They made glass out of a silicious clay and used it for fashioning vessels, and also in glazing those beautiful tiles—for which Valencia is still famous—called azulejos, which they employed in embelishing floors and wainscoting. The best leather was made by the Jews and Arab-Moors in Cordova, and hence Spanish leather is still called Cordovan, which has given to English shoemakers their name of "Cordwainers." The still celebrated "Morocco" leather—the secret of its manufacture having been carried to Morocco, after their expulsion from Spain,—speaks to this day of Moorish and Jewish skill in this branch of industry. The "Toledo Blade," famous in the past and famous still, the invention of, and the plentiful and lucrative manufacture of cotton and linen paper, that blessed boon to civilization, which alone made the printing press possible and beneficial, the introduction of gunpowder and artillery, of the magnet and the mariner's compass, of mechanical and scientific apparatus and instruments, these and many more still speak in eloquent terms of Moorish and Jewish industry in Spain, and, more eloquently still, they tell the tale of Spanish ingratitude.[36]
This diligence and success in agriculture and in the industries made commerce necessarily very active and lucrative. The ports swarmed with vessels of traffic. The Jews and Moors of Spain maintained a merchant marine of thousands of ships. They had their factories and warehouses and consuls in all centers of industry. Their exports were very large.
The Jews, who had been compelled to wander the wide world over had acquired a most perfect geographical knowledge, which was serviceable to them now. It was through them that the existence of the Cape of Good Hope was made known in Europe. It was through Averroes that the attention of Columbus was drawn to his subject of finding a short route to the Indies. Their commerce opened the tide of discovery by navigation. Moorish and Jewish industry sought foreign markets and found them, too, from the Azores to the interior of China, from the Baltic to the coast of Mozambique, and eventually from the kingdom of Granada to the new world. Granada, especially in the words of the historian, became the common city of all nations. The reputation of its citizens for trustworthiness was such that their bare word was more relied on than a written contract is now among us, to which a Catholic bishop adds: "Moorish integrity is all that is necessary to make a good Christian."[37]
The position of the Moors and Jews of Spain in the industries may, therefore, be briefly summarized thus, a prosperous state of commerce arose never known before, and in the southern part of Europe never equalled since. Farther and farther this commerce pushed its interests, and more and more busy became the industries at home, and greater and greater grew their opulence. Gradually the rest of Europe awakened from its lethargy. Moorish and Jewish toil infused life and ambition into its people. Italy, Portugal, France and England began to compete. New markets became necessary. New discoveries followed, and with the general activity and prosperity which ensued, and the learning which it fostered, it dispelled the mists of ignorance, the middle ages disappeared and modern history made its appearance upon the world's stage. So glorious was the result of Moorish and Jewish industry. How Europe rewarded them in return for all their labors, let the following chapters speak.
CHAPTER. XV.
THE INQUISITION.
JEWISH AND MOORISH INTELLECTUAL ADVANCE FOLLOWED BY PHYSICAL DECLINE—THIS DECLINE THE CAUSE OF THEIR DOWNFALL—THE SPANIARD AGAIN RULER OVER SPAIN—THE INQUISITION ESTABLISHED—TO ESCAPE IT JEWS BECOME "NEW CHRISTIANS"—CHRISTIANITY NO HELP TO THE JEWS—THOMAS DE TORQUEMADA—THE TORTURES OF THE INQUISITION—A PUBLIC BURNING.
Physical decline follows mental advance. The nation that is devoted to learning is not the nation that worships a military life, or the pursuits of warfare. When the Mohammedans started on the enterprise of acquiring vast territorial possessions, there were few nations, if any, that could stand before them; when they were bent upon making intellectual acquisitions, there was no military body in Europe so poor that could not overthrow them. The military and patriotic virtues of the Arab-Moors had slowly passed away. Their original simplicity had been replaced by the extravagance of Oriental luxury, and their early devotedness to the Moslem faith had suffered much from their philosophical and scientific researches.[38] Internecine wars among themselves hastened their decline. Faster and faster their once invincible power slipped from their hands. Faster and faster advanced the Spanish hosts. Arab-Moor and Spanish Christian met at last on the plains of "Las Navas," (1213) and the great defeat which the Moslem army sustained here marked the beginning of the fatal hour. City after city, province after province, they were forced to yield. At last, all was lost, save the city of Granada, which stood alone to represent the Mohammedan dominion in the peninsula. And, for a time, it seemed as if that noble city, the city of the Alhambra, the pride of the Moors, would not only represent the Mohammedan dominion, and stay the victorious advance of the Spanish hosts, but also regain all that had been lost.