Then the King [we are told] and the Cardinal of Spain and all his host came to the city of Alhama, and they built up the fortifications and supplied it with all things necessary for its defence.
It was not the last time that Isabel was to spur the lagging energies of the Christian army to fresh enthusiasm and endeavours.
In the meantime Muley Abul Hacen was called on to cope with serious trouble at home, as well as a campaign against foreign invaders. For this the mixed character of the Moorish population could partly account. The haughty Arab, with his sense of racial and mental superiority, had not after centuries amalgamated well either with his Berber ally of African origin, or with the Spanish muladies, that suspected sect whose ancestors had changed their religion with their masters in the old days of Moorish conquest, thus cutting off their descendants from their natural kith and kin.
Belief in “one God and Mahomet as His Prophet,” alone held together these heterogeneous peoples, whose mutual suspicion proved ever fertile soil for plots and rebellions. Had the latter depended for their source only on race hatred, Muley Hacen, prompt, cunning, and pitiless, might have proved their match. It was that curse of Eastern politics, the quarrels of the harem, that acting on his sensual nature betrayed his statesmanship.
When well advanced in middle age, the Sultan had fallen a victim to a slave girl of Christian origin and had raised her to the position of his favourite wife, the Arabs calling her for her beauty “Zoraya,” or “Light of the Morning.” This woman, who was as ambitious and unscrupulous as she was fair, made common cause with a certain Emir, Cacim Venegas, a descendant of an old Cordovan family, to ruin all who opposed their power; and to their machinations had been due the horrible massacre of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra, whose name still marks the scene of the crime.
Chief of Zoraya’s enemies was the deposed favourite of the harem, “Aixa,” “the Pure,” a Moorish lady of high birth and spotless character, whose son, Abu Abdallah, more often alluded to by the chroniclers as “Boabdil,” was universally regarded as his father’s heir. To bring about his death and thus prevent his accession was the main object of Zoraya’s life; but her rival was well aware of this and, taking advantage of the fall of Alhama and the consequent loss of Muley Hacen’s reputation as a general, she laid her schemes for placing the sceptre in Boabdil’s hands.
The Sultan learnt of the plot on his return to Granada; and, determining to exact vengeance at his leisure, he imprisoned his wife and son in one of the strong towers of the Alhambra. All seemed lost; but Aixa, inspired by the courage of despair, knotted together the gaily coloured scarves that she and her ladies were wont to wear, and by this rope let down Boabdil from her window to the banks of the Darro. Here some attendants, who had been secretly warned, awaited him; and the Moorish prince, setting spurs to his horse, went swiftly to Guadix, a town perched amid the mountains of the Alpujarras.
ARMS BELONGING TO BOABDIL
FROM LAFUENTE’S “HISTORIA GENERAL DE ESPAÑOLA,” VOL. VII.
The standard of rebellion was raised; and Muley Hacen, returning one day from the gardens beyond the city walls, where he had been dallying in idleness with Zoraya, found the gates closed against him. The people, who had secretly hated him for his tyranny, now despised him, and had therefore readily welcomed Boabdil, when he came riding from Guadix to usurp the throne. The old Sultan was forced to fly, but his spirit was far from broken; and, being joined not only by Cacim Venegas and all his clan of relations and followers, but also by his brother, the renowned warrior, Abdallah “El Zagal,” “the Bold,” he determined to have his revenge.