Southern Spain Part 5

"One million for Ma.s.ses of Thanksgiving, 700,494 ducats for secret service, etc.

"And one hundred millions for the patience with which I have listened to the King, who demands an account from the man who has presented him with a kingdom"!

This singular balance-sheet sufficiently shows the temper of the grandees of Spain even in the days of the New Monarchy. Cordova has reason to be proud of her eponymous hero. She has not been very fruitful in great men. She has produced no painters of eminence, unless Pablo de Cespedes may be cla.s.sed among such; but Mme. Dieulafoy reminds us that to Juan de Mena, a native of the place and a courtier of Juan II., Spanish poetry is deeply indebted:

"His great work, 'The Labyrinth,' may in a measure be compared with that part of the 'Divina Commedia' where the Florentine places himself under the protection of Beatrice. Accompanied by a beautiful young woman personifying Providence, the poet witnesses the apparition of the worthies of History and Legend, and amuses himself in sketching their portraits. At times the style becomes heavy and pedantic, at others the touches of the pencil have a vigour and simplicity altogether Dantesque. Before Juan de Mena, the Castilian muse had never taken so daring a flight; and in spite of the defects of the general scheme, the untasteful phraseology, and the measure, 'The Labyrinth' abounds in conceptions and episodes where energy blended with beauty reveals a genius of the first order."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORDOVA--COURTYARD OF AN INN]

From poetry to leather the transition may seem abrupt, but it is to be feared that our city has derived more renown from the latter than the former. The stamped and gilded leather of Cordova was highly esteemed all over the civilized world from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. Whether the industry was introduced by the Moors it is idle to inquire; long after their departure it formed the princ.i.p.al business and source of revenue of the Spaniards of the city. A powerful guild laid down strict rules as to apprenticeship, and regulated the quality and quant.i.ty of the manufacture. Terrible penalties were enforced against the tanner who made use of the hides of animals that had died of disease. The kings of Spain considered trunks or other objects bound in Cordova leather gifts very suitable for their fellow-princes.

The Catholic kings, absurdly enough, forbade its exportation to the New World, not wishing to deprive the mother-country of goods of such price.

With protection on this scale, we are not surprised to learn that the industry began to decline. Cordova was at length surpa.s.sed in its own line by Venice and other cities. The rich specimens of its work which adorned the mansions of its old n.o.blesse were sold and dispersed all over the world, upon the general impoverishment of the kingdom in the eighteenth century. Then came the sack of the city, a hundred years ago, by the army of Dupont. Time has spared the famous race of Cordovan horses, and many a poor hidalgo rides into the town on a steed which if sold in London might redeem his shattered fortunes.

I have said a great deal about Cordova and its t.i.tles to remembrance; but it must be confessed that there is little enough to see in it. The churches present no features of interest, except the Colegiata de San Hipolito, modernized in 1729, which contains the tombs of Ferdinand IV.

and Alfonso XI. Nor is walking through the city an exercise altogether pleasing, as the streets which were the first paved in Europe, in 850, might also claim to be the worst paved in the world. The stones are so sharp and pointed that in parts you have to skip from one to the other, like a bear dancing on hot iron--an original but ungraceful method of locomotion. A drive in the surrounding country is productive of more pleasure. The neighbourhood is a Paradise of fertility, and sets one wondering what becomes of all the money that this must bring in and represent. Spain and Greece are very poor countries, but I do not think that Spaniards and Greeks are, for the most part, very poor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORDOVA--OLD HOUSES NEAR THE RIVER]

CHAPTER IV

GRANADA

Over two thousand feet above the sea stands the ancient city of Granada, once the teeming centre of the kingdom of the Moors and now a town of memories eloquent of the grandeur of older days. The province bearing its name is bounded on the north by sterile ranges, while close to the southern seaboard stretch the huge shoulders and serrated peaks of the n.o.ble Sierra Nevada, rivalling in height the chief summits of the Pyrenees. Between these ranges spread fertile vegas, or plains, rising here and there to over a thousand feet, a district of vineyards and olive groves, and semi-tropical plants find a favourable habitat.

Granada, though on the verge of an arid territory, is in a strip of great fertility, watered by the Genil and the Darro, the latter--the Hadarro of the Moors--a stream that is heavily taxed by the farmers for purposes of irrigation. Theophile Gautier praised the river of Granada for its beauty, but since his day the stream has shrunk, and nowadays the volume of water is insignificant, especially during a dry summer.

The waters of the Darro have a reputation for their healing qualities, and cattle that drink from it are said to recover quickly from diseases.

Hence, in the ancient speech, the river had the t.i.tle of "The Salutary Bath of Sheep." Under the Moors the environs of Granada were in the highest state of cultivation, and they are still very productive. The land yields plenteous wine and oil. The chief crops are grains of various sorts. Hemp and flax flourish, and oranges, lemons, and figs are a source of income to the agriculturists. Granada is also famed for its mulberry trees, whose leaves provide food for the silk caterpillar, though the silk trade is in a state of sad decay.

The soil around the city never rests. There is no waste of land. Oranges and pomegranates grow profusely. The cactus is cultivated for the production of the cochineal insect. Clovers yield several cuttings each year in this fecund territory.

In the neighbouring mountains there are rich veins of marble, and jasper and amethyst are found. Yet the mining industry in the Sierra Nevada remains to be developed. The Granadines are hardly a commercial population, though numerous crafts are practised in their city.

Factories for the production of sugar from beetroot have been erected in recent years, and it is hoped that this industry will increase.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GRANADA--FROM THE GENERALIFE]

The life of Granada in its lighter aspects can be well studied on the promenade of the Salon, one of the most beautiful parades in Europe. Here, under the shade of luxuriant trees, amid handsome fountains, and by parterres decked richly with many flowers, the people of the city stroll upon summer evenings after the great heat of the day.

From the Salon you gain a superb view of the purple Sierra Nevada, which at sunset wears a wealth of changing hues.

A walk along the promenade precedes the evening gathering in the patios of the houses of the upper and middle cla.s.ses, when to the sound of guitar and the rattle of castanets, young and old dance together. At these tertulia, or evening parties, singing alternates with dancing the bolero and the jota. And later, when the lights are dim, and the watchman tramps slowly through the streets, you see the lovers, the "novios" waiting beneath the windows of the adored fair ones, or lightly strumming serenades on their guitars.

At festival times the city is all animation. The anniversary of the taking of Granada is celebrated on January 2, when a procession is formed and proceeds to the Cathedral. Corpus Christi is another feast day, and there are two fairs during the year, one in June and the other in September.

But it is Granada of the past rather than of the present that holds us during a sojourn in the city of hills and vistas. It is the scene of dreams, a city of meditation. You court serenity rather than hilarity amid these haunted streets and silent ruins. The Arabs had a saying, referring to one who was sad, "He is thinking of Granada." It is this spirit, perhaps, which prevails in the patios of the Alhambra and amid the orange trees of the Generalife Gardens. And yet it is not true depression. It is a sense of the glory that has been, a meditativeness which is induced by the somnolence of the scene, and fostered by the languorous atmosphere of the South.

An ancient legend, often rehea.r.s.ed by chroniclers, ascribed the founding of the city to certain descendants of Noah. It stated that Tubal settled in Spain and populated the country. There is some evidence that the province of Granada was the first district in Spain peopled by aliens.

The founder of a town on the site of modern Granada is alleged to have been the mythical Iberus, who built Illiberis, which has been referred to as the original city. At any rate Illiberis existed in the Roman days, for it was a municipium under the rule of Augustus. The town was also the scene of an ecclesiastical council in the fourth century.

Plundered by the Vandals, and won by the Visigoths, Illiberis was in decay at the time of the coming of the Moors to the Iberian Peninsula.

With the conquest of Andalusia, the town of Granada first came into existence.

At this period the Berbers overran the territory, though the Moorish authors relate that settlers from Damascus were the first Eastern colonizers of Granada.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GRANADA--SIERRA NEVADA FROM THE ALHAMBRA GARDENS]

The greatest obscurity shrouds the history of the city. It is strange that the writers of medieval times so rarely allude to Granada. About the year 860, a war raged over Andalusia between the native Moslems and their foreign rulers, the chief leader of the former being Omar Ben Hafsun. Under his lieutenant, Nabil, an attack was made on Granada, and we read that some exultant verses written by the belligerents were attached to an arrow and propelled over the city wall. In these verses the words _Kalat-al-hamra_ ("the Red Castle") appear. This first reference to Al-Hamra suggests that an edifice for defence stood on the hill now occupied by the Alhambra.

In 886 Omar Ben Hafsun appears to have wrested Granada from the Khalifa of Cordova. A few years later Omar was conquered, and retiring to the Castle of Bobastro, he embraced the Christian faith, in which he died.

Zawi Ben Ziri, a Berber, first established Granada as a kingdom in 1013.

Gayangos, the Spanish historian, states that Illiberis--or Elvira, as it was called at this time--was a dwindling city and that Habus Ibn Makesen, nephew to Zawi Ben Ziri, founded a new town and capital.

Habus was a builder as well as a warrior. He is the putative founder of the old Kasba, or citadel, in the Albaicin quarter, which was added to by his heir, Badis, who succeeded him in rule. The king is also said to have built the Casa del Gallo de Viento, in the same quarter, where he probably resided. Badis proved an ambitious and warlike monarch, for he enlarged his dominions widely, and even subdued the resolute hillfolk of the Alpujarras. He conquered Malaga, and made plans to besiege Seville.

But his force was routed at Cabra by the famous Cid Campeador, Ruy Diaz de Bivar, the ally of the sultan of that city. To Badis is attributed a persecution of the Jews, who numbered several thousands in Elvira, and a terrible slaughter decimated their ranks.

At the advent of the Almoravides, a fierce sect of Northern Africa, Granada was captured (1090) by Abd-ul-Aziz. The city now rose in importance. Soon after the Almoravide settlement, the followers of Islam in Granada attacked the Christians of the city and destroyed their church by fire. The unfortunate Christians appealed for help to Alfonso of Aragon, and the king came to their relief at the head of a strong army. In the combat at Anzul the Almoravides were worsted. Alfonso before retiring laid waste the fertile plain, and left the Christians to make the best of their position. His action had little effect upon the Almoravides, for in 1126 numbers of Christians were banished to Barbary and the rest bitterly oppressed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GRANADA--EXTERIOR OF THE ALHAMBRA]

The doom of the Almoravides came in 1148. A mightier host, the rapacious and fanatical Almohades, surged over the city. The Moorish inhabitants, strengthening their forces with the aid of Christians and Jews, invited Ibrahim Ibn Humushk to lead them to the expulsion of the new sectaries.

The invaders took refuge in the Kasba, and sought relief from Africa, whence an army was despatched. This force was beaten by Humushk, and the Granadines secured the a.s.sistance of the Sultan of Murcia and Valencia, whose troops attacked the Kasba, which was held by the Almohades. On the arrival of a second army, they made a sally and inflicted severe losses upon the soldiers of the sultan and his Christian allies. After this success, the Almohades endeavoured to pacify the unruly among their neighbours. Their governor, Sidi Abu Abrahim Ishak, was a tactful and benevolent leader. He improved the city, built a palace for himself, and made the Kasba a stronger fortress. The power of the Almohades was, however, insecure. Ben Hud, a potent chieftain, who had gained a strip of territory on the coast, now discerned that the hour was ripe for an a.s.sault upon Cordova, Jaen, and Granada. His domination was not permanent. Mohammed al Ahmar, uniting with the foes of Ben Hud, held Seville for a brief s.p.a.ce, and then drove his rival to Almeria, where he was murdered in 1237.

Granada now came under the sway of Al Ahmar, and in the hour of his triumph he was proclaimed monarch of a large part of southern Spain. For two hundred and fifty years the State founded by him resisted the Christian hosts. Granada rose to the zenith of power and prosperity. Its first sultan was a man of high character, courteous, dignified, and astute. He reigned long, and spent himself in affairs of government and in military enterprises, though he used every means to maintain peace.

Al Ahmar's last expedition was undertaken against the Spanish forces and the governors of Guadix and Malaga (their allies) when he was eighty years of age, and failing in strength through illness. A fall from his horse brought him to his end. He expired in the arms of his ally, the Infante Don Felipe, and under cover of darkness his body was borne to Granada, where it was entombed in the burial ground of a.s.sabica.

The sovereignty now descended to Al Ahmar's son, named Mohammed II., who ascended the throne in 1273. He was renowned for his wisdom in the law, and during his reign of twenty-nine years he proved a worthy son of a great father.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GRANADA--A STREET IN THE ALBAICIN]

During his negotiations with Alfonso X. at Seville, Mohammed was the victim of an artifice of Queen Violante. Upon being asked by the queen a favour, he yielded in accordance with the chivalric notions of the time, but his chagrin was deep when he learned that he had agreed to a year's truce to the rebels within his dominion. Smarting under this device, he made plans for the annihilation of his foes. Now the friend of the Spaniards against the African, now the ally of his own co-religionists, Mohammed's career was one of strife. He died in 1302, able to boast that he had not lost a particle of the soil bequeathed to him by his father.

Mohammed III. was, like his father, a forceful sovereign. He applied himself rigorously to the government of his territory, often spending the whole twenty-four hours in affairs of State. In 1306 he seized Ceuta, and brought a number of the conquered to Granada. But reverses came when the governor of Almeria rebelled and joined hands with the King of Aragon. Meanwhile the Castilians attacked Algeciras, and Mohammed, between two foes, was brought to bay. He extricated himself from danger by yielding four fortresses and paying a heavy sum.

But his troubles were not at an end. Returning to Granada, he was surrounded by conspirators in his palace, and forced to yield the throne to his brother, Abu-l-Juyyush Muley Nasr. Humiliated and defeated, Mohammed retired to Almunecar, where he lived in seclusion.

Nasr's first coup after seizing the throne was a successful attack upon Don Jaime at Almeria. Unfortunately a conspiracy was fomented by his nephew Abu-l-Walid. Nasr, who seems to have had a fit of apoplexy, was thought to be dead when Mohammed III. was brought back to Granada. He was, however, alive upon the return of the lawful sovereign; and on the authority of some historians he ordered that his rival should be put to death, while other writers a.s.sert that Mohammed was again banished to Almunecar.

Soon after, Nasr was a.s.sailed by the followers of Abu-l-Walid, and forced to yield. As a solatium he was allowed to rule over the town of Guadix, whither he retired. Al Khattib relates that Nasr was a philosopher, and versed in the sciences of astronomy and mathematics.

Abu-l-Walid was an implacable foe of the Christians. His a.s.sault on Gibraltar was frustrated; but he gained a signal victory over the Castilians in 1319, when the princes Pedro and Juan were killed.

Following up this success, he marched upon the towns of Martos and Baza, and ravaged the country. It was at the latter town that artillery was first used in Spain.

Hailed with joy, the victorious Abu-l-Walid returned to Granada bearing the spoils of war. Among the captives was a maiden of unusual beauty, whom he had wrested from an inferior officer. This act so incensed the chieftain that three days after he stabbed his ruler outside the Alhambra. Dying from the wound, Abu-l-Walid exacted an oath of fealty from the eminent and powerful to his eldest son, Mulai Mohammed Ben Ismal. This command was fulfilled before the sultan's minister disclosed the death of his royal master.

The boy king, Mohammed IV., was soon busy quelling factions in his State, and repelling the African army, which took in turn Marbella, Algeciras, and Ronda. He also defeated the Castilians in several desperate encounters, but lost the day at Gibraltar.