By the late 12th century, following the expansion of Christian kingdoms in the north, the area of Muslim control had been reduced to the southern parts of the peninsula governed by the Almohad Caliphate.

Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler, formally surrendered Granada in January 1492, marking the end of independent Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula.

Conflict with the northern Christian kingdoms was recurrent, while mounting civil strife led to the fragmentation of al-Andalus into smaller Taifa states in the early 11th century.

After taking direct control of it, he decided to make it his new capital instead of Jaén, as Granada was a more important city in al-Andalus and its location was more strategic: it was geographically more defensible, farther from the Castilian frontier, and had better access to the sea.

[23] While Granada's vassalage is emphasized by Christian sources,[24][13] in practice Ibn al-Ahmar pledged allegiance to different suzerains at different times, depending on what was tactically advantageous.

Abu Yusuf, who had recently captured Tangier and Ceuta on the southern side of the Strait of Gibraltar, thus occupied Algeciras and Tarifa in 1275, along with Ronda further inland.

[50][51] When a Marinid attempt to retake Tarifa failed in 1294, Abu Yaq'ub decided to withdraw from the Iberian Peninsula completely and focus on his campaigns in the Maghreb instead.

Eventually, when Ferdinand IV solidified his control over his kingdom in 1306, Muhammad III changed diplomatic direction by making peace with him and resuming tribute payments to Castile.

[60] In the summer, Castile captured Gibraltar with the aid of Aragonese ships, Aragon laid siege to Almería, and a rebellion returned Ceuta to Marinid control.

With Ceuta no longer under Granada's hold, Nasr was able to make peace with the new Marinid sultan, Abu al-Rabi, and solicit his aid in the defense of Algeciras.

[74] In the long term, the Battle of Rio Salado and the capture of Algeciras put an end to North African military interventions on the Iberian Peninsula, which had been a recurring feature of the conflicts around al-Andalus since the 11th century.

[85] Domestically, Muhammad V eliminated the office of the shaykh al-ghuzat, the chief of the Ghazis, in 1370, placing the Zenata troops under the direct command of the Nasrid family for the first time.

[89] His reign was also a high point of cultural exchange with the Castilian court of Peter in Seville, who built his palace in the Alcazar in the style of Granada's art and architecture.

Internal conflicts often revolved around the Banu Sarraj family (known in Spanish sources as the Abencerrajes) and their rivals, who ruthlessly pursued their own interests at the expense of the emirate's stability.

[97] The war against Granada offered an opportunity for Ferdinand and Isabella to harness the restless Castilian nobility against a common enemy and instill subjects with a sense of loyalty to the crown.

[citation needed] Meanwhile, civil war erupted in Granada as a result of succession struggles in the Nasrid ruling house, which undermined any focused resistance to the Spanish advance.

[103][104] The strongly-fortified city put up a vigorous resistance, led by one of al-Zaghal's commanders, while Boabdil continued to stand back or actively help the Catholic Monarchs.

[110] After the surrender of Granada, Boabdil remained for a little over a year in a country estate in the mountainous Alpujarras, as lord of Mondújar [es],[29] before leaving for Fez in North Africa.

[115] Philip believed that the most effective way to solve the problem of the Moriscos lay in confiscating their properties and lands and completely erasing their identity, thus ending their existence as a distinct community.

He issued a decree in the year 1567 forbidding them to wear their traditional embroidered clothes, mandating the use of Christian hats and pants, and further prohibited their language, customs and celebrations.

One of the documents that a Christianized Andalusi wrote to the sultan requested his help and described in poor poetry the abuse of the courts of the Inquisition, calling on him to support his defeated brothers.

Both Spain and Portugal were considered the main threat to the Islamic world due to the presence of their fleets in the Indian Ocean that threatened Muslim trade in the East.

[128] The native Mozarabic Christian population of al-Andalus had largely disappeared prior to the Nasrid period due to pressures of assimilation, persecution, and expulsion under Almoravid and Almohad rule.

[119][130] They did not have the protected status of dhimmi that Jews and the former Mozarabic Christians had, but were instead granted safe conduct (aman) through special and often temporary agreements with varying conditions.

The rural population of the countryside was organized primarily into traditional alquerías (small farming communities), which were usually occupied by free peasants who owned the land and cultivated it mostly for subsistence.

[139] As the Strait of Gibraltar became more open to commercial ships towards the end of the 13th century, maritime navigation around the Iberian Peninsula became cheaper and faster, accelerating the development of trade networks between the Mediterranean (particularly Italy and the regions of Catalonia and Provence) and northern Europe.

[2] Integrated within the European mercantile network, the ports of the kingdom fostered intense trading relations with the Genoese, but also with the Catalans, and to a lesser extent, with the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Portuguese.

[141] Despite its small size, the emirate's superior agricultural technology and favorable climate allowed it to produce and export goods to the rest of Europe that had formerly been accessible only in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly sugar, silk, and dried fruits.

[87] The architecture of Nasrid Granada embraced extensive surface decoration in wood, stucco, and zillij tiling, as well as making use of elaborate muqarnas sculpting in many buildings.

[159] Constantly under threat by both the Christian kingdoms to the north and the Muslim Marinid Sultanate to the south, the population of the Emirate of Granada developed a "siege mentality".