1748 - Thomas Dunckerley - Circumcised Gentlemen

The Freemason's Magazine for August 1794 includes several letters written in 1748 by Thomas Dunckerley to the Earl  of Chesterfield.  A cursory research on my part identifies Dunckerley as a particularly influential 18th century Freemason who also happened to be the bastard son of George II. Perhaps appropriately he received financial assistance from the Freemasons in Gibraltar that enabled him to persuade George III to accept him as his half-brother.

Thomas Dunckerley ( from his Biography by Henry Sadler - 1891 )

In 1747 - long before he had joined the Masons - he was appointed Chief Gunnery Officer on a Royal Navy Sloop. It is perhaps on board this ship that he visited and got to know Gibraltar. Two letters written by him describing the Rock have survived. They were written to the Earl of Chesterton whose main claim to fame from Dunckerley's point of view was that he was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales - his half-brother. The first letter is a description of St George's Cave - now known as St Michael's. The second a short, general description of Gibraltar.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Letter I - A Description of St George's Cave at Gibraltar - Undated. 

ln compliance with your Lordship’s desire, I do myself the honour of giving you the following description of St. George’s Cave, as related to me by an officer of this garrison. 

A little above the Red Sand, not far from Europa Point, on the S. W. side of the hill, is a large cavity, which is the mouth of St. George’s Cave : the entrance is very steep, in some places descending regularly, in others very irregularly, and all the way very dirty and slippery occasioned by the continual penetration of the water through the top and sides of the rock, which causes a mouldering and decay in the stone, so that one cannot well go down without boots. 

The descent to the Cave is in some places a man’s height, in others you are obliged to crawl on hands and knees. After several turnings and windings, which render the passage very tiresome, you enter the Cave itself; the bottom which is level, and the roof very regularly arched after the ancient Gothic manner. There are several tables, with benches round them, the workmanship of which is very curious, all cut out of the solid rock ; but the roof and sides surpass all imagination for beauty and magnificence.  

The gentleman from whom I had this account assured me, that all the descriptions invention ever furnished us with are poor and mean in comparison of the glories, that strike you in your first entrance into this Cave; adding, that it infinitely exceeded the finest paintings or sculpture he had ever seen, as well in the prodigious lustre and diversity of colours that shine round you on every side, as for the neatness of the carving and other embellishments.  

This Cave, in common with most other extraordinary productions of art or nature, are ascribed to preternatural architects, and various are the stories raised of apparitions, &c. haunting this place. The most probable conjecture that can be raised is, that some priests, or other retired persons, chose this spot to seclude themselves from the World, and employed their leisure hours in beautifying this their retreat. The beauties that are celebrated in this Cave are, in my opinion, the equal, productions of Art and Nature.  

The tables, with their surrounding seats are doubtless hewn out of rock. and as the water is continually dropping from all parts, it polishes the sides of the cave and renders them as smooth as the finest marble and the tops of the table are as fine as the smoothest glass. 

Most that visit this cave are obliged to carry lighted torches with them to find their way and now the rays proceeding from these lights are thrown upon the polished surface of the internal parts of the Cave which is entirely composed of convexities and concavities and again reflected back in all the beautiful diversity of colours, in the same manner as we see a diamond or a cut glass reflect the beams of a candle and this I take to be the natural cause of this wonderful appearance. 

There was formally a very good entrance to this Cave, but it is now stopped up by the falling in of the rock, and I don't doubt but that the Cave itself will, in the process of time, share the same fate. 

I have the honour to be,
Your Lordship’s most obedient servant.

A quarter of a millennium later the Cave is still there in all its glory - albeit now known by its original name of St Michael's. The tables and chairs mentioned do not seem to have survived. Nor is there any mention of a Moorish wall that almost certainly still guarded the entrance at the time. Whether Dunckerley ever actually visited the cave himself is of course impossible to verify.

Letter II - A Description of Gibraltar

I had the honour of sending to your Lordship some account of St, George's Cave at Gibraltar, and now proceed to give you a description of that garrison. Gibraltar is a very high and steep bill, of an oblong figure, arising out of a plain almost perpendicular, which adds greatly to its loftiness. This place is the key to the Mediterranean, by reason that no fleet can pass to or from it unobserved or unlicensed by the masters of this important spot, which were formerly the Spaniards, but at present the English.

 Though the fortifications of this place are universally allowed to be the most regular and strong imaginable, yet in all that art has effected but a poor superstructure upon the most wonderful production of nature, who seems to have played the engineer here with utmost skill. The Eastern, or back part of the hill, is one continued horrid precipice; the North side, which arises out of a low marshy plain, is extremely rugged and steep; and the South part, orEuropa Point, is also very steep, and runs out into the sea. 

Thomas Dunckerley's visit to Gibraltar must have overlapped with that of the Reverend Robert Poole, who also left us his impressions. ( see LINK ) Poole's notes are in fact the most complete reference available as to what the Rock was like in the mid 18th century. His were far more detailed and were included in a book rather than a letter. Nevertheless Dunckerley's observations are not dissimilar to those of Poole and contain the odd bit of extra information. 

On the, North side, towards the Spanish lines  (the advanced posts of which are not above a pistol-shot from ours), on the declivity of the hill, is a very strong battery of several brass pieces, called Willis’s Battery, which has communication under round with the lines which run up the side of the hill, and are, as I am informed by connoisseurs, of incredible-strength; all along the side, and up to the top of the hill, appear the vestiges of the old Moorish lines, cast up by them when they were in possession of this place; there are, also, the ruins of an old Moorish castle. ( see LINK ) 

The Rock of Gibraltar  ( 1750 - Cavallero Renau )

At the top of the hill is the Signal-house, which has a most extensive prospect, and from whence, by signals, the garrison is informed of whatever ships are either coming into or going out of the Streights. Towards Europa Point, on the South side of the hill is the New Mole, ( see LINK ) capable of containing ships of the greatest burthen, where our men of war commonly heave down and refit. 

A little above this, upon the side of the hill, is the hospital for sick and wounded seamen. This is a very good building on the inside; the wards are very neat and clean; there is a large spacious court-yard in the middle, surrounded by several apartments, which are built upon piazzas, and form an open kind of gallery or balcony all along, much like those we have in some of our stage-inns in London, which is extremely agreeable, as by this means the least breath of air that stirs in the warm season of the year in this hot climate, is brought into the apartments for the benefit of the sick. 

This hospital is served by a physician, surgeon, and two mates, with proper assistants. Near to this are the barracks for the soldiers, a neat and regular piece of building of free-stone; it is in a long square with two wings; the apartments are neat and commodious. 

Dunckerley could be the first but would not be the last person to mention the Naval Hospital as one of the outstanding building of Gibraltar - together with the nearby South Barracks. Both had been very recently built by another influential Freemason, James Gabriel Montressor, Gibraltar's Chief Engineer at the time.                        ( see LINK ) 

The Naval Hospital in the early 20th century and original plan by Montressor

A little  further lies a great plain of sand, called, from its colour, the Red Sand, which is the common burying-place of the Garrison; at the North end of this sand is the place where ships send their boats for water, called the Ragged Staff ( see LINK ) a very convenient place for watering the largest fleet, and affords abundance of most excellent water. 

Contemporary Spanish map showing Puerta de Mar or Ragged Staff  ( 1747  - Unknown )

About a quarter of a mile from this place is the South-port gate, ( see LINK ) by which you enter the town, which consists of a small number of houses, very low and ill-built, and, upon the whole, cuts a very mean figure. The governor has, indeed, a very handsome house and gardens, which were formerly a convent, and still retains that name. 

The Governor in question was Lieutenant General William Hargrave ( see LINK ) - perhaps the most avaricious of a long line of  British administrators responsible for the fortress during this period. 

Lieutenant General William Hargrave ( Abraham Seaman ) 

There are a great number of Jews here, who seemed to me to be used chiefly as luggage-porters, for you will see three or four of these circumcised gentlemen with a great chest or bale hanging by the middle on a long pole, which they carry across their shoulders, and so trudge along with it at a surprising rate.

Their usual dress is a little short black cassock, bound round their middle with a piece of blue or other coloured linen, and falling down, in a kind of close drawers, as low as their knees. They always go barefoot through choice, by reason of the heat of the climate, and

partly through poverty. 

Porters at Waterport. These may be Moorish rather than Jewish. As many of the latter originally came from Barbary they were often hard to tell apart from their Moorish compatriots. 

A surprisingly innocuous - even sympathetic - treatment of the Jewish population of Gibraltar. 

Gibraltar is a place of very great trade for cloths, silk, etc. and contains upwards 4000 inhabitants, exclusive of a garrison of 3000 always kept here. From the town we go out by the Landport gate into the lines, which run and meet those of the Spaniards upon the little neck of land or marsh which joins Gibraltar to the Spanish main. This gate is about a mile distant from the South-port gate, being the length of the garrison. 

His  figure of 4 000 inhabitants is hard to believe. In 1725 there were just over a thousand and by 1753 the numbers had grown to just over 1800. In fact the population did not reach Dunckerley 's figure until after the Great Siege in the late 1790s. One possible explanation was the perennial difficulty in distinguishing between residents, legitimate visitors and innumerable illegal immigrants

Near it is the Waterport, or Old Mole, ( see LINK ) formerly the place for careening ships, but since the building of the new by the English, it only serves as a kind of haven for market-boats, xebeques, etc. 

There is a very, handsome parade for the troops, about half the bigness of that at Whitehall. Opposite to this hill lies the town of Old Gibraltar, ( Algeciras ) in the possession of the Spaniards, who are frequently spectators of their own ships made prizes, and brought in by us under their inspection. 

I have the honour to be, &c.

Grand Parade -  ( 1860s - G. W. Wilson )

1838 - George Wright - A Filthy Appearance

The Reverend George Newenham Wright was born in Dublin, became an Anglican clergyman, a teacher of classics and the author of - among other publications - a book with the enormously long title of The New and Comprehensive Gazetteer being a delineation of the Present state of the World from the most recent Authorities, arranged in Alphabetical order, and constituting a systematic Dictionary of Geography, in which he describes Gibraltar at length. 

The Rock of Gibraltar  ( 1830s - J.M.Van Braam )

But perhaps it would first be appropriate to reveal the ending of his chapter on the Rock in which he offers the following quote from his fellow Irishman, Robert Montgomery Martin ( see LINK ) 

. . . may the day be far distant when treachery and dissension at home shall cause this noble fortress - the protector of our flag, honour, and trade, in the Mediterranean, to be neglected or condemned ; for upwards of a century it has been a part and parcel of our oceanic empire, enabling us the better to hold our footing in the eastern part of Europe, and to wield with effect the destinies of the world.

The following are extracts from the book and my comments.

Gibraltar town is built on the NW. face of the promontory, extending from the Landport to the Southport Gate, the main street, ending directly between the two gates . . .  The streets are as level as the generality of those in English towns, though the town would appear to be built on the precipitous slope of a hill. 

It is not a question of appearing to be level - it is in so far as the main streets are concerned. They simply follow the level contours of the Rock from North to South.  Traversing these streets, however, there are either steps, ramps or steep lanes or pathways.In the principal streets the houses are generally three or four stories high, built after the English model ; in some parts the Spanish, or probably Moorish, construction prevails, there being a central court-yard, into which the rooms of the dwelling open: but the roofs are not flat or terraced, as in Malta . . . 

Houses with communal central courtyard were - and still are - known as patios de vecinos.  Some houses in Gibraltar did have flat roofs and terraces similar to those that were very common in the surrounding Campo area but on the whole they probably resembled those extant in the 1870s as shown on the photograph below with sloped, tiled roofs. 

The town looking North   ( 1950s - Francis Frith )

The town of Gibraltar, though much improved of late years, is still confined, ill ventilated, and over-crowded with inhabitants; the number of which have, however, been diminished by the erection of villages at Catalan bay and on the neutral ground. As may be expected, in a town subjected to bombardment, the public edifices are neither numerous nor beautiful; the governor resides in a building which was formerly a Franciscan convent, and has a delightful cottage at Europa Point . . . . 

As in other warm climates, the insect tribes are numerous, and the mosquitoes in summer are particularly annoying to new comers.

The erection of villages in the Neutral Ground must refer to those set up during the last yellow fever epidemic ( see LINK ) of 1828  well within a decade of the publication of the book. In this respect the reference to mosquitoes is both interesting and ominous.

'Villages' at the Neutral Ground  ( 1830's - Piaget et Lailavoix - Detail )

Along the sea line Gibraltar town is . . well protected, and nature has lent her aid by means of a shoal of sharp rocks, extending along the front of the fortification far into the bay, and thus preventing ships of very large burden from approaching close to the walls.

Map showing dangerous rocks just off the fortifications of the Line Wall   ( 1799 - Guillaume Dheulland )

 . . there is an English and Spanish church, and an exchange, session-house, library, &c. The barracks are on an extensive and substantial scale, consisting of easements and detached buildings, the latter principally occupied by married people. The hospitals are on a superior scale, principally the naval one, which is unsurpassed in any part of the globe; it is situated on an open space below Buena Vista, 130 feet above the level of the sea, and is capable of  accommodating 500 patients. 

The Naval Hospital - which no longer exists - was built in the mid 18th century by the Chief Engineer James Gabriel Montressor ( see LINK ) . It was indeed one of Gibraltar's few large buildings although it could be argued that both the Town Range and South Barracks - also designed by Montressor - were both equally impressive.

The old Naval Hospital in the early 20th century and the original 18th century plans

The remains of an old Moorish castle still exist, situated on the NW. side of the hill; it is an extensive inclosure  . .  within which are several houses occupied by officers and soldiers; the walls and remains still extant denote the energy and grandeur of the Saracen invaders of Spain.

The promontory is well supplied with water, and the aqueduct, originally planned by the Moors, is a very noble work. The present structure was commenced in 1571, after the plan of a Spanish Jesuit, and finished in 1694: the aqueduct begins in the South and terminates in the centre of the town; the water with which it is supplied filters through the red sand, running through weep holes made of brick, into a reservoir; from whence, after rising to a height of 18 inches, it is conveyed in earthen pipes to various parts of the town. The aqueduct is chiefly fed by the autumn and winter rains, and also supplied by infiltration from the body of the mountain.

An interesting and informative review of Gibraltar's water supply in the early 19th century  which is correctly  identified as having been put in place by Abd-al Mu'min ( see LINK ) when he built the original town in 1160.  A more detailed description of the aqueduct is given by Thomas James in his monumental History of the Herculean Straits. ( see LINK ) 

The fountain at the Grand Parade supplied by water from the aqueduct ( 1771 - Thomas James )

Of the different kinds of fishes, upwards of 70 are observed at the market of Gibraltar; in former times the bay was so celebrated for its fishing of tunny and salmonettas, that coins were struck in which these fish are represented. Considerable quantities of the tunny are taken at the present day, both for immediate food, and for exportation, dried, salted, or preserved in oil. Bonito, mackerel, and anchovy, are taken in great numbers; the latter, in particular, forming a valuable export to the Genoa market. The swordfish is frequently brought to market, and the Gibraltar eels are much prized. 

Salmonettas are almost certainly red mullet or salmometes and all the fish mentioned are still caught - if in far lesser numbers - to this day. The reference to Gibraltar eels is an enigma as eels are rarely available. The name might refer to the Conger or Moray eels both of which are quite common.

Swordfish on their way to market ( c1950s )

Foxes formerly abounded, and a pack of hounds was kept by some of the merchants; hares and rabbits, wild cats, rats, and mice, are prolific. Large flocks of goats browse over the rocks, and their milk and flesh are excellent.

A couple of hounds were indeed imported to try to get rid of a few foxes but when the two hounds became a pack, the Calpe Hunt was born ( see LINK ) and the vermin were given a new lease of life. The hounds may have been kenneled in Gibraltar - but the hunting was done in Spain.

Gibraltar  became at length the centre of commerce which considering the number of inhabitants, was, perhaps, without its equal in the world; an idea of the extent to which it was carried may be gathered from the fact, that in one year the value of British manufactured goods imported into Gibraltar direct from England, and exclusive of colonial produce, was nearly £3,000,000 .

Today this would translate into well over a billion pounds in purchasing power.

It is more than probable that, while in the early possession of the Moors, Gibraltar was thickly peopled by that enterprising nation. A list of constant inhabitants, taken March 20, 1753, gives a total of 1793. In 1831 the population was nearly 17,000. There is much poverty among the poorer classes at Gibraltar, especially among the aliens ; the lower order of Moors and Jews have a filthy appearance ; they wear a sort of frock composed of flimsy blanketing, with a hood and sleeves for wet weather, loose cotton drawers open at the knees, the legs bare, the feet in clumsy slippers, and skull cap of greasy woollen ; this garb is frequently worn night and day, until it drops to pieces.

The lower orders looked filthy because they did all the filthy work.  Also the comment on poverty among the poor smacks of tautology. When one juxtapositions this with the obscene amounts of money the author suggests were being made by the privileged few, the word 'insulting' comes to mind. Wright, of course, was not necessarily being unduly insensitive - he was just a man of his time.  

Local ladies and a Jewish Porter of  Gibraltar  ( 1835 - P. Blanchard )

The chief dish of the lower orders is called gaspacho, and is composed of water, vinegar, oil, capsicum, garlic, and salt, into which bread is broken : all the family sit round the bowl, each person helping himself with a wooden spoon. The usual beverage is Spanish wine, from Malaga, and Catalonia.

The recipe for gaspacho is interesting for two reasons. The first is that  it is quite different to the ordinary thickish cold soup one associates with it. The second is that right up to the end of the 20th century the very same recipe was indeed concocted in many a household in both Gibraltar and the Campo area. My family knew it as gaspacho Andaluz. 

Various circumstances have occurred to diminish the trade of Gibraltar; among the most prominent are the creation of a free port at Cadiz, the establishment of manufactories in the eastern arts of Spain, and the various royal orders of the Spanish government, which place Gibraltar almost in a state of commercial non-intercourse with Spain, under the plea of preventing smuggling into the provinces adjacent to the fortress. Yet with all these disadvantages the trade of Gibraltar is still worth annually upwards of a million sterling; and there is more probability of increase than decrease.

The  inference as regards smuggling is the usual one for most British commentators of just about any era - it was really of no concern of the British and the Spaniard were using it as a rather feeble excuse to make it inconvenient for business. The fact is that smuggling from Gibraltar was reaching epic proportions at the time and was proving extraordinarily damaging to the Spanish economy. A large chunk of that three million pounds was as a result of smuggling. 

1881 - The Polo Club - Anybody at all decent

In his book on Stephen Spender John Sutherland writes that during a visit to Gibraltar in the 1930s, his Uncle, Arthur Loveday had urgently advised him to join the Gibraltar Polo Club if he " wanted to meet anybody at all decent." It would seem that during the early 20th century chasing a ball on horseback was beginning to rival hunting foxes as an upper class pastime for the military of Gibraltar - and perhaps one or two civilians.1

A picture that perhaps conveys the enormous popularity of horse based sports in the Campo area among the British in Gibraltar

It has been argued that Polo on the European continent was first played in Malta in the 1870s, although 'hockey on horseback' was also played by Hussar officers in 1869.  Whatever the case, Gibraltar was not all that far behind - The Gibraltar Garrison Polo Club was founded as early as 1881. 2

Less than six years later In July 1897, the first international match took place in the Aramilla grounds in Granada. The newly formed Gibraltar Garrison Polo Club team took on a Spanish team was captained by the Marquis de Larios ( see LINK ) with his brothers Ernesto and Leopoldo and the Duque of Arión. Larios was in fact a dual nationality Gibraltarian and no less than the Master of the Calpe Hunt. ( see LINK )  

1891 - Pablo Larios

The Marqués de Torre-Soto - when he was just plain Don Pedro Gonzalez - is reputed to be the first Spaniard to play the game. He apparently learned it in England at a time when it was probably only played by cavalry officers.

The Marqués de Torre-Soto on his 87th birthday

The first game was played - around 1870 - rather spontaneously in open countryside with goals marked by poles stuck in the ground. It seems to have petered out for a while but was restarted in 1893 when several people with English surnames - Audley Blyth, Archibald Gold and Sidney Gold - arrived in town in 1893. Thay are attributed to have been responsible for reviving it. Although there is no evidence one way or the other it is possible that these gentlemen may have been from Gibraltar. The upshot was the creation of the Club de Polo de Jerez,

The first games were often the result of friendly reunions between friends rather than seriously organised matches. Gonzales supplied the ponies and the equipment -  including the headgear which was in those day in the form of a Goya. The local Jerezana saddle was eventually replaced by more practical English gear - as was the Goya hat to the pillbox which was in vogue in England. 3

A proper polo ground built on the vineyards of El Pinar ensured that matches against the Gibraltar Garrison Polo Club became regular features and continued unabated until 1931 when the creation of the Spanish Second Republic seems to have made the wealthy reconsider whether they should continue to flaunt their expensive perks as they had in the past.

A young player posing in the Alameda Grand Parade in the 1910s. At the time, polo was played in Campamento every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3.30 pm on the dot.

But the British had other options. According to an article in the Polo Magazine, the game was played three times a week, from October to May, in nearby Tangier and matches between teams from Gibraltar, the Navy and the French Cavalry at Rabat were commonplace. 4  

The suggestion is that it was not just the military who enjoyed the sport; civilian teams were also involved. Nevertheless apart from the Larios family - who might just count as Gibraltarians - I have not been able to trace the names of any locals who may have actually taken part. 

1914 - A polo team from Gibraltar somewhere near Campamento

One of the problems with playing the game was the need for the right kind of horse - or pony. During a match some players required a fresh pony for each game or chukker. Four per player was not unusual and it would not do to use any old nag. The East Surrey Battalion, for example, seem to have spent most of their waking moments playing sport and - among other achievements - were renowned for their polo playing prowess. When they were transferred from Jersey to Gibraltar, their hunting and polo playing activities were serious curtailed. They had been forced to leave their  chargers behind. 

In Tangier the local sources were French owned Anglo-Arabs and Barbs, although British officers often went to the enormous inconvenience of bringing their own from Gibraltar. 4 

1927-28 Regimental Polo Team. Winners, Gibraltar Garrison Polo Cup 

 Lt Magee, Lt Maurice, Lt Lawton, Lt Kennedy

Certain regiments were less keen on the sport than others. In 1935 two infantry regiment contributed between them nearly fifty per cent of the membership. When they left it is quite obvious from the following quote that a lot of fingers were kept well crossed that their replacements would fill the gap.

The two new regiments, Ist Bn. The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and 2nd Bn. The Gordon Highlanders, are both very keen on polo, and when they have suited them-selves to ponies will no doubt give a good account of themselves. The usual tournaments all promise to attract good entries, even if the standard will not be as high as in previous years. Capt. M. Ripley, the honorary secretary of the Gibraltar Polo Club, writes on May 23rd: "At the time of writing an unusual feature of this season is that we have already been stopped ten days' play, due to rain almost as England! "

Getting ready for a game.

Not even the Spanish Civil War was able to stop members of the Gibraltar Garrison from playing the game. Writing about polo on the Rock during those dark days, a correspondent of the Field magazine proved that it would take more than a bloody civil war to dampen the ardour of the officers of the British army in Gibraltar when it came to playing two of their most cherished activities. 

When Spain was closed we played polo on the centre of the Gibraltar Race-course at North Front. We played chukkers of three a side with a large rubber ball, as the ground is mostly soft sand. Soon after permission had been given for the hounds to exercise in Spain, the Spanish authorities allowed us to go out to play polo again at Campamento, where we are still playing . 

Normally polo stops at the end of September to give the ponies a rest before the hunting season, and generally the autumn rains make the ground unplayable, but this year the weather has been kind and the going at Campamento is now far better than ever it is in the summer. 5 

Gibraltar 1927 - Lt Magee, Lt Kennedy, Capt Lunn, Lt Lawton, Lt Doyle, Lt Maurice.

In fact even though the Club's activities ended rather abruptly on July 18th 1936, the grounds were only closed for about three months. As hunting remained out of the question, tournaments continued to be held even throughout the winter weather permitting. When the 1937 Spring season began, there were even more members available than the previous year. 6

1938 - Teams from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment  (Andrew Schembri - with thanks) 

World War II seems to have curtailed polo playing - at least as a sport enjoyed by Garrison officers. Over the years it seems to have become something of an adjunct to the Calpe Hunt without ever achieving the kind of international popularity and fame enjoyed by this particular institution. The sad lack of involvement by local residents is - in a sense - par for the course.

1960s  photo of an area in Campamento close to where the game was played and still known locally today as el Polo

1333 - Abu-l-hasan - Like a Halo Surrounding the Moon

Abd al Mu'min and Muhammad III - Ferdinand IV and Muhammad IV

Abu-l-hasan and Vasco Perez de Meira - Abu Inan Faris and 

Abu Malik and Alfonso XI - Abu Zacariya, Isa'l Barbari and Ibn Juzayy

14th century Gibraltar is not an easy epoch for an amateur historian.  The relationship that existed at the time between Marinid and Nasrid Moors was byzantine in its complexity, as was the almost incomprehensible medieval rivalries between the various Spanish kings and noblemen.

At the start of the century, Gibraltar still found itself under Moorish rule. The glorious days of Abd al Mu'min and his Medinat-al Fath ( see LINK ) were long gone and one could be forgiven for thinking of Gibraltar as a forgotten backwater. 

Medieval map of the Strait of Gibraltar - Babuz Zukak in Arabic - showing Ceuta, Tetuan Melilla and Algerciras - but no Gibraltar ( Unknown )

Gibraltar now belonged to Muhammad IV, the Nasrid Sultan of Granada who also happened to own Algeciras - a town across the Bay from the Rock that had become the main player in the long drawn out tussles for power in what was at the time a rather turbulent neighbourhood. 1

The Alhambra of Granada, the modest home of Mohammad IV 

In 1309 Ferdinand IV of Castile finally managed to wrench the place from the Moors ( see LINK ) He found it in a poor state and carried out a program of running repairs on its dilapidated defences. Perhaps his most well known innovation was the construction of an atarazana or dockyard in an area which would one day be known to the Spaniards as la Barcina and later to the British as the Grand Casemates.

Christian claims on the Rock would prove short lived. In fact they lasted less than a quarter of a century. In 1333 it was back in Moorish hands. Although the plan to recover the Rock was initiated by Muhammad IV - the real leading light was the Marinid ruler of Morocco, Abu Al'Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Othman whose name seems to have been spelt as either 'Hassan' or Hasan' depending on the fancy of the writer and who I will refer to from now on as as Abu-l-hasan.

A year earlier a very young Muhammad IV arrived in Fez and arranged a meeting with Abu-l-hasan in which he proposed a joint campaign to retake Gibraltar from Spain. It was, he suggested, ripe for the taking. The Spanish governor of Gibraltar, Vasco Perez de Meira was less than likely to put up much resistance. For years he had been embezzling money intended for military provisions and defence and had even gone as far as to sell the town's entire supply of wheat to his enemies. 2

According to Lopez de Ayala;

At this period, Vasco Perez de Meira, a Galician knight, was Governor; but he, more intent on laying the foundation of large entailed estates, than of the care of so important a charge, diverted to the purchase of large properties near Xerez . .  the means granted by the King for the maintenance of the garrison . . .  His covetousness led him even to sell the stores he possessed to the Moors, who gladly purchased with the premeditated intention of attacking when scarcity should prevail  . .  

Not surprisingly Muhammad's proposal was met with warm approval by the newly installed Sultan of Fez. Abu-l-hasan, it must be stressed, was not just the most powerful man in Muslim circles but was also a survivor of the first water. Under him the Marinid Maghreb would eventually extend over an area that was larger than that of the Almohad Caliphate which had preceded him. He survived a revolt of his troops, the loss of many of his supporters and a nasty shipwreck. He even managed to avoid the usual fratricidal consequences when his son, Abu Inan Faris seized power in Fez.  

He failed in his attempt to regain his throne in 1350 but managed to seek refuge in the High Atlas mountains  and died in exile 4. Admittedly, some historians do suggest he was killed in 1351 in the mountains of Hentetah. 5 There are always exceptions to the rule.

Although it offers no further clues as to his character, Abu-l-hasan's mother was Abyssinian and he himself  is reputed to have had a dark complexion. He was known as the 'Black Sultan' of Morocco. But whoever he was it is almost certain that his description as the greatest of the Marinid Sultans is almost certainly correct.

The war flag of the Marinids

Nevertheless, Abu-l-hasan would probably not have been able to take Gibraltar without some help from his ally in Granada. By the end of the 13th century, Marinid naval power was at a very low ebb after heavy losses against the Spaniards in their tussle for control over the Strait of Gibraltar. To make matters worse, much of the timber growing regions in the western Mediterranean needed for shipbuilding were in the hands of the Christians. 5a

In 1333, Hasan, accompanied by  his son Abu Malik Abd al-Walid 6 sailed across the Straits to Algeciras together with a large army and set about organising what would later come to be known as the 3rd Siege of Gibraltar. His troops soon occupied the atarazana, Ferdinand IV's pride and joy. He then encircled the place, took control of the heights immediately behind the castle that Abd al Mu'min had built two hundred odd years previously and proceeded to batter it into rubble.7

It was soon over and Gibraltar was once more a Moorish stronghold. The Christians - in the shape of Alfonso XI of Castile  - tried to recapture the place but a series of ill-conceived and poorly executed attempts meant that the assault soon petered out into an ineffective siege - the fourth suffered by Gibraltar during its long  military history and the only one that can claim the dubious honour of having its besiegers being  besieged themselves.

The reason for this absurd state of affairs rests with the attempt by the sultan of Granada  to give Abu Malik a helping hand. As many an army would over the centuries, Alfonso XI was camped on the narrow isthmus to the north of the Rock waiting for a suitable moment to attack the town. Anticipating the unwelcome arrival of Mohammad IV - who incidentally must have taken his time getting there - he decided to built a ditch across the isthmus and retired behind it. It was a not the cleverest of manoeuvres as he left himself trapped between the Rock and a hard place - or in this case a rather soft and narrow strip of water. It was more than enough for Alfonso to accept a four year truce offered by Malik - with his father's approval of course. 8

As part of the siege-ending celebrations, Alfonso entertained the rather naive 18 year old Mohammed IV and showered him with expensive clothes and other gifts. Shortly afterwards the young king was assassinated by his own nobles because of his perceived heretical association both with the Christians and with the Moroccan Marinids. According to a 17th century Arab Historian:      

As he was one day about to embark for his dominions he was assailed by a party of horsemen who lay concealed behind a projecting rock and was put to death. His mangled body, stripped of everything remained exposed on the ground, but afterwards carried to Malaga and interred in the public cemetery close to the Mun'yat or country villa of Seyd. 9

In another version, the ambush took place near Guada Sefayin which may refer to the River Palmones. The first blow was struck by a slave called Zeyyan. 10

Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon ( 1410 - Jean Foissart )

One can almost feel Abu-l-hasan's sense of pleasure and relief at his relatively easy victory when one of the first things  he did was order his son Abu Malik to remove one of the great ten hundredweight bells from the main church in Gibraltar and have it sent it to Fez.  11

Its conversion into a lamp was supervised by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ashquar al Sinhagi and it was eventually installed in front of a gate called Bab al-Kutubiyin in the Mosque of al-Quarawiyin in  Fez in 1337. It was once supposed to have an epigram printed on it which read as follows:

Praise to God Alone. This holy bell was ordered emplaced by the lord of the muslims, defender of the faith Abu-al-Hasan 'Ali . . .  This is the bell found at Jabal al-fath (Gibraltar) God keep it, conquered by the help of God and with His aid by the Muslims Abu-al-Hasan  . . .

The complete fixture still hangs under the third cupola from the anza where it was placed all those years ago.

The great ten hundredweight bell from the main church in Gibraltar converted into a lamp and now hanging in the Mosque of al-Quarawiyin.

It was now time for Abu l-Hasan to start modernising and extending Gibraltar's defences as well as building new civilian buildings and institutions. Like their Almohad predecessors, Gibraltar's new Marinids owners intended to use it as a springboard to attack or counter-attack the Christians. For this he needed not just a fortified town and it attendant military garrison, but a resident population to keep the place supplied with provisions and other home comforts.

Accordingly large numbers of men were sent both to Gibraltar and Algeciras where they were set to work immediately. Abu-l-hasan even sent preachers to urge as many people as possible to join the holy wars. And just in case this was not enough he also offered more down to earth rewards to those who chose to come to Gibraltar to fight for Islam. 12

Among his very firsts strategic decisions was the order to construct a system of 'ribats' These were essentially forts or towers which could be used to defend the borders between Moors and Christians. Many were also meant to serve as watchtowers to give warning of any enemy attack. It is hard to say whether any of the many towers still standing on the shores of the Bay of Gibraltar and elsewhere in the Campo area were built on the ruins of these Moorish forts but their existence is confirmed by Ibn Marzuq.

Between 1334 and 1348 he also ordered watchtowers and strongholds to be built all along the litoral  . . . 13

It is hard not to speculate that the well-known 'Hacho' watchtower which stood for centuries on the top of the Rock might not have been part of the system of ribats ordered by Abu-l-hasan.

Map showing the watch tower known as el Hacho - top left - and the long southern section of the sea wall ( 1627 - Luis Bravo de Acuña )

Money seemed to have been no object as he then ordered the  repairs to the many buildings damaged and destroyed by their own and by Alfonso's siege engines. 13a He began with perhaps the most important building of the lot - the castle at the highest point of the Qasabah in Gibraltar.  As always there was a preoccupation with the possibility of an  enemy invading from the south, climbing up the rock and taking a position along the area above the Castle leaving the town vulnerable to enemy bombardment - as indeed had been the case, not just by themselves during the 3rd siege but also in the 1st when Alonso Perez de Guzman ( see LINK ) and his celebrated tower caused havoc to the defending Moors.

In place of the smaller and irreparably damaged Almohad tower built by Abd al Mu'min, Abu l-hasan  constructed an enormous keep - the strongest Moorish fortress in the whole of al-Andalus perhaps even in the rest of Spain. Arabic text refers to the tower as either al-Qahirah al-Uzma or al-Ma'tharah al-Uzma. 

The Spaniards once called it the Calahorra and it is possible that this is a corruption of al-Qal'ah al-hurrah which means 'the Independent Citadel'. It seems that this name was given to towers or fortresses that were exceptionally large and powerful and dominated their immediate surroundings. Today it is often referred to as the Tower of Homage 14 which - it seems to me - should refer to the older tower which was indeed the place in which the Moorish overlords paid their dues to Abd al-Mu'min, the man who built it. 

Town of Gibraltar being besieged by Spanish forces ( Probably a copy of a page denoting the opening letter E taken from a 15th century manuscript on the taking of Gibraltar by the Spaniards during the 9th siege)

The lower sections of the walled Qasabah would contain living quarters, administrative buildings, cisterns and gardens. Below it lay a residential district with mosques - which would later be converted into churches by the Spaniards - and other important buildings. It was enclosed within its own walls with several gateways, the most important being the Gate of Granada, ( see LINK ) the main entrance to the town from the north and from Spain. The entire district would later be known to the Spaniards as Villa Vieja.

Just below Villa Vieja lay the shipyard. Moorish sources suggest that Abu l-hasan constructed a brand new dockyard - dar as-Sina'ah - in 1333. That this arsenal was in fact a new one seems rather doubtful. The evidence is that Ferdinand IV ordered one to be built just after the first Christian occupation in 1309. One can only surmise that this was a bit of Moorish hyperbole and that in fact all he did was improve on what was already there.

Elsewhere there is mention of the construction of new magazines and the erection of new defensive walls and towers. In the area to the south of Villa Vieja and the dockyard - or Barcina as it came to be known in the next century, there was an area called the at-Turba al-Hambra or the Red Mound - later known as la Turba - he build several non-military buildings including a 'Cathedral Mosque' which was undoubtedly the origins of the present day Catholic Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned. 

From H.T.Norris  - Ibn Battuta's Andalusian Journeys

Perhaps the most quoted of his various improvements was that of the extension of the sea wall extending from the arsenal to the 'tile yard.' I have found it impossible to trace the location of this yard but another well quoted reference to the building of this wall suggests somewhere along the east end of Europa point;

The sultan Abu-l-hasan  . . applied himself further to strengthen Gibraltar, by causing a thick wall to be built at the foot of the rock, surrounding it on all sides, as the halo surrounds the crescent moon; so that the enemy could discover no prospect of success in attacking it, nor did there appear any way through which he could force an entrance. 14a

Yet another well-known structure which might have been build during this period is la Torre del Tuerto. One interpretation for the name of this tower is that it is a corruption of la Torre del Puerto

Unidos a los puertos del monte demás del de la Ciudad hay otro segurísimo y muy capaz en la Torre del Tuerto aunque otros dicen que se ha de decir la Torre del Puerto porque es guarda de este puerto, y a lo que parece no debió sé hacerse esta torre para otro efecto sino para este y para guardar jarcias de armadas. 

 . . . la Torre del Tuerto, la cual como decíamos es de fabrica más antigua que de los otros; aunque unos aposentos que están fuera de la torre y mejor parados con ella parecen Moriscos; a lo menos renovados por los moros. 15

La Torre del Tuerto (1607 - Adam Willaers - Battle of Gibraltar )

Another interpretation is that it was built as part of Abu l-hasan's construction of the southern defences and that it takes its name from his son Abu Malik who is known to have had only one good eye and was known as Abomelique el Tuerto by the Spaniards.  Malik had not just been the man at the chalk face carrying out his father's instructions from Fez, he had also styled himself King of Gibraltar - although he obviously didn't think all that much of it as place to live in as he set up his headquarters in Algeciras. 16


In 1340 Abu Malik was killed when Alfonso XI of Castile and Alfonso IV of Portugal destroyed the armies of the Nasrid ruler Abu al-hasan and the Marinid King of Granada Yusuf 1. It was a disastrous defeat. No Muslim army would ever be able to invade the Iberian Peninsula again.

1340 - The original can be found in the book - 'Chronique de Flandre' which was published in 1470. It is described as the battle in front of Gibraltar in which Abu Malik was killed - and if that is supposed to be Gibraltar in the background then things have certainly gone downhill since the 14th C. It almost certainly depicts the muslim defeat in the Battle of the Rio Salado

In 1348, Abu Inan Faris succeeded his father and inherited Gibraltar. Interestingly he commissioned the great Berber scholar and traveller, Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, better known as Ibn Battuta, to write an account of his travels. For some reason, Ibn Battuta never actually wrote the thing himself but dictated his story to the poet Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi.

While he was in Gibraltar, Battuta met a number of leading officials, such as the orator Abu Zacariya Yahya. He was put up by the local judge - or qadi - Isa'l Barbari who seems to have acted as his tourist guide while on the Rock. 

I walked round the mountain (Gibraltar) and saw the marvellous works executed on it by Abu-l-hasan, and the armament with which he equipped it, together with the additions made by our master Abu Inan, may God strengthen him, and I would have liked to remain as one of its defenders to the end of my days. 17

Abu Inan had paid particular attention to the wall that extended all the way to the southern tip of the peninsular and ensured that it would be adequately serviced by having a ready supply of provisions including plenty of ammunition and food for the troops defending it. 18

Coin minted during the reign of Abu Inan. Quite a few of these will have been spent on Gibraltar

Curiously Abu Inan seems to have had a peculiar affection for the Rock. To him it was more than just an overseas possession of considerable strategic value. Like Abu-al-Mu'min before him he seems to have been enthralled by its shape, its unusual character and its striking position at the head of its Bay. Not altogether surprisingly he ordered his craftsmen to construct a model of the Rock so that he could feast his eyes on it when back in Fez. According to Ibn Juzayy, 

 . . . his concern for the affairs of Jabal reached such lengths that he gave orders for the construction of a model of it, on which he had represented models of its walls, towers, citadels, gates, arsenal, mosques, munition-stores and corn granaries, together with the shape of the Jabal itself and the adjacent Red Mound. The model was executed in the palace precincts; it was a marvellous likeness and a piece of fine craftsmanship. Anybody who has seen the Jabal and then this copy will recognise its merits.' 18

A 17th century Spanish model of Gibraltar. The impressive line wall fortification were notorious for being totally out of date. Very few improvements seem to have been carried out over the years since Abu-l-hasan's famous 'halo' efforts. ( Museo Naval de Madrid )

It is nevertheless extremely hard to separate Abu Inan from his father as to which of the two built what and where. Abu Inan - for all his affection for the place - probably only extended and improved upon his father's work - in particular the line wall that extended towards the south. 

But the man who created what still remains the outline of the older part of the town of Gibraltar - the Quasabah, Villa Vieja, Barcina and Turba - albeit using the original site blueprint set out by Abd-al Mu'min a couple of centuries earlier - was almost certainly the Marinid Sultan of Fez and ruler of Morocco, Abu Al'Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Othman - aka Abu-l-hasan.