Immobility of the African Race--Its Hostility to Civilization--Its Pernicious Influence on the Politics of the Western Khalifate--Character of Suleyman--Invasion of Ali--He ascends the Throne--His Tyranny--He is assassinated--Abd-al-Rahman IV. succeeds Him--Yahya--Abd-al-Rahman V.--Mohammed--Hischem III.--Organization of the Council of State--Ibn-Djahwar, the Minister--His Talents and Power--Abul-Kasim-Mohammed, Kadi of Seville--Berber Conspiracy--The Impostor Khalaf is raised to the Throne as Hischem II.--Almeria--The Vizier Ibn-Abbas--Influence of the Jews at Granada--The Rabbi Samuel--Rivalry of Granada and Almeria--Abu-al-Fotuh--Motadhid ascends the Throne of Seville--His Cruel and Dissolute Character--His Collection of Skulls--Badis, King of Granada---Increasing Power of Castile--Valencia and Malaga--Atrocities of the Christians at Barbastro. From the earliest period mentioned in history, as has been remarked in a previous chapter, the spirit of the various tribes inhabiting the great continent of Africa has been constantly hostile to human progress. The ignorance, cruelty, and depravity of those nations whose territory did not touch the shores of the Mediterranean have always seemed impregnable to the beneficent and ordinarily irresistible influences of civilization. It is true that the northern extremity of that continent has been the seat of powerful empires, of great cities, of rich and enterprising centres of commercial activity. But this superior culture, confined to a narrow strip whose southern boundary was only a few days’ journey from the coast, was without exception exotic. The origin of the Egyptians, lost in the depths of a remote and unknown antiquity, has never been conclusively established. But it is almost certain that it was not African. The ethnical peculiarities which formerly distinguished, and are still noticeable in, the inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile had nothing in common with the physical and mental characteristics of surrounding nations. The rigid seclusion that, as a principle of national policy, prevailed in ancient Egypt from time immemorial sufficiently precludes the existence of extraneous influence. Subsequently, under the enlightened empire of the Ptolemies, while the form of government and the religious ceremonial of ancient times were preserved, the traditions of the schools and the social atmosphere which surrounded the splendid court of Alexandria were entirely Grecian. Carthage was a Phœnician colony. The instincts of its citizens, their energy, their duplicity, their luxury, their vices, their political organization, their maritime enterprise, their architecture, and their gods were Tyrian, and consequently Asiatic. The prosperity enjoyed by the Latin colonies established after the Punic Wars, when the countries situated on the southern shores of the Mediterranean shared with Egypt the burden of providing sustenance for