![[1097-1171 a.d.]
in the public prayers at Hedjaz. Far from seeking to arm the Arabs
against the Turks, Mustali, successor to Mustansir, had had but one
aim, that of obtaining certain barren concessions from the Seljuk
princes by intervening in their private quarrels; and moreover an
unforeseen incident had arisen which diverted all minds from
internecine troubles.
The arrival of several armies of Christians,
sent to Palestine with the mission of delivering
the Holy City, aroused in the Moslems all their
religious fanaticism. Arabs and Turks suspended their mutual
animosity to make one cause against the common enemy; the
danger once past, however, divisions again broke forth that greatly
facilitated the progress of the Christians. Before the arrival of
Godfrey de Bouillon (1097) the army of Peter the Hermit had
perished in the domains of the sultan of Iconium, and the Moslems,
thinking they had nothing more to fear from without, recommenced
their civil wars; thus the disciplined troops of the first true crusaders
found no power to combat stronger than that of the Seljuks divided
among themselves, and after having crossed the mountains of Cilicia
they took the city of Antioch and made an easy entrance into
Palestine.
The Moslems everywhere remained divided and without a
common head. To the Fatimite caliphs, Mustali, Emir, Hafidh, Dhafir,
Faïz, and Adid, or rather to their grand viziers, it never occurred to
unite with the independent princes of Syria for the purpose of
repulsing the enemy of their common faith; the main objects of their
policy seemed to be to carry on negotiations with the Turkish emirs,
the war against the Franks occupying a subordinate place in their
concern. At the death of Barkiyarok, however, there suddenly arose
a new and powerful defender of Islam.
Imad ad-Din (called “the bloody” by our chroniclers) had
distinguished himself at the court of the Seljuks in Aleppo and
Mosul. Organising for himself under the name of Atabekm a small
independent state, he spread terror among the emirs all about him,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-21-320.jpg)
![[1171-1229 a.d.]
and finally attacked the Seljuk sultan at Aleppo and became master
of that town (1127). He next proceeded to awake in the Moslems
their ancient hatred for the name of “Christian” and commenced
against the Franks a sort of guerilla warfare which terminated in the
taking of Edessa, after which he forced the kings of Jerusalem to
make appeal to Europe.
Zenki was succeeded by his sons Saif ad-Din and Nur ad-Din, the
latter of whom proved himself a worthy successor of his father. He
harassed the Franks by repeated attacks, and allowed the two
monarchs to exhaust their forces by vain efforts to take Damascus,
which was still under the power of the Seljuks. When they finally
retired, defeated, Nur ad-Din himself assailed the sultan, who was
enfeebled by this long, heroic resistance, took from him Damascus,
and entered Palestine, which he ravaged in every direction. By a
fortunate circumstance he was soon permitted to mingle in the
affairs of Egypt, by offering troops to a vizier for the purpose of
suppressing the caliph Adid. Not receiving the reward promised for
this service, he opened hostilities at once, and several times
defeated the kings of Jerusalem, while his lieutenant, Shirkuh,
became master of Egypt and forced the caliph to bestow upon him
the charge of grand vizier. This was the sentence of death for the
Fatimites. Shirkuh’s nephew, Saladin, sharer in his uncle’s secret
designs, carried the revolution to a head, and in less than a month
prayers were said in the mosque in the name of the Baghdad caliph,
Nostadi, and Adid was deposed without a voice being raised in his
favour (1171).
SALADIN AND HIS SUCCESSORS AGAINST THE CRUSADERS
Scarcely did Saladin get into his hands the
resources of the wealthy land of Egypt than he
commenced against the Franks that series of
assaults which has made his name famous. He was later elevated to
the supreme rank by the universal choice of the Moslems at the
death of Nur ad-Din, the latter’s son having been put aside.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-22-320.jpg)
![[1090-1250 a.d.]
Several months after the departure of Richard, Saladin died at
Damascus, admired by his enemies and regretted by Moslems, who
foresaw that new divisions would arise. Indeed three Eyyubid states
at once came into being; one in Egypt, another in Damascus,
Jerusalem, and Lower Syria, and the third in Aleppo and Upper
Syria. Three sons of Saladin had divided the states left by their
father, two of them being despoiled by their uncle Adil Saif ad-Din,
who remained master of Egypt and Damascus. Malik Adil, called
Saphedin in our chronicles, was the sworn enemy of the Franks; he
took from them the city of Tripolis, and was the determining cause
of the Fifth Crusade.
Malik al-Kamil, his son, became sultan of Egypt in 1218, and
graciously received presents from Frederick II, when that prince
entered Palestine at the head of the Sixth Crusade, and received
from him the city of Jerusalem that had cost the Moslems so many
lives. The Eyyubid sultans that succeeded Malik looked upon the
Franks as enemies who must be driven from Asia at any cost; and so
Jerusalem fell again into infidel hands and became in turn the
possession of the sultans of Egypt and of Damascus.
Thus we find, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, the
posterity of Saladin wielding power over almost the whole of the
western part of the Arabian empire. A descendant of Nur ad-Din, it is
true, possessed a part of Jezireh, and certain Eyyub princes reigned
over provinces of the peninsula; while the name of the Abbasids, last
representatives of the former Arab supremacy, was still proclaimed in
public prayers. The Alids and Fatimites formed a single sect, without
unity or political influence. Armenia and Georgia had reverted to
Christianity, and a considerable faction known in history as the
Ismailians, Bathenians, or Assassins had still retained a certain
prominence.
This sect was founded toward the close of the
eleventh century by Hassan Sabba, who
succeeded in gaining an absolute ascendency
over the minds of his followers. An enemy alike to Christianity and](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-24-320.jpg)
![[1220-1258 a.d.]
Islam, he promulgated a doctrine which was similar to that of the
Karmathians, and among his possessions were several fortresses, in
one of which he resided. The name “assassins” is a corruption of the
word hashish, a sort of intoxicating drink by means of which Hassan
Sabba persuaded his followers that he could initiate them in all the
joys of paradise. Hassan assumed the character of a lesser
providence charged with redressing wrongs and punishing untruth;
and as he at the same time permitted all sorts of brigandage on the
part of his sectarians, the dynasty he established terrorised all
western Asia for more than two centuries. They carried their arms
into Syria, where they erected fortifications and pillaged all the
caravans that passed through. As late as the thirteenth century they
possessed stations in Irak and Syria, not far from Damascus and
Aleppo.
THE MONGOLS UNDER JENGHIZ KHAN INVADE WESTERN
ASIA
Such was the situation of the oriental world
when a new race of conquerors, the Mongols,
descended upon western Asia. Like the Turks
the Mongols formed one particular branch of the Scythian race, but
had preserved, in the depths of Tatary, their primitive customs and
religion. Their life was nomadic, their organisation tribal, and
obedience to their chiefs, together with love of war and pillage, were
their distinguishing characteristics.
Jenghiz Khan was already ruler of Tatary and Northern China
when he directed his movements westward and menaced
Mawarannahar (1219). This province belonged at the time to
Muhammed, sultan of Khwarizm, who was at war with Nasir, caliph
of Baghdad, for a very serious cause. Nasir, alarmed at the growing
power of Muhammed, had armed the Ghurid princes against him;
whereat Muhammed had summoned to a grand council in his palace
a number of doctors and jurists whose decision could not be
doubtful, and had declared the reign of the Abbasids, usurpers of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-25-320.jpg)
![[1258-1517 a.d.]
made no attempt at resistance, and for seven days his capital was at
the mercy of the Mongols, who pillaged and destroyed on all sides,
burning many priceless manuscripts that they found in the libraries
and colleges. Mustasim was strangled and his corpse dragged
around the walls of Baghdad, which had been witnesses of all the
different phases of the Abbasids’ rise and fall—their grandeur, their
decadence, and their closing ignominy.
The Mongols had now only a step to take to seek the conquest of
Egypt and Syria; but they encountered the mamelukes, whom they
were unable to vanquish. As their name indicates, the mamelukes
were Circassian slaves whom Saladin’s successors had imported to
their palaces, and who renewed at Cairo the insubordination and
excesses of which the Turkish soldiery had been guilty at Baghdad.
When the Khwarizmians fled to Syria before Jenghiz Khan, the
sultan of Damascus gave to the Franks Tiberius, Jerusalem, and
Ascalon in return for their aid. Now the sultan of Egypt and his
mamelukes joined forces with the Khwarizmians, and during a series
of combats in which Jerusalem was taken and retaken several times,
they concluded by turning upon their own allies and almost
destroying them (1240-1245). Three years later they repulsed at
Massur the attack of St. Louis, who had begun an invasion of Egypt.
In 1250 a revolution occurred which changed the whole face of the
country.
The mamelukes, dissatisfied with the treaty
they had concluded with the king of France,
their prisoner, rose in revolt and proclaimed one
of their chiefs, Muiz ad-Din, sultan. St. Louis, who had retired to
Palestine, sought in vain to raise up enemies against the mamelukes
by entering into relations with the khan of the Mongols, and the
leader of the Ismailians. Syria, after having been briefly occupied by
Hulagu, who put an end to the sultanates of Aleppo and Damascus
(1258), remained permanently, together with Jezireh, in the hands
of the mamelukes. The Franks lost successively their remaining
possessions and a new dynasty of Abbasid caliphs arose, who for](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-27-320.jpg)
![We have now seen the sceptre of Mohammed pass from his own
race. It remains to resume the story of the Arabs in Spain.a
FOOTNOTES
[40] [Also spelled Harun-er-Rashid and Harun al-Rashid.]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-29-320.jpg)
![[961-1492 a.d.]
CHAPTER IX. THE DECLINE OF THE MOSLEMS
IN SPAIN
Al-Hakam II, the son and successor of Abd
ar-Rahman, inherited all the great qualities of
his father. He was, however, averse to war, fond
of tranquillity, and immoderately attached to literature. His agents
were constantly employed in the East in purchasing scarce and
curious books; he himself wrote to every author of reputation for a
copy of that author’s works, for which he paid royally; and wherever
he could not purchase a book, he caused it to be transcribed. By this
means he collected an extensive library, the unfinished catalogue of
which, in the time of Ibn Hayan, reached forty-four volumes. On his
accession, that he might devote his chief time to the public
administration yet not neglect interests so dear to him, he confided
to one of his brothers the care of his library, and to another the duty
of protecting literary institutions and of rewarding the learned. His
reign is the golden age of Arabian literature in Spain.
He appears never to have been engaged in war with the
Christians; for though the Arabian writers mention the siege and
reduction of an Estefano de Gormas by the king in person, no
mention is made of such a fact by the contemporary bishop of
Astorga. In Africa, his general, Khalib, successfully repressed an](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-30-320.jpg)
![[977-998 a.d.]
insurrection of two local governors, and rendered the walis of Fez
again dependent on the throne of Cordova.
As Hisham II, the son and successor of Al-Hakam, was but eleven
years old when he ascended the throne, the regency was conferred
by the queen-mother on her secretary, Muhammed ben Abdallah, a
man of great genius, valour, and activity. Muhammed, better known
as Almansor, may, in fact, be regarded as the king; for he alone
throughout life governed the realm. Hisham was too feeble, too
despicable, too much addicted to slothful pleasures, to command
even the passing notice of the people.
ALMANSOR
The wars of Almansor with the Christians,
which proved so fatal to them, occupy the most
prominent part of his administration. Without
acquainting them with his intention to disturb a peace which had
continued during the reign of Al-Hakam, in 977 a.d. he penetrated
into Galicia, where booty and captives in abundance rewarded the
avarice of his followers. In the two years succeeding, he frequently
renewed his incursions, both into Galicia and Tarragona, without
encountering much opposition. Under an infant king, the Christians
were too much occupied with their internal dissensions to unite even
in defence of their country. In short, his destructive inroads are said
to have occurred twice every year during a great part of his life.
In 981 Almansor not only reduced Zamora, but took possession of
many other fortresses in the neighbourhood. The ensuing campaigns
were no less successful; they are, however, too numerous to be
particularised. It will be sufficient to state that in 983 a.d. he took
Gormaz; in 984, Simancas; in 986, Sepulveda; in 987, he destroyed
Coimbra, which, however, the Moors themselves soon rebuilt; in 989,
he reduced Artienza, Osma, and Alcova; in 992, Montemayor; in
994, San Estevan and Corunna; in 995, Aguilar; in 996, the
important cities of Leon and Astorga, with a great number of inferior](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-31-320.jpg)
![[998-1009 a.d.]
the son of Almansor, hastened to the scene of strife, and in two
battles annihilated the forces of his enemy, whom he made prisoner;
and who, though relying on the faith of treaties, was sent to Spain
and executed. With Al-Hasam ended the dynasty of the Edris, which
had ruled in Fez about two hundred years. In 987, however, the
flames of war were rekindled by Balkin ben Zeiri, and nourished by
his son and successor. After various alternations of fortune the
country was pacified by the victories of Abdul-Malik, who was
rewarded by the dignity of emir of Almaghreb.
DECAY OF POWER
But the chief attention of the hajib was
always turned to the natural enemy of his
nation. From his elevation he had meditated the
destruction of the Christian power. Now that Africa was pacified, and
his son able to send him a supply of Berber troops, he resolved to
execute his project, and as usual to commence with Leon. His
preparations which he had been long making were immense; but
this circumstance saved Spain. Terrified at the approaching danger,
Sancho king of Navarre, and another of the same name, the count of
Castile, entered into a confederacy with the regency of Leon
(Alfonso V, who then reigned, was only in his eighth year), to repel
the common foe. This was the first time during the administration of
Almansor that the three powers thus united; they were, in fact,
generally at war with one another; a circumstance which, coupled
with the frequent minority of the kings of Leon, will fully account for
the unparalleled triumphs of that hero.
In 1001 the Mohammedan army, in two formidable bodies,
ascended the Duero, and encountered the Christians in the vicinity
of Calatanazar, a place between Soria and Medina Cœli. When
Almansor perceived the widespread tents of the Christians, he was
struck with surprise. The battle commenced with break of day, and
was maintained with unexampled obstinacy until darkness separated
the combatants.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-33-320.jpg)
![[1009-1012 a.d.]
That the loss on both sides was immense, may well be conceived
from the desperate valour of the two armies. If Almansor by his
frequent and impetuous assaults broke the adverse line, it was soon
reformed, and the next moment saw the Christian knights in the
very heart of the infidels. Overcome with fatigue, with anxiety, and
still more with the mortification of having been so unexpectedly
repelled, he slowly retired to his tent, to await the customary visits
of his generals. The extent of his disaster was unknown to him, until
he learned, from the few who arrived, the fate of their brother
chiefs. To hazard a second field, he well saw, would be destruction;
and burning with shame he ordered a retreat. Whether the
Mohammedans were disturbed or not in their retreat is uncertain,
but Almansor himself proceeded no further than the frontiers of
Castile, before he sank under the weight of his despair. Obstinately
refusing all consolation—some accounts say all support—he died in
the arms of his son Abdul-Malik, who had hastened from Africa to
see him, the third day of the moon Shaffal (1002).
Almansor was formed for a great sovereign. He was not only the
most able of generals, and the most valiant of soldiers, but he was
an enlightened statesman, an active governor, an encourager of
science and the arts, and a magnificent rewarder of merit. His loss
was fatal to Cordova. The national sorrow was mitigated for a
moment by the appointment of Abdul-Malik to the vacant post of
hajib. This minister promised to tread in the steps of his illustrious
father; his administration both in Africa and Spain was signalised by
great spirit and valour; but, unlike Almansor, he found the Christians
too well prepared to be taken by surprise. He was suddenly seized
with excruciating pains—the effect, probably, of poison; and he died
in 1008, in the seventh year of his administration. With him ended
the prosperity of Mohammedan Spain.
Abd ar-Rahman, the brother of Abdul-Malik,
was next advanced to the post of hajib. He
prevailed on the childless monarch to designate
him as successor to the throne. This rash act occasioned his ruin,
and was one of those which accelerated with fearful rapidity the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-34-320.jpg)
![[1012-1023 a.d.]
however, he did not long remain; he felt he was unpopular; and to
avoid assassination, he shut himself up in the palace of Azhara.
The African domination—for such his was—became odious to the
native Moslems; nor was the feeling lessened by the presence of the
Christian auxiliaries. The latter were honourably dismissed; but still
there was no solid security for Suleiman, against whom plots were
frequent. To add to his vexations, Muhammed, aided by Count
Raymond of Barcelona and several walis, advanced against Cordova.
The African party was defeated, its chief forced to flee, and
Muhammed again recognised as king. But throughout these
contentions, the vicissitudes of success and failure followed each
other with amazing celerity. Though pursued by a superior force
headed in person by his bitter rival, Suleiman turned round and
inflicted a terrible defeat on Muhammed, who precipitately fled,
almost alone, to the capital. The victor followed him, seized on the
heights in the vicinity of Cordova, and laid siege to the place.
Muhammed was weakened by the desertion of his Christian allies,
and still more by the disaffection of the mob, which bears about the
same feeling to unfortunate princes as the kindred cur towards the
meanly clad visitant. The hajib Uhada, a man who had contrived to
keep his post in every recent change of government, took advantage
of this alienation of popular feeling; he did not declare for Suleiman,
as little of a favourite as the present ruler; but he suddenly drew
Hisham from confinement, and showed him to the astonished
populace. Astonishment gave way to transport; and transport, as
usual, to excesses. Muhammed was beheaded, his corpse torn in
pieces by the new converts to legitimacy (1012 a.d.), and the head
thrown into the camp of Suleiman.
But Suleiman refused to recognise the
grandson of the great Abd ar-Rahman. Having
formed an alliance with Obaid Allah, the son of
Muhammed and wali of Toledo, he aimed at nothing less than the
deposition of the king. At first his efforts were unpromising; his ally
was defeated, made prisoner, and beheaded. Fortune favoured him
in other respects. Suleiman marched on Cordova. In vain did the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-36-320.jpg)
![[1023-1238 a.d.]
Al-Kasim ben Hammud, brother of the deceased king, seized on
the throne. A powerful conspiracy was formed to dethrone him. His
palace was assailed; and though, by the valour of his guards, it held
out fifty days, at the end of that time most of them fell in an attempt
to effect their escape. Some of the more humane of the assailants
secretly conveyed Kasim beyond the walls and provided him with a
small escort of cavalry, which conveyed him to Xeres. When this
intelligence was known at Cordova, the Alameris, or party of the
family of the great Almansor, which acted a conspicuous part in all
these commotions and which adhered to the fortunes of the
Omayyads, proclaimed as king Abd ar-Rahman ben Hisham, brother
of the usurper Muhammed.
Muhammed ben Abd ar-Rahman, cousin of the king, a man of
boundless wealth, succeeded in corrupting the chief nobles of the
city. In the silence of night he armed a resolute band of his
creatures, who hastened to the palace, and massacred the soldiers
on duty. After a reign of only forty-seven days, the king’s
bedchamber was entered and he was pierced with a thousand
wounds.
END OF THE OMAYYADS
Muhammed II reaped the reward of his crime.
His successor was Yahya, who perished in an
ambuscade (1025). The next prince on whom
the choice of the Cordovans fell, Hisham III, brother of Abd ar-
Rahman al-Mortada, was naturally loth to accept a crown which had
destroyed so many of its wearers. In the end, however, being rather
forced than persuaded to relinquish his scruples, he left his
retirement. Unhappily, he had but too much reason to find that
neither private virtues nor public services have much influence over
the bulk of mankind; and that the absolute king who has not the
power to make himself feared will not long be suffered to reign. In
1031 a licentious mob paraded the streets of Cordova, and loudly
demanded his deposition. He did not wait the effects of their](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-38-320.jpg)
![[1031-1094 a.d.]
fleeting conquerors who arrived from Africa, the fabric of whose
dominion was as suddenly destroyed as it was erected.
Vicious as is the constitution of all Mohammedan governments,
and destructible as are the bases on which they are founded, the
reader cannot fail to have been struck with the fate of this great
kingdom. It can scarcely be said to have declined; it fell at once. Not
thirty years have elapsed since the great Almansor wielded the
resources of Africa and Spain, and threatened the entire destruction
of the Christians, whom he had driven into an obscure corner of this
vast peninsula. Now Africa is lost; the Christians hold two-thirds of
the country; the petty but independent governors, the boldest of
whom trembled at the name of Almansor, openly insult the ruler of
Cordova, whose authority extends little further than the walls of his
capital. Assuredly, so astounding a catastrophe has no parallel in all
history. Other kingdoms, indeed, as powerful as Cordova, have been
perhaps as speedily deprived of their independence; but if they have
been subdued by invading enemies, their resources, their vigour, to
a certain extent their greatness have long survived their loss of that
blessing. Cordova, in the very fullness of her strength, was torn to
pieces by her turbulent children.
INDEPENDENT KINGDOMS
The decline and dissolution of the
Mohammedan monarchy, or western caliphate
afforded the ambitious local governors
throughout the peninsula the opportunity for which they had long
sighed—that of openly asserting their independence of Cordova and
of assuming the title of kings.
But Cordova, however weakened, was not willing thus suddenly to
lose her hold on her ancient subjects; she resolved to elect a
sovereign who should endeavour to subdue these audacious rebels,
and restore her ancient splendour. The disasters which had
accompanied the last reigns of the Omayyad princes had strongly](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-40-320.jpg)
![[1070-1103 a.d.]
disciples to make war on the kindred tribe of Lamtuna. His ambition
naturally increased with his success; in a short time he had reduced,
in a similar manner, the isolated tribes around him.
To his valiant followers of Lamtuna, he now gave the name of Al-
Morabethun, or Almoravids, which signifies men consecrated to the
service of God. The whole country of Darah was gradually subdued
by this new apostle, and his authority was acknowledged over a
region extensive enough to form a respectable kingdom. But though
he exercised all the rights of sovereignty, he prudently abstained
from assuming the title. He left to the emir of Lamtuna the
ostensible exercise of temporal power; and when, in 1058 a.d., that
emir fell in battle, he nominated Abu Bekr ben Omar to the vacant
dignity. His own death, which was that of a warrior, left Abu Bekr in
possession of an undivided sovereignty. The power, and
consequently the reputation of the emir, spread far and wide. Abu
Bekr looked around for a site on which he might lay the foundations
of a great city, the destined metropolis of a great empire; and the
city of Morocco began to rear its head from the valley of Eylana.
Before, however, his great work was half completed, he received
intelligence that the tribe of Gudala had declared a deadly war
against that of Lamtuna. As he belonged to the latter, he naturally
trembled for the fate of his kindred; and at the head of his cavalry
he departed for his native deserts, leaving the command of the
army, during his absence, to his cousin, Yusuf ben Tashufin.
Whatever were Yusuf’s other virtues, it will be
seen that gratitude, honour, and good faith
were not among the number. Scarcely had his
kinsman left the city than, in pursuance of the design he had formed
of usurping the supreme authority, he began to win the affections of
the troops, partly by his gifts and partly by affability. Nor was his
success in war less agreeable to so fierce and martial a people as
the Almoravids. The Berbers were quickly subdued by him. He had
long aspired to the hope of marrying the beautiful Zainab, sister of
Abu Bekr; but the fear of a repulse from the proud chief of his family
had caused him to smother his inclination. He now disdained to](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-44-320.jpg)
![[1103-1130 a.d.]
Ali was only in his twenty-third year when he
succeeded his father, whose military talents he
inherited, and whom he surpassed in generosity.
On the death of Alfonso, in 1109 a.d., Ali entered Spain at the head
of one hundred thousand men, to prosecute in person the war
against the Christians. But though he laid waste the territory of
Toledo, and invested that city, he soon abandoned the siege. A
second army sent by Ali had no better success. In 1118 Saragossa,
after a siege of some months, fell into the power of the Christians,
and the north of Spain was forever freed from the domination of the
Mohammedans. The following year the Aragonian hero destroyed
twenty thousand of the Africans, who had advanced as far as the
environs of Daroca; while another division of the Almoravids, under
Ali in person, was compelled to retreat before the army of Leon and
Castile.
At this very time the empire of the Almoravids was tottering to its
fall. It had never been agreeable to the Mohammedans of Spain,
whose manners, from their intercourse with a civilised people, were
comparatively refined. The sheikhs of Lamtuna were so many
insupportable tyrants; the Jews, the universal agents for the
collection of the revenues, were here, as in Poland, the most pitiless
extortioners; every savage from the desert looked with contempt on
the milder inhabitant of the peninsula. The domination of those
strangers was indeed so odious that, except for the divisions
between Alfonso and his ambitious queen, Donna Urraca, who was
sovereign in her own right, all Andalusia might speedily have been
subjected to the Christian yoke. Even while Ali remained in Spain,
there was an open revolt of the inhabitants, who could not longer
support the excesses of the barbarian guard.
But the cause which most menaced the existence of Ali’s throne,
and which was destined to change the whole face of western Africa
and southern Spain, originated, like the power of Yusuf ben
Tashufin, in the deserts bordering on Mount Atlas. Muhammed ben
Abdallah, the son of a lamp-lighter in the mosque of Cordova, was
distinguished for great curiosity and an insatiable thirst for](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-47-320.jpg)
![[1130-1143 a.d.]
swear to obey thee!” The Berbers, influenced by the example, in the
same manner arose and vowed fidelity even unto death.
From this moment he assumed the high title
of mahdi, and proclaimed himself as the
founder of a new people. He instituted a regular
government, confiding the administration to Abdul-Mumin, his
minister, with nine associates, but reserving the control to himself.
Seventy Berbers or Alarabs formed the council of the new
government. An army of ten thousand horse and a far greater
number of foot was speedily organised, with which he took the road
to Agmat just as Ali returned to Morocco from Spain. The Almohads
[Unitarians], for such was the name assumed by the followers of
Muhammed, defeated the troops of Ali four times.
At length Muhammed resolved to reduce the capital of Morocco.
At his voice forty thousand men took the field. The preparations of
Ali were immense; one hundred thousand men were ranged round
his standard. They were again defeated, were pursued to the very
walls of Morocco, and that capital was invested with a vigour which
showed that the Almohads were intent on its reduction. But Ali led
his troops against the rebels, whom he completely routed. Abdul-
Mumin rallied the fugitives, and effected an orderly retreat. But time
was necessary to repair the misfortune, especially as some of the
savage tribes of the desert withdrew from Muhammed’s banner, on
finding that his power was that of a mere mortal.
In 1130 the mahdi commanded all to assemble the following day
near the great mosque, to bid adieu to their chief. All wondered at
the command, except such as were acquainted with his long hidden
disease. He exhorted them to persevere in the doctrine he had
taught them; announced his approaching death; and when he saw
them dissolved in tears, inculcated the duty of resignation to the
divine will. He then retired with his beloved disciple, to whom he
presented the book containing the tenets of his faith—a book which
he had received from the hands of Al-Gazali. The fourth day he
expired. The chiefs of the state were soon afterwards assembled to](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-49-320.jpg)
![[1143-1145 a.d.]
deliberate on the form of government; a monarchy was chosen; and
by their unanimous suffrages Abdul-Mumin was proclaimed imam
and almumenin.
For the next three years the new caliph was diligently employed in
extending his conquests. The whole country, from the mountains of
Darah to Salee, all Fez and Tasa, received his spiritual and temporal
yoke. The empire of the Almoravids was now bounded within a
narrow sphere. Ali became dejected and unhappy; his troops were
everywhere defeated; his towns were rapidly delivered into the
power of a savage enemy, who had vowed his destruction; and
though, in compliance with the advice of his counsellors, he
associated with him in the empire his son Tashufin, whose exploits in
Spain had obtained him much celebrity, that prince was too busily
occupied with the Christians and his discontented subjects of
Andalusia to prop the declining empire in Africa.
Tashufin ben Ali succeeded in 1143 to his
father, who died at Morocco—more from grief at
the declining state of affairs than from any
other cause. His first object was to assemble an army to strike
another blow for the defence of his empire. At first he was
successful. Abdul-Mumin was compelled to fall back on his
mountain; but in a second action Tashufin was defeated; in a third
he was also compelled to retreat. Ali saw that his only hope of safety
lay in an escape to Spain. One night he resolved to make a
desperate effort to gain the port where his vessels were still riding at
anchor. Unfortunately either he mistook his way or his mule was
terrified by the roaring of the waves, for the next morning his
mangled corpse was found at the foot of a precipice on the beach.
But Morocco, Fez, and some other cities were yet in the power of
the Almoravids, who raised Ibrahim Abu Ishak, son of Tashufin, to
the throne. The vindictive Abdul-Mumin, however, left them little
time to breathe. Tlemcen he took by assault, and massacred the
inhabitants; Fez he also reduced. The siege of Morocco was
prosecuted with vigour. The inhabitants were so fatally repulsed in a](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-50-320.jpg)
![[1145-1198 a.d.]
the Christian emperor, about the same time that Lisbon and the
neighbouring towns received Dom Henry (Henrique), the new
sovereign of Portugal. Most of these conquests, however, were
subsequently recovered by the Almohads. Being reinforced by a new
army from Africa, the latter pursued their successes with greater
vigour. They reduced Cordova, which was held by an ally of Alfonso;
defeated, and forever paralysed, the expiring efforts of the
Almoravids; and proclaimed their emperor Abdul-Mumin as sovereign
of all Mohammedan Spain (1146).
DYNASTY OF THE ALMOHADS
Abdul-Mumin, as if desirous of subduing not
merely what had formed the empire of the
Almoravids but all the regions which owned the
faith of Islam, levied army after army; so that from Portugal to Tunis
and Kairwan his wild hordes spread devastation and dismay. To
detail the events of the wars sustained by his general, or his son the
cid Yusuf, in Andalusia, would afford little interest to the reader. It
will be sufficient to observe that, by slow but sure degrees, the
whole of Andalusia was incorporated with his empire. Once only did
he visit Spain, if remaining a few hours at Gibraltar can deserve the
name. In 1162 he breathed his last. On his accession, Yusuf Abu
Yakub dismissed the enormous army which had been collected.
During the following few years he appears to have cultivated the
blessings of peace; it was not until 1170 that he entered Spain, and
all Mohammedan Spain owned the emperor.
Notwithstanding the destructive wars which had prevailed near a
century, neither Moors nor Christians had acquired much advantage
by them. From the reduction of Saragossa to the present time, the
victory, indeed, had generally declared for the Christians; but their
conquests, with the exception of Lisbon and a few fortresses in
central Spain, were lost almost as soon as gained; and the same fate
attended the equally transient successes of the Mohammedans. The
reason why the former did not permanently extend their territories,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-52-320.jpg)
![[1198-1212 a.d.]
was their internal dissensions. The Christians, when at peace among
themselves, were always too many for their Mohammedan
neighbours, even when the latter were aided by the whole power of
western Africa.
Yakub ben Yusuf, from his victories afterwards named Al-Mansur,
was declared successor to his father. For some years he was not
personally opposed to the Christians, though his walis carried on a
desultory indecisive war. In 1194 he landed in Andalusia, and
proceeded towards Valencia, where the Christian army then lay.
There Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, was awaiting the expected
reinforcements from his allies, the kings of Leon and Navarre. Both
armies pitched their tents on the plains of Alarcon. The chiefs of
both naturally felt anxious for the result; but the charge of rashness
cannot be erased from the memory of Alfonso, for venturing to
withstand alone a conflict with the overwhelming force of the enemy,
instead of falling back to effect a junction with his allies. His loss
must have been immense, amounting probably to twenty thousand
men. With a generosity very rare in a Mohammedan, and still more
in an African, Yakub restored his prisoners to liberty—an action for
which, we are informed, he received few thanks from his followers.
After this signal victory Yakub rapidly reduced Calatrava,
Guadalaxara, Madrid and Esalona, Salamanca, etc. Toledo, too, he
invested, but in vain. He returned to Africa, caused his son
Muhammed to be declared wali alhadi, and died (1199). He was,
beyond doubt, the greatest and best of the Almohads.
The character of Muhammed Abu Abdallah,
surnamed An-Nasir, was very different from that
of his great father. Much as the world had been
astounded at the preparations of his grandfather Yusuf, they were
not surpassed by his own, if, as we are credibly informed, one alone
of the five divisions of his army amounted to 160,000 men. It is
certain that a year was required for the assembling of this vast
armament, that two months were necessary to convey it across the
straits, and that all Christian Europe was filled with alarm at its
disembarkation. Innocent III proclaimed a crusade to Spain; and](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/7399-250526180326-d0be2763/85/Solution-Manual-for-Financial-Reporting-and-Analysis-5th-Edition-by-Revsine-53-320.jpg)
Solution Manual for Financial Reporting and Analysis 5th Edition by Revsine
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- 5. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-1 Solution Manual for Financial Reporting and Analysis 5th Edition by Revsine full chapter at: https://testbankbell.com/product/solution- manual-for-financial-reporting-and-analysis-5th-edition-by- revsine/ Chapter 1 Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy Learning Objectives in This Chapter • You will understand the functions performed and the roles played by the system of financial institutions and markets in the global economy and in our daily lives. • You will discover how important financial institutions and markets, including the whole financial system, are to increasing our standard of living, generating new jobs, and building our savings to meet tomorrow’s financial needs. What’s in This Chapter? Key Topics Outline • How the System of Financial Institutions and Markets Interfaces with the Economy • The Importance of Savings and Investment • The Nature of Financial Claims in the Financial Markets • Functions of Financial Institutions and Markets: Savings, Wealth, Liquidity, Credit, Payments, Risk Protection, and Pursuing Public Policy • Types of Financial Markets within the Global Financial System • Factors Tying All Financial Markets Together • The Dynamic Financial System: Key Emerging Trends Chapter Outline 1.1. Introduction to the System of Financial Institutions and Markets 1.2. The Global Economy and the System of Financial Institutions and Markets 1.2.1. Flows within the Global Economic System 1.2.2. The Role of Markets in the Global Economic System 1.2.3. Types of Markets 1.2.4. The Financial Markets and the Financial System: Channel for Savings and Investment 1.2.4.1. Nature of Savings 1.2.4.2. Nature of Investment 1.3. Economic Functions Performed by the Global System of Financial Institutions and Markets 1.3.1. Savings Function 1.3.2. Wealth Function 1.3.3. Liquidity Function
- 6. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-2 1.3.4. Credit Function 1.3.5. Payments Function 1.3.6. Risk Protection Function 1.3.7. Policy Function
- 7. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-3 1.4. Types of Financial Markets within the Global Financial System 1.4.1. The Money Market versus the Capital Market 1.4.2. Divisions of the Money and Capital Markets 1.4.3. Open versus Negotiated Markets 1.4.4. Primary versus Secondary Markets 1.4.5. Spot versus Futures, Forward, and Option Markets 1.5. Factors Tying All Financial Markets Together 1.5.1. Credit, the Common Commodity 1.5.2. Speculation and Arbitrage 1.6. The Dynamic Financial System 1.7. The Plan of This Book Key Terms Appearing in This Chapter financial system, 3 market, 4 financial market, 6 savings, 6 investment, 6 wealth, 8 net worth, 8 financial wealth, 8 net financial wealth, 8 liquidity, 9 credit, 9 money market, 12 capital market, 12 open markets, 14 negotiated markets, 14 primary markets, 14 secondary markets, 14 speculators, 16 arbitrage, 16 Questions to Help You Study 1. Why is it important for us to understand how the global system of financial institutions and markets works? Answer: The global financial system of institutions and markets is an integral part of the global economic system. It is the collection of markets, institutions, laws, regulations, and techniques through which bonds, stocks, and other securities are traded, interest rates are determined, and financial services are produced and delivered around the world. 2. What are the principal links between the financial system and the economy? Why is each important to the other? Answer: The principal link between the financial system and the economy is the Financial Markets. The financial markets channel savings to those individuals and institutions needing more funds for spending than are provided by their current incomes. The financial markets are the heart of global financial system, attracting and allocating saving and setting interest rates and prices of financial assets (stocks, bonds, etc.).
- 8. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-4 3. What are the principal functions or roles of the global financial system? How do financial institutions and markets fulfill those roles or functions? Answer: The principal function or role of the global financial system is to move scarce loanable funds from those who save to those who borrow to buy goods and services and to make investments in new equipment and facilities so that the global economy can grow and increase the standard of living enjoyed by its citizens. Those who supply funds to the financial market receive promises packaged in the form of financial claims (future dividends, interest, etc.) and financial services (stocks, bonds, deposits, and insurance policies) in return for the loan of their money. 4. What exactly is saving? Investment? Are these terms often misused by people on the street? Why do you think this happens? Answer: Saving: For households, savings are what is left from current income after current consumption expenditures and tax payments are made. For the business sector, savings include current earnings retained inside business firms after payment of taxes, stockholder dividends , and other cash expenses. For government, savings arise when there is a surplus of current revenues over current expenditures in a government’s budget. Investment: Investment generally refers to the acquisition of capital goods, such as buildings and equipment, and the purchase of inventories of raw materials and goods to sell. For households, investment is the purchase of a home. For business firms, investment is the expenditures on capital goods (buildings, equipment and other fixed assets) and inventories (raw materials and goods for sale). For government, investment is the expenditures to build and maintain public facilities (buildings, monuments, highways, etc.). The terms may be misused since their definitions depend on the type of unit in the economy that is doing the saving or investment. 5. How and why are savings and investment important determinants of economic growth? Do they impact our standard of living? How? Answer: The role of the financial system in channeling savings into investment is absolutely essential to the growth of the economy. For example, if households set aside savings and those funds are not returned to the spending stream through investment by businesses and governments, future income payments will decline, leading, in turn to reduced consumption spending. Then, the public's standard of living will fall. On the other hand, if the households save and these savings are channeled into investment, the economy's productive capacity will increase. In turn future income payments will rise, making possible increased consumption spending and a higher standard of living.
- 9. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-5 6. What seven vital functions does the financial system of money and capital markets perform? Answer: Savings Function: Bonds, stocks, and other financial claims produced and sold in financial markets by financial institutions provide a profitable, relatively low- risk outlet for the public’s saving which flow through the financial markets into investment. Wealth Function: A stock of assets (the financial instruments) sold by financial institutions in financial markets provide an excellent way to store of wealth. Liquidity Function: Financial markets provide liquidity (immediately spendable cash) for savers who hold financial instruments but are in need of money. Credit Function: Global financial markets furnish credit to finance consumption and investment spending. Payments Function: The global system of financial institutions and markets provides a mechanism for making payments for goods and services. Risk Protection Function: The financial institutions and markets around the world offer businesses, consumers, and government protection against life, health, property, and income risks. Policy Function: The financial markets are a channel through which governments may attempt to stabilize the economy and avoid inflation. 7. Why is each function of the financial system important to households, businesses, and governments? What kinds of lives would we be living today if there were no financial system or no financial markets? Answer: Each function of financial system will create a need for the money and capital markets through the flow of funds and the flow of financial services, income, and financial claims. Without savings, wealth and liquidity, our future consumption may be limited. It will also be disastrous if our source of income is disrupted. Without credit, our consumption and investment spending will be limited. Without the payments function, we will not be able to buy goods and services. Without risk protection, we will be exposed to life, health, property, and income risks. Without the policy function, the economy may fluctuate freely beyond control. 8. What exactly do we mean by the term wealth? How does it differ from net worth? Why is it important? Answer: Wealth is the sum of the values of all assets we hold at any point in time. The increase (or decrease) in the total wealth we own in the current time period equals to our current savings plus the value of all previously accumulated wealth multiplied by average rate of return on all previously accumulated wealth. While the measure of an individual’s wealth is important measure of their financial position, a more accurate measure is that of net worth. Net worth is the difference between an individual’s assets and their liabilities. It is important because wealth holdings represent stored purchasing power that will be used as income in future periods to finance purchases of goods and services and to increase the society's standard of living. 9. What is net financial wealth? What does it reveal about each of us? Answer: Net financial wealth equals to financial assets - total debt. Net financial wealth indicates our net value, i.e., the residual value of all our assets after fulfilling all our financial obligations.
- 10. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-6 10. Can you explain what factors determine the current volume of financial wealth and net financial wealth each of us has? Answer: The volume of financial wealth is thus dependent on current savings (which is in turn dependent on current income - current expenditures) and the size of previously accumulated wealth. The volume of net financial wealth is thus dependent on the current volume of financial wealth and the total debt. The average rate of return is one of the factors in the volume of financial wealth. Furthermore, different units in the economy have different wealth and net wealth due to their different inheritances of wealth, capabilities of creating and retaining wealth, luck, foresight, debt preferences, opportunities, etc. 11. Can you distinguish between the following institutions? Money market versus capital market Open market versus negotiated market Primary market versus secondary market Spot market versus forward or futures market Answer: The money market is for short-term (one year or less) loans, while the capital market finances long-term investments by businesses, governments, and households. In an open market, financial instruments are sold to the highest bidder, and they can be traded as often as is desirable before they mature. In a negotiated market, the instruments are sold to one or a few buyers under private contract. The primary market is for the trading of new securities (often used for new investment in buildings, equipment, and inventories), while the secondary market deals in securities previously issued (provide liquidity to security investors). In the spot market, assets or financial services are traded for immediate delivery (usually within two business days). Contracts calling for the future delivery of financial instruments are traded in the futures or forward market. 12. If we follow financial institutions and markets around the world each day, it soon becomes apparent that the interest rates and asset prices in different markets tend to move together, albeit with small leads and lags. Why do you think this is so? Answer: For the common commodity and credit, borrowers can switch from one credit market to another, seeking the most favorable credit terms wherever they can be found. The shifting of borrowers among markets helps to weld the parts of the global financial system together and to bring the credit costs in the different markets into balance with one another. Also, speculators work to equilibrate asset prices by purchasing assets that they believe are under priced and by selling those that they believe are overpriced. Similarly, arbitrageurs purchase underpriced assets in one market in order to sell them in a market which overvalues them.
- 11. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-7 13. What are some of the forces that appear to tie all financial institutions and markets together and often result in common movements in prices and interest rates across the whole financial system? Answer: Credit, the common commodity, can help the borrowers shift between markets and weld the parts of the financial system together, thus bringing the credit costs in the different markets into balance with one another. The speculators are continually on the lookout for opportunities to profit from their forecasts of future market development. The arbitrageurs help to maintain consistent prices betweens markets aiding other buyers in finding the best prices with minimal effort. 14. What is meant by the dynamic financial system? What trends appear to be reshaping the financial system of financial institutions and markets? Answer: The global financial system is rapidly changing into a new financial system, powered by innovation as new financial services and instruments continually appear o attract customers. Major trends are under way to convert smaller national financial systems into an integrated global system, at work 24 hours a day to attract savings, extend credit, and fulfill other vital roles. Many countries have begun to harmonize their regulations so that financial service firms operate under similar rules no matter where they are located. Problems and Issues 1. Identify which of the following statements is correct and which is false. If the statement is false, identify the error and correct the statement. a. The change in a household’s wealth over a quarter is its income minus its expenses plus interest earned on its wealth held at the beginning of the period. ANSWER: False – household’s wealth must also take into account the value of the individuals asset holdings as well as their liabilities. b. The market value of a household’s home is equal to the equity that the household has in the home and is therefore part of the household’s net worth. ANSWER: False – Market value of a home is not equal to the equity that the household has in the home. Market value of the home is the going price for such a home in current time, while equity is the new sales price minus the debt outstanding on the home. c. The saving and wealth functions performed by the financial markets enable households to increase current consumption at the expense of future consumption. ANSWER: True
- 12. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-8 2. Which of the following economic functions that financial markets perform would be best represented by the following properties of U.S. Treasury bills: (i) the fact that they retain their value over time and (ii) their ability to be sold on short notice at their true market value? a. Liquidity and risk protection b. Wealth and liquidity c. Policy and wealth d. Risk protection and policy Answer: b 3. John Jacobs looks over his balance sheet from the beginning of the month. He observes that his assets include: (i) a market value of $120,000 for his home; (ii) $25,000 in corporate stock; (iii) a Treasury bill with a face value of $1,000 to be received at the end of the month, for which the current market value was $983; (iv) a bank deposit account of $6,000; and (vi) some miscellaneous items that he values at $35,000. His only outstanding liability is the mortgage on his house, which has a balance totaling $40,000. It is now the end of the month and he just received his $6,000 salary, along with the income from the maturing T-bill and interest on his bank deposits, which were paying an annualized interest rate of 2 percent (2/12 percent per month). His mortgage payment was $1,500, of which $500 would go toward the principal. His other expenses for the month came to $4,000. He had planned to make an additional house payment for the month, all of which would go to paying down the principal on the loan. However, his daughter is in college and wants to go to the Bahamas for spring break. The expense of her trip would be an additional $1,800. a. Would he be able to make the additional house payment and fund his daughter’s trip without reducing his account balance in the bank deposit account? ANSWER: His total monthly income, including the bond and interest payments equal $1,000 + $6,000 + $10 = $7,010. His total expenses this month if he chooses to fund his daughter’s trip and make the additional payment on the house is $1,500 + $4,000 +$1,500 + $1,800 = $8,800. Therefore he would have to draw down his savings account by $7,010-$8,800 = $1,790. b. What would his net worth be if he funded his daughter’s trip and made the additional mortgage payment? ANSWER: His total assets would consist of a home valued at $120,000, $25,000 in corporate stock, a bank account of $4,210, and miscellaneous items totaling $35,000. This brings his total assets to $184,210.
- 13. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-9 His only liability is the outstanding balance on his mortgage. His made two payments of $1,500 on his mortgage this month. One of the payments included a $500 payment on the principal of the loan. The other payment was a principal only payment. Thus the new outstanding balance of his mortgage is $40,000 - $500 - $1,500 = $38,000. So his net worth is given by his total assets less his total liabilities, or $184,210 - $38,000 = $146,210. c. What would his net worth be if he did not fund his daughter’s trip and made the additional mortgage payment? ANSWER: If he did not fund his daughter’s trip, but he did make the extra payment, then his monthly expenses would be $1,500 + $4,000 +$1,500 = $7,000. His monthly income, including the maturing bond and interest payments, would still be $7,010. This means that he would be able to increase his deposit account by $7,010 - $7,000 = $10 this month. Given this, his assets would be a home valued at $120,000, $25,000 in corporate stock, a bank account of $6,010, and miscellaneous items totaling $35,000. This brings his total assets to $186,010. Since he still made the extra payment, his total liabilities remain the same as in part b. So his net worth would be $186,010 - $38,000 = $148,010 d. Would his net worth change if he decided to fund the trip, but did not make the additional mortgage payment? Explain. ANSWER: If he funded his daughter’s trip, but did not make the extra payment, his monthly expenses would be $1,500 + $4,000 + $1,800 = $7,300. His income would still be $7,010. This means that he would need to draw on his savings by $7,010 - $7,300 = $290. Given this, his total assets would be $120,000 + $25,000 + $5,710 + $35,000 = $185,710. Since he did not make the extra mortgage payment, his liability is only reduced by the $500 principal payment of the original mortgage payment. So his total liabilities are given by $39,500. This means that his net worth is $185,710 - $39,500 = $146,210. Coming into the month his net worth was given by $120,000 + $25,000 + $6,000 + $1,000 + $35,000 - $40,000 = $147,000 So his net worth fell by $147,000 - $146,210 = $790. This happened because the $1,000 matured and was spent, reducing his assets, while at the same time his liabilities was reduced by $500 from the principal payment on his mortgage. Together this results in a $500 reduction in net worth. The other $290 in net worth reduction comes from the drawing down of his bank account to cover current expenses. So in summary, the principal payment boosted his net worth by reducing his liabilities by $500, but the spending of the bond and the drawing down of his
- 14. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-10 deposit account for current consumption reduced his assets by $1,290. Together, the net effect is a reduction of $790 in his net worth. 4. George Wintle purchased a new home valued at $200,000. He paid a 20 percent initial down payment. He looked at his balance sheet to determine what his cash flow would be for the month. His new mortgage payment was $1,200, of which only $100 would go toward the principal in the first month. He had a bank deposit account of $3,500, which he had set aside for a shot vacation. He also owned $3,000 in corporate stock. His income for the month was $5,000, but he anticipates receiving a sales bonus of $1,500. He estimated his usual monthly expenses, other than his mortgage, to be $3,500. a. If his estimates are all accurate, would he have any additional income left over at the end of the month that he could add to the money he had set aside for his upcoming vacation? ANSWER: If his estimates are correct, he will receive $5,000+$1,500 = $6,500 in income this month and will have $1,200+$3,500=$4,700. This means he will have $6,500-$4,700=$1,800 left over that he could add to his vacation account b. If he failed to receive the sales bonus, would he have to sell stock to keep from drawing down his bank deposit account and having to curtail his vacation? ANSWER: If he fails to receive his sales bonus, he will still earn $5,000. In this case he will have $5,000-$4,700 = $300 left over to put toward his vacation 5. Megan Morgan recently graduated from college and was just hired at a large retail firm for $36,000 per year. She estimates her personal belongings to be worth $7,800. She has school loans of $10,000 that will require her to make monthly payments of $125 for the next 10 years. She rents an apartment for $550 per month and estimates that she will have monthly expenses for utilities, phone, cable, and so forth of $150. She needs a car and has a small noninterest- bearing bank account of $2,000. She could either buy a used car for $1,600 or take out a loan for $10,000 for a new compact. The new loan would require a down payment of $2,000 and five years of monthly payments of $350. Her parents are willing to give her $1,000 for graduation, which she could apply to the purchase of a car. Megan estimates that $1,600 per month in discretionary income would be comfortable for her to live on. a. What was her net worth when she graduated? ANSWER: Her total assets were given by here total belongings valued at $7,800 plus her noninterest-bearing account of $2,000 and plus the $1,000 graduation gift from her parents (assuming that they gave this to her prior to our accounting). This means her assets total to $10,800. Here only liability is her $10,000 in student loans, so her net worth is $800.
- 15. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-11 b. How much discretionary income would she have each month if she bought the new car? Would it be feasible for her to save $250 per month and make all her payments? ANSWER: Assuming she lives in a world without income tax, her monthly salary would be $3,000. If she bought the new car, she could use $1,000 of her bank account balance along with the $1,000 her parents gave her to cover the down payment. Her monthly expenses would equal $120 + $550 + $150 + $350 + $1600 = $2,770. Again, her monthly income, assuming no income tax, is $3,000. This means she would have $3,000 - $2,770 = $230 left over every month. So she would not be able to save $250 a month. c. What would her discretionary income be after the first month if she bought the used car? Could she now save that $250 per month? ANSWER: If she bought the used car, here expenses would fall by the amount of the new car payment to $2,420. Her leftover monthly income would now be $3,000 - $2,420 = $580. 6. Classify the market in which each of the following financial transactions takes place as: (i) money versus capital, (ii) primary versus secondary, (iii) open versus negotiated, or (iv) spot versus futures or forward. a. A contract to receive wheat three months from today ANSWER: (iv) spot versus futures or forward b. The purchase of a share of IBM on the New York Stock Exchange ANSWER: (iii) open versus negotiated c. A six-month CD purchased from your bank ANSWER: (i) money versus capital d. A newly issued three-month Treasury bill purchased at the government’s weekly auction ANSWER (ii) primary versus secondary e. You open a bank savings account ANSWER (iii) open versus negotiated f. You write a check to purchase for cash ANSWER (i) money versus capital
- 16. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-12 7. At the end of the calendar year, a firm has total financial assets amounting to $4.32 billion, while its total liabilities are $3.58 billion. What is the firm’s net financial wealth? If the firm saved $50 million over the previous year, representing the amount by which its financial assets rose relative to its liabilities, and it had begun the year with 3.72 billion in total financial assets, how much did it earn on its previously accumulated assets? ANSWER: The firm’s net financial wealth is given by $4.32 billion - $3.58 billion =$ 0.74 billion 8. One definition of pure arbitrage is to combine a series of investments with a series of debts such that the net dollar investment is zero, no risk is taken, and a profit is made. How does this differ from pure speculation in the financial markets? Do you think that arbitrage opportunities can really exist? If so, do you think the opportunities for pure arbitrage would be long-lived? Please explain. ANSWER: Pure speculation in the financial market gambles that security prices or interest rates will move in a direction that will result in quick gains due to the speculator’s ability to outguess the market’s collective judgment. Thus, speculation carries risk, and is in contrast with the notion of pure arbitrage presented above. Yes, arbitrage opportunities can really exist, but they would not be long-lived. Arbitrageurs will drive down the price of the asset in the market where it is relatively high, and up in the market where the price is relatively low, until the security price is the same in both markets. In the future, the new financial services and instruments will covert smaller national financial system into an integrated global system. It is difficult for arbitrageurs move from one market to another, because the financial market will have just only one global financial market. Web-Based Problems – DATA SERIES MAY BE DIFFERENT 1. Your text defines the wealth of a business firm as the sum of all its assets. To determine its net wealth (or total equity) you have to subtract the firm's liabilities from its assets. Net wealth is the value of the firm and should be reflected in its market capitalization (or stock price times the number of shares outstanding). Firms in different industries will require different amounts of wealth to create the same market value (or market capitalization). In this problem you are asked to compare the wealth (total assets), net wealth (assets less liabilities), and market capitalization of a large firm in each of the following industries: Financial Services (Citigroup, ticker symbol C); Manufacturing (Caterpillar, CAT); and High Tech (Microsoft, MSFT). Using the financial resources of worldwide web key in each firm's ticker symbol and find its most recent balance sheet and its market capitalization under. Are you surprised by how different these firms are in
- 17. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-13 terms of the dollar value of assets required to create one dollar of market value? Answer: You can use the website http://finance.yahoo.com. These are the financial data on December 2006: For Citigroup, C: The Total Asset 1,884,318 million dollars The Total Liabilities 1,764,535 million dollars Net Wealth 119,783 million dollars The Market Capitalization 265,430 million dollars $1 of market value equal $7.1 of value of assets For Caterpillar, CAT: The Total Asset 50,879 million dollars The Total Liabilities 44,020 million dollars Net Wealth 6,859 million dollars The Market Capitalization 52,170 million dollars $1 of market value equal $0.98 of value of assets For Microsoft, MSFT: The Total Asset 69,597 million dollars The Total Liabilities 29,493 million dollars Net Wealth 40,104 million dollars The Market Capitalization 289,110 million dollars $1 of market value equal $0.24 of value of assets 2. A large share of household wealth is held in the form of corporate stock. How much wealth does the entire stock market represent? To find an approximate answer, go to the web site for Wilshire Associates at www.wilshire.com and click Indexes from the menu. Locate the information that explains how the Wilshire 5000 index is constructed. This index is weighted by the market capitalization of the firms included in it, such that if you add the right amount of zeros to the index, you obtain the total value of all the firms represented in the index. Why is this number a good approximation to the entire U.S. stock market? Now obtain a chart for the index. How much stock market wealth has been created or destroyed over the past 12 months? Determine how much stock market wealth was created or lost per person in the United States over this period. (Hint: You can find the U.S. population at http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html). Compare this with the average after-tax annual income per person in the U.S. Use the disposable personal income figure that can be found under “Selected NIPA Tables: Table 2.1” at www.bea/gov.doc/bea/dn/nipaweb/index.asp to make the comparison. Answer: As of June 6, 2007, the total wealth that the entire stock market represents is 15,291.15 billion (from http://www.wilshire.com/quote.html?symbol=dwc). The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 base is its December 31, 1980 capitalization of $1,404.596 billion. The index is an excellent approximation of total value of the U.S. equity market because it measures the performance of all U.S. headquartered equity securities with readily available price data. The following is a chart of the index over a year (from 6/22/06 to 6/21/07):
- 18. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-14
- 19. Chapter 01 - Functions and Roles of Financial Institutions and Markets in the Global Economy 1-15 . Since the difference in the index is approximately 2,800 (=15,300-12,500), we found the stock market wealth creation to be $2,800 billions for the period between June 22, 2006 and June 21, 2007. During this period of time, the U.S. population is approximately 302,152,705 (from http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html). Therefore, $5,060.74 worth of stock market wealth was created per person in the United States over this period. During the first quarter of 2007, the disposable personal income is roughly at $9,898.0 billion, or $32,758.2 per person (from http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/TableView.asp#Mid). 3. One of the world's most important financial markets that we will study throughout this book is the market for U.S. Treasury securities. It is important because it is one of the few default-free, highly liquid debt instruments available anywhere in the financial marketplace. To determine the size of this market go to the Treasury Department’s website at www.treasurydirect.gov and find the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD). How much debt does the U.S. government owe per person in the United States? (See the previous problem on how to find the U.S. population figure.) How much of this debt is held by the public and how much by government agencies? Only a portion of this debt - termed “marketable” - is traded daily in the system of financial markets and institutions. The remainder is held by the buyer until it matures. How much of this public debt is “marketable”? Answer: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/account/2007/2007_may.pdf As of May 31, 2007, the amount of debt outstanding held by the public (Non- governmental) is $4,977,832 millions. When we divide the amount of debt outstanding by the size of the U.S. population, we obtain the debt that the U.S. government owes per person in the United States - $16,475. The amount of debt held by the public (Intra & Non-governmental) is $9,142,527 million, while the amount of debt held by government agencies is $4,164,695 millions. Of the total amount of $9,142,527 millions of public debt outstanding, $4,977,832 millions, or approximately 54.45 %, of it is marketable.
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- 21. [1097-1171 a.d.] in the public prayers at Hedjaz. Far from seeking to arm the Arabs against the Turks, Mustali, successor to Mustansir, had had but one aim, that of obtaining certain barren concessions from the Seljuk princes by intervening in their private quarrels; and moreover an unforeseen incident had arisen which diverted all minds from internecine troubles. The arrival of several armies of Christians, sent to Palestine with the mission of delivering the Holy City, aroused in the Moslems all their religious fanaticism. Arabs and Turks suspended their mutual animosity to make one cause against the common enemy; the danger once past, however, divisions again broke forth that greatly facilitated the progress of the Christians. Before the arrival of Godfrey de Bouillon (1097) the army of Peter the Hermit had perished in the domains of the sultan of Iconium, and the Moslems, thinking they had nothing more to fear from without, recommenced their civil wars; thus the disciplined troops of the first true crusaders found no power to combat stronger than that of the Seljuks divided among themselves, and after having crossed the mountains of Cilicia they took the city of Antioch and made an easy entrance into Palestine. The Moslems everywhere remained divided and without a common head. To the Fatimite caliphs, Mustali, Emir, Hafidh, Dhafir, Faïz, and Adid, or rather to their grand viziers, it never occurred to unite with the independent princes of Syria for the purpose of repulsing the enemy of their common faith; the main objects of their policy seemed to be to carry on negotiations with the Turkish emirs, the war against the Franks occupying a subordinate place in their concern. At the death of Barkiyarok, however, there suddenly arose a new and powerful defender of Islam. Imad ad-Din (called “the bloody” by our chroniclers) had distinguished himself at the court of the Seljuks in Aleppo and Mosul. Organising for himself under the name of Atabekm a small independent state, he spread terror among the emirs all about him,
- 22. [1171-1229 a.d.] and finally attacked the Seljuk sultan at Aleppo and became master of that town (1127). He next proceeded to awake in the Moslems their ancient hatred for the name of “Christian” and commenced against the Franks a sort of guerilla warfare which terminated in the taking of Edessa, after which he forced the kings of Jerusalem to make appeal to Europe. Zenki was succeeded by his sons Saif ad-Din and Nur ad-Din, the latter of whom proved himself a worthy successor of his father. He harassed the Franks by repeated attacks, and allowed the two monarchs to exhaust their forces by vain efforts to take Damascus, which was still under the power of the Seljuks. When they finally retired, defeated, Nur ad-Din himself assailed the sultan, who was enfeebled by this long, heroic resistance, took from him Damascus, and entered Palestine, which he ravaged in every direction. By a fortunate circumstance he was soon permitted to mingle in the affairs of Egypt, by offering troops to a vizier for the purpose of suppressing the caliph Adid. Not receiving the reward promised for this service, he opened hostilities at once, and several times defeated the kings of Jerusalem, while his lieutenant, Shirkuh, became master of Egypt and forced the caliph to bestow upon him the charge of grand vizier. This was the sentence of death for the Fatimites. Shirkuh’s nephew, Saladin, sharer in his uncle’s secret designs, carried the revolution to a head, and in less than a month prayers were said in the mosque in the name of the Baghdad caliph, Nostadi, and Adid was deposed without a voice being raised in his favour (1171). SALADIN AND HIS SUCCESSORS AGAINST THE CRUSADERS Scarcely did Saladin get into his hands the resources of the wealthy land of Egypt than he commenced against the Franks that series of assaults which has made his name famous. He was later elevated to the supreme rank by the universal choice of the Moslems at the death of Nur ad-Din, the latter’s son having been put aside.
- 23. A Crusader of the Third Crusade The reign of Saladin, who was the most interesting figure in the history of the Crusades, represents for us the highest point of Arab civilisation. Being by birth a Kurd, he cannot be said to belong to the Turkish race, though he possessed the warlike instincts of a Turk, joined to a superior intelligence. In Godfrey de Bouillon and Richard the Lion-hearted are personified the piety, generosity, and valour of Christian chivalry; Saladin is no less the hero of the Moslem world. Unfaltering courage, magnanimity, a spirit of strict justice, and unshakable fidelity to his plighted word were among his principal virtues. Passing his life as he did in the midst of wars, he had little opportunity to foster the arts of peace; yet he was no stranger to letters and the sciences, and he neglected no opportunity to elevate himself in the esteem of his people. Saladin was the first to unite under one control the forces of Syria and Egypt, and therein lies the secret of his success against the crusaders. At his entrance into Palestine, Jerusalem was a prey to the worst disorders, owing to the chiefs of the Crusade not being content to guard the sacred places that had been entrusted to them, but aspiring to govern all the cities and strongholds. The Holy City fell immediately into his power. The Moslems took possession of the temples as mosques, and besieged all the maritime towns; but a check inflicted upon them at Tyre revived the courage of the Franks and enabled them to await the arrival of Richard and Philip Augustus. The Third Crusade followed in 1187-1192, but Jerusalem could not be conquered by the Christians in spite of the bravery of the English king. The magnanimity shown by the sultan of Egypt in the treatment of his prisoners is well known; he set all the foreign knights at liberty, merely stipulating that each should bestow his name upon some newborn child.
- 24. [1090-1250 a.d.] Several months after the departure of Richard, Saladin died at Damascus, admired by his enemies and regretted by Moslems, who foresaw that new divisions would arise. Indeed three Eyyubid states at once came into being; one in Egypt, another in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Lower Syria, and the third in Aleppo and Upper Syria. Three sons of Saladin had divided the states left by their father, two of them being despoiled by their uncle Adil Saif ad-Din, who remained master of Egypt and Damascus. Malik Adil, called Saphedin in our chronicles, was the sworn enemy of the Franks; he took from them the city of Tripolis, and was the determining cause of the Fifth Crusade. Malik al-Kamil, his son, became sultan of Egypt in 1218, and graciously received presents from Frederick II, when that prince entered Palestine at the head of the Sixth Crusade, and received from him the city of Jerusalem that had cost the Moslems so many lives. The Eyyubid sultans that succeeded Malik looked upon the Franks as enemies who must be driven from Asia at any cost; and so Jerusalem fell again into infidel hands and became in turn the possession of the sultans of Egypt and of Damascus. Thus we find, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, the posterity of Saladin wielding power over almost the whole of the western part of the Arabian empire. A descendant of Nur ad-Din, it is true, possessed a part of Jezireh, and certain Eyyub princes reigned over provinces of the peninsula; while the name of the Abbasids, last representatives of the former Arab supremacy, was still proclaimed in public prayers. The Alids and Fatimites formed a single sect, without unity or political influence. Armenia and Georgia had reverted to Christianity, and a considerable faction known in history as the Ismailians, Bathenians, or Assassins had still retained a certain prominence. This sect was founded toward the close of the eleventh century by Hassan Sabba, who succeeded in gaining an absolute ascendency over the minds of his followers. An enemy alike to Christianity and
- 25. [1220-1258 a.d.] Islam, he promulgated a doctrine which was similar to that of the Karmathians, and among his possessions were several fortresses, in one of which he resided. The name “assassins” is a corruption of the word hashish, a sort of intoxicating drink by means of which Hassan Sabba persuaded his followers that he could initiate them in all the joys of paradise. Hassan assumed the character of a lesser providence charged with redressing wrongs and punishing untruth; and as he at the same time permitted all sorts of brigandage on the part of his sectarians, the dynasty he established terrorised all western Asia for more than two centuries. They carried their arms into Syria, where they erected fortifications and pillaged all the caravans that passed through. As late as the thirteenth century they possessed stations in Irak and Syria, not far from Damascus and Aleppo. THE MONGOLS UNDER JENGHIZ KHAN INVADE WESTERN ASIA Such was the situation of the oriental world when a new race of conquerors, the Mongols, descended upon western Asia. Like the Turks the Mongols formed one particular branch of the Scythian race, but had preserved, in the depths of Tatary, their primitive customs and religion. Their life was nomadic, their organisation tribal, and obedience to their chiefs, together with love of war and pillage, were their distinguishing characteristics. Jenghiz Khan was already ruler of Tatary and Northern China when he directed his movements westward and menaced Mawarannahar (1219). This province belonged at the time to Muhammed, sultan of Khwarizm, who was at war with Nasir, caliph of Baghdad, for a very serious cause. Nasir, alarmed at the growing power of Muhammed, had armed the Ghurid princes against him; whereat Muhammed had summoned to a grand council in his palace a number of doctors and jurists whose decision could not be doubtful, and had declared the reign of the Abbasids, usurpers of
- 26. the caliphate, to be at an end. A descendant of Ali, Ala ad-Din, was proclaimed caliph in place of Nasir, and a mighty expedition was prepared against Baghdad. Nasir was saved by the arrival of the Mongols at that juncture, the sultan being obliged to direct his entire force toward Mawarannahar, where it was cut to pieces. Muhammed himself fled to an island in the Caspian Sea, leaving his son Jelal ad- Din to meet and resist the invaders as best he might (1220). Courageous to foolhardiness, this prince would actually have opposed a successful resistance to the terrible enemy had he been supported by a people determined to defend their homes at any cost; but betrayed and abandoned by those upon whom he should have been able to rely, he experienced the sorrow of seeing the hordes of Jenghiz Khan sweep devastatingly through Mawarannahar, Khwarizm, Gilan, and Aderbaijan. When the conqueror, master of 1,700 square leagues, retired to his own capital, Karakorum (1220- 1227), Jelal ad-Din, who had taken refuge in India, returned, and all the populations who had escaped subjugation flocked to his banners. Out of the remains of his father’s possessions he formed a new empire which extended from the source of the Ganges to Mosul, and for yet a little while Baghdad was secure against attack by the Mongols. But Ogdai became khan by the consent of his father, Jenghiz, and all the greatest chiefs immediately set out to invade the domains of Jelal ad-Din, so that the latter was again reduced to flight, and later found death at the hands of an assassin. Ogdai was less fortunate in his attempts against the sultan of Iconium and against Baghdad, which was ably defended by the caliph Mustansir (1235-1241). Kuyuk his successor (1241-1251) also made but little progress and had to be content with driving from his court the ambassadors of the caliph and of the sultan. Mangu Khan, who reigned next, was seized with a desire for conquest, and sent his brothers Kublai and Hulagu on missions of aggrandisement. While Kublai was occupied in completing the submission of China, Hulagu left Karakorum at the head of a numerous army and besieged Baghdad, with which he had already held secret communication. The caliph Mustasim, informed of his approach,
- 27. [1258-1517 a.d.] made no attempt at resistance, and for seven days his capital was at the mercy of the Mongols, who pillaged and destroyed on all sides, burning many priceless manuscripts that they found in the libraries and colleges. Mustasim was strangled and his corpse dragged around the walls of Baghdad, which had been witnesses of all the different phases of the Abbasids’ rise and fall—their grandeur, their decadence, and their closing ignominy. The Mongols had now only a step to take to seek the conquest of Egypt and Syria; but they encountered the mamelukes, whom they were unable to vanquish. As their name indicates, the mamelukes were Circassian slaves whom Saladin’s successors had imported to their palaces, and who renewed at Cairo the insubordination and excesses of which the Turkish soldiery had been guilty at Baghdad. When the Khwarizmians fled to Syria before Jenghiz Khan, the sultan of Damascus gave to the Franks Tiberius, Jerusalem, and Ascalon in return for their aid. Now the sultan of Egypt and his mamelukes joined forces with the Khwarizmians, and during a series of combats in which Jerusalem was taken and retaken several times, they concluded by turning upon their own allies and almost destroying them (1240-1245). Three years later they repulsed at Massur the attack of St. Louis, who had begun an invasion of Egypt. In 1250 a revolution occurred which changed the whole face of the country. The mamelukes, dissatisfied with the treaty they had concluded with the king of France, their prisoner, rose in revolt and proclaimed one of their chiefs, Muiz ad-Din, sultan. St. Louis, who had retired to Palestine, sought in vain to raise up enemies against the mamelukes by entering into relations with the khan of the Mongols, and the leader of the Ismailians. Syria, after having been briefly occupied by Hulagu, who put an end to the sultanates of Aleppo and Damascus (1258), remained permanently, together with Jezireh, in the hands of the mamelukes. The Franks lost successively their remaining possessions and a new dynasty of Abbasid caliphs arose, who for
- 28. over two centuries exercised no higher function than that of bestowing a sort of religious consecration upon the sovereigns of Egypt. In 1517 the Ottoman Turks, already masters of Constantinople and Asia Minor, exterminated the mamelukes, and extended their authority over all the countries known to-day under the name of Asiatic Turkey. Situated as they were in the midst of incessant revolutions, and suffering from the onslaught of barbarian races from the north, the Arabs began gradually to disappear; but the great movement they imparted to civilisation has never been lost in Asia, and traces of their beneficent influence are still everywhere apparent. We have seen the Seljuk, Malik Shah, borrow from the school of Baghdad the reforms he introduced into the Persian calendar; before him Mahmud, the Ghaznevid, had called to his councils a universal genius—Albiruni, who exercised a remarkable influence upon the century in which he lived; the Mongul, Hulagu, who could not save from the flames the precious instruments and records that had been the result of years of enlightened research, permitted the celebrated mathematician, Nasir ad-Din Thusi, to build a magnificent observatory at Meraga; and lastly his brother Kublai, when he became emperor of China, carried with him into the celestial empire all the lore and wisdom of the Occident. Under the first Ottoman emperors we shall note the use by eminent writers of the old dialect of the Abbasids; but this is the last faint effulgence of a protracted period of glory. The tyranny of the sword is to usurp power over all the Asiatic continent—among the Manchurian Tatars in the east, the Usbegs in the north, the Sophia in Persia, and the Ottoman Turks in the west. From an intellectual point of view the Orient is to fall again into immobility and torpor, until the nations of the west, carrying out on a grander scale the work begun by the Arabs, shall so develop all the forces of science and of human industry as to react on Asia, and infuse into the swarming populations of those vast spaces the spirit of a new life.b
- 29. We have now seen the sceptre of Mohammed pass from his own race. It remains to resume the story of the Arabs in Spain.a FOOTNOTES [40] [Also spelled Harun-er-Rashid and Harun al-Rashid.]
- 30. [961-1492 a.d.] CHAPTER IX. THE DECLINE OF THE MOSLEMS IN SPAIN Al-Hakam II, the son and successor of Abd ar-Rahman, inherited all the great qualities of his father. He was, however, averse to war, fond of tranquillity, and immoderately attached to literature. His agents were constantly employed in the East in purchasing scarce and curious books; he himself wrote to every author of reputation for a copy of that author’s works, for which he paid royally; and wherever he could not purchase a book, he caused it to be transcribed. By this means he collected an extensive library, the unfinished catalogue of which, in the time of Ibn Hayan, reached forty-four volumes. On his accession, that he might devote his chief time to the public administration yet not neglect interests so dear to him, he confided to one of his brothers the care of his library, and to another the duty of protecting literary institutions and of rewarding the learned. His reign is the golden age of Arabian literature in Spain. He appears never to have been engaged in war with the Christians; for though the Arabian writers mention the siege and reduction of an Estefano de Gormas by the king in person, no mention is made of such a fact by the contemporary bishop of Astorga. In Africa, his general, Khalib, successfully repressed an
- 31. [977-998 a.d.] insurrection of two local governors, and rendered the walis of Fez again dependent on the throne of Cordova. As Hisham II, the son and successor of Al-Hakam, was but eleven years old when he ascended the throne, the regency was conferred by the queen-mother on her secretary, Muhammed ben Abdallah, a man of great genius, valour, and activity. Muhammed, better known as Almansor, may, in fact, be regarded as the king; for he alone throughout life governed the realm. Hisham was too feeble, too despicable, too much addicted to slothful pleasures, to command even the passing notice of the people. ALMANSOR The wars of Almansor with the Christians, which proved so fatal to them, occupy the most prominent part of his administration. Without acquainting them with his intention to disturb a peace which had continued during the reign of Al-Hakam, in 977 a.d. he penetrated into Galicia, where booty and captives in abundance rewarded the avarice of his followers. In the two years succeeding, he frequently renewed his incursions, both into Galicia and Tarragona, without encountering much opposition. Under an infant king, the Christians were too much occupied with their internal dissensions to unite even in defence of their country. In short, his destructive inroads are said to have occurred twice every year during a great part of his life. In 981 Almansor not only reduced Zamora, but took possession of many other fortresses in the neighbourhood. The ensuing campaigns were no less successful; they are, however, too numerous to be particularised. It will be sufficient to state that in 983 a.d. he took Gormaz; in 984, Simancas; in 986, Sepulveda; in 987, he destroyed Coimbra, which, however, the Moors themselves soon rebuilt; in 989, he reduced Artienza, Osma, and Alcova; in 992, Montemayor; in 994, San Estevan and Corunna; in 995, Aguilar; in 996, the important cities of Leon and Astorga, with a great number of inferior
- 32. places; and in the same year he laid waste the whole of Galicia, not sparing even the holy precincts of Compostella. His restless barbarity, and still more his innumerable acts of sacrilege, are dwelt upon with indignant wonder by the old chroniclers. But many precious things escaped his fury; and many more, such as the bodies of saints and kings, were removed by the terrified Christians from Leon to Oviedo—for the mountains of the Asturias again became the inaccessible asylum of the native monarchy. The bells of Compostella were sent to Cordova, to be melted into lamps for the famous mosque of that city. But the indignant saint sought for revenge; for, on their return to Cordova, the misbelievers were seized with a violent dysentery, which carried off the greater portion of them; comparatively few (if the bishop of Astorgab is to be believed, not one) returned to the Mohammedan capital. Later writers than Sampiro assign—perhaps with truth—much of the honour to the Christians, who, on learning the extent of the disease, pursued the misbelievers, and cut off such as Santiago would have spared. However this be, on the departure of the invaders, the Christians issued from their mountains, rebuilt their towns, and restored the church of Compostella. During these successful operations against the kings of Leon, Almansor had time to signalise his administration in other parts. In 985 he seized on Barcelona; and would have carried his victorious banners to the Pyrenees, had not his march been arrested by intelligence from Africa. Al-Hasam, an emir of Almaghreb, who during the late reign had usurped the government of the whole province, and been expelled by Khalib, had fled to Egypt. By Nazar, the sultan of that country, he had been favourably received; and on his return he bore an order to the governor of Tunis to provide him with three thousand horse, and some Berber infantry. His little army was speedily reinforced; for in that country, more perhaps than any other on the face of the earth, he who endeavoured to disturb existing institutions was sure to receive some degree of co- operation. The general of Almansor—for Hisham was nobody—was defeated and compelled to seek refuge in Ceuta. But Abdul-Malik,
- 33. [998-1009 a.d.] the son of Almansor, hastened to the scene of strife, and in two battles annihilated the forces of his enemy, whom he made prisoner; and who, though relying on the faith of treaties, was sent to Spain and executed. With Al-Hasam ended the dynasty of the Edris, which had ruled in Fez about two hundred years. In 987, however, the flames of war were rekindled by Balkin ben Zeiri, and nourished by his son and successor. After various alternations of fortune the country was pacified by the victories of Abdul-Malik, who was rewarded by the dignity of emir of Almaghreb. DECAY OF POWER But the chief attention of the hajib was always turned to the natural enemy of his nation. From his elevation he had meditated the destruction of the Christian power. Now that Africa was pacified, and his son able to send him a supply of Berber troops, he resolved to execute his project, and as usual to commence with Leon. His preparations which he had been long making were immense; but this circumstance saved Spain. Terrified at the approaching danger, Sancho king of Navarre, and another of the same name, the count of Castile, entered into a confederacy with the regency of Leon (Alfonso V, who then reigned, was only in his eighth year), to repel the common foe. This was the first time during the administration of Almansor that the three powers thus united; they were, in fact, generally at war with one another; a circumstance which, coupled with the frequent minority of the kings of Leon, will fully account for the unparalleled triumphs of that hero. In 1001 the Mohammedan army, in two formidable bodies, ascended the Duero, and encountered the Christians in the vicinity of Calatanazar, a place between Soria and Medina Cœli. When Almansor perceived the widespread tents of the Christians, he was struck with surprise. The battle commenced with break of day, and was maintained with unexampled obstinacy until darkness separated the combatants.
- 34. [1009-1012 a.d.] That the loss on both sides was immense, may well be conceived from the desperate valour of the two armies. If Almansor by his frequent and impetuous assaults broke the adverse line, it was soon reformed, and the next moment saw the Christian knights in the very heart of the infidels. Overcome with fatigue, with anxiety, and still more with the mortification of having been so unexpectedly repelled, he slowly retired to his tent, to await the customary visits of his generals. The extent of his disaster was unknown to him, until he learned, from the few who arrived, the fate of their brother chiefs. To hazard a second field, he well saw, would be destruction; and burning with shame he ordered a retreat. Whether the Mohammedans were disturbed or not in their retreat is uncertain, but Almansor himself proceeded no further than the frontiers of Castile, before he sank under the weight of his despair. Obstinately refusing all consolation—some accounts say all support—he died in the arms of his son Abdul-Malik, who had hastened from Africa to see him, the third day of the moon Shaffal (1002). Almansor was formed for a great sovereign. He was not only the most able of generals, and the most valiant of soldiers, but he was an enlightened statesman, an active governor, an encourager of science and the arts, and a magnificent rewarder of merit. His loss was fatal to Cordova. The national sorrow was mitigated for a moment by the appointment of Abdul-Malik to the vacant post of hajib. This minister promised to tread in the steps of his illustrious father; his administration both in Africa and Spain was signalised by great spirit and valour; but, unlike Almansor, he found the Christians too well prepared to be taken by surprise. He was suddenly seized with excruciating pains—the effect, probably, of poison; and he died in 1008, in the seventh year of his administration. With him ended the prosperity of Mohammedan Spain. Abd ar-Rahman, the brother of Abdul-Malik, was next advanced to the post of hajib. He prevailed on the childless monarch to designate him as successor to the throne. This rash act occasioned his ruin, and was one of those which accelerated with fearful rapidity the
- 35. decline of the state. The race of the Omayyads was not extinct; and Muhammed, a prince of that house, resolved to chastise the presumption of the hajib. He rapidly marched on the city, forcibly seized on the palace and king, and proclaimed the deposition of the hajib, who later was wounded, taken, and crucified by the barbarous victor. Muhammed first caused himself to be appointed hajib; but the modest title soon displeased, and he aspired to that of king. He who had successfully rebelled against his sovereign, and who held that sovereign a prisoner in the palace, was not likely to hesitate at greater crimes. By his orders Hisham was secretly conveyed to an obscure fortress, and there confined. At the same time the death of the king was publicly announced; a person resembling him in stature and countenance was, we are told, substituted for him, and laid in the royal sepulchre; and Muhammed, in conformity with the pretended will of his predecessor, was hailed as prince of the believers. But the usurper was far from secure in his seat of power. The dangerous example which he himself had set of successful rebellion, was too attractive not to be followed; and his own acts hastened the invitation. Incensed against the African guard which had supported the factions of Abd ar-Rahman, he dissolved that formidable body, and ordered them to be expelled the city. They naturally resisted; but with the aid of the populace he at length forced them beyond the walls, and threw after them the head of their chief. The exasperated Africans swore to be revenged, and proclaimed Suleiman, of the royal blood of the Omayyads, the successor of Hisham. As the forces of Suleiman were too few to make an open attack on Cordova, he traversed the country in search of partisans, and added greatly to the number of his followers. He even procured many Christian auxiliaries from Sancho, count of Castile. In an obstinately contended battle he overthrew the usurper; twenty thousand troops of the latter being left on the field. The victor hastened to Cordova, and assumed the reins of sovereignty. There,
- 36. [1012-1023 a.d.] however, he did not long remain; he felt he was unpopular; and to avoid assassination, he shut himself up in the palace of Azhara. The African domination—for such his was—became odious to the native Moslems; nor was the feeling lessened by the presence of the Christian auxiliaries. The latter were honourably dismissed; but still there was no solid security for Suleiman, against whom plots were frequent. To add to his vexations, Muhammed, aided by Count Raymond of Barcelona and several walis, advanced against Cordova. The African party was defeated, its chief forced to flee, and Muhammed again recognised as king. But throughout these contentions, the vicissitudes of success and failure followed each other with amazing celerity. Though pursued by a superior force headed in person by his bitter rival, Suleiman turned round and inflicted a terrible defeat on Muhammed, who precipitately fled, almost alone, to the capital. The victor followed him, seized on the heights in the vicinity of Cordova, and laid siege to the place. Muhammed was weakened by the desertion of his Christian allies, and still more by the disaffection of the mob, which bears about the same feeling to unfortunate princes as the kindred cur towards the meanly clad visitant. The hajib Uhada, a man who had contrived to keep his post in every recent change of government, took advantage of this alienation of popular feeling; he did not declare for Suleiman, as little of a favourite as the present ruler; but he suddenly drew Hisham from confinement, and showed him to the astonished populace. Astonishment gave way to transport; and transport, as usual, to excesses. Muhammed was beheaded, his corpse torn in pieces by the new converts to legitimacy (1012 a.d.), and the head thrown into the camp of Suleiman. But Suleiman refused to recognise the grandson of the great Abd ar-Rahman. Having formed an alliance with Obaid Allah, the son of Muhammed and wali of Toledo, he aimed at nothing less than the deposition of the king. At first his efforts were unpromising; his ally was defeated, made prisoner, and beheaded. Fortune favoured him in other respects. Suleiman marched on Cordova. In vain did the
- 37. hajib Khairan, the successor of Uhada, whom Hisham in a fit of suspicion had put to death, attempt to defend the city. The inhabitants opened one of the gates; the Africans entered, fought, and conquered; their chief was a second time saluted as king, and Hisham forever disappeared from the stage of royalty—probably at the same moment from that of life. Suleiman began his reign—for so long as Hisham lived he cannot be properly ranked among the kings of Cordova—by rewarding his adherents in the most lavish manner. He confirmed them, as he had promised, in the hereditary possession of their fiefs; thus engrafting on a strangely foreign stock the feudal institution of more northern nations. This was the signal for the creation of numerous independent sovereignties, and consequently for the ruin of Mohammedan Spain. The strength of the misbelievers had consisted in their unity under the religious sway of their caliphs; when this strong bulwark was dissolved the scattered fragments of their empire might for a moment resist the eager assaults of the Christians; but these must inevitably be swept away in the end by the overwhelming flood. The hajib Khairan, who had escaped to his government of Almeria, swore to be revenged on this new usurper. As, however, no forces which he could bring into the field could contend for a moment with those of Suleiman, he passed over to Ceuta to interest the governor, Ali ben Hammud, in his project. Suleiman was forsaken by most of the walis, his allies—they can no longer be called subjects; his troops deserted to swell the ranks of his enemy; and in a battle near Seville, his Andalusian adherents turned against him, and thereby decided his fate. Ali was proclaimed king of Mohammedan Spain, but not until search had been vainly made for Hisham. The crown was not destined to sit more lightly on his head than on that of his immediate predecessor. He found an enemy where he least expected one; he was stifled in the bath by his Slavonic attendants, and the report circulated that his death was natural.
- 38. [1023-1238 a.d.] Al-Kasim ben Hammud, brother of the deceased king, seized on the throne. A powerful conspiracy was formed to dethrone him. His palace was assailed; and though, by the valour of his guards, it held out fifty days, at the end of that time most of them fell in an attempt to effect their escape. Some of the more humane of the assailants secretly conveyed Kasim beyond the walls and provided him with a small escort of cavalry, which conveyed him to Xeres. When this intelligence was known at Cordova, the Alameris, or party of the family of the great Almansor, which acted a conspicuous part in all these commotions and which adhered to the fortunes of the Omayyads, proclaimed as king Abd ar-Rahman ben Hisham, brother of the usurper Muhammed. Muhammed ben Abd ar-Rahman, cousin of the king, a man of boundless wealth, succeeded in corrupting the chief nobles of the city. In the silence of night he armed a resolute band of his creatures, who hastened to the palace, and massacred the soldiers on duty. After a reign of only forty-seven days, the king’s bedchamber was entered and he was pierced with a thousand wounds. END OF THE OMAYYADS Muhammed II reaped the reward of his crime. His successor was Yahya, who perished in an ambuscade (1025). The next prince on whom the choice of the Cordovans fell, Hisham III, brother of Abd ar- Rahman al-Mortada, was naturally loth to accept a crown which had destroyed so many of its wearers. In the end, however, being rather forced than persuaded to relinquish his scruples, he left his retirement. Unhappily, he had but too much reason to find that neither private virtues nor public services have much influence over the bulk of mankind; and that the absolute king who has not the power to make himself feared will not long be suffered to reign. In 1031 a licentious mob paraded the streets of Cordova, and loudly demanded his deposition. He did not wait the effects of their
- 39. violence; with unfeigned satisfaction he retired to private life, in which he passed unmolested the remainder of his days. The remembrance of his virtues long survived him; and by all the Arabic writers of his country he is represented as too good for his age. The Alhambra With Hisham III ended the caliphate of the West, and the noble race of the Omayyads. If the succession was interrupted by Ali, and Al-Kasim, and Yahya, who though descended from a kindred stock were not of the same family, that interruption was but momentary; especially as Abd ar-Rahman IV reigned at Jaen, while the last two princes were acknowledged at Cordova. From this period 1031 a.d. to the establishment of the kingdom of Grenada in 1238 a.d., there was no supreme chief of Mohammedan Spain, if we except the
- 40. [1031-1094 a.d.] fleeting conquerors who arrived from Africa, the fabric of whose dominion was as suddenly destroyed as it was erected. Vicious as is the constitution of all Mohammedan governments, and destructible as are the bases on which they are founded, the reader cannot fail to have been struck with the fate of this great kingdom. It can scarcely be said to have declined; it fell at once. Not thirty years have elapsed since the great Almansor wielded the resources of Africa and Spain, and threatened the entire destruction of the Christians, whom he had driven into an obscure corner of this vast peninsula. Now Africa is lost; the Christians hold two-thirds of the country; the petty but independent governors, the boldest of whom trembled at the name of Almansor, openly insult the ruler of Cordova, whose authority extends little further than the walls of his capital. Assuredly, so astounding a catastrophe has no parallel in all history. Other kingdoms, indeed, as powerful as Cordova, have been perhaps as speedily deprived of their independence; but if they have been subdued by invading enemies, their resources, their vigour, to a certain extent their greatness have long survived their loss of that blessing. Cordova, in the very fullness of her strength, was torn to pieces by her turbulent children. INDEPENDENT KINGDOMS The decline and dissolution of the Mohammedan monarchy, or western caliphate afforded the ambitious local governors throughout the peninsula the opportunity for which they had long sighed—that of openly asserting their independence of Cordova and of assuming the title of kings. But Cordova, however weakened, was not willing thus suddenly to lose her hold on her ancient subjects; she resolved to elect a sovereign who should endeavour to subdue these audacious rebels, and restore her ancient splendour. The disasters which had accompanied the last reigns of the Omayyad princes had strongly
- 41. indisposed the people to the claims of that illustrious house. Jehwar ben Muhammed surrounded himself by a council which comprised some of the most distinguished citizens, and without the advice of which he undertook no one thing, not even the nomination to public offices. Of that council he was but the president, possessing but one vote like the remaining members; so that Cordova presented the appearance rather of a republic than of a monarchy. He introduced a degree of tranquillity and commercial activity unknown since the death of the great Almansor. But the same success did not attend him in his efforts to restore the supremacy of Cordova. Whatever might be the internal dissensions of the petty kings, the success of some, the failure of others, none thought of recognising his superiority. To recount the perpetually recurring struggles of these reguli for the increase of their states, their alliances, their transient successes or hopeless failures, or even their existence, would afford neither interest nor instruction to the reader. Such events only can be noticed as are either signal in themselves, or exercised more than a passing influence on the condition of the Mohammedan portion of the peninsula. After triumphing over some neighbouring kings, who dreaded his increasing power, the sovereign of Seville prepared to invade the possessions of Jehwar; but death surprised him before those preparations were completed. His son, Muhammed Al-Mucteded, who succeeded him, was as ambitious as himself, but more luxurious. All southern Andalusia came into the power of Al- Mucteded, yet his ambition was far from satisfied. For some time he remained in alliance with Muhammed, the son and successor of Jehwar, in the throne of Cordova; but he gained possession of that ancient capital by stratagem. After many years of continued warfare, the king of Seville and Cordova became, not merely the most powerful, but almost the only independent sovereign of Mohammedan Spain. Yahya al-Kadi, the son and successor of Ibn Dylnun on the throne of Toledo, inherited neither the courage nor the abilities of that prince. Sunk in the lowest sensuality, he regarded with indifference
- 42. the growing success of Muhammed. He became at length so contemptible that his very subjects rose and expelled him. He applied for aid to the ally of his father, Alfonso VI king of Leon; but that prince, though under the greatest obligations to the memory of the father, was persuaded by the king of Seville to adopt a hostile policy towards the son. It seems, indeed, as if Muhammed and Alfonso, in the treaty which they concluded at the instance of the former, had tacitly agreed not to interrupt each other in the execution of the designs each had long formed. The victorious Alfonso triumphed over all opposition, and prosecuted the siege with a vigour which might have shown the misbelievers how formidable an enemy awaited them all, and how necessary were their combined efforts to resist him. But Muhammed, the only enemy whom the Christian hero had to dread, was no less occupied in deriving his share of the advantages secured by the treaty—in reducing the strong towns of Murcia and Granada. After a siege of three years, Toledo was reduced to the last extremity, and was compelled to capitulate. On the 25th of May, 1085 a.d., Alfonso triumphantly entered this ancient capital of the Goths, which had remained in the power of the misbelievers about 374 years. The conquest of Toledo was far from satisfying the ambition of Alfonso; he rapidly seized on the fortresses of Madrid, Maqueda, Guadalajara, and established his dominion on both banks of the Tagus. Muhammed now began seriously to repent his treaty with the Christian, and to tremble even for his own possessions. He vainly endeavoured to divert his ally from the projects of aggrandisement which that ally had evidently formed. Muhammed saw that unless he leagued himself with those whose subjugation had hitherto been his constant object,—the princes of his faith,—his and their destruction was inevitable. The magnitude of the danger compelled him to solicit their alliance. Such resistance as Mohammedan Spain alone could offer seemed hopeless. With this conviction in their hearts two of the most influential cadis proposed an appeal to the celebrated African conqueror, Yusuf ben Tashufin, whose arm alone seemed able to preserve the faith of Islam in the peninsula. The proposal was
- 43. received with general applause by all present; they did not make the very obvious reflection that when a nation admits into its bosom an ally more powerful than itself, it admits at the same time a conqueror. The wali of Malaga alone, Abdallah ben Zagut, had courage to oppose the dangerous embassy under consideration. “You mean to call in the aid of the Almoravids! Are you ignorant that these fierce inhabitants of the deserts resemble their own native tigers? Suffer them not, I beseech you, to enter the fertile plains of Andalusia and Granada! Doubtless they would break the iron sceptre which Alfonso intends for us; but you would still be doomed to wear the chains of slavery. Do you not know that Yusuf has taken all the cities of Almaghreb, that he has subdued the powerful tribes of the East and West, that he has everywhere substituted despotism for liberty and independence?” The aged Zagut spoke in vain. THE ALMORAVIDS Beyond the chain of Mount Atlas, in the deserts of ancient Gætulia, dwelt two tribes of Arabian descent. At what time they had been expelled, or had voluntarily exiled themselves from their native Yemen, they knew not; but tradition taught them that they had been located in the African deserts from ages immemorial. Yahya ben Ibrahim, belonging to one of these tribes (that of Gudala), made the pilgrimage of Mecca. Being questioned by his new friend as to the religion and manners of his countrymen, he replied that they were sunk in ignorance, both from their isolated situation in the desert and from their want of teachers. He entreated the alfaqui to allow some one of his disciples to accompany him into his native country. With considerable difficulty Abdallah ben Yassim, the disciple of another alfaqui, was persuaded to accompany the patriotic Yahya. Abdallah was one of those ruling minds which, fortunately for the peace of society, nature so seldom produces. Seeing his enthusiastic reception by the tribe of Gudala, and the influence he was sure of maintaining over it, he formed the design of founding a sovereignty in the heart of these vast regions. He prevailed on his obedient
- 44. [1070-1103 a.d.] disciples to make war on the kindred tribe of Lamtuna. His ambition naturally increased with his success; in a short time he had reduced, in a similar manner, the isolated tribes around him. To his valiant followers of Lamtuna, he now gave the name of Al- Morabethun, or Almoravids, which signifies men consecrated to the service of God. The whole country of Darah was gradually subdued by this new apostle, and his authority was acknowledged over a region extensive enough to form a respectable kingdom. But though he exercised all the rights of sovereignty, he prudently abstained from assuming the title. He left to the emir of Lamtuna the ostensible exercise of temporal power; and when, in 1058 a.d., that emir fell in battle, he nominated Abu Bekr ben Omar to the vacant dignity. His own death, which was that of a warrior, left Abu Bekr in possession of an undivided sovereignty. The power, and consequently the reputation of the emir, spread far and wide. Abu Bekr looked around for a site on which he might lay the foundations of a great city, the destined metropolis of a great empire; and the city of Morocco began to rear its head from the valley of Eylana. Before, however, his great work was half completed, he received intelligence that the tribe of Gudala had declared a deadly war against that of Lamtuna. As he belonged to the latter, he naturally trembled for the fate of his kindred; and at the head of his cavalry he departed for his native deserts, leaving the command of the army, during his absence, to his cousin, Yusuf ben Tashufin. Whatever were Yusuf’s other virtues, it will be seen that gratitude, honour, and good faith were not among the number. Scarcely had his kinsman left the city than, in pursuance of the design he had formed of usurping the supreme authority, he began to win the affections of the troops, partly by his gifts and partly by affability. Nor was his success in war less agreeable to so fierce and martial a people as the Almoravids. The Berbers were quickly subdued by him. He had long aspired to the hope of marrying the beautiful Zainab, sister of Abu Bekr; but the fear of a repulse from the proud chief of his family had caused him to smother his inclination. He now disdained to
- 45. supplicate for that chief’s consent; he married the lady. Having put the finishing touch to his magnificent city of Morocco, he transferred thither the seat of his empire. The augmentation of his army was his next great object; and so well did he succeed in it that he found his troops exceeded one hundred thousand. Yusuf had just completed the subjugation of Fez when Abu Bekr returned from the desert, and encamped in the vicinity of Agmat. With a force so far inferior to his rival’s, so far from demanding the restitution of his rights, he durst not even utter one word of complaint; on the contrary, he pretended that he had long renounced empire, and that his only wish was to pass the remainder of his days in the retirement of the desert. With equal hypocrisy Yusuf humbly thanked him for his abdication; the sheikhs and walis were summoned to witness the renewed declaration of the emir, after which the two princes separated. The following day, however, Abu Bekr received a magnificent present from Yusuf, who, indeed, continued to send him one every year to the period of his death. Yusuf had just exchanged his humble title of emir for that of al- muslimin, or prince of the believers, and of nazir ed-din, or defender of the faith, when letters from Muhammed reached him. Before he returned a final answer to the king of Seville, he insisted that the fortress of Algeciras should be placed in his hands, on the pretence that if fortune were unpropitious he should have some place to which he might retreat. That Muhammed should have been so blind as not to perceive the designs involved in the insidious proposal is almost enough to make one agree with the Arabic historians, that destiny had decreed he should fall by his own measures. Alfonso was besieging Saragossa, which he had every expectation of reducing, when intelligence reached him of Yusuf’s disembarkation. He resolved to meet the approaching storm. At the head of all the forces he could muster he advanced towards Andalusia, and encountered Yusuf on the plains of Zallaka (1086). Alfonso was severely wounded and compelled to retreat, but not until nightfall, nor until he had displayed a valour worthy of the
- 46. greatest heroes. Yusuf now proclaimed the Al-hijed, or holy war, and invited all the Andalusian princes to join him. But this demonstration of force proved as useless as the preceding; it ended in nothing; owing partly to the dissensions of the Mohammedans and partly to the activity of the Christians, who not only rendered abortive the measures of the enemy but gained some signal advantages over them. Yusuf was forced to retreat on Almeida. Whether through the distrust of the Mohammedan princes, who appear to have penetrated his intention of subjecting them to his empire, or through his apprehension of Alfonso, he again returned to Africa, to procure new and more considerable levies. He landed a third time at Algeciras, not so much with the view of humbling the Christian king as of executing the perfidious design he had so long formed. For form’s sake, indeed, he invested Toledo, but he could have entertained no expectation of reducing it; and when he perceived that the Andalusian princes refused to join him, he eagerly left that city, and proceeded to secure far dearer and easier interests. He openly threw off the mask, and commenced his career of spoliation. After the fall of Muhammed, Yusuf had little difficulty in subduing the remaining princes of Andalusia. Thus ended the petty kingdoms of Andalusia, after a stormy existence of about sixty years, and thus commenced the dynasty of the Almoravids. For some years after the usurpation of Yusuf, peace appears to have subsisted in Spain between the Mohammedans and the Christians. Fearing a new irruption of Africans, Alfonso contented himself with fortifying Toledo; and Yusuf felt little inclination to renew the war with one whose prowess he had so fatally experienced. But Christian Spain was, at one moment, near the brink of ruin. The passion for the Crusades was no less ardently felt by the Spaniards than by other nations of Europe. Fortunately, Pope Paschal II, in answer to the representations of Alfonso, declared that the proper post of every Spaniard was at home, and there were his true enemies. Yusuf returned to Morocco in 1103, where he died in 1106, after living one hundred Arabian or about ninety-seven Christian years.
- 47. [1103-1130 a.d.] Ali was only in his twenty-third year when he succeeded his father, whose military talents he inherited, and whom he surpassed in generosity. On the death of Alfonso, in 1109 a.d., Ali entered Spain at the head of one hundred thousand men, to prosecute in person the war against the Christians. But though he laid waste the territory of Toledo, and invested that city, he soon abandoned the siege. A second army sent by Ali had no better success. In 1118 Saragossa, after a siege of some months, fell into the power of the Christians, and the north of Spain was forever freed from the domination of the Mohammedans. The following year the Aragonian hero destroyed twenty thousand of the Africans, who had advanced as far as the environs of Daroca; while another division of the Almoravids, under Ali in person, was compelled to retreat before the army of Leon and Castile. At this very time the empire of the Almoravids was tottering to its fall. It had never been agreeable to the Mohammedans of Spain, whose manners, from their intercourse with a civilised people, were comparatively refined. The sheikhs of Lamtuna were so many insupportable tyrants; the Jews, the universal agents for the collection of the revenues, were here, as in Poland, the most pitiless extortioners; every savage from the desert looked with contempt on the milder inhabitant of the peninsula. The domination of those strangers was indeed so odious that, except for the divisions between Alfonso and his ambitious queen, Donna Urraca, who was sovereign in her own right, all Andalusia might speedily have been subjected to the Christian yoke. Even while Ali remained in Spain, there was an open revolt of the inhabitants, who could not longer support the excesses of the barbarian guard. But the cause which most menaced the existence of Ali’s throne, and which was destined to change the whole face of western Africa and southern Spain, originated, like the power of Yusuf ben Tashufin, in the deserts bordering on Mount Atlas. Muhammed ben Abdallah, the son of a lamp-lighter in the mosque of Cordova, was distinguished for great curiosity and an insatiable thirst for
- 48. knowledge. Whether Muhammed was a fanatic or a knave, or composed of a large mixture of both, is not easy to be determined. He wandered from place to place, zealously preaching doctrines dangerous to the faith of Islam. His reception, however, was long cool; and from one town, where he had held forth in the mosque, he was compelled to flee to Tlemcen. On his way he fell in with a youth, Abdul-Mumin by name, whom he persuaded to share his fortunes. The two friends subsequently travelled to Fez, and thence to Morocco. The artful rebel was permitted to follow his vocation till the excitement produced by his fanatic appeals to the ignorant populace was too great to be overlooked, and he was ordered to leave Morocco. At a short distance from the city, however, probably in its public cemetery, he built a hut among the graves, as a residence for himself and his faithful Abdul-Mumin. As he had anticipated, he was soon followed by crowds who venerated his prophetic character, and who listened with pleasure to vehement denunciations which fell with terrific effect on their superiors. He inveighed against the impiety of the Almoravids, who appear not to have been more popular in Mauretania than in Spain. Ali ordered the rebel to be secured. Muhammed, who had timely notice of the fate intended him, fled to Agmat, accompanied by a host of proselytes; but finding that his liberty was still in danger, he hastily retreated to Tinmal in the province of Sus. His success in this region was so great that he had soon an army of disciples, all devoted to his will, because all believed in his divine mission. For some time he preached to them the coming of the great mahdi, who should teach all men the right way and cause virtue and happiness to reign over the whole earth; but he carefully refrained from acknowledging himself to be the mighty prophet, doubtless because he was fearful of shocking the credulity even of his own followers. One day, in conformity with a preconcerted plan, as he was expatiating on the change to be effected by the long-promised teacher and ruler, Abdul-Mumin and nine other men arose, saying: “Thou announcest a mahdi; the description applies only to thyself. Be our mahdi and imam; we
- 49. [1130-1143 a.d.] swear to obey thee!” The Berbers, influenced by the example, in the same manner arose and vowed fidelity even unto death. From this moment he assumed the high title of mahdi, and proclaimed himself as the founder of a new people. He instituted a regular government, confiding the administration to Abdul-Mumin, his minister, with nine associates, but reserving the control to himself. Seventy Berbers or Alarabs formed the council of the new government. An army of ten thousand horse and a far greater number of foot was speedily organised, with which he took the road to Agmat just as Ali returned to Morocco from Spain. The Almohads [Unitarians], for such was the name assumed by the followers of Muhammed, defeated the troops of Ali four times. At length Muhammed resolved to reduce the capital of Morocco. At his voice forty thousand men took the field. The preparations of Ali were immense; one hundred thousand men were ranged round his standard. They were again defeated, were pursued to the very walls of Morocco, and that capital was invested with a vigour which showed that the Almohads were intent on its reduction. But Ali led his troops against the rebels, whom he completely routed. Abdul- Mumin rallied the fugitives, and effected an orderly retreat. But time was necessary to repair the misfortune, especially as some of the savage tribes of the desert withdrew from Muhammed’s banner, on finding that his power was that of a mere mortal. In 1130 the mahdi commanded all to assemble the following day near the great mosque, to bid adieu to their chief. All wondered at the command, except such as were acquainted with his long hidden disease. He exhorted them to persevere in the doctrine he had taught them; announced his approaching death; and when he saw them dissolved in tears, inculcated the duty of resignation to the divine will. He then retired with his beloved disciple, to whom he presented the book containing the tenets of his faith—a book which he had received from the hands of Al-Gazali. The fourth day he expired. The chiefs of the state were soon afterwards assembled to
- 50. [1143-1145 a.d.] deliberate on the form of government; a monarchy was chosen; and by their unanimous suffrages Abdul-Mumin was proclaimed imam and almumenin. For the next three years the new caliph was diligently employed in extending his conquests. The whole country, from the mountains of Darah to Salee, all Fez and Tasa, received his spiritual and temporal yoke. The empire of the Almoravids was now bounded within a narrow sphere. Ali became dejected and unhappy; his troops were everywhere defeated; his towns were rapidly delivered into the power of a savage enemy, who had vowed his destruction; and though, in compliance with the advice of his counsellors, he associated with him in the empire his son Tashufin, whose exploits in Spain had obtained him much celebrity, that prince was too busily occupied with the Christians and his discontented subjects of Andalusia to prop the declining empire in Africa. Tashufin ben Ali succeeded in 1143 to his father, who died at Morocco—more from grief at the declining state of affairs than from any other cause. His first object was to assemble an army to strike another blow for the defence of his empire. At first he was successful. Abdul-Mumin was compelled to fall back on his mountain; but in a second action Tashufin was defeated; in a third he was also compelled to retreat. Ali saw that his only hope of safety lay in an escape to Spain. One night he resolved to make a desperate effort to gain the port where his vessels were still riding at anchor. Unfortunately either he mistook his way or his mule was terrified by the roaring of the waves, for the next morning his mangled corpse was found at the foot of a precipice on the beach. But Morocco, Fez, and some other cities were yet in the power of the Almoravids, who raised Ibrahim Abu Ishak, son of Tashufin, to the throne. The vindictive Abdul-Mumin, however, left them little time to breathe. Tlemcen he took by assault, and massacred the inhabitants; Fez he also reduced. The siege of Morocco was prosecuted with vigour. The inhabitants were so fatally repulsed in a
- 51. Arab Soldier sortie that they durst no longer venture outside the walls. Famine soon aided the sword; the number who died of starvation is said to have amounted to three-fourths of the whole population. Such a place could not long hold out; and accordingly it was carried in the first general assault. Ibrahim and the surviving sheikhs were instantly brought before the conqueror. Not only were he and his chiefs led out to instant execution, but a general massacre of the surviving inhabitants was ordered. The few who were spared were sold as slaves; the mosques were destroyed and new ones erected; and the tribes of the desert were called to re-people the now solitary streets. During these memorable exploits in Africa, the Christians were rapidly increasing their dominions. Coria, Mora, etc., were in the power of Alfonso, styled the emperor; and almost every contest between the two natural enemies had turned to the advantage of the Christians. So long, indeed, as the walis were eager only to preserve or to extend their authority, independent of each other and of every superior, this success need not surprise us; we may rather be surprised that the Mohammedans were allowed to retain any footing in the peninsula. Probably they would at this time have been driven from it but for the seasonable arrival of the victorious Almohads. Both Christians and Africans now contended for the superiority. While the troops of Alfonso reduced Baeza, and with a Mohammedan ally even Cordova, Malaga and Seville acknowledged Abu Amram. Calatrava and Almeria next fell to
- 52. [1145-1198 a.d.] the Christian emperor, about the same time that Lisbon and the neighbouring towns received Dom Henry (Henrique), the new sovereign of Portugal. Most of these conquests, however, were subsequently recovered by the Almohads. Being reinforced by a new army from Africa, the latter pursued their successes with greater vigour. They reduced Cordova, which was held by an ally of Alfonso; defeated, and forever paralysed, the expiring efforts of the Almoravids; and proclaimed their emperor Abdul-Mumin as sovereign of all Mohammedan Spain (1146). DYNASTY OF THE ALMOHADS Abdul-Mumin, as if desirous of subduing not merely what had formed the empire of the Almoravids but all the regions which owned the faith of Islam, levied army after army; so that from Portugal to Tunis and Kairwan his wild hordes spread devastation and dismay. To detail the events of the wars sustained by his general, or his son the cid Yusuf, in Andalusia, would afford little interest to the reader. It will be sufficient to observe that, by slow but sure degrees, the whole of Andalusia was incorporated with his empire. Once only did he visit Spain, if remaining a few hours at Gibraltar can deserve the name. In 1162 he breathed his last. On his accession, Yusuf Abu Yakub dismissed the enormous army which had been collected. During the following few years he appears to have cultivated the blessings of peace; it was not until 1170 that he entered Spain, and all Mohammedan Spain owned the emperor. Notwithstanding the destructive wars which had prevailed near a century, neither Moors nor Christians had acquired much advantage by them. From the reduction of Saragossa to the present time, the victory, indeed, had generally declared for the Christians; but their conquests, with the exception of Lisbon and a few fortresses in central Spain, were lost almost as soon as gained; and the same fate attended the equally transient successes of the Mohammedans. The reason why the former did not permanently extend their territories,
- 53. [1198-1212 a.d.] was their internal dissensions. The Christians, when at peace among themselves, were always too many for their Mohammedan neighbours, even when the latter were aided by the whole power of western Africa. Yakub ben Yusuf, from his victories afterwards named Al-Mansur, was declared successor to his father. For some years he was not personally opposed to the Christians, though his walis carried on a desultory indecisive war. In 1194 he landed in Andalusia, and proceeded towards Valencia, where the Christian army then lay. There Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, was awaiting the expected reinforcements from his allies, the kings of Leon and Navarre. Both armies pitched their tents on the plains of Alarcon. The chiefs of both naturally felt anxious for the result; but the charge of rashness cannot be erased from the memory of Alfonso, for venturing to withstand alone a conflict with the overwhelming force of the enemy, instead of falling back to effect a junction with his allies. His loss must have been immense, amounting probably to twenty thousand men. With a generosity very rare in a Mohammedan, and still more in an African, Yakub restored his prisoners to liberty—an action for which, we are informed, he received few thanks from his followers. After this signal victory Yakub rapidly reduced Calatrava, Guadalaxara, Madrid and Esalona, Salamanca, etc. Toledo, too, he invested, but in vain. He returned to Africa, caused his son Muhammed to be declared wali alhadi, and died (1199). He was, beyond doubt, the greatest and best of the Almohads. The character of Muhammed Abu Abdallah, surnamed An-Nasir, was very different from that of his great father. Much as the world had been astounded at the preparations of his grandfather Yusuf, they were not surpassed by his own, if, as we are credibly informed, one alone of the five divisions of his army amounted to 160,000 men. It is certain that a year was required for the assembling of this vast armament, that two months were necessary to convey it across the straits, and that all Christian Europe was filled with alarm at its disembarkation. Innocent III proclaimed a crusade to Spain; and
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