A Literary History of the Arabs Part 41

[Sidenote: Literature in Spain in the eleventh century.]

[Sidenote: Samuel Ha-Levi.]

The following are some of the most distinguished Spanish writers of this epoch: the historian, Abu Marwan Ibn ?ayyan of Cordova ( 1075 A.D.), whose chief works are a colossal history of Spain in sixty volumes ent.i.tled _al-Matin_ and a smaller chronicle (_al-Muqtabis_), both of which appear to have been almost entirely lost;[789] the jurisconsult and poet, Abu 'l-Walid al-Baji ( 1081 A.D.); the traditionist Yusuf Ibn 'Abd al-Barr ( 1071 A.D.); and the geographer al-Bakri, a native of Cordova, where he died in 1094 A.D. Finally, mention should be made of the famous Jews, Solomon Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) and Samuel Ha-Levi. The former, who was born at Malaga about 1020 A.D., wrote two philosophical works in Arabic, and his _Fons Vitae_ played an important part in the development of mediaeval scholasticism. Samuel Ha-Levi was Vizier to Badis, the sovereign of Granada (1038-1073 A.D.). In their admiration of his extraordinary accomplishments the Arabs all but forgot that he was a Jew and a prince (_Naghid_) in Israel.[790] Samuel, on his part, when he wrote letters of State, did not scruple to employ the usual Mu?ammadan formulas, "Praise to Allah!" "May Allah bless our Prophet Mu?ammad!" and to glorify Islam quite in the manner of a good Moslem.

He had a perfect mastery of Hebrew and Arabic; he knew five other languages, and was profoundly versed in the sciences of the ancients, particularly in astronomy. With all his learning he was a supple diplomat and a man of the world. Yet he always preserved a dignified and una.s.suming demeanour, although in his days (according to Ibnu 'l-'Idhari) "the Jews made themselves powerful and behaved arrogantly towards the Moslems."[791]

During the whole of the twelfth, and well into the first half of the thirteenth, century Spain was ruled by two African dynasties, the Almoravides and the Almohades, which originated, as their names denote, in the religious fanaticism of the Berber tribes of the Sahara. The rise of the Almoravides is related by Ibnu 'l-Athir as follows:--[792]

[Sidenote: Rise of the Almoravides.]

"In this year (448 A.H. = 1056 A.D.) was the beginning of the power of the _Mulaththamun_.[793] These were a number of tribes descended from ?imyar, of which the most considerable were Lamtuna, Jadala, and Lam?a.... Now in the above-mentioned year a man of Jadala, named Jawhar, set out for Africa[794] on his way to the Pilgrimage, for he loved religion and the people thereof. At Qayrawan he fell in with a certain divine--Abu 'Imran al-Fasi, as is generally supposed--and a company of persons who were studying theology under him. Jawhar was much pleased with what he saw of their piety, and on his return from Mecca he begged Abu 'Imran to send back with him to the desert a teacher who should instruct the ignorant Berbers in the laws of Islam. So Abu 'Imran sent with him a man called 'Abdullah b.

Yasin al-Kuzuli, who was an excellent divine, and they journeyed together until they came to the tribe of Lamtuna. Then Jawhar dismounted from his camel and took hold of the bridle of 'Abdullah b. Yasin's camel, in reverence for the law of Islam; and the men of Lamtuna approached Jawhar and greeted him and questioned him concerning his companion. 'This man,' he replied, 'is the bearer of the Sunna of the Apostle of G.o.d: he has come to teach you what is necessary in the religion of Islam.' So they bade them both welcome, and said to 'Abdullah, 'Tell us the law of Islam,' and he explained it to them. They answered, 'As to what you have told us of prayer and alms-giving, that is easy; but when you say, "He that kills shall be killed, and he that steals shall have his hand cut off, and he that commits adultery shall be flogged or stoned," that is an ordinance which we will not lay upon ourselves. Begone elsewhere!'... And they came to Jadala, Jawhar's own tribe, and 'Abdullah called on them and the neighbouring tribes to fulfil the law, and some consented while others refused. Then, after a time, 'Abdullah said to his followers, 'Ye must fight the enemies of the Truth, so appoint a commander over you.' Jawhar answered, 'Thou art our commander,' but 'Abdullah declared that he was only a missionary, and on his advice the command was offered to Abu Bakr b.

'Umar, the chief of Lamtuna, a man of great authority and influence.

Having prevailed upon him to act as leader, 'Abdullah began to preach a holy war, and gave his adherents the name of Almoravides (_al-Murabitun_)."[795]

[Sidenote: The Almoravide Empire (1056-1147 A.D.).]

The little community rapidly increased in numbers and power. Yusuf b.

Tashifin, who succeeded to the command in 1069 A.D., founded the city of Morocco, and from this centre made new conquests in every direction, so that ere long the Almoravides ruled over the whole of North-West Africa from Senegal to Algeria. We have already seen how Yusuf was invited by the 'Abbadids to lead an army into Spain, how he defeated Alphonso VI at Zallaqa and, returning a few years later, this time not as an ally but as a conqueror, took possession of Granada and Seville. The rest of Moslem Spain was subdued without much trouble: laity and clergy alike hailed in the Berber monarch a zealous reformer of the Faith and a mighty bulwark against its Christian enemies. The hopeful prospect was not realised. Spanish civilisation enervated the Berbers, but did not refine them. Under the narrow bigotry of Yusuf and his successors free thought became impossible, culture and science faded away. Meanwhile the country was afflicted by famine, brigandage, and all the disorders of a feeble and corrupt administration.

[Sidenote: Ibn Tumart.]

The empire of the Almoravides pa.s.sed into the hands of another African dynasty, the Almohades.[796] Their founder, Mu?ammad Ibn Tumart, was a native of the mountainous district of Sus which lies to the south-west of Morocco. When a youth he made the Pilgrimage to Mecca (about 1108 A.D.), and also visited Baghdad, where he studied in the Ni?amiyya College and is said to have met the celebrated Ghazali. He returned home with his head full of theology and ambitious schemes. We need not dwell upon his career from this point until he finally proclaimed himself as the Mahdi (1121 A.D.), nor describe the familiar methods--some of them disreputable enough--by which he induced the Berbers to believe in him.

His doctrines, however, may be briefly stated. "In most questions," says one of his biographers,[797] "he followed the system of Abu 'l-?asan al-Ash'ari, but he agreed with the Mu'tazilites in their denial of the Divine Attributes and in a few matters besides; and he was at heart somewhat inclined to Shi'ism, although he gave it no countenance in public."[798] The gist of his teaching is indicated by the name _Muwa??id_ (Unitarian), which he bestowed on himself, and which his successors adopted as their dynastic t.i.tle.[799] Ibn Tumart emphasised the Unity of G.o.d; in other words, he denounced the anthropomorphic ideas which prevailed in Western Islam and strove to replace them by a purely spiritual conception of the Deity. To this main doctrine he added a second, that of the Infallible Imam (_al-Imam al-Ma'?um_), and he naturally a.s.serted that the Imam was Mu?ammad Ibn Tumart, a descendant of 'Ali b. Abi ?alib.

[Sidenote: The Almohades (1130-1269 A.D.).]

On the death of the Mahdi (1130 A.D.) the supreme command devolved upon his trusted lieutenant, 'Abdu 'l-Mu'min, who carried on the holy war against the Almoravides with growing success, until in 1158 A.D. he "united the whole coast from the frontier of Egypt to the Atlantic, together with Moorish Spain, under his sceptre."[800] The new dynasty was far more enlightened and favourable to culture than the Almoravides had been. Yusuf, the son of 'Abdu 'l-Mu'min, is described as an excellent scholar, whose mind was stored with the battles and traditions and history of the Arabs before and after Islam. But he found his highest pleasure in the study and patronage of philosophy. The great Aristotelian, Ibn ?ufayl, was his Vizier and court physician; and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) received flattering honours both from him and from his successor, Ya'qub al-Man?ur, who loved to converse with the philosopher on scientific topics, although in a fit of orthodoxy he banished him for a time.[801] This curious mixture of liberality and intolerance is characteristic of the Almohades. However they might encourage speculation in its proper place, their law and theology were cut according to the plain ?ahirite pattern. "The Koran and the Traditions of the Prophet--or else the sword!" is a saying of the last-mentioned sovereign, who also revived the autos-da-fe, which had been prohibited by his grandfather, of Malikite and other obnoxious books.[802] The spirit of the Almohades is admirably reflected in Ibn ?ufayl's famous philosophical romance, named after its hero, _?ayy ibn Yaq?an_, _i.e._, 'Alive, son of Awake,'[803] of which the following summary is given by Mr. Duncan B. Macdonald in his excellent _Muslim Theology_ (p. 253):--

[Sidenote: The story of ?ayy b. Yaq?an.]

"In it he conceives two islands, the one inhabited and the other not. On the inhabited island we have conventional people living conventional lives, and restrained by a conventional religion of rewards and punishments. Two men there, Salaman and Asal,[804] have raised themselves to a higher level of self-rule. Salaman adapts himself externally to the popular religion and rules the people; Asal, seeking to perfect himself still further in solitude, goes to the other island. But there he finds a man, ?ayy ibn Yaq?an, who has lived alone from infancy and has gradually, by the innate and uncorrupted powers of the mind, developed himself to the highest philosophic level and reached the Vision of the Divine. He has pa.s.sed through all the stages of knowledge until the universe lies clear before him, and now he finds that his philosophy thus reached, without prophet or revelation, and the purified religion of Asal are one and the same. The story told by Asal of the people of the other island sitting in darkness stirs his soul, and he goes forth to them as a missionary. But he soon learns that the method of Mu?ammad was the true one for the great ma.s.ses, and that only by sensuous allegory and concrete things could they be reached and held. He retires to his island again to live the solitary life."

[Sidenote: Literature under the Almoravides and Almohades (1100-1250 A.D.).]

Of the writers who flourished under the Berber dynasties few are sufficiently important to deserve mention in a work of this kind. The philosophers, however, stand in a cla.s.s by themselves. Ibn Bajja (Avempace), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn ?ufayl, and Musa b. Maymun (Maimonides) made their influence felt far beyond the borders of Spain: they belong, in a sense, to Europe. We have noticed elsewhere the great mystic, Mu?yi 'l-Din Ibnu 'l-'Arabi ( 1240 A.D.); his fellow-townsman, Ibn Sab'in ( 1269 A.D.), a thinker of the same type, wrote letters on philosophical subjects to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen.

Valuable works on the literary history of Spain were composed by Ibn Khaqan ( 1134 A.D.), Ibn Ba.s.sam ( 1147 A.D.), and Ibn Bashkuwal ( 1183 A.D.). The geographer Idrisi ( 1154 A.D.) was born at Ceuta, studied at Cordova, and found a patron in the Sicilian monarch, Roger II; Ibn Jubayr published an interesting account of his pilgrimage from Granada to Mecca and of his journey back to Granada during the years 1183-1185 A.D.; Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), who became a Vizier under the Almoravides, was the first of a whole family of eminent physicians; and Ibnu 'l-Bay?ar of Malaga ( 1248 A.D.), after visiting Egypt, Greece, and Asia Minor in order to extend his knowledge of botany, compiled a Materia Medica, which he dedicated to the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil.

[Sidenote: Reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand III.]

[Sidenote: The Na?rids of Granada (1232-1492 A.D.).]

We have now taken a rapid survey of the Moslem empire in Spain from its rise in the eighth century of our era down to the last days of the Almohades, which saw the Christian arms everywhere triumphant. By 1230 A.D. the Almohades had been driven out of the peninsula, although they continued to rule Africa for about forty years after this date. Amidst the general wreck one spot remained where the Moors could find shelter.

This was Granada. Here, in 1232 A.D., Mu?ammad Ibnu 'l-A?mar a.s.sumed the proud t.i.tle of 'Conqueror by Grace of G.o.d' (_Ghalib billah_) and founded the Na?rid dynasty, which held the Christians at bay during two centuries and a half. That the little Moslem kingdom survived so long was not due to its own strength, but rather to its almost impregnable situation and to the dissensions of the victors. The latest bloom of Arabic culture in Europe renewed, if it did not equal, the glorious memories of Cordova and Seville. In this period arose the world-renowned Alhambra, _i.e._, 'the Red Palace' (al-?amra) of the Na?rid kings, and many other superb monuments of which the ruins are still visible. We must not, however, be led away into a digression even upon such a fascinating subject as Moorish architecture. Our information concerning literary matters is scantier than it might have been, on account of the vandalism practised by the Christians when they took Granada. It is no dubious legend (like the reputed burning of the Alexandrian Library by order of the Caliph 'Umar),[805] but a well-ascertained fact that the ruthless Archbishop Ximenez made a bonfire of all the Arabic ma.n.u.scripts on which he could lay his hands.

He wished to annihilate the record of seven centuries of Mu?ammadan culture in a single day.

The names of Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib and Ibn Khaldun represent the highest literary accomplishment and historical comprehension of which this age was capable. The latter, indeed, has no parallel among Oriental historians.

[Sidenote: Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib (1313-1374 A.D.).]

Lisanu 'l-Din Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib[806] played a great figure in the politics of his time, and his career affords a conspicuous example of the intimate way in which Moslem poetry and literature are connected with public life. "The Arabs did not share the opinion widely spread nowadays, that poetical talent flourishes best in seclusion from the tumult of the world, or that it dims the clearness of vision which is required for the conduct of public affairs. On the contrary, their princes entrusted the chief offices of State to poets, and poetry often served as a means to obtain more brilliant results than diplomatic notes could have procured."[807] A young man like Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib, who had mastered the entire field of belles-lettres, who improvised odes and rhyming epistles with incomparable elegance and facility, was marked out to be the favourite of kings. He became Vizier at the Na?rid court, a position which he held, with one brief interval of disgrace, until 1371 A.D., when the intrigues of his enemies forced him to flee from Granada.

He sought refuge at Fez, and was honourably received by the reigning Sultan, 'Abdu 'l-'Aziz; but on the accession of Abu 'l-'Abbas in 1374 A.D. the exiled minister was incarcerated and brought to trial on the charge of heresy (_zandaqa_). While the inquisition was proceeding a fanatical mob broke into the gaol and murdered him. Maqqari relates that Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib suffered from insomnia, and that most of his works were composed during the night, for which reason he got the nickname of _Dhu 'l-'Umrayn_, or 'The man of two lives.'[808] He was a prolific writer in various branches of literature, but, like so many of his countrymen, he excelled in History. His monographs on the sovereigns and savants of Granada (one of which includes an autobiography) supply interesting details concerning this obscure period.

[Sidenote: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 A.D.).]

Some apology may be thought necessary for placing Ibn Khaldun, the greatest historical thinker of Islam, in the present chapter, as though he were a Spaniard either by birth or residence. He descended, it is true, from a family, the Banu Khaldun, which had long been settled in Spain, first at Carmona and afterwards at Seville; but they migrated to Africa about the middle of the thirteenth century, and Ibn Khaldun was born at Tunis. Nearly the whole of his life, moreover, was pa.s.sed in Africa--a circ.u.mstance due rather to accident than to predilection; for in 1362 A.D. he entered the service of the Sultan of Granada, Abu 'Abdallah Ibnu 'l-A?mar, and would probably have made that city his home had not the jealousy of his former friend, the Vizier Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib, decided him to leave Spain behind. We cannot give any account of the agitated and eventful career which he ended, as Cadi of Cairo, in 1406 A.D. Ibn Khaldun lived with statesmen and kings: he was an amba.s.sador to the court of Pedro of Castile, and an honoured guest of the mighty Tamerlane. The results of his ripe experience are marvellously displayed in the Prolegomena (_Muqaddima_), which forms the first volume of a huge general history ent.i.tled the _Kitabu 'l-'Ibar_ ('Book of Examples').[809] He himself has stated his idea of the historian's function in the following words:--

[Sidenote: Ibn Khaldun as a philosophical historian.]

"Know that the true purpose of history is to make us acquainted with human society, _i.e._, with the civilisation of the world, and with its natural phenomena, such as savage life, the softening of manners, attachment to the family and the tribe, the various kinds of superiority which one people gains over another, the kingdoms and diverse dynasties which arise in this way, the different trades and laborious occupations to which men devote themselves in order to earn their livelihood, the sciences and arts; in fine, all the manifold conditions which naturally occur in the development of civilisation."[810]

Ibn Khaldun argues that History, thus conceived, is subject to universal laws, and in these laws he finds the only sure criterion of historical truth.

[Sidenote: His canons of historical criticism.]

"The rule for distinguishing what is true from what is false in history is based on its possibility or impossibility: that is to say, we must examine human society (civilisation) and discriminate between the characteristics which are essential and inherent in its nature and those which are accidental and need not be taken into account, recognising further those which cannot possibly belong to it. If we do this we have a rule for separating historical truth from error by means of a demonstrative method that admits of no doubt.... It is a genuine touchstone whereby historians may verify whatever they relate."[811]

Here, indeed, the writer claims too much, and it must be allowed that he occasionally applied his principles in a pedantic fashion, and was led by purely _a priori_ considerations to conclusions which are not always so warrantable as he believed. This is a very trifling matter in comparison with the value and originality of the principles themselves.

Ibn Khaldun a.s.serts, with justice, that he has discovered a new method of writing history. No Moslem had ever taken a view at once so comprehensive and so philosophical; none had attempted to trace the deeply hidden causes of events, to expose the moral and spiritual forces at work beneath the surface, or to divine the immutable laws of national progress and decay. Ibn Khaldun owed little to his predecessors, although he mentions some of them with respect. He stood far above his age, and his own countrymen have admired rather than followed him. His intellectual descendants are the great mediaeval and modern historians of Europe--Machiavelli and Vico and Gibbon.

[Sidenote: Ibn Kaldun's theory of historical evolution.]

It is worth while to sketch briefly the peculiar theory of historical development which Ibn Khaldun puts forward in his Prolegomena--a theory founded on the study of actual conditions and events either past or pa.s.sing before his eyes.[812] He was struck, in the first place, with the physical fact that in almost every part of the Mu?ammadan Empire great wastes of sand or stony plateaux, arid and incapable of tillage, wedge themselves between fertile domains of cultivated land. The former were inhabited from time immemorial by nomad tribes, the latter by an agricultural or industrial population; and we have seen, in the case of Arabia, that cities like Mecca and ?ira carried on a lively intercourse with the Bedouins and exerted a civilising influence upon them. In Africa the same contrast was strongly marked. It is no wonder, therefore, that Ibn Khaldun divided the whole of mankind into two cla.s.ses--Nomads and Citizens. The nomadic life naturally precedes and produces the other. Its characteristics are simplicity and purity of manners, warlike spirit, and, above all, a loyal devotion to the interests of the family and the tribe. As the nomads become more civilised they settle down, form states, and make conquests. They have now reached their highest development. Corrupted by luxury, and losing the virtues which raised them to power, they are soon swept away by a ruder people. Such, in bare outline, is the course of history as Ibn Khaldun regards it; but we must try to give our readers some further account of the philosophical ideas underlying his conception. He discerns, in the life of tribes and nations alike, two dominant forces which mould their destiny. The primitive and cardinal force he calls _'a?abiyya_, the _binding_ element in society, the feeling which unites members of the same family, tribe, nation, or empire, and which in its widest acceptation is equivalent to the modern term, Patriotism.

It springs up and especially flourishes among nomad peoples, where the instinct of self-preservation awakens a keen sense of kinship and drives men to make common cause with each other. This _'a?abiyya_ is the vital energy of States: by it they rise and grow; as it weakens they decline; and its decay is the signal for their fall. The second of the forces referred to is Religion. Ibn Khaldun hardly ascribes to religion so much influence as we might have expected from a Moslem. He recognises, however, that it may be the only means of producing that solidarity without which no State can exist. Thus in the twenty-seventh chapter of his _Muqaddima_ he lays down the proposition that "the Arabs are incapable of founding an empire unless they are imbued with religious enthusiasm by a prophet or a saint."

In History he sees an endless cycle of progress and retrogression, a.n.a.logous to the phenomena of human life. Kingdoms are born, attain maturity, and die within a definite period which rarely exceeds three generations, _i.e._, 120 years.[813] During this time they pa.s.s through five stages of development and decay.[814] It is noteworthy that Ibn Khaldun admits the moral superiority of the Nomads. For him civilisation necessarily involves corruption and degeneracy. If he did not believe in the gradual advance of mankind towards some higher goal, his pessimism was justified by the lessons of experience and by the mournful plight of the Mu?ammadan world, to which his view was restricted.[815]

[Sidenote: The fall of Granada (1492 A.D.).]

In 1492 A.D. the last stronghold of the European Arabs opened its gates to Ferdinand and Isabella, and "the Cross supplanted the Crescent on the towers of Granada." The victors showed a barbarous fanaticism that was the more abominable as it violated their solemn pledges to respect the religion and property of the Moslems, and as it utterly reversed the tolerant and liberal treatment which the Christians of Spain had enjoyed under Mu?ammadan rule. Compelled to choose between apostasy and exile, many preferred the latter alternative. Those who remained were subjected to a terrible persecution, until in 1609 A.D., by order of Philip III, the Moors were banished _en ma.s.se_ from Spanish soil.

[Sidenote: The Arabs in Sicily.]

Spain was not the sole point whence Moslem culture spread itself over the Christian lands. Sicily was conquered by the Aghlabids of Tunis early in the ninth century, and although the island fell into the hands of the Normans in 1071 A.D., the court of Palermo retained a semi-Oriental character. Here in the reign of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250 A.D.) might be seen "astrologers from Baghdad with long beards and waving robes, Jews who received princely salaries as translators of Arabic works, Saracen dancers and dancing-girls, and Moors who blew silver trumpets on festal occasions."[816] Both Frederick himself and his son Manfred were enthusiastic Arabophiles, and scandalised Christendom by their a.s.sumption of 'heathen' manners as well as by the attention which they devoted to Moslem philosophy and science.

Under their auspices Arabic learning was communicated to the neighbouring towns of Lower Italy.

CHAPTER X

FROM THE MONGOL INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY