[Sidenote: Civilization and splendour of the Spanish Arabs.] Scarcely
had the Arabs become firmly settled in Spain when they commenced a
brilliant career. Adopting what had now become the established policy of
the Commanders of the Faithful in Asia, the Emirs of Cordova
distinguished themselves as patrons of learning, and set an example of
refinement strongly contrasting with the condition of the native
European princes. Cordova, under their administration, at its highest
point of prosperity, boasted of more than two hundred thousand houses,
and more than a million of inhabitants. After sunset, a man might walk
through it in a straight line for ten miles by the light of the public
lamps. Seven hundred years after this time there was not so much as one
public lamp in London. Its streets were solidly paved. In Paris,
centuries subsequently, whoever stepped over his threshold on a rainy
day stepped up to his ankles in mud. Other cities, as Granada, Seville,
Toledo, considered themselves rivals of Cordova. The palaces of the
khalifs were magnificently decorated. Those sovereigns might well look
down with supercilious contempt on the dwellings of the rulers of
Germany, France, and England, which were scarcely better than
stables--chimneyless, windowless, and with a hole in the roof for the
smoke to escape, like the wigwams of certain Indians. The Spanish
Mohammedans had brought with them all the luxuries and prodigalities of
Asia. [Sidenote: Their palaces and gardens.] Their residences stood
forth against the clear blue sky, or were embosomed in woods. They had
polished marble balconies, overhanging orange-gardens; courts with
cascades of water; shady retreats provocative of slumber in the heat of
the day; retiring-rooms vaulted with stained glass, speckled with gold,
over which streams of water were made to gush; the floors and walls were
of exquisite mosaic. Here, a fountain of quicksilver shot up in a
glistening spray, the glittering particles falling with a tranquil sound
like fairy bells; there, apartments into which cool air was drawn from
the flower-gardens, in summer, by means of ventilating towers, and in
winter through earthen pipes, or caleducts, imbedded in the walls--the
hypocaust, in the vaults below, breathing forth volumes of warm and
perfumed air through these hidden passages. The walls were not covered
with wainscot, but adorned with arabesques, and paintings of
agricultural scenes and views of Paradise. F