Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/324

316  exterminated. We find them at Petralia and at Traina (Malaterra, ii., 14 and 29), but the bulk of the population of that division was Greek, just as the bulk of the population of the Val di Noto and almost the entire population of the Val di Mazarà was Saracen. At Girgenti, for instance, the infidels were so powerful that the bishop was obliged to build himself a castle in self-defence, and he made use of the ancient temples of Agrigentum as a quarry for its construction. "May the earth lie heavy on his bones," is Signor Amari's imprecation. We say, "Amen."

We are fortunate in possessing a contemporary testimony of an enlightened Mussulman traveller with regard to the condition of his co-religionists in Sicily during the reign of William the Good. Ebn Grobhair, a native of Valencia in Spain, on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca landed at Messina. Thence sailing to Cefalù and Termini, he proceeded by land through Palermo to Trapani, from which port he eventually sailed for Spain. The narrative of his journey, which took place in the winter of 1184-5, was translated by Signor Amari in the "Archivio storico Italiano" for 1847.

From that narrative we gather that there was a very great difference in position between the Saracens of the cities and those in the country. The latter, the poorer cultivators of the soil and agricultural labourers, with the introduction of feudal tenure, were reduced to a state of villeinage, and shared the life of the lowest serfs. Thus a large gift of Mussulman serfs was made by Roger to the church of Cefalù, and in such cases oppression would be aggravated by religious fanaticism. Much land, however, was still held by Mussulman proprietors, and on these estates the Islamite labourer would be well treated. Of this class of proprietors Abu'l Cassem was a distinguished member. Possessed of large estates in the island, a domain which had descended to him from first-born to first-born, and of many houses in Palermo itself, houses, says the traveller, "which resembled magnificent and extensive palaces," a patron of poets, a Mussulman Mæcenas, as Lalumia has termed him, he is denounced as holding a treasonable correspondence with his countrymen in Africa, subjected to a large fine, and deprived of his property. Subsequently restored to favour, he is intrusted again with office under the government. Reinstated though he was, he found life amongst Christians so irksome, surrounding circumstances so eminently calculated to induce him to forsake Islam or to drive him from the country, that he resolved to sell all that he possessed and migrate to Africa. "Consider, therefore," says our author, "in what a wretched condition a man of such wealth and authority must have found himself when he determined to abandon the home of his forefathers with sons and daughters and all his property." Those of the upper class of Mussulmans who did not leave their country, like Abu 'l Cassem, held aloof from politics, while the unprincipled made outward profession of conversion to Christianity, remaining all the while Mussulman at heart. Christian churches were open as sanctuaries to unbelievers, but the unbeliever by taking sanctuary ipso facto renounced Islam.

This religious toleration was entirely the work of the Norman kings themselves, and it was only under compulsion that they ever succeeded in inducing their subjects to observe the principle. The rational judgment pronounced by Falcandus upon the kaid Peter, and the still more remarkable championship of the cause of that fallen statesman by the Count of Molisé, are almost the only exceptions to the rule. The king found in the Mahometans his most faithful soldiers, his most cultivated companions, and his best officials. The palace and court of Palermo were almost completely officered by Mahometans in fact, if not always in name. But with the growth of stability in the realm national feelings were created. The patriotic party demanded that the young king William should be brought up as a Sicilian. A new nobility of office arose, and daily increased in power. At first, whilst the feudal baronage was still to be dreaded, this official nobility protected the Saracens, many members of it themselves professing Islam. After, however, the coalition of the feudal baronage, the nationalists, and the officials had brought about the fall of Stephen of Perche, young William's foreign tutor, the two latter parties obtained the chief share in the government, and united were strong enough to do without direct Saracen help, whilst the ecclesiastical element in the council was always eager for persecution. The Saracens had still the king to defend them. And as long as William lived his protection was sure. With his death dissension between Christian and Saracen begins, and dissension prepares the way