Inscripciones árabes de Granada, precedidas de una reseña histórica y de la genealogía detallada de los reyes Alahmares

Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1859. First edition. In somewhat later half leather. Spine with gilt embossed title and ornamental decorations. Marbled endpapers. Cover rubbed, bumped at corners. Spine slightly rubbed, with small damage to the head. The half-title is not presented. Presentation inscription on the verso of the free endpaper. Pages yellowed due to ageing. Light foxing throughout. Small damage to page 67-68 at the lower corner. Overall in very good condition.. First edition. In somewhat later half leather. Spine with gilt embossed title and ornamental decorations. Marbled endpapers. 242 [4] p., and one folding plate.

First edition of Emilio Lafuente y Alcantara's influential treatise on the Arabic inscriptions of the Alhambra in Granada, including the poems of Ibn Zamrak.

Lafuente y Alcantara wrote his present book on the inscriptions of the Alhambra in Granada, including Palacio Árabe, Puerta Justicia, Puerta del Vino, Torre de la Cautiva, Torre de las Infantas and the royal tombstones, featuring many poems of the Andalusian poet and statesman Ibn Zamrak (1333-1393). Besides the original texts and the Spanish translations of the inscriptions, his work also includes an overview of the history of the Nasrid dynasty, "a period which up until his time had been obscured owing to the lack of sources and the political complication" as well as the genealogy of the Nasrids, the last Muslim dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula, ruling the Emirate of Granada from 1230 until 1492.

Spanish Arabist scholar Emilio Lafuente y Alcantara (1825-1868) carried out pioneering work in studying, translating and interpreting Arabic texts. He condemned mediaeval Christian intolerance of Islam, the destruction of Arabic manuscripts during the Inquisition and the damage done to the Alhambra by rebuilding under Charles V. Being among of the firsts to acknowledge the importance of Islamic cultural heritage in Spain, he documented the surviving Arabic inscriptions, many of which have since vanished or got restored and thus, his work remains an important source for Islamic Granada.

Palau 129800

Literature; Manzanares de Cirre, M.: Arabistas españoles del siglo XIX. Madrid: Instituto Hispano Árabe de Cultura, 1971. pp. 168-172.; Monroe, J. T.: Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship. Sixteenth Century to the Present. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970. pp. 119-121.

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