Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/325

Rh for the German. Tancred, the elect of the nation, is again the Saracens' friend. He brings them back to Palermo from their hiding-places and fastnesses in the mountains. His work is cut short by death. Again during the minority of Frederic persecutions break out, again the persecuted flee to the mountains. Frederic in 1223 reduces the greater part of them to subjection, and transfers a large body of them to Luceria in Apulia. The palace and court of Palermo still derive their lustre from Oriental luxury and culture, and in this respect Frederic is a true successor of the Norman kings. The anarchy and persecution, however, of the intervening period had converted a wealthy, peaceful, and cultivated population into Italian mercenaries and Sicilian brigands.

A clear idea of what toleration was in Sicily whilst it lasted, and of the general condition of the Mussulman inhabitants, will best be obtained from Grobhair himself: —


 * The road [from Termini to Palermo] looked like a market, [says he] it was so much trodden and full of people coming and going. The bands of Christians that we met saluted us immediately, and treated us with politeness and familiarity; so much so that we saw that the mode of government and the mildness of the treatment of the Mussulmans were sufficient to tempt the minds of the ignorant. May God protect all the followers of Mahomet, and deliver them from these temptations by his power and grace. [The custom-officer who received the pilgrims at Palermo muttered the Mahometan salutation between his teeth] at which we marvelled greatly. Amongst the Mussulmans at Palermo [he proceeds] there are still left traces of the true faith. They maintain the greater part of their mosques in good repair; they are summoned to prayer by the voice of the muezzin; they have suburbs of their own in which they live unmingled with the Christians, and markets in which they alone have shops. They have a cadi of their own, who administers justice to them. … The king of Sicily himself is singular for his good disposition and his frequent employment of Mussulmans. Eunuchs are about his person, all of whom, or the greater part, are firmly attached, though secretly, to the religion of Islam. The king has great confidence in the Mussulmans, and entrusts to them the most important and delicate business. The superintendent of his kitchen is a Mussulman, and the king has a body-guard of negro Mussulman slaves, commanded by one of themselves. His vizier and his chamberlain are always chosen from amongst the above-mentioned eunuchs. … In truth no Christian prince reigns more mildly, enjoys more wealth, and lives more delicately than he. He. resembles the Mussulman kings in his pleasures no less than in the order of his laws, the manner of government, the distinction of classes of his subjects, and the pageantry and luxury of his court. He is thirty years of age: may God prolong his life in good health for the benefit of the Mussulmans. Another remarkable thing about him is that he reads and writes Arabic. One of his chief eunuchs told us this, and that he has taken as his alamah or sacred motto, "Praise be to God, praise is due to him." His father's alamah was, "Praise be to God in recognition of his benefits." The female slaves and concubines that he keeps in the palace are all of the Mussulman faith. Furthermore, the above-mentioned servant John, one of the pages in the tiraz (the silk-manufactory, the harem), where the garments of the king are embroidered in gold, revealed to us a no less marvellous fact, namely, that the Frank Christian ladies staying in the palace become Mussulman, being converted by the female slaves that we have mentioned. The king knows nothing of the fact, yet these ladies were very zealous in good works. The same John told us that once during an earthquake, the king, whilst in his palace, heard on all sides his women and eunuchs uttering prayers to God and the prophet. When they caught sight of the king they were alarmed; but he reassured them, saying, "Let every one pray to the God whom he adores, he who has faith in his God will obtain peace."

The sovereign who uttered these words based his toleration on the widest grounds. Unfortunately, before the end of his reign, by his too close connection with the Roman Church, he was induced to extend ecclesiastical jurisdiction so that the bishops took cognizance of certain cases between Mussulman and Christian (Lalumia, p. 187). Thereby he opened the door to persecution, and he broke through the original principle of the constitution by which Mussulmans were only to be tried by Mussulman judges, according to their own law of the Koran. Looking backward and forward from the reign of William, we can better understand the character of the courts of Roger and Frederic. The abuse heaped on Frederic by his ecclesiastical foes, their accusations of heresy and apostasy, are well known. The Palermitan court of Frederic, however, was but an inheritance from the "good" King William. The rapprochement between East and West, between Latin, Greek, and Arabic culture, in which and in the consequences resulting therefrom was supposed to lie the great value to Europe of the Crusades, had been made already in Sicily. The principles of toleration embodied by Frederic in the treaty of Jerusalem were 