292 THE SPANISH ARABS. PART quantities, and the royal mint Avas noted for the
- ■ purity and elegance of its coin. ^^
Luxurious The sovereigns of Granada were for the most character of <-' •he people. ^^^^ distinguishcd by liberal tastes. They freely dispensed their revenues in the protection of let- ters, the construction of sumptuous public works, and, above all, in the display of a courtly pomp, unrivalled by any of the princes of that period. Each day presented a succession of fetes and tour- neys, in which the knight seemed less ambitious of the hardy prowess of Christian chivalry, than of displaying his inimitable horsemanship, and his dexterity in the elegant pastimes peculiar to his nation. The people of Granada, like those of an- cient Rome, seem to have demanded a perpetual spectacle. Life was with them one long carnival, and the season of revelry was prolonged until the enemy was at the gate. During the interval, which had elapsed since the decay of the Omeyades, the Spaniards had been gradually rising in civilization to the level of their Saracen enemies ; and, while their increased con- sequence secured them from the contempt, with which they had formerly been regarded by the Mussulmans, the latter, in their turn, had not so far sunk in the scale, as to have become the objects of the bigoted aversion, which was, in after days, so heartily visited on them by the Spaniards. At this 27 Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurial- tains an erudite essay by Conde on ensis, torn. ii. pp. 250 - 258. — Arabic money, principally with The fifth volume of the royal reference to that coined in Spain ; Spanish Academy of History con- pp. 225-315.
