Algezir 217 



Guienne, Lombardy, Flanders, England, and Germany.^ Of the 

 English, we know only the names of Sir Stephen Scrope (ca. 

 1345-1406) and Nicholas Sabraham. According to Sabraham, 

 Scrope, immediately on landing, received the order of knight- 

 hood from the King of Cyprus.- There was also an unnamed 

 Scottish knight who distinguished himself by his valor, and was 

 slain while attacking the gate of the custom house. ^ A pictur- 

 esque incident was the fighting in the shallow water on the beach, 

 where 8000 Christians engaged a much larger number of Mussul- 

 mans.'* The victory has been described as a brilliant, but fatal 

 success.^ 



Algesir, summer of 1343. Algecira(s), Algezira(s).® Frois- 

 sart's Algesiras, ArgesiUe, Arsesille; Jean le Bel's Algheside, 

 Alg(h)esyde. The name is Arabic, and signifies 'island,' the whole 

 term being al-GazIra al-KJiadrd (otherwise transliterated as 

 al-Djezirah-al-Hadra), 'green island,' from an islet opposite, 

 called even now Isla Verde. The little town lies just across the 

 bay from Gibraltar, 6 miles to the west. It has recently come 

 into notice because of the international conference on Moroccan 

 affairs, held there from Jan. 16 to April 7, 1906.'^ 



After Alfonso XFs remarkable victory over the invading 

 Moors at Salado (or Tarifa), on Nov. 28, 1340, when Abu 

 Hamer, son of Abu-'l-Hassan,^ Sultan of Belmarye, was cap- 

 tured, and some 200,000 Moors were slain and taken prisoners,^ 

 the most important military operation in Granada was the siege 

 of Algeciras by the Spaniards and representatives of other 



^ Bibl. I (1844). 502-4; Le Roulx 44 (1886). 125-8; Machaut 2190-3661 

 (pp. 67-111). 



"Scrope and G^'osvenor Controversy, ed. Nicolas, 2. 323. For two other 

 possible names, see Stubbs, p. 194. 



^Machaut, vv. 2828-33 (p. 86). 



*Le Roulx, p. 127; Machaut, vv. 2426 fif. (p. 74). 



'" Bibl., p. 503. For the results, see Bibl., pp. 503 ff. ; Le Roulx, pp. 

 129 ff. For Petrarch's lament over the eventual failure, see Stubbs, p. 195. 



° The final -.y not pronounced. 



'' Encyc. Brit., nth ed., i. 642; 18. 858. 



^ The 'Albohacen' of the Cronica. 



" Schirrmacher, Gesch. von. Spanien 5. 213 ; Murimuth, pp. 263 ff. ; 

 Jean le Bel i. 213 ff. ; Ibn-Khaldoun, in Jour. Asiat. 9. 12 (1898). 415 

 (cf. his Hist, des Berberes, tr. Slane, 4. 229-30). 



