size, the Aljama of Cordova.

These were monuments worthy to have kings and caliphs for architects,
for such they had. There is no doubt that the palace of Azahrah was
planned and designed by the Caliph himself; and the founder of that
dynasty, Abderahman the First, not only designed the magnificent mosque
of Cordova, but presided daily over the progress of its erection.
Possessed, as these sovereigns were, as well as all the well-born
portion of their nation, of a highly cultivated education, the intervals
of leisure, left them by war, were rarely thrown away in idleness.
Abderahman the First was a poet, besides being a mathematician, an
architect, and the first soldier of his time. Some of his writings have
been preserved, and are among the Arab works collected and translated by
Conde into Spanish. The following stanzas, addressed to a palm-tree,
must be, as is always the case, still more beautiful in the original,
although charming in the Spanish. The monarch of the Western Empire,
after having vanquished his enemies, and pacified his dominions,--beloved
by his subjects and by all who approached him, and possessed of the
resources of science to occupy his mind, was nevertheless unhappy. He
preferred his home in Asia to the splendours of an imperial throne in
such a land as Andalucia. He caused a young palm-tree to be brought from
Syria, and planted in a garden formed by him in the environs of Cordova;
and it was his delight to sit in a tower constructed in the garden, and
gaze at his tree.

It was to this tree he addressed the lines thus translated:--

Tu tambien, insigne palma,
Eres aqui forastera.
De Algarbe las dulces auras
Tu pompa halagan y besan.
En fecundo suelo arraigas,
Y al cielo tu cima elevas,
Tristes lagrimas lloraras,
Si qual io sentir pudieras.

Tu no sientes contratiempos
Como io de suerte aviesa:
A mi de pena y dolor
Continuas lluvias me annegan.
Con mis lagrimas regue
Las palmas que el Forat riega,
Pero las palmas y el rio
Se olvidan de mis penas.

Cuando mios infaustos hados,
Y de Al. Abas la fiereza
Mi forzaron de dexar
Del alma las dulces prendas;
A ti de mi patria amada
Ningun recuerda ti queda;
Pero io, triste, no puedo
Dexar de llorar por ella.

It is probable that on the occasion of the surrender of Cordova to
Ferdinand the Third, the Moors destroyed their palace of Azarah, since