Al Ahmar's last expedition was undertaken against the Spanish forces and the governors of Guadix and Malaga (their allies) when he was eighty years of age, and failing in strength through illness. A fall from his horse brought him to his end. He expired in the arms of his ally, the Infante Don Felipe, and under cover of darkness his body was borne to Granada, where it was entombed in the burial ground of Assabica. The sovereignty now descended to Al Ahmar's son, named Mohammed II., who ascended the throne in 1273. He was renowned for his wisdom in the law, and during his reign of twenty-nine years he proved a worthy son of a great father. [Illustration: GRANADA--A STREET IN THE ALBAICIN] During his negotiations with Alfonso X. at Seville, Mohammed was the victim of an artifice of Queen Violante. Upon being asked by the queen a favour, he yielded in accordance with the chivalric notions of the time, but his chagrin was deep when he learned that he had agreed to a year's truce to the rebels within his dominion. Smarting under this device, he made plans for the annihilation of his foes. Now the friend of the Spaniards against the African, now the ally of his own co-religionists, Mohammed's career was one of strife. He died in 1302, able to boast that he had not lost a particle of the soil bequeathed to him by his father. Mohammed III. was, like his father, a forceful sovereign. He applied himself rigorously to the government of his territory, often spending the whole twenty-four hours in affairs of State. In 1306 he seized Ceuta, and brought a number of the conquered to Granada. But reverses came when the governor of Almeria rebelled and joined hands with the King of Aragon. Meanwhile the Castilians attacked Algeciras, and Mohammed, between two foes, was brought to bay. He extricated himself from danger by yielding four fortresses and paying a heavy sum. But his troubles were not at an end. Returning to Granada, he was surrounded by conspirators in his palace, and forced to yield the throne to his brother, Abu-l-Juyyush Muley Nasr. Humiliated and defeated, Mohammed retired to Almuñecar, where he lived in seclusion. Nasr's first coup after seizing the throne was a successful attack upon Don Jaime at Almeria. Unfortunately a conspiracy was fomented by his nephew Abu-l-Walid. Nasr, who seems to have had a fit of apoplexy, was thought to be dead when Mohammed III. was brought back to Granada. He was, however, alive upon the return of the lawful sovereign; and on the authority of some historians he ordered that his rival should be put to death, while other writers assert that Mohammed was again banished to Almuñecar. Soon after, Nasr was assailed by the followers of Abu-l-Walid, and forced to yield. As a solatium he was allowed to rule over the town of Guadix, whither he retired. Al Khattib relates that Nasr was a philosopher, and versed in the sciences of astronomy and mathematics.