Nasrid Granada

Who founded Nasrid Granada, and when?

Muhammad I founded the Nasrid dynasty. Britannica dates his reign from 1232, while its biography of him says the dynasty ruled Granada from 1238 to 1492. Both dates are right: 1232 is when he became king, and 1238 is when he entered Granada, the city that became his capital.

The start was not in Granada at all. On 16 July 1232 a mosque assembly in Arjona declared the town's independence, and Muhammad entered Granada in May 1238 (Ramadan 635), according to Wikipedia's account of his reign. Britannica adds that he began the construction of the Alhambra and fostered the city's prosperity by welcoming Muslim refugees.

The sequence of events, and the sultans who followed him, is laid out in the Nasrid dynasty history, 1232 to 1492. For a later and very different reign, see Muhammad V, the Alhambra builder.

Why did Granada pay tribute to Castile?

Granada paid because Castile bordered it on every landed frontier. In 1246 Muhammad I secured the recognition of Ferdinand III of Castile in return for a vassalage, which, in Britannica's words, "though often ignored, remained in force until the kingdom's disappearance in 1492."

Wikipedia puts a number on the first bargain: after the surrender of Jaén, an annual tribute of 150,000 maravedíes, which it says became Ferdinand's most important source of income. Britannica's wider point holds regardless of the figure: Muhammad I's successors kept being caught between submission to Castile and reliance on their North African kin.

The payments are the subject of how tribute to Castile kept the Nasrids alive, and the North African side is in Nasrid diplomacy between Castile and the Marinids.

How was the Alhambra built?

The Alhambra was built in stages, begun by Muhammad I after 1238 and reaching its full splendour in the second half of the 14th century. The Patronato de la Alhambra ties that peak to the sultanate of Yusuf I (1333 to 1354) and the second reign of Muhammad V (1362 to 1391).

Two dated landmarks anchor the sequence. The Tower of Justice has been one of the main entrances to the complex since it was built in 1348 under Yusuf I. Muhammad V built the palace around the Court of the Lions during his second mandate, between 1362 and 1391. The site was never only a palace: the Patronato describes it as a palace, citadel and fortress, home to the sultans, senior officials, court servants and elite soldiers.

UNESCO calls the Alhambra the only preserved palatine city of the Islamic period, and notes that its inscriptions relate to the religious, political and poetic world of the Nasrid dynasty. That is why the walls are worth reading as well as looking at.

Go deeper with the Court of the Lions, Nasrid architecture: muqarnas, mocárabes and zellige, the Alhambra water system and the Nasrid motto and inscriptions. For the rooms as political theatre, read the Alhambra's political history through its rooms.

What was life like in the Nasrid kingdom?

Nasrid Granada was a refuge and a trading city. The Patronato notes that its capital gradually received Islamic populations as the Christian conquest advanced, and Britannica says the central government's economic resources depended mainly on the silk industry and on external trade.

Around the sultan sat a court that included poets such as Ibn al-Khatib and Ibn Zamrak, with the Alhambra as the residence of every Nasrid ruler up to the surrender of 1492. Below the hill, silk was sold in the market quarter now remembered as the Alcaicería.

People and places to follow up: Ibn al-Khatib, the Nasrid vizier, Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Battuta at the Nasrid court, the women of the Nasrid court, the silk trade and the Alcaicería and convivencia among the three faiths.

How did the Nasrid kingdom fall in 1492?

It fell to the Catholic Monarchs after a long decline: Britannica says the rulers who succeeded Muhammad I were weakened by dynastic and factional strife, and that Nasrid rule was finally ended by the Christian conquest of Granada in 1492. The flag of Ferdinand and Isabella was first raised above the Torre de la Vela on 2 January 1492.

The last ruler is known in Spain as Boabdil. Numbering differs by source, Muhammad XI in some, Muhammad XII in others, so the name is the safer handle. According to Wikipedia he surrendered Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella and was given a lordship in the Alpujarras. The Patronato records that the Catholic Monarchs then ordered extensive repairs to the Alhambra, mainly using Moorish craftspeople.

The infighting is told in the Nasrid civil war over the succession and the clan at its centre in the Abencerrajes. The surrender has its own pages: the conquest of Granada, 1492, the 1491 Capitulations, Boabdil and the Alhambra Decree. To stand where the dynasty is buried, see the Rawda, the Nasrid royal tombs.

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