V. Now Yahai, when he saw that he could by no means hold Toledo,
because on the one hand the Moors would give it to the King of Badajoz,
and on the other King Don Alfonso warred against it, he made a covenant
with King Don Alfonso to yield the city to him, if he with the help of
Alvar Fañez would put him in possession of Valencia, which had belonged
unto Hicem and Alimaymon, his fathers, but which the Guazil Abdalla
Azis held now as his own, calling himself King thereof. And he
covenanted that King Don Alfonso should also put into his hand Santa
Maria de Albarrazin, and the kingdom of Denia; and the King assented to
the covenant, thinking that in this manner the land would be all his
own. Yahia therefore sent Abenfarat, who was his cousin, to Valencia,
to spy out what the Guazil would do, whether he would peaceably deliver
up the kingdom unto him, or whether he would oppose his coming, which
he greatly doubted, because it was rumoured that he was about to give
his daughter in marriage to the King of Zaragoza. Abenfarat went his
way, and took up his abode in the house of a Moor who was called
Abenlupo; and while he sojourned there the marriage of the Guazil's
daughter was effected, and the Guazil himself fell sick and died. Then
Abenfarat tarried yet awhile to see what would be the issue, for the
men of Valencia were greatly troubled because of the death of their
King. He left two sons, between whom there was no brotherly love during
his life, and now that he was dead there was less. And they divided
between them all that he had left, even the least thing did they
divide, each being covetous to possess all that he could; and they made
two factions in the town, each striving to possess himself of the power
therein. But the men of Valencia who were not engaged on their side,
and they also who held the castles round about, were greatly troubled
because of this strife which was between them; and they also were
divided between two opinions, they who were of the one wishing to give
the kingdom to the King of Zaragoza, and they who were of the other to
yield themselves unto Yahai the grandson of Alimaymon, because of the
covenant which King Don Alfonso had made with him. When Abenfarat knew
these things he returned unto Yahia, and told him all even as it was;
and Yahia saw that he should have the city, because of the discord
which was therein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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