No expense was spared in
fitting him for the high destinies prognosticated. Before he
attained the full years of manhood, the famous battle of the Navas (or
plains) of Tolosa shattered the Moorish empire, and eventually severed
the Moslems of Spain from the Moslems of Africa. Factions soon arose
among the former, headed by warlike chiefs, ambitious of grasping
the sovereignty of the Peninsula. Alhamar became engaged in these
wars; he was the general and leader of the Beni Nasar, and, as such,
he opposed and thwarted the ambition of Aben Hud, who had raised his
standard among the warlike mountains of the Alpuxarras, and been
proclaimed king of Murcia and Granada. Many conflicts took place
between these warring chieftains; Alhamar dispossessed his rival of
several important places, and was proclaimed king of Jaen by his
soldiery; but he aspired to the sovereignty of the whole of Andalusia,
for he was of a sanguine spirit and lofty ambition. His valor and
generosity went hand in hand; what he gained by the one he secured
by the other; and at the death of Aben Hud (A. D. 1238), he became
sovereign of all the territories which owned allegiance to that
powerful chief He made his formal entry into Granada in the same year,
amid the enthusiastic shouts of the multitude, who hailed him as the
only one capable of uniting the various factions which prevailed,
and which threatened to lay the empire at the mercy of the Christian
princes.
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