A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada: Fray Antonio Agapia appears to have been one of the many indefatigable authors of Spain, who have filled the libraries of convents and cathedrals with their tomes, without ever dreaming of bringing their labors to the press. He was deeply and accurately informed of the particulars of the wars between his country men and the Moors - a tract of history but too much overgrown with the weeds of fable. In the following work, the manuscript of the worthy Fray Antonio will be adopted, wherever it exists entire; but will be filled up, extended, illustrated and corroborated, by citations from various authors, both Spanish and Arabian, who have treated of the subject.

Of the Kingdom of Granada, and the tribute which it paid to the Castilian crown: The history of those bloody and disastrous wars which have caused the downfall of mighty empires (observes Fray Antonio Agapida), has ever been considered a study highly delectable and full of precious edification. What then must be the history of a pious crusade, waged by the most Catholic of sovereigns, to rescue from the power of the Infidels one of the most beautiful but benighted regions of the globe? Listen, then, while, from the solitude of my cell, I relate the events of the conquest of Granada, where Christian knight and turbaned Infidel disputed, inch by inch, the fair land of Andalusia, until the crescent, that symbol of heathenish abomination, was cast down, and the blessed cross, the tree of our redemption, erected in its stead.

At the era at which this chronicle commences, Ferdinand and Isabella, of glorious and happy memory, reigned over the united kingdoms of Castile, Leon, and Aragon; and Muley Aben Hassan sat on the throne of Granada. "He was a fierce and warlike Infidel," says the Catholic Fray Antonio Agapida; "his bitterness against the holy Christian faith had been signalized in battle, during the lifetime of his father.