Granada Read Free Page B

town crier nor the imam announced anything concerning the Alhambra meeting, Abu Jaafar, like everyone else, knew what had transpired there:
    Abu Qasim Ibn Abdel-Malik and Yusuf Ibn Kumasha, the two ministers appointed by the king to negotiate, entered the Grand Hall in the company of De Safra, the representative of the king of Aragon and the queen of Castile. All three carried copies of the treaty to read. The young king Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad sobbed, 3 lamenting the fact that he was ill-fated to be a king condemned to witness the fall of his realm. All the other ministers, the admirals and generals, and the religious leaders, wept in silence as they chanted over and over again, "There is no power or strength save in God," and "There is no escape from what God has decreed." Mousa Ibn Abi Ghassan objected vehemently to the agreement and demanded that those in attendance reject it outright. But when he found no one to support him, he stormed out of the castle in a fit of anger, mounted his horse, and disappeared. The attendees repeated, "There is no escape from what God has decreed," and assured themselves that the conditions of the treaty were the best that they could attain. As tears flowed from their eyes, they signed.
    3. Abu 'Abdallah b. Muhammad, best known in the west as Boabdil, was the last Muslim ruler in Spain.

    Abu Jaafar wondered how a king could commit himself to surrender his kingdom, and how the military and legal authorities of the land, along with all its lawful citizens, could acquiesce to hand over, in abject obedience, the Alhambra citadel, the fortress town and its towers, as well as the city gates of Granada and Albaicin, including the adjacent villages.
    He walked behind the town crier who was surrounded by a dense mob of townspeople. People avoided looking at one another in the eye, and they tilted their heads to hide their broken reflections and trembling eyelids. They walked with their arms closely held to their sides. They moved their heavy feet slowly, in an atmosphere of silence eerily reinforced by the ringing voice of the town crier and the rustling of dry, yellow leaves.
    When the town crier went away and the crowd dissipated, Abu Jaafar found himself walking alone in the cold of night, not heading toward any particular place, but just letting his two feet wander through the streets that they knew only too well. He was telling himself that this ill-fated king was not their first and wouldn't be their last, and that Abu Abdallah would go away and that no one else, ill-fated or not, would replace him except Christian kings. His insides convulsed at this thought and he quickly dismissed it from his mind, closing the door on it, and replacing it with concise facts and logical reasoning. Everything changes except the face of Almighty God. Hadn't Sultan Yusuf al-Mul concluded a more humiliating treaty with the Castilians, and hadn't Sultan Aysar then come along, abrogated it, and declared war on them? And hadn't Sultan Abu Hasan at first agreed to pay the poll tax, then reneged when he dispatched his enemies to inform the king and queen of Castile that our treasuries would only be minting swords these days? And that ill-fated pubescent, didn't he begin his rule by fighting them until he was captured? Who knows what will happen tomorrow? He's not the first of them, nor the last. They've all come and gone, may Granada remain safe and sound, with God's permission and will, he intoned.
    Abu Jaafar was making every effort to calm his soul, which felt at that moment like a caged bird flapping its wings in fear of a sharp pointed knife. He was telling himself over and over again that Granada was safe and that it would survive. He jammed his mind with words, and extended his hand through the netting to his soul, stroking its wet feathers and its quivering body, soothing and caressing it, singing to it a soft lullaby to rock it to sleep.

    The morning sun was changing direction above the streets until it