Note 31 — Chapter III · GIBRALTAR OF THE MOORS.

Afterwards, at Madrid, Don P. Gayangos referred me to Ibn Batuta as fixing the date in the fourteenth century. On consulting that traveller, I find that he spoke of repairs under Abn El Haran, who ascended the throne of Fez in 1330. An inscription which existed in the last century, and of which a fac-simile is given in Col. James’s History of Gibraltar, seems to fix the date at A.D. 750. The following is the passage from Ibn Batuta:—“A despicable foe had had possession of it for twenty years, until our lord the Sultan Abn El Haran reduced him; he then rebuilt and strengthened its fortifications and walls, and stored it with cavalry, treasure, and warlike machines.”