And fasten their gowns with scorpions."

"Let not thyself fall victim to a widow,
Even if her cheeks are bouquets,
For though you are the best of husbands,
She will repeat ceaselessly, 'God, be merciful to the dead.'"

"No river on the mountains,
No warm nights in the winter,
No women doing kind actions,
No generous-hearted enemies."

The battle of the Guadalete, where sank the Visigoth empire, delivered
Spain almost defenceless to the Arab and Berber conquest. There developed
then a civilization and an intellectual culture far superior to those of
the barbarous Christian refugees in the Asturias, where they led a rude and
coarse life which but seasoned them for future struggles. Of their literary
monuments, there remain to us but mediocre Latin chronicles. The court of
the Omayades at Cordova saw a literature blossom which did not disappear
even after the fall of the Khalifate. On the contrary, it seemed to regain
a new vigor in the small states which surged up about the Iberian
Peninsula. The Christians, under the domination of the Mussulmans, allowed
themselves to be seduced by the Arabian literature. "They loved to read
their poems and romances. They went to great expense and built immense
libraries. They scarcely knew how to express themselves in Latin, but when
it was necessary to write in Arabic, they found crowds of people who
understood that language, wrote it with the greatest elegance, and composed
poems even preferable in point of view to the art of the Arab poets
themselves."[4]

[4] Dozy. Histoire des Mussulmans de l'Espagne, pp. 103-166. Leyden, 1861,
in 12mo, 4to.

In spite of the complaints of fanatics like Euloge and Alvaro, the literary
history of that time was filled with Christian names, either those of
Spanish who had remained faithful to the ancient faith, or renegades, or
children of renegades. By the side of the Arab names, like that of the
Bishop Arib ben Said of Cordova, are found those of Ibn Guzman (Son of
Guzman), Ibn el Goutya (son of Gothe), Ibn Loyon (son of Leon), Ibn er
Roumaye (son of the Greek), Ibn Konbaret (son of Comparatus), Ibn
Baschkoual (son of Paschal), and all have left a name among letters.

One magnificent period in literature unfolded itself in the eleventh
century A.D., in the little courts of Seville, of Murcie, of Malaga,
Valence, Toledo, and Badajos. The kings, like El Nis Sasim, El Mo'hadhid,
El Mishamed, Hbn Razin, ran