Nasr of Granada
At the time of his accession, Granada faced a three-front war against Castile, Aragon and the Marinid Sultanate, triggered by his predecessor's foreign policy.
James II of Aragon sued for peace after Granadan defenders defeated the Aragonese siege of Almería in December 1309, withdrawing his forces and leaving the Emirate's territories by January.
In the ensuing treaty, Nasr agreed to pay tributes and indemnities to Ferdinand IV of Castile and yield some border towns in exchange for seven years of peace.
Despite achieving peace with relatively minimal losses, Nasr was unpopular at court as he was suspected of being pro-Christian and accused of devoting so much time to astronomy that he neglected his duties as ruler.
Abu al-Juyush Nasr ibn Muhammad[1] was born on 1 November 1287 (24 Ramadan 686 AH), likely in the Alhambra, the Nasrid fortress and royal complex in Granada.
In the last few years of his reign, the emirate was on the verge of war against a triple alliance of its larger neighbors, the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon on the Iberian peninsula and the Marinid Sultanate in North Africa.
The potentially disastrous war, as well as the extravagance of the vizier (chief minister) Ibn al-Hakim, sparked anger among the people of Granada.
On 14 March 1309 (Eid ul-Fitr, 1 Shawwal 708 AH), a palace revolution instigated by a group of Granadan nobles including the vizier's rival, Atiq ibn al-Mawl, forced Muhammad III to abdicate in favor of Nasr.
The city managed to stockpile supplies and improve its defenses due to the late arrival of the Aragonese forces, led by James II, by sea in mid-August 1309.
[20][21] By the time winter approached, the city still held out, and the weakening of the siege of Algeciras in November meant that Granada could send more reinforcements to the east.
At the end of December, James II and Nasr agreed to a truce and that the Aragonese king would evacuate his troops from Granadan territories.
[19] At one point during the evacuation, Nasr wrote to James that the city's defenders had to put the remaining Aragonese troops under detention because they were pillaging Granadan territories.
[19] Hostilities still continued—for instance, Castilian troops under the king's brother, Infante Peter, captured Tempul (near Jerez) and the Castilian-Aragonese fleet still patrolled Granadan waters in May.
In addition to Gibraltar, Granada yielded some frontier towns, including Quesada and Bedmar, gained by Muhammad III in the previous war.
Both monarchs agreed to help each other against their enemies; Nasr became a vassal of Castile and was to provide up to three months of military service per year if summoned, with his own troops and at his own expense.
Markets would be opened between the two kingdoms, and Ferdinand IV was to appoint a special judge of the frontiers (juez de la frontera) to adjudicate disputes between Christians and Muslims in the border regions.
No historical records of a Granada-Aragon treaty are found, but it is known that Nasr agreed to pay James II 65,000 doblas in indemnity, 30,000 of which was to be given by Ferdinand IV.
[26] The Arabist scholar Antonio Fernández-Puertas linked their unpopularity to Nasr's pursuit of science, which was deemed excessive by his nobles, as well as the suspected pro-Christian tendencies of the sultan and the vizier.
[26] The rebels took Antequera, Marbella and Vélez-Málaga, advanced to the Vega of Granada and defeated Nasr's forces at a place called al-Atsha by Arabic sources, possibly today's Láchar.
[27] Subsequently, Nasr also paid his annual tribute to Castile in August 1312, shortly before Ferdinand IV died and was succeeded by his one-year-old son Alfonso XI.
[36] On 8 May, Granadan forces under Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula intercepted a Castilian column supplying Nasr, who was again besieged at Guadix.
[39] The climax of the war took place on 25 June 1319, when a Granadan force led by Ismail battled the Castilian army in the Vega of Granada.
[40] The defeat and death of the two regents made Castile leaderless, threw it into internal turmoil, and gave Ismail the upper hand.
[44] Nasr died in Guadix without an heir on 16 November 1322 (6 Dhu al-Qaida 722 AH) at the age of 35,[3] ending the direct male line of the Nasrid dynasty from Muhammad I, the founder of the emirate.
[19][35][26] Subsequent Sultans of Granada would descend from Ismail, whose father came from a collateral branch of the dynasty, but whose mother Fatima was Muhammad I's granddaughter.
[46] To traditional and modern historians, Nasr's abdication in favour of Ismail I marked the end of al-dawla al-ghalibiyya al-nasriyya, "the Nasrid dynasty of al-Ghalib", whose rulers are patrilineally descended from Muhammad I—also known by the epithet "al-Ghalib billah"—and the beginning of a new branch: al-dawla al-isma'iliyya al-nasriyya, "the Nasrid dynasty of Ismail".
