III
KING ALFONSO THE LEARNED
(From “The Book of Chess”; MS. in the Escorial Library)

The clothing of the Infante Don Felipe and of Doña Leonor, his wife, consists of the prince's cloak, which is nearly intact, a piece of his aljuba, his cap, and a strip of silken cloth inwoven with gold. The latter fragment is thought to have belonged to the robe of the Infanta.

These objects, discovered in 1848, in the tomb of Don Felipe and Doña Leonor, at Villalcazar de Sirga, near Palencia, are now in the National Museum. The cloak or mantle is richly wrought in silk and gold, and bears the word Blessing, woven in Cufic characters upon the ground. The aljuba is also of silk and gold, showing a delicate combination of blue and yellow, and the style and workmanship of all these fragments are unmistakably Mohammedan.

Therefore, in textile crafts, the Spanish Moors supplied the wants and the caprices both of themselves and of their enemies the Christians.

The relationship between certain under-garments of the two peoples is evident from the very titles of those garments. Thus, the Spanish joquejo or soquejo, a scarf for winding round a woman's body, is obviously derived, or merely corrupted, from the Arabic jocob; the Spanish arrede or arrelde, a kind of cloak, from the Arabic arrida, and the Spanish shirt or tunic for ordinary wear, called the casot, quesote, or quizote (which was sometimes white and sometimes coloured) from the Arabic al-kuesnat. The Chronicle of Juan the Second (a.d. 1410) tells of a mountain covered with Moorish troops, “and all of them had red quesotes.”

IV
SPANISH VELVET
(Red upon Gold Ground. About A.D. 1500)

Among the cities of Moorish Spain, Almería and Granada were undoubtedly those which produced the handsomest stuffs—Almería from comparatively early in the days of Muslim domination, Granada from a somewhat later time.[8] Notices are extant of Christian princes who directly ordered these materials from Granada; e.g. in 1392 Don Juan the First caused to be purchased there, as a present to his daughter on her marriage, “una cambra de saya orlada ab son dozer e cobertor de color vermella, blaua, ó vert, ù otro que fuera de buena vista” (Archives of the Crown of Aragon). The manufacture of velvet was probably introduced into Aragon in the reign of Pedro the Fourth. Excellent silks and cloth of gold were also made at Málaga, Seville, Toledo, and Valencia. Indeed, no better source exists for studying the character of this important industry in older Spain than the Ordinances of the cities I have just enumerated.[9] We learn from these municipal provisions, most of which were framed or ratified in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, that the mingling of fine with base material was forbidden in the strictest terms, and that the styles and classes of even the luxurious and elaborate stuffs, which bore an infinite variety of devices, were very numerous. Thus, there were satins, taffetas, azeytunis, double and single velvets (Plates [iv]. and [vii].), brocades, and silken serges; as well as fabrics interwoven with gold and silver thread, including the gorgoranes, restaños, sargas, and jergas de filigrana de plata. The Ordinances of Toledo mention the following fabrics as manufactured in that city in the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of Charles the Fifth:—

“Stuffs of gold and silver made in the same manner as satin.