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 RTHE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 187 th. In the process of conquest a considerable amount of id had been confiscated from those who persisted in re- sistance. This was now more widely distributed than before among a large number of Moslem proprietors. Slaves and serfs went with the land as before, but emancipation was to be won more easily than hitherto, especially by those who ran away from Christian to Moslem masters. These changes were not especially objectionable to the majority of the population, and during the eighth century Christian insur- rections were almost unknown. As time went on, however, and more and more Christians became converts to Islam, the government treated the remainder with less considera- tion. The Mohammedan rulers had always controlled the summoning of Christian church councils by the clergy in their dominions, and they also sometimes sold the office of bishop or bestowed it upon persons objectionable to the Church. As the Moslems increased in numbers there was a tendency to convert the cathedrals into mosques. In the ninth century the Christians were subjected to new and ruinous taxation, and occasionally to such decrees as that all inhabitants regardless of their religion must be circum- cised. Indeed, the government, as is apt to be the case in Mohammedan countries, tended to become increasingly despotic. Moreover, those Christians who had turned Moslems were not satisfied with the small share allowed them in the government, and the Berbers and Syrians in Revolts and Spain were also jealous of the Arab aristocracy. t h e ninth The result was a series of revolts. Indeed, the century Berbers, who had been assigned by the Arabs the less de- sirable northern regions of Spain, had rebelled soon after the conquest. This revolt had been crushed and, together with a famine of five years' duration, had so weakened the Ber- bers that the Christians in the extreme north had been able to push them back and recover considerable territory. Between them and the retreating Berbers there lay long un- occupied a wide strip of land which had been denuded by war and famine. Toledo, the old Visigothic capital, is lo-