Mohammed VI. had suddenly expired; his subjects, recognizing the superior claims of the unfortunate Yusuf, had repudiated his nephew; and the sorrowing prisoner, under sentence of death and with but a few moments to live, saw himself raised in an instant from the lowest depths of misfortune to the throne of a powerful kingdom and the absolute sovereignty of more than a million souls. The accession of Yusuf was followed by the usual embassy, bearing rich presents to the Castilian court; his advances were met with courtesy; and the personal hostility to Mohammed having been terminated by his death, a new truce for two years was without difficulty concluded. At its expiration in 1410, Yusuf, in accordance with the wise policy which had for so long governed the Moslem princes of his line, attempted to obtain its renewal. His request was insolently refused, and he was offered the alternative of vassalage and tribute or war. He chose the latter; assembled an army of a hundred and thirty thousand men, and met the Christians who were about to besiege Antequera. The Moors, despite their superior numbers, were routed in a bloody engagement; their country was laid waste; and Antequera was taken by Ferdinand, uncle of the King, chief of the regency, and practically ruler of the kingdom. His success he piously attributed to the sword of St. Ferdinand, a priceless souvenir of victory long deposited in the Cathedral of Seville, and which, in this as in former campaigns, had been carried in battle, where it was supposed to exert the miraculous powers of a sacred relic, as well as the more appropriate virtues of a military talisman. Peace was soon afterwards established conditionally upon the liberation of several hundred Christian captives by the Emir of Granada.
The Moslems of Gibraltar, subject to the extortion and tyranny of a grasping alcalde and seeing no prospect of relief, communicated secretly with the Sultan of Fez, and offered to deliver to him the fortress. That monarch, seeing in this proposition an opportunity to disembarrass himself of his brother Abu-Said, whose talents and popularity already menaced the continuance of his power, despatched him to Gibraltar with two thousand men. The agreement was kept by the citizens; the gates were opened; the Africans occupied the city; and the alcalde with the garrison took refuge in the citadel. In a short time, Ahmed, son of Yusuf, arrived with a large detachment of troops, and the Africans, engaged in front and rear, were compelled to surrender. The prince, Sidi-Abu-Said, was taken to Granada, where he received the attentions due to his distinguished rank.
As soon as these facts became known to the Sultan of Fez, he despatched messengers to the Emir, requesting the murder of his brother, both as a measure of safety to himself and an evidence of friendship from his neighbor. The generous nature of Yusuf revolted at the proposal. He showed the letter to his prisoner; tendered him his sympathy and his assistance; and sent him with a force of picked men and a great treasure to avenge his wrongs and drive his inhuman brother from the throne. The Sultan was defeated near his capital and died in prison; Sidi-Abu-Said seized the crown without further opposition; and the disinterested generosity of Yusuf cemented anew the relations of the two Moorish kingdoms, so frequently interrupted by national jealousy, sectarian discord, and the projects of unscrupulous ambition.
For the remainder of his life, no further hostilities occurred to vex the repose of Yusuf, and a career begun in trouble and persecution was passed amidst the pleasures and amusements of an enduring peace. The cavaliers of Castile and Aragon, who had deserved the jealousy or provoked the resentment of their respective sovereigns, found in the Moslem court a refuge from the vengeance of their enemies, and their feuds were sometimes permanently reconciled through the mediation and the good offices of the Moorish king. In the same manner, he was not infrequently appealed to for the settlement of disputes which had arisen between the haughty Christian knights. Opportunities were afforded, in accordance with the chivalric custom of the age, for the decision of these quarrels by a contest of arms. The lists were placed in the famous Plaza de la Bab-al-Rambla, in the heart of the Moslem capital. Every formality of the tourney, as known and exercised by the most refined and polished people in Europe, was observed,—the proclamation by heralds, the adherence to the established rules of knighthood, the practice of dignified courtesy, the presentation of favors, the distribution of the rewards of valor and address by the hands of beauty. The attractiveness of the spectacle was enhanced by the character of the surroundings, by the splendor of the costumes, by the romantic features of the encounter, by the presence of the monarch, by the charms of the beautiful Moorish women. The quaint old houses with their overhanging balconies and sculptured lattices were hung with silken tapestry and garlanded with flowers. From them, the ladies of the court, whom the liberal customs of the Andalusian Moor allowed to appear unveiled, looked down upon an exhibition of daring horsemanship and dexterity in the use of weapons to which modern equestrian exercises offer no parallel and can afford no adequate conception. Their garments of silk, curiously embroidered, were of every color; their dark tresses glittered with jewels; about their necks were strings of enormous pearls and many chains of gold. Upon a balcony more elevated than the rest sat the Emir, the judge of the combat, with rows of black eunuchs and mamelukes in magnificent uniforms and armed with gleaming weapons grouped around him. The heralds, whose tabards were emblazoned with the armorial bearings and cipher of the monarch, proclaimed the mutual defiance of the champions, enforced compliance with the regulations of the lists, and prevented the excited contestants from exceeding the limits prescribed by the rules of chivalric honor and deferential courtesy. Second only to the rewards of military renown were the distinctions of the tourney and the tilt of reeds among the dashing Moorish cavaliers, passionately fond of every martial exercise and of every pastime which required the exhibition of activity and skill.
In ordinary encounters, as well as in the more serious contests of the Castilian champions presided over by Yusuf, blood was rarely spilled. The impetuosity of the ruder Christian knights, whose customs demanded a serious duel in satisfaction of injured honor, was restrained by the politic Emir, who used every effort to pacify his infuriated guests and to change their enmity into temporary if not lasting friendship. This course, indicative of the noble generosity and inherent justice of his nature, obtained for him the highest esteem and popularity at the Castilian court. The confidence reposed in him, the admiration evinced for his talents and his integrity by the hereditary foes of his nationality and his creed, are the most unequivocal testimonials of the greatness of his character. The dowager Queen of Castile maintained a regular and intimate correspondence with him, and presents were frequently exchanged between them. The asperities of war were softened by this friendly intercourse; the condition of the frontiers, always unsettled, became more peaceful; and, in the midst of hostilities, Christian captives were frequently liberated without ransom.
Under the pacific reign of Yusuf, Granada increased in wealth, in all the vices engendered by the abuse of luxury, and in that effeminacy so fatal to military power and so characteristic of general decadence. His death ushered in a period of civil wars and general disorder, insignificant when considered singly, but which collectively portended the ruin of a nation.
Mohammed VII., the son of Yusuf, received from his father a kingdom in appearance powerful, but in fact without stability in its institutions or loyalty among its people. The calamities of his reign, the result of his arrogance and want of tact, procured for him the appellation of Al-Hayzari, The Left-Handed, rather a synonym of misfortune than a nick-name of awkwardness. Far from imitating the virtues of his father, he seemed to cultivate the dislike of his subjects by his neglect of their welfare and by his insufferable pride. The viziers and great officers of the court received at his hands as little consideration as the eunuchs and slaves. He refused audiences to the people, long accustomed to the patriarchal method of redressing wrongs inherited from the informal administration of justice by the sheiks of the Desert. Adopting the unpopular custom of the Orient, so inconsistent with the traditions and the practice of Islam, he secluded himself within the walls of the palace. The martial amusements of chivalry were prohibited. The populace were deprived of their games and festivals. All classes of society were soon united in the hatred of their monarch; he was deposed and driven to Tunis, and his cousin, Mohammed VIII., Al-Zaguer, ascended the throne. His first act was to exile the powerful family of the Abencerrages, whose intrigues with the King of Castile and the Emir of Tunis eventually accomplished his ruin. Mohammed-al-Hayzari was restored, and Al-Zaguer, eminent for political and literary talents, dexterous in military exercises, and possessed of every quality which contributes to the power and popularity of kings, was dethroned and beheaded. In return for the substantial aid afforded him, the Castilian king demanded the payment of an annual tribute and the acknowledgment of vassalage from Al-Hayzari. This being refused, another conspiracy was hatched, with Yusuf-Ibn-Alahmar, a wealthy noble of royal descent, at its head. His success was assured by the support of a powerful faction which, with a Castilian army, encountered the forces of the Emir at the base of the Sierra Elvira. The battle which ensued was one of the most bloody and destructive recorded in Moorish history. The Emir was overwhelmingly defeated; and another engagement, scarcely less disastrous, completely destroyed the power of Al-Hayzari, who was a second time driven into exile. His advanced age and the grave responsibilities of government shortened the life of Yusuf-Ibn-Alahmar, whose reign lasted only six months. His death was the signal for the return of Al-Hayzari, whom the fickle populace, which had twice expelled him, received with every token of joy and loyalty. The unpopularity of this monarch, who had learned nothing from adversity, extended even to members of his family, and his own nephews conspired against him. One of them, Ibn-Othman, by the lavish distribution of gold among the mob of the capital, excited a riot, seized the Alhambra, and threw his uncle into prison. His triumph was of short duration, however, for another nephew, Ibn-Ismail, with the support of the Christians, usurped the crown of Granada, now become the prize of every daring adventurer. The civil war between the two princes lasted for several years, with incalculable damage to the country and the people. The struggle was prolonged by the intrigues of Castile, through whose assistance the supremacy of Ibn-Ismail was finally secured. These serious commotions, which absorbed and exhausted the resources of the monarchy by the destruction of its wealth and the diminution of its population, left neglected and almost forgotten the fortresses of the frontier, the bulwarks of its safety, and the guarantees of its power. Many of these by voluntary relinquishment or by conquest passed into the hands of the Castilians, among them Gibraltar, the most important of all, which was surprised and taken by the Duke of Medina-Sidonia in 1462.
At the death of Ismail, in 1466, his eldest son, Muley Hassan, ascended the throne. A bitter foe of the Christians, he had more than once, while a mere youth, resented their interference in aid of pretenders and would-be usurpers, a feeling which became intensified a hundred-fold when he assumed the supreme direction of affairs. His implacable temper, the ferocity of his manners, his flagrant disregard of treaties, his pitiless forays, which gave no quarter and left behind a smoky waste, struck terror into the hearts of his enemies. The forces of the kingdom were at that time engaged in suppressing the rebellion of the alcalde of Malaga, brother of the monarch and claimant of the succession. In the palace, the plots of the inmates of the harem—rival wives who aimed at the exaltation of their progeny to royal power—disturbed the peace and further embittered the naturally morose disposition of the King, already irritated by the ingratitude of his kinsmen and the bloody experiences of incessant war and rebellion.
An important crisis, ever memorable in Moorish annals, was now reached in the affairs of Granada. For nearly two hundred years that kingdom had gradually, but none the less surely, been approaching dissolution. The political conditions which foster individual heroism, the patriotic loyalty which preserves a prosperous empire, imperceptibly diminishing with each succeeding generation, had finally disappeared. The expansive power so marked in the early ages of Islam, and especially conspicuous in the conquest and occupation of the Peninsula, no longer existed. The principle of hereditary right, practically unknown to the Arabs, adopted only for convenience by their descendants, frequently abrogated by the arbitrary will or the uncertain caprice of monarchs, and always weak among polygamous nations, was no longer recognized by the Andalusian Moslems. This custom, although weak in theory, had been one of the safeguards of the royal succession, and consequently an assurance of stability of government and of security to the citizen. Now, however, a swarm of pretenders disputed with each other the possession of the throne. The inheritance of royal blood, the possession of great wealth, the enjoyment of popular favor, were qualifications, any one of which was sufficient to tempt an adventurer to aspire to the crown of the Alhamares. Even the spirit of tribal loyalty, an ancient legacy of the Arab, had been weakened by a rapid succession of rulers of uncertain title and obscure antecedents. The populace was debauched by the gold which the leaders of every revolt scattered with prodigal hand. Successive irruptions of a score of tribes and nations, of fanatics of hostile sects and barbarian manners, had destroyed the comparatively homogeneous character at one time so noticeable in the inhabitants of Granada. The selfish vices peculiar to mercantile communities, the timidity incident to the holding of great possessions and the control of vast commercial interests, had engendered a spirit of cowardice, which was willing to purchase even when it was able to defend. The martial spirit which had once inspired a nation of warriors, bent upon proselytism and conquest, was extinct. Military ardor and ambition existed, it is true, among the higher classes which had adopted the profession of arms, but the number of the latter was comparatively insignificant, and their achievements were limited to the irregular operations of the foray. The levies summoned to battle by the sudden exigencies of war scarcely deserved the name of soldiers. Without discipline or obedience, often without weapons, they were little better than a disorderly rabble, whose first onset once repulsed caused them to flee incontinently from the field. While the arts of civilization had progressed in such an unparalleled degree, the science of war had remained stationary or had actually retrograded. The tactics of the Spanish Moors of the fifteenth century were still the ancient tactics of the Desert. Heavy-armed cavaliers they had none; foot-soldiers were represented by untrained peasants, armed largely with the implements of domestic use and husbandry. Their light-horse, however, were the finest troops of the kind in Europe. The rapidity of their evolutions, the ambuscade, the feigned retreat, the sudden rally, often confounded, to his sorrow, the rash and unguarded pursuer. This superiority, formidable as it was, was not sufficient to save, or even to protect, the kingdom. The vulnerable character of the military organization of the Moslems of Granada was disclosed by the number of important battles fought within sight and almost under the shadow of the walls of their capital. The incursions of an active foe ravaged, almost without interference, the fairest portions of their territory. The endurance of Moorish dominion, protracted for two centuries beyond the natural term of a nation in the age of its decadence, is to be chiefly attributed to two causes,—the natural obstacles which formed the frontiers of the monarchy, and the incessant discord of its neighbors. On one side of Granada a chain of rugged mountains, whose passes were defended by well-fortified castles, on the other, the sea, intercepted the progress of the invader. In the long interval between the death of Ferdinand IV. and the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, minor princes came to the throne. The advent of each, and the regency which ensued, were signalized by dissensions, intrigue, conspiracy, and revolt. But, while turmoil and sedition weakened Castile in one respect, it strengthened it immensely in another. Its people, from the highest to the lowest, became accustomed to the presence of danger, convinced of the necessity of discipline, familiar with the use of arms. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there were scarcely any manufacturers in the Christian dominions but those of weapons and armor. The specimens of these existing in museums to-day disclose the perfection of strength and elegance to which their fabrication had attained. The swords forged upon the Tagus were, even then, unequalled for the excellence of their steel and their wonderful durability. The product of the Spanish armorer was proof against the fiercest assault of the battle or the tourney. In weight, in stature, in endurance, in religious fervor, in martial enthusiasm, the Castilian knight was far superior to his Moslem antagonist. During the Moorish wars and the contemporaneous domestic seditions was formed the model of the invincible Spanish infantry, destined in the next century to become the dread and the admiration of Europe. Heretofore the Moors had had the power of the Castilian monarchy alone to contend with; now, however, they were to encounter the combined forces of the various kingdoms of the Peninsula, moving grimly and irresistibly forward to the attainment of a single end. In the ensuing catastrophe, a great people—learned, hospitable, accomplished, industrious, ingenious, long inspired by the most noble incentives which have ever directed the course of human progress—were to be abandoned to extortion, robbery, persecution, and exile; a land whose natural fertility had been enhanced a hundred-fold by the patient labor and inventive talent of man was to be swept clean by the desolating tempest of war; and a civilization, far surpassing that of any country in that age in the knowledge, the culture, the graces, the refinement, which confer national distinction and individual happiness, was to be ruthlessly blotted out from the face of the earth.