much remains in spite of time and war, and many unfortunate influences,
that we can have some idea how beautiful it must have been in his youth
seven centuries ago, and how even more beautiful in the foretime. Of the
great mosque writers of travel can scarcely say enough. Mr. Lane-Poole
says: "Travellers stand amazed among the forest of columns which open
out apparently endless vistas on all sides. The porphyry, jasper, and
marbles are still in their places; the splendid glass mosaics, which
artists from Byzantium came to make, still sparkle like jewels in the
walls; the daring architecture of the sanctuary, with its fantastic
crossed arches, is still as imposing as ever; the courtyard is still
leafy with the orange trees that prolong the vistas of columns. As one
stands before the loveliness of the great mosque, the thought goes back
to the days of the glories of Cordova, the palmy days of the Great
Khalif, which will never return."

Of all the countries in which the Jews all down the centuries have lived
there is probably none of which they have been more loud in praise than
Spain. Their poets sang of it as if it were their own country; for
centuries the people were happier here than probably they have been
anywhere else for so long a period. Elsewhere in this book I have called
attention to all that Spain meant in Europe during all the centuries
from the beginning of the Roman Empire down to the end of the Middle
Ages. Maimonides was fortunate in his birthplace, then, and while
circumstances compelled the family to move away, this change did not
come until a good effect had been produced on the mind of the growing
youth. Even when persecution came, Maimonides clung to Spain with a
tenacity born of deep affection and emphasized by admiration for all
that she was and had been. Cordova was the jewel of the Spain of this
time, and though much less than she had been in the long preceding time,
when she was the birthplace of Lucan and the two Senecas, or even than
what she had been in Abd-er-Rahman's days, or when she was the
birthplace of Averroes, still she remained wonderfully beautiful and
attractive, winning and holding the affections of men.

Maimonides' father, Maimum Ben Joseph, was a member of the Rabbinical
College of Cordova, and famous for his knowledge of the Talmud. There
are some writings of his on mathematics and astronomy extant. He
directed the education of his son, who, like many another distinguished