Ten Years
After The Conquest, A Map Of The Province Was Made, Exhibiting The Seas,
Rivers, Harbours, And Cities, Accompanied With A Description Of Them, And
Of The Inhabitants, The Climate, Soil, And Mineral Productions.
"In the
space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by the
agriculture, the manufactures, and the
Commerce of an industrious people."
The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain, levied on the Christians of
that country, 10,000 ounces of gold, 10,000 pounds of silver, 10,000
houses, &c. "The most powerful of his successors derived from the same
kingdom the annual tribute of about six millions sterling. His royal seat
of Cordova contained 600 mosques, 900 baths, and 200,000 houses: he gave
laws to 80 cities of the first order, and to 300 of the second and third:
and 12,000 villages and hamlets were situated on the banks of the
Guadalquivir."
The religious prejudices, as well as the interests of the Arabians, led
them to exclude the Christians from every channel through which they had
received the produce of India. That they were precluded from all commercial
intercourse with Egypt, is evident, from a fact noticed by Macpherson, in
his Annals of Commerce. Before Egypt was conquered by the Arabians,
writings of importance in Europe were executed on the Egyptian papyrus; but
after that period, at least till the beginning of the ninth century, they
are upon parchment. - This, as Macpherson observes, amounts almost to a
proof, that the trade with Egypt, the only country producing papyrus, was
interrupted.
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