Alhama

Alhama is presented chiefly through the song of its capture, which Catalina sings to Arthur and corrects him when he mistakes it for the Battle of Málaga. Its fall becomes a warning of Granada’s eventual loss, turning the place into a point where conquest is remembered not as uncomplicated triumph but as the beginning of a larger tragedy.

The Battle in Song

Arthur asks Catalina for the song about the Moors losing the battle. She corrects his name for it—Alhama, not Málaga—and explains that the verses continue at length. At his insistence, she sings of an old man who brings news of the Christians’ victory to the king, and of a white-bearded imam who answers that the king’s own actions have brought this defeat upon him. The song’s refrain makes the loss of Alhama feel both immediate and foreboding.

From Alhama to Granada

After singing, Catalina says the lament proved true. She recalls Boabdil leaving the Alhambra Palace with Granada’s keys on a silk cushion and surrendering them to her parents; according to the story, he later looked back at his kingdom from a mountain pass and wept. These events belong to Granada’s surrender, not to Alhama itself, but Catalina places them in the same chain of warning and loss: the song predicts that Granada, its kingdom, and the king’s life will not endure. Arthur laughs at the saying attributed to Boabdil’s mother, while Catalina remains grave and calls the episode tragic.

Narrative Significance

Alhama has no extended physical description in these passages. Its presence is carried by a song embedded in a private exchange between Catalina and Arthur: a request for entertainment opens onto a history of defeat, blame, and the fall of a kingdom. The song also gives Catalina room to interpret the past rather than merely repeat it. By insisting that the lament was true and recalling Granada’s surrender, she makes Alhama a remembered warning about how one loss can announce another.