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"Let not thyself fall victim to a widow,
Even if her cheeks are bouquets,
For though you are the best of husbands,
She will repeat ceaselessly, 'God, be merciful to the dead.'"
"No river on the mountains,
No warm nights in the winter,
No women doing kind actions,
No generous-hearted enemies."
The battle of the Guadalete, where sank the Visigoth empire, delivered
Spain almost defenceless to the Arab and Berber conquest. There developed
then a civilization and an intellectual culture far superior to those of
the barbarous Christian refugees in the Asturias, where they led a rude and
coarse life which but seasoned them for future struggles. Of their literary
monuments, there remain to us but mediocre Latin chronicles. The court of
the Omayades at Cordova saw a literature blossom which did not disappear
even after the fall of the Khalifate. On the contrary, it seemed to regain
a new vigor in the small states which surged up about the Iberian
Peninsula. The Christians, under the domination of the Mussulmans, allowed
themselves to be seduced by the Arabian literature.


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