laws to eighty cities
of the first, to three hundred of the second and third order; and the
fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand
villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they
created and they describe the most prosperous aera of the riches, the
cultivation, and the populousness of Spain. [195]

[Footnote 190: Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. ii. p. 32, 252. The former
of these quotations is taken from a Biographia Hispanica, by an Arabian
of Valentia, (see the copious Extracts of Casiri, tom. ii. p. 30-121;)
and the latter from a general Chronology of the Caliphs, and of the
African and Spanish Dynasties, with a particular History of the
kingdom of Grenada, of which Casiri has given almost an entire version,
(Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 177-319.) The author, Ebn
Khateb, a native of Grenada, and a contemporary of Novairi and Abulfeda,
(born A.D. 1313, died A.D. 1374,) was an historian, geographer,
physician, poet, &c., (tom. ii. p. 71, 72.)]

[Footnote 191: Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p.
116, 117.]

[Footnote 192: A copious treatise of husbandry, by an Arabian of
Seville, in the xiith century, is in the Escurial library, and Casiri
had some thoughts of translating it. He gives a list of the authors
quoted, Arabs as well as Greeks, Latins, &c.; but it is much if the
Andalusian saw these strangers through the medium of his countryman
Columella, (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 323-338.)]

[Footnote 193: Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 104. Casiri
translates the original testimony of the historian Rasis, as it is
alleged in the Arabic Biographia Hispanica, pars ix. But I am
most exceedingly surprised at the address, Principibus caeterisque
Christianis, Hispanis suis Castellae. The name of Castellae was unknown
in the viiith century; the kingdom was not erected till the year 1022,
a hundred years after the time of Rasis, (Bibliot. tom. ii. p. 330,) and
the appellation was always expressive, not of a tributary province, but
of a line of castles independent of the Moorish yoke, (D'Anville, Etats
de l'Europe, p. 166-170.) Had Casiri been a critic, he would have
cleared a difficulty, perhaps of his own making.]

[Footnote 194: Cardonne, tom. i. p. 337, 338. He computes the revenue at
130,000,000 of French livres. The entire picture of peace and prosperity
relieves the bloody uniformity of the Moorish annals.]

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