The Almoravide rule was of scant duration. Fifty-five years later all Andalusia was annexed to the empire of the Almohades. The third sovereign of the new dynasty dealt what seemed a decisive blow to the allied Christians at Alarcos in the year 1195. But the conquerors knew not how to follow up their victory. The Spaniards rallied, and in 1212 was fought the battle of "Las Navas de Tolosa." The Mussulmans were totally defeated, and left, it is said, six hundred thousand dead upon the field. Yet the knell of Ishbiliyah had not yet sounded. The authority of the Almohade khalifas was nominally recognized in the city sixteen years longer. In 1228 the last of the race of Abd-ul-Mumin to rule in Spain was expelled by the famous Ben Hud, who was himself slain by his rival Al Ahmar, the founder of the Nasrite dynasty of Granada, ten years later. In their despair the people of Seville turned once more to the African Almohades. But no new army of Ghazis crossed the strait to do battle with the Unbeliever. The Andalusians were left to fight their last fight unassisted. Cordova had fallen before St. Ferdinand, and the Sevillians provoked his anger by the murder of one of their chiefs who was devoted to his interests. At the eleventh hour the defence was entrusted--strangely enough for a Mohammedan community--to a junta composed of six persons. Their names are worth being recorded: Abu Faris Ben Hafs, Sakkaf, Ben Shoayb, Yahya Ben Khaldun, Ben Khiyar, and Abu Bekr Ben Sharih. Thus driven to bay, the Moors offered a determined resistance. They were attacked not only by the Castilians, but by their own co-religionists; for Al Ahmar, the new Amir of Granada, was serving with his followers under the banner of Ferdinand. The siege lasted fifteen months. A fleet was brought round from the shores of Biscay under the command of Admiral Ramon Bonifaz. The Moorish ships were dispersed and the chain which the defenders had stretched across the river broken. The besieged were thus cut off from their magazines in the suburb of Triana. Meanwhile all the outlying posts had been taken by the Castilians, and the Moors were driven to take refuge within the walls. Only when threatened with famine did the garrison ask for terms. They offered to capitulate if they were allowed to destroy their principal mosque to save it from profanation. The Infante Alfonso replied that if a single brick was displaced, the whole population would be put to the sword. The terms finally accorded the besieged were, for that age, not ungenerous. A limited number of families were to be allowed to remain in the city, the lives and property of these and of the rest were to be respected, and the means of transport to Africa and other parts of the peninsula were to be provided for those who were to leave. Probably only a few thousand Moors remained in Seville. Abu Faris, magnanimously declining an honourable post offered him by the conqueror, retired to Barbary. Thither he was