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442 marked out from the rest of Europe by the Muslim conquest, and Spain gave a rival to the Eastern Caliphate just as the Franks gave a rival to the Eastern Emperor. In itself the Iberian peninsula was split up by many mountain ranges, and marked by startling variations in climate and soil: it had a unity compatible with the strongest local divergencies. Thus it was destined for a history strangely apart from other lands: if at times it drew to itself outside races and outside influences, these in their turn were moulded into types among themselves both akin and separate. So, if splendid, it was always weak through its many divisions, and many contests between Berbers and Arabs, and of Arabs among themselves. The history of Arab civilisation in Spain intertwines itself in many links with medieval learning, science and thought, while the presence of a rival race and rival creed at its very doors gave a special tinge to Spanish fervour and Spanish faith. In the field of thought, even in constitutional experiments, Spanish history has thus from early times a significance far greater than that of its mere events. Even after its splendour had reached its height the influence of the Moorish kingdom was not ended. Small Christian states, separated from each other by physical conditions, had been born in conflict with it, and were sometimes united in enmity against it, sometimes at strife in contest for its alliance. Thus the later Spanish kingdoms were growing up, but their day was yet to come.