[51] Abu Ismael was a native of Ispahan. He devoted himself to the service of the Seljuk Sultans of Persia, and enjoyed the confidence of Malec Shah, and his son and grandson, Mohammed and Massoud, by the last of whom he was raised to the dignity of vizier. Massoud, however, was not long in a condition to afford Abu Ismael any protection, for, being attacked by his brother Mahmoud, he was defeated, and driven from Mousel, and upon the fall of his master the vizier was seized and thrown into prison, and at length sentenced to be put to death. [52] It is unfortunate that both the philosopher and his opponents should have advanced the same argument in defense of themselves—namely, their own wisdom. The Arab philosophers were, amongst their kind, something like the _libertins_ of the seventeenth century in France. "Often," says Al Ghazali, "I have seen one read the Koran, assist at religious ceremonies and prayers, and praise religion aloud. When I asked him, 'If you consider prophetism as false, why do you pray!' he responded, 'It is an exercise of the body, a custom of the country, a method of having your life saved.' Yet he did not cease from drinking wine, and delivering himself to all sorts of abominations and impieties." [53] Seville was one of those small sovereignties into which Spain had been divided after the extinction of the house of Ommiah. It did not long retain its independence, and the only prince who ever presided over it as a separate kingdom seems to have been Mohammed ben Abad, the author of these verses. For thirty-three years he reigned over Seville and the neighboring districts with considerable reputation, but being attacked by Joseph, son to the Emperor of Morocco, at the head of a numerous army of Africans, was defeated, taken prisoner, and thrown into a dungeon, where he died in the year A.D. 1087. [54] This author was by birth an African; but having passed over to Spain, he was much patronized by Mohammed, Sultan of Seville. After the fall of his master, Ben Abad returned to Africa, and died at Tangier, A.D. 1087. [55] A wicked angel who is permitted to tempt mankind by teaching them magic; see the legend respecting him in the Koran. [56] The poet here alludes to the punishments denounced in the Koran against those who worship a plurality of Gods: "Their couch shall be in hell, and over them shall be coverings of fire." [57] Written to a lady upon her refusal of a present of melons, and her rejection of the addresses of an admirer.