HOW KING FERDINAND TREATED THE PEOPLE OF GUADIX, AND HOW EL ZAGAL
FINISHED HIS REGAL CAREER.
Scarcely had Boabdil (11) ensconced himself in his capital when King
Ferdinand, at the head of seven thousand horse and twenty thousand foot,
again appeared in the Vega. He had set out in all haste from Cordova
to the relief of Salobrena, but hearing on his march that the siege was
raised, he turned to make a second ravage round the walls of devoted
Granada. His present forage lasted fifteen days, in the course of which
almost everything that had escaped his former desolating visit was
destroyed, and scarce a green thing or a living animal was left on the
face of the land. The Moors sallied frequently and fought desperately in
defence of their fields, but the work of destruction was accomplished,
and Granada, once the queen of gardens, was left surrounded by a desert.
Ferdinand next hastened to crush a conspiracy in the cities of Guadix,
Baza, and Almeria. These recently conquered places had entered into
secret correspondence with Boabdil, inviting him to march to their
gates, promising to rise upon the Christian garrisons, seize upon the
citadels, and surrender them into his power. The marques of Villena had
received notice of the conspiracy, and suddenly thrown himself with a
large force into Guadix. Under pretence of a review of the inhabitants
he made them sally forth into the fields before the city. When the whole
Moorish population capable of bearing arms was thus without the walls,
he ordered the gates to be closed. He then permitted them to enter two
by two and three by three, and take forth their wives, children, and
effects. The houseless Moors were fain to make themselves temporary
hovels in the gardens and orchards about the city; they were clamorous
in their complaints at being thus excluded from their homes, but were
told they must wait with patience until the charges against them could
be investigated and the pleasure of the king be known.*
* Zurita, lib.--, c. 85; Cura de los Palacios, c. 97.
When Ferdinand arrived at Guadix, he found the unhappy Moors in their
cabins among the orchards. They complained bitterly of the deception
practised upon them, and implored permission to return into the city and
live peaceably in their dwellings, as had been promised them in their
articles of capitulation.
King Ferdinand listened graciously to their complaints. “My friends,”
said he in reply, “I have been informed that there has been a conspiracy
among you to kill my alcayde and garrison and to take part with my
enemy, the king of Granada. I shall make a thorough investigation of
this conspiracy. Those among you who shall be proved innocent shall be
restored to their dwellings, but the guilty shall incur the penalty of
their offences. As I wish, however, to proceed with mercy as well as
justice, I now give you your choice--either to depart at once without
further question, going wherever you please, and taking with you your
families and effects under an assurance of safety, or to deliver up
those who are guilty, not one of whom, I give you my royal word, shall
escape punishment.”
When the people of Guadix heard these words they communed among
themselves; and, as most of them (says the worthy Agapida) were either
culpable or feared to be considered so, they accepted the alternative
and departed sorrowfully, they and their wives and their little ones.
“Thus,” in the words of that excellent and contemporary historian Andres
Bernaldez, commonly called the curate of Los Palacios,--“thus did the
king deliver Guadix from the hands of the enemies of our holy faith
after seven hundred and seventy years that it had been in their
possession, ever since the time of Roderick the Goth; and this was one
of the mysteries of our Lord, who would not consent that the city should
remain longer in the power of the Moors”--a pious and sage remark which
is quoted with peculiar approbation by the worthy Agapida.
King Ferdinand offered similar alternatives to the Moors of Baza,
Almeria, and other cities accused of participation in this conspiracy,
who generally preferred to abandon their homes rather than incur the
risk of an investigation. Most of them relinquished Spain as a country
where they could no longer live in security and independence, and
departed with their families for Africa; such as remained were suffered
to live in villages and hamlets and other unwalled places.*
* Garibay, lib. 13, cap. 39; Pulgar, part 3, cap. 132.
While Ferdinand was thus occupied at Guadix, dispensing justice and
mercy and receiving cities in exchange, the old monarch, Muley Abdallah,
surnamed El Zagal, appeared before him. He was haggard with care and
almost crazed with passion. He had found his little territory of Andarax
and his two thousand subjects as difficult to govern as had been the
distracted kingdom of Granada. The charm which had bound the Moors to
him was broken when he appeared in arms under the banner of Ferdinand.
He had returned from his inglorious campaign with his petty army of two
hundred men, followed by the execrations of the people of Granada and
the secret repining of those he had led into the field. No sooner had
his subjects heard of the successes of Boabdil el Chico than they
had seized their arms, assembled tumultuously, declared for the young
monarch, and threatened the life of El Zagal.* The unfortunate old
king had with difficulty evaded their fury; and this last lesson seemed
entirely to have cured him of his passion for sovereignty. He now
entreated Ferdinand to purchase the towns and castles and other
possessions which had been granted to him, offering them at a low rate,
and begging safe passage for himself and his followers to Africa. King
Ferdinand graciously complied with his wishes. He purchased of him
three-and-twenty towns and villages in the valleys of Andarax and
Alhaurin, for which he gave him five millions of maravedis. El Zagal
relinquished his right to one-half of the salinas or salt-pits of Malaha
in favor of his brother-in-law, Cid Hiaya. Having thus disposed of his
petty empire and possessions, he packed up all his treasure, of which he
had a great amount, and, followed by many Moorish families, passed over
to Africa.**
* Cura de los Palacios, cap. 97.
* *Conde, part 4, cap. 41.
And here let us cast an eye beyond the present period of our chronicle,
and trace the remaining career of El Zagal. His short and turbulent
reign and disastrous end would afford a wholesome lesson to unprincipled
ambition, were not all ambition of the kind fated to be blind to precept
and example. When he arrived in Africa, instead of meeting with kindness
and sympathy, he was seized and thrown into prison by the caliph of Fez,
Benimerin, as though he had been his vassal. He was accused of being the
cause of the dissensions and downfall of the kingdom of Granada, and,
the accusation being proved to the satisfaction of the king of Fez, he
condemned the unhappy El Zagal to perpetual darkness. A basin of glowing
copper was passed before his eyes, which effectually destroyed his
sight. His wealth, which had probably been the secret cause of these
cruel measures, was confiscated and seized upon by his oppressor, and El
Zagal was thrust forth, blind, helpless, and destitute, upon the world.
In this wretched condition the late Moorish monarch groped his way
through the regions of Tingitania until he reached the city of Velez de
la Gomera. The emir of Velez had formerly been his ally, and felt some
movement of compassion at his present altered and abject state. He
gave him food and raiment and suffered him to remain unmolested in his
dominions. Death, which so often hurries off the prosperous and happy
from the midst of untasted pleasures, spares, on the other hand, the
miserable to drain the last drop of his cup of bitterness. El Zagal
dragged out a wretched existence of many years in the city of Velez. He
wandered about blind and disconsolate, an object of mingled scorn and
pity, and bearing above his raiment a parchment on which was written in
Arabic, “This is the unfortunate king of Andalusia.” *
* Marmol, De Rebelione Maur., lib. 1, cap. 16; Padraza, Hist.
Granad., part 3, c. 4; Suarez, Hist. Obisp. de Guadix y Baza, cap. 10.