A Literary History of the Arabs Part 39

Driver of the dun-red camels that amidst acacias bide, Soft and sofa-like thy saddle from the long and weary ride!

Blessings on thee, if descrying far-off Tu?ih at noonday, Thou wilt cross the desert hollows where the fawns of Wajra play, And if from 'Uray?'s sand-hillocks bordering on stony ground Thou wilt turn aside to ?uzwa, driver for Suwayqa bound, And ?uwayli"s willows leaving, if to Sal' thou thence wilt ride-- Ask, I pray thee, of a people dwelling on the mountain-side!

Halt among the clan I cherish (so may health attend thee still!) And deliver there my greeting to the Arabs of the hill.

For the tents are basking yonder, and in one of them is She That bestows the meeting sparely, but the parting lavishly.

All around her as a rampart edge of sword and point of lance, Yet my glances stray towards her when on me she deigns to glance.

Girt about with double raiment--soul and heart of mine, no less-- She is guarded from beholders, veiled by her unveiledness.

Death to me, in giving loose to my desire, she destineth; Ah, how goodly seems the bargain, and how cheap is Love for Death![744]

Ibnu 'l-Fari? came of pure Arab stock, and his poetry is thoroughly Arabian both in form and spirit. This is not the place to speak of the great Persian ?ufis, but ?usayn b. Man?ur al-?allaj, who was executed in the Caliphate of Muqtadir (922 A.D.), could not have been omitted here but for the fact that Professor Browne has already given an admirable account of him, to which I am unable to add anything of importance.[745] The Arabs, however, have contributed to the history of ?ufiism another memorable name--Mu?yi'l-Din Ibnu 'l-'Arabi, whose life falls within the final century of the 'Abbasid period, and will therefore fitly conclude the present chapter.[746]

[Sidenote: Ibnu 'l-'Arabi.]

Mu?yi 'l-Din Mu?ammad b. 'Ali Ibnu 'l-'Arabi (or Ibn 'Arabi)[747]

was born at Mursiya (Murcia) in Spain on the 17th of Rama?an, 560 A.H. = July 29, 1165 A.D. From 1173 to 1202 he resided in Seville. He then set out for the East, travelling by way of Egypt to the ?ijaz, where he stayed a long time, and after visiting Baghdad, Mosul, and Asia Minor, finally settled at Damascus, in which city he died (638 A.H. = 1240 A.D.). His tomb below Mount Qasiyun was thought to be "a piece of the gardens of Paradise," and was called the Philosophers' Stone.[748]

It is now enclosed in a mosque which bears the name of Mu?yi 'l-Din, and a cupola rises over it.[749] We know little concerning the events of his life, which seems to have been pa.s.sed chiefly in travel and conversation with ?ufis and in the composition of his voluminous writings, about three hundred in number according to his own computation. Two of these works are especially celebrated, and have caused Ibnu 'l-'Arabi to be regarded as the greatest of all Mu?ammadan mystics--the _Futu?at al-Makkiyya_, or 'Meccan Revelations,' and the _Fu?u?u 'l-?ikam_, or 'Bezels of Philosophy.' The _Futu?at_ is a huge treatise in five hundred and sixty chapters, containing a complete system of mystical science. The author relates that he saw Mu?ammad in the World of Real Ideas, seated on a throne amidst angels, prophets, and saints, and received his command to discourse on the Divine mysteries. At another time, while circ.u.mambulating the Ka'ba, he met a celestial spirit wearing the form of a youth engaged in the same holy rite, who showed him the living esoteric Temple which is concealed under the lifeless exterior, even as the eternal substance of the Divine Ideas is hidden by the veils of popular religion--veils through which the lofty mind must penetrate, until, having reached the splendour within, it partakes of the Divine nature and beholds what no mortal eye can endure to look upon. Ibnu 'l-'Arabi immediately fell into a swoon. When he came to himself he was instructed to contemplate the visionary form and to write down the mysteries which it would reveal to his gaze. Then the youth entered the Ka'ba with Ibnu 'l-'Arabi, and resuming his spiritual aspect, appeared to him on a three-legged steed, breathed into his breast the knowledge of all things, and once more bade him describe the heavenly form in which all mysteries are enshrined.[750] Such is the reputed origin of the 'Meccan Revelations,' of which the greater portion was written in the town where inspiration descended on Mu?ammad six hundred years before. The author believed, or pretended to believe, that every word of them was dictated to him by supernatural means. The _Fu?u?_, a short work in twenty-seven chapters, each of which is named after one of the prophets, is no less highly esteemed, and has been the subject of numerous commentaries in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.

[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Perfect Man.]

Curiously enough, Ibnu 'l-'Arabi combined the most extravagant mysticism with the straitest orthodoxy. "He was a ?ahirite (literalist) in religion and a Ba?inite (spiritualist) in his speculative beliefs."[751] He rejected all authority (_taqlid_). "I am not one of those who say, 'Ibn ?azm said so-and-so, A?mad[752] said so-and-so, al-Nu'man[753] said so-and-so,'" he declares in one of his poems. But although he insisted on punctilious adherence to the letter of the sacred law, we may suspect that his refusal to follow any human authority, a.n.a.logy, or opinion was simply the overweening presumption of the seer who regards himself as divinely illuminated and infallible.

Many theologians were scandalised by the apparently blasphemous expressions which occur in his writings, and taxed him with holding heretical doctrines, _e.g._, the incarnation of G.o.d in man (_?ulul_) and the identification of man with G.o.d (_itti?ad_). Centuries pa.s.sed, but controversy continued to rage over him. He found numerous and enthusiastic partisans, who urged that the utterances of the saints must not be interpreted literally nor criticised at all. It was recognised, however, that such high mysteries were unsuitable for the weaker brethren, so that many even of those who firmly believed in his sanct.i.ty discouraged the reading of his books. They were read nevertheless, publicly and privately, from one end of the Mu?ammadan world to the other; people copied them for the sake of obtaining the author's blessing, and the ma.n.u.scripts were eagerly bought. Among the distinguished men who wrote in his defence we can mention here only Majdu 'l-Din al-Firuzabadi ( 1414 A.D.), the author of the great Arabic lexicon ent.i.tled _al-Qamus_; Jalalu 'l-Din al-Suyu?i ( 1445 A.D.); and 'Abdu 'l-Wahhab al-Sha'rani ( 1565 A.D.). The fundamental principle of his system is the Unity of Being (_wa?datu 'l-wujud_). There is no real difference between the Essence and its attributes or, in other words, between G.o.d and the universe. All created things subsist eternally as ideas (_a'yan thabita_) in the knowledge of G.o.d, and since being is identical with knowledge, their "creation" only means His knowing them, or Himself, under the aspect of actuality; the universe, in fact, is the concrete sum of the relations of the Essence as subject to itself as object. This pantheistic monism puts on an Islamic mask in the doctrine of "the Perfect Man" (_al-Insan al-Kamil_), a phrase which Ibnu 'l-'Arabi was the first to a.s.sociate with it. The Divine consciousness, evolving through a series of five planes (_?a?arat_), attains to complete expression in Man, the microcosmic being who unites the creative and creaturely attributes of the Essence and is at once the image of G.o.d and the archetype of the universe. Only through him does G.o.d know Himself and make Himself known; he is the eye of the world whereby G.o.d sees His own works. The daring paradoxes of Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's dialectic are ill.u.s.trated by such verses as these:--

He praises me (by manifesting my perfections and creating me in His form), And I praise Him (by manifesting His perfections and obeying Him).

How can He be independent when I help and aid Him? (because the Divine attributes derive the possibility of manifestation from their human correlates).

For that cause G.o.d brought me into existence, And I know Him and bring Him into existence (in my knowledge and contemplation of Him).[754]

Thus it is the primary function of Man to reveal and realise his Divine nature; and the Perfect Men, regarded individually, are the prophets and saints. Here the doctrine--an amalgam of Manichaean, Gnostic, Neo-platonic and Christian speculations--attaches itself to Mu?ammad, "the Seal of the prophets." According to Moslem belief, the pre-existent Spirit or Light of Mu?ammad (_Nur Mu?ammadi_) became incarnate in Adam and in the whole series of prophets, of whom Mu?ammad is the last. Mu?ammad, then, is the Logos,[755] the Mediator, the Vicegerent of G.o.d (_Khalifat Allah_), the G.o.d-Man who has descended to this earthly sphere to make manifest the glory of Him who brought the universe into existence.

But, of course, Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's philosophy carries him far beyond the realm of positive religion. If G.o.d is the "self" of all things sensible and intelligible, it follows that He reveals Himself in every form of belief in a degree proportionate to the pre-determined capacity of the believer; the mystic alone sees that He is One in all forms, for the mystic's heart is all-receptive: it a.s.sumes whatever form G.o.d reveals Himself in, as wax takes the impression of the seal.

"My heart is capable of every form, A cloister for the monk, a fane for idols, A pasture for gazelles, the pilgrim's Ka'ba, The Tables of the Torah, the Koran.

Love is the faith I hold: wherever turn His camels, still the one true faith is mine."[756]

The vast bulk of Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's writings, his technical and scholastic terminology, his recondite modes of thought, and the lack of method in his exposition have, until recently, deterred European Orientalists from bestowing on him the attention which he deserves.[757] In the history of ?ufiism his name marks an epoch: it is owing to him that what began as a profoundly religious personal movement in Islam ends as an eclectic and definitely pantheistic system of philosophy. The t.i.tle of "The Grand Master" (_al-Shaykh al-Akbar_), by which he is commonly designated, bears witness to his supremacy in the world of Moslem mysticism from the Mongol Invasion to the present day. In Persia and Turkey his influence has been enormous, and through his pupil, ?adru 'l-Din of Qoniya, he is linked with the greatest of all ?ufi poets, Jalalu 'l-Din Rumi, the author of the _Mathnawi_, who died some thirty years after him. Nor did all those who borrowed his ideas call themselves Moslems. He inspired, amongst other mediaeval Christian writers, "the Illuminated Doctor" Raymond Lull, and probably Dante.[758]

CHAPTER IX

THE ARABS IN EUROPE

It will be remembered that before the end of the first century of the Hijra, in the reign of the Umayyad Caliph, Walid b. 'Abd al-Malik (705-715 A.D.), the Moslems under ?ariq and Musa b. Nu?ayr, crossed the Mediterranean, and having defeated Roderic the Goth in a great battle near Cadiz, rapidly brought the whole of Spain into subjection. The fate of the new province was long doubtful. The Berber insurrection which raged in Africa (734-742 A.D.) spread to Spain and threatened to exterminate the handful of Arab colonists; and no sooner was this danger past than the victors began to rekindle the old feuds and jealousies which they had inherited from their ancestors of Qays and Kalb. Once more the rival factions of Syria and Yemen flew to arms, and the land was plunged in anarchy.

[Sidenote: 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man, the Umayyad.]

Meanwhile 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man b. Mu'awiya, a grandson of the Caliph Hisham, had escaped from the general ma.s.sacre with which the 'Abbasids celebrated their triumph over the House of Umayya, and after five years of wandering adventure, accompanied only by his faithful freedman, Badr, had reached the neighbourhood of Ceuta, where he found a precarious shelter with the Berber tribes. Young, ambitious, and full of confidence in his destiny, 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man conceived the bold plan of throwing himself into Spain and of winning a kingdom with the help of the Arabs, amongst whom, as he well knew, there were many clients of his own family. Accordingly in 755 A.D. he sent Badr across the sea on a secret mission. The envoy accomplished even more than was expected of him. To gain over the clients was easy, for 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man was their natural chief, and in the event of his success they would share with him the prize. Their number, however, was comparatively small. The pretender could not hope to achieve anything unless he were supported by one of the great parties, Syrians or Yemenites. At this time the former, led by the feeble governor, Yusuf b. 'Abd al-Ra?man al-Fihri, and his cruel but capable lieutenant, ?umayl b. ?atim, held the reins of power and were pursuing their adversaries with ruthless ferocity. The Yemenites, therefore, hastened to range themselves on the side of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man, not that they loved his cause, but inspired solely by the prospect of taking a b.l.o.o.d.y vengeance upon the Syrians. These Spanish Moslems belonged to the true Bedouin stock!

A few months later 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man landed in Spain, occupied Seville, and, routing Yusuf and ?umayl under the walls of Cordova, made himself master of the capital. On the same evening he presided, as Governor of Spain, over the citizens a.s.sembled for public wors.h.i.+p in the great Mosque (May, 756 A.D.).

During his long reign of thirty-two years 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man was busily employed in defending and consolidating the empire which more than once seemed to be on the point of slipping from his grasp. The task before him was arduous in the extreme. On the one hand, he was confronted by the unruly Arab aristocracy, jealous of their independence and regarding the monarch as their common foe. Between him and them no permanent compromise was possible, and since they could only be kept in check by an armed force stronger than themselves, he was compelled to rely on mercenaries, for the most part Berbers imported from Africa. Thus, by a fatal necessity the Moslem Empire in the West gradually a.s.sumed that despotic and Praetorian character which we have learned to a.s.sociate with the 'Abbasid Government in the period of its decline, and the results were in the end hardly less disastrous. The monarchy had also to reckon with the fanaticism of its Christian subjects and with a formidable Spanish national party eager to throw off the foreign yoke.

Extraordinary energy and tact were needed to maintain authority over these explosive elements, and if the dynasty founded by 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man not only survived for two centuries and a half but gave to Spain a more splendid era of prosperity and culture than she had ever enjoyed, the credit is mainly due to the bold adventurer from whom even his enemies could not withhold a tribute of admiration. One day, it is said, the Caliph Man?ur asked his courtiers, "Who is the Falcon of Quraysh?" They replied, "O Prince of the Faithful, that t.i.tle belongs to you who have vanquished mighty kings and have put an end to civil war."

"No," said the Caliph, "it is not I." "Mu'awiya, then, or 'Abdu 'l-Malik?" "No," said Man?ur, "the Falcon of Quraysh is 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man b. Mu'awiya, he who traversed alone the deserts of Asia and Africa, and without an army to aid him sought his fortune in an unknown country beyond the sea. With no weapons except judgment and resolution he subdued his enemies, crushed the rebels, secured his frontiers, and founded a great empire. Such a feat was never achieved by any one before."[759]

[Sidenote: Islam in Spain.]

[Sidenote: Ya?ya b. Ya?ya.]

[Sidenote: The Revolt of the Suburb.]

Of the Moslems in Spain the Arabs formed only a small minority, and they, moreover, showed all the indifference towards religion and contempt for the laws of Islam which might be expected from men imbued with Bedouin traditions whose forbears had been devotedly attached to the world-loving Umayyads of Damascus. It was otherwise with the Spanish converts, the so-called 'Renegades' or _Muwalladun_ (Affiliati) living as clients under protection of the Arab n.o.bility, and with the Berbers.

These races took their adopted religion very seriously, in accordance with the fervid and sombre temperament which has always distinguished them. Hence among the ma.s.s of Spanish Moslems a rigorous orthodoxy prevailed. The Berber, Ya?ya b. Ya?ya ( 849 A.D.), is a typical figure. At the age of twenty-eight years he travelled to the East and studied under Malik. b Anas, who dictated to him his celebrated work known as the _Muwa??a'_. Ya?ya was one day at Malik's lecture with a number of fellow-students, when some one said, "Here comes the elephant!" All of them ran out to see the animal, but Ya?ya did not stir. "Why," said Malik, "do you not go out and look at it? Such animals are not to be seen in Spain." To this Ya?ya replied, "I left my country for the purpose of seeing you and obtaining knowledge under your guidance. I did not come here to see the elephant." Malik was so pleased with this answer that he called him the most intelligent (_'aqil_) of the people of Spain. On his return to Spain Ya?ya exerted himself to spread the doctrines of his master, and though he obstinately refused, on religious grounds, to accept any public office, his influence and reputation were such that, as Ibn ?azm says, no Cadi was ever appointed till Ya?ya had given his opinion and designated the person whom he preferred.[760] Thus the Malikite system, based on close adherence to tradition, became the law of the land. "The Spaniards," it is observed by a learned writer of the tenth century, "recognise only the Koran and the _Muwa??a'_; if they find a follower of Abu ?anifa or Shafi'i, they banish him from Spain, and if they meet with a Mu'tazilite or a s.h.i.+'ite or any one of that sort, they often put him to death."[761] Arrogant, intensely bigoted, and ambitious of power, the Mu?ammadan clergy were not disposed to play a subordinate role in the State. In Hisham (788-796 A.D.), the successor of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man, they had a prince after their own heart, whose piety and devotion to their interests left nothing to be desired. ?akam (796-822 A.D.) was less complaisant. He honoured and respected the clergy, but at the same time he let them see that he would not permit them to interfere in political affairs. The malcontents, headed by the fiery Ya?ya b.

Ya?ya, replied with menaces and insults, and called on the populace of Cordova--especially the 'Renegades' in the southern quarter (_raba?_) of the city--to rise against the tyrant and his insolent soldiery. One day in Rama?an, 198 A.H. (May, 814 A.D.), ?akam suddenly found himself cut off from the garrison and besieged in his palace by an infuriated mob, but he did not lose courage, and, thanks to his coolness and skilful strategy, he came safely out of the peril in which he stood. The revolutionary suburb was burned to the ground and those of its inhabitants who escaped ma.s.sacre, some 60,000 souls, were driven into exile. The real culprits went unpunished. ?akam could not afford further to exasperate the divines, who on their part began to perceive that they might obtain from the prince by favour what they had failed to wring from him by force. Being mostly Arabs or Berbers, they had a strong claim to his consideration. Their power was soon restored, and in the reign of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man II (822-852 A.D.) Ya?ya himself, the ringleader of the mutiny, directed ecclesiastical policy and dispensed judicial patronage as he pleased.

[Sidenote: 'Umar b. ?af?un.]

The Revolt of the Suburb was only an episode in the long and sanguinary struggle between the Spaniards, Moslem or Christian, on the one hand, and the monarchy of Cordova on the other--a struggle complicated by the rival Arab tribes, which sometimes patched up their own feuds in order to defend themselves against the Spanish patriots, but never in any circ.u.mstances gave their support to the detested Umayyad Government. The hero of this war of independence was 'Umar b. ?af?un. He belonged to a n.o.ble family of West-Gothic origin which had gone over to Islam and settled in the mountainous district north-east of Malaga. Hot-blooded, quarrelsome, and ready to stab on the slightest provocation, the young man soon fell into trouble. At first he took shelter in the wild fastnesses of Ronda, where he lived as a brigand until he was captured by the police. He then crossed the sea to Africa, but in a short time returned to his old haunts and put himself at the head of a band of robbers. Here he held out for two years, when, having been obliged to surrender, he accepted the proposal of the Sultan of Cordova that he and his companions should enlist in the Imperial army. But 'Umar was destined for greater glory than the Sultan could confer upon him. A few contemptuous words from a superior officer touched his pride to the quick, so one fine day he galloped off with all his men in the direction of Ronda. They found an almost impregnable retreat in the castle of Bobastro, which had once been a Roman fortress. From this moment, says Dozy, 'Umar b. ?af?un was no longer a brigand-chief, but leader of the whole Spanish race in the south. The lawless and petulant free-lance was transformed into a high-minded patriot, celebrated for the stern justice with which he punished the least act of violence, adored by his soldiers, and regarded by his countrymen as the champion of the national cause. During the rest of his life (884-917 A.D.) he conducted the guerilla with untiring energy and made himself a terror to the Arabs, but fortune deserted him at the last, and he died--_felix opportunitate mortis_--only a few years before complete ruin overtook his party. The Moslem Spaniards, whose enthusiasm had been sensibly weakened by their leader's conversion to Christianity, were the more anxious to make their peace with the Government, since they saw plainly the hopelessness of continuing the struggle.

In 912 A.D. 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III, the Defender of the Faith (_al-Na?ir li-dini 'llah_), succeeded his grandfather, the Amir 'Abdullah, on the throne of Cordova. The character, genius, and enterprise of this great monarch are strikingly depicted in the following pa.s.sage from the pen of an eloquent historian whose work, although it was published some fifty years ago, will always be authoritative[762]:--

[Sidenote: 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III (912-961 A.D).]

"Amongst the Umayyad sovereigns who have ruled Spain the first place belongs incontestably to 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III. What he accomplished was almost miraculous. He had found the empire abandoned to anarchy and civil war, rent by factions, parcelled amongst a mult.i.tude of heterogeneous princes, exposed to incessant attacks from the Christians of the north, and on the eve of being swallowed up either by the Leonnese or the Africans. In spite of innumerable obstacles he had saved Spain both from herself and from the foreign domination. He had endowed her with new life and made her greater and stronger than she had ever been. He had given her order and prosperity at home, consideration and respect abroad. The public treasury, which he had found in a deplorable condition, was now overflowing. Of the Imperial revenues, which amounted annually to 6,245,000 pieces of gold, a third sufficed for ordinary expenses; a third was held in reserve, and 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man devoted the remainder to his buildings. It was calculated that in the year 951 he had in his coffers the enormous sum of 20,000,000 pieces of gold, so that a traveller not without judgment in matters of finance a.s.sures us that 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man and the ?amdanid (Na?iru 'l-Dawla), who was then reigning over Mesopotamia, were the wealthiest princes of that epoch. The state of the country was in keeping with the prosperous condition of the treasury. Agriculture, industry, commerce, the arts and the sciences, all flourished....

Cordova, with its half-million inhabitants, its three thousand mosques, its superb palaces, its hundred and thirteen thousand houses, its three hundred bagnios, and its twenty-eight suburbs, was inferior in extent and splendour only to Baghdad, with which city the Cordovans loved to compare it.... The power of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man was formidable. A magnificent fleet enabled him to dispute with the Fa?imids the empire of the Mediterranean, and secured him in the possession of Ceuta, the key of Mauritania. A numerous and well-disciplined army, perhaps the finest in the world, gave him superiority over the Christians of the north. The proudest sovereigns solicited his alliance. The emperor of Constantinople, the kings of Germany, Italy, and France sent amba.s.sadors to him.

"a.s.suredly, these were brilliant results; but what excites our astonishment and admiration when we study this glorious reign is not so much the work as the workman: it is the might of that comprehensive intelligence which nothing escaped, and which showed itself no less admirable in the minutest details than in the loftiest conceptions. This subtle and sagacious man, who centralises, who founds the unity of the nation and of the monarchy, who by means of his alliances establishes a sort of political equilibrium, who in his large tolerance calls the professors of another religion into his councils, is a modern king rather than a mediaeval Caliph."[763]

[Sidenote: Regency of Man?ur Ibn Abi 'amir (976-1002 A.D.).]

In short, 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III made the Spanish Moslems one people, and formed out of Arabs and Spaniards a united Andalusian nation, which, as we shall presently see, advanced with incredible swiftness to a height of culture that was the envy of Europe and was not exceeded by any contemporary State in the Mu?ammadan East. With his death, however, the decline of the Umayyad dynasty began. His son, ?akam II ( 976 A.D.), left as heir-apparent a boy eleven years old, Hisham II, who received the t.i.tle of Caliph while the government was carried on by his mother Aurora and the ambitious minister Mu?ammad b. Abi 'amir.

The latter was virtually monarch of Spain, and whatever may be thought of the means by which he rose to eminence, or of his treatment of the unfortunate Caliph whose mental faculties he deliberately stunted and whom he condemned to a life of monkish seclusion, it is impossible to deny that he ruled well and n.o.bly. He was a great statesman and a great soldier. No one could accuse him of making an idle boast when he named himself 'Al-Man?ur' ('The Victorious'). Twice every year he was accustomed to lead his army against the Christians, and such was the panic which he inspired that in the course of more than fifty campaigns he scarcely ever lost a battle. He died in 1002 A.D. A Christian monk, recording the event in his chronicle, adds, "he was buried in h.e.l.l," but Moslem hands engraved the following lines upon the tomb of their champion:--

"His story in his relics you may trace, As tho' he stood before you face to face.

Never will Time bring forth his peer again, Nor one to guard, like him, the gaps of Spain."[764]

His demise left the Praetorians masters of the situation. Berbers and Slaves[765] divided the kingdom between them, and amidst revolution and civil war the Umayyad dynasty pa.s.sed away (1031 A.D.).

[Sidenote: The Party Kings (_Muluku 'l-?awa'if_).]

It has been said with truth that the history of Spain in the eleventh century bears a close resemblance to that of Italy in the fifteenth. The splendid empire of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III was broken up, and from its ruins there emerged a fortuitous conglomeration of petty states governed by successful condottieri. Of these Party Kings (_Muluku 'l-?awa'if_), as they are called by Mu?ammadan writers, the most powerful were the 'Abbadids of Seville. Although it was an age of political decay, the material prosperity of Spain had as yet suffered little diminution, whilst in point of culture the society of this time reached a level hitherto unequalled. Here, then, we may pause for a moment to review the progress of literature and science during the most fruitful period of the Moslem occupation of European soil.

[Sidenote: Influence of Arabic culture on the Spaniards.]

Whilst in Asia, as we have seen, the Arab conquerors yielded to the spell of an ancient culture infinitely superior to their own, they no sooner crossed the Straits of Gibraltar than the roles were reversed. As the invaders extended their conquests to every part of the peninsula, thousands of Christians fell into their hands, who generally continued to live under Moslem protection. They were well treated by the Government, enjoyed religious liberty, and often rose to high offices in the army or at court. Many of them became rapidly imbued with Moslem civilisation, so that as early as the middle of the ninth century we find Alvaro, Bishop of Cordova, complaining that his co-religionists read the poems and romances of the Arabs, and studied the writings of Mu?ammadan theologians and philosophers, not in order to refute them but to learn how to express themselves in Arabic with correctness and elegance. "Where," he asks, "can any one meet nowadays with a layman who reads the Latin commentaries on the Holy Scriptures? Who studies the Gospels, the Prophets, the Apostles? Alas, all young Christians of conspicuous talents are acquainted only with the language and writings of the Arabs; they read and study Arabic books with the utmost zeal, spend immense sums of money in collecting them for their libraries, and proclaim everywhere that this literature is admirable. On the other hand, if you talk with them of Christian books, they reply contemptuously that these books are not worth their notice. Alas, the Christians have forgotten their own language, and amongst thousands of us scarce one is to be found who can write a tolerable Latin letter to a friend; whereas very many are capable of expressing themselves exquisitely in Arabic and of composing poems in that tongue with even greater skill than the Arabs themselves."[766]

However the good bishop may have exaggerated, it is evident that Mu?ammadan culture had a strong attraction for the Spanish Christians, and equally, let us add, for the Jews, who made numerous contributions to poetry, philosophy, and science in their native speech as well as in the kindred Arabic idiom. The 'Renegades,' or Spanish converts to Islam, became completely Arabicised in the course of a few generations; and from this cla.s.s sprang some of the chief ornaments of Spanish-Arabian literature.