To me it appears that the
Mussulman worships God as well as I do, and is as acceptable,
if sincere, as any Christian."

[5] Such as secretary, farmer of taxes, or even prime minister.

Among the great functionaries of state there was one who held the office
of Kitabatu-dh-dhimam, which, being interpreted, is "the office of
protection." The Christians and Jews were under his general
jurisdiction, and were called "the people of the protection."[1] But
besides this Arab "Secretary of State for the Christians," the latter
had their own counts--a relic of the Gothic system--who, however, did
not always stand up for their interests.[2] There were also Christian
censors,[3] but it is not known what position they held in the State.

The young Christian cadets of noble birth were brought up at Court, and
numbers of Sclavonian Christians served in the king's bodyguard, of whom
under Hakem I. (796-822) there were 2000.[4]

[1] Al Makk., i. p. 103; and De Gayangos' note, p. 398.

[2] _E.g._. Servandus. Cp. also Cyprianus.

[3] See above, p. 49.

[4] Conde, i. p. 260.

All things considered, it is a matter for surprise that these two
peoples, so unlike in race, habits, prejudices, and religion, lived so
comparatively quietly side by side in spite of a perpetual state of
warfare between the Arabs and the Christians in the North, which tended
to keep alive the animosities of the two races in that part of Spain
which was under Mohammedan rule.[1] Moreover, the pride of race was very
strong in the pure-blooded Arabs. Thus the poet Said ibn Djoud, in a
poem called the "battle of the town" (Polei), boasts that the conquerors
are of the pure race of Adnan and Kahtan, without any foreign admixture;
while he calls the defeated Spaniards miscreants, followers of a false
faith,[2] sons of the pale-faces. The haughty Arabs, in fact, were too
prone to look upon all the Spaniards, both renegades and Christians, as
mere canaille.[3]

But, in spite of this, the races to a certain extent amalgamated; and
Eulogius endeavours to prove that, but for the outbreak of fanaticism in
the middle of the ninth century, this amalgamation would have had
serious results for Christianity in Spain.[4]

The Arabs did not disdain to seek the alliance of the free Christian
States, nor were the latter averse from doing the same, when political
occasion demanded it. As early as 798 the Walis of the frontier cities
sought to make