Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/441

THE SPANISH ARABS. 297 the capital. The latter, indeed, more volatile than chaptkr the sands of the deserts from which they originally — sprung, were driven by every gust of passion into the most frightful excesses, deposing and even as- sassinating their monarchs, violating their palaces, and scattering abroad their beautiful collections and libraries ; while the kingdom, unlike that of Cor- dova, was so contracted in its extent, that every convulsion of the capital was felt to its farthest extremities. Still, however, it held out, almost miraculously, against the Christian arms, and the storms that beat upon it incessantly, for more than two centuries, scarcely Avore away any thing from its original limits. Several circumstances may be pointed out as causes of enabling; Granada to mamtain this protracted resist- *""' ""e^'s'- ~ 1 ance. ance. Its concentrated population furnished such abundant supplies of soldiers, that its sovereigns could bring into the field an army of a hundred thousand men. ^^ Many of these were drawn from the regions of the Alpuxarras, whose rugged in- habitants had not been corrupted by the soft effemi- nacy of the plains. The ranks were occasionally recruited, moreover, from the warlike tribes of Af- rica. The Moors of Granada are praised by their enemies for their skill with the cross-bow, to the use of which they were trained from childhood. ^* But their strength lay chiefly in their cavalry. Their spacious vegas afforded an ample field for the 33 Casiri, on Arabian authority, 34 Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, p. computes it at 200,000 men. Biblio- 250. theca Escurialensis, torn. i. p. 338. VOL. I. 38