[1] Hallam, “Mid.  Ages.,” iii. 392.

[2] Ibid. Cp. p. 402.  “The characteristic virtues of chivalry have so much resemblance to those which Eastern writers of the same period extol, that I am disposed to suspect Europe for having derived some improvement from imitation of Asia.”

    [3] Hallam, “Mid.  Ages” (1.1.).

Similarly the last triumph of the Moors in Spain, at the end of the tenth century, furnished an instance of generosity rarely paralleled.  The Almohade king, Yakub Almansur, after the great victory of Alarcos (1193), released 20,000 Christian prisoners.  It cannot, however, be denied that the action displeased many of the king’s followers, who complained of it “as one of the extravagancies proper to monarchs,"[1] and Yakub himself repented of it on his deathbed.

In many passages of the Arabian writers we find those qualities enumerated which ought to distinguish the Moorish knight—­such as piety, courtesy, prowess in war, the gift of eloquence, the art of poetry, skill on horseback, and dexterity with sword, lance, and bow.[2] Chivalry soon became a recognised art, and we hear of a certain Yusuf ben Harun, or Abu Amar, addressing an elegant poem to Hakem II. (961-976) on its duties and obligations;[3] nor was it long before the Moorish kings learnt to confer knighthood on their vassals after the Christian fashion, and we have an instance of this in a knighthood conferred by the king of Seville in 1068.[4]

    [1] Conde, iii. 53.

    [2] Al Makk., ii. 401, from Ibn Hayyan.  Cp.  Prescott, “Ferd.
    and Isab.,” p. 159.

    [3] Conde, i. 477.

    [4] Conde, ii. 173.

As the ideal knight of Spanish romance was Ruy Diaz de Bivar, or the Cid, so we may perhaps regard the historic Almanzor as the Moorish knight sans peur et sans reproche; and though, if judged by our standards, he was by no means sans reproche, yet many are the stories told of his magnanimity and justice.  On one occasion after a battle against the Christians, the Count of Garcia being mortally wounded, his faithful Castilians refused to leave him, and were hemmed in by Almanzor’s men.  When the latter was urged to give the word, and have the knot of Christians put to the sword, he said:  “Is it not written?  ’He who slayeth one man, not having met with violence, will be punished like the murderer of all mankind, and he who saveth the life of one man, shall be rewarded like the rescuer of all.’[1] Make room, sons of Ishmael, make way; let the Christians live and bless the name of the clement and merciful God.” [2]

On another occasion Almanzor is asked by the Count of Lara for wedding gifts for an enemy[3] of the Arabs, another Christian count, and he magnanimously sends the gifts; or we see him releasing the father of the Infantes of Lara, on hearing of the dreadful death of his seven sons.[4]