Christianity and Islam in Spain | Page 8

Syria was overrun and Damascus taken. Persia, which had contended for centuries on equal terms with Rome, was overthrown in a single campaign. In 637 Jerusalem fell, and the sacred soil of Palestine passed under the yoke of the Saracens. Within three years Alexandria and the rich valley of the Nile were the prize of Amru and his army. The conquest of Egypt only formed the stepping-stone to the reduction of Africa, and the victorious Moslems did not pause in their career until they reached the Atlantic Ocean, and Akbah,[3] riding his horse into the sea, sighed for more worlds to conquer. We may be excused perhaps for thinking that it had been well for the inhabitants of the New World, if Fortune had delivered them into the hands of the generous Arabs rather than to the cruel soldiery of Cortes and Pizarro.
[1] Al Makk., ii. 34. "What are thirty barbarians perched upon a rock? They must inevitably die."
[2] Carlyle's "Hero Worship" ad finem.
[3] Cardonne, i. p. 37; Gibbon, vi. 348, note.
In 688, that is, in a little more than a generation from the death of Mohammed, the Moslems undertook the siege of Constantinople. Fortunately for the cause of civilisation and of Christendom, this long siege of several years proved unsuccessful, as well as a second attack in 717. But by the latter date the footing in Europe, which the valour of the Byzantines denied them, had already been gained by the expedition into Spain under Tarik in 711. The same year that witnessed the crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar in the West saw also in the East the passage of the Oxus by the eager warriors of Islam.
There seems to be some ground for supposing that the Saracens had attacked Spain even before the time of Tarik. As early as 648, or only one year after the invasion of Africa, an expedition is said to have been made into that country under Abdullah ibn Sa'd,[1] which resulted in the temporary subjugation of the southern provinces. A second inroad is mentioned by Abulfeda[2] as having taken place in Othman's reign (644-656); while for an incursion in the reign of Wamba (671-680) we have the authority of the Spanish historians, Isidore of Beja and Sebastian of Salamanca, the former of whom adds the fact that the Saracens were invited in by Erviga, who afterwards succeeded Wamba on the throne--a story which seems likely enough when read in the light of the subsequent treason of Julian. These earlier attacks, however, seem to have been mere raids, undertaken without an immediate view to permanent conquest.
By way of retaliation, or with a commendable foresight, the Goths sent help to Carthage when besieged by the Arabs in 695; and, while Julian their general still remained true to his allegiance, they beat off the Saracens from Ceuta. But on the surrender of that fortress the Arabs were enabled to send across the Straits a small reconnoitring detachment of five hundred men under Tarif abu Zarah,[3] a Berber. This took place in October 710; but the actual invasion did not occur till April 30, 711, when 12,000 men landed under Tarik ibn Zeyad. There seems to have been a preliminary engagement before the decisive one of Gaudalete (July 19th-26th)--the Gothic general in the former being stated variously to have been Theodomir,[4] Sancho,[5] or Edeco.[6]
[1] See De Gayangos' note on Al Makkari, i. p. 382.
[2] "Annales Moslemici," i. p. 262.
[3] The names of Tarif ibn Malik abu Zarah and Tarik ibn Zeyad have been confused by all the careless writers on Spanish history--_e.g._ Conde, Dunham, Yonge, Southey, etc.; but Gibbon, Freeman, etc., of course do not fall into this error. For Tarif's names see De Gayangos, Al Makk., i. pp. 517, 519; and for Tarik's see "Ibn Abd el Hakem," Jones' translation, note 10.
[4] Al Makk., i. 268; Isidore: Conde, i. 55.
[5] Cardonne, i. 75.
[6] Dr Dunham.
It will not be necessary to pursue the history of the conquest in detail. It is enough to say that in three years almost all Spain and part of Southern Gaul were added to the Saracen empire. But the Arabs made the fatal mistake[1] of leaving a remnant of their enemies unconquered in the mountains of Asturia, and hardly had the wave of conquest swept over the country, than it began slowly but surely to recede. The year 733 witnessed the high-water mark of Arab extension in the West, and Christian Gaul was never afterwards seriously threatened with the calamity of a Mohammedan domination.
The period of forty-five years which elapsed between the conquest and the establishment of the Khalifate of Cordova was a period of disorder, almost amounting to anarchy, throughout Spain. This state of things was one eminently favourable to the growth and consolidation of the infant state which was