CALIPHS OF SPAIK. 55 



tomi'd to make their first onset with wild cries and 

 bowlings, in order to intimidate the foe — a practice 

 which is said to have been introduced in the reign 

 of Almansor, and was adopted by the Turks. In 

 military tactics the Arabs were, upon the whole, 

 inferior to the Christians ; but their skill in the arts 

 and sciences gave them, during part of their con- 

 quests, an incalculable advantage over the latter. 

 With the composition of gunpowder, and the differ- 

 ent ways of applying it in war, they were not un- 

 acquainted ; and we know from various authorities 

 that they employed artillery. Casiri has cited two 

 native historians, who prove that it was both known 

 and used by the Spanish Arabs in the latter part of 

 the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century ; 

 and he has given extracts from two contemporary 

 Spanish writers, who describe these destructive en- 

 gines as being certain iron tubes or mortars, which 

 emitted thunder and fire. 



The annual revenue of the Spanish caliphs was 

 immense. In the reign of Abdalrahman III., the 

 greatest sovereign that ever sat on the Moorish 

 throne, it was reckoned equivalent to 5,500,000/. of 

 sterling money, which at that time probably ex- 

 ceeded the united income of all the Western mon- 

 archies. It was derived, first, from a tithe of all pro- 

 duce whatsoever, which was paid in kind ; secondlj^, 

 from a duty of twelve and a half per cent, on every 

 commodity imported or exported ; of an impost of 

 one-tenth part on every species of goods transferred 

 by sale ; and, lastly, of a tribute of one-fifth levied 

 on property belonging to Jews and Christians. How 

 Spain could supply all this magnificence and expense 

 may be a subject of wonder or dispute to pohtical 

 economists. But the fact is certain, and perhaps 

 not of very difficult solution. Her population, not- 

 withstanding all the devastations of civil war, was 

 on the same grand scale with her palaces and her 

 productions both natural and artificial. Under the 



