Sultana's Legacy (49 page)
While he built up portions of the Alhambra, including the Palacio del Partal by day, he devoted his nights to reading and studying. However, his sadistic nature overwhelmed his heritage of learning. The feud with the Marinids that had begun during the reign of his father Muhammad II plagued Sultan Muhammad III. A revolt occurred on 1 Shawwal 708 AH or March 14, AD 1309 and Sultan Muhammad III went into exile, forced from his throne to the city of Almunecar. He died in 709 AH or AD 1310, after an abortive attempt to restore him to power failed. He drowned in a pool. Sultan Muhammad III was approximately 54 years old at the time of death. No record survives of his possible children. Historians accuse his successor Abu’l-Juyush Nasr I, of ordering the death of Sultan Muhammad III.
Sultan Abu’l-Juyush Nar I
Abu’l-Juyush Nasr who reigned as Nasr I, the fourth Nasrid Sultan, was the younger brother of Muhammad III. Sultan Abu’l-Juyush Nasr I was born 24 Ramadan 686 AH or November 2, AD 1287, the child of a union between Muhammad II and a Christian concubine. Nasr I continued the policy begun by his grandfather Muhammad I and paid tribute to the kingdom of Castile. Yet, during his reign, the Nasrids temporarily lost control of Algeciras and Ronda to the Banu Marin and Gibraltar to the Castilians.
For his losses and troubles, the aristocracy did not support Nasr. They believed he was a secret Christian, raised in his mother’s faith. He preferred the clothing styles of Christians. He employed a minister, Ibn al-Hajj, as his vizier whom his detractors believed was a secret Christian, too. Around a year after a coronation, Nasr’s cousin and brother in-law Abu Said Faraj, the governor of Malaga, rebelled against him. In 711 AH or AD 1311, the two finally signed a truce. Abu Said Faraj later disgraced himself in a treasonous alliance with the Banu Marin, an act that resulted in his loss of control over Malaga, which his son, Abu l-Walid Isma’il claimed. Abu l-Walid Ismail deposed Sultan Abu’l-Juyush Nasr I a year later.
Nasr withdrew to Guadix where he later supported the army of Castile against his nephew Ismail at the Battle of la Vega on 7 Jumada al-Ula 719 AH June 26, AD 1319. Nasr suffered a stroke and died 6 Dhu al-Qa`da 722 AH or November 16, AD 1322. The Sultan was 36 years old. His nephew, Ismail, removed his body to Granada and re-interred him near the site of his grandfather, Sultan Muhammad I’s burial on the
Sabika
hill. The historical record provides no evidence that Nasr had sons or that any such offspring survived him. With the death of Nasr, the direct male line of the Nasrid Dynasty ended and shifted to the descendants of the Sultana Fatima.
Sultan Abu’l-Walid Ismail I
Abu’l-Walid Ismail, son of the Sultana Fatima and nephew of both Sultans Muhammad III and Abu’l-Juyush Nasr I, reigned as the fifth Nasrid Sultan. He was born in 677 AH or AD 1279. On his father’s side, he was a cousin of Sultan Muhammad II and second cousin of Sultans Muhammad III and Abu’l-Juyush Nasr I, as well as his own mother Sultana Fatima. On his mother’s side, he was also a grandson of Muhammad II, cousin to his own father, Abu Said Faraj, and nephew of both Sultans Muhammad III and Abu’l-Juyush Nasr I.
When Ismail rebelled against Nasr, the citizens of Granada opened the main gate of the city, now the Puerta de Elvira to him. He besieged Nasr until his surrender on 21 Shawwal 713 AH or February 8, AD 1314. In the Battle of la Vega on 7 Jumada al-Ula 719 AH or June 26, AD 1319, Sultan Ismail I defeated King Alfonso XI of Castile. His troops killed the regents, Alfonso’s uncle Prince Juan (the murderer of Doñ Alonso Perez de Guzman’s son at Tarifa) and the King’s cousin, Don Pedro. He also raided along the border of Castile and Granada, taking slaves.
He added significantly to the Alhambra complex and the palace of Generalife. After the Battle of la Vega, he built the Alcazar Genil, which functioned as a residence for the elderly women of the Sultan’s household. He also established the royal pantheon around the burial site of his grandfather, Muhammad II, perhaps to establish the legitimacy of his reign, by his descent through the Sultana Fatima.
Sultan Ismail I fathered at least four sons, Abu Abdallah Muhammad, Ismail, Faraj and Abdul Hajjaj Yusuf. Ismail died on 24 Rajab 725 AH or July 6, AD 1325, a victim of assassination. Ali, Faraj and Muhammad, the three sons of his first cousin, also named Ismail (only son of the Sultan’s paternal uncle Muhammad) stabbed him to death over a slave girl taken during a raid on Martos. Servants carried the dying Ismail to his mother Fatima’s chambers. The Sultan perished from his wounds, at 48 years old. His ministers ordered the perpetrators of the vicious attack executed. When Sultan Ismail I died, his eldest son Muhammad who was born in 715 AH or AD 1316 reigned as Muhammad IV and succeeded his father as the sixth Nasrid Sultan.
Prince Abu Said Faraj & Princess Fatima bint Muhammad
When Prince Abu Said Faraj ibn Ismail and Princess Fatima bint Muhammad married in 664 AH or AD 1265, it destabilized the kingdom of Granada and altered the perceived destiny of its rulers. Every Sultan from their son Sultan Ismail traced their descent through Fatima and Faraj, until the end of the Nasrid Dynasty. On his father’s side, Faraj was a first cousin and son-in-law of Sultan Muhammad II, cousin and brother in-law of the Sultans Muhammad III and Abu’l-Juyush Nasr and cousin to his own wife, Fatima.
When the Nasrids defeated the Ashqilula, Faraj became governor of Malaga, which his father had held until his death. He and Fatima lived there for years, during which they had at least seven children, including Ismail and their second son, Muhammad, along with several daughters. Faraj was devoted to Muhammad II, whom his uncle Muhammad I, raised him alongside. He suggested several reforms and programs that the Sultan’s court issued. His loyalty continued in the reign of Muhammad III.
Faraj changed after his brother in-law Nasr dethroned Muhammad III. The nobles of Granada approached him and begged him to depose Nasr, who they thought was an inefficient monarch, more interested in science, astrolabes and astronomical tables, and a secret Christian. When Faraj heard of the capture of Muhammad III, he rebelled against Nasr and attacked him at al-Atsha, in the Vega of Granada. Nasr lost his horse in a quagmire and ran to his capital on foot. Faraj besieged the city for several months, until the influence of Fernando IV of Castile persuaded him to seek a truce with Nasr.
Later, Faraj survived an assassination attempt, which many believed Nasr had ordered. In the end, Faraj lost power because of the discovery of a secret pact between Malaga and the Marinid Sultan, which would have allowed Faraj to claim the northern port of Chella in exchange for the wealth of Malaga’s taxes. His son Ismail usurped his father’s rule and assumed the governorship. He kept Faraj under close watch, first at the Gibralfaro, then in the castle of Cartama. After Ismail I took the throne from his maternal uncle Nasr, he had Faraj transferred to the fortress at Salobrena, where he lived out the intervening years until his death in 720 AH or AD 1320. Ismail had Faraj’s body removed from Salobrena and re-interred in the royal pantheon of the Alhambra, near the burial site of Muhammad II. When the Nasrid Dynasty ended, the last of the family exhumed the bones of all their ancestors and took them out of Granada, including Faraj’s remains.
Fatima did her duty as her grandfather Muhammad I commanded and married Faraj for political gain. History does not record anything about their marriage, whether it remained a political match or if they grew to care about each other. It also does not reveal anything of her perspective on the tragedies that embroiled her father, brothers, husband, and son. In writing about her, I have stayed as true to the sources as possible and to an understanding of human nature. Whatever the truth of her feelings, Fatima was a remarkable woman in a fascinating period of Spain’s history. She lived a cultured and refined life, in the manner of her father and her brothers. She was well-educated, like her father, and possessed an interest in study that extended to her role as tutor of her grandchildren.
One can only assume how the turmoil between her husband Faraj and her brother Nasr in the later years must have torn her in two, as did her son Ismail’s cruel actions toward his own father and his maternal uncle, Nasr. Fatima must have been a woman capable of extraordinary love and forgiveness. When the kinsmen of Ismail I attacked him, his servants brought him to Fatima’s chamber, rather than his own. This gesture suggested, at least to me, the bond between Fatima and her son. She demonstrated further devotion to her family in the relationships with her grandchildren. She tutored them, especially the boys Muhammad and Yusuf. She did not overtly wield power, but another tragedy indicates the extent of her influence at court. When assassins murdered her grandson Muhammad IV’s prime minister, Ibn al-Mahruq in 729 AH or AD 1328, he died in her suite of rooms after delivering his usual report to her on the affairs of the Sultanate.
The Sultana Fatima’s legacy of wisdom flourished with the ascension of her grandsons, the Sultans Muhammad IV and Yusuf I. Muhammad’s brutal assassination at the age of eighteen occurred in 733 AH or AD 1333, in his eighth year as ruler of Granada. Despite this tragic loss, Fatima remained the steadfast matriarch of her family. She died at Granada during Yusuf’s twenty-one year reign, a period of intellectual and architectural brilliance, which sustained itself through the reign of Yusuf’s eldest son Muhammad V.
Fatima’s descendants continued to rule Granada for more than one hundred and fifty years after her demise. The last Sultan of Granada, Muhammad XII, surrendered to King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile in Rabi al-Awwal 897 AH or January AD 1492, ending seven hundred years of Muslim rule in Spain.
Thank you for purchasing and reading this book. I hope you found the period and characters fascinating. Please consider leaving feedback where you bought this book. Your opinion is helpful, both to me and to other potential readers.
If you would like to learn more about the Alhambra and Moorish Spain during the Nasrid period, visit
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The saga of the Nasrid Dynasty continues in
Sultana: Two Sisters
, available 2013.
Islamic Regions and Modern Equivalents
Al-Andalus / Al-Jazirat Al-Andalus: Spain
Al-Atsha: Lachar
Al-Bayazin: Albaicin
Al-Jaza’ir: Algiers
Al-Jazirah al-Khadra: Algeciras
Al-Maghrib: Northern Africa
Al-Maghrib el-Aska: Morocco
Al-Mariyah: Almeria
Arsiduna: Archidona
Aryuna: Arjuno
Fés el-Bali: Fez
Gharnatah: Granada
Jabal Tarik: Gibraltar
Jumhuriyat Misr: Egypt
Lawsa: Loja
Madinah Antaqirah: Antequera
Malaka: Malaga
Martus: Martos
Mayurqa: Majorca
Munakkab: Almunecar
Naricha: Nerja
Qumarich: Comares
Shalabuniya: Salobrena
Tarif: Tarifa
Wadi-Ash: Guadix
Abu
: father of
Addahbia
: bridal trousseau
Al-Andalus
: the southern half of Spain
Al-Fahs
: the valley
Al-Ghuzat
: the Volunteers of the Faith, the Moroccan soldiers billeted in Granada
Al-Hisn
: fortress
Al-Jabal Faro
: Gibralfaro citadel, which protected Malaga
Al-Qal’at al-Hamra
: the Alhambra, a complex of palaces, residences, shops, mosques, etc. that served as the royal residence in Granada. Begun in AD 1237 under Sultan Muhammad I, each of his successors made improvements, especially Muhammad III, Ismail I, Yusuf I, Muhammad V and Yusuf III
Al-Quasaba
: the citadel within the royal residence in Granada
Al-Qur’an
: Muslim holy book
Al-Shaykh al-Ghuzat
: commander of the Volunteers of the Faith
Ashqilula
: one time allies of the Nasrids until AD 1266, known as the Escayola among Christian states
Bab Ilbira
: Puerta de Elvira, the main medieval gateway into the city of Granada during Moorish times
Bint
: daughter of
Burnus
: a Moroccan cloak
Carkenet
: a jeweled chain necklace or collar
Cortes
: the rudimentary Castilian parliament
Dinar
: coin bearing a religious verse, commonly made of gold or silver, or rarely, copper. They were minted in Granada with the Sultans’ motto, “none victorious but God” and could be round or square shaped. Gold
dinars
weighed 2 grams, contained 22 carats of gold and were widely used for internal and external trade. Their value fluctuated over the centuries. Silver
dinars
were square and had a fixed value. Copper
dinars
were used for internal trade in the Sultanate and had a fixed value
Diwan al-Insha
: the Sultan’s chancery of state
Galego
: the language of Galicia
Ghasil
: man who washes the Muslim dead