El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-12
WAR Of THE
CROSS AND
CRESCENT
Wrestling of Spain From
Moslem a Triumph For
Christian People.
BATTLE OF PLAINS
MARKS END OF YUSUF

MAkkS END OF Z UOOE
Madrid, Spain, Aug. 12.-From be-
came a great stream of blood for fu-
sion with that of the Celtiberian, His
piano. Roman, Arab and Syrian strains
that were found in the greater part
| of the peninsula when the Cordova
Kahlifate came to an end and Arabian
Spain disintegrated so that petty kings
were almost as numerous were In
dian sachems when Columbus discov-
cred America.
War Was For Pillage.
: The warning of toy Kingdoms and Of
cities, each of which was royal resi-
dence and the stronghold of a preda-
tory monarch with picturesque ar
ray of cut-and-thrust retainers at his
| back, offered the African swarm an
opportunity for an invasion with pill
age as its major aim. The Moslems IN
Spain had illustrated the modern cyni-
/ cal axiom that where there is much
pie there is little piety. They had
Toasted upon the fairness of the land
and We're grown effete- The stern
creed that had been the dynamics of
the Moslem invasion under Musa and
Tarik had relaxed its hold. The more
pious Africans preached a crusade and
| inundated Spain to advance the true.
doctrines of Mohammed where they
| had become hardly more than ira
| dition.
In the far away deserts of Morocco
there rose to prominence and power
] Berber chieftain, Yusuf Ibn Tashefin-
| The brown barbarians Of the desert.
fired to religious zeal by an evangelist
who preached before their tents and
moved by the nomad's ingrained love
| of loot, flocked to the banners of Yu-
| suf until his army numbered $4,000 or
100, 900 s+hewy fighting men, unsur-
| passed in Craftsmanship. frugal in their.
habits, and fitted for long marches
and brilliant cavalry dashes- "Al-mora-
| bith." these fanatics called Them
selves The term meant Men devot-
ed to Cod Half monks, half war
riors, and wholly thieves. they made
| the call of heaven their warrant for
massing to invade Spain and teach the
| degenerate Moslems the true faith
Yusuf, the desert Napoleon, formed
the disciplined horde from the, far
i, GASES of the Sahara into a compact.
'wen trained force and marshalled it
for conquest
Leader Romantic Figure.
As serene in their belief that they
were appointed by Allah to redeem the
unrighteous as were the Christian
crusaders who fought the Moslems in
| the holy land to rescue the holy sepul-
cher, and as piratical as Capt. Kidd,
| these reformers, wearing the shad-
owed livery of the FURNISHED sum-,
! followed a leader whose personality
| made him one of the romantic fig
! Base-born, but lowered with a nat
ural gift for organization and autocra-
! tic leadership, tall and straight, 1.-THE,
black eyed, aquiIine in features, val
! liant in battle, austere in his habits,
affable in manner, Yusuf regarded
himself, and was regarded as true
knight, the peer of any hero Of history
or legend whose exploits made England
ring with praise in the age of chivalry
Like Musa, who crossed the Strait Of
Gibraltar three centuries before, Yu-
suf found his golden opportunity in
a clash between Two parties in Spain.
! This time the clash WAS not between
! a king and an affronte1 cfieftain but
between two monarchs, Alfonso VI.
christian king, and Al Mu-tamed, the
Mohammedan king Of Seville. The Mos
lem monarch was so enraged by a re-
quest of Alfonso for the payment of
tribute long over due that he picked
UP an inkstand and threw it at the
messenger with such force that it i'm
! beded itself in his skull, and caused
"his brains to fall down his throat"
! as an Arabian chronicler puts 1T. He
then ordered the bill collector crucf-
/ fled, head downward, as an insult to
| a christian potentate. Yusuf and his
horde of xAlmoravides, as they were
subsequently, called in Europe. were
| invited into Spain by the Moslem king
| when Alfonso was marching against
him.
Yusuf Reigns 40 Years.
Before long Yusuf had routed Al
fonso and had possessed himself of
Valencia. Badajos and Cordova, put
| the king of Granada in irons and ex-
lied him for not becoming his active
ally, and besieged in his capital the
Moslem monarch, who had invited him
! to Spain. When Yusuf died at the age
! of hundred years he had maintained
/ the supremacy of the Almoravides in
Spain for 40 years and had impressed
! himself upon world history as a great
conqueror.
No less picturesque was the sec
ond civil war" in which Abu Abdillah
Mohammed, a Berber whose father was
a 1amplighter in a Moslem seat of
learning in CordOya, constituted him
1 self Gel Mahdi,' and led a fresh horde
of Africans from the realms of Ali
Ibn Yusuf, emperor of Morocco, into
Spain. This invasion occurred when
| the Christians were fighting in the
! holy land. the first of the crusades-
| the one which resulted in the eleva-
/ ton of "a Christian king, Godfrey de
Bouillon, to the throne of Jerusalem.
The title 'El Mahdi," is a favorite
one among Mohammedan fanatics 1t
was against the 'Mahdists,'', led by
''Mahdi,'' that the English were fight
! ing in the Soudan when general Cor
don was trapped in beleaguered Khar-
tum where lord Kitchener subsequent
" won fame and his title. The NAH
dr. is guide, in a spiritual sense, or
/ a saviour Abu Abdillah, living in
| hermits hut in a cemetery in Morocco,
preached a crusade against the ire
| ligious Almoravides of Spain. Death
! cut short the ambition of Abu, but
not the plans in which he had in
structed his Amir, Abdu-l-mumen. This
/ enterprising Individual proclaimed him.