THE BATTLE OF LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA (1212 A.D.)
[1212-1270 A.D.]
Muhammed opened the campaign by the siege of Salvatierra, a strong but not important fortress of Estremadura, defended by the knights of Calatrava. That he should waste his forces on objects so incommensurate with their extent, proves how little he was qualified to wield them. The place stood out for several months, and did not surrender until the emperor had sustained a heavy loss, nor until the season was too far advanced to permit any advantage to be derived from this partial success. By suspending the execution of his great design until the following season, he allowed Alfonso time to prepare for the contest. The following June, the kings of Leon and Castile having assembled at Toledo, and been joined by a considerable number of foreign volunteers, the Christian army advanced towards the south.
On July 12th, the crusaders reached the mountainous chain which divides New Castile from Andalusia. They found not only the passes, but the summits of the mountains occupied by the Almohads. To force a passage was impossible; and they even deliberated on retreating, so as to draw out, if possible, the enemy from positions so formidable, when a shepherd entered the camp of Alfonso, and proposed to conduct the Christian army, by a path unknown to both armies, to the summit of this elevated chain—by a path, too, which would be invisible to the enemy’s outposts. A few companies having accompanied the man, and found him equally faithful and well informed, the whole army silently ascended, and entrenched themselves on the summit, the level of which was extensive enough to contain them all. Below appeared the widespread tents of the Moslems, whose surprise was great on perceiving the heights thus occupied by the crusaders. For two days the latter, whose fatigues had been harassing, kept their position; but on the third day they descended into the plains of Tolosa, which were about to be immortalised by their valour. Their right wing was led by the king of Navarre, their left by the king of Aragon, while Alfonso took his station in the centre. The attack was made by the Christian centre against that of the Mohammedans; and immediately the two wings moved against those of the enemy.
The struggle was terrific, but short; myriads of the barbarians fell, the boundary was first broken down by the king of Navarre, the Castilians and Aragonese followed, all opponents were massacred or fled, and the victors began to ascend the eminence on which Muhammed still remained. Muhammed mounted a mule and soon outstripped not only the pursuers but the fugitives. The carnage of the latter was dreadful, until darkness put an end to it. The victors now occupied the tents of the Mohammedans, while the two martial prelates sounded the Te Deum for the most splendid success which had shone on the banners of the Christians since the time of Charles Martel. The loss of the Africans, even according to the Arabian writers, who admit that the centre was wholly destroyed, could not fall short of 160,000 men.
The reduction of several towns, from Tolosa to Baeza, immediately followed this glorious victory—a victory in which Don Alfonso nobly redeemed his failure in the field of Zallaka, and which, in its immediate consequences, involved the ruin of the Mohammedan empire in Spain. After an unsuccessful attempt on Ubeda, as the hot season was raging, the allies returned to Toledo, satisfied that the power of Muhammed was forever broken. That emperor, indeed, did not long survive his disaster. Having precipitately fled to Morocco, he abandoned himself to licentious pleasures, left the cares of government to his son, or rather his ministers, and died in 1213, not without suspicion of poison.c
THE DECLINE OF ARAB POWER
After the dissolution of the Almohad empire Africa and Spain, without severing any of the ties that bound their populations together, ceased forever to obey the same government. This separation would have had no disastrous consequences for Islam if the tribes of Maghreb had not set so high a price upon their assistance that the Spanish Arabs were unable to accept it. The Maghrebites did indeed cross the strait several times after 1232, but these expeditions served merely to assure the triumphs of the Christians, who drew together in closer and closer union.
The defeat of Tolosa had, by demonstrating the incapacity of Muhammed an-Nasir, precipitated the insurrection of Andalusia; and in Africa the power founded by Abdul-Mumin was as rapidly declining, owing to the failure of the Almohad princes to display the necessary decision and address. As early as 1242 the wali of Tunis refused to renew the tribute which as vassal he was bound to pay, caused himself to be proclaimed an independent sovereign, and founded on the most solid basis the dynasty of the house of Abu Hass, which was destined to endure through several centuries. Farther to the west, in 1248, the Beni Zian family established their supremacy at Tlemcen, Algiers, and in the neighbourhood of Fez; while in the Maghreb the tribe of Beni Merin raised the standard of revolt and menaced Fez, Tasa, and Morocco. For twenty years the Almohads held their ground against their enemies; but all the courage they displayed was rendered useless by their own intestine strife, and in 1270 the Merinid, Abu Yusuf, received the allegiance of the Arabian Moors, or Berbers, of western Africa.
[1270-1359 A.D.]
It would be impossible to-day to determine exactly the extent of the territories controlled by the revolting tribes, but in the beginning their domains, without doubt, included Bougie and Algiers and extended from Tlemcen to the Atlantic. Their frontier lines must, in any case, have been constantly changing, as the rulers of the three states waged incessant war against each other, and emigration and displacements were continually taking place. A chronological list of the princes who succeeded each other at Tunis, Tlemcen, and Morocco, during the period that extended from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, would teach us little of an epoch concerning which very few documents exist. The most we know is that the cities of Tunis, Bougie, Algiers, Tlemcen, Fez, and Morocco retained under the Abu Hass, the Beni Zian, and the Beni Merin the importance and splendour that had been theirs under the Zairites and the Omayyads, and could still cite with pride the names of many great artists and scholars. The ancient maritime power of the Aghlabites had fallen never to rise again; but bands of pirates were organised which inflicted great damage on Christians, and vessels leaving the Atlantic ports began to descend the coasts of Africa to the tropics, where they carried on a great trade in gold, amber, and negro slaves.
Spanish Herald, Thirteenth Century
Naturally the Arabs were drawn into all the disputes that arose between the different sovereigns of Africa, but they experienced no serious results from any of them. Once in 1347, and again in 1359, the Merinid chiefs had succeeded in overcoming Tlemcen and Tunis; but the deposed rulers soon recovered their thrones and continued to reign over the populations they had trained to obedience. Of the three African dynasties that of Abu Hass experienced the fewest turmoils and disorders. While in Maghreb two rivals of equal force disputed for supremacy over the capitals of Fez and Morocco, and in Tlemcen the Beni Zian were obliged to resist the encroachments of formidable neighbours, the kings in Tunis were powerful enough to command the respect of all other cities near, and to wrest Tripoli from the warlike mamelukes of Egypt, the rulers who had succeeded to the Eyyubid sultans.