[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 document has been preserved by the Arab historians, and is well worthy of transcription:
"In the name of God the Clement and Merciful! Abdulaziz and Tadmir make this treaty of peace—may God 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 nobles 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 vassals 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 assassinated in 716.[5]
[1] Conde i. p. 69. This was perhaps due to Musa's notorious avarice.
[2] Somewhat less than ten shillings.
[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 massacre 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.