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Formerly, it was thickly inhabited, and at the time of the great earthquake of 1822, there were three hundred families living within the walls, nearly all of whom perished. The outer walls were very much shattered on that occasion, but the enormous towers and the gateway, the grandest specimen of Saracenic architecture in the East, still remain entire.
From the gates of the palace, situated on a gentle eminence in the vicinity of Ecija, down to the banks of the Genil, the ground was covered with olive-trees; and the wild aloes formed a natural and strong fence around the property of the White Cat of Ecija, whose origin, dating back to the days of Saracenic rule, was unknown to the liberated Spaniard.
George's panoply would be pictured from the best books of armour and blazonry: the Turkish Knight's arms and ornaments would be traced from the finest Saracenic arabesques. When my garden door opened on Christmas Eve and St. George of England entered, the appearance of that champion was slightly different.
'As the Genoese knight was retiring with his body of infantry, says Joinville, 'a Saracen suddenly moved by his courage came boldly up to him, and said in his Saracenic tongue that if he pleased he would tilt with him.
But the Frankish forces were signally defeated amid the passes of the Pyrenees; and it was not until after several centuries that the Gothic princes of Spain shook off the yoke of their Saracenic conquerors, and drove them from Europe. The Lombard wars of Charlemagne are the last to which I allude. These were undertaken in defence of the Church, to rescue his ally the Pope.
In other words, acute unrest denotes social ill-health and portends the possibility of one of those violent crises known as "revolutions." The history of the Moslem East well exemplifies the above generalizations. The formative period of Saracenic civilization was characterized by rapid change and an intense idealistic ferment.
Yet it was in northern and northeastern Africa that within historic periods three of the most powerful and brilliant civilizations were developed, the Egyptian, the Carthaginian, the Saracenic. That these civilizations had more than a surface contact with the interior, we know.
The shekh of the citadel, who accompanied us, stated the age of the structure at nine hundred years, which, as nearly as I can recollect the Saracenic chronology, is correct. He called our attention to numbers of iron arrow-heads sticking in the solid masonry the marks of ancient sieges. Before leaving, we were presented with a bundle of arrows from the armory undoubted relics of Saracen warfare.
Yet some robbed their vassals that they might be ready. Godfrey sold his dominions chiefly to the bishops so that it was well said that the secular princes stripped themselves for the Crusaders while the bishops enriched themselves by the enthusiasm of the laity. Yet here again we must see mixed motives. To regain Jerusalem was also to be enriched by Saracenic spoils.
In this neighbourhood are a few more tablets, including one on which are jars, water-fowl, and bread cakes, and a fragment upon which the head of a king is traceable, marked 595. The visitor should also notice now the two early Saracenic tombstones presented by Dr. Bowring.
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