Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada | Page 9

dress and ornament pervaded all ranks. That of
the princesses and ladies of high rank, says Al Kattib, one of their own
writers, was carried to a height of luxury and magnificence that
bordered on delirium. They wore girdles and bracelets and anklets of
gold and silver, wrought with exquisite art and delicacy and studded
with jacinths, chrysolites, emeralds, and other precious stones. They
were fond of braiding and decorating their beautiful long tresses or
confining them in knots sparkling with jewels. They were finely
formed, excessively fair, graceful in their manners, and fascinating in

their conversation; when they smiled, says Al Kattib, they displayed
teeth of dazzling whiteness, and their breath was as the perfume of
flowers.
The Moorish cavaliers, when not in armor, delighted in dressing
themselves in Persian style, in garments of wool, of silk, or cotton of
the finest texture, beautifully wrought with stripes of various colors. In
winter they wore, as an outer garment, the African cloak or Tunisian
albornoz, but in the heat of summer they arrayed themselves in linen of
spotless whiteness. The same luxury prevailed in their military
equipments. Their armor was inlaid and chased with gold and silver.
The sheaths of their scimetars were richly labored and enamelled, the
blades were of Damascus bearing texts from the Koran or martial and
amorous mottoes; the belts were of golden filigree studded with gems;
their poniards of Fez were wrought in the arabesque fashion; their
lances bore gay bandaroles; their horses were sumptuously caparisoned
with housings of green and crimson velvet, wrought with silk and
enamelled with gold and silver. All this warlike luxury of the youthful
chivalry was encouraged by the Moorish kings, who ordained that no
tax should be imposed on the gold and silver employed in these
embellishments; and the same exxfxception was extended to the
bracelets and other ornaments worn by the fair dames of Granada.
Of the chivalrous gallantry which prevailed between the sexes in this
romantic period of Moorish history we have traces in the thousand
ballads which have come down to our day, and which have given a tone
and coloring to Spanish amatory literature and to everything in Spain
connected with the tender passion.
War was the normal state of Granada and its inhabitants; the common
people were subject at any moment to be summoned to the field, and all
the upper class was a brilliant chivalry. The Christian princes, so
successful in regaining the rest of the Peninsula, found their triumphs
checked at the mountain-boundaries of this kingdom. Every peak had
its atalaya, or watch-tower, ready to make its fire by night or to send up
its column of smoke by day, a signal of invasion at which the whole
country was on the alert. To penetrate the defiles of this perilous

country, to surprise a frontier fortress, or to make a foray into the Vega
and a hasty ravage within sight of the very capital were among the most
favorite and daring exploits of the Castilian chivalry. But they never
pretended to hold the region thus ravaged; it was sack, burn, plunder,
and away; and these desolating inroads were retaliated in kind by the
Moorish cavaliers, whose greatest delight was a "tala," or predatory
incursion, into the Christian territories beyond the mountains.
A partisan warfare of this kind had long existed between Granada and
its most formidable antagonists, the kingdoms of Castile and Leon. It
was one which called out the keen yet generous rivalry of Christian and
Moslem cavaliers, and gave rise to individual acts of chivalrous
gallantry and daring prowess; but it was one which was gradually
exhausting the resources and sapping the strength of Granada. One of
the latest of its kings, therefore, Aben Ismael by name, disheartened by
a foray which had laid waste the Vega, and conscious that the balance
of warfare was against his kingdom, made a truce in 1457 with Henry
IV., king of Castile and Leon, stipulating to pay him an annual tribute
of twelve thousand doblas or pistoles of gold, and to liberate annually
six hundred Christian captives, or in default of captives to give an equal
number of Moors as hostages,--all to be delivered at the city of
Cordova.*
*Garibay, Compend., 1.17, c. 3.
The truce, however, was of a partial nature, with singular reservations.
It did not include the Moorish frontier toward Jaen, which was to
remain open for the warlike enterprises of either nation; neither did it
prohibit sudden attacks upon towns and castles, provided they were
mere forays, conducted furtively, without sound of trumpet or display
of banners or pitching of camps or regular investment, and that they did
not last above three days.*
*Zurita, Anales de Aragon, 1. 20, c. 42; Mariana, Hist. de Espana 1. 25,
c. 1; Bleda, Coron.