Algarva was soon obliged to
receive the yoke of Portugal, and Murcia, in consequence of its
separation from Grenada, became the prey of the Castilians.

{128}

During the life of Ferdinand III., nothing occurred to interrupt the
good understanding that existed between that monarch and Mohammed
Alhamar.

The King of Grenada wisely took advantage of this peaceful period more
effectually to confirm himself in the possession of his crown, and to
make preparations for a renewal of hostilities against the Christians,
who would not, he foresaw, long remain his friends.

Mohammed, by this means, ultimately found himself in a condition that
would enable him long to defend his power and dominions. He was master
of a country of great extent, and he possessed considerable revenues,
the amount of which it is now difficult correctly to estimate, in
consequence of the ignorance which prevails on the subject of the
peculiar financial system of the Moors, and the different sources from
which the public treasury was supplied. Every husbandman, for example,
paid the seventh part of the produce of his fields to his sovereign;
his flocks even were not exempted from this exaction. The royal domain
comprised numerous valuable farms; and, as agriculture was carried to
the highest degree of perfection, the revenues from {129} these, in so
luxuriant a country, must have amounted to a very large sum. The
annual income of the sovereign was augmented by various taxes levied on
the sale, marking, and passage from one point to another of all kinds
of cattle. The laws bestowed on the king the inheritance of such of
his subjects as died childless, and gave him, in addition, a portion in
the estates of other deceased persons. He also possessed, as has been
already shown, mines of gold, silver, and precious stones; and though
the Moors were but little skilled in the art of mining, still there was
no country in Europe in which gold and silver were more common than
among them.

The commerce carried on in their beautiful silks, and in a great
variety of other productions; their contiguity to the Mediterranean and
Atlantic; their activity, industry, and astonishing population; their
superior knowledge of the science of agriculture; the sobriety natural
to all the inhabitants of Spain; and that peculiar property of a
southern climate, by which much is produced from the soil, while very
little suffices for the maintenance of its possessor; all the