176 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINfor or against the regime in the frequent periods of disturbance and
revolt. They must also have influenced attitudes towards the non-
Muslim elements in the communities.
Other office-holders, with less general importance but with signifi-
cance within their own towns, are recorded. The mutasib, usually drawn
from the ranks of the trained jurists, supervised weights and measures
in the urban market, and also fixed the prices on such staple items
as bread and meat. The ~iihib al-madina was a magistrate, seen by
some scholars as a continuation in Arab guise of the late Roman
defensor civitatis, an official who still functioned in the Visigothic pe-
riod, who was appointed only with the consent of the local qadi and
who had the responsibility for detecting and trying offences that did
not fall within the purview of the religious judge.^68 His main concern
was therefore probably with the non-Muslim citizenry. Nightwatchmen
patrolled the streets on the look-out for nocturnal crime, but, accord-
ing to one report, murder was of frequent occurrence in Al-Andalus,
although the penalties for this as for other offences were generally
severe, under the rigorous influence of Malikite thought. Al-Maqqari
refers to the imposition of capital punishment for the theft of grapes.^69
The thirteenth-century author Ibn Sa'id (c. 1230) gave some
account of the dress and personal habits of the Spanish Muslims:
'They are the cleanest people on earth in respect of their person,
dress, beds and in the interior of their houses. ,70 Also, in distinction
to other parts of the Islamic world, they wore woollen caps or had
bare heads rather than turbans. The Andalusis did not always impress
their fellow Muslims. Ibn I-;Iawqiil, who visited Spain in 948, said of
them that they were 'people of vicious habits and low inclinations,
narrowminded and entirely devoid of fortitude, courage and military
accomplishments. ,71
During the heyday of the Umayyads in the tenth century Al-Andalus
was one of the greatest states in Europe, to which the Byzantine
emperors and the kings of Germany might send embassies in search
of favours, while the Christian realms of northern Spain were little
more than its client states. As well as for its military might and dip-
lomatic importance, it was also notable as a centre of learning, an
achievement that survived into the subsequent Taifa period, when,
with the disappearance of the Umayyads, Al-Andalus split into a dis-
orderly mass of small states.^72 Andalusi scholars were distinguished in
many fields, but in most cases their works are now lost. A typical
figure is Yal).ya ibn Yal).ya of Cordoba (d. 936/7) who was 'versed in