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Articles · Nasrid Granada

Nasrid Granada: Articles on the Last Muslim Kingdom in Spain

Twenty-three sultans, the Alhambra, and a kingdom kept alive by tribute to Castile.

These articles follow the sultans who ran the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, the palaces they raised on the Alhambra hill and the tribute that kept Castile at bay. For readers who want the dynasty behind the monument.

33 articles · 1238–1492

Nasrid Granada in Granada, 1238–1492

Articles on Nasrid Granada

Visitor seen from behind resting a hand on a weathered iron-studded wooden door on a cobbled lane in Granada's old town, morning light

Did Hernán Pérez del Pulgar Really Nail the Ave Maria in Granada?

James Walker

Did Hernán Pérez del Pulgar nail an Ave Maria to Granada's mosque door in 1490? A claim check of the royal grant, the epitaph and what later retellings added.

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Alhama de Granada history in one view: a whitewashed hill town on the lip of a deep river gorge at golden hour, a church tower above steep rooftops, mountains behind, photorealistic

Why Alhama de Granada's Fall in 1482 Opened the Granada War

James Walker

Alhama de Granada was named for its 47 °C springs, fell to Castile in late February 1482 and lives on in the ballad Ay de mi Alhama. History and what survives.

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Ibn Khaldun in Granada: fourteenth-century scholar in a long robe crossing a sunlit Nasrid courtyard, slender columns and arcade behind, a small fountain in the foreground, warm afternoon light

Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Battuta Came to Nasrid Granada

James Walker

Ibn Battuta reached Granada in 1350 and never met the sultan; Ibn Khaldun came in the early 1360s and fell out with Ibn al-Khatib. What each saw at court.

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Torre de las Damas of the Alhambra reflected in the Partal pool at dusk, the tower whose cupola is now in Berlin

The Alhambra Ceiling a German Banker Took Home to Berlin

James Walker Updated

The dome in the Alhambra's Torre de las Damas is a 1960s copy. How Arthur von Gwinner got the original to Berlin, and what Spain did when his heirs sold it.

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Excavated Alhambra Rawda, the Nasrid tombs of the royal cemetery, empty trapezoid graves in a walled garden beside Calle Real Baja at dusk, Granada

The Alhambra Rawda: Where Nasrid Sultans Were Buried

James Walker

The Nasrid royal cemetery sits beside the Partal, across Calle Real Baja. Who lay there, why it was found empty, and where the sultans' tombstones are now.

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Visitor looks up at Alhambra inscriptions: a band of Arabic calligraphy above shield medallions and a tiled dado

Alhambra Inscriptions Meaning: There Is No Victor but God

James Walker

The Nasrid motto wa la ghalib illa Allah, no victor but God, recurs across the Alhambra's walls. What it means, where the legend comes from and how to spot it.

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Mulhacén summit ridge in Sierra Nevada at dawn, bare rounded slopes of grey schist with late snow patches and a long shadow falling east, illustrating the Mulhacen name origin and the legend of the sultan buried on the peak

Mulhacén Name Origin: Sultan Said to Be Buried There

James Walker

Mulhacén is named for Sultan Muley Hacén, said to lie on its summit. What the name means, what records say about his death and where Nasrid kings were buried.

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Muhammad V Nasrid Sultan's Palace of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, at golden hour: carved stucco arches and slender marble columns around the fountain in the Court of the Lions

Muhammad V, the Nasrid Sultan Who Built the Alhambra

James Walker

Muhammad V ruled Granada twice, survived exile in Fez, and returned in 1362 to build the Alhambra's Palace of the Lions during Nasrid Granada's golden age.

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Present-day exterior of Santa María de la Alhambra on the former Alhambra royal mosque site, warm stone walls and bell tower seen from Calle Real in late afternoon light

Alhambra Royal Mosque: From Nasrid Mosque to Santa María

James Walker

The Alhambra royal mosque was completed in 1305 and later replaced by Santa María. Read its plan, surviving bath and difference from Granada's city mosque.

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Nasrid gold-and-cobalt lustreware Vase of the Gazelles, a tall globular storage jar with wing-shaped loop handles, a confronted pair of gazelles in gold lustre on the upper body, dense vegetal arabesque and kufic inscription bands, narrow flat base, displayed under gallery lighting in the Alhambra Museum

Vase of the Gazelles: The Alhambra Vase That Never Left

James Walker

The Vase of the Gazelles is the only Alhambra Vase that never left the complex, now displayed in Room V of the Alhambra Museum after six centuries on site.

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A candlelit scene of the treaty of Granada 1491 capitulations being signed at the Santa Fe siege camp, Ferdinand and Isabella at a campaign table across from Boabdil in Nasrid robes

The Treaty of Granada 1491: 67 Promises That Were All Broken

James Walker Updated

The treaty of Granada 1491 capitulations promised the city's Muslims their mosques, law and faith for all time. Within a decade Cisneros broke them all.

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Afternoon light in the Court of the Myrtles at the Alhambra's Nasrid Palaces, its reflecting pool and horseshoe arches evoking the calculated Nasrid Granada diplomacy Marinids Castile triangulation that let the emirate endure for two centuries

Nasrid Granada's Diplomacy Between Castile and the Marinids

James Walker

For two centuries Nasrid Granada survived by playing Castile against the Marinids of Morocco, until the 1340 Battle of Río Salado tipped the balance for good.

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