In truth the Spanish Moslems of that day were sadly wanting in zeal for their religion. "In those days," writes an Arab chronicler, "men of virtue and principle were rare among the people of Mohammed. The majority scrupled not to drink wine and to give themselves up to every kind of dissipation. The conquerors of Andalusia disputed about their slaves and singing girls, passing their time in debauchery and pleasures, wasting the treasure of the State on amusement, and oppressing the people with exactions and tributes that they might buy the friendship of the tyrant Alfonso with costly presents. So things went on among the quarrelsome Mussulman chiefs, until, the conquerors and the conquered alike prostrated and the kings and captains having lost their pristine worth, the warriors became cowards, the people vegetated in misery and dejection, the whole of society became corrupt, and the lifeless, soulless body of Islam was only a decaying carcase. The Moslems who did not bow beneath the yoke of Alfonso consented to pay him annual tributes, constituting themselves in this manner mere tax collectors for the Christian king on their own territories. Meanwhile the affairs of Islam were directed by Jews, who obtained the offices of wizir, hagib, and khatib, reserved in another age to the most illustrious of the citizens. The Christians devastated the beautiful land of Andalusia, and carried off captives and booty, burning villages and threatening the towns." In pursuance of his policy of conciliation, Mote'mid gave his daughter Zayda in marriage to Alfonso VI., her dowry being all the towns Mut'adid had conquered in New Castile. Lucas of Tuy says the damsel was taken "quasi pro uxore ut præmissam est." But this ambiguous union did not avert a serious rupture between the sovereigns a year or two later. When the Castilian king sent two ambassadors to Seville to collect his tribute, one of them, a Jew, conducted himself so haughtily that the exasperated Moslems stabbed him to death, letting the Christians escape without serious injury. This outrage meant war. Mote'mid cast about him for an ally. No help was to be found in Spain, and with inward misgivings, no doubt, the Abbadite amir called on the Almoravides of Africa to uphold the cause of Islam. Warned of the danger of this course, Mote'mid is said to have replied, "Better be a camel driver in the African desert than a swineherd in Castile." The Almoravides came and routed the Christians. They returned to Africa, and then came again, this time reducing all the petty Mussulman States beneath their sway. In 1091 Ishbiliyah became a mere provincial centre, the seat of a Berber governor. Mote'mid was sent in chains to Africa, where he died four years later.