University of Virginia Library

REFLECTIONS
ON THE MOSLEM DOMINATION IN SPAIN.

One of my favourite resorts is the balcony of the
central window of the Hall of Ambassadors, in the
lofty tower of Comares. I have just been seated
there, enjoying the close of a long brilliant day.
The sun, as he sank behind the purple mountains
of Alhama, sent a stream of effulgence up the
valley of the Darro, that spread a melancholy pomp
over the ruddy towers of the Alhambra, while the
Vega, covered with a slight sultry vapour that
caught the setting ray, seemed spread out in the
distance like a golden sea. Not a breath of air
disturbed the stillness of the hour, and though the
faint sound of music and merriment now and then
arose from the gardens of the Darro, it but rendered
more impressive the monumental silence of

the pile which overshadowed me. It was one of
those hours and scenes in which memory asserts an
almost magical power, and, like the evening sun
beaming on these mouldering towers, sends back
her retrospective rays to light up the glories of the
past.

As I sat watching the effect of the declining day-light
upon this Moorish pile, I was led into a consideration
of the light, elegant and voluptuous character
prevalent throughout its internal architecture,
and to contrast it with the grand but gloomy
solemnity of the Gothic edifices, reared by the
Spanish conquerors. The very architecture thus
bespeaks the opposite and irreconcilable natures
of the two warlike people, who so long battled
here for the mastery of the Peninsula. By degrees
I fell into a course of musing upon the singular features
of the Arabian or Morisco Spaniards, whose
whole existence is as a tale that is told, and certainly
forms one of the most anomalous yet splendid
episodes in history. Potent and durable as was
their dominion, we have no one distinct title by
which to designate them. They were a nation,
as it were, without a legitimate country or a name.
A remote wave of the great Arabian inundation,
cast upon the shores of Europe, they seemed to

have all the impetus of the first rush of the torrent.
Their course of conquest from the rock of Gibraltar
to the cliffs of the Pyrenees, was as rapid and
brilliant as the Moslem victories of Syria and Egypt.
Nay, had they not been checked on the plains of
Tours, all France, all Europe, might have been
overrun with the same facility as the empires of
the east, and the crescent might at this day have
glittered on the fanes of Paris and of London.

Repelled within the limits of the Pyrenees, the
mixed hordes of Asia and Africa that formed this
great irruption, gave up the Moslem principles of
conquest, and sought to establish in Spain a peaceful
and permanent dominion. As conquerors their
heroism was only equalled by their moderation; and
in both, for a time, they excelled the nations with
whom they contended. Severed from their native
homes, they loved the land given them, as they
supposed, by Allah, and strove to embellish it with
every thing that could administer to the happiness
of man. Laying the foundations of their power in
a system of wise and equitable laws, diligently cultivating
the arts and sciences, and promoting agriculture,
manufactures and commerce, they gradually
formed an empire unrivalled for its prosperity,
by any of the empires of Christendom; and diligently

drawing round them the graces and refinements
that marked the Arabian empire in the
east at the time of its greatest civilization, they
diffused the light of oriental knowledge through
the western regions of benighted Europe.

The cities of Arabian Spain became the resort
of Christian artisans, to instruct themselves in the
useful arts. The universities of Toledo, Cordova,
Seville, and Granada were sought by the pale student
from other lands, to acquaint himself with the
sciences of the Arabs, and the treasured lore of
antiquity; the lovers of the gay sciences resorted
to Cordova and Granada, to imbibe the poetry and
music of the east; and the steel-clad warriors of
the north hastened thither, to accomplish themselves
in the graceful exercises and courteous usages
of chivalry.

If the Moslem monuments in Spain; if the Mosque
of Cordova, the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra
of Granada, still bear inscriptions fondly boasting
of the power and permanency of their dominion,
can the boast be derided as arrogant and vain?
Generation after generation, century after century
had passed away, and still they maintained possession
of the land. A period had elapsed longer than
that which has passed since England was subjugated

by the Norman conqueror; and the descendants
of Musa and Tarik might as little anticipate
being driven into exile, across the same straits traversed
by their triumphant ancestors, as the descendants
of Rollo and William and their victorious
peers may dream of being driven back to
the shores of Normandy.

With all this, however, the Moslem empire in
Spain was but a brilliant exotic that took no permanent
root in the soil it embellished. Secured
from all their neighbours of the west by impassable
barriers of faith and manners, and separated
by seas and deserts from their kindred of the east,
they were an isolated people. Their whole existence
was a prolonged though gallant and chivalric
struggle for a foot-hold in a usurped land. They
were the outposts and frontiers of Islamism. The
peninsula was the great battle ground where the
Gothic conquerors of the north and the Moslem
conquerors of the east, met and strove for mastery;
and the fiery courage of the Arab was at length
subdued by the obstinate and persevering valour
of the Goth.

Never was the annihilation of a people more
complete than that of the Morisco Spaniards.
Where are they? Ask the shores of Barbary and

its desert places. The exiled remnant of their
once powerful empire disappeared among the barbarians
of Africa, and ceased to be a nation. They
have not even left a distinct name behind them,
though for nearly eight centuries they were a distinct
people. The home of their adoption and of
their occupation for ages refuses to acknowledge
them but as invaders and usurpers. A few broken
monuments are all that remain to bear witness
to their power and dominion, as solitary rocks
left far in the interior bear testimony to the extent
of some vast inundation. Such is the Alhambra.
A Moslem pile in the midst of a Christian land; an
oriental palace amidst the Gothic edifices of the
west; an elegant memento of a brave, intelligent
and graceful people, who conquered, ruled, and
passed away.