During the same year an ambassador of a far different character, and representing a power numerically inferior to the smallest city acknowledging the sovereignty of the Emperor of the East, but whose geographical position imparted to its advances a peculiar and weighty significance, visited Cordova upon a similar errand. The recently organized duchy of Navarre, an appanage of the Frankish empire, had grown restive under the extortions of its suzerain. Accustomed to the largest individual liberty, the mountaineers could ill endure the exactions of irresponsible tyranny which the example of their neighbors and a delusive pretence of public advantage had insensibly imposed upon them. The bond of a common religious belief which united them with the Franks was but weak when compared with the deeply rooted national prejudice which the assumption of superiority by the vassals of Charlemagne and Louis did much to promote, and which caused the latter to be regarded with a far greater degree of execration than was entertained against the Mohammedans, the natural enemies of their country and their faith.
The Navarrese envoy, whose uncouth manners exhibited a striking contrast to the courtly graces of the Byzantine nobles, was received by the Moorish sovereign, if not with distinguished ceremony, yet with courtesy and royal hospitality. A treaty was negotiated, which assured the mountaineers of the aid of the government of Cordova, and a free passage was granted to the Moslems for any expedition whose destination lay beyond the Pyrenees. The effects of the judicious policy which dictated this alliance soon became manifest. A few months afterwards a great army, under the Counts Eblus and Asenarius, dependents of the King of Aquitaine, traversed the sierra and invaded Spain. The city of Pampeluna was taken, and, after some desultory operations yielding little profit or glory, the Franks retired in imaginary security. The defile of Roncesvalles once more became the scene of a fearful disaster; the invaders, surrounded by a host of mountaineers and Arabs, were cut to pieces, and the prisoners divided among the allies, the two counts being among those who survived the disgrace of incompetency and defeat. This military success was contemporaneous with the assertion of the independence and political organization of the principality of Navarre, which were maintained thereafter with the exception of a few years of nominal subordination to the Crown of the Asturias until its final incorporation into the dominions of France and Spain.
The catastrophe of Roncesvalles encouraged the Moors to prosecute with greater activity the operations against the Christians, whom the unsettled condition of affairs in the east and south of the Peninsula had long permitted to rest in peace. Three successive expeditions, all commanded by Obeydallah-Ibn-Abdallah, were sent to invade the enemy’s country, but the campaigns were not distinguished by any important action, and the determination and well-known ferocity of the mountaineers appear to have succeeded in preventing the Moslems from inflicting any serious damage upon the hostile territory.
The vast system of public works inaugurated by Abd-al-Rahman, the splendor of his court, and the prodigal munificence with which he rewarded his favorites, entailed an immense expense upon the administration, and necessitated a new and oppressive burden of taxation to meet the constantly increasing demands on the treasury. The authorities, regardless of the experience of former reigns, augmented the public discontent by levying the bulk of the taxes on indispensable articles of daily consumption. The Jewish and Christian tributaries, by whom these exactions were most severely felt, were loud in their clamors, and it was not long before the Moslem population of the different cities joined in the increasing remonstrances against the arbitrary measures resulting from the unprecedented extravagance of the court. The dissatisfaction was most pronounced at Merida, and this fact having been communicated, either orally or by correspondence, by the clergy of that city to their brethren at the court of Louis, the Frankish monarch determined to avail himself of the information in furtherance of his own designs and for the confusion of his infidel neighbors. He therefore addressed a letter to the people of Merida, professing great sympathy with them on account of the impositions of the government, exhorting them to exert their rights and regain their liberties, and promising that, in case they made an open demonstration to redress their grievances, he would march to their support across the Pyrenees. The sincerity of Louis in making this offer may well be questioned. Whether or not his tender was made in good faith is of little consequence, as his attention was immediately distracted from foreign intrigue by serious disturbances in his own dominions. A Gothic officer of rank named Aizon, having incurred the displeasure of his sovereign, fled from the court of Aix-la-Chapelle, and, betaking himself to the Gothic March, declared his enmity to the Franks, and especially to the Count of Barcelona. Through the influence of his name and nationality, aided by the habitual inconstancy of the restless adventurers who composed the frontier population and the general prejudice existing against the domination of the Franks, he soon found himself at the head of a powerful faction. Having seized the fortress of Ausona by treachery, and destroyed the town of Rosas which attempted to resist him, he sent his brother to Cordova with a request for aid, accompanied with an assurance that the disaffection was such as to warrant the hope of an easy recovery of the country by the Moslems. The appeal of Aizon was not suffered to pass unheeded. A considerable body of troops was assembled under the command of the veteran Obeydallah; the party of the malcontents increased daily in numbers and influence, and it was not long before the Count of Barcelona found himself deprived of authority over all his domain except Gerona and the city from which he derived his title.
Louis, who was then in Germany engaged in the settlement of a quarrel between two chieftains whose untamed spirits menaced the peace of the empire, had neither time nor available resources to suppress by arms an insurrection, however dangerous, in the other extremity of his dominions. But what he could not accomplish by military force he determined to attempt by negotiation, and three commissioners were accordingly appointed to persuade the colonists of the Gothic March to return to their allegiance.
The embassy, composed of a priest and two nobles, received, as might have been expected, small consideration in an age where the arts of peace were held in disrepute and the palm of popular esteem was accorded to deeds of martial heroism, and the envoys accomplished nothing. They managed, however, to widely disseminate the report that an army of Franks was about to invade the country, a rumor which so alarmed Aizon and his followers that a second appeal was sent to Cordova, and a portion of the Emir’s body-guard was ordered to reinforce the allies of the Moslems without delay. The army of the Franks arrived; but the enemy had retired to Saragossa, either dreading the result of an encounter with the hardy warriors of the North, or unwilling to incur the hazard of being compelled to relinquish the valuable booty which he had so easily secured. The suspicious conduct of the generals of the Frankish army in permitting the Moslems to retreat without molestation brought upon them the reproach of treachery, an accusation which was so far sustained the following year in the National Council as to subject the culprits to the deprivation of their commands.
Abd-al-Rahman had projected an invasion of France, and the preparations were completed; the advance guard under Abd-al-Ruf—who had filled the position of vizier under Al-Hakem—was already on the way to the Pyrenees, and the Emir himself was about to depart with the main body of the army, when the unwelcome news reached him that Merida was in rebellion.
The unpopular system of taxation, already referred to, aggravated by the brutal conduct of the officials charged with its enforcement, had almost assumed the character of a persecution, while the public mind was agitated by the plausible representatives of demagogues and deluded with the hope of protection and encouragement from the powerful vassals of the Emperor. A certain Mohammed Ibn-Abd-al-Jebir, formerly a collector of the revenue, was the originator of the conspiracy. The governor, Ibn-Masfeth, saved himself by a hasty flight. The houses of the viziers were sacked, and their owners put to death or driven from the city. Mohammed appointed himself wali, seized the magazines and arsenals, and, having divided their contents among the inhabitants without distinction of creed, as a return for this act of generosity appealed to the populace to confirm him in his usurped authority. The resolution of the insurgents, sustained by the knowledge of their resources and the impregnable character of their defences, was encouraged by the arrival of fierce adventurers, who were attracted in multitudes by the prospect of rebellion and pillage. The garrison increased until it reached the number of forty thousand. No insurrection of a local character had ever presented so menacing a front to the power of the emirate. The occasion demanded the exertion of the most prompt and energetic measures. The command of Abd-al-Ruf was hastily recalled, and that officer was entrusted with the conduct of the siege. The hardened veteran carried on his operations as he would have done in an enemy’s country. The beautiful villas and gardens that surrounded the city were burned and laid waste. The growing crops were cut down. Preparations were made to carry the place by storm, which would necessarily have entailed the destruction of an immense amount of property and a massacre in which the innocent must have suffered equally with the guilty. Abd-al-Rahman, averse to an exercise of severity which threatened to weaken one of the greatest cities of the kingdom, and knowing that the unequal contest could not be long maintained, ordered Abd-al-Ruf to reduce the place by famine. A strict blockade was accordingly established. The ruffian soldiery of the garrison, cooped up within the walls, condemned to inaction and suffering for provisions, indulged their predatory inclinations by robbing and maltreating the citizens. The better class of the inhabitants, which had been induced to favor the insurrection by the expectation of compelling the withdrawal of oppressive edicts, saw, when too late, that it had exchanged a condition of comparative safety and prosperity for one of anarchy and the irresponsible despotism of armed banditti. A movement for the surrender of the city to the besiegers was quietly inaugurated by some loyal subjects of the Emir who had been forced to enlist under the banner of the rebels. Communication was opened with Abd-al-Ruf. Favored by the darkness of the night, a strong detachment was admitted; the walls were occupied, the armed mob was put to flight, the leaders escaped in the general confusion, and daybreak found the authority of Abd-al-Rahman once more established over the city of Merida. Resistance had been slight owing to the surprise, and but seven hundred rebels paid the penalty of treason. The fears of the people were soon allayed by the publication of a general amnesty, for the gentle disposition of Abd-al-Rahman revolted at the prospect of exemplary punishment for a rebellion which subsequent events demonstrated would have justified the most sanguinary retribution.
Order had scarcely been restored at Merida when it became known that the contagion of insurrection had again spread to Toledo. A renegade named Hashim, who had long in secret meditated vengeance for persecution suffered by his family under Al-Hakem, taking advantage of some trifling cause of popular discontent, raised the standard of revolt. The wali being absent, the mob, who welcomed with eagerness every occasion of opposing the authorities, found little trouble in expelling the garrison and the adherents of the Emir. Hashim, whose success had surpassed all expectations, as soon as his partisans were organized, extended his operations to the surrounding country. His following received accessions daily from the brigands who infested the mountain districts, and the floating population, always on the alert for plunder, that swarmed in the purlieus of the great cities. Mohammed-Ibn-Wasim, the wali of the frontier, having attacked the rebels, was beaten in several engagements; exulting in the promises of its citizens, Toledo maintained a successful resistance against the entire resources of the emirate, and Ommeyah, the son of Abd-al-Rahman, was forced to retire in disgrace from before its walls. At length the army of Hashim fell into an ambuscade planned by an officer who commanded a force stationed at Calatrava, the Toledans were defeated with great loss, and, soon afterwards, the city was taken by storm. Accounts vary as to the fate of Hashim, but it appears from the most reliable sources that he fell into the hands of the troops of the Emir and was beheaded without ceremony. The incapacity of the government of Cordova to deal with its domestic foes may be inferred from the duration of this outbreak, whose importance must have called forth the most vigorous attempts to suppress it, for during a period of eight years Toledo enjoyed absolute independence in the heart of a hostile monarchy. This immunity was, in some degree, due to a second insurrection which broke out in Merida while the prestige of the victorious Toledans was at its height. Mohammed, who had fled to Lisbon when the city had been taken, returned unexpectedly; having again summoned the populace to arms, he divided the contents of the magazines as before, and, calling together his outlaws, renewed the scenes of license and disorder which had formerly led to his expulsion. Abd-al-Rahman, apprized of this new disaster, raised an army of forty thousand men, of which he assumed command in person, and, arriving at the city, made several ineffectual attempts to carry it by storm. The walls, however, were too strong and too well defended to be scaled, and the besiegers were reduced to employ the more difficult operation of mining to open a breach. When all was ready, the Emir harangued the troops, reminded them that their adversaries were Moslems like themselves, and exhorted them to avoid all violence except against such as offered resistance. As a last resort, to prevent bloodshed and the lamentable consequences of an assault, Abd-al-Rahman ordered arrows to which scrolls were attached to be shot over the walls. These scrolls conveyed the information that the walls were undermined, that an attack was impending, and that an amnesty would be granted the inhabitants upon the surrender of their leaders. Some of these proclamations fell into the hands of the chiefs of the rebellion; their fears were aroused, and they lost no time in making good their escape, which they readily effected either through the negligence or the connivance of the besiegers. The damages resulting from the siege were repaired; the fortifications strengthened; the wants of the poor, who were suffering from hunger, supplied; and Merida, having for a second time experienced the extraordinary clemency of her sovereign, returned to her doubtful allegiance.
Fortunately for the Saracens, the commotion excited throughout the Frankish empire by the rebellion of the sons of Louis prevented the Christians from profiting by the misfortunes of their enemies, harassed as they themselves were by the revolt of great capitals and the growing disaffection of the people.