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Beneath the governor's apartment in the
Alhambra, is the royal mosque, where the Moorish
monarchs performed their private devotions.
Though consecrated as a Catholic chapel, it still
bears traces of its Moslem origin; the Saracenic
columns with their gilded capitals, and the latticed
gallery for the females of the Harem, may
yet be seen, and the escutcheons of the Moorish
kings are mingled on the walls with those of the
Castilian sovereigns.

In this consecrated place perished the illustrious
Yusef Abul Hagig, the high-minded prince who
completed the Alhambra, and who for his virtues
and endowments deserves almost equal renown
with its magnanimous founder. It is with pleasure
I draw forth from the obscurity in which it
has too long remained, the name of another of

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those princes of a departed and almost forgotten
race, who reigned in elegance and splendour in
Andalusia, when all Europe was in comparative
barbarism.

Yusef Abul Hagig, (or, as it is sometimes written,
Haxis,) ascended the throne of Granada in
the year 1333, and his personal appearance and
mental qualities were such as to win all hearts,
and to awaken anticipations of a beneficent and
prosperous reign. He was of a noble presence,
and great bodily strength, united to manly beauty;
his complexion was exceeding fair, and, according
to the Arabian chroniclers, he heightened the
gravity and majesty of his appearance by suffering
his beard to grow to a dignified length, and
dyeing it black. He had an excellent memory,
well stored with science and erudition; he was
of a lively genius, and accounted the best poet of
his time, and his manners were gentle, affable, and
urbane. Yusef possessed the courage common to
all generous spirits, but his genius was more cultivated
for peace than war, and though obliged to
take up arms repeatedly in his time, he was generally
unfortunate. He carried the benignity of
his nature into warfare, prohibiting all wanton
cruelty, and enjoining mercy and protection towards
women and children, the aged and infirm,

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and all friars and persons of holy and recluse life.
Among other ill-starred enterprises, he undertook
a great campaign in conjunction with the king of
Morocco, against the kings of Castile and Portugal,
but was defeated in the memorable battle of Salado;
a disastrous reverse, which had nearly proved a
death-blow to the Moslem power in Spain.

Yusef obtained a long truce after this defeat,
during which time he devoted himself to the instruction
of his people, and the improvement of
their morals and manners. For this purpose he
established schools in all the villages, with simple
and uniform systems of education; he obliged
every hamlet of more than twelve houses, to have
a Mosque, and prohibited various abuses and indecorums
that had been introduced into the ceremonies
of religion and the festivals and public
amusements of the people. He attended vigilantly
to the police of the city, establishing nocturnal
guard and patrols, and superintending all municipal
concerns. His attention was also directed
towards finishing the great architectural works
commenced by his predecessors, and erecting
others on his own plans. The Alhambra, which
had been founded by the good Abu Alahmar, was
now completed. Yusef constructed the beautiful
gate of justice, forming the grand entrance to the

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fortress, which he finished in 1348. He likewise
adorned many of the courts and halls of the palace,
as may be seen by the inscriptions on the walls, in
which his name repeatedly occurs. He built also
the noble Alcazar or citadel of Malaga, now unfortunately
a mere mass of crumbling ruins, but which
most probably exhibited in its interior, similar
elegance and magnificence with the Alhambra.

The genius of a sovereign stamps a character
upon his time. The nobles of Granada, imitating
the elegant and graceful taste of Yusef, soon filled
the city of Granada with magnificent palaces;
the halls of which were paved with Mosaic, the
walls and ceiling wrought in fret work, and delicately
gilded and painted with azure, vermillion,
and other brilliant colours, or minutely inlaid with
cedar and other precious woods; specimens of
which have survived, in all their lustre, the lapse
of several centuries. Many of the houses had
fountains which threw up jets of water to refresh
and cool the air. They had lofty towers also, of
wood or stone, curiously carved and ornamented,
and covered with plates of metal that glittered in
the sun. Such was the refined and delicate taste
in architecture that prevailed among this elegant
people: insomuch that to use the beautiful simile
of an Arabian writer, “Granada in the days Yusef,

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was as a silver vase, filled with emeralds and
jacynths.”

One anecdote will be sufficient to show the
magnanimity of this generous prince. The long
truce which had succeeded the battle of Salado
was at an end, and every effort of Yusef to renew it
was in vain. His deadly foe Alonzo XI. of Castile
took the field with great force, and laid siege
to Gibraltar. Yusef reluctantly took up arms and
sent troops to the relief of the place; when in the
midst of his anxiety, he received tidings that his
dreaded foe had suddenly fallen a victim to the
plague. Instead of manifesting exultation on the
occasion, Yusef called to mind the great qualities
of the deceased, and was touched with a noble
sorrow. “Alas!” cried he, “the world has lost
one of its most excellent princes; a sovereign
who knew how to honour merit, whether in friend
or foe!”

The Spanish chroniclers themselves bear witness
to this magnanimity. According to their accounts,
the Moorish cavaliers partook of the sentiment of
their king, and put on mourning for the death of
Alfonzo. Even those of Gibraltar who had been
so closely invested, when they knew that the hostile
monarch lay dead in his camp, determined
among themselves that no hostile movement should

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be made against the Christians. The day on
which the camp was broken up, and the army departed
bearing the corpse of Alfonso, the Moors
issued in multitudes from Gibraltar, and stood
mute and melancholy, watching the mournful
pageant. The same reverence for the deceased
was observed by all the Moorish commanders on
the frontiers, who suffered the funeral train to
pass in safety, bearing the corpse of the Christian
sovereign from Gibraltar to Seville.[1]

Yusef did not long survive the enemy he had
so generously deplored. In the year 1354, as he
was one day praying in the royal mosque of the
Alhambra, a maniac rushed suddenly from behind
and plunged a dagger in his side. The cries of
the king brought his guards and courtiers to his
assistance. They found him weltering in his
blood, and in convulsions. He was borne to the
royal apartments, but expired almost immediately.
The murderer was cut to pieces, and his limbs
burnt in public to gratify the fury of the populace.

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The body of the king was interred in a superb
sepulchre of white marble a long epitaph in letters
of gold upon an azure ground recorded his virtues.
“Here lies a king and martyr, of an illustrious
line, gentle, learned, and virtuous; renowned for
the graces of his person and his manners, whose
clemency, piety, and benevolence, were extolled
throughout the kingdom of Granada. He was a
great prince; an illustrious captain; a sharp
sword of the Moslems; a valiant standard-bearer
among the most potent monarchs,” &c.

The mosque still remains which once resounded
with the dying cries of Yusef, but the monument
which recorded his virtues has long since disappeared.
His name however remains inscribed
among the ornaments of the Alhambra, and will be
perpetuated in connexion with this renowned pile,
which it was his pride and delight to beautify.