The Alhambra 12

The Alhambra 12

He moreover gave premiums and privileges to the best artisans; improved

the breed of horses and other domestic animals; encouraged husbandry;

and increased the natural fertility of the soil twofold by his

protection, making the lovely valleys of his kingdom to bloom like

gardens. He fostered also the growth and fabrication of silk, until the

looms of Granada surpassed even those of Syria in the fineness and

beauty of their productions. He moreover caused the mines of gold and

silver and other metals, found in the mountainous regions of his

dominions, to be diligently worked, and was the first king of Granada

who struck money of gold and silver with his name, taking great care

that the coins should be skilfully executed.

 

It was towards the middle of the thirteenth century, and just after his

return from the siege of Seville, that he commenced the splendid palace

of the Alhambra; superintending the building of it in person; mingling

frequently among the artists and workmen, and directing their labors.

 

Though thus magnificent in his works and great in his enterprises, he

was simple in his person and moderate in his enjoyments. His dress was

not merely void of splendor, but so plain as not to distinguish him from

his subjects. His harem boasted but few beauties, and these he visited

but seldom, though they were entertained with great magnificence. His

wives were daughters of the principal nobles, and were treated by him as

friends and rational companions. What is more, he managed to make them

live in friendship with one another. He passed much of his time in his

gardens; especially in those of the Alhambra, which he had stored with

the rarest plants and the most beautiful and aromatic flowers. Here he

delighted himself in reading histories, or in causing them to be read

and related to him, and sometimes, in intervals of leisure, employed

himself in the instruction of his three sons, for whom he had provided

the most learned and virtuous masters.

 

As he had frankly and voluntarily offered himself a tributary vassal to

Ferdinand, so he always remained loyal to his word, giving him repeated

proofs of fidelity and attachment. When that renowned monarch died in

Seville in 1254, Alhamar sent ambassadors to condole with his successor,

Alonzo X., and with them a gallant train of a hundred Moorish cavaliers

of distinguished rank, who were to attend round the royal bier during

the funeral ceremonies, each bearing a lighted taper. This grand

testimonial of respect was repeated by the Moslem monarch during the

remainder of his life on each anniversary of the death of King

Ferdinand el Santo, when the hundred Moorish knights repaired from

Granada to Seville, and took their stations with lighted tapers in the

centre of the sumptuous cathedral round the cenotaph of the illustrious

deceased.

 

Alhamar retained his faculties and vigor to an advanced age. In his

seventy-ninth year (A.D. 1272) he took the field on horseback,

accompanied by the flower of his chivalry, to resist an invasion of his

territories. As the army sallied forth from Granada, one of the

principal adalides, or guides, who rode in the advance, accidentally

broke his lance against the arch of the gate. The counsellors of the

king, alarmed by this circumstance, which was considered an evil omen,

entreated him to return. Their supplications were in vain. The king

persisted, and at noontide the omen, say the Moorish chroniclers, was

fatally fulfilled. Alhamar was suddenly struck with illness, and had

nearly fallen from his horse. He was placed on a litter, and borne back

towards Granada, but his illness increased to such a degree that they

were obliged to pitch his tent in the Vega. His physicians were filled

with consternation, not knowing what remedy to prescribe. In a few hours

he died, vomiting blood and in violent convulsions. The Castilian

prince, Don Philip, brother of Alonzo X., was by his side when he

expired. His body was embalmed, enclosed in a silver coffin, and buried

in the Alhambra in a sepulchre of precious marble, amidst the unfeigned

lamentations of his subjects, who bewailed him as a parent.

 

I have said that he was the first of the illustrious line of Nasar that

sat upon a throne. I may add that he was the founder of a brilliant

kingdom which will ever be famous in history and romance as the last

rallying-place of Moslem power and splendor in the Peninsula. Though his

undertakings were vast, and his expenditures immense, yet his treasury

was always full; and this seeming contradiction gave rise to the story

that he was versed in magic art, and possessed of the secret for

transmuting baser metals into gold. Those who have attended to his

domestic policy, as here set forth, will easily understand the natural

magic and simple alchemy which made his ample treasury to overflow.

 

 

 

 

YUSEF ABUL HAGIG

 

THE FINISHER OF THE ALHAMBRA

 

 

To the foregoing particulars, concerning the Moslem princes who once

reigned in these halls, I shall add a brief notice of the monarch who

completed and embellished the Alhambra. Yusef Abul Hagig (or, as it is

sometimes written, Haxis) was another prince of the noble line of Nasar.

He ascended the throne of Granada in the year of grace 1333, and is

described by Moslem writers as having a noble presence, great bodily

strength, and a fair complexion; and the majesty of his countenance

increased, say they, by suffering his beard to grow to a dignified

length and dyeing it black. His manners were gentle, affable, and

urbane; he carried the benignity of his nature into warfare, prohibiting

all wanton cruelty, and enjoining mercy and protection towards women and

children, the aged and infirm, and all friars and other persons of holy

and recluse life. But though he possessed the courage common to generous

spirits, the bent of his genius was more for peace than war, and though

repeatedly obliged by circumstances to take up arms, he was generally

unfortunate.

 

Among other ill-starred enterprises, he undertook a great campaign, in

conjunction with the king of Morocco, against the kings of Castile and

Portugal, but was defeated in the memorable battle of Salado, which had

nearly proved a death-blow to the Moslem power in Spain.

 

Yusef obtained a long truce after this defeat, and now his character

shone forth in its true lustre. He had an excellent memory, and had

stored his mind with science and erudition; his taste was altogether

elegant and refined, and he was accounted the best poet of his time.

Devoting himself to the instruction of his people and the improvement of

their morals and manners, he established schools in all the villages,

with simple and uniform systems of education; he obliged every hamlet of

more than twelve houses to have a mosque, and purified the ceremonies of

religion, and the festivals and popular amusements, from various abuses

and indecorums which had crept into them. He attended vigilantly to the

police of the city, establishing nocturnal guards and patrols, and

superintending all municipal concerns. His attention was also directed

towards finishing the great architectural works commenced by his

predecessors, and erecting others on his own plans. The Alhambra, which

had been founded by the good Alhamar, was now completed. Yusef

constructed the beautiful Gate of Justice, forming the grand entrance to

the fortress, which he finished in 1348. He likewise adorned many of the

courts and halls of the palace, as may be seen by the inscriptions on

the walls, in which his name repeatedly occurs. He built also the noble

Alcazar or citadel of Malaga, now unfortunately a mere mass of crumbling

ruins, but which most probably exhibited in its interior similar

elegance and magnificence with the Alhambra.

 

The genius of a sovereign stamps a character upon his time. The nobles

of Granada, imitating the elegant and graceful taste of Yusef, soon

filled the city of Granada with magnificent palaces; the halls of which

were paved with mosaic, the walls and ceilings wrought in fretwork, and

delicately gilded and painted with azure, vermilion, and other brilliant

colors, or minutely inlaid with cedar and other precious woods;

specimens of which have survived, in all their lustre, the lapse of

several centuries. Many of the houses had fountains, which threw up jets

of water to refresh and cool the air. They had lofty towers also, of

wood or stone, curiously carved and ornamented, and covered with plates

of metal that glittered in the sun. Such was the refined and delicate

taste in architecture that prevailed among this elegant people; insomuch

that, to use the beautiful simile of an Arabian writer, “Granada, in the

days of Yusef, was as a silver vase filled with emeralds and jacinths.”

 

One anecdote will be sufficient to show the magnanimity of this generous

prince. The long truce which had succeeded the battle of Salado was at

an end, and every effort of Yusef to renew it was in vain. His deadly

foe, Alfonso XI. of Castile, took the field with great force, and laid

siege to Gibraltar. Yusef reluctantly took up arms, and sent troops to

the relief of the place. In the midst of his anxiety, he received

tidings that his dreaded foe had suddenly fallen a victim to the plague.

Instead of manifesting exultation on the occasion, Yusef called to mind

the great qualities of the deceased, and was touched with a noble

sorrow. “Alas!” cried he, “the world has lost one of its most excellent

princes; a sovereign who knew how to honor merit, whether in friend or

foe!”

 

The Spanish chroniclers themselves bear witness to this magnanimity.

According to their accounts, the Moorish cavaliers partook of the

sentiment of their king, and put on mourning for the death of Alfonzo.

Even those of Gibraltar, who had been so closely invested, when they

knew that the hostile monarch lay dead in his camp, determined among

themselves that no hostile movement should be made against the

Christians. The day on which the camp was broken up, and the army

departed, bearing the corpse of Alfonzo, the Moors issued in multitudes

from Gibraltar, and stood mute and melancholy, watching the mournful

pageant. The same reverence for the deceased was observed by all the

Moorish commanders on the frontiers, who suffered the funeral train to

pass in safety, bearing the corpse of the Christian sovereign from

Gibraltar to Seville.[6]

 

Yusef did not long survive the enemy he had so generously deplored. In

the year 1354, as he was one day praying in the royal mosque of the

Alhambra, a maniac rushed suddenly from behind and plunged a dagger in

his side. The cries of the king brought his guards and courtiers to his

assistance. They found him weltering in his blood. He made some signs as

if to speak, but his words were unintelligible. They bore him senseless

to the royal apartments, where he expired almost immediately. The

murderer was cut to pieces, and his limbs burnt in public to gratify the fury of the populace.