“I hear with profound respect the order of the Commander of the Faithful,” replied Abu-Ibrahim. “Return to him, and say that thou hast found me in the House of God, surrounded by my pupils, whom I am instructing in the traditions relating to the Prophet. Tell him that the moment I have finished my lecture on this holy subject, by which my audience will fail to profit if I am interrupted, I will repair to him.” The eunuch, confounded by this reply, returned to the palace, and reported the result of the interview. In a short time he came back, and addressed Abu-Ibrahim as follows: “O Faqui, I have delivered thy answer to the Sultan, who applauds thy piety and appreciates the importance of the labors thou art daily performing for the benefit of our holy religion; he will await thy pleasure, and has directed me to remain until thy lecture is finished, that I may escort thee to his presence.” Not only did the complaisance of Al-Hakem, on this occasion as on many others, yield to the claims of learning, but it was also indulgent to the age and weakness of his friend. He caused the gate which was nearest the palace to be opened to accommodate the venerable professor, who walked with difficulty and whose infirmities prevented him from mounting on horseback; and when he arrived at the entrance he found a great number of officials and domestics assembled to do him honor, and waiting to conduct him, with the ceremony due to his reputation and the esteem in which he was held by his royal master, into the hall of audience. Thus could the placid and magnanimous nature of Al-Hakem subordinate the prerogatives of royalty to the demands of knowledge, and sacrifice for the benefit of the votaries of science that implicit obedience whose neglect is an evidence of treason, and whose instantaneous observance is one of the inseparable rights of arbitrary power. His greatness even rose superior to the paltry prejudices of rank and the requirements of custom; the intimacy in which he lived with the learned, the respectful familiarity which he encouraged from his favorites, offer a surprising contrast to the tyranny and impatience usually associated with the possession of despotic authority.
There have existed few examples of a ruler so perfectly identified with the spirit of his age and the genius of his people as was Al-Hakem, whose name most appropriately signifies The Wise. Nature had not bestowed upon him the consummate talents for organization, and the prophetic sagacity with which she had gifted the founder of his dynasty, Abd-al-Rahman I. He did not possess either the political tact or the military capacity of Abd-al-Rahman III. But in all the substantial acquirements of useful knowledge; in the appreciation of the works of genius, and the disposition to reward them; in the encouragement of every art which promotes happiness and alleviates suffering; in the practice of those virtues which reflect dignity on a subject and shine with still greater lustre when included in the attributes of royalty, he was certainly without a rival among all the Spanish Mohammedan princes. He was the worthy representative of the advanced culture, the scientific attainments, the poesy and the art of Hispano-Arab civilization, as contrasted with the intellectual darkness, the disgusting immorality, the revolting filth, the abject superstition, which characterized the contemporaneous society of Europe. His tireless industry and prodigious erudition were the marvel of his time. His devotion to literature was imitated by his subjects, who embraced with enthusiasm pursuits which both diminished the privations of the poor and contributed to the enjoyment of the favorites of fortune. The highest and most lucrative positions were the rewards of those who had attained to distinguished eminence in literary pursuits, without regard to their political antecedents, their nationality, or their ancestry.
The example of the Khalif, who often, with his own hands, cultivated his gardens, was followed by the kadis, the walis, the muftis, the nobles of the empire. He utilized to the utmost the natural resources of the Peninsula. Agriculture was brought to such excellence as seemed to make any further improvement impossible. The ships of Cadiz, Seville, Almeria, and Valencia boldly traversed the most dangerous seas. The merino sheep, whose migrations over the plains of Estremadura and Castile were made subject to laws which have been adopted by and are still in force among the Spaniards, amounted to millions. Valuable deposits of ore were opened and developed for the benefit of commerce and the arts. In short, the reign of Al-Hakem represents the golden age of Moslem history,—an age that with singular felicity had appropriated the wisdom and the experience of antiquity; whose wonderful progress in every branch of industry, in every department of knowledge, was the admiration of all nations, Christian and infidel; and whose inspiring genius was, in reality, the last, as he was the most accomplished, of a famous race of kings.
CHAPTER XIV
REIGN OF HISCHEM II.
976–1012
Origin of Ibn-abi-Amir-Al-Mansur—The Scene in the Garden—Genius and Attainments of the Youthful Statesman—His Sudden Rise to Power—Influence of the Eunuchs—Their Conspiracy Detected—Ibn-abi-Amir aspires to Supreme Authority—He is appointed Hajib—Ruin of his Rivals—Reorganization of the Civil and Military Service—Systematic Degradation of Hischem—The Palace of Zahira—The Hajib becomes Master of the Empire—Successful Wars with the Christians—Disturbances in Africa—Destruction of Leon—Sack of Santiago—Death of Al-Mansur—His Great Services to the State—His Unbroken Series of Military Triumphs—Al-Modhaffer—Abd-al-Rahman—Mohammed—Suleyman—Disappearance of Hischem—Rapid Disintegration of the Empire.
Simultaneously with the accession of Hischem II. a gigantic and ominous figure, like a portentous spectre, at once the impersonation of glory and the harbinger of ruin, appears upon the theatre of action in the Peninsula. Under the two preceding sovereigns the Moslem Empire of the West had made unparalleled advances in useful knowledge, in commercial prosperity, in all the arts which raise nations to the most exalted rank in the scale of civilization. Peace reigned everywhere within its borders. The tendency to sedition, which had so long obstructed its prosperity and depleted its population, had been vigorously and successfully repressed. Justice, untainted with even the suspicion of corruption, and which was no respecter of persons, was dispensed by its tribunals. Its system of education and its results were the wonder of the age. The achievements of its learned men, who were scattered over Europe, had caused them to incur the suspicion of, and, in some instances, even to endure the penalties attaching to the profession and the practice of magic. And yet, with all its greatness and all its fame, the khalifate was destined, under the administration of the phantom monarch Hischem II.—the last of his dynasty—to attain to a still higher position among the nations of the earth. This pre-eminent distinction; the unbroken triumph of more than fifty campaigns; the humiliation of its enemies in their formerly impregnable strongholds; the desecration and plunder of their most sacred shrines; the devastation and impoverishment of their territory; their regular payment of tribute and acknowledgment of vassalage,—all of these results are to be attributed to the talents of the hajib, Al-Mansur, the most consummate political and military genius that ever guided the destinies of any portion of the vast and opulent empire conquered and ruled by the sectaries of Mohammed.
Among the adventurers who followed the banner of Tarik at the time of the Conquest was Abd-al-Melik, an Arab descended from a noble family of Yemen, whom political entanglements and financial reverses had compelled to assume the hazardous but attractive calling of a soldier of fortune. The scarcity of men of intelligence and integrity in an army of barbarians led to the appointment of the illustrious exile to the command of a division. In this capacity he occupied the ancient town of Carteya, the first fortified place taken by the invaders. After participating in the campaigns of Tarik and Musa, Abd-al-Melik retired to the castle of Torrox on the Guadiaro, which had fallen to his share in the general distribution of the confiscated lands of the Visigothic monarchy. Although not belonging to the Koreishite aristocracy, his family was distinguished by its former services to the state as well as by its social position and scholastic acquirements. The great-grandson of Abd-al-Melik had been the hajib of the Emir Mohammed, who loaded him with wealth and honors. Many of his descendants contracted matrimonial alliances with the daughters of great physicians, theologians, statesmen. Others filled with credit high employments at court and in the judiciary. But, with the exception of the founder of the house, none had embraced that martial profession from whence it originally derived its eminence. The representative of this family, at the commencement of the reign of Al-Hakem II., was Mohammed-Ibn-abi-Amir, a student of law in the University of Cordova.
It was but a few days after the death of Abd-al-Rahman III. that a group of students, five in number, were seated in a garden belonging to one of the houses of public entertainment which abounded in the suburbs of the great Moslem capital. Darkness had fallen, and the reflection from the myriads of lights, distributed for miles around, diffused its tempered glow over the innumerable palms and tropical plants which adorned the streets and public parks, whose sombre foliage was further brightened by many bronze lamps of curious design, suspended here and there from the branches. The fragrance of flowers filled the air. The balmy softness of the Andalusian climate exerted its voluptuous influence; the perfumed breeze brought to the drowsy ear the confused murmur of the distant city, about to rest from the labors of the day, and the broken notes of a plaintive song, to which some anxious lover under a neighboring balcony was keeping an accompaniment with the lute. Upon the table were the fragments of a repast, and an empty flagon which had contained the amber wine of Jerez, whose condition showed that the revellers viewed with scant reverence the menacing injunctions of the Prophet. The conversation of four of the party was lively and boisterous; the fifth, however, plunged in an absorbing reverie, had, for some time, preserved a gloomy and unbroken silence. “What ails thee, O Ibn-abi-Amir?” at length exclaimed one of his companions; “thou art as pensive as a faqui and as silent as a camel that treads the sand-drifts of the Desert; hast thou perchance lost thy mistress?”
“I have long had a presentiment, O Mohammed, that one day I should rule this land; let each of you now declare what public employment he most desires, and I pledge my word that when I rise to power it shall be conferred upon him,” responded the taciturn student.
A roar of laughter greeted this unexpected reply.