Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/229

 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 189 also sacked Compostella and Barcelona. Forty poets ac- companied him upon one of these northern expeditions; he constructed many roads and bridges, and enlarged the great mosque of Cordova; but he allowed the orthodox theolo- gians to purge Hakam's library of objectionable works of philosophy and astronomy. The old Arab nobility had lost all its influence during the recent despotic reigns, and, when no able successor to Al- mansor appeared, the power fell into the hands of Berber generals and of the "Slavs." This name Caliphate was at first applied to the captives from Slavonic anarchyof : Europe whom the East Franks and Byzantines th e eleventh sold as slaves to the Saracens. Then it was used to designate also Italians and others who were captured by Saracen pirates or purchased as children by Jewish slave- traders. Finally it came to denote all foreigners in the serv- ice of the caliph, whether as retainers in his bodyguard, eunuchs in his harem, or officials at his court. Abd-er- Rahman III had entrusted many important posts both civil and military to such foreigners in place of the troublesome old aristocracy. Now, after Almansor's death a period of civil war set in. After bloody conflicts between divers candi- dates for the throne, in which the Berbers and "Slavs" participated, and in which both sides called in aid from Castile and Catalonia and gave away fortresses and territory to secure Christian aid, and in which Cordova and other cities were sacked and half destroyed, the Caliphate of Cor- dova came formally to a close in 1036. Cordova and Seville now became republics; Berber chief tains divided up the south, where Malaga and Granada were two of the chief states; and the "Slavs" ruled the east, where the leading princes were those of Aimer ia and of the Balearic Isles. Toledo again became a separate state; Arab families ruled at Valencia and Saragossa ; and there were yet other princi- palities. When we consider how many followers of Mohammed there are to-day in Asia, Africa, and even in Europe, and in the distant islands of the South Seas, we observe one great result