The character of Muley Ali Abu-l-Hassan was the reverse of his predecessor’s. He was arrogant, impetuous, and warlike, a fanatical hater of the Christians, and a zealous Muslim. In the first years of his reign he gained some successes over the feeble Enrique IV., and proved himself strong enough to quell a revolt at Malaga. But he let slip the opportunity of attacking the new sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabel, when they were engaged in war with the partisans of “La Beltraneja,” nor did he make any attempt to effect an alliance with their numerous enemies. State-craft does not appear to have been possessed to any great extent by the descendants of Al Ahmar. In 1476, Abu-l-Hassan condescended to sue for a renewal of the alliance with the Queen of Castile; but when Ferdinand of Aragon made the payment of the tribute stipulated by Ibn Ismail a condition of the treaty, the Moor’s proud nature revolted. “Return to your sovereigns,” he said to the Spanish ambassadors, “and tell them that the sultans who paid tribute to the Christians are dead; that here we manufacture only iron spear-heads for our enemies.” These words sealed the fate of the Moors in Spain, though the ruler who uttered them probably thought them merely the prelude to just such a frontier war as had raged intermittently for so many years. The first act in the long-drawn-out drama was the capture of Zahara by the troops of Granada, in 1481--provoked by the predatory incursions of the Marquis of Cadiz. The Christian garrison was surprised during a furious tempest, and put to the sword. The rest of the inhabitants were carried off in captivity to Granada. Abu-l-Hassan, inflated with pride, returned to his capital. There were popular rejoicings, but the wiser Moors shook their heads and predicted that the ruins of Zahara would fall upon their own city. The fiery chivalry of Andalusia were not slow to retaliate. Two months after the capture of Zahara, the more important Grenadine stronghold of Alhama was taken by storm by the forces of the Marquis of Cadiz. The news produced the utmost consternation in Granada. Abu-l-Hassan at once set out with 53,000 men, and invested the place. Ferdinand the Catholic, who had now conceived the idea of reducing the whole kingdom of Granada, hurried to its relief; but he had only reached Lucena when tidings arrived of the raising of the siege by the Marquis’s hereditary foe, the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Abu-l-Hassan returned to the attack a few weeks later, and Ferdinand resumed his advance, before which the Moors retired. The Catholic sovereigns made their triumphal entry into Alhama on May 14, 1482.