Spain

There is much in the internal history of that kingdom which stands apart from the general development of western Europe, from which it was shut out. In all the long period from Pelayo to Ramiro II. only one event occurred which had much tendency to bring the Christians of the north-west into close relations with their neighbours of the same faith north of the Pyrenees. This was the discovery of the body of St. James the Apostle in the reign of Alphonso II. the Chaste (789-842). The shrine at San tiago in Galicia attracted pilgrims, who brought trade. The chief who had to "people" a new and exposed township had to tempt men by freedom and secure rights to follow his banner. The in fluences which by the 13th century had abolished serfdom in west ern Spain were all at work before the reign of Ramiro II. In spite of revolts and of fratricidal struggles a State was formed. To the east of it, the Navarrese, having rid themselves of the Carolingian counts and marchers, had made a kingdom in their mountains, and beyond them the little free territories of the central Pyrenees were advancing, in subordination to the Navarrese king at Pamplona. The Arab called them the Christians of Al Frank, and distin guished them from the Galicians.

The Mohammedan Amirate.

The loth century and the first years of the i i th saw a great set-back of the Christian re vival. Dissensions among themselves coincided with an energetic rally of the Muslim power. From the foundation of the amirate by Abdurrahman I. (758-790) to the beginning of the reign of Abdurrahman III. (912-961) Mohammedan Spain had shared the usual fortunes of an oriental monarchy. A strong amir, such as Abdurrahman I. or his grandson Hakam I. (796-822), could en force obedience by arms, or by murder. On the upper frontier, which is now Aragon, the "Visigoth" Beni-Casi ruled, doing hom age and paying tribute intermittently, supported by a loyal popu lation of native Mohammedans, whose Christian or nominally Christian fathers had been their followers before the conquest. The "Moors," so called, who afterwards filled the kingdom of Aragon, were of native blood. Toledo, relying on the immense military strength of its position, was more often in rebellion than in subordination. The massacre which Hakam I. effected by a lavish use of fraud cowed it only for a time. Abdurrahman III. found it independent again when he came to the throne, and had to besiege it for two years before it yielded. The renegades grew in numbers, and in faith. Under the influence of orthodox Berber teachers their fanaticism was turned against the amir himself. Hakam, a winebibber much suspected of heterodoxy, had to expel thousands from his capital. Part went to people the town of Fez, newly founded in Morocco by the Idrisites; part wandered east ward to found a Mohammedan State in Crete. Under the stimulus of Berber fanaticism the toleration first shown to the Christians was turned to persecution. A counter fanaticism was aroused in them, and for years the "Martyrs of Cordova" continued to force the often reluctant cadis to behead them, by blaspheming the Prophet. Under Abdurrahman II. (822-852), who spent his life listening to a favourite and highly accomplished Persian tenor and in the company of dancing girls, and under Mohammed I. (852 886), the niggardly Mondhir (886-888), whose time was short, and Abdalla (888-912), who was feeble, the amirate was torn to fragments.

From this state of anarchy the amirate was saved by Abdur rahman III. (912-961), the Akbar of his race. He came to the throne when half a century of war and murder had produced exhaustion. The country was swarming with brigands, and the

communications were so dangerous that seven years had been known to pass during which no caravan travelled from Cordova to Saragossa. Abdurrahman III., an oriental ruler of the great type, industrious, resolute, capable of justice, magnificent, and free-handed without profusion, was eminently qualified to give all that his people wanted. The splendour of his reign is a com monplace. He restored order even in the Sierra de Ronda, and then he took the field against the Christians.

Hakam II. (961-976), Abdurrahman's son, ascended the throne in mature years, and continued his father's policy. A lover of books, he gave protection to writers and thinkers who were not strictly orthodox. The anarchy which broke out in the north-west, the kingdom now called Leon, on the death of Ramiro II.—whose sons fought among themselves—and the endless conflicts between Leon and Castile, rendered the only formidable Christian king dom powerless. In Hakam's old age, one of his wives Sobh (the Daybreak), a Basque, bore him the first son born in his harem, who became Hisharn II. and in all his long life was nothing but a puppet. The administration of his chamberlain or hajib, Mo hammed ben Abdallah, who took the royal name al-Mansur Billah ("the victorious through God") and is generally known as Man sur (q.v.), is counted among the glories of the caliphate of Cor dova. It was the rule of a strong man who made, and kept under his own control, a janissary army of slaves from all nations, Christian mercenaries from the north, Berbers and negroes from Africa. With that host he made 5o invasions into the Christian territory, but he left his enemies in a position to regain all they had lost. It mattered little that he desolated in 997 the shrine of St. James at Santiago da Compostela, the monastery of Cardefia in Castile, took Leon, Pamplona and Barcelona, if at the end he left the roots of the Christian States firm in the soil, and to his son and successor as hajib only a mercenary army without loyalty. He died in 1002 undefeated, but racked by anxiety for the permanence of the prosperity of his house. His son Mozaffar kept the authority as hajib, always in the name of Hisham II., who was hidden away in a second palace suburb of Cordova, Zahira. But Mozaffar lasted for a short time, and then died, poisoned, as it was said, by his brother Abdurrahman, called San chol, the son of Mansur by a Christian lady. Abdurrahman San chol was vain and feather-headed. He extorted from the feeble caliph the title of successor, thereby deeply offending the princes of the Omayyad house and the populace of Cordova. He lost his hold on his slaves and mercenaries, whose chiefs had begun to think it would be more to their interest to divide the country among themselves. A palace revolution, headed by Mohammed, of the Omayyad family, who called himself Al Mandi Billah (guided by God), and a street riot, upset the power of the hajib at Cordova while he was absent on a raid against Castile. His soldiers deserted him, and he was speedily slaughtered. Then in the twinkling of an eye the whole edifice went into ruin. The end of Hish5.m II. is unknown, and the other princes perished in a frantic scramble for the throne in which they were the puppets of military adventurers. A score of shifting principalities, each ready to help the Christians to destroy the others, took the place of the caliphate.