>>56477072 Part of the Celebrate Diversity of medieval Spain was the hundred-virgins-tax.
"...yearly tribute of 100 maidens paid by the northern kings to the earlier Arab Sultans. Modern historians mostly throw doubt upon the story, saying that of the early historians none mention it, and that the Arabs do not even allude to it.[5] But if Conde is to be trusted, an Arab writer does speak of it, as of a thing well known. In a letter of Omar[6] ibn Alaftas Almudafar, King of Algarve, to Alfonso VI., in 1086, occur the words:—"Do thou remember the time of Mohammed Almanzor, and bring to thy mind those treaties wherein thy forefathers offered him the homage even of their own daughters, and sent him those damsels in tribute even to the land of our rule."
The maiden tribute is the subject of several ancient ballads by the Christian Spaniards. The following are two verses from one of these:—
"For he who gives the Moorish king a hundred maids of Spain
Each year when in the season the day comes round again
...there is a direct allusion to it in a document included in the collection of Florez.[3] "Our ancestors," says Ramiro, "the kings of the land—we blush to record it—to free themselves from the raids of the Saracens, consented to pay them yearly a shameful tribute of a hundred maidens distinguished for their beauty, fifty of noble birth, and fifty from the people." It was to put an end to this nefarious tribute that Ramiro now ordered a levy en masse. This, if the document is genuine (and Florez gives no hint to the contrary), is good evidence for the fact. Many succeeding writers mention it. Lucas of Tuy[4] says that Ramiro was asked for the tribute in 842. Johannes Vasaeus[5] speaks of it, as also Alfonso, Bishop of Burgos;[6] and lastly, Rodrigo of Toledo[7] says that Mauregatus (783-788), having obtained the throne of Leon by Saracen help, agreed to send this tribute yearly.
- Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 by Charles Reginald Haines
