(Gate of Judgment), a massive horseshoe archway, surmounted by a square tower, and used by the Moors as an informal court of justice. A hand, with fingers outstretched as a talisman against the evil eye, is carved above this gate on the exterior; a key, the symbol of authority, occupies the corresponding place on the interior. A narrow passage leads inward to the Plaza de los Aljibes (Place of the Cisterns), a broad open space which divides the Alcazába from the Moorish palace. To the left of the passage rises the Torre del Vino (Wine Tower), built in 1345, and used in the 16th century as a cellar. On the right is the palace of Charles V., a cold-looking but majestic Renaissance building, out of harmony with its surroundings, which it tends somewhat to dwarf by its superior size. Its construction, begun in 1526, was abandoned about 1650.
The present entrance to the Palacio Arabe, or Casa Real (Moorish palace), is by a small door from which a corridor conducts to the Patio de los Arrayanes (Court of the Myrtles), also called the Patio de la Alberca (Court of the Blessing or Court of the Pond), from the Moorish birka, “pond,” or berka, “blessing.” This court is 140 ft. long by 74 ft. broad; and in the centre there is a large pond set in the marble pavement, full of goldfish, and with myrtles growing along its sides. There are galleries on the north and south sides; that on the south 27 ft. high, and supported by a marble colonnade. Underneath it, to the right, was the principal entrance, and over it are three elegant windows with arches and miniature pillars. From this court the walls of the Torre de Comares are seen rising over the roof to the north, and reflected in the pond.
The Sala de los Ambajadores (Hall of the Ambassadors) is the largest in the Alhambra, and occupies all the Torre de Comares. It is a square room, the sides being 37 ft. in length, while the centre of the dome is 75 ft. high. This was the grand reception room, and the throne of the sultan was placed opposite the entrance. The tiles are nearly 4 ft. high all round, and the colours vary at intervals. Over them is a series of oval medallions with inscriptions, interwoven with flowers and leaves. There are nine windows, three on each façade, and the ceiling is admirably diversified with inlaid-work of white, blue and gold, in the shape of circles, crowns and stars—a kind of imitation of the vault of heaven. The walls are covered with varied stucco-work of most delicate pattern, surrounding many ancient escutcheons.
The celebrated Patio de los Leones (Court of the Lions) is an oblong court, 116 ft. in length by 66 ft. in breadth, surrounded by a low gallery supported on 124 white marble columns. A pavilion projects into the court at each extremity, with filigree walls and light domed roof, elaborately ornamented. The square is paved with coloured tiles, and the colonnade with white marble; while the walls are covered 5 ft. up from the ground with blue and yellow tiles, with a border above and below enamelled blue and gold. The columns supporting the roof and gallery are irregularly placed, with a view to artistic effect; and the general form of the piers, arches and pillars is most graceful. They are adorned by varieties of foliage, &c.; about each arch there is a large square of arabesques; and over the pillars is another square of exquisite filigree work. In the centre of the court is the celebrated Fountain of Lions, a magnificent alabaster basin supported by the figures of twelve lions in white marble, not designed with sculptural accuracy, but as emblems of strength and courage.
The Sala de los Abencerrajes (Hall of the Abencerrages) derives its name from a legend according to which Boabdil, the last king of Granada, having invited the chiefs of that illustrious line to a banquet, massacred them here. This room is a perfect square, with a lofty dome and trellised windows at its base. The roof is exquisitely decorated in blue, brown, red and gold, and the columns supporting it spring out into the arch form in a remarkably beautiful manner. Opposite to this hall is the Sala de las dos Hermanas (Hall of the two Sisters), so-called from two very beautiful white marble slabs laid as part of the pavement. These slabs measure 15 ft. by 712 ft., and are without flaw or stain. There is a fountain in the middle of this hall, and the roof—a dome honeycombed with tiny cells, all different, and said to number 5000—is a magnificent example of the so-called “stalactite vaulting” of the Moors.
Among the other wonders of the Alhambra are the Sala de la Justicia (Hall of Justice), the Patio del Mexuar (Court of the Council Chamber), the Patio de Daraxa (Court of the Vestibule), and the Peinador de la Reina (Queen’s Robing Room), in which are to be seen the same delicate and beautiful architecture, the same costly and elegant decorations. The palace and the Upper Alhambra also contain baths, ranges of bedrooms and summer-rooms, a whispering gallery and labyrinth, and vaulted sepulchres.
The original furniture of the palace is represented by the celebrated vase of the Alhambra, a splendid specimen of Moorish ceramic art, dating from 1320, and belonging to the first period of Moorish porcelain. It is 4 ft. 3 in. high; the ground is white, and the enamelling is blue, white and gold.
Of the outlying buildings in connexion with the Alhambra, the foremost in interest is the Palacio de Generalife or Gineralife (the Moorish Jennat al Arif, “Garden of Arif,” or “Garden of the Architect”). This villa probably dates from the end of the 13th century, but has been several times restored. Its gardens, however, with their clipped hedges, grottos, fountains, and cypress avenues, are said to retain their original Moorish character. The Villa de los Martires (Martyrs’ Villa), on the summit of Monte Mauror, commemorates by its name the Christian slaves who were employed to build the Alhambra, and confined here in subterranean cells. The Torres Bermejas (Vermilion Towers), also on Monte Mauror, are a well-preserved Moorish fortification, with underground cisterns, stables, and accommodation for a garrison of 200 men. Several Roman tombs were discovered in 1829 and 1857 at the base of Monte Mauror.
See Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra; from drawings taken on the spot by J. Goury and Owen Jones; with a complete translation of the Arabic inscriptions and a historical notice of the Kings of Granada, by P. de Gayangos. These two magnificent folios, though first published in London between 1842 and 1845, give the best pictorial representation of the Alhambra. See also Rafael Contreras, La Alhambra, El Alcázar, y la gran Mezquita de Occidente (Madrid, 1885); The Alhambra, by Washington Irving, was written in 1832, and rewritten in 1857, when it had already become widely celebrated for its picturesque and humorous descriptions. A well-illustrated edition was published in London in 1896.
ALHAZEN (Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn Alhasan), Arabian mathematician of the 11th century, was born at Basra and died at Cairo in 1038. He is to be distinguished from another Alhazen who translated Ptolemy’s Almagest in the 10th century. Having boasted that he could construct a machine for regulating the inundations of the Nile, he was summoned to Egypt by the caliph Hakim; but, aware of the impracticability of his scheme, and fearing the caliph’s anger, he feigned madness until Hakim’s death in 1021. Alhazen was, nevertheless, a diligent and successful student, being the first great discoverer in optics after the time of Ptolemy. According to Giovanni Battista della Porta, he first explained the apparent increase of heavenly bodies near the horizon, although Bacon gives the credit of this discovery to Ptolemy. He taught, previous to the Polish physicist Witelo, that vision does not result from the emission of rays from the eye, and wrote also on the refraction of light, especially on atmospheric refraction, showing, e.g. the cause of morning and evening twilight. He solved the problem of finding the point in a convex mirror at which a ray coming from one given point shall be reflected to another given point. His treatise on optics was translated into Latin by Witelo (1270), and afterwards published by F. Risner in 1572, with the title Opticae thesaurus Alhazeni libri VII., cum ejusdem libro de crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus. This work enjoyed a great reputation during the middle ages. Works on geometrical subjects were found in the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris in 1834 by E. A. Sédillot; other manuscripts are preserved in the Bodleian library at Oxford and in the library of Leiden.
See Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hisp. Escur.; J. E. Montucla, Histoire des mathématiques (1758); and E. A. Sédillot, Matériaux pour l’histoire des sciences mathématiques.
ALI, in full, ʽAli ben Abū Talib (c. 600–661), the fourth of the caliphs or successors of Mahomet, was born at Mecca about
