Walid I, — Conquests in the East — Progress in Africa — Musa bin Nusair, Viceroy of the West — Condition of Spain — The Oppression of Roderick — Tarick bin Ziad lands at GibraUar — The battle of Medina Sidonia — Death of Roderick — Conquest of Spain — Advance into France— Recall of Musa and Tarick — Character of the Saracenic Administration in Spain — The Provinces — The effect of the tribal jealousies — Death of Walid I. — His Character.
Soon after the accession of Walid, Hajjaj, who still held the viceroyalty of the Eastern Provinces, removed Yezid, the son and successor of Muhallib, from the lieutenancy of Khorasan. He appointed in his place a Modharite chief, Kotaiba, an able strategist and a consummate general, but hard and relentless. The Sogdians, who inhabited the countries in Central Asia to the north of the Conquest river Oxus, had undertaken to live in peace with the Moslems, and not to molest their colonists. They had also agreed to receive Residents or Aamils in their chief cities to watch over Moslem interests. But Yezid's removal seemed to them a favourable opportunity to regain their independence. All of a sudden they rose against the Saracens, expelled the Residents, and massacred the colonists and after ten years of incessant warfare, in which many cruelties were perpetrated on both sides, Kotaiba achieved the subjugation of the whole of Central Asia to the confines of Kashgar.
About the same time Mohammed the son of Kasim, in India, governor of Mekran, harassed by the predatory tribes who inhabited the country between Sind and Beluchistan, led an expedition into India, which ended in the annexation of Sind, Multan, and part of the Punjab as far as the Beas. During the whole of Walid's reign, Maslamah his Captain- brother, who seems to have been the warrior of the family, was Captain-General of the Moslem forces in Asia Minor. He was supported by an army under Abbas, Walid's own son. Their combined operations led to the conquest of several important places. A large part of Asia Minor was now held by the Saracens. In the year 87 a.h. Walid appointed his cousin Omar, the son of Abdul Aziz, governor over Hijaz. Immediately on his arrival at Medina, Omar formed a council composed of the jurists and notables of the city, and no administrative or executive act was done without consultation with them. He tried to erase the signs of the ravages committed in the holy cities of Islam under Yezid and Abdul Malik. He beautified Medina and Mecca with numerous public structures, made new aqueducts, and improved the roads connecting the cities of Hijaz with the capital. Moderate, yet firm, anxious to promote the welfare of the people whom he governed, Omar's rule proved beneficent to all classes.
The mild, just, and generous government of Omar attracted a number of refugees from Irak, who, fleeing from the terrible oppression of the sanguinary tyrant who ruled over the Eastern Provinces, found shelter and peace in Hijaz. Hajjaj was extremely wroth at this, and complained bitterly to his master Walid, who was as much under his influence as old Abdul Malik. The intrigues of Hajjaj were at length successful, and in 92 A.H. Omar was removed from his viceroyalty amidst universal mourning. His successor signalised his entry into office by expelling from Medina and Mecca all the Irakian refugees.
About this time, Yezid the son of Muhallib along with his brothers was thrown into prison by Hajjaj, and subjected to the cruellest torture. His victims however succeeded in effecting their escape from the hands of the tyrant, and took refuge with Sulaiman, the brother and successor of Walid.
We must now turn our attention to the West. Africa Conquests had been held by Hassan with comparative peace and safety after the death of the Pythoness. In 89 a.h. he was removed from the governorship, and the famous Musa, the son of Nusair, was made Viceroy of Ifrikia. Musa's father was the chief of the police {Sahib-us- Shurta) under Muawiyah, but had refused to serve against Ali in the battle of Siffin, and the son of Abu Sufian, who knew the man's worth, had respected his scruples. Hassan's withdrawal was the signal for an insurrection of the Berbers, but they had miscalculated the energy and vigour of the new Viceroy. By a series of daring operations conducted by himself and his sons, Musa overthrew the Berber combination, drove out the Greek conspirators and pacified the entire country. By his conciliatory attitude towards the chiefs, he inspired them with unbounded confidence and won their attachment. Instructors were appointed to teach the people the principles of Islam, and in a short time the whole of the Berber nation was converted to the religion of Mohammed. As the Saracenic settlements were harassed by the Byzantines from the islands of the Mediterranean, Musa sent out expeditions for their reduction ; Majorca, Minorca and Ivica were conquered and incorporated with the empire of Islam. Under the Moslem rule these islands soon became extremely flourishing. As in other places, the Saracens erected beautiful buildings, introduced various kinds of handicraft, and otherwise materially improved the country. Musa's viceroyalty was now almost equal to that of Hajjaj in extent ; but its importance in the demand for administrative ability and generalship, was far greater. It extended from the western confines of Egypt to the shores of the Atlantic, with the exception of Ceuta, which was held by Count Julian under the Gothic King of Spain on behalf of the Roman Emperor; and included the western islands of the Mediterranean. It was soon to receive a magnificent addition in a country which was an empire in itself.
Whilst Africa was enjoying the blessings of toleration and justice, and was advancing with rapid strides in the path of material prosperity under the Moslem rule, the neighbouring peninsula of Spain groaned under the iron heel of the Goth. Never was the condition of the country or of the people so bad or so miserable as under the grinding yoke of the Gothic kings. As in the Roman times, the rich, the noble and the privileged classes in general were exempt from taxation ; the middle classes, upon whom alone fell the public burdens, were reduced to ruin and misery. Industrial activity was killed by heavy imposts ; there was no manufacture or commerce ; and a terrible sterility, almost equal to that which has fallen on the land since the expulsion of the Moslems, prevailed all over the Peninsula. The country was split up into immense domains whose owners, lay and cleric, lived in palatial mansions where they spent their days in riotous and wicked indulgence. Cultivation was in the hands of either serfs tied to the soil, or of miserable herds of slaves who worked under the pitiless lashes of cruel overseers. Serfs or slaves, for them there was no hope of freedom or gleam of sunshine on this side of the grave. Neither serf nor slave might possess anything that he could call his own ; they could not marry without the consent of the master ; and if the serfs of two neighbouring estates intermarried, their children were divided equally between the two owners. Sunk in the grossest superstitions, their moral state was as depraved and degraded as their material condition was wretched.
The Jews, who had settled in large numbers in the Peninsula, had suffered terribly from the persecutions of the kings, the clergy and the nobles. Goaded by their sufferings, they had attempted a rising, which, badly conceived and hastily executed, proved abortive with the direst results. Their goods and chattels, in fact all they possessed, were confiscated ; such of the nation as survived the massacre were condemned to wholesale slavery. Old and young, male and female, were made over as slaves to the Christians. The old, as a matter of grace, were allowed to retain their religion ; but the young were to be brought up in the Christian faith. All marriage within the community was forbidden, and a Jewish slave was henceforth to marry a Christian slave. Such was the punishment meted out to the Jews by the bishops, who held all the power in the land. The impoverished and ruined citizen, the wretched slave, the miserable serf, the persecuted and hunted Jew, all waited for the relief which was so long in coming. It was in the moment of their acutest agony that the deliverance arrived from an unexpected quarter. The Saracenic Province on the other side of the straits was regarded as a haven of safety by the victims of Gothic and ecclesiastical oppression, and many Spaniards had found refuge in Moslem Africa from the grinding tyranny of their kings and bishops.
At this time when Musa ruled over Africa, the Iberian throne was occupied by Roderick, who had deposed and murdered the former king Witiza. Julian, the Governor of Ceuta, smarting under a cruel wrong inflicted on him by Roderick in the person of his daughter Florinda, joined in the appeal of the Spanish refugees to Musa to liberate the country from the usurper's yoke. In answer to their prayers, with the sanction of Walid, Musa despatched a young and enterprising officer named Tarif, to make a reconnaissance on the southern coast. The report was favourable, and in the auspicious month of Rajab, Tarick the son of Ziad, Musa's ablest lieutenants, landed with a small force of 7000 picked men at a spot which now bears his name. Having properly fortified the Rock to serve operations, he descended upon the adjacent province of Algeciras, which was held by Theodomir on behalf of Roderick. The Goths who attempted to bar his progress were cut to pieces, and Tarick commenced his memorable march upon Toledo.
His army had, in the meanwhile, augmented to 12,000 by the timely arrival of some reinforcements despatched by the Viceroy. Roderick was engaged in quelling a disturbance in the north, but the moment he heard of the invasion he hurried to his capital, summoning all his feudal chiefs to join him at Cordova with their contingents. The royal army itself was immense; with the feudal auxiliaries the force at Roderick's disposal swelled to 100,000 men. The two armies thus unequally matched met on the banks of the Guadalete Sept. 711 to the north of Medina Sidonia.
The sons of Witiza, chafing under the wrongs inflicted on them by the king, broke away from Roderick after the first onslaught ; but the force under his immediate command was numerous, well equipped and disciplined, and offered for a time a steady front to the Saracenic attacks ; the fierceness of the last charge, led by Tarick himself, however, was irresistible. The Gothic host was completely routed, and in his flight Roderick was drowned in the waters of the Guadalete.
The moral result of this magnificent victory wasimmense. It took the heart out of the Spaniards to meet the Saracens in the open. Sidonia and Carmona opened their gates ; Ecija, where Roderick's broken forces had taken refuge, offered some resistance, but ultimately capitulated on favourable terms. Tarick now divided his small force into four divisions, and directed one of his lieutenants to proceed towards Cordova ; whilst the other marched upon Malaga, the third was to move upon Granada and Elvira. At the head of the main body he himself marched rapidly towards Toledo, the Gothic capital. Malaga, Granada, and Cordova fell one after another without much difficulty, and the whole of Algeciras held by Theodomir was quickly reduced to subjection. The Goths were dismayed by the rapidity of Tarick's movements and the severity of his blows. " God," says the annalist, " filled the hearts of the idolaters with terror and alarm." The magnates either submitted or fled from place to place ; the principal ecclesiastics betook themselves to Rome, whilst the people at large, the Jews, the serfs, the impoverished citizens, hailed the Moslems as their liberators.
Tarick found Toledo abandoned by the Spaniards ; leaving a small detachment of Jews and Moslems in charge of the city, and confiding its government to Oppas, a brother of King Witiza, he pursued the retreating Goths as far as Astorga. In the meantime the Musa himself, landed in Spain with 18,000 men to complete the conquest begun by his illustrious lieutenant. His army included many noble Arabs of the best families of Yemen, and several descendants of the Companions of the Prophet.
Taking an easterly course, Musa reduced successively Seville and Merida. At Toledo he was joined by Tarick. The meeting of the two conquerors was attended by an unseemly dispute characteristic of the age, but they were soon reconciled, and uniting their forces they proceeded towards Aragon.Saragossa, Tarragona, Barcelona, and other principal cities of the north opened their gates in succession, and in less than two years the whole of Spain, as far as the Pyrenees, was in the hands of the Saracens. Portugal was conquered a few years later, and was formed into a separate province under the name of al-Gharb, " the West." In the mountains of Asturias alone the Christian Spaniards continued to make a stand against the Moslems.
Leaving to Tarick the work of subjugation in Galicia, Musa crossed into France, and easily reduced that part conquest, of Languedoc which had belonged to the Gothic dominions. Standing on the Pyrenees, the dauntless Viceroy conceived the project of conquering the whole of Europe ; and in all human probability had he been allowed to carry his plan into execution he would have succeeded. The West lay completely at his feet ; there was no cohesion among the nations which divided from the Caliphate ; as yet no chief had sprung up to unite the forces of Christendom and oppose the progress of the Saracens. The cautious and hesitating policy of the Damascene Court lost the glorious opportunity, with the consequence that Europe remained enveloped in intellectual darkness for the next eight centuries. An order from Walid stopped Musa whilst preparing to push farther into France with the object of crossing into Italy. He then turned his attention to the complete reduction of the mountainous parts of Spain, where the Christians were making a desperate stand. He entered Galicia, captured their fortresses, and drove the enemy into the rocky defiles of the Asturias. From Lugo, Musa directed the movements of his army, which now hemmed the insurgents on all sides. Cowed by the indomitable energy of the old warrior, the guerilla bands submitted one after another until there remained Pelayo alone with a few supporters. He too would have laid down his arms, but just at the moment when the conquest was near completion a messenger arrived from Damascus with peremptory orders for the return of the two conquerors. Whatever the motive which impelled Walid to recall Musa and Tarick, there can be no doubt that it was most disastrous to Islam. Musa's departure enabled Pelayo to fortify himself in the mountains, and there to form the nucleus of that power which in later times was to overwhelm with destruction the Moslem states towards the south. The Saracens, deprived of their two best captains, affected to look with contempt upon this handful of resolute defenders, and allowed them daily to increase in number and strength. " Would to God," says Makkari, " that the Moslems had at once extinguished the sparks of a fire that was destined to consume the whole dominions of Islam in those parts." Before leaving Spain, Musa made all necessary arrangements for the government of the country. He appointed his son, Abdul Aziz, the Viceroy of the new province, with Seville as the seat of government. Abdullah, another son and a great warrior, was left in charge of Ifrikia ; whilst Abdul Malik, the youngest, ruled over Morocco {Maghrib ul-Aksd), and Abdus Saleh held the command of the coast and of the fleet, with Tangiers for his head-quarters. After completing his arrangements for the proper government of his viceroyalty he commenced his journey towards Damascus attended by an immense number of followers.
The conquest of Spain by the Saracens opened a new era for the Peninsula : it produced an important social revolution, the effect of which can be likened only to the best results of the great upheaval in France in the eighteenth century, without its evil or appalling consequences. It swept away the cruel rights and powers of the privileged classes, among whom the clergy and the nobility occupied the most prominent position. It removed the heavy burdens that had crushed industry and ruined the middle strata of the population. Instead of grinding and capricious imposts, it introduced a just, equable, and intelligible system of taxation, viz. the usual poll or test-tax payable by non-Moslems, and the tax on culturable land to which all persons, Moslem and non-Moslem alike, were subject. The test-tax was extremely light in its incidence, for it varied according to the means of the payer, and was realised by twelve monthly instalments. But people leading a monastic life, and women and children in general, were exempt from this tax ; so were the lame, the blind, the sick, the mendicant, and the slave. As the land-tax was regulated by the productiveness of the soil it was never a burden upon agriculture. Many of the Spanish cities had obtained most favourable terms at the time of the conquest, and these conditions were religiously and faithfully observed. Excepting the estates of the nobles and the ecclesiastics, who had either fled from the country or had joined the ranks of the Galician rebels, there was no confiscation. Individual acts of violence or pillage committed by soldiers, inevitable with any invading army,- were severely repressed. The ruthless intolerance and fierce persecution which had characterised the former government made way for a large-hearted toleration. The persecuted and downtrodden Jews obtained the right to follow their religion without let or hindrance, and the Christians were secured in the unmolested enjoyment of their faith and laws, the administration of which was entrusted to their own judges. No one was troubled about his faith ; every man, woman, or child was free to worship as he liked or what he liked.
The Christians had governors of their own race to collect their taxes and to settle their disputes. Every branch of the public service, and all offices of rank and emolument were open equally to Moslems, Jews, and Christians. Many modern governments might well take a lesson from the Moslem administration of Spain. But the most beneficent effect exercised by the Moslem conquest was upon the condition of the servile classes. Hitherto they had been treated as worse than common beasts of burden ; they now assumed their position as human beings. The slaves and serfs who worked upon the estates that passed into Moslem hands at once obtained enfranchisement, and were converted into tenant-farmers with a living interest of their own in the soil. The land became practically theirs, subject to the payment of a share of the produce to the Moslem land-lords. The lot of those who still remained with Christian masters was considerably ameliorated, for a complaint of ill-treatment, or the confession of the Moslem Faith, led to their emancipation by operation of the law. The slaves and serfs adopted Islam in order to obtain freedom and the blessings of existence that had been denied to them under the former rcgwie ; the magnates and nobles adopted it either from conviction or interest, but as earnestly and devoutly, as the sequel will show. The Christians themselves preferred the mild, generous, and beneficent rule of the Saracen to the grinding tyranny of the Goth or Frank, and flocked back into the cities and villages which they had at first abandoned through terror. Even the priests were not discontented with the change, "at least in the beginning," says Dozy. Stanely Walpole pays glowing tribute thus: "The Moors organised that wonderful kingdom of Cordova, which was the marvel of the Middle Ages, and which, when all Europe was plunged in barbaric ignorance and strife, alone held the torch of learning and civilisation bright and shining before the Western world." " It must not be supposed," he adds," that the Moors, like the barbarian hordes who preceded them, brought desolation and tyranny in their wake. On the contrary, never was Andalusia so mildly, justly, and wisely governed as by her Arab conquerors. Where they got their talent for administration it is hard to say, for they came almost direct from their Arabian deserts, and the rapid tide of victories had left them little leisure to acquire the art of managing foreign nations."
For administrative purposes they divided Spain into four large Provinces, each under a governor directly responsible to the Viceroy. The first Province comprised Andalusia — the country situated between the sea and the Guadalquiver — and the tract which stretched from this river to the Guadiana, with the cities of Cordova, Seville, Malaga, Ecija, Jaen, and Wosuna. The second Province comprised the whole of Central Spain, with the Mediterranean to the east and the frontiers of Lusitania (modern Portugal) to the west, and extending to the Douro on the north. It included the cities of Toledo on the Tagus, Cuenca on the Xucar, Segovia on an affluent of the Douro, Guadalaxara, Valencia, Denia, Alicante, Carthagena, Murcia, Lorca, and Baeza. The third Province comprised Gahcia and Lusitania, with the cities of Merida, Evora, Beja, Lisbon, Coimbra, Lugo, Astorga, Zamora, Salamanca, etc.
The fourth extended from the borders of the Douro to the Pyrenees on both sides of the Ebro, with Galicia towards the west. It comprised the cities of Saragossa, Tortosa, Tarragona, Barcelona, Girona, Urgel, Tudela, Valladolid, Huesca, Jaud, Bobastro, etc. Later on, when further conquests were made, a fifth Province was created beyond the Pyrenees, which included Narbonne, Nimes, Carcassone, Beziers, Agde, Maguelone, and Lodeve.
The Arabs and the Berbers preferred to live in the cities. Here they grouped themselves in tribes, which, whilst affording a safeguard against isolated attacks by the Christians, led to the growth of a disastrous feeling of tribal jealousies.
And, lastly, ten thousand knights of Hijaz with their following settled themselves in the interior. Abdul Aziz, the son of Musa, who acted as Viceroy on the departure of his father for Syria, appointed a Diwan or Council for adapting the Islamic laws and institutions to the requirements of the country and for promoting the fusion of the two people. By his wise statesmanship and mild and beneficent government he conciliated all classes. Like the first Mogul sovereigns of India, he encouraged intermarriages between the conquered and the conquerors, and himself set the example by marrying the widow of Roderick named Egilona, called by the Arabs Umm Aasim. The Saracen settlers came chiefly from countries which were essentially agricultural,such as Egypt, Syria, and Persia. They were endowed under the like the Jews, who followed them in all their colonies, Arabs. with the commercial instinct, and were led towards industry by the teachings of the Prophet, which made labour a religious duty. They accordingly took in hand with unequalled energy the material development of Spain, which had hitherto lain sterile under the Christian government. They introduced various agronomic works ; they fertilised the uncultivated lands, repeopled the cities that were deserted, ornamented them with beautiful monuments, and united them by a number of industrial and commercial ties. They gave to the people a right which had never been permitted to them by the Gothic kings, the right of alienating their lands. Spain, emancipated from feudal servitude which had hung so long like a curse on the land, became the most populous and most industrious of European countries.
The Arabs turned Spain into a garden ; they organised a model administration, and gave impetus to the arts and sciences ; but they could never put aside or repress, even in that distant land, the old tribal jealousies of the desert. They were offered the glorious opportunity of founding a lasting empire; they lost it from their own want of union and cohesion. In Spain, the discord was intensified by two additional elements bitterly opposed to the foreign domination. The intractable Berbers, who were to be found in large numbers in the Saracen army, hated the Arab officers. Mutiny and insurrections were frequent ; and repression only tended to accentuate the bitterness of race-hatred. The Spanish Moslems, who were called Bilddifm (inhabitants of the country), hated both the Arabs and the Berbers — the former for their pride, the latter for their wildness. The democratic teachings of Islam had levelled all distinctions of race and colour ; but in distant lands, which he had entered with the help of his sword, the Arab could never rise superior to the intense pride of race which has always formed an essential characteristic of his nature. The relations of the Arabs and the Biladiun remind us of the strong racial antipathy. These natives Biladiilns insisted upon home rule in a modified shape ; to be governed, in fact, by members of their own race. Many of their insurrections against the Arabs were fomented by the Fakihs or Moslem legists, who fulfilled the roll of priests in Islam. The Spaniards adopted Islam with the same fierceness and unreasoning violence as they had, and have since, adopted Christianity. Under the instigation of the Fakihs they often rose in revolt against the Arabs for their liberal interpretation" of the laws and their general tolerance. All this discord tended to weaken the Empire; and, as Ibn Khaldun pathetically deplores, led, before eighty years were over, to the loss of the northern portion of the conquest as far as Barcelona.
We must now turn our attention again towards the East ; for Walid did not live long enough to receive the generals whom he had recalled from the scenes of their triumphs. Like his father, he attempted before his death to alter, with the support of Hajjaj, Kotaiba, and most of the Modharite chiefs, the succession to the throne in favour of his son, but death came upon him before his object was achieved.
Walid died at Dair-Marran in the year 715, after a reign of nine years and seven months. Both Masudi and Ibn ul-Athir regard him as a despot and a tyrant. But there can be no question that he was more humane than his father Abdul Malik, or his grandfather Merwan. Certainly more so than many of his successors. The Syrians naturally regard him as the most eminent of the Caliphs. He built the cathedral mosque of Damascus, and enlarged and beautified those of Medina and Jerusalem, and under his directions, mosques were built in every city which did not already possess a place of worship. He erected fortresses for the protection of the frontiers, and constructed roads and sank wells throughout the Empire. He established schools and hospitals, and stopped promiscuous charity by granting from the State fixed allowances to the infirm and the poor. He created asylums for the blind, the crippled, and the insane, where they were lodged and fed and looked after by attendants specially employed for that purpose. He established orphanages for the support and education of poor children bereft of their parents. He himself visited the markets and noted the rise and fall in prices, and was the first of the Ommeyades who encouraged literature, arts, and manufactures. In Walid's reign died Ali 11. (Zain ul-Aabidin), the fourth Imam of the House of Mohammed, regarded by the Shiahs as the rightful spiritual leader. He was succeeded in the apostolical chair by his son Mohammed, surnamed for his learning al-Bakir or the Profound.
Walid's contemporaries on the throne of Constantinople were the cruel Justinian II., who was killed in 711 A.c. ; Philippicus, Justinian's successor, who was blinded and deposed in 713 a.c; and Anastasius II., who was put to death by Theodosius III. in 716 a.c.
No comments:
Post a Comment