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Stories from Granada's Nasrid and Zirid Past (Page 2)

This collection traces Granada's political history through the people and episodes behind it: the Zirid taifa, the Nasrid kingdom that built the Alhambra, and the palace intrigue that led to the 1492 surrender. It covers the Morisco expulsions and Napoleon's brief occupation.

The white launa-roofed village of Capileira in the Alpujarras above Granada, flat terraces and tinaos on a mountain hillside, Sierra Nevada peaks behind, illustrating the Morisco architectural legacy of the moriscos granada history expulsion

Moriscos of Granada: Secret Islam and the 1609 Expulsion

James Walker Updated

Forced to convert in 1502, Granada's Moriscos practised secret Islam under Inquisition surveillance for a century before Philip III expelled 270,000 in 1609.

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The Alhambra palace's ornate Islamic architecture, where the Alhambra Decree was signed in 1492, Granada, Spain

Alhambra Decree 1492: Granada's Jewish Expulsion Explained

James Walker Updated

The Alhambra Decree (Edicto de Granada) expelled Spain's Jews in 1492. Learn why it happened, what else happened in Spain that year, and where exiles went.

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View from the Alhambra towers over Granada at dusk, the Albaicin quarter below with its whitewashed rooftops and minarets, the Sierra Nevada mountains looming behind, conveying the isolated mountain kingdom at the heart of the Nasrid civil war Granada succession crisis

The Nasrid Civil War: How Internal Strife Gave Spain Granada

James Walker Updated

Granada didn't fall to military conquest. A Nasrid succession crisis and three-way civil war handed Ferdinand and Isabella the keys to the last Moorish kingdom.

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Interior of the Sala de los Abencerrajes Alhambra Granada, a key site in Abencerrajes Granada history, looking up at the octagonal muqarnas honeycomb stalactite ceiling rising above the twelve-sided central marble fountain, shafts of light filtering through high windows, warm stone walls with geometric tile dadoes below carved stucco friezes

Abencerrajes of Granada: the noble clan behind the legend

James Walker Updated

Abencerrajes of Granada: the noble clan who shaped Nasrid court politics for a century and became legend through a massacre story set in the Alhambra.

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View of the Albaicín hill in Granada at dusk from across the Río Darro, the ancient hill that was Roman Iliberis and Bastetani settlement, roman granada iliberis history

Roman Granada: Iliberis and the Council of Elvira

James Walker Updated

Granada was Roman Iliberis for over 700 years before the Moors arrived. The Council of Elvira, c. 306 AD, was the earliest church council in all of Hispania.

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Photorealistic 16th-century scene of the lead books sacromonte granada discovery: hillside caves above the Darro with scholars and Spanish clergy examining circular lead tablets inscribed in Arabic and Latin, warm amber evening light, Alhambra fortifications visible across the valley

The Lead Books of Sacromonte — Granada's Greatest Forgery

James Walker Updated

Lead tablets found in Sacromonte's caves, 1595–1606. Condemned by the Vatican in 1682. The Morisco scholars behind Granada's greatest religious forgery.

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Narrow covered lanes of Granada's Alcaicería silk market with Moorish arches and colourful craft stalls, the historic trade district that once formed the centre of the Nasrid silk road economy

Granada Silk Road: the Alcaicería and Nasrid Silk Trade

James Walker Updated

Granada's Alcaicería was the commercial heart of a silk empire. How Nasrid silk funded the Alhambra, reached Flanders, and was dismantled by decree after 1492.

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Narrow lane in the Realejo Jewish quarter of Granada climbing toward the Alhambra hill, white-walled houses and walled carmen gardens, former site of the medieval judería Garnata al-Yahud

Realejo Jewish Quarter Granada: A Neighbourhood Built on Erasure

James Walker Updated

The Realejo was Granada's medieval Jewish quarter, home to Samuel HaNagid. Walk it today and you're crossing the site of a 1066 massacre and a 1492 expulsion.

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