=7. The Almohade Dynasty of Kaliphs.=――The second cause of the change in Jewish fortunes was the result of a change in the Mahomedan succession to the Kaliphate. The Ommeyade kaliphs were enlightened, just, and liberal rulers, enthusiastic in their belief, and therefore tolerant in upholding it. The Almohade dynasty, which came into power about 1150, introduced a quite different state of things. The Almohades were a sect of fanatic warriors. They had already conquered Barbary, and it was an evil day for Jews and Christians both, when, flushed with their barbarian successes, they succeeded in governing Spain. One of the earliest edicts of Abdel-Mumen, the founder of this line of Mahomedan sovereigns, was directed to the conversion of his subjects. Very soon, Islam or exile was the only choice given to Jews or to Christians. Some took upon them the disguise of the alien faith and held their own in secret, but many more chose the harder and nobler course of exile, preferring ‘dreary hearths to desert souls,’ Numbers of Jews left the country altogether, and joined their co-religionists in Egypt and in the Mediterranean islands. There were schools at this date in Egypt, uninterfered with by the tolerant Mahomedan sultans, whose seat of government was at Cairo. Of one very celebrated student, whose family sought refuge in that country from the Almohade persecution in Spain, we shall hear later.[19] CHAPTER XXI. JEWS IN SPAIN (_continued_). (1150‒1492.)