Al-Andalus · a Light

Al-Andalus ended with a treaty that was broken in ten years

On 2 January 1492 Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler of Granada, handed the keys of the city to Ferdinand and Isabella, ending nearly eight centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia. The surrender terms were generous on paper: Muslims could keep their religion, their mosques, their language, their property and their law, and no one was to be forced to convert. Within a decade the terms had been abandoned. Forced conversions began in 1499, Arabic books were burned in the squares of Granada, and by 1502 Islam was banned in Castile. The Alhambra survived because the new rulers wanted to live in it, which is why its rooms of carved plaster and poetry are still standing.

Granada · 2 January 1492