PROGRESS AMONG THE ARABS. 31 



hibited that taste for statuary, paintings, and learning which 

 the popes of Rome showed only six hundred years later. When 

 the famous musician Zaryab came from Asia to superintend the 

 Cordova COLLEGE OF MUSIC, the Khalif rode forth to meet 

 him and do him honour. Those who now visit Spain may 

 bear witness to the richness and loveliness of Saracenic 

 architecture the ALHAMBRA and the CORDOVA CATHEDRAL 

 are specimens of its grandeur. In Europe the kings' palaces 

 were for centuries barbarous and unclean dwellings, chimney- 

 less, windowless, hardly better than stables, and " with a 

 hole in the roof for the smoke to escape ; " their furniture 

 consisted of rough wooden benches, stools, tables, and coffers, 

 rushes on the floor and straw mats against the walls. The 

 equipage of a travelling sovereign was an ox-cart. It was 

 only after returning from the Crusades that the kings and 

 barons, who had seen the luxury of the East, began to awake 

 from their coarse usages, and introduce slight improvements 

 in their customs. In this they were wholly indebted to the 

 Arabs ; it took them, however, another three hundred years 

 for realising anything like comfort and luxury. 



The Arabs were of all peoples those who brought the 

 vastest improvements in the ARTS OF LIFE. They made 

 agriculture a science ; it was regulated by a code of laws ; 

 they improved it by irrigation, by means of flood-gates, wheels, 

 and pumps. They likewise made a science of the cultivation 

 of plants, of garden and orchard fruits ; to them we owe the 

 introduction of rice, cotton, silk, sugar, saffron, spinach, and 

 other vegetables, the Xeres and Malaga wines. They paid 

 great attention to the breeding of cattle, camels, sheep, and 

 HORSES, improving the breeds of those they possessed. From 

 them Europe inherited its love of the horse; likewise of 

 hunting and falconry. They preceded Europe in the practice 

 of true CHIVALRY. They also originated or improved many 

 branches of industry earthenware, iron, steel, leather, textile 

 fabrics, from the humblest to the most gorgeous. The 

 people's food was wholesome and most varied. The trade of 

 the world for centuries was in their hands and those of their 

 fast allies the JEWS OF SPAIN. Over a thousand merchant 

 ships trading between Barcelona and the Levant exchanged 



