Conquest of the Kingdom of Granada

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The conquest of the Muslim kingdom of Granada , also known as the Emirate of Granada or Sultanate of Granada, by the armed forces of the Catholic Kings lasted from 1482 to 1492, repeatedly interrupted by long breaks in the fighting. The conquest is regarded as the conclusion of the Reconquista . Through them, the last Muslim domain in Spain was eliminated.

The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada
Muhammad XII. (Boabdil)
Queen Isabella of Castile
King Ferdinand V of Castile

prehistory

After the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, Muhammad I ibn Nasr founded what was then the Sultanate of Granada. By recognizing the sovereignty of the Castilian King Ferdinand III. and its successors, as well as regular tribute payments , the Kingdom of Granada was able to maintain a high degree of independence. Despite various conquests by one side and the other in the border areas, the relationship between Castile and Granada was quite stable. There were extensive trade links. Granada's main export products were dried fruit and locally produced silk . Gold from Sudan was passed on to all of Europe through Granada.

In the summer months of 1455 and 1456, Henry IV undertook several campaigns against the Kingdom of Granada, destroying fields and crops in the area of Málaga and Granada without making direct attacks on the cities.

In 1461 the Castilians lost two battles in attacks on Estepa and Arenas. The troops of Conde Rodrigo Ponce de Leon and Juan de Guzman Duque de Medina Sidonia were able to take the fortress of Gibraltar .

After the death of King Henry IV, the Catholic Kings in 1475, 1476 and 1478 renewed the armistice agreements with the rulers of the Emirates of Granada in order to have peace on this front during the War of the Castilian Succession . The failure to pay tribute was also accepted. The fight against the Moors was one of the topics that had already been agreed between the two partners in a kind of internal government program before Isabella and Ferdinand were married.

Course of the war

The course of the war is usually divided into three sections in modern historiography:

  • 1. The conquest and defense of Alhama (1482–1484)
  • 2. The battles of 1485–1487 with the fall of Malaga
  • 3. The final battle for Granada 1488–1491

The conquest and defense of Alhama (1482–1484)

At the end of 1481, the Moors raided the city of Zahara in response to attacks by the Christians on some places on the western border. This attack is considered to be the beginning of the final phase of the Reconquista . With the consent of the Catholic Monarchs , the Marquis of Cádiz Rodrigo Ponce de León attacked the city of Alhama de Granada with his troops, around 2500 cavalrymen and 3000 infantrymen . The place, protected by a fortress, was on an important traffic route connecting Granada with Málaga. In February 1482 the city surrendered. About 4,000 women and children were captured. Most of the approximately 1,000 male residents were killed in action.

The Emir of Granada Abu l-Hasan Ali made an attempt to recapture it a few days after taking Alhama. An army of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia came to the aid of the Marquis of Cádiz's troops, so that Abu l-Hasan Ali was forced to give up the reconquest. When King Ferdinand V intervened in the conflict at the head of an army, the dispute lost the characteristic of the usual raids and turned into a war of Castile against the emirate of Granada.

The first major clash of the opponents took place in June 1482 in front of Loja , when the Spanish army, which had not yet completed the preparations for the siege of the city, was attacked by the Moorish light cavalry and worn out by other Moorish troops as they retreated. Among the dead was Rodrigo Tellez Giron, the Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava . King Ferdinand withdrew to Córdoba with the remnants of his army .

While Abu l-Hasan Ali was still fighting the Christian attackers, his son settled as Muhammad XII. proclaim ruler of the emirate. While Muhammad XII. ruled in Granada, his father Abu l-Hasan Ali ruled Málaga, Ronda and the western part of the emirate.

In March 1483 an army under the leadership of the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, Alfonso de Cardenas, Rodrigo Ponce de León and Juan de Silva, Conde de Cifuentes, marched from Antequera towards Málaga. The defenders, led by Abu l-Hasan Ali and his brother Muhammad al-Zagal, were able to push back the attackers, particularly through the use of archers and light cavalry units .

In order to distinguish himself in the fight against the Christians, Muhammad XII also broke. at the head of a troop formation consisting of 9,000 infantry and 700 riders to attack the city of Lucena , which is far in Castilian territory . Lucena was able to withstand the attack. On their retreat towards Loja , Muhammad XII came across. himself and 5,000 of his fighters in captivity.

In order to avoid that the emirate would be reunited without internal disputes under the sole rule of Abu l-Hasan Ali, the Catholic Kings concluded with Muhammad XII. a two-year peace agreement. He also undertook to pay a ransom and recognize the Catholic Kings as his liege lords. Muhammad was released in early September 1483. He initially resided in Guadix, from where he prepared his return to the capital. The city of Granada was again the scene of a civil war. When Abu l-Hasan Ali was unable to rule due to a stroke, his brother Muhammad al-Zagal took over as Muhammad XIII. the leadership.

In the spring of 1484, the Christian attacks on the area around Málaga were successful. Attacks from the sea were also carried out during this operation. The acts of war were primarily a matter of impairing the supply of the Moors by destroying the crops. At this time a division of labor developed on the part of the Christian military leadership: First of all, the southern Spanish grandees carried out campaigns of robbery, looting and destruction with their troops. Afterwards the towns were besieged by mercenary troops and militias of the Santa Hermandad who were directly subordinate to the crown . The use of artillery was of increasing importance. The treatment of defeated opponents was also standardized. While in the case of conquered cities, the surrender conditions stipulated that the surviving population was usually left with what they could carry, in cities that surrendered without siege, offers were made to the families of the Muslim aristocracy who did so enabled them to integrate into Spanish culture and politics. They were promised that they could continue to practice their faith and that religious matters could continue to be judged according to the Sharia and the Sunna within the communities . As a result, when the troops under the leadership of Ferdinand V arrived outside Marbella, a delegation from the city offered surrender negotiations without further fighting. In addition to the usual concessions, the king even offered to make ships available to bring North African businessmen living in the city and other residents who wanted to go into exile to North Africa.

The battles of 1485–1487 with the fall of Malaga

In 1485 the Christian troops were able to conquer a large number of cities with their now well-established tactics and division of tasks between the troops of the Andalusian nobles, the troops of the Santa Hermandad and the troops of the knightly orders.

In the spring of 1486 the civil war in Granada was at its peak. The followers of Muhammad XII. and Muhammad XIII. also fought within the city of Granada.

During the conquest of the city of Loja by troops under the leadership of Ferdinand V, Muhammad XII was. captured again on May 29, 1486. He was released from captivity in the summer of 1486. In September 1486 his supporters in Granada rebelled against his uncle Muhammad XIII. But there was no fall, so that the empire fell into two spheres of power again.

In preparation for the conquest of Málaga , Spanish units marched from Córdoba (Spain) to Vélez-Málaga in just eight days in April 1487 and began the siege. At the same time a Castilian-Aragonian fleet blocked the mouth of the Rio Vélez. Muhammad XIII. tried to prevent the transport of the artillery of the Catholic Kings to Vélez-Málaga. However, he had to withdraw after two unsuccessful attacks. Since Muhammad XII. Had used the absence of his uncle from Granada to win the city for himself, Muhammad XIII went. after Guadix. After the artillery bombarded the walls of Vélez-Málaga for a few days, the city had to surrender on April 27, 1487.

At the beginning of May 1487, envoys of the Catholic Kings conducted negotiations with the commander of the city of Málaga, who, however, refused to surrender the city without a fight. In order to avoid a prolonged siege of the city, Ferdinand decided to attack from the front. From this developed the "bloodiest and most bitter battle of the war for the Moorish Empire of Granada." The attack had to be stopped without result. Now the city was besieged. Heavy artillery pieces were used from both sides. Queen Isabella visited the troops to improve the attackers' morale. A task force that Ibrahim ai-Jarbi , who came from the island of Djerba , had put together from around 500 volunteers from the area around Guadix, tried to break through the ring of siege around Málaga. About 200 fighters managed to get into the city, 300 were killed. At the end of July the city was so starved that new negotiations took place and the city surrendered on August 18th and the fortresses on August 20th. A third of the 15,000 inhabitants were exchanged for Christians captured in North Africa. Another third was handed over as slaves to the Christian troop leaders. The last third was sold as slaves to cover the cost of the campaign. The residents who converted from Christianity to Islam were executed. The city's 500 or so Jews were able to keep their freedom if they paid 30 gold doubloons per person. Some prisoners who had been of particular importance to the city were given to the Pope as slaves.

The final battle for Granada 1488–1491

Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz: The Surrender of Granada (historical picture from 1882)

The fall of Malaga and the treatment of the defeated inhabitants led to a number of Moorish cities offering their surrender to the Catholic kings without a fight on the condition that they could continue to practice their religion as Mudejares under the rule of Castile.

At the beginning of 1489, the emirate of Granada consisted only of the areas around the cities of Guadix, Baza and Almería, which Muhammad XIII. were ruled, and the capital Granada, which in the hands of Muhammad XII. was.

At the beginning of June 1489, under the command of Gutierre de Cárdenas, the siege of the city of Baza began, but this had no effect until October. At the beginning of November Queen Isabella visited the besiegers. In December 1489 negotiations were finally held on the handover. The commander of the city of Sidi Yahya al-Najjar (Cid Hiaya el-Nayyar) was baptized and was later known under the name of Pedro de Granada Venegas. Without his conversion known, he left as an envoy to Muhammad XIII. after Guadix. He achieved that on December 22nd, Almería and on December 30th, Guadix were given to the Catholic Monarchs. Muhammad XIII. emigrated with his followers to North Africa. He died in Tlemcen in 1494 .

Coat of arms of the Emirates of Granada
Coat of arms of the Catholic Kings after 1492

In 1489 there were a large number of refugees in the city of Granada from areas previously conquered by the Christians who opposed the handing over of the last position of the Moors to the Catholic Kings. In 1490, the troops of Granada were reinforced by North African volunteers, so that the coastal towns of Adra and El Padul could be recaptured, thereby enabling the supply of Granada from the sea. Another attack by the Moors on Salobreña failed. A decisive blow by the Christian attackers was postponed to 1491 because of the onset of winter.

In 1491 an army consisting of 10,000 horsemen and 30,000 infantry and artillery set up an army camp in front of Granada, which later became known as Santa Fe . Queen Isabella also moved to this camp to raise the morale of the troops from Alcalá la Real . Granada could be cut off from any kind of supplies by a narrow siege ring. The situation in Granada became untenable for the residents of Granada, so that the residents of the Emir Muhammad XII. urged to make an honorable peace. In November 1491 the terms of the transfer were negotiated. On January 2, 1492, Muhammad XII handed over. (Boabdil) King Ferdinand V the keys to the city and the Alhambra. The royal banner and the flag of the Order of Santiago were hoisted on the Alhambra. Muhammad XII. only retired to Alpujarras . He later emigrated to Tlemcen in North Africa.

With the fall of Granada, the last area ruled by Muslims on the Spanish peninsula was conquered by Christian rulers. The emirate was incorporated into the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile as "Reino de Granada" (Kingdom of Granada). In the coat of arms of the Catholic Kings, the coat of arms of Granada, the pomegranate, appeared in the base of the shield from 1492. There it still appears today. B. in the coat of arms of King Philip VI.

financing

The war of Castile against the emirate of Granada required a great deal of financial resources, which came from various sources. In 1485 the Holy See approved that a tenth of the Church's income in Castile could be used to finance the crusade against the Moors. The Santa Hermandad administration approved a loan to cover the cost of the war. The Sephardim and Mudejares of Castile had to pay a special tax. Between 1489 and 1491, the Catholic Monarchs took out compulsory interest-free loans from cities, wealthy monasteries and from the grandees of the empire and merchants. Other loans had to bear interest of up to ten percent. Queen Isabella offered her jewelry as collateral for a loan from the Kingdom of Valencia. Some aristocratic houses provided troops for the promise to be compensated later with the booty from the campaigns. The Spanish orders of knights equipped their troops with their own resources.

Composition of the troops

At the beginning of the war, the attacks were carried out by the troops and members of Andalusian noble houses, especially those of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and the Marquis of Cádiz. After Pope Sixtus IV issued a crusade bull in 1482 , knights from France, Germany and England volunteered to take part in the battles against the unbelievers for the remission of their sins and booty. The Spanish orders of knights, under the direction of their grandmasters, provided the best trained armies of knights. Some mercenary troops and the town-supported Santa Hermandad troops were directly subordinate to the king. For the first time, special forces were created with artillerymen, pyrotechnicians, pioneers in transportation and sanitary services. The strength and composition of the troops changed from campaign to campaign. While between 1482 and 1484 around six to ten thousand cavalrymen and ten to sixteen thousand infantrymen took part, 15,000 horsemen and 80,000 infantrymen were involved in the battle when Bazas was captured in 1489. In addition came z. During the siege of Baza, for example, tens of thousands of workers ensured supplies for the troops with 14,000 mules, since in preparation for the sieges the crops were usually destroyed in the vicinity of a city that was under siege.

Treaty of Granada

On November 25, 1491, in the camp of Santa Fé, the contracts regarding the surrender of Granada to the Catholic Kings were signed. These contracts consisted of 77 sections in which on the one hand the rights of the conquerors but also the rights of the conquered were specified in detail. In relation to the conditions negotiated with the inhabitants and the leadership of other cities during the war, very generous concessions were made for Granada. The Muslim residents were allowed to keep all their property, including their weapons (except firearms). They were allowed to emigrate with their property within the next three years. They could not be obliged to do any forced labor and were allowed to work in any professions. The Muslim merchants received the same rights as the Christian merchants of Castile. Taxes were left at the level that existed before the Christians took over rule. The Muslims were allowed to continue practicing their religion. They were not forced to be baptized. People who converted from the Christian to the Islamic religion were not punished, but had to leave Granada. The holders of Muslim religious offices were allowed to keep them. The posts in the municipal and judicial administrations of the Muslim communities were also not reassigned.

Disputes between Muslims among themselves were decided by Muslim judges. Disputes between Muslims and Christians were settled by courts consisting of a Muslim and a Christian judge. Christians were not allowed to enter the mosques during worship and the Moors' houses were only allowed to enter the houses at the invitation of the owners.

The last emir Muhammad XII. (Boabdil) received a Muslim enclave ruled by him as a retreat for himself and his family in the Alpujarras region .

It is assumed that the Catholic Kings agreed to these treaties with the ulterior motive that pretexts would be found in the foreseeable future to withdraw the regulations bit by bit. In fact, almost all of the concessions were canceled over the next ten years.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 201 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  2. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 110 ff .
  3. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 113 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  4. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 70 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  5. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 114 ff .
  6. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 118 .
  7. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 120 f .
  8. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 120 f .
  9. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 123 .
  10. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 123 ff .
  11. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 128 .
  12. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 129 f .
  13. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 131 f .
  14. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 134 ff .
  15. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 127 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  16. ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 119 f .
  17. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 210 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  18. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 211 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  19. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 209 f . (From the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  20. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 213 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).

literature

  • Walther L. Bernecker; Horst Pietschmann: History of Spain - From the early modern era to the present . 4th edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-018766-X .
  • Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 .
  • Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada: Mudéjares y repobladores en el Reino de Granada (1485-1501) . In: Cuadernos de historia moderna . No. 13 , 1992, ISSN  0214-4018 , pp. 47-72 (Spanish, ucm.es [accessed May 22, 2019]).
  • Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).

Web links

Commons : Isabella I (Castile)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files