Читать книгу Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 - Charles Reginald Haines - Страница 22

[1] Cardonne's "History of Spain," vol. i. p. 62. "Bien différens des leurs ancêtres étoient alors énervés par les plaisirs, la douceur du climat; le luxe et les richesses avoient amolli leur courage et corrompu les moeurs." Cp. Dunham, vol. i. 157.

But the Goths had certainly not become so degenerate as is generally supposed. Their Saracen foes did not thus undervalue them. Musa ibn Nosseyr, the organiser of the expedition into Spain, and the first governor of that country under Arab rule, when asked by the Khalif Suleiman for his opinion of the Goths, answered that "they were lords living in luxury and abundance, but champions who did not turn their backs to the enemy."[1] There can be no doubt that this praise was well deserved. Nor is the comparative ease with which the country was overrun, any proof to the contrary. For that must be attributed to wholesale treachery from one end of the country to the other. But for this the Gothic rulers had only themselves to blame. Their treatment of the Jews and of their slaves made the defection of these two classes of their subjects inevitable.

The old Spanish chroniclers represent the fall of the Gothic kingdom as the direct vengeance of Heaven for the sins of successive kings;[2] but on the heads of the clergy, even more than of the king, rests the guilt of their iniquitous and suicidal policy towards the Arians[3] and the Jews. The treachery of Julian,[4] whatever its cause, opened a way for the Arabs into the country by betraying into their hands Ceuta, the key of the Straits. Success in their first serious battle was secured to them by the opportune desertion from the enemy's ranks of the disaffected political party under the sons of the late king Witiza,[5] and an archbishop Oppas, who afterwards apostatized; while the rapid subjugation of the whole country was aided and assured by the hosts of ill-used slaves who flocked to the Saracen standards, and by the Jews[6] who hailed the Arabs as fellow-Shemites and deliverers from the hated yoke of the uncircumcised Goths.

[1] Al Makkari, vol. i. p. 297. (De Gayangos' translation).

[2] "Chron. Sil.," sec. 17, "recesserat ab Hispania manus Domini ob inveteratam regum malitiam." See above, p. 7, note 2.

[3] Arianism lingered on till the middle of the eighth century at least, since Rodrigo of Toledo, iii., sec. 3, says of Alfonso I., that he "extirpavit haeresin Arianam."

[4] For Julian, or, more correctly, Ilyan, see De Gayangos' note to Al Makkari, i. p. 537, etc.

[5] Called Ghittishah by the Arabs. For the Witizan party see "Sebast. Salan," sec. 7; "Chron. Sil.," sec. 15. The daughter of Witiza married a noble Arab. The descendants of the King, under the name Witizani, were known in Spain till the end of the eighth century at least. See Letter of Beatus and Etherius to Elipandus, sec. 61; "Multi hodie ab ipso rege sumunt nomen Witizani, etiam pauperes." See also Al Makkari, ii. 14.

[6] The Jews garrisoned the taken towns (Al Makkari, i. pp. 280, 282, and De Gayangos' note, p. 531). Even as late as 852 we find the Jews betraying Barcelona to the Moors, who slew nearly all the Christians.

Yet in spite of all these disadvantages the Goths made a brave stand—as brave, indeed, as our Saxon forefathers against the Normans. The first decisive battle in the South[1] lasted, as some writers have declared, six whole days, and the Arabs were at one time on the point of being driven into the sea. This is apparent from Tarik's address to his soldiers in the heat of battle: "Moslems, conquerors of Africa, whither would you fly? The sea is behind you, and the foe in front. There is no help for you save in your own right hands[2] and the favour of God." Nor must we lay any stress on the disparity of forces on either side, amounting to five to one, for a large proportion of Roderic's army was disaffected. It is probable that only the Goths made a determined stand; and even after such a crushing defeat as they received at Guadalete, and after the loss of their king, the Gothic nobles still offered a stubborn resistance in Merida, Cordova, and elsewhere.[3] One of them, Theodomir, after defending himself manfully in Murcia for some time, at last by his valour and address contrived to secure for himself, and even to hand down to his successor Athanagild, a semi-independent rule over that part of Spain.

[1] Generally called the battle of Guadalete (Wada Lek, see De Gayangos on Al Makk. i. pp. 524, 527), fought either near Xeres or Medina Sidonia.

[2] "Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem." See Al Makk. i. p. 271; Conde i. p. 57 (Bohn's Translation).

[3] We must not forget also that the mild and politic conduct of the Saracens towards the towns that surrendered, even after resistance, marvellously facilitated their conquest.

But the great proof that the Goths had not lost all their ancient hardihood and nobleness, is afforded by the fact that, when they had been driven into the mountains of the North and West, they seem to have begun at once to organize a fresh resistance against the invaders. The thirty[1] wretched barbarians, whom the Arabs thought it unnecessary to pursue into their native fastnesses, soon showed that they had power to sting; and the handful of patriots, who in the cave of Covadonga gathered round Pelayo, a scion of the old Gothic line, soon swelled into an army, and the army into a nation. Within six years of the death of Roderic had begun that onward march of the new Spanish monarchy, which, with the exception of a disastrous twenty-five years at the close of the tenth century, was not destined to retrograde, scarcely even to halt, until it had regained every foot of ground that had once belonged to the Gothic kings.

Let us turn for a moment to the antecedents of the Arab invaders. History affords no parallel, whether from a religious or political point of view, to the sudden rise of Mohammedanism and the wonderful conquests which it made. "The electric spark[2] had indeed fallen on what seemed black unnoticeable sand, and lo the sand proved explosive powder and blazed heaven-high from Delhi to Granada!" Mohammed began his preaching in 609, and confined himself to persuasion till 622, the year of the Flight from Mecca. After this a change seems to have come over his conduct, if not over his character, and the Prophet, foregoing the peaceful and more glorious mission of a Heaven-sent messenger, appealed to the human arbitrament of the sword: not with any very marked success, however, the victory of Bedr in 624 being counterbalanced by the defeat of Ohud in in the following year. In 631, Arabia being mostly pacified, the first expedition beyond its boundaries was undertaken under Mohammed's own leadership, but this abortive attempt gave no indications of the astonishing successes to be achieved in the near future. Mohammed himself died in the following year, yet, in spite of this and the consequent revolt of almost all Arabia, within two years Syria was overrun and Damascus taken. Persia, which had contended for centuries on equal terms with Rome, was overthrown in a single campaign. In 637 Jerusalem fell, and the sacred soil of Palestine passed under the yoke of the Saracens. Within three years Alexandria and the rich valley of the Nile were the prize of Amru and his army. The conquest of Egypt only formed the stepping-stone to the reduction of Africa, and the victorious Moslems did not pause in their career until they reached the Atlantic Ocean, and Akbah,[3] riding his horse into the sea, sighed for more worlds to conquer. We may be excused perhaps for thinking that it had been well for the inhabitants of the New World, if Fortune had delivered them into the hands of the generous Arabs rather than to the cruel soldiery of Cortes and Pizarro.

[1] Al Makk., ii. 34. "What are thirty barbarians perched upon a rock? They must inevitably die."

[2] Carlyle's "Hero Worship" ad finem.

[3] Cardonne, i. p. 37; Gibbon, vi. 348, note.

In 688, that is, in a little more than a generation from the death of Mohammed, the Moslems undertook the siege of Constantinople. Fortunately for the cause of civilisation and of Christendom, this long siege of several years proved unsuccessful, as well as a second attack in 717. But by the latter date the footing in Europe, which the valour of the Byzantines denied them, had already been gained by the expedition into Spain under Tarik in 711. The same year that witnessed the crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar in the West saw also in the East the passage of the Oxus by the eager warriors of Islam.

There seems to be some ground for supposing that the Saracens had attacked Spain even before the time of Tarik. As early as 648, or only one year after the invasion of Africa, an expedition is said to have been made into that country under Abdullah ibn Sa'd,[1] which resulted in the temporary subjugation of the southern provinces. A second inroad is mentioned by Abulfeda[2] as having taken place in Othman's reign (644–656); while for an incursion in the reign of Wamba (671–680) we have the authority of the Spanish historians, Isidore of Beja and Sebastian of Salamanca, the former of whom adds the fact that the Saracens were invited in by Erviga, who afterwards succeeded Wamba on the throne—a story which seems likely enough when read in the light of the subsequent treason of Julian. These earlier attacks, however, seem to have been mere raids, undertaken without an immediate view to permanent conquest.

By way of retaliation, or with a commendable foresight, the Goths sent help to Carthage when besieged by the Arabs in 695; and, while Julian their general still remained true to his allegiance, they beat off the Saracens from Ceuta. But on the surrender of that fortress the Arabs were enabled to send across the Straits a small reconnoitring detachment of five hundred men under Tarif abu Zarah,[3] a Berber. This took place in October 710; but the actual invasion did not occur till April 30, 711, when 12,000 men landed under Tarik ibn Zeyad. There seems to have been a preliminary engagement before the decisive one of Gaudalete (July 19th-26th)—the Gothic general in the former being stated variously to have been Theodomir,[4] Sancho,[5] or Edeco.[6]

[1] See De Gayangos' note on Al Makkari, i. p. 382.

[2] "Annales Moslemici," i. p. 262.

[3] The names of Tarif ibn Malik abu Zarah and Tarik ibn Zeyad have been confused by all the careless writers on Spanish history—e.g., Conde, Dunham, Yonge, Southey, etc.; but Gibbon, Freeman, etc., of course do not fall into this error. For Tarif's names see De Gayangos, Al Makk., i. pp. 517, 519; and for Tarik's see "Ibn Abd el Hakem," Jones' translation, note 10.

[4] Al Makk., i. 268; Isidore: Conde, i. 55.

[5] Cardonne, i. 75.

[6] Dr. Dunham.

It will not be necessary to pursue the history of the conquest in detail. It is enough to say that in three years almost all Spain and part of Southern Gaul were added to the Saracen empire. But the Arabs made the fatal mistake[1] of leaving a remnant of their enemies unconquered in the mountains of Asturia, and hardly had the wave of conquest swept over the country, than it began slowly but surely to recede. The year 733 witnessed the high-water mark of Arab extension in the West, and Christian Gaul was never afterwards seriously threatened with the calamity of a Mohammedan domination.

The period of forty-five years which elapsed between the conquest and the establishment of the Khalifate of Cordova was a period of disorder, almost amounting to anarchy, throughout Spain. This state of things was one eminently favourable to the growth and consolidation of the infant state which was arising among the mountains of the Northwest. In that corner of the land, which alone[2] was not polluted by the presence of Moslem masters, were gathered all those proud spirits who could not brook subjection and valued freedom above all earthly possessions.[3] Here all the various nationalities that had from time to time borne rule in Spain,

"Punic and Roman Kelt and Goth and Greek," [4]

all the various classes, nobles, freemen, and slaves, were gradually welded by the strong pressure of a common calamity into one compact and homogeneous whole.[5] Meanwhile what was the condition of those Christians who preferred to live in their own homes, but under the Moslem yoke? It must be confessed that they might have fared much worse; and the conciliatory policy pursued by the Arabs no doubt contributed largely to the facility of the conquest. The first conqueror, Tarik ibn Zeyad, was a man of remarkable generosity and clemency, and his conduct fully justified the proud boast which he uttered when arraigned on false charges before the Sultan Suleiman.[6] "Ask the true believers," he said, "ask also the Christians, what the conduct of Tarik has been in Africa and in Spain. Let them say if they have ever found him cowardly, covetous, or cruel."

[1] Al Makkari, ii. 34.

[2] According to Sebastian of Salamanca, the Moors had never been admitted into any town of Biscay before 870.

[3] Prescott, "Ferdinand and Isabella," seems to think that only the lower orders remained under the Moors. Yet in a note he mentions a remark of Zurita's to the contrary (page 3).

[4] Southey, "Roderick," Canto IV.

[5] Thierry, "Dix Ans d'Études Historiques," p. 346. "Reserrés dans ce coin de terre, devenu pour eux toute la patrie, Goths et Romains, vainqueurs et vaincus, étrangers et indigènes, maîtres et esclaves, tous unis dans le même malheur … furent égaux dans cet exil." Yet there were revolts in every reign. Fruela I. (757–768), revolt of Biscay and Galicia: Aurelio (768–774), revolt of slaves and freedmen, see "Chron. Albeld.," vi. sec. 4, and Rodrigo, iii. c. 5, in pristinam servitutem redacti sunt: Silo (774–783), Galician revolt: also revolts in reigns of Alfonso I., Ramiro I. See Prescott, "Ferd. and Isab.," p. 4.

[6] Or his predecessor, Welid, for the point is not determined.

The terms granted to such towns as surrendered generally contained the following provisions: that the citizens should give up all their horses and arms; that they might, if they chose, depart, leaving their property; that those who remained should, on payment of a small tribute, be permitted to follow their own religion, for which purposes certain churches were to be left standing; that they should have their own judges, and enjoy (within limits) their own laws. In some cases the riches of the churches were also surrendered, as at Merida,[1] and hostages given. But conditions even better than these were obtained from Abdulaziz, son of Musa, by Theodomir in Murcia. The original document has been preserved by the Arab historians, and is well worthy of transcription:

"In the name of God the Clement and Merciful! Abdulaziz and Tadmir make this treaty of peace—may God confirm and protect it! Tadmir shall retain the command over his own people, but over no other people among those of his faith. There shall be no wars between his subjects and those of the Arabs, nor shall the children or women of his people be led captive. They shall not be disturbed in the exercise of their religion: their churches shall not be burnt, nor shall any services be demanded from them, or obligations be laid upon them—those expressed in this treaty alone excepted. … Tadmir shall not receive our enemies, nor fail in fidelity to us, and he shall not conceal whatever hostile purposes he may know to exist against us. His nobles and himself shall pay a tribute of a dinar[2] each year, with four measures of wheat and four of barley; of mead, vinegar, honey, and oil each four measures. All the vassals of Tadmir, and every man subject to tax, shall pay the half of these imposts."[3]

These favourable terms were due in part to the address of Theodomir,[4] and partly perhaps to Abdulaziz's own partiality for the Christians, which was also manifested in his marriage with Egilona, the widow of King Roderic, and the deference which he paid to her. This predilection for the Christians brought the son of Musa into ill favour with the Arabs, and he was assassinated in 716.[5]

[1] Conde i. p. 69. This was perhaps due to Musa's notorious avarice.

[2] Somewhat less than ten shillings.

[3] Al Makkari, i. 281: Conde, i. p. 76.

[4] Isidore, sec, 38, says of him: "Fuit scripturarum amator, eloquentia mirificus, in proeliis expeditus, qui et apud Amir Almumenin prudentior inter ceteros inventus, utiliter est honoratus."

[5] Al Makkari, ii. p. 30. He was even accused of entering into treasonable correspondence with the Christians of Galicia; of forming a project for the massacre of Moslems; of being himself a Christian, etc.

On the whole it may be said that the Saracen conquest was accomplished with wonderfully little bloodshed, and with few or none of those atrocities which generally characterize the subjugation of a whole people by men of an alien race and an alien creed. It cannot, however, be denied that the only contemporary Christian chronicler is at variance on this point with all the Arab accounts.

"Who," says Isidore of Beja, "can describe such horrors! If every limb in my body became a tongue, even then would human nature fail in depicting this wholesale ruin of Spain, all its countless and immeasurable woes. But that the reader may hear in brief the whole story of sorrow—not to speak of all the disastrous ills which in innumerable ages past from Adam even till now in various states and regions of the earth a cruel and foul foe has caused to a fair world—whatever Troy in Homer's tale endured, whatever Jerusalem suffered that the prophets' words might come to pass, whatever Babylon underwent that the Scripture might be fulfilled—all this, and more, has Spain experienced—Spain once full of delights, but now of misery, once so exalted in glory, but now brought low in shame and dishonour."[1]

[1] Cp. also Isidore, sec 36. Dunham, ii. p. 121, note, curiously remarks: "Both Isidore and Roderic may exaggerate, but the exaggeration proves the fact."

This is evidently mere rhapsody, of the same character as the ravings of the British monk Gildas, though far less justified as it seems by the actual facts. Rodrigo of Toledo, following Isidore after an interval of 500 years, improves upon him by entering into details, which being in many particulars demonstrably false, may in others be reasonably looked upon with suspicion as exaggerated, if not entirely imaginary. His words are: Children are dashed on the ground, young men beheaded, their fathers fall in battle, the old men are massacred, the women reserved for greater misfortune; every cathedral burnt or destroyed, the national substance plundered, oaths and treaties uniformly broken.[1]

To appreciate the mildness and generosity of the Arabs, we need only compare their conquest of Spain with the conquest of England by the Saxons, the Danes, and even by the Christian Normans. The comparison will be all in favour of the Arabs. It is not impossible that, if the invaders had been Franks instead of Moors, the country would have suffered even more, as we can see from the actual results effected by the invasion of Charles the Great in 777. Placed as they were between the devil and the deep sea, the Spaniards would perhaps have preferred (had the choice been theirs) to be subject to the Saracens rather than to the Franks.[2]

[1] Dunham, ii. p. 121, note.

[2] Dozy, ii. p. 41, note, quotes Ermold Nigel on Barcelona:

"Urbs erat interea Francorum inhospita turnis, Maurorum votis adsociata magis."

To the down-trodden slaves, who were very numerous all through Spain, the Moslems came in the character of deliverers. A slave had only to pronounce the simple formula: "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet": and he was immediately free. To the Jews the Moslems brought toleration, nay, even influence and power. In fact, since the fall of Jerusalem in 588 B.C. the Jews had never enjoyed such independence and influence as in Spain during the domination of the Arabs. Their genius being thus allowed free scope, they disputed the supremacy in literature and the arts with the Arabs themselves.

Many of the earlier governors of Spain were harsh and even cruel in their administration, but it was to Moslems and Christians alike.[1] Some indeed increased the tribute laid upon the Christians; but it must be remembered that this tribute[2] was in the first instance very light, and therefore an increase was not felt severely as an oppression. Moreover, there were not wanting some rulers who upheld the cause of the Christians against illegal exactions. Among these was Abdurrahman al Ghafeki (May-Aug. 721, and 731–732), of whom an Arab writer says:[3] "He did equal justice to Moslem and Christian … he restored to the Christians such churches as had been taken from them in contravention of the stipulated treaties; but on the other hand he caused all those to be demolished, which had been erected by the connivance of interested governors." Similarly of his successor Anbasah ibn Sohaym Alkelbi (721–726), we find it recorded[4] that "he rendered equal justice to every man, making no distinction between Mussulman and Christian, or between Christian and Jew." Anbasah was followed by Yahya ibn Salmah (March-Sept. 726), who is described as injudiciously severe, and dreaded for his extreme rigour by Moslems as well as Christians.[5] Isidore says that he made the Arabs give back to the Christians the property unlawfully taken from them.[6] Similar praise is awarded to Okbah ibn ulhejaj Asseluli (734–740).[7] Yet though many of the Ameers of Spain were just and upright men, no permanent policy could be carried out with regard to the relations between Moslems and Christians, while the Ameers were so constantly changing, being sometimes elected by the army, but oftener appointed by the Khalif, or by his lieutenant, the governor of Africa for the time being. This perpetual shifting of rulers would in itself have been fatal to the settlement of the country, had it not been brought to an end by the election of Abdurrahman ibn Muawiyah as the Khalif of Spain, and the establishment of his dynasty on the throne, in May 756. But even after this important step was taken, the causes which threatened to make anarchy perpetual, were still at work in Spain. Chief among these were the feuds of the Arab tribes, and the jealousy between Berbers and Arabs.

[1] E.g., Alhorr ibn Abdurrahman (717–719); see Isidore, sec. 44, and Conde, i. 94: "He oppressed all alike, the Christians, those who had newly embraced Islam, and the oldest of the Moslemah families."

[2] Merely a small poll-tax (jizyah) at first.

[3] Conde, i. 105.

[4] Conde, i. p. 99. Isidore, however, sec. 52, says: "Vectigalia Christianis duplicata exagitat."

[5] Conde, i. 102.

[6] Isidore, sec. 54. Terribilis potestator fere triennio crudelis exaestuat, atque aeri ingenio Hispaniae Sarracenos et Mauros pro pacificis rebus olim ablatis exagitat, atque Christianis plura restaurat.

[7] Conde, i. 114, 115.

Most of the first conquerors of the country were Berbers, while such Arabs as came in with them belonged mostly to the Maadite or Beladi faction.[1] The Berbers, besides being looked down upon as new converts, were also regarded as Nonconformists[2] by the pure Arabs, and consequently a quarrel was not long in breaking out between the two parties.

As early as 718 the Berbers in Aragon and Catalonia rose against the Arabs under a Jew named Khaulan, who was put to death the following year. In 726 they revolted again, crying that they who had conquered the country alone had claims to the spoil.[3] This formidable rising was only put down by the Arabs making common cause against it. But the continual disturbances in Africa kept alive the flame of discontent in Spain, and the great Berber rebellion against the Arab yoke in Africa was a signal for a similar determined attempt in Spain.[4] The reinforcements which the Khalif, Yezid ibn Abdulmalik, sent to Africa under Kolthum ibn Iyadh were defeated by the Berbers under a chief named Meysarah, and shut up in Ceuta.

[1] The two chief branches of Arabs were (1) Descendants of Modhar, son of Negus, son of Maad, son of Adnan. To this clan belonged the Mecca and Medina Arabs, and the Umeyyade family. They were also called Kaysites, Febrites, and Beladi Arabs. (2) Descendants of Kahtan (Joktan), among whom were reckoned the Kelbites and the Yemenites. These were most numerous in Andalus; see Al Makkari, ii. 24.

[2] Dozy, iii. 124. See Al Makk., ii. 409, De Gayangos' note. Though nominally Moslem, they still kept their Jewish or Pagan rites.

[3] See De Gayangos, Al Makk. ii. 410, note. He quotes Borbon's "Karta," xiv. sq. Stanley Lane-Poole, "Moors in Spain," p. 55, says, Monousa, who married the daughter of Eudes, was a leader of the Berbers. Conde, i. 106, says, Othman abi Neza was the leader, but Othman an ibn abi Nesah was Ameer of Spain in 728.

[4] Al Makkari, ii. 40.

Meanwhile in Spain, Abdalmalik ibn Kattan[1] Alfehri taking up the cause of the Berbers, procured the deposition of Okbah ibn ulhejaj in his own favour, but, this done, broke with his new allies. He was then compelled to ask the help of the Syrian Arabs, who were cooped up in Ceuta, though previously he had turned a deaf ear to their entreaties that they might cross over into Spain.

The Syrians gladly accepted this invitation, and under Balj ibn Besher, nephew of Kolthum, crossed the Straits, readily promising at the same time to return to Africa when the Spanish Berbers were overcome. This desirable end accomplished, however, they refused to keep to their agreement, and Abdalmalik soon found himself driven to seek anew the alliance of the Berbers and also of the Andalusian Arabs against his late allies.[2] But the latter proved too strong for the Ameer, who was defeated and killed by the Yemenite followers of Balj.

[1] Cardonne, i. p. 135.

[2] The Syrian Arabs seem to have borne a bad character away from home. The Sultan Muawiyah warned his son that they altered for the worse when abroad. See Ockley's "Saracens."

These feuds of Yemenites against Modharites, complicated by the accession of Berbers now to one side, now to the other, continued without intermission till the first Khalif of Cordova, Abdurrahman ibn Muawiyah, established his power all over Spain.

The successor of Balj and Thaleba ibn Salamah did indeed try to break up the Syrian faction by separating them. He placed those of Damascus in Elvira; of Emesa in Seville; of Kenesrin in Jaen; of Alurdan[1] in Malaga and Regio; of Palestine in Sidonia or Xeres; of Egypt in Murcia; of Wasit in Cabra; and they thus became merged into the body of Andalusian Arabs.

These Berber wars had an important influence on the future of Spain; for, since the Berbers had settled on all the Northern and Western marches, when they were decimated by civil war, and many of the survivors compelled to return to Africa,[2] owing to the famine which afflicted the country from 750 to 755, the frontiers of the Arab dominion were left practically denuded of defenders,[3] and the Christians at once advanced their boundaries to the Douro, leaving however a strip of desert land as a barrier between them and the Moslems. This debateable land they did not occupy till fifty years later.[4]