Christianity and Islam in Spain | Page 7

disaffected
political party under the sons of the late king Witiza,[5] and an
archbishop Oppas, who afterwards apostatized; while the rapid
subjugation of the whole country was aided and assured by the hosts of
ill-used slaves who flocked to the Saracen standards, and by the Jews[6]
who hailed the Arabs as fellow-Shemites and deliverers from the hated
yoke of the uncircumcised Goths.
[1] Al Makkari, vol. i. p. 297. (De Gayangos' translation).
[2] "Chron. Sil.," sec. 17, "recesserat ab Hispania manus Domini ob
inveteratam regum malitiam." See above, p. 7, note 2.
[3] Arianism lingered on till the middle of the eighth century at least,
since Rodrigo of Toledo, iii., sec. 3, says of Alfonso I., that he
"extirpavit haeresin Arianam."
[4] For Julian, or, more correctly, Ilyan, see De Gayangos' note to Al
Makkari, i. p. 537, etc.

[5] Called Ghittishah by the Arabs. For the Witizan party see "Sebast.
Salan," sec. 7; "Chron. Sil.," sec. 15. The daughter of Witiza married a
noble Arab. The descendants of the King, under the name Witizani,
were known in Spain till the end of the eighth century at least. See
Letter of Beatus and Etherius to Elipandus, sec. 61; "Multi hodie ab
ipso rege sumunt nomen Witizani, etiam pauperes." See also Al
Makkari, ii. 14.
[6] The Jews garrisoned the taken towns (Al Makkari, i. pp. 280, 282,
and De Gayangos' note, p. 531). Even as late as 852 we find the Jews
betraying Barcelona to the Moors, who slew nearly all the Christians.
Yet in spite of all these disadvantages the Goths made a brave stand--as
brave, indeed, as our Saxon forefathers against the Normans. The first
decisive battle in the South[1] lasted, as some writers have declared, six
whole days, and the Arabs were at one time on the point of being
driven into the sea. This is apparent from Tarik's address to his soldiers
in the heat of battle: "Moslems, conquerors of Africa, whither would
you fly? The sea is behind you, and the foe in front. There is no help
for you save in your own right hands[2] and the favour of God." Nor
must we lay any stress on the disparity of forces on either side,
amounting to five to one, for a large proportion of Roderic's army was
disaffected. It is probable that only the Goths made a determined stand;
and even after such a crushing defeat as they received at Guadalete, and
after the loss of their king, the Gothic nobles still offered a stubborn
resistance in Merida, Cordova, and elsewhere.[3] One of them,
Theodomir, after defending himself manfully in Murcia for some time,
at last by his valour and address contrived to secure for himself, and
even to hand down to his successor Athanagild, a semi-independent
rule over that part of Spain.
[1] Generally called the battle of Guadalete (Wada Lek, see De
Gayangos on Al Makk. i. pp. 524, 527), fought either near Xeres or
Medina Sidonia.
[2] "Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem." See Al Makk. i. p. 271;
Conde i. p. 57 (Bohn's Translation).

[3] We must not forget also that the mild and politic conduct of the
Saracens towards the towns that surrendered, even after resistance,
marvellously facilitated their conquest.
But the great proof that the Goths had not lost all their ancient
hardihood and nobleness, is afforded by the fact that, when they had
been driven into the mountains of the North and West, they seem to
have begun at once to organize a fresh resistance against the invaders.
The thirty[1] wretched barbarians, whom the Arabs thought it
unnecessary to pursue into their native fastnesses, soon showed that
they had power to sting; and the handful of patriots, who in the cave of
Covadonga gathered round Pelayo, a scion of the old Gothic line, soon
swelled into an army, and the army into a nation. Within six years of
the death of Roderic had begun that onward march of the new Spanish
monarchy, which, with the exception of a disastrous twenty-five years
at the close of the tenth century, was not destined to retrograde,
scarcely even to halt, until it had regained every foot of ground that had
once belonged to the Gothic kings.
Let us turn for a moment to the antecedents of the Arab invaders.
History affords no parallel, whether from a religious or political point
of view, to the sudden rise of Mohammedanism and the wonderful
conquests which it made. "The electric spark[2] had indeed fallen on
what seemed black unnoticeable sand, and lo the sand proved explosive
powder and blazed heaven-high from Delhi to Granada!" Mohammed
began his preaching in 609, and confined himself to persuasion till 622,
the year of the Flight from Mecca. After this a change seems to have
come over his conduct,