The Alhambra / being a brief record of the Arabian conquest of the Peninsula with a particular account of the Mohammedan architecture and decoration

by Albert Frederick Calvert

The reader who is desirous of perusing the circumstantial narrative of this supposed transaction may be referred to the late Mr. Henry Swinburne’s account in his Travels in Spain, while Mr. Peyron, in his Essays on Spain, has given a translation of an Arabian document purporting to be an official report concerning it.

Upon the naked summit of the height above the Generalife are some shapeless ruins, known as the Silla del Moro—the seat of the Moor—said to have been a point of observation of Boabdil, the Unlucky, while an insurrection was raging in the city below. An apocryphal portrait of Boabdil, El Rey Chico, hangs in the picture gallery of the Generalife. The face is mild, handsome, and somewhat melancholy, with a fair complexion and yellow hair. Other indifferent paintings are to be seen in the gallery, including those of Ferdinand and Isabella. The genealogical tree of the Marquis of Campotejar of the Grimalda Gentili family, better known as Pallavicini, of Genoa, is exhibited in the picture gallery. The villa now belongs to the Marquis, who, being an absentee, has placed the palace under the care of an administrador. The founder of the Grimaldi family was one Cidi Aya, a Moorish prince, who was of service to Ferdinand on the expulsion of the Moors, at which time he became a Christian knight under the name of Don Pedro. His son, Don Aixa, is represented in the pedigree hanging in the picture gallery, trampling, like a renegade, on the ensigns of his ancestors. An enormous weapon, traditionally known as “The Sword of Boabdil,” having a beautifully enamelled sheath enriched with gold and silver work, is preserved in the office of the Italian Consulate at Granada.

The decorations of the Generalife are in no respect inferior to those of the Alhambra; the wood-work is of nogal, or Spanish chestnut, and, where it has not been wantonly injured, is in its original condition. It is thought that the Moors preserved their wood-work by coating it with a substance called

FRONT VIEW OF THE PORTICO OF THE GENERALIFE.

A CEILING IN THE GENERALIFE.