CHAPTER XX

PROSECUTION OF THE RECONQUEST

1252–1475

Condition of Moorish Spain after the Death of Ferdinand

III.--Invasion of Ibn-Yusuf--Vast Wealth and Power

of the Spanish Clergy--Public Disorder---Energy of

Mohammed I.--His Achievements--Mohammed II.--Peace with

Castile--Character of Alfonso X.--Siege of Tarifa--Mohammed

III.--Al-Nazer--Ismail--Baza taken--Mohammed IV.--The Empire of

Fez--Defeat of the Africans in the Plain of Pagana---Yusuf--Rout

of the Salado--Alfonso XI. captures Algeziras--Splendid

Public Works of the Kings of Granada--Mohammed V.--Ismail

II.--Abu-Said--He repairs to the Court of Pedro el Cruel, and

is murdered--Yusuf II.--Mohammed VI.--Yusuf III.--Mohammed

VII.--Mohammed VIII.--Ibn-Ismail--Gibraltar taken by the

Castilians--Character of Muley Hassan--Critical Condition of the

Spanish Arabs--Impending Destruction of the Kingdom of Granada.

The capture of Seville terminates an important epoch of the Reconquest.

The narrative of the events relating to the condition and conduct of

the subjugated Moors during the long period which intervened between

the reigns of Ferdinand the Saint and Ferdinand the Catholic presents a

melancholy and repulsive picture of unblushing extortion and successful

treason, of violated pledges and sanguinary revenge. Oppressed by

the exactions and cruelty of their lords, the unhappy sectaries of

Islam more than once sought relief in hopeless rebellion. The Moslem

population of Valencia, numbering three hundred thousand, made a

desperate but ineffectual attempt to regain their independence. As a

penalty for this, their expulsion was resolved upon by the King of

Aragon,--a measure suggested and promoted by the clergy. The nobles,

unwilling to sacrifice their revenues, encouraged the resistance of

their vassals; and such was the influence of the aristocracy that

a monarch, in order to punish treason, was forced to purchase the

concurrence of his too powerful subjects by the donation of large sums

of money. The train of exiles filled the highway for a distance of five

leagues, and the great sum of a hundred thousand pieces of gold was

collected as toll from those alone who obtained the expensive privilege

of crossing the Castilian frontier.

Seventy thousand others, resolved to try the fortune of the sword,

contended for three years with heroic but unavailing courage against

the entire resources of the Aragonese monarchy. At length they were

overpowered and compelled to evacuate the kingdom; many of their

vacant lands were seized by the Crown; the most desirable estates were

absorbed by the Church; the chapel replaced the mosque, the begging

friar the laborer; agriculture was neglected; mechanical industry

declined, and the vagrants and outlaws of every contiguous state, whose

descendants now enjoy a reputation for ferocity, vindictiveness, and

treachery, which has spread to the remotest corners of Europe, hastened

to occupy the abandoned habitations of what had been appropriately

designated a terrestrial paradise.

The Moslem tributaries of the various Christian princes participated

in the endless conflicts of every disputed succession, always to

their disadvantage, often to their ruin. During this age of political

transition, where the lines separating the great powers of the country

were so faintly drawn as to be sometimes undiscernible, and where the

oldest ties of kindred were constantly broken in the gratification of

vengeance or the pursuit of empire, a condition of chaotic disorder

prevailed in every kingdom, state, and city of the Spanish Peninsula.

The brilliant campaigns of Ferdinand III. had extended far beyond its

original limits the once insignificant realm of the Castilian monarchy.

His exploits had confirmed the faith and inflamed the enthusiasm of his

subjects. The trophies won from the Moslem, the almost unbroken series

of triumphs, the vast and ever-increasing acquisition of territory

indicated to the devout the special and indulgent protection of God. In

the mind of a populace dominated by the pride of victory and the hope

of conquest, there was no room for the gentle and prosaic avocations of

peace. The humanizing benefits of commerce were considered beneath the

dignity of a nation devoted to the profession of arms, and its practice

was abandoned to the states of the Adriatic, at once despised and

envied for their intelligence, their acuteness, and their prosperity.

The universal prevalence of ecclesiastical legends, whose authenticity

was proclaimed from every pulpit, had destroyed all taste for

historical composition. The story of earthly heroes, the recital of the

rise and fall of great empires and kingdoms, the progress of the arts,

the triumphs of civilization were contemptuously cast aside for the

miracles of fictitious saints and the absurd prodigies of superstition.

With increasing numbers, enormous revenues, and political influence,

which not infrequently controlled the decrees of kings and councils,

the Church, in the Peninsula as elsewhere, had long since discarded its

primitive simplicity of faith and worship. The manners of its prelates

were more arrogant than those of the greatest sovereigns. The most

fertile lands of every province were apportioned among its servants.

Its edifices occupied the most commanding and picturesque locations.

From the contributions of wealthy proselytes, from the spoils of

vanquished infidels, from the scruples of the pious, and from the

apprehensions of the dying, immense sums were annually deposited in

its treasury. The heads of the religious houses, by royal charter or

papal usurpation, possessed and exercised without interference the

privilege of life and death over their vassals. Some of them yielded in

precedence and prerogative to the king alone. The power and opulence

enjoyed by these establishments are little understood at the present

day. The convent of Las Huelgas, founded by Alfonso VIII., near Burgos,

is but one example of many which might be adduced. Its buildings

exhibited the highest degree of architectural magnificence of which

the age was capable. Three hundred towns and villages acknowledged

the authority of the abbess, who was a princess palatine. The rental

of its estates amounted to a fabulous sum, which often, in times of

public disorder, far exceeded the revenues of the crown. The fortunes

bestowed by its inmates, all of whom were required to be of noble

birth, formed no inconsiderable proportion of its great and constantly

increasing wealth. In its chapel were the mausoleums of kings and

princes exquisitely carved in marble and alabaster. Before its altar

had been knighted many personages, among them Edward I. of England.

The reverence with which this convent was regarded corresponded with

the luxury which invested its surroundings, and the authority of the

haughty dignitary who presided over its destinies and governed her

retainers and dependents with autocratic sway. Such was one of the

innumerable ecclesiastical foundations which covered the Peninsula,

soliciting the gifts of the pious, tempting the sacrifice of the

superstitious, and awakening the awe and veneration of the ignorant and

credulous multitude.

The relations between the religious, political, and military orders

were then more intimate in Spain than in any other country in the

world. Bishops went forth to battle in complete steel, followed by

trains of armed vassals, and it was found in the hour of trial that the

prowess of these belligerent soldiers of the Church was not inferior to

that of their ruder companions, inured by the experience of a lifetime

to the hardships and perils of war. In the short and infrequent

intervals of peace, the aspiring ecclesiastic indulged his restless

spirit in the dangerous and exciting diversion of political intrigue.

Not an assassination was planned, not a conspiracy was projected, but

the crosier and the crucifix were found side by side with the sword

and the poniard. With such associations, it is not strange that the

vices of the camps and the unrelenting ferocity which distinguished

the mercenary crusader should have found a lodgement in the quiet

abodes of religious seclusion. The choice of the female captives was

reserved for the episcopal voluptuary. The subterranean vaults of the

monastery were provided with the most improved instruments of torture.

The richest spoils were appropriated for the benefit of the cathedral

and the abbey. The wealth of the latter was incredible. The combined

revenues of the Archiepiscopal See of Toledo, in the fourteenth

century, were two hundred and sixty thousand ducats, or four and a

half million dollars; those of the three great military orders were

a hundred and forty-five thousand ducats, or upwards of two million.

The state of morals prevalent among the clergy was disclosed by an

edict of Alfonso X., by which he granted to the priesthood, devoted

by their vows and by the canons of the Church to a condition of

poverty and celibacy, the privilege of bequeathing their wealth to the

offspring of their concubines. In the reign of Henry III., a mistress

of the King was appointed the superior of a convent for the avowed

purpose of reforming its inmates! The immorality of the religious

teachers, whose behavior, so at variance with their professions,

scarcely excited comment, insensibly reacted upon the people. The

licentiousness of the Castilian, from the king to the beggar, was

proverbial. The illegitimate offspring of the monarch often took

precedence of the legal heirs to the throne. The nobles imitated with

eagerness the example of royalty, and the life of the lower orders

was incredibly profligate. Political honor and private integrity were

practically extinct. The obligations of loyalty, the performance of

contracts, the solemn engagements which united in mutual dependence

the lord and the vassal, were habitually violated. The commission

of crime, often instigated by the authorities appointed to punish

it, went on unchecked. The highways swarmed with outlaws. The fields

lay waste and whole districts were depopulated, for the industrious

peasantry were unwilling to labor when their oppressors reaped the

harvest. The turbulent aristocracy, when not engaged in prosecuting

hereditary feuds, without concealment or apology plundered the domains

and appropriated the revenues of the crown. The king was frequently

compelled to pawn the insignia of his office in order to obtain the

necessaries of life. The priesthood and the nobles engrossed the wealth

of the realm. Debasement of the coinage, that fruitful source of so

many evils, was frequently resorted to. In many parts of the country

agriculture was practically abandoned; trade was paralyzed, and the

pestilence, the companion of filth, neglect, and starvation, swept

populous communities entirely away. The expenses of incessant warfare

imposed new burdens upon a suffering and despairing people. In a single

year, in Aragon, the sums expended for the ransom of prisoners amounted

to four hundred thousand florins. Amidst this thorough demoralization

of society, from which no class and comparatively few individuals were

exempt, in the army alone was preserved the faint semblance of honor

and virtue. The Castilian soldier, ever brave and generous, despite the

superstition which often tarnished his character, while bowing with

reverence before the altar, reserved his secret homage for the God

of War. When not exercised against the infidel, now restricted to a

corner of the Peninsula, his weapons were turned against his neighbor.

His imagination was dazzled by the story of his ancestors; his courage

was animated by the hope that he might equal or even surpass their

almost superhuman exploits. A military career was the surest avenue to

the enjoyment of fame, to the acquirement of wealth, to the applause

of the multitude, to the smiles of beauty, to all those advantages

regarded by mankind as most desirable in this life, and for which

every superstitious age has with singular inconsistency been willing

to barter the prospect of future happiness and eternal glory in the

life to come. The pompous splendor of medieval array appealed strongly

to every sentiment which could impress or influence the mind of the

courtly noble or the unlettered peasant. Silks and cloth of gold;

glittering armor curiously inlaid with precious metals; sparkling gems;

gorgeously caparisoned horses; tabards embroidered with royal devices

and suggestive mottoes; jewelled weapons whose weight and dimensions

indicated that corporeal strength and manual dexterity were the most

useful qualities of a soldier who prided himself quite as much upon

his courtesy as his valor,--these were the attractions which with

irresistible force impelled members of every rank of society to the

most fascinating and lucrative of all professions,--the trade of arms.

Until the reign of Alfonso X. the pursuit of letters, abandoned to the

monks, had been practised solely in the cloister. The more or less

intimate relations maintained at different periods between the courts

of Castile and Granada, the great universities and colleges of the

Moorish kingdom, the precious literary remains which had survived

the ruin of the Western Khalifate, the traditions of a civilization

more elegant and polished than the world had heretofore known, made

no perceptible impression upon those savage warriors who had borne in

triumph the standard of the Cross from the defiles of the Asturias to

the banks of the Guadalquivir. The mosques of the conquered Moslems

had been deformed by incongruous additions and blackened with the

smoke of incense. The exquisite labors of the Arab and Byzantine

artists were plastered over with lime. Scientific instruments, almost

universally viewed with mingled dread and suspicion as infernal

apparatus for the prosecution of magic and the invocation of demons,

were broken to pieces. Every copy of the Koran that could be found was

destroyed. Such works in the Arabic tongue as came into the hands of

the ecclesiastics were at once committed to the flames as of diabolical

import. The beautiful palaces and villas of the Moorish princes were

suffered to fall into decay. When, in after years, it was desired

to partially restore their delicate ornamentation, no one could be

found who understood the process,--it had been entirely lost. The

lovely plantations of Andalusia, traversed by a thousand rivulets,

enriched with bountiful harvests, fragrant with the blossoms of rare

exotics, provided with every plant subservient to the comfort or the

gratification of man, were turned into a vast and dreary solitude.

No qualities or tastes of the infidel were considered by the knight

worthy of emulation save his polygamous habits and his courage and

dexterity in battle,--a courage and dexterity which, alas! were

insufficient to arrest, and scarcely able to retard, the stubborn and

relentless march of Spanish conquest.

The social, political, and religious conditions of the Castilian

monarchy sketched in the preceding pages become most important when

the causes of the prolongation of the Moorish domination in Spain are

considered. The kingdom of Granada, like that of Castile, was rent

by internal dissensions. Surrounded by powerful and hostile states,

it maintained its existence chiefly through the incessant quarrels

of its neighbors. In its court and capital treason and crime were

rampant. Emir after emir, whose titles were derived from the murder

of their kinsmen, succeeded one another on the throne. A great and

tumultuous population, which had fled before the invincible squadrons

of the conqueror, crowded its provinces. The mixed character of the

latter and the seditious elements of which it was composed rendered it

ever ready for revolt. The numerous offspring of the royal harem was

also an endless and menacing source of danger and discord. Under such

circumstances, threatened with certain destruction, with the banners

of Castile often in sight of the towers of the Alhambra, its midnight

sky illumined with the light of burning villages, its frontiers

contracting with almost every Christian foray, the Moorish kingdom

maintained, from the death of Ferdinand III. to the accession of the

Catholic sovereigns, a period of two hundred and twenty-two years,

a turbulent and precarious existence. The monotony of that long and

dreary period was unbroken by any great event, and diversified only by

predatory inroads, by occasional sieges of fortified towns,--some of

which, Algeziras, Tarifa, Gibraltar, were lost forever to the Moslem

empire,--and by those calamities incident to the decadence of a nation

whose’ parts had lost their cohesive power, and whose resources were

exhausted in treasonable enterprises and civil war rather than employed

in counteracting and repelling the efforts of the common enemy.

Mohammed I., as soon as he learned of the death of King Ferdinand,

hastened to manifest his respect for his former lord by despatching a

hundred Moorish nobles to Seville, where, clad in the deepest mourning

and bearing lighted tapers, they followed the body of the monarch to

the grave. Through policy or esteem, the alliance between the courts

of Granada and Castile was renewed; the Emir, in token of dependence,

did homage to Alfonso as his suzerain; and this condition of vassalage,

more nominal than real, and rather indicative of friendship than

subjection, served materially to protract the term of life of the

Moslem kingdom, in the course of natural events inevitably destined

to destruction. Summoned by the King of Castile to attend him in his

expeditions against the Moors of Eastern Andalusia, Mohammed, bound

by the obligations he had assumed, was compelled to draw his sword

upon his fellow-sectaries in the interest and for the exclusive

benefit of the hereditary enemies of his religion and his race. Arcos,

Medina-Sidonia, Xerez, Lebrija, Niebla, and many places of inferior

note fell into the hands of the Christians. With bitter mortification

the Saracens beheld the subjugation of strongholds whose defences had

been constructed by the soldiers of the greatest khalif’s, aware that

their aid had contributed in no small degree to victories which must in

the end affect the integrity of their own dominion.

The unfortunate results of this alliance did not fail to produce

upon the sagacious and penetrating mind of Mohammed-al-Ahmar a

deep and abiding impression. Foreseeing the certain recurrence of

hostilities with the Christians, he employed every resource at his

command to strengthen the defences of his kingdom and to place his

army in readiness for aggressive operations. The flying squadrons

of cavalry, which had always been the strongest arm of the Moorish

service, were reorganized and placed under the command of skilful and

experienced captains. Great quantities of provisions and munitions

of war were collected and stored in magazines in every part of the

country. New castles and watch-towers were erected on the frontiers.

Secret emissaries were despatched to foment treason and disorder

in those cities which had recently been added by conquest to the

Castilian territory, and whose population, largely Moorish, cherished

an implacable aversion to their new masters. The fortresses of the

South, and especially Gibraltar, were strengthened and their garrisons

increased. Negotiations were entered into with the Emir of Morocco,

who was induced to abandon his sectarian prejudices and his personal

resentment to further a meritorious and pious enterprise,--resistance

against the menacing encroachments of the Christian power. When all

was ready, an embassy from the towns of Medina-Sidonia, Murcia, Xerez,

and Arcos solicited the aid of Mohammed, promising as a reward for

his interference the annexation of their provinces to the kingdom of

Granada. With secret assurances of support, which indeed had already

awakened the hope of success, the tributary Moslems of the South,

from Valencia to the borders of Portugal, rose simultaneously in

rebellion. The Christians, ignorant or heedless of impending danger,

were ruthlessly slaughtered. The soldiery fared no better than the

unarmed citizens, only obtaining a somewhat longer respite by the

exertion of their superior valor and skill. The garrison of Xerez,

commanded by Count Gomez, after a defence memorable even in those

days of knightly heroism, perished to the last man. The women and

children of the massacred Castilians passed into the harems of the

infidel; many were sent to Granada, some were sold in Africa. The city

of Murcia was taken by a detachment of cavalry, secretly despatched

by Mohammed. A conspiracy, which had for its object the liberation

of Seville and Cordova from the Christian yoke, was discovered and

frustrated by the merest accident; and the attempt to recover the

great mosque of Abd-al-Rahman,--in the eyes of Mohammedans one of the

most sacred edifices in the world, and still, despite its degradation

to a temple of idolatrous worship, an object of the deepest reverence

to millions of the votaries of Islam,--though unsuccessful, failed to

remove from the minds of the fanatic believer the conviction that the

shrine, enriched and embellished by the munificence and devotion of

the khalifs, was destined at some future time to be restored to the

possession of its original owners and its endless aisles once more to

resound with the truths committed by the Spirit of Almighty Wisdom to

the inspired interpretation of the Prophet of God.

Notwithstanding the secret and hostile machinations of Mohammed,

already more than suspected by King Alfonso, the crafty Moor still

maintained in his intercourse with the latter the appearance of

alliance and friendship. But his temporizing conduct, when requested to

assist in the subjugation of the rebels, soon resolved suspicion into

certainty; the seriousness of the danger became manifest, and Alfonso,

finally convinced of the dissimulation of his vassal, prepared to

defend not only the ancient heritage of his fathers, but the recently

acquired possessions of the crown.

A formidable band of Africans, sent by the Emir of Morocco, crossed

the strait and joined the Moslem army, and a bloody but indecisive

battle, in which the advantage remained with the Moslems, was fought

near Alcalá-la-Real. The country on the borders of both kingdoms was

constantly ravaged by bands of marauders. The Moors of the revolted

provinces, secure in the defences of the fortified towns, defied the

irregular and ill-concerted efforts to dislodge them, and the rancor of

religious hatred, intensified by centuries of enmity, which intervals

of truce and mutual professions of service had not sufficed to even

palliate, broke forth with redoubled fury in every hamlet and city

of Southern Andalusia. In the presence of an exhausted treasury, a

dissatisfied and disloyal nobility, and an active foe who commanded

at once the resources of his own kingdom and those of his allies in

Africa, Alfonso began to realize how desperate was his situation. But

while the territory acquired by the valor of Ferdinand III. seemed

about to be wrenched from the feeble grasp of his son, the proverbial

inconstancy of the Arab character, consistent in nothing save the

gratification of private revenge, solved forever, at a critical moment,

the problem of Moslem domination or servitude. The African allies, to

whom the credit of the victory of Alcalá-la-Real was justly due, had

in consequence been treated with distinguished consideration by the

grateful Mohammed. But in the eyes of the Andalusian Moors the Africans

were heretics, and the peculiar bias of narrow minds which regards a

hostile sectary as infinitely more detestable than a foe in arms, aided

by national and provincial jealousy, subverted a great and well-planned

revolution. Forgetful of their services, a cry of indignant protest was

raised by the bigoted Andalusian populace against the favors bestowed

upon the African auxiliaries; the faquis, the ecclesiastical demagogues

of the time, fanned the flame of religious animosity, and the spirit

of theological discord, ever so prominent in the Moorish annals of

the Peninsula, once more preferred the triumph of misdirected zeal to

the welfare of country or the preservation of empire. The walis of

Guadix, Malaga, and Comares, voicing the sentiments of the communities

they governed, and perhaps influenced by aspirations to ultimate

independence, offered to render homage to the King of Castile, with

the understanding that he was to protect them from the consequences

of rebellion. Alfonso received with joy the news of this unexpected

accession of strength, and he embraced with eagerness the proffered

alliance. The forces of the walis at once descended with irresistible

fury upon the Vega, and the revolted cities, abandoned by the Emir,

whose capital was menaced by the active squadrons of Malaga, were in

a few months compelled to solicit the mercy of the conqueror. The

larger portion of the Moorish inhabitants fled to Granada to add to

the constantly growing resources and population of that kingdom, still

destined for many generations to represent the culture, the science,

the intelligence, and the politeness of Western Europe.

In the mean time, Jaime of Aragon, solicited by Alfonso, had occupied

the city and territory of Murcia. His well-known probity, combined

with his military reputation, induced the Moors to receive him rather

as a mediator than an enemy. His wise and humane policy reconciled the

vassals to their suzerain; and Alfonso, with a bad faith conspicuous

in an age of broken treaties and repudiated obligations, agreed

not only to desert his allies, the walis, but to assist in their

subjugation, if Mohammed would forever renounce all sovereignty over

the province of Murcia. Upon these conditions a truce was agreed to,

which, however, was immediately violated by Alfonso, who, besides

refusing his aid, ordered Mohammed to acknowledge the independence of

the cities of Guadix, Comares, and Malaga, whose geographical position

and impregnable fortifications caused them to be regarded as the keys

of the kingdom. The resumption of negotiations produced more enduring

and satisfactory results, and the walls, to whose timely defection the

Castilian king owed the restoration of the most valuable part of his

recently acquired dominions, were abandoned to the vengeance of the

exasperated Emir, who purchased of the Christians temporary immunity

from further hostilities by an annual tribute of two hundred and fifty

thousand maravedis of gold.

Not long afterwards, while Alfonso was deliberating whether he should

not again betray his vassal Mohammed by countenancing his rebellious

subjects, he was recalled to Castile by a conspiracy of the nobles,

headed by the Count de Lara and Don Philip, the brother of the King.

The fatal indecision of his character was never more strikingly

displayed than in his treatment of the conspirators, who defied the

royal authority with impunity in the Cortes and the palace alike,

and who finally, to the number of several thousand, including their

retainers, renouncing their suzerainty, as permitted by feudal law,

took refuge at the court of Granada, plundering and ravaging their own

country on the way and sparing neither the rich possessions of the

crown nor the sacred edifices of the Church. Mohammed welcomed this

seasonable reinforcement to his prestige and power with more than regal

hospitality; his distinguished guests were quartered in magnificent

palaces, the most attractive national spectacles were arranged for

their amusement; they received assurances of the substantial support

of the Emir in the disputes with their sovereign; while, in the mean

time, the shrewd and enterprising Moslem secured without difficulty

the promise of their aid in the impending and doubtful contest with

his defiant vassals. An expedition was organized for that purpose; the

Christian knights mingled with the train of the Moslem sovereign, and a

gallant array issued from the gates of Granada. But before the allied

army had advanced far from the capital a sudden illness seized the

Emir, and he expired in his tent within sight of the city which he had

done so much to adorn.

The founder of a famous dynasty, Mohammed was one of the most talented

of those princes who enjoyed the distinction of maintaining through

many troubled generations the defence of the Moslem worship and the

glory of the Moslem arms. At once bold and crafty, his duplicity arose

rather from the character of the adversaries with whom he was forced

to contend than from a cunning and ignoble nature. The doctrine that

it is pardonable and, under certain circumstances, even meritorious,

to disregard the most solemn engagements contracted with an infidel,

subsequently carried to such atrocious consequences among the Indian

population of the New World, had begun to be, as already stated, a

generally admitted maxim of Catholic casuistry. Throughout the Middle

Ages the law of nations, the construction of treaties, the courtesies

of martial gallantry, the conditions of honorable peace, were

imperfectly understood, negligently practised, and often deliberately

violated. Many of the defects of this great prince were therefrom

traceable to the lax morality of the age. His acts of homage to his

mortal foes were mere incidents of a deep-laid policy, entered into to

secure the establishment and consolidation of his power. His monarchy,

oppressed by the progress of incessant conquest, became insensibly

stronger and more easy to defend as its frontiers were contracted.

With the Castilian occupation of every city, a crowd of industrious

exiles, bearing their household goods, was added to the already

numerous population of Granada; accessions which brought with them no

inconsiderable wealth and many qualities more valuable than wealth

to a declining empire,--habits of industry and thrift, a capacity to

adapt themselves to new conditions, the memory of former injuries, the

melancholy experiences of persecution, the hope of retribution, and

an unconquerable hatred of the Christian name. It was the political

incorporation of this banished and oppressed people, aided by the

mountain barriers of its last refuge, that contributed to preserve

for future glory and unparalleled disaster the flourishing kingdom of

Granada.

The founding of the Alhambra has perhaps done more to perpetuate the

glory of Mohammed I. than any of the political or military achievements

of his career. During its construction he mingled with the workmen,

encouraging their efforts, directing their labors, rewarding their

diligence. But a small portion of the palace was completed in his

lifetime; and it was reserved for his distant successors, under more

fortunate circumstances and in a more polished age, to bring to

perfection the fairy edifice which his taste and genius had projected.

During the reign of this great prince every art and every industry

received substantial encouragement; agriculture, which, under the

khalifs, had reached such an extraordinary development, again became

the favorite pursuit of a laborious peasantry; the shipping of every

maritime nation brought the products of the East and West to the

Moorish ports of the Mediterranean; the warehouses were filled with

those articles of use and luxury which minister to the necessities

and the tastes of the noble and the opulent; the mining resources of

the sierras, long neglected through internal commotions and foreign

war, were again developed; the quarries of jasper and marble once

more contributed their treasures for the adornment of palace and

mosque; public baths and hospitals furnished with every convenience

and appliance known to medicine and surgery in a country which, in its

acquaintance with and adaptation of those sciences, surpassed every

other in Europe, rose in the principal cities of the kingdom; and the

universal thrift and contentment exhibited in the appearance of the

people afforded conclusive testimony of the wisdom, the justice, and

the vigilance with which they were governed. Nor was the solicitude of

the monarch confined to the material wants of his subjects. Schools,

colleges, and other institutions of learning were multiplied beyond

the example of any preceding age in that quarter of the Peninsula.

The libraries, upon whose shelves were still to be found some of

those volumes which had survived the wreck and the dispersion of the

magnificent collection of Al-Hakem II., were the delight and the

recreation of every intelligent scholar. In the embellishment of the

mosques were exhibited the first examples of that art whose unrivalled

beauty, in after times, found its climax upon the walls of the Alhambra

in a splendor of ornamentation which modern skill has in vain attempted

to approach.

In the dispensation of justice Mohammed followed the patriarchal

example of his Arab ancestors. He gave audience twice a week at the

gate of his palace; the humblest suitor was certain of an attentive

hearing, and no person was too insignificant to be restored to

his rights or too powerful to escape the consequences of insolent

oppression or violated law. The public works and institutions were

the especial objects of the care of this wise and politic ruler;

he personally inspected the baths, the hospitals, the schools, the

mosques, the highways, the aqueducts; the fidelity of the teacher

and the diligence of the pupil were stimulated by judicious rewards;

and his administration, surrounded by every evidence of prosperity

and refinement, indicated that the genius of Moslem progress and

civilization had entered upon a new and glorious existence on the banks

of the Darro and the Genil. What a contrast was all this to the moral,

intellectual, and social condition of Europe, and especially of Spain,

in the middle of the thirteenth century! What had the boorish Castilian

crusader to offer in exchange for it; what benefit could accrue to

mankind from its suppression?

Mohammed-al-Ahmar was succeeded by his son Mohammed II., whose

genius, taste, and learning proved him to be eminently worthy of

his inheritance. An accomplished linguist, his leisure moments were

employed in familiar conversation with the scholars and philosophers

of distant countries, attracted to his court by his reputation for

wisdom, his encouragement of letters, his protection of the arts, and

his profuse but discerning liberality. His first act was an edict

continuing in their official positions the ministers of his father,

whose capacity had been proved by many years of faithful service; his

second, the overthrow of the rebel walis, who sustained an overwhelming

defeat near Antequera, by which the authority of the new emir was

re-established over the territory recently in revolt, and his talents

as a general became known to the Castilians, destined erelong to

receive fresh evidences of his activity and courage. The recalcitrant

Christian nobles, whose valor had contributed to the victory of

Antequera, received magnificent rewards of horses, arms, money, and

slaves. Sumptuous palaces, furnished with all the refinements of

Moorish luxury, were allotted to their use or even constructed in their

honor in the suburbs of the most beautiful and romantic capital in

Europe.

Sentiments of mutual respect, accompanied perhaps with some

apprehension of the results of a conflict where the forces of both

parties were so evenly balanced, induced the rival monarchs to consent

to a conference with a view to the establishment of peace. In the city

of Seville, at that time the seat of the Castilian court, the notable

assembly was held. In the old Moorish Alcazar, as yet intact, King

Alfonso received the Emir of Granada with the barbaric magnificence

which characterized the Spanish chivalry of that age. The handsome

features, grave demeanor, and elegant manners of the Moslem sovereign

surprised and charmed the ignorant Castilians, accustomed to consider

their infidel foes as savages in appearance and demons in character.

The splendid arms and costumes of the Moorish nobles dazzled the eyes

of the people, while their martial bearing evoked the admiration of

the Christian champions, who had experienced the prowess of their

guests in many a bloody and stoutly contested encounter. The polished

helmets and damascened armor of the recreant knights appeared side by

side with the white turbans and silken robes which distinguished the

followers of the Prophet. Every courtesy was shown to the Emir and his

retinue; the day was passed in tournaments and spectacles, the night in

concerts, theatrical displays, and banquets. Political negotiations,

for a time subordinated to royal hospitality and chivalric amusements,

were finally entered upon, and in the end completed with little honor

or credit to the Castilian king. The demands of the Infante Don Philip

and his adherents were granted; they were restored to their estates and

resumed their precarious allegiance; a truce was arranged between the

rival sovereigns, and a numerous escort of nobles, who represented the

pride and luxury of the Spanish court, accompanied the Moslems to the

frontier of the kingdom.

Mohammed II., humiliated by the dependent position he was compelled to

assume at his accession and seeing no advantages to be derived from the

perfidious friendship of the Castilians, adopted at once the astute

and crooked policy of his father. Influenced by his representations,

Ibn-Yusuf, Emir of Morocco, invaded the Peninsula at the head of an

army of fifty thousand men. He was at once joined by the King of

Granada, and the Moslems of every community of Andalusia hastened

to his standard, eager to try once more the alluring but uncertain

fortunes of war. The two Moslem princes marched in parallel lines,

within supporting distance of each other. The country, which had for

a quarter of a century experienced a respite from the ravages of a

hostile army, was visited with a severity which equalled that of the

most destructive of former campaigns. Not a house, not a tree, not a

field of grass or grain remained standing in the blackened track of

the invader. Great numbers of Christians perished; a long train of

captives followed the Moslem armies; and the days of African dominion

seemed about to be renewed. At the Castilian frontier the Sultan of

Morocco encountered Nuño de Lara, commandant of that military district,

and after a furious battle the bodies of the Spanish general and eight

thousand of his followers which strewed the plain bore witness to the

prowess of the Berber soldiery.

The division of Mohammed II. moved through the territory of Jaen,

where Sancho, Primate of Spain,--who, the son of Jaime, King of

Aragon, had inherited the martial instincts of his father, in a

warlike age rather an incentive than an impediment to the duties of

the clerical profession,--had assumed command. The distinguished

prelate, relying more upon the miraculous intervention of Heaven

than upon the numerical strength of his squadrons, did not hesitate

to attack with a few thousand knights the entire Moorish army. His

followers were slaughtered, and he himself, surrounded and disarmed,

became the prisoner of a score of Moslems, who, judging from his dress

and appearance that he must be a personage of unusual consequence,

contended angrily for the honor of the capture and the hope of a heavy

ransom. Both African and Andalusian were interested in the result; the

old factional prejudices were revived, and an appeal to arms seemed

imminent, when a venerable Andalusian sheik, riding up, transfixed the

unhappy cause of the dispute between the shoulders with his lance,

exclaiming, “God forbid that so many good Mussulmans should shed their

blood for the sake of a Christian dog!” The head and the right hand

of the Archbishop, embalmed with camphor, were preserved as revolting

but significant trophies of victory; the episcopal crosier and the

ring of investiture, sanctified by the blessing of the Holy Father

himself, became the treasured spoil of the infidel, and the Christians,

depressed by the triumphs of the enemy and by the loss of their

general, were unable to retrieve the disaster, whose report carried

sorrow into every Catholic community in Europe.

Every circumstance seemed at this time favorable to the success of

the Moslem arms. The infante, Don Ferdinand, heir apparent to the

Castilian crown, died suddenly while marching southward to engage the

enemy. His death encouraged the agitation of quarrels and intrigues

between the princes of the blood and the nobility. The Christians,

warned by past reverses, hesitated to meet their formidable adversaries

in the field. The harsh policy originally adopted by the Castilian

conquerors now demonstrated its wisdom. The Moors had been driven from

the great cities. In every place of importance the Christian population

predominated. The invaders could make no impression upon fortified

towns, and their sympathizing countrymen, who remained within their

walls, dared not afford them the least information or assistance. The

campaign ended in ignominious failure. The Africans, having retired

to Algeziras, soon experienced the tortures of famine. A Castilian

squadron, cruising along the coast, prevented an inglorious retreat,

and an enterprise which seemed at first to offer a not improbable

prospect of the restoration of Moslem supremacy was frustrated by the

indecision and discord of rival commanders. The weakness of one party

and the necessities of the other promoted a mutual desire for peace,

and a treaty, from whose benefits the Moslem princes of Andalusia, to

whose representations was to be attributed the renewal of hostilities

which had so seriously affected the Christian power, were tacitly

excluded, was negotiated between Alfonso and the Sultan. The Africans

were then permitted to retire, and the Andalusians hastened to renew

an allegiance solely based upon considerations of present expediency,

assumed and renounced with equal facility and unconcern. From time

to time, during the reign of Alfonso X., the peace of the kingdom of

Castile was disturbed by the determined enmity of the Emir of Granada.

The efforts of that prince were, however, mainly confined to the

temporary and local injuries incident to the operations of guerilla

warfare.

The siege of Algeziras, which, with Tarifa, had been ceded by Mohammed

II. to the Sultan of Morocco, was undertaken by the Castilians, who,

through the negligence of the authorities and the demoralization

consequent on a lamentable want of discipline, were compelled to

abandon their position with the loss of their ships and the capture of

their admiral. The arms of the Christians were then turned against the

Moslems of Granada. The general result of the campaign was favorable

to the latter, but the devastation of the rich plantations of the Vega

more than counterbalanced the brilliant but costly honors of military

success, and hostilities were suspended by common consent, only to be

renewed at a more advantageous opportunity. The declining years of

Alfonso were harassed by the ambition and disobedience of his son. The

aid of the Sultan, moved by the wretchedness of his former adversary,

was solicited and granted; but a few indecisive encounters, followed

by the sudden withdrawal of the Africans, were the only fruits of this

precarious and impolitic alliance, regarded with horror by the clergy

and with suspicion and disfavor by even the most ardent partisans of

the Castilian king.

The reign of Alfonso X., whose well-known title EL Sabio, The Learned,

would have rendered him illustrious even in a more intelligent and

a less warlike age, is a shining landmark amidst the intellectual

desolation of the thirteenth century. His education, his associations,

his tastes, and his habits had preserved him, in a great degree, from

the contaminating and degrading influences which warped the intellect

and perverted the impulses of the greatest statesmen and warriors of

the time. Excelling in every art save that of war, which, unfortunately

for him, was at that epoch the only title to popular respect and

honorable distinction, his career presents a remarkable contrast to

that of his father, St. Ferdinand, whose acquirements were confined

to the military profession, whose life was an incessant struggle

with the infidel, and whose devotion to the interests of the Church

has been rewarded by his exaltation to the more than regal dignity

of intercessor for the prostrate suppliant at the Throne of God. The

age of ignorance in which the lot of Alfonso X. was cast could not

appreciate or comprehend the necessity for, or the advantages of,

literary or scientific attainments. The ecclesiastic did the thinking

for the multitude. His knowledge seldom extended beyond the contents

of his breviary. In his narrow mind association with infidels was

the blackest of crimes, only to be expiated by arduous penance and

liberal contributions. The whole career of this prince disclosed his

political incapacity and his disinclination to adapt his conduct to

the circumstances which environed him. He received from his father

the heritage of a great but unformed empire. Insulted by the nobles,

distrusted by the multitude, maligned by the clergy, and despoiled

by his sons, he died without the possession and almost without the

semblance of royal power. His naturally pacific disposition brought

upon him the censure of a nation whose traditions for centuries had

been derived from crusade and conquest. His enmity to the Emir of

Granada was never sufficiently intense to exclude from his society

the Moslem philosophers, physicians, and astronomers who shared his

friendship and enjoyed his bounty. The scowling priest eyed askance

the swarthy faces and flowing robes of the infidel strangers, who,

protected by royal authority, frequented without molestation the

observatories of Cordova and the libraries of Seville and Toledo. In

the minds of the superstitious ecclesiastics they were magicians, who,

in league with evil spirits, performed in the secret recesses of the

palace infernal rites and diabolical sacrifices. The intimacy of the

King with these accomplished scholars was considered a reproach, an act

to be condemned by every devout and zealous Christian. The orthodoxy

of Alfonso received a final blow when he required the clergy, who

monopolized the most profitable sources of revenue of the kingdom,

to contribute to the support of the government and to the expenses

incurred during the Moorish wars.

In all the literary productions of the reign of Alfonso X. is to be

readily discerned the influence of his enlightened neighbors, the

Moslems of Granada. His astronomical tables--a prodigy of scientific

knowledge and accuracy, considering the era in which they were

compiled--were the work of fifty astronomers, the majority of whom

were Moors and Jews; the time occupied in their arrangement and

calculation extended over several years, and their cost aroused the

pharisaical indignation of the clergy, who saw the revenues of the

crown diverted for sacrilegious purposes from the control of the

orthodox to the profit of the infidel and the heretic. This monument

of erudition, still regarded with wonder and respect by the learned,

would alone have been sufficient to establish the fame of its royal

promoter; but numerous other works of scarcely less importance survive

to attest his patronage of letters. The Coronica General de España,

composed by his own hand; the Cantigas, poems in honor of the Virgin;

the Siete Partidas, a comprehensive code of laws which has been

extensively used in the classification and compilation of subsequent

systems of jurisprudence; the Del Tesoro, a book on the transmutation

of metals,--all demonstrate the extent of his information, the

tirelessness of his industry, and the fertility of his genius. Perhaps

the greatest of his achievements was the legal adoption of a provincial

dialect in public documents, which time and practice developed into the

musical and sonorous Castilian language. His devotion to literature was

only exceeded by the admiration he entertained for its professors. He

endowed with rich estates many chairs in the University of Salamanca.

He elevated judges eminent for legal attainments to aristocratic rank.

Ever ready to recognize his obligations to his early instructors

and his recent friends, he bestowed honor, wealth, distinction upon

all scholars, irrespective of nationality or creed. The Moors were

always the objects of his especial favor. To their inspiration he was

indebted for the noble impulse and example which had first directed

his attention to learning; through their teachings he had imbibed the

maxims of justice and wisdom; from their labors he was to derive,

in coming centuries, the greatest credit and most enduring glory

of his reign. The Moorish financier was not infrequently intrusted

with the collection and expenditure of the revenues; the Moorish

physician was a prominent figure at the Castilian court, where even the

luxurious prelate, abominating the meagre fare of the cloister, did

not hesitate to intrust his sacred person to his care; the Moorish

professor domiciled in the palaces of the aristocracy directed the

education of the most illustrious of the Castilian youth. Well was it

for King Alfonso that the Church had not yet attained that position

of security and power which justified the exertion of force for the

maintenance and extension of its rule. But even in the subordinate

relation it sustained to the state, in comparison with the prestige

attaching to military success, its influence was well to be dreaded.

It was the intrigues of the clergy appealing to the hereditary and

martial pride of the nobles and inflaming the discontent of the people

that promoted the unworthy ambition of Don Sancho, thus weakening

the regal authority, anticipating the succession, and degrading the

dignity of the throne. The implacable spirit of religious hatred was

not yet strong enough to send its victims to the stake, confiscate

their property, and brand their names with infamy; but it was able

to interfere successfully in political affairs, and to humiliate a

sovereign whose chief offences were that he had patronized profane

learning, lived in intimacy with infidels, and, worst of all, extorted

from the Church a portion of its wealth for the defence of his kingdom

and the preservation of public security.

The news of the death of Alfonso X. was received with every

manifestation of sorrow and regret throughout the Moorish dominions.

The Emirs of Granada and Morocco hastened to send embassies to his

successor, Sancho el Bravo, to tender condolence and solicit the

continuance of peace and national friendship. To the compliments and

sympathy of the former he returned a courteous but ambiguous answer,

but the envoys of the Emir of Morocco were insulted with a message

of defiance. Justly incensed by this treatment, the Emir Abu-Yusuf

prepared for war. A considerable body of troops under his son Yakub

was despatched across the strait, and Xerez was besieged. The approach

of a great Castilian army caused the retreat of the invaders, and a

truce for three years was agreed upon, for which the African prince

paid two million maravedis of gold.

The new king was the moral antipodes of his father. His title, El

Bravo, gained in battle while prince, indicated his claim to the

respect and admiration of his subjects. Ignorant, bigoted, and cruel,

he represented in every respect the spirit and aspirations of the age

in which he lived. His dominating impulse was the love of war. He

drove from the court the Moorish savants whose relations with Alfonso

X. had brought suspicion on his orthodoxy and scandal on his name.

The clergy, partly on account of the aid they had contributed to the

faction of Sancho, but principally because they alone, of the different

orders of the state, possessed the requisite knowledge and ability,

were intrusted with the collection of tribute and the management of

the royal treasury. But while the King favored the ecclesiastic, he

jealously guarded the privileges of the nobility and the prerogatives

of the crown. The highest rewards were reserved for military prowess.

The pursuits of literature were discouraged and neglected. The

intellectual development of the nation, begun under such happy auspices

by Alfonso X., was arrested, never again to be revived, and soon to be

absolutely crushed by theological intolerance and inquisitorial tyranny.

The enterprising genius of Sancho, occupied by internal disturbances,

was not exerted against his African enemy until seven years had elapsed

after the signing of the truce. Then a quarrel between Yusuf-Abu-Yakub

and Mohammed II., again the ally of Castile, afforded a pretext

for interference. The city of Tarifa, inferior only in strategical

importance to Algeziras and Gibraltar, was taken from the Africans.

Its defences were repaired, and it was garrisoned by a strong force

commanded by Alfonso Perez de Guzman, a soldier of fortune, who had

amassed great wealth in the service of the Emir of Morocco, and to

whom the modern princely house of Medina-Sidonia owes its origin and

much of its renown. A year afterwards the Infante Don Juan, brother of

the King, after an unsuccessful attempt to seize the throne, fled to

the court of the Emir of Morocco. Received with honor and intrusted

with a force of five thousand African cavalry, he undertook to reduce

Tarifa. The governor treated with defiance the demand of surrender.

His son, a youth of tender years, had been captured by the enemy, and,

with the expectation that paternal tenderness would prove stronger

than loyalty to his country, the Infante sent word to the Castilian

commander that unless he immediately evacuated the city the boy’s life

would be sacrificed. The intrepid governor, in reply, cast a sword

from the battlements; the unfortunate youth was decapitated, and his

head shot into the town from a catapult. This inhuman action committed

by a Christian prince, which indicates the barbarous character of the

warfare pursued in those times, was as unwise as it was unpardonable;

far from being intimidated, the garrison was impelled by horror and

resentment to resist more vigorously, and the siege was soon raised by

the approach of an army of Castilians and Moors.

The precarious alliance between Christian and Moslem, whose conditions

were almost always unfavorable to the latter, not long afterwards

sustained another rupture. Involved in a serious controversy with

the nobles, who, rendered more arrogant by the increased importance

they had acquired in the beginning of the present reign, menaced the

security of the throne, Sancho, unable to protect his frontiers, saw

them desolated with impunity by the cavalry of Mohammed, who had

taken advantage of the embarrassment of his enemy to again inaugurate

hostilities. Appeasing by timely concessions the discontent of his

vassals, the King of Castile marched into Granada; stormed Quesada

and Alcaudete, whose inhabitants he massacred without pity; spread

devastation over the surrounding country, and, with a long train of

captives and much booty, returned to his dominions. This exploit was

the final one of his career. Consumed by a lingering and painful

disease, he died, leaving to his infant heir an inheritance of domestic

trouble and an unstable throne, which even monarchs of mature age and

great experience had found it a difficult task to defend.

The minority of an infant prince, the difficulties of a disputed

regency, the feuds of a jealous aristocracy, the intrigues of rival

pretenders, and the murmurs of a discontented populace--always the

victims of the quarrels, the triumphs, or the misfortunes of their

superiors--afforded a tempting opportunity to the Emir of Granada, of

which he was not slow to take advantage. His preparations completed, he

first recaptured the towns lost in the last expedition, and retaliated

on the unfortunate garrisons the treatment which his own subjects had

received.

Flushed with success, he overran almost the whole of Andalusia,

burnt the suburbs of many cities, stormed the castle of Belmar, and

threatened Jaen and Tarifa. The unprofitable experience of the Emir of

Morocco with his dependencies in Spain induced him to offer to Mohammed

the fortress of Algeziras, for which he received a hundred thousand

mithcals of gold.

Mohammed II. did not long survive his last and greatest foray. He

is said to have died while in the performance of his devotions; his

reign of thirty years is one of the most important of the time, and

his kingdom, consolidated alike by his victories and the reverses

sustained by his neighbors, who by tens of thousands settled in

his dominions, descended to his son Mohammed III., a prince whose

character and accomplishments were not inferior to his distinguished

lineage. His administration--a series of disasters, conspiracies,

and assassinations--he made illustrious by his love of erudition,

his encouragement of the arts, and the embellishment of his capital.

His industry was so great that he prolonged far into the night the

unfinished business of the day. He displayed great vigor in crushing

the rebellious spirit of the wali of Guadix, who refused to recognize

his authority. By the capture of Ceuta he obtained a great treasure,

which he worthily expended in the improvement of his kingdom. Among the

buildings constructed by its aid were numbered the Great Mosque and

the principal public bath of the city. The mosque, upon whose site now

stands the cathedral of Granada, was famous for its magnificent columns

of marble and jasper, its ornamentation of fretted silver, and its

brilliant and intricate mosaics. An additional tax for the support of

the bath, which scarcely yielded to the mosque in expense of materials

and beauty of design, was levied upon the Jews and Christians, who

were thus compelled to contribute to the revenues of an institution

connected with the worship of their infidel masters, and one to which

the latter sect had always exhibited a decided and unconquerable

aversion.

In 1305, Suleyman-Ibn-Rabich, wali of Almeria, instigated by the

Aragonese, aspired to independence. Seized before his plans were

matured, he escaped with difficulty to the court of Barcelona. An

understanding having been perfected between the Kings of Castile and

Aragon, simultaneous attacks were made upon the Moorish dominions. A

powerful Aragonese fleet and army appeared before Almeria and invested

it by land and sea. At the same time the forces of Castile laid siege

to Algeziras, which Mohammed endeavored to relieve, but was prevented

by a succession of destructive tempests and floods.

Informed of the weak condition of Gibraltar, a body of troops was

detached from the army besieging Algeziras to surprise it. The attempt

was successful; by the aid of cannon a breach was opened; the defences

were stormed, and the famous fortress whose Moslem occupation dated

from the invasion of Tarik passed for the time from the hands of the

Saracens, by whom it was commonly regarded as the key of the Peninsula.

The siege of Algeziras was now pushed with increased vigor, and

Mohammed, apprehensive of the results of the Aragonese invasion as well

as of a conspiracy formed by malcontents in his own capital, offered

proposals for peace. His overtures were heard with attention, but

important and degrading concessions were demanded by the victorious

enemy, who, well aware of the extremity to which the garrison was

reduced, determined to exact an enormous compensation for raising the

siege. No alternative but acceptance remained for the unfortunate

Emir. The frontier towns of Quesada, Bedmar, Quadros were surrendered

as an equivalent for the continued possession of Algeziras, and the

Moorish inhabitants retired. Their houses were occupied by Christian

colonists, the fruits of the last victorious campaign of Mohammed II.

were lost, and the humiliated sovereign returned to his capital amidst

the whispered murmurs of the nobility and the public execration of an

exasperated populace. He had now to confront a new peril, more to be

feared than the weapons of an enterprising and courageous enemy.

The court had long been distracted by the intrigues of the rival

viziers, Abu-Sultan-Aziz, who had been the trusted councillor of

Mohammed II., and Abd-al-Rahman-al-Ramedy, the favorite of the present

emir, who had profited by his opportunities to amass a great fortune,

enabling him to display an ostentation offensive to the pride of the

nobles and arousing the envy of the people. The growing unpopularity

of Mohammed III., his failing eyesight,--the result of immoderate

sensuality,--his enforced surrender of the territory acquired by

the talents of his father, and the universal hatred of his arrogant

minister culminated in an attack upon the throne. His uncle, Al-Nazer,

was proclaimed by the mob of Granada, which, suddenly rising in

arms, pillaged the palace of the detested vizier and murdered him

in the presence of his master. In the midst of the tumult, the Emir

was confronted by the leaders of the revolt, who offered him the

alternative of abdication or death. Forced to divest himself of the

insignia of royal authority, the deposed sovereign was imprisoned

in the fortress of Almuñecar, where for five years he languished in

solitude and wretchedness.

The Moorish chroniclers paint in the most glowing colors the virtues,

the talents, the accomplishments of Al-Nazer. In him the fortuitous

advantages of birth and comeliness were far surpassed by noble and

brilliant qualities of mind. His courteous condescension and the

charming affability of his manners endeared him to his subjects, while

his erudition and taste for scientific pursuits made him the welcome

associate of the learned and philosophical society of the capital.

His opinions had been formed and his education conducted under the

most famous professors of the age. An excellent mathematician, an

experienced astronomer, he had calculated and drawn up astronomical

tables not inferior in accuracy to those executed by the chosen

scholars acting under the directions of Alfonso X. With a special

bent for mechanics, he designed and constructed a curious clock,

whose complex and perfect mechanism surprised and delighted even

those familiar with the capabilities of his inventive genius. Under

his liberal and discerning protection, literature and the elegant

arts received a new and enduring importance; institutions of learning

were multiplied, innumerable philosophical and scientific works were

issued, the physicians and pharmacists of Granada, already famous in

Europe for their skill, acquired new laurels in the distant empires of

Africa and Asia, and the public and private edifices of the capital

began to assume that distinctive character of architectural symmetry

and elegance which subsequently enabled it to attain to an unrivalled

eminence among the cities of the mediæval world.

On learning of the revolution by which Mohammed had been deposed,

Ferdinand IV. marched against the usurper, and sent reinforcements to

Jaime II., who, separated from his base of supplies, harassed by an

active and vigilant enemy, and drenched by storms and inundations,

still obstinately maintained his ground before the walls of Almeria. In

the mean time, the troubles incident to a title acquired by sedition

and violence afflicted the new emir. His nephew, born and bred amidst

insurrection, tried unsuccessfully to seize the crown, and, having fled

to Malaga, was protected by his father, wali of that city, himself not

destitute of royal aspirations. A sudden attack of illness having given

rise to a rumor of the death of Al-Nazer, the partisans of Mohammed

III. assembled, rescued him from his prison in Almuñecar, and escorted

him with every token of ostentatious loyalty to the capital. On their

arrival, they perceived with surprise that the city was illuminated,

the streets were full of people in holiday garb, the shops were

closed, the houses decorated with flowers, and everything bore the

appearance of a public festival. An inquiry revealed the fact that the

illness of the Emir had in reality been but trifling and temporary,

and that these manifestations of popular satisfaction were caused by

his unexpected recovery. It required all the astuteness and ingenuity

of the banished prince to frame an excuse for his sudden appearance

at the head of a royal escort, but the wily Mohammed did not shrink

from the responsibility. After proffering his congratulations, he

announced that he had merely come to inquire after the health of his

uncle--an explanation which was received by Al-Nazer with outward

respect and secret indignation. Dissembling his resentment, he ordered

the crestfallen Mohammed to be taken back to his prison, where the

enthusiastic partisans who had prematurely espoused his cause were

forced to share his captivity.

The sudden death of Ferdinand IV., which took place during an

expedition into the province of Jaen, left the destinies of the

Castilian monarchy in the hands of an infant of thirteen months, who

afterwards became king under the name of Alfonso XI., offered new

temptations to rival aspirants to the regency, removed the salutary

restraints of law, and abandoned whole districts to anarchy. Civil

war raged between the numerous factions into which the nobility was

divided--the weaker being often exterminated and their possessions

confiscated by the victors; cavaliers of noble birth and distinguished

ancestry embraced the profession of robbery; to travel without an armed

escort was to invite certain destruction; the roads were encumbered

with naked and festering corpses; unfortified towns were deserted, and

the castles were occupied by aristocratic highwaymen, who, at the head

of bands of adventurers of merciless character and desperate fortunes,

swept into their inaccessible strongholds the merchandise of the

trader, the effects of the traveller, and the harvests, the flocks,

and the children of the shepherd and the husbandman. Existence was

impossible without the protection of some powerful noble, whose livery

was to one faction an object of respect and to all others a symbol of

irreconcilable enmity.

Nor was the spirit of discord which infected every class of society

more considerate of the rights and authority of the sovereign. The

ministers of justice were ridiculed and defied, and the will of the

most powerful chieftain in the locality where he was obeyed was

practically the law of the land. Superstitious awe and the venerable

traditions of the Church, for the most part, preserved intact her

princely possessions, but during the disastrous turbulence of the

period the defenceless ecclesiastic not infrequently paid tribute to

the outlaw, and the mitre fared sometimes even worse than the crown.

A country abandoned to violence must necessarily soon be depopulated.

Once fertile and highly cultivated regions became a desert, forests

sprang up on the sites of deserted hamlets, the commerce of great

cities disappeared, intercommunication of adjoining provinces was

entirely suspended, heirs of magnificent estates renounced their

patrimony, and the sense of public insecurity was so universal that

thousands of families in every part of the kingdom sought refuge from

their countrymen in the more peaceful states of Portugal and Aragon.

Such were the conditions which afforded another respite to the Emirate

of Granada, whose existence was thus continually prolonged by the

dissensions and the weakness of its barbarous neighbors.

The manifestations of disloyalty and turbulence which thus afflicted

the kingdom of Castile were repeated in Granada, without, however,

producing the same destructive and permanent effects upon the

authority of the government or the welfare of the nation. The

successful usurpation of Al-Nazer, demonstrating the weakness of

hereditary attachments and the facility with which an unpopular

sovereign might be deposed, was an example not lost upon the

adventurous and aspiring Moorish nobles. The death of Mohammed III.,

which occurred a few months after his return to Almuñecar, relieved

Al-Nazer from all apprehensions of a rival, who, if not formidable

through his talents and influence, had at least a legitimate claim upon

the throne and a share of the public sympathy, which is always aroused

by the sight of royal humiliation and of greatness in distress. But

there soon arose a far more dangerous enemy of the peace of Al-Nazer.

Secure from Christian interference,--for he had concluded a truce with

the regents of Castile,--he was employing his leisure in the elegant

amusements of the court, when his nephew Abu-al-Walid, also called

Ismail by the Moslem historians, fomented a second insurrection, this

time with greater success. The avarice of an unpopular vizier was

again made the pretext for sedition. The populace was instigated by

the emissaries and corrupted by the gold of Abu-al-Walid, the promised

dismissal of the obnoxious minister was deferred, and, supported by a

formidable army, the young prince advanced on Granada. The numbers of

his force increased as he approached the city, when his adherents rose

and drove the Emir into the Alhambra, where he was at once besieged. In

his extremity, the latter implored the aid of the Castilian regents,

the Infantes Don Pedro and Don Juan; but, before they could assemble

their troops, the defection of his partisans induced him to abdicate

and to accept, in return for this concession, the government of the

insignificant principality of Guadix. An attempt to revive the fallen

fortunes of Al-Nazer, projected by the regents of Castile, resulted in

a fatal disaster to the Christian arms. The invaders, encompassed by

a multitude of Moslems, were cut to pieces on the slope of the Sierra

Elvira, where the flower of the Spanish chivalry, who had joined the

enterprise, animated by religious enthusiasm and the expectation of

booty and renown, was annihilated. After the battle the bodies of

the two princes were found under heaps of fallen enemies, and the

condition of the Castilian monarchy, deprived at one blow of its legal

protectors, became more desperate than ever. This great victory was not

less remarkable for its political results than for the spoil obtained

by the Moors. Forty-three thousand pounds of gold, fourteen hundred of

silver, and seven thousand prisoners fell into their hands. The skin

of Don Pedro, stuffed with cotton, was suspended before the principal

gate of Granada, where it remained for many years. Twenty-five princes

of the blood--heads of the most noble houses of the Peninsula--were

killed in the action. The prestige of Ismail was greatly increased by

this important victory. His military ambition was inflamed by success.

He surprised some isolated castles and took others by assault, the

spoils of the frontier were swept away by sudden incursions, and the

borders of Aragon, long exempt from the dreaded visitations of the Arab

horsemen, experienced once more the ruinous effects of their audacity

and valor.

Through detailed information furnished by spies and merchants, the

feuds and intrigues of the Castilian court, distracted by the weakness

of the crown and the unprincipled ambition of the nobles, were as well

known at Granada as in the council chambers of Toledo and Seville.

Successful in his marauding expeditions, Ismail now directed his

attention to projects of greater importance, whose accomplishment

was certain to produce a substantial and permanent accession to the

territory and wealth of his kingdom. Provided with every appliance

at that time known to warfare, he laid siege to the important and

well-fortified city of Baza, June 23, 13824. Its situation, strong by

nature, had been rendered doubly formidable by art. The genius of the

Moor, whose confidence was placed in the swift and unexpected movements

of his cavalry, had hitherto not exhibited the patience and endurance

necessary for the successful prosecution of besieging operations. But

under the skilful dispositions of Ismail, the investment of Baza was

made with all the thoroughness and deliberation which characterize

the movements of the accomplished military engineer. A ditch was

excavated, a rampart was thrown up, and all intercourse with the

surrounding country intercepted. The inhabitants, confident in the

security of their massive fortifications, viewed with curiosity rather

than apprehension the mounting of a number of strange but apparently

harmless machines before the walls. These appeared to consist of

segmented bars of iron united by heavy hoops of the same metal. Dragged

from place to place by means of ropes, their immense weight was

indicated by the number of men it took to move them; they evidently

contained no apparatus for missiles like the familiar balista or

catapult, and their use was a mystery to the unconcerned inhabitants.

But suddenly from the mouths of these apparently innocuous engines

issued great bursts of flame and smoke, accompanied by a roar that

rivalled that of the thunderbolt, and ponderous balls of stone and of

iron, hurled into the city, crushing and splintering everything in

their path, announced what has been erroneously stated as the first

use of artillery in the wars of Europe. Against the force of these

projectiles, whose novelty increased the terror their destruction

inspired, the boasted strength of the defences and the courage of the

garrison availed nothing. Great breaches soon appeared in the walls,

and with the towers crumbling over their heads and many of their houses

in flames, the panic-stricken citizens of Baza, by a timely surrender,

succeeded in saving their city from pillage.

During the following year Martos experienced a similar fate, but its

resistance was more obstinate, and the exasperated Moslems, entering

the town by storm, massacred the inhabitants to a man. The prayers

enjoined by the Koran were offered by the victors kneeling upon

pavements reeking with the blood of the slain; the peasants, for a

distance of many miles, were driven away into captivity; innumerable

flocks and herds attested the activity of the Arab cavalry; and Ismail

retraced his steps to his capital, which he entered with all the pomp

of a conqueror. It was long since Granada had witnessed such a scene

or extended such a welcome at the return of a victorious army. The

streets were carpeted with flowers. Tapestries and hangings of silk

and cloth-of-gold were suspended from the balconies. The air was

fragrant with perfumes wafted from hundreds of censers. The beautiful

city, given over to a holiday, had sent forth its entire population

to celebrate the triumph of its sovereign. The acclamations of the

people, rising in a prolonged and deafening roar, were heard beyond the

walls. Vast throngs in holiday dress blocked the narrow thoroughfares.

Peasants in the picturesque costumes of the Vega, sturdy mountaineers

from the Sierra Nevada and the Alpujarras, the taciturn Jew in the

distinctive yellow gaberdine of his sect, the pilgrim of Mecca clad in

green, the cavalier in helmet and cuirass inlaid with gold, the ladies

in gaudy silks and gleaming jewels, whose splendor contributed little

to the native charms of their voluptuous beauty, enhanced the variety

and charm of the spectacle.

But a threatening cloud, the more dangerous because unseen, hung over

this gorgeous festival, which seemed to promise a long life of honor

and renown to the recipient of a nation’s applause and gratitude.

Three days after his triumph Ismail lay a corpse in the palace of the

Alhambra.

Among the captives taken in the campaign of Martos was a girl of

dazzling beauty. Her possession was disputed by several soldiers, whose

hands, bloody with the carnage of a city taken by storm, were about to

sacrifice her, when she was rescued by Mohammed-Ibn-Ismail, a cousin of

the Emir. No sooner had the latter learned of the occurrence and of the

extraordinary charms of the captive than he despatched the eunuchs to

conduct her to the royal harem. The just remonstrances of Mohammed were

treated with contempt. Not satisfied with the injury he had inflicted,

Ismail ordered his cousin to leave the precincts of the court, and

curtly informed him that his proper place was with the enemies of his

sovereign. The exasperated prince, who had already signalized his

valor in many a campaign, whose blood had been shed in defence of his

country, whose birth exalted him to a level with the throne itself,

and whose sense of justice revolted at the unprovoked outrage he had

endured, had no inconsiderable following among the dignitaries of the

palace and the officers of the army.

A few hours sufficed to mature a plot; the support of Othman, commander

of the royal guard, was obtained, and the conspirators only awaited

a moment favorable to the execution of their design. The Emir,

walking with his vizier in the gallery of the Alhambra and wholly

unsuspicious of danger, was stabbed by Mohammed; the resolute defence

of the minister availed nothing in the face of superior numbers, and

he perished by the side of his master, while the assassins, who had

previously provided means of concealment, escaped in the general

confusion.

The wounded monarch was borne into the palace, where he soon expired.

His death was concealed--his injuries were even represented as

trifling--until, in anticipation of a fatal result and to secure the

succession, allegiance was sworn to his son, a youth of twelve years,

who ascended the throne under the name of Mohammed IV. The diligence

of the second vizier apprehended a number of the conspirators, whose

heads were exposed on the battlements of the castle. The treacherous

Othman was foremost in protestations of loyalty and devotion to the new

ruler. The chief assassin fled to Malaga, and the ill-concerted and

bloody enterprise dictated by wrong and accomplished by cowardice was

productive of no other result than a change of rulers and an increased

public attachment to the family of the murdered king.

The character of the latter was worthy of the great place he occupied

and of the glorious traditions of his dynasty. His personal courage and

success in war won for him the affectionate admiration of his people.

His intervals of peace were diligently employed in the construction

of mosques and palaces, of baths and fountains. He exercised with

liberality and discrimination the distribution of alms, as enjoined

by the Koran. The hanging gardens planted under his supervision

were copied from those of ancient Babylon. The police regulations

inaugurated by him established the safety of the streets and suburbs

by day and night; for the better apportionment and collection of

taxes the cities were divided into different quarters, and the alien

tributaries designated by distinctive costumes. He sternly repressed

the fanaticism of the theologians, ever a prolific source of public

anxiety, disturbance, and confusion. The leisure moments of Ismail were

passed in the society of the learned, in the tournament and the chase,

in the pleasures of horticulture, in the construction of magnificent

edifices.

The youth and inexperience of Mohammed IV. were supplied by the

political sagacity of his vizier Al-Mahruk, a man of ability but of

inordinate ambition, and absolutely unscrupulous in the means of

gratifying it. His policy, solely directed to the centralization of

power in himself, was the ultimate cause of his destruction. He lost

no opportunity to humiliate the nobles. The brothers of the Emir were,

in turn, removed from the court; one, upon some frivolous pretext, was

imprisoned in Almeria, where he died; another was exiled to Africa;

a third was forced to seek concealment in a remote village on the

frontier. The jealous intolerance of the vizier endeavored to remove

every possibility of a successful rival. The possession of eminent

talents and virtues was a provocation of oppression; the most able and

experienced statesmen and commanders, apprehensive of violence, left

the capital, and a feeling of alarm and discontent became general in

every quarter of the kingdom.

This state of affairs, so dangerous to the stability of government and

the maintenance of peace, lasted until the young prince arrived at

the age of sixteen years, when Moslem custom permitted his assumption

of the reins of government. One of his first acts was the degradation

and imprisonment of the obnoxious minister. In his place was appointed

Ibn-Yahya, who enjoyed the respect and confidence of all classes, and

whose judicious counsels were well calculated to guide the career

of a young, ambitious, and inexperienced sovereign. Othman, the

former commander of the royal guard, whom disappointed ambition, a

consciousness of guilt, and the fear of detection had driven from

Granada, now planned a new enterprise to retrieve his fallen fortunes.

At his instigation the peasantry of the rugged district of Andarax

rose in rebellion. The insurgents were defeated by the forces of the

Emir, but the mountainous region they infested, and whose fastnesses

the royal troops were unable to penetrate, prevented their dispersion.

The intrigues of Othman obtained at once the interference of the

Castilians and of the Emir of Morocco. Again the aid of foreign enemies

was invoked to revive the hopes of a defeated faction; the patriotic

ardor which might have preserved the declining empire was sacrificed to

the gratification of private resentment; and the ablest of the Moors,

unwilling to profit by the melancholy lessons taught by the history of

the khalifate, renounced every noble impulse for the sake of avenging

their private injuries.

In the vicinity of Cordova the army of Mohammed sustained a disastrous

defeat; the survivors retreated to Granada; and the Emir, infuriated

by the reflection that the imprisoned vizier Al-Mahruk was indirectly

responsible for the misfortunes which afflicted the commencement of

his reign, commanded his immediate execution. The efforts of Mohammed

to counteract the African influence enlisted by the rebels met with

no better success. Algeziras was stormed and taken, and the vizier

Ibn-Yahya was killed in the assault. Ronda and Marbella fell into

the hands of the rebels, who soon threatened the city of Granada

itself. Consternation seized the inhabitants of the capital; and

Mohammed, assembling the remains of his defeated army and attended by

the principal cavaliers of the court, went forth to meet the enemy.

Gallantly seconded by his nobles, at the head of a force insignificant

in numbers but remarkable for courage and resolution, he speedily

recovered his prestige and his influence. All the cities captured

by the Africans were retaken. The stronghold of Baena surrendered.

The walls of Casares were destroyed by artillery. Within sight of the

latter city the Moslems, in a bloody encounter, destroyed a Christian

force sent to relieve it. Thus, within the space of a few months,

Mohammed counteracted the effect of the recent disasters to his arms,

restored to his dominions the territory of which treason had deprived

him, and acquired new renown by a victory gained over an army superior

in numbers and thoroughly versed in all the stratagems and resources

of regular and partisan warfare. These military exploits firmly

established his reputation. No prince of the Alhamares, of his years,

ever achieved such celebrity. Nature had bestowed upon him every gift

of mind and person which could elicit the approbation of the wise or

arouse the enthusiasm of the multitude. His face was handsome, his

stature above the middle height, his limbs models of athletic symmetry.

Skilled in every exercise, he delighted in those passages of arms so

popular among the Moorish chivalry. Prominent in a nation of bold and

dexterous horsemen, he was universally accounted the finest lance in

the Moslem army. Grave in demeanor, pleasing in address, elegant in

manners, his attractive exterior only served to enhance the noble

traits of a virtuous and enlightened mind. He was a friend of letters;

and learned men accompanied him during his expeditions, who could

observe the course of events and perpetuate the remembrance of such

facts as might contribute to the profit of the country and the glory of

its king.