In all the vast domain of historical inquiry there is probably no subject which has been treated with such studied neglect, with such flagrant injustice, as the civilization of the Arabs in the Spanish Peninsula. Its story has been written in the majority of instances by the implacable enemies of those who founded and promoted it. Theological hatred has lent its potent aid to the prejudice of race and the envy arising from conscious inferiority to deny or belittle its achievements. The greatest of Moorish princes have been represented by zealous but malignant churchmen as barbarians, persecutors, idolaters. The accumulated wisdom and labor of centuries manifested in rare copies of the literary treasures of antiquity, chronicles descriptive of epochs now veiled in hopeless obscurity, elegant productions of the most accomplished poets of Cordova and Seville, innumerable treatises of mathematical and physical science, have been consigned to the flames by ignorant prelates, who regarded these precious works as copies of the Koran or works on magic and necromancy. Others, which the negligence of clerical enmity permitted to escape for the time, were subsequently ruined by damp, by insects, by accidental conflagration. The carelessness of inappreciative governments, aided by the stupidity of the masses and the innate levelling tendencies of the uneducated, the invasions of foreign armies and the vicissitudes of revolution, have wrought the partial or complete destruction of many of the noblest monuments of architectural genius that ever illustrated the history of any people. The defiled ruins of mosque and palace, the mutilated fragments of products of the industrial arts whose form and materials indicate the highest degree of mechanical knowledge and classical culture, the remains of that wonderful system of irrigation, whose perfection was the secret of Moorish prosperity and opulence, constitute almost all the remaining data by whose aid we may attempt to picture the splendors and the glory of the mighty Khalifate of the West. No just idea of the greatness and power of the Peninsula under the Ommeyade sovereigns can be formed from the present condition of even those states whose inhabitants in physical aspect, mental disposition, manners, habits, and industry have preserved, in a striking degree, the characteristics of their Mohammedan progenitors.

It has been happily remarked that “facts are the mere dross of history.” The rise and fall of dynasties, the evolutions of armies, the recital of battles, sieges, and skirmishes, the enumeration of captives and booty, the exultation of the victor, the distress of the vanquished, the crimes and excesses engendered by sedition, have, it is true, in all periods of the world, been considered the most important, often the only, subjects worthy of historical narration. These, however, are but the manifestations of conditions upon which are dependent all that is valuable and all that is instructive in the noble science which depicts the occurrences of past ages. The true interest and utility of that science, the benefits to be derived from the lessons it teaches, the warnings pronounced by the triumphs or the disgrace of its heroes, the application of principles by which universal prosperity may be advanced and national disaster diminished or wholly averted, are not usually apparent to the superficial and careless observer. They are to be laboriously traced in the analysis of the incentives of human actions; in the gradual development of schemes of ambition; in the contention of religious sects for political supremacy; in the exhibition of the prejudices, the foibles, the superstitions of mankind; in the incessant mutations of social life; in the delineation of manners. No event is too trivial, no custom too unimportant for notice, which, by even its most remote consequences, may serve to disclose the motives of a government or illustrate the policy of a nation. The prevalence of certain habits, the existence of certain inclinations are often of more weight in determining the career of a people than the fortunate issue of a campaign or the disastrous result of a revolution. It is in the chronicle of prosaic, every-day existence that we must search for the origin of momentous events, that we must study the philosophy of history.

One great cause of the phenomenally rapid establishment of Islam was polygamy, which absolutely confiscated the means of racial propagation. Mohammed, like Moses and all other ancient lawgivers, recognized and inculcated the supreme importance of the increase of mankind,—a principle on which was founded Phallic Worship as well as the widely diffused practice of Communal Marriage. The vast power of its empire was dependent upon the culture of the soil and the marketing of the products of labor, in which no people were more successful than the Arabs. Its decline is attributable to the many inherent faults of its political and religious organization; to the uncertain course of royal succession; to the implacable spirit of tribal enmity which survived and dominated every other feeling; to the inevitable want of harmonious co-operation existing between the numerous and conflicting elements representing a score of nations governed by force; to the treasonable schemes of zealots, envious of the consideration extended to literary merit; to the social corruption incident to a society abandoned to boundless prodigality, vice, and luxury.

The agricultural system of the Spanish Mohammedans, who understood the soil and the resources of their country better than any nation that has ever inhabited it, was the most complex, the most scientific, the most perfect, ever devised by the ingenuity of man. Its principles were derived from the extreme Orient, from the plains of Mesopotamia, and from the valley of the Nile,—those gardens of the ancient world where, centuries before the dawn of authentic history, the cultivation of the earth had been carried to a state of extraordinary excellence. To the knowledge thus appropriated were added the results obtained from investigation and experiment; from the introduction of foreign plants; from the adoption of fertilizing substances; from close and intelligent observation of the effects of geographical distribution and climatic influence.

The statesmanlike policy pursued by the khalifs was productive of incalculable advantage to every branch of agriculture. As previously stated, accomplished botanists, provided with unlimited funds, were regularly despatched to the most fertile regions of the East,—to Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hindustan,—under instructions to collect seeds of useful plants and fruits for experimental cultivation in the royal demesnes. There is scarcely a country in the temperate zone to-day which has attained to even a moderate degree of civilization, whose inhabitants are not the beneficiaries of this zeal for agricultural improvement constantly manifested by the sovereigns of Moorish Spain, nor one, unhappily, which is willing to even reluctantly concede to those entitled to the gratitude of nations credit for that progressive spirit which has contributed so essentially to the physical well-being and advancement of mankind.

The divine origin assigned to agriculture by Arabic as well as by Persian tradition had almost as much to do with its development as the imperative necessity which demanded its practice. The rural economy of every people was diligently explored for advantageous suggestions by the Moors of the Peninsula. Their tastes, although the pursuits of their ancestors were pastoral and manual labor of every description is distasteful to a nomadic and predatory race, seemed to adapt themselves at once to the circumstances of their new environment. Their progress in that science is not less striking than the rapid succession of their military triumphs. No nation in so short a period achieved such extensive and important conquests. No people so quietly abandoned the excitements resulting from the profession of arms and embraced the toils of a sedentary life as the Arabs of the Peninsula. No sooner did they change their mode of existence than they began to excel in the new pursuits to which they devoted themselves. Many inducements were afforded by the cultivation of the soil, whose results, despite its hardships, seemed to more than counterbalance the benefits to be derived from life in large communities. The Koran declared it to be especially meritorious. The air of the country, like the atmosphere of the Desert, seemed congenial to independence. The vast estates acquired by the followers of Musa, their wealth, and the social superiority which they assumed, did much to incite others to emulate their example. In villages and on plantations larger harems could be maintained, and more numerous families could be reared than in cities,—considerations of great weight in the mind of the luxurious and ambitious Moslem. Every encouragement was afforded by a succession of wise and generous rulers to those who embraced an agricultural life. A considerable portion of the country which had never been subjected to tillage because of its aridity became suddenly metamorphosed, as if by the wand of an enchanter. Barren valleys were transferred into flourishing orchards of olives, oranges, figs, and pomegranates. Rocky slopes were covered with verdant terraces. In districts where, according to ancient tradition, no water had ever been seen, now flowed noisy rivulets and broad canals. Where marshes existed, the rich lands they concealed were drained, reclaimed, and placed under thorough cultivation. On all sides were visible the works of the hydraulic engineer,—which supplied the necessary moisture to the fields by every device then known to human skill,—the reservoir, the well, the sluice, the tunnel, the siphon, the aqueduct. The ingenuity of the Moors improved methods of terrestrial culture, for centuries regarded as perfect by many highly civilized nations. They adopted and extended the irrigating system of Egypt. They appropriated the Persian wheel, which, with the rows of jars on its periphery and propelled by cattle, served as a pump; or, driven by the rapid current of streams, distributed the waters of the latter through lands of higher level. Some of these wheels were very large, not infrequently attaining a diameter of seventy feet; one at Toledo was ninety cubits high. Their number was immense; within an area of a few square leagues five hundred might often be counted. Fields were surveyed and grades ascertained by means of the astrolabe. The public works constructed for irrigating purposes were on a gigantic scale. The artificial basin near Alicante, elliptical in shape, is three miles in circumference and fifty feet deep; the dam at Elche is two hundred and sixty-four feet long, fifty-two feet high, and a hundred and fifty feet wide at the bottom; that over the Segura, near Murcia, is seven hundred and sixty feet long and thirty-six feet in height. The aqueduct at Manesis, in Valencia, is seven hundred and twenty feet long, and is supported by twenty-eight arches. The principle of the siphon, familiar to the Arabs eight hundred years before it was known in France, was utilized to a remarkable degree in the Moorish hydraulic system. The length of the curve in the great siphon at Almanzora is five hundred and seven feet; the diameter of the latter is six feet, and it passes ninety feet under the bed of a mountain stream. The subterranean aqueduct at Maravilla, which waters the plain of Urgel, is a mile long and thirty feet in diameter; that of Crevillente, north of Orihuela, is fifty-five hundred and sixty-five feet long and thirty-six feet in diameter. All of these underground conduits are cut through the solid rock. The masonry of the reservoirs is of the finest description, and the cement made use of has become harder than stone itself. Contingencies are provided for with such skill and foresight that no overflow occurs, and no damage ever results, even in time of the greatest inundations. The excellence of construction which characterizes these massive works of Arab engineering genius is demonstrated by the fact that they have needed practically no repairs in a thousand years.

As was necessary under the conditions which prevailed in a region where water was so valuable, the greatest care was exercised in its apportionment and distribution. The irrigating system of the khalifate was governed by a peculiar code of laws, perfect familiarity with whose provisions was only to be obtained by a life-long experience. The strictest economy was enforced. All waste was forbidden. The water conducted from one canal to another was used again and again. The sluices were opened at certain times, the quantity furnished being accurately graduated according to the requirements of the cultivator. Theft was punished with exemplary severity. In some provinces those whose crops for the time did not need irrigation might dispose of their diurnal supply to their neighbors; in others this privilege was not conceded. No one could be served out of his turn. The complexity of the system may be inferred from the variety of distributing outlets dependent upon the extent and character of the soil to be watered. There were two hundred and twenty-four of these, all different, and each designated by a separate name. Under the especial care of the imperial authorities, a vigilant police patrolled the canals and guarded the reservoirs of every district. All disputes and violations of law were passed upon by a court—whose judges were chosen by the farmers themselves—called The Tribunal of the Waters, which sat on Thursdays at the door of the principal mosque. The place where its sessions were held imparted to it a semi-religious character. To it the complicated and expensive organization of modern judicature was unknown, and, secure in the good sense and integrity of its magistrates, it was equally free from royal interference, political interest, judicial corruption, absurd technicalities, and legal chicanery. Its proceedings were not embarrassed by vexatious delays. No official was required to preserve order. No record was kept of its deliberations. No costs were incurred. No advocate was present to perplex by subtle arguments and frivolous distinctions the plain interpretation of the law. Each party stated his own case. The accused conducted his own defence. Judgment was rendered after a brief consultation, and from it there was no appeal. The most exalted rank, the greatest wealth, the most distinguished public service, did not confer exemption from the jurisdiction of the court or affect the impartiality of its decrees. The noble was summoned to its bar with but little more ceremony than the slave. Infractions of the various ordinances which protected the canals and their supply were punished by fines. Where the offence was repeated, the culprit was deprived of the right to enjoy the privileges upon which the existence of his crop depended.

The wisdom of these regulations is demonstrated by their longevity. Preserved by tradition, they have descended to our times almost unchanged, and The Tribunal of the Waters still sits every Thursday, the last day of the Mussulman week, at the door of the Cathedral of Valencia, as it did before the portals of the Great Mosque under the rule of the famous Ommeyade monarchs ten centuries ago.

In the distribution of water the measurement was by volume, a certain quantity being allotted to a stated area during a given period of the day or night at intervals of ten to fifteen days. The sides of the canals were provided with flood-gates, kept under lock and key, by which the adjoining fields could be submerged at the proper time. Drains carried the surplus back into the original channels, so that there was the least possible loss.

The same care and economy were observed in fertilizing the soil, which the requirements of a dense population never permitted to rest. Unlike the policy adopted under the Roman and Gothic dominations, there were few large estates. The land was divided into small tracts, and for that reason was much more thoroughly tilled. Manure and dust were collected from the highways. The contents of sewers and vaults were preserved, desiccated, and, mingled with less powerful substances, were used to supply the impairment consequent upon incessant cultivation. Ashes, the burned and pulverized seeds of fruits, the blood and bones of slaughtered animals, all played an important part in the intelligent and systematic treatment of the rich and productive valleys of the South, whose surface, resting on an impenetrable subsoil of clay, required continual renovation. The curious and minute investigations of the skilled agriculturist had determined the best composts, the most advantageous modes of applying them, the kind of vegetation to which they were specially adapted.

Manures were deposited in stone reservoirs contrived to prevent evaporation or leakage. Nothing was wasted; every substance available for the fertilization of crops was carefully preserved, the different varieties being separated and applied to such soils as experience had taught were most productive under their use. No natural obstacle was sufficiently formidable to check the enterprise and industry of the Moorish cultivator. He tunnelled through mountains. His aqueducts traversed deep ravines. He levelled with infinite patience and labor the rocky slopes of the sierra. Where the vast public works of Roman genius could be utilized, they were repaired and extended. The vegetable products of the remotest countries of the globe—the grains of Asia, the nuts and berries of Europe, the luscious fruits of the African coast—were transported to Andalusia.

Profound botanical knowledge, which went hand in hand with Arab horticulture, wonderfully promoted these researches. The Spanish Moslems were perfectly familiar with the circulation of the sap, with the difference of sex in plants, with the process of artificial fecundation. They invested them with the conditions of activity and repose, of motion and sleep. They employed eight distinct methods of grafting; and the injurious effects of the sun were obviated by the use of a perforated vessel, from which the water fell drop by drop upon the graft, which, without this precaution, would have been withered by the heat. The Moorish gardeners devised numerous expedients for the improvement of their products, not a few of which modern ignorance has assigned to a more recent date. An example of these was the removal from the tree of a portion of the fruit before maturity to insure the superior size and excellence of that which remained. They cultivated such dye-stuffs as madder and indigo, products of India. They introduced on a diminished scale the hanging gardens of Babylon. In floral ornamentation they had no superiors. They contrived labyrinths, artificial grottoes, concealed fountains. They traced texts and inscriptions by means of gorgeous blossoms on a ground of living emerald. The intricate designs of tapestry were imitated by an infinite variety of flowering plants, whose tints blended in perfect harmony, like the colors of the material they were intended to represent. They acquired such dexterity in the culture of roses that, at all seasons of the year, they bloomed in profusion in every garden. Like our modern florists, they endeavored to produce them of unusual tints, and met with corresponding failures. They understood how to extract opium from the poppy, but the process they employed has not come down to us. They treated with success the diseases of all the known species of the vegetable kingdom. They were exceedingly skilful in the distillation and refining of essences, and great plantations of flowers were cultivated for the sake of the exquisite perfumes they afforded. Twenty-five different kinds of these are mentioned, and they were so abundant and cheap that they were scarcely accounted a luxury. In all the multifarious duties of his occupation the Moorish horticulturist possessed expert knowledge. He could preserve fruits for an indefinite period; banish noxious insects; expel poisonous gases from wells and excavations. He was versed in meteorology, and could foresee atmospheric changes with an accuracy incomprehensible to those whose daily pursuits did not require familiarity with the varying aspects of the seasons and the annual recurrence of natural phenomena. In the principal cities of the Peninsula were schools where practical instruction in the various departments of husbandry was given.

As the Koran explicitly forbade the exportation of grain, the surplus of the harvests was deposited in subterranean granaries hewn in the rock. When a child attained his majority, one of these magazines was presented to him, and such was the dryness of the receptacles that wheat in perfect preservation was found in some of them near Granada, where it had lain two centuries after the capture of that city. The wisdom of this arrangement was apparent during the famines which, despite the industry of the people, occasionally afflicted the Peninsula. Reliance was sometimes placed upon less palatable food, however, and near Pedroche, from time immemorial, forests of giant oaks were carefully preserved for the sake of their acorns, which furnished a coarse but nutritious diet when all other resources failed.

The great work of Ibn-al-Awam, of Seville, a vast monument of industry and erudition embracing every conceivable branch of the subject, shows to what extraordinary perfection the science of agriculture had been carried in the twelfth century by the Spanish Mohammedans. It treats, in a comprehensive and exhaustive manner, not only of the methods found by the experience of centuries to be the best adapted to the sowing and harvesting of grain, to the planting and cultivation of orchards, to the propagation of edible and aromatic plants; but it also, with infinite minuteness of detail, describes the breeding and care of every species of domestic animals, their qualities, their relative excellence, their defects, their habits, their diseases. It discourses at length upon the different breeds of horses and upon the rearing of that useful animal so prized by the Arab. It explains the details of artificial incubation, a process borrowed from Egypt. It directs how to produce in geese the abnormal hepatic conditions which induce the foie gras, that artificial delicacy so dear to the epicure, and a thousand years ago, as to-day, an invaluable adjunct to fashionable gluttony. It teaches different methods of cooking and the preparation of various confections, jellies, syrups, and sweetmeats of every description. The manufacture of wine, so rigidly forbidden to the Moslem, and whose immense consumption had already, in the time of the khalifate, scandalized the pious, is detailed in all its stages in this remarkable book. In it are given recipes for cordials of many kinds, cooling beverages, and hydromel. It also prescribes the rules by which the household of the farmer should be governed, and defines the reciprocal duties of employer and employee. In every operation of rural life and domestic economy, it enforces by repeated admonition the necessity for cleanliness, system, and order.

From the treatise of Ibn-al-Awam we learn that much of his information was derived from Sicilian sources, where agriculture and its dependent occupations were fully as advanced as in the Peninsula. In that rich island, saffron and numerous other herbs were indigenous, and thence with many vegetables and fruits were carried into Spain. The vineyards and the wines of Sicily, famous in antiquity, maintained their reputation during the Moslem and Norman dominations, but, during the contest of the Empire with the Papacy, the culture of the grape declined and was practically extinct for more than a century.

To Moorish enterprise Europe owes such fruits as the strawberry, the lemon, the quince, the date, the fig, the mulberry, the banana, the pomegranate; such nuts as the pistachio and the almond; such cereals as rice, sesame, buckwheat; such vegetables as spinach and asparagus; such spices as mace, nutmeg, and pepper; such condiments as the caper and saffron. The coffee and the cotton plant, which grew wild in Arabia; the sugar-cane, whose product bears, almost unaltered, the name bestowed by those who were the first to extract it, were also introduced by the Arabs. The olive plantations in the vicinity of Seville alone, containing millions of trees, indicate the estimation in which its culture was held, and the enormous profits it must have yielded the owners. Grapes were so abundant at Ubeda that there was no market for them; at Malaga, Ibn-Batutah says, eight pounds sold for a dirhem. Al-Makkari refers to the prodigious size of the melons of Cintra. The pears grown at Daroca, unequalled in richness of flavor, weighed three pounds. The apples of Santarem were thirty inches in circumference. Oranges were of not inferior dimensions; and to-day in Southeastern Spain it is not unusual to see them eight inches in diameter. It is impossible at the present time to realize the extent and thoroughness of the culture of the soil which obtained under the Moslem domination in the Peninsula. The southern portion, in its exuberant fertility now the admiration of the traveller, was under the Moors infinitely more productive. La Mancha, the Castiles, and Estremadura, which offer at present an unhappy picture of sterility and want, were as late as the twelfth century covered with luxuriant harvests, interspersed with groves and orchards, amidst which nestled countless villages, farm-houses, towers, and hamlets.

These scenes of rural thrift and beauty were traversed by thousands of canals and conduits diffusing on every side their refreshing and fertilizing waters. The gardens were enclosed by trellises made of reeds woven together and covered with trailing roses and climbing vines, the mingled odors of whose blossoms filled the air. Salamanca, now the centre of one of the most poverty-stricken and deserted districts in Spain, was in the tenth century a populous and flourishing provincial capital with a hundred and twenty-five towns, many of them of considerable magnitude, subject to its jurisdiction. Segovia, whose present condition is even more deplorable, was during the khalifate the centre of the woollen manufacture of the country, a source of great wealth to all who embarked in it. Horticulture in Aragon, where every product of the vegetable world not prohibited by the asperity of the climate grew in profuse abundance, reached its climax in the exquisite scenery of the valley of the Ebro, called the River of Fruits, from the interminable orchards that lined its banks. The entire kingdom was formerly dotted with forests, and in its deserts are to be discerned the clay-beds of many a lake and water-course, whose moisture once brought prosperity to a numerous Moorish population. The capital, Saragossa, long the seat of an enlightened dynasty, was celebrated far and near for the accomplishments of its princes, the learning of its scholars, the skill of its artisans, the wealth of its Jews, and the superb decorations of its mosques. No city of the khalifate possessed a better class of inhabitants, greater wealth, or a higher degree of civilization. Its walls were nearly two leagues in circuit. Its gardens extended for a distance of eight miles in every direction. Its atmosphere was perfumed by the flowers which covered its plain. A territory of great extent containing many villages and castles acknowledged the authority of the Beni-Hud, its rulers. The entire region was a paradise, which foreigners compared to Chaldea on account of its fertility, its numerous groves, and its profusion of waters. In its climate wood did not decay or grain mildew, and provisions might be kept for years without deterioration. The royal palace, called the Abode of Pleasures, contained a magnificent hall of state, whose marbles and arabesques were one of the wonders of the Peninsula. Abulfeda refers to the Moorish capital of Aragon as, “the Silver City surrounded by emeralds mingled with gold.” The present dreary aspect of Toledo offers no suggestion of its former grandeur under Arab rule when its population numbered two hundred thousand, and from the towers of its citadel a succession of farms and plantations could be discerned stretching away to the verge of the horizon. It was in the tropical South, however, that the inexhaustible resources of the Moorish agriculturist rioted in the exhibition of their amazing power. The Mediterranean coast from Gibraltar to Barcelona was an unbroken belt of verdure. For fifteen miles below Seville the Guadalquivir was shaded by a succession of orchards. Near that city the district of the Axarafe—which embraced fifty square leagues and was thickly planted with olive- and fig-trees—in the twelfth century contained a thousand thriving villages, two hundred and twenty-five years after the dismemberment of the Ommeyade empire. Here flourished in close proximity representatives of the vegetable kingdom collected from the most widely separated portions of the globe. Here were to be seen hundreds of varieties of plants, some gathered on the slopes of the Himalayas, others collected in the forests of Germany; others again transplanted with infinite labor from Ethiopia and the sources of the Nile. Here were propagated the orange and the pomegranate of Syria; the palm of Egypt; the tamarind of Barbary; the fragrant balsam of Arabia. Vast groves of mulberries indicated the importance attached to the manufacture of silk.

In the manifold avocations either connected with or dependent upon the pursuit of agriculture,—in the rearing of cattle and horses, in the breeding of sheep, in the culture of bees,—the Moor of the Peninsula attained to the highest degree of proficiency. The Arabian horse lost none of his incomparable qualities in the climate of Andalusia, and to his swiftness and endurance are to be attributed many of the most signal victories which attended the progress of the Moslem arms. The silky and abundant fleece of the merino sheep owes its fineness as well as its name to the peculiar method by which flocks were tended and propagated under the laws of the Western Khalifate. Immense numbers were conducted twice each year between the Pyrenean slopes and the plains of Estremadura, by this means securing fresh and continual pasturage, and equally avoiding the droughts of summer and the storms of winter. The organization which controlled these migrations, protected by the authority of the government, eventually acquired the importance and the power of a political institution. It was designated the Mesta, and, adopted by the Castilians, its privileges, become oppressive through abuses long practised with impunity, were, until the middle of the last century, when they were largely curtailed, one of the most intolerable grievances endured by the Spanish peasantry.

The richness of the Peninsula in valuable minerals not only facilitated the development of the arts, but aided materially in the establishment of commerce with foreign nations. The silver mines of Iberia were famous from all antiquity, and after centuries of neglect under barbarian misrule their treasures were again made available under the energetic administration of the Khalifs of Cordova. In the neighborhood of Linares are still to be traced the square pits of the Arab, side by side with the circular excavations of the Roman; and their number, exceeding five hundred in this single locality, indicates the magnitude of mining operations, a pursuit whose intelligent prosecution and economical management contribute so much to the material wealth of a community. From the sands of the Darro and the Tagus were extracted considerable quantities of gold. In Spain, the centre of the largest deposits of cinnabar in the ancient world, the production of quicksilver was one of the most profitable employments of Moorish industry. At Abâl, a day’s journey from the capital, were mines where a thousand workmen were constantly employed. The superior quality of the copper utensils, the unrivalled temper of the steel blades, for which Andalusia especially was renowned, attest not only the excellence of the respective ores from which those metals were obtained, but the skill required for the fabrication of the latter into objects of utility and beauty in the workshops and armories of Almeria, Seville, Granada, and Toledo.

For leagues before approaching the great Andalusian cities the traveller traversed by highways covered with arching foliage districts so thickly settled as to resemble a succession of contiguous hamlets. The air was sweet with the fragrance of flowers; the murmur of waters was everywhere; along each stream was a row of picturesque mills; on one side rose the towers and cupolas of some palace rich with gilding and sparkling tiles; on the other a line of cottages embowered in jasmine and roses. Nothing impressed him more forcibly than the thrift which seemed to universally prevail. Every foot of land susceptible of cultivation was carefully tilled. Every drop of water was used. Great crowds filled the narrow streets. No beggars plied their annoying trade on the thoroughfares or infested the portals of the mosques. The teeming population of the country was the best indication of the general prosperity. In the year 910, there were more people in any one of the Hispano-Arab provinces bordering on the Mediterranean than there were in all Great Britain at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

Every indulgence and encouragement was afforded by the laws to the Moorish cultivator. The independence so necessary to the successful prosecution of agricultural pursuits, he enjoyed to the utmost degree compatible with the maintenance of social order. For the most part, he himself instituted the regulations of husbandry, which were enforced by magistrates taken from his class and of his own selection. His taxes were not oppressive. The productiveness of the soil, the equability of the climate, never permitted his labors to go unrewarded. In Valencia, where each week yielded a new crop to the farmer, rest of the land, essential to the preservation of fertility elsewhere, was unknown. In Murcia, the wonderful vegetation had given to the country a name suggested by its resemblance to the luxuriant Valley of the Nile. The annual yield of oil by the Axarafe at Seville was two million one hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred gallons; every day during the olive harvest a hundred and twenty-five thousand gallons were brought into the city. All Africa, Asia, and Europe were supplied with this useful article of food by the plantations of Southern Spain. It was not without reason that the olive-tree—the source of such wealth, the emblem of peace—should have been regarded as blessed by both the Moslem and the Jew. Roses were so abundant at Cordova that twenty-five pounds of the leaves only brought two dirhems, and every one was at liberty to pluck all the flowers he desired from the hedges that bordered the highways or in private grounds, a privilege which was never abused. In localities unfavorable to cultivation the deficiencies of the soil were supplied by untiring industry. Walls of ponderous masonry supported terraces where the very cliffs were made productive, and where only a bush or a vine could be planted the narrow space was utilized. Not only water, but loam and fertilizing materials were brought from great distances.

The dimensions, the splendor, the opulence, of the principal cities amazed the foreigner accustomed to the crowded quarters and squalid wretchedness of the European capitals. All were surrounded by suburbs, themselves of vast extent, stretching as far as the eye could reach. The mountain slopes of Almeria and Malaga were covered with vineyards; in the plains were thousands of acres of sugar-cane; in the marshes, rice plantations. The gardens of Almeria extended for a radius of twenty miles north, east, and west from the harbor. The supreme importance of the agricultural interest as affecting the general welfare of a community was never more conclusively demonstrated than by the disastrous results consequent upon the expulsion of the Jews and the Moriscoes. These results have already been alluded to in these pages. The destructive policy which blotted out a great civilization brought with it its own punishment. Extensive regions, which under the Moslems produced immense revenues, are at the present day barren and uninhabited. The sole traces of former prosperity in districts now relinquished to the bandit and the smuggler are disclosed by mounds designating the sites of former villages. Where were once endless plantations of valuable trees are now dreary wastes destitute of all vegetation, incapable of supporting animal life, cursed with eternal drought and hopeless sterility. The cities have lost by far the greater portion of their inhabitants; the villages have dwindled to hamlets; the ancient hamlets have disappeared. In the Peninsula, under the Arabs, there were no uncultivated tracts except those covered by the forests; in the middle of the last century in Estremadura—not including the mountain regions which embraced one-third of the area of the province—there were two hundred thousand acres abandoned; in La Mancha forty-five thousand; in the district of Utrera thirty-one thousand. The only localities where agriculture still flourishes are those where Nature has distributed her choicest favors; where the necessity for arduous labor does not tax the capacity of native indolence; where the products of the earth grow in spontaneous profusion; where the systems of irrigation and tillage introduced by the Moors still prevail without substantial alteration, disclosing their unrivalled adaptability to the purposes of rural industry.

The great productiveness of the soil and the proximity of the Mediterranean naturally suggested the development of natural resources and the extension of commerce in Moorish Spain. With the ancient Arab, the predatory instinct alone took precedence of the mercantile propensity. That propensity received a tremendous impulse from the foundation of Islam. Encouraged by the precepts and example of the Prophet, who, as the factor of Khadijah, had visited the cities of Syria, the calling of the merchant soon came to be regarded by every Moslem as a profession of honor as well as of profit. The inhabitants of the Desert were, for the most part, divided into two classes,—those who organized caravans and those who plundered them. Centuries before the Hegira, a lucrative trade was carried on between the districts of Mecca and Yemen and the rich cities of India, Assyria, and Egypt. Little effort therefore was required for the establishment of profitable commercial intercourse between the seaports of the Spanish Peninsula and those which at frequent intervals dotted the shores of the Mediterranean. Almost coincident with the Conquest an extensive trade was inaugurated. The control of the sea by the navy of the khalifs extended immeasurably the facilities of mercantile intercommunication. The great markets of Christendom maintained the closest relations with the opulent houses of Almeria and Malaga; the wares of Constantinople, Venice, and Genoa found ready purchasers in the bazaars of Cordova as well as in those of the provincial capitals of Andalusia and Al-Maghreb. But the dauntless spirit of the Moorish Moslem was not limited to maritime trade; his factors were to be found in every country accessible to the influences and the enterprise of civilization; his caravans traversed with equal rapidity and perseverance the forests of Europe, the deserts of Ethiopia, the illimitable plains of Central Asia, the marshes and jungles of Hindustan. The mysterious perils of unexplored seas, the fierce aspect and savage manners of wild and barbarous tribes, the formidable obstacles presented by trackless wastes and pestilential swamps, were all forgotten in the thirst for gain and the excitement of adventure. The memory of the expeditions periodically despatched by their ancestors from the cities of Arabia, the sight of the enormous profits accumulated by the Jews, at once their instructors, their allies, and their competitors, stimulated the ambition of the Spanish Arabs, already predisposed to mercantile occupations, and whose extraordinary energy seemed to promise success in every undertaking. Mussulman legislation, so eminently favorable to the requirements of internal and foreign commerce, offered aid to the followers of the Prophet in a more effective manner than had ever been suggested by the founders of other religions. The duties imposed by the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina were intimately connected with the conditions of traffic. Long before Mohammed, the altar and the bazaar had been placed in a position of mutual dependence by the sagacious and thrifty traders of Yemen. The idolatrous shrine of Mecca looked for its support to the pilgrims who, allured partly by superstition, partly by avarice, at regular intervals swarmed within the walls of the Holy City. The Koran enjoins under all circumstances the strict observance of contracts and the practice of honesty, and menaces with the justice of heaven such as violate the principles of equitable dealing in business transactions. In addition to the general principles of Mohammedan law which promoted the intercourse of nations, the Ommeyade khalifs of Spain exempted from taxation many products of manufacture and objects of luxury,—among them weapons, armor, and jewelry,—aware that the increased wealth which must result from this privilege would enure to the benefit of the people far more in the end than the transitory advantage resulting from the imposition of taxes or duties.

The sea, as well as the land, was made tributary to the enterprise of the Saracens. Amber was thrown up in considerable quantities around Lisbon. The pearl fishery was an important occupation of the natives of Valencia and Alicante. In the neighborhood of Almeria quantities of exquisite onyx and agates were found. Rock salt was abundant,—a great hill of it stood near Saragossa. The mountains of Alhama were composed of gypsum, which afforded the finest quality of plaster. Deposits of lapis-lazuli existed at Lorca. At Macael were inexhaustible beds of white marble that rivalled in lustre and beauty the product of the Grecian quarries of Pentelicus. The mountains of Andalusia abounded with jasper. Carthagena yielded amethysts. Rubies were mined near Malaga.

Inland traffic was assisted by means of fairs,—those popular mercantile expedients which foster trade and at the same time develop the social instincts of humanity,—institutions especially acceptable to semi-barbarous nations and long familiar to the people of Arabia. Ease of communication, the most potent of civilizing influences, promoted this national interchange of both commodities and ideas. The disposition of merchandise, profitable as it was, while the ostensible motive, was by no means the most important object of these popular assemblies. Familiarity with distant communities, the conversation of strangers, the varying panorama of novel and interesting scenes, the excitement and bustle attendant upon the congregation of vast multitudes, are wonderful stimulants to the intellectual faculties. The literary contests for poetical supremacy which were said to have formed a distinctive feature of the mighty concourse of Okhad were revived in the fairs of Andalusia. While the latter were designed for provincial benefit, they, in fact, partook largely of a cosmopolitan character. Their fame attracted commercial speculators from the most distant countries. Articles of great rarity and value were exposed for sale in their booths. The transactions concluded within their limits were not inferior in importance to those which had created the commercial prosperity of Malaga and Almeria. The circumstances incident to their institution and surroundings offered representations of tropical life strange to the eyes of Christendom. The endless lines of plodding camels, loaded with precious stuffs; the splendidly caparisoned horses; the sumptuous litters enclosing the beauties of the harem; the sullen and ferocious eunuchs; the retinues of the nobles glittering with steel and gold; the swarming crowds in the white robes of the Oriental; the enchanting landscape, with its groves of palm, orange, and pomegranate, its rippling waters, its fragrant exotics; the narrow streets covered with awnings to exclude the sun; the gay pavilions; the strange costumes of luxurious Asia and barbaric Africa; the mingled accents of a score of idioms, manifested on highway, thoroughfare, and plain the foreign influence which, apparently established forever, had obliterated the Roman and Gothic traditions of the Peninsula. No such spectacle could be elsewhere exhibited unless in countries where Eastern customs had held sway from time immemorial. The effect of these periodical assemblies upon the commercial, literary, and social life of Mohammedan Spain was of the highest importance.

Great as was its internal traffic, it was necessarily to its foreign mercantile connections that the Moorish empire looked for its most profitable returns. Its geographical position was unusually favorable for the prosecution of maritime enterprise. The Mediterranean gave its traders ready access to all the most civilized countries of the world. But a few hours’ sail separated them from the ports of Northern Africa, where were amassed the rich commodities of that vast continent. The Bay of Biscay afforded a passage for their vessels to the harbors of France and Britain. According to Edrisi, they explored Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores four hundred years before those islands were occupied by Europeans. Through the passes of the Pyrenees they could reach the markets of Northern Europe. Thus brought in contact with remote nations which had no other means of communication, the European Moors enjoyed peculiar commercial advantages which they were not slow to improve. The carrying trade of the Peninsula was largely in the hands of the Jews. The latter had been a lucrative source of revenue to the Goths, as they were subsequently to the persecuting Spaniards. They were the bankers, the importers, the carriers of the empire. They imparted a large share of their energy and enterprise to the Moslems, already envious of their success and their opulence. In the ninth century an extraordinary impetus was communicated to the intercourse with the Orient; in the tenth the merchants of Spain and Sicily practically engrossed the commerce of the Mediterranean. Every provision was made for both security and profit. Armed galleys patrolled the coasts and convoyed the fleets of merchantmen as they traversed the seas. The inland mercantile transactions of the Spanish Moslems were probably not inferior in importance to their maritime ventures. The discovery of innumerable coins and pieces of jewelry on the coast of Scandinavia and along the rivers of Germany and Poland indicates, more certainly than any historical record could do, the former presence of the adventurous traders of the Peninsula. The khalifs had consular agents in India, China, and Persia. They sent magnificent gifts to Oriental potentates. They negotiated treaties with the barbarian princes of Central Africa. Tribal hostility was forgotten in the mutual advantages arising from traffic with the Mussulman cities of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, and with the settlements of the Indian archipelago. Policy as well as interest confirmed the friendship early established between the Moslem sovereigns of Spain and the Greek emperors of Constantinople. They exchanged presents, despatched special embassies, received the representatives of imperial dignity and hostile faith with every demonstration of honor and respect. The exclusive commercial privileges enjoyed by the merchants of the two empires gave them a vast superiority over all competitors. Colonies of foreign Christians who occupied quarters by themselves and were governed by their own laws were established in all the seaports and in many of the inland cities. The number of these in Granada at the time of the Conquest was twenty-five thousand, the majority of whom were Italians. The traders of the Bosphorus were frequently seen at the fairs of Castile; the great houses of Almeria and Barcelona maintained agencies in the Byzantine capital which controlled the rich commerce of the Euxine and the Baltic.

In the great markets of the East and West the choicest articles of luxury passed through the hands of the shrewd and enterprising dealers of Mohammedan Spain. From the borders of the Arctic Circle came the precious furs of the lynx, the fox, and the ermine, the least valuable of which was worth a hundred dinars; from Norway and Siberia stores of fossil ivory; from Arabia balsams and aromatics; from Germany honey and wax; from the countries of the Baltic mastic, storax, and amber; from China tea and porcelain; from Ethiopia gold-dust and asbestos; from Persia perfumes; from India spices and sandalwood; from Sweden and Finland female slaves with faultless complexions and flaxen tresses, whose ordinary price in the bazaars of Cairo and Cordova was a thousand pieces of gold. The Jews and the monks of France, adepts in an execrable occupation, provided the harems with white eunuchs. Timbuctoo and the districts of the Niger contributed blacks of gigantic proportions and ferocious aspect, to be enrolled in the body-guard of the khalifs. The hawks, so generally used in the sport of the Middle Ages, were for the most part bred or furnished by the Moslem merchants. They also imported from Africa wild animals, such as lions, giraffes, and leopards, for zoological collections and for sale in distant countries. A lion in the markets of China was valued at thirty thousand rolls of silk. The camel, easily domesticated in Andalusia, always commanded a high price as a beast of burden. The principal emporiums of mediæval commerce and international exchange, where were collected the most valuable products of a hundred kingdoms, all of which paid tribute to Moorish enterprise and wealth, were Constantinople, Alexandria, Malaga, and Palermo.

The great centres of manufacturing and mercantile activity were situated on the Mediterranean. Of these, Almeria was the most important. From the extreme East, from the Nubian deserts, from the coast of Guinea, from distant Britain, from the frozen regions of the North, traders crowded her streets and markets. In her harbor were to be encountered the ships of every maritime nation. Her eight hundred silk factories, employing more than eight thousand looms, sent forth gold and silver tissues, carpets, curtains, robes,—whose delicate texture and exquisite designs excelled the finest products of the Orient. The iron and copper utensils made by her artisans enjoyed an extensive reputation for durability and finish. The influx of strangers who contributed to her wealth and shared her hospitality may be conjectured from the fact that nine hundred and seventy caravansaries within her walls were registered to pay the excise on wine.

At Malaga, another great seaport, were situated the largest potteries in Andalusia, where was manufactured the porcelain whose surface of enamelled gold, silver, and copper was due to a process known only to the Arabs of Spain. The clay found in the vicinity was peculiarly adapted to the purposes of the potter, and had centuries before assumed the symmetrical forms of classic elegance under the dexterous hands of the Roman. The efforts of antiquity had, however, been surpassed by the Moors, who in time brought this industry to a perfection heretofore unknown. In other towns, such as Valencia, Murcia, Murviedro, and Calatayud, it was also pursued with great success. The resources of modern ingenuity have been taxed in vain to discover the secret which could give to a porcelain vase the peculiar finish which, while preserving unchanged the colors of the metals, increased far more than any burnishing could effect the lustre of its brilliant surface. In no city in the world, excepting those of China, was the fabrication of porcelain pursued with such skill and profit as at Malaga. Its exportation was one of the most lucrative sources of wealth enjoyed by the kingdom of Granada. With the people, this industrial pursuit was not merely a vulgar trade carried on for mercenary motives, but an occupation which permitted and encouraged the development of the highest scientific and artistic instincts of humanity. The vases of graceful form and exquisite decoration which came from the Malagan potteries were eagerly sought after by the opulent and luxurious of every land. The perfection of this branch of the ceramic art with the secret of the metallic enamel disappeared with the final conquest of the city. This fact is not in itself remarkable, for the advent of the Spanish domination was signalized by the destruction of many forms of useful industry; but it is absolutely unprecedented that a manufacture of such magnitude, whose extent and perfection were established by so many indisputable proofs, should not have left intact to posterity a single specimen of its excellence. There is not positively known to be a genuine piece of the famous metallic pottery of Malaga in existence. Some fragments have been found in that city, whose glassy surface displayed the brilliant lustre which excited the wonder of contemporaneous nations; but no European museum or private collection, it is almost certain, now possesses an article which exhibits this marked peculiarity, or whose origin, with any degree of probability, can be assigned to the greatest centre of the ceramic art in the mediæval world.

Not for the fabrication of silks and pottery alone was Malaga famous. Her glass and paper, her utensils of iron and copper, the complex and elegant labors of her cabinet-makers and joiners, also enjoyed a wide and deserved celebrity.

The use of metals as a means of ornamentation was also frequently applied to leather. This was for the most part made at Cordova, whose products were conceded to be of superior quality, and commanded the highest price in every market. Some of the tanning vats, huge vessels of terra-cotta, in which this material was prepared, are still to be seen in Spain. The leathern hangings produced in the capital were justly ranked among the most important of its numerous manufactures. By some ingenious process the skins were rendered as soft and pliable as the finest cloth, and were then decorated in accordance with the canons of Arabic taste, which, without offending the eye with glaring contrasts, could blend in harmony the richest tints and the sheen of the brightest metals. The gold and silver were applied with stamps; the colors were laid on with the brush; and the gorgeous designs produced an almost magical effect when viewed amidst the varied magnificence of a Moorish palace. This art, like that of the metallic glaze of porcelain, also appears to be irretrievably lost. The torn and faded fragments of ornamented leather which have descended to us prove not only the durability and excellence of the material, but indicate a skill beside which the efforts of the most accomplished modern bookbinders seem clumsy in comparison. It was often impressed with colored figures in relief, which added greatly to its beauty, imparting to it the appearance of brocade. The finer grades were perfumed with amber. The artisans of Cordova also excelled in the carving and engraving of vessels of silver and gold.

The manufacture of silk at Seville gave employment to a hundred and sixty thousand weavers, a number of whom were employed in the fabrication of the stuff called tiraz, whose use was a royal prerogative. Xativa was long the seat of the first paper factory in Europe,—that substance whose invention has contributed so greatly to the dissemination of knowledge and the progress of civilization. For ages known to the Chinese, the Arabs substituted linen, and finally cotton, for the silk which had been employed in the Celestial empire. Its introduction by the Spanish Moors into Europe is indisputable, a manuscript of cotton paper dating from the eleventh century having been discovered in the library of the Escorial. Although used at Mecca in 710, it was practically unknown in Europe until the fifteenth century, and was not manufactured in London before 1690. The extraordinary impulse imparted to letters by the khalifs, the countless volumes contained in the imperial libraries, the transcriptions of rare manuscripts, and the constant publication of new works for whose composition, if possessed of merit, incredible premiums were paid, must have caused an immense consumption of paper. A profession held in such honor, and whose productions were rewarded with such munificence, naturally attracted to its ranks the noble and the learned of every Moslem nation; and especially was this the case in the Peninsula, where the highest literary advantages were enjoyed even by families of humble rank; and where education among all classes was not only a religious duty, but a stigma attached to its neglect. In consequence of this, literary pursuits became not only a fashion but a pleasure; a correct taste was formed; popular emulation was aroused; the manufacture of books was multiplied; and the palaces of the rich, irrespective of their nationality, were filled with collections which would have provoked the astonishment of a learned “clerk” of France or Britain, whose superiority over his parishioners consisted in his ability to write an illegible scrawl and to intone the service—whose meaning he often did not comprehend, and the application of whose teachings was a matter of conjecture—in a barbarous jargon of monkish Latin. Care for the preservation, and facilities for the purchase, of these literary treasures kept pace with their original production. Binding in leather was perfectly understood, and the elaborately decorated cases in which the volumes were often enclosed were deposited upon shelves of aromatic and precious woods, such as cedar, aloe, ebony, and sandal.

The change from the roll of the ancients to the square form of books now used dates from the middle of the fifth century. The art had already reached a high degree of perfection before the establishment of Islamism. Its best efforts were originally, as might be conjectured, confined to works on sacred subjects. Bindings enriched with ivory, gems, cameos, medallions, and clasps of the precious metals were adorned with the utmost skill of the goldsmith and the lapidary. The Arabs, and especially those of Spain,—the seat of the greatest culture of the race,—excelled in this art, as in all others to which they diligently applied their talents and their industry. The superiority of their materials, the beauty of their designs, the brilliancy of their colors, and the profusion of their ornamentation were proverbial. The value of their covers caused the disappearance and mutilation of great numbers of works, now either entirely lost or existing only in a fragmentary condition. At the sack of Cordova, the Berbers used the leather of priceless volumes for sandals. The Castilian invader stripped others of their gold and jewels and contemptuously cast the manuscripts away. The magnificence of those sacrificed to the malignant energy of Ximenes in the destruction of Moslem learning at Granada only intensified the prejudice existing against Arabic literature in the mind of every ignorant and infuriated bigot of the time.

The trade in books held a high rank in the commercial world; its profits corresponded with its mercantile importance; and in the time of Al-Hakem II. the booksellers in Cordova alone numbered more than twenty thousand.

The various kinds of textile fabrics manufactured by the Spanish Arabs embraced every species of stuffs and every style of pattern. In addition to silk, the fine merino wools of Lusitania and the cotton and flax for which Andalusia was long famous furnished to the weaver supplies of raw material unsurpassed in strength and delicacy of fibre. Silk introduced into Spain by the Moors had for centuries been known to the inhabitants of Yemen, who had become familiar with it through their trade with China. Its use was forbidden to men by Mohammed, in whose time it was a mark of effeminacy; but this prohibition was constantly and systematically evaded by the artifice of mingling a few threads of wool or cotton in the web of the fabric. Essentially an article of luxury, the amount consumed in the Peninsula indicated the prosperous condition of a society which could afford to purchase in such quantities a material that in many countries commanded extravagant prices. As an article of export none was more in demand or more profitable. The broad and discerning government of the khalifs, which, in accordance with the true principles of political economy, promoted every important branch of commerce, regarded its culture and manufacture with peculiar favor. It was by an especial provision of the law exempted from taxation. They encouraged by bounties the planting of mulberry-trees. In addition to the incredible numbers of these to be encountered in the valleys of Granada, Valencia, and Almeria, the city of Jaen, whose climate and situation were remarkably propitious to the rearing of silk-worms, was the centre of three thousand hamlets devoted to this lucrative industry. While in Spain silk was a common material for the apparel of the rich, elsewhere in Europe it was one of the rarest of commodities and a commercial curiosity. It formed part of the most precious booty of the Crusaders. Relics were enclosed in its folds as the most costly of fabrics. It was spread upon the altars of noble cathedrals. Monarchs were delighted with the possession of a small piece of a stuff which for generations had filled the shops and furnished the wardrobes of wealthy citizens of Granada, Cordova, and Seville.

By the cultivation of a single branch of manufactures in a particular locality, the subjects of the khalif, profiting by experience, by the transmission of hereditary talent to successive generations, by the improvement in mechanical processes which from time to time spontaneously suggested themselves, attained in many departments of industry to an almost unprecedented degree of dexterity. Water-power was used to drive machinery in all the Andalusian manufacturing centres; in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella looms were still operated by means of it at Cordova. Nearly every city was noted for a specialty in whose fabrication it excelled. The armorers of Seville were famous for their coats of mail and armor inlaid and embossed with gold. The swords of Toledo were considered unapproachable for the elegance of their chasing, the keenness of their edge, and the fineness of their temper. At Almeria were made articles of gilded and decorated glass, the method of whose manufacture, carried by the Moors to Italy, is now possessed in its perfection by the Venetians alone. The superiority of the woollens of Cuenca and the cottons of Beja was undisputed. Bocayrente produced a linen fabric of gossamer lightness, which resembled the meshes of a spider’s web in strength and in delicacy. The carpets of Murcia had no equals except in Persia. The silken gauzes and sumptuous caparisons of Granada were sent as presents to kings. In its Alcaiceria, or Silk Market, were two hundred shops for the exclusive sale of that staple. It is said that in this beautiful city edifices built for the transaction of business resembled palaces in their splendor. Its tapestries and brocades were wonderful specimens of the weaver’s skill, and their designs were subsequently used as models by the artisans of Italy and France. There also were made exquisite enamels and vases of rock-crystal. The Moorish jewellers of Granada were the most celebrated in Europe. Among the specimens of their handiwork is mentioned a necklace containing four hundred pearls, each worth a hundred and fifty dinars. Alicante enjoyed a monopoly in its mats and baskets of esparto, that tough African grass, whose employment dates from the occupation of Iberia by the Carthaginians, and whose manifold uses are so admirably adapted to the requirements of a tropical climate. The mills of Saragossa and Murcia, built upon boats moored over the rapid currents of the Ebro and the Guadalaviar, were renowned for the excellent character of their flour. The drug-market of Lorca was universally resorted to by physicians, aware that their reputation depended on the purity of the medicines they administered and relying upon the official supervision of the government as a sufficient guaranty of their excellence. No such organized and co-operative system for the production of commodities and fabrics had at that time been adopted by any other nation in the world. The founder’s art, particularly exemplified in the casting of ponderous pieces of metal, was practised with a surprising degree of skill. Cordova contained at least one establishment of this description, where were made the figures for the decoration of the fountains at Medina-al-Zahrâ. The usual difficulties attending the even distribution of the molten metal during the operation of casting seem to have been entirely overcome in the examples to be met with in the museums of Europe, and the results appear to have been as complete and satisfactory as in the perfected processes of the present day.

In every department of scientific labor, in every practical operation of life demanding a high degree of mechanical skill, the Spanish Moor exhibited on all occasions a precocious and remarkable ingenuity. There was no field too extensive, no detail too insignificant, to be investigated by his enterprising genius. The marvellous scope of his powers was the greatest factor of his success. Like the famous English philosopher, he seemed to have “taken all knowledge to be his province.” His intellectual faculties grasped and utilized in an instant conceptions that individuals of other nations would have, and, in fact, often did, cast aside with contempt. The pioneer of modern progress, the permanent traces he has left upon civilization, and his salutary customs, adopted by posterity in defiance of popular odium and traditional prejudice, are unwilling tributes of national and ecclesiastical hostility to the talents and greatness of an accomplished people to whom history is indebted for the sole bright spot on the dark map of mediæval Europe.

For the commodities of European convenience and Oriental luxury were bartered innumerable products of Moorish agriculture, mining enterprise, and manufacturing skill,—the oils, the fruits, the sugar, the rice, the cotton, of Andalusia and Valencia; cochineal, which abounded in many parts of the Peninsula; the antimony and quicksilver of Estremadura; the rubies, amethysts, and pearls of Alicante and Carthagena; the linens of Salamanca; the woollens of Segovia; the silks of Granada; the damasks of Almeria; the blades and armor of Seville and Toledo. The product of the paper-mills of Xativa, famous throughout the East, was annually exported in large quantities. Malaga disposed of the most of its exquisite ceramic manufactures in Syria and Constantinople. From Cordova came the enamelled leather, long famous from the name of the Ommeyade capital. The horses of the Hispano-Arab breed were transported in great numbers even as far as Persia. In the kingdom of Granada a hundred thousand were regularly maintained for the use of the crown. Andalusia enjoyed an infamous celebrity as the principal market for eunuchs in the world. The supply came from France, Galicia, and Barbary, through the medium of Christian and Hebrew dealers, by whose instrumentality, also, these unfortunates were prepared for the humiliating service of the seraglio. Vast multitudes of other slaves, the produce of foray and conquest, were also disposed of from time to time; a single expedition of Al-Mansur conveyed to Cordova nine thousand Christian captives. Thus, exclusive of other booty, prisoners of war were a source of constant and enormous revenue to the state.

The natural resources of Sicily and its fortunate position, as the entrepôt of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, were the means of enriching its people beyond that of any territory of equal area known in any age. The harbors of Palermo and Syracuse were constantly crowded with shipping. Sicilian merchantmen were to be encountered in every European port; they brought cargoes of slaves, ivory, and gold-dust from the coast of Guinea; they traversed the canal of Suez,—reopened by the Egyptian khalifs,—and, braving the tempests of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, penetrated to the Spice Islands of the far distant East. The intimate relations of the Moorish princes of Sicily with the khalifs of Cordova and the Byzantine emperors placed within reach of their merchants every article of popular research and commercial value. In exchange for these, they exported the vegetable and mineral productions of the island,—cotton, hemp, grapes, oranges, sugar, wine, and oil; copper, lead, iron, and mercury; rock-salt, sal-ammoniac, and vitriol; cattle and horses; and the shell-fish from which was extracted the Tyrian purple. The profits of this extensive commerce were naturally productive of enormous wealth; the warehouses of the Sicilian cities were crowded with valuable merchandise of every conceivable description; the houses of the Palermitan merchants rivalled the palaces of sovereigns; and the people in effeminacy and voluptuousness, in no respect surpassed by the inhabitants of ancient Sybaris, were proverbial for their opulence, their refinement, their extravagance, and their luxury.

It will appear from the foregoing observations that the energy manifested by the European Moslems in mercantile pursuits was fully equal to their industrial and literary activity. In neither the ancient nor the mediæval world did any nation—excepting the Phœnicians—approach the Spanish and the Sicilian Arabs in craft, in foresight, in enterprise, in accuracy of judgment, in that singleness of purpose which is indispensable to success. Their Midas touch turned everything to gold. They were familiar with Oriental countries at a period when the very existence of the latter was unknown to Europe or was considered fabulous. The number of shops for the sale of merchandise which existed in the great cities indicated the immensity of the traffic of which they were the centres; of these Cordova contained more than eighty thousand. The rules which governed the transactions of commercial intercourse in the markets of the Peninsula were so simple, convenient, and equitable that they were subsequently adopted by many other nations. The learned French writer, Sédillot, is authority for the statement that Europe has borrowed from the Arabs some of its most important principles of finance as well as its present code of maritime law.

To the Moslems we owe the adaptation of the magnetic needle to the purposes of navigation, an invention long erroneously attributed to the sailors of Amalfi. Its peculiar properties, familiar for ages to the Chinese, were probably communicated by them to the Arabs. Originally inserted in a cork and permitted to float on the surface of water, the Moors were the first to mount it on a pivot, thereby vastly increasing its utility and accuracy. They were evidently acquainted with it before the twelfth century, as Arab writers of that epoch allude without comment to the compass as an instrument perfectly familiar to the seamen of the Mediterranean. To the Mussulman the magnet possessed a threefold significance and value. It guided his vessel across the trackless waters independently of the appearance of the stars. It indicated unerringly the course of the caravan in the Desert, constantly menaced by the perils of thirst and of the simoom. And it enabled the pious worshipper, however distant from the Mosque of Mecca, to ascertain in an instant the point to which he should direct his face during the hours of prayer.

The laborious and exhaustive investigations of Reinand, Favé, Le Bon, and Viardot have demonstrated beyond dispute that the Arabs were the inventors of gunpowder and artillery. While it was admitted that these destructive agents were introduced into Europe by the Moors of Spain, their discovery was long universally ascribed to the Chinese. As a matter of fact, they were first made use of in Syria and Egypt, probably as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century. The primitive lombards of the Sultan of Egypt, which cast great balls of stone, terrified the army of St. Louis in 1249. Artillery was employed by the Moors, besieged in Niebla by Alfonso X., in 1257. According to Ibn-Khaldun, it was used by Abu-Yusuf, Emir of Morocco, at the siege of Sidjilmesa, in 1273. Ibn-al-Khatib says that cannon were made in Granada before 1300, and mentions Ibn-al-Hadj as famous for his skill in their manufacture. After that time they are frequently mentioned by the Spanish historians of the Reconquest. Their first appearance in the wars of France was in 1338. The Earls of Salisbury and Derby, who served in the army of Alfonso XI., before Algeziras, in 1342, carried the knowledge of the invention to England four years before the battle of Crecy, an epoch which marks its general adoption in Europe. Considering the immense military superiority which we should naturally attribute to a people exclusively acquainted with the formula for the manufacture of gunpowder and experienced in its application to fire-arms, it is remarkable that this enormous power was not more profitably utilized by the Spanish Arabs, who possessed it a century before the portentous secret became known to the nations of Christendom.

Among the Moslems, the operations of war were rarely carried on according to a definite plan. Military service was not merely a matter of patriotism or loyalty, it was a religious duty imposed by his faith upon every Mussulman, and from which only the infirm and the aged were exempt. As of old in the Desert, each clan marched under its hereditary commander. In important campaigns the army was marshalled in five grand divisions, symbolical of the five cardinal precepts of Islam, an arrangement by which the valor of the warrior was strengthened by the stimulus of fanatical zeal. The Koran was always in sight, either borne like a standard on the point of a lance or held in the hand of the general, as he directed the manœuvres of the field. There was no regular attempt at organization. The troops depended largely on the enemy for subsistence. The cavalry were generally clad in mail; the infantry were, as a rule, little better than a half-armed rabble. If repulsed at the first onset, it was almost impossible to rally a Moslem army.