Tales of the Alhambra Tales of the Alhambra Tales of the Alhambra is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving. Shortly after completing a biography of Christopher Columbus in 1828, Washington Irving travelled from Madrid, where he had been staying, to Granada, Spain. At first sight, he described it as "a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen." Irving was preparing a book called "A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada", a history of the years 1478–1492, and was continuing his research on the topic. He immediately asked the then-governor
Moorish Gibraltar Gibraltar retreated to the castle and surrendered after a few days to Medina Sidonia. They were expelled along with the city's Jewish population, to be replaced by Spanish Christians. The "Reconquista" of Gibraltar took place on the feast of St. Bernard, whom the Spanish named patron saint of Gibraltar and has remained so ever since. This brought an end to Moorish Gibraltar, just over 751 years after Tariq ibn-Ziyad had begun the conquest of Iberia. Moorish Gibraltar The history of Moorish Gibraltar began with the landing of the Muslims in Hispania and the fall of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo