THE ALHAMBRA 27 



piano is that on which the various buildings, 

 collectively styled the Alhambra, are reared. 

 Here there existed a settlement in remote Celti- 

 berian days ; and the later city of Illiberis or 

 Elvira stood here, and perhaps extended to the 

 Torres Bermejas. When the Moors came they 

 erected a fortress the Alcazaba on the point 

 of the Alhambra hill, overlooking the Vermilion 

 Towers. To this they gave the name of 

 Alhamra, "the red," as Riano thinks, to dis- 

 tinguish it from the Alcazaba in the Albaicin 

 quarter, or perhaps from some confusion of the 

 new building with the old . The builder, according 

 to Al Khattib, was one Saw r ar Alcaysi, who lived 

 in the second half of the ninth century ; though 

 Contreras says it was known as the Tower of 

 Ibn Jaffir, and Ford names Habus Ibn Makesen 

 as the founder. At all events, the structure 

 dated from the earliest period of the Arabic 

 domination, and Al Ahmar found here, on taking 

 possession of Granada, a small town girdled with 

 walls and defended by a citadel. 



Al Khattib refers to the Citadel of Granada 

 in these terms : " The southern part of the city 

 is commanded by the suburb of the Alhambra 

 or Medina Alhamra, the court of the sultanate, 

 crowning it with its turrets, its lofty towers, its 

 strong bastions, its magnificent Alcazar, and other 

 sumptuous edifices, wilich by their splendour 



