of his empire. The character of the man may be gathered from the circumstance that, though he was devotedly fond of hunting, yet when he was told by carping critics that the magnificent bridge which he built at Cordova was only created in the interests of his favourite pastime, he vowed, and kept to his vow, that he would never cross it. After a peaceful reign, the great prince passed away in all the odour of sanctity in A.D. 796.

The new Sultan, by name Hakam, was a lighthearted, merry-souled young cavalier, taking life easy and extracting as much enjoyment therefrom as was in his power. Himself indifferent to religion, the religious devotees of the nation and students of Islaın again and again stirred up the populace to strife. The rebellion was quenched, but the plague of fanaticism subdued in one place broke out in another. These events carry the narrative to A.D. 806, when the massacre of the nobles of Toledo, who rose in revolt and were killed to a man, kept religious ardour within bounds. The spirit of sedition, however, was not dead, and after an interval of seven years a serious outbreak occurred, directed in some measure against Hakam, who would not pretend to an asceticism which he did not feel, but principally aimed against his body-guard of negroes, who not understanding and being unable to speak Arabic, maintained, of course, an enforced silence, which acquired for them their nickname of "Mutes." A casual street disturbance gave the signal for the rush of a motley but inflamed crowd to the palace of the Sultan. The occasion was alarming, but nothing daunted, the crafty sovereign despatched a force of cavalry to a suburb

of the city, which they set in flames. Thereupon the people rushed in terror to save their homes and families from destruction, but met an army ready to attack them in the front, while troops in the rear added to their discomfiture: the terrible "Mutes" cut them down by hundreds, and the citadel reeked with massacre. The victory was not, however, pressed home, but no less than twenty-five thousand of his subjects had to seek in exile a security which could not be possible for them after they had cast in their lot with rebellion.

Sultan Hakam died A.D. 822 after a troublous reign of twenty-six years, and left the kingdom in comparative tranquillity to his son Abdur Rahman II. The new monarch at once set himself to beautify Cordova in every direction, till at length in magnificence and splendour it rivalled the great city of Baghdad. For no less than thirty years he devoted himself to a life of luxury and pleasure; but, amidst all his gaieties, he had to encounter trouble in a direction where it might least have been expected. Singular as it may seem a spirit of martyrdom rose up amidst the Christian communities throughout the empire, and young men and maidens, old men and children, vied with one another to die the death of the righteous. The decease of the easy-going Abdur Rahman in A.D. 852, and the accession of his austere and bigoted son Muhammad, led to severe measures; however, it was not till the execution of the Monk Eulogius in A.D. 859, that the movement faded into oblivion, and the Christian martyrs ceased to be a danger to the State.

On the death of Muhammad in A.D. 886, his son Mundhir reigned for two years with energy and rigour, but his assassination in A.D. 888 led to the accession of his brother Abdullah, who had instigated the murder. During the period of twenty-four years that this prince sat on the throne, lawlessness and intrigue stalked unchecked throughout the land, and anarchy and desolation overtook every province of the empire. However, the new Sultan Abdur Rahman III., who succeeded in A.D. 912, was a man of very different calibre from his grandfather Abdullah. Young, energetic, and popular, he let it be understood at the commencement of his reign that there would be no dallying with rebellion, and no trifling with lawlessness. Nevertheless, despite all his vigorous efforts, which were in the long run invariably successful, no less than eighteen years elapsed before the country was restored to a condition of peace and tranquillity.

The Sultan, however, had to contend with most vigorous opposition on the part of the Christians in the south of Spain, who at one time (A.D. 939) became so powerful as to inflict a signal defeat upon the Moorish troops, of whom upwards of 50,000 were said to have been left slain upon the field of battle. Still Abdur Rahman retrieved his position, and at his death in A.D. 961 he left his kingdom in the highest state of prosperity. Cordova, the capital of the empire, was indeed one of the finest cities of the world. To quote the quaint language of an Arab writer, "Cordova is the Bride of Andalusia. To her belong all the beauty and the ornaments that delight the eye or dazzle the sight. Her long line of Sultans form her crown of glory; her necklace is strung with the pearls which her poets have gathered from the ocean of language; her dress is of the banners of