CHAPTER III

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

CHAPTER III, CHRONICLE OF THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA by Washington Irving

DOMESTIC FEUDS IN THE ALHAMBRA--RIVAL SULTANAS--
PREDICTIONS CONCERNING BOABDIL, THE HEIR TO THE
THRONE--HOW FERDINAND MEDITATES WAR AGAINST
GRANADA, AND HOW HE IS ANTICIPATED.


Though Muley Abul Hassan was at peace in his external relations,
a civil war raged in his harem, which it is proper to notice, as it had
a fatal effect upon the fortunes of the kingdom. Though cruel by
nature, he was uxorious and somewhat prone to be managed by his
wives. Early in life he had married his kinswoman, Ayxa (or Ayesha),
daughter of his great-uncle, the sultan Mohammed VII., surnamed El
Hayzari, or the Left-handed. She was a woman of almost masculine
spirit and energy, and of such immaculate and inaccessible virtue
that she was generally called La Horra, or the Chaste. By her he
had a son, Abu Abdallah, or, as he is commonly named by historians,
Boabdil. The court astrologers, according to custom, cast the
horoscope of the infant, but were seized with fear and trembling as
they regarded it. "Allah Akbar! God is great!" exclaimed they; "he
alone controls the fate of empires. It is written in the book of
fate that this child will one day sit upon the throne, but that the
downfall of the kingdom will be accomplished during his reign." From
that time the prince had been regarded with aversion by his father,
and the prediction which hung over him and the persecutions to which
he became subjected procured him the surname of El Zogoybi, or the
Unfortunate. He grew up, however, under the protection of his
valiant-hearted mother, who by the energy of her character long
maintained an undisputed sway in the harem, until, as her youth
passed away and her beauty declined, a formidable rival arose.

In one of the forays of the Moorish chivalry into the Christian
territories they had surprised a frontier fortress commanded by
Sancho Ximenes de Solis, a noble and valiant cavalier, who fell in
bravely defending it. Among the captives was his daughter Isabella,
then almost in her infancy, who was brought to Granada, delicately
raised, and educated in the Moslem faith.* Her Moorish captors gave
her the name of Fatima, but as she grew up her surpassing beauty
gained her the surname of Zoraya, or the Morning Star, by which she
has become known in history. Her charms at length attracted the
notice of Muley Abul Hassan, and she soon became a member of his
harem. Some have spoken of her as a Christian slave whom he had
made his concubine; but others, with more truth, represent her as
one of his wives, and ultimately his favorite sultana; and indeed it
was often the case that female captives of rank and beauty, when
converted to the faith of Islam, became united to the proudest and
loftiest of their captors.

*Cronica del Gran Cardinal, cap. 71.


Zoraya soon acquired complete ascendancy over the mind of Muley Abul
Hassan. She was as ambitious as she was beautiful, and, having
become the mother of two sons, looked forward to the possibility of
one of them sitting on the throne of Granada. These ambitious views
were encouraged, if not suggested, by a faction which gathered round
her inspired by kindred sympathies. The king's vizier, Abul Cacim
Vanegas, who had great influence over him, was, like Zoraya, of
Christian descent, being of the noble house of Luque. His father,
one of the Vanegas of Cordova, had been captured in infancy and
brought up as a Moslem.* From him sprang the vizier, Abul Cacim
Vanegas, and his brother, Reduan Vanegas, likewise high in rank in
the court of Muley Abul Hassan, and they had about them numerous
and powerful connections, all basking in court favor. Though Moslems
in faith, they were all drawn to Zoraya by the tie of foreign and
Christian descent, and sought to elevate her and her children to the
disparagement of Ayxa la Horra and her son Boabdil. The latter, on
the other hand, were supported by the noble and once-potent family
of the Abencerrages and by Aben Comixa, alcayde of the Alhambra;
and between these two factions, headed by rival sultanas, the harem
of Muley Abul Hassan became the scene of inveterate jealousies and
intrigues, which in time, as will be shown, led to popular commotions
and civil wars.**

*Cura de los Palacios, Hist. de los Reyes Catol., cap. 56.

**It is to be noted that several historians have erroneously
represented Zoraya as the mother of Boabdil, instead of Ayxa la
Horra, and the Abencerrages as the opponents of Boabdil, instead
of his strenuous adherents. The statement in the text is according
to the most reliable authorities.


While these female feuds were threatening Muley Abul Hassan with
trouble and disaster at home, his evil genius prompted him to an
enterprise which involved him in tenfold danger from abroad. The
reader has already been apprised of a singular clause in the truce
existing between the Christians and the Moors, permitting hasty
dashes into each other's territories and assaults of towns and
fortresses, provided they were carried on as mere forays and without
the parade of regular warfare. A long time had elapsed, however,
without any incursion of the kind on the part of the Moors, and the
Christian towns on the frontiers had, in consequence, fallen into a
state of the most negligent security. In an unlucky moment Muley
Abul Hassan was tempted to one of these forays by learning that the
fortress of Zahara, on the frontier between Ronda and Medina
Sidonia, was but feebly garrisoned and scantily supplied, and that
its alcayde was careless of his charge. This important post was
built on the crest of a rocky mountain, with a strong castle perched
above it upon a cliff, so high that it was said to be above the flight
of birds or drift of clouds. The streets and many of the houses were
mere excavations wrought out of the living rock. The town had but
one gate, opening to the west and defended by towers and bulwarks.
The only ascent to this cragged fortress was by roads cut in the rock,
so rugged in many places as to resemble broken stairs. In a word,
the impregnable security of Zahara had become so proverbial throughout
Spain that a woman of forbidding and inaccessible virtue was called a
Zaharena. But the strongest fortress and sternest virtue have weak
points, and require unremitting vigilance to guard them: let warrior
and dame take warning from the fate of Zahara.