In 1130 Abd-al-Mumin had become leader of the rising power of the Almohads or Unitarians, and ten years later had begun a career of conquest, defeating the Almoravids in 1144. A year later his armies invaded Spain, and in the five years that followed he reduced all Spain to his control.
Torn by strife, Spain had existed under a variety of rulers, then came a handsome youth of twenty-one, Abd-al-Rahman III, and in a few short years he defeated his enemies both Christian and Moslem and welded Moorish Spain into one empire, building Córdoba into the greatest center of intellectual activity in the western world.
Tolerant to all creeds, especially Christians and Jews, known as People of the Book because they, too, followed the Old Testament, Abd-al-Rahman welcomed scholars from everywhere.
Moslem fleets commanded the Mediterranean; Moslem armies were victorious in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia. Moslem rulers controlled lands from far south of the Indus to past Samarkand, from the Atlantic coasts of Africa to the deepest reaches of the Sahara.
Later, when al-Hakam became caliph in Córdoba, there came to power both a scholar and a lover of books. More inclined to a life of study than to rule, he resigned many of his powers to a prime minister, a slave named Giafar-al-Asklabi.
From all corners of the world al-Hakam gathered books by the greatest of scholars. His agents ransacked the libraries and book marts of Baghdad, Samarkand, Damascus, Tashkent, Bokhara, Cairo, Constantinople, and Alexandria for books. Those which could not be bought were copied. He had been known to pay a thousand pieces of gold for a single manuscript.
At Seville, Toledo, and Córdoba he gathered scholars to translate these books into Arabic and Latin. The books of Rome and Carthage … John assured me Carthage had the greatest libraries of the ancient world and vast collections of records from her commercial colonies established in many lands.
Al-Hakam passed on, but the library remained. There were, John assured me, seventy public libraries in Córdoba to say nothing of the great libraries in private homes. The love of learning was of first importance, the poet and scholar ranked with the general and the statesman. Nor were these latter respected unless they, too, were poets and scholars.
Yet Abd-al-Mumin was a savage warrior who suspected all books but the Koran. “He destroyed the Idol of Cadiz,” John said. “You may have seen the ruins in the harbor.”
No man knew the origin of the huge figure. Built upon a series of columns one hundred and eighty feet high, the platform had been surmounted by a gigantic figure of a man, done in bronze. The right arm of the figure stretched toward the Straits of Gibraltar, and held a key. The entire statue was plated with gold and could be seen at a great distance by all ships approaching Cadiz from the open Atlantic.
Of unknown antiquity, the Idol of Cadiz, as it was known to the Arabs, may have been of Phoenician origin. It was said that Cadiz was founded by them in 1100 B.C. But what of the ancient Iberians who preceded them? Despite the hatred of orthodox Moslems for all idols—the Koran forbade representation of the human figure—the huge statue had survived nearly five hundred years of Moslem control. The Romans and the Goths had left it untouched, even though it was believed to be of solid gold, and the Vikings had tended to avoid the city fearful of the power of the colossal image. Then, in 1145 it was destroyed by Abd-al-Mumin. It was discovered the idol was of bronze, and not gold.
“Who could have built it?” I wondered.
“No man knows,” John assured me, “only that it was very ancient. Some have said the Phoenicians built it, but they came for commerce and had no reason to expend enormous sums in a town like any other coastal village.
“Others believe it was built by the ancient Iberians who are said to have had a great civilization and fine literature.
“The figure held a key … to what? Its hand stretched out toward the empty sea … toward what? Someday divers may go down and find some clue near the base of the figure. Until then we shall not know.”
My thoughts, I knew, would be forever haunted by the mystery of the colossal figure, an image of what? Reaching out toward what mystery? Who built it? When? Why? What lock awaited that gigantic key?
“Are there records,” I asked, “of wars and battles? I wish to find knowledge of my father’s death—if he is dead.”
“Recorded? I doubt it. He was a corsair, and there have been many such. Many die whose valor is forever unknown.”
The next day, traveling alone, I crossed the ancient stone bridge over the Guadalquivir, a bridge built by Romans. On the right stood the Great Mosque, one of the holiest places in the Moslem world. “See it,” John advised, “it is an amazing sight.”
The bazaars and streets teemed with people of every race and color. Strange sights met my eyes; strange scents tingled my nostrils; strange women walked veiled or unveiled along the busy streets, women with undulating hips and dark, expressive eyes.
Dusty though I was, and tired from travel, the expressions in their eyes told me they found me not unhandsome, and I sat the straighter because of it. What man does not like the attention of women?
A narrow street opened on my left, shadowed and cool. Turning my mount, I walked him into that haven of stillness, away from the crowd. Immediately, I was lost to the noise and confusion behind, yet where the street might take me I had no idea. Yet when I turned a corner, there was an open gate.
It was a corner where another street entered, and that one passed on into a maze of buildings, but before me lay the open gate, a stable where horses fed, and a glimpse beyond of trees, green grass, and a fountain. To the left and on the far side stood a colonnade of graceful Moorish arches.
Without thinking, I walked my horse into the gate and drew up, his shod hooves making a clatter against the stone walls. For a moment I sat there, drinking in the coolness and the beauty.
A movement drew my eyes, and I saw a tall old man beneath the arches. “You have peace,” I said.
“Do the young respect peace?” He spoke gently, walking toward me. “I believed the young looked only for movement, for action.”
“There is a time for peace and a time for war. From the hot plains of Andalusia to your court is a movement into paradise. I am sorry to have disturbed you.” I bowed. “May your shadow never grow less.”
“You have come far?”
“From Cadiz. Before that, the sea.”
“How did you come to this place?”
“The street invited, your gate was open, there was a sound of water splashing, a smell of gardens. If you have traveled, you know how welcome are such sounds.”
“Why do you come to Córdoba?”
“To study. I am very young, and not very wise, so where else would one come if not to Córdoba?”
“Your sword is not enough?”
“A sword is never enough. The mind is also a weapon, but like the sword it must be honed and kept sharp.”
“Why do you wish to learn? Do you seek power? Riches?”
“What I shall seek tomorrow, I do not know. Today, I seek only to know. My mind asks questions for which I have no answers. Within me there is a loneliness for knowledge. I would know what is thought by wise men and what is believed in other lands, far from here. I would open the dark and empty avenues of my mind to the brightness of a new sun and populate it with ideas.”
“Please get down. My house is yours.”
He was old, but a man of fine bearing, his clothing worn but of quality. He shook his head as I moved to remove the bridle and saddle. “A slave will care for him, and it will be done at once. Please come in.”
He led me along the gallery to a small room where there were rugs, cushions, and a low table. In an alcove there was a tub, and water falling.
“Refresh yourself, and then we shall talk.”
Alone in the shadowed room, I disrobed and bathed, then dusted my clothing. As I settled my scimitar into place, I heard a girl singing, a fine, sweet, haunting refrain. Pausing, I listened.
This was what made life: a moment of quiet, the water falling in the fountain, the girl’s voice … a moment of captured beauty. He who is truly wise will never permit such moments to escape.
Who was she? Did she sing for love or the longing for love?
It was not necessary that I know her, for she was romance, and romance is so often in a garden, behind a wall, along a twilit street.