NEW YORK (continued 2)

[3] See Note B, page 209.

[4] A.D. 752, Heg. 134.

[5] See Note C, page 209.

[6] It was under the government of the Abbassides that the empire of the East possessed that superiority in wealth, magnificence, and learning for which it was once so celebrated. Under the sway of the Caliphs of Bagdad, the Mohammedans became as much renowned for their attainments in the higher branches of science as in the elegant and useful arts. To them the civilized world is indebted for the revival of the exact and physical sciences, and the discovery or restoration of most of the arts that afterward lent such beneficial aid to the progress of European literature and refinement. The far-famed capital of the Abbassides was adorned with every attraction that the most unbounded wealth could secure, or the most consummate art perfect. There taste and power had combined exquisite luxury with unparalleled splendour, and there all that imagination could suggest to fascinate the senses or enrapture the mind, was realized. These princes of Islam, by their unbounded liberality, attracted the learning and genius of other countries to their brilliant court, several of them were the ardent lovers of science as well as the munificent patrons of its devotees. Thus Bagdad became the favoured and genial home of letters and the arts; and luxury and the pursuit of pleasure were ennobled by a graceful union with the more elevated enjoyments of cultivated intellect and refined taste. Nor were these beneficent influences confined to the Mohammedan court, or to the period of time when they were so powerfully exercised. The Moslem sovereigns gave laws to a wide realm in arts as well as arms; and if the whole of Europe did not acknowledge their political superiority, in the world of science their supremacy was everywhere undisputed. That, like the gradually enlarging circles made by a pebble thrown into calm water, continued to spread farther and farther, until it reached the most distant shores, and communicated a generous impulse to nations long sunk in intellectual night.

* * * * * * * *

Such was the celebrated empire of the Abbassides in its halcyon days of undiminished power—such the beautiful City of Peace, the favoured home of imperial magnificence, ere the despoiling Tartar had profaned its loveliness and destroyed its grandeur. Yet, when we look beneath the brilliant exterior of these Oriental scenes and characters, we discover, under the splendour and elegance by which the eyes of the world were so long dazzled, the corruption and licentiousness of a government containing within itself the seeds of its own insecurity and ultimate destruction. We behold the absence of all fixed principles of legislation; we frequently find absolute monarchs guided solely by passion or caprice in the administration of arbitrary laws, and swaying the destinies of a people who, as a whole, were far from deriving any substantial advantage from the wealth and greatness of their despotic rulers. We are thus led to observe the evils that necessarily result from a want of those principles of vital religion, without which mere human learning is so inadequate to discipline the passions or direct the reason, and of those just and equal laws, the supremacy of which can alone secure the happiness of a people or the permanency of political institutions.—Trans.

[7] See note D, page 212.

[8] See note E, page 218.

[9] See note F, page 313.

[10] Cardonne, in his History of Spain.

[11] This word signifies, in the Arabic, Flower, or Ornament of the World.

[12] See Note G, page 213.

[13] The dinar is estimated by M. Florian to be equal to at least ten livres. According to that computation, the aggregate cost of the palace and city of Zahra would amount to considerably more than $14,000,000. Trans.

[14] See note H, page 214.

[15] About $22,500,000.

[16] See Note I, page 214.

[17] Mahadi, Suleiman, Ali, Abderamus IV., Casim, Jahiah, Hacchem III., Mohammed, Abderamus V., Jahiah II., Hacchem IV., and Jalmar-ben-Mohammed.

{85}

THIRD EPOCH.

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGDOMS THAT SPRANG FROM THE RUINS OF THE CALIPHATE.

Extending from the Commencement of the Eleventh to the Middle of the Thirteenth Century.

At the commencement of the eleventh century, when the throne of Cordova was daily stained by the blood of some new usurper, the governors of the different cities, as has been already remarked, had assumed the title of kings. Toledo, Saragossa, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Huesca, and several other places of inferior importance, each possessed independent sovereigns.

The history of these numerous kingdoms would be nearly as fatiguing to the reader as to the writer. It presents, for the space of two hundred years, nothing but accounts of repeated massacres, of fortresses taken and retaken, of pillages and seditions, of occasional instances of heroic conduct, but far more numerous crimes. Passing rapidly over two centuries of {86} misfortunes, let it suffice to contemplate the termination of these petty Moorish sovereignties.

Christian Spain, in the mean time, presented nearly the same picture as that exhibited by the portion of the Peninsula still in possession of the Mohammedans. The kings of Leon, Navarre, Castile, and Aragon were almost always relatives, and sometimes brothers; but they were not, for that reason, the less sanguinary in their designs towards each other. Difference of religion did not prevent them from uniting with the Moors, the more effectually to oppress other Christians, or other Moors with whom they chanced to be at enmity. Thus, in a battle which occurred A.D. 1010 between two Mussulman leaders, there were found among the slain a count of Urgel and three bishops of Catalonia.[1] And the King of Leon, Alphonso V., gave his sister Theresa in marriage to Abdalla, the Moorish king of Toledo, to convert him into an ally against Castile.

Among the Christians, as among the Moors, crimes were multiplied; civil wars of both a local and general nature at the same time distracted Spain, and the unhappy people expiated with {87} their property and their lives the iniquities of their rulers.

While thus regarding a long succession of melancholy events, it is agreeable to find a king of Toledo called Almamon, and Benabad, the Mussulman king of Seville, affording an asylum at their courts, the one to Alphonso, the young king of Leon, and the other to the unfortunate Garcias, king of Galicia, both of whom had been driven from their kingdoms by their brother Sancho, of Castile, A.D. 1071 Heg. 465. Sancho pursued his brothers as though they had been his most implacable enemies; and the Moorish monarchs, the natural enemies of all the Christians, received these two fugitive princes as brothers. Almamon, especially, lavished the most affectionate attention upon the unfortunate Alphonso: he endeavoured to entertain him at Toledo with such varied pleasures as should banish regret for the loss of a throne: he gave him an income, and, in short, treated the prince as though he had been a near and beloved relative. When the death of the cruel Sancho (A.D. 1072, Heg. 466) had rendered Alphonso king of Leon and Castile, the generous Almamon, who now had the person of the king of his enemies in his {88} power, accompanied the prince to the frontiers of his kingdom, loaded him with presents and caresses, and, at parting, offered the free use of his troops and treasures to his late guest.

While Almamon lived, Alphonso IV. never forgot his obligations to his benefactor. He maintained peace with him, aided him in his campaigns against the King of Seville, and even entered into a treaty with Hacchem, the son and successor of his ally. But, after a brief reign, Hacchem left the throne of Toledo to his youthful brother Jahiah. That prince oppressed the Christians, who were very numerous in his city; and they secretly implored Alphonso to make war upon Jahiah. The memory of Almamon long caused the Spanish monarch to hesitate in relation to this subject. Gratitude impelled him not to listen to the suggestions of ambition and the prayers of his countrymen; but the arguments of gratitude proved the least strong, and Alphonso encamped before Toledo.

After a long and celebrated siege, to which several French and other foreign warriors eagerly hastened, Toledo finally capitulated, A.D. 1085, Heg. 478.

The conqueror allowed the sons of Almamon {89} to go and reign at Valencia, and engaged by an oath to preserve the mosques from destruction. He could not, however, prevent the Christians from speedily violating this promise.

Such was the end of the Moorish kingdom of Toledo. This ancient capital of the Goths had belonged to the Arabs three hundred and eighty-two years.

Several other less important cities now submitted to the Christian yoke. The kings of Aragon and Navarre, and the Count of Barcelona, incessantly harassed and besieged the petty Mussulman princes who still remained in the north of Spain. The attacks of the kings of Castile and Leon afforded sufficient occupation for those of the south, effectually to prevent their rendering any assistance to their brethren. Above all, the Cid, the famous Cid, flew from one part of Spain to another, at the head of the invincible band with whom his fame had surrounded him, everywhere achieving victories for the Christians, and even lending the aid of his arms to the Moors when they were internally divided, but always securing success to the party he favoured.

This hero, one of the most truly admirable of those whom history has celebrated, since in his {90} character were united the most exalted virtue and the highest qualities of the soldier; this simple Castilian cavalier, upon whom his reputation alone bestowed the control of armies, became master of several cities, assisted the King of Aragon to seize upon Huesca, and conquered the kingdom of Valencia without any other assistance than that of his men-at-arms. Equal in power with his sovereign, of whose treatment he frequently had reason to complain, and envied and persecuted by the jealous courtiers, the Cid never forgot for a moment that he was the subject of the King of Castile. Banished from court, and even exiled from his estates, he hastened, with his brave companions, to attack and conquer the Moors, and to send those of them whom he vanquished to render homage to the king who had deprived him of his rights.

Being soon recalled to the presence of Alphonso, in consequence of the king's needing his military aid, the Cid left the scenes of his martial triumphs, and, without demanding reparation for the injuries he had sustained, returned to defend his persecutors; ever ready, while in disgrace, to forget everything in the performance of his duty to his king, and equally ready, when enjoying {91} the favour of the sovereign, to displease him, if it should be necessary to do so, by advocating the cause of truth and justice.[2]

While the prowess of the Cid maintained the contest, the Christians had the advantage; but a few years after his death, which occurred in the year 1099 and the 492d of the Hegira, the Moors of Andalusia changed masters, and became, for a time, more formidable than ever to their Spanish foes.

After the fall of Toledo, Seville had increased in power. The sovereigns of that city were also masters of ancient Cordova, and possessed, in addition, Estremadura and a part of Portugal. Benabad, king of Seville, one of the most estimable princes of his age, was now the only one of its enemies capable of disturbing the safety of Castile. Alphonso IV., desirous of allying himself with this powerful Moor, demanded his daughter in marriage. His proposal was acceded to, and the Castilian monarch received several towns as the dowry of the Moorish princess; but this extraordinary union, which seemed to ensure peace between the two nations, nevertheless soon became either the cause or the pretext of renewed contests.

{92}

Africa, after having been separated from the vast empire of the Caliphs of the East by the Fatimite caliphs, and being, during three centuries of civil war, the prey of a succession of conquerors more ferocious and sanguinary than the lions of their deserts,[3] was now subjected to the family of the Almoravides, a powerful tribe of Egyptian origin. Joseph-ben-Tessefin, the second prince of this dynasty, founded the kingdom and city of Morocco.

Endowed with some warlike talents, proud of his power, and burning to augment it, Joseph regarded with a covetous eye the beautiful European provinces which had formerly been conquered by the Mussulmans of Africa.

Some historians assert that the King of Castile, Alphonso IV., and his father-in-law Benabad, king of Seville, having formed the project of dividing Spain between them, committed the capital error of summoning the Moors of Africa to their assistance in this grand design. But others, founding their assertions upon more plausible reasoning, say that the petty Mussulman kings, who were the neighbours or tributaries of Benabad, justly alarmed at his alliance with a {93} Christian king, solicited the support of the Almoravide.

But, be that as it may, the ambitious Joseph eagerly availed himself of the fortunate pretext presented by the invitation he had received, and crossed the Mediterranean at the head of an army. He hastened to attack Alphonso, and succeeded in overcoming him in a battle that took place between them, A.D. 1097, Heg. 490. Then turning his arms against Benabad, Joseph took Cordova, besieged Seville, and was preparing for the assault of that city, when the virtuous Benabad, sacrificing his crown and even his liberty to save his subjects from the horrors that threatened them, delivered himself up, together with his family of a hundred children, to the disposal of the Almoravide.

The barbarous African, dreading the influence of a monarch whose virtues had rendered him so justly dear to his people, sent him to end his days in an African prison, where his daughters were obliged to support their father and brothers by the labour of their hands.

The unfortunate Benabad lived six years after the commencement of his imprisonment, regretting his lost throne only for the sake of his {94} people, and beguiling the period of his protracted leisure by the composition of several poems which are still in existence. In them he attempts to console his daughters under their heavy afflictions, recalls the remembrance of his vanished greatness, and offers himself as a warning and example to kings who shall presume to trust too confidently to the unchanging continuance of the favours of fortune.

Joseph-ben-Tessefin, after he had thus become master of Seville and Cordova, soon succeeded in subjugating the other petty Mussulman states; and the Moors, united under a single monarch as powerful as Joseph, threatened again to occupy the important position they had sustained during the supremacy of their caliphs. The Spanish princes, alarmed at this prospect, suspended their individual quarrels, and joined Alphonso in resisting the Africans.

At this particular juncture, a fanatical love of religion and glory induced many European warriors to take up arms against the infidels. Raymond of Bourgogne, and his kinsman Henry, both French princes of the blood, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, count of Toulouse, with some other cavaliers from among their vassals, crossed the {95} Pyrenees with their retainers, and fought under the banners of the King of Castile. Thus assisted, that sovereign put the Egyptian commander to flight, and compelled him, soon afterward, to recross the Mediterranean.

The grateful Alphonso gave his daughters as a recompense to the distinguished Frenchmen who had lent him the aid of their arms. The eldest, Urraca, espoused Raymond of Bourgogne, and their son afterward inherited the kingdom of Castile. Theresa became the wife of Henry, and brought him as a dowry all the land he had thus far conquered or should hereafter conquer in Portugal: from thence originated that kingdom. Elvira was given to Raymond, count of Toulouse, who carried her with him to the Holy Land, where he gained some possessions by his valour.

Excited by these illustrious examples, other French cavaliers resorted soon after to the standard of the King of Aragon, Alphonso I., who made himself master of Saragossa, and for ever destroyed that ancient kingdom of the Moors, A.D. 1118, Heg. 512.

The son of Henry of Bourgogne, Alphonso I. king of Portugal, a prince renowned for his {96} bravery, availed himself of the presence of a combined fleet of English, Flemings, and Germans, who had anchored in the harbour of that city on their way to the Holy Land, to lay siege to Lisbon. He carried that place by assault, in spite of its great strength, and made it the capital of his kingdom, A.D. 1147, Heg. 541.

During this period the kings of Castile and Navarre were extending their conquests in Andalusia.

The Moors were attacked on all sides, and their cities were everywhere compelled to surrender, now that they were no longer materially aided by the Almoravides. Those African princes were at this time sufficiently occupied at home in opposing some new sectaries, the principal of whom, under pretext of reinitiating the people in a knowledge of the pure doctrines of Mohammed, opened for themselves a path to the throne, and, after many struggles, ended by effectually driving the family of the Almoravides from its possession. The new conquerors, becoming by these means masters of Morocco and Fez, destroyed, according to the African custom, every individual of the supplanted race, and founded a new dynasty, which is known under {97} the name of the Almohades, A.D. 1149, Heg. 543.

In the midst of these divisions, these wars and combats, the fine arts still continued to be cultivated at Cordova. And though they were no longer in the flourishing condition in which they were maintained during the reigns of the several caliphs who bore the cherished name of Abderamus, yet the schools of philosophy, poetry, and medicine had continued to exist. These schools produced, in the twelfth century, several distinguished men, among the most celebrated of whom were the learned Abenzoar and the famous Averroes. The former, equally profound in medicine, pharmacy, and surgery, lived, it is said, to the age of one hundred and thirty-five years. Some estimable works which he produced are still extant. Averroes was also a physician, but he was more of a philosopher, poet, lawyer, and commentator. He acquired a reputation so profound, that passing centuries have only served more firmly to establish it. The disposition made by this remarkable man of his time during the different periods of his existence, will illustrate his mental character. In his youth he was the passionate votary of {98} pleasure and poetry: in more mature age he burned the verses he had previously composed, studied the principles of legislation, and discharged the duties of a judicial officer: having advanced still farther in life, he abandoned these occupations for the pursuit of medicine, in which he attained very great eminence: at last philosophy alone supplied the place of every earlier taste, and wholly engrossed his attention for the remainder of his life. It was Averroes who first created among the Moors a taste for Greek literature. He translated the works of Aristotle into Arabic, and wrote commentaries upon them. He also published several other works upon philosophy and medicine, and possessed the united glory of having both enlightened and benefited mankind.[4]

As Africa, distracted by the long war of the Almoravides and the Almohades, was unable to offer any opposition to the progress of the Christians in Spain, these last, availing themselves of this condition of affairs, continued to extend their conquests in Andalusia. If the Spanish princes had been less disunited, and had acted in concert against the infidels, they would have been able {99} at this period to deprive the Mussulmans of their entire dominions in the Peninsula. But these ever-contending princes had no sooner taken a Moorish city than they began to dispute among themselves about its possession.

The newly-created kingdom of Portugal, established by the military powers of Alphonso, was soon at war with that of Leon.[5] Aragon and Castile, after many bloody quarrels, united in a league against Navarre. Sancho VIII., the sovereign of that little state, was forced to resort to Africa for assistance, and implore the aid of the Almohades. But they, being but recently established on the throne of Morocco, were still employed in exterminating the dismembered fragments of the party of the Almoravides, and could not, in spite of their eager desire to do so, establish any claim to their assumed rights in Spain. Nevertheless, two kings of the race of the Almohades, both named Joseph, passed the Mediterranean more than once with numerous armies. The one was successfully opposed by the Portuguese, and did not survive his final defeat; the other was more fortunate, and succeeded in vanquishing the Castilians, but {100} was soon after obliged to accept a truce and return in haste to Morocco, to which new disturbances recalled him, A.D. 1195, Heg. 591.

But these useless victories, these ill-sustained efforts, did not permanently disable either the Mussulmans or the Christians. On both sides, the vanquished parties soon re-entered the field, in utter neglect of the treaties into which they might ever so recently have entered. The sovereigns of Morocco, though regarded as the kings of Andalusia, nevertheless possessed only a precarious authority in that country, which was always disputed when they were absent, and acknowledged only when necessity forced the Mussulman inhabitants to have recourse to their protection.

At last Mohammed El Nazir, the fourth prince of the dynasty of the Almohades, to whom the Spaniards gave the name of the Green, from the colour of his turban, finding himself in quiet possession of the Moorish empire of Africa, resolved to assemble all his forces, to lead them into Spain, and to renew in that country the ancient conquests of Tarik and Moussa. A holy war was proclaimed, A.D. 1211, Heg. 608, and an innumerable army {101} crowded around the ensigns of Mohammed, left the shores of Africa under the guidance of that monarch, and safely arrived in Andalusia. There their numbers were nearly doubled by the Spanish Moors, whom hatred to the very name of Christian, arising from the vivid remembrance of accumulated injuries, induced to join the bands of El Nazir.

The sanguine Mohammed promised an easy triumph to his followers, together with the certainty of rendering themselves masters of all that their ancestors had formerly possessed; and, burning to commence the contest, he immediately advanced towards Castile at the head of his formidable army, which, according to the reports of historians, amounted to more than six hundred thousand men.

The king of Castile, Alphonso the Noble, informed of the warlike preparations of the King of Morocco, implored the assistance of the Christian princes of Europe. Pope Innocent III. proclaimed a crusade and granted indulgences most lavishly. Rodrique, archbishop of Toledo, made in person a voyage to Rome, to solicit the aid of the sovereign pontiff; and, returning homeward through France, preached to the people {102} on his route, and induced many cavaliers to proceed at the head of bands of recruits to Spain, and join the opponents of the Mussulmans.

The general rendezvous was at Toledo, at which point there were soon collected more than sixty thousand crusaders from Italy and France, who united themselves with the soldiers of Castile. The King of Aragon, Peter II., the same who afterward perished in the war of the Albigense, led his valiant army to the place of meeting, and Sancho VIII., king of Navarre, was not backward in presenting himself at the head of his brave subjects. The Portuguese had recently lost their king, but they despatched their best warriors to Toledo. In short, all Spain flew to arms. There was general union for the promotion of mutual safety; for never, since the time of King Rodrique, had the Christians been placed in such imminent danger.

It was at the foot of the Sierra Morena, at a place named Las Navas de Toloza, that the three Spanish princes encountered the Moors, A.D. 1212, Heg. 609.

Mohammed El Nazir had taken possession of the mountain gorges through which it had been the intention of the Christians to approach {103} his camp. The adroit African thus designed, either to force his opponents to turn back, which would expose them to the danger of a failure of provisions, or to overwhelm them in the pass if they should attempt to enter it. Upon discovering this circumstance, a council was called by the embarrassed Christian leaders. Alphonso was desirous of attempting the passage, but the kings of Navarre and Aragon advised a retreat. In the midst of this dilemma, a shepherd presented himself before them, and offered to conduct them through a defile of the mountain, with which he was familiar. This proposal, which was the salvation of their army, was eagerly accepted, and the shepherd guided the Catholic sovereigns through difficult paths and across rocks and torrents, until, with their followers, they finally succeeded in attaining the summit of the mountain.

There, suddenly presenting themselves before the eyes of the astonished Moors, they were engaged for the space of two days in preparing themselves for the conflict, by prayer, confession, and the solemn reception of the holy sacrament Their leaders set an example to the soldiers in this zealous devotion; and the prelates and {104} ecclesiastics, of whom there were a great number in the camp, after having absolved these devout warriors, prepared to accompany them into the midst of the conflict.

Upon the third day, the sixteenth of July, in the year twelve hundred and twelve, the Christian army was drawn up in battle array. The troops were formed into three divisions, each commanded by a king. Alphonso was in the centre, at the head of his Castilians and the chevaliers of the newly-instituted orders of Saint James and Calatrava; Rodrique, archbishop of Toledo, the eyewitness and historian of this great battle, advanced by the side of Alphonso, preceded by a large cross, the principal ensign of the army; Sancho and his Navarrois formed the right, while Peter and his subjects occupied the left. The French crusaders, now reduced to a small number by the desertion of many of their companions, who had been unable to endure the scorching heat of the climate, marched in the van of the other troops, under the command of Arnault, archbishop of Narbonne.

Thus disposed, the Christians descended towards the valley which separated them from their enemies.

{105}

The Moors, according to their ancient custom, everywhere displayed their innumerable soldiers, without order or arrangement. An admirable cavalry, to the number of a hundred thousand men, composed their principal strength: the rest of their army was made up of a crowd of ill-armed and imperfectly trained foot-soldiers. Mohammed, stationed on a height, from which he could command a view of his whole army, was encompassed by a defence made of chains of iron, guarded by the choicest of his cavaliers on foot. Standing in the midst of this enclosure, with the Koran in one hand and an unsheathed sabre in the other, the Saracen commander was visible to all his troops, of whom the bravest squadrons occupied the four sides of the hill.

The Castilians directed their first efforts towards this elevation. At first they drove back the Moors, but, repulsed in their turn, they recoiled in disorder and began to retreat. Alphonso flew here and there, attempting to rally their broken ranks, "Archbishop," said he to the prelate who everywhere accompanied him, preceded by the grand standard of the Cross, "Archbishop, here are we destined to die!" "Not {106} so, sire," replied the ecclesiastic; "we are destined here to live and conquer!" At that moment the brave canon who carried the chief ensign threw himself with it into the midst of the infidels; the prelate and the king followed him, and the Castilian soldiers rushed forward to protect their sovereign and their sacred standard. The already victorious kings of Aragon and Navarre now advanced at the head of their wings to unite in the attack upon the height. The Moors were assaulted at all points: they bravely resisted their opponents; but the Christians crowded upon them—the Aragonais, the Navarrois, and the Castilians endeavouring mutually to surpass each other in courage and daring. The brave King of Navarre, making a path for himself through the midst of its defenders, reached the enclosure, and struck and broke the chains by which the Moorish commander was surrounded.[6] Mohammed took to flight on beholding this catastrophe; and his soldiers, no longer beholding their king, lost both hope and courage. They gave way in all directions, and fled before the Christians. Thousands of the Mussulmans fell beneath the {107} weapons of their pursuers, while the Archbishop of Toledo, with the other ecclesiastics, surrounding the victorious sovereigns, chanted a Te Deum on the field of battle.

Thus was gained the famous battle of Toloza, of which some details have been given in consequence of its great importance, and in illustration of the military tactics of the Moors. With them the arts of war consisted solely in mingling with the enemy, and fighting, each one for himself, until either the strongest or the bravest of the two parties remained masters of the field.

The Spaniards possessed but little more military skill than their Moslem neighbours; but their infantry, at least, could attack and resist in mass, while the discipline of that of the Saracens amounted to scarcely anything. On the other hand, again, the cavalry of the Moors was admirably trained. The cavaliers who composed it belonged to the principal families in the kingdom, and possessed excellent horses, in the art of managing which they had been trained from childhood. Their mode of combat was to rush forward with the rapidity of light, strike with the sabre or the lance, fly away as quickly, and then wheel suddenly and return again to the {108} encounter. Thus they often succeeded in recalling victory to their standard when she seemed just about to desert them. The Christians, covered as they were with iron, had in some respects the advantage of these knights, whose persons were protected only by a breastplate and headpiece of steel. The Moorish foot-soldiers were nearly naked, and armed only with a wretched pike. It is easy to perceive that, when involved in the melee, and, above all, during a route, vast numbers of them must have perished. This, too, renders less incredible the seemingly extravagant accounts given by historians of their losses in the field. They assert, for example, that, at the battle of Toloza, the Christians killed two hundred thousand Moors, while they lost themselves but fifteen hundred soldiers. Even when these assertions are estimated at their true value, it remains certain that the infidels sustained an immense loss; and this important defeat, which is still celebrated yearly at Toledo by a solemn fete, long deprived the kings of Morocco of all hope of subjugating the Spaniards.

The victory of Toloza was followed by more fatal consequences to the unfortunate Mohammed than to the Moors of Andalusia; for the {109} latter retired to their cities, defended them by means of the remains of the African army, and successfully resisted the Spanish princes, who succeeded in taking but few of their strong places, and, speedily dissolving their league, separated for their respective kingdoms. But Mohammed, despised by his subjects after his defeat, and assailed by the treachery of his nearest relations, lost all authority in Spain, and beheld the principal Moors, whom he had now no power to control, again forming little states, the independence of which they were prepared to assert by force of arms.[7] The discomfited El Nazir consequently returned to Africa, where he soon after died of chagrin.

With Mohammed the Green vanished the good fortune of the Almohades. The princes of that house, who followed El Nazir in rapid succession, purchased their royal prerogatives at the expense of continual unhappiness and danger, and were finally driven from the throne. The empire of Morocco was then divided, and three new dynasties were established; that of Fez, of Tunis, and of Tremecen. These three powerful and rival sovereignties greatly multiplied the {110} conflicts, crimes, and atrocities, the narration of which alone constitutes the history of Africa.

About this period some dissensions arose in Castile, which, together with the part assumed by the King of Aragon in the war of the Albigense in France, allowed the Moors time to breathe. The Moslems were still masters of the kingdoms of Valencia, Murcia, Grenada, and Andalusia, with part of Algarva and the Balearic Isles, which last, until that time, had continued to be but little known to the Christians of the Continent.

These states were divided between several sovereigns, the principal of whom was Benhoud, a descendant of the ancient kings of Saragossa, a sagacious monarch and a great commander, who by his genius and courage had obtained dominion over all the southeastern part of Spain. Next to Benhoud in rank, the most important of these Mohammedan princes were the kings of Seville and Valentia. The barbarian who reigned at Majorca was a mere piratical chief, whose enmity was formidable only to the inhabitants of the neighbouring coast of Catalonia.

Such was the condition of Moorish Spain, {111} when two young heroes seated themselves, nearly at the same time, on the thrones of the two principal Christian states; and, after having allayed the commotions created during the period of their minority, directed their concentrated efforts against the Mussulmans, A.D. 1224, Heg. 621.

These princes, who were mutually desirous to emulate each other in fame, but were never rivals in interest, both consecrated their lives to the extirpation of the inflexible enemies of their native land. One of these sovereigns was Jacques I., king of Aragon (a son of the Peter of Aragon who distinguished himself on the field of Toloza), who united to the courage, grace, and energy of his father, a greater degree of genius and success than fell to the lot of that sovereign. The other was Ferdinand III., king of Castile and Leon, a discerning, courageous, and enterprising monarch, whom the Romish Church has numbered with its saints, and history ranks among its great men.

This prince was the nephew of Blanche of Castile, queen of France, and cousin-german of St. Lewis,[8] whom he nearly resembled in his {112} piety, his bravery, and the wise laws he framed for the benefit of his subjects.

Ferdinand carried his arms first into Andalusia. When he entered the territories of the infidels, he received the homage of several Moorish princes, who came to acknowledge themselves his vassals. As he proceeded, he seized upon a great number of places, and, among others, the town of Alhambra, whose frightened inhabitants retired to Grenada, and established themselves in a portion of that city, which thus obtained the name by which it was afterward so much celebrated.

Jacques of Aragon, on his part, set sail with an army for the Balearic Isles. Though impeded in his progress by contrary winds, he succeeded at last in reaching Majorca, on the shore of which island he defeated the Moorish force that attempted to oppose his landing, and then marched towards their capital and laid siege to it.

The chivalrous Jacques, who, when danger was to be encountered, always took precedence of even his bravest officers and most daring soldiers, was, as usual, the first to mount the walls in the assault upon this city. It was carried, {113} notwithstanding its great strength, the Mussulman king driven from the throne, and this new crown permanently incorporated with that of Aragon, A.D. 1229, Heg. 627.

Jacques had long been meditating a most important conquest. Valencia, after the death of the Cid, had again fallen into the hands of the Moors. This beautiful and fertile province, where nature seemed to delight herself by covering anew with fruit and flowers the soil that man had so often deluged with blood, was now under the dominion of Zeith, a brother of Mohammed El Nazir, the African king who was vanquished at Toloza by the Christians. A powerful faction, inimical to the power of Zeith, wished to place upon the throne a prince named Zean. The two competitors appealed to arms to decide their respective claims. The King of Aragon espoused the cause of Zeith, and, under pretext of marching to his assistance, advanced into the kingdom of Valencia, several times defeated Zean, seized upon his strong places, and, with the active intrepidity that rendered him so formidable a foe, invested the capital of his enemy, A.D. 1234, Heg. 632.

Thus pressed by the sovereign of Aragon, {114} Zean implored the aid of Benhoud, the most puissant of the kings of Andalusia. But Benhoud was at this time occupied in resisting the encroachments of Ferdinand. The Castilians, under the conduct of that valiant prince, had made new progress against the Moors. After possessing themselves of a great number of other cities, they had now laid siege to ancient Cordova.

Benhoud had been often vanquished, but always retained the affections of a people who regarded him as their last support. He had again collected an army, and, though possessed with an equally earnest desire to relieve both Cordova and Valencia, was about to march towards the latter, from a belief that he was most likely to be there successful, when his life was treacherously terminated by one of his lieutenants.

The Catholic kings were by this means delivered from the opposition of the only man who was capable of impeding the accomplishment of their wishes.

The death of Benhoud deprived the inhabitants of Cordova of all courage and hope. Until then they had defended themselves with {115} equal courage and constancy; but they offered to capitulate upon receiving intelligence of this disastrous event.[9]

The Christians made the most rigorous use of their victory, granting only life and liberty of departure to the unfortunate disciples of the Prophet. An innumerable host of these wretched people came forth from their former homes, weeping, and despoiled of all their possessions. Slowly they left the superb city which had been for more than five hundred and twenty years the principal seat of their national greatness, their luxurious magnificence, their cherished religion, and their favourite literature and fine arts.

Often did these desolate exiles pause on their way, and turn their despairing eyes once again towards the towering palaces, the splendid temples, the beautiful gardens, that five centuries of lavish expense and toilsome effort had served to adorn and perfect, only to become the spoil of the enemies of their faith and their race.

The Catholic soldiers who were now the occupants of these enchanting abodes, were so far from appreciating their loveliness and value, {116} that they preferred rather to destroy than inhabit them; and Ferdinand soon found himself the possessor of a deserted city. He was therefore compelled to attract inhabitants to Cordova from other parts of his dominions, by the offer of extraordinary immunities. But, notwithstanding the privileges thus accorded them, the Spaniards murmured at leaving their arid rocks and barren fields, to dwell in the palaces of caliphs and amid nature's most luxuriant scenes.

The grand mosque of Abderamus was converted into a cathedral, and Cordova became the residence of a bishop and canons, but it was never restored to the faintest shadow of its former splendour.

Not long after the fall of Cordova, Valencia also submitted to the Christian yoke. Zean, besides being assailed externally by the force of the intrepid Jacques, had, in addition, to oppose within his walls the faction of Zeith, whom he had dethroned. The king of Tunis, too, had been unsuccessful in an attempt to send a fleet to the relief of Valencia: it at once took to flight on the appearance of the vessels of Jacques. Abandoned by the whole world, disheartened by the fate of Cordova, and betrayed {117} by the party of his competitor, Zean offered to become the vassal of the crown of Aragon, and to pay a tribute in acknowledgment of his vassalage; but the Christian monarch was inflexible, and would accede to no terms that did not include a stipulation to surrender the city.

Fifty thousand Moors, bearing their treasures with them, accompanied the departure of their sovereign from Valencia. Jacques had pledged his royal word to protect the rich booty which they so highly valued from the cupidity of his soldiers, and he faithfully performed his promise.

After the destruction of the two powerful kingdoms of Andalusia and Valencia, there seemed to exist no Moorish power capable of arresting the progress of the Spanish arms. That of Seville, which alone remained, was already menaced by the victorious Ferdinand. But, just at this period, a new state rose suddenly into importance, which maintained a high degree of celebrity for two hundred years, and long prevented the final ruin of the Moors.

[1] See note A, page 216.

[2] See note B, page 216.

[3] See note C, page 218.

[4] See Note D, page 220.

[5] A.D. 1178.

[6] See Note E, page 221.

[7] A.D. 1213, Heg. 610.

[8] See Note F, page 231.

[9] A.D. 1236, Heg. 634.

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FOURTH EPOCH.

THE KINGS OF GRENADA.

Extending from the middle of the Thirteenth Century to the period of the Total Expulsion of the Moors from Spain, A.D. 1493.

The unprecedented success of the Spaniards, and, above all, the loss of Cordova, spread consternation among the Moors. That ardent and superstitious people, who were ever equally ready to cherish delusive hopes, and to yield to despondency when those anticipations were disappointed, looked upon their empire as ruined the moment the Christian cross surmounted the pinnacle of their grand mosque, and the banner of Castile waved over the walls of their ancient capital—those walls on which the standards of the Caliphs of the West and of their Prophet had for centuries floated in triumph.

Notwithstanding this national dejection, however, Seville, Grenada, Murcia, and the kingdom of Algarva still belonged to the Mussulmans. They possessed all the seaports, and the {119} whole maritime coast of the south of Spain. Their enormous population, and great national wealth and industry, also secured to them immense resources; but Cordova, the holy city, the rival of Mecca in the West—Cordova was in the possession of the Christians, and the Moors believed that all was lost.

But the hopes of these despairing followers of Islam were rekindled by the almost magical influence of a single individual, a scion of the tribe of the Alhamars, named Mohammed Aboussaid, who came originally from the celebrated Arabian city of Couffa.

Several historians, who speak of Mohammed under the title of Mohammed Alhamar, assure us that he commenced his career as a simple shepherd, and that, having afterward borne arms, he aspired to the attainment of royal power in consequence of his martial exploits. Such an incident is not extraordinary among the Arabs, where all who are not descended either from the family of the Prophet or from the royal race, possessing none of the privileges of birth, are esteemed solely according to their personal merits.

But, be that as it may, Mohammed Aboussaid {120} possessed sufficient intellectual powers to reanimate the expiring courage of the vanquished Moslems. He assembled an army in the city of Arjona, and, well knowing the peculiar character of the nation that he wished to control, proceeded to gain over to his interests a santon, a species of religious character highly venerated among the Moors. This oracular individual publicly predicted to the people of Algarva that Mohammed Alhamar was destined speedily to become their king. Accordingly, he was soon proclaimed by the inhabitants, and several other cities followed the example thus set them.

Mohammed now filled the place of Benhoud, to whom he possessed similar talents for government; and, feeling the necessity of selecting a city to replace Cordova in the affections of the Moors, to become the sacred asylum of their religion, and the centring point for their military strength, he founded a new kingdom, and made the city of Grenada its capital, A.D. 1236, Heg. 634.

This city, powerful from the remotest times, and supposed to be the ancient Illiberis of the Romans, was built upon two hills, not far distant from the Sierra Nevada, a chain of {121} mountains whose summits are covered with perpetual snow. The town was traversed by the river Darra, and the waters of the Xenil bathed its walls. Each of the two hills was crowned by a fortress: on the one was that of the Alhambra, and on the other that of the Albayzin. These strongholds were either of them sufficient in extent to accommodate forty thousand men within their walls. The fugitives from the city of Alhambra, as has already been stated, had given the name of their former home to the new quarter that they peopled; and the Moors who had been driven from Baeca when Ferdinand III. became master of that place, had established themselves, in a similar manner, in the quarter of the Albayzin.

This city had also received many exiles from Valencia, Cordova, and other places which the Mussulmans had deserted.

With a population whose numbers were daily augmented, Grenada, at the period of which we now speak, was more than three leagues in circuit, surrounded by impregnable ramparts; defended by many strong towers, and by a brave and numerous people, whose military prowess seemed to ensure their safety and independence.

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Various were the advantages that combined in giving to Grenada the supremacy she had assumed. Her location was one of the most agreeable and beautiful in the world, and rendered her mistress of a country on which nature had lavished her choicest gifts. The famous vega, or plain, by which the city was surrounded, was thirty leagues in length and eight in breadth. It was terminated on the north by the mountains of Elvira and the Sierra Nevada, and enclosed on the remaining sides by hills clothed with the verdure of the olive, the mulberry, the lemon, and the vine.

This enchanting plain was watered by five small rivers[1] and an infinite number of gushing springs, whose streams wandered in graceful meanderings through meadows of perpetual verdure, through forests of oak and plantations of grain, flax, and sugar-cane, or burst forth in the midst of gardens, and orchards, and orange-groves.

All the rich, and beautiful, and varied productions of the soil required but little attention in their culture. The earth was continually {123} covered with vegetation, in myriads of changing forms, and never knew the repose of winter.

During the heat of summer, the mountain breezes spread a refreshing coolness through the air of this lovely vega, and preserved the early brilliancy and beauty of the flowers, that were ever mingled in delightful confusion with the varied fruits of a tropical region.

On this celebrated plain, whose charms no description can embellish; on this enchanting vega, where nature seemed to have exhausted her efforts in lavishing all that the heart of man could desire or his imagination conceive, more blood has been shed than on any other spot in the world. There—where, during two centuries of unceasing warfare, whose baleful effects extended from generation to generation, from city to city, and from man to man—there does not exist a single isolated portion of earth where the trees have not been wantonly destroyed, the villages reduced to ashes, and the desolated fields strewn with the mingled corses of slaughtered Moors and Christians.

Independent of this vega, which was of such inestimable value to Grenada, fourteen great cities and more than one hundred of smaller {124} size, together with a prodigious number of towns, were embraced within the boundaries of this fine kingdom.

The extent of Grenada, from Gibraltar (which was not taken by the Christians until long after this period) to the city of Lorca, was more than eighty leagues. It was thirty leagues in breadth from Cambril to the Mediterranean.

The mountain, by which the kingdom of Grenada was intersected, produced gold, silver, granite, amethysts, and various kinds of marble.

Among these mountains, those of the Alpuxaries alone formed a province, and yielded the monarch of Grenada more precious treasures than their mines could furnish—active and athletic men, who became either hardy and industrious husbandmen, or faithful and indefatigable soldiers.

In addition to all this, the ports of Almeria, Malaga, and Algeziras received into their harbours the vessels of both Europe and Africa, and became places of deposite for the commerce of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

Such, at its birth, was the kingdom of Grenada, and such it long continued. Mohammed Alhamar, from the period of its establishment, {125} made useless efforts to unite all the remaining dominions of the Mussulmans of Spain under one sceptre, as the only means of successfully resisting the encroachments of the Christians. But the little kingdom of Murcia and that of Algarva were each governed by separate princes, who persisted in maintaining their independence. This was the cause of their ruin, for they thus became more readily the prey of the Spaniards.

Alhamar signalized the commencement of his reign by military achievements. In the year 1242, Heg. 640, he gained some important advantages over the troops of Ferdinand. But repeated revolts in the capital and disturbances in other parts of his new empire, eventually compelled Mohammed to conclude a dishonourable peace with the King of Castile. He agreed to do homage for his crown to the Castilian sovereign, to put the strong place of Jaen into his hands, to pay him a tribute, and to furnish him with auxiliary troops for any wars in which he should engage. On these conditions Ferdinand acknowledged him King of Grenada, and even aided him in subduing his rebellious subjects.

The sagacious Ferdinand thus established a {126} truce with Grenada, that he might the more effectually concentrate his forces against Seville, which he had long entertained hopes of conquering.

The important city of Seville was no longer under the dominion of a king, but formed a kind of republic, governed by military magistrates. Its situation at no great distance from the mouth of the Guadalquivir, its commerce, its population, the mildness of the climate, and the fertility of the environs, rendered Seville one of the most flourishing cities of Spain.

Ferdinand, foreseeing a long resistance, commenced the campaign by seizing upon all the neighbouring towns.

Finally, he laid siege to Seville itself, and his fleet, stationed at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, closed the door to any assistance which might be sent from Africa in aid of the beleaguered city.

The siege was long and bloody. The Sevillians were numerous and well skilled in the arts of war, and their ally, the King of Algarva, harassed the besiegers unceasingly. Notwithstanding the extreme bravery displayed by the Christians in their assaults, and the scarcity of {127} provisions which began to be felt within the walls, the city, after an investment of a whole year, still refused to surrender.

Ferdinand then summoned the King of Grenada to come, in accordance with their treaty, and serve under his banners. Alhamar was forced to obey, and soon presented himself in the Christian camp at the head of a brilliant army. The inhabitants of Seville lost all hope after this occurrence, and surrendered to the Castilian monarch. The King of Grenada returned to his own dominions with the humiliating glory of having contributed, by his assistance, to the ruin of his countrymen.

Ferdinand, with more piety than policy, banished the infidels from Seville. One hundred thousand of that unfortunate people left the city, to seek an exile's home in Africa or in the provinces of Grenada.

The kingdom of Grenada now became the sole and last asylum of the Spanish Moslems. The little kingdom of Algarva was soon obliged to receive the yoke of Portugal, and Murcia, in consequence of its separation from Grenada, became the prey of the Castilians.

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During the life of Ferdinand III., nothing occurred to interrupt the good understanding that existed between that monarch and Mohammed Alhamar.

The King of Grenada wisely took advantage of this peaceful period more effectually to confirm himself in the possession of his crown, and to make preparations for a renewal of hostilities against the Christians, who would not, he foresaw, long remain his friends.

Mohammed, by this means, ultimately found himself in a condition that would enable him long to defend his power and dominions. He was master of a country of great extent, and he possessed considerable revenues, the amount of which it is now difficult correctly to estimate, in consequence of the ignorance which prevails on the subject of the peculiar financial system of the Moors, and the different sources from which the public treasury was supplied. Every husbandman, for example, paid the seventh part of the produce of his fields to his sovereign; his flocks even were not exempted from this exaction. The royal domain comprised numerous valuable farms; and, as agriculture was carried to the highest degree of perfection, the revenues from {129} these, in so luxuriant a country, must have amounted to a very large sum. The annual income of the sovereign was augmented by various taxes levied on the sale, marking, and passage from one point to another of all kinds of cattle. The laws bestowed on the king the inheritance of such of his subjects as died childless, and gave him, in addition, a portion in the estates of other deceased persons. He also possessed, as has been already shown, mines of gold, silver, and precious stones; and though the Moors were but little skilled in the art of mining, still there was no country in Europe in which gold and silver were more common than among them.

The commerce carried on in their beautiful silks, and in a great variety of other productions; their contiguity to the Mediterranean and Atlantic; their activity, industry, and astonishing population; their superior knowledge of the science of agriculture; the sobriety natural to all the inhabitants of Spain; and that peculiar property of a southern climate, by which much is produced from the soil, while very little suffices for the maintenance of its possessor; all these, united with their other national {130} advantages, will furnish some idea of the great power and resources of this singular people.

Their standing military force—it can scarcely be said in times of peace, for they rarely knew the blessings of that state—amounted to nearly a hundred thousand men; and this army, in case of necessity, could easily be increased to double that number. The single city of Grenada could furnish fifty thousand soldiers. Indeed, every Moor would readily become a soldier to oppose the Christians. The difference of faith rendered these wars sacred in their eyes; and the mutual hatred entertained by these two almost equally superstitious nations never failed to arm, when necessary, every individual of both sides, even from children to old men.

Independent of the numerous and brave, but ill-disciplined troops, who would assemble for a campaign, and afterward return to their homes without occasioning any expense to the state, the Moorish monarch maintained a considerable corps of cavaliers, who were dispersed along the frontiers, particularly in the directions of Murcia and Jaen, those parts of the country being most exposed to the repeated incursions of the Spaniards. Upon each of these cavaliers the king {131} bestowed for life a small habitation, with sufficient adjoining ground for his own maintenance, and that of his family and horse. This method of keeping soldiers in service, while it occasioned no expense to the public treasury, served to attach them more firmly to their country, by identifying their interests with hers; and it held out to them the strongest motives faithfully to defend their charge, inasmuch as their patrimony was always first exposed to the ravages of the enemy.

At a time when the art of war had not reached the perfection it has now attained, and when large bodies of troops were not kept continually assembled and exercised, the system of stationing this peculiar guard along the frontiers was of admirable effect.

The knights who composed this unrivalled cavalry were mounted on African or Andalusian chargers, whose merits in the field are so well-known, and were accustomed from infancy to their management; treating them with the tenderest care, and regarding them as their inseparable companions: by these means they acquired that remarkable superiority for which the Moorish cavalry is still so celebrated.

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These redoubtable squadrons, whose velocity of movement was unequalled; who would, almost at the same moment, charge in mass, break into detached troops, scatter, rally, fly off, and again form in line; these cavaliers, whose voice, whose slightest gesture, whose very thoughts, so to speak, were intelligible to their docile and sagacious steeds, and who were able to recover a lance or sabre that had fallen to the earth while in full gallop, constituted the principal military force of the Moors. Their infantry was of little value; and their ill-fortified towns, surrounded only by walls and moats, and defended by this worthless infantry, could offer but an imperfect resistance to that of the Spaniards, which began already to deserve the reputation it afterward so well sustained in Italy, under Gonzalvo, the Great Captain.

After the death of St. Ferdinand, his son Alphonso the Sage[2] mounted the throne, A.D. 1252, Heg. 650. The first care of Mohammed Alhamar after this event was to go in person to Toledo, followed by a brilliant retinue, to renew the treaty of alliance, or, rather, of dependance, by which he was united to Ferdinand. {133} The new king of Castile remitted on this occasion a part of the tribute to which the Moors had been subjected.

But this peace was not of long continuance; and the two contending nations now recommenced the war with nearly equal advantages.

An incident is related as having occurred during this war, which reflects equal honour on the humanity of the Moors and the courage of the Spaniards. It refers to Garcias Gomes, governor of the city of Xeres. He was besieged by the Grenadians, and his garrison nearly destroyed, but still he refused to surrender; and, standing on the ramparts covered with blood, and literally bristling with arrows, he sustained alone the onset of the assailants. The Moors, on seeing him in this situation, agreed, with one accord, to spare the life of so brave a man. Garcias then threw himself from the walls upon some iron hooks; but he was rescued alive in spite of his efforts to prevent it, treated with respect by his captors, and, after his wounds were healed, dismissed with presents.

Alhamar could not prevent Alphonso from adding the kingdom of Murcia to his dominions; and the fortunes of war compelled him to obtain {134} peace by submitting anew to the payment of tribute to the Catholic sovereign, A.D. 1266, Heg. 665.

But some dissensions which soon after arose between the Castilian monarch and some of the grandees of his kingdom, inspired the Grenadian king with the hope of repairing the loss he had sustained. The brother of Alphonso, together with several noblemen belonging to the principal Castilian families, retired to Grenada in open defiance of the authority of the Spanish monarch, and materially aided Mohammed Alhamar in repressing the insurrectionary movements of two of his rebellious subjects, who were countenanced in their attempts by the Christians.

But, just at this juncture, the wise and politic King of Grenada died, leaving the throne that he had acquired and preserved by his talents to his son Mohammed II., El Fakik, A.D. 1273, Heg. 672.

The new Mussulman king, who took the title of Emir al Mumenim, adopted in all respects the policy of his father. He took every advantage in his power of the discord which reigned at the Castilian court, and of the ineffectual voyages undertaken by Alphonso in the hope of {135} being elected emperor.[3] Finally, during the absence of his enemy, Mohammed formed an offensive league with Jacob, the king of Morocco, a prince of the race of the Merines, the conquerors and successors of the Almohades. The Grenadian sovereign ceded to his African ally the two important places of Tariffe and Algeziras, on condition of his crossing the Mediterranean to the Peninsula.

Jacob, in accordance with this agreement, arrived in Spain, at the head of an army, in the year 1275 (the 675th of the Hegira); and the two Moorish leaders, by acting in concert, gained some important advantages.

But the criminal revolt of Sancho, the Infant of Castile, against his father Alphonso the Sage, soon afterward divided these Mussulman monarchs. The King of Grenada took the part of the rebellious son, while Alphonso, reduced to extremity by the abandonment of his subjects, implored the assistance of the King of Morocco. Jacob recrossed the sea with his troops, and met Alphonso at Zara. At that celebrated interview, the unfortunate Castilian wished to concede the place of honour to the king, who was there as {136} his defender. "It belongs to you," said Jacob to him, "because you are unfortunate! I came here to avenge a cause which should be that of every father. I came here to aid you in punishing an ingrate, who, though he received life from you, would still deprive you of your crown. When I shall have fulfilled this duty, and you are again prosperous and happy, I will once more become your enemy, and contest every point of precedence with you."

The soul of the Christian prince was not sufficiently noble, however, to prompt him to confide himself to the monarch who had uttered these sentiments, and he escaped from the camp. Alphonso died soon after this event, disinheriting his guilty son before he expired, A.D. 1284, Heg. 683.

Sancho[4] reigned in his father's stead, however, notwithstanding this prohibition, and international troubles convulsed Castile anew.

Mohammed seized this moment to enter Andalusia. He gained several battles, and took some important places in that kingdom, and thus victoriously terminated a long and glorious reign, A.D. 1302, Heg. 703.

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This Mohammed Emir al Mumenim, the principal political events of whose life have now been briefly narrated, was a munificent patron of the fine arts. He added their charms to the attractions of a court which poets, philosophers, and astronomers alike contributed to render celebrated.

As an illustration of the scientific superiority that the Moors still maintained over the Spaniards, the fact may be mentioned that Alphonso the Sage, king of Castile, availed himself, in the arrangement of his astronomical tables (still known as the Alphonsine Tables), of the assistance of some contemporary Moslem savans.

Grenada began by this time to replace Cordova. Architecture, above all, made great advances. It was during the reign of Mohammed II. that the famous palace of the Alhambra was commenced, a part of which still remains to astonish travellers, whom its name alone suffices to attract to Grenada.

To prove to what a height of perfection the Moors had succeeded in carrying the art, then so little known to Europeans, of uniting the magnificent and the luxurious, a few details may perhaps be pardoned concerning this {138} singular edifice, and as an illustration, also, of the particular manners and customs of the Moors.

The Alhambra, as has been said, was at first only a vast fortress, standing upon one of the two hills enclosed within the city of Grenada. This hill, though environed on every side by the waters either of the Darra or the Xenil, was defended, in addition, by a double enclosure of walls. It was on the summit of this elevation, which overlooked the whole city, and from which one might behold the most beautiful prospect in the world, in the midst of an esplanade covered with trees and fountains, that Mohammed selected the site of his palace.

Nothing with which we are familiar in architecture can give us a correct idea of that of the Moors. They piled up buildings without order, symmetry, or any attention to the external appearance they would present. All their cares were bestowed upon the interior of their structures. There they exhausted all the resources of taste and magnificence, to combine in their apartments the requisites for luxurious indulgence with the charms of nature in her most enchanting forms. There, in saloons adorned with the most beautiful marble, and paved with a {139} brilliant imitation of porcelain, couches, covered with stuffs of gold or silver, were arranged near jets d'eau, whose waters glanced upward towards the vaulted roof, and spread a delicious coolness through an atmosphere embalmed by the delicate odours arising from exquisite vases of precious perfumes, mingled with the fragrant breath of the myrtle, jasmine, orange, and other sweet-scented flowers that adorned the apartments.

The beautiful palace of the Alhambra, as it now exists at Grenada,[5] presents no facade. It is approached through a charming avenue, which is constantly intersected by rivulets, whose streams wander in graceful curves amid groups of trees. The entrance is through a large square tower, which formerly bore the name of the Hall of Judgment. A religious inscription announces that it was there that the king administered justice after the ancient manner of the Hebrew and other Oriental nations. Several buildings, {140} which once adjoined this tower were destroyed in more recent times, to give place to a magnificent palace erected by Charles V., a description of which is not necessary to our subject. Upon penetrating on the northern side into the ancient palace of the Moorish kings, one feels as if suddenly transported to the regions of fairyland. The first court is an oblong square, surrounded on each side by a gallery in the form of an arcade, the walls and ceiling of which are covered with Mosaic work, festoons, arabesque paintings, gilding, and carving in stucco, of the most admirable workmanship. All the plain spaces between these various ornaments are filled with passages transcribed from the Alkoran, or by inscriptions of a similar character to the following, which will suffice to create some idea of the figurative style of Moorish composition.

"Oh Nazir! thou wert born the master of a throne, and, like the star that announces the approach of day, thou art refulgent with a brilliancy that belongs to thee alone! Thine arm is the rampart of a nation; thy justice an all-pervading luminary. Thou canst, by thy valour, subdue those who have given companions to {141} God! Thy numerous people are thy children, and thou renderest them all happy by thy goodness. The bright stars of the firmament shine lovingly upon thee, and the glorious light of the sun beams upon thee with affection. The stately cedar, the proud monarch of the forest, bows his lofty head at thy approach, and is again uplifted by thy puissant hand!"

In the midst of this court, which is paved with white marble, is a long basin always filled with running water of sufficient depth for bathing. It is bordered on each side by beds of flowers, and surrounded by walks lined with orange-trees. The place was called the Mesuar, and served as the common bathing-place of those who were attached to the service of the palace.

From thence one passes into the celebrated Court of Lions. It is a hundred feet in length and fifty in breadth. A colonnade of white marble supports the gallery that runs around the whole. These columns, standing sometimes two and sometimes three together, are of slender proportions and fantastic design; but their lightness and grace afford pleasure to the eye of the wondering beholder. The walls, and, above all, the ceiling of the circular gallery, are covered {142} with embellishments of gold, azure, and stucco, wrought into arabesques, with an exquisite delicacy of execution that the most skilful modern workmen would find it difficult to rival. In the midst of these ornaments of ever-changing variety and beauty are inscribed passages from the Koran, such as the following, which all good Mussulmans are required frequently to repeat: God is great: God alone is supreme: There is no god but God: Celestial enjoyment, gratifications of the heart, delights of the soul to all those who believe.

At either extremity of the Court of Lions are placed, within the interior space enclosed by the gallery, and, like it, supported by marble columns, two elegant cupolas of fifteen or sixteen feet in circumference. These graceful domes form a covering for beautiful jets d'eau. In the centre of the lengthened square, a superb alabaster vase, six feet in diameter, is supported in an elevated position in the midst of a vast basin by the forms of twelve lions sculptured from white marble. This vessel, which is believed to have been modelled after the design of the "molten sea" of the Temple of Solomon, is again surmounted by a smaller vase, from which shoot {143} forth innumerable tiny cascades, which together present the form of a great sheaf; and, falling again from one vase into another, and from these into the large basin beneath, create a perpetual flow, whose volume is increased by the floods of limpid water which gush in a continual stream from the mouth of each of the marble lions.

This fountain, like each of the others, is adorned with inscriptions; for the Moors ever took pleasure in mingling the eloquence of poetry with the graces of sculpture. To us their conceptions appear singular and their expressions exaggerated; but our manners are so opposite to theirs; the period of their existence as a nation is so far removed, and we know so little of the genius of their language, that we have, perhaps, no right to judge the literature of the Moors by the severe rules of modern criticism. And, indeed, the specimens we possess of the French and Spanish poetry of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are, many of them, little superior to the verses engraven on the Fountain of Lions, of which the following, is a translation.[6]

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"Oh thou who beholdest these lions! dost thou not perceive that they need only to breathe to possess the perfection of nature! Oh Mohammed! Oh potent sovereign! God originated and prolonged thy existence, that thou mightest be inspired with the genius to conceive and accomplish these novel and beautiful embellishments! Thy soul is adorned by the most ennobling qualities of humanity. This enchanting spot pictures thy admirable virtues. Like the lion, thou art terrible in combat; and nothing can be more justly compared to the bountiful and unceasing profusion of the limpid waters which gush from the bosom of this fountain, and fill the air with glittering and brilliant particles, than the liberal hand of Mohammed."

We will not attempt a description in detail of such other portions of the palace of the Alhambra as still exist. Some of these served as halls of audience or of justice; others enclosed the baths of the king, the queen, and their children. Sleeping apartments still remain, where the couches were disposed either in alcoves, or upon platforms covered with the peculiar pavement {145} already alluded to; but always near a fountain, the unceasing murmur of whose dreamy voice might sooth the occupants to repose.

In the music saloon of this once luxurious royal abode are four elevated galleries, which, ere the glory of the Alhambra had passed away, were often filled by Moorish musicians, the delightful strains of whose varied instruments enchanted the court of Grenada. Then the fair and the brave reclined in graceful groups in the centre of the apartment, upon rich Oriental carpets, surrounding the alabaster fountain, whose balmy breath diffused refreshing coolness, and whose softly gurgling sounds mingled with the gentle music which was ever the accompaniment of repose and enjoyment.

In an apartment which was at the same time the oratory and dressing-room of the queen of this magnificent residence, there still exists a slab of marble, pierced with an infinite number of small apertures, to admit the exhalations of the perfumes that were incessantly burning beneath the lofty ceiling. From this part of the palace, too, the views are exquisitely beautiful. The windows and doors opening from it are so arranged, that the most agreeable prospects, the {146} mellowest and most pleasing effects of light, perpetually fall upon the delighted eyes of those within, while balmy breezes constantly renew the delicious coolness of the air that breathes through this enchanting retreat.

Upon leaving the marble halls and lofty towers of the Alhambra, one discerns, on the side of a neighbouring mountain, the famous garden of the Generalif, which signifies, in the Moorish tongue, the Home of Love. In this garden was the palace to which the kings of Grenada repaired to pass the season of spring. It was built in a style similar to that of the Alhambra: the same gorgeous splendour, the same costly magnificence reigned there. The edifice is now destroyed; but the picturesque situation, the ever-varied and ever-charming landscape, the limpid fountains, the sparkling jets d'eau, and tumbling waterfalls of the Generalif, are still left to excite admiration.

The terraces of this garden are in the form of an amphitheatre, and the lingering remains of their once beautiful Mosaic pavements are still to be seen. The walks are now darkly umbrageous, from the interwoven branches of gigantic cypresses and aged myrtles, beneath whose {147} grateful shades the kings and queens of Grenada have so often wandered. Then blooming groves and forests of fruit-trees were agreeably intermingled with graceful domes and marble pavilions: then the sweet perfume of the countless flowers that mingled their varied dyes in delightful confusion, floated in the soft air. Then the delicate tendrils of the vine clasped the supporting branches of the orange, and both together hung the mingled gold and purple of their clustering fruits over the bright waters that from marble founts

"Gushed up to sun and air!"

Then valour and beauty strayed side by side, beneath embowering branches, the fire of the one attempered to gentleness by the softer graces of the other, and the souls of both elevated and purified by nature's holy and resistless influences.

But now the luxuriant vine lies prostrate, its climbing trunk and clinging tendrils rudely torn from their once firm support: even the voice of the fountain no longer warbles in the same gladsome tone as of yore; the mouldering fragments of the polished column and sculptured dome are now strewed on the earth; the sighing of the gentle breeze no longer awake: is the soft breath {148} of responding flowers; the loveliness and the glory of the Home of Love are vanished away for ever; and the crumbling stones of the tesselated pavements echo naught but the lingering footfall of the solitary stranger, who wanders thither to enjoy those mournful charms of which the destroyer cannot divest a spot that must ever appeal so strongly to the vision and the heart, to the memory and the imagination.

It is painful to quit the Alhambra and the Generalif, to return to the ravages, incursions, and sanguinary quarrels of the Moors and Christians.

It was the fate of Mohammed III. (surnamed the Blind) to be obliged at the same time to repress the rebellious movements of his own subjects and repel the invasions of his Catholic neighbours. Compelled by the infirmity from which he derived his appellation to choose a prime minister, he bestowed that important post upon Farady, the husband of his sister, a judicious statesman and a brave soldier, who for some time prosperously continued the war against the Castilians, and finally concluded it by an honourable peace.

But the courtiers, jealous of the glory and {149} envious of the good-fortune of the favourite, formed a conspiracy against his master, and instigated revolts among the people. To complete his calamities, foreign war again broke forth; the King of Castile, Ferdinand IV., surnamed the Summoned,[7] united with the King of Aragon in attacking the Grenadians.[8]

Gibraltar was taken by the Castilians, and the conqueror expelled its Moorish inhabitants from its walls. Among the unfortunate exiles who departed from the city was an old man, who, perceiving Ferdinand, approached him, leaning on his staff: "King of Castile," he said to him, "what injury have I done to thee or thine? Thy great-grandfather Ferdinand drove me from my native Seville: I sought an asylum at Xeres; thy grandfather Alphonso banished me from thence: retiring within the walls of Tariffe,[9] thy father Sancho exiled me from that city. At last I came to find a grave at the extremity of Spain, on the shore of Gibraltar; but thy hatred hath pursued me even here: tell me now of one place on earth where I can die unmolested by the Christians!"

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"Cross the sea!" replied the Spanish prince; and he caused the aged petitioner to be conveyed to Africa.

Vanquished by the Aragonians, harassed by the Castilians, and alarmed by the seditious proceedings which the grandees of his court were encouraging among his own subjects, the King of Grenada and his prime minister were forced to conclude a shameful peace.

The intestine storm, whose gathering had long disturbed the domestic security of the kingdom, soon after burst forth. Mohammed Abenazar, brother to Mohammed the Blind, and the head of the conspiracy, seized the unfortunate monarch, put him to death, and assumed his place, A.D. 1310, Heg. 710.

But the usurper himself was soon driven from his throne by Farady, the ancient minister, who, not daring to appropriate the crown to himself, placed it on the head of his son Ismael, the nephew of Mohammed the Blind, through his mother, the sister of that monarch.

This event took place A.D. 1313, Heg. 713. From that period the royal family of Grenada was divided into two branches, which were ever after at enmity with each other; the one, called {151} the Alhamar, included the descendants of the first king through the males of the line, and the other, named Farady, was that of such of his offspring as were the children of the female branches of the royal race.

The Castilians, whose interests were always promoted by cherishing dissensions among their Moorish neighbours, lent their countenance to Abenazar, who had taken refuge in the city of Grenada. The Infant Don Pedro, uncle to the youthful King of Castile, Alphonso the Avenger, as he was surnamed, took the field against Ismael, and several times gave battle to the followers of the Crescent. Then joining his forces to those of another Infant named Don Juan, the two friends carried fire and sword to the very ramparts of Grenada. The infidel warriors did not venture to sally from their walls to repel the invaders; but when, loaded with booty, the Christians had commenced their return to Castile; Ismael followed on their route with his army, and, soon overtaking his ruthless foes, fell suddenly upon their rear. It was now the 26th of June,[10] and the time chosen by the Mussulmans for the attack was the hottest hour of a {152} burning day. The two Spanish princes made such violent efforts to reorganize their scattered bands and to recover their lost authority, that, exhausted at last by thirst and fatigue, they both fell dead without having received a wound.

The dismayed and exhausted Spaniards could now no longer offer any resistance to their furious enemies. They betook themselves to flight, leaving their baggage, with the bodies of the two unfortunate Infants, on the field of battle. Ismael caused the remains of these princes to be conveyed to Grenada and deposited in coffins covered with cloth of gold: he then restored them to the Castilians, after having bestowed on them the most distinguished funeral honours.[11]

This victory was rapidly followed by the conquest of several cities and the establishment of an honourable truce. But Ismael did not live to enjoy the fruits of his success: being enamoured of a young Spanish captive, who had fallen, in the division of the spoils, to the share of one of his officers, the king so far forgot the laws of justice and honour as to possess himself {153} by force of the beautiful slave. Such an insult among the followers of Islam can only be expiated by blood: the monarch was assassinated by his exasperated officer. His son Mohammed V. mounted the throne in his stead, A.D. 1322, Heg. 722.

The reign of Mohammed V. and that of his successor Joseph I., both of whom perished in the same manner (being murdered in their palace), present nothing during thirty years but an unbroken series of ravages, seditions, and combats.

At the request of the Grenadians, Abil-Hassan, king of Morocco, of the dynasty of the Merinis, landed in Spain at the head of innumerable troops, with whom he joined the army of Joseph. The kings of Castile and Portugal unitedly gave battle to this immense army on the shores of Salado, not far from the city of Tariffe. This encounter, equally celebrated with the victory of Toloza in the history of Spain, terminated in the defeat of the Moors. Abil-Hassan returned hastily to Morocco, to conceal within his own dominions his chagrin at its unexpected and disastrous issue.

The strong place of Algeziras, the bulwark of {154} Grenada, and the magazine in which was deposited the necessary supplies received by that kingdom from Africa, was besieged by the Castilians A.D. 1342, Heg. 742. Several French, English, and Navarrois cavaliers resorted on this occasion to the camp of the beleaguering army. The Mussulmans availed themselves of the use of cannon in the defence of their city; and this is the first time that the employment of that description of ordnance is spoken of in history. We are told that it was used at the battle of Cressy by the English; but that event did not take place until four years after the date of the present siege. It is, then, to the Spanish Moors that we owe, not the discovery of gunpowder (for that is attributed by some to the Chinese, by others to a German monk named Schwartz, and by others again to Roger Bacon, an Englishman), but the terrible invention of artillery. It is at least certain, that the Moors planted the first cannon of which we have any account. But, in spite of the advantages it thus possessed, Algeziras was taken by the Christians, A.D. 1344, Heg. 745.

About ten years after this event, the unfortunate Joseph, who had been so often attacked by {155} foreign enemies, met his death from the hands of his own subjects.

It may have been remarked by the reader, that no established law regulated the regal succession among the Moors. Yet, notwithstanding the perpetual conspiracies and intrigues which rendered the possession of the crown so insecure and of such uncertain duration, a prince of the royal race always occupied the throne. We have seen Grenada divided, since the violent termination of the reign of Ismael, between the factions of the Alhamar and the Farady, and the former deposed by the latter, who always regarded the Alhamars as usurpers. This unhappy contest was the source of numberless disorders, conspiracies, and assassinations.

The monarch next in order to Joseph I. on the throne of Grenada was his uncle, a Farady prince named Mohammed VI., and called the Old, in consequence of his succeeding at a somewhat advanced period of life.

Mohammed the Red, a scion of the Alhamar race, drove his cousin, Mohammed the Old, from the throne, A.D. 1360, Heg. 762, and retained it for some years, through the protection of the King of Aragon.

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Peter the Cruel, then king of Castile, espoused the cause of the banished Farady, supported his claims by warlike arguments, and so closely pressed Mohammed the Alhamar, that he adopted the resolution of repairing to Seville, and abandoning himself to the magnanimity of his royal foe.

Mohammed arrived at the court of Seville accompanied by a suite composed of his most faithful friends, and bearing with him vast treasures. He presented himself with noble confidence in the presence of the monarch. "King of Castile!" said he to Peter, "the blood alike of Christian and Moor has too long flowed in my contest with the Farady. You protect my rival; yet it is you whom I select to adjudge our quarrel. Examine my claims and those of my enemy, and pronounce who shall be the sovereign of Grenada. If you decide in favour of the Farady, I demand only to be conducted to Africa; if you accord the preference to me, receive the homage that I have come to render you for my crown!"

The astonished Peter lavished honours upon the Mussulman king, and caused him to be seated at his side during the magnificent feast by {157} which he signalized the occasion. But, when the Alhamar retired from the entertainment, he was seized and thrown into prison. From thence he was afterward conducted through the streets of the city, seated, half naked, upon an ass, and led to a field termed the Tablada, where thirty-seven of his devoted followers were deprived of their heads in his presence. The execrable Peter, envying the executioner the pleasure of shedding his blood, then thrust through the unfortunate King of Grenada with his own lance. The dying sovereign uttered only these words as he expired, "Oh Peter, Peter, what a deed for a cavalier!"

By a very extraordinary fatality, every throne in Spain was at this period occupied by princes whose characters were blackened by the most atrocious crimes. Peter the Cruel, the Nero of Castile, assassinated the kings who confided themselves to his protection, put to death his wife Blanche of Bourbon, and, in short, daily imbrued his hands in the blood of his relatives or friends. Peter IV. of Aragon, less violent than the Castilian, but equally unfeeling and even more perfidious, despoiled one of his brothers of his kingdom, commanded another to be {158} put to death, and delivered his ancient preceptor to the executioners. Peter I., king of Portugal, the lover of the celebrated Inez de Castro,[12] whose ferocity was doubtless excited and increased by the cruelty that had been exercised against his mistress, tore out the hearts of the murderers of Inez, and poisoned a sister with whom he was displeased. Finally, the contemporary King of Navarre was that Charles the Bad, whose name alone is sufficient still to cause a shudder. All Spain groaned beneath the iron rule of these monsters of cruelty, and was inundated by the blood of their victims. If it be remembered that, at the same time, France had become a prey to the horrors which followed the imprisonment of King John; that England witnessed the commencement of the troubled reign of Richard II.; that Italy was delivered up to the contentions of the rival factions of the Guelfs and Ghibelines, and beheld two occupants at the same time upon the papal throne; that two emperors disputed the right to the imperial crown of Germany; and that Timurlane ravaged Asia from the territories of the Usheks to the borders of India, it will not be disputed {159} that the history of the world records the annals of no more unhappy epoch in its affairs.

Grenada was at last tranquil after the crime of Peter the Cruel. Mohammed the Old, or the Farady, being now freed from the rival claims of his competitor, remounted the throne without opposition.

Mohammed was the only ally of the King of Castile who remained faithful to that inhuman monster up to the period of his death. Peter was at last the victim of a crime similar to those of which he had so often himself been guilty: his illegitimate brother, Henry de Transtamare, deprived him of his crown and his life, A.D. 1369, Heg. 771.

The King of Grenada made peace with the new sovereign of Castile, maintained it for several years, and finally left his kingdom in a flourishing condition to his son Mohammed VIII., Abouhadjad, called by the Spanish historians Mohammed Gaudix.

This prince commenced his reign A.D. 1379, Heg. 782. He was the best and wisest of the Spanish Mohammedan kings. Intent only upon promoting the happiness of his people, he was desirous of securing to them the enjoyment of {160} that foreign and domestic peace to which they had so long been almost utter strangers. The more effectually to ensure this, Abouhadjad commenced his reign with fortifying his towns, raising a strong army, and allying himself with the King of Tunis, whose daughter Cadiga he espoused. When well prepared for war, the Moorish sovereign sent ambassadors to the King of Castile, to solicit his friendship. Don Juan, the son and successor of Henry de Transtamare, being sufficiently occupied by his quarrels with Portugal and England, readily signed a treaty with the royal follower of the Crescent; and Abouhadjad, on his part, kept it unbroken. Secured from the inroads of the Christians, this wise monarch now occupied himself in promoting the increase of agriculture and commerce: he likewise diminished the rates of imposts, and soon found his income increased in consequence of this judicious measure. Beloved by a people whom he rendered happy, respected by foreign neighbours whom he had no reason to fear, and possessed of an amiable wife, who alone engaged his affections, this excellent Mussulman prince spent the wealth and leisure that he could with propriety devote to such objects, in {161} adorning his capital, in cherishing the fine arts, and in cultivating architecture and poetry. Several monuments of his munificence existed at Grenada, and at Gaudix, a city in favour of which he entertained strong predilections. His court was the favoured abode of genius and elegance.

The Moors of Spain still possessed poets, physicians, painters, sculptors, academies, and universities. And these were all liberally encouraged and endowed by Mohammed Gaudix.

Most of the productions of the Grenadian authors of this period perished at the final conquest of their country;[13] but some of them have been preserved, and still exist in the library of the Escurial. They chiefly treat of grammar, astrology (then greatly esteemed), and, above all, of theology, a study in which the Moors excelled. That people, naturally gifted with discriminating minds and ardent imaginations, produced many distinguished theologians, who may easily be supposed to have introduced into Europe the unfortunate scholastic taste for subtle questions and disputes, which once rendered so celebrated, men whose names and achievements have since sunk for ever into oblivion. The {162} pretended secrets of the cabal, of alchymy, of judicial astronomy, of the divining rod, and all the accounts, formerly so common, of sorcerers, magicians, and enchanters, are derived from these descendants of the Arabs. They were a superstitious race from the remotest times; and it is probable that to their residence in Spain, and their long intercourse with the Spaniards, is owing that love for the marvellous, and that well-deserved reputation for superstitious credulity, with which philosophy still reproaches a sprightly and intellectual nation, upon whom nature has bestowed the germes of the best qualities that adorn humanity.

A kind of literature which was common among these Saracens, and for which the Spaniards were indebted to them, was that of novels or romances. The Arabs were ever, as they still are, passionate lovers of story-telling. As well in the tents of the wild Bedouin as in the palaces of the East, alike under the gilded domes and peasant roofs of Grenada, this taste prevailed. Everywhere they assembled nightly to listen to romantic narratives of love and valour. Everywhere they listened in silent attention, or wept from sympathetic interest in the fate {163} of those whose adventures formed the subject of the tale. The Grenadians joined with this passion for exciting incident, a taste for music and singing. Their poets imbodied in verse these favourite recitals of love and war. Musicians were employed in composing suitable airs for them, and they were thus sung by the youthful Moors with all the enthusiasm that passion, poetry, and dulcet harmony can unitedly inspire. From this national custom are derived the multitude of Spanish romances, translated or imitated from the Arabic, which, in a simple and sometimes touching style, recount the fierce combats of the Moors and Christians, the fatal quarrels of jealous and haughty rivals, or the tender conversation of lovers. They describe with great exactness everything relating to the peculiar manners and amusements of this interesting and extinguished nation: their fetes, their games of the ring and of canes, and their bull-fights, the latter of which they adopted from the Spaniards, are all portrayed. Thus we learn that their war-like equipments consisted of a large cimeter, a slender lance, a short coat of mail, and a light leathern buckler. We have descriptions of superb horses, with their richly-jewelled and {164} embroidered housings sweeping the earth in ample folds, and of the devises emblazoned on the arms of the graceful Moorish cavaliers. These last consisted frequently of a heart pierced by an arrow, or perhaps of a star guiding a vessel, or of the first letter of the name of the fair recipients of their vows of love. We learn, too, that their colours each bore a peculiar signification: yellow and black expressed grief; green, hope; blue, jealousy; violet and flame colour, passionate love.

The following abridged translation of one of these little compositions will produce a more correct idea of them in the mind of the reader than any description could convey.[14]

GONZULO AND ZELINDA.

A MOORISH ROMANCE.

In a transport of jealousy and pride, Zelinda spurned her lover from her side! {165} His cruel doom Gonzulo heard With bosom wrung; and disappeared! But the fair maid soon deeply felt The torturing wound herself had dealt; As glides the snow from mountain crest, So fled resentment from her breast.

They tell her that the Moor's proud heart Is pierced by grief's most poisoned dart, And that he'd doffed, when flying from her side, The tender colours that were once his pride; That green, of hope the cherished emblem gay, To sorrow's mournful hues had given way. A badge of crape his lance's point now wears, A blackened crown his shield as emblem bears!

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To proffer gifts with different meaning fraught, Zelinda now her errant lover sought: The blue of jealousy she had united With all the hues most dear to lovers plighted; A violet gem, entwined with gold, Gleamed mid a broidered turban's fold, And every silken riband that she bore, Of lovely innocence the symbol wore.

Zelinda reached the soft retreat Where Gonzulo his fate must meet! O'erwhelmed with doubt, the dark-eyed maid Reclined beneath a myrtle shade, And sent a faithful page to guide Her banished lover to her side. Gonzulo scarce the message would receive, For wo had taught his heart to disbelieve!

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But soon he flew, on wing of love, To seek Zelinda's chosen grove. Then tearful glances of regret By words of tenderness were met; And ne'er did guardian nymphs record More ardent vows than there were poured! 'Twas thus triumphant love repaired The cruel wrongs that each had shared!

The delicate and peculiar gallantry, which rendered the Moors of Grenada famous throughout Europe, formed a singular contrast to the ferocity that is so natural to all nations of African origin. These Islamites, whose chief glory it was dexterously to deprive their enemies of their heads, attach them to their saddle-bows, and afterward display them as trophies on the {168} battlements of their towers or at the entrance of their palaces; these restless and ungovernable warriors, who were ever ready to revolt against their rulers, to depose or to murder them, were the most tender, the most devoted, the most ardent of lovers. Their wives, though their domestic position was little superior to that of slaves, became, when they were beloved, the absolute sovereigns, the supreme divinities of those whose hearts they possessed. It was to please these idolized beings that the Moorish cavaliers sought distinction in the field; it was to shine in their eyes that they lavished their treasures and their lives—that they mutually endeavoured to eclipse each other in deeds of arms, in the splendour of their warlike exploits, and the Oriental magnificence of their fetes.