the Douro and repeatedly repulsed the
armies sent against them from Cordova; but we find no mention in the
writers cited by Al-Makkari, either of the annual tribute of a hundred
virgins, popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems, or of the
great victory in 846, by which King Ramiro redeemed his country from
this degrading badge of vassalage.[13] So widely extended was the
martial renown of the Umeyyan sovereigns, that in 839 a suppliant
embassy was received by Abdurrahman II. from the Greek Emperor
_Tufilus_, (Theophilus,) then hard pressed by the arms of the Abbaside
khalif Al-mutassem, to solicit his aid against their common enemy;
and, though Abdurrahman declined to embark in this distant and
hazardous enterprise, a friendly intercourse long continued to be kept
up between the courts of Cordova and Constantinople. The military
establishment was fully organized, and placed on a formidable footing.
Besides the troops quartered in the provinces and receiving regular
pay, the _haras_ or royal guard of Mamlukes, whose commander was one
of the principal officers of the court, was augmented to 5000 horse
and 1000 foot, all Christians or foreigners by birth, who occupied
barracks close to the royal palace, and constantly mounted guard at
the gates. The coast was also defended by a powerful fleet of armed
vessels, of which each of the seaports fitted out its proportion,
against the hostile attacks of the Abbaside lieutenauts of Africa, and
the predatory descents of the _Majus_[14] or Northmen; who, after
laying waste with fire and sword the French and English coasts, had
extended their ravages into the southern seas even to the Straits of
Gibraltar. Lisbon and Seville were sacked by them in 844; and their
piratical fleets continued for many years to carry pillage and
bloodshed along the shores of the Peninsula.

[12] It was by a body of exiles under Abu Hafss Omar, the
Apochapsus of the Greeks, (incorrectly called Abu _Caab_ by
Gibbon,) driven from Cordova after one of these insurrections,
that Crete was conquered in 823.

[13] In this battle, according to the veracious Spanish
chroniclers, Santiago first appeared on his white horse in the
melee, fighting for the Christians.--See the "Maiden Tribute,"
in Lockhart's _Spanish Ballads_.

[14] _Majus_--Magians or fire worshippers, is the term
invariably applied to these fierce Pagans by the Arabic
historians, apparently by