Jews and Moors in Spain. Joseph Krauskopf
Europe and Africa to their very center. The occupations of the people were trade and agriculture. The former had ports along the coasts, and carried on foreign trade by means of ships and caravans. The nomadic Arabs were the more numerous of the two. The necessity of being always on the alert to defend their flocks and herds made these familiar from their infancy, with the exercise of arms. No one could excel them in the use of the bow, the lance and the scimitar, and the adroit and graceful management of the horse. They were more at home on horseback than on foot. The horse was their friend and companion. They lived and talked with him and lavished upon him their dearest affection, and both were capable of sustaining great fatigue and hardship. The Arabs possessed in an eminent degree the intellectual attributes of the Shemitic race. Penetrating sagacity, subtle wit, a ready conception, a brilliant imagination, a proud and daring spirit were stamped upon their sallow visage, and flashed from their dark and kindling eye. Our language, naturally poetic, made them poets and the most eloquent of men. They were generous and hospitable. Their deadliest foe, having once broken bread with them, could repose securely beneath the inviolable sanctity of their tent. Their religion originally consisted of a belief in the unity of God, in future life, in the necessity of prayer and virtue. This was the creed of Abraham and was brought to them by Ishmael and Hagar. In the course of time it became contaminated with Sabean star worship and Magian idolatry."
"When Palestine was ravaged by the Romans, and the city of Jerusalem taken and sacked, many of the Jews took refuge among them, and gradually many of the tenets of the Jewish faith and practices of the Jewish worship were again insensibly adopted by them. The same refuge Arabia offered later to many Christians who were fleeing from the persecutions of Rome, and these also engrafted gradually, some of their rites and ceremonies and beliefs upon the people. The result was a mixture of religious beliefs, the highest religious principles alternating with the most degrading idolatries. There was no accepted creed, no unified faith."
A great reformer was needed, and the great Allah sent his prophet, Mohammed, to establish the only true faith: Islamism. His birth was accompanied by signs and portents, announcing a child of wonder.[6] At the moment of his coming into the world, a celestial light, illuminated the surrounding country, and the new-born child, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed "God is great! There is no God but God, and I am his Prophet." Heaven and earth were agitated at his advent. Palaces, and temples and mountains toppled to the earth. The fires, sacred to Zoroaster, which had burned, without interruption for upwards of a thousand years, were suddenly extinguished, and all the idols in the world fell down. Though his true Messiahship was thus made evident at his birth, and in his youth, he still waited to the age of fully ripened manhood before he made the attempt of establishing the creed, which the angel Gabriel had written down for him upon palm leaves. But when the time had come for raising his own nation from fetichism, from the adoration of a meteoric stone, and from the basest idol worship, he awakened his people out of their religious and political torpor, kindled the fire of enthusiasm among them, and they thirsted after opportunities for contest and conquests.
When death took the sword from his hand ten years later, the whole world trembled at the very mention of his name.
Here Abdallah pauses in his narrative. He touches a silver bell, and soon a maiden appears. This is the first time that we are permitted to gaze upon a Moorish woman's face; those we met in the streets or parks, or saw behind the latticework of the woman's gallery in the mosque, were always clothed in the mantilla, which encircled their entire form, and their faces were always hidden under the face veil, or under the horsehair vizard, which left but the eyes visible. She wears her hair braided. A light cap or cornet, adorned with gems, forms the covering for her head. The side locks are entwined with coral beads, hung loosely to chinck with every movement. Full white muslin trousers are tied at the ankle with golden strings that end in merry little silver bells. A long full white mantle of transparent muslin covers the tight-fitting vest and jacket of silk, both of brilliant colors, and embroidered and decorated with woven gold. Around her neck and arms and wrists she wears chains, necklaces and bracelets, of gold, and of coral and pearls and amber.
He whispers something in her ear, and immediately she disappears, light as an angel shape. A deep silence ensues. At that moment we think not of Mohammed, the founder of a new faith and the conqueror of the world, but of Zelica, Abdallah's daughter, that beauteous maiden, whose complexion vies with the rubies and white jasmine flowers she wears more radiant still when her dazzling eyes drooped, and when the scarlet hue of innocence mantled her face as her glance met the eyes of men and strangers.
Abdallah had ordered refreshments. Servants appear and spread an embroidered rug upon the floor. Upon it they place a low tray, set with silver and fine earthenware, and provided with the choicest of fruits, confections and sherbets flavored with violet. Low cushions are placed around it, upon which we, following the example of our host and guide, seat ourselves with our legs crossed. Before eating, a servant pours water on our hands from a basin and ewer. The meal begins with "Bismilah" for grace. A very interesting conversation, displaying great learning and much reading, is carried on between the two poets, as to whether Cordova or Bagdad leads the world in literature, art, science, and philosophy. Abdallah champions Cordova, Dunash favors Bagdad, his native home.
The delicious repast is ended. The floor is cleared, Abdallah resumes his narrative.
"The successors of Mohammed," says he, "followed in the footsteps of our prophet. They passed beyond the confines of Arabia, and persecuted their work of converting the world, giving to the conquered the choice between the Koran, or Tribute, or Death. In less than fifty years after the Prophet's death, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Asia Minor had accepted the religion of Mohammed. In Jerusalem a mosque stood on the site where once the temple of Solomon stood. In Alexandria the Mohammedans wrought direful vengeance on Christians for the crimes which the arrogant and fanatical St. Cyril had committed there two centuries before, by extirpating Grecian learning and by inciting his monks to murder the wise Hypatia."
The extreme northern part of Africa brought their armies to a sudden halt. Here they encounter two strong foes. First, the people called Berbers "the Noble," a tall, noble looking race of men, active, high-spirited and indomitable. They had the same patriarchal habits, the same Shemitic features, were equally skilled in the use of arms and the breeding and handling of horses, and so the Arabs believed them to be of their own race. This Northern coast of Africa has been called by the Romans, from the dark complexion of its people: Mauritania, and its people were called Mooriscos, or Moors. When the superior force of the Arabians compelled the Moors to submit at last, the conquerors and the conquered coalesced so completely, that in less than a decade the one could not be distinguished from the other.
"The second foe, however, who inhabited the Northern extremity of Almagreb, where the continent of Africa protrudes boldly to meet the continent of Europe, was not so easily overcome. The rock-built city of Ceuta was garrisoned by Spanish soldiers, and its brave commander, Count Julian, defied the valiant Amir Musa Ibn Nosseyr, the Hero of Two Continents. It seemed as if Islamism had reached its limit, that it would never set its foot upon beautiful Andalusia, at which it had so often cast its wistful eye. But Allah favored the onward march of the religion of the Prophet! The wrong done by the wicked Roderick, King of Spain, to the young and beautiful Florinda, daughter of Count Julian, the brave commander of Ceuta, opened Europe to the Arab-Moors. "By the living God," exclaimed the insulted father. "I will be revenged."
He soon found willing allies, consisting of the nobles, who could no longer endure the despotism of King Roderick, and of the Jews, who had been expelled from Spain. Encouraged by these allies Count Julian entered into negotiations with Amir Musa for the delivery of Spain into his hands. Musa accepted cheerfully.
"Long had the crimes of Spain cried out to Heaven:
At length the measure of offence was full.
Count Julian called the invader."
"Mad to wreak
His vengeance for his deeply injured child
On