While in the defiles of the Pyrenees, between Roncesvalles and Valcarlos, his rear was furiously assailed by some thousands of Navarrese in ambush, who were justly indignant at the wanton destruction of their capital. That the injury inflicted on the emperor was serious, is apparent from the words of his own secretary, who tells us that the whole rearguard was cut to pieces, including many of his generals and chief nobles; and that not only the riches amassed in the expedition, but the whole baggage of the army, fell into the hands of the victors. Scarcely had Charlemagne passed the Pyrenees, when Abd ar-Rahman recovered Saragossa and the other places, of which that monarch had received the submission, and which he had, probably, been sanguine enough to hope would continue to acknowledge his supremacy. But if Abd ar-Rahman was thus freed from so formidable an invader, he was still subject to the curse of domestic sedition.
During his long reign, Abd ar-Rahman had several transactions with the Christians of the Asturias. Under the viceroys his predecessors, the Mussulman arms had failed against both Pelayo and Alfonso I; but he was more successful. By Froila or Fruela I, indeed, one if not two of his generals were successively and signally defeated (760 and 761); but from the tenor of a treaty between the two kings, a treaty on which the early Christian writers preserve a deep silence, we may infer either that the Asturian ruler had sustained some reverse, or that he turned aside the storm of threatening vengeance by concessions.
Abd ar-Rahman died in 787. The chief features of his character were honour, generosity, and intrepidity, with a deeply rooted regard for the interests of justice and religion. His views, for a Mussulman, were enlightened, and his sentiments liberal. Misfortune had been his schoolmaster, and he profited by its lessons. He was an encourager of literature, as appears from the number of schools he founded and endowed; of poetry in particular he must have been fond, or he would not have cultivated it himself. In short, his highest praise is to be found in the fact that Mohammedan Spain wanted a hero and legislator to lay the first stone of her prosperity, and that she found both in him.
Hisham ben Abd ar-Rahman, surnamed Alhadi Radhi, the Just and the Good, was immediately proclaimed at Merida, whither he had accompanied his dying father; and his elevation was hailed by the acclamations of all Spain. The success with which Hisham crushed formidable insurrections of his two brothers roused within him the latent sparks of ambition. He now aspired to conquests not only in the Asturias, but in Gothic Gaul. He proclaimed the al-jihed, or holy war, which every Mussulman was bound to aid, if young, by personal service, if rich and advanced in years, by the contribution of horses, arms, or money. Two formidable armies were immediately put in motion; one thirty-nine thousand strong, which was headed by the hajib or prime minister, marched into the Asturias; the other, which was still more numerous, advanced towards the Pyrenees. The hajib laid waste all Galicia as far as Lugo, and obtained immense plunder; but Alfonso, surnamed the Chaste, had the glory of freeing the infant kingdom from the invaders. A second expedition, under the hajib’s son, was still more unfortunate. From this time may be dated the real independence of the Christians.
[796-815 A.D.]
The success of the other army was not very signal; it made no conquests, but shortly returned across the Pyrenees laden with immense plunder. In the seventh year of his reign Hisham caused his son Al-Hakem to be recognised as his successor, and died a few months afterwards, in 796, universally lamented by his subjects. The reign of Al-Hakem was one of extreme agitation. Barcelona, and many other fortresses of Catalonia, acknowledged the supremacy of Charlemagne.
Whilst these transactions were passing in Catalonia, Alfonso the Chaste was naturally eager to profit by the division in his favour. To punish his revolt in 801, Al-Hakem ravaged his eastern territories. But on the return of the Mohammedan king, who left Yusuf ben Amru to prosecute the war, the Asturian entirely routed the forces of that general, whom he took prisoner, and for whose ransom he exacted a heavy sum. This very fact proves that the two kings were now placed on an equal footing—that the ties of vassalage had been burst asunder by the Christian hero. In 808, Alfonso crossed the Duero, invaded Lusitania, and took Lisbon. Al-Hakem hastened to the theatre of war, and obtained some successes. Abd ar-Rahman, Al-Hakem’s son, defeated Alfonso on the banks of the Duero, took Zamora, and compelled that king to sue for peace. However, hostilities soon recommenced, but with little advantage to either party.
Internally the reign of Al-Hakem was no less troubled. Scarcely was the rebellion of his uncles repressed, when the tyranny of Yusuf ben Amru occasioned great disorders in Toledo. In 805, the inhabitants openly rose against the governor, whom they confined in prison. Al-Hakem invited the principal inhabitants—chiefly Mohammedans—to wait on the heir of the monarchy; but as they entered the palace, they were seized by his soldiers, were carried into a subterraneous apartment, and massacred. [More than seven hundred are said to have perished on this “day of the fosse” (807).] About the same time a conspiracy was formed in Cordova itself, the object of which was to assassinate Al-Hakem, and to raise a grandson of the first Abd ar-Rahman to the vacant throne. The fatal secret was revealed to the monarch’s ear. The very day on which this tragedy was to be perpetrated, three hundred gory heads were exhibited in the most public part of Cordova. Had his own been there, instead of them, no public sorrow would have been manifested.
[815-835 A.D.]
This incident was not likely to assuage his appetite for blood—an appetite which is believed to have been innate in his temperament, though education and circumstances had hitherto suspended its cravings. Commensurate with its increasing intensity was his passion for luxury. He no longer delighted in reaping “the iron harvests of the field.” Shut up in his palace with his female slaves, amidst the sweetest sounds of vocal and instrumental music, or witnessing the lascivious dance, he passed the whole of his time. If, however, his person was thus hidden from the eyes of his people, his existence was but too evident from the execution of his sanguinary mandates. That he might enjoy the pleasures without the cares of royalty, in the year 815 he caused his son Abd ar-Rahman to receive the homage of his chiefs as the wali alhadi, or successor to the throne, and on the shoulders of that prince he thenceforth laid the whole weight of government. But tyrants often tremble, as well as their oppressed subjects. To escape assassination, or the consequences of an open insurrection, he filled or surrounded his palace with a chosen guard of five thousand men, whose fidelity he secured by permanent liberal pay. To meet this extraordinary increase of expenditure, he laid an entrance duty on the merchandise which arrived in the capital. This measure excited indignation, not so much because it was oppressive as because it was novel; murmurs arose on every side, and even an open insurrection appeared certain. To crush it by terror, he ordered ten men who had refused to pay the duty to be publicly executed.