th a wretched pike.
It is easy to perceive that, when involved in the _melee_, and, above
all, during a route, vast numbers of them must have perished. This,
too, renders less incredible the seemingly extravagant accounts given
by historians of their losses in the field. They assert, for example,
that, at the battle of Toloza, the Christians killed two hundred
thousand Moors, while they lost themselves but fifteen hundred
soldiers. Even when these assertions are estimated at their true
value, it remains certain that the infidels sustained an immense loss;
and this important defeat, which is still celebrated yearly at Toledo
by a solemn fete, long deprived the kings of Morocco of all hope of
subjugating the Spaniards.

The victory of Toloza was followed by more fatal consequences to the
unfortunate Mohammed than to the Moors of Andalusia; for the {109}
latter retired to their cities, defended them by means of the remains
of the African army, and successfully resisted the Spanish princes, who
succeeded in taking but few of their strong places, and, speedily
dissolving their league, separated for their respective kingdoms. But
Mohammed, despised by his subjects after his defeat, and assailed by
the treachery of his nearest relations, lost all authority in Spain,
and beheld the principal Moors, whom he had now no power to control,
again forming little states, the independence of which they were
prepared to assert by force of arms.[7] The discomfited El Nazir
consequently returned to Africa, where he soon after died of chagrin.

With Mohammed the Green vanished the good fortune of the Almohades.
The princes of that house, who followed El Nazir in rapid succession,
purchased their royal prerogatives at the expense of continual
unhappiness and danger, and were finally driven from the throne. The
empire of Morocco was then divided, and three new dynasties were
established; that of Fez, of Tunis, and of Tremecen. These three
powerful and rival sovereignties greatly multiplied the {110}
conflicts, crimes, and atrocities, the narration of which alone
constitutes the history of Africa.

About this period some dissensions arose in Castile, which, together
with the part assumed by the King of Aragon in the war of the Albigense
in France, allowed the Moors time to breathe. The Moslems were still
masters of the kingdoms of Valencia, Murcia, Grenada, and Andalusia,
with part of Algarva and the Balearic Isles, which last, unti