32 Alids
Farther up the hill is a 14th-century summer palace
called the Generalife that is linked to the main complex
by gardens re-created in the 20th century. The palace
itself is entered by an elongated patio formed around a
canal, the water source. Soon after Granada fell to the
Christians in 1492, the emperor Charles V built a palace
in the Renaissance style that required some demolition
and now looms among the older palaces and fortress.
The Alhambra is especially important because it is
one of the few palaces to have survived from medieval
Islamic times. It illustrates superbly a number of archi-
tectural concerns occasionally documented in literary
references. It demonstrates a contrast between an unas-
suming exterior and a richly decorated interior to
achieve an effect of a secluded or private place of repose.
The architectural decoration of the Alhambra was mostly
of stucco. Some of it is flat. There, however, are extraor-
dinarily complex cupolas appearing as upside-down
crowns. Heavy, elaborately decorated ceilings are sup-
ported by frail columns. Walls are pierced with many
windows with light spreading through almost every part
of its large, domed halls. The poems and calligraphic
ornamentation adorning the Alhambra suggest that
its cupolas are the domes of heaven rotating around
the prince sitting under them. The whole complex is a
stunning exception to the general austerity of Muslim
architecture existing in Spain.
Further reading: Lamia Doumato, The Alhambra
Palace, Granada(Monticello, Ill.: Vance Bibliographies,
1981); Antonio Fernández Puertas, The Alhambra,2 vols.
(London: Saqi Books, 1997); Oleg Grabar, The Alhambra,
2d ed. (Sebastopol, Calif.: Solipsist Press, 1992 [1978]);
Enrique Sordo and Wim Swann, Moorish Spain: Córdoba,
Seville and Granada,trans. Ian Michael (London: Crown
Publishers, 1963).Alids SeeALI IBNABITALIB.Alighieri, Dante(1265–1321)Florentine politician, poet,
author of The Divine Comedy
Born in 1265 to an ancient Florentine family, Dante stud-
ied grammar and rhetoric. His poetic talent improved
considerably through his contacts with old poets such as
BRUNETTOLatini and Guido Cavalcanti (ca. 1225–1300),
who were among his early models. His first important
work in the vernacular was The New Life,written in Ital-
ian about 1293. In it he expounded his reflections on his
devoted and courtly, never proclaimed love for Beatrice,
on whom he had been fixated since he was nine years
old. Her death in 1290 struck him deeply. He soon mar-
ried and attended the schools of the FRANCISCANSand the
DOMINICANSin Florence, where he studied philosophy,
logic, and theology.POLITICS
In 1295 Dante began a political career, when FLORENCE
was riven by disputes between rival factions within theThe Alhambra palace of the Muslim Nasrid dynasty in Granada in southern Spain built primarily between 1238 and 1358
(Courtesy Edward English)