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414 and betrayed by his own family, he summoned mercenary troops to his aid. Though his policy, which was both daring and treacherous, might alienate his people's affection, yet it was invariably clever and adapted to his circumstances. The very means which he used, violence and tyranny, were the same as those by which the kings of the fifteenth century were victorious in their struggle against feudalism. He had already traced the outlines of the military despotism, which his successors were to fill in.

His successor Hishām I (788-796) was a model of virtue. In his reign the sect of Mālik ibn Anas was started in the East, and the Emir, who had been commended by Mālik, did his utmost to spread its doctrines, choosing from its members both judges and ecclesiastics. When Hishām died the sect, to which most of the faḳīhs (professional theologians) belonged, was already powerful. It was headed in Spain by a clever young Berber, Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, who had ambition, enterprise and experience, along with the impetuosity of a demagogue.

Although the next Emir, Ḥakam, was by no means irreligious, his easy disposition, his love of the chase and of wine, brought on him the hatred of the faḳīhs, which was intensified by his refusing them the influence they desired. They were not sparing in their attacks upon him and used as their tools the renegados, who were called muladíes (muwallad or the adopted). The position of these renegades was uneasy; in religion they were subject to Muslim law, which punished apostasy with death and counted any one born a Muslim to be a Muslim. Socially they were reckoned as slaves and excluded from any share in the government. Nevertheless they were able to help the faḳīhs in bringing about a revolution.

The first rising took place in 805, but was put down by the Emir's bodyguard. Then other conspirators offered the throne to Ibn Shammās, the Emir's cousin, but he revealed the plot, and sixty-two of the conspirators were put to death, while two of them fled to Toledo. When Ḥakam was reducing Mérida (806), the inhabitants of Cordova rose a second time, but he successfully crushed the revolt, beheading or crucifying the leaders. Ḥakam now shewed himself even more cruel and treacherous than before. His cruelty at Cordova was followed by a massacre at Toledo.

The Toledans were a people difficult to govern, and under the headship of the poet Gharbīb, a renegade by birth, they had already caused alarm to the Emir. On the death of Gharbīb he appointed as governor an ambitious renegade from Huesca, 'Amrūs, a man subtle and dishonest, but a mere puppet in the hands of his master. He cleverly won over the Toledans, and was able to build a castle in the middle of the city, where the Emir's troops were quartered. An army under the prince 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān arrived, and the leading Toledans were invited to a banquet at the castle. Bidding them enter one by one,