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E DITE D BY
TOBY LI N C OLN A N D XU TA O
TH E H A B ITA B L E
CIT Y IN CH I N A
Urban History in the Twentieth Century
Politics and Development of Contemporary China

Series Editors
Kevin G. Cai
Renison University College
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Canada

Guang Pan
Shanghai Center for International Studies
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
Shanghai, China

Daniel Lynch
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, USA
As China’s power grows, the search has begun in earnest for what super-
power status will mean for the People’s Republic of China as a nation as
well as the impact of its new-found influence on the Asia-Pacific region
and the global international order at large. By providing a venue for excit-
ing and ground-breaking titles, the aim of this series is to explore the
domestic and international implications of China’s rise and transforma-
tion through a number of key areas including politics, development and
foreign policy. The series will also give a strong voice to non-western per-
spectives on China’s rise in order to provide a forum that connects and
compares the views of academics from both the east and west reflecting
the truly international nature of the discipline.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14541
 Toby Lincoln • Xu Tao
Editors

The Habitable City in

China
Urban History in the Twentieth Century
Editors
Toby Lincoln Xu Tao
Centre for Urban History Shanhai Academy of Social Sciences
University of Leicester Shanghai, China
Leicester, UK

Politics and Development of Contemporary China

ISBN 978-1-137-55470-3    ISBN 978-1-137-55471-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55471-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957531

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: © Andrew Dernie

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
 Acknowledgments

This volume is the result of a British Academy–funded project entitled

‘The Habitable City: Chinese Urban History in a Global Context’.
This took place as part of the Academy’s International Partnership and
Mobility Scheme, and brought together the Centre for Urban History at
the University of Leicester and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
Additional support was provided by the Urban History Group of the
Innovation Project of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Among
the activities were two conferences, the first in Leicester in 2013 and the
second in Shanghai in 2015. The editors would like to thank all those who
attended the conferences, presented papers, acted as discussants, and made
comments. In particular, we would like to thank Xiong Yuezhi, Wang
Min, Huang Renwei, Wang Jian, Andrew Field, Felix Boecking, Denise
Ho, Huang Xuelei, Ming Lim, Thoralf Klein, Jennifer Smith Macquire,
Zhao Jing, Shao Jian, Robert Bickers, Chris Courtney, Lin May-li, Andres
Rodriguez, Jon Howlett, Emily Whewell, and Richard Morris.
We would also like to thank the staff at the Centre for Urban History
and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences for help with administra-
tion. Seeing an edited book through to completion is in some ways more
daunting than an individual monograph. The editorial team at Palgrave
of Anne Schult, Chris Robinson, and Ambro Finotello have been under-
standing and patient. Finally, we would like to thank the contributors
to this volume for taking time amidst hectic schedules to consider how
Chinese cities have been thought of as habitable spaces.

v
 Contents

1 Introduction: The Habitable City in Chinese History   1

Toby Lincoln and Xu Tao

2 The Chinese Corpsmen in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps  23

Xu Tao

3 Kunming Dreaming: Hope, Change, and War

in the Autobiographies of Youth in China’s Southwest  43
Aaron William Moore

4 Securing the City, Securing the Nation: Militarization

and Urban Police Work in Dalian, 1945–1953  71
Christian A. Hess

5 To See and Be Seen: Horse Racing in Shanghai,

1848–1945  91
Ning Jennifer Chang

6 Second-Class Workers: Gender, Industry, and Locality

in Workers’ Welfare Provision in Revolutionary China 113
Robert Cliver

vii
viii Contents

7 A Utopian Garden City: Zhang Jingsheng’s ‘Beautiful

Beijing’ 143
Leon Antonio Rocha

8 Habitability in the Treaty Ports: Shanghai and Tianjin 169

Isabella Jackson

9 Urbanization and Nature in China: The Example of

Lake Tai 193
Toby Lincoln

10 Conclusion: Are Chinese Cities Becoming More

Habitable? 217
Karl Gerth

Index 225
 List of Contributors

Ning Jennifer Chang (張寧) is Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of

Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She has published many articles on
Chinese business history and urban culture. Her current projects include British
sports in China, and treaty port culture in the late Qing and Republican eras.
Robert Cliver received his PhD in History from Harvard University in 2007, and
since then has taught courses in East Asian and Russian history at Humboldt State
University. He is the author of articles on topics ranging from eighth-century trade
routes in world history to textile workers and their employers in the People’s
Republic of China.
Karl Gerth is Professor of History and Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu
Endowed Chair in Chinese Studies at the University of California, San Diego. His
latest book, As China Goes, So Goes the World: How Chinese Consumers are
Transforming Everything, explores whether Chinese consumers can rescue the
economy without creating even deeper global problems. He is also the author of
China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation. Currently, he is
writing a book that investigates the survival of market practices in China’s urban
centers following the establishment of Communist rule in 1949.
Christian A. Hess is Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History at Sophia
University in Tokyo. His research examines the history of Dalian and the compara-
tive urban history of East Asia. He has published several articles on the history of
the early People’s Republic of China.
Isabella Jackson is Assistant Professor in Chinese History at Trinity College
Dublin. Her research focuses on the history of colonialism in China and the global
and regional networks that shaped its treaty ports, and she recently co-edited (with
Robert Bickers) a volume on Treaty Ports in Modern China: Law, Land and Power

ix
x List of Contributors

(London: Routledge, 2016). Before taking up her current position, she was a
Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford and then the Helen Bruce
Lecturer in Modern East Asian History at the University of Aberdeen. She is pre-
paring a monograph, provisionally entitled Shanghai: Transnational Colonialism
in China’s Global City, based on her prize-winning PhD thesis on the Shanghai
Municipal Council.
Toby Lincoln is Lecturer in Modern Chinese Urban History at the Centre for
Urban History at the University of Leicester. His research interests are the history
of urbanization in China, urban planning, and the intersection between the city
and war. He has recently published Urbanizing China in War and Peace: the Case
of Wuxi County (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015).
Aaron William Moore is a Lecturer in East Asian history at the University of
Manchester. His first book, Writing War (Harvard University Press, 2013), exam-
ined over 200 diaries by Japanese, Chinese, and American World War II service-
men. In Bombing the City (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Moore compares
civilian narratives of the air war over Britain and Japan. He is currently writing a
book on the life writing of children and adolescents in China, Japan, Britain, and
the Soviet Union. In 2014, he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize.
Leon Antonio Rocha is Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the Department of History,
University of Liverpool. He received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science
at the University of Cambridge in 2010. He is co-­editor, with Robbie Duschinsky,
of Foucault, the Family and Politics (2012), and is working on two monograph
projects, tentatively entitled Harnessing Pleasure: Imagining Chinese Sex in the
Twentieth Century and Needham Questions.
Xu Tao 徐涛 is the Dawn Scholar, an honorable title for outstanding youth schol-
ars, given by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. He has worked at the
Institute of History at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences since 2006. He is
the Vice Executive Secretary of the Association of Shanghai Historians and Youth
Scholar of the Innovation Project of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. His
research focuses on mobility and transport in the context of urban history and the
study of politics in China. He has published 2 monographs and over 20 articles in
Chinese and English, including Zixingche yu jindai Zhongguo自行车与近代中国
(History of the Bicycle and Modern China) (Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2015).
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
 List of Figures

Fig. 7.1 Zhang Jingsheng’s ‘Beautiful Beijing’, adapted by Leon Rocha

from Zuzhifa, p. 185. In Zhang’s text the illustration was
accompanied by the caption ‘Illustration for the Combination
of Town–Country’ 城鄉合一圖 (chengxiang heyi tu)153

xi
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: The Habitable City

in Chinese History

Toby Lincoln and Xu Tao

In June 1949, on the eve of the foundation of the People’s Republic

of China, the country’s most famous architect, Liang Sicheng ,
published an article in Renmin ribao ᣕ (People’s Daily), entitled
Chengshi de tixing ji qi jihua փර৺ަ䇑ࡂ (The city’s form and its
planning). He argued that people living in cities had four basic necessities.
These were places to live, work, engage in leisure activities, and a means of
transportation. Cities around the world faced problems, many the result
of rapid industrialization, which made it difficult for their inhabitants to
access these necessities. Liang felt that urban planning provided solutions
to these problems, and he proposed 15 objectives that would allow cities
to provide the four necessities of life. These included a healthy residential
environment with sufficient light, clean air, and green space. Elementary
schools and shops selling daily necessities should be within walking dis-
tance of people’s homes, and places of work had to be close to residential
neighborhoods to save time, energy, and money. Turning to transport,
motor and pedestrian traffic should be split wherever possible, and roads
in residential districts should be narrow. Finally, large shops, museums,
theaters, and other public buildings should be constructed in city centers.1

T. Lincoln ()
University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

X. Tao
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai, China

© The Author(s) 2017 1

T. Lincoln, X. Tao (eds.), The Habitable City in China,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55471-0_1
2 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

Liang Sicheng understood that cities exist for all of their inhabitants. He
also realized that in order to be habitable places, cities should be comfort-
able, healthy, convenient to travel around, and provide opportunities for
educational advancement, social contact, and cultural enrichment.
This volume explores some of the ways in which Chinese cities have
been imagined, planned, constructed, and experienced as habitable spaces
in the twentieth century. This was a period of rapid change in China,
in which cities were transformed as a 2000-year-old imperial system was
replaced by first the Nationalist and then the Communist governments,
both committed to their own versions of industrial modernity. Meanwhile,
economic and technological changes also caused the growth of cities across
the country. Such growth was not linear as war with the Japanese, and the
excesses of the Maoist period often made life difficult for urban inhabit-
ants. The reform period, beginning in 1978, has brought a measure of
stability, but also a scale and pace of urbanization that is unprecedented
anywhere in the world. In this volume, we argue that the concept of urban
habitability helps us make sense of how cities have changed throughout
the tumultuous twentieth century, because it allows historians to create
continuities in time and connections across space. This is because the idea
of the habitable city is simple, but can be approached from different per-
spectives, allowing it to be applied in different situations. Throughout the
rest of this introduction, we explain why we use the term urban habit-
ability, precisely what we mean by it, and show how the Chinese have
thought about how their cities should be made habitable. We then explore
how urban historians of China, who have approached the study of the city
using different analytical lenses, have in fact often been discussing how a
city is or should be made habitable. Finally, we introduce the individual
perspectives of the different chapters in this volume.

WHAT IS URBAN HABITABILITY?

The Chinese term for habitable city is yiju chengshi . This literally
translates as ‘a city that is suitable to reside in’. Contemporary scholars of
Chinese urbanism use it to discuss the concept of the livable city, and see
its origins in United Nations Habitat conferences in 1976 and 1996.2 We
consider how the Chinese have incorporated livability into urban plans
in the twenty-first century in more detail below. Outside China, the con-
cept of livability is generally seen to originate with Ebenezer Howard’s
garden city in the late nineteenth century. Since then, it has been incor-
porated into the City Beautiful Movement in America, the new urbanism
 INTRODUCTION: THE HABITABLE CITY IN CHINESE HISTORY 3

in the postwar era, and more recently discussions of urban sustainability.3

Livability could be said to be synonymous with habitability. However, the
origins of the concept of livability as it has been and continues to be used
in academic and political circles lie outside the Chinese historical experi-
ence. We use the term habitability in this volume to highlight how the
Chinese have thought about cities within the context of their own his-
tory, rather than looking to transplant ideas from elsewhere. Of course,
the Chinese have been influenced by ideas about cities circulating around
the world. However, they have not thought uncritically about them, and
in imagining, designing, planning, and experiencing cities as habitable
places, they have not merely copied foreign models, but have adapted
them to Chinese realities.
Habitability is the property of being able to support life. Planets are
divided into different classes, and it is difficult to imagine life on anything
other than a class I planet.4 The only class I planet that we know of is
earth, and the processes that have created life are so fiendishly complicated
that there is still much we do not understand.5 Scientific, philosophical,
religious, mystic, and pragmatic ways of thinking about our planet have
not always been concerned with whether it can support human life, but
the majority have been anthropocentric, privileging our own existence and
comfort, often at the expense of its wider ecosystem.6 Cities are normally
seen as spaces created entirely for humanity, and in which humanity’s
achievements manifest themselves to their greatest extent. While schol-
ars have recently been challenging this anthropocentric approach, arguing
that cities, and indeed humanity itself, should not be seen as separate from
nature, the city is still a place that exists primarily for its human inhabit-
ants.7 We do not seek to deny the value of these new approaches. After all,
without the resources of the planet, it would be impossible for humanity
to build cities in which to live. However, throughout history, cities have
been constructed by and for humans, and have provided both necessities
of life, while having or creating conditions to enhance the quality of life. It
is in this twofold sense that we see cities as habitable spaces.
In twentieth-century China, many people wrote about habitability. One
of them was Sun Yatsen, whose concept of people’s livelihood (min-
sheng) was part of an ideology that inspired intellectuals and politicians
across the country. However, it was his son, Sun Ke ᆉ , who applied his
principles specifically to the city. Sun felt that the key to creating a modern
urban society was planning, which should focus on providing three basic
services. These were transport of all kinds, public health including clean
running water and safe disposal of rubbish, and leisure facilities, especially
4 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

parks, which would create a pleasant environment.8 Sun Ke was an early

exponent of urban planning in China, and by the end of the 1920s, he had
been joined by a host of compatriots. Probably the most prolific writer on
cities in the first half of the twentieth century was Dong Xiujia .
Born in 1891, he graduated from Qinghua University in 1918, and
then obtained a master’s degree from the School of Urban Management
at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1921. On his return to
China, he worked for the Shanghai and Wuhan municipal governments,
and advised on the development of the new Chinese capital in Nanjing.9
Like Sun Ke, who had also studied in the USA, he was influenced by his
time in the West.
Dong first published his ideas in a series of articles in the leading Shanghai
newspaper Shenbao ᣕ in 1923, but he elaborated on them the following
year in what may very well be the first book on urban planning ever writ-
ten by a Chinese; Shizheng xinlun 䇪 (A new treatise on municipal
government). In it, he highlighted the role of what he called urban design
䇮䇑 (chengshi sheji), which he saw as a scientific plan to construct or
improve cities. This would in turn ‘make a city’s sanitation perfect, its roads
clean, its communications convenient, and its appearance beautiful’, while
it should also be ‘for the benefit of the people who live there so that they
can live in peace and work happily’.10 Dong provided more detail than Sun
Ke on how cities should be planned as habitable spaces, and in criticiz-
ing what he saw as chaotic treaty ports in China, advocated distinct zones
for administration, commerce, industry, and housing.11 Dong’s interest in
zoning was inspired by his time in the USA, and while he remained com-
mitted to its value, the reasons for this changed over time. On the eve of
the Japanese invasion in 1937, he wrote that zoning had helped to allevi-
ate some of the problems in cities created by the industrial revolution.
However, since the invention of the airplane had brought the threat of
bombing of strategic industries and urban populations, it was now also
important for air defense. Instead of a distinct administrative zone, Dong
now proposed dispersing government offices throughout the city, which
could be done without any loss of efficiency because of modern commu-
nications technology. In addition, small parks built throughout the city
would allow for the deployment of anti-aircraft guns, and aid in stopping
the spread of fire. Finally, he favored low-rise residences, which if hit would
cause less destruction.12 Dong’s ideas demonstrate his commitment to cit-
ies as habitable spaces, but point to how changing historical circumstances
in China affected the development of the concept.
 INTRODUCTION: THE HABITABLE CITY IN CHINESE HISTORY 5

The Communist Revolution was to bring further innovations in urban

habitability. As we saw above, Liang Sicheng reflected on how cities could
best meet people’s needs and enhance the quality of their lives, and his
influence on Beijing’s urban development has been well documented.13
The most important politician to write extensively about cities during and
after the Maoist period was Wan Li , who became head of the National
Urban Construction Head Office in 1956, and continued to manage the
Urban Construction Department, which replaced it the following year.14
In a speech in March 1956, he emphasized how urban development
should support industrialization. At the same time, habitability remained
important. Housing and public services were inadequate for the require-
ments of production and a good quality of life. Running water should be
provided to improve health, and municipal governments should control
pollution and protect the environment. Meanwhile, trams were to be pri-
oritized over cars, although in those cities where national defense was
not a priority, wider roads could be built. Finally, trees should be planted
along roads and in residential areas, and forests nurtured around cities.15
Wan Li saw urban habitability through the lens of socialist ideology, and
his commitment to this is perhaps most clearly demonstrated through his
emphasis on green spaces, something that stayed with him into the reform
era. In 1983, he discussed the importance of tree planting. For people
to live, they needed sun, air, water, and soil, and he pointed to the des-
ert which lacked water and so lacked human life. Having highlighted the
importance of having a habitable planet, he turned to the city, criticizing
those who saw industrial production as more important than the health
of the people of China. He noted a recent report in People’s Daily that
argued the urban environment had deteriorated since 1949, and asked
whether this made for a beautiful city?16 In this remarkable speech, Wan
Li reflected on the environmental damage of Maoist policies, referring to
problems that are now uppermost in the minds of Chinese people and
policy-makers, and discussed a view of urban habitability that emphasized
sustainability.
Sadly, despite Wan Li’s exhortations, rapid urbanization in the reform
era has brought with it an exacerbation of environmental problems. In
recent years, Chinese have turned explicitly to ideas of the livable city to
address these and other issues. The term yiju chengshi used in this sense
first appeared in the Beijing master plan 2004–2020, and since then over
200 cities have incorporated the concept into their planning objectives.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Society for Urban Studies produced the ‘Scientific
6 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

Evaluation Standards of Livable Cities’, while the ‘Livable City Index’

was published by the Ministry of Housing and Rural Development.17 This
means that there are now multiple standards for urban livability in China,
and this is without considering the various global indices, all with their
own criteria.18 The report on Beijing’s livability written to coincide with
the publication of the master plan describes a livable city as one that is,
‘suitable for people to reside in and live their lives, and is suitable for
the unification of people’s natural ecological environment, their harmo-
nious society and their cultural environment’.19 Going into more detail,
the plan outlines several conditions for urban livability. Those concerning
the natural environment state that a city should at least provide fresh air,
clean water, a peaceful living environment, open green spaces, and that the
climate should be suitable for people’s daily activities. Moving on to soci-
ety and culture, livable cities should be safe and equipped with adequate
fire services and policing. In providing people with a suitable income, an
emphasis is placed on housing, and connected to this is the provision of
sufficient employment opportunities. Beyond this, cities should make
life convenient, have good healthcare, shopping, and education, while
allowing people to move around on public transport. Finally, they should
promote community spirit and protect local historical and cultural tradi-
tions.20 As with the ideas that we have explored above, the Beijing plan
reflected Chinese realities as well as international influences. The harmo-
nious society accords with the overarching philosophy that guided Hu
Jintao’s 䭖⏋ tenure. The plan’s concentration on environmental factors
was a reaction to the ravages of rapid urbanization, and its highlighting of
the relationship between income and housing a nod to the extent to which
a market economy now operates in China. At the root of all this though
is that the Beijing plan envisaged the city as a livable space for all of its
citizens, and that the conceptualization and components of livability are
much the same as those that we have identified throughout the twentieth
century as being constituents of the habitable city.

URBAN HABITABILITY IN HISTORICAL APPROACHES

TO THE CHINESE CITY

There have been cities in China for millennia. As with others around
the world, their design and construction, at least in theory, reflected the
prevailing social and cosmological hierarchy. This was manifested in the
 INTRODUCTION: THE HABITABLE CITY IN CHINESE HISTORY 7

Record of the Investigation of Crafts 䇠 (Kaogong ji), which pre-

scribed how cities should be planned to emphasize the importance of the
emperor and his relationship to the cosmological order, although few
if any cities in China matched it in perfection.21 While the Kaogong ji
remained the ideal for urban planning, it was recognized that cities served
numerous functions for their populations, not least because they were
of different sizes. In the 1960s, William G. Skinner theorized that cit-
ies existed in a hierarchy running from small towns at the center of a
rural marketing network right up to those at the heart of one of his eight
macro-regions, loose physiographic economic units that comprised late
imperial China.22 Skinner’s ideas have been refined, but they explain how
cities had both political and economic functions, and how in China’s most
developed areas such as the Lower Yangzi Delta, they sat atop an urban-
ized countryside, characterized by a dense network of small towns and
villages. Skinner and other urban historians of China have not focused on
urban habitability, but their acknowledgment that cities served multiple
functions opens the door to this approach.23
Cities throughout the imperial period were constantly changing, but
in the late nineteenth century, they began to be radically transformed.
Historians normally approach the study of cities before 1949 from the
perspective of modernity, and those after 1949 from the perspective of the
socialist city. Perhaps part of the reason for this, other than the tendency
to treat the Communist Revolution as a turning point in Chinese history,
is that China’s war with Japan is often studied as a distinct era of major dis-
ruption. This means that continuities in urban change across the twentieth
century have not been adequately explored. Ideas of urban modernity and
the socialist city will continue to be valuable analytical lenses for some
time. However, in approaching the city from the perspective of urban
habitability, the chapters in this volume emphasize continuities in time and
connections across space. Beyond this, habitability highlights a particular
way of seeing urban space, and brings a new perspective to Chinese urban
history, rather than seeking to overturn previous conceptions. To under-
stand this, we highlight how urban historians of China have often been
talking about habitability, even if they focus on modernity, the socialist
city, or the impact of the Japanese invasion. We approach our brief over-
view of the literature by considering how cities have been imagined and
planned and then how they have been experienced.
Works on urban governance and planning explore how Chinese sought
to solve the problems created by rapidly expanding cities. In the last
8 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

decades of the Qing dynasty, officials and other elites in society com-
menced a series of reforms that would eventually coalesce around ideas
of urban modernity. Cities were often seen as dirty, old city walls were
destroyed, and road systems constructed to allow commerce to flow. New
parks provided lungs for the city and space for inhabitants to engage in
sporting and leisure pursuits. Finally, schools, hospitals, libraries, and
other institutions were built to improve the lives of the inhabitants. Under
the Nationalist Government, which came to power in 1927, many of these
reforms continued and became state policies.24 Meanwhile, the govern-
ment imposed its ideas on how cities should be planned and managed.
In the new capital of Nanjing, for example, a new administrative area was
deemed necessary, and this was later emulated in plans for Shanghai.25 The
outbreak of war with Japan in 1937 put paid to many programs of urban
reform, and destruction of cities was severe. However, where recovery and
rebuilding occurred, this was driven by the same ideas of molding both
space and people that had been important before the war.26 For the most
part though, the state and those charitable and social institutions work-
ing in the city turned to more immediate needs, as citizens’ demands for
food, shelter, and protection from Japanese bombs took precedence over
access to parks or good transport facilities.27 After 1949, the state became
the prime actor in urban planning, as the Communist Party tried to create
socialist cities. Scholarship has focused on Beijing, where the walls were
removed, and new buildings constructed at the behest of Soviet advisors.
This was emulated across the country, as cities were opened up and new
districts built. At the same time, the construction of factory complexes was
influenced by the soviet micro-district, which was planned to fulfill all of
people’s needs. It is thus that the socialist city would be created.28
We know most about urban daily life in Shanghai, where scholars have
explored how the poorest in the city gained access to basic necessities.
Others have described daily life in factories in discussions about the nature
of the working class, explored the importance of granting agency to pros-
titutes in gendered histories of the city, looked at the methods by which
people migrated to Shanghai, and how they accessed and enjoyed differ-
ent types of leisure pursuits. Studies are not just confined to Shanghai, and
we now have a picture of how people lived in many cities across the coun-
try, including Beijing, Chengdu, and Tianjin.29 Some of this work crosses
into the wartime era, where it should be no surprise that it has focused on
urban survival. Subjects covered include access to food and other necessi-
ties, the lives of refugees, but also how citizens dealt with bombing, and
 INTRODUCTION: THE HABITABLE CITY IN CHINESE HISTORY 9

how, in some cities, war provided the space for the development of urban
culture.30 Moving into the Maoist period, most work has explored life
inside factory danwei অ (work unit), which had their origins in factory
complexes in the Republican period, and became highly politicized during
the Cultural Revolution. As with work on daily life before 1949, much of
this has examined how people accessed basic necessities and beyond this
other things they deemed important. However, not all urbanites were for-
tunate enough to work in large state owned industries, which for all their
faults provided an iron rice bowl; cradle-to-grave security. More recent
work on this period has begun to deconstruct this narrative of socialism,
and explore how cities were spaces in which people were consumers as well
as producers, and this suggests that there were other ways in which they
accessed those necessities and comforts that made cities habitable spaces.31
The rich literature on urban history in the twentieth century, in address-
ing issues such as urban modernity, the nature of the working class, the
impact of war, the nature of the Communist state, and the idea of the
socialist city also often discusses urban habitability. The chapters in this
volume focus on habitability, and in doing so offer a new perspective not
just on the ways in which historians have thought about the history of cit-
ies, but also on how that history interacts with that of China more gener-
ally. As outlined above, the concept of habitability is at once simple, but
offers numerous perspectives. The chapters in this volume highlight some
of these, and in doing so give voice to different individuals, groups, spaces,
and processes. What unites them, as it does the many voices described
above, is how they discuss the city as a habitable space.

CHAPTER SUMMARY
Xu Tao’s chapter links one aspect of habitability, security, to the wider his-
tory of empire in China through a description of the Shanghai Volunteer
Corps (SVC). Until the early twentieth century, this militia worked for the
foreign population of the International Settlement, which is an indication
of how one concept of habitability held for the foreigners, and another for
Chinese. In response, a Chinese corps of the SVC was formed to extend
protection to all the city’s inhabitants. Initial resistance from the Shanghai
Municipal Council (SMC) highlights how entrenched racist and imperial-
ist attitudes worked against the development of security. However, over
time, the Chinese corps found acceptance, both for its actions in keeping
the city safe and for excellence in training and other events such as shoot-
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10 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

ing competitions. When the city faced a more serious threat than the usual
level of violence in the form of the Japanese invasion in 1932, it was the
Chinese that the foreign elites relied on to help with communications and
translation.
Aaron Moore moves the focus to the city of Kunming, and explores
how China’s war with Japan from 1937–1945 provided opportunities
for urban inhabitants in addition to creating dangers. His children’s dia-
ries provide an insight into how a significant, but understudied, group of
people living in the city thought about urban life. Of course, it must be
remembered that these diaries reflect wider Nationalist Government ideas
about the city, such as its perceived difference from the countryside, as
much as they give voice to the thoughts and feelings of the children them-
selves. For refugees from the countryside, many of whom had family con-
nections in Kunming formed in the decades prior to the outbreak of war,
during which the city had become integrated into the regional urban net-
work, it was a space of safety and opportunity. However, it did not entirely
escape the fighting, as air raids were common. Like Japanese advances
through the countryside, which caused families to flee to Kunming in the
first place, these disrupted children’s education and family life.
Christian Hess’ chapter shifts the focus to Dalian in the northeast of
China, and a different, but no less important, geopolitical environment
as the Soviet occupation of the city and the outbreak of the Cold War
provided the context in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
established a police force in the late 1940s. As with Xu Tao’s SVC vol-
unteers, training was important to the smooth running of the police, and
this was heavily militarized, reflecting the CCP’s experience of its base area
in Yenan. The newly established force was faced with a variety of issues.
According to the Yalta Treaty of 1945, Japanese had to be repatriated, and
the police pursued those who resisted the reimposition of Chinese con-
trol. Nationalists, who were prevented by the Soviets from establishing a
permanent presence in the city, relied on spies and saboteurs to destabilize
it. Such provocation continued into the Maoist era, when there were con-
cerns over industrial sabotage. By now though, the police had developed
into the powerful state organ that was to be key in mobilizing and control-
ling the population throughout the Maoist era and beyond.
With Ning Jennifer Chang’s contribution on horse racing in Shanghai,
the focus of the volume shifts away from issues of security, and toward
how urban inhabitants access those goods and services they deem to be
necessary and important to life. Like Xu Tao and Isabella Jackson, she
 INTRODUCTION: THE HABITABLE CITY IN CHINESE HISTORY 11

draws attention to how foreign inhabitants in treaty ports created spaces

reserved for their own use. Over time, tensions lessened, as Chinese
invested in horse racing, and it became an activity that all the city’s inhab-
itants enjoyed on a regular basis. Part of the reason for this was its spec-
tacular nature. As a public event, it fulfilled a need among Shanghai’s
inhabitants to display and observe fashion and wealth, in addition to the
pleasure it gave spectators and gamblers. In the early days of the treaty
port in the nineteenth century, horse racing performed a community ser-
vice for foreigners in Shanghai, giving them a sense of identity and allow-
ing them to emulate the upper classes back in metropolitan spaces. The
bulk of Chinese were mere spectators until they opened race courses of
their own, and it was this competition that ensured that by the 1920s, the
Shanghai Race Club joined others in catering to all of the city’s inhabit-
ants. Horse racing provides a gendered glimpse into the city as women
displayed their fashions, a spectacle for men and women alike. While this
remained important, gambling grew in popularity, and so horse racing
became an important addition to the range of consumption choices that
both defined Shanghai’s identity as the most cosmopolitan city in China,
and made life habitable for its residents.
Robert Cliver’s chapter shows how thinking of cities as habitable spaces
in the Maoist era helps to move us beyond the CCP’s master narrative of
the successful construction of socialist cities. Provision of the necessities of
life was a key goal of the party, and nowhere was this more important than
in the factory, the most important site of urban socialist transformation. A
comparison of the silk industry in Shanghai and Wuxi reveals how the pre-
revolutionary context defined how successful the policy of new democracy
was to be in both cities. In Wuxi, patriarchy was maintained as male fac-
tory managers assumed positions in the new bureaucratic hierarchy the
party created. For women filature workers, the promise of the revolution
to improve conditions in factories remained unfulfilled. In Shanghai, by
contrast, workers and their factory bosses were not divided by gender,
native place, or social class, and they worked more closely together to
ensure that the benefits of revolution were shared more equally. Location
was important, not just in improving labor relations, but in providing
welfare services. In Wuxi, labor officials, rather than workers themselves,
used their limited resources to make improvements such as better heat-
ing, lighting, and ventilation in factories. However, workers’ needs for
childcare facilities were largely not met. In Shanghai, nursery facilities had
12 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

improved significantly by 1952, a clear case of how similar goals to create

a habitable space differed in outcome in different cities.
Robert’s focus on the early Maoist era reminds us that habitability is
often planned, and Leon Rocha’s chapter describes how such plans are
sometimes utopian dreams. Zhang Jingsheng’s vision for Beijing
was inspired by May Fourth sentiments and drew on Ebenezer Howard’s
designs for a garden city to create an ideal metropolis that would make
new men and women out of its inhabitants. Best known for his work on
love, sex, and eugenics, Zhang’s vision remained a utopian ideal. Like
Howard, his ideal city separated commercial, industrial, residential, and
other zones to create spaces that provided the necessities of life. However,
Zhang, more than any other person discussed in this volume, wanted to
provide for people’s moral and spiritual life. Architecture would create
beautiful places, and music piped through the city would replace the brash
urban soundscape with a melodic symphony. All citizens would be buried
in the Memorial Temple, where in a sense their lives would be judged,
with criminals consigned to caverns beneath the halls where the heroes
of the city and the nation would be venerated. In this and many other
ways, Zhang linked his ideal city to the revival of China, a project that was
uppermost in the minds of intellectuals in his generation.
Isabella Jackson moves from utopian dreams to practical reality, and
describes how imperial authorities in the treaty ports of Shanghai and
Tianjin sought to create better living environments in those sections of the
city where they had most control. However, creation of habitable spaces
for one section of the population could impinge on the lives of others. This
was especially the case when government efforts were directed exclusively
at the foreign populations of these cities. Like, Xu Tao’s and Ning Jennifer
Chang’s chapters, this activity initially provoked resistance, although indi-
vidual Chinese were not above moving to foreign concessions when it
became apparent that these offered a better quality of life than elsewhere
in the city. As the Chinese population of the concessions grew, the author-
ities often worked either explicitly or implicitly to improve the lives of the
richest inhabitants. However, high population density meant that attempts
to separate rich and poor, or industry and housing, failed. The tensions
over noise levels emanating from factories indicate how industrial activity
that was essential for the lives of some conflicted with the need for peace
and quiet, which was seen as crucial to the lives of others.
Toby Lincoln combines grand visions and practical plans in his explora-
tion of how the expansion of cities incorporates the countryside into con-
 INTRODUCTION: THE HABITABLE CITY IN CHINESE HISTORY 13

ceptualizations of urban habitability. As Aaron Moore notes in his chapter,

urbanization created a discursive divide between town and country, but
this occurred within a wider narrative that no longer privileged rural val-
ues, but instead sought to create an urban society. This meant that Lake
Tai, situated to the West of Shanghai, and for centuries the center of agri-
culture in this fertile region, was now seen as part of the urban system, and
valued primarily as a natural resource that could satisfy the needs of the
region’s expanding cities, and make them more habitable. Its main value
lay in being a transport conduit between cities, but the exploitation of its
shoreline for tea, sericulture, and other resources was also important. For
the city of Wuxi, which expanded out toward the lake throughout the
twentieth century, tourism was another resource, which often competed
with industry and farming. In the Republican period, it existed side-by-
side with the emergence of an industrial city, and gardens and parks along
the shoreline benefitted residents and visitors alike. Continued expan-
sion throughout the rest of the twentieth century drew the lake into the
boundaries of the city, but pollution from agriculture and industry threat-
ened to ruin the natural beauty of the lake, the very resource that made it
so important to Wuxi’s habitability and its tourism industry.

NOTES
1. Liang Sicheng (11 June 1949) ‘Chengshi de tixing ji qi jihua’ [The
city’s form and its planning], Renmin ribao [People’s Daily].
2. Li Bo (2013) ‘Livability: A new way of thinking about Urbanization
in China’, in Yang Dongping (ed.) Chinese Research Perspectives on
the Environment, Volume 1 Urban Challenges, Public Participation,
and Natural Disasters (Leiden: Brill), p. 149; Gu Chaolin, ‘The
Environmental Risks of Rapid Urbanization: Indicators for Livable
Cities’, in ibid., p. 162.
3. Gary Hack (2012) ‘Shaping Urban Form’, in Bishwapriya Sanyal,
Lawrence J. Vale, and Christina Rosen (eds.) Planning Ideas that
Matter: Livability, Territoriality, Governance, and Reflective
Practice (Cambridge Mass: MIT Press), pp. 33–64; Robert
Fishman, ‘New Urbanism’, in Ibid., pp. 65–90; Timothy Beatley,
‘Sustainability in Planning: The Arc and Trajectory of a Movement
and New Directions for the Twenty-First-Century City’, in Ibid.,
pp. 91–126.
14 T. LINCOLN AND X. TAO

4. H. Lammer et al. (2009) ‘What Makes a Planet Habitable’, The

Astronomy and Astrophysics Review 17: 2, pp. 232–4.
5. Charles Herbert Langmuir and William S. Broecker (2012) How to
Build a Habitable Planet: the Story of Earth from the Big Bang to
Humankind (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
6. A recent volume that attempts to get to grips with the broad range
of approaches to nature is: Hans Ulrich Vogel and Günter Dux
(eds.) (2010) Concepts of Nature: A Chinese-European Cross
Cultural perspective (Leiden: Brill, 2010); A shorter summary can
be found in: Robert P. Weller (2006) Discovering Nature:
Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
7. Martin V. Melosi (2010) ‘Humans, Cities and Nature: How do
Cities Fit in the Material World?’, Journal of Urban History, 36: 1,
3–21.
8. Sun Ke (1919) ‘Dushi guihualun’ [On urban planning], Jianshe
[Construction], 1: 5, 15–17.
9. Zhang Tianjie, Li Baihao and Li Ze (2012) ‘Zhongguo jindai
chengshi guihua de “shiyanzhe” – Dong Xiujia yu Wuhan de jindai
Zhongguo guihua shijian’ [Dong Xijiua and City Planning Practice
in Modern Wuhan], Xin jianzhu [New Architecture], 3, 138–43.
10. Dong Xiujia (1924) Shizheng xinlun [A new treatise on urban
planning] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan), p. 1.
11. Dong, Shizheng xinlun, zixu [Author’s preface], 1–2.
12. Dong Xiujia (16 March 1937) ‘Jinhou dushi zhi fenqu yu fang-
kong’ [Air defense and city zoning now and in the future], Shizheng
pinglun [Municipal Review] 5: 3, 9–20.
13. Wang Jun, Bejiing Record: a physical and political history of plan-
ning modern Beijing (Singapore: World Scientific 2011).
14. Zhou Ganzhi and Chu Chuanheng (1994) ‘Qian yan’ [Preface], in
Zhou Ganzhi and Chu Chuanheng (eds.) Wanli lun chengshi jian-
she [Wan Li discusses urban construction] (Beijing: Zhongguo
chengshi chubanshe), p. 15.
15. Wan Li, ‘Zai sheng shi zizhiqu chengshi jiansheju changhuiyi shang
de zongjie baogao’, [Overall report to extended meeting of the
provincial and city self-government urban construction depart-
ment] in Zhou and Chu, Wanli lun chengshi jianshe, 13.
16. Wan Li, ‘Zai quanguo quanmin yiwu zhishu gongzuo huiyi shang
de jianghua’, [Speech at the National Meeting of Tree Planting
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the final struggle, the Christian invader found no allies so useful as
those partisans hopelessly contending for political supremacy, and
willing to sacrifice home, honor, religion, liberty, provided their
countrymen of a hostile faction might be involved with themselves in
a common destruction. The Spanish Moslems had reached a point in
their development beyond which, as a people, they could not pass.
With them, as with all others, the epoch marked by the perfection of
mechanical ingenuity, by the climax of artistic excellence, by the
superiority of mental culture, was coincident with the period of
national decay. Their civilization, however dazzling it might appear,
shone with a false and delusive lustre. Its promoters founded a great
and opulent state. They improved the practice of every art, they
extended the productive power of every industry. They patronized
letters with unstinted liberality. They based their religious policy upon
the broad and statesmanlike principle of universal toleration. In their
conquests, as far as was consistent with national security, they
recognized the rights of humanity and forbearance. From the most
unpromising origin resulted achievements of surpassing grandeur
and pre-eminent value. The migratory Bedouin of the Desert, with no
home but a low tent open to the air and possessing no idea whatever
of substantial architecture or mural ornamentation, when brought
under the influence of Greek and Roman antiquity and of the
stupendous structures of the Valley of the Nile, rapidly developed
into the most accomplished of decorators and architects. The
descendants of the conquerors of Egypt who burned the Alexandrian
library founded the University of Cordova and formed the great
collections of the khalifate. A race whose progenitors lived by
violence and whose name was synonymous with rapine established
schools of law, secured the safety of the highways by the
maintenance of a vigilant police, and became renowned for their
administration of rigid and impartial justice. The seal of that
civilization was impressed more deeply upon the monuments, upon
the life, upon the traditions of Granada, than upon those of any other
locality which had experienced the magical effects of its influence
and its example. That kingdom had long survived the wreck of the
empire. Within its borders were to be found specimens of
architectural splendor which the wildest visions of Oriental fancy
could not surpass. To the scholar, it was the seat of learning and the
home of poesy; to the merchant, the centre of a vast and profitable
commerce; to the traveller, a far more pleasing and instructive
subject of study than the pageantry of Roman superstition or the
melancholy exhibition of Byzantine pride and impotence. The
imaginative peasant, whose mind had been nourished from
childhood with tales of wonder, regarded his country as a land of
enchantment. Especially was this true of the capital. Its approaches
were guarded by talismans. Its towers were peopled by demons. A
thousand fantastic legends adorned the story of its princes, the lives
of its heroes, the foundation of its citadel, the erection of its palaces.
Its incomparable monuments, apparently transcending the efforts of
human power, were attributed to genii enslaved by magicians.
Inscribed alike upon the portals of royal villa and peasant’s hut was
the cabalistic hand, of potent efficacy against the dreaded evil-eye.
Over all the city and its attributes popular superstition spread a veil
of romantic and unearthly influence, which to our day has never
been removed; symbolized by the artificer in forms universally
believed to conceal some mysterious significance; in the carvings of
architrave and capital; in the blending of characters in inscription and
cipher; in the verdant labyrinths of the terraced gardens that
encircled her fair brows as with a coronet; in the bursting
pomegranate, in field of silver, emblazoned on her arms.
Such was Granada on the eve of the Conquest. Well might
Castilian ambition covet such a prize! Well might the Moslem, proud
of the commercial pre-eminence of his country, intoxicated with her
beauty, mindful of her immortal souvenirs, conscious of her
impending fate, refer with Oriental hyperbole to her fair metropolis
as, “Court of the Universe,” “Throne of Andaluz,” “Mother of
Peoples,” “Pomegranate of Rubies,” “Diadem of Roses,” “City of
Cities!” She had fulfilled her magnificent destiny in the world of
science, of art, of letters. She had created imperishable monuments
of her intellectual power. The star of her glory, long past its meridian,
was now rapidly hastening to its setting.
The implacable struggle for national existence on the one hand,
for religious and political supremacy on the other, was now about to
assume a new and a more decisive character. With much show of
reason the Spaniard regarded the Arab as the usurper of his
hereditary rights. With a valor and an inflexible tenacity of purpose
scarcely paralleled in any age, he had for centuries prosecuted the
recovery of his ancient patrimony in the arduous and bloody path of
conquest. Undismayed by physical obstacles, undaunted by
repeated reverses, never yielding what was once within his iron
grasp, he had finally advanced to the gates of the last infidel
stronghold. In his ruthless progress he was no unworthy type of the
Genius of Destruction. The charming landscape he encountered he
transformed into a blackened desert. The shrines of a hostile faith,
embellished with the most exquisite labors ever bestowed by the
hands of popular reverence and royal prodigality upon the altars of
God, were demolished or purposely suffered to fall into decay. The
smoke of his camp-fires begrimed the walls of gilded palaces.
Historic records of former ages, priceless relics of antiquity, scientific
instruments, were delivered to the flames. His energy, his sincerity,
his bravery, however, could never be called in question. The simple
Roman sword, the emblem of courage, the symbol of power and
dominion, which is carved upon the tomb of Pelayus in the valley of
Covadonga, was the worthy precursor of those trenchant blades that
hewed their way from the mist-enshrouded defiles of the Asturian
Mountains to the rose-clad slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and
established, amidst the sack of cities and the extermination of an
industrious and accomplished people, the awful tyranny of
ecclesiastical avarice and inquisitorial power. Every impediment had
been surmounted by the indomitable perseverance, fanaticism, and
ambition of the Crusader. New sovereigns now controlled the
destinies of his country. For generations the principal adversary of
Granada had been the kingdom of Castile, impoverished in
resources, divided by faction, exhausted by warfare, weakened in
authority. The union of the two great realms of the Peninsula brought
into the contest the hardy population and the unimpaired vigor of
Aragon. In Castile a great social and political revolution had been
effected. The claims of the nobility, inconsistent with the dignity and
the prerogatives of the crown, had been curtailed or abolished. The
possession of a title or the occupancy of a mountain stronghold no
longer conferred immunity from the punishment of crime. Treasures
and demesnes extorted by violence or procured by fraud from the
weakness of former princes were relinquished. Feudal privileges, the
subject of constant abuse and encroachment since the foundation of
the monarchy, were sternly retrenched. Civil disorder was
suppressed. Through the agency of a vigilant military police, which in
the pursuit of offenders was no respecter of rank, the highways
became safe, and commerce revived. With the return of public
security, national development received a new and powerful impetus.
The seaports, long deserted, were filled with vessels. The stores of
capital, secreted from royal and aristocratic rapacity, gradually found
their way into the channels of trade. A debased currency which had
impaired public credit and produced repeated financial disasters was
replaced by a legitimate coinage of universally recognized value.
The folly of Henry IV. had authorized the establishment of private
mints, the standard of whose product was regulated solely by the
necessities or the avarice of their proprietors. These were abolished,
and all coins now bore the royal stamp, a substantial guaranty of
their worth and genuineness. With the decline of feudal privileges the
influence and the importance of the middle class increased. That
class, ever constituting the most valuable portion of the social fabric,
dependent for its existence upon the security of trade and the
practice of industry, could not survive amidst the incessant disorder
of feud and sedition. For many generations a vast interval had
separated the majestic castle of the noble from the filthy hovel of the
serf, whose occupants represented the two most numerous castes of
society. Royal authority now interposed to especially protect those
whom political experience had proved might constitute a safe and
effective bulwark against aristocratic aggression. It was an age of
religious as well as of political transition. The Church was not yet
sufficiently strong to persecute. The Crown could not yet venture to
support the ecclesiastical with the secular power. The Inquisition had
not yet raised its menacing and bloody hand to stifle thought and
check the exertion of every generous impulse, but it was even then
soliciting recognition; the glory of its establishment was reserved for
the pious Isabella. As a result of toleration based upon the
consciousness of weakness, the sectaries of other religions,
heedless of impending disaster, pursued their avocations in peace.
The rancor of mediæval prejudice did not prevent the shrewd and
obsequious Jew from buying his cargoes or negotiating his loans.
The Mudejar, who had, perhaps without reluctance, exchanged the
capricious despotism of his hereditary rulers for the suspicious
protection of an ancient foe, exercised, in a delusive tranquillity,
those agricultural and mechanical occupations which had conferred
such blessings upon his race. In addition to other important
considerations, the tribute collected from this heretical population
brought no inconsiderable revenue into the royal treasury. The once
discordant elements of Christian authority in the Peninsula had been
reconciled; what had formerly been its weakness was now its firmest
support; dissensions had been supplanted by affectionate loyalty; a
protracted truce had insured the development of national strength;
and the disputes and prejudices of a score of hostile and semi-
independent states had been forgotten in the inauguration of the
bold and subtle policy which, almost imperceptibly and without
determined resistance, had established and consolidated a
formidable monarchy.
The accession of the princes under whose auspices these grand
results were achieved is coincident with the beginning of one of the
most important periods mentioned in history. Not only were the
political conditions of the age eminently favorable to the increase of
Spanish power, but every adventitious circumstance seemed to
contribute directly to that end. The nobles were exhausted by
generations of discord. Feudalism, carried to extremes, had become
synonymous with irresponsible tyranny. The people were weary of
revolution. The spirit of loyalty, always strong in the chivalrous
Castilian, required but the assertion of regal authority to be revived in
all its original fervor and intensity. The inherent and fatal weakness
of Granada, whose treasures were greater than those possessed by
any other country in Europe, was well known to its enemies. Their
cupidity, long since aroused by the ostentatious exhibition of
fabulous wealth; their fanatical zeal, stimulated by the Papal blessing
and the unlimited distribution of indulgences, urged them to the
gratification of the most powerful passions which dominate humanity.
The apparent strength of the Moslem kingdom was illusory. Its vitality
had long been sapped by border conflict and domestic convulsion.
Its capacity for resistance was not proportionate to the formidable
character of its bulwarks, the number of its inhabitants, the value of
its resources, the spirit of its traditions, the gallantry of its defenders,
or the measure of its renown. Before the first well-concerted attack it
must inevitably fall.
The sovereigns upon whom had devolved the task of erasing from
the Peninsula the last vestige of Moslem ascendancy were, in many
respects, admirably qualified for the undertaking. Ferdinand was
experienced beyond his years; practised in that school which taught
that duplicity was the highest development of political wisdom; tried
by the dangers and the vicissitudes which in an age of national
disorder beset the path of princes; of mediocre abilities and limited
education; incapable of sincere attachment; of undoubted courage,
yet inclined to negotiation rather than to violence; moderate in the
indulgence of his pleasures; abstemious in diet, and shabby in dress
almost to parsimony; frigid in temperament, yet dissolute; taciturn
and vigilant; suspicious, arbitrary, and imperturbable; without faith or
integrity where momentous public interests were involved; a bigot
rather from policy than from principle; narrow, selfish, and crafty;
stern, sullen, merciless, imperious; equally ready to conciliate an
enemy or to sacrifice a friend.
In Isabella was typified the prevalent spirit of the age,—a spirit of
superstition, of credulity, of intolerance, ever manifesting a blind
devotion to the ministers of religion, ever sanctioning an
uncompromising severity in dealing with heretics. Her talents for
administration and command were far superior to those of her
husband. Her heart was not always insensible to the dictates of pity.
She had received the best education which the restricted
opportunities of the time afforded. It was her masculine genius which
projected and carried into execution the reforms that assured the
prosperity of her kingdom and re-established the dignity of the
throne. Her prophetic foresight was often obscured by her deference
to ecclesiastical authority. She accepted the theories of Columbus
after they had been repudiated as absurd and blasphemous by the
wisest of her councillors. It was at her own request that the Pope
issued the bull which established the Inquisition. Her character was a
singular compound of the amazon and the saint. She was equally at
home in the cloister and in the camp; listening to the solemn
anthems of the mass or surrounded by the clash of arms. Her
missal, bearing evidence of constant usage, is one of the most
precious relics of the Cathedral of Granada. Her sword and her
armor of proof, beautifully wrought and inlaid with gold, are
preserved in the museum of Madrid. With the economy of an
ordinary housewife, she spun, wove, and stitched her own garments
and those of her family. With placid equanimity, she never suffered
herself to be elated by success or depressed by misfortune. The
universal popularity she enjoyed did much to atone for the stolid and
repulsive nature of her husband. In an age of unbounded
licentiousness,—practised by every class and excused by
ecclesiastical indulgence and royal example,—no suspicion of
scandal ever attached to her name. Without those charms of face
and figure which in exalted personages have had no small influence
on the destiny of empires, her manners were unusually pleasing and
attractive. Her commanding ability dominated the mean and
disingenuous Ferdinand. She maintained with inflexible firmness the
ancient prerogatives of Castile. Courage, magnanimity, tact, candor,
benevolence, were among her most conspicuous virtues. Yet
Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain, was her favorite
confessor, and the awful tortures and subsequent exile of the
Hebrew population of the Peninsula were inflicted with her hearty co-
operation and approval. The inflexible resolution of Isabella was one
of the most striking traits of her remarkable character. Once
determined upon the accomplishment of a design, she pursued it
unflinchingly to the end. By the fiery Spanish youth their queen was
regarded with an affectionate reverence shared only by the Virgin.
The moral effect produced upon the Castilian soldiery by her
appearance in the field was greater than the confidence inspired by
many battalions. Fortunate, indeed, was the knight whose prowess
evoked from the lips of his royal mistress words of commendation,
more precious in his eyes than the tumultuous applause of
multitudes or the deafening acclamations of mighty armies.
 It was well for the Christian cause that its power had been thus
consolidated, for never during the period of the Arab domination had
it been called upon to encounter a more formidable adversary. Muley
Hassan, Emir of Granada, though advanced in years, still retained all
the enthusiasm of youth, tempered by the wisdom and experience of
age. From his very childhood he had been familiar with the exercise
of arms. He was long accounted one of the best lances in the
kingdom. Foremost in every warlike enterprise, he was the terror of
the frontier years before he ascended the throne. Since his
accession, his neighbors had had frequent occasion to acknowledge
the boldness of his undertakings, the rapidity of his movements, the
unrelenting cruelty of his character. The hatred he bore to the infidels
had not been diminished by their gratuitous intervention in behalf of
rebels in arms against his authority. His personal inclinations were
towards unremitting hostility. The literary traditions of his dynasty
were, to this fierce warrior, but so many manifestations of folly and
cowardice. He repudiated with haughty contempt the claim of
superiority implied in the tribute extorted by Castilian arrogance from
the policy or the fears of his predecessors. The faith of treaties he
observed so far as it suited his convenience and no farther.
The domestic relations of Muley Hassan had already given
indications of those fatal quarrels eventually destined to cause the
disruption of the monarchy. His sultana, Ayesha, a princess of great
abilities and undaunted resolution, was the mother of two sons, the
elder of whom, heir apparent to the throne, was the famous
Abdallah, known to the Christians as Boabdil, devoted by fate to a
life of strange vicissitudes and to a melancholy end. The amorous
old king had long since discarded the Moorish princess for a
beautiful Christian slave, designated in Spanish romance and
tradition as Doña Isabel de Solis, but known to Moorish chroniclers
by the poetic appellation of Zoraya, “The Star of the Morning.”
Ayesha, inflamed with rage and jealousy, neglected no opportunity to
persecute her rival and annoy her lord. Of noble birth and possessed
of unlimited wealth, she readily enlisted in her behalf many
adherents of rank and power. The ever-available pretext of an
unpopular vizier was successfully invoked. The Zegris and the
Abencerrages, infected with the tribal prejudices of the Desert and
constant rivals for royal favor, willingly lent their aid; the former
adhered to the Emir, the influence of the latter was cast with the
opposing party. The populace of Granada, delighting in innovation
and prone to revolt, chose sides in the controversy at a time when
national union was an imperative necessity; when even the hearty
co-operation of every class and clan might have been insufficient to
avert the impending tempest; when internal dissension was certain
to facilitate the designs of the Christians. Popular discontent had, as
yet, only manifested itself in a few unimportant riots, which had been
suppressed with trifling bloodshed; when the apprehension of the
common enemy suspended, for the moment, the implacable
resentment of the rival factions.
Having adjusted the internal affairs of their kingdom, secure in
their authority, and eager for renown, Ferdinand and Isabella lost no
time in despatching an embassy to Granada, instructed to demand
the arrears of tribute, an explanation of violated treaties, and an
acknowledgment of their own suzerainty. The envoy, Don Juan de
Vera, whose splendid retinue had been provided with everything
calculated to impress the Moors with the grandeur and power of the
Spanish monarchy, brought back a message of defiance. “Return,”
said the ferocious old Emir, “and say to your masters that the
monarchs of Granada who paid tribute to the Christians are dead.
Nothing for our enemies is now made here but lance-heads and
scimetars!” The insolent reply of the Moorish king, whom he
regarded in the light of a rebellious vassal, exasperated the usually
phlegmatic Ferdinand. In an outburst of fury, he exclaimed, “I will
tear out the seeds of this pomegranate one by one;” and, with a grim
determination to exact a signal revenge, in concert with the Queen
he despatched messengers to the powerful nobles throughout his
dominions acquainting them with the result of the embassy and
ordering them to prepare for war.
By no one was this notification of impending hostilities received
with greater satisfaction than by Don Rodrigo Ponce de Leon,
Marquis of Cadiz. That personage, destined to figure so prominently
in the Conquest as to be generally recognized as its animating spirit,
was the representative of one of the greatest houses of the kingdom.
With the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, long his feudal rival, he divided the
richest estates of Andalusia. Confident of the success which would
excuse his rashness, he summoned his retainers, made a sudden
foray as far as the environs of Ronda, destroyed the town of
Mercadillo, and returned to Arcos loaded with spoil. The pugnacious
Muley Hassan could ill brook this insult to his dignity, and he at once
determined upon a counterstroke. The fortress of Zahara, captured
from the Moors by Ferdinand of Antequera, was the object of his
hostility. It was a typical mediæval stronghold. Built upon a pyramidal
hill, its natural and artificial defences defied an ordinary attack. But
the garrison was small, the supplies inadequate, and the governor
disheartened and careless from the affliction of a recent domestic
calamity. With the greatest secrecy and celerity, the King issued with
his troops from Granada, traversed the mountains by difficult and
unfrequented paths, and at night, in the midst of a fearful storm,
appeared before Zahara. Aided by the obscurity and the noise of the
storm, the Moorish soldiery scaled the walls. The garrison was put to
the sword. Many citizens were killed in their beds; the survivors,
drenched with rain, spattered with blood, and quaking with cold and
terror, collected in the public square, and, exposed to the full fury of
the tempest, were guarded there till daylight by a troop of Berber
horsemen. Three days afterwards they were exposed for sale in the
slave-market of Granada.
The Moorish wars of Spain were essentially wars of reprisals. The
military expeditions of one side were usually followed by
corresponding incursions of the other. A protracted campaign with
the immense expense involved in the maintenance of an army and
the prosecution of a siege had heretofore, except in a few instances,
been beyond the power of the Christians, and contrary to the
traditional tactics of the Moors, practised in all the stratagems of
guerilla warfare. The martial spirit of both nations was therefore for
the most part exercised in those brilliant but indecisive operations
which, by a sudden and unexpected attack, could inflict temporary
injury on an enemy. After the seizure of Zahara, an exploit of greater
importance was necessary to retrieve the credit of the Spanish arms.
With this in view, the Marquis of Cadiz despatched spies to examine
the condition of the various cities in the kingdom of Granada. This
service, although attended with circumstances of the greatest
difficulty and peril, was yet one most earnestly solicited by the
Spanish cavaliers. Those intrusted with this mission reported that
Malaga and Alhama might, with proper precautions, be surprised.
Not content with this information, the Marquis sent Ortega del Prado,
an experienced engineer, to carefully inspect the surroundings and
measure the walls of Alhama. This dangerous task successfully
accomplished, the cautious leader proceeded, with the most
profound secrecy, to carry his daring plan into execution. An effective
force of seven thousand men, commanded by some of the boldest
captains of Andalusia, was assembled. Imitating the example of the
Moslems, they moved at night and in silence. It is one of the most
singular facts in the annals of these wars that large bodies of men
could penetrate, with such ease and unobserved, the territory of a
foe whom the proximity of constant danger must have rendered
habitually vigilant. The hills of Southern Spain are still dotted with the
numerous watch-towers raised by the prudence of the Moors, upon
whose summits and from the neighboring mountain peaks a chain of
signal-fires conveyed instantaneously the intelligence that the enemy
was abroad.
Stealthily the Christian army pursued its way in the darkness
under the direction of trusty guides, painfully clambering up the
mountain-sides by the uncertain light of the stars, skirting the
borders of precipices, hiding in the depths of gloomy ravines, until an
hour before dawn on the third day found them in a valley within a
mile and a half of Alhama. This city was in the very centre of
Granada and was accounted one of the keys of the capital, from
which it was but twenty-four miles distant. Under ordinary
circumstances an attack upon it seemed hopeless. Situated upon a
mountain spur, it was protected by walls not surpassed in height and
solidity by those of any fortified place in the Peninsula. A stupendous
chasm, several hundred feet in depth, through which rushed the
roaring Marchan, defended its approach and enhanced the difficulty
of its capture. The hot-baths in its vicinity, known to the Romans and
largely patronized by the luxurious inhabitants of the metropolis, had
not enervated the mountaineers of Alhama, whose reputation for
ferocity and valor had been established in many a frontier skirmish
and extended foray. Rendered doubly secure by the natural situation
and impregnable bulwarks of the city, the garrison insensibly relaxed
its vigilance. No apprehension of an attack was entertained even by
the most timorous citizen. The time was especially propitious to a
surprise. The governor was absent at Velez-Malaga. An inefficient
patrol] was maintained. During the last hour of the night when
slumber is deepest, Ortega del Prado, with thirty picked men,
planted the ladders and mounted the ramparts of the citadel. A
single sentinel was pierced with a score of daggers before he could
give the alarm. In the mean time, three hundred soldiers had scaled
the walls; the guard, half-awake, perished in its quarters; the
garrison rushed to arms; and the shrill notes of the Moorish trumpet,
mingled with the shouts of the assailants and the cries of the dying,
resounded through the city. The mountaineers, although taken by
surprise, were not dismayed. The narrow and crooked streets
offered excellent opportunities for defence. These were barricaded,
and all access to the gates cut off. The Spaniards were besieged in
turn; it was impossible to retire; the steep and contracted entrance to
the castle was commanded by the Moorish cross-bowmen and
musketeers, whose aim promised almost certain death. Sancho de
Avila, Governor of Carmona, and Nicholas de Rojas, Governor of
Arcos, in an attempt to lead a forlorn hope, instantly paid the penalty
of their rashness, and fell pierced with bolts. The situation was
critical. After a day of constant fighting, no foothold had been
obtained in the city. The King of Granada was hourly expected.
There were no provisions, and the Spaniards outside the walls could
not reinforce their comrades. Opinions were divided as to the best
course to adopt, but the bold counsels of the Marquis of Cadiz
eventually prevailed. A breach was made in the wall of the citadel;
through it a number of Spanish knights were enabled to make a
sudden sally, and the enemy sullenly retired from his position. Every
street now became a battle-ground; from the housetops tiles and
stones were rained down upon the Christians; the Moors, animated
by the expectation of speedy relief and aware that their most
precious interests were at stake, contested every foot of ground with
the energy of despair. Driven from the streets, they took refuge in the
principal mosque, where for a time they maintained themselves in
spite of the most determined attempts to dislodge them. At length,
under the shelter of improvised mantelets, the doors were set on fire,
and its occupants rushing out were cut to pieces or captured. The
burning of the mosque terminated the struggle, a memorable one in
the annals of Moorish warfare, both from the audacious character of
the enterprise and the intrepid obstinacy of the defence. In no
subsequent engagement of the Conquest did the Christians
encounter such a desperate resistance. In many respects the taking
of Alhama was of great importance. It revealed unmistakably the
weakness of the Moslem kingdom, and it placed an enemy’s outpost
within a few hours’ march of Granada. It was an ill omen for the
permanence of a monarchy when a stronghold of such strategic
value could be captured and retained at the very gates of its capital.
The spoil of Alhama well repaid the perils incurred to obtain it. It was
the wealthiest city of its size in the Moorish dominions. The royal
tribute of the entire district was collected there, and it fell into the
hands of the victors. The captives numbered three thousand. A great
quantity of treasure, of valuable merchandise of every description, of
horses and mules, rewarded the daring of the Castilians. Not
thinking the city would be permanently occupied, the soldiers
hastened to destroy the oil and wheat in the magazines. Scarcely
had the work of pillage been completed when a detachment of
Moorish cavalry appeared. Unable to retrieve a disaster which rumor
had ascribed to a small party of adventurers, after a reconnoissance
they returned to Granada. Every effort of the Moorish king was now
exerted to retake Alhama before it could be reinforced. His urgent
summons rapidly called into the field an army of eighty-one thousand
men. With this force he advanced to attack the city, neglecting, in his
impetuous anxiety, to avail himself of his fine train of artillery, without
which he could not hope for success. Meanwhile, the Christians had
not been idle. Realizing their desperate situation, they had
despatched messengers to the Catholic sovereigns imploring
assistance. Many eminent leaders, whose previous gallantry belied
any suspicion of cowardice, counselled retreat. Their remonstrances
became more pressing as the great Moslem army deployed about
the city, and the convoy with supplies from Antequera, after narrowly
escaping capture, was driven back. The Moors were infuriated by the
sight of the bodies of their countrymen a prey to dogs, and,
disdaining the usual means of protection, dashed forward to scale
the battlements. The impregnability of the fortifications of Alhama,
when properly defended, now became apparent. The heroic efforts
of the besiegers were exerted in vain. The ladders swarming with the
lithe and active soldiery were overturned and, with their burdens,
dashed to pieces. The missiles of the Christians made great havoc in
the dense masses of the enemy, who, regardless of danger, hurled
themselves against the defences. Assault followed assault with the
same result. An attempt to open a mine under the wall failed on
account of the hardness of the rock and the want of necessary
implements and protective appliances. Then another expedient was
tried. The water-supply of Alhama was obtained from the stream
partly encircling it, which was reached by a winding stairway cut
through the very centre of the cliff. After almost superhuman efforts
to prevent it, the stream was diverted from its channel; and the
opening of the subterranean passage, commanded by a picked body
of cross-bowmen, offered to the besieged the alternative of death by
thirst or by the weapons of the enemy. Every drop of water was now
only to be obtained after a conflict, and the little that was thus
secured was often tinged with blood.
The news that the Marquis of Cadiz and his companions were
shut up in Alhama produced great consternation in every province of
the kingdom. There was scarcely a prominent Andalusian family
which did not have a representative with the expedition. The honor of
the crown, the glory of the Spanish arms, the safety of beloved
relatives, the success of future enterprises, perhaps the fate of the
Moorish kingdom itself, were staked upon the result. Hereditary
prejudices were cast aside. The Duke of Medina-Sidonia forgot his
animosity towards his rival and appeared at the head of his
numerous vassals. Ferdinand took the field in person. A suggestive
indication of the military spirit and the resources of the Spanish
monarchy at that time is afforded by the fact that within a week an
army of forty-five thousand men, completely equipped, was
marshalled ready for battle. The King of Granada dared not risk an
encounter with this powerful force. The flower of the Moslem youth
had perished in the bloody yet fruitless engagements of the siege.
The survivors were discouraged by these repeated reverses; the
opportunity to retrieve a disaster attributable to negligence rather
than to misfortune had been lost; and, with a heavy heart, Muley
Hassan retired to face the resentment and endure the execrations of
the fierce and seditious populace of his capital.
The serious dispute concerning the distribution of the plunder
which arose between the two divisions of the Christian army gives us
an insight into national manners, and discloses the principal motive
with which these national crusades were prosecuted. The cupidity of
the relieving force was aroused at the sight of the rich booty secured
by their comrades who had stormed the town, and they demanded it
as their own, alleging, with some reason, that without their timely aid
it would have been inevitably lost. The honor acquired by the rescue
of their countrymen and the glory of maintaining the Christian cause
were inconsiderable in comparison with the spoil to which they
declared themselves entitled. The feeling ran so high that all the
influence of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and other powerful nobles
was required to prevent an appeal to arms.
The Spanish army having withdrawn, the King of Granada, this
time abundantly provided with artillery and munitions of war, again
invested Alhama. The thickness of the walls, however, resisted even
the fire of the Moorish lombards, at that epoch the best served, and,
indeed, almost the only ordnance in Europe. One night, just after
sunset, Muley Hassan summoned to his tent forty young cavaliers of
the most distinguished families of the Arab nobility. When
assembled, they were informed that he had selected them to carry
the town by escalade. The ambition of the Moorish youth was
inflamed by the confidence reposed in them by their King, and the
perilous service was accepted with enthusiasm. Supported by a
numerous detachment, the daring adventurers approached the
highest part of the wall. Its vicinity was so difficult of access that the
garrison, considering this portion of the defences impregnable,
maintained a careless watch. But the active intrepidity of the Moors
overcame this apparently insurmountable obstacle, and the little
band of assailants attained the summit of the ramparts unobserved.
Of two sentinels they encountered, one was put to death, but the
other, escaping, gave the alarm. Already seventy Moors had
penetrated into the streets and others were ascending the ladders. A
few moments more and the city would have been taken. The scaling-
party, overwhelmed by numbers, were all killed or made prisoners;
the supporting forces which were mounting the walls or had silently
approached the gates were driven back; a vigilant patrol was
established; and the most promising attempt devised by Moorish
ingenuity and daring for the recovery of Alhama was frustrated.
Fully awake now to the difficulty of preserving their conquest, the
Catholic sovereigns made for the first time adequate preparations for
its defence. The garrison was strongly reinforced. Forty thousand
beasts of burden were required to transport the enormous quantity of
provisions and military supplies which were deposited in its arsenal
and magazines. The city had been taken the first day of March,
1482. The second retreat of the Moors took place on the twenty-third
of the month. The interval had been one of almost constant battle.
Hundreds of lives had been lost on both sides. The military
operations connected with the capture of Alhama in the gravity and
significance of their results far surpassed those which decided the
fate of any other fortified place during the war of Granada, the capital
alone excepted. The prestige its possession imparted to the Spanish
arms was of greater value than even its paramount importance as a
base of operations in the heart of the enemy’s country. Its loss was a
fatal blow to the Moorish cause. The unpopularity of Muley Hassan
increased; his army was disheartened; the murmurs of the seditious
mob of the city grew more threatening; and the faction of the palace
hastened to perfect the conspiracy which was soon to result in the
downfall of the Moslem power.
The furious spirit of the jealous Ayesha had pursued its designs
with all the energy of disappointed ambition and implacable revenge.
The hated slave Zoraya was now the first sultana, and had
superseded her rival in royal precedence as well as in the affections
of her husband. The vizier, Abul-Kasim-Venegas, the son of a noble
Christian renegade, to whom the Emir, infatuated with the beautiful
favorite, had resigned the direction of affairs, was practically the ruler
of the kingdom. The intimacy enjoyed by these two confidants of
foreign descent and detested lineage was urged as little less than
treason by the scheming adherents of Ayesha. Some time
previously, by the advice of the vizier, the insolence of certain chiefs
of the Abencerrages had been punished by summary execution. The
support of that powerful tribe was thus forever alienated from the
King; its members eagerly listened to the overtures of the rebellious
party; and the proud and vindictive African cavaliers expected with
impatience the hour of retribution.
The reverse at Alhama was the signal for revolt. The King had
scarcely returned before serious riots, led by the Abencerrages,
were reported in the Albaycin. It was no secret who was really
responsible for these disturbances; and Ayesha and her son Boabdil,
whom, although still a youth, it was intended to place upon the
throne, were promptly arrested and imprisoned in the great tower of
Comares in the Alhambra. This decisive step insured the public
safety for the time. The rioters dispersed, the leaders concealed
themselves, and the city resumed its ordinary aspect of quiet and
peace. But this apparent tranquillity was of short duration. The
female slaves of Ayesha, having made a rope of their veils, lowered
the young prince from a window of the tower overlooking the Darro,
where the Abencerrage chieftains awaited him; and at dawn,
escorted by a considerable band of horsemen, he was far on his way
to Guadix, whose alcalde was one of his partisans.
Ignorant of the extent of the conspiracy or of the number of
exalted personages implicated in it, Muley Hassan attached but little
importance to the escape of his rebellious son. But, a few days
afterwards, while the King was enjoying the luxurious seclusion of
one of his suburban palaces, a great tumult arose in the city.
Information was brought to him that the Abencerrages had
proclaimed the sovereignty of Boabdil; that, incited by the presence
of the prince and the shouts of his supporters, the populace of the
Albaycin had again risen in arms; that the revolution was rapidly
gaining ground and seemed about to involve the entire city; and,
worse than all, that the alcalde Ibn-Comixa had raised the rebel
standard on the citadel of the Alhambra. The African guards, led by
the vizier, in vain attempted to stem the tide of insurrection. Muley
Hassan himself, who hoped by his presence to awe the seditious
multitude, was received with shouts of defiance and derision. At
dawn the entire population of Granada assembled and expelled the
King and his adherents, who fled in disorder to the castle of
Mondujar. The friends and relatives of the dethroned monarch,
apprised of his misfortune, hastened to tender their aid and
sympathy. A band of five hundred was selected for an attempt to
recover the capital. Attired in black, on a cloudy night, they scaled
the walls of the Alhambra. Every soldier whom they encountered
was put to death. The alarm spread; the garrison withdrew to the
towers of the citadel; and the assailants, descending to the city, were
soon engaged with the insurgents in a hand-to-hand conflict in the
streets. The midnight tumult aroused the entire population, and the
light of torches and tapers soon disclosed the insignificant numbers
of the enemy. The citizens, animated by the consciousness of
strength, by the constant arrival of reinforcements, and by the fear of
punishment, fought with determined courage; and the King, after
leaving more than half of his followers on the field, only escaped
through the obscurity of the night. Extricating himself with difficulty
from the labyrinth of narrow lanes in the suburbs, he pursued his
way to Malaga, which city remained loyal to his cause. An
implacable triangular struggle, in which Moslem autonomy could not
fail in the end to be destroyed, was now inaugurated. Two kings and
two courts, inflamed with mutual resentment, each determined, by
any expedient, to accomplish the ruin of the other, were in arms.
Every community was distracted by the quarrels of hostile factions.
Partisan discord afflicted even the remote settlements of the Sierras.
On the other side was the common enemy, aggressive, united,
vigilant; more powerful in numbers, more fertile in resources, than at
any former period. At no time in the history of the Moorish
occupation had the demand for unanimity in the national councils
been so imperative, and yet at no time had those councils been so
divided. Anxiety for party success had in the minds of the infuriated
Moors obliterated all concern for the public welfare. Even the
semblance of patriotism, and that religious zeal more important in
the eyes of the Moslem than attachment to his country, were
overcome by the bitterness of factional animosity. With union and co-
operation the ultimate result of the contest could not be doubtful, but
it might have been prolonged, and the evil day of persecution and
servitude have been deferred for perhaps another century. Under the
existing political conditions, with provincial disintegration aided by
foreign hostility, national ruin was swift and certain.
The Christians were quick to grasp the opportunities afforded by
these dissensions. Already Ferdinand, at the head of a numerous
force, had overrun the Vega, leaving behind him a smoking track of
devastation. From the ramparts of Granada the Moors beheld, with
impotent rage and despair, the flames of mills and farm-houses, the
massacre of peasants, and the destruction of orange-groves and
olive-plantations. Thousands of sheep and cattle became the spoil of
the Castilians in this foray, and the supplies of Alhama, already
sufficient for a siege of many months’ duration, were again
replenished, this time with the plundered harvests of the unfortunate
Moslems of the Vega. In spite of its massive defences, its plentiful
supplies, and its numerous garrison, the retention of that place was
doubtful so long as its communications with the provinces of the
Spanish monarchy might be interrupted. The Vega of Granada was
approached through an opening in the mountains guarded by the
ancient city of Loja. Founded by Abdallah, Khalif of Cordova, it had
long been regarded as one of the most important fortified places in
the Peninsula. Its great castle and frowning walls imparted a
forbidding aspect to the town, which was, however, more than
compensated by the beautiful and picturesque environs that
encircled it, not the least important of its attractions being the
vineyards and olive-orchards which covered every declivity. Its
irrigating system, dependent upon the Genil and other smaller
streams, had been extended by the industrious inhabitants until the
country, for many leagues, exhibited the highest attainable state of
cultivation.
The capture of Loja was now a military necessity. While it
remained in the hands of the Moors the possession of Alhama could
never be absolutely secure. Once in the power of the Spaniards, an
unobstructed way was opened into the Vega, and the capital itself
might at any time be threatened. The governor of the city was Aliatar,
who, reared amidst the quiet of mercantile pursuits, had, by the
display of military ability and reckless courage, attained great renown
in arms. His exploits were the theme of all Andalusia. The frequency
of his marauding expeditions in the vicinity of Lucena had gained for
that district the name of the “Garden of Aliatar.” Moraima, his favorite
daughter, was the wife of Boabdil. For nearly two generations he had
been an active spirit in every campaign against the Christians, but
the accumulation of years had neither damped his ardor nor
diminished his activity. His wealth was expended in the maintenance
of troops and the ransom of captives. So few were the luxuries which
he reserved for his family that his daughter was compelled to borrow
jewels in order to appear with becoming dignity before her betrothed
lover, the heir to the Moslem throne. This famous chieftain was now
more than seventy years of age. Familiar with every artifice of
guerilla warfare, brave even to the extreme of rashness, fertile in the
resources imparted by the varied experiences of a long and
adventurous career, beloved by his followers, dreaded by his
enemies, it would have been difficult to find within the limits of
Granada a more formidable and capable adversary than this doughty
old Moslem commander.
Elated by the success of his recent expedition in the Vega,
Ferdinand, expecting an easy conquest, hastened to lay siege to
Loja. With only thirteen thousand men, ill-provided with the
necessary equipment and without even sufficient rations to supply
him for a week, on the first day of July, 1482, he encamped before
the city. It was soon perceived that his army was not strong enough
to even properly invest it. The inequalities of the ground, whose
natural ruggedness was increased by innumerable trees and
hedges, rendered it impossible for the lines to remain unbroken or
for the various divisions to preserve communication with each other.
On the level land and in the valley, a maze of intersecting canals
made the evolutions of cavalry difficult and often impracticable. The
partial isolation of the different detachments of the besieging army
not only rendered them constantly liable to surprise, but diminished
their confidence and greatly impaired their efficiency. The disorderly
arrangement of the Spaniards, thus seriously hampered by the
nature of their surroundings, was soon perceived by the Moors.