Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/419

275 government. THE SPANISH ARABS. 275 After the further progress of the Arabs m Europe chapter had been checked by the memorable defeat at '■ — rri • • 1 Western Tours, then' energies, no longer allowed to expand caiiphate. in the career of conquest, recoiled on themselves, and speedily produced the dismemberment of their overgrown empire. Spain was the first of the provinces, which fell off. The family of Omeya, under whom this revolution was effected, continued to occupy her throne as independent princes, from the middle of the eighth to the close of the eleventh century, a period which forms the most honorable portion of her Arabian annals. The new government was modelled on the east- F"™ of em caliphate. Freedom shows itself under a vari ety of forms ; while despotism, at least in the insti- tutions founded on the Koran, seems to wear but one. The sovereign was the depositary of all power, the fountain of honor, the sole arbiter of life and fortune. He styled himself "Commander of the Faithful," and, like the caliphs of the east, assumed an entire spiritual as well as temporal su- premacy. The country was distributed into six capitanias, or provinces, each under the adminis- tration of a wali, or governor, with subordinate officers, to whom was intrusted a more immediate jurisdiction over the principal cities. The immense authority and pretensions of these petty satraps de Espaua, (Valencia, 1618,) lib. — Morales, Obras, torn. vi. pp. 2, cap. 16, 17. — Cardonne, Hist. 407-417; torn. vii. pp. 262-264. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, torn. i. — Florez, Espafia Sagrada, torn, pp. 83 et seq. 179. — Conde, Do- x. pp. 237-270. — Fuero Juzgo, minacion de los Arabes, Prol., p. Int. p. 40. vii and torn. i. pp. 29 - 54, 75, 87.