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TH H   ANTIQUITIES of the Spanish Arabs have, for many ages, continued unheeded
or unknown. The annals of past centuries 
scarcely deign to mention them: and the descriptions of modern pens but imperfectly
supply the place of the pencil. 
Accurate delineations, so essential to render them intelligible, might have
been expected from the enlightened natives of the 
Peninsula, whose artists and antiquarians have vied with the most celebrated
of other countries. The task, however, was 
supinely deferred, or feebly attempted, while prejudice, the sad inheritance
of nations, was actively employed in demolishing 
the works of infidels, whom it was accounted both pious and popular to deride.
The suffrages of the discerning few, and especially of Bayer and Casiri,
at length contributed to remove, or at least to 
mitigate, this prejudice, and to arrest the progress of destruction.  In
consequence of the representations made by these pro- 
foundly learned and virtuous men, the Royal Academy of St. Ferdinand was
commissioned by the Spanish Government to 
send two architects under the direction of a Captain of Engineers, with instructions
to make drawings of the Palace of 
Alhamra, and of the Mosque of Cordova. After a lapse of several years, the
joint labours of the three Academicians were 
published at Madrid, inthe year 1780, in a folio volume intituled, ANTIGUEDADAS
ARABES DE ESPANA ; containing about six- 
teen plates of Arabic designs, together with a few pages of letter-press.
 Some of the inscriptions in this publication were 
translated by the accurate Casiri. Such was the greatest progress made, to
the end of the eighteenth century, in explor'ig 
the antiquities of the polished and enlightened people, who occupied the
Peninsula, during a period of nearly eight 
hundred years. 
The interesting but imperfect descriptions of the remains of Arabian Art,
exhibited in the volumes of some modern tra- 
vellers, as existing in the once renowned Mohammedan cities of Granada, Cordova,
and Seville, excited in the author an 
ardent desire to visit them.  He accordingly embarked for Spain, and arrived
at Cadiz early in May, in the year 1802; 
whence he proceeded to Granada, through lower Andalusia.'  The Governor of
the Alhamr i, desirous that the knowledge 
of its splendid architectural remains should be accurately transmitted to
posterity, obligingly facilitated the author's access to 
that royal palace, at all hours of the day; while he was employed in the
agreeable task of measuring and delineating its 
interior works. Equal facilities were offered at Cordova, the remains of
whose celebrated Mosque and Bridge are delineated 
in the former part of the present volume.  Seven years were unremittingly
devoted to these delightful pursuits; and since 
the author's return to England in 1809, nearly seven years more have been
wholly given Lo preparing for publication the 
present work. 
The admirers of the Arts are here presented with the result of fourteen years
continued labour, executed at an expense of 
many thousand pounds ;-in the hope that, by the union of the graphic art
with the descriptions of the engravings annexed, 
such facilities will be afforded, as shall enable the reader to form an accurate
estimate of the very high state of excellence, 
to  which     the  Spanish Arabs       attained    in  the  Fine   Arts,
wiule     the  rest ot Europe was overwnieimeCL WIuI, %              ,UUanI
barbarism. 
In justice to the memory of an eminent and noble patron of the Arts, the
late Earl of Bristol, the author with pleasure records, that his Lordship
had it in contem 
send two Roman artists to Granada, to make designs of the Palace of Alhamrt,
and to publish them at his own expense. The Earl of Bristol relinquished
the idea 
being informed by the letter of a friend who was visiting that city, that
the author had anticipated his munificent intention. 
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