Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/458

Rh he had their heads cut off in the courtyard of the castle and flung into a ditch. It is impossible to fix the number of those slain on this "day of the ditch," and estimates vary between 700 and 5000.

The impression made by this slaughter kept the people of Cordova quiet for seven years. Moreover, the Emir strengthened his bodyguard with slaves known as "mutes," because they spoke no Arabic. Nevertheless discontent steadily grew among the students and theologians in the quarter of Arrabal del Sur. At length a formidable revolution broke out. In the month of Ramaḍān (May 814) a soldier killed a polisher who refused to clean his sword, and this act was made the pretext for the revolt. A huge mob marched in spite of cavalry charges to the Emir's palace. But Ḥakam with the utmost calmness ordered the execution of some imprisoned faḳīhs; then after this sacrilege a body of his troops set fire to Arrabal del Sur. The rebels, as he expected, rushed to the help of their families and, attacked on every side, suffered fearful slaughter at the hands of the terrible mutes. Thereupon Ḥakam ordered the expulsion within three days under pain of crucifixion of all the inhabitants of Arrabal del Sur. On reaching the Mediterranean, one body consisting of 15,000 families went to the East, and there after a struggle with the Bedouins seized Alexandria and soon founded an independent kingdom under Abū Ḥafṣ Omar al-Ballūṭī. Another body of 8000 families settled at Fez in Morocco. Ḥakam now issued an amnesty to the faḳīhs and allowed them to settle anywhere in Spain, except Cordova and its neighbourhood. Yaḥyā even managed to secure his sovereign's favour.

Ḥakam, relentless towards the Toledans and the artisans of Arrabal del Sur, shewed towards the Arabs and Berbers who were of his own race a clemency attributed Arab historians to remorseful conscience. Some of his verses suggest that he followed the example of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān: "Just as a tailor uses his needle to join different pieces of cloth, so I use my sword to unite my separate provinces." He maintained the throne of the Umayyads by a military despotism.

At Cordova his son and successor, 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān II (822-852), set a high standard of magnificence. A lover of poetry, mild even to weakness, he let himself be guided by a faḳīh, a musician, a woman and an eunuch. The faḳīh was Yaḥyā, the leader of the Arrabal rebellion; he now dominated the Emir, who had given into his hands his own ecclesiastical and judicial functions. The musician was the singer Ziryāb of Bagdad, the pupil of Hārūn ar-Rashīd's famous singer, Isḥāḳ of Mosul, and out of jealousy compelled by him to leave the East. On his arrival in Spain, where 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān II had just ascended the throne, he soon gained the friendship of the sovereign, thanks to his voice, his wit and his wide knowledge of history, poetry, science and art. He became the king of fashion in Cordova as well as the model of good taste, but he did not meddle in politics; they were the province of the