The enemy succeeded in impoverishing the Jew, and in stifling his energies and efforts for the good of the country, but failed ignominiously in their effort to inspire him with a love for Christianity, which perhaps was never sincerely wanted, and, if wanted, the means chosen to secure the end were not such that are crowned with success. The degraded and tortured Jew was filled with a bitter hatred against Christianity, and with a burning longing for revenge.
And vengeance came. God had heard the wailings and seen the sufferings of the people that never was born to die. The Gothic kingdom of Spain was to suffer bitterly for its terrible crimes and the Jew was to be rewarded a thousandfold for the sufferings he had endured for his religion's sake. Weaker and weaker became that kingdom which the Jews had made in former years the pride of Europe. It was beset by foes within and by foes without. The tyranny of the church and of the throne had instigated dissatisfaction among the grandees of the state, and the insult of Roderick, the king, to Florinda, the young and beautiful daughter of Count Ilyan aroused this bravest of Spanish warriors and numerous powerful friends of his into open rebellion.
Nearer and nearer drew the Arab-Moors. They reached the Northwestern point of Africa, where the Jews, who had fled and who had been banished thither, and who had risen there to power and influence, greeted them with a hearty welcome. The martial sound of the Moslem hosts made as pleasant music to their ears as to the insulted father and his wrath-inspired followers. Both parties conspired with the Moorish chief, Amir Musa Ibn Nosseyr, for the invasion of Spain. Musa grasped eagerly at this ardently wished-for opportunity. He dispatched his valiant warrior Tarik, with 12,000 men across the narrow strait that separated Africa from Europe, and Islam from Christianity. Roderik met him at the banks of the Guadalete with an army eight times as large, and that day was the last Spain beheld him and his army. On that day Christianity ceased to rule within the land of Spain, and as its power sank, there dawned once more the sun of prosperity unto Israel.
The Moors did not forget the valuable services of the Jews. The early hatred against them in Arabia, for refusing to accept the creed of Mohammed, had long since been converted into tolerance and good will. Unlike the religion of Christianity, which started as the religion of love and soon became the religion of the sword, Islamism began as the religion of the sword but soon become the religion of love. Political and religious freedom and social recognition was granted to the Jew throughout the caliphate, and from that day unto this the two Oriental people have lived in peace side by side upon the Occidental soil, viewing with each other in their noble efforts to restore unto Spain her original beauty and prosperity, and to make her in culture and art and intelligence the mistress of Europe. We, sons of Israel, have labored hard and zealously in this noble contest, but with all our efforts our rival has passed beyond us, and humbly we cede the palm of victory to the Arab-Moors."
Here Chasdai ben Isaac ceased. He had spoken of the sufferings of the Jews with such perceptible anguish, he had related the part which the Jews took in the conquest of Spain with such vivid animation, and referred to the prosperity of the Jews under Moorish sway, and to Moorish tolerance and intellectual greatness, with such touching pathos that when he paused, a deep impressive silence ensued. At length Abdallah ben Xamri, the Moorish poet laureate to Caliph Abder Rahman III., arose, advanced towards Chasdai, and bowing low, thus he spoke:
"Your modesty must not bridle my tongue. I would appear an ingrate to my people should it become known that I listened in silence to your last remarks. The Arab-Moors forgot not their benefactors, nor are they so boastful as to arrogate to themselves, or allow others to bestow upon them a superiority which is unmerited.
Within our heart of hearts we treasure the services which your people have rendered. We owe the Hebrew people much more than your modesty, noble Chasdai, has suffered you to claim. You opened the portals of Spain unto us, and to you alone belongs the credit of turning Spain once again into a paradise, for a hundred years of uninterrupted warfare under the banner of Islam, had unfitted us for agricultural and mechanical and intellectual and artistic pursuits. You sowed the seeds of our prosperity. We sat at the feet of your masters, and if we have proven ourselves apt scholars, we bear testimony to the excellency of your teachers. Far be it from us to claim superiority over our honored rival. In the arts and sciences and philosophies your people hold distinguished places. Your theologians have given us many a problem which the wisest among us have failed to solve. In the purity of your home and social life, and in your industries you serve the world as models. In poetry I should never venture to compete for supremacy with friend Dunash ben Labrat and Menachem ben Saruk. In diplomacy, where lives the man who can equal you in intellect and sagacity, to whom else do we owe our political greatness than to you, Chasdai ben Isaac, the Jewish minister of our beloved Caliph Abder Rahman III."