AFRICAN RULE IN SPAIN 65 Morocco for the purpose of urging his views upon the Sultan. He appears to have spent a considerable part of his life at the court of Morocco, which was at that time a centre of learning. He died there in 1198, and, in recording his death, Morocco is mentioned as "the capital " of Adouatein. The mere existence of this geographical expression, used, as has been said, by the Arabs to signify the two kingdoms of Spain and Africa, shows how very closely the interests of the two countries had become bound together. In connection with the residence of the learned Averrhoes at the court of El Mansur in Africa, it may be worth mentioning that the praises of the same sovereign were sung in his court at Seville by the '' learned and celebrated poet, a black of Soudan, Abu Ishak Ibrahim al Kanemi." The circumstance, though slight, is interesting, as serving to show that at the end of the twelfth century Negroland contributed, not only its commercial wares, but also its quota of art to the stores of Europe.

From the beginning of the thirteenth century onward, the decay of the Mussulman power in Spain is marked. The Christian Powers made constant and successful onslaughts upon the Almohade possessions. Town after town of importance fell into their hands. They were assisted by internal divisions among the Mussulmans ; and in 1230, after nearly a century of brilliant rule, the Almohade dynasty was brought to an end by the deposition of the reigning sovereign. The Moslem portion of the continent declared itself independent under Ibn Hud, also a leader of African origin. Valencia fell into Christian hands, 1238; Cordova, 1239; Seville, 1260. A little later the whole of the Moslem population was driven to the coast between Ronda, in the west, and Almeria, in the east. In Africa the province of Ifrikiah, which stretched at one period from the confines of Egypt to those of Morocco, at the same time declared itself independent under a Sultan of the Hafside dynasty. In 1269 the Merinites possessed themselves of the throne of Morocco E