A History of Spain Part 4

[Sidenote: Social cla.s.ses in Moslem Spain.]

Although the differences in social status were much the same in Moslem Spain as in other parts of Europe, there were added complications, owing to the differences of race and religion. There were the usual gradations of aristocracy, freemen, freedmen, and slaves, but the real aristocracy was the Arabic. This was nearly destroyed in the time of Abd-er-Rahman III, and a new aristocracy of soldiers and merchants took its place.

Prior to that time both the Arabic and Berber n.o.bility had gone on increasing their holdings until they had attained vast estates, and it was perhaps on this account that they lived for the most part in the country, leaving the cities to the Renegados and "Mozarabes," as the Christians living under Moslem rule were called. The Renegados were an especially important element in the population, both industrially and intellectually, but were despised by the other groups; indeed, many were descendants of slaves. The Mozarabes usually lived in a separate district, and were allowed to govern themselves to some extent, having law courts and some administrative officials of their own. In daily life they mixed freely with the Moslem population. The old differences between the Hispano-Roman and Visigothic Christians were maintained for a time, but seem at length to have pa.s.sed away. The Mozarabes were allowed to retain their Christian wors.h.i.+p, and as a rule were not persecuted, although frequently insulted by lower cla.s.s Moslems. Late in the ninth century, especially in the reign of Mahomet I, there was a period of persecution, caused very largely by the excessive zeal of some of the Christians. The law inflicted the penalty of death on anybody who publicly cursed the founder of the Mohammedan faith, wherefore a number of Christians, already exasperated by certain harsh measures of the emir, began to seek martyrdom by cursing the prophet. A Christian church council disapproved of this practice, but it continued and was later sanctioned by the church, which canonized many of the martyrs. The Jews were another important element, not only in administration, but also in commerce and in general culture. Cordova became the world's centre for Jewish theological studies. In all of this period the Jews were well treated.

[Sidenote: Status of women.]

A Mohammedan was allowed to have as many as four wives and a greater number of concubines, all together forming the particular individual's harem. The wives were subject to their husbands, but were not without rights. The first wife was privileged to forbid her husband's taking concubines or additional wives without her consent, although it is doubtful if the right was generally exercised. Possibly a wife's most important powers were those having to do with property, coupled with her privilege of bringing suit at law without the previous consent of her husband. Children of legally taken concubines, even if the latter were slaves, were held to be legitimate and free. Women enjoyed more liberty than they are commonly supposed to have had, being privileged, for example, to visit freely with their relatives. The Arabs were very fond of music and dancing, and took delight in licentious poetry. Not a little of the pleasure-loving character of this race survives today in southern Spain.

[Sidenote: Methods of warfare.]

[Sidenote: Moslem law.]

Much has been said already with regard to the general administration of the Moslem realm, which was not greatly different from that of the Visigothic kingdom preceding it. As for the Moslem armies they were not so superior in organization when they entered Spain as their rapid conquests might lead one to suppose. They were nothing more than tribal levies, each group marching with its chief as leader. Campaigns were also managed in a somewhat haphazard fas.h.i.+on, for the Moslem troops went forth to war when the tasks of harvest time did not require their presence at home. Many expeditions were made with no idea of military conquest; rather they were for the sake of destroying an enemy's crops or securing plunder, after which the army would return, satisfied with what it had done. The Moslem rulers gradually began to surround themselves with special troops, and, finally, Almansor abolished the tribal levy, and formed regiments without regard to tribe. As for Moslem law the Koran was at the same time a book of holy writ and one of civil law. This was supplemented by the legislation of the caliphs, but there was always more or less confusion between law and religion. There was never a formal code.

[Sidenote: Religion in Moslem Spain.]

Attention has already been called to the difference in the religious fervor of the Moslem tribes. Many of the Arabs even went so far as to deny the existence of G.o.d, although the vast body of them, perhaps, were indifferentists. The Berbers and the ma.s.s of the people generally were very enthusiastic Mohammedans, so that it was unsafe to express one's opinions contrary to the faith or even to engage openly in certain philosophical studies, for these were regarded as heretical. Among the religious themselves there were varying interpretations of the Koran and differences of rite. Religious toleration existed to such an extent that not only were the Mozarabes allowed to retain their churches, their priesthood, and their councils, but also some of their holy days were celebrated by Christians and Moslems alike. There was one instance where the same building served as a Mohammedan mosque and a Christian church.

Christian clergymen from foreign lands frequently visited Moslem Spain, while native churchmen went forth from the caliphate to travel in the Christian countries, returning later to the peninsula.

[Sidenote: The wealth of Cordova.]

[Sidenote: Economic prosperity.]

In the tenth century Moslem Spain came to be one of the richest and most populous lands in Europe. The wealth of Cordova was astounding, although some allowance has to be made for the exaggerations of the chroniclers.

At one time the Moslem capital was said to have 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, and 900 bath-houses, besides many public buildings. It was well paved, had magnificent bridges across the Guadalquivir, and contained numerous palaces of the caliphs and other great functionaries. The most famous of all was that of Az-Zahra, which was a palace and town in one, erected by Abd-er-Rahman III for one of his wives. The great mosque of Cordova, which is in use today as a Catholic cathedral, was equally luxurious. This was begun in the reign of Abd-er-Rahman I, and was continued and enlarged by later Moslem rulers. It came to have nineteen aisles one way, and thirty another, with twenty-one gates, and 1293 columns of porphyry and jasper with gilded capitals. In its adornment it was a wealth of marble, silver, and precious stones. Travellers came to Cordova from all parts of the world, but it is worthy of note as an evidence of the lack of complete security, even in the greatest days of the caliphate, that it was the practice to come in great bodies, for the roads were infested with bandits. One measure of the advance of Moslem Spain is in the revenues of the government, which were eighteen times greater in the reign of Abd-er-Rahman III than they were in the reign of Abd-er-Rahman I.[16] This wealth depended on economic well-being, which was especially in evidence in the tenth century. The Arabs were not innovators in agriculture, but they had already learned much from others, and they a.s.similated Hispano-Roman and Mozarabic methods, with the result that Spain became richer in this regard than she had ever been before. They introduced rice, sugar, and several other products which had not previously been cultivated in Spain, and made use of irrigation in Granada, Murcia, and Valencia. Stock-raising, mining, and manufacturing were also extensively carried on. As a natural result of all this activity there was a like development of commerce. The princ.i.p.al part of Abd-er-Rahman III's revenues proceeded from import and export duties. It is worthy of note that there was a considerable traffic not only in slaves but also in women,--such was Arabic character. Seville was perhaps the most important port. Through the medium of commerce Spain came into close contact with the Moslem East and with the Byzantine Greeks. As a result of the mathematical problems involved in trade it is believed that the Arabs introduced into Europe the very important cipher, or zero, which they on their part had received from India.

[Sidenote: Languages.]

[Sidenote: Education.]

Not only Arabic and Latin but many other languages as well were spoken in Moslem Spain; the Berber, for example, was independent of either of the two first-named. Despite the predominatingly Latin character of the eventual Spanish tongue the Arabic influence upon it was great,--not so much in words as in forms and idioms of speech. There were Moslem schools of a private character, but there was no public school system.

The caliphs often brought learned men to their court, but it was the religious who more than any others devoted themselves to education.

There were few Moslems who could not read or write, and in this respect Spain was in advance of the rest of western Europe. Women, far from being excluded from education, were taught the same branches as the men, and often became notable both in literature and in scientific studies.

[Sidenote: Intellectual achievements.]

[Sidenote: The fine arts.]

[Sidenote: Narrow streets.]

The Arabs introduced the industrially manufactured paper of the orient instead of using the parchment or papyrus of the Romans. This greatly lowered the cost of books, and led to an increase in productivity, facilitating both literary and scientific studies. Although philosophy and astronomy were so strongly opposed by the common people and the priestly cla.s.s of the Moslems that their study was at times forbidden by the government,[17] they were a fruitful topic in the education and researches of the upper cla.s.ses. One of the greatest glories of Arabic civilization was the transmission of Greek culture to western Europe, for the Arabs had become acquainted with the works of the Greeks, while western Europe had almost completely forgotten them. Nevertheless, Moslem Spain was to be more important in this respect in the period following the downfall of the caliphate. Mathematics and medicine did not meet with popular and religious opposition, and in both of these sciences the Arabs achieved notable results. Polite literature, however, and especially poetry, was the most favored intellectual medium. Poetry had been cultivated by the Arabs while they were yet in their crude tribal stage. It was not unusual for challenges to personal combat or declarations of war to be written in poetry. Books of science, even, made their appearance in verse, and the improvisation of poetry was a general practice. The most favored subject-matter ill.u.s.trates a p.r.o.nounced trait in Arabic character, for amorous themes of an immoral order accorded best with Arabic taste. The Spanish Moslems were not notable in painting and sculpture, but distinguished themselves in architecture and the industrial arts. Perhaps the most important feature of their cultivation of these arts was the introduction of Byzantine influences. They made use of the dome and of the elaborate decoration of flat surfaces (especially of walls) with arabesques, so named because of their profuse employment in Arabic work. In addition they painted their buildings in brilliant and variegated colors. They rarely built in stone, preferring brick, plaster, and adobe. The mosque was the princ.i.p.al example of their architecture. In that and in their civil edifices they made use of one feature, not unlike that of the Roman house, which has survived in Spain,--the enclosed court, or _patio_, surrounded by arcades, with a fountain in the centre. Streets were narrow, both with a view to provide shade against the heat of the sun, and also because of the necessities of s.p.a.ce, so that the city might be contained within its walls.

CHAPTER VI

CHRISTIAN SPAIN IN THE MOSLEM PERIOD, 711-1035

[Sidenote: Fitful character of the Christian reconquest.]

One of the popular misconceptions of the Moslem period in the history of Spain is that the Christians began a holy war almost from the time of the Moslem invasion, and continued to gain in fervor and in power, step by step, until at length they took Granada in 1492. In fact religious enthusiasm and national conquest alike were fitful and spasmodic, and very little progress was made in the period of the emirs and caliphs.

[Sidenote: The kingdom of Asturias.]

[Sidenote: Covadonga.]

It has usually been held, although the matter is in dispute, that the Visigoths resisted the invaders continuously at only one point in Spain,--in Asturias. In the mountains of Asturias there gathered various n.o.bles of the centre and south of Spain, a number of bishops, and the remains of the defeated Christian armies, and, aided perhaps by the natives of that land, they prepared to make a stand against the Moslems.

On the news of the death of Roderic they elected a certain Pelayo as his successor, and it is this king who is customarily regarded as the founder of the Spanish monarchy. Pelayo fixed his capital at Cangas de Onis, and is believed to have maintained amicable relations with the Moslems for a while, perhaps paying them tribute, and possibly even making a visit to Cordova. Hostilities broke out again, however, and in the year 718 Pelayo and his partisans won a victory in the valley of Covadonga. Coming as it did after several years of defeats this achievement attained to a renown which was far greater than the merits of the actual battle, and in later years legendary accounts made the combat itself a.s.sume extraordinary proportions. It has usually been taken as marking the beginning of the Christian reconquests, and it is said that Pelayo became king in consequence of the battle, when in fact he was elected several years before. The battle of Covadonga did secure eastern Asturias to the Christians, which was its immediate result.

Aside from that tiny kingdom there is no proof that there were any independent Christian states in Spain, although it is probable that there were several in the other mountainous parts of the north.

[Sidenote: The advance of the Asturian frontier.]

Since the invaders respected the religion and customs of the conquered, the war of the Christian kingdom of Asturias against them did not at first have a religious or even a racial character. It was a war of the n.o.bles and clergy for the reconquest of their landed estates and of the king for the restoration of his royal authority over the peninsula. The little Asturian kingdom was like the old Visigothic state in miniature; for example, there were the struggles between the n.o.bility and the crown for precisely the same objects as formerly. For a century the history of Asturias reduced itself primarily to these quarrels. Nevertheless, the Moslem frontier tended to withdraw from the far northwest, not that the Moslems were forced out by the Christians, but possibly because their own civil wars drew them together in the centre and south, or because their numbers were not great enough to make them seek the less desirable lands in the northwest. The frontier became fixed south of the Douro along a line running through Coimbra, Coria, Talavera, Toledo, Guadalajara, and Pamplona, although the last-named place was not long retained. It cannot be said that the Christians took a conscious offensive until the eleventh century. In this period, despite the internal dissension of the Moslem state, the Christian frontier did not pa.s.s the Guadarrama Mountains even at the most favorable moments, leaving Aragon and central and southern Spain in the enemy's hands. The line of the Douro was far from being held consistently,--as witness the conquests of Abd-er-Rahman III and Almansor.

[Sidenote: Alfonso I and Alfonso II.]

[Sidenote: Santiago de Compostela.]

The only notable kings of Asturias in the century following the death of Pelayo (737) were Alfonso I "the Catholic" (739-757) and Alfonso II "the Chaste" (791-842). Both made successful campaigns against the Moslems, although their princ.i.p.al importance was that they brought back many Mozarabes from the temporarily conquered regions, and these helped to populate the north. To a.s.sure his power Alfonso II sought an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, and with his son, Louis the Pious. It is this which gave rise to the legend of Bernardo del Carpio, who is said to have compelled the king to forbear making treaties with foreign rulers which lowered the dignity of the Spanish people. Some writers have found in this supposed incident (for the figure of Bernardo is a later invention) an awakening sense of nationalism, but it seems rather to reflect the traditional att.i.tude of the n.o.bility lest the king become too strong for them, for real patriotism did not exist. The two Alfonsos did much to reorganize their kingdom internally, and Alfonso the Chaste moved the capital to Oviedo. In his reign, too, there occurred a religious event of great importance,--the finding of what was believed to be the tomb and body of the apostle Santiago (Saint James) in northwestern Galicia. The site was made the seat of a bishopric, and a village grew up there, named Santiago de Compostela. Compostela became a leading political and industrial factor in the Christian northwest, but was far more important as a holy place of the first grade, ranking with Jerusalem, Rome, and Loreto. Thenceforth, bands of pilgrims not only from Spain but also from all parts of the Christian world came to visit the site, and, through them, important outside influences began to filter into Spain. More noteworthy still was the use of the story of the miraculous discovery to fire the Christian warriors with enthusiasm in their battles against the Moslems, especially at a later period, when the war entered upon more of a crusading phase.

[Sidenote: Beginnings of Navarre and Aragon.]

The people of the mountains of Navarre were of Basque race, and seem to have maintained a more or less unorganized freedom from political subjection for many years before a definite state was formed. They opposed both the Frankish kings and the Moslem emirs, and for a long time the former were their princ.i.p.al enemy. At length they established their independence of both. In these wars the kingdom of Navarre almost certainly had its origin, but at an uncertain date. Tradition makes Inigo Arista one of the early kings, or chiefs, but the first name definitely to appear is that of Sancho Garcia in the tenth century (905-925). The founding of an independent state in Aragon was due to the same causes; indeed, Aragon and Navarre were a.s.signed a common origin in the legends of the period. Aragon was absorbed by Navarre, however, possibly toward the end of the tenth century.

[Sidenote: Origin of the Catalan counties.]

Catalonia had been overrun by the Moslems when they entered Spain, but between 785 and 811 the Frankish kings were able to reconquer that region, establis.h.i.+ng a province there which they called the Spanish Mark. This section was at first ruled by a number of counts, independent of each other, but subject to the kings of the Franks. Catalan submission to the latter did not endure through the ninth century.

Wifredo, count of Barcelona, is believed to have established his independence as early as 874, although that event is doubtful; at any rate the separation from the Frankish kingdom was not much longer delayed. Each count was lord unto himself, although the counts of Barcelona were recognized as the greatest among them. Indeed, in the entire breadth of northern Spain each unit labored for its own selfish ends. Christians fought Moslems, but also fought other Christians. Owing to the disorder of the Moslem realm, however, the Catalan counts, like the other Christian rulers, were able to make some territorial gains.

[Sidenote: Two centuries of scant progress in Asturias.]

[Sidenote: The independence of Castile.]

[Sidenote: Sancho the Fat.]

For nearly two centuries after the death of Alfonso II, or until the fall of the Moslem caliphate, very little progress was made by the kings of Oviedo and Leon, which latter city had become the capital of the Christian kingdom in the northwest early in the tenth century. There was a marked opposition between the Asturian-Leonese and the Galician parts of the realm, and the Galician n.o.bles maintained almost continuous war with the kings. Similarly the counts of the frontier often acted like petty sovereigns, or even joined with the Moslems against their own compatriots. So, too, there were contests for the throne, and neither side hesitated to call in Moslem aid. Some kings achieved conquests of temporary moment against the Moslems; for example, Alfonso III "the Great" (866-909) added considerably to his territories in a period of marked weakness in the caliphate, but was obliged to abdicate when his sons and even his wife joined in rebellion against him; the kingdom was then divided among three sons, who took respectively Leon, Galicia and Lusitania, and Asturias, leaving to the king the town of Zamora alone.

Then followed the caliphate of Abd-er-Rahman III, when the Christian kingdoms, except Galicia, were most of the time subject in fact to the Moslem state, although allowed to govern themselves. To the usual quarrels there was added a new separatist tendency, more serious than that of Galicia had been. This proceeded from the eastern part of the kingdom in a region which came to be called Castile because of the numerous castles there, due to its situation on the Moslem frontier. The counts of Castile, centering around Burgos, had repeatedly declined to obey the kings of Oviedo and Leon,--for example, when they were called to serve in the royal armies. During the reign of Ramiro II (930-950), Count Fernan Gonzalez united the Castilians under his standard, and after repeated wars was able to make Castile independent of the king of Leon. The reign of Sancho "the Fat" is typical of the times. Sancho became king of Leon in 955, but was soon dethroned by his n.o.bles, who alleged among other things that because of his corpulence he cut a ridiculous figure as a king. Sancho went to the court of Abd-er-Rahman III, and got not only a cure for fatness but also a Moslem army. Aided, too, by the Christian kingdom of Navarre he was able to regain his throne. He had promised to deliver certain cities and castles to the caliph, but did not do so until compelled to by the next caliph, Hakem.

Civil wars between the n.o.bles and the crown continued, and many of the former joined with Moslem Almansor in his victorious campaigns against their coreligionists and their king.

[Sidenote: Advance of the Christian states in the early eleventh century.]

[Sidenote: Sancho the Great.]

When the caliphate began to totter, following the deaths of Almansor and Abdul Malik, the Christian kings returned to the conquest. Alfonso V (994-1027) of Leon and his uncle Sancho "the Great" (970-1035) of Navarre pushed their frontiers southward, Alfonso crossing the Douro in Portugal. The counts of Castile, too, now aiding one Moslem faction, now another, now remaining neutral, profited by each new agreement to acquire additional territory or fortified posts. Shortly after the death of Alfonso V, Sancho the Great intervened successfully in the wars of the Christian kingdoms, and united Castile and Leon under his authority.

Since he was also king in Navarre, Aragon, and the Basque provinces of France and Spain, only Galicia, where the kings of Leon took refuge, and the counties of Catalonia remained free from his rule in the north. Here seemed to be an important moment in the history of Spain,--one which might have had tremendous consequences. But it was as yet too early, not alone for Spanish nationalism, but even for the conception of a Spanish state. Sancho the Great undid his own work, and consigned himself to a place only a little short of oblivion by dividing his kingdom among his sons. The three most important regions resulting from this act were the kingdoms of Navarre, Castile, and Aragon. The death of Sancho in 1035 is an important date, however, for it marks the time when work had to be begun over again to achieve the distant ideal of the unity of Spain.

Meanwhile, the counts of Barcelona, who had lost their territories in the days of Almansor, regained them in the ensuing decline of the caliphate, whether by military conquest, or by intervention in the wars of the Moslem state in return for concessions. The important year 1035 is notable also in Catalonia, for at that time Ramon Berenguer I, the first outstanding figure among the counts of Barcelona, inherited the rule of the county.