There is
not a foreigner of education that visits the Alhambra but asks for the
fountain where the Abencerrages were beheaded, and gazes with horror
at the grated gallery where the queen is said to have been confined;
not a peasant of the Vega or the Sierra, but sings the story in rude
couplets, to the accompaniment of his guitar, while his hearers
learn to execrate the very name of Boabdil.
Never, however, was name more foully and unjustly slandered. I
have examined all the authentic chronicles and letters written by
Spanish authors, contemporary with Boabdil, some of whom were in the
confidence of the Catholic sovereigns, and actually present in the
camp throughout the war. I have examined all the Arabian authorities I
could get access to, through the medium of translation, and have found
nothing to justify these dark and hateful accusations. The most of
these tales may be traced to a work commonly called The Civil Wars
of Granada, containing a pretended history of the feuds of the Zegries
and Abencerrages, during the last struggle of the Moorish empire.
The work appeared originally in Spanish, and professed to be
translated from the Arabic by one Gines Perez de Hita, an inhabitant
of Murcia. It has since passed into various languages, and Florian has
taken from it much of the fable of his Gonsalvo of Cordova; it has
thus, in a great measure, usurped the authority of real history, and
is currently believed by the people, and especially the peasantry of
Granada.
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