ARAB CIVILISATION IN SPAIN 43 to the top of the dome, and then, dropping at both sides, join the waters of the lake. In this room the Sultan could sit untouched by the water, which fell everywhere round him, and refreshed the air in the hot season. Sometimes, too, wax tapers were lighted within the room, producing an admirable effect on the transparent walls of the kiosk."

It is worth remembering that glass was not introduced into English domestic architecture until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and that the period at which this kiosk is described was contemporary with the Saxon Heptarchy. Seville, with its famous gardens, its noble squares, its great observatory, its suspension bridge, was regarded as one of the most important of Arab towns. Granada was the Damascus of Andalusia, very famous under the Almohade Sultans. Malaga, with its numerous towers, had the advantages of land and sea. It was famous very early in its history for the manufacture of forbidden wine.

Its oil and its figs were known all over the world, so were its silks, especially the brocades, for which it had beautiful designs. Its export trade extended to India and China. Almeria was another of the rich coast towns. It had a dockyard in which very fine vessels were built. It was, according to an Arab author, Ash-shakandi, the ''greatest mart in Andalusia : Christians of all nations came to its port to buy and sell, and they had factories established in it, where they loaded their vessels with such goods as they wanted, owing to which, and to its being a very opulent and large city, filled with passengers and merchants, the produce of the tithe imposed upon the goods and paid by the Christian merchants amounted to very considerable sums, and exceeded that collected in any other seaport."

Almeria gained this trade largely by its famous manufactures of silk, and especially of brocades and damasks and tissues of gold and silver. Thousands of hands were engaged in each branch of the silk trade. It was also famous for the manufacture of pottery and glass and what we should in the present day call hardware. Ships from