Moussa, whom the success of Tarik had greatly exasperated, wishing to remove a lieutenant whose achievements eclipsed his own, preferred an accusation against him to the caliph. Valid recalled them both, but refused to adjudge their difference, and suffered them to die at court from chagrin at seeing themselves forgotten. Abdelazis, the husband of Egilona, became governor of Spain A.D. 718, Heg. 100, but did not long survive his elevation. Alahor, who succeeded him, carried his arms into Gaul, subdued the Warbonnais, and was preparing to push his conquests still farther, when he learned that Pelagius, a prince of the blood-royal of the Visigoths, had taken refuge in the mountains of Asturia with a handful of devoted followers; that with them he dared to brave the conquerors of Spain, and had formed the bold design of {37} attempting to rid himself of their yoke. Alahor sent some troops against him. Pelagius, intrenched with his little army in the mountain gorges, twice gave battle to the Mussulmans, seized upon several castles, and, reanimating the spirits of the Christians, whose courage had been almost extinguished by so long a succession of reverses, taught the astonished Spaniards that the Moors were not invincible. The insurrection of Pelagius occasioned the recall of Alahor by the Caliph Omar II. Elzemah, his successor, was of opinion that the most certain means of repressing revolts among a people is to render them prosperous and contented. He therefore devoted himself to the wise and humane government of Spain; to the regulation of imposts, until then quite arbitrary; and to quieting the discontents of the soldiery, and establishing their pay at a fixed rate. A lover of the fine arts, which the Arabs began from that time to cultivate, Elzemah embellished Cordova, which was his capital, and attracted thither the _savans_ of the age. He was himself the author of a book containing a description of the cities, rivers, provinces, and ports of Spain, of the metals, mines, and quarries it {38} possesses; and, in short, of almost every object of interest either in science or government. But little disturbed by the insurrectionary movements of Pelagius, whose power was confined to the possession of some inaccessible mountain fortresses, Elzemah did not attempt to force him from his strongholds, but, impelled by the ardent desire of extending the Moorish conquests into France, with which the governors of Spain were ever inflamed, he passed the Pyrenees, and perished in a battle fought against Eudes, duke of Aquitania, A.D. 722, Heg. 104. During the remainder of the Caliphate of Yezid II.,[11] several governors followed each other in rapid succession after the death of Elzemah.[12] None of their actions merit recital, but, during this period, the brave Pelagius aggrandized his petty state, advancing into the mountains of Leon, and, in addition, making himself master of several towns.