The world: historical and actual . r more power thanit enjoyed in Spainunder the meritorious liter-ary works belong tothe Gothic was a season ofbarbarism and retro-gression. Slavery ex-isted in its worstforms and the landwas one dreary wasteof misery and crime,a vast moral and in-tellectual desert. The chapter onthe Saracen Empireserved as an intro-duction to the periodof Spanish historyupon which we nowenter. The Moorswith their Crescentand good Damas-cus blades, wereinvited to cross overand lend a helpinghand to one of thefactions in a civilwar which was rag-ing between th
The world: historical and actual . r more power thanit enjoyed in Spainunder the meritorious liter-ary works belong tothe Gothic was a season ofbarbarism and retro-gression. Slavery ex-isted in its worstforms and the landwas one dreary wasteof misery and crime,a vast moral and in-tellectual desert. The chapter onthe Saracen Empireserved as an intro-duction to the periodof Spanish historyupon which we nowenter. The Moorswith their Crescentand good Damas-cus blades, wereinvited to cross overand lend a helpinghand to one of thefactions in a civilwar which was rag-ing between theGoths over the crown, which was elective. Whenthey got there they proposed to stay. Their leader,Gebal-Tarikj had all the heroism of the best days ofIslam. Like Cortez at Vera Cruz, he burnt hisships, and thus compelled his soldiers to protectthemselves by the scimetar against the Goths (forhardly had they come over before the factionsunited to drive them back). A three-days battlewas fought which resulted in the complete victory. of the Moors. In a very short time the invadershad driven the Christians to the mountains andtaken possession of all the fertile plains and pros-perous cities of the Peninsula in the name of theProphet. Gebal-Tarik was soon joined by Musa, the Governor of North-ern Africa, as Emir,or representative ofthe Caliph at Da-mascus. During theOmmiad dynastySpain remained aprovince of the Sar-acen Empire; butwhen that dynastyfell and there wasdivision among thefaithful as to therightful leadershipof Islam, it becameindependent, underthe royal sway of adescendant of theold dynasty of theOmmiads. The Moors hadcrossed the Straitsof Gibraltar in April,710, and twenty-twoyears later CharlesMartel won the greatvictory which savedEurope north of thePyrenees from theinvasion, and madethat chain of moun-tains the boundaryline, in the West,for some seven cen-turies, between thetwo religions of modern times. Twenty-two yearslater the kingdom, in distinction from the dep
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectworldhistory, bookyea
