370 



Moors in Spain, and wlien, at length, witli an echoing sigh, Boabdil 

 el Chico turned to leave it forever. 



These are but glimpses, beautiful, never to be forgotten, but not 

 satisfactory; they awaken a burning desire for a wider, even a pano- 

 ramic view of those thrilling scenes. We would know, what indeed, 

 Irving did not design to tell, the details of that romantic history 

 from which we may gather the philosophy of the Arab Moors in 

 Spain. 



There is not in history a more marvellous or more interesting 

 subject than this. 



Islam, proclaimed in the beginning of the seventh century, had 

 succeeded in revolutionizing the Southern and Eastern world. 

 When the angel showed to Mahomet the silken cloth covered with 

 writing, he emulated the meekness of Moses ; he said he could not 

 read : his faith was to be one of labor, of practice ; the written word 

 was to be supplied only to meet the practical need. Then began 

 the life of action : leaving their barren and rocky deserts and ledges, 

 the Arabians carried the sword of the prophet everywhere. The 

 first caliphs went to Greece and to Persia. Then they swarmed upon 

 Egypt ; they ran along the northern ledge of Africa. Mauritania 

 came under their sway; its inhabitants were absorbed into the ever 

 increasing army of the faithful ; the fierce races of Tripoli, Tunis, 

 Algiers and Morocco, robbers on land and already pirates at sea, 

 were now imbued with a new spirit ; religion without moral obliga- 

 tion, — fatalism and antinomianism combined ; and, receiving the im- 

 pulsion from their conquerors and converters, they rushed together, 

 as Arab-Moors, across the small strait; and, in 711, not a century 

 from the public annunciation that there was but one God, and 

 Mahomet was his prophet, they had made their inefi'aceable mark in 

 Spain by the victory on the banks of the Guadalete. They spread 

 over Spain like summer fire ; only in the Asturias and in Biscay 

 was a small kingdom of Christian Spaniards. The Moors were else- 

 where masters : and in some respects they deserved to be. 



They brought great improvements in the science of numbers and 

 quantity; they originated alchemy , from which turbid fountain we 

 have the noble and limpid stream of chemistry; they adorned that 

 beautiful land with grand works of architecture ; splendid palaces, 

 magnificent arabesques, fine roads. Industry, ready and practical, 

 was their social law. Literature and poetry, adorned with the figu- 

 rative language of their Eastern origin, found, as yet, no rival in 

 the North, where neither trouv^res, menestraux, nor troubadours 

 had sprung into distinct and illustrious existence. 



