CALIPHS OF SPAIN. 59 



position and bloodshed ; but all the efforts of the 

 Abbassides were in vain. In a battle of several days 

 near Seville their lieutenant, Alala, fell with 7000 

 of his followers ; his head, in salt and camphor, was 

 sent to Mecca, and suspended before the gate of the 

 palace ; the streets of that city and of Cairoan were 

 strown with similar trophies; and the Caliph Alman- 

 sor expressed his thankfulness that he was separated 

 by seas and lands from an adversary who appeared 

 to be not a man but a demon. After a successful 

 struggle he established himself firmly on the throne 

 of Cordova, where death put an end to his projects 

 (A. D. 788) after a reign of thirty-three years. The 

 renown of this prince acquired him the friendship 

 and esteem of Charlemagne, who, after having tried 

 his prowess in war, courted his alliance by offering 

 him his daughter in marriage. His rival, the Caliph 

 of Bagdad, spoke of him with admiration, calling 

 him the Hawk of the Koreish, on account of the 

 ability he displayed in surmounting difficulties in 

 his flight from Asia to Europe, and of the celerity 

 with which he made himself master of a kingdom, 

 without the assistance of friends or followers. 



The dynasty of the Spanish Ommiades existed 

 for nearly three centuries. In wealth and grandeur 

 some of their princes equalled, if not surpassed, 

 their gorgeous rivals in the East. Under Alnasar 

 (A. D. 939), the annual revenue of Spain from the 

 towns and villages is said to have amounted to 

 5,480,000 dinars (2,534,500) ; and from spoils 

 taken in war, to 765,000 dinars (353,812, 10s.), be- 

 sides a fifth of the soldiers' plunder, not computed in 

 the register of the treasury. Of this vast income, 

 one-third was appropriated to the army, one-third 



