History of Europe

Grenada War

Since the fourteenth century, the reconquest had marked a pause; the economic, social and political crises that the Christian kingdoms then experienced prevented them from dedicating themselves to the secular enterprise of the struggle against the Muslims. The kingdom of the Nasrids thus subsisted around Granada, paying tribute to the kings of Castile .
The first to resume hostilities were the Muslims, who at the end of 1481 occupied the border city of Zahara by surprise; the Andalusian nobility reacts and, on February 28, 1482, seizes Alhama. The Catholic Monarchs then decide to intervene energetically and defend Alhama, thus transforming what could have been one of many local skirmishes into the first act of a long war that would end, ten years later, known as the Granada War with the disappearance of the Muslim power in the Peninsula.

Granada taken by the Catholic Monarchs

In 1481-1483, the Christians tried in vain to seize Loja and occupy Malaga, but instead they captured Boab-dil, son and rival of Sultan Abul Hasan Ali —el Muley Hacén of the chronicles of the time. Cunningly, the sovereigns released Boabdil, who declared himself his vassal. He proclaimed himself king in Granada in place of his brother Muley Hacén, who died a short time later. Meanwhile, the Catholic Monarchs surrounded Ronda, which surrendered in May 1485. In May 1487, the siege of Malaga began, which ended on August 18 due to an unconditional surrender. In what was agreed with Boabdil, it had been arranged that, when the Christians took Baza, Guadix and Almena, the Muslim king would hand over the capital to them within a short time. But Boabdil refused to honor the agreement . The Catholic Monarchs therefore prepared to resume hostilities. Numerous troops were mustered under the personal command of Ferdinand; Elizabeth and the court arrived at the camp; a military city, Santa Fe, was built as a center. Boabdil had no choice but to negotiate. The capitulation was signed on November 25, 1491; a few weeks later, on January 2, 1492, the king and queen solemnly entered the capital .

Conversion process of the Muslims after the Granada War

The newly won kingdom was taken over by two people who had the trust of the kings:don Íñigo López de Mendoza, count of Tendilla, as mayor and captain general, and Fray Hernando de Talavera, as archbishop. The capitulation guaranteed the Muslims of Granada the freedom of worship, the use of their language and costumes, the practice of their customs; they had also been promised that they would be judged according to their own laws . Talavera, confessor to the queen and new archbishop of Granada, undertook the task of converting the Muslims, and he did so with peaceful and eminently apostolic means:evangelization, dissemination of catechisms written in the Arabic language, translations of the gospels, sermons, etc. Such methods gave encouraging but slow results. On the occasion of a trip by the Catholic Monarchs to Granada, Cisneros, who was then Archbishop of Toledo and had succeeded Talavera as Isabel's confessor, visited the city in 1499 and stayed there for some time. He was in favor of much more energetic and effective procedures to achieve conversions. Indeed, during his stay, the conversions were much more numerous, but the methods used caused unrest and protests in the Moorish population. The Albaicín rioted and there was also a rebellion in the Alpujarra. Consequence of those events was the pragmatic of February 11, 1502; the kings considered that, by rebelling, the Muslims of the former kingdom of Granada had violated what was agreed in 1491; They were therefore forced to convert or leave Spain; most preferred the first solution. The newly converted, known from then on as Moriscos, did not cease to pose serious problems in the 16th century until their definitive expulsion, carried out at the beginning of the 17th.