Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Antony Black, The History of Islamic 

Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present (New 

York: Routledge, 2001); Mohammad Asghar Khan, 

Islam, Politics, and the State: the Pakistan Experience

(London: Zed Books, 1985); Ann Lambton, State and 

Government in Medieval Islam (1981. Reprint, Oxford: 

Oxford University Press, 1995).

Granada

The city of Granada (Arabic: Gharnata) is the cap-

ital of the province of Granada in a

ndalUsia

 and 

has a population of 250,000. Its strategic location 

at the confluence of the Darro and Genil Rivers 

and at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains 

accounts for its continuous settlement since pre-

historic times. During the early period of Islamic 

rule, Granada’s population was largely Jewish 

(hence the Arabic epithet “Granada of the Jews”). 

Granada gained prominence as an Islamicate city 

following the fragmentation of the U

mmayyad

c

aliphate

 into petty kingdoms after 1013. A b

er

-

ber

 general, Ibn Ziri (d. 1025), founded the Zirid 

kingdom, making Granada its urban center and 

the Alhambra its royal capital.

The a

lmoravid

 

dynasty

 deposed the Zirids in 

1090 and ruled until their defeat by the a

lmohad

dynasty

 in 1166. Spanish Muslims, led by Ibn al-

Hud, overthrew the Almohad leader al-Mamun 

(ca. 1232). Subsequently, Muhammad Ibn al-

Ahmar wrested power from Ibn al-Hud, establish-

ing the Nasrid dynasty in 1238.

Ibn Ziri founded Granada’s Great Mosque, 

whose beauty rivalled those of Seville and c

or

-

doba

. He also built the Old Casbah (fortress), 

which enclosed the royal palace and the com-

mercial and residential quarters. Granada was 

surrounded by orchards of pomegranate (Granada 

means pomegranate in Spanish) and other trees, 

and the soil was so fertile it yielded crops bian-

nually. The most lucrative industries were textiles 

(silk, wool, linen, cotton) and gold- and silver-

smithing.

The 13th-century Christian conquests reduced 

Andalusia to the tiny kingdom of Granada, which 

extended from Algeciras to Almeria. Surrounded 

by enemies, the Nasrid kingdom owed its lon-

gevity to its vassalage to Castile, its astuteness in 

pitting one foe against another (Castile, Aragon, 

North Africa), and Christian dynastic wars (1350–

1412). Weakened by decades of internal strife, 

Abu Abd Allah (Boabdilla) finally surrendered 

Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

The Nasrid period is justifiably called the 

golden age of Islamicate culture in Spain. The 

Maliki and Sufi underpinnings of the Nasrid 

dynasty are especially noteworthy. Muhammad I 

deployed Sufi symbols to legitimate his author-

ity and consolidated his rule on the edifice of the