History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 2 (of 3)Scott, S. P. (Samuel Parsons)
Islamic
History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Scott, S. P. (Samuel Parsons)
Arabs -- Europe -- History; Islamic civilization; Muslims -- Spain -- History; Spain -- History -- 711-1516
The Balearic Isles, captured in 1115 by Raymond Berenger III., Count
of Barcelona, and afterwards occupied by the surviving leaders
of the Almoravide party, now for the first time in their history
experienced the effects of Berber invasion. Majorca was devastated by
the Mauritanian cavalry, its cities were burnt, and its population
enslaved. Minorca and Ivica, profiting by this example, hastened
to solicit the clemency of their sovereign, and the heads of the
Almoravide chieftains, carefully embalmed with camphor and enclosed in
an elegant casket, were sent to Morocco as conclusive evidence that
nothing more was to be feared from a crushed and disorganized faction.
The propitious beginning of a reign fated to end in ruin and disgrace
encouraged the youthful Sultan to undertake enterprises of far greater
importance. The truce unwisely conceded by Yakub to the entreaties of
the King of Castile had not yet expired. But the deliberate violation
of a treaty contracted with an infidel was considered an offence
scarcely worthy of absolution by the Christian casuists of that
age. Present expediency alone regulated the observation of public
engagements. The prince, who, to his own disadvantage, honorably
fulfilled the terms of a contract with a Moslem, would have been
rewarded with the derision of his subjects and the anathemas of the
clergy. Long anterior to the time of Mendoza and Ximenes, who made
the broadest application of that infamous principle, its adoption had
been approved by both the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Christian
Spain, and faith was kept with an unbeliever or a heretic only so long
as it suited the convenience of the other contracting party.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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