17

time, we ask, did 'Othmán send troops from Africa to conquer Andalus; when it is evident, nay, it rests on incontrovertible proofs, that the Arabs never invaded Andalus until the times of Al-walíd, and that Cairwán, the city from whence the expedition is said to have departed, was not built until twelve 17 years after the death of that Khalif? However, let not these objections of ours be taken as uttered in contempt of the authors of the tradition: we merely state them as a proof of our ardent wish to warn our readers against error, and to assist them in the investigation of truth.

olive tree.

Another of the wonders of Andalus we would pass over were it not that all Extraordinary the historians of that country mention it. It is an olive tree, which is said to blossom and produce fruit on a certain day of the solar year. But this is rather a proof of the difficult task an historian takes upon himself, and how easily authors as trustworthy and learned as Ibnu Sa'íd may be led into error by the adoption of facts which they have not ascertained, or by transcribing the accounts of over-credulous writers. This phenomenon, which Ibnu Sa'id relates on the authority of people who are said to have witnessed it, is nothing more than the effects of light on an olive tree of the common species, as the author of the Ja'rafiyah tells us. We shall quote his words: "In this mountain (meaning that of Sholayr, in the neighbourhood of Granada,) is the famous olive tree "of which people talk wonders. I happened once to pass by it early in the "morning of the day of Pentecost, when all the inhabitants of those districts "collect round it. I saw nothing on it to deserve attention; both its appearance " and its fruit were the same as those of similar trees at that season of the year, only that, in proportion as the day advanced, the leaves looked of a bright green; at noon they looked white, as if the tree was covered with blossom, and later in the day, a little before sunset, they partook of a reddish hue. "With the exception of this circumstance, which I believe to be common to every tree of the same species, I saw nothing wonderful either in the fruit, "the branches, or the leaves of the tree."

66

of Toledo.

Several authors, and amongst them the last-mentioned writer, describe most Water-clocks minutely two water-clocks which Abú-l-kásim Ibn 'Abdi-r-rahmán, known by the surname of Az-zarkál,18 built in Toledo, when he heard of the famous talisman which is in the city of Arín in India, and which Mes'údí describes as marking the time with a hand from sunset to sunrise. These clocks consisted of two basins, which filled with water or emptied according to the increasing or waning of the moon. Az-zarkál placed them in a house out of the city, to the southwest, and on the banks of the river Tajoh (Tagus), near to the spot called Búbu-l

VOL. I.

M

dabbághín 19 (the gate of the tanners); their action was as follows. At the moment when the new moon appeared on the horizon water began to flow into the basins by means of subterranean pipes, so that there would be at day-break the fourth of a seventh part, and at the end of the day half a seventh part, of the water required to fill the basins. In this proportion the water would continue to flow until seven days and as many nights of the month were elapsed, when both basins would be half filled; the same process during the following seven days and nights would make the two basins quite full, at the same time that the moon was at its full. However, on the fifteenth night of the month, when the moon began to wane, the basins would also begin to lose every day and night half a seventh part of their water, until by the twentyfirst of the month they would be half empty, and when the moon reached her twenty-ninth night not a drop of water would remain in them; it being worthy of remark that, should any one go to any of the basins when they were not filled, and pour water into them with a view to quicken its filling, the basins would immediately absorb the additional water, and retain no more than the just quantity; and, on the contrary, were any one to try, when they were nearly filled, to extract any or the whole of their water, the moment he raised his hands from the work the basins would pour out sufficient water to fill the vacuum in an instant. These clocks were undoubtedly a greater work of science than the Indian talisman, for this latter is placed in a country under the equinoctial line, where the days and nights are of the same length, while in Andalus, which is in the temperate zone, it does not happen thus. They remained for a long time in Toledo, until that city was taken by the Christians, (may God send confusion amongst them!) when the tyrant Al-fonsh 20 (Alfonso) felt a great curiosity to know how they were regulated, and caused one of them to be excavated, which being done the interior machinery was damaged, and the water ceased to flow into the basins. This happened in the year five hundred and twenty-eight of the Hijra (A. D. 1133-4).21 Others say that the cause of their being spoilt was Honeyn the Jew,22 he who conveyed all the baths of Andalus to Toledo in one day in the said year of five hundred and twentyeight, and who predicted to Alfonso 23 that his son would conquer Cordova, as it happened. This accursed Jew, being anxious to discover the motion of the clocks, said once to Alfonso, "O king! were I to look at them in "the inside, and see how they are made, not only could I restore them to "their ancient state, but even construct two others still more wonderful, and "which would fill during the day and empty at night." Alfonso granted

him his request, and the Jew then had one opened; but when he afterwards tried to restore it to its former state he was unable to accomplish what he had promised, and the machinery being damaged the works were stopped. The other basin, nevertheless, continued still to fill and empty in the same wonderful manner; but God is all-knowing, he knows the truth of the

matter.

CHAPTER VII.

specting An

dalus.

Anecdotes respecting Andalus-Population-Productions of the soil.

Anecdotes re- WE have read in a certain book that when the Amiru-l-moslemin (Prince of the Moslems) 'Alí, son of the Amiru-l-moslemín Yúsef Ibn Táshfín Al-masúfí,1 Sultán of Maghreb and Andalus, crossed the Straits, and landed in the latter country,when he had traversed it in all directions, and observed its shape and configuration, he compared it to an eagle, making the city of Toledo the claws, Kal'at-Rabáh (Calatrava) the breast, Jaen the head, Granada the bill, and placing its two wings, the right far into the west, and the left in the east.

Population.

We have also read that the said Sultán and the Africans who formed his court were very much struck with the beauty of the prospect, the fertility of the land, the abundance of provisions, the mildness of the temperature, the magnificence of its buildings, and other advantages which make Andalus superior to any other country in the world, and that their admiration gave rise to many witty expressions and curious anecdotes in which the African histories abound; but unluckily the work in which we have read these and other particulars is not in our possession, as we have left it with the remainder of our library in the Al-maghreb (West), so we must content ourselves with quoting that which we know by heart, and fill up the deficiency with such works as we have been able to procure in this country.

Ibnu Sa'íd, the author of the book entitled Al-mugh'rab fí holí-l-maghreb2 (the eloquent speaker on the ornamental beauties of the West), a work which we have had frequent occasion to quote, and which has been of the greatest assistance to us, when describing at large the population and agricultural resources of Andalus expresses himself in the following terms. "Were I called upon to give an adequate and just description of Andalus, I would say that it is a country surrounded by sea, abounding in fruits and productions of all kinds, full of cities and towns, and so

thickly populated that if a traveller goes any distance through it he will find at every step on his road hamlets, towns, farms, orchards, and cultivated fields, and will never meet, as is more or less the case in other countries, with large tracts of uncultivated land, or desert. This, united to the habits of the Andalusians, who, instead of living together, as the Egyptians do, grouped in towns and villages, prefer dwelling in cottages and rural establishments in the midst of the fields, by the side of brooks, and on the declivities of mountains, gives altogether to the country an aspect of comfort and prosperity which the traveller will look for in vain elsewhere; their houses too, which they are continually white-washing inside and out, look exceedingly well by the side of the green trees, and, to use the words of the famous Wizír and poet Ibnu-l"himárah3 in his description of Andalus

'Its hamlets brightening among the trees look like so many pearls set in 'a bed of emeralds.'

"And he was right, for if thou goest to Egypt after having staid any length of "time in Andalus, thou wilt be surprised to see the wretched appearance of the

Egyptian villages, placed as they are at great distances one from another, with their narrow, badly constructed, ill-shaped houses, looking gloomy and dismal to "the eye. In Andalus, on the contrary, the traveller will find many districts "where large cities and populous towns almost touch each other, without counting "the numberless villages, hamlets, farms, castles, and towers which lie between. So, for instance, going out of Seville, the first day's march will take him to Sherish (Xerez), a very handsome city, placed in the midst of a fertile territory, " and surrounded by villages; close to Xerez is Algesiras, and then comes Malaga, "one of the finest ports in the Mediterranean; and let not the reader suppose that "this excessive population is only to be met with in that particular district, for the description is applicable, as well, to any other province of Andalus, this "being the reason why historians and geographers who have described this country "mention so many large cities and wealthy towns. Most of these are strongly

fortified, and surrounded with walls, as a protection against the incursions of the enemy; some, even, will be found so strong by nature, or so well fortified by art, as to have been besieged by the Christians during twenty years without falling into their hands. This, indeed, is not so much owing to the strength of "their fortifications as to the undaunted courage of their defenders,—their aptitude " for all military exercises, to which they are trained from their infancy, and their early and continual acquaintance with the perils and horrors of war, owing to the proximity of the enemy with whom they are in perpetual hostility. To this must be added the facility they possess of keeping their corn for several years in