Though he proclaimed toleration to the Christians, he adopted several measures to lessen their number, and bring the succeeding generations to the Mohamedan faith. He promoted marriage between the two religions; preferred Mussulmen only to offices of authority, and granted the highest favours to those who apostatized from the Christian profession. His administration was conducted with such ability and skill, his encouragement of agriculture and commerce was so considerable, and his regard to the prosperity of his people so evident, that his dominions encreased in population and riches. His capital became embellished with the best specimens of the arts, and the foundation was laid of that splendid kingdom, which, while Christian Europe was sunk in barbarism, preserved the knowledge of the arts and sciences.

At the death of Abdelrahman, Cordova contained within its walls six hundred mosques, nine hundred baths, and two hundred thousand houses and the power of the western caliph was acknowledged on the banks of the Guadalquivir by eighty cities, three hundred towns, and twelve thousand populous villages.

During the reign of the twelve caliphs, who succeeded to the throne of Abdelrahman, Cordova continued their capital, but its repose was disturbed, and the power of the monarchs shaken, by those repeated insurrections to which despotic governments are always exposed. In the reign of Abdalla, Suar Alcaisi, and afterwards, Said, a native of Syria, raised the standard of revolt in the mountains of Alpujarras, between Cordova and Granada, and though joined by numbers of the discontented, was, after numerous conflicts, quelled by the general of Abdalla.

The calm which succeeded these revolts was disturbed by Mahomed ben Abdallatiph, of a Persian family, established in Alhama, who, supported by a body of insurgents, proclaimed himself caliph, and maintained a long and doubtful war with his sovereign; but was conquered, and finally met the fate of a traitor, during the reign of Abdelrahman the Third, in the year 924 of the Christian era.

For nearly a century after this period the sovereigns of Cordova enjoyed an undisturbed repose, till Soliman ben Alhaken, an adventurer from Africa, led a numerous army of Moors into Spain, where he was joined by the discontented Arabs; and, after a rapid career, entered the city of Cordova, seated himself on the throne of the caliphs, and transmitted to his son Almanzor the power of the Mahomedans, who transferred the royal residence to Granada in 1013, and whose successors made it their capital till its final subjugation by the Christians.

LETTER XXXIX.

CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE MOORS IN GRANADA

SION TO FERDINAND

SCIENCE

-THEIR SUBMIS

PROGRESS OF THE MOORS IN THE CULTIVATION OF THEIR SKILL IN PHYSIC AND THE FINE ARTS.

GRANADA, JAN. 1810.

HAVING, in my last Letter, sketched the history of the Mahomedans in Spain, till the establishment of their capital in this city, I shall continue the subject to the period of their conquest by the Christians under Ferdinand and Isabella.

The family of Almanzor still continued to reign in Granada, in the year 1051, when Joseph ben Taschphen, King of Morocco, invaded Granada with an irresistible army. The timid successor of Almanzor, though strengthened by auxiliaries from the Christian King of Castile, feared to meet him in battle; and when his enemy advanced towards the city, he went forth to receive him, and, surrendering his power, followed, with his nobles, in the train of the African invader, who was thus quietly seated on the throne, which he afterwards filled with dignity and splendour.

The death of Joseph occasioned a civil war in Granada, which was succeeded by a truce, in which the different pretenders to the sovereignty agreed to divide the kingdom, which, however, became

again united in 1146, by the establishment of a prince of the family of the Almohades in the sole possession of the supreme power.

This family continued on the throne till 1232, when Mahomed the First, one of the greatest of the Moorish princes, laid the foundation of a new dynasty, the talents and virtues of which raised the kingdom to its highest degree of prosperity. Mahomed, though he always kept up a powerful army, was no less attentive to the arts of peace. He regulated the revenues, administered justice, cultivated science, endowed hospitals, and began the Alhambra, a fortress which was ever afterwards considered the glory of Mahomedan Spain.

The first part of his reign was undisturbed by war; but Ferdinand of Castile having succeeded in taking Cordova, he feared for the safety of his dominions, and endeavoured to strengthen himself by an alliance with Benudiel King of Murcia, who, having declined his offered friendship, was under the necessity of ceding his dominions to the Christian King, to avoid their being conquered by this Mahomedan prince. Ferdinand, having thus obtained possession of Murcia, turned his arms against the kingdom of Granada. Mahomed fought the battle of Martos with the commander of Calatrava; but, though victorious, was threatened with such overwhelming forces, that he yielded to Ferdinand, paid tribute for his dominions, and assisted with his troops at the capture of Seville, in the character of a vassal to the Christian chief.

The death of Ferdinand produced civil wars, in Castile, among the subjects of his son Alphonso, and Mahomed availed himself of the opportunity to throw off the yoke he had unwillingly borne, and forming alliances with other Moorish chieftains, defeated the

M M

army of Alphonso at Alcala la Real. With the assistance of ten thousand horse from Morocco, he invested the cities of Guadix and Malaga, which were under the protection of the kingdom of Castile ; and, after a long siege, took the latter by storm, in 1273, when his reign and his life were terminated by the fatigues of war.

Mahomed the Second succeeded his father, and has left a higher character than any of the monarchs of his race. The commencement of his reign was disturbed by domestic factions, which, by his firmness and wisdom, he either subdued or conciliated. He was the patron of arts and of commerce, and the protector of science. His court was the resort of astronomers, physicians, philosophers, orators, and poets; and his own compositions in verse are celebrated by the Arabs for their wit and epigrammatic humour. He renewed the alliance with the King of Castile; but Alphonso having passed to Italy, he took advantage of his absence, and formed a treaty with the King of Morocco, who sent him an army of seventeen thousand men, by the aid of which he defeated the Christian forces, enlarged his dominions by the capture of Jaen, and finally concluded a treaty of peace, in which the Christians renounced their claim of vassalage, agreed to defray the expences of the war, and surrendered to the Moors Tarifa and Algeziras.

His son, of the same name, succeeded to the throne in 1302, and resembled him in his love of literature, and his patronage of the fine arts; but being engaged in a war with the King of Arragon, discontents were fomented in the capital; and when he returned, an insurrection broke out, which transferred the crown to Almasser his brother, who, though only twenty-five years of age, was