is the very essence of Mohammed's teaching to
regard rather as the goods and chattels than as the equals of man; and
also in the introduction among the Moslems of a more Christian
conception of the sacred word--Love.

Consequently we become accustomed to the strange spectacle--strange
among a Mohammedan people--of women making a mark in the society of men,
and being regarded as intellectually and socially their equals. Thus we
hear of an Arabian Sappho, Muatammud ibn Abbad Volada, daughter of
Almustakfi Billah;[1] of Aysha, daughter of Ahmad of Cordova--"the
purest, loveliest, and most learned maiden of her day;"[2] of Mozna, the
slave and private secretary of Abdurrahman III.[3]

Again, contrary to the invariable practice elsewhere, women were
admitted into the mosques in Spain. This was forbidden by Mohammedan
law,[4] the women being obliged to perform their devotions at home;
"if," says Sale, "they visit the mosques, it must be when the men are
not there; for the Moslems are of opinion that their presence inspires a
different kind of devotion from that which is requisite in a place
dedicated to the service of God." Sale also quotes from the letter of a
Moor, censuring the Roman Catholic manner of performing the mass, for
the reason, among others, that women were there. If the evidence of
ballads be accepted, we shall find the Moorish ladies appearing at
festivities and dances.[5] At tournaments they looked on, their bright
smiles heartening the knights on to do brave deeds, and their fair hands
giving the successful champion the meed of victorious valour.[6] Their
position, in fact, as Prescott remarks, became assimilated to that of
Christian ladies.

[1] Murphy, "Hist. of Moh. Empire in Spain," p. 232.

[2] Conde, i. p. 457.

[3] For others see Conde, i. 483, 484.

[4] Sale, Introd., Koran, p. 84. (Chandos Classics.)

[5] Prescott, "Ferd. and Isab.," p. 158.

[6] See a picture in the Alhambra, given in Murphy's "Moorish
Antiquities of Spain," Lockhart, Pref., p. 13; and the ballad
called "The Bullfight of Ghazal," st. v. p. 109.

The effect of this improvement in the social position of women could not
fail to reflect itself in the conception of love among the Spanish
Arabs; and, accordingly, we find their gross sensuality undergoing a
process of refinement, as the following extract from Said ibn Djoudi,[1]
who wrote at the close of the ninth century, will shew. Addressing hi