called the "battle of the town" (Polei), boasts that the conquerors are of the pure race of Adnan and Kahtan, without any foreign admixture; while he calls the defeated Spaniards miscreants, followers of a false faith,[2] sons of the pale-faces. The haughty Arabs, in fact, were too prone to look upon all the Spaniards, both renegades and Christians, as mere canaille.[3]

But, in spite of this, the races to a certain extent amalgamated; and Eulogius endeavours to prove that, but for the outbreak of fanaticism in the middle of the ninth century, this amalgamation would have had serious results for Christianity in Spain.[4]

The Arabs did not disdain to seek the alliance of the free Christian States, nor were the latter averse from doing the same, when political occasion demanded it. As early as 798 the Walis of the frontier cities sought to make themselves independent by what the Arab writer describes as "vile policy and unworthy acts," i.e., by seeking the friendship of the Christian kings;[5] and there are many instances of these kings asking aid, even servilely, from Arab princes.[6]

Again, as was inevitable from the nature of the case, intermarriages were common between the two races. The example was early set by the widow of Roderic, the last Gothic king, marrying Abdulaziz, son of Musa. The sons of Witiza also married Arab women, and Sarah, the daughter of one of these princes, was the progenetrix of a noble family of Arabs, one of her descendants being the historian, Ibn al Kuttiya, which means son of the Gothic princess.[1] Abdurrahman Anassir, the greatest of all the Spanish Sultans, was the son of a Christian slave, named Maria,[2] and the mighty Almanzor had for grandmother the daughter of a renegade Christian.[3] These are some instances, but it is not necessary to dwell on what was so common an occurrence as intermarriage between the peoples, and is forbidden neither by the Koran,[4] nor by the Bible.

However, there is one point in this connection which deserves a more particular notice. The intermingling of the races has been supposed to have been facilitated in part by the yearly tribute of 100 maidens paid by the northern kings to the earlier Arab Sultans. Modern historians mostly throw doubt upon the story, saying that of the early historians none mention it, and that the Arabs do not even allude to it.[5] But if Conde is to be trusted, an Arab writer does speak of it, as of a thing well known. In a letter of Omar[6] ibn Alaftas Almudafar, King of Algarve, to Alfonso VI., in 1086, occur the words:—"Do thou remember the time of Mohammed Almanzor, and bring to thy mind those treaties wherein thy forefathers offered him the homage even of their own daughters, and sent him those damsels in tribute even to the land of our rule."

The maiden tribute is the subject of several ancient ballads by the Christian Spaniards. The following are two verses from one of these:—

"For he who gives the Moorish king a hundred maids of Spain
Each year when in the season the day comes round again;
If he be not a heathen he swells the heathen's train—
'Twere better burn a kingdom than suffer such disdain!

"If the Moslems must have tribute, make men your tribute-money,
Send idle drones to tease them within their hives of honey;
For, when 'tis paid with maidens, from every maid there spring
Some five or six strong soldiers to serve the Moorish king."[1]

Southey also says that the only old Portuguese ballad known to him was on this subject. The evidence, then, of the ballads is strong for a fact of this kind, telling, too, as it does, so much against the writers of the ballads.[2]

As to the Christian chroniclers, it is quite true that we find no mention of this tribute in the history of Sebastian of Salamanca and the Chronicle of Albeldum, but there is a direct allusion to it in a document included in the collection of Florez.[3] "Our ancestors," says Ramiro, "the kings of the land—we blush to record it—to free themselves from the raids of the Saracens, consented to pay them yearly a shameful tribute of a hundred maidens distinguished for their beauty, fifty of noble birth, and fifty from the people." It was to put an end to this nefarious tribute that Ramiro now ordered a levy en masse. This, if the document is genuine (and Florez gives no hint to the contrary), is good evidence for the fact. Many succeeding writers mention it. Lucas of Tuy[4] says that Ramiro was asked for the tribute in 842. Johannes Vasaeus[5] speaks of it, as also Alfonso, Bishop of Burgos;[6] and lastly, Rodrigo of Toledo[7] says that Mauregatus (783-788), having obtained the throne of Leon by Saracen help, agreed to send this tribute yearly.

On the whole, then, the evidence is in favour of the maiden tribute being no myth, but of its having been regularly paid for more than fifty years. Most of these Christian maidens probably embraced the religion of their husbands, but in some cases they no doubt converted them to their own faith.

From different causes, some of which will be mentioned elsewhere, conversions were frequent from one religion to the other. Motives of worldly interest naturally caused the balance in these to fall very much against the Christians, but as the Mohammedan power declined the opposite was the case. Though voluntary apostasy was, and is, unpardonable, Mohammed seems to have made allowances for those who apostatized under compulsion; for when one of his followers, Ammar ibn Yaser, being tortured by the Koreish, renounced his belief in God and in Mohammed's mission, but afterwards came weeping to the Prophet, Mohammed received him kindly, and, wiping his eyes, said: "What fault was it of thine, if they forced thee?"[8]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MUWALLADS.

That the conversions from Christianity to Islam were very numerous at first we can sufficiently gather from the fact that the new converts formed a large and important party in the State, and almost succeeded in wresting the government of Spain from the Arabs. The disorder and civil war which may almost be said to have been chronic in Spain during the Arab dominion were due to the fact that three distinct races settled in that country were striving for the mastery, each of these races being itself divided into two bitterly hostile factions. The Arabs were split up into the two factions of Yemenite or Beladi Arabs, the descendants of Kahtan, and Modharites, the Arabs of Mecca and Medina, who claimed descent from Adnan.[1] To the latter section belonged the reigning family of Umeyyades. The Berbers, who looked upon themselves as the real conquerors of Spain, and whose numbers were subsequently reinforced by fresh immigrations, were composed of two hostile tribes of Botar and Beranis. Thirdly, there were the Spaniards, part Christian, part Mohammedan; the latter being either renegades themselves or the descendants of renegades. These apostates were called by the Arabs Mosalimah, or New Moslems,[2] and their descendants Muwallads,[3] or those not of Arabic origin. The Christians were either tribute-paying Christians, called Ahlu dh dhimmah; or free Christians, under Moslem supremacy, called Ajemi;[4] or apostates from Islam,[5] called Muraddin. The Muwallads, in spite of the Mohammedan doctrine of the equality and brotherhood of Moslems, were looked down upon with the utmost contempt by the pure-blooded Arabs.[6] Their condition was even worse than that of the Christians, for they were, generally speaking, excluded from lucrative posts, and from all administration of affairs—a dangerous policy, considering that they formed a majority of the population.[7] Stronger and more humane than the Berbers, they were friends of order and civilization. Intellectually they were even superior to the conquering Arabs.[8]

The natural result of their being Spaniards by race, and Arabs by religion, was that they sided now with one faction and now with another, and at one time, under the weak Abdallah (888-912), were the mainstay of the Sultan against his rebellious subjects. After breaking with the Sultan they almost succeeded in gaining possession of the whole kingdom, and carried fire and desolation to the very gates of Cordova.[9]

As early as 805 the Muwallads of Cordova, incited by certain theologians, revolted under Hakem I., but the rising was suppressed. In 814, however, they again rose, and the rebellion being put down with great severity by the help of the Berbers, the Cordovan Muwallads were exiled, 1500 going to Alexandria, and 8000 to Fez.[1] But though exterminated in Cordova, the renegades still mustered strong in Spain. At Elvira they rose in Abdallah's reign, under a chief named Nabil, and threw off the Arab yoke;[2] and, previously to this, Abdurrahman ibn Merwan ibn Yunas and Sadoun had headed similar revolts at Badajos and Merida.[3] At Seville the Muwallad element was specially strong, as we see from the many family names, such as Beni Angelino, Beni Sabarico, which betray a Spanish origin. The majority of the inhabitants embraced Islam early, and had their mosque by the middle of the ninth century, but they retained many Spanish customs and characteristics. When the Arabs of Seville revolted against the Sultan, the renegade party joined the latter. At Saragoza, the Beni Kasi, descendants of a noble Gothic family, set up an independent kindgom, waging war indifferently with all their neighbours.

It does not come within the scope of this inquiry to trace out the history of all the revolts made by the Arabs or Berbers against the Sultan's authority, but the policy and position of the Muwallads and Christians are a necessary part of our subject. The latter, though well treated on the whole, naturally looked back with regret to the days of their own supremacy, and were ready to intrigue with anyone able to assist them against their Arab rulers. Accordingly we find them communicating with the kings of France; and there is still extant a letter from Louis the Debonnaire to the people of Merida, written in 826, which is as follows:— "We have heard of your tribulation, which you suffer from the cruelty of your king Abdurrahman, who has tried to take away your goods, and has oppressed you just as his father Abulaz did. He, making you pay unjust taxes, which you were not bound to pay, turned you from friends into enemies, and from obedient to disobedient vassels, inasmuch as he infringed your liberties. But you, like brave men, we hear, are resisting the tyrant, and we write now to condole with you, and to exhort you to continue your resistance, and since your king is our enemy as well as yours, let us join in opposing him.

"We purpose to send an army to the frontier next summer to wait there till you give us the signal for action. Know then that, if you will desert him and join us, your ancient liberties shall be secured to you, and you shall be free of all taxes and tributes, and shall live under your own laws."[1]

The army promised was sent under the king's son, but seems to have effected nothing.

During the period of religious disturbance at Cordova, when the voluntary martyrdoms became so frequent, and just at the time of Mohammed's accession, the Christians of Toledo, encouraged, we may suppose, by their proximity to the free Christians, revolted in favour of their coreligionists at Cordova. No wonder then that Mohammed imagined that the outbreak of fanaticism in Cordova was but the signal for a general mutiny of his Christian subjects. As we have already seen, the king set out with an army against the Toledans, who appealed to Ordono I. of Leon for help. Glad enough to get such an opportunity for weakening the Arab government, Ordono sent a large auxiliary force, but the Toledans and Leonnese were defeated with great slaughter by the Sultan's troops.[2] Within twenty years, however, Toledo became practically independent, except for the payment of tribute.[3]

From all this it will be clear that the Spanish part of the population, whether Moslem or Christian, was opposed to the exclusiveness of the old Arabs, and ready to make common cause against them. The unity of race prevailed over the difference of creed, as it did in the case of the English Roman Catholics in the war with Spain, and as it usually will under such circumstances. The national party were fortunate enough to find an able leader in the person of the celebrated rebel, Omar ibn Hafsun, who came near to wresting the sovereignty of Spain from the hands of the Umeyyades. Omar was descended from a Count Alfonso,[1] and his family had been Christians till the apostasy of his grandfather Djaffar. Omar, being a wild unmanageable youth, took up the lucrative and honourable profession of bandit, his headquarters being at Bobastro or Bishter, a stronghold somewhere between Archidona and Ronda, in the sierra stretching from Granada to Gibraltar.[2] After a brief sojourn in Africa, where his ambition was inflamed by a prophecy announcing a great future, he returned to Spain, and at once began business again as brigand at Bobastro with nearly 6000 men.[3] Being captured, he was brought to Cordova, but spared on condition of enlisting in the king's forces. But he soon escaped from Cordova, and became chief of all the Spaniards in the South, Moslem and Christian,[4] whose ardour he aroused by such words as these: "Too long have you borne the yoke of the Sultan, who spoils you of your goods, and taxes you beyond your means. Will you let yourselves be trampled on by the Arabs, who look upon you as their slaves? It is not ambition that prompts me to rebel, but a desire to avenge you and myself." To strengthen his cause he made alliances at different times with the Muwallads in Elvira, Seville, and Saragoza, and with the successful rebel, Abdurrahman ibn Merwan, in Badajos.

Openly defying the Sultan's forces, he was only kept in check by Almundhir, the king's son, who succeeded his father in 886. Omar was further strengthened by the accession to his side of Sherbil, the Count of Cordova.[1] The death of Almundhir in 888 removed from Omar's path his only able enemy, and, during Abdallah's weak reign, the rebel leader was virtual king of the south and east of Spain. The district of Regio[2] was made over to him by the king, and Omar's lieutenant, Ibn Mastarna, was made chief of Priejo.

This protracted war, which was really one for national independence, was carried on year after year with varying success. At one time Omar conceived the intention of proclaiming the Abasside Khalifs,[3] at another he grasped at the royal power himself; and Abdallah's empire was only saved by a seasonable victory in 891 at Hisn Belay (or Espiel).[4] The battle was fought on the eve of the Passover, and the Moslems taunted their enemies with having such a joyful feast, and so many victims to commemorate it with. This shows that a large, perhaps the largest, part of Omar's army was Christian. Another indication of this is found in a poem of Tarikh ibn Habib,[5] where, speaking of the coming destruction of Cordova, he says: "The safest place will then be the hill of Abu Abdu, where once stood a church," meaning that Omar's Christian soldiers would respect that sanctuary, and no other. Indeed, it is certain that Omar himself became a Christian some time before this battle,[6] as his father had done before him. He took the name of Samuel, and his daughter Argentea, as we have seen, suffered martyrdom. This change of creed on Omar's part changed the character of the war, and gave it more of a religious,[7] and perhaps less of a national, character, for the Spanish Moslems fell off from him, when he became Christian and built churches.

Towards the close of his reign Abdallah was able to assert his supremacy, though Omar and his followers still held out. Omar himself did not die till 917, some years after Abdallah's death. The king's successor, Abdurrahman III., was a different stamp of man from Abdallah, and the reduction of Omar became only a question of time, though, in fact, the apostasy of Omar from Islam had made the ultimate success of the national party very doubtful, if not impossible. After Omar's death, his son, Djaffar, thought to recover the support of the Spanish Moslems by embracing Islam; but he thereby lost the confidence of the Christians, by whom he was murdered. In 928 his brother Hafs surrendered, with Bobastro, to the Sultan, and the great rebellion was finally extinguished.

So ended the grand struggle of the national party, first under the-direction of the Muwallads, and then of the Christians, to shake off the Arab and Berber yoke. During the remainder of the tenth century the strong administration of Abdurrahman III., Hakem II., and the great Almanzor, gave the Christians no chance of raising the cry of "Spain for the Spanish." The danger of a renewal of the rebellion once removed, the position of the Christians does not seem to have been made any worse in consequence of their late disaffection, and Abdurrahman, himself the son of a Christian mother, treated all parties in the revolt with great leniency, even against the wishes and advice of the more devout Moslems. Almanzor, too, made himself respected, and even liked, by his Christian subjects, and there is no doubt that his victories over the Christian States in the North[1] were won very largely with the aid of Christian soldiers. His death was the signal for the disruption of the Spanish Khalifate, and from 1010-1031, when the khalifate was finally extinguished, complete anarchy prevailed in Saracen Spain. The Berbers made a determined effort to regain their ascendency, and their forces, seconded by the Christians, succeeded in placing Suleiman on the throne in 1013. A succession of feeble rulers, set up by the different factions—Arab, Berber, and Slave—followed, until Hischem III. was forced to abdicate in 1031, and the Umeyyade dynasty came to an end, after lasting 275 years. By this time the Christians in the North had gathered themselves together for a combined advance against the Saracen provinces, never again to retrograde, scarcely even to be checked, till in 1492 fell Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain.[2]

CHAPTER IX.

CHRISTIANS AND MOSLEMS IGNORANT OF ONE

ANOTHER'S  CREED.

In spite of the close contact into which the Christians and Mohammedans were brought in Spain, and the numerous conversions and frequent intermarriages between the two sections, no thorough knowledge seems to have existed, on either side, of the creed of the other party. Such, at least, is the conclusion to which we are driven, on reading the only direct records which remain on the subject among Arab and Christian writers. These on the Christian side consist chiefly of quotations from a book on Mohammedanism by the abbot Speraindeo in a work of his disciple, Eulogius;[1] and some rather incoherent denunciations of Mohammed and his religion by Alvar,[2] another pupil of the abbot's. In these, as might be expected, great stress is laid on the sensuality of Mohammed's paradise,[3] and the lewdness of the Prophet himself. As to the latter, though many of Gibbon's coarse sarcasms do not rest on good authority, very little can be said for the Prophet. But among other blasphemies attributed by Speraindeo to Mohammed is one of which we find no mention in the Koran—the assertion, namely, that he would in the next world be wedded to the Virgin Mary. John, Bishop of Seville, is equally incorrect when, in a letter to Alvar,[4] he alleges a promise on the part of Mohammed that he would, like Christ, rise again from the dead; whereas his body, being neglected by his relations, was devoured by dogs. The Christian bishop does not hesitate to add—sepultus est in infernum—he was buried in hell.[5]

It is generally supposed that Mohammed could neither read nor write, and this appears to have been the opinion of Alvar;[1] but the same witness acknowledges that the Koran was composed in such eloquent and beautiful language that even Christians could not help reading and admiring it.[2]

On the important question of Mohammed's position with regard to Christianity, Eulogius[3] at least formed a correct judgment. Mohammed, he tells us "blasphemously taught that Christ was the Word of God,[4] and His Spirit;[5] a great prophet,[6] endowed with much power from God;[7] like Adam in His creation,[8] but not equal to God (the Creator);[9] and that by reason of His blameless[10] life, being filled with the Holy Spirit,[11] He showed marvellous signs and wonders through the power of God,[12] not working by His own Godhead, but as a righteous Man, and an obedient servant,[13] obtaining much power and might from the Almighty God through prayer."