United States or Mauritania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
That day the master's knights were sent, As if on sport and jousting bent; And Aliatar, on his way, By cruel ambush they betray; With sword and hauberk they surround And smite the warrior to the ground. And wounded deep from every vein He bleeding lies upon the plain.
For Aliatar, one sad morn, Mounted his steed and blew his horn; A hundred Moors behind him rode; Fleeter than wind their coursers strode. Toward Motril their course is made, While foes the castle town blockade; There Aliatar's brother lay, Pent by the foes that fatal day. Woe work the hour, the day, when he Vaulted upon his saddle-tree!
The globe of heaven, which many a star and constellation strow, Borne upon Atlas' shoulders, is the blazon that they show. And a Moor of Aliatar this motto does express, Written upon a streamer, "I Endure through Weariness." The Adelifas follow; a mighty race are they. Their armor is more costly, their mantles are more gay.
Two bold Moorish alcaydes, Ali Aliatar and Yzan Aliatar, commanding the fortresses of Alhenden and Salobrena, laid waste the country of the subjects of Boabdil and the places which had recently submitted to the Christians: they swept off the cattle, carried off captives, and harassed the whole of the newly-conquered frontier.
In mourning garments all are clad, Fit harness for the occasion sad; But, four by four the mighty throng In slow procession streams along. Ah! Aliatar! well he knew The soldiers of his army true, The soldiers whose afflicted strain Gives utterance to their bosom's pain. Sadly we march along the crowded street, While trumpets hoarsely blare and drums tempestuous beat.
At length the caliph divided his army into three battalions: the command of the first he gave to his brother-in-law and to Aliatar, son of the old alcayde of Loxa; another division he commanded himself; and the third, composed of his best marksmen, he put under the command of his son, the prince of Fez, and Boabdil, now a gray-haired veteran.
Word Of The Day