reasure fiom Cordova to a fortified palace which
Al-mansur had built for his residence, not far from Az-zahra, and had
named, as if in mockery, Az-zahirah;--and the Hajib was at one time
obliged to quiet the murmurs of the populace, who doubted whether
their sovereign was still in existence, by leading him in procession
through the streets of the capital; "and the eyes of the people
feasted on what had been so long concealed from them."

[22] Some historians even speak of this period as the "dynasty
of the Amirites," from Al-mansur's father, Abn Amir.

But this daring usurpation was in part redeemed by qualities in the
usurper worthy of a king. Though the bigotry of Al-masur led him to
order the destruction of those volumes in the library of Al-hakem
which treated of philosophy and the abstruse sciences, on the ground
that such studies tended to irreligion, he was yet liberal to the
learned men who visited his court at Az-zahirah, where he resided in
royal splendour during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared
hinself to the people, by his generosity, his rigid justice, and the
strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers. But it
was on his fervent zeal for the cause of Islam, and his martial
exploits against the Christians, (whence his surname of _Al-mansur_,
or _the Victorious_, was derived,) that his fame and popularity
chiefly rested. The martial spirit of the Spanish Moslems appears,
from various anecdotes related by Al-Makkari, to have suffered great
deterioration from the progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but
the armies led by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery
tribes of Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or
Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their own
countrymen. With forces thus constituted, did Al-mansur, in whom once
more shone forth the spirit of the Arab conquerors of past times,
invade the Christian territories in each spring and autumn for
twenty-six successive years, carrying the Moslem arms in triumph even
to the shores of the "Green Sea," (Atlantic Ocean,) and into regions
which Tarik and Musa had never reached. Astorga and Leon, in spite of
the efforts of Bermudo II. to save his capital, were taken and razed
to the ground in 983. Barcelona only escaped the same fate in the
following year by submission and tribute; but the crowning glory of
Al-mansur's achievements in the _al-jahid_ or holy war, was the