History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 1 (of 3)

by S. P. Scott

Every member of the detested race whom the blood-thirsty diligence of their foes could discover was hunted like a wild beast and put to death. Children were butchered in the presence of their parents. Women who refused to disclose the hiding-places of their kindred, or the whereabouts of their jewels, were stabbed without ceremony. Abu-Ibn-Muavia, one of the noblest cavaliers of Damascus, was deprived of a hand and foot, and paraded through the cities of Syria upon an ass until pain and exhaustion relieved him of his misery. The ferocious Abbasides were not content with outrages upon the living; they even violated the tombs of the khalifs and scattered to the winds the remains of those princes whose glory and whose crimes had adorned or defiled the throne of the East.

Amidst the universal ruin of his family, one prince alone of the Ommeyades, Abd-al-Rahman-Ibn-Muavia, had survived. Of rare promise and endowed with many virtues, he had long been the ornament of the court of Syria. He had received the best education obtainable in the schools of the capital. His mind had been enlarged by travel. The fortuitous advantages of wealth and royal lineage added but little to the prestige attaching to his name. The conversation of learned men, daily attendance upon the proceedings of the Divan, intimate association with the highest dignitaries of the state, all had aided to familiarize him with the complex machinery of government. The turbulence of the times necessarily enlisted the military services of the various members of the royal house, and Abd-al-Rahman was not deficient in the knowledge of those duties required by the stirring life of the camp and the battle-field. In proficiency in manly exercises, in the daring adventures of the chase, in skill in the use of arms, he surpassed all competitors.

An accidental and timely absence from the court had preserved the young prince from the fate of his kindred. As soon as intelligence of the massacre reached him, he fled to an estate which he possessed near the Euphrates, and there he was soon joined by his household. But the horsemen of Abul-Abbas, whose implacable cruelty had acquired for him the appropriate title of Al-Saffah, The Sanguinary, were already upon his track; his villa was surrounded, and by swimming the river he barely escaped with his life. By dint of perseverance and courage, after many perils, he succeeded in reaching Palestine, where he was found by Bedr, a freedman of his father, who brought him his sister’s jewels, generously donated to relieve his necessities. From Palestine he passed in disguise into Africa, a province which had not yet renounced allegiance to the Ommeyades, and whose governor had been one of the most ardent supporters of the proscribed faction. Here he was hospitably welcomed, and at once found himself surrounded by friends and refugees who had eluded the vigilance of the Abbasides. The spirits of the exile rose with the present assurance of security in the companionship of adherents whose sympathies were aroused, and whose passions were excited by the story of his wrongs. Years before, the downfall of the race of Ommeyah had been foretold by an astrologer, who had, at the same time, predicted the future greatness of the illustrious fugitive. The intellect of Abd-al-Rahman, though strong, was not proof against the oracles of superstition which flattered his vanity while they inspired him with awe, and he had listened, with all the credulity of an Oriental, to the mysterious hints of the charlatan. The first portion of the prediction had been verified. With the single exception of himself, the princes of his house had been exterminated. His conscious mental superiority, his political experience, his keen insight into human nature, his public and domestic virtues, persuaded him and suggested to his partisans that no one of his family was so worthy of a throne. Actuated by these ambitious feelings, and rashly permitting his aspirations to prevail over his gratitude, Abd-al-Rahman began to entertain hopes of securing the sovereignty of Africa. His imprudent speeches came to the ears of the Viceroy, Ibn-Habib, a stern old soldier, who was a relative of Yusuf and had once held high command in the army of Spain. He also was acquainted with the astrologer’s prediction, and was not disposed to contribute to its accomplishment by the loss of his own life and the sacrifice of his power. Despising the guests whose base conduct had so ill requited his hospitality, he tendered his allegiance to the Abbaside Khalifate. All members of the obnoxious faction were at once expelled from the country. Abd-al-Rahman was forced to seek in disguise the most secluded regions of the Desert. His condition became more and more precarious. A reward of a thousand pieces of gold was offered for his head. He sought concealment among the Bedouins, but their generous hospitality was not able to protect him from the tireless emissaries of the Viceroy, who pursued him from camp to camp and from tribe to tribe. On one occasion, he escaped from a tent just as the Berbers rushed into it. On another, the wife of a sheik concealed him in a corner under a pile of her garments. His means long since exhausted, he became dependent upon charity. His food was coarse and scanty, his clothes old and tattered. Although his youth had been pampered with the choicest delicacies of a royal table, he ate the barley bread and drank the camel’s milk of the douars without a murmur. The nobility of his birth, the suavity of his manners, his skill and daring in the chase, and the patience with which he submitted to the trials of adverse fortune, gained for him the respect and esteem of his wild associates. Even in his destitution he never ceased to aspire to the throne of Africa, and, while his efforts were futile, the activity of the indignant Viceroy kept him in continual apprehension. At length, after five years of vagabondage and perilous adventure, he became the guest of the Berber tribe of the Beni-Nafsa, a branch of the Zenetah, from which his mother derived her origin and whose members inhabited the mountainous region to the south of Ceuta. Here, under the guardianship of his fellow-tribesmen, an alluring prospect was erelong opened to his ambition, and the penniless wanderer, without country or kindred, was suddenly called by the voice of a distant nation to found a new empire and fulfil a grand and magnificent destiny.

In the mean time, the civil war in Spain between Yusuf and Ahmar, ruler of Saragossa, had been proceeding with increasing atrocity but with various and doubtful fortune. Owing to the close relations maintained by Africa and the Spanish Peninsula with each other, the armies of the latter country being constantly recruited from the martial population of the former, and the governors themselves being connected by the ties of blood, an abiding interest in the political fortunes of their brethren beyond the strait was naturally manifested by the Arab and Berber tribes, and intelligence of every important movement in Spain was transmitted to the cities and camps of Al-Maghreb with unfailing regularity. The vigilance and ability of the Viceroy of Africa had at length convinced Abd-al-Rahman of the hopelessness of any attempt to usurp his power. Ease of access to Andalusia and the distracted condition of that country, with whose troubles he was thoroughly familiar, caused him to abandon the scheme which had for so long been the cherished object of his life for another which promised to be less impracticable. A seasonable supply of money had lately reached the impoverished prince from his friends in Syria. With this he despatched the faithful Bedr, who had without complaint shared the privations of his exile, to Spain; after entrusting him with a letter, in which he laid claim to the throne by right of inheritance, directed to the partisans of his family who, to the number of several hundred, inhabited the eastern portion of Andalusia. The letter was in due time delivered to the chiefs of the Syrians, who secretly convoked an assembly of their tribesmen to determine what course should be pursued. The hereditary loyalty of the adherents of the Ommeyades; the apparent justice of the title of Abd-al-Rahman; the anarchy that everywhere prevailed, and whose effects were at that time painfully manifest in the threefold scourge of massacre, famine, and disease; and the prospect of official promotion, assisted by a judicious distribution of the gold brought by Bedr, decided the suffrages of the council in favor of the prince. Scarcely had this opinion been adopted when a new difficulty was added to those which had already rendered the issue of the enterprise doubtful as well as hazardous. The Syrians were ordered by the Emir to attend him in an expedition to the North. But, by plausible excuses, the chieftains were enabled to defer the time of departure, and a gift of a thousand pieces of gold was even obtained from Yusuf under pretext of relieving the pressing necessities of their dependents, but, in fact, to further a conspiracy having for its end his own dethronement. A ship was at once equipped; Abd-al-Rahman was conveyed with a small escort of Berbers to the coast of the Peninsula, and, landing at the port of Almuñecar, was received with the acclamations of a great multitude attracted to the spot by the combined motives of curiosity and loyal enthusiasm. After being duly proclaimed Emir, Abd-al-Rahman was conducted to a castle not far from Loja as the guest of the owner Obeydallah, one of his most zealous adherents.

While these events were transpiring in the South, the expedition of Yusuf against the rebellious Berbers of Saragossa had been singularly fortunate. Overawed by superior numbers, the insurgents had purchased immunity by the craven surrender of their leaders, Amir, Wahab, and Hobab. With these redoubtable chieftains in his custody, the Emir was moving leisurely southward when he was informed of the defeat of a body of his troops by the Basques, and in a fit of ungovernable rage he ordered the immediate execution of his prisoners. By this cruel and impolitic act,—for the culprits were of the purest blood of the Koreish, and were not responsible for the disaster to his arms,—he alienated many of his stanchest supporters and materially increased the following and resources of his rival. A few hours afterwards a courier brought tidings of the landing of Abd-al-Rahman and of the new and formidable danger that menaced his crown. Thirsting for revenge, the dependents of the massacred captives deserted his standard by hundreds. The forces of the Ommeyade prince increased daily; the Yemenites, who regarded his family with a hatred intensified by generations of injury and oppression, but whose detestation of Yusuf was even deeper than that entertained towards the Syrian dynasty, were easily induced to embrace the cause of the former; and, by a strange revolution of fortune, the fugitive, who but a few weeks before had been in hourly peril of his life, now found himself invested with imperial authority and the commander of a veteran army of several thousand men. Fully appreciating the dangerous character of the revolt, as well as the uncertain consequences of a prolonged conflict, Yusuf attempted negotiation. Envoys bearing valuable presents were despatched to the camp of Abd-al-Rahman, who were authorized to promise him the daughter of the Emir in marriage and an estate commensurate with his dignity if he would renounce all claims to the throne. The advisers of the prince, whose enthusiasm had somewhat abated since they had taken time to reflect upon the possible results of their temerity, recommended that the proposals be accepted. A bitter taunt, however, provoked by the awkwardness of one of Abd-al-Rahman’s retinue, abruptly terminated the negotiation; the sarcastic envoy was cast into a dungeon; and the embassy of the Emir, dismissed without ceremony, narrowly escaped being plundered before it reached the gates of Cordova.

No further course was now possible except an appeal to arms. The prevalence of anarchy, the frequent change of rulers, the pernicious immigration of barbarians from Africa, had thoroughly disorganized society. The allegiance of every subject was regarded as a mere matter of policy or choice. The armies were little better than banditti. Even the ties of tribal union had been relaxed, save when the spirit of vengeance required to be satisfied in accordance with the bloody traditions of the Desert. Treachery was so rife that no man was certain of the sincerity of his neighbor or could trust the loyalty of his friend. It was no uncommon occurrence for troops at the critical moment of a battle to publicly desert to the enemy, and immediately turn their weapons against their late companions-in-arms. The grave uncertainties of a contest, carried on under such circumstances, are apparent to every reader. The forces of Abd-al-Rahman had recently received an important accession by the arrival of a considerable number of African cavalry, warriors of the clan of the Zenetah, whose tribal connections, as well as their inexperience in the political intrigues of the emirate, rendered their allegiance less precarious than that of the veterans to whom all masters were alike and whose principal incentive was plunder.

Early in the spring the army of Abd-al-Rahman took up its march with a view to the capture of Cordova. Its course, however, was not directly towards the capital, but farther to the south, where the Syrian and Egyptian tribes—whose sentiments were known to be favorable to the cause of the Ommeyades—had been distributed. Everywhere the insurgents were welcomed with enthusiasm; the bravest warriors joined their ranks; and the towns, one after another, including Seville, the most important city of Andalusia in point of population, opened their gates to the pretender. Abd-al-Rahman had scarcely received the homage of his new subjects before he learned that Yusuf, who, aided by his counsellor Al-Samil, had collected a formidable army in the provinces of Toledo and Murcia, had marched from Cordova to intercept him. Leaving the city, the prince proceeded northward with the expectation of seizing the capital during the absence of the Emir. But the crafty old soldier was not to be taken unawares. The movement of the insurgents was at once detected; Yusuf retraced his steps; and for several hours the two armies raced on together with the river between them. Arriving at a village called Mosara, situated about a league from Cordova, Abd-al-Rahman halted. The clamors of his soldiers, who had been on short rations and were greatly fatigued by the rapid march they had been compelled to undertake, now rose ominously on his ears. A council of war was called, and it was decided to attack the enemy on the following morning. By means of a ruse, which reflected little credit upon his character, Abd-al-Rahman was enabled to cross the river without molestation. He sent word to Yusuf that he was willing to renew the negotiations which had been broken off before the commencement of hostilities; that the terms were entirely acceptable; and that there was so fair a prospect of peace that the treaty could be more conveniently arranged if the two camps were more accessible to each other. Duped by these plausible representations, the Emir suffered his enemies to pass the Guadalquivir, and, learning of their half-famished condition, even sent provisions to their camp. At dawn the troops of Abd-al-Rahman prepared for action. The day was propitious. It was the anniversary of the conflict of the Prairie, where an ancestor of the young prince had signally defeated an adversary whose title was the same as that of Yusuf. The coincidence was carried still further, for it was not forgotten by the superstitious Arabs that the vizier of the Emir and his royal tribesman both belonged to the race of Kais. These prognostics of success were diligently circulated through the ranks of the Ommeyades, already elated by the prospect of victory. The unwelcome omens did not have a less powerful influence upon the imagination of their opponents, for, disheartened and faltering, they regarded themselves as having incurred the displeasure of heaven. The battle was half lost before it fairly began.

So little confidence had the Yemenites in their commander, whose life and fortunes were staked on the issue, that the prince was compelled to exchange his war-horse for an old and crippled mule to avoid the suspicion of intending to abandon his followers in the event of disaster. The royal standard was a white turban attached to a lance; an ensign of equally humble origin, and destined to no less celebrity than the leathern apron of the Persian dynasty, for many generations the symbol of conquest, empire, and glory. The cavalry of Abd-al-Rahman routed that of the enemy, driving it back upon the infantry and throwing the latter into confusion. The right wing and centre soon gave way; the left wing maintained its position for some hours, when it also was broken. The plain was covered with fugitives, who were speared without mercy and trampled to death by the savage Zenetes. Yusuf and Al-Samil succeeded in escaping by the fleetness of their horses; the former fled to Merida, the latter took refuge in Jaen. Such was the battle of Mosara, upon whose result hinged the destinies of Spain.

The contest was hardly over before the characteristic perfidy of the Yemenite chieftains began to manifest itself. To the latter the lineage of Abd-al-Rahman was peculiarly offensive. Aside from the general and deep-seated prejudice they entertained against his family, many of them were descendants of the martyrs and exiles of Medina and Harra. Having satiated their revenge by the rout of the Maadites, and being restrained from indiscriminate pillage by the command of Abd-al-Rahman, Abu-Sabbah, one of the leaders, proposed to assassinate him. The suggestion was listened to calmly by his associates, who discussed it without regard to its moral aspect but solely with a view to its present expediency and political consequences, and the more readily as tribal interest was ever the controlling motive of their conduct. Notified of their treasonable deliberations, Abd-al-Rahman lost no time in surrounding himself with a guard. Thus foiled, the leader of the conspirators dissembled his chagrin and endeavored by extravagant demonstrations of loyalty to atone for his crime, but the penetration of Abd-al-Rahman was not to be deceived, and, some months afterwards, the treacherous Abu-Sabbah was summarily executed.

Although attended with success at the outset, the task of Abd-al-Rahman was far more difficult than he had anticipated. The chiefs of the opposite faction soon repaired their fortunes and appeared at the head of fresh troops. While Abd-al-Rahman was on the march to attack Yusuf, who had joined Al-Samil in the province of Jaen, the Emir sent his son, Abu-Zaid, by unfrequented roads, to seize and recover the capital. The city was surprised and the garrison made prisoners, but the hasty return of the Ommeyades rendered an immediate evacuation necessary. Resuming his march, Abd-al-Rahman proceeded rapidly towards the mountains of Jaen. Yusuf and Al-Samil, conscious of their present weakness, made overtures for peace; and a treaty was concluded by whose terms Abd-al-Rahman was to allow the Emir and his vizier the unmolested possession of their estates, and they, on the other hand, were to surrender the strongholds held by their partisans. It was also stipulated that Yusuf should reside permanently at Cordova, where two of his sons, Abu-Zaid and Abu-al-Aswad, were detained as hostages.