wn as the _Alhomades_. A son of a lamp-lighter
in the Mosque of Cordova one day presented himself before the
Alhomades, and announced that he was the great _Mahdi_, who was
divinely appointed to lead them, and to bring happiness to all the
earth.

The path this _Mahdi_ desired to lead them was first to Morocco, there
to subdue the Almoravides in their own land, and thence to Spain. In
a short time this entire plan was realized. The Mahdi's successor was
Emperor of Morocco, and by the year 1150 included in his dominion was
all of Mahommedan Spain! The Spanish Arabs, when they were fighting
Alfonso VI. and the "Cid," did not anticipate this disgraceful
downfall from people of their own faith. They abhorred these
Mahommedan savages, and drew together still closer for a century more
in and about their chosen refuge of Granada.

In the early part of the thirteenth century the Emperor of Morocco
made such enormous preparations for the occupation of Spain that a
larger design upon Europe became manifest. Once more Christendom was
alarmed; not since Charles Martel had the danger appeared so great.
The Pope proclaimed a Crusade, this time not into Palestine, but
Spain.

An army of volunteers from the kingdom of Portugal and from southern
France re-enforced the great armies of the Kings of Castile, Aragon,
and Navarre. The Crusaders, as they called themselves, assembled
at Toledo July 12, 1212, under the command of Alfonso IX., King of
Castile. The power of the Alhomades was broken, and they were driven
out of Spain. The once great Mahommedan Empire in that country was
reduced to the single province of Granada, where the Moors intrenched
themselves in their last stronghold. For nearly three centuries the
Crescent was yet to wave over the kingdom of Granada; but it was to
shine in only the pale light of a waning crescent, until its final
extinction in the full light of a Christian day.

CHAPTER XIV.

A great change had been wrought in Europe. The Crusades had opened a
channel through which flowed from the East reviving streams of ancient
knowledge and culture over the arid waste of mediaevalism. France and
England had awakened from their long mental torpor, Paris was become
the center of an intellectual revival. In England, Roger Bacon, in his
"Opus Majus," was systematizing all existing knowledge and laying a
foundation for a more advanced science and philosophy for the people,
who had only recently extorted from t