1 1 /i R«Ry OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CUIFORHIt LIBRARY OF THE UNIVEflSITY OF CH'JFORIIIII RARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 9 = ^ RtRY OF THE UHIVERSITY OF CUIFORNIA .W ^ i ^m LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA a I o o tj_/~..- Lll -^Tfe- /^ on \:;~~ E UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE ^J^^g^i E UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA (5^ LIBRlRy OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CtLIFORIIIt IIBRIIRV OF THE z X \ m% s E UIKERSITT OF CUIFORIIIt OYk /fb S / [iWh. IIBRIRY OF THE UNIVERSITr OF CUIFORNII IIBRIRY OF THE Q) t: swyr £ ^ p ^^- 'ciiK) V'^'' OF CORDOVA. THE AOSQUE. Vertical Section of the Dome and Cupola of the Mihrab. ^ MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN BEING A BRIEF RECORD OF THE ARABIAN CONQUEST OF THE PENINSULA WITH A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION IN CORDOVA, SEVILLE & TOLEDO BY ALBERT F. CALVERT LONDON : JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY, MCMVI ^< ^^sm^^^mtmn ■J5 ■ '-.SE |V '- C3 E. Goodman and Son, Phoenix Printing Works, Taunton. DEDICATION TO HIS MAJESTY KING ALFONSO XIII. Sire, The great interest Your Majesty has evinced in the Moorish Monuments which adorn Your Majesty's loyal and noble country, and the gracious appreciation with which You were pleased to regard my work on The Alhambra, inspired me with the presumption to solicit the honour of Your Majesty's August Patronage for this volume, which is humbly dedicated to Your Majesty agreeably to Your Majesty's gracious permission, by Your Majesty's humble Servant, Albert F. Calvert. PREFACE THE inception of my work on The Alhambra, to which this book is designed to be the companion and complementary volume, was due to the disappointing discovery that no such thing as an even moderately adequate souvenir of the •" Red Palace of Granada, "that glorious sanctuary of Spain," was in existence. It was written at a time when I shared the very common delusion that the Alhambra was the only word in a vocabulary of relics which includes such Arabian superlatives as the Mosque at Cordova, the Gates and the Cristo de la Luz of Toledo, and the Alcazar at Seville. I had then to learn that while the Alhambra has rightly been accepted as the last word on Moorish Art in Spain, it must not be regarded as the solitary monument of the splendour and beauty with which the Arabs stamped their virile and artistic personality upon Andalus. In the course of frequent and protracted visits to Spain I came to realise that the Moors were^npt^a onej^city nation,; they did not exhaust themselves in a single, isolated effort to achieve the sublimely beautiful. Before the Alhambra was conceived in the mind of Mohammed the First of Granada, Toledo had been adorned and lost ; Cordova, which for centuries had commanded the admira- tion of Europe, had paled and waned beside the increasing splendour of Seville; and the "gem of Andalusia" itself had been wrested from the Moor by the victorious Ferdinand III. But each in turn had been redeemed from Gothic tyranny by the art-adoring influence of the Moslem. Their dominion, their politics, and their influence is a tale of a day that is dead, but it survives in the monuments of their Art, which exist to the glory of Spain and the wonder of the world. The Arabian sense of the beautiful sealed itself upon Cordova, Vlll. PREFACE and made the city its own ; it blended with the joyous spirit of Seville ; it forced its impress upon the frowning forehead of Toledo. To see the Alhambra is not to understand the wonders of the Alcazar ; the study of Moorish wizardry in Toledo does not reveal, does not even prepare one, for the bewildering cunning of the Mosque in Cordova. In Cordova — this gay, vivacious overgrown village, which gleams serene in a setting of vineyards and orange groves — the spirit of the Moors still breathes. Rome wrested the city from Carthage; the Goths humbled it to the dust. But, under the Moors, Cordova became the centre of European civilisation, the rival of Baghdad and Damascus as a seat of learning, the Athens of the West, and second only in sanctity to the Kaaba of Mecca. Its Cathedral first came into being as a temple of Janus ; it has been both a basilica and a mosque. But the magic art of the Mohammedan, which effaced the imprint of the Roman spear, has survived the torch of the Holy Inquisition, and to-day Cordova is the most exquisitely beautiful Moorish monument in Spain. ^ In Seville, on the spot where Roman, Visigoth, and Moslem have each in turn practised their faith, the Cathedral bells now hang above the Arabian tower of the mosque, and the spire of the temple of the faithful has become the world-famous Giralda, which dominates the city. Moorish fountains and patios are found at Malaga, and Granada, and Toledo, but one comes to "La Tierra de Maria Santisima" to see them at their loveliest, while the Alcazar is perhaps the best preserved and most superbly-decorated specimen of the Moorish citadel-palace that Europe has to show. Menacing, majestic, and magnificent in its strength and splendid isolation, Toledo, guarded by its Moorish masonry, a rock built upon a rock, has been described by Padilla as " the crown of Spain, the light of the world, free from the time of the mighty Goths." The light of the world has dwindled in the socket of modern progress, the Moor has left his scars upon the freedom of PREFACE ix. the Goth ; but Toledo, which was old when Christianity was born, presents an epitome of the principal arts, religions, and races which have dominated the world for the last two thousand years. In the three cities of Cordova, Seville, and Toledo, in which the hand of the Moor touched nothing that it did not beautify, I have found the supplement to the art wonders that I attempted to describe in my book upon the Alhambra ; and, encouraged by the cordiality of the welcome extended to that volume in Spain and America, as well as in this country, I have followed the course which I therein adopted, of making the letterpress subservient to the illustrations. While immersed in authorities, and tempted often by the beauties of the scenes to indulge the desire to emotionalise in words, I have never permitted myself to forget that my purpose has been to present a picture rather than to chronicle the romance of Spanish-Morisco art. For the historical data, and some of the descriptions contained in this book, I have levied tribute on a large number of authors. Don Pascual de Gayangos, the renowned translator of Al-Makkari; the Handbook and the Gatherings of Richard Ford; William Stirling- Maxwell's Don John of A ustria ; The History of the Conquest of Spain, by Henry Coppe6; Washington IrVing's Conquest of Granada ; Miss Charlotte Yonge's Christians and Moors in Spain; Stanley Lane- Poole's The Moors in Spain; the writings of Dr. R. Dozy, of Leipsic; Muhammed Hayat Khan's Rise and Fall of the Muslim Empire in Spain; Hannah Lynch's Toledo; Walter M. Gallichan's Seville; The Latin- Byzantine Monuments of Cordova; Monumentos Arquitectonicos de Espana; Pedro de Madrazo's Sevilla — these, and many less important writers on Spain, have been consulted. But with this wealth of literary material to hand, I have remembered that it is my collection of illustrations, rather than on the written word, that I must depend. From the nature of Arabian art, and the characteristic minuteness of the details of which Morisco decoration is composed, lengthy descriptions of architec- X. PREFACE ture, unaccompanied by illustrations, become not only tedious but positively confusing to the reader, while, on the other hand, a sufficiency of illustrations renders exhaustive descriptions super- fluous. I have striven to do justice to the subject in this direction, not without hope of achieving my purpose, but with a vast con- sciousness of the fact that, neither by camera, nor brush, nor by the pen, can one reflect, with any fidelity, the effects obtained by the Moorish masters of the Middle Ages. In their art we find a sense of the mysterious that appeals to one like the glint of moonlight on running water ; an intangible spirit of joyousness that one catches from the dancing shadows of leaves upon a sun-swept lawn ; and an elusive key to its beauty, which is lost in the bewildering maze of traceries and the inextricable network of designs. The form, but not the fantasy, of these fairy-like, fascinating decorations may be reproduced, and this I have endeavoured to do. A. F. C. "RoYSTON," Hampstead, N.W. 1905. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CORDOVA The Mosque— Principal Nave of the Mihrab The Mosque — Entrance to the Mihrab . Gates of Pardon ........ View of the City and Bridge South of the Guadalquivir . General View of the Interior of the Mosque Facade and Gate of the Almanzor ..... View of Interior of the Mosque 961-967 .... The Mosque — Plan in the Time of the Arabs 786-796, 961-967, 988-1001, 1523-1593 ........ The Mosque— Plan in its Present State, 786-796, 961-967, 988-1001, 1523 1593 Ancient Arab Tower, now the Church of St. Nicholas de la Villa Orange Court in the Mosque, Moorish Style, Built 957, by Said Ben Ayout .... Exterior of the Mosque The Mosque — Section of the Mihrab The Mosque— Portal on the North Side, Moorish Style, Built Under Hakam IM., 988-1001 Exterior View of the Mosque Exterior Ang^e of the Mosque The Exterior of the Mosque The Bridge View of the Mosque and the Bridge Section of the Mosque of Cordova on the Line of the Plan l. m Section of the Mosque of Cordova on the Line of the Plan n. o The Gates of Pardon ... A ViKW IN THE Garden Belonging to the Mosque Page 9 10 II 12 12 13 14 15 16 25 26 27 28 45 47 49 51 55 57 59 59 61 65 Xll. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 961-967, Under Hakam II The Mosqub — Lateral Gate Interior of the Mosque, or Cathedral . Interior of the Mosque, Moorish Style, Built The Mosque ..... The Mosque — Interior View Interior View of the Mosque The Mosque— General View of the Interior The Central Nave of the Mosque — 961-967 The Mosque — Chief Entrance Interior View of the Cathedral . Interior of the Mosque — Lateral Nave Interior of the Mosque — East Side The Mosque — Detail of the Gate The Mosque — Facade of the Almanzor . View in the Mosque — 961-967 The Mosque — A Gate on one of the Lateral Sides . . The Mosque— Side of the Captive's Column .... Mosque, North Side— Exterior of the Chapel of St. Pedro General View of the Interior of the Chapel of the Masura and St Ferdinand ........ Detail of the Chapel of Masura ..... The Mosque — Elevation of the Gate of the Sanctuary of the Koran The Mosque— Gate of the Sanctuary of the Koran . The Mosque — Mosaic Decoration of the Sanctuary, 965-1001 The Mosque— Right-hand Side Gate Within the Precincts of the Maksurrah The Mosque — Section of the Cupola of the Mihrab . The Mosque — Dome of the Sanctuary ..... The Mosque — Roof of the Chapel of the Masura and St. Ferdinand ViLLAViciosA Chapel ........ The Mosque — Detail of the Hall of Chocolate Entrance to the Vestibule of the Mihrab .... Mihrab or Sanctuary of the Mosque ..... Page 67 69 71 75 77 79 81 85 87 89 91 91 95 95 97 99 Id 105 107 109 III "5 "7 119 121 125 127 129 131 135 137 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii. Page The Mosque — Arch and Front of the Abd-er-Rahman and Mihrab Chapels 139 Entrance to the Chapel of the Mihrab View of the Interior of the Mihrab Chapel . The Mosque — Details of the Interior of the Chapel of the Mihrab The Mosque— Marble Socle in the Mihrab Basement Panel of the Facade of the Mihrab The Mosque— Front of the Trastamara Chapel General View of the Chapel of Villaviciosa . North Angle of the Chapel of Villaviciosa Villaviciosa Chapel ..... The Mosque— Chapel of Villaviciosa Arab Tribune, To-day the Chapel of Villaviciosa, Left Side Ancient Inscription of the Time of Khalifate, Found in an Excavation The Mosque — Chapel of Trastamara, South Side The Mosque — Detail of the Trastamara Chapel The Mosque — Interior of the Mihrab ..... The Mosque —Arab Arcade Above the First Mihrab . The Mosque— Details, Arches of the Mihrab .... The Mosque — Detail of the Mihrab ..... The Mosque — Exterior of the Chapel of the Mihrab The Mosque— Gate of the Sultan ..... Principal Entrance to the Mosque ..... The Mosque — Detail Near the Mihrab ..... The Gates of Pardon ....... Thb Bishop's Gate ....■•• The Mosque— Pilasters and Arabian Baths .... Inscriptions and Arabian Chapters ..... The Mosque— a Cufic Inscription in the Place Appropriated to the Performance of Ablutions 141 145 147 149 151 155 157 159 161 165 167 169 171 171 175 173 177 177 179 179 181 181 185 185 187 191 193 Arabic Inscriptions ......••• i95 XIV. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A CuFic Inscription on the Additions Made to the Mosque, by Order of THE KhALIF AL-HaKAM ...,..• The Bridge Across the Guadalquivir, with a View of the Cathedral (Mezquita). The Scene as it Appeared in 1780. From Antigiiedades Arabes de Espaiia. Madrid, 1780, fol. View of Cordova Cathedral (Mezquita), as it Appeared in 1780 Antigiiedades Arabes de Espaha. Madrid, 1780, fol Wall of the Mosque Fa9ade of the Mihrab The Mosque — Arch of one of the Gates The Mosque— Lattice The Mosque— Ornamental Arched Window The Mosque — Capitals of the Entrance Arch Details of the Frieze Plan .... Keystone of Ornamental Arch Details of the Cornice Capital of Arch Side View of the Cornice Bases .... East Facade, Without the Portico From Page 197 203 205 207 211 213 217 219 221 221 221 223 227 227 227 229 SEVILLE Facade of the Alcazar .... Alcazar— Gates of the Principal Entrance Faqade of the Alcazar .... Chief Entrance to the Alcazar, Moorish Style, Pedro I. the Cruel, i 369-1 379 Alcazar — Principal Facade .... Interior Court of the Alcazar Alcazar — Arcade in the Principal Court Alcazar— View of the Interior Alcazar — Court of the Dolls Alcazar— Court of the Dolls, Moorish Style, Built 1369-1379 241 243 247 Built Under Don 249 253 255 259 261 265 1369-1379 267 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XV. Page Alcazar— The Court of the Dolls . . .271 Alcazar— Right Angle of the Court of the Dolls . 273 Alcazar— Court of the Dolls ....... 277 Alcazar — Upper Part of the Court of the Dolls .... 279 Alcazar — Upper Portions of the Court of the Dolls . 283 Alcazar— Court of the Dolls ....... 285 Alcazar— The Little Court ....... 289 Alcazar — View in the Little Court ...... 291 Alcazar — View of the Hall of Ambassadors from the Little Court 295 Alcazar— Hall of Ambassadors ....... 297 Alcazar — Interior of the Hall of Ambassadors .... 301 Alcazar — The Hall of Ambassadors ...... 303 Alcazar — Throne of Justice ....... 307 Alcazar — Hall of Ambassadors ....... 307 Alcazar— Fa9ade of the Court of the Virgins .... 309 Alcazar — Interior of the Court of the Virgins, Moorish Style, Built 1369-1379 313 Alcazar— General View of the Court of the Hundred Virgins . . 315 Alcazar— Court of the Hundred Virgins ..... 319 Alcazar— Court of the Virgins 321 Alcazar— Gallery in the Court of the Hundred Virgins 325 Alcazar — The Sultana's Apartment and Court of the Virgins . 327 Alcazar — Entrance to the Sleeping Saloon of the Moorish Kings . 331 Alcazar— Dormitory of the Kings ...... 333 Alcazar— The Dormitory ........ 337 Alcazar— Front^ OF the Sleeping Saloon of the Moorish Kings . 339 Alcazar— Sleeping Saloon of the Moorish Kings .... 339 Alcazar — Room of the Infanta ....... 343 Alcazar— Columns where Don Fadriqus was Murdered . 345 Alcazar— Gate of the Hall of San Fernando . -349 Alcazar— Gallery of Hall of San Fernando . . 349 Alcazar— Hall in which King San Fernando Died 35^ Alcazar— Room of the Prince -355 XVI. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Alcazar — View of the Gallery from the Second Floor Tower of the Giralda ..... Details of the Giralda Tower .... Court of the House of Pilatos .... Court of the House of Pilatos .... House of Pilatos — View in the Court by the Door of the House of Pilatos— Chapel ..... Gallery of the House of Pilatos Gallery of the Court of the House of Pilatos Court of the Palace of Medina-Cceli Chapel Page 357 361 363 367 369 373 375 376 381 385 TOLEDO Santa Maria la Blanca — Interior, 1100-1150 The Gate of Blood .... Interior of Santa Maria la Blanca Gate of the Sun .... Door of the Hall of Mesa Exterior of the Chapel of Christo de la Vega Ancient Gate of Visagra Castle of St. Servando Moorish Sword .... Arab Fragment at Tarragona Ancient Arabian Baths at Palma, Majorca 395 399 405 409 413 413 419 419 423 429 435 MOORISH DESIGNS AND ORNAMENTS Designs and Ornaments ....... 447—494 Description of the Plates— Hexagonal Family . . . 495—5^6 LIST OF COLOURED PLATES Plate. Description. Frontispiece — Vertical Section of the Dome and Cupola of the MiHRAB Cordova. I. Shell-like Ornaments in the Cupola of the Mihrab. Cordova. II. Shell-like Ornaments in the Cupola of the Mihrab. Cordova. III. Shell-like Ornaments in the Cupola of the Mihrab, Cordova. IV. Part of the Ornamentation and Keystone of one of the Lower Arches, which gives Light to the Dome. Cordova. IV. Ring of the Cupola. v. curvilineal triangles, resulting from the intersection of the Arches sustaining the Dome. Cordova. V. Setting of the Arches sustaining the Dome. Cordova. V. Setting of the Arches sustaining the Dome. Cordova. VI. Ornament running below the Cupola. Cordova. VI. Ornament running below the Cupola. Cordova. VI. Setting 'OF one of the Lower Arches, which gives Light to the Dome. Cordova. VII. Curvilineal Triangles, resulting from the Intersection of the Arches sustaining the Dome. VII. Architrave of one of the Arches sustaining the Dome. Cordova. VIII. Detajls of the Gate of the Maksurrah. Cordova. IX. Arches of the Portal of the Mihrab. Cordova. X. Detail of the Framing of the Side Gate. Cordova. X. Detail of the Window placed over the Side Door. Cordova. X. Detail of the Framing of the Arch of the Mihrab. XI. Windows in aw Alcove. XII. Arab Vase of Metallic Lustre. XIII. Details of tub Arches. XVlll. LIST OF COLOURED PLATES Plate. Description. XIV. Centre Painting on a Ceiling. XV. Divan. XVI. Detail of an Arch. XVII. Gate of the Mdrada. XVIII. Details of the Mihrab. XVIII. Detail of one of the Arches of the Cupola. XVIII. Mosaic Keystones of the Great Arch of the Mihrab. XIX. Details, Villaviciosa Chapel and Mihrab. XX. Details of the Interior of the Mosque. XXI. Details of the Interior of the Mosque. XXII. Details of Moorish Work. XXIII. Details, Villaviciosa Chapel and Mihrab. XXIV. Details of Moorish Work. XXV. Frieze in the Hall of Ambassadors. Seville. XXV. Stucco Work in the Hall of Ambassadors. Seville. XXV. Mosaic in the Large Court. Seville. XXV. Mosaic in the Large Court. Seville. XXVI. Hall of Ambassadors— Details. Seville. XXVII. Hall of Ambassadors— Details. Seville. XXVIII. Hall of Ambassadors— Details. Seville. XXIX. Blank Window. XXX. Soffit of Arch. XXXI. Cornice at Springing of Arch of Doorway at one of the Entrances. XXXII. Borders of Arches. XXXIII. Borders of Arches. XXXIV. Border of Arches. XXXV. Ornament in Panels on the Wall. XXXVI. Bands, Side of Arches. XXXVII. Bands, Side of Arches. XXXVIII. Ornaments on Panels. XXXIX. Ornaments on Panels. XL. Ornaments on Panels. LIST OF COLOURED PLATES xix. Plate. Description. XLI. Ornaments on Panels XLII. Frieze in the Upper Chamber, House of Sanchez. XLIII. Cornice at Springing of Arches in a Window. XLIV. Panels on Walls. XLV. Spandrils of Arches. XLVI. Spandrils of Arches. XLVII. Spandrils of Arches. XLVIII. Plaster Ornaments, used as Upright and Horizontal Bands enclosing Panels on the Walls. XLIX. Blank Window. L. Rafters of a Roof over a Doorway, now destroyed, beneath the Tocador de la Reyna. LI. Band at Springing of Arch at the Entrance to one of the Halls. LII. Panelling of a Recess. Lin. Blank Window. LIV. Ornaments on the Walls, House of Sanchez. LV. Ornament in Panels on the Walls. LVI. Ornaments in Spandrils of Arches. LVII. Mosaic Dado in a Window, &c. LVIII. Mosaic Dados on Pillars. LIX. Mosaic Dados on Pillars. LX. Mosaics. LXI. Mosaic Dado round the Internal Walls of the Mosque. LXII. Painted Tiles. LXIII. Mosaics. LXIV. Mosaics. LXV. Ornaments in Panels. LXVI. Ornament over Arches at one of the Entrances. LXVII. Ornament on the Walls. LXVIII Ornament in Panels on the Walls. LXIX. Small Panel in Jamb of a Window. LXX. Small Panel in Jamb of a Window. XX. LIST OF COLOURED PLATES Plate. Description. LXXI. Panel in the Upper Chamber of the House of Sanchez. LXXII. Spandril from Niche of Doorway at one of the Entrances. LXXIII. Lintel of a Doorway. LXXIV. Capital of Columns. LXXV. Capital of Columns. LXXVI. Capital of Columns. LXXVII. Socle of the Entrance Arch to the Ante-chapel. LXXVIII. Socle of the Entrance Arch to the Chapel. LXXIX. Detail of the Tiles of the Altar. LXXX. Socle in the Interior of the Chapel. LXXXI. Socle in the Interior of the Chapel. LXXXII. Mosaics from various Halls. LXXXIII. Mosaics from various Halls. LXXXIV. Part of Ceiling of a Portico. MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN INTRODUCTORY THE conquest of Spain by the Moors, and the story comprised in the eight centuries during which they wielded sovereignty as a European power, forms a romance that is without parallel in the history of the world. Under Mohammedan rule Spain enjoyed the first and most protracted period of comparative peace and material prosperity she had ever known. She had been plundered by Carthage and Phoenicia, ground beneath the iron heel of Rome, devastated and enslaved by those Chris- tianised but corrupt barbarians, the Visigoths. All the evils and demoralisation arising from successive waves of bloody conquest and decadent voluptuousness had been sown in the breast of Spain. The squandered might of Carthage had left the country a prey to the vigorous Roman ; the degenerate Roman had been banished by the rugged, victorious Goth, who, after two centuries of security and sensual ease, was to be made subject to the warlike and en- lightened Moor. Once more the land was to be overrun and the face of the country was to be scarred with fire and the sword ; once more the people were to learn to serve new masters and conform to new laws. Of a truth the last state must have seemed worse than the first to the Romanised Spaniards. Carthage had brought chains, but it had also introduced artificers and a form of Government; the Roman eagles had been accompanied by Roman engineers and road-builders ; the Goths erected upon the broken altars of mythology temples to the living God. But it now seemed that the whips of ancient foes were to be replaced by the 2 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN scorpions of their new taskmasters ; the Christianity which the East had sent them was to be uprooted by the Eastern infidels. Such must have been the prospect before Spain, and even before the rest of Europe, when Tarik returned in 710 to Ceuta, from a marauding expedition upon the coast of Andalusia, and reported to Musa, the son of Noseyr, the Arab Governor of North Africa, that the country was ripe for conquest and well worth the hazard of the cast. Twenty years later the Moslems had overrun Spain, captured Bordeaux by assault and advanced to the conquest of Gaul. It is passing strange to reflect that these far-reaching, epoch- making events had not been undertaken as the result of a deep-laid scheme of national expansion or religious enter- prise. According to tradition the foundation of the Moslem supremacy in Spain was instigated by the hatred of a single traitor. Count Julian, the Governor of Ceuta, and his treachery was inspired by the dishonour of one young girl — Julian's daughter, Florinda. At the beginning of the eighth century, when the Moors had extended their possessions up to the walls of Ceuta, which was held for Roderick, King of Spain, by Count Julian, the Count, in accordance with the custom among the Gothic nobility, had sent his daughter to the Court of Roderick, at Toledo, to be educated among the Queen's gentlewomen in a manner befitting her rank and lineage. The rest is the old story of a beautiful, unprotected girl, a lascivious guardian, and a father thirsting for vengeance. So far Count Julian had defended Ceuta against the Moors with unbroken success, now he came to Toledo to relieve the king of the custody of his daughter, and repay the breach of trust which Roderick had committed by making a compact with the king's enemies. On the eve of his departure from INTRODUCTORY ' 3 the capital, the king requested the Count to send him some hawks of a special variety that he desired for hunting pur- poses, and the vengeful noble pledged himself to supply his master with hawks, the like of which he had never seen. But Count Julian found the Saracenic hawks less keen for the hunting he had in view than he expected. That old bird of prey, Musa, listened to the alluring tales of the rich- ness and beauty of Spain, but doubted the good faith of his long-time enemy, who proposed that the Moors should invade this promised land in Spanish ships, lent to them for the purpose. But the love of conquest and the lust of loot, which had inspired and sustained the Arab arms in all their territorial campaigns, overcame the natural hesitancy of the Moorish Governor, and in 710 Musa despatched Tarik with a small expedition to spy out the state of the Spanish coast. So successful was the mission, and so rich the plunder they brought back, that in the following year he adventured an army of 7,000 men under Tarik for the spoliation of Andalusia. Tarik, who landed at the rock of Gibraltar — Gebal Tarik, which still bears his name — captured Carteya, and encountered the army of Roderick, who had hurried from the North of hjs dominions to repel the invaders, on the banks of the Guadalete. Washington Irving, in the Conquest of Spain, has related, in his brilliantly picturesque style, the old legend of the prophecy of Roderick's overthrow and the mystery surround- ing his death. The king was proof against the solemn warnings of the old warders of the tower of Hercules, — the tower of "jasper and marble, inlaid in subtle devices, which shone in the rays of the sun," — wherein lay the secret of Spain's future, sealed by a magic spell, and guarded by a massive iron gate, and secured by the locks affixed to it by every successive Spanish king since the days of Hercules. 4 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN Roderick came not to set a new lock upon the gate, but to burst the bolts of the centuries and reveal the mystery that his predecessors had gone down into their graves without solving. All day long his courtiers urged him vainly against his own undoing, and the custodians laboured at the rusty locks, and at evening he entered the mighty, outer hall, rushed past the bronze warder, penetrated the inner chamber, and read the inscription attached to the casket, which Hercules had deposited in the gem-encrusted tower. *'In this coffer is the mystery of the Tower. The hand of none but a King can open it ; but let him beware, for won- derful things will be disclosed to him, which must happen before his death." In a moment the lid is prized open, the parchment, folded between plates of copper, is brought into the light of day, and the king has read the motto inscribed upon the border: ** Behold, rash man, those who shall hurl thee from thy throne and subdue thy Kingdom." Beneath the motto is drawn a panorama of horsemen, fierce of countenance, armed with bows and scimitars. As the king gazes wonderingly upon the picture, the sound of warfare rushes on his ear, the chamber is filled with a cloud, and in the cloud the horsemen bend forward in their saddles and raise their arms to strike. Amazed and terrorised, Roderick and his courtiers drew back and ''beheld before them a great field of battle, where Christians and Moors were engaged in deadly conflict. They heard the rush and tramp of steeds, the blast of trump and clarion, the clash of cymbal, and the stormy din of a thousand drums. There was the flash of swords and maces and battle axes, with the whistling of arrows and hurling of darts and lances. The Christian quailed before the foe. The infidels pressed upon them, and put them to utter rout ; the standard of the Cross was cast down, the banner of Spain was trodden under foot, INTRODUCTORY 5 the air resounded with shouts of triumph, with yells of fury, and the groans of dying men. Amidst the flying squadrons* King Roderick beheld a crowned warrior, whose back was turned towards him, but whose armour and device were his own, and who was mounted on a white steed that resembled his own war horse, Orelia. In the confusion of the fight, the warrior was dismounted and was no longer to be seen, and Orelia galloped wildly through the field of battle without a rider." The vision he had witnessed in the Tower of Hercules must have recurred to Roderick when he saw the Moorish army encamped against him by the waters of the Guadalete, but he must have noted its numbers with surprise, and contemplated his own host with complacency. For Tarik, even with his Berber reinforcements, only counted 12,000 men, and nearly four score thousand slept beneath the standard of Spain. If ever prophecy was calculated to be found at fault it must have seemed to be so that day, and Tarik published his estimate of the enormity of the odds that were against him when he cried to his army of fatalists, "Men, before you is the enemy, and the sea is at your backs. By Allah, there is no escape for you, save in valour and resolu- tion." But valour and resolution belonged to the Spaniards as well as to the Moors ; and, but for the action of the kinsmen of the dethroned King Witiza, who deserted to the side of the Saracens in the midst of the seven day battle, the Moorish conquest would have been delayed, if not even entirely abandoned. But Witiza*s adherents turned the tide of battle against Roderick, the Spaniards broke and fled, and Orelia galloped riderless through the field. Tarik, in a single encounter, had won all Spain for the infidels. Without hesitation, and in defiance of the commands of Musa, who coveted the glory that his lieutenant had so 6 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN unexpectedly won, Tarik proceeded to make good his mastery of the entire Peninsula. He despatched a force of seven hundred horsemen to capture Cordova ; Archidona and Malaga capitulated without striking a blow ; and Elvira was taken by storm. City after city surrendered to the victorious invaders, and the principles of true chivalry, which the Moors invariably observed, reconciled the vanquished Spaniards to their new conquerors. The common people welcomed the promise of a new era, while the nobles fled before the advancing armies, and abandoned the country to the enemy. With the surrender of Toledo, Tarik had added a new dominion to the crown of Damascus. Musa left Ceuta in 712 with 18,000 men to join Tarik at Toledo, taking Seville, Carmona, and Merida en route. The meeting of the Governor and his General at the capital revealed the first flash of that fire of personal jealousy and internecine conflict which kept Spain in a blaze throughout the eight centuries of the Moorish occupation. To the intrepid warriors, who were bred to war and trained to the business of conquest, the Pyrenees represented, not a bar to further progress, but a bulwark from which they were to advance to the subjugation of Europe. The total defeat of the Saracens under the walls of Toulouse by the Duke of Aquitana in 721 turned their course westwards ; and after occupying Carcasonne and Narbonne, raiding Burgundy and carrying Bordeaux by assault, they suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Franks, under Charles Martel, at the Battle of Tours in 733. The tide of Arabian aggression was arrested and rolled back; and although the Moors repulsed the Prankish invasion of Spain under Charlemagne, a bound had been put upon their empire-building ambitions, and they set themselves resolutely to accomplish the pacification of the kingdom they had already won. It is INTRODUCTORY 7 the boast of the Northern Spaniards, the hardy mountaineers of Galicia and Leon, of Castile and the Biscayan provinces, that they were never subject to Moslem rule. There is good warrant for their claim, and in truth the independence of the North was maintained, but the fact remains that the Moors had no desire for those bleak and unfruitful districts ; and so long as the savage Basques did not disturb the security of Arabian tenure in the fertile South, they were left in the enjoyment of their dreary, frozen fastnesses, and their wind-swept, arid wastes. The Moors had made themselves secure in the smiling country that, roughly speaking, lies South of the Sierra de Guadarrama ; and here, with a genius and success that was unprecedented, they organised the Kingdom of Cordova. " It must not be supposed," writes Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, *' that the Moors, like the barbarian hordes who preceded them, brought desolation and tyranny in their wake. On the contrary, never was Andalusia so mildly, justly, and wisely governed as by the Arab conquerors. Where they got their talent for administration it is hard to say, for they came almost direct from their Arabian deserts, and their rapid tide of victories had left them little leisure to acquire the art of managing foreign nations. Some of their Coun- sellors were Greeks and Spaniards, but this does not explain the problem ; for these same Counsellors were unable to pro- duce similar results elsewhere ; all the administrative talent of Spain had not sufficed to make the Gothic domination tolerable to its subjects. Under the Moors, on the other hand, the people were on the whole contented — as contented as any people can be whose rulers are of a separate race and creed — and far better pleased than they had been when their sovereigns belonged to the same religion as that which they nominally professed. Religion was, indeed, the smallest 8 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN difficulty which the Moors had to contend with at the outset, though it had become troublesome afterwards. The Spaniards were as much pagan as Christian ; the new creed promulgated by Constantine had made little impression among the general mass of the population, who were still predominantly Roman. What they wanted was — not a creed, but the power to live their lives in peace and prosperity. This their Moorish masters gave them." The people were allowed to retain their own religion and their own laws and judges; and with the exception of the poll tax, which was levied only upon Christians and Jews, their imposts were no heavier than those paid by the Moors. The slaves were treated with a mildness which they had never known under the Romans or the Goths, and, moreover, they had only to make a declaration of Mohammedanism — to repeat the formula of belief, " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Prophet" — to gain their freedom. By the same simple process, men of position and wealth secured equal rights with their con- querers. But while the Moors thus practised the science of pacification, they were unable to conquer their own racial instincts, which found their vent in jealous blood feuds and ceaseless internal conflicts. In the field the Arabs were a united people ; under stress of warfare their rivalries were forgotten ; but the racial spirit of the conquerors reasserted itself when the stress of conquest gave place to ''dimpling peace," and government by murder created constant changes in the administration. The Arabs and the Berbers, though they may be regarded as one race in their domination of Spain, were two entirely distinct and fiercely hostile tribes. The Berbers of Tarik had accomplished the conquest of Spain, but the Arabs arrived in time to seize the lion's share of the spoils of victory; and when the Berber insurrection in (HE "ri lO CORDOVA ^/:W :».y:'.r;gs;:g:rggg:s:s:'^>':;;i:~s:gsyiiagsggss ,Lyj^AJb.lU[iJ,UJLt!llLrit '4 i THE MOSQUE— BNTRANCK TO THE MIHRAB. II CORDOVA ATFS of I'AKDON 12 13 ^^=V «- '-^^J, ■„ .. ''^'hg^. -7 Vx Or THi V>y (: l>u.V£RSITY :t/l OF M < > O Q O u IS CORDOVA I. rmmmm^^asm 1 I I I I I I n 'X > 4- * > > * 4 ^ i * ^ > 4 ^ d * '"■^ •« 4 * * > > « > * > > * ¥ M A * an * * * * I r?3 LJ LT > I CHBli « jj Li THE MOSyUK. IAN IN Till TIME OK THK ARABS 786—796,961—967, 988— lOOI, I523— »593- A — Ciate of I'ardon. B— Bell Towtr. C— Orange Court. D— Principal Kntrunce. E— Mosque of the uun F— IVibuoal where the Mufti pray*. O-Portlon of he lime 961—967. H— Hall where the Koran ii kept. I -Sanctuary. K- Portion added in 988-1001. i6 CORDOVA ttttttftft 1 ,^ InlnXnXrintn#[i« »",«-«"» * * # # ^^TP-H il 'il. ■■'■ 'r — ^ THE MOSQUE — PLAN IN ITS PRESENT STATE. 786—796, 961—967, 988-1001. 1523—1593- L-Prindp»l Chapel. M— Choir. N— First Christian Church. O— Chapels. P— The Cardinal's Chapel. INTRODUCTORY 77 North Africa triumphed, their Berber brethren, who had been relegated to the least congenial districts of Estrema- dura, roused themselves to measures of retaliation, and carried their standards to the gates of Toledo and Cordova. In alarm, the Arab Governor of Andalusia sent for his compatriots of Ceuta to aid him, and he expiated his folly with his life. The African contingent routed the Berbers, murdered the Arab Governor, and set up their own chief in his place, until Abd-er-Rahman arrived from Damascus to unite all factions, for a while, under the standard of the Sultan of Cordova. Abd-er-Rahman, which signifies "Servant of the Merciful God," was a member of the deposed family of the Omeyyads, which had given fourteen khalifs to the throne of Damascus. The usurping khalif, Es-Deffah, *' The Butcher," who founded the dynasty of the Abbasides, practically exter- minated the Omeyyad family, but Abd-er-Rahman eluded his vigilance, and, after abandoning a project to make himself the Governor of North Africa, he determined to carry his princely pretensions to the newly-founded Spanish dominions. In Andalusia, the advent of the Omeyyads was hailed with enthusiasm. The army of the Governor deserted to the standard of the young pretender; Archidona and Seville were induced to throw open their gates to him by a piece of questionable strategy ; he defeated the troops that opposed his march upon Cordova, and before the end of the year 756, or some fifteen months after setting foot in the country, all the Arab part of Spain had acknowledged the dynasty of the Omeyyads, which for three centuries was to endure in Cordova. Brave, unscrupulous, and instant in action, Abd-er- Rahman had recourse to every wile of diplomacy, of severity, and of valour to maintain his supremacy in Spain. He defeated and utterly annihilated an invading army sent i8 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN against him by the Abbaside khalif, Mansur, and sent a sackful of the heads of his generals as a present to their master ; he won over the people of Toledo by false promises, and crucified their leaders ; he had the Yemenite chief assassinated while receiving him as an honoured guest ; he crushed a revolt of the Berbers in the North, and of the Yemenites in the South ; he saw the forces of Charlemagne waste away in the bloody fastnesses of the Pyrenees. By treachery and the sword, by false oaths and murder, he triumphed over every rival and enemy until all insurrection had been crushed by his relentless might, and the Khalif Mansur was fain to exclaim : " Thank God, there is a sea between that man and me." In an eloquent tribute to his "daring, wisdom, and prudence," his old-time enemy thus extolled the genius of the conqueror : " To enter the paths of destruction, throw himself into a distant land, hard to approach and well defended, there to profit by the jealousies of the rival parties to make them turn their arms against one another instead of against himself, to win the homage and obedience of his subjects, and having overcome every difficulty, to rule supreme lord of all ! Of a truth, no man before him has done this ! " But the tyrant of Spain was to pay a great and terrible price for his triumphs. He had established himself in a kingdom in which he was to stand alone. Long before his death he found himself forsaken by his kinsmen, deserted by his friends, abhorred by his enemies ; on all sides detested and avoided, he immured himself in the fastnesses of his palace, or went abroad surrounded by a strong guard of hired mercenaries. His son and successor, Hisham, practised during the eight years of his reign an exemplary piety, and so encouraged and cherished the theological students and preceptors of Cordova, that they rebelled against the light- INTRODUCTORY 19 hearted, pleasure-loving Hakam, who succeeded him, and incited the people to open rebellion. But while the insurrectionists besieged the palace, the Sultan's soldiers set fire to a suburb of the city ; and when the people retired terror stricken to the rescue of their homes and families, they found themselves between the palace garrison and the loyal incendiaries. The revolt ended in a massacre, but the dynasty was saved, and the palace was preserved to become the nucleus of the gorgeous city which Hakam's son, Abd-er- Rahman II., was to fashion after the style of Harun-er-Rashid at Baghdad. Under this aesthetic monarch, Cordova became one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its palaces and gardens, its mosques and bridges were the wonder of Europe ; its courtiers made a profession of culture ; its arbiter of fashion again asserted himself as the first man in the empire. In such a city, and at such an epoch, it was natural, even inevitable, that Christianity should assert itself as a protest against the fashion of the age. But so tolerant was the Mohammedan rule in religious matters, that the too exalted spirit of the Cordovan Christians was hard put to it to find some excuse for its manifestation of discontent. While the sultan and his nobles found their pleasure in music, poetry, and other aesthetic if less commendable indulgences, the prejudices of the devout were always respected. Prosecution for religious convictions was un- heard of, and the only way that the Christians could achieve martyrdom for their faith was by blaspheming the creed of their Moslem rulers. These early fanatics, whose religious rites and beliefs had been treated with respect by the Mohammedans, and who knew that by Moslem law he who blasphemes the Prophet Mohammed or his religion must die, voluntarily transgressed the law for the purpose of 20 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN achieving their object. In spite of warnings, of protests, and of earnest counsel, these suicidal devotees cursed the name of the Prophet, and expiated their wilful fanaticism with death. With the exception of this period of religious mania, which was bewailed by the general body of Christians, and regarded with unfeigned sorrow by the Mohammedan judges, the tolerance of the Moors to the Christians was as unvarying as it was remarkable. After the execution, in the year 859, of Eulogius, a fanatical priest, and the leader of these misguided martyrs, who was fruitlessly entreated by his judges to retract his maledictions against the Prophet and be restored to freedom, the mad movement flickered and died out. But the devotion displayed by the Cordovan Christians had made its effects felt in widespread rebellion in the provinces, and a series of incapable sovereigns had reduced the throne to the state of an island surrounded by a rivulet of foreign soldiers, in a country bristling with faction jealousies and discontent. Spain had fallen a prey to anarchy, and the end of Mohammedan rule appeared imminent. Petty kings and governors had thrown off their allegiance ; Berbers, Arabs, Mohammedan Spaniards and Christians had each asserted their absolute independence; and the sultan at Cordova was "suffering all the ills of beleaguerment." The last vestige of the power of the Omeyyads was falling away when Abd-er- Rahman III. came to the throne to reconquer Spain, and bring the rebel nobles to their knees. The new sultan was a lad of twenty-one, but he knew his countrymen, and he realised that after a century of lawlessness and wasting strife, the people were ripe for a strong and effectual govern- ment. The Cordovans were won by his handsome presence and gallant bearing. The boldness of his programme brought him adherents, and the weariness of internecine INTRODUCTORY 21 warfare, which had devastated the country, prepared the rebellious provinces for his coming. Seville opened her gates to receive him, the Prince of Algarve rendered tribute, the resistance of the Christians of Regio was overcome, and Murcia volunteered its allegiance. Toledo alone, that implacable revolutionist, rejected all Abd-er-Rahman's over- tures, and confidently awaited the issue of the siege. But the haughty Toledans had not reckoned upon the metal of which the new despot was made. Abd-er- Rahman had no stomach for the suicidal tactics of scaling impregnable precipices, but he was possessed of infinite patience. He calmly set himself to build a town on the mountain over against Toledo, and to wait until famine should compel the inhabitants to capitulate. With the fall of Toledo, the whole of Mohammedan Spain was once more restored to the sultans of Cordova. The power, once regained, was never relaxed in the lifetime of Abd-er-Rahman. The Christians of Galicia might push southward as far as the great Sierra, Ordono II. of Leon might bring his marauding hosts to within a few leagues of Cordova, and cause Abd-er- Rahman to exert all his personal and military influence to beat back the obstinate Northerners, but the stability of the throne was never again imperilled. During his fifty years of strenuous sovereignty, the great Abd-er-Rahman saved Spain from African invasion and Christian aggression ; he estab- lished an absolute power in Cordova that brought ambassa- dors from every European monarch to his court; and he made the prosperity of Andalusia the envy of the civilised world. This wonderful transformation was effected by a man whom the Moorish historians describe as ** the mildest and most enlightened sovereign that ever ruled a country. His meekness, his generosity, and his love of justice became proverbial. None of his ancestors ever surpassed him in 22 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN courage in the field, and zeal for religion ; he was fond of science, and the patron of the learned, with whom he loved to converse." In 961, Abd-er-Rahman III., the last great Omeyyad Sultan of Cordova, died. His son Hakam II. employed the peace which he inherited from his illustrious father in the study of books and the formation of a library, which consisted of no fewer than four hundred thousand works. But in his reign, the note of absolute despotism which had re-established the Empire of Cordova, was less evident ; and when at his death, his twelve-year-old son, Hisham II., ascended the throne, the government was ripe for the delegation of kingly power to favourites and ministers. The Sultana Aurora, the Queen Mother, had already abrogated that power, and was wielding an influence that Abd-er-Rahman III. would not have tolerated for an instant, and her favourite — an un- distinguished student of Cordova, named Ibn-Aby-Amir — was waiting to turn her influence and favour to his own advantage. This youth, who is known to history as Almanzor, or " Victorious by the grace of God " — a title conceded to him by virtue of his many victories over the Christians — was possessed of pluck, genius, and ambition in almost equal proportions ; and by the opportunity for their indulgence which the harem influence afforded, he made himself virtual master of Andalusia. In his capacity of professional letter- writer to the court servants, Almanzor won the patronage of the Grand Chamberlain, and his appointment to a minor office brought him into personal contact with Aurora — who fell in love with the engaging young courtier — and with the princesses, whose good graces he assiduously cultivated. His charm of manner and unfailing courtesy gained for him the countenance of many persons of rank, and his kindness and lavish generosity INTRODUCTORY 23 secured him the allegiance of his inferiors. By degrees he acquired a plurality of important and lucrative posts ; he earned the gratitude of the Queen Mother by arranging the assassination of a rival claimant who opposed the accession of her son Hisham to the throne ; and he volunteered to lead the sultan's army against his insurrectionary subjects of Leon. Almanzor was without military training or ex- perience, but he had no misgivings upon the score of his own ability, and his faith in himself was justified. His victories over the Leonese made him the idol of the army ; and on the strength of his increased popularity he appointed himself Prefect of Cordova, and speedily rendered the city a model of orderliness and good government. By a politic impeach- ment of the Grand Chamberlain for financial irregularities, he presently succeeded his own patron in the first office in the State, and became supreme ruler of the kingdom. Almanzor had allowed no scruple or fear to thwart him in his struggle for the proud position he had attained, and he now permitted nothing to menace the power he had so hardly won. He met intrigue with intrigue, and discouraged treachery by timely assassination. He placated hectoring, orthodox Moslems; he curtailed the influence of his for- midable rival, Ghalib, the adored head of the army; he conciliated the Cordovans by making splendid additions to the mosque ; he terrorised the now jealous Aurora and the palace party into quiesence ; and he kept the khalif himself in subjection by the magnetism of his own masterful person- ality. His African campaigns extended the dominion of Spain along the Barbary coast, and his periodical invasions of Leon and Castile kept the Northern provinces in subjec- tion, and his army contented and rich with the spoils of war. The Christians had terrible reason to hate this invincible upstart, and it is not surprising to read in the Monkish 24 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN annals, the record of his death transcribed in the following terms : " In 1002 died Almanzor, and was buried in hell." But if his death meant hell to Almanzor, as the Christians doubtless believed, it meant the recurrence of the hell of anarchy for the Kingdom of Spain. Within half a dozen years of the great Chamberlain's death, the country which had been held together by the might of one man, was torn to pieces by jealous and tyrannical chiefs and rebellious tribal warriors. Hisham II. was dragged from his harem seclusion, and the reins of Government were thrust into his incompetent hands. He failed, and was compelled to abdicate, and another khalif was set up in his place. For the next twenty years khalifs were enthroned and replaced in monotonous succession. Assassination followed coronation, and coronation assassina- tion, until the princes of every party looked askance at the blood-stained throne, where monarchs and murderers played their several intimate parts. Outside the capital, anarchy and devastation was ravaging the country. Berbers and Slavs were carrying desolation into the South and East of the country, and in the North the Christians were uniting to throw off their dependence. Alfonso VI. was selling his aid to the rival chieftains in their battles amongst themselves, and storing up his subsidies against the day when he would undertake the re-conquest of Spain. The Cid had established his Castilian soldiers in Valencia, and the voluptuous, degenerate Mohammedan princes were panic-stricken by the growing disaffection and the instant danger which they were powerless to overcome. In their extremity they sent for assistance to Africa, where Yusuf, the king of a powerful set of fanatics whom the Spaniards named Almoravides, had made himself master of the country from Algiers to Senegal. Yusuf came with 25 CORDOVA ANCIENT ARAB TOWER, NOW THE CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS DE LA VILLA. 26 O i 27 R^^ 28 CORDOVA r THE MOSyUK— SECTION OF THK MIIIKAI INTRODUCTORY 29 his Berber hosts in 1086, defeated the Christians, under Alfonso, near Badajoz, and leaving three thousand of his men to stiffen the ranks of the Andalusians in maintaining the struggle, he returned to Africa. Four years later the Spanish Mohammedans again besought Yusuf to bring his legions against their Christian despoilers, offering him liberal terms for his assistance, and stipulating only that he should retire to his own dominions as soon as the work was completed. The Almoravide king subscribed the more readily to this condition, since his priestly counsellors absolved him from his oath, and had little difficulty in convincing him that his duty lay in the pacification of the unhappy Kingdom of Andalusia. Yusuf organised a force capable of contending with both the Christians of Castile and his Moorish allies. The capitulation of Granada provided him with the means of distributing vast treasure among his avaricious followers, and promises of even greater booty inspired them to further faithful service. Tarifa, Seville, and the rest of the im- portant cities of Andalusia, fell before the treasure-hunting Berbers ; and with the surrender of Valencia, on the death of the Cid, the re-conquest of Mohammedan Spain was practi- cally completed. Order was temporarily restored, lives and property were once more respected, and a new era of peace and prosperity appeared to have begun. But the degenerating influence of wealth and luxurious ease, which in the course of generations had sapped the manhood of Spain's successive conquerors, played swift havoc with the untutored Berbers. At the end of a score of years, the Castilians, led by Alfonso **the Battler," had resumed the offensive, sacking and burn- ing the smaller towns, and carrying their swords and torches to the gates of Seville and Cordova. The Almoravides were powerless to resist their vigorous forays. The people of Andalus, recognising the powerlessness of their protectors, 30 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN declared their independence, and rallied to the ranks of the score of petty chiefs who raised their standards in every city and castle in Andalusia, and who fought with, or bribed their Christian adversaries for the maintenance of their vaunted power. At this crisis in the history of Spain, when the dominion of the enfeebled and dissolute Arab and Berber leaders was weakening before the resolute onslaughts of the rude, hard- living, and hard-fighting Christians of the North, a new force was created to turn the scale of Empire and prolong the rule of the Moslem in Europe. Before the Almoravides had been overthrown in Andalus, the Almoravides in Africa had been vanquished and dispersed by the mighty Almohades, who now regarded the annexation of Mohammedan Spain as the natural and necessary climax to the work of conquest. Andalusia had been a dependence of the Almoravide Empire; it was now to be a dependence of the Almora- vides's successors. Between 1145 and 11 50 the transfer was completed; but although the Almohades had wrested the kingdom from the Almoravides, they had not subdued the Christian provinces. The new rulers, under-estimating the potentiality of this danger, left the country to be governed by viceroys — an error in statecraft, which ultimately lost Spain to the Mohammedan cause. In 1195 they sent from Morocco a huge force to check the Christian aggressive movement, and the Northern host was routed at Alarcos, near Badajoz. That success was the last notable victory that was to arrest the slow, but certain, recovery of all Spain to Catholic rule. In 12 12, the Almohade army suffered a disastrous defeat at the battle of Las Navas ; in 1235 they were driven out of the Peninsula; three years later, on the death of Ibn-Hud, the Moslem dominion in Spain was re- stricted to the Kingdom of Granada; and, although this INTRODUCTORY 31 Moorish stronghold was destined to endure for another two and a-half centuries, it existed only as a tributary to the throne of the Christian kings of Spain. For the purposes of this book, the history of Moorish Spain closes with the expulsion of the Mohammedans from Cordova, Toledo, and Seville. That more modern, and, in some ways more wonderful, Moorish monument — the Red Palace of Granada — I have dealt with in my book on "The Alhambra," to which this work is intended to be the companion and complement. CORDOVA f CORDOVA OF the four great cities of the Mohammedan domi- nation in Spain, Cordova, as the seat of the Khalifate established by Abd-er-Rahman I., is rightly regarded as chief. The sun of the Moslem era shone with dazzling brilliance on Seville, and pierced the shadows of grim Toledo ere it set upon the decaying grandeur of Granada; but it had risen first on Cordova, and from "that abode of magnificence, superiority, and elegance" its glory had been reflected to the furthest corner of the civilised world. For Cordova, by reason of its climate, its situation, and its surroundings has, since the beginning of time, been one of the garden jsppts of Europe. The Carthaginians had aptly styled it "the Gem of the ^ South," and the Romans had founded a city there in 152 B.C., which they called Corduba. But Corduba had sided with Pompey against Caesar in the struggle for the master- ship of the Roman Empire, and the mighty Julius visited this act of hostility with the destruction of more than half the city, and the massacre of 28,000 of its inhabitants. When the Goths made themselves rulers of Spain in the sixth century, they selected Toledo to be their capital, and Cordova sank into political insignificance. In 711, when Tarik had defeated Roderick near the banks of the Guadalete, he despatched Mughith with 700 horse to seize Cordova. Taking advantage of a fortuitous storm of hail, which deadened the clatter of the horses' hoofs, and assisted by 36 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN the treachery of a Christian shepherd, the followers of the Prophet obtained an unopposed entry, and the city fell without a blow being struck. Forty-four years later Abd-er- Rahman I. established the dynasty of the Omeyyads of Cordova, and for three centuries the capital of Mohammedan Spain was to be, in the language of the old chronicler, Ash-Shakand, " the repository of science, the minaret of piety and devotion, unrivalled even by the splendours of Baghdad or Damascus." Science has long since deserted Cordova ; piety is not obtrusive there ; its material magnificence has passed away. To-day the once famous city is a sleepy, smiling, overgrown village ; a congregation of empty squares, and silent, winding, uneven streets, which have a more thoroughly African appearance than those of any other town in Spain. Theophile Gautier has described its '' interminable white- washed walls, their scanty windows guarded by heavy iron bars," and its pebbly, straw-littered pavement, and the sensitive spirit of De Amicis was caught by a vague melan- choly in the midst of its white-washed, rose-scented streets. Here, he writes, there is '* a marvellous variety of design, tints, light, and perfume ; here the odour of roses, there of oranges, further on of pinks ; and with this perfume a whiff of fresh air, and with the air a subdued sound of women's voices, the rustling of leaves, and the singing of birds. It is a sweet and varied harmony that, without disturbing the silence of the streets, soothes the ear like the echo of distant music." It has, as I have observed elsewhere, a charm that fills the heart with a sad pleasure; there is a mysterious spell in its air that one cannot resist. One may idle for hours in the sunshine that floods the deserted squares, and try to recon- stitute in one's mind, that Cordova, which was described as ** the military camp of Andalus, the common rendezvous of PLATE I. CORDOVA. Shell-like Ornaments In the Cupola of the Mihrab. ^ PLATE II. CORDOVA. Shell-like Ornaments In the Cupola of the Mihrab. PLATE III CORDOVA. Shell-like Ornaments In the Cupola of the Mlhrab. PLATE IV. CORDOVA. Part of the ornamentation and keystone of one of the lower arches which gives light to the dome. Ring of the Cupola. CORDOVA 37 those splendid armies which, with the help of Allah, defeated at every encounter the worshippers of the Crucified." This indolent, loliis^fed, ligtless^ Cordova was once, says El- Makkari, '* the meeting place of the learned from all countries, and, owing to the power and splendour of the dynasty that ruled over it, it contained more excellencies than any other city on the face of the earth." Another Mohammedan author, Al-hijari, Abu Mohammed, writing of the city in the twelfth century, said : " Cordova was, during the reign of the Beni-Merwan, the cupola of Islam, the convocation of scholars, the court of the sultans of the family of Omeyyah, and the residence of the most illustrious tribes of Yemen and Ma'd. Students from all parts of the world flocked thither at all times to learn the sciences of which Cordova was the most noble repository, and to derive knowledge from the mouths of the doctors and ulema who swarmed in it. Cordova is to Andalus what the head is to the body. Its river is one of the finest in the world, now gliding slowly through level lawns, or winding softly across emerald fields, sprinkled with flowers, and serving it for robes ; now flowing through thickly-planted groves, where the song of birds resounds perpetually in the air, and now widening into a majestic stream to impart its waters to the numerous wheels constructed on its banks, communicating fresh vigour to the land." [The extent of ancient Cordova has been differently stated, owing, ilo doubt, to the rapid increase of its popula- tion and the expansion of the buildings under the sultans of the dynasty of Merwan on the one hand, and, on the other, to the calamities and disasters by which it was afflicted under the last sovereigns of that house. Cordova is, moreover, described by Mohammedan writers as a city which never ceased augmenting in size, and increasing in importance, 38 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN from the time of its subjugation by the Moors until a.d. 1009-10, when, civil war breaking out within it, the capital fell from its ancient splendour, gradually decaying, and losing its former magnificence, until its final destruction in a.d. 1236, when it passed into the hands of the Christians. From 711 until 755, when Abd-er- Rahman arrived in Spain to seize the new Moorish possession, which had fallen to the military skill and courage of Tarik's Berbers, the conquerors had been too fully employed in capturing cities to devote much leisure to beautifying their prizes ; now, with the foundation of the Omeyyad power, Cordova was to reap the first fruits of comparative peace. But the repulsion of the Abbaside invasion, the subjugation of Toledo, and the suppression of the Berber revolt in the Northern provinces, long delayed the commencement of the great mosque which the sultan projected as ''a splendid seal upon the works pleasing to the Almighty, which he had accom- plished." By the building of the mosque, Abd-er- Rahman would secure a place for himself in Paradise, and would leave to his own honoured memory a Mecca of jthe-West to which the followers of the Prophet could go in pilgrimage. . The treasury of Abd-er-Rahman was at this time in"a flourishing condition, despite the large sums spent in adding splendour to the growing khalifate, and there appeared to be no difficulty in carrying out his project. But Umeya Ibn Yezid, the favourite secretary of the sultan, who, in his capacity of Katib, was instructed to make overtures for the purchase of the church on whose site the khalif intended to build the new mosque, soon found that the negotiations were beset by serious difficulties. The Christians held firm to the conditions of capitulation granted them by the Saracen conquerors of Cordova, and were not at all inclined to sell to Abd-er-Rahman the temple upon which CORDOVA 39 he had set his heart. This building is described by Pedro de Madrazo as a spacious basilica, which they shared with the followers of the Prophet, since the Mohammedans, according to the practice established amongst them by the advice of the Khalif Omar, shared the churches of the con- quered cities with the Christians, and, after taking Cordova, had divided one of the principal basilicas in two parts, one of which they conceded to the Cordovans, reserving the other, which they at once turned into a mosque, for themselves. The Christians had religiously paid the tribute exacted from them that they might keep their churches, bishops, and priests, but this had not protected them from unjust exac- tions and plunderings at the hands of the governors and representatives of the Eastern khalifs. Knowing this, Abd- er-Rahman was anxious to acquire the desired site without violence, and, with his natural sagacity, he perceived that the religious zeal of the native Christians was much less fervent 4:han that of his own people. Captivity and afflic- tion had damped the old ardour of the natives of Cordova, which, in his day, was no longer the heroic colony, so anxious for martyrdom, and so prodigal of its blood, as it was at the time when the flock of Christ was guided by the great Osius under the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximilian. Neither was it the Cordova which had endured wars, hunger, and plague sooner than be contaminated with Arianism, and the khalif knew,, too, that in spite of the education given to the Christian youth in the schools and colleges of the monasteries, where many young priests and secular scholars promised to be a future danger to the Mohammedans, the Church at Cordova was suffering grievous wounds from the new doctrines of Migencio and Elipando. He was, there- fore, the more surprised to receive a stubborn refusal to his offer, but the estimation in which he held the vanquished 40 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN people and their leaders, led him to believe that he could overcome their obstinacy by quiet persistence, and by trusting to time to undermine their scruples. His policy was justified by its eventual success. How did Abd-er-Rahman succeed in persuading the Christians to make so great a sacrifice ? How came they to be induced to abandon their principal church to the infidels ? Had not these walls been witnesses of the vows they had sworn at the most solemn epochs of their lives ? Perhaps it was already a matter of indifference to them to see the ground, sanctified by the blood of their martyrs, defiled! " God Almighty alone knows " must be our only comment upon this unaccountable transaction, and we leave it thus in accordance with the practice adopted by the Arab historians, when they were at a loss for an explanation. It is certain that under the reign of Abd-er-Rahman the Christians were_jio_longei^ persecuted on account of theifu;eligion. They paid tribute, it is true, as a conquered people, but their faith was respected ; they had their churches and monasteries, where they worshipped publicly ; and it is not recorded that any of their priests were molested by the first Moorish king of the West. On the other hand, when they compared their present lot with that of the past, they must have considered themselves greatly fortunate, as they escaped the tyranny under which their fathers had suffered during the years from the cruel Alahor to the time of the covetous Toaba. It is certain that a new empire was rising in Cordova, which was very threatening to the law of Christ ; but at first its menace was not revealed, and for this reason it was more to be feared. Its intentions were not published, but they were vaguely felt. Those who were wisest and most far-seeing could perceive, though still far off, the dark cloud of a bloody persecution drawing around the Church of CORDOVA 41 Andalusia; but for the generality of the Christians there seemed to be no reason why the present toleration was not to continue, and it is certain that fear was not the motive that made them yield to the wishes of the khalif. History is very reticent concerning this event ; in fact, as Pedro de Madrazo admits, nothing definite has, up to the present, been discovered with regard to it. The probabilities are that the Bishop of Cordova, upon receiving the message of the Moorish king, called a council, and, after due dis- cussion, resolved to part amicably with that which, despite the king's moderation, would without any doubt be taken from them by force, should they persist in their refusal. In parting with their church, and transferring their place of worship, they hoped, too, to be released from the odious prox- imity of the infidels, whose presence under the roof of their basilica must always have been looked upon as a desecration of the sacred building. And, finally, the advantages to be gained by removing their holy relics to a mere suitable sanctuary may have decided them to accept the khalifs offer, under the condition that they should be allowed to re-build the basilica of the martyrs St. Faustus, St. Januaris, and St. Marcellus, which had been destroyed in recent years ; and this being conceded to them by the khalif, the bishop authorised the transfer. The Arab ordered that the price agreed upon should be sent at once to the Christians, who were in turn to surrender their church forthwith, because Abd-er-Rahman, already advanced in years, was anxious that the edifice he was going to raise should be commenced without delay, ^o sooner had the Christians departed than Abd-er-Rahman left his villa in Razafa and took up his residence at the alcazar of the city, in order to superintend the projected work. The destruction of the old building was immediately proceeded with. Devoured with the desire 42 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN V to see the work completed, the indefatigable old man spent many hours each day on the scene, carefully examining the portions of the demolished buildings, which were to be utilised for the new mosque, and classifying them with rare skill. The whole city was filled with movement and commo- tion. There was not a trade amongst the people which did not receive fresh impetus from the new building. Whilst all were busy in the factories and workshop, in the woods, on the mountains, and on the roads from the hills to the city ; whilst the furnaces and brick ovens were glowing ; whilst the Syrian architect meditated on his plans and on those traced by the king's own hands, and the Katib wrote to Asia and Africa inviting the co-operation of famous artists; the people, lazy and curious, swarmed around the spacious foundations, and the whole city presented a scene of animation and excitement not easy to describe. Abd-er- Rahman, who had a presentiment that he would notjiyejo .see -the-mosque finished, pushed on the work with all speed, that he might at least have the satisfaction of covering the arcades which formed its naves, and of in- augurating the cult of Islam with one of those eloquent harangues, which he was in the habit of addressing to his people on the days of '' Juma," or Rest. Barely two years after the foundations were laid the square fortress of Islam rose above the groves by the river, surpassing in height the severe Alcazar of Rodrigo. A few more moons, and the interior walls, the superb colonnades of bold and unusual form, — the mosque of Cordova is probably the first edifice in which superposed arches were introduced — the graceful rows of double arches, the ample porticos, the handsome fa9ade of eleven entrances, the rich side doors, flanked by fretted windows, and finally the incomparable roof of incor- ruptible wood, carved and painted, would be finished. Still CORDOVA 43 a few more moons, and the '* hotba," or harangue, for the health of Abd-er- Rahman was to be read to the people from the most beautiful " nimbar," or pulpit in the West, and repeated by two thousand believers as with one voice, drown- ing in the vibrating surge of an immense and thundering contempt the shamed hymns of the vanquished Nazarenes. Not only was the mosque to^be ready for the celebration of the public ceremonies on the first day of ''Alchuma," but already the sanctuary loomed at the extremity of the prin- cipal nave towards the South, covered with rich and dazzling Byzantine ornamentation, the venerated copy of the holy house of Mecca. The great aljama was not yet complete, it is true, but the diligent architects would find a way to satisfy the impatience of the sultan by covering the walls with rich hangings from Persia and Syria. A profusion of Corinthian columns in the principal naves, and of bold marble pillars from the Roman monuments, sent from the provinces as presents to the monarch from his walies, would be in their place. The columns taken from the old basilica of the Visigoths, would be found in the secondary naves, with others, as yet unchiselled. The floor was to be covered with flowers and fragrant herbs, and the sacred precincts would be inundated with light and perfume, diffused by hundreds of candelabra and thuribles. The fortunate Abd-er-Rahman would be able at least once before he died to direct the rites of the religion, for the propagation of which he had made so many sacrifices, ifi his capacity of *' Iman" of the law. But it was not to be. That day the news spread through the city that the angel of death was seated by the bedside of the khalif ; and soon after, the body of Abd-er-Rahman, the wise, the virtuous, and the victorious, lay in one of the chambers of his alcazar, wrapped in the white garments, distinctive of his great lineage. The sad event was an- 44 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN nounced to the people by Abd-er-Rahman Ibn Tarif, the superior of the Aljama of Cordova, from the very pulpit from which the dead monarch was to have addressed his subjects, and the crowds departed from the mosque ex- claiming : '' May the Amir rest in the sleep of peace, Allah will smile upon him on the day of reckoning." -i - Setting of one of the lower arches which gives light to the dome. PLATE VII. CORDOVA. Curvelinear triangles resulting from the intersection of the arches sustaining the dome. Architrave of one of the Arches sustaining the Dome. ■•"■■>' ^-w ..-^- .«;;>;> cs 0) 4) T3 cd in ftJ a ^ o ^ r < > o o GC o o o T3 c O 0. 0) (d -V'"^. I 45 CORDOVA 1 THE MOSgUE. I'OKTAr. ON THE NORTH SIDE, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT UNDER HAKAM IH., 988— lOOI 47 < > O ■^ £^ O u 49 CORDOVA ^;' TMK i;.\ 1 i:i o o o o o CO SI o oH'„f?Vr (iW.vERsiTy PLATE X. CORDOVA. •- : "•**-::— ^r ::.:.-:::. ■f-r HK^E^^^^^ISi \ !VERS1TY > UJ < c c o c OF THE ^ PLATE XV. Divan. LI BR^ OF THE VERSITY IFOR^ is O CORDOVA 53 its magnificent bridge, creating useful public institutions, and finally completing the grand mosque, which his father had commenced, founding and endowing in connection with it schools ..and colleges. Moreover, he did all this with the resources of the treasury, and with his lawful part of the spoils of conquest, wi^thout levying any extraordinary taxes. Tradition relates that there formerly was a tiridge_oyer th^Guadel^uiyir, erected on the site of the present struc- ture, about 200 years before the arrival of the Moors in Spain : but, this edifice being greatly decayed, it was re- built by the Arabs during the Viceroyship of Assamh, a.d. 720 or 721. This noble structure is four hundred paces^ or one thousand feet, in length, and its breadth is twenty-two feet eight inches within the parapets. The passage over the bridge is a straight line from one end to the other; the arclies— are-_sixteen_ in number, and the buttresses of the piers are much stronger and better adapted for similar pur- poses than the modern tri-lateral cut-waters. Nearly eleven centuries have these buttresses withstood the rapid floods of the Guadelquivir, without sustaining any material injury. Although Hisham practically rebuilt the bridge, the labour did not contribute to his personal convenience. His great love of hunting caused the malcontents among his subjects to whisper that he had repaired the bridge to facilitate the outgoings and incomings of his hunting parties. The rumour reached the king, who vowed that he would never cross the bridge again — a vow he faithfully observed. The great Aljama was completed in the year a.d. 793. The Emir Hisham took as great a personal interest in its progress as did his father, the walies of the provinces con- tributed to its decoration with the spoils from ancient monuments, the artificers with their genius, victors with their booty, the city with its workmen, the mountains of D 54 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN Cordova and Cabra by yielding the treasures of their quarries, Africa with the trunks of its imperishable larch- pines, and Asia by inoculating the growing Arabic-Spanish art with its genius of ornament, its aspirations and its poetry. The superb mosque was finished, the workmen rested from their labours, and Hisham was confident that he had secured a place in the garden of everlasting joys. Let us look at this new house of prayer, majestically situated at the southern boundary of the great city, close to the green banks of the wide river of Andalus, occupying an area of 460 feet from north to south, and 280 from east to west, surrounded by high, thick battlemented walls, flanked by stout buttresses of watch towers, and surmounted by a lofty minaret. It is entered by the faithful by nine rich and spacious outer gates, and by eleven interior doors, four in the east and west sides, and a principal one to the north ; the eleven in the inner fa9ade communicating with an equal number of naves in the temple. The interior arrangement of this wonderful monument is most beautiful. There is a great courtyard, or atrium, with wide gates in the north, west, and east sides, having fountains for the ablutions and the purifications, and orange and palm groves. Then comes the immense body of the house of prayer, divided into eleven principal naves, running from north to south, and crossed at right angles by twenty-one smaller naves, which run from east to west. The elegant combination of the arcades, in which the pilasters are superposed on the columns, and the arches on other arches, leaving a passage for the light between the upper and lower columniation, is quite ideal. Finally, the mysterious hidden sanctuary, within which the Koran is kept, in whose precincts Oriental art has exhausted all the riches of its fascinating resources. The eleven great doors leading from the courtyard to the 55 < > O Q C THE ^y^ ■^RSITY 57 f 59 o u 6i CORDOVA THE GATES OF I'AKDON. CORDOVA 63 mosque are superb double arches all in a row, sustained by beautiful marble columns, which, four by four, encircle the stout supporting pillars of stone in which they are con- solidated. From the courtyard_thejnteripr of the mosque is seen through these eleyen__daors glittering with golden fires, and from the temple the courtyard, seen through these same doors, appears to be a glimpse of the longed-for Garden of Delights. The Mohammedan poet, Mohammed Ibn Mohammed Al-baluni, sings as follows of the holy House of Prayer, which surpasses in richness of colour, beauty of design, and boldness of ornamentation the most famous mosques of Arabia, Syria, and Africa : "Abd-er- Rahman, for the love of God, and in honour of his religion, spent eighty thousand dinars of silver and gold." " He laid them out in constructing a temple for the use of his pious nation, and for the better observance of the religion of Mahomet." " Here the gold lavished on the panelled ceilings shines with the same brilliancy as the lightning, which pierces the clouds." The design, as completed by the Sultan Hisham I. in the years 794-95, received cor\siderable-JUiiprQvements at the hands of his successors. Indeed, it can be safely said that none of the sultans of the illustrious family of Omeyyad who reigned in Cordova failed to make some estimable addition, or contributed in some way to the decoration of the sumptuous building. Hakam^s son, Abd-er-Rahman II., A.D. 822-852, ordered much "Gilt-work" — Zak-hrafah — to be made, but died before the work was completed. Moham- med, his son and successor — a.d. 852-886 — continued the work undertaken by his father, and brought it to a close. Mohammed's son, Abdallah — a.d. 886-888 — is also recorded as having made improvements in the building. 64 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN ^e^^- In the time of the Great Khalif, Abd-er-Rahman III., called An-nasir in order to distinguish him from the other monarchs of that name, the old minaret was pulled down by the advice of a wise architect, and a new one built on its site, whose vastness surpassed all other minarets in the world. Forty-three days were spent in sinking its founda- tions, which penetrated into the ground till water was struck, and three months sufficed for its construction. The superb tower is built of freestone and mortar in such a curious manner that, though it contains two staircases in its interior, each flight containing 107 steps, people can ascend to the top and go down again without seeing one another. This elaborate tower measures fifty-four cubits from its foundations to the upper part of the open dome, to which the priest, who calls to prayers, turns his back, as he peram- bulates the projecting balcony, whose elegant balustrade surrounds the four walls like a graceful ring. From this balcony up to the top the tower rises eighty-three cubits more, being crowned with three beautiful apples, two of gold and one of silver, each three palms and a half in diameter, from which spring two lilies of six petals, supporting a pomegranate of purest gold. It has fourteen windows in its four faces. In two of these faces there are three in- tervals, and in the other two, two intervals, formed between columns of white and red jasper, and over the windows there is a crowning of solid arches sustained by small columns of the same jasper. These windows break up the mass of the walls in an admirable manner. The minaret is covered, both inside and out, with beautiful tracery in relief. Abd-er-Rahman also rebuilt the wall which enclosed the mezquita to the north, looking towards the Orange Court, and he had the entire floor of the mosque levelled. 65 < > O Q O u 67 CORDOVA THE MOSQUE— LATKRAI. CiATK, OF THE ^'r^^ j:/ Of FORNJ 69 44^0RN\b 71 CORDOVA INTKRIOK OF THE MOSyLE. MOORISH STVI.E, BUILT 961-967, UNDER IIAKAM M. CORDOVA 73 In 961 A.D.,Abd-er- Rahman III., the last great Ome3^ad Sultan of Cordova died, and among his papers was dis- covered a diary, in his own handwriting, in which he had carefully noted down the days which he had spent in happiness and without any cause of sorrow. They numbered exactly fourteen. " O, man of understanding !" says the Arabian philosopher, '' wonder and observe the small portion of real happiness the world affords even in the most enviable position ! The Khalif An-nasir, whose prosperity in mundane affairs, and whose widely-spread empire became proverbial, had only fourteen days of undisturbed enjoyment during a reign of fifty years, seven months, and three days. Praise be given to Him, the Lord of eternal glory and everlasting empire." The Sultan Hakam, as soon as he succeeded to the Khalifate, determined to enlarge the mosque, which was too small to accommodate thejjumbers of those who went there to perform the " azalas." £He called together the architects and geometricians, who decided that the addition should extend from the "kiblah" — the point looking towards Mecca — of the mosque to the extreme end of the atrium, thus running the entire length of the eleven naves. The addition measured ninety-five cubits from north to south, and as much from east to west as the width of the whole mosque. The passage to the alcazar, used by the khalif when he came to the ** azalas," was intersected near the "nimbar," or pulpit, inside the "maksurrah." In the year 354 of the Hegirah the cupola, which crowned the "mihrab," or sanc- tuary, containing the Koran, in the addition to the mosque made by Hakam, was completed. In the same year the ** sofeysafa," or enamelled mosaic work, was commenced in the mosque, and, by the order of Hakam, the four incom- parable columns, which formerly had served as jambs for the 74 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN doors of the old " mihrab," were set up again in the new one. It is related that while the addition was being made, a lively dispute arose as to the exact spot of the " kiblah," and it was finally decided to erect the sanctuary at the limit of the prolongation of the eleven naves, in the centre, looking directly to the south. Between the interior southern wall and the exterior, which was strengthened with round towers, a space of some fifteen feet remained. This was divided into eleven compartments, corresponding with the eleven naves of the mosque, that in the centre being destined for the sanctuary, and the others being reserved for the priests and other purposes. In this manner the *' mihrab " was placed in the exact centre of the south side, with a wing on each side, of precise resemblance. In the west wing there was a secret passage leading from the mosque to the alcazar, which extended very near the west wall of the mezquita. The doors of this passage were arranged in a most intricate fashion, doubtless for the greater security of the palace, and they gave entrance to the interior of the " maksurrah," a sumptuous reserved space, communicating on the north, east, and west with the great naves, and on the south forming part of the interior wall of the mosque. This " maksurrah " was a privileged spot, enclosed by a sort of wooden grating, elegantly worked on both faces, and surmounted by turrets, the object of which was to cut off all communication with the sultan. This screen, measuring twenty-two cubits to its summit, gives its name to that part of the edifice which it occupies. Its ornamentation, as well as that of the new part of the central nave, extending from the old to the new " mihrab," is magnificent in the highest degree. The plan of the " maksurrah," properly speaking, was a large rectangle, divided into three parts, almost square, from which rose three Byzantine domes of rare beauty. 75 'I n 79 CORDOVA 83 That in the centre served as a vestibule to the sanctuary, and was the most remarkable for its proportions, its outlines, and its decorations. This part of the mosque has been pre- served in its principal features to the present day. The edifice has lasted nine centuries, and there is no indication that it will not endure for nine centuries more. Over the festooned arches, which intersect each other, rise seven light and graceful horse-shoe arches, which dis- appear into the south wall, thus closing the picture and terminating the lower body of the sumptuous vestibule. Above these double arches runs an impost, beautifully worked and very graceful, embracing and crowning the four fa9ades, and dividing the cupola into two zones — an upper and a lower. On this impost rest beautiful columns in pairs, oversetting great bold semi-circular arches, arranged with such art that they seem to imitate the curves of the inter- laced garlands of a choir of beautiful odalisques, as the arches do not go from each column to the corresponding one of the next couple, but leave the intervening pair open. In this way, as there are two pairs of columns supporting the impost in each fa9ade, eight principal arches are formed in the space in two great quadrilaterals placed opposite each other, their springing stones crossing and forming eight points of a star. There is an octagonal ring in the centre with eight graceful pendants, as an embellishment to the capitals of the eight pairs of columns. A horseshoe arch from point to point, to which a tablet of alabaster is fitted, leaves an uncertain prospect of the vault of heaven, which shines upon the cupola and the profusion of rich mosaic work with which it is adorned. Between the elegant arches, which appear rather to hang from the cupola than to support it, the marvellous fa9ade of the "mihrab" appears in the background, which I 84 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN glistens in the rays of the setting sun like a piece of brocade loaded with jewels, and which must have been dazzling as a fairy palace when, in the month of Ramadhan, the fourteen hundred and fifty-four lights of the great lamp shone under this enamelled " half-orange." This fa9ade, in spite of its marvellous richness, does not show the smallest confusion in its ornamentation, each line is traced with the idea of giving greater beauty to the arch which forms the entrance to the sanctuary. It is composed of the arch with its spacious architrave and its smooth jambs with small columns, together with its *'arraba" surrounded by Grecian frets, and a light series of arches without vacuums, upon which rest the im- posts which divide the upper and lower bodies of the dome. But such is the profusion and splendour of the ornamentation of each of these parts that it is impossible to describe them. The keystones, the architrave, the circle drawn in squares, the panels, the trefoil arches and the tympana are incomparable, and the combination of Grecian frets with Persian and Byzantine ornaments and geometrical figures is as beautiful as it is bewildering. These last, moreover, do not prepon- derate as was the case later in the degenerate Mussulman ornamentation proper. Here the Grecian frets are the most important, being combined in a thousand different ways, the stems and leaves tracing the most graceful curves, and all uniting to form an elegant border, of the most capricious tracery. The whole of this ornamentation is of marble, delicately carved, now smooth and white, now covered with minute mosaic of various colours, and loaded with crystal and gold. The inscriptions seen here are also in gold, on a ground of crimson, or ultra-marine, alternating with the shining '' sofeysafa." " Sofeysafa " is an obscure word, which Don Pascual de Gayangos believes to be a transposition of the Arabic 85 CORDOVA THE CENTRAL NAVE OF THE MOSgUE — 961-967. I 8; CORDOVA THE MOSgUB— CHIEF ENTRANCE. OF THE TK ^ERS/TY i OF - 89 '^ OF THE TK 91 CORDOVA INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE— LATERAL NAVE. INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE— ftAST SIDE, PLATE XVII. CORDOVA. "^^s^. V/^^ '^"^v> c>-^'^ f^v c^!pV> 'Z/^. ^fc^fS^ iVERSITY PLATE XVI CORDOVA. Detail of one of the niches of the Cupola. Mosaic keystones of the great arch of the Mihrab. Details of the Mihrab. o u -THE ^y ^ ...ZRSiTY O 0. viS S a E Si 5i S S •« o V o N < > o G cc o o o (0 o (D x: O c- C 0) o td o CORDOVA 93 word Foseyfasa,* signifying enamel work of exceptional brilliancy, laid down by Greek workmen whom Abd-er- Rahman had brought to Cordova for the task. Two columns are built into the jamb of the entrance arch to the sanctuary — one of black marble, the other of jasper, with lavishly carved capitals. If his blind enthusiasm did not deceive El-Makkari, the four columns were of green jasper and lapis-lazuli, two of each. An impost rests upon them as a cornice, and from this the arch springs ; and on the impost an inscription in golden characters upon a crimson ground is written, which has the following meaning: '' In the name of God, clement and merciful, let us give praise to Him, who directed us to this, for we could not have directed ourselves if we had not been directed by God, for which purpose the deputies of our Lord came with the truth. The priest Al-mostaner Billah Abdallah Al-Hakam, Prince of the Faithful — may God be faithful to him — ordered the president and prefect of his court, Giafar ben Abd-er- Rahman — may God be pleased with him — to add these two columns, since he laid the foundations in the holy fear of God, and with His good pleasure. This work was concluded in the month of Dhilhagia of the year 354 of the Hegirah." From this inscription it would seem that two of the columns supporting the arch of *'sofeysafa" were placed there by order of Hakam II., and that the others belonged to the old " mihrab," which had been demolished in order to lengthen the mosque ; but no one is capable of saying to-day whether the black marble columns, or the jasper, • Posty/asa. Gayangos tells us that the word is not in the Dictionaries, but that, according to an old Arabian writer, it is a substance of glass and small pebbles, crushed and baked together, uniting, with great variety of colour, great brilliancy, and beauty ; it is sometimes mixed with silver and gold. One of the conditions of peace granted to thm Emperor of Constantinople by the Khalif, Al-waldd, was that the Emperor should B'ovide a certain quantity of fosey/asa, or enamelled work, for the great mosque at amascus. Idrisi, in his description of the mosque of Cordova, says that the enamel which covered the walls of the " mihrab," came from Constantiuople. E 94 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN were those added by the order of the magnificent khalif; and whether the inestimable gift which was deemed worthy of being commemorated in letters of gold was of lapis- lazuli or not. " God alone knows ! " The sanctuary is a small heptagonal space, with a pavement of white marble, a socle formed by seven great slabs of the same, and a dome, also of marble, shaped like a shell and made of a single piece, edged with an elegant moulding. The seven sides of the heptagon are decorated with exquisite trefoiled arches, supported by marble columns, with gilt capitals of delicate workmanship ; the columns resting on a cornice, below whose modules runs a fascia, or fillet, of gilded characters carved in the marble of the slabs, which form the socle, or sub-basement. -^ Within this sanctuary was kept the famous " nimbar " of Hakam II., which was a sort of pulpit, according to the Arab historian, unequalled in the world, either for its materials or its workmanship. It was of ivory and precious woods — ebony, red and yellow sandal, Indian aloe, &c. — and the cost of it was 35,705 dineros and three adirmames. It had ten steps, and was said to consist of 37,000 pieces of wood joined by gold and silver nails, and incrusted with precious stones. It took nine years to build, eight artificers working at it each day. This pulpit, which must have been of mosaic of wood^ewels and metals of price, was reserved for the khalif, andjm it was deposited also the chief object of veneration of all the Mohammedans of Andalusia, a copy of the Koran, supposed to have been written by Othman, and still stained with his blood. This copy was kept in a box of golden tissue studded with pearls and rubies, and covered with a case of richest crimson silk, and was placed on a desk or lectern, of aloe wood with golden nails. Its weight was so extraordinary, that two men could scarcely 4 I 95 CORDOVA THE MOSyfE DETAIL OF THE (iATE. THE MOSyUE — l-AVAUE Ui IHK ALMANZOK. THE -^K ERSfTY 97 CORDOVA VIEW IN THE MOSQUE -961 -967. I 99 CORDOVA THE MOSQUE— A GATE ON ONE OK THE LATERAL SH^ES. lOJ CORDOVA THE MOSQOE— SIDE OF THE CAPTIVE'S COLUMN. :| CORDOVA 103 carry it. It was placed in the pulpit in order that the Imam might read in it during the "azala;" and when the cere- mony was concluded, it was carried to another place, where it remained, carefully guarded,^ith the gold and silver vases destined for the great celebration of Ramadhan. -^ The chronicler, Ambrosio de Morales, says that the " nimbar " was a sort of chariot on four wheels, and that it had but seven steps. It was to be seen in the cathedral of Cordova as late as the middle of the sixteenth century, when it was dismembered, and its materials employed in the con- struction of a Christian altar. The place, which from the slight indications of Edrisi,'"^ appears to have served as treasure-room, was a sort of chapel, which is situated to-day not far from the site of the ancient *' mihrab," to the north of the present ''maksurrah.'* In this way it can easily be supposed that the noblest apartment of the mosque was completely closed to the people on the north and south sides; and, being occupied by the principal personages of the court, it would have been difficult for any irreverence to have been shown to the Imam or to the venerated "Mushaf" — Koran. The two **mak- surrahs " remained, the one facing the other, both occupying exactly the same space ; that is, at least, from east to west, supposing that they cut the three centre naves of the eleven which are in the mosque. Both these ** maksurrahs," or screens, have disappeared; and at the present time we cannot form the slightest idea as to their design. Almost the only thing which has remained intact of that time is the sumptuous space of the three chapels occupied by the " maksurrah " of Hakam ; and of the spaces occupied by the old ** maksurrahs," only two disfigured chapels exist — that of the chief nave, and that of the next nave to the east. The latter is divided into two parts by a platform some N I04 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN feet above the floor of the mosque. In the upper portion the *'Alicama" or preliminary for the prayer was made; and in the lower part, which still has the form of an under- ground chapel, the treasure was kept. The centre chapel, the present Chapel of Villaviciosa, was reserved for the khalif when he did not act as Imam; and in the west chapel, which exists no longer, was the seat of the Cadi of the Aljama. No trace of the original interior decoration of these chapels remains at the present day, and externally, only the arches facing the " mihrab," and which are similar to those^f the fa9ade of the vestibule, are left. .^ fWhen everything had been completed internally to the satisfaction of Hakam, it occurred to him that the fojjntains in the Court of Ablutions did not harmonise with the grandeur of the mosque ; he therefore commanded that they should be replaced by four splendid founts, or troughs, each cut out of a single piece of marble — two for the women in the eastern part, and two for the men in the wesf!\It was his wish that these basins should be of magnificenfpropor- tions, and made from the same quarry. The work took much time, engaged many people, and necessitated the expendi- ture of a great deal of money ; but it was happily executed, and the troughs were brought to their destination by a sloping way, specially constructed for the purpose, on great carts, each drawn by seventy stout oxen. The water, which was brought by the aqueducts of Abd-er-Rahman II., and was stored in a great reservoir covered with marble, flowed night and day ; and after supplying the wants of the mosque, was carried ofl" by three conduits to feed as many fountains for public use in the north, east, and west of the city. -,, The great Vizier, Almanzor, considerably enlarged the mosque; many Christians, loaded with chains, being em- ployed amongst the workmen. The eastern wall was thrown I05 CORDOVA If a:~.^^ ,.^jMMmmm. i : ': ' ' ; i4.' n * i 5 1 1 - -- I ' ' ■ \\ MOSQUE. NORTH SIDE— EXTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF ST. PEDRO. I07 CORDOVA .1 M !■ \l. \ II W ')!■ I MI-: I NTKRIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MASURA AND ST FERniNANI). log CORDOVA DETAIL OF THE CHAFEL OF MASURA. Ill CORDOVA '.Li^^^^-JiiL.::^^^-.!. mBmm ': P-- /^t, f IHK :.i. '.-,.„'!- K -hLEVATlON OF THE GATE OF THE .SA.NCILAK^ uh IHh K. CORDOVA 113 down, and the foundations of a new wall were laid one hundred and eighty feet from the old one, throughout the entire length from north to south. In the covered part of the building eight great naves were added, all of equal size, and having the same number of arches as those already existing; so that the thirty-three minor naves, which cut the principal naves at right angles, were lengthened one hundred and eighty feet, running from east to west. The new part formed thirty-five transverse naves, where there had formerly been only thirty-three, because the wing, with the residences which fell to the east of the " mihrab" which was not lengthened, occupied the space of the two extra naves. The prolongation of the minor naves was not carried out with the slavish and monotonous uniformity of modern days. The Arab architects did not understand symmetry as we do to-day, and they satisfied themselves with producing unity by means of variety, without seeking a forced correspondence of similar parts. In the part added by Almanzor it was considered useless to give the same dimensions to the buttresses of the north wall as the primitive wall possessed, and consequently a space of six feet in length was gained from the principal- naves at the north side. But as this extra width could not be given to the first of the lesser naves, as the height of the columns would not allow of it, the architect doubtless thought that instead of dividing up this small excess equally among the thirty-three arches in the length from north to south, it would be preferable and more effective to preserve the first three or four naves in line, adding a nave in the space gained by the diminution in the bulk of the buttresses, and by enlarging the succeeding naves wherever it seemed most convenient. As a result of this, the first transverse nave of the lengthened part, on account of the great narrowness of its intercolumniation, was not 114 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN able to preserve the full span of its arches. It was necessary, therefore, to bring the latter nearer together and to break their curve, in order to keep the desired height, and thus probably for the first time, Pedro de Madrazo considers, was seen in the edifices of Arab Spain, the pointed arch which was destined to totally change the physiognomy of monumental art in the Middle Ages. > The arch, broken in this manner at the culminating point of its curve, presently adopted in this small nave all the varieties of decoration to which it was susceptible. Here in effect, in this small space of barely seven feet wide and one hundred and eighty-five long, architecture exhausted at one time, and at the first attempt, all the shapes of arches which were to be employed in the four following centuries ; a circumstance which was quite fortuitous. It was not the intention to dissimulate the enlargement of which we are speaking ; on the contrary, it was decided to signalise it in an unmistakable manner, for which purpose a row of stout pillars was raised, where the old east wall stood, and where at present is the dividing line between the eleventh and twelfth greater naves, the pillars of which were suitably united to each other by great arches, springing from beauti- ful columns in pairs, built into the pillars. The old classical art would never have confided such wide spaces to supports so delicate as are these columns, which in couples send the bold festooned arches, which serve as an opening to the edifice of Almanzor, across to the opposite pair. But the archi- tects of the time of Abd-er- Rahman I. and of Hakam II. had already successfully attempted a similar feat in the grand arcade of the inner fa9ade, which looks on the Court, and m the strengthening arcade which divides the primitive mosque from its prolongation to the south, so there was no reason to fear its repetition. To-day we pass, with a certain respect, 4 115 CORDOVA Kh Uii'^<^r THE MOSQUE— (iATE OK THE SANCTUARY OF THE KOKAN. 117 CORDOVA THE MOSQDE -MOSAIC DECORATION OF THE SANCTUARY, 965— lOOl 119 CORDOVA it nil. Ml IX. I I. Ill ii\ .1 lAKSlRKAH. CORDOVA nwoBimLu THE MOSQUE SECTION OF THE CUPOLA OF THE MIHRAH. CORDOVA 123 under these bold arches of eight metres elevation, and six, seven, and even eight metres in width, when we consider that they rest on columns of some three metres high, including their capitals; and only the stoutness of the pillars into which these graceful pairs are built assures us that they will not fall to the ground, wearied with such a supernatural effort. For the greater solidity of the wide edifice, added by Almanzor, a line of great pillars and arches, which marked the southern limit of the original mosque, was lengthened as far as the eastern wall, crossing at right angles the strengthen- ing arcade already mentioned stretching from north to south ; so that the actual_Aljama was divided into four unequal parts, separated from each other, probably, by wooden screens and partitions. The part added by Hakam II., at whose extremities rose the old and the new ** maksurrah," was called ** The Noble Apartment," and was reserved for the nobility and the personages of the Court, the portion close to the **mihrab'* bemg occupied by the ulema, alkatibes, almocries, and other ministers of the temple, and the Imam. The three remaining parts were for the people, and most likely the sexes were divided, for it is certain, from the assurances of an historian cited by Ahmed El-Makkari, that there were two doors inside the naves leading to the j women's part. The art of the decorations of Almanzor's prolongation is not particularly attractive, the arches seem to be copied from those of the old door, and the only circumstance worthy of mention is that all the capitals of the columns are equal, and of the same form, in contrast with the great variety and richness of the capitals in the primitive mosque, and in the additions of Hakam II. The delicate and uniform construction of the mighty "hagib" may be men- tioned as a purely archaeological item, and also that the 124 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN names of the artificers who made them are frequently to be seen in the foundations and shafts of the columns: e.g,^ Mondair, Mostauz, Motobarack, Fayr, Masud, Tasvir, Nassar, Kabir, Amin, Jalem-al-Amery, Hachchi, Tsamil, Bekr, Casim. With the part added by Almanzor, the mosque is said to have formed a great rectangular quadrilateral 742 feet_ long^from n^jrth to south, and 472 feet wide from east to west, enclosed by four great battlemented walts7lortified with square watch-towers, varying in height. The south wall, which reached a formidable height on account of the declivity of the ground, was adorned with nineteen towers, including those flanking it at both angles, which were more spacious and common to the two walls of east and west. The western wall had fourteen-Jjowers, and the north five, including the majestic roinaret over the principal door; and, finally, the eastern wall was fortified by 4en towers, all corresponding to the part which had to bear the pressure of the naves, and the wall of the Court at that side had no towers at all. The greater number of these towers remain, and the wide old walls also exist. There were twelve, outer gate^ to the mosque, ten leading into the edifice, and twenty-one interior doors, without counting those of the dependencies to the temple and that of the khalifs private passage, nineteen in the fa9ade of the courtyard, and two which led to the women's part of the building. All the outer doors were for the most part rectangular, formed by arched lintels set into orna- mented horseshoe arches, their keystones were either white, or of alternate colours, the white being richly decorated with stucco ornaments in relief, and the coloured with beautiful mosaic of red and yellow brick, cut into tiny pieces. The horseshoe arch is set in a beautiful frame, CO bo < > o o o o « ft. o o o CO I o X X J < > o D o O CO o o > > 00 0) O Ji <:^^ .,_-__ ji ^ < < sz a o o o o ^-■^' /f^^ OF THE ' 1 125 CORDOVA THK MOSyUK — POME OK THE SANCTl'ARY 127 CORDOVA V THE MOSQDE. ROOF OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MASURA AND ST. FERDINAND. I 29 CORDOVA VILLAVICIOSA CHAPEL. 131 CORDOVA THK MOSQUE- IlKTAIL OF THK HAM. OF CHOCOLATK CORDOVA 133 richly ornamented as are the tympana between the arch and the lintel, the facias and the little windows of per- forated alabaster, which, now enclosed in arches resting on little marble pillars and grouped in graceful pairs, flank the door. Some of these have projecting cornices forming a parapet with small dentalated towers, which give the sacred building the appearance of a fortress, and recall the warlike >- origin of the Mohammedan religion. All the outer gates have inscriptions, with invocations and verses taken from the Koran. Hakam II. had an apart mention structedJjiJhe western part of the temple, which was to serve Jqr the distributioij/^' ol_alms, and here any poor wanderer, who happened to be in the city without protection or means of subsistence, could obtain the wherewithal to continue his journey. For this purpose the khalif endowed the establishment in a splendid manner. It was not exactly a hostel, as its space was too limited ; and, besides, Hakam had already estab- lished other places of lodging for poor travellers outside the mosque, one of these being quite near this ** Dar-as- asdaca," or '' Alms Chamber." Poor students, too, were looked after, and received a daily meal, and even small sums of money. The wise men received annual pensions from the treasury, according to their merit and personal circumstances. The Aln^s^iT.hamhfr was, properly speaking, only mtended for the distribution of alms to the poor. Its beautiful door, to-day blocked up, can still be seen, both inside and out, in the wall of the mosque, and, according to El-Makkari, it was the most beautiful of the western side. It is no longer possible to form an exact idea of the aspect of the chamber as it was when Hakam II. completed its decoration. He covered it with gilded and painted stucco ! 134 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN work, which turned its walls into beautiful filigree, and to-day this apartment is half forgotten, after having served as a vestibule to the first Christian cathedral of Cordova. No one would think that this place, beyond St. Michael's postern, and separated from the body of the building by a wretched partition and a door of pine-wood, is the ancient " Dar-as-asdaca." For many years it was used as a Chapter Hall, and the archives of the extinct music-school, with its choir books, were kept here. The actual dimensions of the mosque varied at different periods, and are difficult to establish. One authority says, that in length from north to south the mosque measured six hundred and forty-two feet, in width four hundred and sixty-two feet. Mr. Waring, in his Notes of an Architect in Spain^ describes the mosque as an oblong of three hundred and ninety-four feet ,by three hundred and sixty feet. The famous Orange Court is in length two hundred and twenty feet, and, being within the boundary walls of the mosque, it is probably included in the former measurement. It is also impossible to fix, with any degree of certainty, the number of columns contained in the mosque during the time of Mohammedan supremacy. Ambrosio de Morales, and the Infante Don Juan Manuel, both of whom described the mosque before the columns were reduced in number by the alterations to which the building has been subjected, estimate the figures at one thousand and twelve, but it is only too certain that when the mosque was converted into a Christian church very many were removed to make room for altars and chapels. No less than one hundred columns were comprised within the '* maksurrah," which was further provided with three doors of exquisite workmanship, one of which was 137 CORDOVA MIHRAB OR SANCTUARY OF THE MOSQDE. 139 CORDOVA i TMi; MOSyUE ARCH AND FRONT OF THE ABD-ER-RAHMAN AND MIHRAH CHAPELS /^^-■'OF THE '"''>' ^ UNIVERSITY 141 CORDOVA 143 covered with plates of pure gold, as were the walls of the " mihrab." The floor of the " maksurrah," it is said, was paved with silver, and the pavements adjacent to it were covered with ** sofeysafa." The ceiHng of the mosque was formerly covered with nvaJ__cartouchesT bearing appropriate monitory inscriptions and pious sentences — such as, "Be not one of the negligent," ''Felicity," ''Blessing," ''There is no God but God, to whom all beings address themselves in their need " — thus inciting the minds of the faithful to contemplation and prayer. Some few of the cartouches are still remaining ; but the inscriptions were, for the most part, carefully effaced when the mosque was transformed into a Christian temple. Those in the " mihrab," and in the angles near the tower, may yet be seen. The number of brazen chandeliers of different sizes in the mosque is computed at upwards of twoJlundred, and the number of cups attached, and containing oil, at upwards of seven thousand. Some of the oil-reservoirs for the great lamps were Christian bells, deprived of their clappers ; inverted, and suspended from the roof. It is known that in the many expeditions against the Christian, bells were fre- quently removed from the churches and brought to Cordova. Sometimes the metal of the bells was recast into forms more in accordance with the Moorish style of ornament, y^y^ The following rites had to be observed in the service om^ the mosque: The ornaments were. to consist only of brass, silver or glass lamps, which were lighted at night when the doors were opened for prayer. Some striking design was painted on the west wall, in order that the faithful should look in that direction. There was only c^e pulpit, which was on wheels, as the sermon was preached from any spot the Talvi wisHed. 1 144 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN The CQUEts-of the mosque were paved with_jiQCcelain tiles, over ^ which pure water could flow. Those who did not wash themselves at home were obliged to do so in the Court of Ablutions before entering the sacred precincts. All shoes had to be left at_thedoor of the mosque, and no buildings, such as inns and~~hosteTnes, and disreputable houses, were allowed in the neighbourhood. No Jew§. were allowed to pass before it. Women were not permitted to enter some mosques, because they were not circumcised, the sultana alone having an oratory, where she prayed for all women. At midnight a mezzin mounted the minaret, and cried out : " God is great, to pray is better than to sleep "; at two o'clock in the morning he said the same ; at four o'clock he placed a lantern at the end of a rod and said, *' Day is breaking, let us praise God " ; at the fourth prayer he hoisted a white flag, which was lowered at one o'clock, saying, " God is great." Friday was their feast day, and a blue banner was hoisted at dawn, and left floating till half-past ten. The fifth prayer was at four o'clock in the afternoon, in winter at three ; when the evening star appeared, the ^ sixth prayer was called out ; and at nine o'clock the last prayer of the day was said. Sand glasses were employed to mark the passage of the hours. The state of Cordova died, vnth A Imanzor ; and the races, who alternatelyToolTipossession of the throne, did not leave the least trace in the mosque. Finally, St. Ferdinand, ' King of Castile and Toledo, completely routed the Moors, and the mezquita was purified and dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. The following is an extract from the archives of the cathedral : " Let it be known that I, Ferdinand, by the grace of God, King of Castile, with the consent and approval of Dona Berenguele, my Mother, and 145 CORDOVA VIEW OK THK INTKKIOK OF THK MIHKAH CHAHEL. 147 CORDOVA THE MOSyLE— DETAILS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MIHRAB i I 1 149 CORDOVA THE MOSQUE- MAKBLE SOCLE IN THE MIHKAB. I 151 CORDOVA ^i^iif#elii t^^'/i'K'' BASEMENT PANEL OF THE FA<^ADE OK THK MIUKAU CORDOVA 153 of Dona Juana, the Queen my wife, and of my children, Alfonso, Frederico, and Ferdinand, make a deed of gift to God of the Cathedral Church of Santa Maria of Cordova, and to you. Master Lope, my beloved chosen Bishop of the same, from now on, and to your successors, and the Chapter of Canons, &c. November 12th, 1238." This pious monarch founded a chapel dedicated to St. Clement, which was erected against the south wall, embracing the space occupied by three naves from east to west, and by four transverse naves from north to south. This space was shut in with walls, leaving the two Arab arches inside intact, the altar dedicated to the saint being placed against the east wall. Many nobles followed the king's example, and founded chapels, amongst them being that of St. Inez, erected by Piedro Diaz de Haro, in 1250, in the tenth principal nave, counting from the west wall, also against the south wall, and only occupying two transverse naves. St. Ferdinand endowed the cathedral so richly that on his death its benefices were very considerable. He was succeeded by his son, Alfonso X., who showed the same religious spirit as his father, giving large grants to the funds of the cathedral ; and, in the year 1258, erecting the grand chapel, conceding many privileges to the work and the fabric. The donations made by other Christians up to this time had been of a very modest nature ; and, as the Jews of Cordova were expending great sums on the erection of a synagogue, it seems as though the Christians were shamed into greater generosity to the cathedral, for at the same time the famous commander, Domingo Munoz, erected the chapel of St. Bartholomew, and the chapter and the king decided to turn the mosque into a real Christian cathedral in develop- ing Western architecture. The commander made his chapel in the angle formed by the inner south wall and the west 154 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN side of the vestibule, or *'maksurrah," of Hakam II., taking the area of two principal and two transverse naves. As this chapel could not be lighted from outside on account of the west wing of the "mihrab," and the khalif's secret passage being behind, it was illuminated with light from the temple, a pointed door and four windows being made in the north wall. The chapter set about their work with more splendour. They selected the three first transverse naves of the noble apartment, beginning at the re-inforcing wall, which marks the prolongation of Hakam, giving to the single nave that they opened a length of one hundred feet from the inner door of the Alms Chamber to the central apartment of the three enclosed in the old *' maksurrah." They made the Alms Chamber into a vestibule, leaving the re-inforcing wall as it was without touching the bold ultra-semi-circular arches resting on pairs of columns; they pulled down the cadi's apartment in order to make way for the transept, and also the three transverse naves it had occupied. The three columns in front of the Arab pillars, which stood in the length from east to west, were pulled down too, and three handsomer pillars were erected in their place, fortified at right angles by walls in the manner of buttresses, which intercepted the entire width of one transverse nave. Great pointed arches sprang from pillar to pillar, corresponding with the horse-shoe arches in front ; a light and graceful dome stretched from one side to the other, divided into four compartments by three great arches, of which that nearest to the sanctuary rested on high columns, and the other two on well-carved brackets, with open-work borders suspended at a regular height above the spaces. Finally, they took the central apartment of the ancient *' maksurrah," where we presume the khalif sat, and erected there the Grand Chapel. 155 CORDOVA THE MOSgUK — FKO.NT oF THE TKASTAMAKA CHAPKI. 157 CORDOVA GENERAL VIEW OK THE CHAPEL OF VILLAVICIOSA 159 CORDOVA NORTH ANOLH OF THE CHAI'EL OK VILLAVICIOSA i6i < > 0 3 CORDOVA 163 This chapel was built at the king's expense, for which the grateful chapter resolved to celebrate the anniversary of his death, a practice which has been faithfully observed to the present day. The arrangement of this space was perfectly adapted for the purpose of a Grand Chapel ; the other room adjoining to the east being converted into a sacristy. It was doubtless in the same condition as when finished by the architects of Hakam II. At the north side it had a horse-shoe arch corresponding with the re-inforcing wall of the same khalif, and on the east side it had a great arched window and two little doors at the sides, which communicated with the tribune of the ''Alicama," at the south side, giving a splendid example of the rich Byzantine style of the time of Hakam, and forming a combination of segment arches cross- ing in space and forming crosses of undulating ribbons in the intercolumniations, the whole being similar to the decora- tion displayed in front of the vestibule of the ** mihrab." We do not know how the west side was decorated, where this space was united with the apartment of the cadi, which had been pulled down. In order to convert this into a Grand Chapel it was not necessary to disfigure it completely ; it was sufficient to fill up the great northern arch, which in the time of the khalifs was closed by the first **maksurrah," and also to block up the great window at the east, communicating with the tribune of the **AHcama;" to leave the two little side doors open for communication with the sacristy, and to enlarge the sanctuary as much as necessary, to shut it in at the south side with glass windows, and to place the customary chancel at its opening. Perhaps no more than this was done ; but who is capable to-day of saying how much respect the king's architects had for Arab-Byzantine work ? In the year 1260 Don Gonzalo Yanez, first gentleman 1 i64 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN ^ of Aguilar, founded the Chapel of St. John the Baptist. Five years later the Bishop Fernando de Mesa built the Chapel of Santiago, in the south-east corner, near the Chapel of St. Clement. This chapel was wide and com- modious, and the Arab arches in its area were not disturbed. In 1263 King Alfonso X. had the ancient aqueducts re- paired, and in 1275 Prince Ferdinand gave an order for four Moors, who should be free from taxation, to be kept at work in the building operations of the cathedral. Two of these i were to be carpenters, and two masons. This privilege was confirmed several times in succeeding years, and a charter exists, dated Cordova, 25th October, 1282, which orders that all the Moors living in the city, whether they were artificers or not, shall work for two days of the year in the cathedral. It was thought that these workmen would understand the repairing of Moorish work better than Christians, but the task was also meant as a humiliation. As time went on, these workmen, more or less, lost the traditions of their faith and their architecture, so that they were really of little service in preserving the original character of the edifice. In 1278 the first statu£_of-St^jia£lmeLthe- Archangel was placed on the tQ^^rthejninaret. At that time Cordova was visited by the plague, which worked terrible destruction amongst the inhabitants. It is related that St. Raphael appeared to Friar Simon de Sousa, of the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, and told him that God was moved with compassion, and that He would take away the visitation if a statue of St. Raphael himself were placed on the tower of the Cathedral, and if his Feast were celebrated properly every year. This was done, and the plague immediately ceased. A new chapel to St. Bartholomew was erected in 1280 by Martin Munoz, nephew of the famous commander Domingo Munoz ; and after this, the Chapel of St. Paul, i65 167 CORDOVA ARAH TKIHfNK. TO-DAY THK CHAPKI. OK VM.I.A VinoSA. TKKT SIDK. I i6g CORDOVA [■W>l3<»«'MwAi: ^ . ■^.-«...a:'';. ANCIKNT JNSCRIFriON (»■ TIIK TIMK OF KHALIFATK. FOUNI> IN AN EXCAVATION. ^'IJ 171 •y »•. < at O < / O O o 1 -^n 7^^^^^ < > O O U 179 O Q c u I8l < > O o u CORDOVA 183 rested the segments of the circle, which form the elegant and strange African cupola. The following distribution is seen in the lower portion : Towards the middle of the east side there is an arch formed of little domes with stalactites, slightly pointed, sufficiently deep, enclosed in a sort of framing of gilded stucco, forming beautifully interlaced branches. The square compartment finishes at the lower end in a wide facia, which runs on both sides on a high socle of minute and beautiful tiling, and between^ the complicated ornaments in relief circles are formed, enclosing the arms of Castile and Leon. To the right side, on this same facia, is an ornamental arch of eleven lobules enclosed in another framing, entirely covered with tracery in relief, sustained by two very slight columns, built into the wall. Joined to this is another arch, much lower, with seven lobules, also ornamented, and sustained by columns of the same style as those just described, bearing a shield with the same arms. The left side has the same ornamentation, with the difference that both the arches have seven lobules, because the wall has more frontage on this side : and another difference was that in the north-east corner it had an ornamentation of minute open-work instead of a shield. The wall opposite had the same distribution with a deep central arch and small arches at the side, with little columns in the Gothic style, which show already that the style is no longer purely Moorish, but a sort of base mixture of the decorative art of the East and the West. Perhaps we may consider this the true concession of the Moorish artificers to the art preferred by the Court, and as their final abandonment of the pure style, which had been traditional with them. In 1 52 1 the Bishop Don Alonso Manrique obtained permission from the Emperor Charles V. to erect the i84 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN Gothic cathedral, which is in existence to-day. Three years later, when he visited the buildings, the Emperor repented having given his permission. Indeed the Christian work . ajjj)ears j^old_and^pallid by the side of that__of the Arabs, As Amados de los Rios, a great Spanish antiquary and Orientalist, sings in his mournful requiem over the departed glories of the mosque: ''Neither the sumptuous Christian fabric that to-day rises in the midst of those countless columns, nor all the treasures of art lavished upon it by the celebrated artists of the sixteenth century who erected it, nor that interminable series of chapels of every epoch which, resting against the walls of the mosque disfigure it ; nor the clumsy angels that seem to suspend their flight to shed glory over the Divine service, nor the words of the Evangelist sounding from the seat of the Holy Spirit, can dispel or banish, in the slightest degree, the majesty of those wandering shades that in vain seek in the sanctuary the sacred volume whose leaves, according to tradition, were enamelled with the blood of the Khalif Othman, martyr to the faith. A world of souvenirs here enthrals the mind of the traveller as he gazes with a feeling of sorrow upon these profanations — works dedicated by the intolerant, yet sincere, faith of our ancestors ; impelled by the desire of banishing for ever from that spot, consecrated to the law of Jesus, the spirit of Mohammed and the ghosts of his slaves that haunt it, and will for ever haunt it while it exists. For, in spite of the / mutilations it has endured, and of the changes it has under- / gone, there is impressed upon it, by a superior ineradicable / law, the seal of the art that inspired it, and the character of ^^ — tk^ people by whom it was planned and erected." Don Amados is not alone in his eloquent, if unavailing, protest. When Charles V. observed St. Peter's Chapel rising out of the very centre of the mosque, he rebuked the Bishop, 1 8s -•»*i iSy CORDOVA TIIK MosyLE -PILASTERS AND ARAIUAN IJATMS. ^: - OF THE ^ Ut^iVERSlTY Vjlifor:^ r CORDOVA 189 Alonso Manriquez, who had erected the incongruous edifice, in no measured terms. ** You have built here," said the king, ''what you or anyone might have built elsewhere ; but you have spoilt what was unique in the world." Alas ! the monarch had forgotten, or did not choose to remember, that the reprimand came with a very bad grace from one who, for his never-completed palace at Granada, had torn down whole courts and halls of the Alhambra. The mQsque of Cordova is still to-day, by universal consent, the most beautiful Mussulman tempje, and one of the mosJLjwonderful architectural monuments in the worlds The susceptible Italian author, Edmondo de Amici?, has given us a vividly picturesque description of his first impres- sion of the interior of the building. *' Igiagine ajoiest^" he says, ''fancy yourself in the thickest portion of it, and that you can see nothing but the trunks of trees. So, in this mosque, on whatever side you look, the eye loses itself among thej:olumns. It is a fojrest of marble, whose confines one cannot discover. You follow with your eye, one by one, the very long rows of columns that interlace at every step with numberless other rows, and you reach a semi-obscure back- ground, in which other columns seem to be gleaming. There are nineteenjaisles^ which extend from north to south, traversed by thirty-threeolhers, supported (among them all) by more than nine hundred columns^ of porphyry, jasper, '. breccia, and marble^jof, .eyery colour. Each column upholds a small pilaster, and between them runs an arch, and a second one extends from pilaster to pilaster, the latter placed above the former, and both of them in the form of a horse- shoe ; so that in imagining the columns to be the trunks of so many trees, the arches represent the branches, and the similitude of the mosque to a forest is complete. The middle aisle, much broader than the others, ends in front I go MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN of the " malcsurralV^ ps^rt of the temple, where the KoisiLJffias-HfQiship^ed. Here, from the windows in the ceiling, falls a pale ray of light that illu- minates a row of columns ; there is a dark spot ; farther on falls a second ray, which lights another aisle. It is impos- sible to express the feeling of mysterious surprise which that spectacle arouses in your soul. It is like the sudden revela- tion of an unknown religion, nature, and life, which bears away your imagination to the delight of that paradise, full of love and voluptuousness, where the blessed, seated under the shade of leafy palm trees and thornless rose bushes, drink from crystal vases the wine, sparkling like pearls, mixed by immortal children, and take their repose in the arms of charming black-eyed virgins ! All the pictures of eternal pleasure, which the Koran promises to the faithful, present themselves to your bright mind, gleaming and vivid, at the first sight of the mosque, and cause you a sweet momentary intoxication, which leaves in your heart an indescribable sort of melancholy ! A brief tumult of the mind, and a sparkx)f~6j:iS rushes through your bram — such is the first sensation one experiences upon entering the cathedral of Cordova." Listen again to the musings of this same impression- able writer, as he gazes at the ceiling and walls of the principal chapel, the only part of the mosque that is quite intact. ** It is," he says, '*a dazzling gleam of crystals-of ajhousandjcoloyrs, a network_of_arabesques, which puzzles the mind, and a complication of bas-reliefs, gildings, orna- ments, minutiae of design and colouring, of a delicacy, grace and perfection sufficient to drive the most patient painter distracted. It is impossible to retain any of the pretentious work in the mind. You might turn a hundred times to look at it, and it would only seem to you, in thinking it over^ a 191 I f ri m 193 CORDOVA d^H^ldl^lcaiUl aJoiy kLUlU-cA j.JLU.JledJLxuil L cimolBb3l^ldLl.c^^la.n^=^^S^Bls\-iii^\-3i ^(a.r Qf q ii AnhNiv ^f L,\A Q ^LinW q >/-^nStn^\tL9t.olad .1^314=. Jo L9Mi<>t9lilkL.»-..lV/-.L.9o-^JiaL.Z9.ali ^JaUllL cS^^\uo.ua l^llll ^.^WfoKllCgUoVl.oJ)l9^A->9i^^.iJU=i)9 t>'.U'(i(uMt9oca9[L>i»1LjlUL9A9yiJltbA9kjiJl(LiJLo.£yuyi.jajuUiL9jUiiLiiJ^<4irj«tijyi>iiiUjtjiJi L^u&l^lgJl>]Al9)!is^^/y?J>l]Jk4Utl5J^JtylL]JSL!a lUiiU^yiilJkdoaittbyilllcS JUu: jiliJl^!))Ly!&l J J»> 9>9.iisbtoypi» o 195 ^"l I 1' -it: ^ " . I \ FOR^^ 197 PMAJI < > o O u "Vs. Kr- i I CORDOVA igg minding of_blue,j^d^_green, gilded, andjuminous points, or a ver>^ ii^tri_cate__embroidery, changing continually, with the greatest rapidity, both design and colouring. Only from the fiery and indefatigable imagination jofLthe. Arabs. could such a perfect miracle of art emanate." But if the mere shell of this majestic edifice, this voice- less testimony to the glory of a world-power that has gone the way of all temporal empires is still eloquent in decay, and still a force to stir the imagination, what must it have been when the spirit of Moslemism filled its courts, and the temple resounded with praise and devotion ? We can get some idea of the impressiveness of a Mohammedan service in the pages of Frederick Schack's Poetry and Art of the Arabs in Spain and Sicily. The following vivid passage is a description of the mosque of Cordova on a solemn fete day : **0n both sides of the pulpit wave two standards to signify that Islam has triumphed over Judaism and Christianity, and that the Koran has conquered the Old and New Testaments. The *Almnedian' climb upon the gallery of the high minaret and intone the * salam ' or salutation to the Prophet. Then the nave of the mosque fills with believers, who, clothed in white and wearing a festive aspect, gather for the oration. In a few moments, throughout the edifice nothing is to be seen but kneeling people. By the secret way which joins the temple to the alcazar, comes the khalif, who seats himself in his elevated place. A reader of the Koran reads a Sura on the reading-desk of the Tribune. The vcuce_oflllie_I^p£zziii sounds again, inviting people to the noon-day prayers. All the faithfuj_rise and. muiTOurjheiLprayers, making obeisances. A servant of the mosque opens the doors of the pulpit and seizes a sword, with which, turning towards Mecca, he admonishes all to praise Mohammed, while the Prophet's name is being cele- 200 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN brated from the Tribune by the singing of the * mubaliges.* After this the preacher ascends the pulpit, taking from the hand of the servant the sword, which recalls and symbolises the subjection of Spain to the power of Islam. It is the day on which 'Djihad,' or the holy war, is to be proclaimed, the call for all able-bodied men to descend into the battle-field against the Christians. The multitude listen with silent devotion to the discourse (woven from the head of the Koran) which begins like this : ** * Praised be God, who has increased the glory of Islam, thanks to the sword of the champion of the Faith, and who, in his Holy Book, has promised aid and victory to the believer. ** * Allah scatters his benefits over the world. '* ' If he did not impel men to dash armed against each other, the earth would be lost. ** * Allah has ordered that the people be fought against until they know there is but one God. ** 'The flame of war will not be extinguished until the end of the world. ***The Divine benediction will fall upon the mane of the war-horse until the Day of Judgment. ^' * Be you armed from head to foot, or only lightly armed, rise, and take your departure. ** * O, believers ! what will become of you if, when you fli are called to battle, you remain with your face turned toward T the ground ? " * Do you prefer the life of this world to that of the future ? *' * Believe me : the gates of paradise stand in the shadow of the sword. ** ^ He who dies in battle for the cause of God, washes with the blood he sheds all the stains of his sins. I 20] 203 01 '-fi w -5 5! «> 5 I (J Be S 5 « 2 OF THE- ^^V I 205 CORDOVA WALL OF THE MOSyUE. 207 CORDOVA ! -T'M v■■^ ■ n i » T ■ . 1 ! 1 KAVADK UV THE MIHKAU. /X-" OF THE ^)^\ l):-::VERS!TY-J CORDOVA 209 '' ' His body will not be washed like the other bodies, because in the Day of Judgment his wounds will send out a fragrance like musk. " ' When the warriors shall present themselves at the Gates of Paradise, a voice from within will ask: ** What have you done during your life ?" **'And they will reply: ** We have brandished the sword in the struggle for the cause of God." ** * Then the eternal Gates will open, and the warriors will enter forty years before the others. "*Up, then, O believers! Abandon women, children, brothers, and worldly possessions, and go forth to the holy war! ** *And thou, O God, Lord of the present and future world, nght for the armies of those who recognise thy Unity ! Destroy the incredulous, idolaters, and enemies of thy holy faith ! Overthrow their standards, and give them, with all they possess, as booty to the Mussulmans !* " The preacher, when he has finished his discourse, exclaims, turning towards the congregation : ** Ask of God !" and prays in silence. All the faithful, touching the ground with their foreheads, fojlow his example. The " mubaliges" sing: "Amen! Amen, O Lord of all beings!" Like the intense heat which precedes the tempest, the enthusiasm of the multitude (restrained, up to this time, in a marvellous silence) breaks out in loud murmurs, which, rising like the waves of the sea, and inundating the temple, finally make the echo of a thousand united voices resound through the naves, chapels, and vaults in one single shout : ** There is no God but Allah!" ^^ Abd-er-Rahman L__ffias old when he commenced the pv building of the Mosque, and experienced in every description of architecture. His passion for building was as eager as 2IO MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN that of his predecessors of the house of Omeyyad, who had made Damascus the envy of the world; ancl,^uring the frequent periods of peace, he had turned all his thoughts to the adornment of his capital by works which he had himself superintended. One of his first undertakings was to supply CordQvaJ«?itlrwa.ter by means of an aqueduct, which came from the distant hills, and the vestiges of which are visible to this day. The water thus brought from the mountains was conveyed to the palace, and thence carried to every quarter of the city by means of conduits, from which it flowed into basins, as well as into lakes, enormous tanks, reservoirs and fountains. The sultan then planted a most delightful garden, to which he gave the name of Munyat-Ar- rissafah, in remembrance of a country seat near Damascus, which his grandfather, the Khalif Hisham, had built, and where he himself had spent the earliest years of his life. Finding the spot a very charming one, he erected in the middle of it a magnificent palace ; and, moreover, made it his residence in preference to the old palace, inhabited by the former governors of Andalus. Having an ardent love of horticulture, he commissioned a botanist to procure for him in the East fruits and plants that could be easily naturalised in Andalus ; and, in this manner, it is said, Abd-er-Rahman introduced the peach, and the particular kind of pQinegranate, called ** Safari," into Spain. It is believed that this best species of pomegranate obtained its name from having been sent to Abd-er-Rahman by his sister, then residing in the East, and was called ''Safari," or '' the Traveller," from this circumstance. Other derivations of the name are given, all plausible enough. One thing is certain, the fruit is called to this day in Spain, '* Granada Zafari," and is considered the best of^its kind in pomt of flavour, smallness of seed, and abundance of juice. 211 CORDOVA THE MOS^UB—ARCH OF ONE OF THE GATES 213 CORDOVA zJ THE MOSyUE - LATTICE CORDOVA 215 Abd-er-Rahman II. carried on the work of beautifying Cordova with gardens, palaces, and _bridges, but it was the third sovereign of his name, the Great Khalif, Abd-er- Rahman III., who restored the Moslem supremacy in Spain, and won for himself the title of En-Nasir li-dini-llah ("The Defender of the Faith of God "), who placed the crown on Cordova's beauty and splendour. Byzantium, perhaps, com- pared with it in the loveliness of her buildings, and the luxury and refinement of her life, but no other city of Europe could approach the '' Bride of Andalusia." '*To her," sang the old Arab writer, "belong all the beauty and the ornament that delight the eye and dazzle the sight. Her long line of Sultans form her crown of glory ; her neck- lace is strung with the pearls which her poets have gathered from the ocean of language ; her dress is of the canvas of learning well knit together by her men of science ; and the masters of every art and industry are the hem of her garments." "The injiabitants of Cordova," says Ahmed-El-Makkari, the great Arab historian, " are famous for their courteous- and polished manners, their superior intelligence, their exquisite taste and magnificence in their meals, dress, and horses. There thou wouldsF see doctors, shining with all sorts of learning ; lords, distinguished by their virtue and generosity ; warriors, renowned for their expeditions into the cpuntry of the infidels ; and officers, experienced in all kinds of warfare. To Cordova came from all parts of the world students eager to cultivate poetry, to study the sciences, or tobe instructed in divinity or law ; so that it became the meeting-place of the eminent in all matters, the abode of the learned, and the place of resort for the studious; its interior was always filled with the eminent and the noble of all countries, its literary men and soldiers were continually ^\ w 2i6 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN vying with each other to gain renown, and its precincts never ceased to be the arena of the distinguished, the retreat of scholars, the halting place of the noble, and the repository of the true and virtuous. Cordova was to Andalus what the head is to the body, or what the breast is to the lion." To-day there is nothing left in Cordova but the mosque, the bridge, and the uiins of the alcazar to mark the spot where, in the time of Abd-er-Rahman III., a city,Jten miles iiniengtli, lined the banks of the Guadelquivir with mosques and gardens and marble palaces. -^ The royal palaces of the Great Khalif included the Palace of Lovers, the Palace of Flowers, the Palace of Contentment, the Palace of the Diadem, and the palace which the Sultan named Damascus, of which the Moorish poet sang, '* All palaces in the world are nothing compared to Damascus, for not only has it gardens with the most delicious fruits and sweet-smelling flowers, beautiful prospects, and limpid running waters, clouds pregnant with aromatic dew, and lofty buildings ; but its night is always perfumed, for morning pours on it her gray amber, and night her black musk." The city contained over fiftyjthousand palaces of the nobles, and twice that number of houses of the common people, while seven hundred- jno&ques and nine hundred public baths had close companionship among a community who made xieanliness ca^ordinaJte3dtli-gpdliness. But perhaps the greatest monument of Moorish architecture that was ever created in Spain, the most won- derful city and palace that has ever been constructed, is to-day a name and a memory of which not a trace is in existence. That marvejlous^suburb of Cordova^ called Ez-Zahra, " the. Fairest," which was built at the suggestion of the favourite mistress of Abd-er-Rahman III., and was 217 .v 2ig CORDOVA ^t^H5^5^HH^ :— ;::rri:i±t.n:x::i: -.4- ^-T-4- ; . • : .. : : •. : : . lis. ;. -r- ■ ■ ■ :::p:::.;:;:L:;--; ,:: 1 1 1 i TMK MOSQUE CAPITALS OF THE ENTRANCE ARCH. 221 CORDOVA B H.ii|^1»|19|«<«l|P«' !«! w<'«!S»«i.B e afeff^^ # # ':& « « ^ ■.';>' •;,i^i#•^*t1-N«il.•i i^y ^*ils'^ N •,„ ■ffrt.nii .^•., ^i v|^. .1 wmmM iOBBEJl ..^^aa^m^K^^^m^^^i^^A^.^ Mr_...„,»;,„ .:jl^::^._::'::-^:!:::.\::'\'. DETAIL OF THE COKMCE. DETAIL OF THE CORNICE. 1 I ;CSE Lls^ THE '^P £RSITY CORDOVA 225 forty years in the making, has been entirely obliterated. At the foot of the '* Hill of the Bridge," at a distance of three miles from Cordova, the foundation of the city was laid in A.D. 936. A third of the royal income was expended every year in the prosecution of the work. Ten thousand labourers and three thousand beasts of burden were em- ployed continually, and six thousand blocks of stone were cut and polished each day for building purposes. Many of its four thousand columns came from Rome, Constantinople, and Carthage ; its fifteen thousand doors were coated with iron and polished brass ; the walls and roof in the Hall of the Khalif were constructed of marble and gold. A marble statue of Ez-Zahra, ''the Fairest," was erected over the principal gateway. Arabian chroniclers have exhausted their eloquence in attempting to do justice to the wonders of Medinat-Ez- Zahra, and the result is so monotonous a surfeit of super- latives that even the beauty that inspired them can scarcely reconcile us to the repetition. But the historians occasionally drop into prose in recounting the marvels of the palace, and then we learn that ** the number of male servants employed by the khalif has been estimated at thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty, to whom the daily allowance of flesh meat, exclusive of fowls and fish, was thirteen thousand pounds ; the number of women of various kinds and classes, com- prising the harem of the sultan or waiting upon them, is said to have amounted to six thousand three hundred and fourteen. The Slav pages and eunuchs were three thousand three hundred and fifty, to whom thirteen thousand pounds of flesh meat were distributed daily, some receiving ten pounds each, and some less, according to their rank and station, exclusive of fowls, partridges, and birds of other sorts, game, and fish. The daily allowance of bread for 226 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN the fish in the pond of Ez-Zahra was twelve thousand loaves, besides six measures of black pulse, which were every day macerated in the waters." It is small wonder ^ that travellers from distant lands, men of all ranks and professions in life, following various religions — princes, ambassadors, merchants, pilgrims, theologians, and poets — all agreed that they had never seen in the course of their travels anything that could be compared to it. "Indeed," writes one Moorish chronicler, ** had this palacA possessed nothing more than the terrace of polished marble overhanging the matchless gardens, with the golden hall and the circular pavilion, and the works of art of every sort and description — had it nothing else to boast of but the masterly wocfemanship of the structure, the boldness of the design, the beauty_of the proportions, the ejegance of the ornaments, hangings, and decorations, whether of shining marble or glittering gold, the columns that seemed from their symmetry and smoothness as if they had been turned by lathes, the paintings that resembled the choicest land- scapes, the artificial_Jake so solidly constructed, the cistern perpetually filled with clear and limpid water, and the aniazin^ fountains, with figures of living beings — no imagi- nation, however fertile, could have formed an idea of it." So at least it struck the Moorish author, and the sight inspired him to ejaculate: "Praise be to God Most High for allowing His humble creatures to design and build such enchanting palaces as this, and who permitted them to inhabit them as a sort of recompense in this world ; and in order that the faithful might be encouraged to follow the path of virtue, by the reflection that, delightful as were these pleasures, they were still far below those reserved for the true believer in the celestial Paradise !" The effect of all this massed splendour upon the mind, iastfiP3t.7:s5«i.- Jfti< \fc* ^-'aj 227 CORDOVA rnssy^r-n CAPITAL OF ARCH. SIUE VIKW OF THE CORNICE r TT TT T-TT W T- T- T' r I". K r 'n'rlr. f^'r 'r-r, ^•^ THE ^> tIRSlTY 229 ^f f^-«-.-^ \ BSjHM. j '§ii^ m. r^-s- I ?' ■^^ f' |i u_ 'e- ^ Ui>S *M C. J'. ^^ THE ''^ CORDOVA 231 even of those whose position and duties made familiar with the treasures of Abd-er-Rahman's palaces, is illustrated by one of the ambassadors of the Greek Emperor. The khalif received Constantine's emissaries in the great hall of the palace of Ez-Zahra, which was specially arranged for the occasion. The richest carpets and rugs, and the most gorgeous silk a\vnings, covered the floor, and veiled the doors and arches, and m the midst of the apartment was set up the royal throne, overlaid with gold, and glittering with precious stones. On the right and left of the throne stood the khalif's sons, beside them were the viziers, and behind them, in the order of their rank, were ranged the chamber- lains, the nobles, and officers of the household. The ambassadors were awed and amazed by the magnificence of the scene, and the orator, charged with the office of delivering the speech of welcome, was literally struck dumb by the splendour of the spectacle. With wide, staring eyes and speechless lips he stood spellbound, caught in a maze of wonder. This man, who had grown accustomed to superb beauty, who had seen splendour piled upon splendour under the directing hand of his master, was paralysed by the effect it produced. His brain' reeled, and, without uttering a word, he fell senseless to the ground. A second orator took the embossed scroll, and faced the august assemblage, but the witchery of the scene hypnotised his senses, and he, too, hesitated, faltered, and broke down. The mere outward and visible aspect of this " brightest splendour of the world," as the nun Hroswitha described it, fired the imagination of man, and deprived the practised orators of speech. But the mind of Cordova at this period of its history was as beautiful as its frame. It was the fountain-head of. learning, the well-spring of^artj the scientific centre of Europe. Literature, became the study of every 232 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN class, p)oetrxwas the common language of the people. The potters, the silk weavers, the glass blowers, the jewellers, swordmakers, and brass workers of Cordova were renowned throughout Europe — in all that appertained to_art she was acknowledged to stand pr^i^emment. The greatest doctors, the most skilled surgeoQs, had their homes in Cordova ; and astronomers, geographers, chemists, philosophers, and scientists of every kind resorted thither to study and pro- secute their researches. Under Hakam II., the Royal library at Cordova became the largest and most celebrated collection of books in the world ; and under Almanzor, the powerful minister who ruled ^hJ Spain for the Khalif Hisham, the beauty of the Imperial ^Pl city was jealously maintained. But the end of the Omeyyad dynasty was even then in sight, the sun of Cordova's glory was already commencing to set. After the death of Almanzor " Sultan after Sultan with his pomp Abode his destin'd hour and went his way," the puppet khalifs were enthroned and deposed at the will of successive prevailing factions. Anarchy had broken out again, the mob was Sultan, and the work of pillage and plunder was begun. The overthrow of the Almanzor order was followed by the wrecking of the Alma_n^QiL palace, which was ransacked and burned to the ground. For four days the work of riot, robbery, and massacre went on unchecked. Palace after palace was reduced to ruins, gardens were devastated, the public squares ran with blood. The brutal, saYa£e_B^erbers--captiired -the. beautiful city of Ez-Zahra (a.d. igig) by treachery, and put its garrisons to the sword, while the flying inhabitants were chased into the sacred precincts of the mosque and butchered without mercy. CORDOVA 233 Ez-Zahra, ** the city of the fairest,*' was pillaged ; its palaces and mosques were thrown down, and the walls were given to the flames. To-day its site alone remains, and its glories exist only in name. SEVILLE 1 SEVILLE THE beginning of the history of Seville is buried, with the date of its foundation, in oblivion. It has its place in mythology as the creation of Hercules; its origin being more reasonably credited to the Phoenicians, who colonised the mineral-yielding region of Andalusia, which is watered by the Guadalquivir, and called it Tartessii. Strabo states that they built the town of Tartessus ; and some authorities favour the conclusion that Seville stands on the site of that Phoenician stronghold. In 237 B.C. Hamilcar Barca conquered Andajusia. and his son- in-law founded Carthagena, which was seized by Publius Cornelius Scipio, or Scipio Africanus, during the second Punic War. Scipio founded Italica, which was to serve as a sanatorium for his invalided soldiers, and for awhile its importance eclipsed that of the neighbouring city of Seville. Honoured by the gifts of three Roman emperors born within its walls, and adorned'with the splendid edifices raised by Trajan, Adrian, and Theodosius, Italica was advanced to the ficst_rank_among the Ronaan cities of the Peninsula. Julius Caesar restored the balance of power to Seville in 45 B.C., when he made it his capital, and changed its name to Julia Romula. The city was fortified and protected by walls, which have been variously described as from five to ten miles in length. To-day the remains of the great aqueduct, the two high granite columns in the Alameda de Hercules, and the beautiful fragments of capitals and statyes in the Museo Arqaelogico, are the only existing relics of the Rornan-swajLUL^fiwll^ while on the opposite 238 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN bank of the Guadalquivir a ruined, grass-grown amphitheatre is all that is left of the once mighty town of Italica. In 584I Leovigild repaired the walls of Italica when he was beseigingi Seville, and less than two centuries later those walls were^ greatly injured by the Moors, who further fortified and en- larged Seville with the stones brought from Italica. In 711 Tarik captured Cordova, and in the following' year Musa, the Governor of Africa, appeared before Seville^ with an army of 18,000 warriors. In a few weeks the cityl had fallen, and for 536 years the ^* Pearj^^ jViadgjusia ^j remained in the possession of the Moors. The conquerors! abandoned Italica to its fate, or, rather, they used thei remains of the city as a quarry, while some of the sculpture- of the deserted capital, which appealed to the Arabs by itsj surpassing beauty, was removed to Seville. Despite the^ injunctions contained in the Koran, the sculptures were nod destroyed, and a statuejiLYeniis was long preserved in onei of the public baths of the city. El-Makkari, writing in; the sixteenth century, and quoting from an early Moorish manuscript, records that "there was once found a marble statue of a woman with a boy, so admirably executed that; both looked as if they were alive ; such perfection human eyes never beheld. Indeed, some Sevillians were so much, struck with its beauty as to become deeply enamoured oi it." An anonymous poet, a native of Seville, made a set of verses about it, which have been translated by Don Pascual de Gayangos as follows : " Look at that marble statue, beautiful in its proportions, surpassing everything in transparency and smoothness. " She has with her a son, it is true, but who her husband was I cannot tell, neither was she ever in labour. " Thou knowest her to be but a stone, but yet thou canst not look at her, for there is in her eyes something that fascinates and confounds the beholder." SEVILLE 239 It has been said that the Sevillians pretend to regard Hercules as the builder of the city, and the Puerta de la Came is inscribed with the following distich : ^^Condidit Alcides — renovavit jfulius urbem, Restituit Christo Fernandus tertius heros.** This has been paraphrased in an inscription over the Puerta de Xerex : ** Hercules me edifico Julio Cesar me cerco De muros y torres altas; Un Rey godo me perdio, El Rey Santo me gano, Con Garci Perez de Vargas." Hercules built me ; Julius Caesar encircled me with walls and lofty towers ; a Gothic king (Roderick) lost me ; a saint- like king (St. Ferdinand), assisted by Garci Perez de Vargas, regained me. The inscription might well have included the name of the brother of Garci Perez, Diego de Vargas, surnamed **E1 Machuca," or " the Pounder," who performed prodigies of valour at the breaking of the Moorish bridge of boats across the Guadalquivir, when- the destruction of that gallantly- defended means of access to the city led to the capture of Seville by the Christians in I248._ These two brothers are the heroes of Spanish ballads, and were greatly distinguished by St. Ferdinand ; the grateful monarch freely acknowledging their prowess by the bestowal of houses and lands wrested from the Moors. A curious " Repartimiento," or Domesday Book of Seville, is still extant, and many families can trace their actual possessions back to this original partition. Musa appointed his son, Abdelasis, a brave soldier and a humane ruler, to be governor of Seville. That he was a soccessful general, that he married Egilona, the widow of 240 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN the unfortunate King Roderick, and was murdered by the order of Suleyman, brother and heir of the KhaHf of Damascus, is all that history records of him. A malignant rumour, that he was scheming to make himself sole ruler of the Berber dominion in Spain, reached Damascus. Suley- man immediately sent emissaries to Seville with secret instructions that Abdelasis should be put to death, adding as an incentive to swift compliance with his order, that whoever among them executed the deed, should be ap- pointed his successor as Amir of Seville. The delegates were armed with friendly letters to Abdelasis, who received them cordially, and entertained them in accordance with his exalted position as an amir under the khalif. It appears, according to the tradition, that the scheme was revealed to 'Abdullah Ibn, ** who was the most eminent and most conspicuous officer in the army." 'Abdullah, however, would have no hand in the projected assassination, but, on the contrary, endeavoured to dissuade the conspirators from their purpose, saying to them: *'You know the hand of Musa has conferred benefits on every one of you : if the Commander of the Faithful has been informed as you represent, he has been told a lie. Abdelasis has never raised his hand in disobedience to his master, nor dreamt of revolting against him." Suleyman's emissaries, however, disregarded his words, and decided on the murder. One morn they stood among the rest at the gates of the palace, waiting till the governor should go to the mosque, and, when he appeared, followed him to prayer. Scarcely had he entered the ** kiblah," and begun to read the Koran, than one of the conspirators rushed upon the governor and stabbed him. Abdelasis, leaving the ** kiblah," took refuge in the body of the mosque, whither he was followed and slain. When the news spread through the city, the inhab- 241 243 W I I SEVILLE 245 itants were roused to fury. The assassins produced the letters and commands of the khalif, but to no purpose ; the people refused to abide by the sultan's behests, and chose 'Abdullah to be his successor. 'Abdullah was, however, quickly displaced by Ayub, Suleyman's nominee, and the conspirators then departed to make their report at Damas- cus, carrying with them the head of the unfortunate Abdelasis. The author of the tradition, Mohammed Ibn, says that when these emissaries arrived at Damascus and produced the head of Abdelasis before Suleyman, he sent immediately for Musa. Upon his appearance, Suleyman, pointing to the head, said : " Dost thou know whose head that is ?" "Yes," answered Musa, '* it is the head of my son Commander of the Faithful, the head of Abdelasis (may Allah show him mercy) is before thee, but by the life of Allah there was never a Moslem who less deserved such unjust treatment ; for he passed his days in fasting, and his nights in prayer ; no man ever performed greater deeds to serve the cause of the Almighty, -or His messenger Mohammed ; no man was more firm in his obedience to thee. None of thy pre- decessors would have served him thus. Thou even wouldest never have done what thou hast to him, had there been justice in thee." Suleyman retorted, ** Thou liest, O Musa, thy son was not as thou hast represented him ; he was impious and forgetful of our religion, he was the persecutor of the Moslems, and the sworn enemy of his sovereign, the Commander of the Faithful. Such was thy son, O doting, foolish, fond old man ! " Musa replied, *' By Allah ! I am no dotard, nor would I deviate from truth, wert thou to answer my words with the blows of death. I speak as the honest slave should speak to his master, but I place my confidence in God, whose help I implore. Grant me his 246 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN head, O Commander of the Faithful, that I may close his eyes." And Suleyman said: ** Thou mayest take it." As Musa was leaving the Hall of Audience one who was present wished to interfere with him, but Suleyman said: "Let Musa alone, he has been sorely punished ; " and added : ** The old man's spirit is still unbroken." But the old man, whose name had once stood for the symbol of conquest, whose initiative had won Spain for the Moor, had received his death sentence. Grief, which could not bend his spirit, seized upon his frame. The old man fell sick of grief and shame, and in a little while he was dead. Suleyman's treachery had its first result in the removal of the seat of Moorish rule in Spain to Cordova. Ayub, the successor of Abdelasis, recognising the insecurity of his tenure in Seville, forsook '' the Pearl of Andalusia " with all speed, and when in 777, Abd-er-Rahman proclaimed himself sole ruler of Spain, it was from his palace at Cordova that the fiat was sent forth to the world. Seville, the first and the natural capital of the South, dropped into secondjplace among the cities of the Peninsula, and it was no^_untiLjLQ28 that it re-established its claim-^a^^the^ Moorish_jnfitropolis. For three hundred and fifty years the Moslems were faithful to the sovereignty of Cordova; and although Seville came, I by reason of its beautiful palaces, gardens, and batbs, to be regarded as one of the fairest cities of earth ; the alca^r and the lordly mosque, which now bear evidence of its former grandeur, are^ofajatejrj^ And Seville grew in beauty under, and in spite of, the destructive influence of strife and conflict. While Abd-er-Rahman was cultivating the graces of Cordova, Seville was being deso- lated by many assaults. Yusuf, and, after his death, his three sons, made attacks upon Seville, and Hixem ben Adri el Fehri, who had stirred the Toledans to insurrection, was I 247 > ., 249 SEVILLE l1 'U ■^li^rtUik-aJNU HULm CHIKK KNTRASCE TO THE AIXAZAK. MOORISH STVLE, lUlI T fNIlHR DON PEDRO I. THE CRUEL, I369— 1379 SEVILLE 251 subsequently defeated at the gates of Seville by the Gover- nor, Abdelmelic. At a later date, Cassim, the son of Abdelmelic, fled with his army before the advance of the Wali of Mequinez, and was stabbed to death by his father for cowardice. Abdelmelic, who threw himself upon the invaders, was overcome and wounded in a night battle on the banks of the Guadalquivir; but, despite his hurt and his defeat, he rallied his soldiers, and drove the hitherto vic- torious Wali through the streets of Seville, and out again into the open country, where he was captured and killed. Under the shifty and opportunist rule of Abdallah, who had caused his brother Mundhir to be murdered to make his way to the throne of Cordova in 888, Andalusia was split up into a number of independent principalities. The turbulent Ibn-Hafsun had made himself virtual King of Granada, the governors of Lorca and Zaragoza rendered but nominal homage to the khalif, the walls of Toledo rattled with the crash of contending revolutionary factions, and in Seville Ibrahim Ibn-Hajjaj treated with the King of Cordova on equal terms.. In the time of Ibn-Hajjaj Seville was the most orderly and best-governed city in the Peninsula. The poets of Cordova, the singers of Baghdad, and the lawyers of Medina were attracted to the court of Ibn-Hajjaj, of whom it was sung, ** In all the West I find no right noble man save Ibrahim, but he is nobility itself. When one has known the delight of living with him, to dwell in any other land would be a misery.'* Yet in 912-13, Ibrahim Ibn- Hajjaj, who kept his state like an Emperor, opened the gates of Seville to the masterful and gallant Abd-er-Rahman III., and the city became once more subject to the self-pro- claimed Khalif of Cordova. It was Abd-er-Rahman who 4 planted Seville with palm trees, beautified her gardens, \ increased the number of her palaces, and made the Guadal- » 252 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN quivir navigable by narrowing; the river's channel. Ibrahim "the Magnificent" received the Great Khalif with the homage which a feudal lord offers to his king, and the inde- pendence of Seville was at an end. But Seville at this period was the rivgil^of Cordova in intellectual eminence, and much of the Moorish thought and research which was destined to influence Spain in future ages was pondered, and practised, and published from the former city. Abu Omar Ahmed Ben Abdallah, called " El Begi," " the Sage," and unquestionably one of the most learned men of his time, was a native of Seville, and here he wrote his encyclopaedia of the sciences. It was said that there was no man who could surpass him in knowledge of arts and sciences, and '* even in his earliest youth," says Conde, ** the cadi very frequently consulted him in affairs of the highest importance." Chemists, philosophers, astrono- mers, and men famous in every branch of science, resorted to "the Pearl of Andalusia ;" while art was fostered ir^silk and leather manufactures, and the joy of life found expres- sion in music, poetry, and the dance. The victorious expeditions of Alfonso JVI. found the Moors demoralised from the massacres of Cordova and Ez- Zahra, and the whole of Andalusia in a state_pf ferment, anarchy, and military unpreparedness. In every town of importance in the South a new independent dynasty sprang into existence, and the Abbadites exercised kingly sway over the so-called republic of Seville. Some of these usurpers and pretenders, as Mr. Lane-Poole has pointed out, were good rulers; most of them were sanguinary tyrants, but (curiously) not the less polished gentlemen, who delighted to do honour to learning and letters, and made their courts the homes of poets and musicians. Mo'temid of Seville, for instance, was a patron of the arts, and a prince of many > X X UJ < UJ > UJ CO 253 '^^ OF THE ^r UNIVERSITY 255 > C/5 SEVILLE 257 attainments, yet he kept a garden of heads cut off his enemies' shoulders, which he regarded with great pride and dehght. Yet Seville was secure and peaceful under these barbarous rulers until the menace of Alfonso's inroads made Mo'temid silence the fears of his court with the reflection, ** Better be a camel-driver in African deserts than a swine- herd in Castile." So they fled from the danger of the Castilians to the succour that Africa was waiting to send them. A conference of Moorish rulers was held in Seville, and a message imploring assistance was despatched to Yusuf, the Almoravide king. Yusuf defeated the army of Alfonso near Badajoz in 1086. Four years later the King of Seville again besought the help of Yusuf against the Christians of the North. This time he came with a force of twenty thousand men at his back, and before the end of 1 09 1 the leader of the Almoravides had .captured Seville and establisEed^ dynasty which was to last until its oveithrQW-byLthe-AlmQhades_in.iL47 . The Almoravide rule, which was distinguished in the beginning by, piety and a love of honest warfare, ended in tyranny and corruption, and the Almoravides gave place to a race more pious and fanatical than the demoralised followers of Yusuf had ever been. For a hundred and one years the Almohades remained masters of Seville. ' The monuments of their devotion and artistic genius are extant in the mosque and the alcazar, and we know that under Abu Yakub Yusuf a new era of commercial prosperity set in for Seville, and a new light arose to illumine the fast deepening shadows which fell over the vanishing glory of Cordova. The thunder of the blows which had reduced ** the City of the Fairest " to a heap of ruins still echoed in the air, and mixed with the noise of the builders and artificers who were re-moulding Seville ** nearer to the heart's desire." 258 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN The remains of Moorish architecture which we find in Cordova, in Seville, and in Granada, enable us to realise that the civijisation and^rt^f the Spanish Moslems were_ priQgressive, and that eachstage~developed its varied and singular characteristics. " The monuments of Seville," says Contreras in his Monuments A rabes^ ** produce quite a peculiar effect on the mind, a sublime reminiscence of ancient and profound social transformations, which only the inartistic aspect of bad restorations can dissipate — a vandalism in- spired by the desire to see the building shining with colour and gold, and which impelled people to restore it without paying the smallest heed to the most elementary principles of archaeology. The alcazar of Seville is not a classic work ; we do not find in it the stamp of originality, and the ineffaceable character that one admires in ancient works like the Parthe- non, and in more modern ones like the Escurial ; the first on account of their splendid simplicity, and the latter for their great size and taciturn grandeur. In the alcazar of Yakub Yusuf, the prestige of a heroic generation has disappeared, and the existence of Christian kings, who have lived there and enriched it with a thousand pages of our glorious history, is perfectly represented there. The Ahnohades who left the purest African souvenirs there, and Jalubi who followed Almehdi to the conquest of Africa, left on the walls Roman remains, taken from the vanquished people. St. Ferdinand, who conquered it; Don Pedro I., who re-built it; Don Juan II., who restored the most beautiful halls; the Catholic monarchs, who built chapels and oratories within its precincts ; Charles V., who added more than half, with the moderated style of this epoch of sublime renais- sance; Philip III., and Philip V., who further increased it by erecting edifices in the surrounding gardens ; all these, and many other princes and great lords, who inhabited it 259 SEVILLE ALCAZAR -ARCADB IN THB PRINCIPAL COURT. 26 1 i SEVILLE 263 for six centuries, changed its original construction in such a degree that it noJongeL-Xesembles, to-day, the original Oriental monument, although we have covered it with arabesJoesTaSd embellished it with mosaics and gilding." All that succeeding generations have constructed in the alcazar has contributed to deprive it of its Mohammedan character. Transformed into a lordly mansion of more modern epochs, one no longer sees there the voluptuous saloons of the harem, nor the silent spaces reserved for prayer, nor the baths, nor the fountains, nor the strong ramparts, supporting the galleries, which, by circular paths, communicated with the rich sleeping apartments, situated in the square towers. It is not that Arab art is in a different form here to that seen in other parts of Spain ; but while the Moors always built palaces in close proximity to fortified places, they here combined the two, and for that reason they sacrificed the exterior decoration to the works of fortification and defence. On approaching the palace, one finds marks of grandeur, but one must not look for them in the structure, but rather in t4ie numerous reparations and additions which have been made there, and also in the solid walls, domi- nating the ruins of those castles, which seem to protest eternally against the cold indifference with which so many generations have passed over them. And if, on the one hand, there is no doubt that this is the old wall or the ancient tower, on the other hand, the traveller, greedy for impressions left by a past world, finds nothing but square enclosures, gardens and rectangular saloons of the mansions of the i6th century. ^Here there is nothing ^majestic as the Giralda ; nothing so essentially Oriental as the mosque of Cordova ; nothing so fantastic and so picturesque^sthc aloazar of Granada. One only sees here the chronicle of an aftTcarried^Qut by_^ thousand artists, obeying different 264 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN beliefs, and which presents rather the appearance of a game played by children who had invaded the spot where the most valued works of their ancestors were preserved, rather than the passionate conception of the terrible descendants of Hagar, who in fifty years invaded half the globe. But one still catches something of the spirit of an art that was almost a religion, as one lingers in the quiet gardens of the alcazar ; the deep impress of the Moor will never be entirely obliterated from the courts and saloons of this palace of dreams. As Mr. W. M. Gallichan writes : '' The nightin- gales still sing among the odorous orange bloom, and in the tangle of roses, birds build their nests. Fountains tinkle beneath gently waving palms ; the savour of Orien- talism clings to the spot. Here wise men discussed irl the cool of summer nights, when the moon stood high over the Giralda, and white beams fell through the spreading boughs of lemon trees, and shivered upon the tiled pavements. In this garden the musicians played, and the tawny dancers writhed and curved their lissom bodies in dramatic Eastern dances." Ichabod ! The moody potentate, bowed down with the cares of high office, no longer treads the dim corridor, or lingers in the shade of the palm trees. No sound of gaiety reverberates in the deserted courts, no voice of orator is heard in the Hall of Justice. The green lizards bask on the deserted benches of the gardens. Rose petals strew the paved paths. One's footsteps echo in the gorgeous patios, whose walls have witnessed many a scene of pomp, tragedy, and pathos. The spell^f^the past holds one ; and, before the imagination, troops a long processioiT of illustrious sovereigns, courtiers, counsellors, and warriors. This wonderful monument, which has moved generations of artists and poets to rhapsody and praise, and inspired LLt CO < N < o 2^5 CO lu. :m 267 SEVILLE ALCAZAK— COURT (>K TliK IN)LLS, M(JOKlM 1 II I 1^69—1379. SEVILLE 269 that picturesque Italian author, De Amicis, to people the gardens of the alcazar with Mo'temid and his beautiful favourite, Itamad, who had been dead nearly a century be- fore the alcazar was erected, failed to create any impression in the mind of Mr. John Lomas, whose strictures upon the place in his Sketches of Spain must ever be a standing reproof to those who dare to see Oriental beauty in this Sevillian castle. " Greater far," says Mr. Lomas, " is the alcazar in reputation than in intrinsic worth. Like the Mother Church, it forms a sort of sightseers' goal, and it shares equally in the good fortune of so entirely satisfying the requirements of superficial observers, that it is esteemed a kind of heresy to take exception to its noble rank as a typical piece of Moorish work. Yet it is just a great house, of southern and some- what ancient construction — say the fifteenth century — with a number of square rooms and courts, arranged and decor- ated after Arab models as far as was possible in the case of a building designed to fulfil the requirements of Western civilisation. Nothing else. Of course, if the courts and towers of the Alhambra have not been seen — or are not to be compassed — there will be found here an infinity of fresh loveliness in design and colouring, together with a vast amount of detail which will repay study. But even then it must all be looked upon as an exceedingly clever reproduc- tion of beautiful and artful forms, not as their best possible setting forth, or type. There are dark winding passages — evidently dictated by the exigencies of the work — but they yield none of the delicate surprises which form so great a charm of the old Moorish monuments. There is any amount of rich decoration and Moresque detail ; but never the notion of the luxury and voluptuousness of Eastern life, or a suggestion of its thousand-and-one adjuncts. There are, here and there, indubitable traces of the original Eleventh L 27© MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN Century alcazar of Yakub Yusuf " (it was not built until the latter part of the twglfth century) "but there is nothing either distinctive or precious about them, and the rest is a record rather of Christian than Arab ways." Mr. Lomas is perfectly correct in suggesting that the alcazar of Seville is, in great measure, a reproduction of the delights ol^the Alhambra, a reproduction due, without any doubt, to that school of architecture which embellished the sumptuous palace of Granada for the kings of the second Nazarite dynasty. In it we see the record of the ingenious almizates, of its gates and ceilings, of those stalactited dornes, which dazzle and confuse, of those wall-facings encrusted with rich ornamentation, of those graceful Byzan- tine and Moorish geometrical^designs, which even to-day are the despair of perspective painters, of those enchanting saloons where the genius of harmony seems to rest, and of those balniy ^gardens which invite repose, meditation, and melancholy. While it is generally accepted that the city of Seville possessed no alcazar of striking importance until the declining power of the khalifate of Cordova made Seville the capital of an independent kingdom, there is substantial reason for believing that in the foundations of the present superb edifice there are unmistakable relics of an earlier work of truly Arab architecture. The Almohades so thoroughly effaced and distorted the magnificence of their predecessors' work that it would be impossible to point with certainty to any of the original remains of this many-times-restored palace. The ultra-semi-circular arches which are seen in the Hall of the Ambassadors, those graceful arches which carry the mind from Seville to the graceful arcades of the mosque of Cordova, incline one to regard this apartment as a relic of Abbadite antiquity, while the rich columns with PLATE XXIX. 7^ - V^^'^'v ^V^^"»^V V^^ i 0t^^^ Ml A 4 KUink Window 271 SEVILLE ALCAZAR— THK COIKI ..| nil 273 SEVILLE ALCAZAR RIOHT AM.l.K <>F TIIK COIR r Pl^ I SEVILLE 275 their gilded capitals of the Corinthian style appears to contain authentic proof of their Arabic- Byzantine origin.^ Senor Pedro de Madrazo, whilst admitting the difficulty of determining the period to which the various parts of the alcazar belong, disregards the conclusions of Senores Jos6 Amador de los Rios and his son Rodrigo, who resolutely denied the antiquity of these ultra-semi-circular arches, and declares the Hall of Ambassadors to be an example of Abbadite architecture. He further attributes to the same epoch, the showy ascending arcade of the narrow staircase which leads from the entrance court to the upper gallery, and rises near the balcony or choir of the chapel, and the three beautiful arches, sustained by exquisite capitals, which remain as the sole relic of the decoration of the abandoned apartment situated close to the " Princes* Saloon." In his work on " Sevilla," the same authority distin- guishes between the art of the Mudejare, or transition artificers, and that of the Almohado Moors. " The latter art," he observes, " is less simple, less select in its ornamen- tation, discloses less rational regularity, and is, generally speaking, more affected." These differences may be seen in a comparison between the Moorish Giralda of Seville and the beautiful creation of artists of the Arab-Andalusian period which are to be studied in the ornamental parts of the Alhambra. The Almohade architecture displays a base taste, which imitates rather than feels, and creates forms by exaggerations which are unsuitable to the design, and thus differs in aesthetic principles from the Mudejaren-Moorish work of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, which reveals an instinctive feeling for the beautiful in ornamentation, which never loses sight of the elegant, the graceful, and the bold, and consequently never falls into aberration. The Almohade period, in short, discloses at once the force of the barbarous 276 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN spirit civilised by conquest, while the latter offers the enduring character of cultured taste and wisdpm in all the epochs of prosperous or adverse fortune ; •4)oth are the faithful expression of people of different ages, origins, and aptitudes. *' It is certain," declares Senor de Madrazo, "that the innovations which characterise Mussulman architecture in Spain in the nth and 12th centuries, cannot be explained as a natural mutation from the Arab art of the khalifate, or as a preparation or transition to the art of Granada, because there is very little similarity between the style called secondary or Moorish and the Arab- Byzantine and Anda- lusian, while on the other hand it is evident that the Saracen monuments of Fez and Morocco, of the reigns of Yusuf ben Texpin, Abdel-ben-Ali, Elmansur and Nasser, bear the principal character of the ornamentation which the Almo- hades made general in Spain." It must always be remembered when approaching the forbidding exterior of the alcazar, that it was erected to SQrv^Jiie^ purpose of a fortxessL_as_wdl__as_a palace. Yusuf is supposed to have used a Roman praetorium as the foundation of his castle, and there are parts of the wall which date back to Roman times. But the principal gate- way which gives entrance to the palace is of Arab origin, and it is evident that all the upper part, from the frieze with the Gothic inscription, is purely Mohammedan, according to the Persic style, very much used in the entrances to mosques of the first period, in Asia. The two pilasters, in their entire height, as well as the sculptured framing of the lower part, are of the Arab style ; but the balconies with arches, arid Byzantine columns, the Roman capitals, the lintels of the doors and windows with Gothic springs, are indications, which prove the reconstruction of the time of Don Pedro. The later restorations have not completely 277 SEVILLE ALCAZAR— COURT OK THE DOLLR. 279 (;., '^LlFORS^ SEVILLE 281 changed the primitive form, but have only modified it. On entering the palace one finds other works less Arab than these, the ornaments do not form an integral part of the decoration, and one can observe that in order to place them it was necessary to remove inscriptions and Moham- medan shields which filled the little spaces. But in passing this square entrance, whose form recalls Egypt, and which began to be used when the horseshoe arch was no longer in vogue, we find ourselves in the chief courtyard of the alcazar, which makes a slight detour in order not to be overlooked from the street, and which offers an extravagant assemblage of lines without departing from exactness. The actual lines of this superb edifice, men- tioning principally the two types of architecture which prevail, are the Moorish of the works erected from 1353 to 1364, and the Renaissance, in the works carried out under the monarchs of the house of Austria. It is curious that while the Alhambra was allowed to fall into decay, and suffered periods of neglect that could be reckoned by scores of years at a stretch, the alcazar has seldom been free from the hands of the restorers. The fact accounts, of course, for the splendid state of preservation in which it is to be found to-day, but it also owes to it the weird incongruity of style and decoration which lovers of pure Moorish art deplore. After gedro had almost^ntirely reconstructed the palace — and to him the alcazar owes many of its best portions — it came under the restoring influence of Juan II., that weak but artistic monarch, whose handiwork is seen in some of the chief apartments. The arch-vandal, Charles V., whose palace in the Alhambra would be a work of art anywhere save on the spot on which he chose to erect it, could not be expected to spare the alcazar. Under his direction the greater portion of the Renaissance additions 282 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN were made, and the portraits of Spanish kings hung in the Hall of Ambassadors were introduced by his successor. In the 17th century this favourite residence of the kings of Spain attained to the zenith of its magnificence ; and then for a whole century the palace was allowed, for the first and only time, to fall into a state of disrepair. Spain was passing through troublous times, and its rulers had weightier matters to absorb their attention. The alcazar, stricken by neglect, shrank to something like its original proportions, and its beauties fell into decay. In the middle of the 19th century Queen Isabella II. rescued the ancient structure from the ravages of time, and the present order and dis- tinction which it now enjoys is largely due to her timely efforts. After the restorations made by Don Pedro were finished, the alcazar had various entrances, but the principal were the two opened in the old Arab wall, which lead to the courts called the *' Banderas y de la Monteria." The delicate pointed arches which composed them were almost hidden between the massive towers of the neighbouring minaret; nothing externally reveals the dazzling beauty which is to be seen behind these walls. In the courtyard one sees very fine ornaments placed hap-hazard, which had been left over from the last restora- tions of the palace of Granada, and which were sent here without any consideration for period or style. That this system prevailed can be proved by reference to the archives of the royal patrimony, where there is a document requesting, on the part of the keeper of the alcazar, that some of the "best" arabesques, which were being used for the restorations at Granada, should be sent to Seville. These ornaments, of different epochs and styles, can be seen on the walls of the alcazar, face to face with others corresponding to the 283 i^.. ^i«^ 285 J > (fi SEVILLE 287 infancy of the art. The Alhambra does not suffer from these incongruities, because it has not suffered a great transformation similar to that which the alcazar underwent at the hands of Don Pedro. It has not been altered to suit the requirements of a Christian court, and it has never been occupied by great personages, with large revenues at their disposal, to reconstruct it according to their caprice. The ornaments of the ceiling^s of the alcazar are magnificent, because, as Contreras points out, the Moorish workmen were beginning to understand all the majesty and grandeur that Christian art stamped upon the complicated and minute assemblage of Mussulman edifices ; they began to make rich coverings, with bolts or stays with apertures, and with hollows in the form of an arch, and keystones imitating rhombus, stars, and bow ornaments. The famous Gothic roofs and ceilings of the Bretonne buildings of the ninth century have never been able to equal this one, because here one finds more beautiful specimens than in the other edifices, when the vaults with little stalactites had not yet acquired their complete development. The perfectly- worked and carved designs of the doors give a great relief to the palace. One remarks here that the ceilings are less magnificent or luxurious, when the ornamentation is less classic, and, as at Fez, the walls were covered with hangings instead of reliefs in plaster ; and then they used more gold in the cornices, in the friezes, in the domes, in the lintels, and in the crownings, whilst the walls remained bare, as in the Moz-Arabian constructions. There was here such a mixture of styles, such a confusion of ideas, and such a number of little quadrangular windows, which interrupt the general line of the ornamentation, as one does not see any- where else. One sees, too, walls covered with arabesques, stretching like pieces of tapestry or coverings of bright 288 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN colours, and which produce a rich effect, beautiful and varied, thought-out and elegant — but not at all simple — which is the chief condition of art in the epochs of great culture. In going through this alcazar one sees nothing but square-saloons, one following the other, of the same shape and dimensions, occasionally varied by the composition of the arabes^es traced there. Symmetry has been sacrificed to convenience, and the central arches to the alignment of the doors. In the time of the Arabs the alcazar constituted a series of constructions, flanked by the walls and the towers, which surrounded the town, which had not the symmetrical form of the rectangular plan of the buildings of the Renais- sance. Neither does it resemble the palaces of Egypt or of S)nia. These quays, placed side by side, give this edifice the appearance of a Christian house of the fifteenth century; and one can only confidently give the name "Arab " to the Court of the-X)amsels, the Hall of Ambassadors, and the apartments immediately adjoining it. The Courtx^he-Banners, and of the Hunters, lead to the Court of the Principal Fa9ade, where one sees the first specimen of Mussulman decoration ! In all these divisions the monument is only revealed by the vestiges of battle- ments of the towers and of the walls, in which the original doors were opened, and where the sultans had the chambers for judging the quarrels of their subjects, — a custom perpe- trated by the Christian monarchs. In the Court of the Hunters one can still see the apartment named the Hall of Justice, where all writers suppose that the audiences were held. Here Don Pedro held his tribunal ; and the traveller, Don Antonio Ponz, asserts that he saw one of the columns of the memorable seat occupied by the monarch when he held those famous audiences, which were an imitation of the 289 2gi SEVILLE ALCAZAR— VIEW IN THE LITTLE COURT. Cornice at SfM-ingiiiK ORS FKoM TMK MTTLK OH RT 297 SEVILLE ALCAZAR— HALL OF AMBASSADORS. I IRR. SEVILLE 299 formed span, which at a later period regulated the arches of the palaces of Fez, of Tunis, and of Cairo. The second gallery of the Court of the Damsels, added to the ancient construction, is an addition of little importance ; but it is a fine court, if one considers the modi- fications of its style, its socles showing beautiful panels of decorated porcelain of admirable delicacy. Different doors lead to the saloon of Charles V., to that of the Ambassadors, and to those of the '* Caracol," or of Don Maria de Padilla. They have scarfs cut into polygons, which cover them on both sides, but this fine work has been badly restored with stucco barbarously painted. The Hgjl of Ambassadors is a square apartment of a solemn aspect, with four frontages composed of high arches, which enclose twin windows, placed on slender columns, whose little arches are more than semi-circular, without having the characteristic form of the horse-shoe, — a curve which marks the decadent transition. The capitals are degenerate Greco- Rom an ; but the great decorative arch with running knots, although it has an Arab curve, has not the two squares in height from the floor of the hall, and that deprives it of elegance in its ornamentation. The spaces, or triangles, are not original, the work is interrupted, as in the inner side of the wall of the frontage, by shutters which open, as though escaping from the tympan of the twin windows. A wide frieze of windows, or painted trans- parencies, stretches above, in an admirable manner, and higher still there is a geometrical band of ornaments in the form of knots, and then come architraves and supports on which the roof rests. The sub-basements of porcelain are adorned with arabesques, and the connecting doors are decorated with almost exaggerated profusion. The open balconies, with the eagles on their consols, are an eternal 300 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN affront for him who had them made ; and we may say the same thing of the portraits with Gothic frames, placed under the arch-like hollows of the walls, and also of the gilding, which has not the fine ornamentation of blue, red, and black, which renders these little vaults more graceful, when they are done by Arabs. The spherical cupola, with rafters with arabesques forming stars of symmetrical poly- gons, may have been constructed for stained glass windows at a higher light, but later it was ineffectively decorated with little mirrors. The mosaics have been restored with pieces larger than the originals, and the jasper columns seem to be Roman and not Arab, as do many others of the decad- ence; and the capitals too, without uniformity, and unsuited to the columns, appear to be Moz-Arabian work, which is seen in many of the Saracen mosques. The type of the AidcaiLinscripiipns in the alcazar is not as fine or as pure as are those in the Hall of Comares at Granada; but on the other hand the classic character of the cufic inscriptions here is more uniform and more simple. The ornaments, in the shape of leaves, of pine cones, and of palms interlaced with ribbons, with geo- metrical outlines, is a style that is no longer seen after the beginning of the Thirteenth Century. The little windows^ in parallelograms above the doors, the Roman imposts, the Gothic carvings, and the escutcheons with broken chiselings shown in this palace, are the work of several generations who were wanting in the consciousness of art. Yet the Hall of Ambassadors is beyond dispute the mQ§t_spIendid-^ndJieautifiiL_apartnient of all the palaces^ of Moorish architecture belonging. to the Crowji in Spain. The paintingand giTding^oTlLrabesques, the lovely carved wooden ceilings, now shaped like inverted bowls, now like sections of a sphere, and now like capricious many-sided 30I 305 SEVILLE ALCAZAR- HAI.L f)F AMMASSAOORS. ^^ OF THE '^K ^^ -" o^ SEVILLE 305 figures, which reflect the light and shade with a marvellous effect ; the inscriptions in African characters ; the rich doors of marquetry, surrounded by Arabic invocations (a beautiful work done by artificers of Toledo) ; the columns of various marbles with capitals of exquisite cut, now primitive, now Almohadan, now Moorish; the variegated marble of the pavement, the perforated stucco of the partitions, the in- genious work, with birds introduced in the doorways; and finally this strange combination of five different styles, which in theory is so impossible, and in practice so har- monious— Arabic, Almohadan, Gothic, Granadian, and Renaissance — to be seen in so many apartments of the alcazar, but more especially in this hall, are things which the pen could never describe satisfactorily, and which must be left to the impression produced by a sight of the original, or to a contemplation of its pictured representation. For this reason one may not endeavour to describe, either tech- nically or minutely, this magnificent hall, to the gradual architectural composition of which overseers and workmen of so many different times contributed. The Abbaditas made the bold horse-shoe arches of the lower part; the Almo- hadans, and afterwards the school of Christians of Granada which arose, carried out the work of ornamenting the walls with the ornamental arches, the perforated windows, the facias of little interlaced arches, and the inscriptions ; and they covered the hall with the marvellous dome shaped like an inverted bowl. It is probable that the architects of the Catholic monarchs constructed the third body in the pointed style, forming a series of corrupted trefoils bordered with lilies, in whose centres the portraits of the kings of Spain, from Chindasvinto, are reproduced ; and, finally, the kings of the House of Austria added the third body of the decoration, four balconies, of great projection, which doubt- 3o6 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN less formerly were twin windows (ajimeces) with one or more columns, supported by griffons gilded, and of bold outline. It was probably in this saloon that the ceremonious and perfidious reception of Abu Said, King of Granada, by Don Pedro took place. The usurper of the Throne of Granada presented himself to the owner of the alcazar, thinking he had ensured his personal safety by the gifts he had forwarded, and by his complete submission to the wishes of his host. But after being entertained at a splendid supper, he was rewarded with prison, and death, accompanied with the most horrible mockeries. Amongst the jewels, with which the unhappy Abu Said is supposed to have hoped to win the heart of his faithless enemy, was the immense ruby, which to-day shines in the royal crown of Edward VII. It was given by Don Pedro to the Black Prince ; it later came into the possession of Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland, and through her son, James I., returned once more to England. If the Hall of Ambassadors is rich, the Court of the Dolls is not less so in its own style. This, with some other saloons, constituted one of the remaining splendours of the alcazar which are associated with Don Fadrique, Master of the Order of Santiago, the timid son of Alonso XI. We cannot tell from what source this court has received its modern denomination. In the old chronicles there is no trace of such a name ; but they, and tradition, have handed us down copious notes, all of which make this part of the alcazar the theatre of that sanguinary drama of the Four- teenth Century. After reading these chronicles and romances, one imagines the ghosts of the actors moving about the apartments; one sees Don Pedro, who has already planned his execrable plot, receiving, with false expressions of interest, his half-brother Don Fadrique ; one sees the lovely Padilla, 30; > OF TH. iJriiVERSr- 309 X X X Hi f I I i I f I % i 7 I f I ^1 i 4 J* I f f * SEVILLE 311 sad and terrified in her room, in the "caracor* apartments, wishing to reveal the danger which awaits him to the Master, but not daring to do so; and one also seems to feel the impending doom of the eccentric prince, when he is deprived of the help of his servants, whom the porters force to leave the courtyard with their mules, where they were waiting for their lord. And finally we see the return of Don Fadrique to the presence of the irritated monarch, who has called him, and who has ordered that his companions shall be detained outside the doors, whilst the stewards of the king kill his unfortunate brother. Fadrique, after a desperate struggle, manages to escape from the murderers and to reach the court, looking for the postern of the corral, which he fancies is open — all the time making un- availing efforts to draw his sword, the handle of which has become entangled in the cords of his sash — and there at last he falls, his head being crushed by a blow of a club. Other accounts declare that when Fadrique returned to Don Pedro's apartment, after paying a courtesy visit to Maria de Padilla-, he was met with the sentence, shouted in the king's voice, *' Kill the Master of Santiago!" Don Fadrique drew his sword and made a valorous defence, but was overpowered and struck down by blows on the head. Seeing that his half-brother was still breathing, the king handed his own drawn dagger to an attendant and com- manded him to kill the Master outright. To-day we cannot say positively which was the '* Palacio del Yeso," or " Palace of stucco or lime,'* where Don Pedro received his unhappy half-brother, nor yet which were the apartments of the " caracol." It is thought the court which has the chief fa9ade of the alcazar was that which in the chronicle is called the " caracol," and that the " postern " was that which led from this court to that of the 312 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN ** banderas." It is true that tradition persists in pointing out the Court of the Dolls and the Hall of Ambassadors as the theatre of this horrible fraticide, without taking into account the notes of the historian, who relates that Don Fadrique, pursued by his murderers, ran in the direction of the postern, where he had been warned that he could make a stand, but found that all his escort had been driven out. The King Don Pedro fills with his grand sinister figure the apartments which he occupied, and even those added by later monarchs, just as the whole gloomy pile of the Escurial seems to be haunted by the ambiguous personality of Philip II. Sad privilege of despots; the terror_which they inspire in life, survives them, frpf^?;ir)g the, smile, of hapj^iness^in 1 he. 1 i ps^ni generat ioji s , who are free from their malevolent actions, even in the very chambers which they dedicate to their pleasures. The architecture of the Court of the Dolls is purely in the style of Granada. The surface of the arches is covered with minute mQsaic_^ work, and they rest upon beautiful brick pillars, sustained by marble columns with delicate capitals, while the double partitions, covered with perforated work, are of brick, wood, and stucco. Delicate tints cover the ornamentation with a beautiful veil, which is like a lovely Persian tapestry. This court is a rectangle with unequal sides ; there is a great arch in those looking towards the Hall of Ambassadors, somewhat pear-shaped, between two smaller arches of the same form ; in the other two sides there is a large arch and a smaller one, all resting upon graceful columns of different colours, in the capitals of which (believed to belong to the primitive epoch, on account of their resemblance with those of the primitive part of the Mosque of Cordova) there is a freshness and delicacy of line which holds the imagination captive. The 313 SEVILLE >^ , T.- -^^ -^fi^ =<^ ^.-^A' ALCAZAR— INTERIOR OF IIIK COURT OK THK VIROINK. MOORISH 8TVLB, ULILT 1369 -1379, 315 THE ^r RSITY SEVILLE 317 entablatures, which are borne by the columns, are finely decorated with vertical borders, formed by inscriptions in cufic characters. The upper part of this lovely court has been spoilt by bad restorations. The Hall of Ambassadors, as well as the Court of the Dolls, is surJxamded_byJi£ajitiiul-saloons, starting from the chief fa9ade of the alcazar, running round the north-east angle of the building, and forming a series of mysterious and voluptuous rooms adjoining the galleries of the "Gardens" of the " Princes " of the " Grotto " and of the *' Dance," till they terminate at the other south-west corner of the Court of the Damsels where the chapel used to be, and where it is believed the luxurious apartments of the " caracol " stood. According to tradition they were at the eastern side of the Court of the Damsels where the lower chapel stands to-day; this space adjoins at its north-east corner the baths, which still bear the name of the unhappy favourite, more worthy of pity than of hatred ; and they also lead, by a narrow and almost hidden staircase, — the oldest in the alcazar, — to the bedroom of Don Pedro, situated in the story above. Nothing remains of the dwelling which the enamoured king prepared for the woman he loved most in his distracted and changeful life. The entrance to the famous and regaLhaths of Dona Maria de Padilla is in the garden of the " Dance," below the saloons constructed in the time of Charles V. It is supposed they were used by the sultanas, whilst the Saracen court was at Seville. They are surrounded by orange and lemonJxees, and not enclosed by those massive walls which give the appearance of a gloomy dungeon. At the eastern extremity of the garden of the " Dance " there is a tank or fountain. It is said that one day the king, being much pre- occupied with the choice of a judge to whom to confide a 3i8 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN very complicated and obscure case, drew near this tank, and cutting an orange in two, threw one half on the surface of the water, where it floated. He then sent for one of his judges and asked him what he saw floating on the water. "An orange, Sire," was the reply. He received the same answer from several other judges whom he summoned ; but finally came one who, when asked the question, broke off" a branch of one of the trees near by, and with it drew the fruit floating on the water to the edge, when he answered, " Half an orange. Sire." Whereupon the monarch decided to entrust him with the conduct of the case. The strange character of Don Pedro, and his manner of administering justice, take us now to the upper floor of the alcazar, to the south-east corner, where, at the end of a series of saloons of little interest, with rich bowl-shaped ceilings and cornices of mosaic, there is the king's sleeping chamber, whose walls still preserve the high socle of inlaid tile work, the stucco ornaments with borders of inscriptions in African characters, and the recessed windows with shutters, the frieze with stalactites, the ceiling of good design and beautiful gilding, and an alcove with a mosaic arch. Near one of the corners there is a bas-relief in one of the walls, representing a man seated with his body twisted towards the entrance door, and his head turned upwards, as though contemplating the skull which is to be seen above the facia of African characters. It appears that this horrible emblem was placed there by order of Don Pedro, in order to perpetuate the memory of his summary punishment of some deceitful judges. The PrinceslJHall and the Oratory are the onlyjjpper apartments, prior to the Renaissance, which are left for us to examine, — a fire in the year 1762 having destroyed many of the rooms of the upper story. But we must first 319 ..Mm^-' UNiVERS^T ^^,r 3^1 SEVILLE ALCAZAR-COURT OF THB VIRGIN* SEVILLE 323 take note of the external objects which surround us. Don Pedro^s bedroom looks on the south over the gardens ; the Princes' Hail looks north, and occupies the upper floor of the chief fa9ade, whose elegant "ajimeces" illuminate it. The oratory is in the east wall. In the bedroom there is a balcony, which leads to a wide gallery, with other little balconies, with seats running round them, at the end of which there is a sort of turret, with three semi-circular arches, supported by pairs of marble columns, with capitals of the purest Arab style. The spacious gardens stretch at our feet, forming a delightful spectacle. From the Princes' Hall one can perceive, above the watch-towers of the alcazar, the innumerable perforated weather-cocks of the cathedral ; and, towering over all, like a gigantic sentinel, the Giralda, crowned with the sacred sign of the conversion to the faith of Christ. In the Princes' Hall and in the Oratory the influence of the pointed style of architecture is very noticeable ; and yet in studying the arches of the Oratory and the little pillars, which surmount the columns in the centre, the influence of Moorish architecture on the Gothic or pointed architecture of the third period is most striking. The columns of the Princes' Hall, and of the other adjoining apartments, are of marble, with very rich capitals. According to Jeronimo Zurita, these columns were in the royal palace of Valencia, and were removed after the defeat of Don Pedro, King of Aragon, by the King of Castile. There are luxurious divans all round the hall, and everything is rich except the ceiling, now destroyed, and the floor, which is poor and in very bad repair. The Oratory was built by order of the Catholic monarchs in 1504; its altar screen has a picture in the centre, representing the Visitation, with the signature, "Niculoso Francisco Italiano,'- ptc fecit, vfhich 324 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN is notable for the mixture of the pure Italian school, and the realistic Dutch school in its design. The blue tile plaques of this oratory are purely Italian, and perhaps they are the most beautiful examples of this class of Christian ornamen- tation in Andalusia. Ford says that the Emperor, Charles V.,jiiaixied Dofia^ Isabella-of^ortugaLin this oratory, but the statement is not correct. Sandoval, better informed, describes the happy event in the following words : — " Eight days after the empress entered Seville, the emperor entered, being greeted with the same ceremonies. He went direct to the principal church, and from there passed to the alcazar, where the empress awaited him, accompanied by the Duchess of Medina-Sidonia, Dona Ana of Aragon, and the Marchioness of Cenete, wife of the Count of Nassau, and by other great ladies; the empress and her ladies being all most richly dressed. Afterwards the emperor arrived ; they were married that same night by the Cardinal Legate, in the great room which is called the "half orange" (the Hall of Ambassa- dors), in the presence of all the prelates and grandees assembled there. The empress appeared to all present one of the most beautiful women in the world, as is testified to by those who saw her, and by her portraits. The hour of supper came, and the emperor and empress retired to their apartments ; and after midnight, the emperor wishing it thus for religious reasons, an altar was erected in one of the apartments of the alcazar, and the Archbishop of Toledo, who had remained for the purpose, said mass there." This, marriage, as M. de Latour rightly says, was the last memomble pagejn^ the history_Q£-A^ alcazar ; and the works completed by the emperor are the last notable im- provements made in the monument. The ar^it€cts, Louis and Ga^gardeVaga, were responsible for important works X X X UJ I- < 325 SEVILLE ALCAZAR — GALLERY IN THE COURT Of THE HUNDRED VIRGINM. ^EsFpg^ Of UNlVEp^ The /fORN' 327 SEVILLE ALCAZAR— THE SULTANAS APARTMENT AND COURT OF THE VIRGINS. u or Vh:'^^^ VERSITY f UN- SEVILLE 329 in the alcazar, the high gallery of the Court of the Damsels, and those looking south over the gardens and over the baths of Dona Maria de Padilla. New habitations were then erected, which shone with the art of the Renaissance, inter- twined with the Arab adornments of the style called " plateresco." But the emperor did not confine himself to restoring, re-building, and to erecting fresh works in the old alcazar; nor were the above-mentioned architects the only ones who worked, but he also enlarged and embellished the gardens, and in that which is called the " Lion Garden," he had built by a certain Juan Hernandez, in the year 1540, an elegant dining hall, of singular architecture — half Italian, half Moorish — which, without doubt, is a worthy dwelling place for a fairy princess of the days of chivalry. This supper hall, or pavilion, has a square plan, and measures ten steps in each frontage ; a gallery of five arches surrounds it on each side, which rest on graceful pillars of the rarest marbles with capitals in the Moorish style. A frieze is seen, externally made of arabesques, forming ribbons, cutting each other at angles, and making stars ; all the lower part is faced with blue tiles of Triana, with the outlines of the designs in bold relief. Inside there is another frieze in the " plateresque " style, cleverly perforated, and a socle of blue tiles with a border, in which shine the arms of Castile and the imperial eagles. In the centre rises a beautiful fountain with a white marble basin. A facia of blue tiles, in imitation of inlaid tile work, runs around, and between the work one can read the date of its construction and the abbreviated name of the artificer. The dome is of a decadent taste. The wall which encloses these gardens to the west is decorated in the style called ♦* vignolesque," with stout pilasters, and a frontispiece of two bodies above the pond 330 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN in the garden of the " Dance," and light arches which form a long " loggia " of beautiful effect. The works carried out under Philip III., and Philip V., and Ferdinand VI. are not worthy of close attention. They constructed the parts which face the gateway of the " ban- deras," containing the "apeadero" and the ** armeria." The '* apeadero " is a portico thirty-eight yards long and fifteen wide, with two rows of marble columns in pairs. The *'armeria," or armoury, is a spacious apartment above, destined for the object indicated by its name. The epoch of the construction of both is testified to by a stone set in the fa9ade, which bears the following inscription: ** Reigning in Spain Philip III., he erected this work in the year MDCVII. ; Philip V. enlarged and repaired it, and destined it for the royal armoury in the year MDCCXXVIII." Ferdinand VI. only constructed the offices above the baths of Dona Maria de Padilla, repairing the damage caused by the terrible earthquake^f ly^S- The greater part of the halls on the upper story looking on the gardens perished in the dreadful_fire 0^^1762; and the Government doubtless fearing the expense which would be incurred by a regular restoration in the original style, ordered all the roofs and ceilings destroyed by the fire to be repaired in the '* modern manner." The unhappy result of this order was to make the ceiling of many of the apartments much too low, and to scrape away many of the ancient arabesques from the walls. In the year 1805 the unhappy idea was conceived of changing the principal entrance, and of white-washing with hideous lime the magnificent stucco work in the Princes' Hall, and of other ancient apartments. The unfortunate reformation even went so far as to substitute a plaster ceiling, which makes one shudder, for the beautiful Arab bowl-shaped one, and X X X UJ < THE '>- jmVERP^^ '^i 331 sf:villk ALCAZAR— ENTRANCE TO THE SLEEPING 8ALCX MnORIKH KiNCH 333 sp:ville ALCAZAR— DORMITORY OF THE KINOll. SEVILLE 335 to put modern windows in the hall over the principal facade, called the Hall of the Princes, near the Court of the Dolls; and also to spoil the ceiling of the Hall of Ambassadors with heavy beams and supports, quite ruining the beauty of this enamelled half-orange. One is curious to know who it was who first tried to repair in a measure the harm done by these so-called "restorations.*' In 1833 a rational restoration of the Court of the Dolls, and of the hall near it to the north, was begun with laudible zeal by the Don Joaquin Cortes, professor of painting, and the intelligent overseer, Antonio Raso, and the official, Manuel Cortes. The real work of restoration commenced about the year 1842, thanks to the praiseworthy efforts of Don Domingo de Alcega, administrator of the royal patri- mony, and to those who helped him in his difficult task, the distinguished artist, Don Joaquin Dominguez Becquer, and the master artificer, Jose Gutierrez y Lopez. Sehor Becquer designed the Arab cornice which to-day decorates the outer part of the edifice defining the dome of the Hall of Ambassadors, which had been half destroyed in 1805, and he never ceased to devote his genius to the restoration, now in part and again general, of the most precious monu- ment of Moorish art of the fourteenth century. During the years 1852 and 1853 the alcalde of the royal palaces completed the work of replacing some of the stucco orna- ments in various apartments. Afterwards the vice-alcalde, Don Alonso Nunez de Prado, assisted by Senor Becquer, brought a complete restoration to a successful end, which, though it may not be faultless in the eyes of a modern critic, is still worthy of praise, considering the period in which it was undertaken. In 1855 the administrator of the alcazar invited the Queen, Dona Isabella II., to interest herself in the works, with the result that he was able to 336 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN cover the Court of the Dolls with glass, and to re-build the thirty-six arches of the Court of the Damsels. There is no inscription in the alcazar which offers a real historical or literary interest to the archaeologist. One does not find here the fragments of poems on the walls which in the Alhambra rest the eye and speak to the intelligence in praising the heroic deeds of warriors and the beauties of the sumptuous habitations. In the alcazar one reads the Koran with its repeated salutations and some praises of Don Pedro, in which the praises of the Mohammedan sultans have been suppressed, also the word, Islamism ; but we must draw attention to the fact that the greater number of the inscriptions are the same as those employed in the alcazar of Granada, repeated a thousand times, and it would be tedious and tiresome to accompany the artistic descrip- tion with the same verse, repeated a hundred times, which is to be found in the different apartments, and interrupted a hundred times also by others put in at the time of the restorations. As the persons who were charged with the work of restoring the inscriptions did not know the ancient language, they very often placed the inscriptions upside down. On the fa9ade, and over the principal entrance of the alcazar, around the twin windows, one reads the well-known verses : ** Glory to our Lord the Sultan ;" " Eternal Glory for Allah, the perpetual empire for Allah ; " '* Lasting happi- ness ;" " Benediction ;" '' The kingdom of God, the power of God, glory to God;" *' Happiness and peace, and the glory and generosity of perpetual felicity;" *' In prosperous fortune this palace is the only one." The inscription, " There is no conqueror but God," placed above and below the wide frieze of painted porcelain, in cufic characters, in our opinion, must be the work of an artist from Granada. 337 SEVILLE ALCAZAR— THB DORMITORY. <<^'l ^0 RNV :^i^ '^?ia>>*iaAAf "< 5 SEVILLE 341 Then comes the vestibule, where one sees almost the same inscriptions. The African characters are changed into cufic, or neskis. These are what are in the frieze : "Happiness and prosperity are the benefits of God;" and after: " Glory to our Lord the Sultan Don Pedro, may his victories be magnificent." In the Court of the Damsels we find very much the same thing : " Praise to God, on account of His benefits." It must be remarked that, in all the inscriptions men- tioned above, the word '* Islamism " has been suppressed, which proves that the artists were the same Arabs who, under the Christian dominion, took advantage of the traditional formulas in effacing the religious part of the verse. On a frieze of the same court : ** Glory to our Sultan Don Pedro, may God lend him His aid and make him victorious," &c., &c. Then follow a number of inscriptions of no importance, where one sees repeated : ** Happiness, Praise, Grandeur; God is Unique,, the Fulfilment of Hopes;" and this one, more worthy of notice, "God is Unique, He does not Beget, He was not Begotten, He has no Companion." This inscription is also found at Granada on the Charcoal Gate- way, in cufic characters, and it proves that it could not have been constructed under the Christian dominion, because it is completely contrary to the religion of Christ ; and, conse- quently, that Don Pedro profited by the work of Yusuf as much as was possible. Amador do los Rios, the well- known savant, supposes that artists were brought from Toledo to construct this alcazar ; but this is not exact, they only did the repairs and restorations. On one of the doors, which like all the rest in this edifice has undergone many restorations, the most interest- 342 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN ing legend is found : ** The Sultan our Lord, the exalted, noble Don Pedro, King of Castile and of Leon — may God perpetuate his happiness — ordered Jalabi, his architect, to make the doors of worked wood for this magnificent portal of happiness ; he ordered this in honour of the Ambassa- dors. Joy broke out for their construction and dazzling embellishment. The chiselings are the work of artists from Toledo, and it was done in the year of grace 1404. *' Similar to the twilight of the evening, and very similar to the light at dawn of day, this work is dazzling on account of its brilliant colours and the intensity of its splendours, from which abundance of felicity flows for the happy town where the palaces were built, and these habita- tions, which are for our Lord and Master, the only one who communicates life to his splendour, the pious Sultan, who is also severe, had it built in the town of Seville, with the aid of his intercessor, in honour of God." One sees the same inscriptions repeated in the Hall of Ambassadors, and in the room to the left one reads : '*0h! entrance to the habitation newly dazzling and noble. Lord of protection, of magnificence, and of virtues." In the Court of the Dolls, and round the entrance arch, one reads : *' There is no protection if it is not Allah, in whom I trust, for I shall return to him." ''All that thou dost possess comes from God," &c., &c. And in the same court (cufic) : *'0h! incomparable Master, issue of a royal race, protect it." "Praise God for His benefits." '' God, my Master." In the sleeping apartment, called that of the Moorish kings, amongst other known inscriptions this one is found : " Oh ! illustrious new dwelling, thy splendid happiness has progressively increased on account of the lasting brilliancy PI^JA"P7 \f\f%^\/ OF T ., UNIVERS! , . „ 343 SEVILLE ALCAZAR-ROOM OF THB IWrANTA 345 SEVILLE ALCAZAR -COLUMNS WHERE IX)N FAUKiyLE WAS MIK. PL SEVILLE 347 of the greatest beauty. Thou wert chosen for the place where the feasts should be celebrated. He is the support and the rule for all good, source of benefits, and food of courage ! For thee. . ." We left the story of Seville somewhat abruptly to deal in detail with the alcazar. Under Almohade rule, and while the alcazar and the mosque were in course of con- struction, the city knew peace, and its conxm£i£e flourished. But the days of its security were limited ; the end of the Moslem domination in Seville was drawing to its close. The revived prosperity of the Mohammedans spurred the Christian Spaniards to renewed efforts to encompass the overthrow of the infidels. Pope Innocent III. declared a crusade, and numbers of adventurous French and English free-lances travelled to Spain in answer to the call. But in 1 195 the Christians were defeated at Alarcos, near Badajoz, and again the ambitious projects of San Fernando were temporarily frustrated. In 1212 the Almohade army, it is said to the number of 600,000 men, was almost destroyed on the disastrous field of Las Navas, and the work of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain was begun. City after city was captured by the soldiers of Fernando III., Cordova fell in 1235, ^^^ ^^^ conqueror, with the help of the King of Granada, who had sworn allegiance to the Christian monarch, marched against Seville. The army brought by the holy king to Seville was the most brilliant and numerous ever seen in Christian or Mohammedan Spain. No smaller force would have been sufficient for the taking of a city which contained 12,000 Mussulman families divided into twenty-four tribes, and which had been in the hands of the followers of Islam for more than five centuries. Jin the spring of the year 1235 the army was moved from Cordova and divided into two 348 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN parts, one under the command of the Prince of Molina and the Master of Santiago, which was to march to the Ajarafe ; and the other under the direction of the King of Granada and the Master of Calatrava, which was to harass the country near Jerez. The attack on Seville and its territories commenced immediately, and a series of uninterrupted vic- tories prefaced the happy termination which was to crown the constant and generous efforts of the Christian warriors. Seville, at this period the court and seat of the Islamite empire, was a city calculated to djefy,the strategy of the most skilful generals, the valour of the most devoted men at arms. In form it would resemble a shield, stretching from north-east to south-west. Its head and right side were formed by the walls with its towers, defended by a barbican and a moat, with eight gates and a narrow side entrance. These gates were veritable fortresses. They were defended by towers and bastions. Their exits were narrow, and never in front ; the exterior passages to the city had angles and turnings, and very often the first turning opened into a square armed place, with narrow doorways at both sides. "The gates of Seville," says Morgado, "were constructed of planks of iron, fastened on to strong hides with steel bolts. And because it was best defended on its west side by the river Guadalquivir, which protected more than ' half the city, with the six gates in that side, it was thought well to place the strongest walls and the best fortified towers, with as many barbicans, and the widest and deepest moats on the other side." The left side of the shield boasted the majestic curve of the river, the arsenal, and another series of walls and gates ; but at this part, there were no moats nor false entrances, because it had the strong towers of the Ajarafe opposite to defend it. There were four gates on this side, not counting 349 > C/3 as o X s 351 ti] > PL m ■rM i^^J / SEVILLE 353 that of Bib-Ragel, which occupied the north angle of the city ; and, in addition to these, it is believed there was a small postern, afterwards called the " atarazanas," through which it is supposed that Axataf, or "Sakkdf** his Moorish name, went out to receive King Ferdinand, and to deliver up the keys of Seville. The old wharf of Saracen Seville came as far as this ; and in all the space, which to-day is called El Barrio de los Humeros, or the Chimney Quarter, the Mohammedans had their arsenal and shipbuilding yard, while the sailors and fishermen of the Guadalquivir were also housed in this district. The Gate of the Triana must have been in the vicinity; and the Gate of Hercules was directly opposite the Ajarafe, which was also called the Garden of Hercules. With the gardens and orchards of the Macarena, which adorned it to the north, the plains and woods of Tablada, which supplied it with corn and wood to the east and south, with an abundant supply of fresh water brought from Carmona by the aqueduct, with the river which was its principal commercial artery to the west, with the castles on the opposite side of the Guadal- quivir, protecting the river and its bridge, and occupying all the heights from Azalfarache nearly as far as Italica, Seville was one of the best situated, best supplied, best defended, and most prosperous cities of the Mussulman empire in Andalusia. To attack her she must be cut off from the Ajarafe, and her bridge of boats must be taken. It would have been useless to descend to Italica and be exposed to the assaults of the city and of Triana, as long as the bridge existed, and this task was thought to be beyond the power and ingenuity of any enemy. The bridge of boats, protected by a great wooden chain, linked by iron rings, kept the communication open between the city and the Ajarafe, that vast and fertile district from 354 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN which the Sevillians received jjl^ sortg^ of supplies, and where the Saracen magnatesTiad their country villas. This delightful Garden of Hercules, in whose praise many Arab writers have exhausted the treasure of their rich and exalted imagination, has been described in the following manner by an anonymous poet, in some verses dedicated to the Abbadite Sultan Almutamed : " Seville is a young widow, her husband is Abbad, her diadem the Aljarafe, her collar the winding river." Indeed, says the poet Ibn Saffar, *' the Aljarafe surpasses in beauty and fertility all the lands of the world, the oil of its olives goes even to far Alexandria, its farms and orchards are superior to those of other countries on account of their extension and con- venience ; and, always white and pure, they seem to be so many stars in a sky of olive gardens." Travelled Arab historians recall with pleasure the delights of Andalus ; pre- ferring Seville to either Baghdad or Cairo, saying : " The Aljarafe is a luxuriant wilderness without wild beasts, and its Guadalquivir is a Nile without crocodiles." One of the authors, quoted by El-Makkari, gives the following exact description of the Aljarafe : '' It is an immense district, measuring forty miles long, and almost as many broad, formed of pleasing hills of reddish earth, on which there are woods of olive and fig-trees, which offer a delicious shade to the traveller in the hours of the mid-day heat. This district contains a numerous population, scattered in beautiful farms or collected in villages, none of which are wanting for markets, clean baths, fine buildings, and other conveniences, such as are usually only to be found in cities of the first order." This fertile territory, which the Saracens called the " Orchard— of — Hercul^_s," rose gradually to the west of Seville, after stretching along the right bank of the river. 355 SEVILLE ALCAZAK K«KIM «>F THK IKINCK 357 SEVILLE ALCAZAR— VIEW OK TIIK OALLEKV KKOM THK HKCOKD H-H.k SEVILLE 35g Its heights were covered with farmhouses and hamlets, as the Arab writer indicates, which formed, as it were, a con- tinuous population, rich in provisions, from which* Seville usually received abundant supplies of all necessaries. There were four principal villages : Aznalfarche (to-day, San Juan de Alfarache), Aznalcazar, Aznalcollar, and Solucar de Albayda, strong walled places, where the Mohammedans collected the revenues of the district. The fringe, formed by the heights of the Aljarafe, was given the name of *' Mountain of Mercies" (Jebl arrahmah) by the Moham- medans, on account of its extraordinary fertility, a surprising abundance of figs, known as "Al-kuiti" and " Ash-shari," being produced there. The Sevillians faced the Christian attack with boldness, bred of confidence, and a determination to strain every nerve, and exhaust every resource, in repelling the invaders. They were engaging upon their last throw for the sover- eignty of Andalusia. Fernando's warships encountered the Moorish fleet at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, and drove them from their position, and the infidels collected their forces to make a last stand on land. But their stubborn front was broken by the Christian host, and the war-worn remnant of the Moorish army prepared to withstand a seige. Even when the bridge of boats was destroyed, and all communications with the suburb of Triana and the surrounding country was cut off, the Moors still fought on withm the city walls, and it was not until fifteen months had elapsed that Seville was starved into submission. On the 23rd February, j_23'Si Fernando entered the city, and Abdul Hassan, rejecting the king's invitation to become a dependent officer of the Spanish Crown, retired with thousands of his vanquished Almohades to Africa. Fernando's first act was to have the mosque purified 36o MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN for the celebration of a high and imposing Mass ; he took up his quarters in the alcazar ; divided the Moorish posses- sions among his knights, and rested his army after their long and arduous campaign. Four years later he died of dropsy. He was succeeded by Alfonso X., who founded the University of Seville, devoted his leisure to the study of poetry, history, and ancient laws, and merited the title of '* El Sabio," '' the Learned." But although the beautiful alcazar appealed to the studious temperament of *' El Sabio," the fortress- palace is more closely associated with his son, Pedro I., Pedro, " the Cruel," the most renowned of all the Christian sovereigns who ruled Andalusia from Seville. Pedro's character has been made the study of many biographers and historians, and he has not been without his literary whitewashers, but the " incidents " which illuminate his career do not place him in a favourable light. His Bobemianism endeared him to the people, and a certain sense of justice, in cases in which his own interests were not concerned, has gained for him the title of " The Justiciary." It may be that the plottings of Albuquerque, his father's chancellor, and the perfidious behaviour of his relatives, including his own mother, served to warp and embitter his nature; but he had no sooner, at the instigation of his mistress, Maria de Padilla, taken up the reigns of govern- ment, than he revealed the cruelty and malignity of his character. Leonora de Guzmar, the mother of Alfonso's illegitimate son, Enrique, was done to death in his prisons ; Abu Said, the King of Granada, was seized by treachery, robbed, and executed; Urraca Osorio, for refusing Pedro's addresses, was burned to death in the market-square of Seville; his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, was mysteriously murdered ; Don Fadrique, his half-brother, was assassinated with Pedro's dagger; and he himself was eventually defeated 361 srvillp: Oi I Hi- O'KN! I V 36; SEVILLE -,*!5 11 i ' u I. /' DETAILS OP THE OIRALDA TOWER SEVILLE 365 in battle by the troops of his brother Henry and Bertrand du Guesclin, and killed in single combat by Henry. Pedro wearied of his first wife, Blanche of Bourbon, in forty-eight hours; and, having had his marriage annulled, he espoused the handsome Juaiia de Castro, only to desert her a few days later to return to his beautiful mistress, Maria de Padilla. This woman appears to have been the only person who inspired Pedro with more than a transitory passion, and the courtiers testified to the power she wielded by chivalrously drinking the waters of her bath in El Jardin del Crucero. But Pedro's pasiiQiiJpr his mistress, though lasting, was not monopolising, and his amours supply us with an incident which reveals at once the king's ferocity, his humour, and his alleged respect for justice. It was his custom at night to muffle himself in a cloak and adventure alone into the city in quest of entertainment. On one of these excursions he encountered a hidalgo serenading a lady, whose favours he himself coveted. Cloaked by the dim light, and made secure by the emptiness of the street, the king fought^ and slew his rival, in defiance of his own order, which made street fighting punishable upon the officers of the city when they failed to bring the disturbers of the peace to justice. He had not bargained for the noise to disturb the rest of an old lady in the vicinity ; he had not observed a venerable head protruding through an upper window. Believing the incident to be "wrapped in mys- tery," he summoned the alcade of the city to his presence, acquainted him with the fact that the body of a hidalgo, pierced to the heart, had been found in the street, and gave him the option of discovering the murderer within forty- eight hours, or of being hanged in his stead. And hanged he doubtless would have been but for the timely confidence of the old lady who had witnessed the fight. The alcade 366 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN came again to the king with the news that the murderer had been found, and would be on view upon the gallows within the time specified by Pedro. Curious to see who had been secured to expiate his sin, or eager to fasten a new derelic- tion of duty upon the alcade, the king went to the place of execution and found, suspended from the gallows, an effigy of himself. "Good," said the king, "justice has been done ! I am satisfied." There is a street in Seville which is called the Calle della Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro, to commemorate the duel ; and the alley from which the old lady observed the issue is known as the Calle del Candilejo, " the street of the candlestick." The alcazar extends along the river as far as the Golden Tower, built during the reign of Yusuf Almotacid Ben Nasir, by the Almohadan governor Abulala. The view of Seville, from the Christina promenade, the famous thoroughfare, which extends from the palace of the Duke of Montpensier to the Golden Tower, is a spectacle of which the Sevillians never tire, and visitors are never weary of praising. The tower itself, which took its present name either from the fact that it held the gold which the Spanish ships brought from America, or because Don Pedro secreted his treasures there, is octagonal in shape, with three reced- ing floors, crowned with battlements, and washed by the Guadalquivir. The shimmering Torre del Oro, reflecting its light upon the broad bosom of the rose-coloured river beneath the setting sun, has inspired poets and painters of every age and nationality. George Borrow believes it pro- bable that it derived its name from the fact that the beams of the setting sun focussed upon it makes it appear to be built of pure gold ; and then, carried away by the loveliness of the picture, he cries : " Cold, cold must the heart be which can remain insensible to the beauties of this magic KoaH^^ bJ X- ^m mmm r^-'v j.\ ,tr^ '1 v -.;';!^flni^.^/^^^^fl>^^^^->^^^ 3^7 c/5 369 w SEVILLE 371 scene, to do justice to which the pencil of Claude himself were barely equal. Often have I shed tears of rapture whilst I beheld it, and listened to the thrush and the night- ingale piping forth their melodious songs in the woods, and inhaled the breeze laden with the perfume of the thousand orange gardens of Seville." Of the great_niosque_of_Seville, which was built by Abu JJfakubJ^fusi^^ and completed by the addition of the tower in 119B by his son, only the barest traces now remain. It is impossible to determine who really designed the famous Tower, now called the Giraida; but historians favour the claims of the renowned architect, whose name is variously spelt Gever, Hever, or Djabir, and who is erroneously supposed to have been the inventor of algebra. In its original state this structure was an immense and stately pile, planned on the model of the mosque of Cordova, and decorated with lavish magnificence. In 1235 it was dedicated to the service of God and the Virgin, but it retained all its Moorish characteristics until 1401. The Moors would have destroyed the building and the beautiful Muezzin tower before it fell into the hands of San Fernando's soldiers, and thus save their sacred temple from desecration by the " infidels,'* but the king's son, Alonso " el Sabio," threatened to visit such spoliation upon the garrison by sacking the city. This threat had the desired effect, and for nearly two centuries the religious spirit of Seville found expression in a temple which had been built to the glory of Allah. But at the beginning of the fifteenth century the mosque was razed to the ground, and Seville cathedral began to take that huge and splendid form which, in the words of the pious originators, was to inspire succeeding generations with the idea that its de- signers were mad. It was to be the greatest cathedral in 372 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN Spain, and it ended in being second only to that of Cordova, but still the third largest Christian church in^thp^ world. Its area of 125,000 square feet is 35,000 square feet less than Cordova cathedral, and 105,000 square feet less than St. Peter's at Rome; but it is 15,000 square feet greater than that of Milan Cathedral, and greater by 41,000 square feet than St. PauPs in London. The Moors, in building their mosque, employed the remains of ruined Roman and Gothic structures, and the Spaniards in 1401 used the Arab foundations in the con- struction of their cathedral, while the Moorish tower was preserved to do duty as a spire. In its original form the Giralda was only 250 feet high, the additional 100 feet which forms the belfry being added by Fernando Ruiz in 1567. In 1506 the cathedral was completed. Five years later the dome collapsed, and was re-erected by Juan Gil de Hontanon. Extensive restoration work was carried out in 1882, under the superintendence of Cassova ; but six years after this work was completed, the dome again gave way, and workmen have been constantly employed ever since in reconstructing this part of the vast building. According to Contreras, the Giralda is the most ejfpressive^inoimrnent of the Mohammedan dominion ; and, despite all that has been said of its Moorish structure and primitiveAfricaiLstyle, it is in his opinion a perfect work of Arab-art. The construction is anterior by four centuries, at least, to that of any tower of Granadian architecture such as that which to-day belongs to the Church of St. John of the Kings, but there is not the slightest differ- ence in the manner of their ornamentation, and the rhomboids of painted bricks, the festoons of terra cotta, the windows with double arches, following the segments of a circle, present all the variety of the alcazar of Granada. PLATE XXXIX I, t » ^ >' ^ c L'y • V ^,1 . ( 373 SEVILLE f' SK 'V ... vr.s VIKW IN THE COURT BY THE POOH or TMIt CMAflf- 375 SEVILLE HOUHE OP HILATOS- -CHAFKL SEVILLE 377 ** Here one sees plainly," Contreras says, "the origin of the superposed arch of the belvedere of Lindaraja of the Alhambra, of the hanging arch of the three entrances of the Lions' Court, of the festoons of the Court of the Fountain, and of all those forms, so delicate and so luxurious, that they are without equal in architecture. It is in the Giralda that one finds the beginning of truly decorative art. Built of varnished bricks, with a stout construction, as is demanded by the fa9ade of a very high tower, it is to be regretted that such a beautiful edifice should be crowned by so strange a body as its gilded frontages and painted porcelains." With the exception of the Giralda, and part of the lower portions of the walls, the Moorish remains that are to be recognised in the cathedral are few and not remarkable. The Puerta del Perdon in the Calle de Alemanes was recon- structed by Alfonso XL, after the victory of Salado, and the plateresque ornamentations were added by Bartolome Lopez about 1522. But although the bronze-covered doors have been disfigured by paint, their Moorish character is still distinctly traceable. Through the gateway we enter the old Moorish courtyard, the Patio de los Naranjas (Court of Oranges), robbed of its former grandeur, but still distin- guished by its beautiful Arabic fountain, with an octagonal basin, which occupies the centre of the court. From this spot we get a splendid view of the cathedral and the massive yet delicate Giralda tower, which has been declared to be even more to Seville than Giotto's Campanile is to Florence, or that of St. Mark's to Venice. *' Long before the traveller reaches the city," writes an imaginative admirer, **the Giralda seems tq beckon him on wards_to_his promised land ; during all his peregrinations through the intricate streets and lanes it is his trusted guide, always ready to serve him, soaring as it does far above all surroundings, it is a thing of unfailing 378 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN beauty and interest as day by day he passes and repasses it, or wanders about its precincts ; it tells him even afar off, how the day moves on, and how the night ; and it dwells in his thoughts the fairest memory of his sojournings in the queen of the Southern cities." From the Court of Oranges to the Giralda the way leads through the Capilla de la Granada of the cathedral. A solitary horseshoe arch reminds us of the Moorish origin of the building ; and the huge ele^ant'-S-tusk suspended from the roof, a bridle that tradition declares belonged to the Cid's steed, and a stuffed crocodile, are Oriental rather than Christian relics. And the Giralda, in spite of its added belfry — its surmounting figure symbolic of the Christian faith — and the fact that it is under the special patronage of the two Santas Justa and Rufina, '*who are much revered at Seville," is still a Moorish monument. At its base the tower is a square of fifty feet, and it rises by a series of stages, or cuerpos, which are named after the architecture, decora- tion or use for which they are designed. At the Cuerpo de Campanas is hung a peal of bells, of which the largest, Santa Maria, eighteen tons in weight, and referred to in the vernacular as " the plump," was set up in 1588 by the order of the Archbishop Don Gonzola de Mena, at a cost of ten thousand ducats. Above, we come to the cuerpo of the Azucenas, or white lilies, with which it is embellished ; and, going still higher, we reach El Cuerpo del Reloj, the clock- tower, in which was erected, in 1400, the first tower-clock ever made in Spain. Portions of this old timepiece were employed by the Monk Jose Cordero in making, in 1765, the clock which is working to this day. The belfry, which is the home of a colony of pigeons and hawks, is girdled with a motto from the proverb, ** Nomen Domini fortissima turris " — (" The name of the Lord is a strong tower.") The 379 SEVILLE GALLKRY OF THE HOU8B OT PILATOfl. iSi > SEVILLE 383 Moorish summit was crowned with four brazen balls, so large that in order to get them into the building it was necessary to remove the keystone of a door called the Gate of the Muezzin, leading from the mosque to the interior of the tower. The iron bar, which supported the balls, weighed about ten cwt., and the whole was cast by a celebrated alchemist, a Sicilian, named Abu Leyth, at a cost of ;^5o,ooo sterling. These particulars were set down by a Mohammedan writer of the period, and their accuracy was proved in 1395 (157 years after the overthrow of the Arab dominion), when the earthquake threw the entire mechanism, balls and supports, to the ground, where they were weighed, and the figures were found to be absolutely correct. The figure of La Fe, " The Faith," which now tops the Giralda, was cast by Bartolome Morel in 1568. It stands fourteen feet high, and weighs twenty-five cwts., yet so wonderful is the workmanship that it turns with every breath of the wind. The head of the female figure is crowned with a Roman helmet, the right hand bears the Labaro, or banner, of Constantine, and in the left it holds out a palm branch, symbolical of conquest. But when we return from this ** strange composite fane," with its Christian summit surmounting a Moslem tower, which again has its foundations in a Roman temple, when we re-cross the Court of Oranges, with its Ntporish fountain, flanked by a Christian pulpit, and enter the cathedral, the mind is transported at a bound from the fairy-like beauties of ^^orisco ornamentation to the sombre, awe-inspiring majesty, which prompted Theophile Gautier to the reflec- tion that *' the most extravagant and monstrously prodigious tjindoo pagodas are not to be mentioned in the same century as the Cathedral of Seville. It is a mountain scooped out, a valley turned topsy-turvy ; Notre Dame, at 384 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN Paris, might walk erect in the middle nave, which is of frightful height ; pillars as large round as towers, and which appear so slender that they make you shudder, rise out of the ground, or descend from the vaulted roof, like stalactites in a giant's grotto." Lomas, who finds the exterior of the cathedral ** simply beneath criticism," and deplores that "age after age a great band of glorifiers of self, through self s handiwork, should have been employed in producing what they determined should be a world's marvel," is com- pelled to admit that " the first view of the interior is one of the supreme moments of a lifetime. The glory and majesty of it are almost terrible. No other building, surely, is so fortunate as this in what may be called its presence." Even George Borrow, who thought more of his beloved testa- ments than of Spanish monuments erected to '* the spiritual tyranny of the Court of Rome," was feign to declare that it is impossible to wander through the cathedral of Seville "without experiencing sensations of sacred awe and deep astonishment " ; and Caveda describes the general effect as " truly majestic." The Ita]jaii--Xha2Sodist, Edmondo de ^mi^js, who always succeeds in conveying a strikingly convincing im- pression of the spectacles that fascinate his sensitive mind, is at his best in his description of Seville _cathec}ral. "At your first entrance," he says, "you are bewildered, you feel as if you are wanderin^jii_an_abyss, and for several moments you do nothing but glance around you in that immense space, almost as if to assure yourself that your eyes are not deceiving you, nor your fancy playing you some trick. Then you approach one of the pillars, measure it, and look at the more distant ones, which, though as large as towers, appear so slender that it makes ycar-tremHe to think that the building is resting upon them. You traverse them with p? r™ XM, :^^5 > /ERSfTY SEVILLE 387 a glance from floor to ceiling, and it seems as if you could almost count the moments it would take for the eye to climb them. There are five aisles, each one of which might form a church. In the centre one, another cathedral, with its cupola and bell tower, could easily stand. All of them together form sixty-eight bold vaulted ceilings, which seem to expand and rise slowly as you look at them. Every thing is enormous in this cathedral. The priji^ipal chapel, placed in the centre of the great nave, and almost high enough to touch the ceiling, looks like a chapel built for giant priests, to whose knees the ordinary altars would not reach. The paschal candle seems like the mast of a ship, and the bronze candlestick which holds it, like the pillars of a church. The choirLJs_ajmisemn_^ and chisel- ling. The chapels are worthy of the church, for they contain the masterpieces of sixty-seven sculptors and thirty- eight painters. . . . The chapel of San Ferdinand, which contains the sepulchres of this king and his wife Beatrice, of Alonso the Wise, the celebrated minister, Florida Blanca, and other illustrious personages, is one of the richest and most beautiful of all. The body of Ferdinand, who re- deemed Seville from the dominion of the Arabs, clothed in his uniform, with crown and mantle, rests in a crystal casket, covered with a veil. On one side, is his sword which he carried on the day of his entrance into Seville ; on the other, a staff of cane, an emblem of command. In that same chapel is preserved a little ivory Virgin, which the holy king carried to war with him, and other relics of great value." And here also, although De Amicis makes no mention of them, are the keys o£_Seville which Abdul Hassan handed to Ferdinand at the surrender of the city. One key is of silver, and bears the inscription, " May Allah grant that Islam may rule for ever in this city." The other Q 388 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN key is made of iron gilt, and is of Mudejar workmanship. It is inscribed, " The King of Kmgs will open ; the King of the Earth will enter." In its churches and its old houses, Seville is rich in Moorish influences, and exhibits abundant traces of Morisco art, which prevailed against the material dominancy of the Christian conquerors. The reconciled Arabs who remained as subjects of Ferdinand became the chief of the most lavishly-remunerated artisans of the city. They pursued their craft in the dwellings of the rich ; and in the churches of the " infidel." Untrammelled by religion and uninspired by faith, they worked- ibr_ art 's__sake, and the substantial pecuniary award that sweetened their labours. The church of San Marco has a beautiful Moorish tower built in imita- tion of the Giralda, and second only to the minaret tower of the cathedral in point of height ; San Gil is a Christianised Mezquita ; Santa Catalina reveals the survival of Moorish art in its fa9ade, while its principal chapel is Gothic. In nearly all the sacred edifices of antiquity the combination of Moorish and Renaissance architecture betrays an incon- gruity of style and sentiment which is only to be found among the Christian churches of Spain. And if the Catholic kings, who were sworn to the extirpation of the Moslems, allowed the Moors to build their churches in the style of temples devoted to Allah, it is not surprising that many of the finest private residences of the city retain a Moorish design, and possess a distinctly Oriental atmosphere. The Casa de Pilatos, which has been pronounced the fourth great monument of older Seville, was commenced in j50Q-by Don Bedro Enri_quez, in the then popular decadent Saracenic style, and was completed by his son, Fadrique, in imitation of Pilate's palace at Jerusalem. In accordance with this scheme, he fashioned a reception-hall, called the I- < SEVILLE 389 Praetorium, erected an upright column— a gift of Pope Pius v.— copied from the pillar at which Christ was scourged, and made a replica of the basin into which the thirty pieces of silver were counted. When the house came into the possession of the first Duke of Alcala, he was acting as the Spanish viceroy at Naples, and he filled the rooms and corridors with Roman busts and statuary, gathered from Italy and the ruins of Italica. On every side the art treasures of the Romans adorn the perfect Moorish colonnades, and the shadows of Roman sculptures are thrown upon diapered marble pavements from light that enters through Arab lattices and ajimez windows. It has been described as a great curiosity shop, but to the art lover it is a treasure house of almost infinite beauty and variety. The Moorish palace of the^ Duke_ile_Alba. in the Calle de las Duenas, once consisted of eleyen courtyards, nine fountains, and more than a hundred marble pillars, and was surrounded by a garden, which is a forest of orange trees and mj^rtjes. In Seville one wanders through streets which are redolent of Arabia, and peep into countless Oriental patios, cool with fountains, and shaded by palms and Eastern canopies. One ** feels the East a-calling" — the colour, the scent, the witchery of it gets into one's blood — and one recognises the truth that inspired the old Spanish saying : ** To whom God loves He gives a house k\ Seville." TOLEDO ,.-' TOLEDO T OLE DAN history proper, as distinguished from the mixture of fable and tradition which are associated with the story of this ancient and royal city, dates from the invasion of the Gotbs Toledo was old when Euric successfully scaled its seven rocks and stormed its battlements — how old, cannot be determined. Legend claims that the town was in existence when God made the sun ; less exalted imagination dates its foundation no fur- ther back than the days of Tubal, the grandson of_Noah. Alphonsus, *'the Learned," and Diego Mossem Valera, the historian of Isabel the Catholic, agree that it was built by Pyrrhus, the son-in-law of King Hispan, and a captain of the army of Cyrus. Hercules has been claimed as the father of Toledo by Rufo Festo Avieno, and Ferecio, one of the companions of Ulysses, is held by some to have retreated to this spot to escape the blood-vengeance of that little band of Greek adventurers. Other legendajdeclare the city to be of Jewish, origin ; and its builders, the Judians, who fled from Jerusalem before the victorious hosts of Nebuchadnezzar. Don Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada discovers the founders of Toledo in Tolemon and Brutus, two Roman consuls in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes, and more reasonable supposi- tion favours the theory that it was first settled by nomadic ~7 Celticjheplierds, who forsook their flocks to erect walls and fortifications on the rocky eminence above the Tagus. The little that is known of the origin and beginning of Toledo ; 394 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN the very mystery and obscurity of its earliest days, is accepted by the old historian, Alcocer, as a proof of its antiquity and nobility. Rais, the Moorish writer, says that Tago, at Toledo, was one of the eleven governors of Car- petania. Tago was foully murdered by Hasdrubal, the successor of Hamilcar, and the assassination of Hasdrubal was followed by so determined an insurrection that even Hannibal was forced to retreat before the infuriated Car- petanians. But Hannibal retreated, only to return with a reinforced army, and break Carpetania beneath the might of Carthagenian rule. In iqi B.c,,.^_after the, fall oCCarthage, Hilermo surrendered Toledo Jo the Romanforces, under Marcus Fulvius Nobilior. But Toledo held itself sullenly and haughtily aloof from the affairs of Rome. Viriate and Caius Plancius might cut each other's throats on the banks of the Tagus ; Sertorius might nurse his hates within the city; Caesar and Pompey might be locked in a death struggle — those things mattered nothing to the contemj^- tuous and independent Toledans. The Gjoth was the fi«t X real conqueror of Toledo ; and the city, outwearing the scars of Rome, and throwing off the marks of the Moors, is, to-day, as insistently Gqthk as Cordova and Seville are unmistakably Moorish. One sees Toledo from the distance, from the bridges, and from the heart of the city, and recognises that it is as it has always been — that it will go down into the tomb of the centuries unchanged. It grew " outL_of the nighJL_of ages " — its rocky throne has defied the ravages of time and the transforming ingenuity of man. Maurice Barres, who has felt the majesty and melancholy of this gaunt monu- ment of me -J X LU < -I 0. f^:§^ \y c 2. 399 TOLEDO THE GATE OP BLOOD TOLEDO 401 ness, the Christian Visigoth was every whit as barbaric as the heathen ; barbaric, either in his violent fanaticism, or else in his total lack of individuality, and idiotic acquiesence in the schemes of a designing priesthood. An intermediate type was wholly, or almost wholly, wanting, and there is little to choose between Leovigildo, the ignoranl_aiuLcni.el desperado, and his meek successor, Recaredo, the unresisting prey of the ambitious metropolitan of Toledo. . . . The morals of the Visigoths were on a par with their refinement and their mode of living. Serfdom was the distinguishing mark of the commons ; arrogance of the nobility ; avarice and ambition of temporal power of the clergy; regicide and tumult of the Crown. It is clear that a people, disunited in this manner, could never have exercised a long supremacy in any case ; and destiny, or chance, precipitated their down- fall by the arrival of the on§::£yed Tarik and his host, and the defeat of * the Last of the Goths,* beside the memory- haunted osiers of the Guadalete." Arrogance, av^ice, ambition, regicide, tumult — here we have the distinguishing qualities of the nobles, the priests, and the kings of Toledo under the Gothic rule. The sovereigns and the nobles stamped their personality upon the city, and were themselves moulded and dominated by the priests. The priestly influence in Spain has ever been for austerity and heartless magnificence ; it has ever sought to impress by fear and superstition. In the time of the Goths, Christianity developed through the increasing power of the bishops. The Church was terrible aod-forbidding ; the nobility was arrogant and cruel ; the monarchy was tyrannical and despotic. Hallam dismisses the considera- tion of the Visigoths in a sentence : ** I hold," he says, ** the annals of barbarians so unworthy of remembrance that I will not detain the reader by naming one sovereign of that ~7 402 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN obscure race." But, under those sovereigns, and by the hands of that obscure race, Toledo was estabhshed upon its rocky eminence, and it bears its character on its face to-day, as it did in the opening quarter of the eighth century, when the one-eyed Tarik entered its melancholy, deserted streets. The plunder that fell to the Moorish invader is variously reported, but all accounts are agreed that it was beyond calculation. According to the learned Moham- medan author, Al-leyth Ibn Said, the spoils were so abundant that the rank and file of the army all shared in the rewards, and it was a common thing for the humblest bowmen to be possessed of costly robes, magnificent gold chains of exquisite workmanship, and strings of matchless pearls, rubies, and emeralds. So great, in many instances, was the greed for plunder, and so grossly ignorant were the Berbers of the value of the spoil, that whenever a party of them happened upon a rich fabric, they did not hesitate to cut it up between them, without regard to its worth or workmanship. It is recorded that two Berbers secured a superb carpet, composed of the most splendid embroidery, interwoven with gold, and ornamented with filigree work of the purest gold, with pearls and other gems. The men carried it for awhile between them, but, finding this method of conveyance cumbersome, they carved the gem-encrusted fabric in twain with their swords. In this fashion, master- pieces of art were heedlessly destroyed for the sake of the raw material of which they were composed. Among the precious objects seized in the palace and church of Toledo were twenty-five golden and jewelled crowns — the crowns of the different Gothic kings who had reigned in Spain — the psajms of David, written upon gold leaf in water made of dissolved rubies, y3.ses filled with precious stones, quantities of robes^ of cloth of gold and > -] X UJ Q. raF^^WggjHBP ^^^^ l^j/gT^ ^H^^}^^^KJ^»si ^^F ^^^ ^^^!^}Mr a C/5 TOLEDO 403 tissue, tunics of every variety of costly skirts and satins, magnificent suits of chain armour and mail inlaid with jewels, and jewel-studded swords and daggers, weapons of every description, and Solomon's emerald table, wrought in burnished silver and gold. " This table," says the Arabian chronicler, **was the most beautiful thing ever seen, with its golden vases and plates of a precious green stone, and three collars of rubies, emeralds, and pearls." Other Arabian historians have claimed that it was composed of a solid emerald, and they are practically agreed that it was brought to Toledo after the sacking of Jerusalem, and that it was valued in Damascus at a hundred thousand dinars — about ;^5o,ooo. Washington Irving, who invariably goes the whole hog when dealing with legendary history, says that this *' inestimable table " was composed ** of one single and entire emerald, and possessed talismanic powers ; for tradition affirms that it was the work of genii, and had been wrought by them for King Solomon the Wise, the son of David. This marvellous relic was carefully preserved by Tarik, as the fnost precious of all his spoils, being intended by him as a present to the khalif ; and, in commemoration of it, the city was called by the Arabs, Medina Almeyda ; that is to say, * The City of the Table.' " But the historian, Ibnu Hayyau, the greatly trusted authority of El-Makkari, gives, in the translation of Don Pascual de Gayangos, the following account of the origin of this article of virtue : ** The celebrated table which Tarik found at Toledo, although attributed to Solomon, and named after him, never belonged to the poet-king. According to the barbarian authors, it was customary for the nobles and men in estimation of the Gothic Court, to bequeath a portion of their property to the Church. From the money so amassed the priests caused tables to be made of pure gold 404 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN and silver, gorgeous thrones and stands on which to carry the gospels in public processions, or to ornament the altars on great festivals. The so-called Solomon's table was originally wrought with money derived from this source, and was subsequently emulously increased and embellished by successive kings of Toledo, the latest always anxious to surpass his predecessors in magnificence, until it became the most splendid and costly gem ever made for such a purpose. The fa^bric_was__G£_4iflre__gold, set with the most precious pearls, rubies, and emeralds. Its circumference was en- crusted with three rows of these valuable stones, and the whole table displayed jewels so large and refulgent that never did human eye behold anything comparable with it. .... When the Moslems entered Toledo it was found on the great a.ltaiLQfjLhejCbri^ianchurch, and the fact of such a treasure having been discovered soon became public and notorious." The history here assigned to the table is, it must be confessed, somewhat less improbable than the supposition of Gibbon, who is under the impression that if it ever existed it may have been carried away by Titus at the sacking of Jerusalem, and, later, to have fallen into the hands of the Goths at the taking of Rome by Alaric. Don Pascual, however, asks, very pertinently, whether it is likely that Bishop Sindered, and those who accompanied him in his flight, would have left behind them so valuable an object. And the conundrum still remains as to the present where- abouts of the table. It has been asserted that it forms part of the inestimable treasures of the Vatican, but as the devout Moslem would say, '* Allah alone knoweth." Tarik, who perceived in Musa's haste to join him in Toledo and take possession of the spoils, an indication of the governor's envy, decided to conceal one of the feet of 405 TOLEDO INTBRIOR OF SANTA MARIA LA BLANCA. ^1 > X < j^oSbhRkSS^^BkuBImKI'^ i^^ 1^^^%^ ^ t^x* HH^^i^'^ tMi^p" ^ t 3L ^L^iS^al^l^i. '-1* c TOLEDO 407 the table against future emergencies. Musa, who met Tarik with savage upbraidings for exceeding his instructions — and some go so far as to say that he supplemented his speech with strokes of his whip-— demanded the production of Solomon's table, and questioned Tarik as to the absence of the missingiourthfaot. The wily general declared that he had found it in that condition, and Musa had the missing emerald supplied by a foot of gold. Subsequently Musa had Tarik cast into prison, and, it is said, that he would have encompassed his death but for the prompt interven- tion of the khalif, who sent peremptory commands that the successful campaigner should be restored to his command of the Moorish army. Thereupon Musa professed to restore Tarik to his confidence and friendship ; but he must have regretted that he had not executed his original purpose, when, on the occasion of his presenting the famous table as his own discovery to the khalif at Damascus, Tarik proclaimed himself to be the discoverer, and, as proof of his contention, produced the missing emerald foot. The M^orish_conquerors recognised the importance of Toledo as the capital of the Gothic empire, but these art- adoring, sun-worshipping warriors, who found their Eden in Andalusia, lavished their affection and culture on Cordova and Seville, and, for a time, Toledo became a secondary town. Musa's son, Abdelasis, or Balacin, as Rasis el Moro calls him, married the widow of King Roderick, who has been variously styled Egilona, Exilona, and Blanche, and insisted upon every noble of the Moorish Court paying her extravagant homage ; but the sultan held his Court at Cordova, and the Toledans never forgave this affront to their honour and dignity. They brooded in their stormy sullenness and independence. Their revolu- tionary instincts were never crushed ; their discontent was 4o8 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN never appeased through the three and a-half centuries of the Arab occupation of the city. Cassip, the Moorish ruler, became impregnated with the principles of independence, and threw off the yoke of Cordova, only to be betrayed in his turn by the Toledans, who, wearied of his tyranny, welcomed Ahd-er-Rahman to the city, and submitted their allegiance to his throne. But throughout his reign the turbulent Toledans proved uncertain and prone to revolu- tion, and his son, Hakam, who succeeded him^ sought to conciliate them by appointing as governor i renegade Christian, one Amron, of Huesca. '* By a condescension which proves our extreme solicitude for your interests," the sultan wrote to his disaffected subjects, ''instead of sending you one of our own subjects, we have chosen one of your compatriots." Hakam's error of judgment resulted in one of the most terrible deeds in the history of Toledo, perhaps the most disgraceful blot on the Moslem domination of Spain. Amron was entrusted with the missimi_QfJlilliihling his jeUoaL^ountrymen to the rule of the saltan, and he achieved his object by^^tlTe^practice^of a fiendish policy of perfidious cunning. By affecting an aversion to the sultan, and preaching the gospel of the independence of Toledo, he wori_l]ie_ixuir fid^ce,,of JjifLJiobles, and concerted with them in plots to reconquer the city. In furtherance of their plans, the people consented to have soldiers quartered upon them ; they wel- comed the building of a fortress commanded by a strong guard at the extremity of the city ; and it was at their own suggestion that a castle was erected in the middle of the town as a stronghold for the valiant governor. Then, having fqilified_himself^ith^ th^ trus and packed the city with troops, Amron secretly advised the sultan that the Toledans were readv for the lesson that was 409 TOLEDO tolttf OATB OF THK «0N. TOLEDO 411 to be read to them. Abd-er-Rahman, the son of Hakam, advanced towards the city at the head of a great army. The governor proposed that the nobles should go out to meet the young prince, and historians record that these implacable Gothic revolutionists were infatuated by the courtesy and cordiality with which they were received. The future sultan conquered their aversion by his grace and charm, and they loudly applauded Amrxjn's suggestion that he should be invited to accept the hospitality of the city. Abd-er-Rahman, instated in the castle of the governor, invited the nobles and representative men of Toledo to a great feast. They came in crowds, they were admitted to the castle singly, and not a single invited guest returned to his home. As each man crossed the courtyard of the castle he walked past an executioner, who stood in the shadow with uplifted blade awaiting his approach. No guest passed him. The nobles entered, the blade fell, and ready hands rolled the body into a ditch. In Spanish history that bloody day is known as the ** Qayjjfjthe^oss." ** Only coticeive,'* writes Hannah Lynch, ** the horrible picture in all its brutal nakedness ! The gaily-apparelled guest, scented, jewelled, smiling, alights from his carriage, looking forward to pleasure in varied forms, brilliant lights, delicate viands, exquisite wines, lute, song, flowers, sparkling speech. Then the quick entrance into a dim courtyard, a step forward, perhaps in the act of unclasping a silken mantle, the soundless movement of a fatal arm in the shadowy silence, the invisible executioner's form probably hidden by a profusion of tall plants or an Oriental bush, and body after body, head upon head, roll into the common grave till the ditch is filled with nigh upon five thousand corpses. Not even the famous St. Bartholomew can compete with this, in horror, in gruesomeness. Compared 412 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN with it, that night of Paris was honourable and open war- fare. It is the stillness of the hour, the quickness of doing, the unflinching and awful personality of the executioners, who so remarkably struck down life as ever it advanced with smiling lips and brightly-glancing eye, that lend this scene its matchless colours of cruelty and savagery. Beside it, few shocking hours in history will seem deprived of all sense of mitigation and humanity." Only a people rebellious by blood, by training, and by every tradition of their implacable race, could have thrown off the prostration that followed this terrible blow, and risen from their stupor with renewed determination to seize their independence. Yet Toledo survived this blow, and many others, which, if not so sudden and appalling, were sufficient to ci^ish^jJie-spmt- and deaderuthe^aspiration of a more vincible nation. It is impossible to determine whether Abd- er-Rahman was an accessory to this deed of butchery, or to say if Amron planned the massacre in the belief that it was necessary to the niaihtenance of Moslem rule, to terrorise the Toledans into submission, or if the deed was inspired by |the more subtle and diabolical intention of making the J Moors more odious in the sight of the unmanageable (citizens. When the people were sufficiently recovered from the horror of the atrocity to concoct a scheme of revenge, they acted with ferocious promptness. The cry for vengeance spread from the Zocodover into the surrounding country, and the people, hastily summoned into the city, surrounded the castle of Amron, and burnt the hateful fortress and its inmates to the ground. There, for the time, the insurrection- ary movement stopped. An Arab governor was appointed, and the people, Christians and Jews as well as Moors, entered upon a new state of material prosperity. Under Aben Magot ben Ibraham the Moorish artistic influence 413 ^^^r O H ? I TOLEDO 415 began to make itself felt. The architecture bore the imprint of the governing race, beautiful gardens were laid out along the Vega, Arabian palaces sprang into being, and on the ruins of Amron's castle there was built a new alcazar. But the respite from open tumult was only temporary. The Wali, finding the merchants increasing in riches, raised their tribute to the state, and smouldering discontent was immediately fanned into a flame. Led by a wealthy young Toledan, named Hacam, who subsequently earned the affix of *'E1 Durrete"— »*The Striker of Blows "—the people murdered the Moorish officials and captured the alcazar. The Moslem troops retaliated by recapturing that strong- hold and routing the revolutionists. Hacam went into retirement until the Moors, lulled into security, relaxed their vigilance in the guardianship of the city, and then, striking swiftly through the neglected gates, he recovered the city between sunset and morning. The greater part of the upper town was burnt, the troops sent by Abd-er- Rahman IL were repulsed ; and, although the Toledans were incidentally routed by the renegade Spaniard, Maisara, Toledo_was_npt then retaken. In 873 the city was besieged for a whole year, and only surrendered when famine had rendered the citizens too weak to further resist the assaults of the Moorish troops. The next firebrand to project itself into the inflamma- tory fabric of ToledajOLdiscontent was the fanatical martyr, ^ulogiiis. In Cordova this frenzied religionist had fired the Christians into reviling Mohammed, and thereby exasper- ating the Moslems into persecution. To the tolerant and broad-minded Moors, religious observances were prejudices to be respected. They permitted, to Christians and Jews, the fullest licence in the matter of worship; they only demanded that a similar respect should be observed towards their own 4i6 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN faith. The Christians were not asked to reverence the Prophet of Islam, but the Moslems could not allow him to be openly blasphemed by the infidels. It was against the articles of their creed, and it was contrary to human nature. To-day the Christian who rebelled against such a reasonable restriction would be accounted a bigot, undeserving of sympathy ; in the days of Eulogius, the re^ersjif_Moorish religious prejudices were regarded as saints. Toledo j umped at tTieIr rulers* resentment of the Christians' wanton insult to their faith as an excuse for an outburst of religious indig- nation, and Sindola seized the city and declared war against the khalifate by way of protesting against the execution of Eulogius's disciples. Ordofio, king of Leon, sent rein- forcements to Sindola, and the allied armes were caught in an ambush by the Moors, who struck off 8,000 Christian heads for public exhibition in the various disaffected towns. This reverse had the desired effect, and the Toledans made no further move until the death of Wistremir afforded them an opportunity of exasperating the sultan Mohammed by electing Eulogius to the vacant archbishopric of Toledo. The sultan, who retaliated by investing the city, had the bridge undermined while it was in the occupation of his troops, and, by making a feigned retreat, enticed the impetuous Spaniards to give chase. The depleted structure collapsed beneath the sudden burden of the pursuing army, and hundreds of men met their death in the sullen depths of the Tagus. But neither magsacre_nor misjortune could shake the dogged Toledans from their purpose. With the king of Leon at their back, they put forth new efforts, and in 873 they forced Mohammed to acknowledge__th£i£jjidependence as a RepuT)lic Tn~ return for the payment of an annual tribute. The treaty made with Mohammed was ratified by TOLEDO 417 his successors, Mundhir and Abdallah. Even the Great Khalif, Abd-er-Rahman, was at first content to send from Cordova a royal proclamation, commanding Toledo to sur- render her independence to the khalifate, and acknowledge him as liege lord, and it was not until 930, or eighteen years after he had ascended the throne, that he went up with his army against the arrogant and rebellious city. The siege of Toledo by Abd-er-Rahman lasted for eight years. The Moorish king built the city, which he called ** Victory," on a mountain commanding Toledo, and here he quartered his troops until famine and privation should open the gates for him. The long years of waiting culminated in a swift assault, and, at the close of a day's fighting, the emaciated heads of the insurgent chiefs were impaled on spears to keep their last sightless watch from the walls of the city they had defended with such heroic fortitude. After the death of the Great Khalif, and, thenceforth until the Christian conquest, Toledo maintained a,.partial independence, tolerating the rule_of^Moslem princes, but paying no^legiance__tp_jCordova. And in the end~she was recovered to Jthe^Christians^y a piece of picturesque treachery. Alfonso of Leon (Alfonso VI.) had fled from the monastery of Sagahun, and sought the protection of King Almamon of Toledo, from whom he received the most generous hospitality, including gifts of palaces, farms, and orchards, and the government of the Christian section of the inhabitants. The Moorish king demanded only the subscription of his guest's allegiance, and, in return, he gave a sincere affection, and promises of faithful protection. Almamon, whose one vague but ever present concern was the possibility of Toledo ever falling again into the hands of the Christians, was discussing the subject one day with his courtiers in the garden of Alfonso's palace, and engrossed in 4i8 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN the consideration of the possible misfortune, he described minutely the only plan by which, in his opinion, the city might be taken. Alfonso, who was one of the company, affected to be asleep while this dissertation was in progress, and the courtiers, who were unable to restrain the eloquence of the king, endeavoured to obtain Almamon's consent to the execution of his Christian guest. But the king refused to listen to this inhospitable proposition, and on the death of Sancho of Castile (who was murdered by Bellido, under the walls of Zamora), his brother, Alfonso of Leon, returned to his own kingdom, loaded with honours, and carrying with him the secret of Toledo's vincibility. Before he departed the two kings swore eternal amity, and entered into an offensive and defensive alliance against the enemies of either, and the enemies of Almamon's son, Yahya. But after the death of Almamon, Alfonso, forgetting his oath to his friend, and remembering only the plan of siege he had overheard in the garden of Toledo, adopted the principles invented by the Moorish theorist, and, in io85^__eiitered the city as its conqueror. What has Toledo to show to-day for the three and a- half centuries of the artistic,- influence of Mori scccultme and influence ? Surprisingly little ! And yet it would be an even greater surprise if she had more to show. The village that climbs the bosom of a mountain does not alter the contour of its impassive resting-place ; the etchings traced upon a Toledo blade does not affect the temper of the steel. The city is still ** Moorish in appearance," to employ the guide-book phrase, but it is gradually divesting itself of the marks which at one time, and then only in part, disguised its Gothic ancestry. Since Alfonso, the tyrant of the Galicians, seized the town of Toledo, " that pearl of the necklace, that highest tower of the empire in this Peninsula" 419 TOLEDO ANCIENT GATE OF VISAGRA. X'-i CAST IK <>^ M sKK\ \M' TOLEDO 421 (to quote Abon I Hasan), the Moorish bridge, near Santa Leocadia, and the other, which crossed the old Roman waterway, have disappeared, and the legendaiy^Ealace of Galiana is let out in miserable tenements to the lowest class of peasants. Moratin has immortalised GaLJana de Toledo, "most beautiful and marvellous," and Calderon has written of the palace built ibrhgr by her father. Galafre, who ruled over Toledo for Abd-er-Rahman I. Galafre took the old Visigoth shell, and transformed the edifice, by the witchery of Moorish windows and arches and staircases, into a palace of delight. He devoted his knowledge of hydraulics to the unkempt Toledan Vega, and made of it a paradise of leaf and bloom and rill. In the fairy garden, Charlemagne, according to tradition, found the " most beautiful and mar- vellous " Galiana, and carried her away from the unwelcome addresses of her Moorish admirer, Prince Bradamante, to reign over France as his queen. The arms of the Guzmans, into whose possession the palace passed under Castillian rule, may still he descried upon its dismantled front. The wonderful clepsydras, or water clocks of ThIpHq, the invention of Abou-l'-Casem, Abdo-er-Rahman, or Az- Zarcal, as he is more usually styled, are quaintly and vaguely described in the following Moorish document: "One of the greatest towns of Spain is Toledo, and Toledo is a large and well-populated city. On all sides it is washed by a splendid river, called the Tagus Among the rare and notable things of Toledo is that wheat may be kept more than seventy years without rotting, which is a great advantage, as all the land abounds in grain and seed of all kinds. But what is still more marvellous and surprising in Toledo, and what we believe no other inhabited town of all the world has anything to equal, are some clepsydras, or 422 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN water clocks. It is said that Az-Zarcal, hearing of a certain taUsman, which is in the city of Arin, of Eastern India, and which, Masudi says, shows the hours by means of aspas, or hands, from the time the sun rises till it sets, determined to fabricate an artifice by means of which the people could know the hour of day or night, and calculate the day of the moon. He made two great po.niis in a house on the bank of the Tagus, not far from the Gate of the Tanners, making them so that they should be filled with jwater_orjemptied according, to the rise and fall of-the-jn oon . * ' In Babylonia, India, and Egypt, the clepsydra was used from before the dawn of history, especially in astronomical observations, and Latin and Greek writers refer to a type which resembled the niod£rn_sand_glass, and was used in the Courts of law to limit the length of the pleadings. The general form of the clepsydra, which Pliny ascribed to Scipio Nasica, consisted essentially of ajloat, which slowly rose by the tricklings of water from above through a small hole in a plate of metal. As the float rose it pointed to a scale of hours at the side of the water vessel ; or, in the more elaborate forms, moved^ wheel by jiieajis of a ratchet, and thus turned a -hand -cui-.a^ dial. The Moorish recounter of the wonders of the water clocks of Toledo tells us that its movements^Avere regula:ted by the moon. As soon as the moon became visible by means of invisible conducts, the water began to flow into the ponds, and, by day rise, the ponds were four-sevenths full. At night another seventh was added, so that by day or night the ponds continued to increase in water a seventh every twenty-four hours, and were quite full by the time the moon was full. On the 14th of the month, when the moon began to fall, the ponds also fell in like proportion. On the 2 1st of the month they were half empty, and on the 29th 4^3 ■i.:-' j; /:r:^^'^^ :<:!• '\\v^f MtKJKISII SWdKP TOLEDO 42s completely so. The exact working of those clepsydras, however, is lost, as a bungling astronomer, who was deputed by Alfonso '* the Learned" to examine them and discover the secret, broke the delicate machinery, and was forthwith dubbed a Jew by the indignant and exasperated Moors. Beyond the walls of the city is a stretch of fertile land beside the Tagus, which is called the Garden of the King ; and at the further end of it is the counlxy palace of Galiana. This pleasure house is of a later date than the palace of the same name within the city ; but, like that debased edifice, it_js_a-niiiu its walls of extreme thickness, flanked with two massive towers, only remaining to represent what was once "A palace lifting to eternal summer Its marble walls, from out a glossy bower Of coolest foliage, musical with birds." In the War of Independence the French soldiers made a ruin of the one-time magnificent Casa de Vargas, which was built by Juan de Herrera, and has been described by Antonio Ponz' as one of the architectural splendours of Toledo. Ponz tells us that ** the facade is perfect Doric, of exquisite marble, with fluted columns on either side, and the pedestals have military emblems in bas-relief. The frieze consists of helmets, heads of bulls, and goblets. The coat of arms above the cornice is most beautiful, and the women's forms, seated on each side, are life-size. Nothing could be finer than the details, as well as the whole of this fa9ade, and for sure it is the most serious, the most lovely, and most finished of all I have seen in Toledo. You enter a spacious courtyard with lofty gallerijes running round it above and below the lower gallery, sustained by Doric pillars and by the upper Ionic columns. The staircase is truly regal, and likewise the various inner chambers. They T 426 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN contain different chimney pieces, ornamented with graceful fancies executed in bas-rehef; and thus, in the lower quarters, as in the principal, are other galleries with columns like those of the courtyard, with delicious views of the meadows and the Tagus." In the most miserable quarter of the town, far up above the river, the visitor may see some huge blocks of stone, and a few broken arches — all that remains of the once magnificent Mooridi-palace of HenryLof, Aragon, lord of Villena. Henry of Aragon was an enlightened prince and erudite scholar, and the possessor of a superb collec- tion of hooka,, which were publicly burnt on the plea that their owner had intercourse with the devil. Don Enrique is said to have used the subterranean chambers and passages of the palace as a meeting-place for witches, and here he is supposed to have entertained his Satanic majesty. Samuel Levi, Pedro the Cruel's treasurer, turned the palace vault into a strong-room, but the prince, in a needy moment, proved stronger ; and the Toledans, following the example of their king, completed the sacking of the mansion. The Duke of Escalona, in the reign of Charles Quint, burnt the palace to the ground, and fled the city with his family, rather than give house-room to the treacherous Bourbon, the Constable of France, at the bidding of his royal master. There is in the little plaza._of_SantaJ[sal)el, a half- obliterated Arabian inscription, wishing "Lasting prosperity and perpetual glory to the master of this edifice." This in- scription identifies the ruin as the palace of King Pedro. The beautiful Casa de Mesa bears scarcely a trace of the exquisite Moorish workmanship which characterised the palace of the Dukes of Alva ; it is impossible to determine from the dilapidated Casa de las Tormerias whether it was originally built for a Moorish palace or a mezquita ; while > X UJ I- < -J Q. be •c a I TOLEDO 427 some few scraps of Moorish inscription in the wood-work of a ruined wall still testify to the origin of the Casa de Munarriz. The alcazar, which was twice destroyed by fire, is represented by the fa9ades, the three towers, the patio, and the enormous staircase — perhaps the only parts of the building that were not rebuilt by Charles Quint. The edifice commenced by that monarch, and completed by Philip II., was for long the most splendid and colossal palace in Spain. Staremberg's troops destroyed the build- ing by fire in 1710 ; and, a century later, the French troops fired the structure which Carlos III. had recomposed out of the ashes of Charles V.'s alcazar. The Casa de Mesa, the palace of Estevan de Ulan, is reduced to a single chamber of exquisite Moorish workmanship ; the remaining Moorish part of the Taller del Moro is used as a common workshop; the regal staircase of the alcazar, so wide that a whole army might march up its noble steps, ends in space. As with the palaces^fJColedo, so it is with its teniples \ — the traces of Moorish art are nearly all defaced or ) ohlitfirated. Tlie masque, which was replaced by the church of San Roman, possesses the purest mudejar steeple of Toledo, erected by Esteban de Ulan, and another, if smaller, Moorish steeple, adorns the Santa Magdalena. A nxoniimeiit, which ranks among the most interesting in Spain, is the Cjisto^deJaJ-iUz, located between the Puerta del Sol and the Puerta Bisagra — a little gem of Moorish-Byzantine architecture, which is regarded as the oldest and most perfect specimen of its kind in the Peninsula. On the walls of this church, which remains to this day a perfect mosque, the conquering Alfonso VI. hung up his shield in 1035 to commemorate the first mass that was celebrated in Toledo after the defeat of the Moors. Until Tarik came to Toledo the mosque had been a Gothic temple, before which 428 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN hung a cross^ bearing an effigy of the crucified Christ. Legend declares that two impious Jews pricked the greatly- venerated body with a dagger, and that from the wound blood instantly gushed forth. The Jews, who attempted to evade the penalty of their folly by hiding the crucifix, were traced by the stains of blood to their house, and torn to pieces by the infuriated Christians. Tradition further asserts that the Jews planned a revenge by poisoning the feet of the restored statue, but that when a woman knelt before it the figure withdrew its foot from her kiss. Many other legends attach to the sacred relic, which was removed from before the church when the city was captured by the Moors, and secreted in a cavity in the wall, with a burning lamp placed before it. When the Moorish dominion came to an end, 370 years later, and the cavity was revealed, the unreplenished lamp was found to be still alight before the crucifix in the wall of the Moorish mosque. From this legend the church takes its name of the ChdaL of the Light. This wonderful little monument, which is only twenty- two feet by twenty-five feet, possesses six-shoxt-Jiaves, which cross each other under niiie_yaujj:s, and in the centre are four short, stout columns, surmounted by sculptured capitals, from which spring sixteen heavy horseshoe arches. This forest of naves and arches comprises a niiniature_re- productioiLjDif the mosque of Cordova. Arcades, cusped in Moorish fashion, and supported on shafts, pierce the walls ; the inevitable "half orange" ceiling domes the centre, and above the principal arch is the shield of Alfonso VI., embel- lished with a white cross on a crimson ground, which the victorious king handed to Archbishop Bernardo to supply the place of a cross above the dismantled altar. This gem of MoQiislirByzantine. architecture, s^smalL^et so perfect, 429 tkAJJ KKA'.MKNT \T TAKKA«.A .SITY TOLEDO 431 so simple yet so fantastic, conveys an impression of amazing strength, and presents an admirable example of early Arabian work. The nunnery of SantaJFe, which was originally a regal Moorish palace, has been shorn of nearly all its ancient beauty, which is now only traceable in the arcaded brick- work of the wall, almost obliterated by exuberant foliage. There are still the remnants of Moorish ornamentation in the convent halls and corridors of San Juan de la Penitencia, and the influence of Moorish art is also seen in some good azulejo and the artesonade ceiling of Santa Isabel. The AlcantaraiJiridge, which was originally a Roman structure, was repaired by the Goths in 687, and rebuilt by^ the Moors of 866. It was of this Moorish bridge that Rasis el Moro wrote : " It was such a rich and marvellous work, and so subtly wrought, that never man with truth could believe there was any other such fine work in Spain." Since then it has been repaired and restored wholly, or in part, no fewer than eighL times ; and while these alterations have changed 'its style and appearance, it still remains one of the finest and most picturesque monuments of Toledo. The bridge of San Martin, which compares with it in interest and beauty, was built in 1203, and is guarded at either end with a tower and gateway adorned with Moorish arches and battlements. The bridge of San Martin gives entrance to the city through the gate of the Cambron. It is no longer Moorish, as it was in the time of Alfonso VI. ; but on its half-renaissance, half-classical architecture, one may still read the remains of some of those grandiloquent utterances of the Moorish spirit which prompted Ponz to style Toledo the city of magnificent inscriptions. It was a devout, if somewhat credulous, spirit which inspired the transcription of the following article of faith: "There is 432 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN but one God on earth, and Mohammed is His messenger. All the faithful who believe in our prophet Mohammed, and continue to kiss the hands and feet of Murabite Muley Abda Alcadar every day, will be without sin, will not be blind, nor deaf, nor lame, nor wounded ; and receiving his benediction, when the time of his death comes, will only be three days ill and dying, will go with open eyes to Paradise forgiven of all sins." Another inscription bore the following exhortation and compensatory promise : " Prayer and peace over our lord and prophet Mohammed. All the faithful, when they went to lie down in their beds, mentioning the Alfagiu Murabito Abdala, and recommending themselves to him, will enter no battle out of which they will not come victorious ; and in whatever battle against Christians they may stain their lances with Christian blood, dying that same day, will go alive and whole with eyes open to Paradise, and his descendants will remain till the fourth generation forgiven." Ths present Vi.sagra Gate, rebuilt under Charles V., dates back to the Moors. It is entirely Moorish in charac- ter, with the heavy simple features, the triple horseshoe arches and upper crenellated apertures which we associate with the first period of Morisco architecture. Through this gate, which is now blocked up, AlfQnsojyXv_entei£xLlQledo. The two graceful square towers, roofed with green and white tiles, which compose the edifice, are joined by the high turreted walls of a square courtyard, and the decorations include the Senate's dedication of the gate to Charles Quint, the sculptured arms of the emperor, a statue of St. Eugenie, two others of Gothic kings, and a life-sized angel holding an unsheathed sword. This cold, bare inventory of the ornaments of the gate convey no idea of the splendid impressiveness of the structure, the splendour and charm of PLATE XLIX. M'JoW, TOLEDO 433 which sink into comparative insignificance beside its glorious neighbour, the Gate of the Siin. This magnificent gate of rough stone, with its towers of brown granite, has been rightly described as one of the worldl§j2iasterpieces. Yet here again the pen is powerless to do justice to its beauty; and to describe its proportions and decoration is to complicate, rather than explain, the impression that is conveyed by the camera. The square towers, with their semi-circular fronts, and the great central arch resting on two Moorish columns, and the zones of ornamental arches above the horse-shaped openings, com- prise a ]Vloonsh__j^em_^gainsL^ a miracle of loveliness upon a rough and naked rampart. But how, cries Hannah Lynch, to write of this Puerta del Sol, that " thing of beauty even among crowded enchant- ments ! It is to pick one's way through superlatives and points of exclamation and call in vain on the goddess of sobriety to subdue our tendency to excess and incoher- ence. Put this matchless gate in the middle of the desert of Sahara; it would then be worth while making the frightful journey alone to look at it. However far you may have journeyed, you would still be for ever thankful to have seen such a masterpiece — incontestably a work of supreme art, perhaps the rarest thing of the world." Whether the writer intends her high eulogy to be applied generally to any "work of supreme art," or to the Puerta del Sol in particular, most people who have come under the witching influence of the art of the Moors, will not deny that it is well deserved. OS 1 r 435 I ^^ OF THE '^K UNIVERSITY MOORISH ORNAMENT \\ ' MOORISH ORNAMENT A NOTE ON THE ELEMENTS OF ARAB ART IN art, precept is subservient ; practice is supreme. The idea which may be hidden in a picture is of little moment ; it is the design, fully accomplished, which is prized. Its inspiration may become a ** light to shine before men," but it attains its paramount value only when realised. Refinement of manners and acuteness.of intellect have, in the East, nothing in common with what we call educa- tion. In this social state, ignorance, which, among us, condemns a man, may be the condition of^reat originality. The Arab tent-iiwe}ler. was, and is, often, a very superior man; for the tent is a kind of school, always open, where, from contact with educated guests who have seen men and cities, was produced an intellectual movement which led the Arab, in exchanging his nomadic life for a settled habitation, to translate the tent to a more solid form ; to commute the tent-pole for a slender marble column ; and to transform luxurious products of the loom, which had adorned his former dwelling, to a semblance of their golden tissues on fairy-decorated diapery. If the poetry and refinement of the South of Europe in modern times cannot be traced, as many authors would have us believe — notably Father Andres, a learned Spaniard, anxious to give to his own country the honour of imparting to the rest of Europe the first impulse of refinement after 440 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN the fall of the Roman Empire — to the Arabs of Spain, much must still be allowed to their influence; for their progress in refinement was hardly less brilliant and rapid than their progress in Empire. At the period of the glory of CordoYSi, which began about A.p^_75Qj and continued to the time of its conquest by the Christians in 1236, the scholars of Spain were in a higher state of cultivation than could be found elsewhere ; and if the Kingdom of Granada — the last stronghold of the Moslem — which ended in 149a, was less refined, it was perhaps more splendid and luxuriaus. The public schools and libraries of the Spanish Arabs were resorted to, not only by those of their own faith at home and in the East, but by Christians from different parts of Europe ; and Pope Sylvester the Second (Gerbet, a French- man, Pope 999-1003), one of the most remarkable men of his age, is believed to have owed his elevation to the culture he absorbedJLii_SeYille_and Cordova. Arab^art takes its place with the arts of Greece and Japan as one of the three great schools into which all styles of ornament naturally fall. Beauty and simplicity — the restrained rhythm and order which form the essential foundation of Greek art — is as distinct from the vivacious realism and unsymmetrical, haphazard decoration of the Japanese, as from that elegance and complexity produced by geometrical JJimlutiQns symmejirically constructed, which constitute the basis of Moorish art. These three styles have been compared by Monsieur J. Bourgoin, in his Elements of Arab Art, to the three kingdoms of Nature. Greek art he likens to the animal kingdom, the Japanese art to the vegetable kingdom, and Arabian art, from the symmetry which recalls the crystallisatioa_of minerals in its uniformity of configuration, and its elementary structure, he compares with the niLneral_kingdom. UJ e c •c a cbfc Liiii, UNIVERSITY MOORISH ORNAMENT 441 In the art of the Arabs the inspiration is completely inciependervLjDiLJ^^ The Arab artist proceeds from within to the exterior; he sets himself problems, and transfers them by means of the compass atld^xule. The decorative impulse of Arab art consists of geometrical diagrams either caxyed Jjlio^ielkf, or inlajd, or sirnply„laid flat Since the inspiration is dry, and purely abstract, the artistic development is slight and unimportant ; and, since the motive is restricted, Arab decorative art has remained simple, but still of an incomparable elegance, because the harmonj^ between inspiration and execution is perfect. By their creed Mohammedan artists were forbidden to represent living forms, yet they adopted the principles they found in Nature, and developed them with absolute fidelity. Thus^ as I showed in dealing with the architecture of the Alhambra, in surface decoration by the Moors the lines flow from a parent stem; every ornament, however distant, can be traced to its branch and root. In all cases we find the lines radi- ating from a parent_gtem, as we may see exemplified in Nature by the human hand, or in a leaf. We are never offended, as in modern practice, by the random introduction of an ornament set down without a reason for its existence. However irregular the expanse they have to decorate, they always commence by dWiding the £eld into equal areas, and round these main lines they fill in their details, which invari- ably return to their parent stem, a system which proves them to have been absolute masters of space. In the introduction to my volume on the Alhambra, I emphasised this fact, that the Moors ever had regard to the first principle of architecture — to decorate construction, never to construct decoration. In Arabian architecture, not only does the decoration arise naturally out of the construc- tion, but the constructive idea is carried out in every detail 442 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN of the ornamentation of the surfaces. A superfluous or useless ornament is never found in Moorish decoration ; ^Y§IX-^E^"5^^^it_-ajise&-jiatiii::alLy and inevitably from the parent design. The general forms were first laid down ; they were subdivided by general lines ; the interstices were then filled in with ornament, to be again subdivided and enriched for closer inspection. The principle was carried out with the greatest refinement, and the harmony and beauty of all Moorish ornamentation is derived from its observance. The highest distinction was thereby obtained ; the detail never interfering with the general form. Seen at a distance, the m ajn, , Jin£& st r i ke -th^__£yg ; on nearer approach, the ornamentation comes into the composition ; and a minute inspection reveals the detail on the surface of the ornaments themselves. Monsieur A. Rhone, in his UEgypie a Petites jfourneeSj holds that, " seeing the marvellous resources which the Arabs have found in geometry for decorating surfaces, one regrets less for art that the laws of Islamism have forbidden them, as an idolatrous act, to introduce representations of animated forms. Although these laws were not so strictly observed as is generally believed, who knows, if in turning the Arabian artists away from sculpture and statuary, they have not been the means of preserving this special and almost transcendant aptitude that the Semites have for all subtle combinations, and especially for those of geometrical numbers, lines, and figures?" Although the principles of Moorish art are so rigid and severe, the Arabs have not remained exempt from exterior influence, but have adapted and incorporated foreign feeling into their art, and modified it to their purpose. A note by the late Owen Jones greatly emphasises this fact. He says : — ** When the Mohammedan religion and civili- PLATE Lll. 1 >r7 i wn\\fS^\ ^ai Pam-Uinff MOORISH ORNAMENT 443 sation rose with such astonishing rapidity in the East, the Arabs, in their mosques, made use of the materials which they found ready to their hands in the ruins of old Roman buildings which they purposely destroyed ; they took columns with their Corinthian capitals, etc., and adapted them to the arrangement required for their own temples. In their subse- quent works they did not, as we should have done, continue to copy and reproduce the models which were at first so convenient to them ; but, applying to them their own peculiar feelings, they gradually departed from the original model, to such an extent at last, that but for the intermediate steps we should be unable to discover the least analogy between them. Yet by this process the capitals of their columns can be traced back to the Corinthian order which they, in the first instance, found so abundantly for their use." Arab art must ever remain distinct from every other school and style, because the essential foundation of it is fixed and limited. Now, those who resign themselves to a style of art reduce themselves to formulas, to copies, or to diagrams. Greco-Romanart has its formulas of ordinance and proposi- tions ; Chino-Japanese art has its characteristic copies ; and Syro- Arabian art its abstract and geometrical diagr^^is. The general elements of Arabian art, as applied to architecture and decoration, consist of stalactites, inierlwinings, and ornaments. Stalactites, which are at the same time orna- ments and members of architecture, are employed in corbelling, in coving, and in pendentives, and are modelled and superposed by tapia, or cut in wood and placed side by side, or opened into hollows by superficial casings in wire and tressing. The intertwinings which embellish the surfaces are carved and trimmed in splitboards of carpentry, or laid in compartments, or carved in open work, or engraved in stone, wood, and metal ; or set in filigree, vignettes, or 444 MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN mosaics. The ornaments, which divide themselves into decoration by embroidery or embellishment in sections, reduce themselves to a small number of elements, or flower- work cut flat in outline. The outlines, complete in the boundary which limits them, are quite characteristic. They do not resemble in any way, except in so far as the unalterable laws of geometry decree, the outline drawn by Europeans, nor the cursive traits used by the Chinese and Japanese. All Arab ornament is by involution of lines; in short, it may be said to be entirely geometric. The art of the Mohammedan, so powerful in appeal to the imagination, not only by beauty and grace, but by the doctrine of the Koran inscribed in their temples on every side in ornamented characters, — so admirably traced that they appear to form part of a perfected design proclaiming the power of Allah, and impressing upon the believer respect for the laws and the love of virtue ; — produces an effect little short of magical. Still does that art accompany its religion in a lingering death. Crushed by the rapid strides which surrounding nations have made in the progress of civilization, and which have outrun and ruined it, yet do a few bright emanations appear, to show that as in religion they are faithful to their creed, so in art do their crumbling monuments preserve their shattered remains on which the observer still may see, in deep characters, the chronicles of the times. In the illustrations which accompany these brief notes, the Arab's mastery of line in the composition of design may be studied, and its mystery revealed ; but to reduce these geometrical intertwinings to their original elements demands patience, application, and very much time; At first sight these diagrams may appear monotonous, but each is constructed^on a particular theme. Most of them spread PLATE LI 1 1. Blank Window. MOORISH ORNAMENT 445 throughout the Orient, and may be more particularly studied in the Moorish monuments ia_Spain, where they are employed indifferently in carvings, in mosaic and_inja]d^ work, in application to chased bropze, and in compartments of decoration and emJbroidery. The infinite variety the artists are able to introduce while working on strict rules, which admit of no exception, is the result of instinct perfected by centuries of practice. That in their work was something to be learned, as well as to be felt, is evident from the Moorish poet's exhortation to us to attentively contemplate the adornments of their palaces, and thereby reap the benefit of a commentary on decoration. It is, then, for the benefit of students who would know something more of Arabian orna- mentation than can be derived from the sensation produced by broad effects, and for lovers of the fine arts who would understand the inwardness of Moorish refinement and reduce its mysteries to their primary bases, that the accompanying diagrams have been reproduced. At foot of each diagram is added a short explanatory note; but it is expedient for the student to give consideration to the plan which is, in every case, set out in dotted lines. By this means, he will discover, if he approaches his subject with a free mind, that his task will offer less difficulty than would appear at the outset. To minutely describe the con- struction of each diagram, and, at the same time comply with the stringent rules of geometry, would occupy much too great a space ; nor would the result, perhaps, be proportioned to the labour. < c yyyyyyyyy \M\M1M\ [aialMfElEU [sEJBiajBmJBTaJE 1 ICi j^ ^ ^ nmuiPi|Bigmg '^M^ !^l^/^$ iiSiSii^gl I GREEK. RECTILINEAR l' GREEK, CURVILINEAR. 2' CHINESE. RECTILINEAR, y GREEK. CURVILINEAR 3 and 4. GREEK. ALTERNAT- ING PATTERN 5,6,7,8,9,10, GREEK. INTER- CALARY PATTERNS 18 ORIBK. ALTBRNATING PATTERN 19 CHINKNR 11 CHINKHE 12 AHHYKIAN. 13 POMPKIAN 14 GREEK ao CHINR^R. 15 GREEK ai ARABIAN 16 GREEK " CMINBHK. 17 CHINESE, ALTEBMATIliO tj GRBBK. PATTERN. 24 RBNAIHUAMCB ARABIAN. CHINESE CHINRSE. PERSIAN. POMPRIAN CHINKSE. CHINRHK GREEK w PLATE LIV. Ornaments on the WallSt House of Sanchez. 449 ^/^^/^/^/^/^/^ ^{^/^x^/kxw^x^ 'zAs'zAsVV^sVz* &9es3&9esa&9esa( I, 7, 3, 4. r.REKK ANP »5 f6. OALLO-ROMAK 1,4 WINtllCHKKV ALBANIAN »7. 18. 19, ITALIAN '; ARAKIAN 3. 6. 7. 8, RBNAISSANCK 20 ITALIAN. 2O. tiHKKK. 9. to. If. 12, l.{. 14. ITALIAN ii. 22. ITALIAN Fa.. - ^ . 451 J i faLIJLIJLIJLliJIii nj|^^ i^. m mmi-m-imm 17 II 5SSE 1,2. 3, 4, 5^6. 7,8, to, «3 ARAltlAlt. ARABIAN. M ARABIAN. 9 CHINESE. »3 GRFKK. ALTERNATING II RBNAISSANCK. PATTERN. 12 GREEK. i6 <.KEEK. «7 \lv\tt%\. A\1t A U A III A \ |8 <»RKEK. 19 ARABIAN. 20 AMERICAN. ANCIENT loTTF.HV, ^' OP -> \ UNfvr PLATE LV. ornament In panels on the Wall*. 453 I, 2. BGYPTIAN. 3 EGYPTIAN NECKLACB. 4 ASSYRIAN. 3 POMPEIAN. 6 ITALIAN. to INCKKTAIN 7 EGYPTIAN tl ARAMIAN. 8 rRIKZK. I8TH CENTIUV, li KRIKZK. IhTH CKNTURV. 9 GMEEK. c-TH£ ^y L-RSITY o- 1 LiFOR^ 455 HMEJlBiiBiiE BMMdMMdSE 1,^.3.4. FROM PAINTED II CMIXEJiB. VA8B8 5 GREEK. 6 ORIENTAL KILICRBB. 7. a. GREEK. 9 PERSIAN. 10 GREEK. 12 ORIENTAL PILIGRBB. 13 INDIAN 14, 15. PBRHIAN. 16 ARABIAN. 17 GREEK. 18 PER51AN 19 ORIENTAL CHAHING ao ARABIAN. ai PERMIAN 23 TURKI«»M BJ ORKRK. 24 PAftHRMRNTRRIR. 23 NBAPOLITAN. 457 35^^5538555235552! KV€V..,>M^J4t.,jCI»««ER THESE ARRANr.BMPVT^ APPORI, EXCILLEMT EXAMPLES OP THE EGOLESS DIVERSITY OP oEonrrBic pormj*. l^i^l^ > -J o C j:: o ^ liJ < -1 c a; 5 c o £ 1 o « « « » 0 n u « n o tJttUU "8 - ^ I »:#:4»:«:«^»:«:4»:#:«' »:# .%'#*4iMU> %^ #« %i UJ < ve: < "S PLATE LXI Mosaic Dado round the internal walls of the Mosque. Mosaics from the Mosque and the Hall of the Baths. T^e Mosaic Dados round th« walls of the Mosque appear to be the only poKionsof the ancient private Mosque attached to the Palace which have been preserved intact in their original situation. The motto of the Kings of Granada. "There la no conqueror but God." was replaced by "iVcc plus ultra" of Charles V.. when the Mosque was converted by him Into a chapel. The beautiful Mosaic at the top of the plate is plaoed round the fountain of the Chamber of Repose of the Baths. PLATE LXII Azulejos. Painted Tiles. On the floor of one of the alcoves of the Hall of Justice are to be seen ths painted tiles delineated in the oentre of this plate. PLATE LXIII. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦3 ♦♦ ♦♦^♦♦♦♦♦^♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦^ ♦♦♦*♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦< ♦♦♦^' - ♦♦♦^^♦♦♦♦# ♦♦♦ Mosaics in the Baths. PLATE LXIV. Mosaic from the portico of the Cenenahfe. Ty J 4^3 I. 2,3, VARIATIONS ON A CHINKSB Motif 4. 5, 6, VARIATIONS ON A tlinlif HISPANO- ARAHIAN. 7. 8. 9, VARIATIONft ON A moHl . hVRCVAII AMI A>f, 10. II, 12. VABIATIONH ON A moUf. OAl.U» ROMAN. X CAVA! ''l - - ."*' ^- M • / 465 /aV^VaW^ ■ ^^^ 900090000009000000000000 •xmxao>xoao»; 1 SIMPLE PLAIT, ITNDtJLATKn, 2 IXJCBLK PLAIT. 3 SIMPLE PLAIT. INTERSECTEP 4 PLAIT, FROM A GREEK VASK, 5 REDOUBLED PLAIT, GREEK 6 INFLECTED PLAIT. GREEK 7 INFLECTED PLAIT, GREEK. 8 yt'ADRl'PLKD PLAITl*. INTERLACKD. ItlCll.lAN. q SICILIAN'. 10 TRIPLE PLAIT, (»RKEK. 11 TRIPLE PLAIT. GREEK, 12 DIVERJ»IFIKI» PLAIT. NKAPt»LITAN. tj GRERK. 14 (»RRRR. 15 ARABIAN. t6 PRRnlAN (THREE PLAITH, INTERHECTBD) 17 GRIIK KM't^ '/ ^ /.^^ /^ -^y* K m ^X)S^ ^f^^(?m iti^ *ia "feW/-:5 S3 ^C-Ni..i<>) y 467 Egy^tO'Arahitim hnol. »r Nft-mtrk. , .,.R.VED FKOM THE 2 VA..ETV Of FEUC«.m>.0 5 OCTAOOMAt 7 ««;;"• »;*""''*^ F«NTAOO.N 3 I. TEHK>M,MKT«.CAI. 6 HtrfAOOl.At -TAOO«AL. ^ OFT!-:^ ^y 469 IndthSyro-Arabinn Knot, or Nit-work. 4 ntRiVKD wnom tmi NgOAU : tmb aholm nutna DtVinsn. Ttft RKHCLTINO KAVA nSTKRMINB TMK riOVRBH MV IMTKN»KCTION. 1 SQUARES AND OCTAGONS. 2 DERIVED FROM SQUARES. 3 DERIVED FROM THE SQUARE: FROM THE CENTRE A DODECAGON AND OTHER FIGURES ARE 5 ANALOOOUE TO flOURE 2. FORMED BY SUE-DIVISION. * T«IOOKOM«TmiCAL 7 M.XAOONAL fj y OF THF ' 471 ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ 1^:^ c^fjsi c^T^c^^ d^ <$i *A?KSA^l^Ai^l^Af^i ^0^ 1, l'. BRICK FACINCH ritOM iCOliKTrA. 2, 3, 4. ARAHIAN. 5 |ArAMtt»K. 6 CHKCO-AMVIIIAN 7 ARAMAM. H CNIKRRK. PLATE LXVIII. 475 V. S^p-^cie W/^-'f:'^9^^ 1 AKAHIAN (UAMASCLS). 2 CEILING, LOUIH XIII. 3. 4. 3. ARABIAN (DAMASCUS). 6 INDIAN. 477 I. 2. 3. 4- 5' ^' 7' *• A«*»'^''' 479 £8ltl£'i|i £r!i m w^mw^^'K^-m ':£m^Mw:jL ''Wl -A jmi"Mi-^Mi ■m,mmmm _irQn(_)f-(~:c(_ I INCRUSTATIOS ON POTTEKY, FROM OIRON. 2 RENAISSANCE. 3 MEXICAN. 4 CHINBHE. 3 EOVPTIAN. 6 ARABIAN. 7. 8. 9. EARLY TILES, FROM DAMASCIS. ROME. AMI) FLORENCE RESPECTIVELY. lO ITALIAN. II. II'. EriVPTIAN. 12 ITALIAN. V .|8i I FKRSIAN. Z ARABIAN CBILING, ritOM CAIRO. 4 BYZANTINB. 3 CHINBBB. J CBILINO, PAINTBI) BY DUBAN. 6 POMPRIAN. X X UJ I- < Q. 483 L^piSpiapiS IJiiniiiSilJini SillMjiiliflJi ISlMiilm IMflM U^/^ vi>^i^ viyijgy v<^^43:j vayx:^!^ f®iSf®IiJ®|27®H^Ii7i &l5[®0®^@Iif®M®I' }^( M®tm W9^®t3®B^^i I. 2. LACE-WORK. J. 3'. KOYFTIAN. 4. V, «OYWIAN. 5. 6- KOYPTIAN. 485 ^^^^^m. MMi m I, 2, 3, ANGLO-SAXON. 4 KOYPTIAN. 8TRANGBLY ANALOGOUS TO NtJMBKR ). 3, 6. 7. ANGLO-SAXON. 8 KOVrTIAN. 487 1 ARABIAN. 2 ITALIAN. 3 RKNAItfltANCK. 4 ARAHIAN. 5 ARABIAN. 6 ARABIAN 489 I. 2. 3, FROM THE CHURCH Of 8T CROIX, jSRUMALEM 4 mClLIAN. 5. 6. 7. 8, ARABIAN 9 10, CHIHELLINOH OH HTONK. jKRt'HALKM. il MARBLE CHASING. JKRl'iiALKM. tl. ij. ARABIAN CHAMIN(.». ON COPPER. PLATE LXXI. mu mrzi^^xmrn'-'' t( •Hi H^ * w k Panel tit tht) t. 491 I. 2. 3. "PALMETTBfl" rROM TMK PROWH OF dahobuks (NILB BOATK) 4. 5. 6. y, 8. ORBBK. prom rxamplbs at athrnh. 49:h I-— 9, THIS PLATE IR DBVOTKO TO CVRVILINKAK PIOURBS. CHIBPLV ntOM ATHRNK. FIGURE 7 IS FROM A MURAL DRCOMTtON AT FOMPEII 495 en < Ou H O u CO Q < < o o < X w t +^^^i' k I 496 497 ^98 >^ XX XX XX x: XX XX^XX:.XX w o >^ XX xx.xx.x:^ ^. 499 < « 5i < 2 H X Q < 2 o 2 w < 500 O M H Oi X U. W < X K Cu H H H > W K H Pi t1 <: OS ^ •-) (4 P kJ ?■ o 1^ 0! 7! w < O J'. « ?! (X. o r/J (1 0 H < H O H H H H W c; <; t/5 W hj H (V o M ■^ H IS W o: ril < H ^ X X US I- < 50I 2 > < Bt X * - fc as oc 2 g X « O O z ^ J H J 5 5 J r- J ^ 2 < Z O < " Z « Z S z 5 z SS^-xw ;j Q tfl f =* 5 _ o 2 o 2 z w i J " M < 5 a S £ " H IS 3! >: as >■ < (fl t > X 1 w ►• X o * i2 ® • •• iS « S ;„•£!« S^ f- ^ 2 £ £ ^ '• " ^ S S ? 2 « ^ i- 2 z ft. 2 w 0 S 3t O j^ «». Z W i — > Z < 2 *^ ri - 6 -• H ? 8 502 503 > o Q o * td CO td ^ « *J z w o " > 2 X aa < Z ^ K 504 505 5o6 > X X LU < ■5 'S. 6 507 5o8 o S H g W z 5 J W H 0- SOS w « o S ^ " g: w fe 5 H O z; o I" ^ t/5 < S w o 2 '^^ ^'> ^ J ^ >< t) ^, S y g 509 5IO O S o ^ H a 5 H 73 ;_ Q H ^ • OS "^ W ^ « ^ ^ < 9, < - d. O? W W W 52 K M H H Q td 05 ^ 9 & N O PO 05 2 W 5> H w < < Oi t3 en X W H H > X X UJ < -J Q. e 9 3 1 •5. O 511 < H Z fid Z z § o < 512 H (/5 en M Z. o w J m o tn (I. o w n OS Q c; > W H W o 2 ^ O W > X X c B 9 "o O o '5. ft O OF ^ // 513 5M w o PLATE LXXVI SEVILLE. Socle of the Entrance Arch to the Antechapel. 515 = n U H « Ul W H « U 7. X w 2 •" a H g a * - % y >. a i « ^ :^ u ^ y. ^ ^ H U H 2 5i6 517 5i8 519 520 a ^ Q < c H w 0 u ft! ft! < W < H S H "x z (/J PQ z n O Q n o W 0 z < 1^' 0 < < H o Z o 0 OS < S:: ■?■ o H < < z < H o t3 hJ -f o Z OJ < w < w ;:; w z S 5 < < < o w Oi w (I4 z W u Q Z (Jt c/} W K H w H < z < ft: s tn b H z o a; o H Z > O W o < o G ft! K H w [!< Z :? K m « U H 5 > 0 (/2 O z O H o Di 521 522 di H O X H w C n 4. ,* Oi H O u U4 r") c< (J) U o ll4 ^ S (/3 q H < w z z < H a. z o H ?: pi » < ^ H C>1 P. t/3 z ?! n o O l-l o ^ Oi s z Z H >< o H OJ ?; K H •< H H ,1 0. S a. H t" z K o M o oi K r1 Z H •< O H f/I g O o Z pa o: Q J ^ H W en M z H Q < to Socle of the Entrance Arch to the Chapel. 523 (\il 524 5-^5 z'i s- ■ IP m X m « < o H ft. 526 Ui > CO 2 o or THE o UrJIVERSiTY o ^^01 527 U 1 -.28 < o PLATE LXXX. SEVILLE. Socle in the Interior of the Chapel- 529 530 PLATE LXXXI. SEVILLE. Socle In the Interior of the Chapel. 532 U <«: H ? V. w J 7, (d o r K r. ^■5 H 03 < W M M p o V. o Oi H t/3 (4 B Q H o OS < H H O 05 C ) H (J (/3 s H O w OS o o H H S w as 9. d- 533 534 >: •- KP N. ^ <■ ;.*.-. [<.' /'. yv. ^ ■/ \ .- ' •. j^'^.^st^ "• •/ \ u / ^x- . ' Sc \. y \ / ^^ CA ./'\^ ■ • ^^r>J,^^ \. -•-•?/• ./ . . >»>^ .. \J TJs^*''^ Y :<•-: •\ ■■ 5v^»^ / \ >^ /\ ^\^*\. / ■\\. ^"^C - ■..K ■■/. N. / -x .y^ ■•\'. /\'"-' \r -v .; \ ^y<\i_ Y" "'-,.•: : : ••••.• ■ /\ \p^ /••• .,••■ /\ ^\^>>^ i-'.-'-Sc ^- ^ \v X; A ./'\''^' ■" •■ : .• .-'v /\ Aj; >^''^\. / 5. ■•'• " " • . ../ ^sL'Xl! \/ -;VSi;:-. '/ ^^^^St^X. \/ r¥ ^> ^ '.. Y1 ••.... -^ )A tO* >>" % 4 ^;.:;''--^ %^ X? H Z W o < w o< « c/: '"' < 'Si u < w Q ifi o W Q ^ o « s t < 535 < < w Q H M M m oc o H OC v. ad w U X §1 X < Q - M O td H *=» « o H < X U a Q IS A at X ftj - w td K (o Z 5S = « a ^ » r: iiis 5 o < « 06 .-. ?< ^ 8 -J y 's Bd t$ W H *« « < < « A < « z ^r ad - !« H X ^ J H < P< X at H Q 536 2 ^ k>4 ^ s S < o i5 O O (K w < Q X S o w ^ Q a o Q Q « w 3 o S « & 5 « f1 < < o « < « 2* o > w z »{ O m o 537 538 l-HH•^ SL-s^^Sfes?. tf) o CO o 2 mmm0 ViSf^ 539 I 3 a < -a 3S 2o M < 540 w s o o < > < w §s < o o ^ 541 0 H - o 'I "3 IK < X X ^ r. U J "* ^ < M M hL' S n 542 Q u Q 2 543 544 o z w Q H > i-s ^ ,^ w Z 2 H < t^ w H 2 J w a- ^ ^ w Q w o Oi M Q W I w 8 t W H .^ '\ ^ X / --i Mi 545 546 «'5w oi 2 « H < D S w E W H W sis W '"^ w W H S K > o H j;; o o w PLATE LXXXIV, Part of celling. of a Portico. for THP '■^A> 547 548 549 550 ys^ y. o !'■ >w' u- 0 fc^ (*< Z \ I g°.< ^^ . 00-lS^ VN^y 2 5 ^ w J '•' / J O H ■' ■■/■ . W Q < W ■ / ■' m M M t/3 /j^'\-. s Q ^-^ 2 jf p Z ?'. *= ^^^^^1 ?: w w Q X gwS < V -^ •^Bf-5 A / ssg^ o W J ^\^ ►J z ^ < •< 5 o z ^ J ^ o \^^ ^^z!^ "■. \ « OS O o ^<^ux O i4 < Q / ■ ' \ ^ s b o i/^^ ag§« yi ■ ? < ^ 1 y^ O BS w « H as O H 551 552 r> £§i< A 'r-^-it \ X o w S ^ UCTI SETT \GRA RE D s/ a o " a Tv ^«« = > ^ .J- W M l5 °sSs — y a: t« 7 - < , S z J d w = ■* w w S z ctf S 7 o < ~ < K J \ . O O J PLAN. DODE , WHI ARTIA LAR THE STAR LY P 7*«^ ►^ 7. /^> O oi o -V r ^. w i 553 554 y " H S ^ S y z 555 556 r. o 0 ■< H ^ U w u H O ^^ H n ta H O t_, w X H a H W < O C/1 M W E C) Ul r. w W w J S ■ as < 5 w ^ < ^^ w £ ^ ^ w ops ai H "^ 557 558 V: s s V W H . \" H W V / \ H W ^ : < H • : ^ '73 w > w ^ • S o S 6 K X a; H o tn o J ^: cfi 2; fe H K W t/3 >\ , . o o w /^\ / Q " 2; oi V w 5 w A H ^ K W / \ < W K / \ O fe fc H / \ a o s ' \ Z tx- ^ . AS I HAL CIRC INTS s. > w w H a, X Q ffi ^ ^N I^H (_ pq w «,,^N >^o > n °i^^ \ / 5 o<:^ v ^^-° ^ii# OlH Qi «3 0 < 559 nt 56o H M o « « w < s < o o W o Z H < w 56i 562 < w 01 o 563 i64 "^..^^^^^sX^ /r\\\// 'x //\\^J/P\^^^i(.^ I o a H H W K ^ H o w 2 o - S w ^ o H s o ^ S w w 565 566 5^7 mzLX ut t I! as; < 568 < H o W O oj < < o 5^ 570 5 W w Z S 'X 9 o Q H 571 572 11 573 i^ 3 t si 574 575 Kl 576 577 57S 579 < 2 2 I" g SB h u r. o 58o 1 58i 582 583 584 < > 585 o G ■ S S "no 8EC5 s St 'H i < ? « Mi S 586 178 LOZENGE PLAN, WHERE THE GREAT AXIS IS THREE TIMES THAT OF THE LESSER AXIS. SUB-DIVIDE AS IN PLAN. TRACE CIRCUMFERENCES EQUAL AND TANGENT, IN WHICH ARE INSCRIBED REGULAR PENTAGONS. THE REST IS EASILY FOLLOWED. 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