John Masters

by The Rock

  I awoke in the morning, feeling very weak. I began to think what I should do, for now I wanted nothing but to escape and go on to Rome. But before long Abd-al-Malik rode up with two Visigothic captains. I remained hidden until at the hour of noon I saw, half a. league distant, four ships coming toward the land. I watched them without thinking what they might portend. Then I saw that each was crowded with men, and I saw the flash of spears, and horses I saw and knew that these were the four ships of the Moors. It was a bright morning, the cloud gone from the Rock and the wind fresh and clean from the ocean beyond the pillars. Green banners covered in strange writing floated from the mastheads. I held my breath, for these were they who had come thousands of miles across deserts and rivers, all-conquering. Now they were treading the sea and would set foot in Europe here under the great Rock. Where would they stop?

  I saw David ha-Cohen in the third vessel, and he seemed then the only true friend I had in the world. Heedless of all else, I jumped up and ran along the shore to meet the boats where they would come to land.

  I was close as the bows ran up the sand. I saw General Tarik jump down and wade toward Abd-al-Malik, and behind him many soldiers splashed ashore, some with those strange apes on their shoulders, and then the horses were whipped so that they jumped into the sea and came with their teeth bared to the shore. As David came up the beach, a big leathern satchel over one shoulder and a sword slung by a baldric from the other, a dozen black Moors ran upon me, curved swords flashing, and I fainted.

  I awoke cold and wet. David was casting sea water upon me. He cried, "I never thought to see you again, Aethelred! Was it luck, or are you not so innocent as you pretend?"

  The vessels were still unloading men and baggage.

  General Tarik, at the head of a score of horsemen, had just set off along the sand toward Torrox. The other Moors, mostly foot soldiers, had begun to carry stones, under Abd-al-Malik's direction, to make a wall.

  I said, unhappily, "I want to go to Rome."

  David said, "That is impossible, I fear, until what will come to pass here has come. You must stay with me. I have told my master that you surrendered to my mercy. You are therefore my slave, which puts my protection over you, for what it is worth.... Come, let us put up a shelter. We may be living many weeks on this Rock."

  I knew nothing of war and listened with amazement, while we worked, as David explained to me the meaning of what I saw going on under my eyes but, to my ignorance, without purpose.

  It was Abd-al-Malik's task to make a corner of this Rock where vessels could unload, secure against attack, so that the army coming from Africa could land whatever the Visigoths did, either the counts or King Roderic. The counts were supposed to pretend a resistance and then flee. General Tarik had gone to see that they kept their word.

  The coming of the Moors was, therefore, simple treason by Count Ilian, helped by Count Anseric, to make himself king in Roderic's place. I wondered if Count Theodomir had been able to learn anything of this and if he had escaped to carry the word to the betrayed King Roderic. Yet Roderic had murdered Wittica and defiled the lady Florinda. The thought that they all pretended to share my Holy Faith shamed me.

  So that evening, being the slave of David the Jew, who was servant to Abd-al-Malik the Infidel, I slept under a tent on the ground and drank fresh water and ate a fruit the Moors had brought, called "dates," and felt almost that I was cleansed from the sins of the Visigoths.

  The days passed. Numerous citizens, many of them Jews, came from far and near to offer their thanks and help and to beg the Moors to advance with all speed. Abd-al-Malik's soldiers built their stone walls higher and dug a well and made a rough stone jetty into the bay. The vessels traveled back and forth from Africa, and now nearly all the soldiers who landed marched at once to join the general in Torrox. I went with him, as a slave, and saw his falcons strike down many of those redlegged partridges which abound on the Rock. At night we ate of the partridge, and they were very tender, but each time I saw one between Abd-al-Malik's fierce, bearded lips, I thought it was a little Christian.

  After a month, I asked David why the Moors did not now march out upon the Visigoths, since all was ready. He said, "King Roderic is in the Pyrenees. Think you we are going to march all that way and fight six hundred miles from our boats? No, no, the king shall ride six hundred miles to us. The governor of Africa has promised to send us more men. When we fight, it will not be far from here."

  Another month passed. As I had learned a few words of Visigothic before, now I learned a little Arabic, and, without meaning to, found myself laughing as they did, with a high-pitched loud sound, and David taught me to greet them properly, saying, "la ilaha ill Allah, Muhammadur rasul Allah!" which pleased them mightily. And David told me that though the Moors were strong, yet might the Christians win the day, for the Moors had a most fatal weakness. It was their feuds, he said, which they took everywhere with them and cherished above women, above gold. The governor of Africa, Musa, was of one party, Abd-al-Malik of another, and only common allegiance to the caliph made them speak to each other. But Musa and Abd-al-Malik were Arabs while Tarik was a Berber from this western Africa—and they despised each other. All this and much more David ha-Cohen explained to me while we walked and climbed together all over that great Rock, and discovered many caves, and came upon dens of wild pig and lynx, and saw wolves, and found a big fallen stone, marked by the hand of man but far from the shore.

  At last word came that King Roderic had passed Hispalis with a host of 90,000 men. The trumpets sounded, and the army gathered by the ruined city, being now 12,000 men. I rode out by David's side, I on a small gray donkey and he on a fierce horse with wide nostrils and turned-up nose and long tail and red eyes. As we rode round the bay upon the traces of an ancient road, such as we have in Wessex and the Holy Abbot says were made by the Romans, I looked back at the silver Rock shining in the sun and wondered if I would ever see it again.

  The banners over us were green and black and covered by that strange writing. Five times a day every man of the host, from the generals to the trumpeters, knelt down and prayed toward the east, striking their heads on the earth. Such devoutness I have never seen among Christians, saving a very few holy monks. But I was Christian, and we went to fight a Christian king, however deep in sin his people had fallen, and I was sore troubled in spirit.

  We marched six days by forest and mountain and along the ocean shore. We marched among great trees whereof the bark may be cut off and is indeed that cork used for shoe soles. The boughs cast a pleasant shade, and bards of the host sang wild songs. At camp and on the march spies came to tell General Tarik of the Christians' movement and of fords and water and hidden food. In a thunderstorm of lightning and rain we came to a ridge, with a great marsh full of wild duck and wading birds to the right and to the left a wide, fast-flowing river which curved out of the marsh, passed round the ridge, and flowed by more marshland to the sea. Here General Tarik planted his standard, saying, "Here we conquer." To engage us King Roderic must pass the river, and the narrow ridge between the great marsh and the river would prevent him extending his host, much greater than ours, past our wings. And, as David muttered to me that first night, that place was as far as it was prudent for the Moors to go from the Rock, and their boats in shelter under it, until they had defeated King Roderic.

  It was a purgatory to wait and hear every hour of the advance of King Roderic's host, and I dared not pray for fear the Moors would kill me. Nor did I know what I should pray for. On the second day in that place, which was the sixteenth day of July, the army of the Visigoths came down to the river from the north and began to cross. The Moorish horsemen rode out in readiness, but the Christians made camp and set up their standards.

  "Tomorrow will be the battle," David said, "and victory will be ours. A spy has just brought word that Count Ulan commands the right wing of the Christians and Archbishop Oppas the left. They are both sworn to us."

  While the soldiers began to wh
et their sword blades, I walked away down the river, oppressed by my thoughts. I came after a time to the beach, where the river flowed into the ocean hard by a sandy cape, with a hill behind. I lay down and slept, and dreams came, for I saw the sand covered with dead men and others rolling in the waves. I awoke with a cry, hearing my name called.

  I got up and saw Count Theodomir across the river. "Aethelred," he said, "my brother Anseric is dead, choked in gluttony. You owe him nothing more. Come over the river, join us, and tell us all you know. Otherwise, I fear for the Cross in Hispania—aye, in all Europe, the world."

  I went to the river and walked a little way in. Then I remembered that I was David's slave and he had saved my life. I stepped back.

  "Aethelred ... we are Christians!" Theodomir called. Again I went into the water, a little farther this time. The current tugged at my legs to overthrow me, and suddenly I knew I could not go. I struggled back to the shore and hurried to the camp and the tent I shared with David. I did not speak but lay shivering on the ground, my eyes closed.

  The next morning the trumpets sounded early, and I rode out at David's side, and the army took its stand on the ridge between the marsh which is called Janda and the river, and the Christians came against us. Behind the center of their host I saw a domed litter drawn by white donkeys, gold and silver glittering in the sun, and David said that was the litter of King Roderic. Then the battle began.

  For a time I sat upon my donkey held in thrall by the spectacle before me—so many thousands of warriors under the bright sun upon the grass beside the marsh—the army of the infidels silent under the green banners, steel casques on their heads, their horses light-footed and flecked with nervous foam; the army of the Visigoths under banners of boars and lions and eagles and here and there a Cross. Their horses were mighty and strode ponderously upon us, and their leaders wore long floating hair and carried twohanded swords and wore horns or wolf masks upon their helmets, like to the sea raiders who pillage our shores of Wessex. As the armies met, I saw that on the right the Visigoths stopped many paces short of the Moors and rested upon their swords, and to the left the same. Only in the center did King Roderic's host fall upon us. It was all I could do to keep out of the warring, for great horses reared over me and swords whistled, with a mighty shouting upon the summer air. I saw David smite a bishop so that his arm flew free of his shoulder, then a blow from behind knocked me off my ass, but David helped me again to the donkey's back, shouting, "Not yet, Aethelred, such as you are immortal!"

  Then the commanders of our right wing and our left wing, seeing that Count Ilian and the Archbishop stood idle before them, swept round like the horns of a crescent moon and fell upon King Roderic from left and right and behind. His men became affrighted and fled, like an army of mice set upon by cats, and I saw many horses galloping away riderless, and the domed litter of King Roderic was abandoned upon the field, but none saw the king.

  Then the soldiers of General Tarik again gathered together and fell upon Count Ilian's host. The count rode toward us, his hand raised, but the Moors flew by him like greyhounds unleashed, and in a moment a wailing arose in his host as the Moors rent them, and soon they too broke and fled. On the other side Archbishop Oppas' men did not wait but turned and ran, only the Archbishop coming forward to make obeisance before Tarik.

  The battle was over, though for several hours more the Moors cut and hacked at the Christians as they tried to recross the river, until the ground and the bank squelched with blood and the water ran deep, dark red into the lower marsh on its way to the sea. Then Tarik's trumpets sounded a halt, and the Moors gathered their prisoners—to the number of 20,000, David said—and at the same time lit fires, set up spits, stripped a score of Christian corpses of their clothes, and set them to roast over the fires. The dusk was falling, and never have I heard, since, or hope to hear, such a wail of fear and horror as arose from the massed prisoners. Tarik gave an order then, and the prisoners were marched away.

  I turned, blind, to run. I had betrayed Christ for this! David's arm stopped me with a jerk. "It is only to spread terror," he said. "When the prisoners are out of sight, the bodies will be decently buried." Then Tarik called, and David hurried to him, I following more slowly. Count Ilian and the Archbishop were there, and Tarik had just finished speaking. David translated: "King Roderic is dead—or fled. I take possession of all this land in the name of the Commander of the Faithful, the Caliph Walid."

  He stooped, gathered a handful of dust, and threw it in the air. Every Moor's sword flashed, and a great shout arose, beginning with those close by who had heard what the general said, and spreading as ripples on a pond so that there was still a distant shouting when David said, "Thank the general's magnanimity for your life. Then go. He has no further use for you."

  Count Ilian walked away, like a man dreaming, and disappeared in the dark, blood-soaked field. To the Archbishop, David said, "Bring hither all those of quality who have surrendered, and all the women and baggage of the Visigoths. The general will give you his commands tomorrow."

  Gradually the space about the general's tent cleared. I had seen the wrath of God, and I still lived. Now I longed, I prayed, only for...

  David ha-Cohen was beside me. "My master, Abd-al-Malik, has been appointed Lord of Torrox and Guardian of the Rock," he said. "I am to be his chief minister. Stay with me. Be my friend, my companion in work and play, for I have come to hold a great love for you, Aethelred—and not such a love as Count Anseric's!"

  The words rushed from my mouth, from my heart. "I cannot stay, David. I am sick at heart, for I have seen more than my spirit can encompass. I must to Rome to learn the Word and take it back to Wessex."

  "Back to the land of fog and bog," he said bitterly. "You are a bigger fool even than I believed, if that is possible."

  He walked away and around, then came back. "Take this." He pressed something hard into my hand, and I saw the glint of gold by the starlight. "Go now, down this valley to the sea, then follow the strand north to a little village of fishermen on an island called Gades. Ask there for Timothy Opadianus. He is of my faith. He will find you a vessel going to Rome. When you pass the Rock, think of me." He embraced me suddenly and cried, "Shalom!" and was gone.

  It came about as he had said. A month later I passed the Rock at high noon on a stormy day. The cloud streaming from its crest seemed to be green, like the standards of the Moors, and to have the words of that faith hidden in it in their long, slender writing. I gazed at the Rock until darkness hid it.

  After five years in Rome I returned to Glastonbury on foot and never saw David ha-Cohen, or the Rock, again.

  BOOK SIX

  CALIPHS, EMIRS, AND KINGS

  The Jewish years 4471—5222

  AUC 1464—2215

  A.D. 711—1462

  A.H. 92-866

  After the great battle, without waiting for Governor Musa's authorization, Tarik swept on northward and was only halted by the arrival of the furiously jealous Musa, who publicly whipped him in Toledo. Musa then took up the pursuit and within a few years had conquered all of Spain except the mountainous Asturias in the extreme north. The Pyrenees did not stop the Muslims' victorious advance, and they were not finally turned back until 732, when the Frankish king Charles Martel defeated them outside Tours, in France. This was one of history's most important battles, for it decided whether Europe would become Muslim or remain Christian.

  All the leaders of the invasion have their memorials. The Roman Traducta, in the gut of the strait, was now named Tarifa, after the man who had made the first reconnaissance in 710; and from the taxes levied there on goods from Africa came the word tariff. Abd-al-Malik, one of the few Arabs in the invading army (most were North Africans), was given the castle of Torasch or Torrox (since vanished; it was on the Guadario, about nine miles north of Gibraltar). The eighth in direct descent from him was Almanzor, the greatest ruler Muslim Spain ever knew.

  The African Pillar of Hercules, known to the Romans as
Mons Abyla, became Djebel Musa. The man himself paid the penalty of his success and of a certain folly in marrying his son to Egilona, the widow of the lecherous but now vanished King Roderic, and then appointing him governor of Andalusia.

  From Damascus this looked as though Musa were setting up his own dynasty in Spain. The caliph recalled him, stripped him of his wealth and honors, and soon afterward, as a token of appreciation for all that he had done on behalf of his lord and his religion, sent him the head of his son.

  In honor of Tarik, the leader who had actually taken the Rock, the old name of Calpe, though still known and used, was overshadowed by the new one of Tarik's Mountain, Djebel Tctrik—Gibraltar.

  Besides bringing their faith into Europe, the Muslims were also responsible for introducing the famous apes. These animals, Barbary apes, are in fact tailless monkeys, macaques (Macaca sylvana, magus, or inuus). They cannot be descendants of the monkeys whose fossil bones have been found all over Europe as far north as England, for they are of a quite different species. Nor can they have come from Africa by a secret tunnel (the geological faulting under the strait rules that out, even without the abstruse arguments of common sense). The Moors brought them, and the true oddity about them is that they have never spread into southern Spain but have remained confined to Gibraltar; also that though there are plenty still wild in North Africa, there are none in their original country of origin, Persia—where they have become extinct.

  They are odd beasts, grayish brown, not very large, not very attractive. Their numbers have probably always fluctuated considerably. Throughout Moorish times they were strengthened by the infusion of fresh blood from Africa. Then after two centuries of neglect and inbreeding under the Spanish they found themselves pampered and superstitiously nurtured as the alleged symbols of British power on the Rock. But they are there, with the Gibraltar candytuft and the Barbary partridge, an exotic and irrational part of the Gibraltar background, stealing fruit, fouling rooftops, grabbing baubles from children's hands, watching the bustle below from their fastnesses on top of the Rock and at the head of the eastern cliffs (a place here has long been called the Monkeys' Alameda, or "garden walk").