ARAB CIVILISATION IN SPAIN 47 get up and shake their ears." Zaryab flourished some seven centuries before the ladies whose toilet was so simple. He was the contemporary of Egbert and Charlemagne.

The contrast between Arab civilisation and the civilisation of Northern Europe of that date is sharply accentuated by the fact that, while the literature of the Arabs was such as to remain for our instruction to this day, Charlemagne, the greatest monarch of the West, could not write. Spain under the Arabs truly deserved, as we have seen, its name as the *' noble repository " of learning. One of the four principal things in which Cordova was said to surpass all other cities was **the sciences therein cultivated." It was reputed to be the city of the earth where the greatest number of books was to be found, One of the Ommeyade Sultans was *' so fond of books that he is said to have converted Andalusia into a great market whereto the literary productions of every clime were brought immediately for sale." He also collected round him, and employed in his own palace, the most skilful men of his time in binding, transcribing, and illuminating books. He amassed such literary treasures as no sovereign before or after him, to the knowledge of his biographers, had ever possessed. It is said of him that he was so fond of reading that he preferred the pleasure of perusing his books to all the enjoyments which royalty could afford.

He himself wrote a voluminous history of Andalusia. His collection of books founded the great library of Cordova, which remained until the taking of the city by the Berbers in a.d. ioio. The catalogue alone consisted of forty-four volumes.

Every wealthy man in Cordova had his own library. To such an extent did this rage for collection increase, says Ibn Said, that any man in a prominent position considered himself obliged to have a library of his own, and would spare no trouble or expense in collecting books. Books were an expensive luxury too. A story is told of a certain writer, richer in learning than in other goods, greatly desiring a book, and watching for it daily in the