[239] This is not strictly accurate. The Mezquita, as designed by Abdur Rahmán I. in 786, contained about 1200 pillars; when the mosque was enlarged by Almanzor at the end of the tenth century, the number was doubtless increased. Yet at the present day more than nine hundred are still standing in the building, which ranks second as regards area among the churches of Christendom, and in historic interest is surpassed only by the Mosque of Agia Sofia at Constantinople (see Burke’s History of Spain, vol. i. pp. 130–133).
[240a] Morocco.
[240b] The Abencerrages were a family, or perhaps a faction, that held a prominent position in the Moorish kingdom of Granada for some time before its fall in 1492. The name is said to be derived from Yusuf ben Cerrág, the head or leader of the family in the time of Mohammed VII., but nothing is known with any certainty of their origin. In the Guerras civiles de Granada of Gines Perez de Hita, the feuds of the Abencerrages with the rival family of the Zegris is an important incident, and Chateaubriand’s Les Aventures du dernier Abencerages is founded upon Hita’s work.
[241a] A haji is a man who has made the haj or pilgrimage to Mecca. As a title it is prefixed to the name. The Levantine Greeks who have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem are also accustomed to use the same title, and their “Haji Michaeli” or “Haji Yanco” is as common a mode of address as “Haji Ali.” “Haji Stavros” in About’s Roi des Montagnes may be happily remembered.
[241b] The great city of Negroland is, I presume, Khartoum, capital of the Soudan, known to our fathers as Nigritia.
[242a] Philip II., eldest son of Carlos I. of Spain (the Emperor Charles V.), married Mary of England the 25th of July, 1555.
[242b] The Mystery of Udolpho, the once celebrated but now forgotten romance of Mrs. Radcliffe (1764–1823).
[243a] “Sir George of my soul,” i.e. “My dear Sir George.”
[243b] Puente. See The Zincali, part i. chap. ix.
[243c] See ante, note on p. 235.