Some of our _savans_ have, in several very estimable works, united the information to be collected from these Spanish and Arabian histories, with such additional particulars as they were able to derive from their own personal observations.
I have drawn materials from all these sources, and have, in addition, sought for descriptions of the manners of the Moors in the Spanish and ancient Castilian romances, and in manuscripts and memoirs obtained from Madrid.
It is after these long and laborious researches { xvi} that I venture to offer a brief history of a people who bore so little resemblance to any other; who had their national vices and virtues, as well as their characteristic physiognomy; and who so long united the bravery, generosity, and chivalry of the Europeans, with the excitable temperament and strong passions of the Orientals.
To render the order of time more intelligible, and the more clearly to elucidate facts, this historical sketch will be divided in four principal Epochs.
The _first_ will extend from the commencement of the Conquests of the Arabs to the Establishment of the Dynasty of the Ommiade princes at Cordova: the _second_ will include the reigns of the Caliphs of the West: in the _third_ will be related all that can now be ascertained concerning the various small kingdoms erected from the ruins of the Caliphate of Cordova: and the _fourth_ will comprehend a narration of the prominent events in the lives of the successive sovereigns of the Kingdom of Grenada, until the { xvii} period of the final expulsion of the Mussulmans from that country.
Care has been taken to compare the dates according to the Mohammedan method of computing time, with the periods fixed by the ordinary mode of arrangement. Some of the Spanish historians, Garabai for instance, do not agree with the Arabian chronologists in relation to the years of the Hegira. I have thought proper to follow the Arabian authorities, and have adopted, with occasional corrections, the chronological arrangements of M. Cardonne, whose personal assurance I possess, that he attaches high importance to his calculations on this subject. I have thus reason to hope that this little work will serve to elucidate many points hitherto doubtful in relation to this matter.