OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 485 emulation, sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to the caliph : the seas, the rivers, and the harbours, the inhabitants and cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.'-'^^ In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by the agriculture,--^ the manufactures, and the commerce of an industrious people ; and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by the idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain solicited the support of the Christians ; and, in his edict of peace and pro- tection, he contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as many mules, one thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets and lances."-^ The most powerful of his successors derived from the same kingdom the annual tribute of twelve millions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of gold, about six millions of sterling money : '--'^ a sum which, in the tenth century, most probably sui-passed the united revenues of the Christian monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained six hundred moschs, nine hun- dred baths, and two hundred thousand houses : he gave laws to eighty cities of the first, to three hundred of the second and third order ; and the fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they created and they describe Grenada, and a contemporary of Novairi and Abulfeda (born A.D. 1313, died A.d. 1374)1 was an historian, geographer, physician, poet, (S:c. (torn. ii. p. 71, 72). 223 Cardonne, Hist, de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, torn. i. p. 116, 117. -24 A copious treatise of husbandry, by an Arabian of Seville, in the xiith century, is in the Escurial library, .ind Casiri had some thoughts of translating it. He gives a list of the authors quoted, Arabs as well as Greeks, Latins, &c. ; but it is much if the Andalusian saw these strangers through the medium of his countryman Columella (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. i. p. 323-338). 225 Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. ii. p. 104. Casiri translates the original testimony of the historian Rasis, as it is alleged in the Arabic Biographia Hispanica, pars ix. But I am most exceedingly surprised at the address, Principibus cseteris- que Christianis Hispanis suis Castelloe. The name of Castellae was unknown in the viiith century ; the kingdom was not erected till the year 1022, an hundred years after the time of Rasis (Bibliot. torn. ii. p. 330), and the appellation was always expressive, not of a tributary province, but of a line of casilcs independent of the Moorish yoke (d'Anville, Etats de 1' Europe, p. 166-170). Had Casiri been a critic, he would have cleared a difficulty, perhaps of his own making. 226 Cardonne, tom. i. p. 337, 338. He computes the revenue at 130,000,000 of French livres. The entire picture of peace and prosperity relieves the bloody uniformity of the Moorish annals,
