This monarch, whose name, so dear to the Moslems, seemed to be an auspicious omen, took the title of Emir-al-Mumenin, which signifies Prince of true Believers.
Victory attended the commencement of his reign; the rebels, whom his predecessors had been unable to reduce to submission, were defeated; factions were dissipated, and peace and order re-established.
Being attacked by the Christians soon after he had assumed the crown, Abderamus applied for assistance to the Moors of Africa. He maintained long wars against the kings of Leon and the counts of Castile, who wrested Madrid, then a place of comparative insignificance, from him, A.D. 931, Heg. 319. Often attacked and sometimes overcome, but always great and redoubtable notwithstanding occasional reverses, Abderamus knew how to repair his losses, and avail himself to the utmost of his good fortune. A profound statesman, and a brave and skilful commander, he fomented divisions among the Spanish princes, carried his arms frequently into the very centre of their states, and, having established a navy, seized, in addition, upon Ceuta and Seldjemessa on the African coast.
{64}
Notwithstanding the incessant wars which occupied him during the whole of his reign, the enormous expense to which he was subjected by the maintenance of his armies and his naval force, and the purchase of military assistance from Africa, Emir-al-Mumenim supported a luxury and splendour at his court, the details of which would seem to be the mere creations of the imagination, were they not attested by every historian of the time.
The contemporary Greek emperor, Constantine XI., wishing to oppose an enemy capable of resisting their power, to the Abbassides of Bagdad, sent ambassadors to Cordova to form an alliance with Abderamus.
The Caliph of the West, flattered that Christians should come from so distant a part of the world to request his support, signalized the occasion by the display of a gorgeous pomp which rivalled that of the most splendid Asiatic courts. He sent a suit of attendants to receive the ambassadors at Jean. Numerous corps of cavalry, magnificently mounted and attired, awaited their approach to Cordova, and a still more brilliant display of infantry lined the avenues to the palace. The courts were covered with the most {65} superb Persian and Egyptian carpets, and the walls hung with cloth of gold. The caliph, blazing with brilliants, and seated on a dazzling throne, surrounded by his family, his viziers, and a numerous train of courtiers, received the Greek envoys in a hall in which all his treasures were displayed. The Hadjeb, a dignitary whose office among the Moors corresponded to that of the ancient French mayors of the palace, introduced the ambassadors. They prostrated themselves before Abderamus in amazement at the splendour of this array, and presented to the Moorish sovereign the letter of Constantine, written on blue parchment and enclosed in a box of gold. The caliph signed the treaty, loaded the imperial messengers with presents, and ordered that a numerous suite should accompany them even to the walls of Constantinople.
Abderamus III., though unceasingly occupied either by war or politics, was all his life enamoured of one of his wives named Zahra.[11] He built a city for her two miles distant from Cordova, which he named Zahra.
This place is now destroyed. It was situated {66} at the base of a high mountain, from which flowed numerous perpetual streams, whose waters ran in all directions through the streets of the city, diffusing health and coolness in their course, and forming ever-flowing fountains in the centre of the public places. The houses, each built after the same model, were surmounted by terraces and surrounded by gardens adorned with groves of orange, laurel, and lime, and in which the myrtle, the rose, and the jasmine mingled in pleasing confusion with all the varied productions of that sunny and delicious clime. The statue of the beautiful Zahra[12] was conspicuously placed over the principal gate of this City of Love.
But the attractions of the city were totally eclipsed by those of the fairy-like palace of the favourite. Abderamus, as the ally of their Imperial master, demanded the assistance of the most accomplished of the Greek architects; and the sovereign of Constantinople, which was at that time the chosen home of the fine arts, eagerly complied with his desires, and sent the caliph, in addition, forty columns of granite of the rarest and most beautiful workmanship. Independent {67} of these magnificent columns, there were employed in the construction of this palace more than twelve hundred others, formed of Spanish and Italian marble. The walls of the apartment named the Saloon of the Caliphate, were covered with ornaments of gold; and from the mouths of several animals, composed of the same metal, gushed jets of water that fell into an alabaster fountain, above which was suspended the famous pearl that the Emperor Leo had presented to the caliph as a treasure of inestimable value. In the pavilion where the mistress of this enchanting abode usually passed the evening with the royal Moor, the ceiling was composed of gold and burnished steel, incrusted with precious stones. And in the resplendent light reflected from these brilliant ornaments by a hundred crystal lustres, flashed the waters of a fountain, formed like a sheaf of grain, from polished silver, whose delicate spray was received again by the alabaster basin from whose centre it sprung.