HISTORY. Andalusia, which was overrun by the Vandals in the early part of the fifth century. was probably the Tarshish of the Bible, its name in classical geography being Tartcssis very ancient town near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, having borne the name of Tartessus). From the Carthaginians, who established themselves there in the third century the country passed to the Romans, who called it B:etica, from the river Retis (Guadalquivir). Under the Empire it attained great prosperity and assim ilated rapidly the civilization of the Romans. The Vandals remained ton a short time in the country and were succeeded by the Visigoths, who ruled Spain till the invasion of the Arabs, in 711. The name of Andalusia is inseparably connected with the glory of Saracen and Aloorish civiliza tion in mediaeval Spain. Within its borders were situated Cordova, Seville. Granada, and Jaen, the centres of Mohammedan culture, industry, and commerce. By contrast with the gloom and emptiness of the Dark Ages in northern Europe, history has east almost a fairy light on the plains of "smiling" Andalusia, the Home of learn ing and art, of chivalry and humane toleration. Cordova was the Athens of the West, the seat of the arts and sciences; and later still. under the
Spaniards even, "when the sun of Raphael set in Italy, painting here arose in a new form in the Velazquez, Murillo, and Cano schools of Se ville, the finest in the Peninsula." The decadence of Andalusia set in with the downfall of the Caliphate of Cordova in the eleventh century and the disruption of Spanish Islam into a number of independent principalities. One by one the cities of Andalusia passed into the power of Castile. Granada alone and the sur rounding veya held out for two centuries after Cordova, Seville, and Cadiz had fallen. The noblest of the Moorish race. fleeing before the Christian advance, crowded into Granada, and the genius of an entire nation made its home within the walls of a city; the lustre which it shed over Granada, however, was but the hec tie flush of the dying Moorish civilization. In 1492 Granada was taken by the forces of united Christian Spain. Comnalt: Murray, The Cities and Wilds of Andalusia (London, 1853) ; Laine, "Sur les routes d'Andalousie" in La Nouvelle Revue, No. 115 (Paris, 1898).