First temptations and designs of the Arabs, A.D. 709
In the progress of conquest from the north and south, the Goths and the Saracens encountered each other on the confines of Europe and Africa. In the opinion of the latter, the difference of religion is a reasonable ground of enmity and warfare.(164) As early as the time of Othman,(165) their piratical squadrons had ravaged the coast of Andalusia,(166) nor had they forgotten the relief of Carthage by the Gothic succours. In that age, as well as in the present, the kings of Spain were possessed of the fortress of Ceuta; one of the Columns of Hercules, which is divided by a narrow strait from the opposite pillar or point of Europe. A small portion of Mauritania was still wanting to the African conquest; but Musa, in the pride of victory, was repulsed from the walls of Ceuta, by the vigilance and courage of Count Julian, the general of the Goths. From his disappointment and perplexity Musa was relieved by an unexpected message of the Christian chief, who offered his place, his person, and his sword to the successors of Mohammed, and solicited the disgraceful honour of introducing their arms into the heart of Spain.(167) If we inquire into the cause of his treachery, the Spaniards will repeat the popular story of his daughter Cava;(168) of a virgin who was seduced, or ravished, by her
sovereign; of a father who sacrificed his religion and
country to the thirst of revenge. The passions of princes
have often been licentious and destructive; but this
well-known tale, romantic in itself, is indifferently
supported by external evidence; and the history of Spain
will suggest some motives of interest and policy more
congenial to the breast of a veteran statesman.(169)
State of the Gothic monarchy.
After the decease or deposition of Witiza, his two sons were
supplanted by the ambition of Roderic, a noble Goth, whose
father, the duke or governor of a province, had fallen a
victim to the preceding tyranny. The monarchy was still
elective; but the sons of Witiza, educated on the steps of
the throne, were impatient of a private station. Their
resentment was the more dangerous, as it was varnished with
the dissimulation of courts; their followers were excited by
the remembrance of favours and the promise of a revolution;
and their Uncle Oppas, archbishop of Toledo and Seville, was
the first person in the church, and the second in the state.
It is probable that Julian was involved in the disgrace of
the unsuccessful faction; that he had little to hope and
much to fear from the new reign; and that the imprudent king
could not forget or forgive the injuries which Roderic and
his family had sustained. The merit and influence of the
count rendered him a useful or formidable subject; his
estates were ample, his followers bold and numerous; and it
was too fatally shown that, by his Andalusian and
Mauritanian commands, he held in his hand the keys of the
Spanish monarchy. Too feeble, however, to meet his sovereign
in arms, he sought the aid of a foreign power; and his rash
invitation of the Moors and Arabs produced the calamities of
eight hundred years. In his epistles, or in a personal
interview, he revealed the wealth and nakedness of his
country; the weakness of an unpopular prince; the degeneracy
of an effeminate people. The Goths were no longer the
victorious barbarians, who had humbled the pride of Rome,
despoiled the queen of nations, and penetrated from the
Danube to the Atlantic Ocean. Secluded from the world by the
Pyrenaean mountains, the successors of Alaric had slumbered
in a long peace; the walls of the cities were mouldered into
dust: the youth had abandoned the exercise of arms; and the
presumption of their ancient renown would expose them in a
field of battle to the first assault of the invaders. The
ambitious Saracen was fired by the ease and importance of
the attempt; but the execution was delayed till he had
consulted the commander of the faithful—and his messenger
returned with the permission of Walid to annex the unknown
kingdoms of the West to the religion and throne of the
caliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with secrecy and
caution, continued his correspondence and hastened his
preparations. But the remorse of the conspirators was
soothed by the fallacious assurance that he should content
himself with the glory and spoil, without aspiring to
establish the Moslems beyond the sea that separates Africa
from Europe.(170)
The first descent of the Arabs, A.D. 710, July.
Before Musa would trust an army of the faithful to the
traitors and infidels of a foreign land, he made a less
dangerous trial of their strength and veracity. One hundred
Arabs, and four hundred Africans, passed over, in four
vessels, from Tangier or Ceuta: the place of their descent
on the opposite shore of the strait is marked by the name of
Tarif their chief; and the date of this memorable event(171)
is fixed to the month of Ramadan, of the ninety-first year
of the Hegira, to the month of July, seven hundred and
forty-eight years from the Spanish era of Caesar,(172) seven hundred and ten after the birth of Christ. From their first
station, they marched eighteen miles through a hilly country
to the castle and town of Julian;(173) on which (it is still
called Algezire) they bestowed the name of the Green Island,
from a verdant cape that advances into the sea. Their
hospitable entertainment, the Christians who joined their
standard, their inroad into a fertile and unguarded
province, the richness of their spoil, and the safety of
their return, announced to their brethren the most
favourable omens of victory. In the ensuing spring five
thousand veterans and volunteers were embarked under the
command of Tarik, a dauntless and skilful soldier, who
surpassed the expectation of his chief; Their second descent, A.D. 711, April;and the necessary
transports were provided by the industry of their too
faithful ally. The Saracens landed (174) at the pillar or
point of Europe, the corrupt and familiar appellation of
Gibraltar (Gebel a1 Tarik) describes the mountain of
Tarik; and the entrenchments of his camp were the first
outline of those fortifications which, in the hands of our
countrymen, have resisted the art and power of the house of
Bourbon. The adjacent governors informed the court of Toledo
of the descent and progress of the Arabs; and the defeat of
his lieutenant Edeco, who had been commanded to seize and
bind the presumptuous strangers, admonished Roderic of the
magnitude of the danger. At the royal summons, the dukes and
counts, the bishops and nobles of the Gothic monarchy,
assembled at the head of their followers; and the title of
King of the Romans, which is employed by an Arabic
historian, may be excused by the close affinity of language,
religion, and manners, between the nations of Spain. His
army consisted of ninety or a hundred thousand men; a
formidable power, if their fidelity and discipline had been
adequate to their numbers. The troops of Tarik had been
augmented to twelve thousand Saracens; but the Christian
malcontents were attracted by the influence of Julian, and a
crowd of Africans most greedily tasted the temporal blessings of the Koran. and victory, July 19-26.
In the neighbourhood of Cadiz, the town of Xeres(175) has been illustrated by the encounter which determined the fate of the kingdom; the stream of the Guadalete, which falls into the bay, divided the two camps, and marked the advancing and retreating skirmishes of three
successive and bloody days. On the fourth day the two armies
joined a more serious and decisive issue; but Alaric would
have blushed at the sight of his unworthy successor,
sustaining on his head a diadem of pearls, encumbered with a
flowing robe of gold and silken embroidery, and reclining on
a litter or car of ivory drawn by two white mules.
Notwithstanding the valour of the Saracens, they fainted
under the weight of multitudes, and the plain of Xeres was
overspread with sixteen thousand of their dead bodies. "My
brethren," said Tarik to his surviving companions, "the
enemy is before you, the sea is behind; whither would ye
fly? Follow your general: I am resolved either to lose my
life or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans."
Besides the resource of despair, he confided in the secret
correspondence and nocturnal interviews of Count Julian with
the sons and the brother of Witiza. The two princes and the
archbishop of Toledo occupied the most important post: their
well-timed defection broke the ranks of the Christians; each
warrior was prompted by fear or suspicion to consult his
personal safety; and the remains of the Gothic army were
scattered or destroyed in the flight and pursuit of the
three following days. Amidst the general disorder Roderic
started from his car, and mounted Orelia, the fleetest of
his horses; but he escaped from a soldier's death to perish
more ignobly in the waters of the Baetis or Guadalquivir.
His diadem, his robes, and his courser were found on the
bank, but as the body of the Gothic prince was lost in the
waves, the pride and ignorance of the caliph must have been
gratified with some meaner head, which was exposed in
triumph before the palace of Damascus. "And such," continues
a valiant historian of the Arabs, "is the fate of those
kings who withdraw themselves from a field of battle.''(176)
Ruin of the Gothic monarchy, A.D. 711.
Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy, that
his only hope was in the ruin of his country. After the
battle of Xeres he recommended the most effectual measures
to the victorious Saracen. "The king of the Goths is slain;
their princes have fled before you, the army is routed, the
nation is astonished. Secure with sufficient detachments the
cities of Baetica; but in person, and without delay, march
to the royal city of Toledo, and allow not the distracted
Christians either time or tranquillity for the election of a
new monarch." Tarik listened to his advice. A Roman captive
and proselyte, who had been enfranchised by the caliph
himself, assaulted Cordova with seven hundred horse. he swam
the river, surprised the town, and drove the Christians into
the great church, where they defended themselves above three
months. Another detachment reduced the sea-coast of Baetica,
which in the last period of the Moorish power has comprised
in a narrow space the populous kingdom of Granada. The march
of Tarik from the Baetis to the Tagust(177) was directed
through the Sierra Morena, that separates Andalusia and
Castille, till he appeared in arms under the walls of
Toledo.(178) The most zealous of the Catholics had escaped with the relics of their saints; and if the gates were shut,
it was only till the victor had subscribed a fair and
reasonable capitulation. The voluntary exiles were allowed
to depart with their effects; seven churches were
appropriated to the Christian worship; the archbishop and
his clergy were at liberty to exercise their functions, the
monks to practise or neglect their penance- and the Goths
and Romans were left in all civil and criminal cases to the
subordinate jurisdiction of their own laws and magistrates.
But if the justice of Tarik protected the Christians, his
gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews, to whose secret or
open aid he was indebted for his most important
acquisitions. Persecuted by the kings and synods of Spain,
who had often pressed the alternative of banishment or baptism, that outcast nation embraced the moment of revenge: the comparison of their past and present state was the
pledge of their fidelity; and the alliance between the
disciples of Moses and of Mohammed was maintained till the
final era of their common expulsion from the royal seat of
Toledo, the Arabian leader spread his conquests to the
north, over the modern realms of Castille and Leon: but it
is needless to enumerate the cities that yielded on his
approach, or again to describe the table of emerald,(179)
transported from the East by the Romans, acquired by the
Goths among the spoils of Rome, and presented by the Arabs
to the throne of Damascus. Beyond the Asturian mountains,
the maritime town of Gijon was the term(180) of the
lieutenant of Musa, who had performed, with the speed of a
traveller, his victorious march of seven hundred miles, from
the rock of Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay. The failure of
land compelled him to retreat; and he was recalled to
Toledo, to excuse his presumption of subduing a kingdom in
the absence of his general. Spain, which, in a more savage
and disorderly state, had resisted, two hundred years, the
arms of the Romans, was overrun in a few months by those of
the Saracens; and such was the eagerness of submission and
treaty, that the governor of Cordova is recorded as the only
chief who fell, without conditions, a prisoner into their
hands. The cause of the Goths had been irrevocably judged in
the field of Xeres; and, in the national dismay, each part
of the monarchy declined a contest with the antagonist who
had vanquished the united strength of the whole.(181) That strength had been wasted by two successive seasons of famine
and pestilence; and the governors, who were impatient to
surrender, might exaggerate the difficulty of collecting the
provisions of a siege. To disarm the Christians,
superstition likewise contributed her terrors: and the
subtle Arab encouraged the report of dreams, omens, and
prophecies, and of the portraits of the destined conquerors
of Spain, that were discovered on breaking open an apartment
of the royal palace. Yet a spark of the vital flame was
still alive; some invincible fugitives preferred a life of
poverty and freedom in the Asturian valleys; the hardy
mountaineers repulsed the slaves of the caliph— and the
sword of Pelagius has been transformed into the sceptre of
the Catholic kings.(182)
Conquest of Spain by Musa, A.D. 712,713.
On the intelligence of this rapid success, the applause of
Musa degenerated into envy; and he began, not to complain,
but to fear, that Tarik would leave him nothing to subdue.
At the head of ten thousand Arabs and eight thousand
Africans, he passed over in person from Mauritania to Spain:
the first of his companions were the noblest of the Koreish;
his eldest son was left in the command of Africa; the three
younger brethren were of an age and spirit to second the
boldest enterprises of their father. At his landing in
Algezire, he was respectfully entertained by Count Julian,
who stifled his inward remorse, and testified, both in words
and actions, that the victory of the Arabs had not impaired
his attachment to their cause. Some enemies yet remained
for the sword of Musa. The tardy repentance of the Goths
had compared their own numbers and those of the invaders;
the cities from which the march of Tarik had declined
considered themselves as impregnable; and the bravest
patriots defended the fortifications of Seville and Merida.
They were successively besieged and reduced by the labor of
Musa, who transported his camp from the Boetis to the Anas,
from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When he beheld the
works of Roman magnificence, the bridge, the aqueducts, the
triumphal arches, and the theatre, of the ancient metropolis
of Lusitania, "I should imagine," said he to his four
companions, "that the human race must have united their art
and power in the foundation of this city: happy is the man
who shall become its master!" He aspired to that happiness,
but the Emeritans sustained on this occasion the honour of
their descent from the veteran legionaries of Augustus (183)
Disdaining the confinement of their walls, they gave battle
to the Arabs on the plain; but an ambuscade rising from the
shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, chastised their
indiscretion, and intercepted their return. The wooden
turrets of assault were rolled forwards to the foot of the
rampart; but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long;
and the castle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of
the losses of the Moslems. The constancy of the besieged
was at length subdued by famine and despair; and the prudent
victor disguised his impatience under the names of clemency
and esteem. The alternative of exile or tribute was allowed;
the churches were divided between the two religions; and the
wealth of those who had fallen in the siege, or retired to
Gallicia, was confiscated as the reward of the faithful. In
the midway between Merida and Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa
saluted the vicegerent of the caliph, and conducted him to
the palace of the Gothic kings. Their first interview was
cold and formal: a rigid account was exacted of the
treasures of Spain: the character of Tarik was exposed to
suspicion and obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned, reviled,
and ignominiously scourged by the hand, or the command, of
Musa. Yet so strict was the discipline, so pure the zeal,
or so tame the spirit, of the primitive Moslems, that, after
this public indignity, Tarik could serve and be trusted in
the reduction of the Tarragonest province. A mosch was
erected at Saragossa, by the liberality of the Koreish: the
port of Barcelona was opened to the vessels of Syria; and
the Goths were pursued beyond the Pyrenaean mountains into
their Gallic province of Septimania or Languedoc. (184) In
the church of St. Mary at Carcassone, Musa found, but it is
improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of massy
silver; and from his term or column of Narbonne, he returned
on his footsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores of
the ocean. During the absence of the father, his son
Abdelaziz chastised the insurgents of Seville, and reduced,
from Malaga to Valentia, the sea-coast of the Mediterranean:
his original treaty with the discreet and valiant Theodemir
(185) will represent the manners and policy of the times.
"The conditions of peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz,
the son of Musa, the son of Nassir, and Theodemir prince of
the Goths. In the name of the most merciful God, Abdelaziz
makes peace on these conditions: that Theodemir shall not be
disturbed in his principality; nor any injury be offered to
the life or property, the wives and children, the religion
and temples, of the Christians: that Theodemir shall freely
deliver his seven cities, Orihuela, Valentola, Alicanti
Mola, Vacasora, Bigerra, (now Bejar,) Ora, (or Opta,) and
Lorca: that he shall not assist or entertain the enemies of
the caliph, but shall faithfully communicate his knowledge
of their hostile designs: that himself, and each of the
Gothic nobles, shall annually pay one piece of gold, four
measures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain
proportion of honey, oil, and vinegar; and that each of
their vassals shall be taxed at one moiety of the said
imposition. Given the fourth of Regeb, in the year of the
Hegira ninety- four, and subscribed with the names of four
Mussulman witnesses." (186) Theodemir and his subjects were treated with uncommon lenity; but the rate of tribute
appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth,
according to the submission or obstinacy of the Christians.
(187) In this revolution, many partial calamities were
inflicted by the carnal or religious passions of the
enthusiasts: some churches were profaned by the new worship:
some relics or images were confounded with idols: the rebels
were put to the sword; and one town (an obscure place
between Cordova and Seville) was razed to its foundations.
Yet if we compare the invasion of Spain by the Goths, or its
recovery by the kings of Castile and Arragon, we must
applaud the moderation and discipline of the Arabian
conquerors.
Disgrace of Musa, A.D. 714.
The exploits of Musa were performed in the evening of life,
though he affected to disguise his age by coloring with a
red powder the whiteness of his beard. But in the love of
action and glory, his breast was still fired with the ardour
of youth; and the possession of Spain was considered only as
the first step to the monarchy of Europe. With a powerful
armament by sea and land, he was preparing to repass the
Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining
kingdoms of the Franks and Lombards, and to preach the unity
of God on the altar of the Vatican. From thence, subduing
the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed to follow the course
of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to
overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and
returning from Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions
with Antioch and the provinces of Syria. (188) But his vast enterprise, perhaps of easy execution, must have seemed
extravagant to vulgar minds; and the visionary conqueror was
soon reminded of his dependence and servitude. The friends
of Tarik had effectually stated his services and wrongs: at
the court of Damascus, the proceedings of Musa were blamed,
his intentions were suspected, and his delay in complying
with the first invitation was chastised by a harsher and
more peremptory summons. An intrepid messenger of the caliph
entered his camp at Lugo in Gallicia, and in the presence of
the Saracens and Christians arrested the bridle of his
horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated
the duty of obedience: and his disgrace was alleviated by
the recall of his rival, and the permission of investing
with his two governments his two sons, Abdallah and
Abdelaziz. His long triumph from Ceuta to Damascus
displayed the spoils of Africa and the treasures of Spain:
four hundred Gothic nobles, with gold coronets and girdles,
were distinguished in his train; and the number of male and
female captives, selected for their birth or beauty, was
computed at eighteen, or even at thirty, thousand persons.
As soon as he reached Tiberias in Palestine, he was apprised
of the sickness and danger of the caliph, by a private
message from Soliman, his brother and presumptive heir; who
wished to reserve for his own reign the spectacle of
victory. Had Walid recovered, the delay of Musa would have
been criminal: he pursued his march, and found an enemy on
the throne. In his trial before a partial judge against a
popular antagonist, he was convicted of vanity and
falsehood; and a fine of two hundred thousand pieces of gold
either exhausted his poverty or proved his rapaciousness.
The unworthy treatment of Tarik was revenged by a similar
indignity; and the veteran commander, after a public
whipping, stood a whole day in the sun before the palace
gate, till he obtained a decent exile, under the pious name
of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the caliph
might have been satiated with the ruin of Musa; but his
fears demanded the extirpation of a potent and injured
family. A sentence of death was intimated with secrecy and
speed to the trusty servants of the throne both in Africa
and Spain; and the forms, if not the substance, of justice
were superseded in this bloody execution. In the mosch or
palace of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by the swords of the
conspirators; they accused their governor of claiming the
honours of royalty; and his scandalous marriage with Egilona,
the widow of Roderic, offended the prejudices both of the
Christians and Moslems. By a refinement of cruelty, the
head of the son was presented to the father, with an
insulting question, whether he acknowledged the features of
the rebel? "I know his features," he exclaimed with
indignation: "I assert his innocence; and I imprecate the
same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death." The
age and despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings;
and he expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart.
His rival was more favourably treated: his services were
forgiven; and Tarik was permitted to mingle with the crowd
of slaves. (189) I am ignorant whether Count Julian was
rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though not
from the hands of the Saracens; but the tale of their
ingratitude to the sons of Witiza is disproved by the most
unquestionable evidence. The two royal youths were
reinstated in the private patrimony of their father; but on
the decease of Eba, the elder, his daughter was unjustly
despoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle
Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the
caliph Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her
inheritance; but she was given in marriage to a noble
Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were
received in Spain with the consideration that was due to
their origin and riches.
Prosperity of Spain under the Arabs.
A province is assimilated to the victorious state by the
introduction of strangers and the imitative spirit of the
natives; and Spain, which had been successively tinctured
with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood, imbibed, in a few
generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. The first
conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the
caliphs, were attended by a numerous train of civil and
military followers, who preferred a distant fortune to a
narrow home: the private and public interest was promoted by
the establishment of faithful colonies; and the cities of
Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of
their Eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley
bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by the name of Spaniards,
their original claim of conquest; yet they allowed their
brethren of Egypt to share their establishments of Murcia
and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was planted at
Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or
Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina
Sidonia. The natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered
round Toledo and the inland country, and the fertile seats
of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand horsemen of Syria
and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble of the
Arabian tribes. (190) A spirit of emulation, sometimes
beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by
these hereditary factions. Ten years after the conquest, a
map of the province was presented to the caliph: the seas,
the rivers, and the harbours, the inhabitants and cities, the
climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.
(191) In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were
improved by the agriculture, (192) the manufactures, and the
commerce, of an industrious people; and the effects of their
diligence have been magnified by the idleness of their
fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain
solicited the support of the Christians; and in his edict of
peace and protection, he contents himself with a modest
imposition of ten thousand ounces of gold, ten thousand
pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as many mules, one
thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets and
lances. (193) The most powerful of his successors derived
from the same kingdom the annual tribute of twelve millions
and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of gold, about six
millions of sterling money; (194) a sum which, in the tenth
century, most probably surpassed the united revenues of the
Christians monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained
six hundred moschs, nine hundred baths, and two hundred
thousand houses; he gave laws to eighty cities of the first,
to three hundred of the second and third order; and the
fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve
thousand villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate
the truth, but they created and they describe the most
prosperous aera of the riches, the cultivation, and the
populousness of Spain. (195)
Religious toleration.
The wars of the Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but
among the various precepts and examples of his life, the
caliphs selected the lessons of toleration that might tend
to disarm the resistance of the unbelievers. Arabia was the
temple and patrimony of the God of Mahomet; but he beheld
with less jealousy and affection the nations of the earth.
The polytheists and idolaters, who were ignorant of his
name, might be lawfully extirpated by his votaries; (196) but
a wise policy supplied the obligation of justice; and after
some acts of intolerant zeal, the Mahometan conquerors of
Hindostan have spared the pagods of that devout and populous
country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and of Jesus,
were solemnly invited to accept the more perfect revelation
of Mahomet; but if they preferred the payment of a moderate
tribute, they were entitled to the freedom of conscience and
religious worship. (197) Propagation of Mahometism. In a field of battle the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the profession of
Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion of
their masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was
gradually multiplied by the education of the infant
captives. But the millions of African and Asiatic converts,
who swelled the native band of the faithful Arabs, must have
been allured, rather than constrained, to declare their
belief in one God and the apostle of God. By the repetition
of a sentence and the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the
slave, the captive or the criminal, arose in a moment the
free and equal companion of the victorious Moslems. Every
sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved: the vow of
celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of nature; the
active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by
the trumpet of the Saracens; and in the convulsion of the
world, every member of a new society ascended to the natural
level of his capacity and courage. The minds of the
multitude were tempted by the invisible as well as temporal
blessings of the Arabian prophet; and charity will hope that
many of his proselytes entertained a serious conviction of
the truth and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an
inquisitive polytheist, it must appear worthy of the human
and the divine nature. More pure than the system of
Zoroaster, more liberal than the law of Moses, the religion
of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reason than the
creed of mystery and superstition, which, in the seventh
century, disgraced the simplicity of the gospel.
Fall of the Magians of Persia.
In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa, the
national religion has been eradicated by the Mahometan
faith. The ambiguous theology of the Magi stood alone among
the sects of the East; but the profane writings of Zoroaster
(198) might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be
dexterously connected with the chain of divine revelation.
Their evil principle, the daemon Ahriman, might be
represented as the rival, or as the creature, of the God of
light. The temples of Persia were devoid of images; but the
worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as a
gross and criminal idolatry. (199) The milder sentiment was
consecrated by the practice of Mahomet (200) and the prudence
of the caliphs; the Magians or Ghebers were ranked with the
Jews and Christians among the people of the written law;
(201) and as late as the third century of the Hegira, the
city of Herat will afford a lively contrast of private zeal
and public toleration. (202) Under the payment of an annual
tribute, the Mahometan law secured to the Ghebers of Herat
their civil and religious liberties: but the recent and
humble mosch was overshadowed by the antique splendour of the
adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Iman deplored, in his
sermons, the scandalous neighbourhood, and accused the
weakness or indifference of the faithful. Excited by his
voice, the people assembled in tumult; the two houses of
prayer were consumed by the flames, but the vacant ground
was immediately occupied by the foundations of a new mosch.
The injured Magi appealed to the sovereign of Chorasan; he
promised justice and relief; when, behold! four thousand
citizens of Herat, of a grave character and mature age,
unanimously swore that the idolatrous fane had never
existed; the inquisition was silenced and their conscience
was satisfied (says the historian Mirchond (203)) with this
holy and meritorious perjury. (204) But the greatest part of
the temples of Persia were ruined by the insensible and
general desertion of their votaries. It was insensible,
since it is not accompanied with any memorial of time or
place, of persecution or resistance. It was general, since
the whole realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the faith
of the Koran; and the preservation of the native tongue
reveals the descent of the Mahometans of Persia. (205) In the
mountains and deserts, an obstinate race of unbelievers
adhered to the superstition of their fathers; and a faint
tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the
province of Kirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the
exiles of Surat, and in the colony which, in the last
century, was planted by Shaw Abbas at the gates of Ispahan.
The chief pontiff has retired to Mount Elbourz, eighteen
leagues from the city of Yezd: the perpetual fire (if it
continues to burn) is inaccessible to the profane; but his
residence is the school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage of
the Ghebers, whose hard and uniform features attest the
unmingled purity of their blood. Under the jurisdiction of
their elders, eighty thousand families maintain an innocent
and industrious life: their subsistence is derived from some
curious manufactures and mechanic trades; and they cultivate
the earth with the fervour of a religious duty. Their
ignorance withstood the despotism of Shaw Abbas, who
demanded with threats and tortures the prophetic books of
Zoroaster; and this obscure remnant of the Magians is spared
by the moderation or contempt of their present sovereigns.
(206)
Decline and fall of Christianity in Africa,
The Northern coast of Africa is the only land in which the
light of the gospel, after a long and perfect establishment,
has been totally extinguished. The arts, which had been
taught by Carthage and Rome, were involved in a cloud of
ignorance; the doctrine of Cyprian and Augustin was no
longer studied. Five hundred episcopal churches were
overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the
Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal and numbers of the clergy
declined; and the people, without discipline, or knowledge,
or hope, submissively sunk under the yoke of the Arabian
prophet A.D. 749. Within fifty years after the expulsion of the
Greeks, a lieutenant of Africa informed the caliph that the
tribute of the infidels was abolished by their conversion;
(207) and, though he sought to disguise his fraud and
rebellion, A.D. 837. his specious pretence was drawn from the rapid
and extensive progress of the Mahometan faith. In the next
age, an extraordinary mission of five bishops was detached
from Alexandria to Cairoan. They were ordained by the
Jacobite patriarch to cherish and revive the dying embers of
Christianity: (208) but the interposition of a foreign
prelate, a stranger to the Latins, an enemy to the
Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of the African
hierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successor of
St. Cyprian, at the head of a numerous synod, could maintain
an equal contest with the ambition of the Roman pontiff. A.D.1053-1076. In the eleventh century, the unfortunate priest who was seated
on the ruins of Carthage implored the arms and the
protection of the Vatican; and he bitterly complains that
his naked body had been scourged by the Saracens, and that
his authority was disputed by the four suffragans, the
tottering pillars of his throne. Two epistles of Gregory
the Seventh (209) are destined to soothe the distress of the
Catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince. The pope
assures the sultan that they both worship the same God, and
may hope to meet in the bosom of Abraham; but the complaint
that three bishops could no longer be found to consecrate a
brother, announces the speedy and inevitable ruin of the
episcopal order. and Spain, A.D. 1149, etcThe Christians of Africa and Spain had long
since submitted to the practice of circumcision and the
legal abstinence from wine and pork; and the name of
Mozarabes (210) (adoptive Arabs) was applied to their civil
or religious conformity. (211) About the middle of the
twelfth century, the worship of Christ and the succession of
pastors were abolished along the coast of Barbary, and in
the kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, of Valencia and
Grenada. (212) The throne of the Almohades, or Unitarians,
was founded on the blindest fanaticism, and their
extraordinary rigour might be provoked or justified by the
recent victories and intolerant zeal of the princes of
Sicily and Castille, of Arragon and Portugal. The faith of
the Mozarabes was occasionally revived by the papal
missionaries; and, on the landing of Charles the Fifth, some
families of Latin Christians were encouraged to rear their
heads at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was
quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripoli to
the Atlantic has lost all memory of the language and
religion of Rome. (213)
Toleration of the Christians.
After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and
Christians of the Turkish empire enjoy the liberty of
conscience which was granted by the Arabian caliphs. During
the first age of the conquest, they suspected the loyalty of
the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their secret
attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians and
Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the
sincere and voluntary friends of the Mahometan government.
(214) Yet this partial jealousy was healed by time and
submission; the churches of Egypt were shared with the
Catholics; (215) and all the Oriental sects were included in
the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities,
the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops,
and the clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate: the
learning of individuals recommended them to the employments
of secretaries and physicians: they were enriched by the
lucrative collection of the revenue; and their merit was
sometimes raised to the command of cities and provinces. A
caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare that the
Christians were most worthy of trust in the administration
of Persia. "The Moslems," said he, "will abuse their
present fortune; the Magians regret their fallen greatness;
and the Jews are impatient for their approaching
deliverance." (216)Their hardships. But the slaves of despotism are exposed
to the alternatives of favour and disgrace. The captive
churches of the East have been afflicted in every age by the
avarice or bigotry of their rulers; and the ordinary and
legal restraints must be offensive to the pride, or the
zeal, of the Christians. (217) About two hundred years after
Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow- subjects by
a turban or girdle of a less honourable colour; instead of
horses or mules. they were condemned to ride on asses, in
the attitude of women. Their public and private building
were measured by a diminutive standard; in the streets or
the baths it is their duty to give way or bow down before
the meanest of the people; and their testimony is rejected,
if it may tend to the prejudice of a true believer. The
pomp of processions, the sound of bells or of psalmody, is
interdicted in their worship; a decent reverence for the
national faith is imposed on their sermons and
conversations; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a
mosch, or to seduce a Mussulman, will not be suffered to
escape with impunity. In a time, however, of tranquillity
and justice, the Christians have never been compelled to
renounce the Gospel, or to embrace the Koran; but the
punishment of death is inflicted upon the apostates who have
professed and deserted the law of Mahomet. The martyrs of
Cordova provoked the sentence of the cadhi, by the public
confession of their inconstancy, or their passionate
invectives against the person and religion of the prophet.
(218)
The empire of the Caliphs, A.D. 718.
At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the caliphs
were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe.
Their prerogative was not circumscribed, either in right or
in fact, by the power of the nobles, the freedom of the
commons, the privileges of the church, the votes of a
senate, or the memory of a free constitution. The authority
of the companions of Mahomet expired with their lives; and
the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian tribes left behind, in
the desert, the spirit of equality and independence. The
regal and sacerdotal characters were united in the
successors of Mahomet; and if the Koran was the rule of
their actions, they were the supreme judges and interpreters
of that divine book. They reigned by the right of conquest
over the nations of the East, to whom the name of liberty
was unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud in their
tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were
exercised at their own expense. Under the last of the
Ommiades, the Arabian empire extended two hundred days'
journey from east to west, from the confines of Tartary and
India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And if we
retrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their
writers, the long and narrow province of Africa, the solid
and compact dominion from Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to
Surat, will spread on every side to the measure of four or
five months of the march of a caravan. (219) We should vainly
seek the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded
the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but the
progress of the Mahometan religion diffused over this ample
space a general resemblance of manners and opinions. The
language and laws of the Koran were studied with equal
devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor and the Indian
embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of
Mecca; and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular
idiom in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris.
(220)
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