CHAPTER XXXVII

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

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

HOW FRESH COMMOTIONS BROKE OUT IN GRANADA, AND HOW THE
PEOPLE UNDERTOOK TO ALLAY THEM.


While perfect unity of object and harmony of operation gave power
to the Christian arms, the devoted kingdom of Granada continued
a prey to internal feuds. The transient popularity of El Zagal had
declined ever since the death of his brother, and the party of Boabdil
was daily gaining strength; the Albaycin and the Alhambra were
again arrayed against each other in deadly strife, and the streets
of unhappy Granada were daily dyed in the blood of her children. In
the midst of these dissensions tidings arrived of the formidable army
assembling at Cordova. The rival factions paused in their infatuated
brawls, and were roused to a temporary sense of the common danger.
They forthwith resorted to their old expedient of new-modelling their
government, or rather of making and unmaking kings. The elevation
of El Zagal to the throne had not produced the desired effect; what,
then, was to be done? Recall Boabdil el Chico and acknowledge him
again as sovereign? While they were in a popular tumult of
deliberation Hamet Aben Zarrax, surnamed El Santo, rose among
them. This was the same wild, melancholy man who had predicted
the woes of Granada. He issued from one of the caverns of the
adjacent height which overhangs the Darro, and has since been called
the Holy Mountain. His appearance was more haggard than ever, for
the unheeded spirit of prophecy seemed to have turned inwardly and
preyed upon his vitals. "Beware, O Moslems," exclaimed he, "of men
who are eager to govern, yet are unable to protect. Why slaughter
each other for El Chico or El Zagal? Let your kings renounce their
contests, unite for the salvation of Granada, or let them be deposed."

Hamet Aben Zarrax had long been revered as a saint--he was now
considered an oracle. The old men and the nobles immediately
consulted together how the two rival kings might be brought to
accord. They had tried most expedients: it was now determined to
divide the kingdom between them, giving Granada, Malaga, Velez
Malaga, Almeria, Almunecar, and their dependencies to El Zagal,
and the residue to Boabdil el Chico. Among the cities granted to
the latter Loxa was particularly specified, with a condition that he
should immediately take command of it in person, for the council
thought the favor he enjoyed with the Castilian monarchs might
avert the threatened attack.

El Zagal readily agreed to this arrangement: he had been hastily
elevated to the throne by an ebullition of the people, and might be
as hastily cast down again. It secured him one half of a kingdom to
which he had no hereditary right, and he trusted to force or fraud
to gain the other half hereafter. The wily old monarch even sent a
deputation to his nephew, making a merit of offering him cheerfully
the half which he had thus been compelled to relinquish, and
inviting him to enter into an amicable coalition for the good of
the country.

The heart of Boabdil shrank from all connection with a man who
had sought his life, and whom he regarded as the murderer of his
kindred. He accepted one half of the kingdom as an offer from the
nation, not to be rejected by a prince who scarcely held possession
of the ground he stood on. He asserted, nevertheless, his absolute
right to the whole, and only submitted to the partition out of anxiety
for the present good of his people. He assembled his handful of
adherents and prepared to hasten to Loxa. As he mounted his horse
to depart, Hamet Aben Zarrax stood suddenly before him. "Be true to
thy country and thy faith," cried he; "hold no further communication
with these Christian dogs. Trust not the hollow-hearted friendship of
the Castilian king; he is mining the earth beneath thy feet. Choose
one of two things: be a sovereign or a slave--thou canst not be both."

Boabdil ruminated on these words; he made many wise resolutions,
but he was prone always to act from the impulse of the moment, and
was unfortunately given to temporize in his policy. He wrote to
Ferdinand, informing him that Loxa and certain other cities had
returned to their allegiance, and that he held them as vassal to
the Castilian Crown, according to their convention. He conjured
him, therefore, to refrain from any meditated attack, offering free
passage to the Spanish army to Malaga or any other place under
the dominion of his uncle.*

*Zurita, lib. 20, c. 68.


Ferdinand turned a deaf ear to the entreaty and to all professions
of friendship and vassalage. Boabdil was nothing to him but as an
instrument for stirring up the flames of civil war. He now insisted
that he had entered into a hostile league with his uncle, and had
consequently forfeited all claims to his indulgence; and he prosecuted
with the greater earnestness his campaign against the city of Loxa.

"Thus," observes the worthy Fray Antonio Agapida, "thus did this
most sagacious sovereign act upon the text in the eleventh chapter
of the evangelist St. Luke, that 'a kingdom divided against itself
cannot stand.' He had induced these infidels to waste and destroy
themselves by internal dissensions, and finally cast forth the
survivor, while the Moorish monarchs by their ruinous contests
made good the old Castilian proverb in cases of civil war, 'El vencido
vencido, y el vencidor perdido' (the conquered conquered, and the
conqueror undone)."*

*Garibay, lib. 40, c. 33.