It was not, however, through his influence with the nobility, nor from his popularity with the masses, that Ibn-abi-Amir derived his most sanguine hopes of success. His personal attractions had captivated the susceptible Sultana, who, blessed with an unsuspicious and complacent husband, scarcely deigned to conceal her admiration for her handsome protégé. An intimacy was established between them, whose continuance seems strangely incompatible with the jealous espionage of an Oriental court, and which furnished an inexhaustible fund of raillery for the sarcastic and anonymous poets of the capital. Every whim of the fair Aurora was gratified by her devoted steward. Her wishes were often anticipated. The silence of the occupants and the slaves of the harem was procured and retained by the distribution of costly gifts. The princess herself was the beneficiary of the most prodigal munificence. On one occasion, Ibn-abi-Amir caused to be constructed for her a miniature palace of massy silver. Every detail of and appendage to a royal dwelling was reproduced in this expensive and ingenious toy. The eunuchs, the guards, the attendants, in their appropriate garb, were represented by tiny statuettes. The fountains were supplied with delicate perfumes instead of water. The gorgeous ornamentations of an alcazar were delineated with marvellous fidelity and beauty. This magnificent present excited the wonder of the populace, when, supported upon the shoulders of a score of slaves, it was borne through the streets to the palace and laid at the feet of the delighted Aurora. But this crowning exhibition of extravagance came near being attended with serious consequences. The promotion of Ibn-abi-Amir, despite his tact and liberality, which disarmed the envy and malice of the courtiers, had raised up against him powerful and resolute enemies. The latter openly accused the Superintendent of the Mint of embezzlement of the public funds. With the summary proceedings characteristic of an arbitrary government, Ibn-abi-Amir was cited at once before the Divan, and ordered to produce his books and all the treasure in his possession. The wary minister was equal to the emergency. A thorough accountant, he knew at the close of each day the exact amount of the deficit which he was conscious must, some time or other, be made good. He applied to the vizier, Ibn-Hodair, who was indebted to him for numerous favors, for a temporary loan of several thousand pieces of gold. The vizier was only too happy to oblige his friend; the accuracy of the accounts was verified; the sum for which the Superintendent of the Mint was responsible was found to be intact; and those who had impeached the official integrity of the minister were branded with the obloquy which attaches to the unsuccessful persecution of an honest and capable public servant.
The credit of Ibn-abi-Amir now rose higher than ever. His success in extricating himself from the snare which had been so artfully laid for him extorted the unwilling praise of his adversaries. To make amends for the apparent injustice he had done the favorite by impugning his honesty, Al-Hakem conferred upon him new and repeated marks of his confidence. He became, in succession, trustee of intestate estates, Kadi of Seville, and Chief of Police of Cordova. A still greater dignity was soon afterwards tendered him, and one whose importance in advancing his interests he was not slow to appreciate.
The enormous expenditures of Ghalib in Mauritania, which he had represented as necessary to detach the Berber chieftains from the standard of Ibn-Kenun, had aroused the suspicions of the Khalif. The interests of the government in Africa demanded the presence of an able financier, whose prudence and authority might curb the extravagance or stop the peculations of the generals who were squandering the revenues of the empire. The reputation of Ibn-abi-Amir designated him as the most available personage to discharge the duties of this important but invidious employment. He was accordingly appointed kadi of the entire province of Mauritania and invested with extraordinary powers. His control over the finances of the civil and military administrations was unlimited and supreme. He was directed to supervise all expenditures and to rigidly scrutinize all accounts. Such was the confidence reposed in his judgment, and the high opinion entertained of his talents by the Khalif, that, although he was entirely destitute of military training or experience, the veteran generals of the African army were ordered to undertake no operations without previous consultation with the Kadi of Mauritania. The difficulties attending the administration of a charge of this character and responsibility were such as would have utterly baffled a less dexterous and politic statesman than Ibn-abi-Amir. By the army he was regarded as an ignorant upstart, by the civil officials as a spy and informer. But his rare adroitness and the irresistible fascination of his manners soon removed these prejudices. Without neglecting the interests of his master, he succeeded in acquiring the esteem of the officers and the respect of the soldiery. He astonished the former by his opportune suggestions concerning an art with the application of whose rules he had no practical acquaintance. He engaged in the conversation, participated in the amusements, and shared the privations of the latter. His tenacious memory, which recalled without effort the name of every individual he had once seen, aided materially to the increase and the preservation of his personal popularity. With a view to future contingencies, the sagacious minister neglected no occasion to secure the good will of the Berber chieftains. He shared their rude but generous hospitality. He flattered their ridiculous pretensions, and indulged their hereditary prejudices. He impressed them with his power by an imposing display of pomp and magnificence. The presents which he lavished upon them were reported and exaggerated with barbarian hyperbole in every camp of the Desert. Such was the affection with which he came to be regarded by the ferocious bandits of Mauritania that it almost supplanted the semi-religious respect claimed and exacted by their sheiks, who exercised the functions of a precarious magistracy, based rather upon temporary and conditional submission than established by the absolute and permanent renunciation of a part of the natural rights of the governed.
After the return of Ibn-abi-Amir in the train of the victorious Ghalib, he assumed a state corresponding with his rank and the public estimation in which he was held. His palace at Rusafah, one of the most charming suburbs of Cordova, rivalled the abodes of royalty in elegance and splendor. The most exquisite decorations embellished its walls. Its extensive gardens exhibited all the luxuriance and beauty of the tropics. The groves swarmed with nightingales and birds of gorgeous plumage. Innumerable fountains diffused on every side their welcome and refreshing spray. Multitudes of slaves, arrayed in brilliant robes of silk, thronged the corridors. In the great marble dining-hall a table was constantly laid for the benefit of all who desired to partake of the hospitality of the owner. The influence and popularity of the latter were daily manifested by the throng of petitioners who, from dawn to sunset, obstructed the gates of the palace. Of all this crowd, no suppliant, however humble, was suffered to depart without a courteous and attentive hearing. The constant accumulation of business, and the demands of the various official employments of the minister, required the services of a great number of clerks and secretaries. These offices, while no sinecures, were eagerly solicited by youths connected with the most respectable families of Cordova, who esteemed it an honor to perfect their political education under so accomplished a master, and who were not slow to detect that through his service lay the path to future power and distinction. The popularity of Ibn-abi-Amir, who, in addition to his other official functions, had recently assumed those of the steward of the palace, was at its height when Al-Hakem died; and the minister, with the Vizier Moshafi, who had jointly been invested with that trust by the Khalif, prepared to establish the regency and assume control of the empire.
The apprehensions entertained by Al-Hakem of the public disapprobation attending the accession of a minor were speedily realized. The gradual divergence from the ancient constitution of the Arabs, which recognized only the claims of princes of mature age and established reputation, was viewed with suspicion and dislike by every class of the people. The merely factitious title of hereditary descent was not sufficient, in their eyes, to compensate for the dangers liable to result from want of experience and administrative ability. The investiture of an infant with regal authority was uniformly regarded by the superstitious as an evil omen, which portended the destruction of the monarchy. The case was, moreover, without precedent in the history of the khalifate, for the wise sovereigns of the House of Ommeyah had invariably, under similar circumstances, subordinated paternal fondness to the paramount interests of the state. In this instance, the expediency of an opposite course was obvious, for the brothers of Al-Hakem were universally recognized as thoroughly competent to discharge with credit the high and responsible duties connected with the exercise of the supreme power. Fully cognizant of this prejudice, the eunuchs, those baneful parasites of Oriental despotism whose lives were passed in an atmosphere of intrigue and corruption, dexterously prepared to avail themselves of the popular discontent for the promotion of their own designs. These incarnate fiends, who found in the betrayal of their fellow-creatures an inadequate but grateful compensation for the outrage inflicted on them by society, had acquired, with every reign, a fresh accession of pride and insolence. A picked body of a thousand of them constituted the guard of the harem. Although slaves, they enjoyed exclusive privileges, and, with every opportunity for the indulgence of their dominating passion of avarice, had accumulated vast possessions. A mistaken idea, imported with other noxious principles from the Orient, caused the immunity of the eunuch and the exhibition of his opulence to be considered as a necessary appendage to the grandeur of the sovereign. As a natural result of this opinion, the impudence and oppression of this powerful caste were exercised without restraint until they became intolerable. They robbed tradesmen with impunity. They scourged with relentless brutality such unfortunate pedestrians as crossed their pathway. They invaded the privacy of households and insulted their inmates,—an inexpiable offence under Mussulman law. They borrowed large sums of money from wealthy merchants under conditions which practically amounted to confiscation. Their sanguinary brawls with the populace, in which the police dared not interfere, constantly disturbed the peace of the city. No tribunal would venture to entertain a complaint against these petty tyrants; and the equitable disposition of the Khalif himself was changed to gross partiality, where the punishment of a member of that privileged guard, whose license he considered indispensable to his own safety, was concerned. The chiefs of this corps, which was at once the terror and the reproach of the capital, were Fayic and Djaudar, one of whom was Master of the Wardrobe, the other, Grand Falconer. The affluence and power of these two officials; the lucrative employments they controlled; the boundless opportunities for peculation they enjoyed and improved; their constant and unceremonious access to the monarch; their almost irresponsible authority over the palace and the harem, gave them a consideration not possessed by any of the other great dignitaries of the khalifate. From all who approached them they exacted the deference and the etiquette due only to those in the highest station. An armed retinue, splendidly equipped, guarded their persons when they went abroad. In accordance with the anomalous conditions which prevailed in the society of Moorish Spain,—where soldiers served eunuchs and freemen obeyed the behests of slaves,—a numerous following of dependents and employees, who had not been subjected to either the torture of emasculation or the restraints of servitude, awaited the pleasure of the unprincipled favorites of royalty. Their consequence was disclosed by the multitudes that incessantly besieged the gates of their palaces. The horror and mystery which invested their character and their lives were frequently increased by the sudden and permanent disappearance of persons who were known to have incurred their enmity.
The death of Al-Hakem was unexpected, and no one was present during his last moments excepting the chief eunuchs, Fayic and Djaudar. These crafty individuals, conscious of the unpopularity of their caste, and knowing that their crimes would receive scant indulgence at the hands of the ministers Ibn-abi-Amir and Moshafi, determined to suppress for a time the intelligence of the Khalif’s death, change the succession, and thereby secure for themselves a continuance of power. The prince they selected to occupy the vacant throne was Moghira, the brother of Al-Hakem. But a first and indispensable requisite for the success of the enterprise was, according to the practical Djaudar, the assassination of the vizier Moshafi. To this suggestion, Fayic, who underestimated the capacity and resolution of the minister, refused to accede. After some discussion, it was determined to send for Moshafi, and endeavor, by every inducement possible, to turn him from his allegiance. Nothing could have been more gratifying to the conspirators than the compliance of the vizier. He appeared to enter heartily into the scheme, gave his new associates much wise counsel, and promised that he in person would, at the proper moment, guard the door of the palace. Then returning to his residence, he hastily assembled a number of civil and military officials upon whose fidelity he could depend, and acquainted them with the plot that had just come to his knowledge. The danger was imminent; the accession of Moghira, and the supremacy of the eunuchs which was certain to result from it and would affect the life or fortunes of every prominent member of the government, demanded the most energetic action. It was determined, without a dissenting voice, that Moghira should be put to death. This resolution was easily taken, but its execution was a different matter. The amiable and inoffensive character of the prince rendered his deliberate assassination extremely repugnant even to men whose cruel habits and sanguinary experience had ordinarily rendered them deaf to the appeals of pity. At length, Ibn-abi-Amir rose amidst the silent assembly, and agreed to assume the invidious office of executioner. At the head of a strong guard, he proceeded at once to the palace of the unhappy Moghira, who was equally unconscious of the death of his brother, of the dangerous honor for which the ambition of the eunuchs had designated him, and of the stern decree which had just sealed his fate. With all the matchless courtesy for which he was distinguished, the messenger of death announced his errand. Overcome with grief at the loss of his brother, and terrified by the presence of the soldiery, Moghira, after giving utterances to the most fervid protestations of devotion to his nephew, implored with tears the clemency of the minister. Deeply moved by the distress of the prince, the resolution of Ibn-abi-Amir faltered, and he despatched a messenger to the vizier, declaring his confidence in the loyalty of Moghira, and suggesting that the decree of the council should be modified and imprisonment be substituted for the penalty of death. The reply of Moshafi was peremptory: “Execute him at once; if thou dost not like the commission thou hast voluntarily undertaken, I will send another not troubled with such unseasonable scruples.” Further delay was out of the question; Moghira was strangled, and the room in which the crime was perpetrated was at once walled up with solid masonry. The memory of this deed, as cruel as it was unwise, long rankled in the heart of Ibn-abi-Amir. He never forgave the vizier for the guilt he had incurred through his agency, by an act whose expediency no sophistry could establish, and whose barbarity no political necessity could excuse. The time was soon to come when the relentless Moshafi was to experience, in his turn, all the bitterness of death without its consolations; all the mortifications which attend the loss of power and fortune; all the pangs of conscience which proceed from the violation of the immutable laws of justice and the wanton sacrifice of the most obvious principles of morality.
The placid exterior of Ibn-abi-Amir gave no sign of his outraged feelings when he returned to his colleagues, but his spirit had been deeply moved, and, with the vindictive energy of his nature, he treasured up against the vizier a terrible account to be discharged upon the day of reckoning.
The chief eunuchs received with consternation the news of the betrayal of their project and the death of the prince; but they were so satisfied of the security of their power that they did not for an instant suspend their treasonable operations. Their emissaries, dispersed among the populace, multiplied by their artful representations the perils incident to the accession of a sovereign who had not yet passed the age of childhood. The circumstances attending the murder of Moghira—unjustifiable enough in themselves—were distorted and exaggerated. The resentment of the masses was inflamed against the ministers, whose rapacity and ambition, it was suggested, would subordinate to their own designs every consideration connected with the safety of the state and the prosperity of the empire. The services of influential and mercenary demagogues were enlisted; the wealth of the eunuchs was lavished without stint to secure and retain their partisans; open denunciations of the authorities were heard on every hand; the appearance of a member of the unpopular faction in the streets was the signal for a riot; and the restless and seditious population of Cordova seemed again ripe for revolution.
The manifest incompetency of Moshafi to deal with the situation impelled Ibn-abi-Amir, who had been raised to the office of vizier, to proffer to the Divan some wholesome advice, couched in terms not distinguishable from those of command. The rebellious ardor of the mob was damped by an imposing military display in which the youthful Khalif participated. The good-will of the poor was at the same time secured by the remission of certain oppressive taxes levied during the reign of Al-Hakem, and which had been the source of great annoyance and distress. The danger of an uprising having been for the moment removed, Ibn-abi-Amir bent all his energies to the destruction of the power of the eunuchs. His secret agents exercised vigilant and incessant espionage over their movements. His gold seduced their retainers. Those who had suffered from the avarice and injustice of the subordinates of the Master of the Wardrobe and the Grand Falconer were privately encouraged to institute proceedings against their oppressors. Some of the latter were imprisoned, others were executed, others again sought safety in flight. Of the chiefs, Djaudar was forced to resign his employments, and Fayic was banished to Majorca, where he died, not long afterwards, in poverty. The discomfiture of these bold conspirators allayed the popular excitement, which was principally due to their machinations, and enabled the government to turn its attention to another quarter, where the success of the Christians was causing great and increasing alarm.
The political agitation which followed the death of Al-Hakem and the settlement of the regency was well known to the courts of Leon and Navarre. The occasion was considered an auspicious one for the abrogation of treaties; for the repudiation of the hateful obligations of tribute; for the seizure of territory acquired by Moslem valor; for the recovery of military prestige lost since the time of the great Abd-al-Rahman. The active partisans of the North accordingly swarmed over the unprotected provinces, whose inhabitants had slackened their vigilance and neglected their arms during the long and pacific reign of Al-Hakem. Little resistance was encountered, owing to the incompetency of the officers charged with the defence of the frontier. The habitual indolence of Moshafi was soon found to be unable to cope with these enterprising marauders, who eluded his squadrons and spread terror and ruin among the rich plantations and hamlets of Andalusia. At length, emboldened by success, they passed the Sierra Morena, and the ominous spectacle of the banners of the infidel was once more visible from the towers of the capital. This defiance was more than the pride of the Sultana could endure. She sent for Ibn-abi-Amir, and implored him to chastise the insolence of the Christians. A council was accordingly held, and an expedition resolved upon. The vizier, with his usual address, managed to be assigned to the supreme command, and, to avoid as far as possible the contingency of a reverse, the wary general, with the closest discrimination, selected for this service the most trustworthy officers and the most experienced veterans of the army.