Emirate of Granada

Names

Imārat Gharnāṭa; the Nasrid (Nazarí) kingdom. Motto: Wala ghaliba illa Allah ("There is no victor but God"). Capital: Granada; palace-fortress the Alhambra. Founded by Muhammad I ibn al-Ahmar (r. 1232–1273) of the Arab Nasrid dynasty (Banu Nasr) after the Almohad retreat, controlling roughly modern Granada, Almería, and Málaga provinces. It became the last independent Muslim polity in Iberia and generally survived as a tributary vassal of Castile while frequently warring with it. Its cultural apogee came in the 14th century, especially under Muhammad V, when the Alhambra's finest palaces were built. After 1479 it faced a united Castile-Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs. The decade-long Granada War, compounded by Nasrid civil war between Abu'l-Hasan Ali, his brother al-Zaghal, and his son Boabdil (Muhammad XII, in newer numbering Muhammad XI), ended when the Treaty of Granada was signed (25 November 1491) and Boabdil surrendered Granada and the Alhambra on 2 January 1492 — ending Muslim rule in Iberia. He went into exile in North Africa (Fez), dying 1533. The remaining Muslims became Mudéjars. A note on numbering: publication of Ibn Asim's Junnat al-Rida showed the ruler formerly numbered Muhammad X did not exist, requiring renumbering of later sultans.