Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/141

* GBANACCI. 119 GRANADA. the Old Museum at JIunicli. a "Jlaiy with the Babe." a "Magdalen," ''Apollonia," '"Jerome," and "Jnliii tlie Baptist." GRANADA, granii'da, Span. pron. gra-na'D4. The capital of the Department of Granada, Nica- ragua, situated on the northwest shore of Lake Nicaragua at the foot of the extinct volcano of Mombacho (Map: Central America. D 5). It is in a eacao-growing district and carries on trade in goldsmith's work, indigo, dyewoods, cacao, and hides. The town is the northern terminus of the lake steamship line. Population, 1'2.000. Gra- nada was founded by Fernando de Cordova in 1524, and was formerly the capital of the country. GRANADA. A former kingdom of Andalu- sia, Spain, situated along the southern const, and bounded on the north by Cordova and .lai'n. on the east by Murcia. on the south by the Mediter- ranean, and on the west by Seville. It comprises the modern provinces of Malaga, Granada, and Almeria, with an aggregate area of 10,950 square miles. It is mountainous throughout, its ea.st- ern half being traversed by the snow-clad Sierra Nevada, reaching in the Cerro de Mulliacen a height of 11.42 feet. The principal river is the Jenil, a tributary of the Guadalquiver, whose valley, the 'Vega of Granada,' is a veritable garden. Mining and agriculture are the chief resources of the inhaliifants, the former producing lead, zinc, iron, silver, and coal ; the latter sugar, flax, fruit, grain, and, above all, wine and oil. There are some manufactures of textiles, choco- late, and bricks, and some oil and flour mills. Communications are still in a backward state, although a railroad has been completed from Almeria to Malaga and connected through Jaen and Cordova with Madrid. The population in 1900 was 1..3S1.048. The capital is Granada (q.v.). History. There has been considerable dispute concerning the etymology of Granada. There is no foundation for the statement that the city of CJranada owes its name to its resemblance to a ripe pomegranate. As the Saracens, who invaded Spain in 711, were by no means a homogeneous race, it was found necessary to allot various portions of the conquered territory to the dif- ferent elements among the conquerors. In the rich Vega (valley) of the Elvira were settled the Syrians of Damascus, and these were the nucleus around which the Moorish Kingdom of Granada was afterwards built up. In 12'28 Beni Had. de- scended froTU the old Jloslem kings of Sara- gossa. rebelling against the declining authority of the fanatical Ahnohades, made himself master of tSranada, together with several other towns. But he in turn was overthrown within a few years by Mohammed Al Ahmar (the Fair or the Ruddy), and when by the Christian victories the latter ■was restricted to the rich districts in the extreme south of the Peninsula, the Kingdom of Gra- nada fairly began. Al Ahmar was a great soldier and legislator, but still better is he re- membered as the builder of the magnificent red pile on the slopes of the hills near the city of Granada. About 127.3 Al Ahmar was succeeded by his son Mohammed II. The latter began war almost immediately against Castile. As long as he was aided by Yusuf, the ruler of Morocco, his armies were victorious, and after the battle of Ecija in 1275 advanced even to the gates of Seville. But in the following year Yusuf with- drew his aid and even gave a subsidy to the King of Castile. Moslem progress was checked, and when Mohannued II. died in l.'{02 the Moorish power depended only upon the dissension prevail- ing among the Cliristians. For several years Granada was a prey to disorder and anarchy. During the reign of Vusuf (1333-54) was fought the great battle of Salado (1340) in which Al- fonso XI. was completely successful. In 1362 Peter the Cruel of Castile (1350-9) lured King Abu Said to Seville and killed him with his own hand. Thereafter calamity followed upon calam- ity, and palace revolution upon palace revolution. The Moors had been nl)lc to conquer, but they lacked all genius of political organization, and in the management of affairs of State the harem was usually supreme. In 1482 Ferdinand and Isabella entered upon a war for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Gra- nada, and the subversion of Moorish dominion in Spain. They were aided by the civil wars which raged in Granada. (See Boabdil. ) On Novem- ber 25, 1491, the city of Granada, the last strong- hold of the Jloslems, capitulated, the negotiations having been carried to a successful issue by Cion- salvo de Cordova, and in January, 1492, the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon made their entry into the far-famed ^Moorish capital. At the height of its power the Kingdom of Granada is said to have contained 3,000,000 inhabitants. See Granada (city). Consult: Burke, nistortj of Spain (2 vols., London, 1895) ; Bourke. .4. Concise History of the Moors in Spain (London, 1811): Miiller, Die letzten Zeiten von Granada (Munich, 1803) ; Irving, .1 Clironirlr of the Conquest of Granada (Phiiadelphia, 1829). GRANADA. A city of Spain, capital of the former IMoorish kingdom, and of the modern Province of Granada, about 225 miles south of iladrid: on the River Jenil, near the centre of the province (Map: Spain, D 4). It is situated about 2200 feet above the sea, at the base and on the slope of two spurs of the Sierra Nevada. It comprises several parts, the little River Darro forming a natural division between the suburbs of Albaicin and San Lorenzo and the greater part nf the modern city on the north, and the Alham- bra and the ancient suburbs of Churra and Ante- queruela on the south. The Albaicin, once the residential quarter of the Moslem nobility, is now "in ruins, inhabited principally by gypsies. Granada enjoys a delightful climate under a clear blue sky, and rises picturesquely among the terraced hills covered with luxuriant vegeta- tion and surmounted by the towers of the Alham- bra. Though a 'living ruin.' it is still a city of remarkable beauty and distinction, retaining in a large measure its Moorish character. On tlie north are remains of the walls that sur- rounded the city of old, the last towers hav- ing been destroyed by the French in 1812, though some of the gates are still in exist- ence. The streets, with the exception of those in the modern suburbs, are crooked and narrow, and the houses of Oriental architecture. Many old gardens with Moorish fountains have been preserved and there are several fine plazas. The Plaza del Triunfo. extending from the Puerto de Elvira to the Plaza de Toros, is the largest in the city, and has a central monument, gardens, and a magnificent promenade: the Plaza de Bi- barrambla, or la Constitueion, was the scene of many factional conflicts in the time of the