The uniform success of the piratical excursions of the Saracens, originated under the rule of the emirs and continued by the Ommeyades, promised the adventurous aspirant for glory and wealth a more certain and less hazardous career than the military profession. The Moorish corsairs spread terror through the harbors and along the coasts of the Mediterranean. They reduced to final subjection the Balearic Isles. They plundered Corsica, established a temporary settlement in Sardinia, and threatened the environs of the most opulent seaports of Italy. But the fascinations attaching to the reckless profession of the pirate were more congenial with the spirit of the Arab than the slower and less brilliant results which must have proceeded from the maintenance of an organized maritime power, and the Moslem princes seem never to have seriously considered the construction of a navy which might, with comparatively little exertion or expense, have acquired for them the undisputed dominion of the seas.

The closing years of Al-Hakem were passed in the seclusion of the harem, where, diverted by the companionship of the beauties of his seraglio, amidst the excitements of intemperance and of every species of debauchery, he endeavored to forget the sinister events of his checkered career and the manifold acts of cruelty which had avenged the crimes and errors of those who were unfortunate enough to incur his resentment. The controlling maxim of his policy had always been that mildness was synonymous with cowardice, and that the people must be governed by the sword alone. To the adoption and enforcement of this principle are to be attributed the frequent massacres and executions of his reign. He was the first Moorish sovereign of Spain who established a standing army, that menace to popular liberty and indispensable support of despotism. The safety and health of his soldiers were secured by the erection of commodious barracks; by the collection of provisions and military stores in extensive magazines and arsenals; by the enforcement of a system of perfect and rigorous discipline. His guards, composed of slaves alien to the people and devoted to their master, were the prototypes of the Janizaries and the Mamelukes, whose pride and insubordination were long subsequently productive of such disasters to the monarchies of Turkey and Egypt. The mental constitution of Al-Hakem was disfigured by a vice not common in the natures of men whose courage was never known to falter,—an insatiable thirst for blood. Not a day elapsed when an order did not issue from the tyrant, long invisible to his subjects, delivering some unhappy wretch to the executioner. At length the effects of remorse and prolonged intemperance reduced the Emir to a condition bordering upon insanity. Oppressed with the memory of his crimes, haunted by the groans and imprecations of his expiring victims, he became the prey of frightful hallucinations, the offspring of a disordered brain. In the middle of the night he startled the palace with his shrieks of anguish. The slightest delay or opposition provoked him to fury. He summoned his drowsy councillors in haste from their beds as if for the discussion of affairs of the greatest moment, and, as soon as they were assembled, dismissed them without ceremony. He reviewed his guards at midnight. The hours of darkness were usually whiled away by the women of the harem, who strove to amuse their capricious master with music, songs, and lascivious dances. For four years Al-Hakem continued in this deplorable condition, until relieved by a painful and lingering death. His character was not deficient in many of the attributes of greatness. He was brave, generous, sagacious, constant in friendship, the implacable foe of hypocrisy, the welcome companion of philosophers and poets. Prompt in action and resolute in battle, his indecision at times of emergency nevertheless cost him an important part of his dominions. His reign of twenty-six years was filled with stirring events,—events which too plainly indicate the declining tendency of the Saracen empire, which, deficient in all that constitutes the unity and permanence of a state and a prey to constant disorder, was only saved from precipitate destruction by the statesmanship and military talents of its sovereigns.

CHAPTER X
REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN II.; REIGN OF MOHAMMED
822–886

Accession of Abd-al-Rahman II.—Defection of Abdallah—Invasion of the Gothic March—Embassy from the Greek Emperor—Revolt of Merida—Sedition at Toledo—Incursion of the Normans—Persecution of the Christians—Death of Abd-al-Rahman—His Love of Pomp—His Virtues—His Patronage of Art and Letters—Ziryab—His Versatility—-Conspiracy of Tarub—Stratagem of Mohammed—His Bigotry—Toledo again Revolts—Rise of the Beni-Kasi—War with the Asturias—Rebellion of Ibn-Merwan—The Serrania de Ronda—Ibn-Hafsun, his Origin and Exploits—Death and Character of Mohammed—Incipient Decadence of the Moslem Power.

At the mature age of thirty-one, endowed with every talent which contributes to political success and intellectual eminence, accustomed for many years to the arduous details of civil affairs as well as to the direction of important military operations and the command of armies, Abd-al-Rahman II. ascended the throne of the emirate. A handsome person and an engaging address aided not a little to increase the general esteem which had been evoked by his capacity for business and his great services to the state. An index to his popularity may be discovered in the honorable titles bestowed upon him by the admiration and love of his subjects. While a youth he was known as Al-Modhaffer, The Victorious, and his benevolence and generosity had, long before his accession, acquired for him the suggestive appellation of the “Father of the Poor.” The physical and mental infirmities of Al-Hakem had, for years before his death, induced him to relinquish the cares of government, and to practically abandon to his son and successor all the power, the duties, and the responsibilities of sovereignty.

Domestic discord, which seemed to be a necessary incident of the inauguration of every prince of the Ommeyades, was not wanting to that of Abd-al-Rahman. His great-uncle, Abdallah, in whose breast the fires of ambition still burned fiercely in spite of his advanced age, leaving his home at Tangier accompanied by a considerable band of friends and retainers, landed in Andalusia and proclaimed himself Emir by virtue of his relationship to the founder of the dynasty. His prospect of success he regarded as the more certain on account of the positions occupied by his three sons, who had enjoyed the confidence and shared the favor of Al-Hakem, and who now exercised the most important commands in the gift of the monarch.

The sanguine hopes of the venerable Abdallah were soon shown to be fallacious. No sooner had he landed when, attacked by the cavalry of Abd-al-Rahman, his forces were put to flight, and, driven from point to point, he was finally compelled to take refuge in Valencia. His sons, so far from sympathizing with his aspirations, did all in their power to thwart them, and by personal appeals to his interest and affection urged him to abandon his treasonable enterprise. Persuaded by their entreaties, which were materially promoted by the timely occurrence of an unfavorable omen,—a portent never unheeded by the superstitious Oriental,—he reluctantly consented to forego his pretensions to the crown and to swear fealty to his nephew. An interview was arranged; Abdallah was escorted by his sons into the presence of the Emir, and the latter, embracing him, not only pardoned his offence, but conferred upon him the government of Murcia, where he remained in peace until his death.

The embarrassment of Abd-al-Rahman, who, at the moment of his accession, found himself confronted with an insurrection whose consequences threatened to be serious, was not lost upon his enterprising neighbors of the Gothic March. They raised a numerous army, ravaged the Moorish territory at the North as far as the left bank of the Segre, returning without having encountered any opposition and laden with the spoils of war. This expedition was commanded by Bernhart, Count of Barcelona, son of the renowned William of Toulouse, upon whom Louis had conferred the fief; the former suzerain, Bera, having been accused of treason and convicted by wager of battle, according to the martial customs of the age. The substitution of a foreigner for a native Goth whose aspirations for independence were a title to favor rather than a reproach with his subjects, who, for the most part of Spanish extraction, cherished the traditions and indulged the pleasing but delusive hope of the ultimate restoration of the organization and power of the ancient Visigothic empire, was a stroke of policy which augured ill for the success or perpetuity of the Frankish domination.

Abd-al-Rahman, aware of the political necessity of making a demonstration to counteract the effects of the inroads that his helpless situation had invited, and not unwilling to inaugurate his reign with a brilliant military exploit, prepared to invade the Gothic March with the army already collected for the suppression of the insurrection fomented by Abdallah. The advance guard, commanded by the wali Abd-al-Kerim, approaching from Valencia met the Christians not far from Barcelona, and, after a short but hotly contested engagement, drove them inside the gates. The Emir having arrived soon after with the main body, the city was besieged. A number of determined attempts to carry it by escalade having failed, and the force of Abd-al-Rahman not being sufficient to maintain a thorough blockade, the intrenchments were finally abandoned; and the Moslem army, pouring over the country, in a few months succeeded in occupying the entire territory subject to the Count of Barcelona. The Christians, repulsed in every encounter, sought, in dismay and confusion, the most inaccessible heights and defiles of the mountains. The castles were stormed and their garrisons massacred. A feeling of terror seized the population, which included many of the most experienced warriors of the Frankish empire, who, allured by the princely grants held out to colonists and the prospect of a life of excitement and adventure, had established themselves in the Gothic March. But the expedition of the Moslems, although attended with such successful results, did not rise above the dignity of a foray. No attempt at a permanent occupation was made. The capital, which alone maintained its independence and which, deprived of all prospect of relief, could not have resisted a second attack, was not compelled to again endure the horrors of siege. Satisfied with the advantages he had gained and with the vengeance he had inflicted, Abd-al-Rahman returned in triumph to Cordova, which he entered amidst the plaudits and congratulations of the people.

The declining fortunes of the Byzantine Empire, whose sovereign, Michael the Stammerer, found himself unequal to the task of coping with his redoubtable adversary, Al-Mamun, Khalif of Bagdad, induced him, during the second year of the reign of Abd-al-Rahman, to despatch an embassy to Cordova to conclude an alliance with the Sultan of the Ommeyades, the fame of whose dynasty had already reached the extreme limits of the Orient. The envoys of the Emperor of Constantinople were received with every evidence of distinction. A vast multitude attended their entrance into the capital. They were lodged in the royal palace, and all the pomp of the most splendid and luxurious court in Europe was exhibited upon the occasion of their reception by the Emir. The magnificence of the gifts which they brought—among which are mentioned a number of beautiful horses caparisoned with cloth-of-gold and silver—excited the wonder of the multitude, for no such treasures had ever before been seen in Spain. An alluring prospect of conquest was held out by the subtle Greeks, accompanied by the tender of troops and munitions of war for the recovery of the lost inheritance of the Ommeyades in Syria; but the precarious condition of the Emir, barely able to maintain his authority against the plots of his disaffected subjects, forbade, for the present, the formation of an offensive league with the monarch of the East, and the ambassadors were dismissed with a profusion of compliments and indefinite and conditional assurances of support in the future. A special envoy of the Emir, Yahya-al-Ghazzali, so named for his extraordinary charms of person and manner, and equally famous as a poet and a diplomatist, accompanied them, charged with the thanks of Abd-al-Rahman, and commissioned to present to the Emperor some scimetars and trinkets of the finest workmanship which the skill of the artisans of the Peninsula had been able to produce.