Travel deeper into Granada, through its human stories.

Alhambra

• Writing in the empty palace
• Legend of the fuse-cutting corporal

In this story, you’ll discover

Chapter 1

A Kingdom on a Dry Hill

The story begins with Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar, a frontier leader from a small town north of Granada. In the early thirteenth century, Muslim Spain was breaking apart, and the Christian kingdoms of the north were taking one great city after another. In 1238 he made Granada the capital of his own small kingdom, and the family he founded, the Nasrids, ruled it for two and a half centuries. He first lived in the old fortress on the Albaicín hill across the valley. Then he chose this ridge instead and began a new citadel at its western tip. The hill had no water of its own, so right away his builders brought water up in a channel from the river. The walls were built of rammed earth, and the iron in the local clay turned them reddish. People called it al-Hamra, Arabic for "the red one," and that name became Alhambra. The Nasrids survived as the last Muslim kingdom in Spain by fighting when they could and bargaining when they had to. The founder himself became a vassal of the king of Castile. He paid the Castilian king tribute, and even sent soldiers to help Castile take Seville. Over the next two centuries his descendants added the palaces, and a whole town for the court grew up around them, with its own houses and workshops, its baths and its mosques. It all ended in 1492, when the last sultan handed the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs.

A reflection for you

The king who founded the Alhambra became a vassal of Castile and helped it conquer Seville. His kingdom survived, and his descendants kept building here. In one city, he was a protector; in another, he helped the invaders. Knowing the same facts may never lead to the same judgment when one community remembers what it kept and another what it lost.

Alhambra

• Writing in the empty palace
• Legend of the fuse-cutting corporal

In this story, you’ll discover

Chapter 1

A Kingdom on a Dry Hill

The story begins with Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar, a frontier leader from a small town north of Granada. In the early thirteenth century, Muslim Spain was breaking apart, and the Christian kingdoms of the north were taking one great city after another. In 1238 he made Granada the capital of his own small kingdom, and the family he founded, the Nasrids, ruled it for two and a half centuries. He first lived in the old fortress on the Albaicín hill across the valley. Then he chose this ridge instead and began a new citadel at its western tip. The hill had no water of its own, so right away his builders brought water up in a channel from the river. The walls were built of rammed earth, and the iron in the local clay turned them reddish. People called it al-Hamra, Arabic for "the red one," and that name became Alhambra. The Nasrids survived as the last Muslim kingdom in Spain by fighting when they could and bargaining when they had to. The founder himself became a vassal of the king of Castile. He paid the Castilian king tribute, and even sent soldiers to help Castile take Seville. Over the next two centuries his descendants added the palaces, and a whole town for the court grew up around them, with its own houses and workshops, its baths and its mosques. It all ended in 1492, when the last sultan handed the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs.

A reflection for you

The king who founded the Alhambra became a vassal of Castile and helped it conquer Seville. His kingdom survived, and his descendants kept building here. In one city, he was a protector; in another, he helped the invaders. Knowing the same facts may never lead to the same judgment when one community remembers what it kept and another what it lost.

Alhambra

• Writing in the empty palace
• Legend of the fuse-cutting corporal

In this story, you’ll discover

Chapter 1

A Kingdom on a Dry Hill

The story begins with Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar, a frontier leader from a small town north of Granada. In the early thirteenth century, Muslim Spain was breaking apart, and the Christian kingdoms of the north were taking one great city after another. In 1238 he made Granada the capital of his own small kingdom, and the family he founded, the Nasrids, ruled it for two and a half centuries. He first lived in the old fortress on the Albaicín hill across the valley. Then he chose this ridge instead and began a new citadel at its western tip. The hill had no water of its own, so right away his builders brought water up in a channel from the river. The walls were built of rammed earth, and the iron in the local clay turned them reddish. People called it al-Hamra, Arabic for "the red one," and that name became Alhambra. The Nasrids survived as the last Muslim kingdom in Spain by fighting when they could and bargaining when they had to. The founder himself became a vassal of the king of Castile. He paid the Castilian king tribute, and even sent soldiers to help Castile take Seville. Over the next two centuries his descendants added the palaces, and a whole town for the court grew up around them, with its own houses and workshops, its baths and its mosques. It all ended in 1492, when the last sultan handed the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs.

A reflection for you

The king who founded the Alhambra became a vassal of Castile and helped it conquer Seville. His kingdom survived, and his descendants kept building here. In one city, he was a protector; in another, he helped the invaders. Knowing the same facts may never lead to the same judgment when one community remembers what it kept and another what it lost.