University of Virginia Library

JUSEF ABUL HAGIAS,
THE
FINISHER OF THE ALHAMBRA.

Beneath the governor's apartment in the Alhambra,
is the royal Mosque, where the Moorish
monarchs performed their private devotions.
Though consecrated as a Catholic chapel, it still
bears traces of its Moslem origin; the Saracenic
columns with their gilded capitals, and the latticed
gallery for the females of the harem may yet be
seen, and the escutcheons of the Moorish kings
are mingled on the walls with those of the Castilian
sovereigns.

In this consecrated place perished the illustrious
Jusef Abul Hagias, the high-minded prince
who completed the Alhambra, and who, for his
virtues and endowments, deserves almost equal
renown with its magnanimous founder. It is with
pleasure I draw forth from the obscurity in which
it has too long remained, the name of another of
those princes of a departed and almost forgotten
race, who reigned in elegance and splendour in
Andalusia, when all Europe was in comparative
barbarism.

Jusef Abul Hagias, (or, as it is sometimes written,
Haxis,) ascended the throne of Granada in
the year 1333, and his personal appearance and
mental qualities were such as to win all hearts,
and to awaken anticipations of a beneficent and
prosperous reign. He was of a noble presence
and great bodily strength, united to manly beauty.
His complexion was exceeding fair, and, according
to the Arabian chroniclers, he heightened
the gravity and majesty of his appearance by suffering
his beard to grow to a dignified length,
and dying it black. He had an excellent memory,
well stored with science and erudition; he
was of a lively genius, and accounted the best
poet of his time, and his manners were gentle, affable,
and urbane.

Jusef possessed the courage common to all generous
spirits, but his genius was more calculated
for peace than war, and, though obliged to take up
arms repeatedly in his time, he was generally unfortunate.
He carried the benignity of his nature
into warfare, prohibiting all wanton cruelty, and
enjoining mercy and protection towards women
and children, the aged and infirm, and all friars
and persons of holy and recluse life. Among
other ill-starred enterprizes, he undertook a great
campaign in conjunction with the king of Morocco,
against the kings of Castile and Portugal, but
was defeated in the memorable battle of Salado;
a disastrous reverse which had nearly proved a
death blow to the Moslem power in Spain.

Jusef obtained a long truce after this defeat,
during which time he devoted himself to the instruction
of his people, and the improvement of
their morals and manners. For this purpose he
established schools in all the villages, with simple
and uniform systems of education; he obliged
every hamlet of more than twelve houses to have
a Mosque, and prohibited various abuses and indecorums,
that had been introduced into the ceremonies
of religion, and the festivals and public
amusements of the people. He attended vigilantly

to the police of the city, establishing nocturnal
guards and patrols, and superintending all
municipal concerns.

His attention was also directed towards finishing
the great architectural works commenced by
his predecessors, and erecting others on his own
plans. The Alhambra, which had been founded
by the good Aben Alahmar, was now completed.
Jusef constructed the beautiful gate of Justice,
forming the grand entrance to the fortress,
which he finished in 1348. He likewise adorned
many of the courts and halls of the palace, as may
be seen by the inscriptions on the walls, in which
his name repeatedly occurs. He built also the
noble Alcazar, or citadel of Malaga; now unfortunately
a mere mass of crumbling ruins, but
which, probably, exhibited in its interior similar
elegance and magnificence with the Alhambra.

The genius of a sovereign stamps a character
upon his time. The nobles of Granada, imitating
the elegant and graceful taste of Jusef, soon filled
the city of Granada with magnificent palaces; the
halls of which paved in Mosaic, the walls and
ceilings wrought in fret work, and delicately gilded
and painted with azure, vermilion, and other
brilliant colours, or minutely inlaid with cedar

and other precious woods; specimens of which
have survived in all their lustre the lapse of several
centuries.

Many of the houses had fountains, which
threw up jets of water to refresh and cool the air.
They had lofty towers also, of wood or stone, curiously
carved and ornamented, and covered with
plates of metal that glittered in the sun. Such was
the refined and delicate taste in architecture that
prevailed among this elegant people; insomuch,
that to use the beautiful simile of an Arabian writer,
“Granada, in the days of Jusef, was as a silver
vase filled with emeralds and jacinths.”

One anecdote will be sufficient to show the magnanimity
of this generous prince. The long
truce which had succeeded the battle of Salado,
was at an end, and every effort of Jusef to renew
it was in vain. His deadly foe, Alfonso XI. of
Castile, took the field with great force, and laid
siege to Gibraltar. Jusef reluctantly took up
arms, and sent troops to the relief of the place;
when, in the midst of his anxiety, he received
tidings that his dreaded foe had suddenly fallen
a victim to the plague. Instead of manifesting
exultation on the occasion, Jusef called to mind
the great qualities of the deceased, and was

touched with a noble sorrow. “Alas!” cried
he, “the world has lost one of its most excellent
princes; a sovereign who knew how to honour
merit, whether in friend or foe!”

The Spanish chroniclers themselves bear witness
to this magnanimity. According to their accounts,
the Moorish cavaliers partook of the sentiment
of their king, and put on mourning for the
death of Alfonso. Even those of Gibraltar, who
had been so closely invested, when they knew
that the hostile monarch lay dead in his camp,
determined among themselves that no hostile
movement should be made against the Christians.

The day on which the camp was broken up,
and the army departed, bearing the corpse of
Alfonso, the Moors issued in multitudes from
Gibraltar, and stood mute and melancholy,
watching the mournful pageant. The same reverence
for the deceased was observed by all the
Moorish commanders on the frontiers, who suffered
the funeral train to pass in safety, bearing
the corpse of the Christian sovereign from Gibraltar
to Seville.[1]

Jusef did not long survive the enemy he had
so generously deplored. In the year 1354, as he
was one day praying in the royal mosque of the
Alhambra, a maniac rushed suddenly from behind,
and plunged a dagger in his side. The
cries of the king brought his guards and courtiers
to his assistance. They found him weltering in
his blood, and in convulsions. He was borne to
the royal apartments, but expired almost immediately.
The murderer was cut to pieces, and
his limbs burnt in public, to gratify the fury of
the populace.

The body of the king, was interred in a superb
sepulchre of white marble, a long epitaph
in letters of gold upon an azure ground recorded
his virtues. “Here lies a king and martyr of
an illustrious line; gentle, learned and virtuous;
renowned for the graces of his person and his
manners; whose clemency, piety, and benevolence,
were extolled throughout the kingdom of
Granada. He was a great prince, an illustrious

captain; a sharp sword of the Moslems; a valiant
standard-bearer among the most potent
monarchs,” &c.

The Mosque still remains, which once resounded
with the dying cries of Jusef, but the
monument which recorded his virtues, has long
since disappeared. His name, however, remains
inscribed among the ornaments of the Alhambra,
and will be perpetuated in connexion with this renowned
pile, which it was his pride and delight
to beautify.