Naseem Hijazi's "Shaheen" (English Translation)

Chapter 2: The Frontier Falcon

 (1)

Muslims had ruled Andalus for the past eight centuries. The history of these eight centuries are the rise and fall of a great nation, whose opening chapters were inked with the blood of Arab conquerors and the great leaders of the Umayyad dynasty. Now this great nation, whose grandeur would silence the defiant waves of the Mediterranean, was writing its closing chapter with tears of hopelessness. That tree of culture and civilization, grown by the chivalrous Tariq Bin Ziyad, Moosa Bin Naseer and the successors of Abdul Rehman, was now facing the strong and defiant winds of autumn.

The Muslims entered this country like a storm. When all the walls of opposition broke down and the people of Spain laid their arms down in front of the Arab horsemen, this storm changed to clouds of mercy and the barren lands of Andalus transformed to a heavenly garden. In a country where humanity was dying, trapped in barbarism, it became a torchbearer of Europe.

When the dark clouds of fear and barbarism dominated Europe, every house in Andalus was lit with lanterns of science and knowledge. When majority of the people of Europe covered their bodies with hides of animals, lived in forests and caves, the people of Andalus spread drapery making and architecture to the south of the Mediterranean. In Europe, where books and its readers could be counted on fingers, in Andalus, it was quite impossible to find a person whose house did not have a small library.

The Umayyad era was the golden age in the history of Andalus. Even today, when a tourist visualizes the magnificence and splendor that is buried in the ruins of Cordova, Seville and Toledo, he enquires with amazement 'Was this that land where prosperity and progress left the ambassadors of Charlemagne awestruck? Is the modern-day Spain and the Andalus of the Arabs the same land which was a goldmine? The land where misery and poverty did not exist? The land whose trade and commerce was spread all the way to Russia, Iran and China? The land whose universities were renowned the world over and students of Aristotle and Plato sat at the feet of its scholars?'.

The spirits of Andalus' historians, who maybe, each evening, wander around these deserted places, reply to us saying, "Yes! This Spain is the same Andalus that belonged to the Arabs, whose power and majesty has become a legend of the past. This Rock of Gibraltar is the same one where Tariq Bin Ziyad's ships had anchored. Cordova is that very city where the pompous courts of Abdul Rehman III would leave the ambassador of great emperors absolutely awestruck. This Andalus is the same, however, the nation whose sweat and blood bestowed life and beauty to its ashes has been obliterated. Buried beneath these ruins lie the bodies of the glorious builders who made this country a tower of light for the rest of Europe".

World history depicts the rise and fall of nations but the rise and fall of the Arab conquerors is the most interesting from which a lot could be learned. That sun, that moon and those stars who, since the creation of Adam till today must have witnessed with their unblinking eyes thousands of caravans on the paths of progress and degenerations. If these celestial bodies have a heart, then, the legend of the rise and fall of the Arab rulers, would certainly be engraved on them.

(2)

In Andalus, after the victories of the Muslims, the initial period saw the establishment of many small Christian kingdoms towards the northern border. During the reign of powerful rulers, these kingdoms would become vassals to the Islamic Sultanate of Andalus and during the time of weak rulers or during the time of infighting among Muslims, these kingdoms would declare their independence and carry out looting raids on the border areas. The era of the Umayyad rule was a period of magnificence for the Muslims. Despite the treacherous, clandestine activities of the small Christian kingdoms of the north, the Umayyad emperors would still treat them with generosity.