Boabdil

Abû `Abd Allâh “az-Zughbî” Mohammed Ben Abî Al-Hassan `Ali called Az-Zughbî ( unfortunate the ) and called Boabdil or El Chico ( the Young person ) by the Castilian , is the twenty-second emir nasride of Grenade. He was born in Grenade in 1452. He is the son of Abû Al-Hassan `Alî known as El viejo ( Old the ). He succeeds to him in 1482. He reigns under the name of Muhammad XII az-Zughbî on the Royaume of Grenade and is the last sovereign. The kingdom disappears in 1492. He dies in 1528 with Fès.

The Spaniards also remember it under the name of El Moro , the Moor , thus bringing back the initial conquerors to their ultimate representing.

Biography

To the 15th century, the extent of the territories subjected to the Islam in Spain is reduced more and more and Grenade remains the last bastion that the catholic Kings would like to conquer. An intrigue in love with the Sérail with king de Grenade facilitates their task. The king Abû Al-Hassan `Alî (1464-1482) is indeed enthusiast of a beautiful Christian woman, Isabelle de Solis which once converted with Islam takes the name of Zoraya, and it plans to repudiate the queen `Aïcha, of which it had a son, Az-Zaghall. `Aïcha flees with his/her son, détrône her husband and replaces it by Boabdil, Small King “el Rey Chico”. The Moors big families take party for or against this one. On their side, the Spaniards poke these competitions which serve them.

First reign (1482 - 1484)

In 1482 Boabdil évince his/her father Abû Al-Hassan `Ali and goes up on the throne.

The great Christian defeat of Axarquía

In spring 1483, the marquis of Cadiz and the large Master of the Order of Santiago, Gift Alonso Cárdenas, around whose the elite of the Andalusian Christian nobility gathered, decide to launch a forwarding in the area of the littoral located between Málaga and Vélez-Málaga called Ach-Charqiyya by Arabic and the Axarquía in chronicles Castilians, on the council of a renegade Moslem of Osuna. Three thousand riders and thousand infantrymen start from Antequera on March 19th. Arrived at the Mediterranean coast, they take the direction of Málaga. In this rough ground of the Mountains of Málaga occurs the Moslem counter-attack on Thursday night 21 March 1483. The Christians are completely put in rout. The chronicles Castilians themselves admit to have lost thousand eight hundred died and captive of which famous noble Castilians.

The battle of Axarquía is the last victory of the Moslems in the Al-Ándalus history.

The battle of Lucena

One month after the Christian defeat in the Mountains of Málaga, Boabdil, avid glory, decides to make an incursion in Christian territory. Its objective is a badly defended place, Lucena, whose governor, Diego Fernández of Cordoue, is old only nineteen years. But a Grenadian Moslem betrays to them his by revealing with the inhabitants of Lucena this project of attack. Those strengthen the city very quickly. April 20th, 1483, Boabdil with the head of seven hundred riders and nine thousand infantrymen, is pushed back in front of the walls of Lucena. It undergoes many losses due to surprising the intervention of the army of the count de Cabra who had been informed of the operation of Nasrides. After several skirmishes they put in Boabdil rout which shows poor ordering. The Moslem army is almost destroyed.

During the battle the valiant captain of Loja, `Ali Al-Attar, father-in-law of Boabdil, and several members of the Grenadian aristocracy lose the life. Boabdil itself fell between the hands from the Christians. Those, initially do not recognize it. Boabdil was locked up in the fortress of Porcuna. This episode marks the beginning of the fall of Grenade. The allowed conditions by Boabdil to obtain its release humiliating are granted the most by an Al-Andalus sovereign. He promised to deliver a tax of twelve thousand doubled blooms of Jaén, the equivalent of fourteen thousand ducats; to restore the three thousand Castilian Christian prisoners; to deliver like hostage his son, the crown prince Ahmad, his Yûsuf brother and ten young Grenadian aristocrats. It agrees to be vassal kings de Castille and it asks Castille to come to him to assistance to take again its throne.

As soon as it got informed about the catastrophe of Lucena, Abû Al-Hassan, which has the support of many inhabitants of Grenade hastens to take again its throne.

Captivity in Castille (1484 - 1487)

During its captivity his/her father Abû Al-Hassan “Ali until in 1485, then his uncle, younger brother of his father, Muhammad XIII az-Zaghall take over temporarily the duties. Ferdinand restores it on the throne in 1487, in the condition that Grenade becomes tributary of the Spain.

The attack against Malaga

In spring 1487, the Christians encircle Málaga. The chief of the garrison nasride, Ahmad At-Tagrî, takes the command of the city starting from May 6th. He is given to fight until the end. Subjected to the fire of bombard Castilians, the Moslems deny themselves their better. In July, the vivres manage to miss. The inhabitants of Málaga are obliged to eat horses, asses, mules and dogs. Málaga capitulates at the end of three months and half of seat, on August 18th, 1487. The fifteen Moslem captive miles are in a true state of inanition.

Relations of Nasrides with the other Moslems (1485 - 1489)

Encircled by the Christian enemy, from 1485 the Grenadians are turned over towards their old allies, the Maghrebian sovereigns of Fès and Tlemcen of which they requires an effective help. The sultan Mérinide Mohammed Ben Yahyâ who reigns in Fès signed in 1479 a treaty with Castille, recognizing exclusive rights to him on the African coast. The Zianides of Tlemcen are occupied too much by their two Mérinides neighbors and Hafsides. Hafsides with Tunis endeavor to have best the relations with Castille to be able to protect itself from the Mamelouks from Egypt.

In 1487, a Grenadian embassy requested assistance with the sultan Mameluke Qâ' it Bay. This one threatened the Catholic church. He asks him to intervene with Castille so that it gives up its attacks against Grenade. With the contrary case, Qâ' it Bay would make undergo reprisals with the members of the clergy of the Church of Resurrection in Jerusalem. It would prohibit to Europeans the access to this sanctuary and if it were necessary, it would make it destroy. But the threats of Qâ' it Bay are actually purely verbal. The sultan Mameluke and Castille established commercial relations in full war of Grenade. January 2nd 1488, Ferdinand had required of the pope the authorization to sell corn " with the sultan of Babylone" (Qâ' it Bay) in order to help its subjects threatened by the famine. The amount of the sale would be used to cover the expenses of the war against Grenade. In second intention, Ferdinand wanted to help the sultan of Cairo because he regarded it as the only Moslem chief able to resist the Othoman whose power did not cease growing. No effective help was thus foreseeable on behalf of any of these sovereigns. They were satisfied to receive the fugitive ones which sought to escape religious repression.

Second reign (1487 - 1492)

Mohammed az-Zughbî (Boabdil) conformed to the secret agreement signed with Kings Catholiques and consequently did not intervene in favor of Málaga. On the other hand After the fall of Baza, Mohammed az-Zaghall exiled himself with Almeria. It tested an operation of diversion while launching some detachments of volunteers nasrides, from Adra, on the Christians in the neighborhoods of Vélez-Málaga, it withdraws political scene at the end of 1489.

Mohammed az-Zughbî (Boabdil) returns has to be able to see the end of the kingdom of Grenade. Division still grows hollow when young king de Grenade, captured by Ferdinand II of Aragon, must recognize it for suzerain. Once released, Boabdil refuses to subject the city. He refuses to honor the commitments entered into during his captivity for price with his release.

The powerful family of the Abencérages is shown to be sold to the Christians and to want to reverse Boabdil. According to Gines Perez De Hita, historian of the end of, thirty-six Abencérages would have been exterminated by Boabdil in a room of the palate.

The fall of Grenade

Boabdil remains the only sovereign. In spring 1491, the Christians take again the hostilities to Grenade with a powerful army of ten thousand riders and forty thousand infantrymen. April 26th begins the final seat of the capital nasride. This day there, the Queen Isabelle {{Ire}} of Castille swore not to bathe and not to change clothing until the catch of Grenade. At the beginning of the seat, the camping of the Castilians was destroyed by fire. Isabelle then made build in the valley of the Genil a fixed camping. She made call this city Sitiadora .

Since their besieged capital the Grenadians tested only some rare exits during the six following months. They did not lay out more than of an impotent cavalry and a infantry opposite with the artillery Castilian which opened breaches in the walls of the city. At the end of 1491, the situation in Grenade becomes very precarious when the corn, the barley, the millet, oil have suddenly missed. The passage by the Alpujarra became of impracticable because snow started to fall and cut the communications with this southernmost area. Boabdil starts secret conversations to return the city only at the end of March 1492 whereas since December 1491, the Castilians require an immediate rendering.

The night of 1st at January 2nd, 1492, guided by Ibn Kumasa and Abû Al-Qasim Al-Mulihe, two viziers de Boabdil, the large commander of León, Gift Gutiérrez de Cárdenas and some civils servant Castilian enter secretly Grenade by a little attended way. To the small day, Boabdil delivers the keys of Alhambra to Don Gutiérrez in the Comares Tower. The official capitulation thus goes back to of January 2nd, 1492.

The count de Tendilla and his troops enter Alhambra then while following the same route. The banner of Castille and the cross are hoisted on one of the towers of the fortress of Alhambra which one calls still today the Tower of the Candle. Boabdil leaves its intact city and its palates to the hands of its adversaries, with the help of a treaty of capitulation which guarantees the rights of the inhabitants: those can remain by preserving their religion, their authorities juridico-nuns, their goods and even their weapons (except the firearms).

The end (1492 -1528)

Exiled in the south after the agreements of capitulation enabled him to reside for a time at Salobreña on the tropical coast, it embarks for the coasts of the the Maghreb where any more but one disastrous destiny does not await it. He dies in Fès in 1528

After the fall of Grenade, many members of the Bannigas clan abjured Islam and thus formed the core of the Christian family of Venegas. As for Boabdil, it went to live with Fès with the Morocco with all its family. It made there build palates in the style Andalusian. He dies into 1533/1534. In 1627/1628, the descendants of Boabdil live in Fès under difficult conditions according to the Algerian historian Al-Maqqarî.

The Othoman sultan Bayezid II the Juste allows the Jews of Spain, victims of persecutions of the Spanish enquiry, to be established in Turkey, by thus saving the life with the 300.000 Jews. He sends the Turkish navy in Spain to collect them.

Legends

In the Spanish popular memory, Boabdil became a romantic hero of the Reconquista, taking into account the events unrolled with the loss of its kingdom. Its name is thus frequently present around Grenade.

the massacre of Abencérages in the room known as of Abencérages to the Alhambra