Emirate of Granada

The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an Islamic realm in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe.

Muslims had been present in the Iberian Peninsula, which they called Al-Andalus, since 711. By the late 12th century, following the expansion of Christian kingdoms in the north, the area of Muslim control had been reduced to the southern parts of the peninsula governed by the Almohad Caliphate. After Almohad control retreated in 1228, the ambitious Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar rose to power and established the Nasrid dynasty in control of a sizeable portion of this territory, roughly corresponding to the modern Spanish provinces of Granada, Almería, and Málaga. By 1250, the Nasrid emirate was the last independent Muslim polity in the peninsula.

The emirate generally existed as a tributary state of the rising Crown of Castile, though it frequently warred with the latter and with other neighbouring states over control of its frontier regions. Despite its precarious position, Granada enjoyed considerable cultural and economic prosperity for over two centuries and the Nasrids became one of the longest-lived Muslim dynasties in Iberia. The famed Alhambra palace complex was built during this period. The population of the emirate, swelled by refugees from the north, was more homogenously Muslim and Arabic-speaking than in earlier Muslim states on the peninsula, with a Jewish minority also present.

The political and cultural apogee of Nasrid Granada was in the 14th century, particularly in the second reign of Muhammad V. After this period, internal dynastic conflicts escalated. After 1479, Granada faced a united Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs intent on conquering it. In 1491, after a decade of warfare known as the Granada War, the emirate was forced to capitulate. Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler, formally surrendered Granada in January 1492, marking the end of independent Muslim rule in Iberia.