History of the Moors of Spain Part 14

C, page 136.

_Sancho reigned in his father's stead, &c._

This Sancho, surnamed _the Brave_, who took up arms against his father and afterward obtained his throne, was the second son of Alphonso the Sage. His elder brother, Ferdinand de la Cerda, a mild and virtuous prince, died in the {223} flower of his age, leaving two infant sons, the offspring of his marriage with Blanche, the daughter of St. Lewis of France. It was to deprive these children of their reversionary right to the crown of Castile that the ambitious Sancho made war upon his father. He succeeded in his criminal designs; but the princes of La Cerda, protected by France and Aragon, rallied around them all the malecontents of Castile, and the claims they were thus enabled to support long formed a pretext or occasion for the most b.l.o.o.d.y dissensions.

D, page 149.

_Ferdinand IV., surnamed the Summoned, &c._

Ferdinand IV., the son and successor of Sancho the Brave, was still in his infancy when he succeeded to the throne. His minority was overshadowed by impending clouds; but the power and influence of Queen Mary, his mother, enabled her eventually to dissipate the dangers which threatened the safety of her son. This prince obtained his appellation of _the Summoned_ from the following circ.u.mstance. Actuated by feelings of strong indignation, Ferdinand commanded that two brothers, named Carvajal, who had been accused, but not convicted, of the crime of a.s.sa.s.sination, should be precipitated from a rocky precipice. Both the supposed criminals, in their last moments, a.s.serted their innocence of the crime alleged against them, appealed to Heaven and the laws to verify the truth of their protestations, and summoned the pa.s.sionate Ferdinand to appear before the Great Judge of all men at the end of thirty days. At the precise time thus indicated, the Castilian king, who was marching against the Moors, retired for repose after dinner, and was found dead upon his couch. The Spaniards attributed this sudden death to the effects of Divine justice. It had been well if the {224} monarchs who succeeded Ferdinand, Peter the Cruel in particular, had been convinced of the truth of this sentiment.

E, page 149.

_Retiring within the walls of Tariffe, &c._

After Sancho the Brave became master of Tariffe, it was besieged by the Africans. It was during this siege that Alphonso de Guzman, the Spanish governor of the city, exhibited an example of invincible firmness and self-command, of which none but parents can form a just estimate. The son of De Guzman was taken prisoner during a sortie.

The Africans conducted their captive to the walls, and threatened the governor with his immolation unless the city should be immediately surrendered. The undaunted Spaniard replied only by hurling a poniard at his enemies, and retired from the battlements. In a moment loud cries burst from the garrison. Hastily demanding the cause of this alarm, the unhappy father was told that the Africans had put to death his son. "G.o.d be praised," said he, "I thought that the city had been taken!"

F, page 158.

_The celebrated Inez de Castro, &c._

The pa.s.sion of Peter the Cruel for Inez de Castro was carried to such excess as, perhaps, in some degree, to account for the atrocity of his revenge upon her murderers. These were three distinguished Portuguese lords, who themselves stabbed the unfortunate Inez in the arms of her women. Peter, who, at the time this barbarous deed was committed, had not yet attained regal power, seemed from that period to lose all command of himself: from being gentle and virtuous, he became ferocious and almost insane. He openly rebelled against his father, carried fire and sword into those {225} parts of the kingdom in which the domains of the a.s.sa.s.sins of Inez were situated, and, when he afterward came into possession of the crown, insisted that the King of Castile should deliver up Gonzales and Coello, two of the guilty n.o.blemen, who had taken refuge at his court. Thus master of the persons of two of his victims (the third had fled into France, where he died), Peter subjected them to the most dreadful tortures. He caused their hearts to be torn out while they were yet living, and a.s.sisted himself at this horrible sacrifice. After thus glutting his vengeance, the inconsolable lover exhumed the body of his murdered mistress, clothed it in magnificent habiliments, and, placing his crown upon the livid and revolting brow, proclaimed Inez de Castro queen of Portugal; compelling, at the same time, the grandees of his court to do homage to the insensible remains which he had invested with the attributes of royalty.

G, page 161.

_Most of the productions of the Grenadian authors, &c._

After the surrender of Grenada, Cardinal Ximenes caused every copy of the Koran of which he could obtain possession to be burned. The ignorant and superst.i.tious soldiery mistook for that work everything written in the Arabic language, and committed to the flames a mult.i.tude of compositions both in prose and verse.

H, page 178.

_The Abencerrages, &c._

The inhabitants of Grenada, and, indeed, the whole Moorish people, were divided into tribes, composed of the different branches of the same family. Some of these tribes were more numerous and important than others: but two distinct {226} races were never united together, nor was one of them ever divided. At the head of each of these tribes was a chief who was descended in a direct male line from the original founder of the family. In the city of Grenada there existed thirty-two considerable tribes. The most important of these were the Abencerrages, the Zegris, the Alcenabez, the Almorades, the Vanegas, the Gomeles, the Abidbars, the Gauzuls, the Abenamars, the Aliatars, the Reduans, the Aldoradins, etc. These separate races were, many of them, at enmity with each other; and their animosity being perpetuated from one generation to another, gave rise to the frequent civil wars which were attended with such disastrous consequences to the nation at large.

I, page 198

_His humane injunctions respecting almsgiving, &c._

Almsgiving is one of the leading principles of the Mohammedan religion.

It was enjoined upon the followers of the Prophet by a variety of allegories, among which is the following: "The sovereign Judge shall, at the last great day, entwine him who has not bestowed alms with a frightful serpent, whose envenomed sting shall for ever pierce the avaricious hand that never opened for the relief of the unfortunate!"

{227}

A BRIEF ACCOUNT

OF THE

RISE AND DECLINE

OF THE

MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE;

THE LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION OF THE ARABS;

AND THE PRESENT CONDITION OF MOHAMMEDANISM

{229}

A

BRIEF ACCOUNT

OF THE

MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER I.

Extent of the Arabian Empire.--Causes which led to that extent.--Continuance of Mohammedanism.--Decay of the Empire.--What led to it.--Spain revolts and sets up a separate Caliph.--Africa.--Egypt.--Bagdad.--Fall of the House of the Abba.s.sides.

The first battle in which the Arabs tried their power against the disciplined forces of the Roman empire was the battle of Muta. Though on that occasion they were successful, the most sanguine could not have ventured to predict that, before the close of a century, their empire would become more extensive than any that had ever before existed. Yet such was the fact. It overthrew the power of the Romans, and rendered the successors of the Prophet the mightiest and most absolute sovereigns on earth.

Under the last monarch of the Ommiade race, {230} the Arabian empire, excepting only an obscure part of Africa, of little account, embraced a compact territory equal to six months' march of a caravan in length and four in breadth, with innumerable tributary and dependant states. In the exercise of their power, the caliphs were fettered neither by popular rights, the votes of a senate, nor const.i.tutional laws: the Koran was, indeed, their professed rule of action; but, inasmuch as they alone were its interpreters, their will was in all cases law. The loss of Spain to the empire was more than made up by conquests in India, Tartary, and European Turkey. Samarcand and Timbuctoo studied with equal devotion the language and religion of the Koran, and at the temple of Mecca the Moor and the Indian met as brother pilgrims.

Throughout the countries west of the Tigris, the language of Arabia became the vehicle of popular intercourse; and, although in Persia, Tartary, and Hindostan the native dialects continued in common use, the Arabic was also there the sacred tongue.

We will advert to some of the causes which led to this astonishing success. The leading article of the Mohammedan faith, the unity of G.o.d, harmonized with what Jews and Christians universally believed.

Mohammed propounded this doctrine, by excluding the Deity of Jesus Christ, so as {231} to fall in with the views of the greater number of the Christian sectaries. He moreover enjoined practices which, in the then corrupt state of religion, were beginning widely to prevail. To the untutored mind of the desert wanderer, his doctrine would thus possess all the attractiveness he might have heard ascribed to Christianity, while his being of the same country would secure for him the greater attention. Systems in which truth and error have been combined are by no means unwillingly received, especially by those who are already superst.i.tious and fanatical, and such was pre-eminently the character of the Arabians. Mohammed's religious, moral, and juridical system was in general accordance with Asiatic opinions; it provided a paradise exactly suited to the imagination and taste of the Orientals; and, as the superst.i.tious are always more powerfully influenced by that which awakens apprehension and appeals to fear than by what enkindles hope, his h.e.l.l contributed even more than his heaven to multiply disciples.

Still, had no resort been had to arms, the Mohammedan faith would in all probability have been confined to the deserts of Arabia. The whole of Asia was at that time in a state of unprecedented military inactivity, and opportunity was thus afforded for the success of his enterprise. Empires {232} were tottering and powerless; political wisdom had almost disappeared; and to military talents and courage the Arabs alone could make any pretensions. Previous contentions between the Persian and Byzantine empires had entirely destroyed what little remains of internal vigour those governments might otherwise have possessed. Civil revolts, tyranny, extortion, sensuality, and sloth, had annihilated the ambition of universal rule which the Greek and Roman governments had once cherished; and their provinces, neglected or oppressed, became an easy prey to the Moslem power.

The nations were the more rapidly subdued, since to the indomitable ferocity of the desert wanderer the Saracens added those other features which complete a warlike character. They despised death, and were self-denying and energetic to a degree far beyond the soldiers of civilized countries, while they were scarcely less familiar with the military art. The lieutenants of the caliphs soon vied with the Roman generals in skill; and it is by no means difficult to explain their almost uniform superiority, when we bear in mind the character of the armies they respectively commanded. Terror, moreover, is epidemic; and a force already successful commonly finds its victorious progress greatly aided by the prevailing notion of its prowess. Thus we have witnessed, {233} in the wars of more disciplined troops, the tremendous effect of a name alone.