Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond Part 28

After the group of apartments surrounding the Court of the Lions, the most valuable specimen of Moorish architecture is that known as the Hall of the Amba.s.sadors, probably once devoted to official interviews, as its name denotes. This is the largest room in the palace, occupying the upper floor in one of the ma.s.sive towers which defended the citadel, overlooking the Vega and the remains of the camp-town of Santa Fe, built during the siege by the "Catholic Kings." The thickness of its walls is therefore immense, and the windows look like little tunnels; under it are dungeons. The hall is thirty-seven feet square, and no less than seventy-five feet high in the centre of the roof, which is not the original one. Some of the finest stucco wall decoration in the place is to be seen here, with elegant Arabic inscriptions, in the ancient style of ornamental writing known as Kufic, most of the instances of the latter meaning, "O G.o.d, to Thee be endless praise, and thanks ascending." Over the windows are lines in cursive Arabic, ascribing victory and glory to the "leader of the resigned, our lord the father of the pilgrims" (Yusef I.), with a prayer for his welfare, while everywhere is to be seen here, as in other parts, the motto, "and there is none victorious but G.o.d."

Between the two blocks already described lie the baths, the undressing-room of which has been very creditably restored by the late Sr. Contreras, and looks splendid. It is, in fact, a covered patio with the gallery of the next floor running round, and as no cloth hangings or carpets could be used here, the walls and floor are fully decorated with stucco and tiles. The inner rooms are now in fair condition, and are fitted with marble, though the boiler and pipes were sold long ago by a former "keeper" of the palace. The general arrangement is just the same as that of the baths in Morocco.

One room of the palace was fitted up by Ferdinand and Isabella as a chapel, the gilt ornaments of which look very gaudy by the side of the original Moorish work. Opening out of this is a little gem of a mosque, doubtless intended for the royal devotions alone, as it is too small for a company.

Surrounding the palace proper are several other buildings forming part of the Alhambra, which must not be overlooked. Among them are the two towers of the Princesses and the Captives, both of which have been ably repaired. In the latter are to be seen tiles of a peculiar rosy tint, not met with elsewhere. In the Dar Ashah ("Gabinete de Lindaraxa"--"x" p.r.o.nounced as "sh") are excellent specimens of those with a metallic hue, resembling the colours on the surface of tar-water. Ford points out that it was only in these tiles that the Moors employed any but the primary colours, with gold for yellow. This is evident, and holds good to the present day. Both these towers give a perfect idea of a Moorish house of the better cla.s.s in miniature.

Outside the walls are of the rough red of the mud concrete, while inside they are nearly all white, and beautifully decorated. The thickness of the walls keeps them delightfully cool, and the crooked pa.s.sages render the courts in the centre quite private.

Of the other towers and gates, the only notable one is that of Justice, a genuine Moorish erection with a turning under it to stay the onrush of an enemy, and render it easier of defence. The hand carved on the outer arch and the key on the inner one have given rise to many explanations, but their only significance was probably that this gate was the key of the castle, while the hand was to protect the key from the effects of the evil eye. This superst.i.tion is still popular, and its practice is to be seen to-day on thousands of doors in Morocco, in rudely painted hands on the doorposts.

The Watch Tower (de la Vela) is chiefly noteworthy as one of the points from which the Spanish flag was unfurled on the memorable day of the entry into Granada. The anniversary of that date, January 2nd, is a high time for the young ladies, who flock here to toll the bell in the hopes of being provided with a husband during the new-begun year.

At a short distance from the Alhambra itself is a group known as the Torres Bermejas (Vermilion Towers), probably the most ancient of the Moorish reign, if part did not exist before their settlement here, but they present no remarkable architectural features.

Across a little valley is the Generalife, a charming summer residence built about 1320, styled by its builder the "Paradise of the Wise,"--Jinah el Arif--which the Spaniards have corrupted to its present designation, p.r.o.nouncing it Kheneraliffy. Truly this is a spot after the Moor's own heart: a luxuriant garden with plenty of dark greens against white walls and pale-blue trellis-work, harmonious at every turn with the rippling and splas.h.i.+ng of nature's choicest liquid. Of architectural beauty the buildings in this garden have but little, yet as specimens of Moorish style--though they have suffered with the rest--they form a complement to the Alhambra. That is the typical fortress-palace, the abode of a martial Court; this is the pleasant resting-place, the cool retreat for love and luxury. Nature is here predominant, and Art has but a secondary place, for once retaining her true position as great Nature's handmaid. Light arched porticoes and rooms behind serve but as shelter from the noonday glare, while roomy turrets treat the occupier to delightful views.

Superfluous ornament within is not allowed to interfere with the contemplation of beauty without.

Between the lower and upper terrace is a remarkable arrangement of steps, a Moorish ideal, for at equal distances from top to bottom, between each flight, are fountains playing in the centre, round which one must walk, while a stream runs down the top of each side wall in a channel made of tiles. What a pleasant sight and sound to those to whom stair climbing in a broiling sun is too much exercise! The cypresses in the garden are very fine, but they give none too much shade. The present owner's agent has Bu Abd Allah's sword on view at his house in the town, and this is a gem worth asking to see when a ticket is obtained for the Generalife. It is of a totally different pattern and style of ornament from the modern Moorish weapons, being inlaid in a very clever and tasteful manner.

To the antiquary the most interesting part of Granada is the Albaycin, the quarter lying highest up the valley of the Darro, originally peopled by refugees from the town of Baeza--away to the north, beyond Jaen--the Baseen. As the last stronghold of Moorish rule in the Peninsula, when one by one the other cities, once its rivals, fell into the hands of the Christians again, Granada became a centre of refuge from all parts, and to this owed much of its ultimate importance.

Unfortunately no attempt has been made to preserve the many relics of that time which still exist in this quarter, probably the worst in the town. Many owners of property in the neighbourhood can still display the original Arabic t.i.tle deeds, their estates having been purchased by Spanish grandees from the expelled Moors, or later from the expelled Jews. A morning's tour will reveal much of interest in back alleys and ruined courts. One visitor alone is hardly safe among the wild half-gipsy lot who dwell there now, but a few copper coins are all the keys needed to gain admission to some fine old patios with marble columns, crumbling fandaks, and ruined baths. By the roadside may be seen the identical style of water-mill still used in Morocco, and the presence of the Spaniard seems a dream.

V. HITHER AND THITHER

Having now made pilgrimages to the more famous homes of the Moor in Europe, let us in fancy take an aerial flight over sunny Spain, and glance here and there at the scattered traces of Muslim rule in less noted quarters. Everything we cannot hope to spy, but we may still surprise ourselves and others by the number of our finds. Even this task accomplished, a volume on the subject might well be written by a second Borrow or a Ford, whose residence among the modern Moors had sharpened his scent for relics of that ilk.[28] Let not the reader think that with these wayside jottings all has been disclosed, for the Moor yet lives in Spain, and there is far more truth in the saying that "Barbary begins at the Pyrenees" than is generally imagined.

[28: To the latter I am indebted for particulars regarding the many places mentioned in this final survey which it was impossible for me to visit.]

We will start from Tarifa, perhaps the most ancient town of Andalucia.

The Moors named this ancient Punic city after T'arif ibn Malek ("The Wise, son of King"), a Berber chief. They beleaguered it about 1292, and it is still enclosed by Moorish walls. The citadel, a genuine Moorish castle, lies just within these walls, and was not so long ago the abode of galley-slaves. Close to Seville, where the river Guadalquivir branches off, it forms two islands--Islas Mayor y Menor.

The former was the Kaptal of the Moors. At Coria the river winds under the Moorish "Castle of the Cleft" (El Faraj), now called St. Juan de Alfarache, and pa.s.ses near the Torre del Oro, a monument of the invader already referred to. Old Xeres, of sherry fame, is a straggling, ill-built, ill-drained Moorish city. It was taken from the Moors in 1264. Part of the original walls and gates remain in the old town. The Moorish citadel is well preserved, and offers a good specimen of those turreted and walled palatial fortresses.

But it is not till we reach Seville that we come to a museum of Moorish antiquities. Here we see Arabesque ceilings, marqueterie woodwork, stucco panelling, and the elegant horse-shoe arches. There are beautiful specimens in the citadel, in Calle Pajaritos No. 15, in the Casa Prieto and elsewhere. The Moors possessed the city for five hundred years, during which time they entirely rebuilt it, using the Roman buildings as materials. Many Moorish houses still exist, the windows of which are barricaded with iron gratings. On each side of the patios, or courts, are corridors supported by marble pillars, whilst a fountain plays in the centre. These houses are rich in Moorish porcelain tilings, called azulejos--from the Arabic ez-zulaj--but the best of these are in the patio of the citadel.

Carmona is not far off, with its oriental walls and castle, famous as ever for its grateful springs. The tower of San Pedro transports us again to Tangier, as do the ma.s.sy walls and arched gate.

Some eight leagues on the way to Badajos from Seville rises a Moorish tower, giving to the adjoining village the name of Castillo de las Guardias. Five leagues beyond are the mines of the "Inky River"--Rio Tinto--a name sufficiently expressive and appropriate, for it issues from the mountain-side impregnated with copper, and is consequently corrosive. The Moors seem to have followed the Romans in their workings on the north side of the hill. Further on are more mines, still proclaiming the use the Moors made of them by their present name Almadin--"the Mine"--a name which has almost become Spanish; it is still so generally used. Five leagues from Rio Tinto, at Aracena, is another Moorish castle, commanding a fine panorama, and the belfry of the church hard by is Arabesque.

Many more of these ruined kasbahs are to be seen upon the heights of Andalucia, and even much further north; but the majority must go unmentioned. One, in an equally fine position, is to be seen eleven leagues along the road from Seville to Badajos, above Santa Olalla--a name essentially Moorish, denoting the resting-place of some female Mohammedan saint, whose name has been lost sight of. (Lallah, or "Lady," is the term always prefixed to the names of canonized ladies in Morocco.) Three leagues from Seville on the Granada road, at Gandul, lies another of these castles, picturesquely situated amid palms and orange groves; four leagues beyond, the name Arahal (er-rahalah--"the day's journey") reminds the Arabicist that it is time to encamp; a dozen leagues further on the name of Roda recalls its origin, raodah, "the cemetery." Riding into Jaen on the top of the diligence from Granada, I was struck with the familiar appearance of two brown tabia fortresses above the town, giving the hillside the appearance of one of the lower slopes of the Atlas. This was a place after the Moors' own heart, for abundant springs gush everywhere from the rocks. In their days it was for a time the capital of an independent kingdom.

At Ronda, a town originally built by the Moors--for Old Ronda is two leagues away to the north,--their once extensive remains have been all but destroyed. Its tortuous streets and small houses, however, testify as to its origin, and its Moorish castle still appears to guard the narrow ascent by which alone it can be reached from the land, for it crowns a river-girt rock. Down below, this river, the Guadalvin, still turns the same rude cla.s.s of corn-mills that we have seen at Fez and Granada. Other remnants are another Moorish tower in the Calle del Puente Viejo, and the "House of the Moorish King" in Calle San Pedro, dating from about 1042. Descending to the river's edge by a flight of stairs cut in the solid rock, there is a grotto dug by Christian slaves three centuries later. Some five leagues on the road thence to Granada are the remains of the ancient Teba, at the siege of which in 1328, when it was taken from the Moors, Lord James Douglas fought in obedience to the dying wish of the Bruce his master, whose heart he wore in a silver case hung from his neck, throwing it among the enemy as he rushed in and fell.

On the way from Ronda to Gibraltar are a number of villages whose Arab names are startling even in this land of Ishmaelitish memories. Among these are Atajate, Gaucin, Benahali, Benarraba, Benadalid, Benalaurin.

At Gaucin an excellent view of Gibraltar and Jibel Musa is obtainable from its Moorish citadel. This brings us to old "Gib," whose relics of Tarik and his successors are much better known to travellers than most of those minor remains. An inscription over the gate of the castle, now a prison, tells of its erection over eleven centuries ago, for this was naturally one of the early captures of the invaders. Yet the mud-concrete walls stand firm and sound, though scarred by many a shot. Algeciras--El Jazirah--"the Island" has pa.s.sed through too many vicissitudes to have much more than the name left.

Malaga, though seldom heard of in connection with the history of Mohammedan rule in the Peninsula, played a considerable part in that drama. It and Cadiz date far back to the time of the Carthaginians, so that, after all, their origin is African. If its name is not of an earlier origin, it may be from Malekah, "the Queen." Every year on August 18, at 3 p.m. the great bell of the cathedral is struck thrice, for that is the anniversary of its recovery from the Aliens in 1487.

The flag of Ferdinand then hoisted is (or was recently) still to be seen, together with a Moorish one, probably that of the vanquished city, over the tomb of the Conde de Buena Vista in the convent of La Victoria. Though odd bits of Moorish architecture may still be met with in places, the only remains of note are the castle, built in 1279, with its fine horse-shoe gate--sadly disfigured by modern barbarism--and what was the dockyard of the Moors, now left high and dry by the receding sea.

The name Alhama, met with in several parts of Spain, merely denotes "the hot," alluding to springs of that character which are in most instances still active. This is the case at the Alhama between Malaga and Granada, where the baths are worth a visit. The Moorish bath is called the strong one, being nearer the spring.

At Antequera the castle is Moorish, though built on Roman foundations, and it is only of recent years that the mosque has disappeared under the "protection" of an impecunious governor.

Leaving the much-sung Andalus, the first name striking us in Murcia is that of Guadix (p.r.o.nounced Wadish), a corruption of Wad Ash, "River of Life." Its Moorish castle still stands. Some ten leagues further on, at Cullar de Baza is another Moorish ruin, and the next of note, a fine specimen, is fifteen leagues away at Lorca, whose streets are in the genuine intricate style. The city of Murcia, though founded by the Moors, contains little calling them to remembrance. In the post-office and prison, however, and in the public granary, mementoes are to be found.

Orihuela, on the road from Carthagena to Alicante, still looks oriental with its palm-trees, square towers and domes, and Elche is just another such, with flat roofs and the orthodox kasbah, now a prison. The enormous number of palms which surround the town recall Marrakesh, but they are sadly neglected. Monte Alegre is a small place with a ruined Moorish castle, about fifteen leagues from Elche on the road to Madrid. Between Alicante and Xativa is the Moorish castle of Tibi, close to a large reservoir, and there is a square Moorish tower at Concentaina. Xativa has a hermitage, San Felin, adorned with horse-shoe arches, having a Moorish cistern hard by.

Valencia the Moors considered a Paradise, and their skill in irrigation has been retained, so that of the Guadalaviar (Wad el Abiad--"River of the Whites") the fullest use is made in agriculture, and the familiar water-wheels and conduits go by the corruptions of their Arabic names, naorahs and sakkaahs. The city itself is very Moorish in appearance, with its narrow tortuous streets and gloomy buildings, but I know of no remarkable legacy of the Moors there.

There are the remains of a Moorish aqueduct at Chestalgar--a very Arabic sounding name, of which the last two syllables are corrupted from El Gharb ("the West") as in the case of Trafalgar (Terf el Gharb--"West Point"). All this district was inhabited by the Moriscos or Christianized Moors as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century, and there must their descendants live still, although no longer distinguished from true sons of the soil.

Whatever may remain of the ancient Saguntum, what is visible is mostly Moorish, as, for instance, cisterns on the site of a Roman temple. Not far from Valencia is Burjasot, where are yet to be seen specimens of matmorahs or underground granaries. Morella is a scrambling town with Moorish walls and towers, coroneted by a castle.

Entering Catalonia, Tortosa, at the mouth of the Ebro, is reached, once a stronghold of the Moors, and a nest of pirates till recovered by Templars, Pisans and Genoese together. It was only withheld from the Moors next year by the valour of the women besieged. The tower of the cathedral still bears the t.i.tle of Almudena, a reminder of the muedhdhin who once summoned Muslims to prayer from its summit.

Here, too, are sundry remnants of Moorish masonry, and some ancient matmorahs.

Tarragona and Barcelona, if containing no Moorish ruins of note, have all, in common with other neighbouring places, retained the Arabic name Rambla (rimlah, "sand") for the quondam sandy river beds which of late years have been transformed into fas.h.i.+onable promenades. In the cathedral of Tarragona an elegant Moorish arch is noticeable, with a Kufic inscription giving the date as 960 A.D. For four centuries after this city was destroyed by Tarif it remained unoccupied, so that much cannot be expected to call to mind his dynasty. Of a bridge at Martorell over the Llobregat, Ford says it is "attributed to Hannibal by the learned, and to the devil, as usual, by the vulgar. The pointed centre arch, which is very steep and narrow to pa.s.s, is 133 feet wide in the span, and is unquestionably a work of the Moors." Not far away is a place whose name, Mequineza, is strongly suggestive of Moorish origin, but I know nothing further about it.

Now let us retrace our flight, and wing our way once more to the north of Seville, to the inland province of Estremadura. Here we start from Merida, where the Roman-Moorish "alcazar" towers proudly yet. The Moors repaired the old Roman bridge over the Guadiana, and the gateway near the river has a marble tablet with an Arabic inscription. The Muslims observed towards the people of this place good faith such as was never shown to them in return, inasmuch as they allowed them to retain their temples, creed, and bishops. They built the citadel in 835, and the city dates its decline from the time that Alonzo el Sabio took it from them in 1229. Zamora is another ancient place. It was taken from the Moors in 939, when 40,000 of them are said to have been killed. The Moorish designs in the remarkable circular arches of La Magdalena are worthy of note.

In Toledo the church of Santo Tome has a brick tower of Moorish character; near it is the Moorish bridge of San Martin, and in the neighbourhood, by a stream leading to the Tagus, Moorish mills and the ruins of a villa with Moorish arches, now a farm hovel, may still be seen. The ceiling of the chapel of the church of San Juan de la Penetencia is in the Moorish style, much dilapidated (1511 A.D.). The Toledan Moors were first-rate hydraulists. One of their kings had a lake in his palace, and in the middle a kiosk, whence water descended on each side, thus enclosing him in the coolest of summer-houses.

It was in Toledo that Ez-Zarkal made water-clocks for astronomical calculations, but now this city obtains its water only by the primitive machinery of donkeys, which are driven up and down by water-carriers as in Barbary itself. The citadel was once the kasbah of the Moors.

The Cathedral of Toledo is one of the most remarkable in Spain. The arches of the transept are semi-Moorish, Xamete, who wrought it in Arcos stone in 1546-50, having been a Moor. The very ancient manufactory of arms for which Toledo has a world-wide fame dates from the time of the Goths; into this the Moors introduced their Damascene system of ornamenting and tempering, and as early as 852 this identical "fabrica" was at work under Abd er-Rahman ibn El Hakim. The Moors treasured and named their swords like children. These were the weapons which Oth.e.l.lo, the Moor, "kept in his chamber."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Cavilla, Photo., Tangier._

THE MARKET-PLACE, TETUAN.]

At Alcazar de San Juan, in La Mancha, I found a few remnants of the Moorish town, as in the church tower, but the name is now almost the only Moorish thing about it. Hence we pa.s.s to Alarcon, a truly Moorish city, built like a miniature Toledo, on a craggy peninsula hemmed in by the river Jucar. The land approach is still guarded by Moorish towers and citadel.

In Zocodovar--which takes its name from the word sok, "market-place"--we find a very Moorish "plaza," with its irregular windows and balconies, and in San Eugenio are some remains of an old mosque with Kufic inscriptions, as well as an arch and tomb of elaborate design. In the Calle de las Tornarias there used to be a dilapidated Moorish house with one still handsome room, but it is doubtful whether this now survives the wreck of time. It was called El Taller del Moro, because Ambron, the Moorish governor of Huesca, is said to have invited four hundred of the refractory chiefs of Toledo to dine here, and to have cut off the head of each as he arrived.

There is a curious mosque in the Calle del Cristo de la Luz, the roof is supported by four low square pillars, each having a different capital, from which spring double arches like those at Cordova. The ceiling is divided into nine compartments with domes.

Madrid has pa.s.sed through such various fortunes, and has been so much re-built, that it now contains few traces of the Moors. The only relic which I saw in 1890 was a large piece of tabia, forming a substantial wall near to the new cathedral, which might have belonged to the city wall or only to a fortress. The Museum of the Capital contains a good collection of Moorish coins. In the Armoury are Moorish guns, swords, saddles, and leather s.h.i.+elds, the last named made of two hides cemented with a mortar composed of herbs and camel-hair.

In Old Castile the footprints grow rare and faint, although the name of Valladolid--Blad Walid, "Town of Walid," a Moorish ameer--sufficiently proclaims its origin, but I am not aware of any Moorish remains there. In Burgos one old gate near the triumphal arch, erected by Philip II., still retains its Moorish opening, and on the opposite hill stands the castle in which was celebrated the bridal of our Edward I. with Eleanor of Castile. It was then a true Moorish kasar, but part has since been destroyed by fire. On the road from Burgos to Vittoria we pa.s.s between the mountains of Oca and the Pyrenean spurs, in which narrow defile the old Spaniards defied the advancing Moors. Moorish caverns or cisterns are still to be seen.

Turning southward again, we come to Medinaceli, or "the city of Selim," once the strong frontier hold of a Moor of that name, the scene of many conflicts among the Moors themselves, and against the Christians. Here, on August 7, 1002, died the celebrated El Mansur--"The Victorious"--the "Cid" (Seyyid) of the Moors, and the most terrible enemy of the Christians. He was born in 938 near Algeciras, and by a series of intrigues, treacheries and murders, rose in importance till he became in reality master of the puppet ameer. He proclaimed a holy crusade against the Christians each year, and was buried in the dust of fifty campaigns, for after every battle he used to shake off the soil from his garments into a chest which he carried about with him for that purpose.

In Aragon the situation of Daroca, in the fertile basin of the Jiloca, is very picturesque. The little town lies in a hill-girt valley around which rise eminences defended by Moorish walls and towers, which, following the irregular declivities, command charming views from above. The palace of the Mendozas at Guadalajara, in the same district, boasts of an elegant row of Moorish windows, though these appear to have been constructed after Guadalajara was reconquered from the Moors by the Spaniards. Near this place is a Moorish brick building, turned into a battery by the invaders, and afterwards used as a prison. Before leaving this town it will be worth while to visit San Miguel, once a mosque, with its colonnaded entrance, horse-shoe arches, machiolations, and herring-bone patterns under the roof.

Calatayud, the second town of Aragon, is of Moorish origin. Its Moorish name means the "Castle of Ayub"--or Job--the nephew of Musa, who used the ancient Bilbilis as a quarry whence to obtain stones for its construction. The Dominican convent of Calatayud has a glorious patio with three galleries rising one above another, and a portion of the exterior is enriched with pseudo-Moorish work like the prisons at Guadalajara.

Saragossa gave me more the impression of Moorish origin than any town I saw in Spain, except Seville and Cordova. The streets of the original settlement are just those of Mequinez on a small scale. The only object of genuinely Moorish origin that I could find, however, was the Aljaferia, once a palace-citadel, now a barrack, so named after Jafer, a Muslim king of this province. Since his times Ferdinand and Isabella used it, and then handed it over to the Inquisition. Some of the rooms still retain Moorish decorations, but most of the latter are of the period of their conquerors. On one ceiling is pointed out the first gold brought from the New World. The only genuine Moorish remnant is the private mosque, with beautiful inscriptions. The building has been incorporated in a huge fort-like modern brick structure, which would lead no one to seek inside for Arab traces.

Pa.s.sing from Saragossa northwards, we arrive at Jaca, the railway terminus, which to this day quarters on her s.h.i.+eld the heads of four shekhs who were left behind when their fellow-countrymen fled from the city in 795, after a desperate battle in which the Spanish women fought like men. The site of the battle, called Las Tiendas, is still visited on the first Friday in May, when the daughters of these Amazons go gloriously "a-shopping." The munic.i.p.al charter of Jaca dates from the Moorish expulsion, and is reckoned among the earliest in Spain.

Gerona, almost within sight of France, played an important part, too, in those days, siding alternately with that country and with Spain when in the possession of the Moors. The Ameer Sulaman, in 759 A.D., entered into an alliance with Pepin, and in 785 Charlemagne took the town, which the Moors re-captured ten years later. It became their headquarters for raids upon Narbonne and Nismes. Castellon de Ampurias, once on the coast, which has receded, was strong enough to resist the Moors for a time, but after they had dismantled it, the Normans appeared and finally destroyed it. Now it is but a hamlet.