The victorious though motley bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by the name of _Spaniards_, their original claim of conquest; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their establishments of Murcia and Lisbon.

The royal legion of Damascus was planted at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia.

The natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round Toledo and the inland country, and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand horsemen of Syria and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble of the Arabian tribes.

A spirit of emulation, sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions.

Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to the caliph: the seas, the rivers, and the harbors, the inhabitants and cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.
In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by the agriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce, of an industrious people; and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by the idleness of their fancy.