The mosque of Medina-al-Zahrâ corresponded in its general details with the palace, for the convenience of whose occupants it was erected. In some respects, it surpassed in the elegance of its ornamentation the great temple of the capital, after whose plan it was modelled. It contained five aisles; its gilding and mosaics exhibited the finished labors of the Asiatic artist; its sanctuary and pulpit were marvels of Oriental taste and skill. A minaret of polished stone, ten cubits square and forty in height and covered with arabesques in relief, surmounted the graceful edifice. The court was paved with wine-colored marble, and provided with a fountain elaborately carved and gilded.
From a royal villa, Medina-al-Zahrâ insensibly expanded into a miniature city. Around the palace clustered the luxurious dwellings of the courtiers, the merchants, and the officers of the army. The avenues were lined with trees, whose foliage formed a continuous arch. Not a house could be seen that was not embosomed in gardens abounding with gushing waters and rare exotics. Even the sides of the Sierra had been stripped of the sombre growth of evergreens which had originally covered them, and, planted with fig- and almond-trees, appeared in all the beauty of luxuriant foliage and fragrant blossoms. Not far away, extensive plantations of the sweetest of flowers gave to the locality the name of Gebal-al-Wardat, The Mountain of the Rose.
Three hundred baths, exclusive of those appropriated to the use of the imperial household, contributed to the health and the ceremonial purity of the inhabitants. The favorite residence of the khalifs, Medina-al-Zahrâ became the seat of the muses, the home of the arts, the centre of the intellectual society of the empire. Institutions of learning sprang up within its borders. The literary contests which constituted an unique and prominent feature of the Andalusian court were celebrated there in the presence of the monarch and the companions of his greatness and his leisure. Forty years were required for its construction, twenty-five under Abd-al-Rahman and fifteen under his son Al-Hakem. Its cost represents, at a modern valuation, the enormous sum of one hundred and fifty million dollars. Experienced travellers of every nation pronounced, without a dissenting voice, that the world did not possess, in point of picturesque situation, royal magnificence, and architectural beauty, a rival of the incomparable city and palace of Medina-al-Zahrâ.
It is difficult to conceive, from their present forlorn and deserted condition, of the aspect once presented by the environs of imperial Cordova. Independent of its populous suburbs, the commercial tributaries of the capital represented vast mercantile interests, and furnished support to multitudes of industrious artisans. Five thousand mills lined the banks of the rapid Guadalquivir. Encouraged by the profit derived from a regular and extensive trade with foreign nations, manufacturing establishments had sprung up in every city of importance. Each of these towns had its mosques and its imams, who, in addition to their ecclesiastical duties, discharged the functions of magistrates and reported regularly to the authorities of the capital.
In the patronage of letters, Abd-al-Rahman III. was in no respect inferior to any of his most liberal predecessors. He himself excelled in improvisation, that talent so highly prized by his countrymen. His fame and his munificence allured to the court of Cordova the most accomplished scholars from every region of the world. The capital abounded with colleges, academies, lyceums, and other educational foundations. The medical profession had attained to a high standard of excellence, and the Jewish surgeons of Cordova were universally recognized as unrivalled in the extent and variety of their knowledge. Many physicians held important employments under the government, deserved tributes to their skill; but such was their charity that the doors of even the most distinguished of them were always open to the poor, and their gratuitous ministrations at the service of the most humble sufferer. The sciences of astronomy and chemistry, based upon observations at Bagdad and experiments at Cairo and Damascus, had made an unprecedented advance. In the royal alcazar, in the palaces of princes, in the mansions of the rich, in the homes of the learned, the mind of the seeker after knowledge was daily exercised by the discussion of subjects of universal interest, by the prosecution of scientific inquiry, by lectures, by improvisations, by the spirited contests of poets for literary supremacy. In every calling and profession, in every position of life, the useful and the ornamental arts, the noble and elegant pursuits of literature were cultivated by both sexes with an ardor akin to enthusiasm.
The name of Abd-al-Rahman III., glorious in the annals of Moorish Spain, has not, however, escaped the condemnation of history. His great deeds; his triumphs in war and diplomacy; his skill in the reconciliation of adverse factions; his generous clemency; his encouragement of letters, may well be the subject of extravagant eulogy. But the sensual passions of his nature bordered upon insanity; and his character was defiled by that nameless and unnatural vice which, practised and even defended by one of the most famous of the Greek philosophers, has from the earliest times been the blemish and the reproach of Oriental civilization.
The infirmities of age and the irksomeness of satiety embittered the declining years of the Khalif. He virtually abandoned the administration of the empire to his heir, Al-Hakem. Renouncing the gay frivolities of the court, he attached himself to a fanatic named Abu-Ayub, whose ascetic manners and ostentatious poverty were received by the vulgar as evidences of extraordinary sanctity. In the society of this singular companion he passed much of his time in fasting, in prayer, in the distribution of alms. After his death, in a journal which recorded his most secret thoughts, were found the following significant reflections on the disappointments of life and the delusive attractions of human greatness and imperial ambition. “I have reigned fifty years in peace and in glory, beloved by my people, feared by my enemies, respected by my allies. My friendship has been sought by the great kings of the earth. I have wanted nothing that the heart of man could desire,—neither renown, nor power, nor pleasure. During this long life, I have counted the days when I have enjoyed complete happiness—and they amount to only fourteen! Praise be to Him who alone possesses eternal glory and omnipotence, there is no other God than He!”
CHAPTER XIII
REIGN OF AL-HAKEM II.
961–976
Splendid Ceremonial at the Accession of Al-Hakem II.—His Wise and Prudent Measures—Ordoño seeks an Audience—His Baseness—Successful Expedition against the Christians—Disturbances in Africa—Army of the Khalif Defeated—The Berber Chieftains are corrupted, and their Forces disband—Importance of Cordova as a Religious Centre—Description of the Great Mosque—Death of Al-Hakem—His Literary Attainments—His Patronage of Letters—The Library—Institutions of Learning—General Prevalence of Education—Public Improvements—The Khalif the Exemplar of the Highest Culture of his Age—Prosperity of the Empire.
At the death of Abd-al-Rahman III. the Hispano-Arab empire seemed, to all unfamiliar with the defects of the Moslem constitution, invulnerable to the attacks of foreign or domestic enemies. The wise dispositions of that accomplished ruler had, for a time, reconciled the differences arising from tribal antipathy and religious discord. The employment of mercenaries, constituting an army which could not be corrupted, and whose isolation from the seditious populace was the most effectual guaranty of its fidelity, apparently assured the perpetuity of a system which a profound and statesmanlike policy had established. The administration was directed by capable and experienced ministers. The public revenues far exceeded in amount those of the wealthiest contemporaneous nations. Obedient to the law of political attraction, which like gravity in the material world draws the weaker to the stronger power, neighboring kingdoms, although separated from the khalifate by the most powerful motives that can influence humanity—by the antagonism of race, by the prejudices of religion, by the memory of generations of incessant warfare, by hostile traditions which involved the loss of an empire and the subjection of its people—had acknowledged the supremacy of the Ommeyade princes. In the humiliating character of suppliants for the favor of an hereditary foe, the sovereigns of Leon and Navarre had implored the aid of the infidel, and the former of these had regained possession of his dominions under a treaty which implied, if it did not actually express, conditions of vassalage reflecting little credit upon the successor of the haughty Visigoths. Every consideration which contributes to inspire the respect and admiration of mankind lent its assistance to exalt the fame and greatness of the court of Cordova. The most distinguished monarchs solicited the friendship of the Khalif. His capital was the literary centre of the Western world. The intellectual activity there displayed had never been equalled since the glorious days when Grecian genius immortalized the schools of Ionia and Attica. The Moslem fleets controlled the Mediterranean. The mechanical arts, the science of agriculture, the various branches of foreign commerce and domestic traffic, had, under a well-grounded feeling of public security, received a prodigious and unexampled impulse. It was, therefore, under the most happy auspices that Al-Hakem, at the age of forty-eight, with a character long considered the embodiment of all princely virtues, assumed the supreme direction of affairs.