Boabdil

Emir of Granada (r. 1482-1492)

• Born: c. 1464
• Birthplace: Granada, Kingdom of Granada (now in Spain)
• Died: 1527 or 1538
• Place of death: Possibly Morocco

Boabdil lost Moorish territory in Spain after challenging his father’s rule and aligning with Spain’s King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I. His actions led to the eventual end of several centuries of Muslim rule in Spain.

Early Life

Boabdil (boh-ahb-DEEL) was the first-born son of Abū al-ḤasanՙAlī (r. 1464-1485), the Naṣrid emir of Granada and the last vestige of the Muslim state of al-Andalus (Andalusia) on the Iberian Peninsula. Boabdil’s mother, Fāṭimah, was al-Ḥasan’s first wife and a daughter of a previous emir, Muḥammad X. Although better known as Boabdil, he would rule as Emir Muḥammad XI.

Virtually nothing is known of Boabdil’s early life, but he would have been raised at the Granadan court. During his youth, the major Spanish Christian states of Castile, ruled by Queen Isabella I , and of Aragon, ruled by King Ferdinand II , were united by the couple’s marriage. Pope Alexander VI called them the Christian monarchs. Isabella and Ferdinand sought the conquest of Islamic (Moorish) Granada to form a Spanish-Christian nation-state. Granada’s emirs had stopped paying tribute to Castile in the late fourteenth century, and Spain’s new rulers wanted it reinstated. Islamic armies had taken Constantinople in 1453 and were moving through the Balkans, fueling Crusader fervor.

The time seemed ripe, since large-scale Muslim aid from North Africa was unlikely, and Ferdinand was not distracted by other Mediterranean affairs. To participants in this venture, the pope provided the usual spiritual benefits offered to Crusaders. Granada’s Muslims sought to coexist in peace amid their rich fields and strong fortresses, but they would defend them against Christian encroachment. Granada and the Christian monarchs signed a formal truce in 1478.

Raiding and other forms of violence were common along the Muslim-Christian frontier, but al-Ḥasan’s capture of the Castilian castle of Zahara in 1481 ended a period of convivencia (coexistence) and set off the last war of the Reconquista (reconquest). In February of 1482, Ferdinand’s troops seized a fortress town that was a mere twenty-five miles from the city of Granada. Al-Ḥasan tried to retake the city in the spring, but only managed to isolate it. In July, Ferdinand attempted to connect with the town, but even as he blocked the Spanish move, al-Ḥasan heard of Boabdil’s seizure of power in Granada.

Life’s Work

Boabdil’s coup against his father was supported by their native clan, who apparently looked favorably on the heir. The Muslims were now split, with some supporting the bellicose emir and others his son, who was said to favor accommodation and peace with the Christians.

Boabdil’s reign as Muḥammad XI dates from the summer of 1482. The victory of al-Ḥasan and his brother Muḥammad al-Zaghall over Christian troops at Málaga in March of 1483 prompted Boabdil to seek a victory of his own to solidify his pretensions to leadership in Andalusia. In mid-April, he led ten thousand men against Lucena and initiated a siege of the Christian town. A warning about a relief force broke the siege, and Boabdil’s men returned east into Granada. Bogged down by booty and captives, and blocked by the raging Genil River, the Muslims were beaten badly. Boabdil was captured by a common foot soldier, Martin Hurtado, who proved immune to the emir’s attempted bribe. He remained a guest of the Christian monarchs at Córdoba for five months and signed a treaty of peace. In October, Muslim clerics declared a fatwa, a condemnation, against Boabdil for his accommodative stance and actions. This weakened his moral authority.

Ferdinand’s army attacked southern Granada in the spring of 1484. Shortly thereafter, al-Ḥasan suffered a stroke, and his brother and field commander, al-Zaghall (the Valorous), claimed the title of emir as Muḥammad XIII. The following February, al-Zaghall came close to trapping his rebellious nephew at Almería. Boabdil narrowly escaped and ran to the Spanish camp, earning himself the nickname al-Zuguybī, the Unfortunate. Al-Zaghall took control of the city of Granada.

It was only after several Christian victories in 1485 that Ferdinand released Boabdil. Al-Zaghall and Boabdil made peace between them, and the latter was entrusted with the defense of the strategic city of Loja. In late May, 1486, Ferdinand captured the city, perhaps with Boabdil’s collusion. Boabdil was once again in Christian custody, during which time he and Ferdinand signed a treaty of peace.

Boabdil was promised unfettered control of the towns of Guadix and Baza and other territories in the northeast, provided he would take them from al-Zaghall’s followers. Boabdil essentially became Ferdinand’s puppet: On September 15, 1486, Boabdil led his own and Christian troops into the city of Granada, beginning a seven-month siege of the Alhambra, the emir’s palace. After this citadel fell, Boabdil offered the city to Isabella, should she make yet another treaty with him. The summer saw more Castilian victories, which left Boabdil with only Granada and a few towns, and his uncle in control of the region’s richest areas, around Baza, Almería, and Guadix.

Christian campaigns in the summer of 1487 picked off all Boabdil’s towns except Granada. This angered the young leader, who refused to hand over the capital as agreed. During the even more successful campaigns of 1488, al-Zaghall lost well-protected Baza and Almería. The emir surrendered, agreeing to peace in return for a tiny kingdom of his own in the Alhaurin Valley. This left the suddenly defiant Boabdil the last standing Muslim leader in Andalusia. He desperately sought the aid of other Muslim leaders but none saw fit to support him. By skillful raids, he pushed out the boundaries of his foothold. Ferdinand responded by carrying out tala, or environmental destruction, in the region. In April, 1491, Boabdil mustered his forces for the last campaign of the Reconquista.

Within Granada, opinion split on whether to surrender. Fighting was the honorable and noble thing to do; surrendering was viewed as a betrayal of Islam, a move at least tacitly condemned by the earlier fatwa. Supplies and food were growing scarce, however. Ferdinand and Isabella ringed the city and constructed a small siege city from which to conduct operations and in which to house the troops over the winter. Christian artillery threatened the city’s walls, but the monarchs seemed content to let time take its toll. Small skirmishes and single combats broke the tedium for both sides, but the Muslims proved so deadly that these were halted and forbidden. When stone buildings replaced the siege city’s huts in the fall, Boabdil decided to treat with the monarchs.

Negotiations were carried out in secret and led to both private agreements and public capitulations. The stipulations were generous: The Christians would not interfere in the religious lives of the inhabitants or the processes of Muslim law. Those who wished to leave would be given safe passage to North Africa. Boabdil was to remain in Granada to oversee the change in government. The Alhambra was handed over to the Christians on January 1, 1492, secretly, at which time Boabdil received a receipt for the property. He publicly surrendered the citadel the next day.

On January 6, he presented the keys to the city gates to the monarchs of Spain as they made their royal entrance into the city. Boabdil received three villages in the rich Alpujarres Hills, and he handed over five hundred hostages whose safety was guaranteed by Muslim good behavior.

Boabdil remained in his new fiefdom until his wife’s death in late 1492 or 1493. This led to his sale of the villages to Ferdinand and to self-exile in North Africa. His departure abrogated the terms of the capitulations, giving the Christians any excuse they needed to mistreat the Granadans. From Tlemcen in Algeria, Boabdil eventually moved to Fez, Morocco. Undoubtedly living in infamy, his last years are lost to history, including the year of his death.

Significance

Boabdil’s life, however long, was dominated by the decade he spent alternately serving and battling the Spanish-Christian monarchs. Whether led by mere pragmatism or by an accommodationist ideology, Boabdil walked a fine line to the end. His personal intentions or motivations can only be inferred, since Muslim records are silent.

In the end the Christians needed a brilliant victory, rather than a short siege and surrender, to crown the half-millennium Reconquista; Boabdil’s honor, and that of Andalusia, demanded a stalwart defense and honorable terms of surrender. Ultimately, both parties were satisfied. In light of the era’s realpolitik, Boabdil’s abandonment of Granada was little more than a legal technicality that lent legitimacy to the anti-Muslim persecutions later that decade.

Bibliography

Harvey, L. P. Islamic Spain: 1250 to 1500. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Concludes with detailed narrative of Boabdil’s reign and his relations with his father, uncle, and the rulers of Christian Spain.

Nicolle, David. Granada 1492: The Twilight of Moorish Spain. London: Osprey, 1998. Well-illustrated study of the military campaigns from 1481 to 1491 that led to the conquest of Granada. Includes sketches of leaders and descriptions of opposing armies.

Prescott, W. H. The Art of War in Spain: The Conquest of Granada, 1481-1492. Edited by Albert D. McJoynt. London: Greenhill Press, 1995. Classic account of the campaigns that led to Boabdil’s defeat.