History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 3 (of 3)

by S. P. Scott

The most important subordinate office was that of the Mohtesib, or Supervisor of Markets, who held court at the gate of the mosque. His emissaries paid frequent visits to all provision merchants and druggists, prevented the use of false weights and measures, the sale of damaged food and adulterated medicines, the overcharging and cheating of purchasers. Their duties also extended to the protection of beasts of burden from the inhumanity of their drivers, and of children from cruel punishment by parents and school-masters. They dispersed street crowds. They prescribed sanitary regulations. The authority of the Mohtesib was enforced by fines and scourging, and, like most Arab judicial functionaries, from his decision there was no appeal.

In the demeanor of the Spanish khalifs there was little of that haughty reserve which we are accustomed to associate with the exercise of the imperial dignity. For generations no atmosphere of exclusion surrounded the monarch. As a rule, he was easy of access to the meanest of his subjects. With the patriarchal condescension of his forefathers, he frequently sat in judgment at the gate of his palace. He delighted in assuming disguises and in visiting by night the most humble precincts of his capital. He superintended in person the construction of great public works; in the erection of religious edifices, it was not unusual for him to labor, for a certain time each day, with his own hands. His charity, a duty enjoined by the faith of which he was the national representative, was boundless, and was greatly abused. In the execution of the laws, his sentence was often cruel even to ferocity; but an apt quotation or a well-turned couplet often turned aside the axe of the executioner. A fortunate event—the birth of an heir, a recovery from illness, the tidings of an important victory—afforded an occasion for a noble exhibition of gratitude and mercy, the pardon of criminals, the liberation of Christian captives, the lavish distribution of alms. The high and generous qualities which distinguished the princes of the Ommeyade line—qualities confirmed and developed by a learned education—-prevented the exercise of those acts of tyranny which often spring from the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power. But with all their greatness, their clemency, their generosity, the khalifs were universally hated. The obsequious submission exacted by their office was highly repugnant to the native independence of the Arab, whose cherished traditions required obedience only to the chieftain of his tribe. The doctors of the law, who regarded all learning inconsistent with the Koran as heretical or suspicious, had no admiration for a sovereign who collected great libraries, translated the infidel works of antiquity, and patronized studies whose results savored of magic and sorcery. Among the aristocracy the spirit of insubordination, always strong, was intensified by the vigilance and severity with which it was suppressed, by the memory of past renown, and by the hope of future revolution that might open an avenue to the throne. The incongruous elements composing the masses, held together solely by fear, incapable of fusion, detesting each other with unquenchable hatred, yet joining in the universal execration of their rulers, were ready for any emergency which might afford an opportunity for bloodshed and rapine. It was the intolerant faquis who were responsible for the deluge of African barbarians that overwhelmed the empire. It was the populace which renounced its allegiance to the government in the hour of national peril. The ambition of rival nobles established the score of petty kingdoms whose dissensions and weakness made possible the success of the common enemy.

Nor were the characters of the khalifs always such as inspire respect. Considerations of political expediency, if not of unquestioning religious belief, enforced their strict observance of the ceremonies of public worship. But with this concession to popular prejudice, the apparent devotional obligations of the Successors of the Prophet not infrequently terminated. Some, indeed, were men of eminent piety and zeal. Others, however, were considered of suspicious orthodoxy. The preferment of Jews and infidels to posts of high responsibility was looked upon as inconsistent with the professions of a devout Mussulman. The pursuit of philosophy, the mysterious studies of the laboratory, the toleration of pantheistic doctrines, were regarded with equal distrust and disfavor. It was known that thousands of works in the libraries of the empire treated of prohibited subjects. It was more than suspected that certain Commanders of the Faithful were addicted to the habitual use of wine, and sometimes surpassed the limits of moderation in its indulgence. There were other Koranic admonitions of even graver importance flagrantly defied. It is evident, from the unmistakable allusions of Arab historians, that many of the wisest and most distinguished princes of Mohammedan Spain were given to the practice of unspeakable vices of Oriental origin, and that these crimes against decency were of such frequent occurrence as scarcely to elicit a passing notice. The greatest tyrants among them were slaves to the foolish vagaries of women. A single instance will suffice to show this fond subserviency to feminine caprice. Romequia, wife of Motamid, Prince of Seville, who was famed for his learning and wisdom, having one day from her windows seen some children wading in the mud, expressed a desire to divert herself in the same manner. Thereupon Motamid caused the floor of the principal court of the palace to be thickly covered with a paste of musk, camphor, ambergris, and spices, mixed with rose-water; and the favorite with her attendants disported themselves for a few hours in this precious mud, at an expense of tens of thousands of pieces of gold.

Guarded in his public utterances, sentiments expressed by the khalif in the privacy of the palace, and which conveyed no exalted idea of his sincerity as the venerated head of a great religious system, often reached the outside world. Music, reprobated by the Koran as an incentive to idleness and vice, was one of the most popular amusements of the imperial court. The licentious dances of the East, which had rendered Spain infamous from the days of the Phœnicians, were daily performed in the presence of aristocratic assemblies. The palace swarmed with catamites and buffoons. Astrology and divination, especially condemned by Mohammed as reminiscences of Paganism and offensive to God, were practised everywhere, almost without concealment. While these violations of Moslem law by its representative horrified the devout, it afforded a pernicious example to the people, ever ready to profit by the foibles of their superiors. Under the later khalifs, Moorish society in the Peninsula became frightfully corrupt. The secret contempt for religion was only accentuated by the apparent regard manifested for its outward observances. Infidelity was rife among all classes. The people, from the noble to the beggar, indulged in brutalizing sensuality. In their excesses they once more demonstrated the truth of the principle that the highest civilization as well as the most degraded ignorance are equally unfavorable to the development of principles of morality; that the hardships endured by races the least removed from the brute creation and the profligacy engendered by the splendors of the most polished societies are alike destructive of the noblest instincts of mankind; or, in the language of the great Dutch historian, “that a singular analogy exists between the vices of decadence and the vices of barbarism.” The heartless, cynical, and debauched atmosphere which enveloped the court of Hischem II., and whose evil effects upon the nation the great abilities of Al-Mansur were not sufficient to redeem, offered no suggestion of the pious spirit under whose influence the khalifate was founded. The enormous wealth of the country permitted a display of license and luxury of which the annals of degenerate Rome alone can furnish a parallel. The markets were crowded with female slaves collected from such distant regions as Finland, Ethiopia, Hindustan, and the Caucasus. Of these the harem of the Khalif absorbed a large proportion; that of Al-Nassir contained nearly seven thousand. In an age when intellectual accomplishments were valued almost as highly as the charms of person and manner, it was no unusual circumstance for an educated slave to bring four thousand pieces of gold. The dress of even the ordinary female servitors of the harem exceeded in richness the attire of wealthy ladies of to-day; that of the favorites of the prince displayed the prodigal magnificence of the most opulent and powerful of empires.

In the celebration of public festivals the pomp of the nobles and merchants—the gorgeous appointments of their households, their imposing array of slaves and eunuchs, the beauties of their seraglio, the glittering damascened armor, the silks embroidered with gold, the sheen of priceless gems—awakened the astonishment of the stranger and provoked the sullen and impotent anger of the populace. In the homes of the wealthy, the rarest perfumes—essences of rose, jasmine, and orange, the incense of musk and ambergris—diffused through the palatial apartments the odors so grateful to the senses of the voluptuous Arab. The bath, at once a religious necessity, a hygienic institution, and an instrument of luxurious pleasure, vied in the splendor of its equipment and furniture with the most sumptuous establishments of imperial Rome. The public baths were used—as they still are in all Moslem countries—not alone for the purposes of rest and ablution, but for gossip, entertainment, and intrigue. It was usual for women to pass many hours within their precincts attended by their slaves, to be regaled with delicate confections, and to be soothed by the music of itinerant musicians. The pernicious effects of the presence of evil genii, who, according to an ancient superstition, were believed to haunt these localities, were averted by the repetition of pious texts and by the wearing of amulets. Mohammedan prejudice, not without cause, regarded the public bath with suspicion as a convenient means of moral corruption; and those whose circumstances permitted it, surrounded this institution of personal enjoyment and religious necessity with the privacy of domestic life. In the abodes of the rich it was invested with all the splendor which the command of unlimited means could provide. The tessellated floor was composed of the rarest marbles. The walls were encrusted with mosaic. Through curiously wrought windows of colored glass the tempered light broke into a thousand variegated hues. The pipes were of massy silver, the vessels not infrequently of gold. In the outer apartments the floors were covered with silken carpets, and tapers, from which emanated the most exquisite and costly perfumes, burned slowly in glittering lustres of rock-crystal and alabaster. The luxury of the Moslem culminated in the bath. The latter, borrowed from the Romans, was invested with a magnificence unknown even to the sumptuous thermæ of the Cæsars. The ancients, with all their civilization, were unacquainted with soap, which is an invention of the Arabs. An indispensable appendage to the worship of Islam, the first building erected in a city occupied by the Mussulman arms, was one designed for purposes of public ablution. In some respects it even took precedence of the mosque, for a Christian church could be purified and consecrated to religious service, but no corresponding substitution of the bath was possible among infidels, who regarded evidences of filthy habits as an infallible criterion of orthodoxy; and without complete lustration on Fridays no Mohammedan was fit to enter the temple of God. So important was this duty considered, that it was not unusual for persons in the humblest walks of life to sacrifice even their physical wants for the sake of cleanliness and to spend their last dirhem for soap, preferring rather to endure the pangs of hunger than to incur the reproach incident to personal neglect.

With the frequent use of the bath was also introduced the practice of wearing underclothing, which, often changed, is so conducive to physical purity. The domestication of the cotton plant in the Peninsula, which cheapened the soft and delicate fabrics woven from its fibre, promoted the adoption of this custom even among Christians; and the name of the now indispensable undergarment worn next the skin by both sexes in every civilized country has passed almost unaltered into the principal languages of Europe. In most of its details the dress of the Spanish Arabs was borrowed from the Orient. Their flowing robes were generally white, the peculiar color of the reigning family, as well as that best adapted to the temperature of a southern climate. The turban was considered the appropriate badge of the learned professions, whose members would have regarded its assumption by persons of another calling as an unpardonable breach of privilege. Individuals of the middle class wore caps of green or red; in later times the Jews, as a distinguishing mark of their race, were restricted to yellow. The common people went bareheaded or bound a silken scarf about their temples, as is still to be seen in many parts of Andalusia. All who could afford it displayed a profusion of rings, many of them talismans; there were few, however poor, without a signet of some description.

The maxims of philosophy, the enjoyment of unequalled educational privileges, the enlargement of the mental faculties obtained by travel, were alike unable to divest the Spanish Arabs of puerile superstitions. The tenacity with which human nature clings to these legacies of ignorance was well understood by Mohammed, who incorporated many of them into his religion. The ordinary Moor of the epoch of Al-Hakem II. was as sincere a believer in the importance of dreams, in the significance of omens, in the occult virtues of amulets, as the Bedouin who roamed over the Desert five hundred years before the Hegira. Even the most wise and philosophical of the khalifs entertained diviners and astrologers. It will require but an instant’s reflection to recall to the mind of the reader events in his own experience which demonstrate the ineradicable character of similar superstitions, a weakness incident to humanity from which no race, age, or civilization seems to be entirely free. There were many kinds of magic and enchantment for the counteraction of whose effects various ceremonies were prescribed. The most dreaded of these was the evil-eye, a belief in whose influence, for centuries prevalent among Orientals, was recognized by Mohammed himself. Of sovereign efficacy in averting its consequences were the ejaculation of well-known texts and the possession of certain talismans. The hand, which represented symbolically the five cardinal principles of Islam, was one of the most popular forms of the latter. Long before the invasion of Tarik, it had been the most generally adopted emblem for protection against malign influence used in the Moslem world. It was probably of Pagan origin, like many of the ancient symbols of Islam. The Romans may have received it from the Arabs, for it appears in the centre of a laurel wreath on an imperial standard upon the column of Trajan. Kings sculptured it on the keystones of their palaces. Peasants painted it over the doorways of their hovels. It was one of the devices of the khalifs. Carved in jet, carnelian, or agate, it was prized by women more highly than the costliest gem. At the time of the Conquest of Granada it was so frequently worn that the suppression of its use claimed the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities, and severe penalties were denounced against all in whose possession it was found. In defiance of these obstacles, however, the custom survived, and the talismanic hand—along with the crucifix, the Agnus Dei, the rosary, and other accessories of Christian superstition—is still to be met with among the mountain peasantry of Spain.

The fertile mind of the Arab, whose early existence had been passed amidst the impressive solitude of the Desert, delighted to people with imaginary beings the limitless domain of the invisible world. The learned society of Cordova was far from renouncing a belief sanctioned by the religion of the state and entertained for centuries by the aristocracy of Arabia. The mysteries of demonology exerted an uncontrollable fascination over the multitude. An infinite gradation of power and malignity characterized the vast array of spirits, from the hideous ghoul that haunted the charnel-house and the cemetery to the majestic genii that stood in the presence of the celestial throne, whose armor blazing with light and jewels recalls the panoply of Milton’s angels; whose gigantic forms assumed at will the shapes of seraphs or pillars of vapor; and whose martial hosts, invested with a strange reality, appeared to the excitable Arab an army of sentient beings rather than the gorgeous phantoms of an enchanted vision.

The civil organization of the Spanish Khalifate was one of the prodigies of the age. Order was enforced by regulations whose effects were experienced equally in the capital and in the extreme frontier outpost of the empire. Justice was administered quickly, wisely, impartially. Taxes were regularly apportioned, and the laborer was always sure of the enjoyment of the product of his toil. By means of watch-towers and beacons, information could be transmitted over great distances in a short time. In a few hours the approach of an enemy was known throughout all Andalusia. As early as the reign of Abd-al-Rahman II. an extensive system of posts was established. The stations, where relays of swift horses were kept for the service of the government, were each under charge of an officer whose duty it was to correspond directly with the khalif, and to inform him of all that transpired in the vicinity which might come to his knowledge. Where more rapid communication was necessary, carrier-pigeons were employed for the transmission of important despatches, a custom introduced from Sicily. Six hundred years after this there was no postal system in any country of Europe. The highways were protected by barracks, from which patrols were regularly detailed to watch over the safety of travellers and to keep order in the surrounding country. All officials, without exception, were directly responsible to the sovereign, and held their places during his pleasure. An army of spies in every foreign court and in the council and household of every provincial governor kept the court informed not only of matters which affected the policy of great kingdoms, but of the most trivial circumstances growing out of the intercourse of daily life. When a new province was conquered, it was the first duty of the imperial secretaries to prepare schedules of its agricultural and mineral resources, its commerce, its wealth, and its population.

The character of the Mussulmans of Spain was defiled by all the vices which follow in the train of prodigal luxury and boundless wealth. Among these drunkenness was one of the most common. Personages of the highest rank were not ashamed to appear in public while intoxicated. Wine was often served at the royal table. Al-Mansur indulged in its use habitually. His son, Abd-al-Rahman, was a confirmed drunkard. Once when the muezzin announced the hour of prayer, this young reprobate exclaimed, “Were he to say ‘Come to drink!’ it would sound much better.” Many of the rulers of the Moorish principalities were notorious for their excesses. Some Moslems drank white wine, as they declared that the prohibition of the Prophet only applied to red. Hypocrites used vessels of metal for their libations, so that their shortcomings might not be detected by their neighbors.