The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) π
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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much injured by the potentates who assembled at Cambrai as by a
single man who lived in a lonely spot on the south-west coast
of the Spanish peninsula.
That country had been taken from the natives by the
Carthaginians, from the Carthaginians by the Romans, from the
Romans by the Goths, from the Goths by the Arabs and the Moors.
It was the first province of the Holy Empire of the Caliphs to
shake itself free, and to crown a monarch of its own. The Arabs
raised Spain to a height of prosperity which it has never since
attained; they covered the land with palaces, mosques,
hospitals, and bridges; and with enormous aqueducts which,
penetrating the sides of mountains, or sweeping on lofty arches
across valleys, rivalled the monuments of ancient Rome. The
Arabs imported various tropical fruits and vegetables, the
culture of which has departed with them. They grew, prepared,
and exported sugar. They discovered new mines of gold and
silver, quicksilver and lead. They extensively manufactured
silks, cottons, and merino woollen goods, which they despatched
to Constantinople by sea, and which were thence diffused
through the valley of the Danube over savage Christendom. When
Italians began to navigate the Mediterranean, a line of ports
was opened to them from Tarragona to Cadiz. The metropolis of
this noble country was Cordova. It stood in the midst of a
fertile plain washed by the waters of the Guadalquivir. It was
encircled by suburban towns; there were ten miles of lighted
streets. The great mosque was one of the wonders of the
mediaeval world; its gates embossed with bronze; its myriads of
lamps made out of Christian bells; and its thousand columns of
variegated marble supporting a roof of richly carved and
aromatic wood. At a time when books were so rare in Europe that
the man who possessed one often gave it to a church, and placed
it on the altar pro remedio animae suae, to obtain remission of
his sins; at a time when three or four hundred parchment
scrolls were considered a magnificent endowment for the richest
monastery: when scarcely a priest in England could translate
Latin into his mother tongue; and when even in Italy a monk who
had picked up a smattering of mathematics was looked upon as a
magician, here was a country in which every child was taught to
read and write; in which every town possessed a public library;
in which book collecting was a mania; in which cotton and
afterwards linen-paper was manufactured in enormous quantities;
in which ladies earned distinction as poets and grammarians,
and in which even the blind were often scholars; in which men
of science were making chemical experiments, using astrolabes
in the observatory, inventing flying machines, studying the
astronomy and algebra of Hindustan.
When the Goths conquered Spain they were reconquered by the
clergy, who established or revived the Roman Law. But to that
excellent code they added some special enactments relating to
pagans, heretics, and Jews. With nations as with individuals,
the child is often the father of the man; intolerance, which
ruined the Spain of Philip, was also its vice, in the Gothic
days. On the other hand, the prosperity of Spain beneath the
Arabs was owing to the tolerant spirit of that people. Never
was a conquered nation so mercifully treated. The Christians
were allowed by the Arab laws free exercise of their religion.
They were employed at court; they held office; they served in
the army. The caliph had a bodyguard of twelve thousand men;
picked troops, splendidly equipped; and a third of these were
Christians. But there were some ecclesiastics who taught their
congregations that it was sinful to be tolerated. There were
fanatics who, when they heard the cry of the muezzin, βThere is
no God but God, and Mohammed is the messenger of God,β would
sign the cross upon their foreheads and exclaim in a loud
voice, βKeep not thou silence, O God, for lo! thine enemies make
a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up the headβ; and
so they would rush into the mosque, and disturb the public
worship, and announce that Mohammed was one of the false
prophets whom Christ had foretold. And when such blasphemers
were put to death, which often happened on the spot, there was
an epidemic of martyr-suicide such as that which excited the
wonder and disgust of the younger Pliny. And soon both the
contumacy of the Christians and the evil passions of the
Moslems, which that contumacy excited, were increased by causes
from without. When Spain had first been conquered, a number of
Gothic nobles, too proud to submit on any terms, retreated to
the Asturias, taking with them the sacred relics from Toledo.
They found a home in mountain ravines clothed with chestnut
woods, and divided by savage torrents foaming and gnashing on
the stones. Here the Christians established a kingdom,
discovered the bones of a saint which attracted pilgrims from
all parts of Europe, and were joined from time to time by
foreign volunteers, and by the disaffected from the Moorish
towns.
The Caliph of Cordova was a Commander of the Faithful: he
united the spiritual and temporal powers in his own person: he
was not the slave of Mamelukes or Turkish guards. But he had
the right of naming his successor from a numerous progeny, and
this custom gave rise, as usual, to seraglio intrigue and civil
war. The empire broke up into petty states, which were engaged
in continual feuds with one another. Thus the Christians were
enabled to invade the Moslem territory with success. At first
they made only plundering forays; next they took castles by
surprise or by storm and garrisoned them strongly; and then
they began slowly to advance upon the land. By the middle of
the ninth century they had reached the Douro and the Ebro. By
the close of the eleventh they had reached the Tagus under the
banner of the Cid. In the thirteenth century the kingdom of
Granada alone was left. But that kingdom lasted two hundred
years. Its existence was preserved by causes similar to those
which had given the Christians their success. Portugal,
Arragon, Leon, and Castile were more jealous of one another
than of the Moorish kingdom. Granada was unaggressive; and at
the same time it belonged to the European family. There was a
difference in language, religion, and domestic institutions
between Moslem and Christian Spain; yet the manners and mode of
thought in both countries were the same. The cavaliers of
Granada were acknowledged by the Spaniards to be βgentlemen,
though Moors.β The Moslem knight cultivated the sciences of
courtesy and music, fought only with the foe on equal terms,
esteemed it a duty to side with the weak and to succour the
distressed, mingled the name of his mistress with his Allah
Akbar! as the Christians cried, Ma Dame et mon Dieu! wore in
her remembrance an embroidered scarf or some other gage of
love, mingled with her in the graceful dance of the Zambra,
serenaded her by moonlight as she looked down from the balcony.
Granada was defended by a cavalry of gallant knights, and by an
infantry of sturdy mountaineers. But it came to its end at
last. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella united all the
crowns of Spain. After eight centuries of almost incessant war,
after three thousand seven hundred battles, the long crusade
was ended; Spain became once more a Christian land; and
Boabdil, pausing on the Hill of Tears, looked down for the last
time on the beautiful Alhambra, on the city nestling among rose
gardens, and the dark cypress waving over Moslem tombs. His
mother reproached him for weeping as a woman for the kingdom he
had not defended as a man. He rode down to the sea and crossed
over into Africa. But that country also was soon to be invaded
by the Christians.
That part of the Peninsula which is called Portugal preserved
its independence and its dialect from the encroachments of
Castile. While the kingdom of Granada was yet alive, the
Portuguese monarch, having driven the Moors from the banks of
the Tagus, resolved to pursue them into Africa. He possessed an
excellent crusade machinery, and naturally desired to apply it
to some purpose. In Portugal were troops of military monks, who
had sworn to fight with none but unbelievers. In Portugal were
large revenues granted or bequeathed for that purpose alone. In
Portugal the passion of chivalry was at its height; the throne
was surrounded by knights panting for adventure. It is related
that some ladies of the English court had been grossly insulted
by certain cavaliers, and had been unable to find champions to
redress their wrongs. An equal number of Portuguese knights at
once took ship, sailed to London, flung down their gauntlets,
overthrew their opponents in the lists, and returned to Lisbon
having received from the injured ladies the tenderest proof of
their gratitude and esteem.
It seems that already there had risen between Portugal and
England that diplomatic friendship which has lasted to the pre
sent day. A commerce of wine for wool was established between
the ports of the Tagus and the Thames; and with this commerce
the pirates of Ceuta continually interfered. Ceuta was one of
the pillars of Hercules: it sat opposite Gibraltar, and
commanded the straits. The King of Portugal prepared a fleet;
great war-galleys were built having batteries of mangonels or
huge crossbows, with winding gear, stationed in the bow; great
beams, like battering rams; swung aloft; and jars of quicklime
and soft soap to fling in the faces of the enemy. The fleet
sailed forth, rustling with flags, beating drums, and, blowing
Saracen horns; the passage to Ceuta was happily made; the
troops were landed, and the pirate city taken by assault.
Among those who distinguished themselves in this exploit was
the Prince Henry, a younger son of the king. He was not only a
brave knight, but also a distinguished scholar; his mind had
been enriched by a study of the works of Cicero, Seneca, and
Pliny, and by the Latin translations of the Greek geographers.
He now stepped on that mysterious continent which had been
closed to Christians for several hundred years. He questioned
the prisoners respecting the interior. They described the rich
and learned cities of Morocco: the Atlas mountains, shining
with snow and the sandy desert on their southern side. It was
there the ancients had supposed all life came to an end. But
now the Prince received the astounding intelligence that beyond
the Sahara was a land inhabited entirely by negroes; covered
with fields of corn and cotton watered by majestic rivers, on
the banks of which rose cities as large as Morocco, or Lisbon,
or Seville. In that country were gold mines of prodigious
wealth; it was also a granary of slaves. By land it could be
reached in a week from Morocco by a courier mounted on the
swift dromedary of the desert, which halted not by day or
night. There were regular caravans or camel-fleets, which
passed to and fro at certain seasons of the year. The Black
Country, as they called it, could also be reached by sea. If
ships sailed along the desert shore towards the south, they
would arrive at the mouths of wide rivers, which flowed down
from the gold-bearing hills.
This conversation decided Prince Henryβs career. To discover
this new world beyond the desert became the object of his life.
He was Grand Master of the Order of Christ, and had ample
revenues at his disposal and he considered himself justified in
expending them on this enterprise which would result in the
conversion of many thousand pagans to the Christian faith. He
retired to a castle near Cape St. Vincent, where
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