ted as his successor, to the exclusion of
the elder brother Soliman. Al-Makkari devotes an entire chapter to the
wonders of this celebrated temple, which was finished A.D. 794, nine
years after its commencement, and received additions from almost every
successive sovereign of the house of Umeyyah. In its present state, as
the cathedral of Cordova, it still covers more ground than any church
in Christendom; but the inner roof, with its elaborate carving, the
_mihrab_, or shrine, of minute inlaid work of ivory, gems, and
precious woods, and containing a copy of the Koran which had belonged
to the Khalif Othman--the embossed plates of gold and silver which
encrusted the doors, and the apples of the same metals which
surmounted the dome--have long since disappeared; and the thousand
(or, as some say, thirteen hundred) columns of polished marble which
it once boasted, have been grievously reduced in number, to make room
for the shrines and chapels of Christian saints. The unequal length
and proportions of those which remain, their irregular grouping, and
the want of height in the roof which they support, indicate a far
lower grade of architectural taste than that which we find in the
aerial palaces of Granada; but all the Arabic writers who have
described it, concur in considering it one of the wonders of the
world; and it ranked, in the estimation of the Spanish Moslems, as
inferior in point of sanctity to none but the Kaaba, and the mosque of
Omar at Jerusalem.

The mood of the Beni-Umeyyah, who appear in their eastern reign only
as gloomy and execrated tyrants, had been chastened by their
misfortunes; and the virtues of Abdurrahman _Ad-dakhel_ (_the enterer
or conqueror_, as he is generally termed by historians) were emulated
by his descendants. As an illustration of the character of his son
Hisham, it is related by Al-Makkari, that on hearing that the people
of Cordova said, that his only motive in restoring the great bridge
over the Guadalquivir was to pass over it himself when he went out
hunting, he bound himself by a solemn vow never to cross it again as
long as he lived; but the reign of this beneficent prince lasted only
eight years. His immediate successors, Al-hakem I., and Abdurrahman
II., were almost constantly engaged in warfare, either against their
own rebellious relatives and revolted subjects,[12] or against the
Christians of Galicia, who, by the middle of the ninth century, had
advanced their frontier to