3] and he treated on
equal terms with the Emperor of Germany and the King of France. To this
great king, with more truth than to his namesake Abdurrahman II., may be
applied the words of Miss Yonge:--[4]
"He was of that type of Eastern monarch, that seems moulded on the
character of Solomon--large-hearted, wise, magnificent, tolerant, and
peaceful. He was as great a contrast to the stern, ascetic,
narrow-minded, but earnest Alfonso or Ramiro, as were the exquisite
horse-shoe arches, filagree stonework lattices, inlaid jewellery of
marble pavements, and slender minarets, to their dark vault-like,
low-browed churches, and solid castles built out of hard unmanageable
granite."
[1] Mutonia (918); Calaborra; Vale de Junqueras (921).
[2] Dozy, ii. 351, from an Arab writer.
[3] A very interesting account of this embassy from Constantine
VII. (947) is given in Al Makkari, ii. 137, from Ibn
Khaldun.---See Conde, i. 442.
[4] P. 57.
We find in this king none of that suspicious jealousy which we saw in
Mohammed, even though Omar, the arch rebel, and Christian renegade,
still held out at Bobastro, when he ascended the throne; and his
treatment of Christians was, throughout his reign, tolerant and politic.
But his claims in this respect will be best seen from a very interesting
fragment that has come down to our own times, describing the embassy of
a certain John of Gorz, a monk from an abbey near Metz, who carried
letters from Otho, emperor of Germany, to the Spanish Sultan.[1]
In 950 Abdurrahman had sent an embassy to the emperor. A bishop who had
been at the head of this embassy died, and this seems to have caused a
delay in the answer. As the Khalif's letter contained blasphemies
against Christ, it was determined to write a reply in the king's name,
such as might perhaps convince Abdurrahman of the error of his ways. A
certain bishop, Adalbero, was appointed to be at the head of the return
embassy,[2] and he asks the abbot of the monastery of Gorz to give him
two assistants. Two are chosen, but one of these quarrels with his
superior, and is expelled from the body; whereupon John offers himself
as a substitute. The abbot only gives his consent to John's going with
great reluctance, knowing that the young monk had an ardent longing to
be a martyr, if he could only get the opportunity.
[1] See "Vita Johannis Abbatis Gorziensis," 973, by John, Abbot
of Arnulph. "Migne," vol. cxxxvi
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