ARABIC SPAIN"
ONE would not willingly find fault with anything the authors have to tell us in Arabic Spain, for seldom have we come across a book which shows more loving and painstaking work, or views set forth in a more modest manner. With the exception of Mr. Ford's interesting account of Arabic Spain in the first edition of Murray's Guide, we know of no books which deal with the subject more attractively, and although the authors' confessed ignorance of Arabic precludes the possibility of finality, their work should form an admirable basis for further research, and the field of research is wide and almost virgin. The modern Spaniard has no help to offer. Well may the authors complain that in the public libraries of Seville there is not one of the ordinary books of reference or proceedings of learned societies. Yet in the ninth century and even earlier Seville was a seat of learning and civilization, due in part, no doubt, to the amalgamation of the Gothic nobility and the Arabs of Yemen. We must search the Bible for figures that come near to these in ethical significance. Ibrahim ibn. Hejjaj, for instance, who ruled Seville in the ninth century, was one of those patriarchal figures who loved magnificence as truly as he loved learning. When he went abroad a bodyguard of five hundred horsemen attended him, and his names and titles were woven in gold on his robes of State. He was at the same time a merchant, a man of learning, and a patron of science who attached to his person men of culture. The brightest ornament of his court was Kamer, a musician and poetess. She it was who declared in one of her improvisations that if a woman must be ignorant in order to attain Paradise she would prefer to go to hell. Vittoria Colonna and Gaspers. Stampa may have put things with greater charm, but neither was prepared to make greater sacrifices in the pursuit of knowledge. The authors vindicate the fame of Witiza, "the wicked," whose life and aims might well have been misunder- stood by future historians. He permitted the Jews to return to Spain, and this fact alone would have gained for him the hatred of one party. Why he did it no one has attempted to fathom. It would be pleasant to imagine a repetition of the story of Esther and Ahasuerus, but so far history is dark in this respect, though not in others, for enough is known of the Arabs to invite further research and criticism. The Arabs had many fine and uncommon qualities, but it requires much knowledge as well as much sympathy to understand them. They surpassed the Greeks in medicine, they knew the use of anaesthetics, they made discoveries in chemistry, and they accepted Aristotle as their leader in philosophy. Their taste in architecture is admired by all who have seen the monuments they left behind. Whoever throws light on so fascinating a nation and so interesting a period has an unqualified claim on our gratitude, and it would be ungracious to stint our praise to the authors of Arabic Spain because their work would be still more interesting if presented in a more systematic fashion.
• Arrested Fugitives. By Sir Edward Russell. London: Nisbet and Co. • Arabic Spain. By Bernhard and Ellen Whishaw. London Smith, Elder
and Co. [los. 6d. not.]
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