Part 3

Cartuja. The Immaculate Conception. By Murillo 419

Cartuja. The Virgin of the Rosary. By Murillo 420

Cartuja. St. Joseph and the Child. Sculpture by Alonso Caño 421

Cartuja. St. Mary Magdalene. Sculpture by Alonso Caño 422

Cartuja. Horsemen hanging Martyrs. By Sanchez Cotán 423

Cartuja. The Baptism of Our Lord. By Sanchez Cotán 424

Cartuja. The Holy Family. By Sanchez Cotán 425

The Crucifixion of Our Lord. By Morales 426

The Conception of Our Lady. By Morales 427

The Gypsy Quarters. Exterior of the Caves 428

The Gypsy Quarters. An “At Home” 429

Gypsy Dance in their Quarters 430

Gypsy Types at the Doors of their Caves 431

Gypsy Dance in their Quarters 432

Gypsy Dancers and their Captain, J. Amaya 433

Bridge of the Genil 434

General View 435

General View of the old Albaicin 436

General View from the Watch Tower 437

Old Arab Palace, now the Property of a Spanish Nobleman 438

The old Town Hall 439

The Royal Gate and Street of the Catholic Sovereigns 440

Monument to Columbus in the Paseo del Salon 441

The Raw Silk Market 442

The Raw Silk Market. Ancient Arab Silk Market 443

Exterior of an old House, Cuesta del Pescado 444

The Court of Justice 445

Carrera del Darro 446

Market and Gypsy Fair in the Triunfo 447

Calle de San Anton 448

Antequeruela Quarter, Sierra Nevada, and the “Last Sigh of the Moor” 449

Carrera de Genil and View of the Sierra Nevada 450

Plaza de Mariana Pineda, Arab House, and View of the Sierra Nevada 451

General View of the Alhambra and of the Sierra Nevada from St. Michael 452

Huétor High Road and View of the Sierra Nevada 453

Villas on the Borders of the River Darro 454

Defile of the Darro 455

The Green Bridge and View of the Sierra Nevada 456

View of the Sierra Nevada 457

General View of the Sierra Nevada and the River Genil 458

Granada. (_Specially drawn for the Spanish Series_) 459

Arms of Granada 460

Plan of Granada _page_ 89

GRANADA

THE CITY OF THE MOOR

Granada is the creation of the Moors. Its history is all of them--the record of their glory and their fall. The Pomegranate, as its conqueror styled it, ripened only in the warm sunshine of Islam, and withered with its decline. Under the Christian, it fell from the rank of a splendid capital to a poor provincial town. Now it subsists merely as a great monument to a vanished race and a dead civilisation.

With Granada before it became the centre of an independent kingdom, we need concern ourselves but little. Its real interest dates from the establishment of the Nasrite dynasty in the first half of the thirteenth century. It was the time when the great Almohade Empire was breaking up. Probably all Andalusia would have shared the fate of Cordova and Seville, and the conquests of the Catholic kings been anticipated by two centuries, had not a young man of Arjona, Ibn Al Ahmar by name, determined to fashion for himself a kingdom out of the fragments of empire. With an ever-increasing following, he seized upon Jaen in 1232, and obtained possession of Granada itself in 1237. City after city opened its gates to him, including Malaga and Almeria, and in 1241 he was recognised as Lord and Sultan of all the territory between the Sierra Morena and the Pillars of Hercules, from Ronda to Baza.

A great man, in every sense, was this founder of the Nasrite dynasty. His presence was fine and commanding, his manner bland and amiable, his courage worthy of the heroic age. For all his valour and prowess on the battlefield, no monarch prized peace more highly. He proved himself a true national hero and the father of his people. He fostered industry and agriculture, was a patron, like all his race, of arts and letters, and encouraged immigration by every means in his power. A far-sighted statesman, he perceived that a state so limited in area as his own could only hope to exist by virtue of an unusual density of population, and he offered every inducement to Muslims from the provinces conquered by the Christians to settle within his dominions. Granada was the last hope of Islam in Europe, and he resorted to all possible means to safeguard it. He concluded alliances with the rulers of Morocco, Tlemsen, and Tunis, and even of distant Baghdad. Above all, he neglected no means of humouring and conciliating the irresistible Castilian. He negotiated an alliance with Fernando III., binding himself to attend the Cortes (a curious stipulation for a Mohammedan) and to attend the king in his wars with 1500 lances. This latter part of the bargain he was speedily called upon to fulfil, and against his own co-religionists of Seville. It seemed an unnatural warfare, but, to palliate the iniquity, let it be said that Ibn Al Ahmar probably looked upon the Almohade citizens of Ishbiliah as heretics. At all events, whether his conscience approved his action or not, he contributed in no small measure to Fernando’s success, and was hailed enthusiastically as a conqueror upon his return to Granada. That the assistance he rendered was not looked upon as altogether voluntary by the people of Seville is shown by the fact that thousands of them migrated to his dominions and settled there.

Ibn Al Ahmar dreaded the might of Castile. The only hope for the Mohammedans of Spain lay, he knew, in rest and consolidation. Careful not to give offence to his dreaded neighbour, he courteously received the revolted and exiled Infante Don Enrique when he sought refuge at Granada, but sent him on to Tunis with letters recommending him to the Sultan of that country. All his diplomacy, however, could not avert a war with Alfonso, and to add to his troubles, the Walis of Guadix, Malaga, and Gomares revolted against his authority. But an insurrection soon after broke out in Castile, and Alfonso was compelled to leave the Walis to fight their own battles. Ibn Al Ahmar, an old man of eighty years, wearily girded on his armour for another of the campaigns he had learned to hate. But his time for rest had come at last. A few miles beyond the gates of his capital, his charger threw him, as he rode at the head of his army. He breathed his last at sundown, by the roadside, surrounded by his weeping warriors. It was a dark night for Granada.

Al Ahmar’s son, under the style of Mohammed II., succeeded him at the age of thirty-eight years, on January 21, 1273. Arabic historians have lavished their encomiums upon him, as indeed upon most of his dynasty. He is described as a warrior and a statesman, as a man of letters and a poet of considerable ability. During his reign of twenty-nine years, he was almost continuously at war. Soon after his accession he crushed the rebel Walis at Antequera, and then paid a visit to Alfonso X. at Seville, with a view to detaching the Castilian king from his alliance with the defeated insurgents. In this he was successful. Queen Violante, however, at the conclusion of his visit, asked of him a boon, which, according to the custom of the times, as a true knight, he was bound to grant. He then discovered, too late, that he had been tricked into granting a year’s truce to the Walis. Smouldering with rage, he returned to Granada and spent the year in maturing plans for the complete overthrow of his enemies. This he effected with the aid of the Sultan Yusuf of Morocco, whose army of 100,000 men landed at Tarifa in 1275. The Africans, as on previous occasions in Moorish history, proved dangerous allies. Mohammed found himself embroiled in a long and absolutely unprofitable war with Castile, and had the mortification of seeing the Africans possess themselves of Algeciras, Tarifa, and Malaga. He recovered possession of the latter town by bribing the governor to exchange it for the town of Salobreña, to be held as a personal acquisition; and rid himself at last of the troublesome Africans by means of an alliance with Sancho of Castile. But in 1302 we find him again at war with the Christians, fighting against whom he died.

Mohammed III. was the worthy son of his father, and is specially commended for his indefatigable energy. He took a short way with traitors, even for those rough times. Ibn Nasr, the governor of Guadix, having been removed from his office by the Sultan, exerted himself to form a faction in his favour. Mohammed III., hearing of this, summoned him to court, and had him slain there and then in his presence. A more honourable exploit was his conquest of the town of Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, in the year 1306. With the rich spoils of the foray, he built a magnificent mosque at Granada, resplendent with gold and silver, jasper and marble. His success perhaps excited the jealousy of the Catholic powers. Attacked on either side by the Kings of Castile and Aragon, he was forced to conclude a humiliating peace. On his return to his capital he was seized in the Alhambra itself by a band of conspirators and forced to abdicate in favour of his brother, Muley Nasr. The new Sultan began his reign with some military successes (1309). He forced Jaime of Aragon to raise the siege of Almeria; but as a set-off, he had to deal with conspiracies and rebellions at home, the most formidable of these being headed by his nephew, Abu-l-Walid. In the midst of these complications a curious incident occurred. Nasr was stricken with apoplexy and left for dead. His deposed brother, Mohammed III., was then released by some courtiers and brought to Granada, only to find that the usurper had recovered his health and his crown. The luckless Mohammed did not long survive his partisans’ mistake. But retribution speedily overtook his brother. He was forced to yield to Abu-l-Walid, and was glad to be allowed to retire to Guadix, the sovereignty of which was allotted to him. Usurper though he was, Nasr conducted himself with the dignity of a philosopher. His rival’s triumph chagrined him not at all, and when invited by Pedro I. to join him in an attack on Granada, he patriotically declined. He was a brave man, who did not complain at meeting the fate to which he had subjected others.

The new monarch of Granada, Abu-l-Walid Ismail, was a fighter and a fanatic. He was fond of saying that he believed only in God and his good sword. His faith in the latter weapon was justified. He annihilated a Spanish army which had approached Granada, among the slain being the Infantes, Don Juan and Don Pedro; and carrying his victorious arms eastwards, wrested Baza and Martos from the enemies of his race. But others also reposed their faith in the sword. Like another Agamemnon, he appropriated a beautiful captive, the prize of the young Mohammed of Algeciras. Three days after his triumphal entry into his capital he fell at the gates of the Alhambra, a victim to the poniard of the man he had injured. Perceiving his sovereign to be at the point of death and resolving to avert the horrors of a disputed succession, the Wizir summoned the chief men of Granada to the palace, and announced that Abu-l-Walid was recovering from his wounds. The royal order was that all present should take the oath to the boy-prince, Muley Mohammed Ben Ismail, as successor to the kingdom. When this command had been obeyed, the wily Wizir announced the death of Abu-l-Walid and the accession of Mohammed IV. This was in the year 1325.

When he had freed himself from the control of an unpopular regent, the young Sultan displayed qualities of heart and mind in no way inferior to those of his progenitors. It must be admitted that Arab historians have been somewhat too partial to this line of kings, for there is hardly one who is not described more or less explicitly as a paragon of all the virtues. Mohammed IV. had to fight hard to hold his own against the Spaniards on one side and the Africans on the other. He took Gibraltar, and lost it again to Abu-l-Hasan of Fez. But the African king was soon after obliged to ask his help to hold the fortress against the Christians. Mohammed generously responded to the appeal, fell like a thunderbolt upon the Spanish camp, and raised the siege. He was ill repaid. In August 1333, he was imprudent enough to reproach his African allies with their inability to hold the fortress; and a day or two later, having sent his army home, made an excursion to the summit of the Rock. He was followed by some among those he had reproached, and quickly despatched by their poniards. His body, naked and mangled, was found at the foot of the Rock, and conveyed to Malaga. No attempt seems to have been made to identify or to punish his murderers.

The ill-fated Mohammed was succeeded by his brother, Yusuf I., Abu-l-Hejaj. While possessed, of course, of the virtues which seem to have been inherent in the Nasrite dynasty, this prince was exceptional in being an ardent, almost a passionate, lover of peace. He believed, says Don Francisco Pi Margall, that it was more glorious to remedy evils than to attempt perilous enterprises. Assisted by his able Wizir, Redwân, he revised the laws and purified the administration of justice. He built a magnificent palace at Malaga, and the great aljama or mosque at Granada, of which no trace remains. Abandoning for once his settled policy, he joined the Africans in a war against Castile. He was badly beaten, and was glad to negotiate a truce of ten years. At the end of that time, Alfonso of Castile died, and the Sultan of Granada was stabbed to death by a madman, while at his prayers in the mosque, in the year 1354.

Mohammed V. was as virtuous and as unfortunate as his father. He had reigned but four years when he was attacked in his own palace by the partisans of his half-brother, Ismail. Narrowly escaping death, he fled to his harem, and in the disguise of a slave eluded his pursuers and made his way to Guadix. Ismail II. ran a brief and inglorious career, and was dethroned and slain (1360) by the “Red King,” Abu Saïd. Meantime, Pedro I. of Castile espoused the cause of the lawful sultan and invaded the territory of Granada. But the magnanimous Moor would not consent to remount the throne at the cost of his people’s blood. Pedro accordingly withdrew, but freed Mohammed from his enemies by murdering Abu Saïd when the latter incautiously paid a visit to Seville. Mohammed was reinstated on his throne, and mindful of the services rendered him by Pedro, advanced to his support with a Grenadine army against Enrique de Trastamara. The tragedy of Montiel made a continuance of the struggle useless, and the Moorish sultan devoted the remainder of his reign to improving the condition of his subjects. He founded charitable institutions and asylums, and raised Granada to a high pitch of prosperity. The city, according to the contemporary writer, El Khattib, became the metropolis of the Mediterranean, the emporium of commerce, and the common fatherland of all nations. Under Mohammed V., the kingdom may be considered to have reached its zenith. Thence to its nadir we count but a century of years.

Yusuf II., who succeeded his father in 1391, was so averse to war that his subjects suspected him of Christian sympathies. His son rose against him, and the pacific monarch was disposed to abdicate rather than draw the sword. The exhortations of the Moroccan ambassador induced him to take a manlier course, and putting himself at the head of the army lately arrayed against him, he ravaged Murcia with fire and sword. It was against this peace-loving sultan that Don Martin de la Barbuda, the Quixotic Master of Calatrava, directed his wild expedition--defeated, of course, and emphatically disavowed by Enrique III. of Castile. Yusuf’s younger son and successor, Mohammed VII.,[A] was a prince of a very different stamp. Accompanied by only twenty-five horsemen, he penetrated to Toledo, and negotiated in the heart of Castile with Enrique III. The peace thus concluded was soon interrupted, and Mohammed was quickly waging war throughout the length and breadth of Andalusia. The war continued with varying fortunes, and was carried on, as was usual in those days, by a series of forays, neither side making any determined effort to take the other’s capital or to secure his conquests. On feeling his end approaching, the warlike Sultan bethought him of his elder brother, Yusuf, whom he had confined in the castle of Salobreña. Fearing that the captive might now supplant his own son, Mohammed sent a messenger to command his execution. Yusuf was playing chess with the governor of the castle when the fatal mandate arrived. He asked leave of the emissary to finish the game, and before he had made the final move, the news arrived of the death of Mohammed and of his proclamation as Sultan of Granada. Yusuf showed himself as calm and unmoved at his accession to the throne as when he had stood upon the threshold of death.

As peaceably disposed as his father, Yusuf III. had to withstand some of the most determined assaults upon his doomed kingdom. In his reign took place the celebrated siege of Antequera by the Castilians, the survivors of which founded the suburb of Antequeruela adjacent to Granada. Yusuf ultimately found peace and a valuable ally as the outcome of a strange story of fraternal animosity. The people of Gibraltar revolted against Granada and proclaimed themselves the subjects of Fez. The Sultan of that realm sent his hated brother, Abu Saïd, to take possession of the town, and treating him as David did Uriah, left him at the mercy of the enemy. Yusuf, however, treated the captured prince with generosity, and showed him a letter which he shortly after received from the Sultan of Fez, requesting that he might be poisoned. Thirsting for vengeance, Abu Saïd procured arms and soldiers at Granada, and, invading Morocco, drove his perfidious brother from the throne. Thereafter he was the sworn ally of the Sultan of Granada, whom Castile and Aragon no longer ventured to trouble. Yusuf III. passed away in 1417.

The history of Granada is henceforward one of almost continuous revolution and tumult. Mohammed VIII. was driven into exile by a namesake reckoned as the ninth of his name, and then restored by a counter-revolution. A Castilian army ravaged the Vega up to the walls of the capital. Granada itself would have fallen, had not Juan II. and the great Constable, Alvaro de Luna, been recalled to Castile by the disorders which resulted in the latter’s overthrow. An earthquake desolated the distracted kingdom; and we may suppose that Mohammed VIII. was not altogether sorry when he abandoned his throne to a pretender and fled to Malaga.

The new sultan, Yusuf IV., held his throne as a fief of Castile, the support of which he had to purchase with humiliating concessions. He anticipated inevitable assassination by dying after sixteen months of authority; and for the third time, Mohammed VIII. was proclaimed at Granada (1432). Hostilities with Castile were at once renewed. This time the fortune of war was with the Moors, who routed their opponents at Illora, Archidona, and Castril. But Mohammed VIII.’s star was never long in the ascendant. He quarrelled with the powerful family of the Abencerrages; and, deprived of their support, was finally expelled from his kingdom, by his kinsman, Aben Osmin.[B] The usurper was victorious over the Christians and took several strongholds, but his army suffered at last a bloody defeat at Alporchones. This reverse seems to have maddened Osmin, who henceforward conducted himself as a tyrant of the old Roman type. Revolutions had now become as frequent in Granada as in some South American states. The usurper ran his brief career, and was then forced to make room for Mohammed VIII.’s cousin Saïd. Granada was all for peace. Tribute was paid to Enrique IV. of Castile, Christian captives released--all in vain. The intermittent warfare went on as before. Jaen, Archidona, Gibraltar, were lost, despite the desperate valour of the Prince, Muley Hassan, and of the Chieftain, Ibrahim, who, on being vanquished, plunged on horseback into the depths of a ravine. At last, however, the distracted Ibn Ismail obtained peace for his wretched country by a personal interview with Enrique, outside the walls of Granada. He devoted the remainder of his reign to the encouragement of commerce, industry, and agriculture in his dominions--labour that did not benefit even those who were to succeed him; and died at Almeria in the year 1465. The knell of the Moorish Empire in Europe was sounded over his bier.

The reigns of Ali Abu-l-Hassan, Mohammed XI. (Boabdil), and Mohammed XII. (Az-Zaghal) covered the years 1465-1492, during which the downfall and extinction of the kingdom were accomplished. The history of these events has already filled many bulky tomes, and has been made familiar to English readers by the works of Prescott. Even our brief survey, however, cannot be concluded without a summary of the last chapter of the story of Granada.

The character of Muley Ali Abu-l-Hassan was the reverse of his predecessor’s. He was arrogant, impetuous, and warlike, a fanatical hater of the Christians, and a zealous Muslim. In the first years of his reign he gained some successes over the feeble Enrique IV., and proved himself strong enough to quell a revolt at Malaga. But he let slip the opportunity of attacking the new sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabel, when they were engaged in war with the partisans of “La Beltraneja,” nor did he make any attempt to effect an alliance with their numerous enemies. State-craft does not appear to have been possessed to any great extent by the descendants of Al Ahmar. In 1476, Abu-l-Hassan condescended to sue for a renewal of the alliance with the Queen of Castile; but when Ferdinand of Aragon made the payment of the tribute stipulated by Ibn Ismail a condition of the treaty, the Moor’s proud nature revolted. “Return to your sovereigns,” he said to the Spanish ambassadors, “and tell them that the sultans who paid tribute to the Christians are dead; that here we manufacture only iron spear-heads for our enemies.” These words sealed the fate of the Moors in Spain, though the ruler who uttered them probably thought them merely the prelude to just such a frontier war as had raged intermittently for so many years.