To be brief, Ivanhoe made such short work with the unbelievers, that
the monarch of Aragon, King Don Jayme, saw himself speedily enabled to
besiege the city of Valencia, the last stronghold which the Moors had in
his dominions, and garrisoned by many thousands of those infidels
under the command of their King Aboo Abdallah Mahommed, son of
Yakoobal-Mansoor. The Arabian historian El Makary gives a full account
of the military precautions taken by Aboo Abdallah to defend his city;
but as I do not wish to make a parade of my learning, or to write a
costume novel, I shall pretermit any description of the city under its
Moorish governors.
Besides the Turks who inhabited it, there dwelt within its walls great
store of those of the Hebrew nation, who were always protected by the
Moors during their unbelieving reign in Spain; and who were, as we very
well know, the chief physicians, the chief bankers, the chief statesmen,
the chief artists and musicians, the chief everything, under the Moorish
kings. Thus it is not surprising that the Hebrews, having their money,
their liberty, their teeth, their lives, secure under the Mahometan
domination, should infinitely prefer it to the Christian sway; beneath
which they were liable to be deprived of every one of these benefits.
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