The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24

" IL will knswR that fur srps ~ huNlFvi
veafB after ihs rIntusai ~ Hrsat ~ AHFls
lusin Nv tsstlle the fpnHtnt ~ lr N,mhnWs
sio furrpfiy hal uveffuH ilH %lsuirsuir
liFl Icon Fis,i ~ frmsiu W~HllsiUflsgl ~
lleif let fefnEr iha hiH@luW ~ ufthatha
80 crmlitiun ~ sykuus tetgiNF iIH sttrfi
alnty 1ftHs'llr awl laylna = YEARLY iitlUde
ssd ~ have lsen 1Ipn ~Iis'nhss ~ sull
ieshles y crftain hutHlef ~ Christian oat
lives IN the rrlsn ~ istlrih's half
l%tpllef lF,wcvrf tho woHt kthe fnfitue
" ~ Cas,iir il,efr ,uhtn ~ iiw lhrpou ~
ttsnsis = Certain Nulrv Alslui iiaaan .
neftr rWi Nafiike nan NJ ihs snclent martial
hfprl NJ Islam, Nhp lppteI With pride anil
c0nfienc" ~ hts IrstiiuN Slfaiealcally
strong, and counted ~ his fHit'ern cities,
HE ninety seven f%otlidesI uwn and the
castles and watch towers With Witch The
spacious tegs ~ Granada waa studded
lie huew that his Ufana'la vas richer than
any Christian city In spain, aud that he
could equip and call uut IN army ~ my
thousand men trained IN war, Including
atclnra esq! light h%ur-enan el-pwhere
unmatched, DE came iu tho conclusion
that he could COPS with the sovereign "
CASTLE, AMI In iie seven wears after
Isabella coronation when an Amlas-
aador came 20 demand tho customary
tribute, the Moorish King replied Tell
your monarch that the Kings ~ Granada
who paid tribute ara dead. our mint now
coins only blades ~ scimitars and heads
Of lances.'
For n while this defiant attitude was SUI
fered 10 pass unheeded. but after a few
years Spain found herself better prepared
for the conquest Of territory. This mop
perfume moment was chosen 10y the King
Of Granada 10 make an unprovoked deolar-
alton Of war by a sudden raid across the
frontier. Taking advantage Of q dark
and stormy night In the dead OF winter,
Muley- -Hasan, with a strong force.
arrived unobserved beneath the battle
ments of Zahara, a Castilian frontier
fortress, scaled the walls and took the
small garrison by surprise. The news
OF the fall Of Zahara was naturally received
with indignation at the Castilian Court,
and Fernando and Isabella began to make
serious preparations for the invasion Of
the Moorish realm. The first reprisal,
however, was effected by private enter
prise, A great Castilian noble, Don Rodrigo
Ponce de Leon, Marques of Cadiz. con-
trived in February, 1882, to take by a night
assault the city Of Albania, which was only
eight leagues from Granada, and was be-
lieved to be im%pregnable. How terrible
a blow to the Moslems was the loss Of the
key Of their capital is recorded in the ballad
translated by Byron, the we'll known re-
frain Of which is "Ay de mi, Alhamal' The
King of Granada undertook forthwith
H. zl11I Hv kIa1lroIo
but the city was relieved, not by the royal
forces of CASTLE but by the private levies OF
the Duke Of Medina Sidonia, the hereditary
enemy Of the beleaguered Don Rodrigo.
When the relief was accomplished it must
have been, as Washington Irving has
said, a noble and gracious sight to behold
the meeting Of the two ancient foes, the
Duke OF Medina -Sidonia and the Marques
Of Cadiz. Subsequently the fortress Of
Albania was again besieged by the Moors
but delivered by an army under King Fer
nando. The city Of Lola, not far to the
north Of Albania, was the next point of
Christian attack, but the Castilian force
intended for its conquest suffered a
disastrous defeat at the hands of the Moors
and Lola remained uncaptured until the
spring OF l4s6.
The ultimate fall of Granada, which toe
place, we scarcely need recall, in January,
1892, was due not 30 much to the superior
resources and generalship Of the assailants
as to the untimely outbreak Of internal dis
tensions among the defenders, Certain
words of Renan quoted in the book before
us seem peculiarly relevant to the last
chapter in the story Of Granada. Renan
- .--..I.el .loI a.L, rron,al,,b1 lilo n-aaly
ness OF the Arab race lies in its absolute
lack Of political sense and in it's incapacity
for organization. Anarchical by nature,
the Arab is invincible in the hour of con-
quest but impotent from the moment when
it becomes indispensable to found a durable
State" The same weakness had been
exemplifed throughout the history of the
Moors in Spain, where a splendid empire
created by the genius and valor of one man
(Abd-er-Rahman ~ had been brought to
ruin by the jealous feuds of his successors.
1t is also pointed out by MI Hare that
despotic rule, combined with domestic
jealousies inseparable from polygamy, is a
fatal source of weakness to all Oriental
Governments. 1t was by such domestic
discord that the kingdom Of Granada was
rent asunder.
The war of Granada has often been COM
pared by Castilian writer's, on the score of
its length, to the siege Of Troy, and there Is
no doubt that the story may take a place
with that reoounted in the Had as regards
adventures of romance and valor. II was,
to be sure, a mistake of contemporaries to
imagine that the capture of the Moorish
city was a full compensation for the loss Of
C~onstantinople, which had occurred some
forty years before. 1t val natural enough,
however, that the conquest Of this last cor
ner of the once ma jestic Moorish dominion
in the Iberian Peninsula should make a
profound impression upon the whole of
Europe, and that by virtue Of the prestige
thus acquired Spain should rise from a
secondary State to a first rate Power. The
most substantial result of the ten years
warfare against Granada was that it had
made the different provinces of Spain for
get their mutual jealousy and had knitted
them together by a bond of union which
for the first time in their history made
them a p~uissant nation, From a military
point OF view also the progress Of Spain
during the decade Of continual warfare
had been very great, for now for the first
time masses Of soldiers had been collected
and kept in the field, no longer for irregular
and intermittent service. but from one wear