DOMESTIC FEUDS IN THE ALHAMBRA--RIVAL SULTANAS--PREDICTIONS CONCERNING
BOABDIL, THE HEIR TO THE THRONE--HOW FERDINAND MEDITATES WAR AGAINST
GRANADA, AND HOW HE IS ANTICIPATED.
Though Muley Abul Hassan was at peace in his external relations, a civil
war raged in his harem, which it is proper to notice, as it had a fatal
effect upon the fortunes of the kingdom. Though cruel by nature, he was
uxorious and somewhat prone to be managed by his wives. Early in life
he had married his kinswoman, Ayxa (or Ayesha), daughter of his
great-uncle, the sultan Mohammed VII., surnamed El Hayzari, or the
Left-handed. She was a woman of almost masculine spirit and energy, and
of such immaculate and inaccessible virtue that she was generally called
La Horra, or the Chaste. By her he had a son, Abu Abdallah, or, as he is
commonly named by historians, Boabdil. The court astrologers, according
to custom, cast the horoscope of the infant, but were seized with
fear and trembling as they regarded it. “Allah Akbar! God is great!”
exclaimed they; “he alone controls the fate of empires. It is written in
the book of fate that this child will one day sit upon the throne, but
that the downfall of the kingdom will be accomplished during his reign.”
From that time the prince had been regarded with aversion by his father,
and the prediction which hung over him and the persecutions to which
he became subjected procured him the surname of El Zogoybi, or
the Unfortunate. He grew up, however, under the protection of his
valiant-hearted mother, who by the energy of her character long
maintained an undisputed sway in the harem, until, as her youth passed
away and her beauty declined, a formidable rival arose.
In one of the forays of the Moorish chivalry into the Christian
territories they had surprised a frontier fortress commanded by Sancho
Ximenes de Solis, a noble and valiant cavalier, who fell in bravely
defending it. Among the captives was his daughter Isabella, then almost
in her infancy, who was brought to Granada, delicately raised, and
educated in the Moslem faith.* Her Moorish captors gave her the name of
Fatima, but as she grew up her surpassing beauty gained her the surname
of Zoraya, or the Morning Star, by which she has become known in
history. Her charms at length attracted the notice of Muley Abul Hassan,
and she soon became a member of his harem. Some have spoken of her as
a Christian slave whom he had made his concubine; but others, with more
truth, represent her as one of his wives, and ultimately his favorite
sultana; and indeed it was often the case that female captives of rank
and beauty, when converted to the faith of Islam, became united to the
proudest and loftiest of their captors.
* Cronica del Gran Cardinal, cap. 71.
Zoraya soon acquired complete ascendancy over the mind of Muley Abul
Hassan. She was as ambitious as she was beautiful, and, having become
the mother of two sons, looked forward to the possibility of one of them
sitting on the throne of Granada. These ambitious views were encouraged,
if not suggested, by a faction which gathered round her inspired by
kindred sympathies. The king’s vizier, Abul Cacim Vanegas, who had great
influence over him, was, like Zoraya, of Christian descent, being of
the noble house of Luque. His father, one of the Vanegas of Cordova, had
been captured in infancy and brought up as a Moslem.* From him sprang
the vizier, Abul Cacim Vanegas, and his brother, Reduan Vanegas,
likewise high in rank in the court of Muley Abul Hassan, and they had
about them numerous and powerful connections, all basking in court
favor. Though Moslems in faith, they were all drawn to Zoraya by the
tie of foreign and Christian descent, and sought to elevate her and her
children to the disparagement of Ayxa la Horra and her son Boabdil. The
latter, on the other hand, were supported by the noble and once-potent
family of the Abencerrages and by Aben Comixa, alcayde of the Alhambra;
and between these two factions, headed by rival sultanas, the harem
of Muley Abul Hassan became the scene of inveterate jealousies and
intrigues, which in time, as will be shown, led to popular commotions
and civil wars.**
* Cura de los Palacios, Hist. de los Reyes Catol., cap. 56.
* *It is to be noted that several historians have erroneously
represented Zoraya as the mother of Boabdil, instead of Ayxa la Horra,
and the Abencerrages as the opponents of Boabdil, instead of his
strenuous adherents. The statement in the text is according to the most
reliable authorities.
While these female feuds were threatening Muley Abul Hassan with trouble
and disaster at home, his evil genius prompted him to an enterprise
which involved him in tenfold danger from abroad. The reader has already
been apprised of a singular clause in the truce existing between the
Christians and the Moors, permitting hasty dashes into each other’s
territories and assaults of towns and fortresses, provided they were
carried on as mere forays and without the parade of regular warfare. A
long time had elapsed, however, without any incursion of the kind on
the part of the Moors, and the Christian towns on the frontiers had, in
consequence, fallen into a state of the most negligent security. In an
unlucky moment Muley Abul Hassan was tempted to one of these forays by
learning that the fortress of Zahara, on the frontier between Ronda and
Medina Sidonia, was but feebly garrisoned and scantily supplied, and
that its alcayde was careless of his charge. This important post was
built on the crest of a rocky mountain, with a strong castle perched
above it upon a cliff, so high that it was said to be above the flight
of birds or drift of clouds. The streets and many of the houses were
mere excavations wrought out of the living rock. The town had but one
gate, opening to the west and defended by towers and bulwarks. The only
ascent to this cragged fortress was by roads cut in the rock, so rugged
in many places as to resemble broken stairs. In a word, the impregnable
security of Zahara had become so proverbial throughout Spain that a
woman of forbidding and inaccessible virtue was called a Zaharena. But
the strongest fortress and sternest virtue have weak points, and require
unremitting vigilance to guard them: let warrior and dame take warning
from the fate of Zahara.