have driven them effectually from all their settlements in Spain. The progrefs of their conquefts, however, was rapid, and the Arabs, being reduced to the laft extremity, called in the Afri cans to their affistance. Their new auxiliaries foon forgot the purposes that brought them to Spain, and, inftigated by ambition, instead of defending their countrymen, meditated nothing less than their fubjection. This revolution threatened the Chriftians with the worst of confequences, on account of that innumerable multitude of enemies which it brought upon them. The whole continent of Africa seemed to have emptied itfelf of its inhabitants, that they might take up arms against the Spaniards; but the firmness and fortitude of the latter, notwithftanding the fmallnefs of their numbers, triumphed over all oppofition. The civil wars which prevailed in Africa and in the kingdom of Grenada, at length terminated the government of the Arabs in Spain. This is a fhort sketch of the hiftory that our Author compiles from those manufcripts to which he had recourfe. But these were not his only refources. The Arabic hiftorians, however copiously they expatiate on the fuccessful part of their own hiftory, become thrifty and indolent in those periods, where the glory of their nation declines, and their enemies have the advantage. For this reafon, M. Cardonne very judiciously determined to apply himself to the Spanish hiftorians for more perfect information, and this he chiefly drew from Mariana's Latin hiftory of Spain, except with regard to the conqueft of Grenada, of which he met with a long detail in a collection of Arabic hiftorians, entitled Hiftoria Lenazzadini Viziri. The fame collection furnished him with the fucceffion of the viceroys who held the government of Spain under the eastern caliphs. This was the more defirable, as he would not have found it fo exact in the Spanish Hiftorians, who often alter their names, or fubftitute others. Of this, and whatever elfe that collection, or the manufcripts of Novari, Tabari, and feveral other Arabic writers afforded him, refpecting the manners, the luxury or commerce of the æra under his review, the Author makes the best use; and he takes care all along to preferve the original orthography of names: by which means, indeed, they are hardly cognizable to readers who have only been converfant in modern hiftorians for inftance, Abderam, he calls Abdoulrahman, &c. The following are the titles of the books and manuscripts from which this hiftory was compiled, and which we take the liberty to introduce for the fake of fuch of our Readers as are acquainted with the eastern literature. Cheabeddin Aboul Abbafi, Pars 23. Hiftoria Univerfalis. Ahmed Ben Abdoulvahabi cognomine Novairi, Hiftoria Ommiadarum, qui in Hifpania regnarunt. Kk 2 Ejufdem L Ejufdem Hiftoria Africa et Occidentis. Hiftoria de Regibus Beni Zian, ex Familiâ Edriffitarum, Auc-' tore Muhammed-Abdal-Giali. Ahmed-Ben-Muhammed-el Mogrebi Hiftoria Hifpaniæ, primæ partis, volumen fecundum. Ebu-el-Kautir, De redactis in Arabum Poteftatem Hifpanis. Hiftoria Lenazzedini Viziri ultimorum Granatæ Regum, ex Familia el Ahmar. Hifloria Univerfalis Chehabbeddin-Ahmed-Al-Mokri-Al-Faffi. Hiftoriæ Compendium, Auctore Ibn-Khaldouh. Luna refplendentes Marocci, Auctore Abdalla-Ebn-Batata. Hiftoria Califarum ac Regum Arabum in Hifpania ufque ad Annum Hegira 765, Auctore Ben-Abdallah-el-Khateb-el-Mufulman-ni-el-Kortoubi. Hifloria Univerfalis Abou-Djaferi-Muhammed-Ben-Harir-el Tabari. Roderici Toletani Epifcopi Hiftoria. Joannis Marianæ Hifpani e Societate Jesu, Historia de Rebus Hifpanis. Leonis Africani Defcriptio Africa. Bibliotheque Orientale de D'Herbelot. There is fcarcely a more interefting event in the European history, than that of the celebrated victory which Charles Martel obtained over Abdoulrahman Elgafiki the ambitious governor of Spain: yet our Hiftorian has not given us fo ample or fo fatisfactory an account of it as the importance of the subject required; he seems, however, to have been very fenfible of that importance, and, poffibly, he collected all the lights that his refources would afford him. Abdoulrahman was appointed governor of Spain in the year of the Hegira 113, A. D. 730.-He had been trained to arms from his infancy; war was his delight; and he profecuted it with the greater eagernefs, as it was the only means of gratifying his unbounded ambition. He no fooner found himself at the head of the Spanish forces, than he projected the conqueft of France, and nothing but the confummate fkill and valour of Charles Martel could have prevented its fuccefs. After having tafted the fweets of conqueft in fubduing the pride of a rival Arab, he crofled the Pyrenees, and laid fiege to Arles. Eudes Earl of Aquitaine came to the relief of that town, but was met by Abdoulrahman and put to flight. This victory inflamed the courage and ambition of the Arab, and he proposed to himself nothing lefs than the reduction of France. He therefore marched to the right, and traverfing great part of Gaul, he paffed into Aquitaine, and poffeffed himself of Bourdeaux. The earl, who had levied fresh forces, in vain endeavoured to oppose: the torrent; he suffered a fecond defeat; and this new fuccefs ferved: ferved only to confirm Abdoulrahman in the pursuit of his project. He paffed through Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou, with fire and fword, deftroying every town in his way, and pillaging and burning churches. At length he arrived at Tours, which was threatened with the fame fate, when the twice-defeated earl implored the fuccours of Charles Martel. That prince, having just reafon to be alarmed at the common danger, marched against the Arabs with a large army. He paffed the Loire, and encamped on the banks of that river, for fear of being furrounded by the enemy. The two armies, after fome days of obfervation on either party, came to battle. Both fides fought with equal fury. The reward of victory to the Arabs was the conquest of France; and, if Charles were conquered, every ambitious project he had formed would vanish at once. Victory was a long time in fufpence, but at laft declared in favour of the French. Three hundred and fixty-five thoufand Arabs, if any credit may be given to cotemporary hiftorians, were left dead upon the field, Abdoulrahman himself was in the number of the flain, and mankind was fet free from the fatal effects of his ambition. The Earl of Acquitaine contributed not a little to the victory, while with his light troops he harraffed the enemy in the rear, and threw their ranks into confufion. The camp of the Arabs was given up to plunder, and immense riches, the spoils of the provinces through which they had paffed, became the property of the conquerors. Such of the fugitives as efcaped the fword retired into Narbonese Gaul. The caliph, chagrined at the lofs of his vernor and the defeat of his people, commanded fucceeding governors to retrieve the honour of the Arabic arms. But they were ftill defeated by the valour of Charles; and foon after their own inteftine broils left the Chriftians at reft. It is impoffible to read without horror the accounts of those innumerable battles that were fought between the Arabs and their provincials on the continent of Africa. The latter, when oppreffed by the iniquity of the caliph's viceroys, frequently threw off the yoke, and their reduction to their former fervitude was always attended with the most dreadful carnage. go Yet had not the ever-warring and restless genius of the Arabs been occupied by civil diffentions and mutinies within their original and acquired dominions, they would have enflaved the whole Chriftian world; and would not by any means have wanted a reasonable pretence for it; while the Christians were fo indifcreet as to take advantage of their civil commotions, in order to harrass their out lying territories, and to difpoffefs them of what they had obtained by conqueft, not of Christians, but of other barbarous nations. Hence the fhameful havoc of what were profanely called the Holy Wars, and that prodigious ef Kk 3 fufion fufion of blood, on principles that were excited by avarice, and abetted by fuperftition! Of the eastern caliphs that governed in Spain, none was more diftinguished for valour, policy and magnificence, than Abdoulrahman III. Though he was continually involved in war, the fumptuous fplendour of his court and his edifices was fuperior to any thing the world had feen before. He built a new city at the distance of about three miles from Corduba, which he called Zehra, the name of a favourite female-flave. Here likewife he erected a palace, the grandeur and beauty of which could hardly be equalled. It was built by one of the moft fkilful architects in Conftantinople, which city was at that time (about the middle of the tenth century) the feat of the sciences and the fine arts. In this palace were a thousand and fourteen columns of Spanish and African marble, nineteen of Italian marble, and an hundred and twenty, fent by the Greek emperor, of extraordiMary beauty. The faloon, called the caliph's faloon, was rich beyond expreffion. The walls were of the finest marble, and the ornaments of pure gold. In the middle of the faloon was a marble bafon, furrounded with various figures of birds and beafts that threw up the water. All these figures were of gold, and adorned with pearls and all kinds of precious ftones. The bason itself was made at Conftantinople, and the figures executed by the ableft artists there. Above it hung the famous pearl which the Emperor Leo fent to Abdoulrahman. The other apartments of this palace were proportionably superb, and equally expressed the taste and magnificence of their mafter. In the middle of the royal gardens ftood a grand pavilion, where the caliph fed to repofe after the fatigues of hunting. It was supported by pillars of the whiteft marble. The ceiling sparkled with the united splendours of gold, polifhed fteel, and precious stones; but the most extraordinary thing about it was a bafon, filled with waves of quickfilver inftead of water, which, when the fun fhone upon it, produced fuch a brightnefs as the eye could not bear to look upon. Yet notwithstanding this profufion of beauty and magnificence, Abdoulrahman was far from being happy, as will appear from the following curious memorial, which was written by himself, and found after his death: From the first moment of my reign to the present time, I have kept an exact account of thofe days in which I enjoyed true and unmixed pleasure; and I find that the number does not exceed 14;-mortals! confider what this world is, and what value one should fet upon the pleasures that it offers.Nothing feemed to be wanting to my felicity; I had wealth, honours, and, to fay all in one word, fovereign power.-Feared and refpected by cotemporary princesa princes, who envied my happiness, were jealous of my glory, and courted my friendship. Fifty years have paffed fince I afcended the throne, and in that long fpace of time, it is with difficulty I can make out fourteen days, whofe courfe was uninterrupted by any infelicity." Several of the caliphs were men of great capacity as well as valour, and teftified the most confummate skill in the conduct of their affairs. Amongst thefe may be reckoned Mohammed Emir, who fupported himself on his throne against innumerable difficulties. When this prince was walking one day in his gardens with one of his courtiers, the latter, looking around him, said, What a charming world is this! how happy fhould one be could one but escape death !-Death, faid the caliph, is one of our best friends; fhould I have been here, if he had not removed my predeceffor?-There was, certainly, a great deal of right philofophy in this anfwer ;-why, it implied, fhould we be unwilling to quit the fcene and to make way for the fucceeding generation, when our ancestors have done the fame for us? It would be impoffible for the race of men to fubfift upon the earth on other conditions, and death was a neceffary part of the oeconomy of that benevolent Providence, which determined that a variety of beings fhould tafte the bleffings of life. A curious method of obtaining juftice from one of the caliphs is recorded in the first volume of this hiftory. Hakkam, the fon and fucceffor of Abdoulrahman III, wanting to enlarge his palace, proposed to purchase of a poor woman a piece of ground that lay contiguous to it. However, fhe could not be prevailed upon to part with the inheritance of her ancestors, and Hakkam's officers took by force what they could not otherwise obtain. The poor woman applied to Ibn-bechir, the chief magiftrate of Corduba, for juftice. The cafe was delicate and dangerous. Bechir concluded that the ordinary methods of proceeding would be ineffectual, if not fatal. He mounted his ass, and taking a large fack with him, rode to the palace of the caliph. The prince happened to be fitting in a pavilion that had been erected in the poor woman's garden. Bechir, with his fack in his hand, advanced towards him, and, after proftrating himself, defired the caliph would permit him to fill his fack with earth in that garden.-Hakkam fhewed fome furprize at his appearance and requeft, but allowed him to fill his fack. When this was done, the magiftrate intreated the prince to affift him in laying the burden on his afs.-This extraordinary request surprised Hakkam ftill more; but he only told the judge that it was too heavy; he could not bear it. Yet this fack, replied Bechir with a noble affurance, this fack, which you think too heavy to bear, contains but a small portion of that ground which you took by violence from the right owner. How then will you be Kk4 able |