ed with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood,
imbibed, in a few generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. The
first conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs,
were attended by a numerous train of civil and military followers, who
preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home: the private and public
interest was promoted by the establishment of faithful colonies; and the
cities of Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of their
Eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley bands of Tarik
and Musa asserted, by the name of Spaniards, their original claim
of conquest; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their
establishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was
planted at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or
Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The
natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round Toledo and the inland
country, and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand
horsemen of Syria and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble of
the Arabian tribes. [190] A spirit of emulation, sometimes beneficial,
more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions.
Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to
the caliph: the seas, the rivers, and the harbors, the inhabitants and
cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.
[191] In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved
by the agriculture, [192] the manufactures, and the commerce, of
an industrious people; and the effects of their diligence have been
magnified by the idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who
reigned in Spain solicited the support of the Christians; and in
his edict of peace and protection, he contents himself with a modest
imposition of ten thousand ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds of
silver, ten thousand horses, as many mules, one thousand cuirasses, with
an equal number of helmets and lances. [193] The most powerful of his
successors derived from the same kingdom the annual tribute of twelve
millions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of gold, about six
millions of sterling money; [194] a sum which, in the tenth century,
most probably surpassed the united revenues of the Christians monarchs.
His royal seat of Cordova contained six hundred moschs, nine hundred
baths, and two hundred thousand houses; he gave