CHAPTER VI DECLINE OF MOHAMMEDAN POWER IN SPAIN Thus, before the end of the thirteenth century, the dual Mohammedan Empire of " Adouatein," or ''The Two Shores," had ceased to exist, and in its place there had grown up three distinct Moslem powers. In Spain the Huddites, who afterwards fell under the Hafside leadership of the celebrated Ibn Ahmar, the builder of the Alhambra, formed a Moslem kingdom within the restricted limits still left to them, scarcely extending beyond the province of Granada. Upon the northern coast of Africa, in the ancient province of Africa Propria, or Ifrikiah, embracing Tunis and Tripoli, and henceforward generally known as Barbary, an independent Hafside dynasty was established, of which the subsequent history is one long succession of war. In Morocco the dynasty of the Merinites, ever at war with the Hafsides of the coast, was to hold its own until, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was overthrown by the Sherifs, whose descendants now reign in Morocco. Almost simultaneously with this break-up of the Caliphate of the West, the Caliphate of the East was overthrown by the Tartars in 1258.

Notwithstanding the ceaseless wars to which all these dynasties were exposed, the Courts of Tunis, Fez, and Granada maintained a high reputation for learning, refinement, and civilisation. The most brilliant period of Arab domination had come to an end, but the Arabs continued for two hundred years to represent the highest standard of knowledge and enlightenment which existed in modern Europe. Their universities were the founts 67