fonso VI. of Leon, consolidated the Spanish power to save Cordova and Seville, and they were forced in New Castile, Mohammed summoned the Almo- to surrender to the Almoravides in 1094, when ravive Arabs from Morocco. Jusuf came with an army, and the Moslems won another great victory at Badajoz. No aid could be gained from France MOHAMMEDAN GUEST CHAMBER. Jusuf became unquestioned Emperor of all Moslem Spain and Portugal. His son, Ali, crushed Alphonso at Ucles in a reign and campaign of fourteen years. But Christian dissensions were healed under these losses, while the hatred of the polished Moors of Spain for their rude African co-religionists increased, and Raymond took Saragossa and conquered at Davoca. Ali himself was called to put down the rebellious Almohades in Africa, in 1133; but his lieutenants withstood Alfonso of Aragon and Navarre successfully until 1139, when they were terribly defeated at Ourique in Portugal, by Al fonso Henriques. The immediate results of this battle were great. The Spanish Moors at once expelled the Almoravides they had summoned from all Spain, when Ali was suffering defeat in Africa. The African Almohade caliph seized the opportunity, and arrived in person to rule the more tempting land. He conquered the insurgent feudatories in 1157; revived science and letters, and patronized the famous Averrhoes, and enabled his successor, Yusuf, to restore the perfect empire before his death in 1184. Spanish strength was at this period greatly sapped by the enmity of the Jews, who had been and were mercilessly oppressed; and when, at the close of the century, a fresh host from Africa threatened Castile, Yacub conquered Alfonso in the great battle of Alarcos and gained all New Castile. Mohammed Abu levied A STATE DINNER. a vigorous war and was met by equal, having French aid. The opposing forces met at Tolosa in the summer of 1212, and, if history is true where it presumably lies, one hundred thousand Moors were killed and sixty thousand were captured by Alfonso, and the great Almohade dynasty fell. While the last of this brilliant and illustrious dynasty were struggling with the kings of Saragossa, Ferdinand III. induced the King of Portugal to aid the kings of Castile, Leon and Aragon, and their combined forces drove all the Moslem power save that of minor and discontented kings of Estremadura, Murcia, Valencia and Algarve, to their last stronghold in Granada. This city fell in 1252; and before 1275 Alfonso the Wise, and Leon, had put down and extinguished the Moslem power in Granada that had encouraged agriculture, introduced sericulture, founded manufactures and created a great system of irrigation; erected and supported schools and hospitals, patronized letters, and made a very brilliant age in the heat of war and prevalent and continued disorder. The son of Mohammed, the deposed ruler of Granada, brought a scion of the Almohade dynasty from Africa, to war with the common Christian foe, and gained great victories at a heavy price, in Aragon as well as in Granada. At the close of the thirteenth century Granada was overrun by Castile; then torn by Nasar's revolt and by petty dissensions, so that in 1331 Castile vainly attempted to wrest the great stronghold of Gibraltar from the Moorish government of Granada. The endeavor drew another Moorish army from Africa, and then Portugal united with Castile and Navarre, and won a desperate victory at the battle of Rio Salado and -- CS DEVOTIONAL ATTITUDES. took Algeciras. Not twenty years later, a conspiracy under Abu Said depleted the weakening power MINARET. of Granada. Abu was crowned, killed, and succeeded by Mohammed; he by his son Jusuf, who invaded Murcia, recovered the throne in 1407 and reigned brilliantly to 1430. Then the savage rule of Mohammed VII. lost power to Castile and made Granada the last foothold of Moorish power tributary to the conqueror. Civil wars helped Ferdinand and Isabella to the victory they achieved ROYAL BED CANOPY. over King Muza, last ruler of his race, in 1491, at the hands of Gonsalvo. The terms made were honorable to Spanish as to Moorish valor. The latter revolted on account of the infraction of some religious stipulations in the treaty and because they were baptized, unwillingly, wholesale; but after subjugation the survivors were. allowed to return to Africa. And so after a rule of eight hundred illustrious yearsyears made great by the greatest attainments and culture and effects that still survive there and over the world -the sons of Tarik and Muza returned, as poor as their fathers left, to the kingdom they always retained and still hold. Such is the political and military history, briefly outlined, of that brilliant dream of Oriental romance in Southern Europe, that has created as much esteem since its overthrow as it did alarm during its existence. Seen chiefly through romance, it is softened and mellowed to our observation. In reality it de MOHAMMEDAN TOMB. as authority; but as years elapsed they were accommodated to new conditions and became gracious to Jews and Christians, liberal and kindly. The tenure of property was safe as in England. Crime was promptly repressed. The mosques were the universal and sufficient asylums for want as well as early seats of those institutions of learning that conserved the unsurpassed medical, architectural, chemical, mineralogical, historical, musical, textile, poetic, and other skill and knowledge of a race whose Alhambra is to day unsurpas sed by any structure for durability, lightness and grace; whose bridges stand now as they were created; whose irriga tion only needs renewal to enrich the land; whose majolica-ware every land; whose glass united the strength of French plate with the limpid excellence of Venetian and Japanese; whose silk and worsted and woolen fabrications might be profitably copied now; whose vineyards were unexcelled-who were as great and efficient contributors to modern culture as any, and carried the mathematics to as high a pitch as song and dance. The Alhambra of Granada was one of the most famous Moorish structures. It was begun in 1248 and finished in 1314. It is outside of the city, fortified, prepared to accommodate forty thousand men, and contains a palace surrounded by forests and gardens. The Hall of the Abencerrages was laid with marble, stuccoed and ornamented with fine designs in brilliant colors on in the same palace, and receives its name from | Avicenna's lore, and as beautiful as beauty itself. a marble and alabaster fountain supported by The entrances to the great buildings combined marble lions, that stands in the centre. All Norman strength with Saracenic skill, and thouportions are carved with infinite detail and rare sands of Christian slaves taken in war were emskill; broad passages border the interior; the ployed in carving the endless details that half THE CATHEDRAL OF SEVILLE (ORIGINALLY A MOSQUE). |