Boabdil

Abū 'Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Abī il-Hasan 'Alī, nicknamed “al-Zugābī” (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد ابن علي‎) (Granada, 1459-Fez, 1533), was the last sultan of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, known as Muhammad XII, a member of the Nasrid dynasty, called by the Christians Boabdil or Boabdil el Chico. He took the throne from his father, Muley Hacén, and for a time was in dispute over it both with him and with his uncle, El Zagal.

Biography

Born in the Alhambra, son of Muley Hacén and Sultana Aixa. The first news of his life was a notarial deed in which his father sold the Nublo farm to his brother and him on March 13, 1465. His father's predilection for the muladí Zorayda, whom he married and had two children, made Boabdil position himself in favor of his mother Aixa and start a father-son rivalry.

The castle of Cabra, where Boabdil was imprisoned after the Battle of Lucena and the victory for the Count of Cabra.

First reign

These events and the loss of Alhama de Granada to Christian hands made Boabdil rise up in Guadix, where he had fled, against his father in mid-June 1482 and accede to the Nasrid throne thanks to the support of the Abencerrajes and his own mother, at the same time that his brother seized Almería. His father and his uncle, El Zagal, who was still faithful to the emir, withdrew to Malaga after failing to recover the Alhambra, but his victories against the Christians were numerous, so he decided to confront him in Almuñécar,

Battle of Lucena

Boabdil needed a victory for his followers to keep him in power, so he headed for the Castilian city of Lucena on April 20, 1483, where the battle of Martín González took place. However, his troops were defeated despite their greater number, his father-in-law Aliatar was assassinated and he himself was captured by the Count of Cabra, being imprisoned in the castle of Lucena and in that of Cabra and later handed over. to the Catholic Monarchs in Porcuna, where they locked him up again in the castle tower, today called the Boabdil tower. His mother Aixa sent a delegation to Córdoba, where King Ferdinand the Catholic was, to free her son in exchange for the Nasrid territory controlled by El Zagal. Fernando agreed and even on July 5, 1483, he urged the citizens and leaders of the emirate to recognize Boabdil as monarch to stay safe. In addition, for his release, Boabdil should support Fernando in the fight against his father, he should submit to vassalage, delivery of hostages like his own son Áhmed and twelve thousand gold doubles.

Nazari civil war

Boabdil, now free, went to Guadix, although the situation became complicated and he had to go to Almería, where he met his brother Yusuf. His father's forces were approaching and he had to go himself to ask King Fernando for help, then Almería fell and his brother Yusuf was executed by his own father. Muley Hacén would die in 1485 and be replaced by El Zagal, who was proclaimed Emir of Granada. Boabdil managed to return to the eastern part of the emirate, being recognized by the Vélez and Huéscar family at the end of 1485. However, the civil war dragged on and the alfaquíes pressed for the fighting to stop, since the kingdom was ruining itself. An agreement was reached whereby Boabdil renounced the crown in favor of his uncle, marching to Loja, which remained in his power.

Despite the peace treaty with the Catholic Monarchs, the Castilians conquered Loja on May 30, 1486. Boabdil was imprisoned for the second time and was released to continue keeping the Nasrid civil war alive, since they would grant him Guadix, Baza, Vera, the Vélez and Mojácar if he managed to conquer them in eight months. While the Castilians continued their conquests, Boabdil settled in Los Vélez and on October 15, 1486 he would secretly enter the Granada neighborhood of Albaicín, where the majority supported him, and even a Castilian incursion defended him from his enemies, for which reason which began to gain supporters like Málaga.

Second reign

Boabdil delivers the keys of Granada to the Catholic Kings. The surrender of Grenada by Francisco Pradilla (1882).

Fernando the Catholic got impatient and decided to attack Vélez-Málaga, capturing it, so the Zagal ran there, a moment that Boabdil took advantage of to win Granada in its entirety and proclaim himself emir for the second time on April 29, 1487, reporting to Isabel the Catholic herself on the same day. At the beginning of May of that year, he signed the third and last agreement with the Catholic Monarchs, by which he renounced the city of Granada in exchange for a principality in the eastern zone when the Castilians had the rest of the emirate in their possession. This is the reason why Boabdil recommended during the Taking of Malaga to the Muslim citizens that they surrender and he disrupted some relief troops from his uncle from Guadix.

Finally, on December 4, 1489, Baza fell after a five-month siege and the Zagal would surrender and hand over his remaining domains a few days later. Despite the fact that Boabdil enjoyed two more years of truce, the Catholic Monarchs broke the pact to hand over the promised eastern territories and launched themselves to conquer Granada. Boabdil defended himself and even achieved some victories, but on November 25, 1491 he had to sign the Capitulation of Granada, which granted the Andalusians the right to remain in Granada with their possessions, religion and culture and gave Boabdil some land in the Alpujarra.

Exile

At dawn on January 2, 1492, Boabdil handed over the keys to the Alhambra in the Throne Room (Tower of Comares) to a man trusted by Isabel (Gutierre de Cárdenas). At three in the afternoon he went out to the gates of Granada to pay homage to the Catholic Monarchs, who delivered his son Áhmed to him. They handed over their weapons and he headed with his family towards their new lands in the Alpujarra, specifically in Codba, current Fuente Victoria, according to the letters of the royal secretary Hernando de Zafra, according to the chronicle of Luis del Mármol and according to the description of the Kingdom of Granada by Henriquez de Jorquera. In August 1493, her wife Morayma died in Andarax and was buried in Mondújar, where she had already transferred the remains of the other emirs from Granada. He sells his properties in La Alpujarras to the Christian kings (which include Andarax, Berja, Dalías and Purchena) and after requesting asylum in the Kingdom of Fez, he embarks with his mother and family in Adra in October of that year, arriving in Hunting and settling in Fez. There he built some Andalusian-style palaces and died between 1533-34, being buried in an oratory in front of the Puerta del Umbral.

Sigh of the Moor

The legend of the sigh of the Moor, the work of Francisco Pradilla.

According to a widespread Spanish legend, whose veracity is not attested by any documentation, when he left Granada on his way to exile in the Alpujarras, when he crested a hill, he turned his head to see his city for the last time and wept, listening his mother the sultana Aixa:

She cries like a woman that you didn't know how to defend as a man.

Sultana Aixa, mother of Boabdil.

Because of this, this mountain receives the name of Suspiro del Moro, which today crosses the highways that go from Granada to the coast (A-44 and N-323). This legend stems from the imagination of Father Echevarría who in the XVIII century published the book Walks around Granada, where he intends to denigrate the figure of Boabdil.

Semblance

Boabdil Statue in the San Sebastián de Navalcarnero Historic Park

Julio Quesada-Cañaveral, in his work Boabdil (review for tourists): Granada and the Alhambra up to the 16th century, from 1925, imagines it like this:

Boabdil was a blond, of a medium stature, rather high and slender, of light-eyed eyes, pale complexion and calmly trembling. His porte was majestic, and in the most difficult moments, he always demonstrated his courageous heart and his arrogance of race. He was brave in the battles, and though wounded his body, as in the battle of Loja, he always preserved his dignity as king, his dignity as a race and his dignity as a man of heart, despite so many and as bitter as he had to constantly suffer his spirit and will.

Tradition, on the other hand, has given him a dark skin and hair appearance, both in painting and in the cinema, such as in the work The Surrender of Granada by Francisco Pradilla. However, the most striking and absurd case occurs in the television series Requiem for Granada, in which a child Boabdil tells his grandfather his impression of Isabel la Católica: "too white, and those eyes so blue, and yellow hair... here it would be strange, there it looks good ».

Boabdil in culture

Sword of Boabdil (Museum of the Toledo Army)

• It's the character of the opera. Boabdil, der letzte MaurenkönigOp. 49 written by the composer Moritz Moszkowski in 1892.
• The Spanish composer Gaspar Cassadó wrote Sorry about Boabdil for chelo and piano.
• Spanish composer Antón García Abril wrote Choose the loss of the Alhambra.
• The Spanish group Los Puntos dedicated to Boabdil the song Crying for Granada.
• The Spanish group Dark Moor dedicated Boabdil the song The last king from his album Ars Musica.
• The Spanish poet and singer Carlos Cano dedicated the song Fall of King Chico a Boabdil in his album Granadinas Chronicles.
• Belgian singer Mousta Largo dedicated the song Les larmes de Boabdil in his album Mektoub.
• The book of Salman Rushdie The last sigh of the Moor also remembers Boabdil.
• The book of Louis Aragon Le Fou d'Elsa shows a poetic view of the history of the capture of Granada.
• Pakistani television produced the drama in 1981 based on the novel Shaheen Nasim Hijazi.
• Antonio Gala won the Planet Prize in 1990 with his novel The Carmelite manuscript, fictitious autobiography of Boabdil based on the finding of an alleged manuscript written by himself.
• Boabdil appeared as the protagonist in the Spanish television series Requiem for Granada 1991 played by Manuel Bandera.
• Antonio Soler publishes in 2012 the novel Boabdil. A man against destiny in which he investigates in the little known friendship between Boabdil and Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and tries to break with the clichés of a fragile and coward king with which the character has been represented by the Christian historians.
• In the second season of the series Isabel, emitted in 2013 by TVE, Boabdil is played by Álex Martínez. In this fiction, Boabdil is shown as a poet king and a man of letters advocating for dialogue in the face of war and that Granada delivers to save his family and avoid the destruction of the Alhambra.
• In the movie Assassin's Creed of 2016, King Muhammad XII of Granada is interpreted by the Scottish actor of Egyptian origin Khalid Abdalla.
• The Portuguese poet Florbela Espanca recalls Boadbil in her poem Meu Mal (My Evil(c): Ah! Boabdil I was tear Na Espanha! (Ah! de Boabdil I was a tear in Spain!).

Filmography

• 2013: Isabel, played by Álex Martínez (actor)
• 1991: Requiem for Granada, played by Manuel Bandera