[9] Al Makkari, ii. 109.

But in other and more important respects we can see the disintegrating effect which intercourse with Christians had upon the social institutions of the Koran.[1]

(a.) Wine, which is expressly forbidden by Mohammed,[2] was much drunk throughout the country,[3] the example being often set by the king himself.  Hakem I. seems to have been the first of these to drink the forbidden juice.[4] His namesake, Hakem II. (961-976), however, set his face against the practice of drinking wine, and even gave orders for all the vines in his kingdom to be rooted up—­an edict which he recalled at the instance of his councillors, who pointed out that it would ruin many poor families, and would not cure the evil, as wine would be smuggled in or illicitly made of figs or other fruit.  Hakem consequently contented himself with forbidding anew the use of spirituous liquors in the most stringent terms.[5] Even the faquis had taken to drinking wine, and they defended the practice by saying that the prohibition might be disregarded by Moslems, who were engaged in a perpetual war with infidels.

(b.) Music was much cultivated, yet a traditionary saying of Mohammed runs thus:  “To hear music is to sin against the law; to perform music is to sin against religion; to enjoy music is to be guilty of infidelity."[6] Abdurrahman II. (822-852) in especial was very fond of music, and gave the great musician Ziryab or Ali ibn Nafi a home at his Court, when the latter was driven from the East by professional jealousy.  Strict Mohammedans always protested against these violations of their law.  The important sect of Hanbalites in particular, like our own Puritans, made a crusade against these abuses.  They “caused a great commotion in the tenth century in Baghdad by entering people’s houses and spilling their wine, if they found any, and beating the singing-girls they met with and breaking their instruments."[7]

(c.) The wearing of silk, which had been disapproved of by Mohammed, became quite common among the richer classes, though the majority do not seem to have indulged themselves in this way.[8]

(d.) The prohibition of sculptures, representing living creatures, was disregarded.  We find a statue, raised to Abdurrahman’s wife Zahra, in the Medinatu’l Zahra, a palace built by Abdurrahman III. in honour of his beloved mistress.  Images of animals are mentioned on the fountains,[9] and a lion on the aqueduct.[10] We also hear of a statue at the gate of Cordova.[11]

(e.) The Spanish Arabs even seem to have given up turning towards Mecca:  for what else can we infer from a fact mentioned by an Arab historian,[12] that Abu Obeydah was called Sahibu l’Kiblah as a distinctive nickname, because he did so turn?

(f.) A reformer seems even to have arisen, who wished to persuade his coreligionists to eat the flesh of sows, though not of pigs or boars.[13]