Abul-Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed Al Makkari, the Arab historian, was born about 1585 at Tlemcen in Algeria. About 1620 he settled at Cairo, having been exiled from his own country,—why is not known. His history was undertaken in response to a request from his friends at Damascus who had been deeply interested by the oral descriptions of the doings of the Spanish Arabs with which he had entertained them when on a visit to Damascus in 1628. He died in 1631.
Altamira y Crevea, R., Historia de España y de la civilización española, Barcelona, 1900-1902. The two volumes thus far completed extend to 1479.—Amicis, E. de, Spain, New York, 1881.—Anghiera, Pietro Martire d’, Opus epistolarum, Alcalá, 1530, Strasburg, 1891.—Annales Complutenses, in Flórez’s España Sagrada.
Annales Complutenses. The word Complutenses is derived from Complutum, the Roman name for Alcalá de Henares. The anonymous writer of this brief historical summary wrote in the twelfth century.
Annales Toledanos, in Flórez’s España Sagrada.
Annales Toledanos. The author of the early portion of these annals of Toledo lived in the thirteenth century.
Antonio, N., Bibliotheca Hispana nova, 1500-1684, Madrid, 1783-1788, 2 vols.; Biblioteca Hispana vetus, Madrid, 1788, 2 vols.
Nicolás Antonio was born at Seville in 1617, and educated there and at the university of Salamanca. He afterwards returned to Seville where he drew on the treasures of the library of the monastery of San Benito in the composition of his Bibliotheca Hispana which forms a literary history, the first part of which extends to 1500, the second (which appeared in 1672) to 1670. In 1654 Philip IV sent Antonio to Rome as his general agent. He afterwards filled the office of agent to the Spanish Inquisition. He died in 1684.
Armstrong, E., Elisabeth Farnese, “the termagant of Spain,” London, 1892.—Aschbach, J., Geschichte der Westgoten, Frankfort, 1827; Geschichte der Ommaïjaden in Spanien, Vienna, 1860, 2 vols.; Geschichte Spaniens und Portugals zur Zeit der Almoraviden und Almohaden, Frankfort, 1833-1837, 2 vols.—Aulnoy, M. C. J. de B. d’, Relation du voyage d’Espagne, Paris, 1690; reprint as La cour et la ville de Madrid à la fin du 17ᵉ siècle, Paris, 1876, 2 vols.—Avila, G. G. de, Historia de Salamanca, Salamanca, 1606; Historia de la vida y hechos del rey Don Henrique III de Castilla, Madrid, 1638; Teatro eclesiastico de la primitiva iglesia de las Indias Occidentales, Madrid, 1649-1656, 2 vols.; Historia de la vida y hechos del monarca Don Felipe III, in Mendoza’s Monarquía de España, Madrid, 1770.—Avila y Zuñiga, Luis de, Comentario de la guerra de Alemaña hecha por Carlos V en 1546 y 1547, Madrid, 1548, 1852.—Ayala, P. López de, Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla, Don Pedro, Don Enrique II, Don Juan I, Don Enrique III, Madrid, 1781, 2 vols.; in Biblioteca de autores Españoles, Madrid, 1875.
Pedro López de Ayala, celebrated as knight, poet, and historian, was born in 1332, and died in 1407. He entered the service of Pedro the Cruel of Castile and sided with the king in the latter’s earlier struggles with his revolted brothers and nobles, distinguishing himself chiefly by his exploits on the sea. When King Pedro was driven out by his brother Henry of Trastamara, Ayala joined Henry. He was taken prisoner by the English at Navarrete, but afterwards ransomed. Under Henry II and Juan II he filled important offices. At the Battle of Aljubarrota he was captured by the Portuguese and released only on payment of an enormous ransom. Translations from Isidore of Seville, Boccaccio, Titus Livius, etc., are among his writings as well as a treatise on the duties of kings and nobles, called El Rimado de Palacio, but the chief of his works is the Crónicas. This is written with elegance and simplicity of style and much skill in delineation of character. He is accused of unduly blackening the character of King Pedro.