- From the first few pages of The History of Spain by Louis Bertrand and
Sir Charles Petrie (2nd edition, London, 1954):
It was Julian, a Christian, who had summoned the Musulmans to
Spain; and it was Christian Spaniards who acted as guides to them and,
on occasion, opened the gates of towns to them. This incorrigible
blindness was an error which was to repeat itself indefinitely in the course
of the centuries. What Visigoth Spain once done light-heartedly
Musulman Spain was to do over and over again through a regular fatality
of the conquest. At every turn the Caliphs and their successors, the little
Moorish kings, called upon Africans to support them against a rival or a
Christian prince, or simply to maintain their personal security. They
thought that they were finding in them merely momentary allies; they let
them establish themselves in their towns; and, when the wanted to get rid
of them, they had to fight and expel them at the cost of great effort, or else
submit to the conquerors. (pp.27-28) ↵
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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