The cities of Arabian Spain became the resort of Christian artisans,
to instruct themselves in the useful arts. The universities of Toledo,
Cordova, Seville, and Granada, were sought by the pale student from
other lands to acquaint himself with the sciences of the Arabs, and
the treasured lore of antiquity; the lovers of the gay science,
resorted to Cordova and Granada, to imbibe the poetry and music of the
East; and the steel-clad warriors of the North hastened thither to
accomplish themselves in the graceful exercises and courteous usages
of chivalry.
If the Moslem monuments in Spain, if the Mosque of Cordova, the
Alcazar of Seville, and the Alhambra of Granada, still bear
inscriptions fondly boasting of the power and permanency of their
dominion; can the boast be derided as arrogant and vain? Generation
after generation, century after century, passed away, and still they
maintained possession of the land. A period elapsed longer than that
which has passed since England was subjugated by the Norman Conqueror,
and the descendants of Musa and Taric might as little anticipate being
driven into exile across the same straits, traversed by their
triumphant ancestors, as the descendants of Rollo and William, and
their veteran peers, may dream of being driven back to the shores of
Normandy.
With all this, however, the Moslem empire in Spain was but a
brilliant exotic, that took no permanent root in the soil it
embellished.
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