Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 Part 2

[4] Southey, "Roderick," Canto IV.

[5] Thierry, "Dix Ans d'etudes Historiques," p. 346. "Reserres dans ce coin de terre, devenu pour eux toute la patrie, Goths et Romains, vainqueurs et vaincus, etrangers et indigenes, maitres et esclaves, tous unis dans le meme malheur ... furent egaux dans cet exil." Yet there were revolts in every reign.

Fruela I. (757-768), revolt of Biscay and Galicia: Aurelio (768-774), revolt of slaves and freedmen, see "Chron. Albeld.,"

vi. sec. 4, and Rodrigo, iii. c. 5, in pristinam servitutem redacti sunt: Silo (774-783), Galician revolt: also revolts in reigns of Alfonso I., Ramiro I. See Prescott, "Ferd. and Isab.," p. 4.

[6] Or his predecessor, Welid, for the point is not determined.

The terms granted to such towns as surrendered generally contained the following provisions: that the citizens should give up all their horses and arms; that they might, if they chose, depart, leaving their property; that those who remained should, on payment of a small tribute, be permitted to follow their own religion, for which purposes certain churches were to be left standing; that they should have their own judges, and enjoy (within limits) their own laws. In some cases the riches of the churches were also surrendered, as at Merida,[1] and hostages given. But conditions even better than these were obtained from Abdulaziz, son of Musa, by Theodomir in Murcia. The original doc.u.ment has been preserved by the Arab historians, and is well worthy of transcription:

"In the name of G.o.d the Clement and Merciful! Abdulaziz and Tadmir make this treaty of peace--may G.o.d confirm and protect it! Tadmir shall retain the command over his own people, but over no other people among those of his faith. There shall be no wars between his subjects and those of the Arabs, nor shall the children or women of his people be led captive. They shall not be disturbed in the exercise of their religion: their churches shall not be burnt, nor shall any services be demanded from them, or obligations be laid upon them--those expressed in this treaty alone excepted.... Tadmir shall not receive our enemies, nor fail in fidelity to us, and he shall not conceal whatever hostile purposes he may know to exist against us. His n.o.bles and himself shall pay a tribute of a dinar[2] each year, with four measures of wheat and four of barley; of mead, vinegar, honey, and oil each four measures. All the va.s.sals of Tadmir, and every man subject to tax, shall pay the half of these imposts."[3]

These favourable terms were due in part to the address of Theodomir,[4]

and partly perhaps to Abdulaziz's own partiality for the Christians, which was also manifested in his marriage with Egilona, the widow of King Roderic, and the deference which he paid to her. This predilection for the Christians brought the son of Musa into ill favour with the Arabs, and he was a.s.sa.s.sinated in 716.[5]

[1] Conde i. p. 69. This was perhaps due to Musa's notorious avarice.

[2] Somewhat less than ten s.h.i.+llings.

[3] Al Makkari, i. 281: Conde, i. p. 76.

[4] Isidore, sec, 38, says of him: "Fuit scripturarum amator, eloquentia mirificus, in proeliis expeditus, qui et apud Amir Almumenin prudentior inter ceteros inventus, utiliter est honoratus."

[5] Al Makkari, ii. p. 30. He was even accused of entering into treasonable correspondence with the Christians of Galicia; of forming a project for the ma.s.sacre of Moslems; of being himself a Christian, etc.

On the whole it may be said that the Saracen conquest was accomplished with wonderfully little bloodshed, and with few or none of those atrocities which generally characterize the subjugation of a whole people by men of an alien race and an alien creed. It cannot, however, be denied that the only contemporary Christian chronicler is at variance on this point with all the Arab accounts.

"Who," says Isidore of Beja, "can describe such horrors! If every limb in my body became a tongue, even then would human nature fail in depicting this wholesale ruin of Spain, all its countless and immeasurable woes. But that the reader may hear in brief the whole story of sorrow--not to speak of all the disastrous ills which in innumerable ages past from Adam even till now in various states and regions of the earth a cruel and foul foe has caused to a fair world--whatever Troy in Homer's tale endured, whatever Jerusalem suffered that the prophets'

words might come to pa.s.s, whatever Babylon underwent that the Scripture might be fulfilled--all this, and more, has Spain experienced--Spain once full of delights, but now of misery, once so exalted in glory, but now brought low in shame and dishonour."[1]

[1] Cp. also Isidore, sec 36. Dunham, ii. p. 121, note, curiously remarks: "Both Isidore and Roderic may exaggerate, but the exaggeration proves the fact."

This is evidently mere rhapsody, of the same character as the ravings of the British monk Gildas, though far less justified as it seems by the actual facts. Rodrigo of Toledo, following Isidore after an interval of 500 years, improves upon him by entering into details, which being in many particulars demonstrably false, may in others be reasonably looked upon with suspicion as exaggerated, if not entirely imaginary. His words are: Children are dashed on the ground, young men beheaded, their fathers fall in battle, the old men are ma.s.sacred, the women reserved for greater misfortune; every cathedral burnt or destroyed, the national substance plundered, oaths and treaties uniformly broken.[1]

To appreciate the mildness and generosity of the Arabs, we need only compare their conquest of Spain with the conquest of England by the Saxons, the Danes, and even by the Christian Normans. The comparison will be all in favour of the Arabs. It is not impossible that, if the invaders had been Franks instead of Moors, the country would have suffered even more, as we can see from the actual results effected by the invasion of Charles the Great in 777. Placed as they were between the devil and the deep sea, the Spaniards would perhaps have preferred (had the choice been theirs) to be subject to the Saracens rather than to the Franks.[2]

[1] Dunham, ii. p. 121, note.

[2] Dozy, ii. p. 41, note, quotes Ermold Nigel on Barcelona:

"Urbs erat interea Francorum inhospita turnis, Maurorum votis adsociata magis."

To the down-trodden slaves, who were very numerous all through Spain, the Moslems came in the character of deliverers. A slave had only to p.r.o.nounce the simple formula: "There is no G.o.d but G.o.d, and Mohammed is his Prophet": and he was immediately free. To the Jews the Moslems brought toleration, nay, even influence and power. In fact, since the fall of Jerusalem in 588 B.C. the Jews had never enjoyed such independence and influence as in Spain during the domination of the Arabs. Their genius being thus allowed free scope, they disputed the supremacy in literature and the arts with the Arabs themselves.

Many of the earlier governors of Spain were harsh and even cruel in their administration, but it was to Moslems and Christians alike.[1]

Some indeed increased the tribute laid upon the Christians; but it must be remembered that this tribute[2] was in the first instance very light, and therefore an increase was not felt severely as an oppression.

Moreover, there were not wanting some rulers who upheld the cause of the Christians against illegal exactions. Among these was Abdurrahman al Ghafeki (May-Aug. 721, and 731-732), of whom an Arab writer says:[3] "He did equal justice to Moslem and Christian ... he restored to the Christians such churches as had been taken from them in contravention of the stipulated treaties; but on the other hand he caused all those to be demolished, which had been erected by the connivance of interested governors." Similarly of his successor Anbasah ibn Sohaym Alkelbi (721-726), we find it recorded[4] that "he rendered equal justice to every man, making no distinction between Mussulman and Christian, or between Christian and Jew." Anbasah was followed by Yahya ibn Salmah (March-Sept. 726), who is described as injudiciously severe, and dreaded for his extreme rigour by Moslems as well as Christians.[5] Isidore says that he made the Arabs give back to the Christians the property unlawfully taken from them.[6] Similar praise is awarded to Okbah ibn ulhejaj a.s.seluli (734-740).[7] Yet though many of the Ameers of Spain were just and upright men, no permanent policy could be carried out with regard to the relations between Moslems and Christians, while the Ameers were so constantly changing, being sometimes elected by the army, but oftener appointed by the Khalif, or by his lieutenant, the governor of Africa for the time being. This perpetual s.h.i.+fting of rulers would in itself have been fatal to the settlement of the country, had it not been brought to an end by the election of Abdurrahman ibn Muawiyah as the Khalif of Spain, and the establishment of his dynasty on the throne, in May 756. But even after this important step was taken, the causes which threatened to make anarchy perpetual, were still at work in Spain. Chief among these were the feuds of the Arab tribes, and the jealousy between Berbers and Arabs.

[1] _E.g._, Alhorr ibn Abdurrahman (717-719); see Isidore, sec.

44, and Conde, i. 94: "He oppressed all alike, the Christians, those who had newly embraced Islam, and the oldest of the Moslemah families."

[2] Merely a small poll-tax (jizyah) at first.

[3] Conde, i. 105.

[4] Conde, i. p. 99. Isidore, however, sec. 52, says: "Vectigalia Christianis duplicata exagitat."

[5] Conde, i. 102.

[6] Isidore, sec. 54. Terribilis potestator fere triennio crudelis exaestuat, atque aeri ingenio Hispaniae Sarracenos et Mauros pro pacificis rebus olim ablatis exagitat, atque Christianis plura restaurat.

[7] Conde, i. 114, 115.

Most of the first conquerors of the country were Berbers, while such Arabs as came in with them belonged mostly to the Maadite or Beladi faction.[1] The Berbers, besides being looked down upon as new converts, were also regarded as Nonconformists[2] by the pure Arabs, and consequently a quarrel was not long in breaking out between the two parties.

As early as 718 the Berbers in Aragon and Catalonia rose against the Arabs under a Jew named Khaulan, who was put to death the following year. In 726 they revolted again, crying that they who had conquered the country alone had claims to the spoil.[3] This formidable rising was only put down by the Arabs making common cause against it. But the continual disturbances in Africa kept alive the flame of discontent in Spain, and the great Berber rebellion against the Arab yoke in Africa was a signal for a similar determined attempt in Spain.[4] The reinforcements which the Khalif, Yezid ibn Abdulmalik, sent to Africa under Kolthum ibn Iyadh were defeated by the Berbers under a chief named Meysarah, and shut up in Ceuta.

[1] The two chief branches of Arabs were (1) Descendants of Modhar, son of Negus, son of Maad, son of Adnan. To this clan belonged the Mecca and Medina Arabs, and the Umeyyade family.

They were also called Kaysites, Febrites, and Beladi Arabs. (2) Descendants of Kahtan (Joktan), among whom were reckoned the Kelbites and the Yemenites. These were most numerous in Andalus; see Al Makkari, ii. 24.

[2] Dozy, iii. 124. See Al Makk., ii. 409, De Gayangos' note.

Though nominally Moslem, they still kept their Jewish or Pagan rites.

[3] See De Gayangos, Al Makk. ii. 410, note. He quotes Borbon's "Karta," xiv. _sq._ Stanley Lane-Poole, "Moors in Spain," p.

55, says, Monousa, who married the daughter of Eudes, was a leader of the Berbers. Conde, i. 106, says, Othman abi Neza was the leader, but Othman an ibn abi Nesah was Ameer of Spain in 728.

[4] Al Makkari, ii. 40.

Meanwhile in Spain, Abdalmalik ibn Kattan[1] Alfehri taking up the cause of the Berbers, procured the deposition of Okbah ibn ulhejaj in his own favour, but, this done, broke with his new allies. He was then compelled to ask the help of the Syrian Arabs, who were cooped up in Ceuta, though previously he had turned a deaf ear to their entreaties that they might cross over into Spain.

The Syrians gladly accepted this invitation, and under Balj ibn Besher, nephew of Kolthum, crossed the Straits, readily promising at the same time to return to Africa when the Spanish Berbers were overcome. This desirable end accomplished, however, they refused to keep to their agreement, and Abdalmalik soon found himself driven to seek anew the alliance of the Berbers and also of the Andalusian Arabs against his late allies.[2] But the latter proved too strong for the Ameer, who was defeated and killed by the Yemenite followers of Balj.

[1] Cardonne, i. p. 135.

[2] The Syrian Arabs seem to have borne a bad character away from home. The Sultan Muawiyah warned his son that they altered for the worse when abroad. See Ockley's "Saracens."

These feuds of Yemenites against Modharites, complicated by the accession of Berbers now to one side, now to the other, continued without intermission till the first Khalif of Cordova, Abdurrahman ibn Muawiyah, established his power all over Spain.

The successor of Balj and Thaleba ibn Salamah did indeed try to break up the Syrian faction by separating them. He placed those of Damascus in Elvira; of Emesa in Seville; of Kenesrin in Jaen; of Alurdan[1] in Malaga and Regio; of Palestine in Sidonia or Xeres; of Egypt in Murcia; of Wasit in Cabra; and they thus became merged into the body of Andalusian Arabs.

These Berber wars had an important influence on the future of Spain; for, since the Berbers had settled on all the Northern and Western marches, when they were decimated by civil war, and many of the survivors compelled to return to Africa,[2] owing to the famine which afflicted the country from 750 to 755, the frontiers of the Arab dominion were left practically denuded of defenders,[3] and the Christians at once advanced their boundaries to the Douro, leaving however a strip of desert land as a barrier between them and the Moslems. This debateable land they did not occupy till fifty years later.[4]

[1] _I.e._, Jordan. See Al Makkari, i. 356, De Gayangos' note.

[2] Dozy, iii. 24.

[3] Al Makkari, ii. 69.

[4] When they built a series of fortresses as Zarnora, Simancas, San Estevan.