Excerpt from Ancient Spanish Ballads: Historical and Romantic The greater part of the Moorish Ballads refer to the period immediately preceding the downfal of the throne of Granada - the amours of that splendid court - the bull-feasts and other spectacles in which its lords and ladies delighted no less than those of the Christian courts of Spain - the bloody feuds of the two great families of the Zegris and the Abencerrages, which contributed so largely to the ruin of the Moorish cause - and the incidents of that last war itself, in which the power of the Mussulman was entirely overthrown by the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella. To some readers it may, perhaps, occur that the part ascribed to Moorish females in these Ballads is not always exactly in the Oriental taste but the pictures still extant on the walls of the Alhambra contain abundant proofs how unfair it would be to judge from the manners of any Mussulman nation of our day, of those of the refined and elegant Spanish Moors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.