Isabel de Solis

Zoraida, also known by her Spanish name after the Granada War, Isabel de Solís, was a Christian slave who became the consort of the emir of the Nasrid Kingdom from Granada Muley Hacén in 1474. The Torre de la Cautiva in the Alhambra bears this name in his memory.

Biography

He lived in the second half of the 15th century century. She was a maiden daughter of the mayor of Bedmar and Higuera de Martos and commander of Martos, Sancho Jiménez de Solís. During one of the fights between the Christians and Muslims of Granada, she was captured on September 29, 1471 by the Nasrids, who murdered her father, and taken to the Alhambra.

Consort of the Emir of Granada

Legend has it that she was a very beautiful woman and that the emir of Granada, Muley Hacén (1464-1482, 1483-1485), fell madly in love with her. Isabel also fell in love with the Sultan of Granada, so much so that, over time, they became known as the lovers of Granada. After professing the Islamic religion and taking the name Zoraida (Morning Star), she married the monarch around 1474-75, who made her his favorite wife and showered her with property and a privileged position at Court. She sought out a personal residence known as Doralcotola located in the Alcazaba Cadima del Albaicín, where she resided until the Battle of Lucena in 1483 where Boabdil was captured and Aixa left the Alhambra, being replaced by Zoraida.

But his other wife Aixa, mother of Boabdil, was fighting with Isabel de Solís over Muley Hacén. This relationship provoked the disgust of the Abencerrajes and the jealousy of the sultana Aixa, who encouraged a series of intrigues at court and internal disputes that ended with the abdication of the monarch in his brother, the Zagal, and later triggered the seizure of the kingdom. of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.

She gave birth to two sons together with the emir called Sair and Nair, who were treated as royal princes, so they remained at Court and the monarch endowed them with their own assets such as the Cortijo de Arenales and the estate of Dar Aldefla.

After the death of Muley Hacén in 1485, Zoraida took refuge in the protection of her brother-in-law, el Zagal, who proposed to her, but she rejected him. She and her children remained in the Alhambra until the capitulation of the Zagal in December 1489. However, her brother-in-law went to Oran, while she remained in Granada. Her position became practically irrelevant with the capture of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.

Return to Christianity

Because some Granada nobles urged their sons to rebellion, the Catholic Monarchs decided to transfer them to Seville in March 1490, keeping them away from Granada and accompanying the Castilian Court. On April 30, 1492, his children and some servants were baptized in Santa Fe by the Bishop of Guadix, being sponsored by Fernando el Católico, and mutating the names of Said and Nair by Fernando and Juan, respectively. Later, Fernando married Mencía de la Vega, without issue, while Juan was the husband of Beatriz de Sandoval and had issue. Zoraida then decided to return to the Catholic faith and she adopted the name of Isabel, being cited in some texts as Isabel de Granada. She resided in Córdoba and Seville.

The Castilian Crown was in charge of its maintenance. At the death of Isabel la Católica in 1504, Isabel received 150,000 maravedíes per year, this amount was reduced over time. Her children enjoyed half a million maravedíes annually.

Influence

The story of this beautiful Christian woman has inspired writers from different eras in subsequent centuries, such as Washington Irving and his Crónica de la Conquista de Granada; Martínez de la Rosa, who in 1837 wrote the historical novel Doña Isabel de Solís, Queen of Granada; Laurence Vidal who in 2000 published Los amantes de Granada, which recalls the life of Isabel de Solís, and more recently < i>Isabel de Solís, Soraya (2010) by the Granada writer Brígida Gallego-Coin.

In the second season of the series Isabel, broadcast by La 1 de Televisión Española in 2013, she was played by Nani Jiménez.