Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/422

278 278 THE SPANISH ARABS. PART I. If rest mosque of i'nrilova. tion of commodious quays, fountains, bridges, and aqueducts, which, penetrating the sides of the mountains, or sweeping on lofty arches across the valleys, rivalled in their proportions the monuments of ancient Rome. These works, which were scat- tered more or less over all the provinces, contrib- uted especially to the embellishment of Cordova, the capital of the empire. The delightful situation of this city in the midst of a cultivated plain washed by the waters of the Guadalquivir, made it very early the favorite residence of the Arabs, who loved to surround their houses, even in the cities, with groves and refreshing fountains, so delightful to the imagination of a wanderer of the desert. ^^ The public squares and private court-yards sparkled with jets (Peau, fed by copious streams from the Sierra Morena, which, besides supplying nine hun- dred public baths, were conducted into the interior of the edifices, where they diffused a grateful cool- ness over the sleeping-apartments of their luxurious inhabitants.^^ Without adverting to that magnificent freak of the caliphs, the construction of the palace of Azahra, of which not a vestige now exists, we 13 The same taste is noticed at the present day, by a traveller, whose pictures glow with the warm colors of the east. " Aussi des que vous approchez, en Europe ou en Asie, d'une terre poss^dee par les Musulmans, vous la reconnais- sez de loin au riche et sombre voile de verdure qui flotte gracieusement sur elle : — des arbres pour s'as- seoir a lenr ombre, des fontaines jaillissantes pour r^ver il leur bruit, du silence et des mosqu^es aux legers minarets, s"61evant a chaque pas du sein d'une terre pieuse." Lamartine, Voyage en Orient, tome i. p. 172. i"* Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, torn. i. pp. 199, 265, 284, 285, 4 17, 446, 447, et aUbi. — Car- donnc. Hist. d'Afrique et d'Es- pagne, torn. i. pp. 227-230 et seq.