GRANADA

GRANADA. Located in the southeastern sector of the Iberian Peninsula, the city of Granada lies in the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada, some sixty kilometers from the Mediterranean. It rose to prominence in the mid-thirteenth century as capital of the Muslim kingdom of Granada, the last surviving state of medieval Al-Andalus or Islamic Iberia. During the latter half of the fifteenth century, Granada faced growing internal instability and the increasing militancy of its northern neighbor, the Christian kingdom of Castile.

Granada's capitulation in 1492 to the forces of Ferdinand V and Isabella I (ruled 1474–1504), king and queen of Aragón and Castile, signaled the end of independent Muslim power on the Iberian Peninsula. Though the treaty of surrender guaranteed Granadans their traditional religion, forced conversions in 1499 drove the Muslim community to insurrection. The crown responded by rescinding the treaty and demanding mass baptisms. By 1501 the city's Muslim population—estimated at fifty thousand souls in 1492—either emigrated to North Africa or became Moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity). Thousands of "Old Christian" newcomers from southern and central Castile soon replaced the émigrés. By 1561, immigrants to the city numbered around thirty thousand, perhaps twice the dwindling Morisco population. Both Moriscos and immigrants found employment in Granada's lucrative silk industry. Granadan Moriscos dyed the raw silk produced by rural Morisco peasants; immigrants, however, dominated the weaving process. Merchants—often Genoese—exported raw silk to textile centers in the Castilian interior and finished cloth to Italy, North Africa, Flanders, and the Americas.

New local and national institutions marked Granada's incorporation into the crown of Castile and signaled the city's rising national stature. Internal security and coastal defenses were the province of the captain general, headquartered in the Alhambra, Granada's famed medieval Muslim fortress. The 1505 transfer to Granada of the Chancillería, one of two permanent high courts of appeal, established the city as one of Castile's principal bureaucratic centers. A new municipal council, chaired by a royal representative, the corregidor, governed civic affairs. Two council members represented Granada at the Castilian Cortes, a parliamentary body representing a select group of prominent cities. Granadans' spiritual welfare was the province of the Roman Catholic Church, led by the archbishop and the cathedral chapter. The crown exercised unusual control over church appointments in Granada through its Real Patronato, a papal concession of 1486 later extended to all of Spanish America.

These new institutions joined in converting and acculturating the subject Morisco population. In 1567, however, the Catholic authorities' growing intolerance of Morisco rejections of Castilian culture and religion resulted in stringent laws against Morisco cultural practices. The desperate Morisco revolt of 1568 was quelled with equal violence and forced resettlements to the Castilian interior. The expulsions reduced Granada's population by a third, devastated the silk industry, and exacerbated Granada's share of the general economic troubles of late sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century Europe. Seville, gateway to the Americas, soon surpassed Granada in population, prosperity, and prominence, and Granada was relegated to only regional importance for the remainder of the early modern period.

See also Ferdinand of Aragón ; Isabella of Castile ; Islam in the Ottoman Empire ; Moriscos ; Moriscos, Expulsion of (Spain) ; Spain .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barrios Aguilera, Manuel. Granada morisca, la convivencia negada. Granada, Spain, 2002. Analytic essays and primary texts on ethnic relations during the sixteenth century.

Cortés Peña, Antonio Luis, and Bernard Vincent. Historia de Granada. Vol. 3: La época moderna, siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII. Granada, Spain, 1986.

Peinado Santaella, Rafael G., ed. Historia del Reino de Granada. 3 vols. Granada, Spain, 2000. Excellent collection of essays on all aspects of Granada's past from prehistory to 1833.

A. Katie Harris

Granada (Sultanate)

A Moorish realm established in what is now southern Spain, the Granada Sultanate was the last remnant of the Moorish invasion of Europe from northern Africa in the early eighth century. Granada originated as a provincial capital of the caliphate of Cordoba. In the eleventh century, the Zirid dynasty was founded and Granada became an independent sultanate. In 1228, the leader Mohammad Ibn al-Ahmar established a new dynasty, known as the Nasrids, that later began paying tribute to the Christian kingdom of Castile and helped the Castilian kings put down Moorish revolts in their own realm. In Granada, the sultan Muhammed V built an elaborate palace, the Alhambra, that still stands as the most important work of Moorish architecture in Europe.

Granada became a center of Moorish scholarship and learning with the establishment of a university, known as the Madraza, under the sultan Yusuf I in 1349. The city also provided Spain and the rest of Europe with an important link to markets in North Africa. Through Granada, European goods were traded for gold, ivory, and other items brought north across the Sahara Desert in long caravans. The kingdom's economic importance declined, however, as the Portuguese opened up new sea routes to western and southern Africa. In the fifteenth century, with the unification of Castile and Aragon, the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella resolved to conquest the remaining Moorish states in the Iberian peninsula, and the territory of Granada gradually shrank under repeated assaults by the Christian armies. In 1492, Muhammad XII, also known to the Christians as Boabdil, surrendered Granada after a siege, and the Reconquista was complete. By the Alhambra Decree, the rulers of Spain demanded the sincere conversion of the Moors from Islam (as well as Jews) to Christianity. Those who resisted or falsely converted were tried by the Inquisition and executed, while others fled to Africa. The city's mosques were converted to Christian churches, and the Madraza was rededicated as the University of Granada by Emperor Charles V in 1526.

Granada's art and architecture had a lasting effect in Spain. The Moorish artists and builders, known as the Mudejars, had developed an intricate geometrical style, inspired by the Islamic strictures against depicting the human form. Skilled Mudejars worked in stone, brick, wood, and tile, and their motifs and designs were later incorporated into many public buildings in Granada and the surrounding region.

See Also: Ferdinand II of Aragon; Isabella of Castile; Spain

Granada city (1990 pop. 268,674), capital of Granada prov., S Spain, in Andalusia, at the confluence of the Darro and Genil rivers. Formerly (17th cent.) a silk center, Granada is now a trade and processing point for an agricultural area that is also rich in minerals. Beautifully situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada , the city also is a major tourist center, attractive because of its art treasures and rich history. Ski resorts in the nearby mountains also bring many visitors to the area.

Located in Granada is the famous Alhambra , an old Moorish citadel and royal palace, which dominates the city and the old Muslim quarter from a hill; on the same hill is the palace of Emperor Charles V. The Palacio del Generalife, summer residence of the Moorish rulers, has celebrated gardens. Christian edifices include a 16th-century cathedral, in late Gothic and plateresque style; the adjoining royal chapel, containing the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella; and a Carthusian monastery (16th cent.). There is also a museum dedicated to the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca . Across the Darro River and facing the Alhambra is the Sacromonte hill, honeycombed with Gypsy caves.

Granada was originally a Moorish fortress and rose to prominence during the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties. In 1238 it became the seat of the kingdom of Granada, last refuge of the Moors whom the Christian reconquest had driven south; the kingdom occupied the present provinces of Almería and Málaga and parts of Jaén and Cádiz. The concentration of Moorish civilization in Granada gave the city great splendor and made it a center of commerce, industry, art, and science. However, the kingdom was weakened by continuous feuds among noble families, notably the Zegris and the Abencerages, and was conquered by Ferdinand II and Isabella I during the reign of Boabdil ( Muhammad XI ). With the surrender (Jan., 1492) of the city of Granada, the Moors lost their last hold in Spain, and the kingdom was united with Castile . The city became an archiepiscopal see and, in 1531, the seat of a university.

Granada, Australia, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Spain, USA Spain (Andalusia): originally an Iberian settlement in the 5th century bc called Elibyrge ‘New Town’ from the Old Iberian ili ‘town’ and berri ‘new’; it became the Roman Illiberis which was Arabized to Ilbīra (to the Spanish, Elvira). A new Moorish capital, Kastīliya, was founded in 747 some 7 miles (12 km) to the north‐west; this soon became known by the Spanish as (New) Elvira. This town was sacked in 1010 and the inhabitants moved back to (Old) Elvira which became the Moorish Gharnāṭah when it became the capital of the Moorish Kingdom with the same name (1238–1492). The Moorish name may mean ‘Hill of Strangers’. The final Moorish stronghold in Spain, it surrendered to the armies of Ferdinand II (1452–1516), King of Aragón (1479–1516), and his wife and co‐sovereign, Isabella I (1451–1504), Queen of Castile (1474–1504) in 1492. The present name is said to come from the Latin granatum ‘pomegranate’, a reference to the local abundance of this fruit. The cities and towns in the other countries are named after the Spanish city.

Granada , city (1995 pop. 74,396), W Nicaragua, on Lake Nicaragua. It is Nicaragua's third largest city and the center of commerce on Lake Nicaragua. Located in a rich agricultural region, Granada has been the stronghold of Nicaragua's landed aristocracy; manufactures include furniture, soap, and clothing. Granada was founded in 1524 by Francisco Fernández de Córdoba . In the 17th cent., it was the object of repeated raids by French and English pirates. After independence from Spain (1821), Granada became the conservative center, engaging in bloody rivalry with León , the city of the liberals. The struggle led to the capital's transfer to Managua (1855). Granada was captured (1855) by the filibuster William Walker .

Granada City in Andalusia, s Spain; capital of Granada province. Founded in the 8th century as a Moorish fortress, it became the capital of the independent Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1238. The last Moorish stronghold in Spain, it surrendered to the Christian armies of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The central splendour of Granada is the Alhambra. Industries: tourism and textiles. Pop. (2000) 244,500.

Granada a city in Andalusia in southern Spain. Founded in the 8th century, it became the capital of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in 1238, and was the last Moorish stronghold to fall in the reconquest of Spain in 1492. It is the site of the Alhambra palace.

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