intelligence was established with these Semitic conquerors of a newer faith, and thanks to the constant intercourse between the Jews of Africa and those of Spain, Musa and Tarik were fully supplied with the most minute particulars of the Visigothic State. The period of the Khalifate was the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. The numbers of the race, depleted by persecution, were increased by the advent of upwards of twelve thousand Yemenite Jews, invited by the Moorish conquerors. Never since the days of Solomon had the Children of Israel known such peace and prosperity. Possessed already of a remarkably high degree of culture, they communicated their knowledge to the Arabs, who showed themselves generous patrons and protectors. Nor were the new rulers of Spain slow to perceive the advantages to be derived from the subject race’s commercial enterprise and talent for affairs. Though the versatility of the Jew at this time was one of his most remarkable characteristics, it was above all as a physician that he was esteemed by Muslims and Christians alike. In this capacity he became the indispensable and most trusted companion of sovereigns and prelates, and penetrated into the very arcana of power. From Court physician to Minister the transition in those days of personal government was easy, and we find Hasdai ben Isaac Ibn Shaprut occupying both positions under Abd-ur-Rahman I. As far as was consistent with their religious beliefs, the Jews of Toledo assimilated themselves with the conquerors. The minutes of the congregation were kept in Arabic down to the end of the thirteenth century, and that language was sedulously cultivated and almost exclusively employed by the brilliant succession of Jewish theologians and humanists who made the city a centre of literary and scholastic activity. We have it on the authority of Mr. S. P. Scott that, under the Muslim dominion, the Jews were allowed to elect a king, always a prince of the House of Judah, “who, while not openly invested with the insignia of royalty, received the homage and tribute of his subjects.” It is illustrative of the respect of the race for learning that the erudite Rabbi Moses, when recognised exposed as a slave at Cordoba, was immediately elected to this dubious royalty.