Over centuries of war, betrayal, family infighting, and political manoeuvring, the Islamic stronghold on the doorstep of Christian Europe had gradually eroded. For almost 800 years the rich and refined influence of Islamic culture, architecture, customs, and law had run through the veins of life on the mainland of Europe in the Iberian Peninsula. But Islam had proven an uncomfortable neighbour for Christian Europe, and by 1492 the Christian powers were in the ascendency, determined to retake the land they believed to be theirs. And now, only Granada, magnificent in dignified isolation, stood in their way.
What would have needed to change within Granada for it to have remained strong and defiant?
The Nasrid emirate of Granada was victim of its own disunity. It was weakened by the almost constant rivalries, feuding and violence within the royal family itself that had gone on for centuries.
The lasthis wife Aixa, mother of Boabdil, and said to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad, for another woman. Abu l’Hasan married Zoraya, a former Christian slave girl captured by the Nasrids, who converted to Islam, and together they had two sons, who threatened Boabdil’s right to succeed his father as sultan. Aixa plotted to ensure that her first-born and rightful heir would inherit the Nasrid emirate, pitting father against son. Finally, Boabdil took over the city in a coup during his father’s absence and became emir of Granada in July 1482.
