ir army had
reached Tours.

It was a moment of supreme peril for Christendom. But, happily,
the Franks had what the Goths had not--a great leader. Charles
Martel,--then _Maire du Palais_, and virtually King of France, instead
of the feeble Lothair,--led his Franks into what was to be one of the
most decisive of the world's battles; a battle which would determine
whether Europe should be Christian or Mahommedan.

The tide of infidel invasion had reached its limits. The strong right
arm of Charles dealt such ponderous blows that the Moslems broke in
confusion, and this savior of Christendom was thenceforth known as
Charles Martel: "Karl of the Hammer."

After this crushing disaster at Tours the Moors realized that they
were not invincible. Their vaulting ambition did not again try to
overleap the Pyrenees; and they addressed themselves to settling
affairs in their new territory.

It has been wisely said that if the Mahommedan state had been confined
within the borders of Arabia, it would speedily have collapsed. Islam
became a world-wide religion when it clothed itself with armor, and
became a church militant. It was _conquest_ which saved the faith of
the Prophet. In its home in Asia the Empire of Mahommed was composed
of hostile tribes and clans, and as it moved westward it gathered up
Syrians, Egyptians, and the Berbers on the African coast, who, when
Morocco was reached, were known as Moors. This strange, heterogeneous
mass of humanity, all nourished from Arabia, was held together by two
things: the _Koran_ and the _sword_.

When conquest was exchanged for peaceful possession, all the
internecine jealousies, the tribal feuds, and old hatreds burst forth,
and the first fifty years of Moorish rule in Spain was a period of
internal strife and disorder--Arabs and Moors were jealously trying to
undermine each other; while the Arabs themselves were torn by factions
representing rival clans in Damascus.

But a singular clemency was shown toward the conquered Spaniards.
They were permitted to retain their own law and judges, and their own
governors administered the affairs of the districts and collected the
taxes. The rule of the conquering race bore upon the people actually
less heavily than had the old Gothic rule. Jews and Christians alike
were free to worship whom or what they pleased; but, at the same time,
great benefits were bestowed upon those who would accept the religion
of the Prophet. The slave class, whic