Test Bank for Python for Everyone, 2nd Edition

download

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-python-for-
everyone-2nd-edition/

Find test banks or solution manuals at testbankmall.com today!

We have selected some products that you may be interested in
Click the link to download now or visit testbankmall.com
for more options!.

Solution Manual for Python for Everyone, 2nd Edition

https://testbankmall.com/product/solution-manual-for-python-for-
everyone-2nd-edition/

Solution Manual for Python for Everyone 2nd Edition

Horstmann

https://testbankmall.com/product/solution-manual-for-python-for-
everyone-2nd-edition-horstmann/

Test Bank for Fundamentals of Python: Data Structures 2nd

Edition Kenneth Lambert

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-fundamentals-of-python-
data-structures-2nd-edition-kenneth-lambert/

Test Bank for Mader’s Understanding Human Anatomy &

Physiology, 10th Edition, Susannah Longenbaker

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-maders-understanding-
human-anatomy-physiology-10th-edition-susannah-longenbaker/
Financial Management Theory and Practice Brigham 14th
Edition Solutions Manual

https://testbankmall.com/product/financial-management-theory-and-
practice-brigham-14th-edition-solutions-manual/

Test Bank For Principles of Genetics, 6th edition: D.

Peter Snustad

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-principles-of-
genetics-6th-edition-d-peter-snustad/

Solution Manual for Positive Child Guidance, 7th Edition

https://testbankmall.com/product/solution-manual-for-positive-child-
guidance-7th-edition/

Test Bank for Chemistry Principles and Reactions 7th

Edition William L Masterton Download

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-chemistry-principles-
and-reactions-7th-edition-william-l-masterton-download/

Test Bank for Legal and Ethical Issues for Health

Professions 3rd Edition

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-legal-and-ethical-
issues-for-health-professions-3rd-edition/
Test Bank for Listen, Eighth Edition

https://testbankmall.com/product/test-bank-for-listen-eighth-edition/
 1.1 Computer Programs
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-03
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-03

4. Which parts of the computer store program code?

1. CPU
2. Secondary storage
3. Monitor
4. Keyboard

Title
Which parts of the computer store program code?
type
mc
Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-04

5. Which of the following items is NOT considered hardware:

1. a keyboard.
2. a speaker.
3. a program.
4. a microphone.

Title
What is considered hardware
type
mc
Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-05

6. The Central Processing Unit is primarily responsible for:

1. ensuring data persists when electrical power is turned off.
2. enabling a human user to interact with the computer.
3. interconnecting computers that are separated by distance.
4. performing program control and data processing.

Title
What is a CPU?
type
mc
 Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-06

7. Computers store both data and programs not currently running in:
1. Primary storage.
2. Central processing unit.
3. Secondary storage.
4. Transistors.

Title
Where are programs and data stored?
type
mc
Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-07

8. Which of the following hardware devices is NOT considered an input device?

1. Keyboard
2. Monitor
3. Mouse
4. Microphone

Title
What is considered input hardware?
type
mc
Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-08

9. Which of the following hardware devices is NOT considered an output device?

1. Speaker
2. Monitor
3. Printer
4. Microphone

Title
What is considered output hardware?
type
mc
Section
 1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-09

10. When the computer begins to run a program,

1. the program is moved from secondary storage to memory.
2. the program is moved from secondary storage to the network controller.
3. the program is moved from the CPU to memory.
4. the program is moved from the CPU to secondary storage.

Title
What happens when a program begins to run?
type
mc
Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-10
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-10

11. What part of the computer carries out arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division?
1. CPU
2. Network
3. Primary storage
4. Secondary storage

Title
What part of the computer performs arithmetic?
type
mc
Section
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-11
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-11

12. High-level programming languages were created to:

1. Allow programmers to describe the solution to a problem one CPU instruction at
a time
2. Make programming less error-prone and less tedious
3. Maximize the running time of programs
4. Translate CPU instructions into high-level instructions
 Title
Why were high-level programming languages created?
type
mc
Section
1.3 The Python Programming Language
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-12
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-12

13. What are two of the most important benefits of the Python language?
1. Advanced mathematical equations and fast programs
2. Ease of use and fast programs
3. Ease of use and portability
4. Fast programs and smaller programs

Title
What are the benefits of Python?
type
mc
Section
1.3 The Python Programming Language
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-13
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-13

14. What is wrong with the following code snippet:

15. num1 = 10
16. num2 = 20
17. num3 = 30
total = Num1 + Num2 + Num3

1. Nothing, the variable total will be the sum of the three numbers
2. Python is case sensitive so Num1, Num2, and Num3 are undefined
3. total must be initialized to zero first
4. The numbers should be 10.0, 20.0 and 30.0

Title
What is wrong with the following code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-14
18. An integrated development environment bundles tools for programming into a unified
application. What kinds of tools are usually included?
1. A web browser
2. An editor and an interpreter
3. Presentation tools
4. Source files and bytecode files

Title
What kind of tools can be found in an integrated development environment?
type
mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-15
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-15

19. What is the difference between an editor and an interpreter?

1. An editor allows program files to be entered and modified; an interpreter reads
and executes program files
2. An editor allows program files to be entered and modified; an interpreter produces
an indexed database of terms and keywords
3. An editor allows program files to be entered and modified; an interpreter produces
an organized list of files
4. An editor converts program files into an executable program; an interpreter allows
program files to be entered and modified

Title
What is the difference between an editor and a compiler?
type
mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-16

20. What reads Python programs and executes the program instructions?
1. editor
2. CPU
3. compiler
4. interpreter

Title
What is used to execute a Python program?
type
 mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-17

21. What extension is used for Python files?

1. .Python
2. .py
3. .dat
4. .txt

Title
What extension is used for Python source files?
type
mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-18

22. By entering the command python3, the program runs in which mode?
1. interactive mode
2. print mode
3. command mode
4. backup mode

Title
What mode is invoked when the user enters "python" at the command prompt?
type
mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-19

23. The Python compiler reads the file containing your source code and converts it to:
1. machine code
2. assembly code
3. byte code
4. virtual machine code

Title
What type of code is created by the Python compiler?
type
mc
 Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-20

24. What is the correct sequence of steps invoked by the Python Interpreter:
1. source code -> virtual machine -> byte code ->compiler
2. source code -> compiler -> byte code -> virtual machine
3. compiler -> source code -> virtual machine -> byte code
4. byte code -> virtual machine -> source code ->compiler

Title
What is the role of the Interpreter?
type
mc
Section
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-21

25. Which line in the following program is a comment line?

26. 1: print("Your lucky number is...")
27. 2: lucky = 7
28. 3: # Display the lucky number
29. 4: print(lucky)
1. Line number 1
2. Line number 2
3. Line number 3
4. Line number 4

Title
What is the syntax for a comment line?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-22
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-22

30. What is the purpose of a comment?

1. A comment provides information to the virtual machine
2. A comment provides information to the compiler
3. A comment provides information to the programmer
4. A comment provides information to the user running the program
 Title
What is the purpose of a comment?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-23
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-23

31. A collection of programming instructions that carry out a particular task is called a:
1. program
2. compiler
3. function
4. comment

Title
What is a collection of programming instructions called?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-24

32. To use or call a function, you need to specify:

1. the function name and its arguments
2. the function name only
3. the function name and at least one argument
4. the function name and a comment describing its use

Title
How do you call a function?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-25

33. A sequence of characters enclosed in quotes is called:

1. a string
2. a list
3. a function
4. an argument
 Title
What is a sequence of characters enclosed in quotes called?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-26

34. Which of the following is considered a string in Python?

1. Today is Wednesday
2. "Today is Wednesday"
3. # Today is Wednesday #
4. Today_is_Wednesday

Title
What is a string in Python?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-27

35. What is wrong with the following code snippet?

36. print("Hello")
print("World!")

1. The print function cannot be called twice

2. The print function is missing an argument
3. Nothing, the program prints Hello World on the same line
4. The second line should not be indented

Title
What is wrong with the code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-28

37. What is printed by the following code snippet?

print(25 + 84)

1. 2584
 2. 109
3. 25 + 84
4. Nothing, this code snipped causes a compile time error

Title
What is printed by a given code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-29

38. What is printed by the following code snippet?

print("The answer is", 25 + 84)

1. The answer is 2584

2. The answer is 109
3. The answer is 25 + 84
4. Nothing, this code snipped causes a compile time error

Title
What is printed by a given code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-30

39. What is printed by the following code snippet?

print("The answers are:", 4 + 3 * 2, 7 * 5 - 24)

1. The answers are: 10 11

2. The answers are: 14 11
3. The answers are: 24 10
4. Nothing, this code snipped causes a compile time error

Title
What is printed by a given code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
 id
testbank-py-1-ch01-31

40. What is printed by the following code snippet?

print("25 + 84")

1. 2584
2. 109
3. 25 + 84
4. Nothing, this code snipped causes a compile time error

Title
What is printed by a given code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-32

41. What is printed by the following code snippet?

print(Hello)

1. Nothing, an error is produced indicating that Hello is not defined

2. Hello
3. 'Hello'
4. "Hello"

Title
What is printed by a given code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-33

42. What is printed by the following code snippet?

print("Good", "Morning", "Class", "!")

1. GoodMorningClass!
2. Good Morning Class!
3. Good Morning Class !
4. nothing, this code produces a syntax error
 Title
What is printed by a given code snippet?
type
mc
Section
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-34

43. What is another name for a compile-time error?

1. Logic error
2. Semantic error
3. Syntax error
4. Lexicographic error

Title
What is another name for a compile-time error?
type
mc
Section
1.6 Errors
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-35

44. Although the following code statement is valid, print(10/0), what will happen when
this code is executed?
1. The program prints 0
2. The error message ZeroDivisionError: int division or modulo by zero
is displayed
3. The program runs, but nothing is printed
4. The error message SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal

Title
What is another name for a compile-time error?
type
mc
Section
1.6 Errors
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-36

45. The programmer, not the compiler, is responsible for testing a program to identify what?
1. Undefined symbols
2. Syntax errors
3. Logic errors
4. Out-of-memory errors
 Title
The programmer, not the compiler, is responsible for testing a program to identify?
type
mc
Section
1.6 Errors
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-37

46. What is it called when you describe the steps that are necessary for finding a solution to a
problem in programming?
1. algorithm
2. compile
3. interpret
4. code

Title
What is it called when you describe the steps that are necessary for finding a solution to a
problem in programming?
type
mc
Section
1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-38

47. The following pseudocode calculates the total purchase price for an item including sales
tax, what is the missing last line?
48. Start by setting the total cost to zero.
49. Ask the user for the item cost.
50. Ask the user for the tax rate.
51. Set the item tax to item cost times tax rate.
_________________________________

1. Set the total cost to the item cost plus the tax rate.
2. Set the total cost to the item cost times the tax.
3. Set the total cost to the item cost plus the tax.
4. Set the total cost to the item tax.

Title
What is the missing pseudocode?
type
mc
Section
1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-39
52. What is the purpose of the following algorithm, written in pseudocode?
53. num = 0
54. Repeat the following steps 15 times
55. Ask user for next number
56. If userNum > num
57. num = userNum
58. Print num
1. To print out the 15 numbers
2. To find the smallest among 15 numbers
3. To search for a particular number among 15 numbers
4. To find the highest among 15 numbers

Title
What is the purpose of this algorithm?
type
mc
Section
1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-40

59. Which of the following is NOT an example of an algorithm?

1. A recipe to make chocolate chip cookies
2. A grocery list
3. Instructions for changing a flat tire
4. Steps required to calculate the amount of paint required to paint a room

Title
Which of the following is NOT an example of an algorithm?
type
mc
Section
1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-41

60. Which of the following pseudocode statements represents a decision?

1. For each number in a sequence...
2. While the balance is > 0
3. total cost = unit cost + tax
4. if total cost > 15

Title
Which of the following pseudocode statements represents a decision statement?
type
mc
Section
 1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-1-ch01-42

61. Which of the following pseudocode statements represents a repetition statement?

1. if total cost > 15
2. set i equal to 3
3. total cost = unit cost + tax
4. while the balance is > 0

Title
Which of the following pseudocode statements represents a repetition statement?
type
mc
Section
1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-43
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-43

62. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

1. Pseudocode should be unambiguous.
2. Pseudocode should be executable.
3. Pseudocode should be properly formatted.
4. Pseudocode should be terminating.

Title
Which of the following is NOT important when writing pseudocode?
type
mc
Section
1.7 Problem Solving: Algorithm Design
id
testbank-py-2-ch01-44
from
testbank-py-1-ch01-44

63. Imagine that you are planning to buy a new cell phone. After doing some research, you
have determined that there are two different cell phones that will meet your needs. These
cell phones have different purchase prices and each mobile service provider charges a
different rate for each minute that the cell phone is used. In order to determine which cell
phone is the better buy, you need to develop an algorithm to calculate the total cost of
purchasing and using each cell phone. Which of the following options lists all the inputs
needed for this algorithm?
1. The cost of each cell phone and the rate per minute for each cell phone
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
 MOORISH SEVILLE

Seville was not among the spoils of Tarik, conqueror at the Guadalete.
That general having directed his march upon Toledo, it was reserved to his
superior officer, Musa Ben Nosseyr, to subdue the proudest city of Bætica.
The citizens held out for a month and then retired upon Beja in Alemtejo.
The Arabian commander left a garrison in the city, henceforward to be
known for five hundred and thirty-six years as Ishbiliyah, and pushed
forward to Merida. The Sevillians took advantage of his absence to shake
off his yoke, assisted by the people of Beja and Niebla. Their triumph was
short lived. Abdelasis, son of Musa, fell upon them like a thunderbolt,
extinguished the rising in blood, and made the city the seat of government
of the newly acquired provinces.
The interesting personality and tragic fate of Seville’s first Viceroy have
made the site of his residence a question of some importance. It was
formerly believed that he occupied the Acropolis or Citadel, supposed then
to be covered by the Alcazar. The researches of Señores Gayangos and
Madrazo have made it plain, however, that he established his headquarters
in a church which had been dedicated by the sister of St Isidore to the
martyrs Rufina and Justa, now amalgamated with the convent of La
Trinidad. Adjacent to this building Abdelasis erected a mosque; and it was
within its walls, while reciting the first surah of the Koran, that he was
assassinated by the emissaries of the Khalif of Damascus—death being a
not uncommon reward in the Middle Ages for too brilliant military services
rendered to one’s sovereign.
The seat of government was transferred, soon after the murder of the son
of Musa, to Cordova, and Seville sank for a time to a subsidiary rank. The
various cities of Andalusia were allotted by the governor Abdelmelic among
the different Syrian peoples who had flocked over on the news of the
conquest; and Ishbiliyah, according to Señor de Madrazo, was assigned to
the citizens of Horns, the classic Emesa. Owing to intermarriage between
the conquerors and the natives, the distinction between the Moslems
according to the places of origin of these early settlers was soon lost in that
drawn between the pure-blooded Arabs and the Muwallads or half-breeds.
In the meantime the germs of Arabian culture had fallen upon a kindly soil,
and a new school of art and letters was in process of formation in Spain.
The imposing monuments of Roman, Greek, and Byzantine civilisation,
which the victorious hosts of Islam found ever in their path, were not
without influence upon their conceptions of the beautiful in form. The
fusion of the Hispano-Goths and Arabs likewise tended to produce a
commingling of spirit, and ultimately to give birth to an art and a culture
racy of the soil. “According to all contemporary writers,” says Señor Rafael
Contreras, “it is beyond all doubt that the style which the artists of the
Renaissance called Moorish (in the sense of originating in Northern Africa)
was never anything of the sort. The details so much admired on account of
their richness, the vaultings and the arched hollows practised in the walls,
the festoons of the arches, the commarajias and alicates, were Spanish
works finer and more delicate than those of the East. The root was
originally in Arabia, but it was happily transplanted to Spain, where
blossomed that beautiful flower which diffuses its perfume after a lapse of
seven centuries.”
Under the Western Khalifate, Seville flourished in spite of the assaults
and internecine warfare of which it was frequently the theatre. When in 888
Andalusia became temporarily split up into several nominally independent
states, the city acknowledged the sway of Ibrahim Ibn Hajjaj. The
chronicler Ben Hayán, often quoted by Señor de Madrazo, describes this
prince as keeping up imperial state and riding forth attended by five
hundred horsemen. He ventured to assume the tiraz, the official garb of the
Amirs of Cordova. To his court flocked the poets, the singers, and the wise
men of Islam. Of him it was written, “In all the West I find no right noble
man save Ibrahim, but he is nobility itself. When one has known the delight
of living with him, to dwell in any other land is misery.” Flattery did not
blind the sagacious Ibn Hajjaj to the insecurity of his position, and he
bowed before the rising star of the new Khalifa, Abd-er-Rahman III. In 913
Ishbiliyah opened her gates to that powerful ruler and again became subject
to Cordova. The city lost nothing by its timely submission. The generous
and beneficent Khalifa narrowed and deepened the channel of the
Guadalquivir, thus rendering it navigable. He introduced the palm tree from
Africa, planted gardens, and adorned the city with splendid edifices. Much
of the splendour of the Court of Cordova was reflected on Seville, which
certainly rivalled the capital as a seat of learning. Among its citizens was
Abu Omar Ahmed Ben Abdallah, surnamed El Begi or “the Sage,” the
author of an encyclopædia of sciences, which was long esteemed as a work
of marvellous erudition. According to Condé, Abdallah was frequently
consulted by the magistrates, even in his early youth, in affairs of the
gravest import.
The public edifices of the Pearl of Andalusia were no doubt worthy of its
fame as a home of wisdom and culture. In addition to the mosque built by
Abdelasis, near or on the spot where the convent of La Trinidad now stands,
a notable ornament of the city was the mosque raised on the site of the
basilica of St Vincent—immortalised by several memorable Councils. “But
who,” asks Señor de Madrazo, “would be capable to-day of describing this
edifice? Nothing of it remains except the memory of the place where it
stood. Other structures, ampler and more majestic, replaced it when, under
the Almoravides and Almohades, Seville recovered its rank as an
independent kingdom. Let us content ourselves with recording that the
principal mosque, built at the same time as and on the model of that of
Cordova, although on a smaller and less sumptuous scale, was situated on
the site of the existing Cathedral, and that in the ninth century it was burnt
by the Normans. In consequence it is impossible to say if the great
horseshoe arches which occur in the cloister of the Cathedral are works
earlier or later than that event. It does not appear probable that in the time
of the Khalifs the mosque of Seville could have had the considerable
dimensions suggested by the northern boundary of the patio de los
naranjos. That line is 330 Castilian feet, which would give the mosque,
extending from north to south, a length about double, the breadth of the
atrium included—unlikely dimensions for a temple which, compared with
the Jama of Cordova, was unquestionably of the second class. No one
knows who ordered the construction of the primitive mosque of Seville.”
The irruption of the Normans, one of the results of which was the
demolition of this edifice, took place in 859. The pirates were afterwards
defeated off the coast of Murcia by the Moorish squadron, and made sail for
Catalonia. A serious descent had taken place in 844. Lisbon was the first
city to fall a victim to the Northmen, whom we next hear of at Cadiz and at
Sidonia, where they defeated the Khalifa’s troops in a pitched battle. Fierce
fighting took place before the walls of Ishbiliyah, the invaders being
uniformly victorious. Laden with the richest booty, they at length retired
overland to Lisbon, where they took to their ships. They not only destroyed
the mosque of Seville, but threw down the city walls, which dated from
Roman times. These were repaired by Abd-er-Rahman II., to be partially
demolished again by Abd-er-Rahman III. on his triumphal entry into the
amirate of Ibrahim Ibn Hajjaj.
The subjection of Seville to the yoke of the Khalifs of Cordova was,
unhappily for the city and for Islam generally, not of long duration. The
mighty Wizir, Al Mansûr, restored the waning power of the Crescent and
drove back the Christians into the mountain fastnesses of the North. But the
collapse of the Western Khalifate had been postponed, not averted. This Al
Mansûr well knew. On his deathbed he reproached his son for yielding to
unmanly tears, saying, “This is to me a signal of the approaching decay of
this empire.” His prediction did not long await fulfilment. In 1009, seven
years after his death, his second son, Abd-er-Rahman Sanjul, had the
audacity to proclaim himself the Khalif Hisham’s heir. The empire became
at once resolved into its component parts. On all sides the kadis and
governors revolted. Independent amirates were set up in all the considerable
towns. At Ishbiliyah the shrewd and powerful kadi, Mohammed Ben Abbad,
perceived his opportunity, but contrived to excuse his ambition by a
specious pretence of legality. An impostor, impersonating the legitimate
Khalifa, Hisham, appeared on the troubled scene. Ben Abbad espoused his
cause and pretended to govern the city in his name. His power firmly
established, the kadi announced that the Khalifa was dead and had
designated him as his lawful successor. For the second time, Seville rose to
the dignity of an independent state.
The Abbadites were a splendour-loving race. Their Court was extolled
by Arabian writers as rivalling that of the Abbasside sultans. Under their
rule the city waxed every year more beautiful, more prosperous. Patrons of
art and letters, the amirs were vigorous and capable sovereigns, and in all
Musulman Spain no state was more powerful than theirs, except Toledo.
The second monarch of the dynasty, Abu Amru Abbad, better known as
Mo’temid, was a mighty warrior. He reduced Algarve and took Cordova.
When not engaged in martial exploits he took delight in composing verses,
in the society of talented men, and in the contemplation of the garden of his
enemies’ heads, which he had laid out at the door of his palace. He was
succeeded in 1069 by his son Abul-Kasim Mohammed, a native of Beja.
The Crescent was waning. All Al Mansûr’s conquests had been
recovered by the Christians. Toledo fell before the arms of Alfonso III. The
Castilians overran Portugal and penetrated into Andalusia. The Amir of
Ishbiliyah took the only course open to him at the moment, and cultivated
the friendship of the Castilian king. He consented to the removal of the
body of St Isidore from Italica to Leon, and gave his daughter Zayda in a
sort of left-handed marriage to Alfonso III. As the Christian king was
already the husband of Queen Constancia, and Zayda’s dowry consisted of
the most valuable conquests of the Amir Mut’adid, this transaction did not
reflect much credit on either party. But it purchased for Seville a period of
peace and security, during which its inhabitants became hopelessly
enervated by luxury and ease.
The Abbadite sovereigns have left but few traces on the city which they
did so much to embellish and improve. To them, however, may be ascribed
the foundation of the Alcazar. Such at least is the opinion of Señor de
Madrazo. In the horseshoe arches of the Salón de los Embajadores with
their rich Corinthian capitals—on which the names of different Khalifas are
inscribed—we detect a resemblance to the mosque of Cordova, and
recognise the early Saracenic style, unaffected by African, or properly
Moorish, influence. To the same period and school of architecture, Señor de
Madrazo attributes the ornate arcading of the narrow staircase leading from
the entrance court to near the balcony of the chapel; and the three arches
with capitals in the abandoned apartment adjoining the Salón de los
Principes. The ultra-semicircular curve of the arch occurs very rarely in
later or true Moorish architecture.
The Moslem conquerors had, in the majority of cases, converted to their
use the Christian churches in the cities they occupied. Many of the mosques
that adorned Ishbiliyah during the reign of the race of Abbad had been
adapted in this way, the lines of pillars being readjusted in most cases to
give the structure that south-easterly direction that the law of Islam
required. Traces of these Abbadite mosques remain in the churches of San
Juan Bautista and San Salvador. On the wall of the former was found an
inscription which has been thus translated by Don Pascual de Gayangos: “In
the name of the clement and merciful Allah. May the blessing of Allah be
on Mohammed, the seal of the Prophets. The Princess and august mother of
Er-Rashid Abu-l-hosaya Obayd’ allah, son of Mut’amid Abu-l-Kasim
Mohammed Ben Abbad (may Allah make his empire and power lasting, as
well as the glory of both!), ordered this minaret to be raised in her mosque
(which may Allah preserve!), awaiting the abundance of His rewards; and
the work was finished, with the help of Allah, by the hand of the Wizir and
Katib, the Amir Abu-l-Kasim Ben Battah (may Allah be propitious to me!),
in the moon of Shaaban, in the year 478.”
The site of the present collegiate church of San Salvador was occupied
by a mosque, which was used by the Moors for a considerable time after the
Christian conquest, and preserved its form down to the year 1669. An
inscription on white marble relates that a minaret was constructed in the
year 1080, by Mut’amid Ben Abbad, that “the calling to prayer might not be
interrupted.”
The reign of the Abbadites was brought to a close by the advent of the
Almoravides (a word allied to Marabut), who, at the invitation of the
Andalusian amirs, invaded Spain in the last quarter of the eleventh century.
It was a story common enough in history. The Africans came at first as the
friends and allies of the Spanish Arabs, and effectually stemmed the tide of
Christian successes; but in 1091, Yusuf, the Almoravide leader, annexed
Ishbiliyah and all Andalusia to his vast empire. The city became a mere
provincial centre, the appanage of the Berber monarch. Mo’temid, loaded
with chains, was transported to Africa, where he died in 1095, having
reigned as amir twenty-seven years.
The Almoravides lived by the sword and perished by the sword.
Perpetually engaged in warfare, among themselves or with the Christians,
they left no deep impress on the character of Seville or of Andalusia
generally. With them the student of the arts in Spain has little concern. They
burst like a tornado over the land, destroying much, creating nothing. Little
more than half-a-century had passed since the downfall of the Abbadites,
when the star of the Almoravides paled before the rising crescent of the
Almohades or Al Muwahedun. The new sectaries, as fierce as their
predecessors, but more indomitable and austere, wrested all Barbary from
the descendants of Tashrin and annexed Ishbiliyah to their empire in 1146.
The reign of the Almohades is the most interesting period in the history
of the city. It was marked by the foundation of Seville’s most important
existing edifices, and by the introduction of a new style of architecture.
Hitherto, what is loosely called Moorish art, had been native Andalusian art,
following Saracenic or Syrian ideals. Of this first period, the Mezquita at
Cordova is the finest monument. Seville is peculiarly the city of the second,
or true, Moorish period. Byzantine and Oriental influences disappeared and
were supplanted by the African or, more properly, Berber, character. The
new conquerors of Andalusia were a rude, hardy race, and we find
something virile and coarse in their architecture. “Beside the Giralda of
Seville,” remarks Herr Karl Eugen Schmidt, “the columns of the mosque of
Cordova seem small; the pretty halls of the Alhambra have something weak
and feminine.” The weakness of the Almohade builders, as is usually the
case with imperfectly civilised peoples, lay in an excessive fondness for
ornamentation. Señor de Madrazo’s criticism, though severe, is, on the
whole, just. While admitting the beauty of certain of their innovations, such
as the stalactited dome (afterwards carried out with so much effect at
Granada) and the pointed arch, he goes on to say, “The Almohade
architecture displays that debased taste which is imitative rather than
instinctive, and which creates only by exaggerating forms to a degree
inconsistent with the design—differing from the Mudejar work of the
thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, which reveals an instinctive feeling for
the beautiful in ornament, which never loses sight of the graceful, the
elegant, and the bold, and which consequently never betrays any aberration.
The Almohade style, in short, at once manifests the vigour of the barbarian
civilised by conquest; the Mudejar style has the enduring character of the
works of a man of taste, wise in good and evil fortune; both are the faithful
expression of the culture of peoples of different origins and aptitudes.”
Elsewhere the same authority observes, “It is certain that the innovation
characteristic of Musulman architecture in Spain in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, cannot be explained as a natural mutation from the Arabic art of
the Khalifate, or as a prelude to the art of Granada, because there is very
little similarity between the style called secondary or Moorish and the Arab-
Byzantine and Andalusian; while, on the other hand, it is evident that the
Saracenic monuments of Fez and Morocco, of the reigns of Yusuf Ben
Tashfin, Abdul Ben Ali, Al Mansûr, and Nasr, partake of the character of the
ornamentation introduced by the Almohades into Spain.”
The most important example of this style is the Giralda, now adjacent to
the magnificent Christian cathedral which was reared in later days on the
foundations of the great mosque. Señor de Madrazo has reconstructed for us
the general form and aspect of the finest monument of Almohade piety. The
mosque replaced that which had been destroyed by the Normans, and
appears to have embodied some part of the original structure, to judge from
the horseshoe arches still to be seen in the Claustro de la Granada. The
work was begun by order of Yusuf, the son of Abd-er-Rahman, the founder
of the dynasty. The mosque formed a rectangle, extending from north to
south, and surrounded by cloisters and courtyards. The interior was divided
into longitudinal naves by a series of marble columns, which supported an
adorned ceiling of carved and painted wood. The mihrab, or sanctuary,
would have been at the southern extremity, after the Syrian custom, it
taking the Spanish Muslims some time to realise that Mecca lay east rather
than south of Andalusia. The mosque would also have contained a
maksurrah, or vestibule, for the imam and his officials, the nimbar, or
pulpit, for the sovereign, and the tribune for the preacher. In the northern
court was the existing fountain for ablutions, surmounted by a cupola, and
surrounded by orange and palm-trees. The eastern court was known as the
Court of the Elms. In all probability, attached to the sacred edifice, was the
turbeh, or tomb of the founder.
The Giralda is not only the most important and famous of minarets, but
is among the three or four most remarkable towers in the world. It is more
to Seville than Giotto’s campanile to Florence; it rivals in fame the now
vanished campanile of St Mark’s. Unlike similar edifices in Egypt and
Syria, minarets among the western Moslems were built strong and massive,
rather than slender and elegant. The Giralda,” says Herr Schmidt, “is one of
the strongest buildings in the world, and few of our Christian church towers
could have withstood so successfully the lightning and the earthquake.”
The Giralda is quadrangular in section, and covers a space of 13.60
square metres. The architect—whose name is variously spelt Gever, Hever,
and Djabir—is said to have used quantities of Roman remains and statuary
as a base for the foundations. The thickness of the wall at the base is nine
feet, but it increases with the height, the interior space narrowing
accordingly. The lower part of the tower is of stone, the upper part of brick.
At a height of about 15 metres above the ground begin those decorations in
stone which lend such elegance and beauty to this stout structure. They
consist in vertical series of windows—mostly ajimeces or twin-windows—
some with the horseshoe, others the pointed arch, flanked on either side by
broad vertical bands of beautiful stone tracery, resembling trellis-work. The
windows are enclosed in arches which exhibit considerable diversity of
design. The decoration as a whole is harmonious and beautiful.
The Moorish tower only reaches to a height of 70 metres. The remaining
portion, reaching upwards for another 25 metres, is of Christian
workmanship. Before this was added, the tower appears to have been
crowned, like most West African minarets, by a small pinnacle or turret.
This supported four balls or apples of gilded copper, one of which was so
large that the gates of Seville had to be widened that it might be brought
into the city. The iron bar which supported the balls weighed about ten
hundredweights, and the whole was cast by a Sicilian Arab named Abu
Leyth, at a cost of £50,000 sterling. We owe these particulars to a
Mohammedan writer of the period, and his accuracy was confirmed in
1395, when the balls, having been thrown to the ground by an earthquake,
were carefully weighed and examined.
The upper or newer part of the Giralda was built by Fernando Ruiz in
1568. Despite its Doric and Ionic columns and Renaissance style, it does
not mar the beauty and harmony of the whole building, and is itself a
remarkably graceful work. The entablature of the second stage or storey
bears the words Turris fortissima Nomen Domini. The whole fabric is
surmounted by the bronze statue of Faith, executed by Bartolomé Morel in
1568. It stands fourteen feet high, and weighs twenty-five hundredweights,
yet so wonderful is the workmanship that it turns with every breath of the
wind. Hence the name applied to the whole tower—Giralda—from que
gira, “which turns.” The figure wears a Roman helmet. The right hand
clasps the labarum of Constantine, and the left a palm branch symbolical of
victory.
The Giralda is ascended by means of thirty-five inclined planes, up
which a horse might be ridden with ease to the very top. The various
cuerpos or stages of the ascent are all named. The Cuerpo de Campanas is
named after its fine peal of bells. The bell named Santa Maria was hung in
1588 by order of the Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena. It cost ten thousand
ducats, and weighs eighteen tons. The Cuerpo de Azucenas (or of the lilies)
is so named after its urns with floral decorations in ironwork. El Cuerpo del
Reloj (clock tower) contains a clock partly constructed in 1765 by the monk
José Cordero, with pieces of another placed here in 1400 in the presence of
Don Enrique III.—the first tower-clock set up in Spain. The Cuerpos de
Estrellas (stars) and de las Corambolas (billiard-balls) are named after the
predominant devices in their schemes of decoration.
The highest platform of the Giralda affords, as might be expected, a very
extensive view. On the whole, the prospect is disappointing. The
neighbourhood of Seville is not beautiful, nor are there any very notable
sites or natural features included within the panorama. Standing below
Morel’s great statue, however, and gazing down upon the city, interesting
considerations naturally present themselves. That the figure of Christian
faith should thus be reared on the summit of a building specially intended to
stimulate the zeal and to excite the devotion of the followers of Islam is a
reflection calculated to give profound satisfaction to the devout Spaniard.
The whimsical philosopher may also find an appropriateness in the
handiwork of the men of the simpler, cruder faith conducting one upwards
to the more refined and complicated creed. I do not know if Mohammedans
ever visit Seville. If so, they doubtless console themselves for the
desecration of their sacred edifices by thoughts of Hagia Sophia and the
onetime Christian churches of the East. And the Giralda has fared better at
the hands of the Christians than many a church of their own has done. I may
instance the chapel at Mayence, which with practically no alteration in its
architecture and internal arrangements now serves the purpose of a beer-
shop.
As the Giralda attests the size and beauty of the great mosque, so several
smaller towers exist in Seville to mark the sites of the lesser Mohammedan
temples. The most important of these is the tower or minaret of San Marcos.
It is seventy-five feet high and ten feet broad—the highest edifice in the city
except the Giralda. It is built according to the pure Almohade style,
“without any admixture,” points out Señor de Madrazo, “of the features
taken from the Christian architecture of the West.” According to Mr Walter
M. Gallichan there is a tradition that Cervantes used to ascend this tower to
scan the vicinity in search of a Sevillian beauty of whom he was
enamoured. The church is Gothic, and dates from 1478, but the beautiful
portal exhibits Mudejar workmanship, and may be ascribed to the days of St
Ferdinand or of his immediate successors.
The parish churches of San Juan Bautista, Santa Marina, San Esteban,
Santiago, Santa Catalina, San Julián, San Ildefonso, San Andrés, San
Vicente, San Lorenzo, San Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, and Santa Maria de las
Nieves (some of which no longer exist), were all mosques during the
Almohade era. A few continue to preserve their minarets and mihrabs,
generally restored and modified almost beyond recognition.
While attending by the construction of these numerous places of worship
to the spiritual needs of their subjects, the Almohade rulers neglected no
means of strengthening Ishbiliyah and of promoting its general prosperity.
The city became the most important seat of Mohammedan power in the
West. Trade rapidly increased, and the town became the principal resort of
the weavers, metal-workers, and other prominent Moorish craftsmen. Abu
Yakub Yusuf was the first to throw a bridge of boats across the
Guadalquivir, over which troops first passed on October 11th, 1171. This
bridge immensely added to the strength of the city as a fortified place, as it
established permanent communication between it and its principal source of
supplies, the fertile district called the Ajarafa on the right bank of the river.
The charms of this expanse, otherwise known as the Orchard of Hercules,
are rapturously described by Arab historians. These are the words of the
poet Ibn Saffar: “The Ajarafa surpasseth in beauty and fertility all the lands
of the world. The oil of its olives goeth even to far Alexandria; its farms and
orchards exceed those of other countries in size and convenience; so white
and clean are they, that they appear like so many stars in a sky of olive
gardens.” The Ajarafa is an Arabia Felix without wild beasts, the
Guadalquivir a Nile without crocodiles. El Makkari says it measured about
forty miles in each direction and contained a numerous population. Those
who know the rather dreary country extending westward of the modern city
will realise the melancholy change brought about by time.
The city then, as now, was girdled by strong walls. The gates were
twelve in number. Those not turned towards the river were strongly fortified
with towers and bastions. The farther bank of the Guadalquivir was
defended by castles and redoubts. Upwards of a hundred keeps and watch-
towers studded the adjacent country.
One of the most vital points in the defensive works was the poetically-
named Torre del Oro (tower of gold), which still exists, and is familiar to
every visitor to the city. The tower is a twelve-sided polygon of three
storeys. It is surmounted by a smaller tower, also of twelve sides, which in
turn supports a small round cupola. This superstructure was added in the
eighteenth century, whereas the main building was erected by the Almohade
governor Abu-l-Ala in the year 1220. The tower was in those days
connected with the walls of the city by what is called in military parlance a
curtain, which was pulled down as late as in 1821. The outwork faced
another watch-tower on the opposite bank of the river, and a great iron
chain was drawn from the one to the other, effectually closing the harbour
against hostile vessels. The assaults of the foeman and the deadlier ravages
of time have stripped this strong and graceful monument of the beautiful
tiles or azulejos with which it was once adorned, and which seemed to have
earned for it its present name. No Danaë, alas! waits in this tower of gold
to-day for tyrant or deliverer. The place is occupied by clerks, whose pens
are ever busy recording the shipments of coal brought by incoming
steamers; and the immediate vicinity is infested by “tramp” sailors of all
nationalities, mostly British, for whose benefit, presumably, rum, “Old
Tom,” and other stimulating but unromantic beverages are dispensed at
kiosks and bars.
The spot appears to have been the scene of a picturesque episode
recounted by Contreras. It is worth repeating as revealing the polished
character of the dusky amirs who ruled in Ishbiliyah three hundred years
before Charles of Orleans devoted his declining years, in his palace by the
Loire, to the making of ballads, triolets, and rondeaux.
The Abbadite amir, Mut’adid-billah, was walking one day in the field of
Marchab Afida, on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and observed the breeze
ruffling the surface of the water. He improvised the line—
 “The breeze makes of the water a cuirass”—

and turning to the poet Aben Amr, called upon him to complete the verse.
While the laureate was still in the throes of poetical parturition, a young girl
of the people who happened to be standing by, anticipated him, and gave
utterance to these original lines—

“A cuirass strong, magnificent for combat,

As if the water had been frozen truly.”

The prince was astonished at this display of the lyrical gift by a woman
of her condition, and ordered one of his eunuchs to conduct her to the
palace. On being questioned, she informed him that she was called
Romikiwa, because she was the slave of Romiya, and was a driver of
mules.
“Are you married?” asked the prince.
“No, sire.”
“It is well, for I shall buy you and marry you.”
It is to be hoped that Romikiwa’s merits as a wife exceeded her abilities
as a poetess.
The Alcazar, the palace inhabited by this dilettante amir and his
successors of the race of Abbad, continued to be the principal residence of
the subsequent rulers of Ishbiliyah, both Almoravides and Almohades.
There can be no doubt that the latter restored and reconstructed the building
to an extent that almost effaced the work of the founders. But the impress of
the Berber architects was in its turn almost entirely lost when the fabric
came into the possession of the Christians. Thus the Alcazar cannot be
rightly classed among the monuments of the Almohade period. It is certain
that its extent at this time was greater than it is now. Its enclosure was
bounded by the city wall, which ran down to the river, and occupied the
whole angle formed by the two. The Alcazar was then primarily a fortress,
and its walls were flanked on every side by watch-towers such as those with
which its front is still furnished. The principal entrance seems to have been
at the Torre de la Plata (silver tower), which was standing as late as 1821.
Finally, among the works of the last Musulman rulers of Seville, we must
not omit to mention the great aqueduct of four hundred and ten arches,
called the Caños de Carmona, constructed in 1172, which ensured the city
an abundant supply of water from the reservoir of Alcalá de Guadaira. The
Almohades had other palaces in the city. The old residence of Abdelasis yet
remained, and we hear of the palaces of St Hermenegildo and of the Bib
Ragel (or northern gate).
The Almohades kinged it nobly in Andalusia; but these successive
revivals of fervour and activity in Western Islam may be compared to the
last strong spasms of a dying man. Despite these furious inrushes of
Almoravides and Al-Muwahedun, the Christians were slowly but surely
gaining ground. The lieutenants of Abd-ul-Mumin subjugated Granada and
Almeria in the east, Badajoz and Evora in the west. The Moorish amir of
Valencia did homage to Yusuf, Abd-ul-Mumin’s son and successor, at
Ishbiliyah. The third sovereign of the dynasty, Yakub Al Mansûr, dealt what
seemed a crushing blow to the allied Spaniards at Alarcos in 1195. Had that
victory been properly followed up, perhaps to this day a Mohammedan
power might have been seated firmly in the south of Spain, and the Strait of
Gibraltar might have been a western Dardanelles.
But the Christians rallied. In 1212 was fought the decisive battle of Las
Navas de Tolosa, between the Moorish Khalif An-Nasr and the Castilian
King, Alfonso VIII. The Musulmans were totally defeated. “Six hundred
thousand combatants,” says El Makkari, with perhaps a trace of Oriental
hyperbole, “were led by An-Nasr to the field of battle; all perished, except a
few that did not amount to a thousand. This battle was a malediction, not
only on Andalus but on all the West.”
Yet the downfall of the Islamite power did not immediately follow. An-
Nasr survived his defeat seven years, and his son, Abu Yusuf Yakub Al-
Mustanser, reigned four more inglorious years. His dying (1223) without
children was the signal for dissensions and disturbances throughout his still
vast empire. While Abd-ul-Wahed was proclaimed Khalifa in Morocco, Al
Adil took up the reins of sovereignty in Murcia. Both pretenders soon
disappeared from the troubled scene, Abd-ul-Wahed being assassinated, and
his rival, after having been defeated in Spain by the Christians, being forced
to take refuge in Morocco, there to abdicate in favour of An-Nasr’s son,
Yahya. Abu-l-Ala, Al Adil’s brother, who had been left as governor in
Ishbiliyah, declared himself Khalifa on learning the accession of Yahya. He
was the last of the race of Abd-ul-Mumin to rule in the city. He was driven
from Spain—to found a wider empire in Africa—by Mohammed Ben
Yusuf, variously styled Ben Hud and Al Jodhami.
The storm-clouds were gathering fast over the beautiful city by the
Guadalquivir. Spain’s great national hero, St Ferdinand, now wore the
crown of Castile. He routed the Moors at Jerez, and in 1235 wrested from
them their most ancient and glorious metropolis, Cordova. The discord and
sedition which history shows are the usual prelude to the extinction of a
state, were not wanting at Seville. Ben Hud died in 1238, and his subjects
turned once more in their despair to the African Almohades. But no new
army of Ghazis crossed the strait to do battle with the Unbeliever. Despite
their protestations of allegiance to the Khalifa of Barbary, the Moors of
Seville were left to fight their last fight unassisted. When the Castilian army
appeared before the walls, the defence was directed, strangely enough for a
Mohammedan community, by a junta of six persons. Their names are
worthy of being recorded: Abu Faris, called by the Spaniards Axataf,
Sakkáf, Shoayb, Ben Khaldûn, Ben Khiyar, and Abu Bekr Ben Sharih.
The siege of Ishbiliyah lasted fifteen months. Material assistance was
lent to the Spaniards by Musulman auxiliaries, among them the Amirs of
Jaën and Granada. The Castilian fleet under Admiral Ramon Bonifaz
dispersed the Moorish ships, while the Sevillian land forces were driven to
take refuge within the walls. The Admiral succeeded in breaking the chain
stretched across the river, and thus cut off the garrison from their principal
magazines in the suburb of Triana. Only when in the clutches of famine did
the defenders ask for terms. They offered to give up the city, on the
condition that they should be allowed to demolish the mosque. The Infante
Alfonso replied that if a single brick were displaced, the whole population
would be put to the sword. The garrison finally surrendered on the promise
that all inhabitants who desired to do so should be free to leave the city with
their families and property, and that those who elected to remain should pay
the Castilian king the same tribute they had hitherto paid to the native ruler.
The brave Abu Faris was invited to accept an honourable post under the
conqueror, but he magnanimously declined and retired to Africa. Thither
thousands of his countrymen followed him. Indeed, probably only a few
thousand Moors remained behind in Seville.
Ferdinand took possession on December 22nd, 1248. He took up his
residence in the Alcazar and allotted houses and territory to his officers. It is
worthy of remark that the first Christian soldier to ascend the Giralda was a
Scotsman named Lawrence Poore. Among the first duties of the saintly king
was the purification of the mosque and its conversion into a Christian
church.
Seville, after having remained in the hands of the Musulmans five
hundred and thirty-six years, had passed from them for ever.
 SEVILLE UNDER THE CASTILIAN KINGS

The outward transformation of the Moorish Ishbiliyah into Seville, the

Christian capital, proceeded slowly and gradually. The personal devotion
and profound religious fervour of King Ferdinand notwithstanding, even the
war which resulted in the taking of the city cannot be regarded as a crusade.
As we have seen, Mohammedan troops fought under the banners of the
Christian king and contributed to his victory; and in the division of the
spoils these allies were not forgotten. Satisfied with their triumph, the
Castilians showed moderation in their treatment of their Muslim subjects.
The fall of Ishbiliyah was attended by no outburst of iconoclastic fury. The
conquerors were delighted with the beauty and richness of their prize, and
had no desire to impair the handiwork of their predecessors.
The transition from the pure Arabic and Almohade styles of architecture
to what is called the Mudejar style was therefore almost imperceptible. The
physiognomy of the city altered but slowly. But the alteration was from the
first inevitable. Houses and lands were bestowed on knights from all parts
of Spain on the condition of their residing permanently in Seville. Catalans,
Galicians, Castilians of all trades and ranks flocked in, and their influence
was bound sooner or later to assert itself. But the builders and artisan class
remained for many years composed of Moors—sometimes Christianised,
but thoroughly imbued with the artistic traditions of their forebears. Thus
came about that peculiar and graceful blending of the Moorish and Gothic
and earlier Renaissance styles known to Spanish writers as the Mudejar. Its
differentiation from the Arabic naturally became more marked as the
centuries rolled by.
Moorish architecture was thus accepted by the conquerors of Seville
both from choice and necessity. But certain important modifications in the
structure of buildings became immediately necessary, owing to the
difference of faith and customs. The mosque and the dwelling-house alike
had to undergo some alteration. No mihrab was required, nor minaret, nor
the south-easterly position; in the dwelling-house there was no need for
harem, for retired praying-place, for the baths so dear to the Andalusian
Muslim.
 Probably the first building of importance to be affected by the change of
rulers was the mosque. The outermost naves were divided into chapels, the
names and order of which have been preserved for us by Zuñiga (quoted by
Madrazo).
The royal chapel occupied the centre of the eastern wall; the other
chapels were: San Pedro, Santiago, Santa Barbara, San Bernardo, San
Sebastian (in this chapel were buried some Moors of the blood royal who
had been baptised and had served King Ferdinand, among them being Don
Fernando Abdelmon, son of Abu Seyt, Amir of Baeza), San Ildefonso, San
Francisco, San Andrés, San Clemente, San Felipe, San Mateo (containing
the sepulchre of the Admiral of Castile, Don Juan de Luna), Don Alonso
Perez de Guzman, San Miguel, San Marcos, San Lucas, San Bernabe, San
Simon, and San Judas, and the Magdalena. In the last-named chapel were
buried the knights who had taken part in the capture of the city. Attached to
it was the altar of Nuestra Señora de Pilar, a reputedly miraculous shrine
which became the objective of pilgrims in after years.
Chapels were also constructed in the four cloisters of the Patio de los
Naranjos. The cloister of the Caballeros contained eight—one of which,
Santa Lucia, was the place of sepulchre of the Haro family; the cloister of
the Granada contained three; the cloister of San Esteban, three; the cloister
of San Jorge or Del Lagarto, four—in one of which, San Jorge, reposed that
doughty warrior, Garci Perez de Vargas, who distinguished himself before
all his compeers at the assault of Seville. This cloister was named Del
Lagarto from the remains of an enormous crocodile, a present from the
Sultan of Egypt to King Alfonso el Sabio, which are still suspended from
the roof.
The cathedral—for so we must now call the mosque—was endowed and
richly embellished by St Ferdinand’s son and successor, the bookish
monarch Alfonso el Sabio. He also bestowed upon Seville its existing coat-
of-arms, consisting of the device NO8DO, which frequently appears, to the
bewilderment of strangers, on public buildings, uniforms, and documents.
The knot is in the vernacular madeja; the device thus reads no madeja do,
or, with an excusable pun, no me ha dejado—“it has not deserted me.” This
honourable motto the city won by its loyalty to Alfonso during the civil
wars which distracted the kingdom during his reign. Seville bears the
splendid title of “Most noble, most loyal, most heroic, and unconquered
city” (muy noble, muy leal, muy heroica, y invicta). The surname “most
noble” was bestowed upon it by St Ferdinand; the style “most faithful” it
received from Juan II. in remembrance of its resistance to the Infante Don
Enrique; “most heroic” from Fernando VII. in recognition of its devotion to
the national cause during the War of Independence; and “unconquered”
from Isabel II. to commemorate its defence against the army of Espartero in
July 1843.
The successors of the sainted king made their home in the Alcazar, and
adapted themselves to an environment created by their traditional foes. The
personality which looms largest in the history of the city is that of Don
Pedro I., surnamed the Cruel, or, by his few admirers, ‘the Justiciary.’ What
Harun-al-Rashid is in the story of Bagdad is this ferocious monarch in the
annals of Seville. Countless are the tales, the ballads, and traditions of
which he is the subject. Curiously enough, Pedro enjoyed a certain measure
of popularity in the country he misgoverned. He was undoubtedly a vigilant
protector of the humbler classes of his subjects against the tyranny of the
aristocracy, and officials, and appears to have combined a grim humour and
a strain of what we should now call Bohemianism, with a tiger-like ferocity.
He was fond of rambling incognito through the poorer quarters of the city;
and no account of Seville can be considered complete without a relation of
one of his most notable adventures in the street called Calle de la Cabeza de
Don Pedro.
The king had promulgated a decree holding the municipal authorities
answerable with their lives for the preservation of peace and public order
within their jurisdiction. A few nights later, wandering, heavily cloaked as
we may suppose, through a dark alley, a gentleman brushed rudely against
him. A brawl ensued, swords were drawn, and Pedro ran his subject through
the body. Flattering himself that there had been no witness to the encounter,
he stalked away. In the morning the hidalgo’s body was found, but there
appeared to be no clue as to the assassin. The king summoned the Alcalde
and reminded him of the edict. If the miscreant were not discovered within
two days the luckless magistrate must himself pay the penalty on the
scaffold. It was a situation with precisely the humorous aspect that Pedro
relished.
But presently to the Alcalde came an old lady with a strange but
welcome story. She told how she had seen a fight between two gentlemen,
the previous night, from her bed-chamber window. She witnessed the fatal
termination, and lo! the light of her candle fell full on the face of the
murderer; and as he bent forward, she heard his knee crack. By his features
and by this well-known physical peculiarity, she recognised, beyond all
possibility of a mistake, the king.
Next day the Alcalde invited his sovereign to attend the execution of the
criminal. Greatly wondering, no doubt, Pedro came. Dangling from a rope
he beheld his own effigy. “It is well,” he said, after an ominous pause.
“Justice has been done. I am satisfied.”
We may be inclined to disagree with the king’s conception of justice as
evinced on this occasion. More equitable and humorous was his action
when a priest, for murdering a shoemaker, was condemned by his
ecclesiastical superiors to suspension from his sacerdotal functions for
twelve months. Pedro thereupon decreed that any tradesman who slew a
priest should be punished by being restrained from exercising his trade for
the like period!
The catalogue of this Castilian monarch’s crimes proves interesting if
gloomy reading. He left his wife, Blanche de Bourbon, to perish in a
dungeon; he married Juana de Castro and insultingly repudiated her within
forty-eight hours; he put to death his father’s mistress, Leonor de Guzman.
He threw the young daughter of his brother, Enrique de Trastamara, naked
to the lions, like some Christian virgin-martyr. But the good-humoured (and
possibly well-fed) brutes refused to touch the proffered prey. Not wishing to
be outdone in generosity by a wild beast, Pedro ever afterwards treated the
maiden kindly. She was known, in remembrance of her terrible experience,
as Leonor de los Leones.
The Jew, Don Simuel Ben Levi, had served Pedro long and only too
faithfully as treasurer and tax-gatherer. It was whispered in his master’s ear
that half the wealth that should fill the royal coffers was diverted into his
own. Ben Levi was seized without warning and placed on the rack, where
the noble Israelite is said to have died, not of pain, but of pure indignation.
Under his house—so the story has it—was a cavern filled with three piles of
gold and silver so high that a man standing behind any one of them was
completely hidden. “Had Don Simuel given me the third of the least of
these three piles,” exclaimed the king, “I would not have had him tortured.
Why would he rather die than speak?”
Somewhat more excusable was the treatment meted out to the Red King
of Granada, Abu Saïd; for this prince was himself a usurper, and had
behaved traitorously towards his own sovereign and his suzerain, the King
of Castile. Fearing Pedro’s resentment, he appeared at his court at Seville
with a retinue of three hundred, loaded with presents, among which was the
enormous ruby that now decorates the Crown of England. He was received
in audience by the Spanish king, whom he begged to arbitrate between him
and the deposed King of Granada. Pedro returned a gracious reply, and
entertained the Red King in the Alcazar. Before many hours had passed the
Moors were seized in their apartments and stripped of their raiment and
valuables. Abu Saïd, mounted on a donkey and ridiculously attired, was
taken, with thirty-six of his courtiers, to a field outside the town. There they
were bound to posts. A train of horsemen appeared, Don Pedro among
them, and transfixed the helpless men with darts, the king shouting as he
hurled his missiles at the luckless Abu Saïd, “This for the treaty you made
me conclude with Aragon!” “This for the castle you lost me!” The Moors
met their death with the stoical resignation of their race.
That atrocities committed against Jews and infidels, against even
members of the royal family, should be regarded with indifference by the
public of that day need not surprise us. But the people of Seville tamely
suffered the most cruel wrongs to be inflicted by the tyrant on their own
fellow-citizens. After his (or rather the Black Prince’s) victory over Don
Enrique at Najera (1367), the Admiral Bocanegra and Don Juan Ponce de
Leon were beheaded on the Plaza San Francisco. Garci Jufre Tenorio, the
mayor of the city, also suffered death. The property of Doña Teresa Jufre
was confiscated because she had spoken ill of his Majesty. Doña Urraca
Osorio, because her son had taken part with Don Enrique in the revolt, was
burned at the stake on the Alameda. Her servant, Leonor Dávalos, threw
herself into the flames and shared the fate of her mistress. In consequence
of this persecution, Seville lost several of her most illustrious families,
which either became extinguished or removed themselves to other parts of
Spain.
So much for the picturesque if repugnant personality of Pedro I. With his
sinister memory the Alcazar is so intimately associated, and the part he took
in its reconstruction was so conspicuous that this may be deemed the proper
place to deal with that famous building—one of the two most important in
Seville.
 THE ALCAZAR

“The Alcazar,” says Señor Rafaél Contreras, “is not a classic work,
nor does it present to-day that stamp of originality and that ineffaceable
character which distinguish ancient works like the Parthenon and modern
works like the Escorial. In the Alcazar of Yakub Yusuf the influence of the
heroic generation has faded away, and it portrays instead the daily life of
our Christian kings who have enriched it with a thousand pages of glorious
history. The Almohades, who impressed on the building their African
characteristics in 1181, and Jalubi, who had been a follower of Al-Mehdi in
the conquest of Africa, left on its walls traces of the Roman influences met
with in the course of their movements. St Ferdinand, who conquered it, Don
Pedro I., who restored it, Don Juan II., who reconstructed the most elegant
apartments, the Catholic sovereigns, who built within its precincts chapels
and oratories, Charles V., who added more than a half in the modified style
of that epoch of the Renaissance, Philip III. and Philip V., who enlarged it
still more by building in the adjacent gardens—these, and other princes who
inhabited it during six centuries, have changed the original structure to such
an extent that to-day it is far from being a monument of oriental art, though
we find it covered with fine arabesques and embellished with mosaics and
gilding.”
Though not a monument of oriental art, the Alcazar seems to us to have
claims to rank as a specimen of Moorish architecture; for the general
character of the structure was determined by the restorations effected by
order of Pedro I., and these were, probably exclusively, the work of
Moorish artisans, not only of Seville, but from Granada, then a Moorish
city. This accounts for the resemblance of this palace to the more famous
Alhambra. But the Alcazar is not to be dismissed as a mere pseudo-Moorish
palace. It remains, to a great extent, the work of Moorish hands and the
conception of Moorish architects.
In spite of the severe strictures of fastidious observers, the Alcazar
produces a very pleasing impression on northern visitors. Mr W. M.
Gallichan writes: “It is a palace of dreams, encircled by lovely perfumed
gardens. Its courts and salons are redolent of Moorish days and haunted by
the spirits of turbaned sheiks, philosophers, minstrels, and dark-eyed
beauties of the harem.... The nightingales still sing among the odorous
orange bloom, and in the tangles of roses birds still build their nests.
Fountains tinkle beneath gently moving palms; the savour of orientalism
clings to the spot. Here wise men discussed in the cool of summer nights,
when the moon stood high over the Giralda and white beams fell through
the spreading boughs of the lemon trees, and shivered upon the tiled
pavements.
“In this garden the musicians played and the tawny dancers writhed and
curved their lissome bodies, in dramatic Eastern dances. Ichabod! The
moody potentate, bowed down with the cares of high office, no longer
treads the dim corridor or lingers in the shade of the palm trees, lost in
cogitation. No sound of gaiety reverberates in the deserted courts; no voice
of orator is heard in the Hall of Justice. The green lizards bask on the
deserted benches of the gardens. Rose petals strew the paved paths. One’s
footsteps echo in the gorgeous patios, whose walls have witnessed many a
scene of pomp, tragedy, and pathos. The spell of the past holds one; and
before the imagination troops a long procession of illustrious sovereigns,
courtiers, counsellors, and menials.”
The Alcazar, as we have said, at the time of the reconquest covered a
much larger space than at present; and its area was even greater in the days
of Pedro I. Its strength as a fortress may be gauged by a glance at the
remaining walls, adjacent to the principal entrance. In the Plaza de Santo
Tomas is an octagonal, one-storeyed tower, called the Torre de Abdalasis,
which once formed part of the building, and is said to have been the spot on
which St Ferdinand hoisted his flag on the fall of Seville. To enter the
palace we pass across the Plaza del Triunfo and enter the Patio de las
Banderas, so called either because a flag was hoisted here when the royal
family were in residence or on account of the trophy displayed over one of
the arches, composed of the Arms of Spain with supporting flags. From this
court a colonnade called the Apeadero leads to the Patio de la Monteria. It
was built, as an inscription over the portal records, by Philip III. in 1607,
and restored and devoted to the purposes of an armoury by the fifth
sovereign of that name in 1729. The Patio de la Monteria derives its name
from the Royal Lifeguards, the Monteros de Espinosa, having their quarters
here. These courts, with the commonplace private houses which surround
them, occupy the site of the old Moorish palace of the Almohades. Some of
the houses exhibit vestiges of fine Musulman work. The house No. 3 of the
Patio de las Banderas formed part, in the opinion of Gestoso y Perez, of the
Stucco Palace (Palacio del Yeso) mentioned by Ayala as having been built
by Pedro I. That potentate, it is worthy of remark, was accustomed to
administer justice, tempered with ferocity, after the oriental fashion, seated
on a stone bench in a corner of this patio. The room in which the Almohade
governors presided over their tribunals still exists. It is surrounded by
houses, and is entered from the Patio de la Monteria. Contreras sees in this
hall (the Sala de Justicia) the traces of a work anterior to the ninth century.
It was, however, restored by Pedro. It is square, and measures nine metres
across. The ceiling is of stucco and adorned with stars, wreaths, and a
painted frieze. Inscriptions in beautiful Cufic characters constitute the
principal decoration of the apartment. Round the four walls runs a tastefully
worked stucco frieze, interrupted by several right-angled apertures. These
were once covered, in the opinion of Herr Schmidt, by screens of plaster,
which kept out the sun’s heat but admitted the light; or, according to
Gestoso y Perez, by tapestries “which must have made the hall appear a
miracle of wealth and splendour.” Thanks to its isolation, the Sala de
Justicia escaped the “restoration” effected in the middle of the nineteenth
century by order of the Duc de Montpensier.
It was in this hall (often overlooked by visitors) that Don Pedro
overheard four judges discussing the division of a bribe they had received.
They were beheaded on the spot, and their skulls are still to be seen in the
walls of the king’s bed-chamber.
From the Patio de la Monteria we pass into the Patio del Leon. In the
fifteenth century, we read, tournaments were often held here. Our attention
is at once directed to the superb façade of the main building or Alcazar
proper—the palace of Don Pedro. It is a splendid work of art. The columns
are of rare marble with elegant Moorish capitals. The portal is imposing,
and was rebuilt by Don Pedro, as the legend in curious Gothic characters
informs us: ‘The most high, the most noble, the most powerful, and most
victorious Don Pedro, King of Castile and Leon, commanded these palaces,
these alcazares, and these entrances to be made in the year [of Cæsar] one
thousand four hundred and two” (1364). Elsewhere on the façade are the
oft-repeated inscriptions in Cufic characters: “There is no conqueror but
Allah,” “Glory to our lord, the Sultan,” “Eternal glory to Allah,” “Eternal is
the dominion of Allah,” etc.
 This gate, in the opinion of Contreras, is of Arabic origin and in the
Persian style, after which were built most of the entrances to mosques of the
first period. The square opening is often seen in Egypt, and supplanted the
more graceful horse-shoe arch. The pilasters are Arabic throughout; but the
arch balconies, the Byzantine columns, and Roman capitals are works of
Don Pedro’s time.
The palace of the Alcazar forms an irregular oblong. The Patio de las
Doncellas or Patio Principal occupies the centre, roughly speaking, and
upon it open the various halls and chambers according to the usual Moorish
plan. This patio is absurdly named from its being the supposed place in
which were collected the hundred damsels said to have been sent by way of
annual tribute by Mauregato to the Moors. It is hardly necessary to say that
the damsels would have been sent to Cordova, which was the capital of the
Khalifate, not to Seville, and that this court was among the restorations of
the fourteenth century.
The court is rectangular, and surrounded by a gallery composed of white
marble columns in pairs, supporting pointed arches. The soffite (or inner
side) of the arch is scalloped or serrated. The central arch in each side is
higher and larger than its fellows, and springs from square imposts resting
on the twin columns. At each angle of the impost is a graceful little pillar
—“a characteristic,” observes Madrazo, “of the Arabic-Grenadine
architecture, such as may often be noticed in the magnificent Alhambra of
the Alhamares.” Over the arches runs a flowing scroll with Arabic
inscriptions, among them being “Glory to our lord the Sultan Don Pedro;
may God lend him His aid and render him victorious”, and this very
remarkable text, “There is but one God; He is eternal. He was not begotten
and does not beget, and He has no equal.” This is evidently an inscription
remaining from Musulman days, and spared in their ignorance by the
Christian owners of the palace. On the frieze will also be noticed the
escutcheons of Don Pedro and the Catholic sovereigns, and the favourite
devices of Charles V.—the Pillars of Hercules and motto “Plus Oultre.”
Behind the central arches are as many doors with elaborately ornamented
arches. On either side of each door is a double window, framed with broad,
ornamental bands, with conventional floral designs. Round the inner walls
of the arcade runs a high dado of glazed tile mosaic (azulejo), brilliantly
coloured and cut with exquisite skill. The combinations and variations of
the design repay examination, and will be seen to extend all round the
gallery. This decoration was probably executed by Moorish workmen in the
time of Pedro I. Finally, above the doors run wide friezes with shuttered
windows, through which the light falls on the gleaming mosaic. The ceiling
of the gallery dates from the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, but was
restored in 1856.
Three recesses in the patio are pointed out as the spots where Don Pedro
held his audiences; but Contreras is of opinion that they are the walled-up
entrances to former corridors which communicated with the Harem. That
apartment probably faced the Salón de los Embajadores.
A wide cornice separates the lower part of the court from the upper
gallery. This is composed of balustrades, arches, and columns in white
marble of the Ionic order, and was the work of Don Luis de Vega (sixteenth
century).
One of the doors opening on to the Patio de las Doncellas gives access to
the Salón de los Embajadores (Hall of the Ambassadors), the finest
apartment in the Alcazar. Its dazzling splendour is produced by the blending
of five distinct styles, the Arabic, Almohade or true Moorish, Gothic,
Grenadine or late Moorish, and Renaissance. Measuring about thirty-three
feet square, it has four entrances, of which that giving on to the Patio de las
Doncellas may be considered the principal. Here we find folding-doors in
the Arabic style of extraordinary size and beauty. Each wing is 5.30 metres
high by 1.97 broad, and adorned with painted inlaid work, varied by Arabic
inscriptions. One of these latter is of great interest. It runs as follows: “Our
Lord and Sultan, the exalted and high Don Pedro, King of Castile and Leon
(may Allah prosper him and his architect), ordered these doors of carved
wood to be made for this apartment (in honour of the noble and fortunate
ambassadors), which is a source of joy to the happy city, in which the
palaces, the alcazares, and these mansions for my Lord and Master were
built, who only showed forth his splendour. The pious and generous Sultan
ordered this to be done in the city of Seville with the aid of his intercessor
[Saint Peter?] with God. Joy shone in their delightful construction and
embellishment. Artificers from Toledo were employed in the work; and this
took place in the fortunate year 1404 [1364 A.D.]. Like the evening twilight
and the refulgence of the twilight of the aurora is this work. A throne
resplendent in brilliant colours and eminence. Praise be to Allah!”
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

testbankmall.com