text:  were almost constantly engaged in warfare either against their own rebellious relatives and revolted subjects [12] or against the Christians of Galicia who by the middle of the ninth century had advanced their frontier to the Douro and repeatedly repulsed the armies sent against them from Cordova; but we find no mention in the writers cited by Al-Makkari either of the annual tribute of a hundred virgins popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems or of the great victory in 846 by which King Ramiro redeemed his country from this degrading badge of vassalage