Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Literary & Scientific Development in Muslim Spain 645
productiveness of the soil. Besides the land- tax, the Muslims paid the tithes, and the non-Muslims the test-tax, from which, however, certain classes of persons were wholly exempt-women and children, people leading monastic lives, the sick, the blind, the lame. It varied with the means of the payer, was slight in its incidence, and was never a burden, as it was realized by monthly installments.
Under the Saracenic rule, the presented Jew breathed again. He obtained the right to follow his religion without interference, and to pursue his avocations without hindrance. As merchants, scholars, and savants the Jews soon became important members of the empire. Arab rule made the existence of a Maimonides possible in Spain. The Christians were secured in the unmolested enjoyment of their faith and laws. Special rights and immunities were granted to such of the cities as had offered little or no resistance to the conquerors, and these rights became in later times the source of their prosperity. The task of the Saracens in Spain can be compared only with that England has in view in India. But when we consider the conditions of the two countries the resources at the command of the two peoples, and the time they each had for organization, the Arab’s work will be recognized to have been far more arduous. Toleration, justice, and sympathy enabled the Arabs to achieve in Spain results which have evoked the wonder of successive historians.
The character of a government, whether it is liberal, tolerant, and just, is the best index to the development of the nation which it represents. Judged by this standard, it would be found that the Muslims of Spain were in their civilization not behind any of the civilized nations of modern times. The Christians themselves preferred the mild and tolerant rule of the Saracen to the grinding tyranny of the Goth or Frank, and after the first shock of alarm flocked back to their towns and villages. Even the priests were not discontented with the change.
Like the word ’English’, which in its comprehensive sense includes the Scotch and Irish, the expression ’Saracen’ comprehends all the Muslim races subject to the Caliphate who had adopted the Arabic language or had assimilated Arabian civilization. The Saracen colonists were thus composed of the divers nationalities which formed the common wealth of Islam. Among these the Arabs constituted the dominant and ruling class - the guiding spirit of the Muslim natipn.

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Literary &• Scientific Development m Muslim Spam 647
For nearly half a century the Iberian Peninsula remained a subordinate provinces of the great Arab Empire. A remote dependency, however important, ruled from a distant seat of government, suffers from many disadvantages. Its interests are apt to the scarified or subordinated to considerations depending on the immediate policy of the central power, and efficiency and merit give way to favouritism. That was the case with Spain whilst it formed a part of the Caliphate of Damascus. And yet efficient administration was by any means neglected. At the very outset a Diwan or Council was appointed for adapting the laws of Islam to the requirements and needs of the Caliph’s new subjects. A few years later a census was taken of all the races and creeds, and a complete cadastral survey was made. The assessment was revised, new magistrates were appointed, new bridges and roads were built, the old were repaired, and numbers of schools were opened.
About the middle of the eighth century of the Christian era Western Asia was the scene of a great revolution, the effects of which were far-reaching. The first Arab government was republican. The Umayyads overthrew it and established in its place an autocratic empire. Racial pride and racial exclusiveness bore under these monarchs their usual fruit; they alienated from the ruling classes the sympathies of the subject races, and paved the way for the downfall of the dynasty. In the year 756 A.D. a scion of this ill-fated family escaped into Andalusia and there founded the empire which gave that country her period of greatest prosperity - for unquestionably the happiest time Spain has ever enjoyed was under the Umayyad sovereigns of Cordova.1
The culture and prosperity attained by the Spanish Empire under the Umayyads can be judged by the condition of Spain under the eight sovereign of this house, surnamed al-Nasir, the ablest and most gifted of all the monarchs who have ever ruled over that country. In the accounts of Ibn Haukal, the famous geographer, who travelled about this time in Andalusia, we possess an interesting contemporaneous record. Ibn Haukal speaks in glowing terms of the beneficence of Nasir’s rule, of the thoroughness of the police organization, of the perfect security with which the stranger and trader could travel in the most inaccessible parts, and of the flourishing state of agriculture.
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All the accounts handed down to us of al-Nasir’s reign prove the wonderful impetus he gave to the economic and intellectual development of Spain. He consolidated the different creeds and races into a homogeneous nation, and made absolute equality the guiding spirit of his government But what exists the admiration and wonderment of the student of this glorious reign, says Dozy, is less the work than the workman. And he goes on to add: This sagacious man, who centralized, who formed the unity of the nation and that of the monarchy, who, by his alliances, established a kind of political equilibrium, who in his large tolerance called to his counsel men of every religion, is essential!} a king of modern times rather than a ruler of the Middle Ages. Under Hakam, ”Nasir’s son and successor, who was equally far-sighted, Spain continued in the path of development and progress. A lavish liberality was extended to all forms of learning and arts; and scholars and scientists belonging to every country or creed were welcomed to Cordova. Commerce and industry prospered under him and manufacture of all kinds was promoted by a wise and discriminate patronage.
To form a correct estimate of the development of a nation it is necessary to have an idea of its system of government and the machinery by which it is conducted, of the economic condition of the country, and of the social and intellectual state of the people. In dealing, therefore, with the subject of Saracenic civilization in Spain all these aspects require investigation. The difficulties which usually attend the task of ruling people professing different faiths-although inhabiting the same soil of which modern India furnishes a mild and modern Turkey a bitter example, were aggravated in Andalusia by acute racial rivalries. The subjects of the Cordovan monarchs not only professed there different creeds, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism but the Muslims themselves belonged to three distinct nationalities - Arab, Spanish, and Berber. Naturally the Spaniards formed the bulk of the population. A large number of the natives had embraced Islam the serfs and slaves to obtain freedom and the blessings of existence, the magnates and nobles from conviction or interested motives. These Spanish Muslims were called the biladium, literally ’natives of the country, and their relations to the Arabs, inspite of their community of religion, were marked by strong racial antipathy which reminds us in some degree of that which existed between the Austrians and Italians in Lombardy, and which exists even now between Saxon and Celt in Ireland. The Arab, like to Anglo-Saxon, considers himself the noblest of God’s creation, nor
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have the democratic teachings of Islam succeeded in effecting from his mind that intense pride of race which forms an essential feature of his character and wherever he has gone superiority, which naturally excited the hatred of the subject people.
The Arab, again, was energetic, tolerant, and progressive in his tendencies, while the Spaniard was the reverse. The indigenous Muslims were greatly under the rule of the faqihs, or legists. These Muslim faqihs, instead of endeavouring to remove the racial differences and antipathies, often fanned them into flame, and fomented risings against the foreign domination. The intractableness of the Berbers and the tribal jealousies of the Arabs added to the difficulties of the rulers. With these discordant elements to work, with Muslim Sovereigns of Cordova organized a system of government which, in its wisdom and equity, its large-hearted liberalism and tolerance, its appreciation of merit among the subjects, irrespective of race, creed, or colour, its absolute freedom from religious or racial partiality, will bear comparison with the political organizations of modern time.