[8] The frequency of this alliance may be inferred from an extraordinary, though, doubtless, extravagant statement cited by Zurita. The ambassadors of James II., of Aragon, in 1311, represented to the sovereign pontiff, Clement V., that, of the 200,000 souls, which then composed the population of Granada, there were not more than 500 of pure Moorish descent. Anales, tom. iv. fol. 314.
[9] The famous persecutions of Cordova under the reigns of Abderrahman II. and his son, which, to judge from the tone of Castilian writers, might vie with those of Nero and Diocletian, are admitted by Morales (Obras, tom. x. p. 74) to have occasioned the destruction of only forty individuals. Most of these unhappy fanatics solicited the crown of martyrdom by an open violation of the Mahometan laws and usages. The details are given by Florez, in the tenth volume of his collection.
[10] Bleda, Corónica de los Moros de España, (Valencia, 1618,) lib. 2, cap. 16, 17.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. i. pp. 83 et seq. 179.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, Pról., p. vii. and tom. i. pp. 29-54, 75, 87.—Morales, Obras, tom. vi. pp. 407-417; tom. vii. pp. 262- 264.—Florez, España Sagrada, tom. x. pp. 237-270.—Fuero Juzgo, Int. p. 40.
[11] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, part. 2, cap. 1-46.
[12] Ibid., ubi supra.—Masdeu, Historia Crítica, tom. xiii. pp. 178, 187.
[13] The same taste is noticed at the present day, by a traveller, whose pictures glow with the warm colors of the east. "Aussi dès que vous approchez, en Europe ou en Asie, d'une terre possédée par les Musulmans, vous la reconnaissez de loin au riche et sombre voile de verdure qui flotte gracieusement sur elle:—des arbres pour s'asseoir à leur ombre, des fontaines jaillissantes pour rêver à leur bruit, du silence et des mosquées aux légers minarets, s'élevant à chaque pas du sein d'une terre pieuse." Lamartine, Voyage en Orient, tome i. p. 172.
[14] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. i. pp. 199, 265, 284, 285, 417, 446, 447, et alibi.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. i. pp. 227-230 et seq.
[15] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. i. pp. 211, 212, 226.— Swinburne, Travels through Spain, (London, 1787,) let. 35.—Xerif Aledris, conocido por El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, con Traduccion y Notas de Conde, (Madrid, 1799,) pp. 161, 162.—Morales, Obras, tom. x. p. 61.— Chénier, Recherches Historiques sur les Maures, et Histoire de l'Empire de Maroc, (Paris, 1787,) tom. ii. p. 312.—Laborde, Itinéraire, tome iii. p. 226.
[16] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. i. pp 214, 228, 270, 611.— Masdeu, Historia Crítica, tom. xiii. p. 118.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. i. pp. 338-343.—Casiri quotes from an Arabic historian the conditions on which Abderrahman I. proffered his alliance to the Christian princes of Spain, viz. the annual tribute of 10,000 ounces of gold, 10,000 pounds of silver, 10,000 horses, etc., etc. The absurdity of this story, inconsiderately repeated by historians, if any argument were necessary to prove it, becomes sufficiently manifest from the fact, that the instrument is dated in the 142d year of the Hegira, being a little more than fifty years after the conquest. See Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, (Matriti, 1760,) tom. ii. p. 104.
[17] Hist. Naturalis, lib. 33, cap. 4.