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. The proper names of the Moors vary even more in the different authorities than their statements respecting the date of events, either in consequence of the difficulty of pronouncing them, or from ignorance of their proper {xviii} orthography. In instances of this character I have always given the preference to such as appeared to be most generally adopted, and were, at the same time, most harmonious in sound. {19} A HISTORY OF THE MOORS OF SPAIN. FIRST EPOCH. THE CONQUESTS OF THE ARABS OR MOORS. _Extending from the end of the Sixth Century to the middle of the Eighth._ The primitive Moors were the inhabitants of the vast portion of Africa bounded on the east by Egypt, on the north by the Mediterranean, on the west by the Atlantic, and on the south by the deserts of Barbary.