Again, contrary to the invariable practice elsewhere, women were admitted into the mosques in Spain. This was forbidden by Mohammedan law,[4] the women being obliged to perform their devotions at home; "if," says Sale, "they visit the mosques, it must be when the men are not there; for the Moslems are of opinion that their presence inspires a different kind of devotion from that which is requisite in a place dedicated to the service of God." Sale also quotes from the letter of a Moor, censuring the Roman Catholic manner of performing the mass, for the reason, among others, that women were there. If the evidence of ballads be accepted, we shall find the Moorish ladies appearing at festivities and dances.[5] At tournaments they looked on, their bright smiles heartening the knights on to do brave deeds, and their fair hands giving the successful champion the meed of victorious valour.[6] Their position, in fact, as Prescott remarks, became assimilated to that of Christian ladies. [1] Murphy, "Hist. of Moh. Empire in Spain," p. 232. [2] Conde, i. p. 457. [3] For others see Conde, i. 483, 484. [4] Sale, Introd., Koran, p. 84. (Chandos Classics.) [5] Prescott, "Ferd. and Isab.," p. 158. [6] See a picture in the Alhambra, given in Murphy's "Moorish Antiquities of Spain," Lockhart, Pref., p. 13; and the ballad called "The Bullfight of Ghazal," st. v. p. 109. The effect of this improvement in the social position of women could not fail to reflect itself in the conception of love among the Spanish Arabs; and, accordingly, we find their gross sensuality undergoing a process of refinement, as the following extract from Said ibn Djoudi,[1] who wrote at the close of the ninth century, will shew. Addressing his ideal mistress, Djehama, he says:-- "O thou, to whom my prayers are given, Compassionate and gentle be To my poor soul, so roughly driven, To fly from me to thee. "I call thy name, my vows outpouring, I see thine eyes with tear-drops shine: No monk, his imaged saint adoring, Knows rapture like to mine!" Of these words Dozy[2] says:--"They might be those of a Provençal troubadour. They breathe the delicateness of Christian chivalry." This Christianising of the feeling of love is even more clearly seen in a passage from a treatise on Love by Ali ibn Hazm, who was prime minister to Abdurrahman V. (Dec. 1023-Mar. 1024). He calls Love[3] a mixture of moral affection, delicate gallantry, enthusiasm, and a calm modest beauty, full of sweet dignity. Being the great grandson of Christian parents, perhaps some of their inherited characteristics reappeared in him:--"Something pure, something delicate, something spiritual which was not Arab."[4] [1] Killed, 897. [2] II. 229. [3] Quoted by Dozy, iii. 350. [4] Dozy, 1.1. CHAPTER XI. INFLUENCE OF ISLAM ON CHRISTIANITY.