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

“Is the Alhambra,” asks Ford, “a palace of the Arabian Nights, or only a tawdry ruin bedaubed with faded colour? And what of the colour as it exists? Is it emeraldine or plaited flowers? No, in sober truth, the colour is dim and faded; buried in some places under white flaky icicles of whitewash, or blurred and besmirched as a dead butterfly’s wing. Here and

VARIOUS MOSAICS FROM THE ALHAMBRA.

there are revived bright scraps of azure, gold, and vermilion; but generally dull of outline, and dim in low, deep, shadow tone.”

Where the Moorish work is imitated, greens and purples obtrude, to demonstrate how inferior is modern decorative skill to the genius of the ancient Arabs. The dados, or low wainscotings, are of square, glazed tiles, which form a glittering breast-high coat of mail up to the lower third of the Palace

PANEL ORNAMENT IN THE ALHAMBRA.

walls. Here the colours are the same as those of the old Majolica ware. Sometimes these Azulejo tiles, with their low-toned enamel colours, are formed into pillars, or pave the floors in squares of fleurs-de-lis, or other heraldic emblems. In these dados, colour is seen in the shade. The Moors wanted shade in a country where the sun is solid fire—the colours deep, soft, and subdued as in an Arabian carpet.

The present pavement of the halls and courts of the Palace is either of white marble, as in the Hall of The Two Sisters and Hall of the Abencerrages, or of brick. Seldom, however, does it appear to be the original flooring, as in many places it is considerably above the ancient level, concealing the lower part of the Mosaic dados. On the pavement of one of the alcoves of the Hall of Justice are still to be seen painted tiles which seem to suggest a style of flooring more in harmony with the general decoration of the Halls and Courts than either those of marble or of brick. This deduction has been objected to by persons conversant with the manners and customs of the Mohammedans, who contend that it is impossible that these tiles—on which the name of God is written—should have been trodden under foot. But it should be borne in mind that the Arabs of Spain allowed themselves considerable laxity in observing the behests of the Korán—as is evidenced by the fountain in the Court of Lions, the bas-relief in the Museum of the Palace, and the paintings in the Hall of Justice.

For the student who desires to pursue exhaustively the history of the Moors in Spain, there are but two trustworthy authorities—Don Pascual de Gayángos, the Spanish Orientalist and historian, and Dr. R. Dozy, of Leyden. Don Pascual’s translation of Al-makkarí has been largely drawn upon in the compilation of the present volume, as also the “Handbook” and “Gatherings” of Richard Ford (1845 and onward), which form the bases of the indispensable Murray’s Guide. For the last days of the Moslems in Spain, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell’s Don John of Austria must be read. The fascinating volumes of Washington Irving will, of course, continue to delight so long as the English language endures, and no better companions can be wished for on the spot where they were written than his stories of The Alhambra and The Conquest of Granada. Mr. Henry Coppeé’s History of the Conquest of Spain by the Arab Moors, in two volumes, Boston (Mass.), 1881; Miss Charlotte Yonge’s Christians and Moors in Spain; Mr. H. E. Watt’s Spain from the Moorish Conquest to the Fall of Granada; the concise Rise and Fall of the Muslim Empire in Spain, by our fellow-subject, Muhammed Hayat Khan, Lahore, 1897; and Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole’s The Moors in Spain should be consulted.