Emirate of Granada

"Kingdom of Grenada" redirects here. For island country in the Caribbean, see Monarchy of Grenada. For other uses, see Kingdom of Granada (disambiguation).

Emirate of Granada إمارة غرﻧﺎﻃﺔ Imarat Gharnāṭah
1230–1492
Royal banner Coat of arms
Motto: Wa lā gāliba illā-llāh (Template:Lang-ar)
Territory of the Nasrid Kingdom from the 13th to 15th centuries
Status	Tributary state of the Crown of Castile (intermittent)
Capital	Granada
Common languages	Official language: Classical Arabic Other languages: Andalusi Arabic, Mozarabic, Berber, Ladino
Religion	Majority religion: Sunni Islam Minority religions: Roman Catholicism Judaism
Government	Hereditary monarchyncvjudr6uye5yes5y
Sultan
• 1238–1273	Muhammad I
• 1487–1492	Muhammad XII
Historical era	Late Middle Ages
• Established	1230
• Castilian conquest	1492
Population
• 1314	200,000
Preceded by Succeeded by Almohad Caliphate Kingdom of Granada (Crown of Castile)
Today part of	Spain Gibraltar Morocco

The Emirate of Granada (Template:Lang-ar), also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada (Template:Lang-es), was an Islamic realm in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Nasrids, a dynasty of Arab origin. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe.

Muslims had been present in the Iberian Peninsula, which they called Al-Andalus, since the early eighth century. At its greatest geographical extent, Muslim-controlled territory occupied most of the peninsula and part of present-day southern France. From the ninth to the tenth century, under the Caliphate of Córdoba, the region was one of the most prosperous and advanced in Europe. Conflict with the northern Christian kingdoms was recurrent, while mounting civil strife led to a fragmenting of Muslim states in the early 11th century. This marked a precipitous decline in the power of Iberian Muslim polities and facilitated the centuries-long Christian Reconquista and the recurrent conquest of southern Spain by North African dynasties, commencing with the Almoravids in the late 11th century.

By 1230, the Almohad Caliphate in Morocco ruled the remaining Muslim territories in southern Iberia. Exploiting the Almohad's dynastic strife, the ambitious Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar rose to power and established the Nasrid dynasty in control of a sizeable portion of this territory, roughly corresponding to the modern Spanish provinces of Granada, Almería, and Málaga. By 1250, the emirate was the last Muslim polity in the peninsula. Although effectively a vassal of the rising Crown of Castile, for over two centuries Granada enjoyed considerable cultural and economic prosperity. Much of the famed Alhambra palace complex was built during this period, and the Nasrids were the longest-lived Muslim dynasty in Iberia.

Nascent Christian power in Iberia meant that Granada's existence was always precarious. In 1491, after a decade of intermittent warfare known as the Granada War, the emirate was forced to capitulate to the Catholic Monarchs. The following year, Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler of Granada, formally relinquished his sovereignty and surrendered his territories to Castile, eventually moving to North Africa in exile. This marked the end of independent Muslim rule in Iberia.

History

Formation and conflicts

With the Reconquista in full swing after the conquest of Córdoba in June 1236, Mohammed I ibn Nasr aligned Granada with Ferdinand III of Castile in 1246, thereby making it a tributary state, or taifa, under the Crown of Castile. Granada remained a tributary state for the next 250 years, with Nasrid emirs paying tribute (parias) to Castilian kings mostly in the form of gold from present-day Mali and Burkina Faso, brought to Iberia by the merchant routes in the Sahara. The Nasrids also provided military assistance to Castile for its other conquests.

In 1306, Granada conquered Ceuta, but lost control of the city in 1309 to the Kingdom of Fez which was assisted by the Crown of Aragon. Granada re-captured Ceuta a year later, but again lost it in 1314. Granada again held the city from 1315 to 1327. In 1384, Granada again re-took Ceuta but lost it finally to the Kingdom of Fez in 1386. Ceuta would be taken by the Portuguese Empire in 1415 and came into the Spanish Empire in 1580.

Granada and its surrounding states in 1360

Granada's peace with Castile broke down on various occasions. Granada lost territory to Castile at the Battle of Teba in 1330. In 1340, Granada under Yusuf I, supported the failed Marinid invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, which ended at the Battle of Río Salado.

Granada also served as a refuge for Muslims fleeing the Reconquista. Although it was relatively prosperous, intra-political strife was constant. Skirmishes along the border of Granada occurred frequently and the territory was gradually lost to Castile.

Fall of Granada

The war of Granada offered an opportunity for Ferdinand and Isabella to harness the restless Castilian nobility against a common enemy and instill subjects with a sense of loyalty to the crown. The Emirate's attack on the Castilian frontier town of Zahara in December 1481 led to a prolonged war. The Granada War began in 1482, with Christian forces capturing Alhama de Granada in February 1482. This marked the beginning of a grinding 10-year war. The Christian force was made up of troops provided by Castilian nobles, towns, and the Santa Hermandad, as well as Swiss mercenaries. The Catholic Church also encouraged other Christian countries to offer their troops and their finances to the war effort. Meanwhile, civil war erupted in Granada as a result of succession struggles in the Nasrid ruling house. Castile used this internal strife as an opportunity to push further into Granada. By 1491, the city of Granada itself lay under siege. On November 25, 1491, the Treaty of Granada was signed, setting out the conditions for surrender. On January 2, 1492, the last Muslim leader, Muhammad XII, known as Boabdil to the Spanish, completely gave up control of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos ("The Catholic Monarchs").

Aftermath

The Christian ousting of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula with the conquest of Granada did not extinguish the spirit of the Reconquista. Isabella urged Christians to pursue a conquest of Africa. About 200,000 Muslims are thought to have emigrated to North Africa after the fall of Granada. It is known that many Muslims emigrated to Morocco after the departure of their emir, and some of them successively emigrated to Egypt and the Levant, settling there and contributing to its prosperity and growth. Initially, under the conditions of surrender, the Muslims who remained were guaranteed their property, laws, customs, and religion. This however, did not ensue, causing the Muslims to rebel against their Christian rulers, culminating with an uprising in 1500. The rebellion was seen as a chance to formally end the treaty of Granada, and the rights of Muslims and Jews were withdrawn. Muslims in the area were given the choice of expulsion or conversion. In 1568–1571, the descendants of the converted Muslims revolted again, leading to their expulsion from the former Emirate to North Africa and Anatolia.

For Jews as well, a period of tolerance under Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula came to an end with their expulsion by the Christian monarchy in 1492.

Ottoman and Moroccan project to recover Andalusia

As a result of the repression of the Moors, some of them requested help from the Muslim sultans and princes, headed by the Ottoman sultan Bayazid bin Muhammad, which is one of the documents that a Christianized Andalusian wrote to the aforementioned sultan requesting his help and describing in poor poetry what afflicts the Moors from the abuse of the courts of the Inquisition, and calling on him to support his defeated brothers by a poem. But Bayazid was preoccupied with the disputes of the Ottoman house, so he was content to send a note of protest to the two Catholic monarchs, on which they did not act.

Then, during the reign of Philip II of Spain (which was educated under the influence of priests and pastors, so he grew up imbued with a crusader spirit), He made the most extreme decrees against the Morisco (spanish muslims). Like the decree issued in the year 1563, which prohibited them from carrying arms, and then the decree issued in the year 1566, which prohibited the use of the Arabic language. This king saw that the most effective way to solve the problem of the Moors lay in confiscating their properties and lands, and completely erasing their identity, thus ending their existence as a different community from the Catholic one, so he issued a decree, in the year 1567, about the abandonment of the infidels [that is, the Moors] of their embroidered clothes, the use of Christian hats and pants, and the renunciation of their language, customs and celebrations. When the muslims tried to start a dialogue to mitigate its effects, the authorities insisted on implementing its content, so a rebellion broke out, which lasted three years, and spread to most of the areas where there was a Muslim presence, but the authorities succeeded to repress it.

During this period, the Ottoman Empire had reached the height of its glory and power, and imposed its prestige over the Holy Roman Empire and all the Christian kingdoms of Western Europe, so Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent turned his face towards the Iberian Peninsula, and coincided with the Emir of the Seas and the owner of Algeria, Khair al-Din Barbarossa. After preparing the necessary bases for their fleets at Ifriqiya (after liberating it from the Spanish on the Capture of Peñón of Algiers and the Conquest of Tunis), the plan was to attack Spain heartland itself in order to recapture Andalusia, and to strike there at the center of the danger that currently threatened the Islamic world, Spanish and the Portuguese (thus, both countries would have to withdraw their fleets that surrounded the lands of Islam in the Indian Ocean and that threatened trade in the East to weaken the Muslim countries), being forced to defend themselves.

Khair al-Din Barbarossa had previously begun attacking Spanish and European ships in general in retaliation for Muslims in Andalusia, and sent his ships to transport Muslims and Jews fleeing the Inquisition and Christianization attempts, but Suleiman the Magnificent was killed in 1566, without directing his coup to Spain, and was taken over by his son Selim II, who rejected all his father's options and decided to conquer the island of Cyprus. First, get rid of the Venetians, and then think about recovering Andalusia, but the Ottomans, preoccupied on several eastern fronts, and then defeated at the naval battle of Lepanto, put an end to the offensive nature of the Ottoman strategy in the Mediterranean, and with it the idea of attacking Spain and recapturing Andalusia.

Finally, it happened that the Sultan of Morocco, Ahmed al-Mansur al-Dhahabi al-Saadi al-Hasani, died in 1603, and civil war broke out between his three sons, and one of them, Abu Abdullah Muhammad al- Ma'mun, sought the help of Philip III to eliminate his two brothers and ascend to the throne. On the other hand, the Moors, in Valencia and eastern Andalusia, supported his brother Zidane al-Nasir, on the condition that he invaded Spain. The Spanish king took that as a motive to exile the Moors as punishment for them, as the Council of State discussed this matter and presented a report that the Moriscos should be exiled for religious and political reasons, the most important of which is the exposure of Spain to the threat of invasion by the Turks or the Moroccans, for which reason the decree was issued that stipulates the exile of these people, as the Iberian Christians were afraid of losing their gains to the Muslims reinvigorated by foreign powers, so they decided to remove the chance that Muslim Granada would become a toehold on the peninsula for the Ottomans or Moroccans expansion.

Economy

Gold coin minted by Muhammad V.

Granada's status as a tributary state and its favorable geographic location, with the Sierra Nevada as a natural barrier, helped to prolong Nasrid rule and allowed the Emirate to prosper as a regional entrepôt with the Maghreb and the rest of Africa. The city of Granada was one of the largest cities during this time: it accepted numerous Muslim refugees expelled from Christian controlled areas, doubling the size of the city and even becoming the largest city of Europe in 1450 in terms of population. During this time there were 137 mosques in the Medina of Granada.

Granada was tightly integrated into Mediterranean trade networks and heavily financed by Genoese bankers aiming to gain control of the gold trade carried in through the trans-Saharan trade routes. However, after Portugal opened direct trade routes to sub-Saharan Africa by sea in the 15th century, Granada became less important as a regional commercial center. With the union of Castile and Aragon in 1469, these kingdoms set their sights on annexing Granada.

Culture

Literature

Ibn al-Khatib was a polymath and poet of the Nasrid period. He authored many works in various fields, and his poetry is carved into the walls of the Alhambra palace.

Architecture

Detail of the coat of arms of the Emirate of Granada carved into the walls of the Alhambra palace.

Further information: Moorish architecture and Alhambra

The architecture of Nasrid Granada embraced extensive surface decoration in wood, stucco, and zillij tiling, as well as making use of elaborate muqarnas sculpting in many buildings. The Nasrids' most famous architectural legacy is the Alhambra, a hilltop palace district protected by heavy fortifications and containing some of the most famous and best-preserved palaces of western Islamic architecture, including what is known today as the Comares Palace and the Courtyard of the Lions. The palace complex was developed throughout the period but some of the most important contributions were generally made during the rule of Yusuf I and Muhammad V during the 14th century. The summer palace and gardens known as the Generalife were also created nearby, in a tradition reminiscent of the Almohad-era Agdal Gardens of Marrakesh and the Marinid Royal Gardens of Fes.

Other notable buildings and structures known from this era are the Madrasa al-Yusufiyya (now known as the Palacio del Madraza), the Funduq al-Jadida (now known as the Corral del Carbón), parts of Granada's city walls, the Alcázar Genil, and the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo in Granada, in addition to many various other fortifications and smaller monuments across the former emirate's territory.

Music

Gharnati music (الطرب الغرناطي) is a variety of Andalusi music that originated in Granada and moved to North Africa where it survived to this day.

Military

Further information: Volunteers of the Faith

Muhammad I of Granada leading his troops during the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, illustrated in the contemporary Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Constantly under threat by both the Christian kingdoms to the north and the Muslim Marinid Sultanate to the south, the population of the Emirate of Granada developed a "siege mentality". The country consequently maintained a strong military. Its border territories were dotted with castles maintained by frontier warriors (thagri) led by armoured elite warriors who were influenced by and comparable to the Christian knights. However, the core of the emirate's army consisted of highly mobile light cavalry as well as light infantry.

The Granadan army was ethnically and culturally mixed. A large part were recruited locally through the jund system in which families with military obligations were registered and conscripted for service. In addition, the Granadan rulers encouraged North African warriors to migrate to the country and serve as ghazi. These immigrants were mostly Zenata (or Zanata) Berbers and eventually organized as Volunteers of the Faith, a factually autonomous and very powerful unit within the Granadan military. The Zenata served as light cavalry, which gave rise to the Spanish term jinete (derived from the name 'Zenata'), which denoted this type of light cavalry. They formed the backbone of the Granadan army, serving both in crucial battles as well as in regular raids inside Christian territory. They were highly mobile on the field, armed with lances, javelins, and small round shields known for their flexibility, and used their own characteristic set of tactics. They sometimes also served as auxiliaries in Castilian armies, sent by the Nasrid emirs of Granada to aid their allies. They were recruited and led by exiled members of the Marinid family and settled within the kingdom of Granada. Their Marinid commander was known as the shaykh al-ghuzāt ('chief of the ghazis'), but in 1374 Muhammad V suppressed this office due to their political interference, after which they were commanded by a Nasrid or Andalusi general.

Muhammad V reduced the status of the Volunteers and reformed the military, strengthening instead the Andalusian components of the Granadan military. The smallest part of the regular Granadan military were Christians and ex-Christians who had been hired by the emirs or defected to them. These were often Spanish knights and termed Mamluks; these warriors were organized as elite bodyguards by some emirs. To augment their army, the Granadans also hired foreign mercenaries.

In regard to its organization, the Granadan military was formally headed by the emir and divided into several units. The frontier areas were possibly commanded by rais, while each important frontier garrison was led by a shaykh khassa. The army was divided into major divisions, each led by a wali, under whom military emirs served as leaders for 5,000 troops, followed by qaid leading 1,000, naqib leading 200, and finally nazir leading eight. The Volunteers of the Faith were initially commanded by the shaykh al-ghuzat. In addition, there existed a Gendarmerie-like shurta in Granada city, commanded by the sahib al-shurta. The Granadan army was usually accompanied by a corps of guides (dalil), religious figures who tended to morale, armourers, medics, and some poets as well as orators.

List of the sultans of Granada

Years	Ruler	Reign
1238–1272	Muhammad I ibn Nasr
1273–1302	Muhammad II al-Faqih
1302–1309	Muhammad III
1309–1314	Nasr
1314–1325	Ismail I
1325–1333	Muhammad IV
1333–1354	Yusuf I
1354–1359	Muhammad V
1359–1360	Ismail II
1360–1362	Muhammad VI
1362–1391	Muhammad V	Second
1391–1392	Yusuf II
1392–1408	Muhammad VII
1408–1417	Yusuf III
1417–1419	Muhammad VIII
1419–1427	Muhammad IX
1427–1429	Muhammad VIII	Second
1430–1431	Muhammad IX	Second
1432-1432	Yusuf IV
1432–1445	Muhammad IX	Third
1445–1446	Yusuf V
1447–1448	Ismail III
1446–1448	Muhammad X
1448–1453	Muhammad IX	Fourth
1453–1454	Muhammad XI
1454–1461	Sa'd
1462–1463	Ismail IV
1462–1463	Yusuf V	Second
1464–1482	Ali Abu'l-Hasan
1482–1483	Muhammad XII Abu Abdallah
1483–1485	Ali Abu'l-Hasan	Second
1485–1486	Muhammad XIII Abu Abdallah
1486–1492	Muhammad XII Abu Abdallah	Second

See also

• Romance of Abenamar
• Taifa of Granada
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties
• Border of Granada
• Emirate of Córdoba

References

Bibliography

English

• Fábregas, Adela, ed. (2021). The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada between East and West: Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries. Handbook of Oriental studies. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-44234-4.
• Fernández Puertas, Antonio (1997). The Alhambra. Vol 1. From the Ninth Century to Yusuf I (1354). Saqi Books. ISBN 0-86356-466-6.
• Fernández Puertas, Antonio (1997). The Alhambra. Vol. 2. (1354–1391). Saqi Books. ISBN 0-86356-467-4.
• Harvey, Leonard Patrick (1992). Islamic Spain 1250 to 1500. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-31962-8.
• Kennedy, Hugh (1996). Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. Longman.
• Miranda, Ambroxio Huici (1970). "The Iberian Peninsula and Sicily". In Holt, P.M; Lambton, Ann K.S.; Lewis, Bernard (eds.). The Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 2A. Cambridge University Press.
• Nicolle, David; McBride, Angus (2001). The Moors & The Islamic West. 7th–15th Centuries AD. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-964-6.
• O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (2011). The Gibraltar Crusade: Castile and the Battle for the Strait. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0463-6.
• O'Callaghan, Joseph F. The Last Crusade in the West: Castile and the Conquest of Granada. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Watt, W. Montgomery (1965). A History of Islamic Spain. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-0847-8.

Non-English

• Arié, Rachel (1990). L'Espagne musulmane au Temps des Nasrides (1232–1492) (in French) (2nd ed.). De Boccard. ISBN 2-7018-0052-8.
• Bueno, Francisco (2004). Los Reyes de la Alhambra. Entre la historia y la leyenda (in Spanish). Miguel Sánchez. ISBN 84-7169-082-9.
• Cortés Peña, Antonio Luis; Vincent, Bernard (1983–1987). Historia de Granada. 4 vols (in Spanish). Editorial Don Quijote.
• Cristobal Torrez Delgado (1982). El Reino Nazari de Granada (in Spanish).

External links

• Granada- The Last Refuge of Muslims in Spain by Salah Zaimeche
• (in Spanish) Al-Ándalus III: el Sultanato De Granada (1232–1492) y Una Breve Reseña Sobre la Alhambra
• (in Spanish) R.H. Shamsuddín Elía, Historia de Al-Andalus, Boletín N° 53 -08/2006 Al-Ándalus III: El Sultanato De Granada (1232–1492)
• (in Spanish) Nicolás Homar Vives, Genealogy of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada
• (in French) Genealogy of the muslim dynasties in Spain
• (in Arabic) بنو نصر/النصريون/بنو الأحمر في غرناطة Les Nasrides, Les Banû al-Ahmar à Grenade