iled, together with the pavilion and everything it
contained.

The praise due to a despotic sovereign capable of such an action, is
inferior only to that which should be accorded to the cadi who induced
him to perform it.

After reigning twelve years, El Hakkam died, A.D. 976, Heg. 366. His son
Hacchem succeeded him.

This prince was an infant when he ascended the throne, and his
intellectual immaturity continued through life. During and after his
minority, a celebrated Moor named Mohammed Almanzor, being invested with
the important office of _Hadjeb_, governed the state with wisdom and
success.

Almanzor united to the talents of a statesman the genius of a great
commander. He was the most formidable and fatal enemy with whom the
Christians had yet been obliged to contend. He {81} ruled the Moorish
empire twenty-six years under the name of the indolent Hacchem. More
than fifty different times he carried the terrors of war into Castile or
Asturia: he took and sacked the cities of Barcelona and Leon, and
advanced even to Compostella, destroying its famous church and carrying
the spoils to Cordova.

The genius and influence of Mohammed temporarily restored the Moors to
their ancient strength and energy, and forced the whole Peninsula to
respect the rights of his feeble master, who, like another Sardanapalus,
dreamed away his life in the enjoyment of effeminate and debasing
pleasures.[16]

But this was the last ray of unclouded splendour that shone upon the
empire of the Ommiades in Spain. The kings of Leon and Navarre, and the
Count of Castile, united their forces for the purpose of opposing the
redoubtable Almanzor.

The opposing armies met near Medina-Celi. The conflict was long and
sanguinary, and the victory doubtful. The Moors, after the termination
of the combat, took to flight, terrified by the fearful loss they had
sustained; and {82} Almanzor, whom fifty years of uninterrupted military
success had persuaded that he was invincible, died of grief at this first
mortifying reverse.

With this great man expired the good fortune of the Saracens of Spain.
From the period of his death, the Spaniards continued to increase their
own prosperity by the gradual ruin of the Moors.

The sons of the hadjeb Almanzor successively replaced their illustrious
father; but, in inheriting his power, they did not inherit his talents.
Factions were again created. One of the relations of the caliph took up
arms against