Yahya for his exalted position soon became apparent. He alienated the Berbers by refusing to restore the ancient privileges of plunder and extortion to which they considered themselves entitled by the right of conquest. Proud of his descent from the family of the Prophet, he constantly maintained a haughty demeanor towards the nobility, and disdained all intercourse with the people, whom he affected to regard as slaves. Notwithstanding this offensive assumption of superiority, he chose for his intimate associates men without standing or character, whose principal recommendation was their indulgence of his whims and their subserviency to his vices. The eminent qualifications for government derived from intellectual acquirements and military experience received no consideration at the hands of this vain and ignorant successor of the khalifs. Discontent soon spread throughout the court and the city. The Berbers importunately demanded a division of the public treasure. The slave-guards of Kasim, apprehensive for their safety, sought the presence and the forgiveness of their former monarch at Seville. Officers, who had signalized their abilities in the councils and the campaigns of a generation, abandoned with disgust the cares of government to the incompetent and low-born sycophants who swarmed around the throne. In no mosque of Andalusia was the khotba repeated in the name of Yahya; that expressive mark of sovereignty was still enjoyed by Kasim, or by some representative of the uncertain and fast-vanishing dignity of the royal race of the Ommeyades. Thus restricted to the walls of Cordova, whose population regarded his conduct with unconcealed disfavor, Yahya soon began to appreciate the threatening character of the perils that environed him. Convinced of his inability to defend himself in case of attack, he retired to Malaga, accompanied by a retinue little superior in numbers to that with which his uncle had abandoned his capital but a few months before.