Mahomed with his family took refuge in the fortress of
Ucles, near Toledo, where he was treacherously poisoned by the
Alcayde; and thus perished one of the last of the Ommiades.
The downfall of that brilliant dynasty, which had concentrated every
thing at Cordova, was favorable to the general literature of Morisco
Spain.
"After the breaking of the necklace and the scattering of its
pearls," says Ash-Shakandi, "the kings of small states divided among
themselves the patrimony of the Beni Ommiah."
They vied with each other in filling their capitals with poets and
learned men, and rewarded them with boundless prodigality. Such were
the Moorish kings of Seville of the illustrious line of the Beni
Abbad, "with whom," says the same writer, "resided fruit and
palm-trees and pomegranates; who became the centre of eloquence in
prose and verse; every day of whose reign was a solemn festivity;
whose history abounds in generous actions and heroic deeds, that
will last through surrounding ages and live for ever in the memory
of man!"
No place, however, profited more in point of civilization and
refinement by the downfall of the Western Caliphat than Granada. It
succeeded to Cordova in splendor, while it surpassed it in romantic
beauty of situation. The amenity of its climate, where the ardent
heats of a southern summer were tempered by breezes from snow-clad
mountains, the voluptuous repose of its valleys and the bosky
luxuriance of its groves and gardens all awakened sensations of
delight, and disposed the mind to love and poetry.
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