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