(INTRODUCTION)
While the scientific leadership of the Moors faded with the breaking
of their military unity in the twelfth century, they still retained in
some of their smaller kingdoms, and especially in that of Granada, a
high degree of culture. The love of beauty and the spirit of romance
were strong among all the Spanish Moors; and so their poetry continued
long after science failed them. Poetry indeed became their main
expression. Granada, the last of all their Spanish kingdoms, did not
fall before the advancing Christians until 1492. Then, as our histories
have so often told, Ferdinand and Isabella, the Christian rulers
of Spain, conducted a holy war for the destruction of Granada. Its
last fortress surrendered, and its people withdrew to Africa. There,
according to a characteristically dreamy legend, they still retain the
keys of their mansions in Granada, treasuring them up for the day of
their triumphant return.
Of the Moorish poetry which survived the fall of Granada, much was
preserved by the Spaniards themselves and in the Spanish language. The
victors knew how to value the spirit of the vanquished; and ballads
of Moorish origin, telling of Moorish loves, long remained popular in
Spain. The authors of most of these have been forgotten. The text of
some of the best known of them is given here.