hey were obliged to retire again to Spain.
There successive viceroys and emirs ruled as the representatives of
the Khalifs at Damascus until the fall of the Omaiyide dynasty in the
East, A.D. 750.

But even after that Spain remained for many years under Arab
domination. Anarchy almost prevailed from A.D. 750 to 755, but in that
year the Arabs of Spain, weary of disorder, elected as their ruler
Abd-ar-Rahman, grandson of the Khalif Hashim, tenth prince of the
Omaiyide dynasty. At the time of his election, Abd-ar-Rahman was a
wanderer in the desert, pursued by his enemies, when a deputation from
Andalusia sought him out and offered him the Khalifate of Spain. It
was gladly accepted. He landed there in September, A.D. 755, was
universally welcomed, and founded at Cordova the Western Omaiyide
Khalifate, which lasted up to A.D. 1031, under sixteen rulers, with
certain interruptions during the reign of the last seven of them. On
the extinction of the Khalifate, Spain was broken up into various
petty kingdoms under kings and kinglets belonging to different Arab
tribes and families. This continued from A.D. 1032 to 1092, when the
Almoravides established themselves from A.D. 1092 to 1147, and were
followed by the Almohades, who reigned up to A.D. 1232.

After this Cordova, Seville, and other places were taken by Ferdinand
III. of Leon and Castile, between A.D. 1236 and 1248. On the fall of
Cordova the Muhammadan power declined with great rapidity; and, though
the celebrated kingdom of Granada was established by the Moors in A.D.
1232, it was their last refuge from the rising power of the
Christians. Some twenty-one princes reigned there till A.D. 1492, when
Granada itself was taken, and this last Muhammadan dynasty was driven
out of Spain by Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabella of Castile. Thus
ended the empire of the Arabs and the Moors in Spain, which had lasted
nearly eight hundred years.

The Spanish Arabs were extremely fond of learning. Indeed, it is due
to them to a very great extent that literature and science were kept
afloat in Europe during the ages that followed the invasion of the
Barbarians, as the Huns, Vandals, Goths, and Visigoths were generally
called. That interval known as the 'Dark Ages' was kept alight by the
Arabs alone. Abd-ar-Rahman II. established a library at Cordova during
his reign, A.D. 822-852. Hakim II., the successor of Abd-ar-Rahman
III., loved the sciences, founded the University of Cordova, an