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Rh pelled to respect existing institutions, while they set up analogous systems for the new settlers, as is proved by the charters (fueros) granted by the kings of Aragon and Castile to the conquered cities. The literary influence was not so strong. Arabic phrases were common in Leon, Castile, Navarre, and other parts; the Romance languages, which were then in the process of formation, took over a large number of Arabic terms, sometimes making up hybrid words and sometimes pronouncing the Latin words or their derivatives in the Arabic fashion. There were many Moors who understood Romance, particularly in the frontier districts, and they were called Latin Moors (ladinos) just as many Christians with some knowledge of Arabic (algarabía) were called Christians who talked a jargon (algaraviados).

The Mozarabs naturally felt Arab influence even more throughout this period. The following passage occurs in the writings of Alvaro of Cordova, the companion of Eulogio, who exhorted the Cordovan martyrs: "Many of my fellow Christians read Arab poetry and stories, and study the works of Mohammedan philosophers and theologians, not with the object of refuting them, but to learn to express themselves in Arabic with greater elegance and correctness. Alas! all our Christian youths, who are winning a name for themselves by their talents, know the language and literature of the Arabs alone; they read and study assiduously their books; at huge expense they form large libraries, and on every occasion they positively declare that this literature merits our admiration."

The Muslim people in turn adopted something of Visigothic culture from the renegades and Mozarabs, particularly in language, administration and the organisation of the arts. The Mozarabs still kept up their old ecclesiastical schools where, under the direction of the Abbots Samson, Spera-in-Deo and others, they carefully kept the Isidorian tradition. The Christian women, who formed an ordinary part of Arab and Berber households, must have added to the force of these influences, which, however, were never so powerful as those exercised by the Muslim over the Christian element.

But, despite the Muslim influence, Christian civilisation with its Visigothic basis continued to grow along its own lines. The political unity of the Visigothic kingdom disappeared with the concentration of Christian resistance at a few isolated points, and in this period there cannot be said to be any national life; in fact, Spain has no real existence: we can only speak of Asturias, Leon, Galicia, Navarre, Castile, and Catalonia. This diversity of states, institutions and nationalities, is the characteristic feature of medieval Spain.

So far as Asturias, Leon and Castile are concerned, the distinction between slaves and freemen still continued, while the latter were subdivided into nobles and plebeians. The nobles were dependent on the king, who gave them grants of land, titles and offices, etc.; from time to time a revolt broke out among these nobles, and this gave rise to a