CALIPHS OP SPAIN. 63 



Alhambra stands solitary,, dismantled, and neglected. 

 The interior remains of the palace are in tolerable 

 preservation,, and present a melancholy picture of 

 the romantic magnificence of its former kings. Se- 

 ville, which had continued nearly 200 years the 

 seat of a petty kingdom, enjoyed considerable repu- 

 tation as a place of wealth and commerce. The po- 

 pulation in 1247 was computed at 300,000 persons, 

 which, in the sixteenth century, had decreased one- 

 third. It was one of the principal marts for olives 

 in the Moorish dominions; and so extensive was 

 the trade in this article alone, that the axarafe or 

 plantations round the suburbs employed farm-houses 

 and olive-presses to the amount of 100,000, being 

 more than is now to be found in the whole province 

 of Andalusia. 



The government of the Arabs in Spain was a 

 military despotism, tempered, however, by manners 

 and customs which made it preferable to the irre- 

 sponsible rule of Eastern tyranny. The throne was 

 elective ; yet the reigning monarch had seldom much 

 difficulty in transferring the sovereign power to a fa- 

 vourite son. Though a military people, the Saracens 

 were but little skilled in what may be called the tac- 

 tics of the profession. Hakem was the first of the 

 caliphs that organized an army, paid his soldiers 

 regularly, and formed magazines of warlike stores. 

 The command of the native Spanish troops was usu- 

 ally given to some relation of the monarch, or other 

 confidential person ; and their arms consisted of a 

 short coat of mail, a light helmet, Arabian horse fur- 

 niture, a leathern buckler, and a slender spear. The 

 African mercenaries sometimes used camels in battle, 

 so equipped as to make the hump on their backs 



