12 GRANADA 



making any determined effort to take the other's 

 capital or to secure his conquests. On feeling 

 his end approaching, the warlike Sultan bethought 

 him of his elder brother, Yusuf, whom he had 

 confined in the castle of Salobrena. Fearing that 

 the captive might now supplant his own son, 

 Mohammed sent a messenger to command his 

 execution. Yusuf was playing chess with the 

 governor of the castle when the fatal mandate 

 arrived. He asked leave of the emissary to 

 finish the game, and before he had made the 

 final move, the news arrived of the death of 

 Mohammed and of his proclamation as Sultan of 

 Granada. Yusuf showed himself as calm and 

 unmoved at his accession to the throne as when 

 he had stood upon the threshold of death. 



As peaceably disposed as his father, Yusuf 

 III. had to withstand some of the most deter- 

 mined assaults upon his doomed kingdom. In 

 his reign took place the celebrated siege of Ante- 

 quera by the Castilians, the survivors of which 

 founded the suburb of Antequeruela adj acent to 

 Granada. Yusuf ultimately found peace and a 

 valuable ally as the outcome of a strange story of 

 fraternal animosity. The people of Gibraltar 

 revolted against Granada and proclaimed them- 

 selves the subjects of Fez. The Sultan of that 

 realm sent his hated brother, Abu Sa'id, to take 

 possession of the town, and treating him as David 



