early quelled had established a precedent for many others. It is significant of the state of disorder that Abdu-l-malek took advantage of the condition of things to seize Okbah and depose him from the government. Accounts of the fate of Okbah say, he was either put to death or banished by his rival ; but that rival was rushing upon a desperate fate. In order to quell the rising of the Berbers, he invited an Arabian general named Balj, to come over from Africa and assist him in putting them down. Balj came and soon found a better field for his ambition; the Amirate was open to the most adventurous man; the authority of the khalif and the power of the Wali of Africa were contemned, and as the empire of Rome was within the power of the Prætorian Guard, so the government of Spain was within the reach of the most popular military leader. The Berbers in Africa had defeated the Syrian army, and Balj had come with the remnant of that defeated force, ostensibly to assist Abdu-l-malek, but really to supersede him. Grounds of quarrel were very easily found. Abdu-l-malek was taken prisoner and crucified by his rival, amid the most ignominious surroundings. The miserable victim is said to have been nearly ninety years old. He was led to his crucifixion amid the jeers and scoffs of the Syrian troops, who thought it rare sport to crucify likewise a hog on his right hand and a dog on his left.2 But the usurping governor had raised up a host of enemies, chief among whom were the sons of the martyred Abdul-malek. They rallied a force and marched to the attack of Balj, and although they were defeated, and the Syrians still retained the power, Balj was mortally wounded. This took place in September, 742.

The place of the crucifixion, (Masslab Ibn, Khattan) was marked by the erection of a mosque, through the pious care of his son Ummeyah, and it remained during the Moslem sway as Mesjid Ummeyah, a monument of faction and revenge.

The Syrians, upon the death of Balj, appointed Tha'lebah al

The account given by La Fuente is entirely different. According to him, Okbah was ordered temporarily to Africa in 734, to deal with the insurgent Berbers there. He left Abdu-l-malek in command until his return. This will explain the appearance of Abdu-l-malek a second time in the list of Ameers.— Ib.

2Al Mak. II., 43.

Jodhami to the temporary command, but he could not quiet the contending parties, and only remained in power a part of one year.

At this juncture the Wali of Africa nominated Abu'-l-khattar as Ameer, a competent person "to re-establish public order," and it seemed at first the very best appointment. All parties, weary of the confusion, agreed for the moment to lay down their arms, and listen to the words of conciliation which the new Ameer was very ready to speak. He treated all with kindness, and showed himself to be at once brave, generous and judicious. Finding Cordova too small to give proper space to the contending tribes, he spread them all over the Moslem domain.1

The people of Damascus he sent to Elbira, near the present site of Granada, and thus gave to it the Arabic name of Damascus, Sham; the contingent from Emessa he quartered at Seville, which thus received the name Hems; the men of Kenesrin were placed at Jaen; those of Al-urdan at Malaga. Those of Palestine (Philistines) he fixed in the country of Medina Sidonia and Xeres; the Palmyrines occupied Murcia, and the Egyptians the land of Tadmir. This seemed at the moment the best of all expedients, as it gave them large lands, and separated them, thus removing the immediate temptation to quarrel.

But the disorder was by no means thus entirely quelled. The unchecked resistance to the feeble hands of the khalifs made the generals impatient of any authority. The tribes then conspired against each other. The Ameer was accused of favoring the inhabitants of Yemen against the Kenanah. There was fighting in all quarters, and an incident which occurred to the Ameer himself is vividly illustrative of the general condition of affairs.

It was alleged that in a private quarrel between one of the Yemenites who was a cousin of the Ameer, with a man of the tribe of Kenanah, although the right was with the latter, Abu-'l khattar decided in favor of his cousin.

The injured man went to see As-samil, his chief, and complained of the injustice. This chieftain repaired in an angry mood to the Ameer, and reproached him in intemperate language with his unfair dealing. The Ameer ordered his guards to turn him out, and

1Al Mak, II, 46.

in the scuffle which ensued the turban of As-samil was thrown on one side. As he left the palace, a person standing at the door asked him what was the matter with his turban-“By Allah, it is all on one side." "Thou art correct, man," replied As-samil, "but I trust my people will soon put it right for me.". This was in the year 745.

A rebellion was thus excited; the friends of As-samil marched upon the Ameer. The contending forces met in the plains of the Guadalete, and after a desperate battle, the Ameer was defeated and taken prisoner. While expecting his execution, he was lib. erated by his friends, and felt once more secure among the Yemenites. But the confusion had given place to anarchy. Many of the Yemenites failed of their allegiance. The tribes were becoming confounded, and faction was stronger than blood. As-samil joined Thuabah to his councils, and, usurping the power, endeavored to harmonize the discordant elements, without success. Thuabah was confirmed as Ameer by the Wali of Africa, and directed affairs conjointly with As-samil.

But the former Ameer was not content to abandon place and power without another struggle. Hastily collecting what force he could, he marched to meet the forces of As-samil and Thuabah. They met in the field of Shekundah, where, after the most desperate efforts, Abu-'l-khattar was again defeated. He fled from the field with a few attendants, and took refuge in a mill, concealing himself under the mill-stone. There he was discovered and taken into the presence of As-samil, by whom he was immediately beheaded.1 The abnormal control of As-samil and Thuabah was now brought to an end.

At this juncture (747) there came into power a man who received his appointment first from the army; but who had better qualifications for government than any of the former contestants. This was Yusuf Al Fehri. A native of Kairwan, he was fifty-seven years of age, and as he was also a Koreeshite by lineage, and descended from that Okbah who founded Kairwan, he was acceptable even to As-samil, who seemed to have desired rather to be a king-maker than king. The selection of Yusuf by the troops displays his power and his popularity.

For a brief period all the conflicting parties seemed satisfied,2 1Ibnu-Hayyan, quoted by Al Mak., I. 50. 2 Al Mak., II. 54.

and the good effects of his temporary appointment having reached the ears of the khalif Meruan, it was confirmed by that, sovereign, the more readily that the khalif was not in condition to contest it.

All parties again laid down their arms; but the truce was again only temporary. For nine years and nine months Yusuf ruled, most of the time engaged in quelling the insurrections of the various tribes, but always displaying a skill and vigor demanding our praise. He was the last of the Ameers; a great change was 'impending, a new dynasty was coming upon the throne of the khalifs, which in the act of gaining the supreme power at Damascus, should lose the Spanish peninsula forever.

In the year 756, one day when Yusuf, who was quelling an insurrection in Aragon, was entering his tent, after witnessing the execution of some prisoners whose lives he had solemnly promised to spare, a man came at the full speed of his horse, bearing a letter from Yusuf's son, whom he had left in command at Cordova. The despatch was of astounding purport: "A youth named Abdu-r-rahmán Ibu Muawiyah had landed on the shores occupied by the Syrian settlers (the shores of Granada), and had been immediately proclaimed by the adherents and partisans of the family of Meruan, who had flocked to him from all parts."2 This was the sudden knell of Yusuf's hopes. As soon as the news spread, the Ameer's men began to desert, and by the next morning he had, with his personal friends and slaves, and one tribe, that of Kays, scarcely a corporal's guard for an army. He hurried to Toledo, to take council of As-samil. What should be done? temporize, fight or submit to the new rule? When instant action was needed he vacillated, and when he reached Cordova from the north, the youth named Abdu-r-rahmán was approaching it with a constantly increasing army from Granada.3 But I am anticipating the sequel of a remarkable history. I have greatly abridged the account of the doings of the Ameers in Spain, for many reasons, reasons which will not hold good for a connected history. The details are a confused noise of battled hosts, and

1 Gayangos II. 416, note.

(2Al Mak. I., 67.

31b.

lend little additional force to the philosophy. They possess, besides, very little interest. Blows and counter blows, attacks and defeats, rebellions checked, and renewed; Punic faith, cruel executions, and nothing gained to the cause of order and progress. But my chief reason for the abbreviation is, that I may give more space to a story which, apart from its historic connections, contains more of romance, and more of pathos, than any other in the always romantic and pathetic history of the Arabians in Spain.

As a historic event, it is of surpassing importance, since it is no less than the establishment of an independent Mohammedan empire in Europe, an empire which, while it acknowledged the khalif as the head of the religion, discarded him as a civil governor ; an empire which took root and flourished for centuries. And lastly, it presents the curious counterbalance, in the great scale of human justice, of a dynasty destroyed in the east, arising in the day of that destruction in the west, and growing with unwonted vigor from the tender shoot of the torn and uprooted vine which Providence had transplanted into Spain.

Amid the splendors and luxuries of Damascus, the khalifs of the House of Ummeyah had become degenerate, and less able from year to year to govern the people by whom they were immediately surrounded, and among whom were rival factions as old as the first contest of claims between Abu Becre and Ali. A distant province like Spain held still more lightly to its allegiance. There a generation of Moslemah had grown up since the conquest, to whom Spain, not Syria, was fatherland. They looked indeed with veneration to the cities of Mohammed, as holy shrines for the pilgrim, and to Damascus as the seat of God's vicegerent in all matters of the faith. But in all matters of government and administration, they felt the power of a new nationality, which could not acknowledge a distant governor; which felt its life in every limb, and could not be controlled.

This feeling was greatly strengthened by the weakness of that distant government. From the vigor and renown of the first Muawiyah and Walid, it had reached the imbecility of the last Meruan al Gedhi, who was a sensualist, an infidel and a scoffer. The house of Ummeyah had numbered fourteen khalifs, of whom several had been deposed, among whom was Ibrahim, who had been subdued by Meruan. They had long found patient but