“The period of these
splendid
achievements,” declares Ribera, the
best authority, “was doubtless of short duration.
best authority, “was doubtless of short duration.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
The Berber
opposition continued; in 1012 they pitilessly sacked Cordova, houses and
palaces were destroyed, and Sulaimān was once more proclaimed Caliph.
It was a war of factions, and in 1016 the Slaves entered Cordova.
They sought in vain for Hishām II. Sulaimān gave out that he
was dead; but apparently he fled to Asia, where he ended his life
in obscurity. The welter became more confused, till in 1025 for six
months the government was in the hands of a Council of State. In
1027 the Slaves proclaimed the last of the Umayyads, Hishām III
al-Mu'tadd. He too failed to satisfy expectations. A revolution broke
out in December 1031; Hishām was taken prisoner. The viziers announced
the abolition of the Caliphate and declared the government devolved
on the Council of State,
Meanwhile in the Christian kingdoms a steady advance had been
made. In 1020 Alfonso V of Leon summoned a council to his capital
See supra, p. 422.
CH. XVI.
## p. 428 (#474) ############################################
428
The Christian kingdoms
to reform the government, and there issued the fuero of Leon and other
general laws. His son Bermudo III succeeded in 1027, and through
his marriage with a sister of Garcia, Count of Castile, whose other
sister was married to Sancho the Great of Navarre, the relations between
the rulers of the three kingdoms became far more intimate. Castile,
despite the occasional intervention of Leon, had been independent
since the days of Fernan Gonzalez. The happy understanding which
prevailed among the Christian states was broken up through the murder
of Garcia of Castile. Garcia's brother-in-law, Sancho of Navarre, seized
the territories of Castile, and a dispute over the frontier led to war with
Bermudo III of Leon, which was ended by the marriage of Bermudo's
sister with Sancho's eldest son, Ferdinand, the future King of Castile.
On the speedy renewal of the war the Castilians and Navarrese conquered
the whole of Leon, Bermudo only retaining Galicia. Navarre then
became the dominant power from the frontier of Galicia to the county of
Barcelona, and Sancho ruled over Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon and all
the Basque country. But shortly before his death he divided the kingdom
among his sons. He left Navarre and the Basque provinces to Garcia,
Castile to Ferdinand, Aragon to Ramiro, and the lordship of Sobrarbe
and Ribagorza to Gonzalo. Bermudo III continued to reign in Galicia,
but after the death of Sancho (1035) he was defeated at Tamaron by Fer-
dinand in 1037, who thus united under his sceptre all Leon and Castile.
The counts of Barcelona who succeeded Wifred I had extended
their dominions beyond the river Llobregat and, despite invasions by
Almanzor (986) and his son Muzaffar, they recovered their lost territory
through their intervention in the civil wars of the Muslims after the fall
of the Almanzors. The break up of the Caliphate was taken advantage of
by Count Raymond-Berengar I (1035-1076), to consolidate his power.
I
With the fall of the Caliphate there began for Spain the great
period of Christian conquest, when the leadership passed from the
Caliphate to the Christian kingdoms. The Muslim supremacy had been
due partly to higher military efficiency, which was never recovered
after the collapse of the Caliphate, and even more to the brilliance
of its civilisation compared with the backward condition of the
Northern States. This Arab civilisation claims especial notice.
The great variety of races in the country hindered the immediate
development of Muslim civilisation, and despite the efforts at union
of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān III the conflict between the different peoples
and tribes still persisted. The Arabs refused to regard the Persians,
Berbers and other conquered races as their countrymen, while even
among the Arabs themselves Syrians, Yemenites, and other tribes were
in constant feud. Inside the tribes there were freemen, divided into
aristocracy and people, and slaves. Under ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III
the unbroken struggle with the emirs all but destroyed the Arab
## p. 429 (#475) ############################################
Muslim Spain; (1) ruces and classes
429
aristocracy. Its place was taken on the one hand by the middle
classes, who had amassed much wealth through the great expansion
of trade and industry, and on the other hand by a feudal aristocracy
of military commanders. The working-men remained under the thumb
of the middle classes, and owing to their economic inferiority were
stirred occasionally to class hatred. The grants of lands and slaves
freely given by the emirs made the dominant aristocracy the wealthiest
class, and enabled it to form independent or nearly independent
domains. This process may account for the fact that the Arabs
and Berbers preferred the country to the cities, whose inhabitants,
as in the case of Toledo, Seville and Elvira, were mainly renegades and
Mozarabs.
The unfree classes were divided into peasant serfs, whose status was
better than under the Visigoths, and household or personal slaves;
among the latter the eunuchs who were set apart for the service of the
harem enjoyed a privileged position. Occasionally they held the highest
appointments, and since they had followers as well as wealth, could
intervene effectively in politics. The Slaves', who were not only the
soldiers but the serfs of the Caliph, held civil as well as military offices,
and, as we have seen, on the fall of the Almanzors their political influence
was decisive.
The Muladies (Muwallad) were in an intermediate position. They
were mainly descendants of Visigothic serfs who had secured freedom
by their profession of Islām. As we have seen, they were viewed
with suspicion by Muslims of old standing, and this bitterness caused
frequent revolts. From the reign of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān II their numbers
increased owing to the frequent conversions of Mozarabs or Spanish
Christians, and their influence on Muslim civilisation was considerable.
The legal status of the Jews improved under the Arabs. The
destructive policy of the Visigoths was succeeded by wide toleration
and freedom, which was characteristic of the Muslim conquest. In
particular the commercial and industrial prosperity of Cordova, which
dated from the independence of the Caliph, was due to this liberal
policy. The Jew Hasdai Ibn Shabrut, who was the treasurer and
minister of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān III and translated the works of Dioscorides,
was famous as a diplomatist. Under his influence many of his
co-religionists came from the East. They started a Talmudic school
which eclipsed the schools of Mesopotamia. The Jews in Cordova
adopted the dress, language and customs of the Arabs, and were
consistently protected by the Caliphs.
The Mozarabs still kept their government and administration in
their own hands under special governors (counts) who were selected
by the Caliph. They still kept their defensor to represent them at
See supra, p. 422.
CH. XVI,
## p. 430 (#476) ############################################
430
(2) Administration and justice
4
1
the court of the Caliph. It is not known whether the curia survived ;
but the exceptor, who was now a tax-collector, survived, as did also the
censor, who was a judge of first instance, while the count (conde) pre-
sided over the court of appeal. He still administered the code (Fuero
Juzgo), while transgressions of the law of Islām came before the Muslim
authorities. The Mozarabs lived in districts apart, and apparently
there was no marked distinction between the Visigothic and Hispano-
Roman elements. Except for brief periods of persecution, they were
treated tolerantly.
Spain was at first a province of the Caliphate of Damascus with an
emir at its head. ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān I put an end to this dependent posi-
tion by breaking with the Caliphate of Bagdad, although it was not till
929 that the title of Caliph was assumed by ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III. The
Caliph was the supreme temporal and spiritual head. Sometimes he
was elected by the nobles, but usually it was a hereditary office. The
hierarchy consisted: of the ḥājib or prime minister; of various wazīrs
(viziers) or ministers, who were responsible for the various administrative
departments, such as the Treasury and War Office, though they only
communicated with the Caliph through the ḥājib; and of the kātibs or
secretaries. The administrative offices together formed the diwan and
there were as many offices as public services. The provinces, which were six
in number apart from Cordova, were under a civil and military governor
called a wāli. In some important cities there were also wālīs at the
head of affairs, and on the frontier there was a military commander.
The Caliph administered justice in person ; but as a rule this func-
tion was exercised by the cadis (ķādī) (and in small villages by hākims).
At their head stood the cadi of the cadis, who was established at
Cordova. A special judge, the Șāḥib-ash-shurţa or Şāḥib-al-madina
(zal-medina) heard criminal and police cases, under a procedure simpler
than that of the cadi. The zabalaquen or ḥākim carried out the
sentences of the cadi. The muștasib or almotacén regulated police,
trade and markets, and intervened in questions of sales, gambling,
weights, measures and public dress. Cordova had a special judge
($āḥib-al-mazālim), who was appointed by the Emir to hear complaints
of breach of privilege or of offences committed by public officials; Ribera
considers that the Justicia mayor de Aragon was set up in imitation of
this functionary. The usual punishments were fines, scourging, mutilation
and death; this last penalty applied to cases of blasphemy, heresy, and
apostasy.
Besides the taxes on personal and real property (quit rents) paid by
holders of khums (State-lands), there was the azzaque, a tithe of agricul-
ture, industry and commerce, and also the customs, the head of which
was called al-mushrif (almojarife). A census with statistics based on
tribal organisation was drawn up for the assessment of taxation, but
this method of organisation died out on the fall of the Arab aristocracy.
## p. 431 (#477) ############################################
(3) Army and religion
431
The tribe was the unit of military organisation. Each tribe rallied
round its chief and its standard. The soldiers received pay at the end
of the campaign at the rate of five to ten gold pieces, and the baladīs,
who were descended from Mūsā’s Arabs, were never summoned except in
case of need. Campaigns were generally conducted in the spring and had
the character of an algaras or raid. The object was booty and with
that secured the army invariably retired from any position conquered.
The commander-in-chief was called al-ḥā'id (alcaide); the cavalry was
mounted on mules and without stirrups. They used the sword, the
pike, the lance and the bow, while their defensive armour consisted of
helmets, shields, cuirasses and coats of mail. Their siege weapons were
the same as those employed by the Byzantines.
The army underwent many changes in organisation, as the Caliphs
became more dependent on foreign troops, and Almanzor completed this
process. He substituted the regimental for the tribal division, and thus
put an end to the power of the tribal chiefs. There were, moreover,
foreign elements ; first the Slaves and then the mercenary Christian
troops from Leon, Navarre and Castile, who became dangerous to the
tranquillity of the country when Almanzor's iron grasp relaxed.
The navy under “Abd-ar-Raḥmān III, with Almería as its chief
harbour, became the most powerful in the Mediterranean. Their raids,
under commanders of a squadron called the Alcaides of the fleet, ex-
tended to Galicia and Asturias, and also to Africa where they attacked
the Fātimites. In fact, Muslim piracy was the terror of the Mediter-
ranean, and it was from Spain that the colonists of Fraxinetum came'.
When at the end of the tenth century the Fātimite danger disappeared,
the Arabs neglected their navy.
.
The Muslim religion is based on the recognition of one God and
of Mahomet as his prophet, and the Caliph is the supreme spiritual
head. But among Arabs and Berbers alike grew up many heterodox
sects. These made proselytes in Spain, but were not openly professed
for fear of the populace. Among orthodox Muslims in Spain the Mālikites
were dominant. Fervent Muslims were inclined to asceticism and were
called Zāhids. There sprang up regular monasteries, such as those
of Ibn Masarra at Montaña and of Ibn Mujāhid of Elvira at Cordova,
where apparently they devoted their time to the study of philosophy
and other forbidden branches of learning.
The basis of Muslim law was the Koran and the traditions concerning
the acts and sayings of the Prophet. These were known as Sunna. The
chief collection of them, so far as Spain was concerned, was called Al-
Muwatta', composed by Mālik ibn Anas, and contained one thousand seven
hundred cases, to which additions were made later.
They had no code, properly speaking, until much later than this
See supra, pp. 140, 152, 155, 168.
CH. XVI.
## p. 432 (#478) ############################################
432
(4) Wealth and industry
period; but there were special compilations including very heteroge-
neous subjects, such as prayer, purification, fasting, pilgrimages, sales,
the division of inheritances, marriage and so on; and under Mālikite
influence these compilations were introduced into Spain.
In the days of the Caliphs Muslim Spain became one of the wealthiest
and most thickly populated countries in Europe. Cordova expanded
till it contained two hundred thousand houses, and, as we have seen, was
greatly embellished in the reigns of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān II and III, who
erected the palace of Az-Zahrā, and under Almanzor who built the palace
of Zāhira ; another wonderful building was the Mosque, which was begun
by 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān I. Cordova was the meeting point of travellers
from all over the world, who came to admire the splendour in which the
Caliphs lived.
T'his magnificence was due to the extraordinary growth of industry
and commerce. In agriculture a distinct advance was made in the
number of small holders, who also stood socially higher than under the
Visigoths. The Arabs rapidly assimilated such knowledge of farming
as the Spaniards possessed, and added to it the agricultural experience
of other Asiatic peoples. The greatest writers on agriculture were
Mozarabs ; but the Arabs soon learned the lesson taught them, and
successfully cultivated the vine on a large scale despite the prohibition
of wine. The Muslims introduced the cultivation of rice, pomegranates,
cane sugar, and other Oriental products. They started or completed a
system of canals for the irrigation of gardens, especially in the provinces
of Murcia, Valencia and Granada, and they were devoted to cattle
breeding. It is noteworthy that the labourers used the Roman and
not the Arab calendar.
Mining of gold, silver and other metals was pre-eminent among
industries, the mines of Jaen, Bulche, Aroche, and Algarve being
renowned, while the rubies of Béjar and Málaga were famous. The
woollen and silk weaving in Cordova, Málaga and Almería was justly
celebrated, and in Cordova alone there seem to have been thirteen
thousand weavers. Paterna (Valencia) carried the ceramic art to great
perfection, and Almería produced glass as well as many kinds of bronze
and iron vessels. At Játiva the manufacture of writing-paper out of
thread was introduced by the Arabs. Arms for defence and offence
were made at Cordova and elsewhere, while Toledo was famous for its
swords and armour. Cordova was the home of all kinds of leather
industry, and thence was derived the trade term cordobanes (cordwainers).
Ibn Firnās of Cordova, according to Al-Maķşarī, in the ninth century
invented a method for manufacturing looking-glasses, various kinds
of chronometers, and also a flying machine.
This industrial movement had far-reaching commercial results. Trade
was mainly carried on by sea, and under “Abd-ar-Raḥmān III the most
important sources of revenue were the duties on imports and exports.
## p. 433 (#479) ############################################
(5) Language and education
433
The exports from Seville, which was one of the greatest river-ports in
Spain, were cotton, oil, olives and other local produce. It was peopled, as
we have seen, mainly by renegades, who by devotion to business had amassed
large fortunes. During the emirate of 'Abdallāh, when Ibn Hajjāj held
the sovereignty in Seville, the port was filled with vessels laden with
Egyptian cloth, slaves, and singing girls from every part of Europe
and Asia. The most important exports from Jaen and Málaga were
saffron, figs, wine, marble and sugar. Spanish exports went to Africa,
Egypt and Constantinople, and thence they were forwarded to India
and Central Asia. Trade was kept up not only with Constantinople,
but with the East generally, especially Mecca, Bagdad and Damascus.
The Caliphs organised a regular postal service for the government. The
necessities of government and of commerce compelled the Arabs to issue
a coinage, which, though at first copied from Oriental models, took on
later a character of its own. The gold unit was the dinār, and they also
used half dīnārs and one-third dīnārs. The silver unit was the dirham,
and the copper the fals (Latin, follis). In time, however, these coins went
down considerably in weight and value.
The official language for the government service of Muslim Spain
was classical Arabic, the language of the Koran. But the speech of
everyday life was a vulgar Arabic dialect, which contained a mixture
of various Latin or Romance tongues of the conquered races, and was
scarcely understood in the East. Ribera, in his study of the Song Book
of Ibn Ķuzmān, has proved that, even at the court of the Caliphs in
Cordova, a vulgar Romance dialect was spoken, which was understood
by the cadis and the other officials. He explains the existence of this
Romance dialect by the probability that the Arabs, who formed the hack-
bone of the army, must have married Spanish women. Ibn Bashkuwāl,
Ibn al-Abbār and other Muslim biographers always praise highly scholars
who know Arabic. Thus among the Muslims, as among all the European
peoples of that date, there was both a literary language and a language
of daily speech. Just as the Mozarabs used Latin and Arabic, so the
Spaniards of the North employed Latin in their documents and Romance
dialects in their everyday life.
There was no regular system of education, and it is only in 1065
that the first university appears at Bagdad. Up till the reign of Hakam
government interest in education, according to Ribera, was limited to
maintaining freedom of instruction in opposition to the narrowness of
the Mālikite clergy who attempted to monopolise the teaching. ” Hakam
II, who was unable to travel to the East, invited Oriental scholars to
Cordova, where they gave lectures but received no official recognition.
At the end of his life he set aside legacies for the payment of professors
in Cordova with an eye to poor students. But this only applied to
religious education. The authorities intervened to test the orthodoxy
of the teaching, and at first a great impulse was given to the spread of
66
C, MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XVI.
28
## p. 434 (#480) ############################################
434
(6) Literature and science
Mālikite doctrines. But later the faķīhs became exceedingly intolerant
of all doctrine which they suspected of heterodoxy. Primary education
consisted, as in all Muslim countries, of writing and reading from the
Koran, to which the Spanish professors added pieces of poetry and
epistolary exercises in composition, and the pupils had to learn by heart
the elements of Arabic grammar. Writing was taught at the same time
as reading, and to learn writing was compulsory on all. Although edu-
cation was purely a private matter, yet it was so widely diffused that
most Spaniards knew how to read and write, a standard which, as Dozy
observes, was still unknown in the rest of Europe. Higher education
included, according to Ribera, translations, readings from the Koran and
the interpretation of the text; jurisprudence, practical instructions for
notaries and judges, the law of succession; branches of religious know-
ledge; politics, scholastic and ascetic theology ; Arabic philosophy,
grammar and lexicography; literature, including history, poetry, rhymed
prose, stories and anecdotes ; medicine, philosophy, astronomy, music,
studied in an order which it is impossible to determine.
Undoubtedly poetry was the most popular branch of general culture.
Among the Arabs even before the advent of Islām every tribe had
a poet, who sang the conflicts, the triumphs and defeats of his tribesmen
and, according to Goldziher, had some of the characteristics of the
prophet or seer. A copious literature in verse has come down to us
from that period, which in its treatment of wars, horses and the wilds
has always been a model and a source of inspiration. The chiefs who
settled in Spain brought their poets in their train ; emirs and Caliphs
composed verses, while improvisation was common in the streets and
roads. Even the women shared the popular taste, and some of the
Caliph's wives and slaves shewed remarkable poetic skill. Moreover, the
Caliphs had their court poets, to whom they paid high salaries and shewed
the utmost consideration. From primitive themes these writers went on
to the love poem. Satire and epigram were also much in use.
Besides poetry the Spanish Arabs diligently studied history and
geography, but although they cultivated the short story the drama was
unknown to them. Although philosophy was distrusted by the vulgar
and its followers filled orthodox theologians with alarm, the highest classes
were much addicted to its study in private. Some schools of philosophy,
indeed, resembled secret societies. It was certainly through this move-
ment that philosophy found its way into Europe; for the Spanish scholars,
who travelled in the East, had read the works of the commentators and
translators of the Greek philosophers. Thus the Spaniards served as the
channel of communication with the rest of Europe and particularly in-
Auenced the development of scholastic philosophy.
Astronomy, like philosophy, was viewed with suspicion by the public,
and their efforts to prohibit its study were successful. Despite this fact
Muslim Spain produced famous astronomers. More freedom was allowed
## p. 435 (#481) ############################################
(7) Books and libraries
435
to the study of pure and applied mathematics, and in medicine Spaniards
surpassed the Oriental physicians who had learned their art from Persian
Christians, and their influence on medieval medical science was profound.
Natural science was another subject studied by their doctors, who were also
chemists. The Jews followed attentively these systematic achievements
of Arab learning, and more especially its progress in physical and natural
science. They, too, influenced the rest of the West.
Side by side with all this progress there was a wide and enthusiastic
demand for books. This was due to various causes, such as the cursive
character of Arabic writing, which might be compared with the labour-
saving device of shorthand, and the employment of linen paper from the
earliest times, which was cheaper than papyrus or parchment. More-
over the peculiarities of Muslim life, without political assemblies,
theatres, or academies, which were the characteristic features of Greece
and Rome, made books their sole means of instruction. In the early
days of the conquest the Mozarabs preserved their Latin traditions in
a Latin form; but with the increase of educated people and the demand
for men learned in Muslim law there followed the gradual introduction
of books, at first only on legal and theological subjects. The renegades
took
up the study of their newly adopted language and religion with
enthusiasm, and their influence gave fresh impetus to the general
appetite for reading. The movement was slow and indecisive at first
and only reached its height with the advent of ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III.
Thanks to his establishment of peace and order, learned professors,
students from every country, skilled copyists, rich dealers and book-
sellers, flocked to Cordova until it became the intellectual centre of the
West. The Royal Library was already in the reign of Mahomet I one
of the best in Cordova, and ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III added to it. His two
sons Mahomet and Hakam II shewed their dissatisfaction with their father's
library by each forming a separate collection, and in the end Hakam II
made the three libraries into one vast collection of four hundred thousand
volumes. He employed a principal librarian, who had instructions to
draw up a catalogue, as well as the best binders, draughtsmen and
illuminators. The dispersal of this library at the fall of the Caliphate
was a disaster to the West.
Cordova had also its celebrated private libraries. Among women,
too, bibliomania became the fashion, and ‘A’isha, who belonged to the
highest society in Cordova, had a notable collection, while women of
the lower classes devoted their time to copying the Koran or books
of prayers. The Jews, the Mozarabs and the renegades were carried away
by the current, and eunuchs acquired considerable learning and even
founded libraries.
“The period of these splendid achievements,” declares Ribera, the
best authority, “was doubtless of short duration. After the rule of
Almanzor Cordova was in the throes of civil war, and the Berbers, who
CH. XVI.
28-2
## p. 436 (#482) ############################################
436
(8) The Arts
formed the majority of the royal army, inaugurated a period of barbarism,
plundering and burning palaces and libraries. Wealthy families migrated
to the provinces; students and professors fled the capital. Then they
formed teaching centres and their enthusiasm for books spread among
those populations, who afterwards formed the kingdoms of the Taifas
(provincial dynasties). ”
Side by side with science and literature the Fine Arts flourished.
As we have already seen, Cordova had become the leading city in Spain ;
the splendour of her buildings and palaces vied even with the court
of Bagdad. The architectural methods adopted by the Arabs differed
greatly from those of the Romanised Spaniards. The beginnings of
Arabic architecture are to be found even before Islām under the Sassanids.
From this source the Arabs probably derived not only the gypsum arch
embellished with honeycomb cells and pyramids suspended like stalac-
tites, but also the stuccoed walls with their reliefs and decorations which
adorn so effectively the interior of Muslim houses. Byzantine influences
reinforced those from the Muslim East and affected both the architecture
and the scheme of ornamentation, all of which the Spanish Arabs took
over bodily, just as they gave Visigothic and classical influences free play
in their artistic modelling, the horse-shoe arch, later on so typically
Muslim, being of Visigothic origin.
The first period in the development of Hispano-Arabic architecture
covers the era of the Caliphate from the eighth to the tenth century, and
of it the mosque of Cordova is the most important monument. It was
begun in the reign of ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān I and the process of building
went on from the eighth to the tenth century. The ground plan of a
mosque is rectangular and comprises: a courtyard surrounded by a portico
and as a rule planted with trees, with a fountain for the ceremonial ablutions
of the faithful ; one or more lofty towers of graceful proportions, called
Şaumaʻa (but in Spanish known as alminares, minarets) which were used by
the mu'adhdhin to give the call to prayer; and a covered part (cubierta)
completely surrounding the court-yard and extending much farther in the
direction of the mihrab or niche which faces toward Mecca, while somewhat
to the right of this stands the pulpit or mimbar from which the imām
offers prayer. The architectural features of the building are the arches,
mainly of the horse-shoe form, though other forms such as the pointed and
the lobe-shaped arch were also used, and the cupola resting on its square
base ; while the columns employed on the early Roman and Visigothic
buildings imitated the Corinthian or composite capital, which was after-
wards superseded by the Cordovese capital, that flourished until the Nasarite
or Grenadine style in the last period of Hispano-Muslim architecture. The
walls were ornamented with bas-relief plaques in stone or gypsum, the
scheme of decoration being sometimes floral and sometimes geometrical
on a background usually red or blue. The decoration shewed traces of
classical, Visigothic, Syro-Byzantine and Mesopotamian influences.
## p. 437 (#483) ############################################
Contact of civilisations
437
Painting and sculpture were encouraged by the Spanish Muslims
without any restriction save in regard to religion. There are some
remarkable examples of representations of animals and persons, among
them some glazed vessels at Elvira on which are depicted painted human
figures. In metallurgy and ceramics great advances were made, but the
glazed tiles or bricks belong to a later period. In bronze work mention
should be made of the mosque lamps, and the chest, studded with silver
plates of the period of Hakam II, which is preserved in the cathedral of
Gerona. In furniture immense luxury was displayed; their carpets, silk
curtains, divans and cushions gave scope to many industries. With the
growth of Muslim influence, buildings for public baths multiplied and at
length came to be used even more than in the days of the Romans.
The difference between their family life and that of the Christians
was very marked. As is well known, Muslims might have even four
lawful wives and as many concubines as they could support : hence the
Caliphs and the wealthy had many wives whom they kept in harems. The
law gave the first wife the right to secure a promise from her husband
that he would not contract a fresh marriage or take concubines. Within
the house the woman was subject to the man; but she could dispose of
the greater part of his property and appear in the law courts without her
husband's leave. She exercised the same authority as he did over the sons,
so far as concerned their formal protection, and could obtain divorce for
valid grounds. Further, the women enjoyed more liberty in their social
relations than is generally supposed. They often walked through the
streets with their heads uncovered and attended men's meeting-places like
the schools.
The brilliant civilisation of the Caliphate naturally influenced the
Christians to the North. This influence was not only due to proximity,
but also, contrary to the general view, to frequent community of interests
between Christians and Muslims, and especially to Christian slaves
who escaped or secured their freedom and on their return home nearly
always kept their Arab names. Between Christians and Muslims visits
were frequently exchanged and mutual succour given in time of civil
war ; they traded together and inter-married not only in the lower but
also in the higher classes, including royalty. Such marriages must have
been very common, since the Arabs arrived in Spain not as tribes but as
bands of warriors. Throughout the later wars the combatants on both
sides were apparently a mixture of Muslims and Christians.
When two people come into contact the higher civilisation invariably
influences the other. Such indeed was the case of the Arabs in Spain and
the Spaniards from the beginning of the ninth to the end of the thirteenth
century, when Arab philosophy and science were at their height. In prac-
tical life Arab influence was even greater, not only in political but also
in legal and military organisation ; and this explains why the Christians
after the re-conquest of the districts inhabited by Muslims were com-
CH. XVI.
## p. 438 (#484) ############################################
438
The Mozarabs
pelled to respect existing institutions, while they set up analogous
systems for the new settlers, as is proved by the charters ( fueros) granted
by the kings of Aragon and Castile to the conquered cities. The literary
influence was not so strong. Arabic phrases were common in Leon,
Castile, Navarre, and other parts; the Romance languages, which were
then in the process of formation, took over a large number of Arabic
terms, sometimes making up hybrid words and sometimes pronouncing
the Latin words or their derivatives in the Arabic fashion. There were
many Moors who understood Romance, particularly in the frontier dis-
tricts, and they were called Latin Moors (ladinos) just as many Christians
with some knowledge of Arabic (algarabía) were called Christians who
talked a jargon (algaraviados).
The Mozarabs naturally felt Arab influence even more throughout
this period. The following passage occurs in the writings of Alvaro of
Cordova, the companion of Eulogio, who exhorted the Cordovan martyrs:
“Many of my fellow Christians read Arab poetry and stories, and study
the works of Mohammedan philosophers and theologians, not with the
object of refuting them, but to learn to express themselves in Arabic
with greater elegance and correctness. Alas! all our Christian youths,
who are winning a name for themselves by their talents, know the language
and literature of the Arabs alone ; they read and study assiduously their
books; at huge expense they form large libraries, and on every occasion
they positively declare that this literature merits our admiration. ”
The Muslim people in turn adopted something of Visigothic culture
from the renegades and Mozarabs, particularly in language, administra-
tion and the organisation of the arts. The Mozarabs still kept up
their old ecclesiastical schools where, under the direction of the Abbots
Samson, Spera-in-Deo and others, they carefully kept the Isidorian tradi-
tion. The Christian women, who formed an ordinary part of Arab and
Berber households, must have added to the force of these influences,
which, however, were never so powerful as those exercised by the
Muslim over the Christian element.
But, despite the Muslim influence, Christian civilisation with its
Visigothic basis continued to grow along its own lines. The political
unity of the Visigothic kingdom disappeared with the concentration
of Christian resistance at a few isolated points, and in this period there
cannot be said to be any national life; in fact, Spain has no real
existence: we can only speak of Asturias, Leon, Galicia, Navarre,
Castile, and Catalonia. This diversity of states, institutions and
nationalities, is the characteristic feature of medieval Spain.
So far as Asturias, Leon and Castile are concerned, the distinction
between slaves and freemen still continued, while the latter were sub-
divided into nobles and plebeians. The nobles were dependent on the
king, who gave them grants of land, titles and offices, etc. ; from time
to time a revolt broke out among these nobles, and this gave rise to a
## p. 439 (#485) ############################################
Government and classes in Leon and Castile
439
new class of nobles, the infanzones, more immediately dependent on the
king. In this period, too, first appear the milites (caballeros), free men
who received certain privileges in return for military service, and also the
infanzones de fuero, nobles of a peculiar kind chosen by the king from
inhabitants of cities or boroughs. Some men too put themselves under
the protection of nobles, giving personal services and payments in
return for it; this protection was known as encomienda or benefactoria.
The serfs were divided as in the Visigothic period into those
belonging to the State (fiscales), those owned by ecclesiastics (ecclesi-
ásticos) and those who were the property of private individuals (par-
ticulares). According to their status they might be either personal
property (personales) or bound to the soil (colonos). The latter were
indissolubly tied to the soil (gleba), so that they were regarded as
part of the land like trees or buildings, and were therefore included
in contracts for sale or purchase. The status of a serf might be ac-
quired by birth, by debt, by captivity or by voluntary assignment to
a lord (obnoxacion). These last had a higher status and were called
oblati. Freedom might be recovered by manumission, which was due
to the influence of Christianity and to economic necessities, by revolt or
Aight; hence arose a class of freedmen with special privileges and more
advantages than the primitive serf. By the end of the tenth century
these freedmen formed the majority of the population and were known
as juniores. They spoke of themselves as tenants-in-chief (de cabeza),
though they were liable to personal service, and were regarded as part
and parcel of the inheritance (heredad) or ancestral demesne (solariegos);
even when they worked elsewhere or lived away on an alien plot, they
still paid tribute. Such was their condition as it appears in the charter
of Leon at the beginning of the eleventh century; but afterwards it
steadily improved.
The king was at the head of the government, but his power varied
in different cases. He combined legislative and judicial functions, and
claimed the sole prerogative of coining money as well as the right
to summon his vassals to war (fonsadera). There was, however,
considerable variation in practice. In the lands directly dependent
on the king (realengas) he had full jurisdiction over all orders, and was
himself their mesne lord. But the nobles sometimes exercised over their
own lands an authority that practically superseded the king's. All
the inhabitants of the domain were dependent on their feudal lord,
some as serfs, others under his patronage. He collected tribute from
them, he accepted their personal services; he compelled them to go out
on military duty ; in a sense he dictated their laws and divided the
functions of government between the judex, mayordomus, villicus, and
sagio who presided over the concilium. He could not extend his privi-
leges over lands newly acquired without the express leave of the king.
The powers of the king over the lands of ecclesiastical vassals were also
CH. XVI.
## p. 440 (#486) ############################################
440
Leon and Castile; their nobles and towns
limited, while the ecclesiastics had the advantage of setting down their
privileges in written documents. Their duties as well as their rights were
on the same footing as those of secular feudatories.
The nobles, bishops and abbots could often interfere in lands which
were exempt from aristocratic or ecclesiastical control. They were
members of the Palatine Office (oficio palatino) as well as of the Royal
Council and the other councils. They kept in their hands the govern-
ment and administration of the districts, called commissa, mandationes,
tenentiae, etc. , and in their capacity of counts they were assisted by a
vicar and the council of neighbours (conventus publicus vicinorum). Such
powers intensified their turbulent spirit. They imposed their policy on
the crown, interfered in the struggles for the succession, and consequently
the monarchy found in them the strongest force in the country. But
despite all this there was no feudal hierarchy as in France and Germany,
since they exercised all their privileges by the favour of the king.
In Leon and Castile we can trace the rise of behetrías or collective
benefices (benefactorías collectivas), “groups of free men who sought
the protection of a powerful lord. ” If they might freely choose their
own lord, they were known as behetrías de mar a mar, but if their
choice were restricted to one family, they were called de linaje a linaje.
They were never very vigorous, owing to their dependence, but in
the tenth century they gave rise to the chartered town or concejo which
comprised “ the inhabitants who had been conquered by the king and
were attached to the royal domain, as well those who had recently
settled there and were exempt from the jurisdiction of the counts. ” The
reason for the establishment of concejos was the necessity of populating
the frontier. Since no one would live there owing to its insecurity,
the king had to attract inhabitants for chartered towns by granting
them privileges. Sometimes all who entered them were declared free
men, even if they sprang from the lowest serfs ; sometimes they were
exempted from services and contributions ; sometimes they were allowed
some political independence and self-government; sometimes the existing
practices and customary exemptions were recognised. These privileges
were definitely set forth in the fuero or charter of the inhabitants
(carta de poblacion); of those that have come down to us the charters
of Burgos, Castrojeriz, etc. , date from the tenth, and those of Nájera,
Sepúlveda and Leon from the beginning of the eleventh century. As a
rule the organisation of the chartered town depended on the formation of
the concilium (concejo) or assembly of neighbours, which exercised judicial
and administrative functions. The Council appointed every year a judge,
several assessors, clerks of the market and inspectors, who were entirely
dependent on its goodwill. Such were the beginnings of municipal life.
Its growth was marked by the gradual absorption by the concilium
of the powers and prerogatives, which had once belonged to the king and
the count; but the king still kept the right to appoint judges who con-
## p. 441 (#487) ############################################
Aragon and Navarre; Catalonia
441
tinued side by side with those elected by the council. There were usually
distinctions between greater and lesser members of the concejo; between
nobles (infanzones) and citizens, between holders of office (honoratii) and
simple neighbours (vicini), the villagers or townsmen.
Legislation had other sources besides the Fuero Juzgo through the new
charters granted by the king. The municipality exercised jurisdiction
according to custom and tradition in cases which were not expressly
included in their charter. Further, the fueros of the bishop and the
lords contributed an element to the legislation of the period, just as did
the municipal councils.
The inhabitants of Leon and Castile lagged far behind the Muslims in
point of material comfort. Agriculture,limited as yet by the bare necessities
of life, was fostered by the Benedictine monks alone, and for the most part
the population confined its energies to war. Industries, however, sprang up
at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia round the shrine of St James, and
craftsmen began to organise gilds. The salt industry, too, was kept up
in
Galicia. But there was less freedom of trade than in the preceding period,
and taxation generally took the form of duties imposed on the necessaries
of life. Money was scarce, and Roman and Gothic types of coin were
still current. The official language was Latin; but Romance was already
a formed language, although there are no documents extant in the vulgar
tongue till the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century.
Scarcely anything is known of Aragon and Navarre at this period.
In Catalonia, a West Frankish fief, the Franks exercised a profound
influence on the organisation of society. Here the counts were landowners,
who granted or leased out their lands, and this practice gave rise to the
copyholders(censatarios), the viscounts and other subordinates of the count.
Later, the grant of lands by the king to soldiers, whether in the shape of
alods or in that of beneficia, led to the formation of a fresh group of free
owners. Thus the nobility of Catalonia acquired the full powers of French
feudal seigneurs. The common law of all three realms was the Fuero
Juzgo, to which Catalonia added the Frankish capitularies. There were
also charters for towns in Aragon and Navarre, but their text has not come
down to us, while the fuero of Sobrarbe is generally regarded as a forgery.
In Catalonia there are extant the fuero of Montmell, the town charter
of Cardona given by Wifred, and the privilege of Barcelona granted by
Berengar-Raymond I.
The history of Spain, so far traced, is very different from that of
other Western countries. No land is more marked out by its mere
geography and local separations as the very home of rival kingdoms. It
fronts towards the sea, and it looks towards Africa: if it borders upon
modern France, it is yet separated from it by the almost impassable
Pyrenees. It still bore the imperishable marks of Roman rule: it had
been flooded by the Teutonic invaders when the Empire fell, and it had
been by them even more closely joined to Africa. Then it was again
a
CH. XVI.
## p. 442 (#488) ############################################
442
Unique history of Spain
marked out from the rest of Europe by the Muslim conquest, and Spain
gave a rival to the Eastern Caliphate just as the Franks gave a rival
to the Eastern Emperor. In itself the Iberian peninsula was split up by
many mountain ranges, and marked by startling variations in climate
and soil : it had a unity compatible with the strongest local divergencies.
Thus it was destined for a history strangely apart from other lands: if
at times it drew to itself outside races and outside influences, these in
their turn were moulded into types among themselves both akin and
separate. So, if splendid, it was always weak through its many divisions,
and many contests between Berbers and Arabs, and of Arabs among
themselves. The history of Arab civilisation in Spain intertwines itself
in
many links with medieval learning, science and thought, while the
presence of a rival race and rival creed at its very doors gave a special
tinge to Spanish fervour and Spanish faith. In the field of thought,
even in constitutional experiments, Spanish history has thus from early
times a significance far greater than that of its mere events. Even after
its splendour had reached its height the influence of the Moorish kingdom
was not ended. Small Christian states, separated from each other by
physical conditions, had been born in conflict with it, and were some-
times united in enmity against it, sometimes at strife in contest for its
alliance. Thus the later Spanish kingdoms were growing up, but their
day was yet to come.
## p. 443 (#489) ############################################
443
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CHURCH FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO SYLVESTER II.
The preceding volume came to an end with the picture of a vast
Empire seemingly destined to absorb Europe itself. This volume, on
the contrary, has offered little for our consideration save the spectacle of
Europe fallen to fragments, of its kingdoms sundered from one another,
and of disintegration steadily advancing. The alluring dream of Charles
the Great has vanished ; after his death no temporal prince was found
capable of carrying on his work, and it fell to ruins.
Nevertheless, the root idea which had inspired him still persisted :
the idea of the unity of the Christian world, bound together and
grouped round a single head, ready to give battle to the infidel, and to
undertake the conversion of the barbarians. But it was the Church
„which now appropriated the idea, and which alone, amidst the
surrounding confusion, succeeded in maintaining itself as the principle of
order and the power of cohesion. To shew in broad outline how and to
what extent the Church succeeded in this design during the disturbed
period which preceded the great Church reform of the eleventh century
is the object of these few pages which will thus sum up the history.
€
Under the ever-present influence of scriptural ideals, Charles the
Great had really come to see in himself what he was so often called, a
new David, or another Solomon, at once priest and king, the master and
overlord of the Bishops of his realms; in reducing those Bishops to
the level of docile fellow-labourers with him in the work of government,
he had believed himself to be working for the consolidation of his own
power. But in this matter, as in so many others, the results of his
policy had not accorded with his wishes and expectations. The Bishops,
having been called upon to take part in affairs of State, were conse-
quently quite ready to busy themselves with them even uninvited, while,
on the other hand, by the investment of the Emperor with a semi-sacer-
dotal character the clergy were encouraged to see in him one of them-
selves, and, despite his superior position, to look upon him as amenable
to their jurisdiction.
CH. XVII.
## p. 444 (#490) ############################################
444
Louis the Pious and the Bishops
>
9
This had been clearly perceived as early as the time of Louis the
Pious, when, on the morrow of Lothar's usurpation (833), the Bishops,
alleging the obligation laid on them by their “priestly office," had
“
plainly asserted their right to examine and punish the conduct of a
prince who had incurred guilt by “refusing to obey,” as the official
record declares, “the warnings of the clergy. ” For, although Louis the
Pious was already looked upon as deposed at the time of the ceremony
in St Medard's at Soissons, the course which the Bishops had adopted
without hesitation was in point of fact to bring him to trial for his
conduct as a sovereign, imposing on him the most humiliating of
penances, “after which,” as the record concludes, “none can resume his
post in the world's army. "
Louis the Pious, as already seen', did, nevertheless, return to the
world's army," and was even reinstated in the imperial dignity. Yet
this decisive action taken by the Bishops in the crisis of 833 shewed
clearly that the parts had been inverted. Louis the Pious was the king
of the priests, but no longer in the same sense as Charles the Great: he
was at their
mercy.
The precedent thus set was not forgotten. During the fratricidal
struggle which, on the morrow of the death of Louis the Pious, broke
out amongst Lothar, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald, the
Bishops more than once took occasion to interfere, and to make them- .
selves masters of the situation. \In March 842, in particular, when
Charles the Bald and Louis the German had encamped in the palace of
Aix-la-Chapelle whence their brother had precipitately fled at their
approach, the clergy, as Nithard, an eye-witness, relates, “reviewing
Lothar's whole conduct, how he had stripped his father of power, how
often, by his cupidity, he had driven Christian people to commit
perjury, how often he had himself broken his engagements to his father
and his brothers, how often he had attempted to despoil and ruin the
latter since his father's death, how many adulteries, conflagrations and
acts of violence of every description his criminal ambition had inflicted
on the Church, finally, considering his incapacity for government, and
the complete absence of good intentions in this matter shewn by him,
declare that it is with good reason and by a just judgment of the
Almighty that he has been reduced to take flight, first from the field of
battle, and then from his own kingdom. ” Without a dissentient voice the
Bishops proclaimed the deposition of Lothar, and after having demanded
of Louis and Charles whether they were ready to govern according to the
Divine Will the States abandoned by their brother, “ Receive them,”
they bade them, “and rule them according to the Will of God; we require
it of you in His Name, we beseech it of you, and we command it you. ”
In thus encroaching on the domain of politics, the Bishops were
persuaded that they were only acting in the interest of the higher
1 See Chapter 1. p. 19.
a
## p. 445 (#491) ############################################
Aims of the Episcopate
445
concerns committed to their care. They had gradually accustomed
themselves to the idea that the Empire ought to be the realisation upon
earth of the “ City of God,” the ideal city, planned by St Augustine.
The study of St Augustine had been the mental food of Bishops,
learned clerks and princes themselves, and in their complaints the clergy
had always a source of inspiration in the complaints echoed four
centuries earlier by St Augustine and his followers. The Empire was
hastening to its ruin because religion was no longer honoured, because
every man was concerned only for his own interests and was careless of
the higher interests of the Church, because instead of brotherliness and
concord only cupidity and selfishness reigned unchecked. If the Empire
were to be saved, the first thing to be done was to recall every man to
Christian sentiments and to the fear of God.
Whatever work of the period we open, whether we go to the letters
written at the time by the clergy, or whether we examine the considera-
tions on which the demands made by their synods to the king are based,
we shall find the same arguments upon the necessity of reverting to the
Christian principles which had constituted the strength of the Empire
and had been the condition of its existence. For the deacon Florus,
the decadence of the Empire is merely one aspect of the decadence of the
Church : at the period when the Empire flourished “ the clergy used to
meet frequently in councils, to give holy laws to the people”; to-day,
he goes on, there is nothing but conciliabula of men greedy of lands and
benefices, “ the general interest is not regarded, everyone is concerned
about his own affairs, all things command attention except God. ” The
conclusion of the whole matter is, he says, that “all is over with the
honour of the Church" and that “the majesty of the State is a prey to
the worst of furies. ” The same reflections may be found in Paschasius
Radbertus, biographer of the Abbot Wala ; the whole of the disorder in
the State arises from the disappearance of religion, the imperial power
has made shipwreck at the same time as the authority of the Church.
Wala's comment, as he made his appearance amidst the partisans of
Lothar on the morrow of the penance at St Medard's, is well known :
“ It is all perfect, save that you have left naught to God of all that was
due to Him. "
To restore to the 6 Church of God” and to its ministers the honour
that is their due, such is the sheet-anchor which the Episcopate offers
to sovereigns. Over and over again during the years that followed the
death of Louis the Pious and the partition of Verdun, the Bishops press
upon rulers the necessity of acting “with charity,” and in cases where
any error has been committed, of doing penance, and, as a document of
844 expresses it, “asking the forgiveness of the Lord according to the
exhortation and counsel of the priests. ” And these exhortations bear
fruit; in April 845, while a synod was sitting at Beauvais, the King of
France, Charles the Bald, after swearing on the hilt of his sword in the
CH, XVII.
## p. 446 (#492) ############################################
446
Bishops' attempt at control
Name of God and the saints to respect till death the privileges and laws
of the Church, admits the right and even the duty of the prelates both
to suspend the execution
of any measure he might take which should
be to the detriment of these privileges and laws, and also to address
remonstrances to him, calling upon him to amend any decisions contrary
to them.
Strong in this pledge, the prelates of France, a few months later
(June 845) ventured to put forward, at the Synod of Meaux, a whole
series of claims directed not less against their king than against the
whole lay aristocracy, reproaching both alike with hindering the free
exercise of religion. Their reproaches were expressed in a language of
command, which on this occasion was carried to such a height that the
king, with the support of the magnates, resisted.
Nevertheless, the Bishops remained masters of the situation. In the
years that follow, making common cause now with the lay aristocracy,
they succeed, throughout the various kingdoms which sprang from
Charles the Great's empire, in imposing their will upon the sovereigns.
They are at once the leaders and the spokesmen of the turbulent vassals,
ever ready to league themselves together to resist the king. In an
assembly held in August 856 at Bonneuil near Paris, with unprecedented
violence they accuse Charles the Bald of having broken all his engage-
ments; they warn him “in charity” that they are all, priests and laymen,
of one mind in resolving to see them carried out, and they summon him,
in consequence, to amend without delay all provisions to the contrary,
concluding this singular “ request " with a threatening quotation from
the Psalms: “If a man will not turn, He will whet His sword : He
hath bent His bow, and made it ready. He hath prepared for him the
instruments of death. ”
We have already seen', how two years later this prediction was
apparently realised. Louis the German, in response to the appeal of a
portion of his brother Charles the Bald's subjects, invaded his dominions
and succeeded in occupying a great part of them. Called upon to ratify
his usurpation, a group of Bishops from the ecclesiastical provinces of
Rheims and Rouen gathered together at Quierzy-sur-Oise, following the
suggestions of Archbishop Hincmar, carried matters with a high hand;
after having recommended him to meditate upon the duties which a
prince owes to the Church, they thought fit to bring to his notice these
words from the Psalms : “Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have
children,” together with the interpretation : “ Instead of the Apostles,
I have ordained Bishops that they may govern and instruct thee. ”
Kings working for the maintenance of peace under the aegis of the
Church, such was thenceforward the programme of the Episcopate.
And by peace is intended the peace of Christendom, the peace of the
Church ; to disturb it is to infringe the laws of which the Church is the
1 Chapter 11. pp. 36–37.
## p. 447 (#493) ############################################
Hincmar in the State
447
guardian, and to revolt against the Church itself. Thus in a synod
assembled at Metz on 28 May 859, the Bishops of the kingdoms of
Western Francia and Lorraine do not hesitate to characterise the
attempt of Louis the German to seize upon his brother's lands as a
“schism in the Holy Church and in Christendom," adding that he is
bound to ask “absolution " for it.
opposition continued; in 1012 they pitilessly sacked Cordova, houses and
palaces were destroyed, and Sulaimān was once more proclaimed Caliph.
It was a war of factions, and in 1016 the Slaves entered Cordova.
They sought in vain for Hishām II. Sulaimān gave out that he
was dead; but apparently he fled to Asia, where he ended his life
in obscurity. The welter became more confused, till in 1025 for six
months the government was in the hands of a Council of State. In
1027 the Slaves proclaimed the last of the Umayyads, Hishām III
al-Mu'tadd. He too failed to satisfy expectations. A revolution broke
out in December 1031; Hishām was taken prisoner. The viziers announced
the abolition of the Caliphate and declared the government devolved
on the Council of State,
Meanwhile in the Christian kingdoms a steady advance had been
made. In 1020 Alfonso V of Leon summoned a council to his capital
See supra, p. 422.
CH. XVI.
## p. 428 (#474) ############################################
428
The Christian kingdoms
to reform the government, and there issued the fuero of Leon and other
general laws. His son Bermudo III succeeded in 1027, and through
his marriage with a sister of Garcia, Count of Castile, whose other
sister was married to Sancho the Great of Navarre, the relations between
the rulers of the three kingdoms became far more intimate. Castile,
despite the occasional intervention of Leon, had been independent
since the days of Fernan Gonzalez. The happy understanding which
prevailed among the Christian states was broken up through the murder
of Garcia of Castile. Garcia's brother-in-law, Sancho of Navarre, seized
the territories of Castile, and a dispute over the frontier led to war with
Bermudo III of Leon, which was ended by the marriage of Bermudo's
sister with Sancho's eldest son, Ferdinand, the future King of Castile.
On the speedy renewal of the war the Castilians and Navarrese conquered
the whole of Leon, Bermudo only retaining Galicia. Navarre then
became the dominant power from the frontier of Galicia to the county of
Barcelona, and Sancho ruled over Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon and all
the Basque country. But shortly before his death he divided the kingdom
among his sons. He left Navarre and the Basque provinces to Garcia,
Castile to Ferdinand, Aragon to Ramiro, and the lordship of Sobrarbe
and Ribagorza to Gonzalo. Bermudo III continued to reign in Galicia,
but after the death of Sancho (1035) he was defeated at Tamaron by Fer-
dinand in 1037, who thus united under his sceptre all Leon and Castile.
The counts of Barcelona who succeeded Wifred I had extended
their dominions beyond the river Llobregat and, despite invasions by
Almanzor (986) and his son Muzaffar, they recovered their lost territory
through their intervention in the civil wars of the Muslims after the fall
of the Almanzors. The break up of the Caliphate was taken advantage of
by Count Raymond-Berengar I (1035-1076), to consolidate his power.
I
With the fall of the Caliphate there began for Spain the great
period of Christian conquest, when the leadership passed from the
Caliphate to the Christian kingdoms. The Muslim supremacy had been
due partly to higher military efficiency, which was never recovered
after the collapse of the Caliphate, and even more to the brilliance
of its civilisation compared with the backward condition of the
Northern States. This Arab civilisation claims especial notice.
The great variety of races in the country hindered the immediate
development of Muslim civilisation, and despite the efforts at union
of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān III the conflict between the different peoples
and tribes still persisted. The Arabs refused to regard the Persians,
Berbers and other conquered races as their countrymen, while even
among the Arabs themselves Syrians, Yemenites, and other tribes were
in constant feud. Inside the tribes there were freemen, divided into
aristocracy and people, and slaves. Under ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III
the unbroken struggle with the emirs all but destroyed the Arab
## p. 429 (#475) ############################################
Muslim Spain; (1) ruces and classes
429
aristocracy. Its place was taken on the one hand by the middle
classes, who had amassed much wealth through the great expansion
of trade and industry, and on the other hand by a feudal aristocracy
of military commanders. The working-men remained under the thumb
of the middle classes, and owing to their economic inferiority were
stirred occasionally to class hatred. The grants of lands and slaves
freely given by the emirs made the dominant aristocracy the wealthiest
class, and enabled it to form independent or nearly independent
domains. This process may account for the fact that the Arabs
and Berbers preferred the country to the cities, whose inhabitants,
as in the case of Toledo, Seville and Elvira, were mainly renegades and
Mozarabs.
The unfree classes were divided into peasant serfs, whose status was
better than under the Visigoths, and household or personal slaves;
among the latter the eunuchs who were set apart for the service of the
harem enjoyed a privileged position. Occasionally they held the highest
appointments, and since they had followers as well as wealth, could
intervene effectively in politics. The Slaves', who were not only the
soldiers but the serfs of the Caliph, held civil as well as military offices,
and, as we have seen, on the fall of the Almanzors their political influence
was decisive.
The Muladies (Muwallad) were in an intermediate position. They
were mainly descendants of Visigothic serfs who had secured freedom
by their profession of Islām. As we have seen, they were viewed
with suspicion by Muslims of old standing, and this bitterness caused
frequent revolts. From the reign of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān II their numbers
increased owing to the frequent conversions of Mozarabs or Spanish
Christians, and their influence on Muslim civilisation was considerable.
The legal status of the Jews improved under the Arabs. The
destructive policy of the Visigoths was succeeded by wide toleration
and freedom, which was characteristic of the Muslim conquest. In
particular the commercial and industrial prosperity of Cordova, which
dated from the independence of the Caliph, was due to this liberal
policy. The Jew Hasdai Ibn Shabrut, who was the treasurer and
minister of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān III and translated the works of Dioscorides,
was famous as a diplomatist. Under his influence many of his
co-religionists came from the East. They started a Talmudic school
which eclipsed the schools of Mesopotamia. The Jews in Cordova
adopted the dress, language and customs of the Arabs, and were
consistently protected by the Caliphs.
The Mozarabs still kept their government and administration in
their own hands under special governors (counts) who were selected
by the Caliph. They still kept their defensor to represent them at
See supra, p. 422.
CH. XVI,
## p. 430 (#476) ############################################
430
(2) Administration and justice
4
1
the court of the Caliph. It is not known whether the curia survived ;
but the exceptor, who was now a tax-collector, survived, as did also the
censor, who was a judge of first instance, while the count (conde) pre-
sided over the court of appeal. He still administered the code (Fuero
Juzgo), while transgressions of the law of Islām came before the Muslim
authorities. The Mozarabs lived in districts apart, and apparently
there was no marked distinction between the Visigothic and Hispano-
Roman elements. Except for brief periods of persecution, they were
treated tolerantly.
Spain was at first a province of the Caliphate of Damascus with an
emir at its head. ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān I put an end to this dependent posi-
tion by breaking with the Caliphate of Bagdad, although it was not till
929 that the title of Caliph was assumed by ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III. The
Caliph was the supreme temporal and spiritual head. Sometimes he
was elected by the nobles, but usually it was a hereditary office. The
hierarchy consisted: of the ḥājib or prime minister; of various wazīrs
(viziers) or ministers, who were responsible for the various administrative
departments, such as the Treasury and War Office, though they only
communicated with the Caliph through the ḥājib; and of the kātibs or
secretaries. The administrative offices together formed the diwan and
there were as many offices as public services. The provinces, which were six
in number apart from Cordova, were under a civil and military governor
called a wāli. In some important cities there were also wālīs at the
head of affairs, and on the frontier there was a military commander.
The Caliph administered justice in person ; but as a rule this func-
tion was exercised by the cadis (ķādī) (and in small villages by hākims).
At their head stood the cadi of the cadis, who was established at
Cordova. A special judge, the Șāḥib-ash-shurţa or Şāḥib-al-madina
(zal-medina) heard criminal and police cases, under a procedure simpler
than that of the cadi. The zabalaquen or ḥākim carried out the
sentences of the cadi. The muștasib or almotacén regulated police,
trade and markets, and intervened in questions of sales, gambling,
weights, measures and public dress. Cordova had a special judge
($āḥib-al-mazālim), who was appointed by the Emir to hear complaints
of breach of privilege or of offences committed by public officials; Ribera
considers that the Justicia mayor de Aragon was set up in imitation of
this functionary. The usual punishments were fines, scourging, mutilation
and death; this last penalty applied to cases of blasphemy, heresy, and
apostasy.
Besides the taxes on personal and real property (quit rents) paid by
holders of khums (State-lands), there was the azzaque, a tithe of agricul-
ture, industry and commerce, and also the customs, the head of which
was called al-mushrif (almojarife). A census with statistics based on
tribal organisation was drawn up for the assessment of taxation, but
this method of organisation died out on the fall of the Arab aristocracy.
## p. 431 (#477) ############################################
(3) Army and religion
431
The tribe was the unit of military organisation. Each tribe rallied
round its chief and its standard. The soldiers received pay at the end
of the campaign at the rate of five to ten gold pieces, and the baladīs,
who were descended from Mūsā’s Arabs, were never summoned except in
case of need. Campaigns were generally conducted in the spring and had
the character of an algaras or raid. The object was booty and with
that secured the army invariably retired from any position conquered.
The commander-in-chief was called al-ḥā'id (alcaide); the cavalry was
mounted on mules and without stirrups. They used the sword, the
pike, the lance and the bow, while their defensive armour consisted of
helmets, shields, cuirasses and coats of mail. Their siege weapons were
the same as those employed by the Byzantines.
The army underwent many changes in organisation, as the Caliphs
became more dependent on foreign troops, and Almanzor completed this
process. He substituted the regimental for the tribal division, and thus
put an end to the power of the tribal chiefs. There were, moreover,
foreign elements ; first the Slaves and then the mercenary Christian
troops from Leon, Navarre and Castile, who became dangerous to the
tranquillity of the country when Almanzor's iron grasp relaxed.
The navy under “Abd-ar-Raḥmān III, with Almería as its chief
harbour, became the most powerful in the Mediterranean. Their raids,
under commanders of a squadron called the Alcaides of the fleet, ex-
tended to Galicia and Asturias, and also to Africa where they attacked
the Fātimites. In fact, Muslim piracy was the terror of the Mediter-
ranean, and it was from Spain that the colonists of Fraxinetum came'.
When at the end of the tenth century the Fātimite danger disappeared,
the Arabs neglected their navy.
.
The Muslim religion is based on the recognition of one God and
of Mahomet as his prophet, and the Caliph is the supreme spiritual
head. But among Arabs and Berbers alike grew up many heterodox
sects. These made proselytes in Spain, but were not openly professed
for fear of the populace. Among orthodox Muslims in Spain the Mālikites
were dominant. Fervent Muslims were inclined to asceticism and were
called Zāhids. There sprang up regular monasteries, such as those
of Ibn Masarra at Montaña and of Ibn Mujāhid of Elvira at Cordova,
where apparently they devoted their time to the study of philosophy
and other forbidden branches of learning.
The basis of Muslim law was the Koran and the traditions concerning
the acts and sayings of the Prophet. These were known as Sunna. The
chief collection of them, so far as Spain was concerned, was called Al-
Muwatta', composed by Mālik ibn Anas, and contained one thousand seven
hundred cases, to which additions were made later.
They had no code, properly speaking, until much later than this
See supra, pp. 140, 152, 155, 168.
CH. XVI.
## p. 432 (#478) ############################################
432
(4) Wealth and industry
period; but there were special compilations including very heteroge-
neous subjects, such as prayer, purification, fasting, pilgrimages, sales,
the division of inheritances, marriage and so on; and under Mālikite
influence these compilations were introduced into Spain.
In the days of the Caliphs Muslim Spain became one of the wealthiest
and most thickly populated countries in Europe. Cordova expanded
till it contained two hundred thousand houses, and, as we have seen, was
greatly embellished in the reigns of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān II and III, who
erected the palace of Az-Zahrā, and under Almanzor who built the palace
of Zāhira ; another wonderful building was the Mosque, which was begun
by 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān I. Cordova was the meeting point of travellers
from all over the world, who came to admire the splendour in which the
Caliphs lived.
T'his magnificence was due to the extraordinary growth of industry
and commerce. In agriculture a distinct advance was made in the
number of small holders, who also stood socially higher than under the
Visigoths. The Arabs rapidly assimilated such knowledge of farming
as the Spaniards possessed, and added to it the agricultural experience
of other Asiatic peoples. The greatest writers on agriculture were
Mozarabs ; but the Arabs soon learned the lesson taught them, and
successfully cultivated the vine on a large scale despite the prohibition
of wine. The Muslims introduced the cultivation of rice, pomegranates,
cane sugar, and other Oriental products. They started or completed a
system of canals for the irrigation of gardens, especially in the provinces
of Murcia, Valencia and Granada, and they were devoted to cattle
breeding. It is noteworthy that the labourers used the Roman and
not the Arab calendar.
Mining of gold, silver and other metals was pre-eminent among
industries, the mines of Jaen, Bulche, Aroche, and Algarve being
renowned, while the rubies of Béjar and Málaga were famous. The
woollen and silk weaving in Cordova, Málaga and Almería was justly
celebrated, and in Cordova alone there seem to have been thirteen
thousand weavers. Paterna (Valencia) carried the ceramic art to great
perfection, and Almería produced glass as well as many kinds of bronze
and iron vessels. At Játiva the manufacture of writing-paper out of
thread was introduced by the Arabs. Arms for defence and offence
were made at Cordova and elsewhere, while Toledo was famous for its
swords and armour. Cordova was the home of all kinds of leather
industry, and thence was derived the trade term cordobanes (cordwainers).
Ibn Firnās of Cordova, according to Al-Maķşarī, in the ninth century
invented a method for manufacturing looking-glasses, various kinds
of chronometers, and also a flying machine.
This industrial movement had far-reaching commercial results. Trade
was mainly carried on by sea, and under “Abd-ar-Raḥmān III the most
important sources of revenue were the duties on imports and exports.
## p. 433 (#479) ############################################
(5) Language and education
433
The exports from Seville, which was one of the greatest river-ports in
Spain, were cotton, oil, olives and other local produce. It was peopled, as
we have seen, mainly by renegades, who by devotion to business had amassed
large fortunes. During the emirate of 'Abdallāh, when Ibn Hajjāj held
the sovereignty in Seville, the port was filled with vessels laden with
Egyptian cloth, slaves, and singing girls from every part of Europe
and Asia. The most important exports from Jaen and Málaga were
saffron, figs, wine, marble and sugar. Spanish exports went to Africa,
Egypt and Constantinople, and thence they were forwarded to India
and Central Asia. Trade was kept up not only with Constantinople,
but with the East generally, especially Mecca, Bagdad and Damascus.
The Caliphs organised a regular postal service for the government. The
necessities of government and of commerce compelled the Arabs to issue
a coinage, which, though at first copied from Oriental models, took on
later a character of its own. The gold unit was the dinār, and they also
used half dīnārs and one-third dīnārs. The silver unit was the dirham,
and the copper the fals (Latin, follis). In time, however, these coins went
down considerably in weight and value.
The official language for the government service of Muslim Spain
was classical Arabic, the language of the Koran. But the speech of
everyday life was a vulgar Arabic dialect, which contained a mixture
of various Latin or Romance tongues of the conquered races, and was
scarcely understood in the East. Ribera, in his study of the Song Book
of Ibn Ķuzmān, has proved that, even at the court of the Caliphs in
Cordova, a vulgar Romance dialect was spoken, which was understood
by the cadis and the other officials. He explains the existence of this
Romance dialect by the probability that the Arabs, who formed the hack-
bone of the army, must have married Spanish women. Ibn Bashkuwāl,
Ibn al-Abbār and other Muslim biographers always praise highly scholars
who know Arabic. Thus among the Muslims, as among all the European
peoples of that date, there was both a literary language and a language
of daily speech. Just as the Mozarabs used Latin and Arabic, so the
Spaniards of the North employed Latin in their documents and Romance
dialects in their everyday life.
There was no regular system of education, and it is only in 1065
that the first university appears at Bagdad. Up till the reign of Hakam
government interest in education, according to Ribera, was limited to
maintaining freedom of instruction in opposition to the narrowness of
the Mālikite clergy who attempted to monopolise the teaching. ” Hakam
II, who was unable to travel to the East, invited Oriental scholars to
Cordova, where they gave lectures but received no official recognition.
At the end of his life he set aside legacies for the payment of professors
in Cordova with an eye to poor students. But this only applied to
religious education. The authorities intervened to test the orthodoxy
of the teaching, and at first a great impulse was given to the spread of
66
C, MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XVI.
28
## p. 434 (#480) ############################################
434
(6) Literature and science
Mālikite doctrines. But later the faķīhs became exceedingly intolerant
of all doctrine which they suspected of heterodoxy. Primary education
consisted, as in all Muslim countries, of writing and reading from the
Koran, to which the Spanish professors added pieces of poetry and
epistolary exercises in composition, and the pupils had to learn by heart
the elements of Arabic grammar. Writing was taught at the same time
as reading, and to learn writing was compulsory on all. Although edu-
cation was purely a private matter, yet it was so widely diffused that
most Spaniards knew how to read and write, a standard which, as Dozy
observes, was still unknown in the rest of Europe. Higher education
included, according to Ribera, translations, readings from the Koran and
the interpretation of the text; jurisprudence, practical instructions for
notaries and judges, the law of succession; branches of religious know-
ledge; politics, scholastic and ascetic theology ; Arabic philosophy,
grammar and lexicography; literature, including history, poetry, rhymed
prose, stories and anecdotes ; medicine, philosophy, astronomy, music,
studied in an order which it is impossible to determine.
Undoubtedly poetry was the most popular branch of general culture.
Among the Arabs even before the advent of Islām every tribe had
a poet, who sang the conflicts, the triumphs and defeats of his tribesmen
and, according to Goldziher, had some of the characteristics of the
prophet or seer. A copious literature in verse has come down to us
from that period, which in its treatment of wars, horses and the wilds
has always been a model and a source of inspiration. The chiefs who
settled in Spain brought their poets in their train ; emirs and Caliphs
composed verses, while improvisation was common in the streets and
roads. Even the women shared the popular taste, and some of the
Caliph's wives and slaves shewed remarkable poetic skill. Moreover, the
Caliphs had their court poets, to whom they paid high salaries and shewed
the utmost consideration. From primitive themes these writers went on
to the love poem. Satire and epigram were also much in use.
Besides poetry the Spanish Arabs diligently studied history and
geography, but although they cultivated the short story the drama was
unknown to them. Although philosophy was distrusted by the vulgar
and its followers filled orthodox theologians with alarm, the highest classes
were much addicted to its study in private. Some schools of philosophy,
indeed, resembled secret societies. It was certainly through this move-
ment that philosophy found its way into Europe; for the Spanish scholars,
who travelled in the East, had read the works of the commentators and
translators of the Greek philosophers. Thus the Spaniards served as the
channel of communication with the rest of Europe and particularly in-
Auenced the development of scholastic philosophy.
Astronomy, like philosophy, was viewed with suspicion by the public,
and their efforts to prohibit its study were successful. Despite this fact
Muslim Spain produced famous astronomers. More freedom was allowed
## p. 435 (#481) ############################################
(7) Books and libraries
435
to the study of pure and applied mathematics, and in medicine Spaniards
surpassed the Oriental physicians who had learned their art from Persian
Christians, and their influence on medieval medical science was profound.
Natural science was another subject studied by their doctors, who were also
chemists. The Jews followed attentively these systematic achievements
of Arab learning, and more especially its progress in physical and natural
science. They, too, influenced the rest of the West.
Side by side with all this progress there was a wide and enthusiastic
demand for books. This was due to various causes, such as the cursive
character of Arabic writing, which might be compared with the labour-
saving device of shorthand, and the employment of linen paper from the
earliest times, which was cheaper than papyrus or parchment. More-
over the peculiarities of Muslim life, without political assemblies,
theatres, or academies, which were the characteristic features of Greece
and Rome, made books their sole means of instruction. In the early
days of the conquest the Mozarabs preserved their Latin traditions in
a Latin form; but with the increase of educated people and the demand
for men learned in Muslim law there followed the gradual introduction
of books, at first only on legal and theological subjects. The renegades
took
up the study of their newly adopted language and religion with
enthusiasm, and their influence gave fresh impetus to the general
appetite for reading. The movement was slow and indecisive at first
and only reached its height with the advent of ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III.
Thanks to his establishment of peace and order, learned professors,
students from every country, skilled copyists, rich dealers and book-
sellers, flocked to Cordova until it became the intellectual centre of the
West. The Royal Library was already in the reign of Mahomet I one
of the best in Cordova, and ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān III added to it. His two
sons Mahomet and Hakam II shewed their dissatisfaction with their father's
library by each forming a separate collection, and in the end Hakam II
made the three libraries into one vast collection of four hundred thousand
volumes. He employed a principal librarian, who had instructions to
draw up a catalogue, as well as the best binders, draughtsmen and
illuminators. The dispersal of this library at the fall of the Caliphate
was a disaster to the West.
Cordova had also its celebrated private libraries. Among women,
too, bibliomania became the fashion, and ‘A’isha, who belonged to the
highest society in Cordova, had a notable collection, while women of
the lower classes devoted their time to copying the Koran or books
of prayers. The Jews, the Mozarabs and the renegades were carried away
by the current, and eunuchs acquired considerable learning and even
founded libraries.
“The period of these splendid achievements,” declares Ribera, the
best authority, “was doubtless of short duration. After the rule of
Almanzor Cordova was in the throes of civil war, and the Berbers, who
CH. XVI.
28-2
## p. 436 (#482) ############################################
436
(8) The Arts
formed the majority of the royal army, inaugurated a period of barbarism,
plundering and burning palaces and libraries. Wealthy families migrated
to the provinces; students and professors fled the capital. Then they
formed teaching centres and their enthusiasm for books spread among
those populations, who afterwards formed the kingdoms of the Taifas
(provincial dynasties). ”
Side by side with science and literature the Fine Arts flourished.
As we have already seen, Cordova had become the leading city in Spain ;
the splendour of her buildings and palaces vied even with the court
of Bagdad. The architectural methods adopted by the Arabs differed
greatly from those of the Romanised Spaniards. The beginnings of
Arabic architecture are to be found even before Islām under the Sassanids.
From this source the Arabs probably derived not only the gypsum arch
embellished with honeycomb cells and pyramids suspended like stalac-
tites, but also the stuccoed walls with their reliefs and decorations which
adorn so effectively the interior of Muslim houses. Byzantine influences
reinforced those from the Muslim East and affected both the architecture
and the scheme of ornamentation, all of which the Spanish Arabs took
over bodily, just as they gave Visigothic and classical influences free play
in their artistic modelling, the horse-shoe arch, later on so typically
Muslim, being of Visigothic origin.
The first period in the development of Hispano-Arabic architecture
covers the era of the Caliphate from the eighth to the tenth century, and
of it the mosque of Cordova is the most important monument. It was
begun in the reign of ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān I and the process of building
went on from the eighth to the tenth century. The ground plan of a
mosque is rectangular and comprises: a courtyard surrounded by a portico
and as a rule planted with trees, with a fountain for the ceremonial ablutions
of the faithful ; one or more lofty towers of graceful proportions, called
Şaumaʻa (but in Spanish known as alminares, minarets) which were used by
the mu'adhdhin to give the call to prayer; and a covered part (cubierta)
completely surrounding the court-yard and extending much farther in the
direction of the mihrab or niche which faces toward Mecca, while somewhat
to the right of this stands the pulpit or mimbar from which the imām
offers prayer. The architectural features of the building are the arches,
mainly of the horse-shoe form, though other forms such as the pointed and
the lobe-shaped arch were also used, and the cupola resting on its square
base ; while the columns employed on the early Roman and Visigothic
buildings imitated the Corinthian or composite capital, which was after-
wards superseded by the Cordovese capital, that flourished until the Nasarite
or Grenadine style in the last period of Hispano-Muslim architecture. The
walls were ornamented with bas-relief plaques in stone or gypsum, the
scheme of decoration being sometimes floral and sometimes geometrical
on a background usually red or blue. The decoration shewed traces of
classical, Visigothic, Syro-Byzantine and Mesopotamian influences.
## p. 437 (#483) ############################################
Contact of civilisations
437
Painting and sculpture were encouraged by the Spanish Muslims
without any restriction save in regard to religion. There are some
remarkable examples of representations of animals and persons, among
them some glazed vessels at Elvira on which are depicted painted human
figures. In metallurgy and ceramics great advances were made, but the
glazed tiles or bricks belong to a later period. In bronze work mention
should be made of the mosque lamps, and the chest, studded with silver
plates of the period of Hakam II, which is preserved in the cathedral of
Gerona. In furniture immense luxury was displayed; their carpets, silk
curtains, divans and cushions gave scope to many industries. With the
growth of Muslim influence, buildings for public baths multiplied and at
length came to be used even more than in the days of the Romans.
The difference between their family life and that of the Christians
was very marked. As is well known, Muslims might have even four
lawful wives and as many concubines as they could support : hence the
Caliphs and the wealthy had many wives whom they kept in harems. The
law gave the first wife the right to secure a promise from her husband
that he would not contract a fresh marriage or take concubines. Within
the house the woman was subject to the man; but she could dispose of
the greater part of his property and appear in the law courts without her
husband's leave. She exercised the same authority as he did over the sons,
so far as concerned their formal protection, and could obtain divorce for
valid grounds. Further, the women enjoyed more liberty in their social
relations than is generally supposed. They often walked through the
streets with their heads uncovered and attended men's meeting-places like
the schools.
The brilliant civilisation of the Caliphate naturally influenced the
Christians to the North. This influence was not only due to proximity,
but also, contrary to the general view, to frequent community of interests
between Christians and Muslims, and especially to Christian slaves
who escaped or secured their freedom and on their return home nearly
always kept their Arab names. Between Christians and Muslims visits
were frequently exchanged and mutual succour given in time of civil
war ; they traded together and inter-married not only in the lower but
also in the higher classes, including royalty. Such marriages must have
been very common, since the Arabs arrived in Spain not as tribes but as
bands of warriors. Throughout the later wars the combatants on both
sides were apparently a mixture of Muslims and Christians.
When two people come into contact the higher civilisation invariably
influences the other. Such indeed was the case of the Arabs in Spain and
the Spaniards from the beginning of the ninth to the end of the thirteenth
century, when Arab philosophy and science were at their height. In prac-
tical life Arab influence was even greater, not only in political but also
in legal and military organisation ; and this explains why the Christians
after the re-conquest of the districts inhabited by Muslims were com-
CH. XVI.
## p. 438 (#484) ############################################
438
The Mozarabs
pelled to respect existing institutions, while they set up analogous
systems for the new settlers, as is proved by the charters ( fueros) granted
by the kings of Aragon and Castile to the conquered cities. The literary
influence was not so strong. Arabic phrases were common in Leon,
Castile, Navarre, and other parts; the Romance languages, which were
then in the process of formation, took over a large number of Arabic
terms, sometimes making up hybrid words and sometimes pronouncing
the Latin words or their derivatives in the Arabic fashion. There were
many Moors who understood Romance, particularly in the frontier dis-
tricts, and they were called Latin Moors (ladinos) just as many Christians
with some knowledge of Arabic (algarabía) were called Christians who
talked a jargon (algaraviados).
The Mozarabs naturally felt Arab influence even more throughout
this period. The following passage occurs in the writings of Alvaro of
Cordova, the companion of Eulogio, who exhorted the Cordovan martyrs:
“Many of my fellow Christians read Arab poetry and stories, and study
the works of Mohammedan philosophers and theologians, not with the
object of refuting them, but to learn to express themselves in Arabic
with greater elegance and correctness. Alas! all our Christian youths,
who are winning a name for themselves by their talents, know the language
and literature of the Arabs alone ; they read and study assiduously their
books; at huge expense they form large libraries, and on every occasion
they positively declare that this literature merits our admiration. ”
The Muslim people in turn adopted something of Visigothic culture
from the renegades and Mozarabs, particularly in language, administra-
tion and the organisation of the arts. The Mozarabs still kept up
their old ecclesiastical schools where, under the direction of the Abbots
Samson, Spera-in-Deo and others, they carefully kept the Isidorian tradi-
tion. The Christian women, who formed an ordinary part of Arab and
Berber households, must have added to the force of these influences,
which, however, were never so powerful as those exercised by the
Muslim over the Christian element.
But, despite the Muslim influence, Christian civilisation with its
Visigothic basis continued to grow along its own lines. The political
unity of the Visigothic kingdom disappeared with the concentration
of Christian resistance at a few isolated points, and in this period there
cannot be said to be any national life; in fact, Spain has no real
existence: we can only speak of Asturias, Leon, Galicia, Navarre,
Castile, and Catalonia. This diversity of states, institutions and
nationalities, is the characteristic feature of medieval Spain.
So far as Asturias, Leon and Castile are concerned, the distinction
between slaves and freemen still continued, while the latter were sub-
divided into nobles and plebeians. The nobles were dependent on the
king, who gave them grants of land, titles and offices, etc. ; from time
to time a revolt broke out among these nobles, and this gave rise to a
## p. 439 (#485) ############################################
Government and classes in Leon and Castile
439
new class of nobles, the infanzones, more immediately dependent on the
king. In this period, too, first appear the milites (caballeros), free men
who received certain privileges in return for military service, and also the
infanzones de fuero, nobles of a peculiar kind chosen by the king from
inhabitants of cities or boroughs. Some men too put themselves under
the protection of nobles, giving personal services and payments in
return for it; this protection was known as encomienda or benefactoria.
The serfs were divided as in the Visigothic period into those
belonging to the State (fiscales), those owned by ecclesiastics (ecclesi-
ásticos) and those who were the property of private individuals (par-
ticulares). According to their status they might be either personal
property (personales) or bound to the soil (colonos). The latter were
indissolubly tied to the soil (gleba), so that they were regarded as
part of the land like trees or buildings, and were therefore included
in contracts for sale or purchase. The status of a serf might be ac-
quired by birth, by debt, by captivity or by voluntary assignment to
a lord (obnoxacion). These last had a higher status and were called
oblati. Freedom might be recovered by manumission, which was due
to the influence of Christianity and to economic necessities, by revolt or
Aight; hence arose a class of freedmen with special privileges and more
advantages than the primitive serf. By the end of the tenth century
these freedmen formed the majority of the population and were known
as juniores. They spoke of themselves as tenants-in-chief (de cabeza),
though they were liable to personal service, and were regarded as part
and parcel of the inheritance (heredad) or ancestral demesne (solariegos);
even when they worked elsewhere or lived away on an alien plot, they
still paid tribute. Such was their condition as it appears in the charter
of Leon at the beginning of the eleventh century; but afterwards it
steadily improved.
The king was at the head of the government, but his power varied
in different cases. He combined legislative and judicial functions, and
claimed the sole prerogative of coining money as well as the right
to summon his vassals to war (fonsadera). There was, however,
considerable variation in practice. In the lands directly dependent
on the king (realengas) he had full jurisdiction over all orders, and was
himself their mesne lord. But the nobles sometimes exercised over their
own lands an authority that practically superseded the king's. All
the inhabitants of the domain were dependent on their feudal lord,
some as serfs, others under his patronage. He collected tribute from
them, he accepted their personal services; he compelled them to go out
on military duty ; in a sense he dictated their laws and divided the
functions of government between the judex, mayordomus, villicus, and
sagio who presided over the concilium. He could not extend his privi-
leges over lands newly acquired without the express leave of the king.
The powers of the king over the lands of ecclesiastical vassals were also
CH. XVI.
## p. 440 (#486) ############################################
440
Leon and Castile; their nobles and towns
limited, while the ecclesiastics had the advantage of setting down their
privileges in written documents. Their duties as well as their rights were
on the same footing as those of secular feudatories.
The nobles, bishops and abbots could often interfere in lands which
were exempt from aristocratic or ecclesiastical control. They were
members of the Palatine Office (oficio palatino) as well as of the Royal
Council and the other councils. They kept in their hands the govern-
ment and administration of the districts, called commissa, mandationes,
tenentiae, etc. , and in their capacity of counts they were assisted by a
vicar and the council of neighbours (conventus publicus vicinorum). Such
powers intensified their turbulent spirit. They imposed their policy on
the crown, interfered in the struggles for the succession, and consequently
the monarchy found in them the strongest force in the country. But
despite all this there was no feudal hierarchy as in France and Germany,
since they exercised all their privileges by the favour of the king.
In Leon and Castile we can trace the rise of behetrías or collective
benefices (benefactorías collectivas), “groups of free men who sought
the protection of a powerful lord. ” If they might freely choose their
own lord, they were known as behetrías de mar a mar, but if their
choice were restricted to one family, they were called de linaje a linaje.
They were never very vigorous, owing to their dependence, but in
the tenth century they gave rise to the chartered town or concejo which
comprised “ the inhabitants who had been conquered by the king and
were attached to the royal domain, as well those who had recently
settled there and were exempt from the jurisdiction of the counts. ” The
reason for the establishment of concejos was the necessity of populating
the frontier. Since no one would live there owing to its insecurity,
the king had to attract inhabitants for chartered towns by granting
them privileges. Sometimes all who entered them were declared free
men, even if they sprang from the lowest serfs ; sometimes they were
exempted from services and contributions ; sometimes they were allowed
some political independence and self-government; sometimes the existing
practices and customary exemptions were recognised. These privileges
were definitely set forth in the fuero or charter of the inhabitants
(carta de poblacion); of those that have come down to us the charters
of Burgos, Castrojeriz, etc. , date from the tenth, and those of Nájera,
Sepúlveda and Leon from the beginning of the eleventh century. As a
rule the organisation of the chartered town depended on the formation of
the concilium (concejo) or assembly of neighbours, which exercised judicial
and administrative functions. The Council appointed every year a judge,
several assessors, clerks of the market and inspectors, who were entirely
dependent on its goodwill. Such were the beginnings of municipal life.
Its growth was marked by the gradual absorption by the concilium
of the powers and prerogatives, which had once belonged to the king and
the count; but the king still kept the right to appoint judges who con-
## p. 441 (#487) ############################################
Aragon and Navarre; Catalonia
441
tinued side by side with those elected by the council. There were usually
distinctions between greater and lesser members of the concejo; between
nobles (infanzones) and citizens, between holders of office (honoratii) and
simple neighbours (vicini), the villagers or townsmen.
Legislation had other sources besides the Fuero Juzgo through the new
charters granted by the king. The municipality exercised jurisdiction
according to custom and tradition in cases which were not expressly
included in their charter. Further, the fueros of the bishop and the
lords contributed an element to the legislation of the period, just as did
the municipal councils.
The inhabitants of Leon and Castile lagged far behind the Muslims in
point of material comfort. Agriculture,limited as yet by the bare necessities
of life, was fostered by the Benedictine monks alone, and for the most part
the population confined its energies to war. Industries, however, sprang up
at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia round the shrine of St James, and
craftsmen began to organise gilds. The salt industry, too, was kept up
in
Galicia. But there was less freedom of trade than in the preceding period,
and taxation generally took the form of duties imposed on the necessaries
of life. Money was scarce, and Roman and Gothic types of coin were
still current. The official language was Latin; but Romance was already
a formed language, although there are no documents extant in the vulgar
tongue till the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century.
Scarcely anything is known of Aragon and Navarre at this period.
In Catalonia, a West Frankish fief, the Franks exercised a profound
influence on the organisation of society. Here the counts were landowners,
who granted or leased out their lands, and this practice gave rise to the
copyholders(censatarios), the viscounts and other subordinates of the count.
Later, the grant of lands by the king to soldiers, whether in the shape of
alods or in that of beneficia, led to the formation of a fresh group of free
owners. Thus the nobility of Catalonia acquired the full powers of French
feudal seigneurs. The common law of all three realms was the Fuero
Juzgo, to which Catalonia added the Frankish capitularies. There were
also charters for towns in Aragon and Navarre, but their text has not come
down to us, while the fuero of Sobrarbe is generally regarded as a forgery.
In Catalonia there are extant the fuero of Montmell, the town charter
of Cardona given by Wifred, and the privilege of Barcelona granted by
Berengar-Raymond I.
The history of Spain, so far traced, is very different from that of
other Western countries. No land is more marked out by its mere
geography and local separations as the very home of rival kingdoms. It
fronts towards the sea, and it looks towards Africa: if it borders upon
modern France, it is yet separated from it by the almost impassable
Pyrenees. It still bore the imperishable marks of Roman rule: it had
been flooded by the Teutonic invaders when the Empire fell, and it had
been by them even more closely joined to Africa. Then it was again
a
CH. XVI.
## p. 442 (#488) ############################################
442
Unique history of Spain
marked out from the rest of Europe by the Muslim conquest, and Spain
gave a rival to the Eastern Caliphate just as the Franks gave a rival
to the Eastern Emperor. In itself the Iberian peninsula was split up by
many mountain ranges, and marked by startling variations in climate
and soil : it had a unity compatible with the strongest local divergencies.
Thus it was destined for a history strangely apart from other lands: if
at times it drew to itself outside races and outside influences, these in
their turn were moulded into types among themselves both akin and
separate. So, if splendid, it was always weak through its many divisions,
and many contests between Berbers and Arabs, and of Arabs among
themselves. The history of Arab civilisation in Spain intertwines itself
in
many links with medieval learning, science and thought, while the
presence of a rival race and rival creed at its very doors gave a special
tinge to Spanish fervour and Spanish faith. In the field of thought,
even in constitutional experiments, Spanish history has thus from early
times a significance far greater than that of its mere events. Even after
its splendour had reached its height the influence of the Moorish kingdom
was not ended. Small Christian states, separated from each other by
physical conditions, had been born in conflict with it, and were some-
times united in enmity against it, sometimes at strife in contest for its
alliance. Thus the later Spanish kingdoms were growing up, but their
day was yet to come.
## p. 443 (#489) ############################################
443
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CHURCH FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO SYLVESTER II.
The preceding volume came to an end with the picture of a vast
Empire seemingly destined to absorb Europe itself. This volume, on
the contrary, has offered little for our consideration save the spectacle of
Europe fallen to fragments, of its kingdoms sundered from one another,
and of disintegration steadily advancing. The alluring dream of Charles
the Great has vanished ; after his death no temporal prince was found
capable of carrying on his work, and it fell to ruins.
Nevertheless, the root idea which had inspired him still persisted :
the idea of the unity of the Christian world, bound together and
grouped round a single head, ready to give battle to the infidel, and to
undertake the conversion of the barbarians. But it was the Church
„which now appropriated the idea, and which alone, amidst the
surrounding confusion, succeeded in maintaining itself as the principle of
order and the power of cohesion. To shew in broad outline how and to
what extent the Church succeeded in this design during the disturbed
period which preceded the great Church reform of the eleventh century
is the object of these few pages which will thus sum up the history.
€
Under the ever-present influence of scriptural ideals, Charles the
Great had really come to see in himself what he was so often called, a
new David, or another Solomon, at once priest and king, the master and
overlord of the Bishops of his realms; in reducing those Bishops to
the level of docile fellow-labourers with him in the work of government,
he had believed himself to be working for the consolidation of his own
power. But in this matter, as in so many others, the results of his
policy had not accorded with his wishes and expectations. The Bishops,
having been called upon to take part in affairs of State, were conse-
quently quite ready to busy themselves with them even uninvited, while,
on the other hand, by the investment of the Emperor with a semi-sacer-
dotal character the clergy were encouraged to see in him one of them-
selves, and, despite his superior position, to look upon him as amenable
to their jurisdiction.
CH. XVII.
## p. 444 (#490) ############################################
444
Louis the Pious and the Bishops
>
9
This had been clearly perceived as early as the time of Louis the
Pious, when, on the morrow of Lothar's usurpation (833), the Bishops,
alleging the obligation laid on them by their “priestly office," had
“
plainly asserted their right to examine and punish the conduct of a
prince who had incurred guilt by “refusing to obey,” as the official
record declares, “the warnings of the clergy. ” For, although Louis the
Pious was already looked upon as deposed at the time of the ceremony
in St Medard's at Soissons, the course which the Bishops had adopted
without hesitation was in point of fact to bring him to trial for his
conduct as a sovereign, imposing on him the most humiliating of
penances, “after which,” as the record concludes, “none can resume his
post in the world's army. "
Louis the Pious, as already seen', did, nevertheless, return to the
world's army," and was even reinstated in the imperial dignity. Yet
this decisive action taken by the Bishops in the crisis of 833 shewed
clearly that the parts had been inverted. Louis the Pious was the king
of the priests, but no longer in the same sense as Charles the Great: he
was at their
mercy.
The precedent thus set was not forgotten. During the fratricidal
struggle which, on the morrow of the death of Louis the Pious, broke
out amongst Lothar, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald, the
Bishops more than once took occasion to interfere, and to make them- .
selves masters of the situation. \In March 842, in particular, when
Charles the Bald and Louis the German had encamped in the palace of
Aix-la-Chapelle whence their brother had precipitately fled at their
approach, the clergy, as Nithard, an eye-witness, relates, “reviewing
Lothar's whole conduct, how he had stripped his father of power, how
often, by his cupidity, he had driven Christian people to commit
perjury, how often he had himself broken his engagements to his father
and his brothers, how often he had attempted to despoil and ruin the
latter since his father's death, how many adulteries, conflagrations and
acts of violence of every description his criminal ambition had inflicted
on the Church, finally, considering his incapacity for government, and
the complete absence of good intentions in this matter shewn by him,
declare that it is with good reason and by a just judgment of the
Almighty that he has been reduced to take flight, first from the field of
battle, and then from his own kingdom. ” Without a dissentient voice the
Bishops proclaimed the deposition of Lothar, and after having demanded
of Louis and Charles whether they were ready to govern according to the
Divine Will the States abandoned by their brother, “ Receive them,”
they bade them, “and rule them according to the Will of God; we require
it of you in His Name, we beseech it of you, and we command it you. ”
In thus encroaching on the domain of politics, the Bishops were
persuaded that they were only acting in the interest of the higher
1 See Chapter 1. p. 19.
a
## p. 445 (#491) ############################################
Aims of the Episcopate
445
concerns committed to their care. They had gradually accustomed
themselves to the idea that the Empire ought to be the realisation upon
earth of the “ City of God,” the ideal city, planned by St Augustine.
The study of St Augustine had been the mental food of Bishops,
learned clerks and princes themselves, and in their complaints the clergy
had always a source of inspiration in the complaints echoed four
centuries earlier by St Augustine and his followers. The Empire was
hastening to its ruin because religion was no longer honoured, because
every man was concerned only for his own interests and was careless of
the higher interests of the Church, because instead of brotherliness and
concord only cupidity and selfishness reigned unchecked. If the Empire
were to be saved, the first thing to be done was to recall every man to
Christian sentiments and to the fear of God.
Whatever work of the period we open, whether we go to the letters
written at the time by the clergy, or whether we examine the considera-
tions on which the demands made by their synods to the king are based,
we shall find the same arguments upon the necessity of reverting to the
Christian principles which had constituted the strength of the Empire
and had been the condition of its existence. For the deacon Florus,
the decadence of the Empire is merely one aspect of the decadence of the
Church : at the period when the Empire flourished “ the clergy used to
meet frequently in councils, to give holy laws to the people”; to-day,
he goes on, there is nothing but conciliabula of men greedy of lands and
benefices, “ the general interest is not regarded, everyone is concerned
about his own affairs, all things command attention except God. ” The
conclusion of the whole matter is, he says, that “all is over with the
honour of the Church" and that “the majesty of the State is a prey to
the worst of furies. ” The same reflections may be found in Paschasius
Radbertus, biographer of the Abbot Wala ; the whole of the disorder in
the State arises from the disappearance of religion, the imperial power
has made shipwreck at the same time as the authority of the Church.
Wala's comment, as he made his appearance amidst the partisans of
Lothar on the morrow of the penance at St Medard's, is well known :
“ It is all perfect, save that you have left naught to God of all that was
due to Him. "
To restore to the 6 Church of God” and to its ministers the honour
that is their due, such is the sheet-anchor which the Episcopate offers
to sovereigns. Over and over again during the years that followed the
death of Louis the Pious and the partition of Verdun, the Bishops press
upon rulers the necessity of acting “with charity,” and in cases where
any error has been committed, of doing penance, and, as a document of
844 expresses it, “asking the forgiveness of the Lord according to the
exhortation and counsel of the priests. ” And these exhortations bear
fruit; in April 845, while a synod was sitting at Beauvais, the King of
France, Charles the Bald, after swearing on the hilt of his sword in the
CH, XVII.
## p. 446 (#492) ############################################
446
Bishops' attempt at control
Name of God and the saints to respect till death the privileges and laws
of the Church, admits the right and even the duty of the prelates both
to suspend the execution
of any measure he might take which should
be to the detriment of these privileges and laws, and also to address
remonstrances to him, calling upon him to amend any decisions contrary
to them.
Strong in this pledge, the prelates of France, a few months later
(June 845) ventured to put forward, at the Synod of Meaux, a whole
series of claims directed not less against their king than against the
whole lay aristocracy, reproaching both alike with hindering the free
exercise of religion. Their reproaches were expressed in a language of
command, which on this occasion was carried to such a height that the
king, with the support of the magnates, resisted.
Nevertheless, the Bishops remained masters of the situation. In the
years that follow, making common cause now with the lay aristocracy,
they succeed, throughout the various kingdoms which sprang from
Charles the Great's empire, in imposing their will upon the sovereigns.
They are at once the leaders and the spokesmen of the turbulent vassals,
ever ready to league themselves together to resist the king. In an
assembly held in August 856 at Bonneuil near Paris, with unprecedented
violence they accuse Charles the Bald of having broken all his engage-
ments; they warn him “in charity” that they are all, priests and laymen,
of one mind in resolving to see them carried out, and they summon him,
in consequence, to amend without delay all provisions to the contrary,
concluding this singular “ request " with a threatening quotation from
the Psalms: “If a man will not turn, He will whet His sword : He
hath bent His bow, and made it ready. He hath prepared for him the
instruments of death. ”
We have already seen', how two years later this prediction was
apparently realised. Louis the German, in response to the appeal of a
portion of his brother Charles the Bald's subjects, invaded his dominions
and succeeded in occupying a great part of them. Called upon to ratify
his usurpation, a group of Bishops from the ecclesiastical provinces of
Rheims and Rouen gathered together at Quierzy-sur-Oise, following the
suggestions of Archbishop Hincmar, carried matters with a high hand;
after having recommended him to meditate upon the duties which a
prince owes to the Church, they thought fit to bring to his notice these
words from the Psalms : “Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have
children,” together with the interpretation : “ Instead of the Apostles,
I have ordained Bishops that they may govern and instruct thee. ”
Kings working for the maintenance of peace under the aegis of the
Church, such was thenceforward the programme of the Episcopate.
And by peace is intended the peace of Christendom, the peace of the
Church ; to disturb it is to infringe the laws of which the Church is the
1 Chapter 11. pp. 36–37.
## p. 447 (#493) ############################################
Hincmar in the State
447
guardian, and to revolt against the Church itself. Thus in a synod
assembled at Metz on 28 May 859, the Bishops of the kingdoms of
Western Francia and Lorraine do not hesitate to characterise the
attempt of Louis the German to seize upon his brother's lands as a
“schism in the Holy Church and in Christendom," adding that he is
bound to ask “absolution " for it.
