The Emirate of Granada was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe. The Emirate existed between 1230 and 1492.
Before the Emirate
Muslims had been present in the Iberian Peninsula, which they called Al-Andalus, since the early eighth century. At its greatest geographical extent, Muslim-controlled territory occupied most of the peninsula and part of present-day southern France. Wars with the Christian Kingdoms in Northern Iberia were almost continuous making the Reconquista one of the longest wars in human history (the Reconquista lasted for 770 years, between 722 and 1492.
Establishment
By 1230, the Almohad Caliphate in Morocco ruled the remaining Muslim territories in southern Iberia, which roughly corresponded to the modern Spanish provinces of Granada, Almería, and Málaga. Exploiting the Almohad's dynastic strife, the ambitious Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar rose to power and established the Nasrid dynasty over these lands. By 1250, the emirate was the last Muslim polity in the peninsula.
Tributary State
After the conquest of Córdoba in June 1236, Mohammed I ibn Nasr aligned Granada with Ferdinand III of Castile in 1246, thereby making it a tributary state, under the Crown of Castile. Granada remained a tributary state for the next 250 years, with Nasrid emirs paying tribute to Castilian kings. In 1306, Granada conquered Ceuta but lost control of the city in 1309 to the Kingdom of Fez which was assisted by the Crown of Aragon. Granada re-captured Ceuta a year later but again lost it in 1314. Granada again held the city from 1315 to 1327. In 1384, Granada again re-took Ceuta but lost it finally to the Kingdom of Fez in 1386.
Fall of Granada
Nascent Christian power in Iberia meant that Granada's existence was always precarious. In 1491, after a decade of intermittent warfare known as the Granada War, the emirate was forced to capitulate to the Catholic Monarchs. The following year, Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler of Granada, formally relinquished his sovereignty and surrendered his territories to Castile, eventually moving to North Africa in exile. This marked the end of independent Muslim rule in Iberia.
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