Gharnata to Granada

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Badr bin Mughera perhaps never existed. A white robed upright Andalusian Muslim, played by Yusuf Khan in Gharnata, standing up to the Christian invaders in face of increasing odds, is still the image which stayed with me.

The movie, a typical Nasim Hijazi work, is historical fiction. It is available in youtube in 16 sections. Close to end you realize that you have been taken for a ride. Like 'Inglorious Bastards' it is nothing but wishful thinking. In the movie, the last Muslim ruler Mohammad Abdullah, played by Aslam Pervaiz as a flamboyant young man with no clue to run a country, is killed by his mother for his treachery. Ferdinand, played by the ever-scary Adeeb, is almost fatally wounded, and orders a retreat. 

It is otherwise a great movie, released in 1970, starring Talish (as traitor Abu Dawood), Iqbal Hasan, Saqi and Rozina. It was the first movie of Asia. There are great songs in the voices of Noor Jehan and Mehdi Hasan (main hoon yahaan, kis naam say pukaroon/raat bhi hay). lyrics Tanvir Naqvi, 

What happened was quite different from that. 
Mohammad Abullah, known in Spanish folklore as Boabdil, was in endless war with his father for the throne. His father Abdul Hasan, (Muley Hacen) was not the pious king as portrayed in the movie. However, he was the one who decided to stop paying tribute to the Christian Kings. That eventually lead to the ultimate downfall of Granada. He had two wives. The first, Ayxa (Aisha) mother of Boabdil was of Arabic descent. The second one was a Christian turned Muslim Isabel De Solis also known as Zorraya/Surraya. Abdul Hasan tried to have Boabdil killed as he wanted to have his son from Isabel to be his heir. 

That did not work, Ayxa was instrumental in bring her son to power. Once he became the king, Boadbil had a rocky relationship with the Christian Monarchs. He changed his relationship with them so many times, and reneged enough on his treaties to give Ferdinand and Isabel a valid ground to invade Granada. In the end Boabdil signed a treaty in the most majestic of majestic Alhambra rooms, the Hall of the Ambassadors. He gave away the keys of the city and accepted a principality down south in the Alpujarras. Eventually he sailed to Fez.

Strangely there were two powerful families, one behind each of the two wives of Abdul Hasan. The Abencerrages (saddler’s son, ibn-el-serraj) supporting Ayxa, and the Venegas, the Christians turned Muslims supporting their fellow Christian turned Muslim Zorraya. After the fall of Granada, the Venegas and Zorraya with her sons, renounced Muslim faith, turned Christian again and guaranteed their good fortunes for generations to come. The sons of saddlers followed the way with Boabdil to Alpujarras and ultimately to North Africa.

Driving up north to Granada from Nerja, one travels through Sierra Nevada range, along the river. It is almost like traveling through its namesake in California. Driving up the Hills where Granada is, one cannot help appreciate the natural beauty of the valley.

Reminded me of what Boabdil would have thought when he looked back riding down towards his exile to Alpujjara. He wept at the site and his mother (whom Hijazi would rather had killed her son) famously said,

Ibka l-yawma bikā'a n-nisā'i ʿalā mulkin lam taḥfuẓhu ḥifẓa r-rijāl

You weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.

ابك اليوم بكاء النساء على ملك لم تحفظه حفظ الرجال

The lament of Boabdil at that pass earned the name of Moor’s Last Sigh.  (also the title of a book by Salman Rushdie.)

GRANADA, THE POMEGRANATE:

The word means pomegranate. It was captured in the first year of Muslim invasion in 711. It remained a distant province of Al Andalus while in the center the power shifted from Warlords, to Umayyad princes, to the rise of Cordoba Caliphate, the onslaught of the La Reconquesta, to the Moorish Almovarids and Almohids. 

THE DEAL:

In the  beginning of 13th century while the Muslim Spain was divided into multiple Taifas (kingdoms) and after the fateful battle of  Las Navas de Tolosa, Maarrka’ tul Aqab, the puritanical Almohids started to lose ground.  Cordoba fell to The Reconquest in 1236 and all the eyes were on the then Capital of al Andalus, Seville. The emir of Granada, Mohammad 1 Nasr, carved out a deal with the Christians which more or less ran like this. He will help them get Seville and in return Granada will be spared. He will get his independence and will remain loyal to Christians as a vassal state.  Seville fell in 1248, Granada earned a lease of independence which lasted two hundred and forty years.

Sobriquet wa la Ghalib-a il Allah.

This was considered so big a victory for Granada that when he returned the whole city came out to greet him and chanted al-Ghalib billah (Victorious through God) for him. That thought struck with him and later, perhaps in deeper contemplation, he saw God's hand in his 'victory' which he had earned. So he proclaimed the now-edged-in-eternity motto of Nasirid dynasty, And there is no one victorious except Allah, wa la Ghalib-a il Allah.

This dynasty, Nasirid, claims to be a branch of Banu Khazrij, one of the two Yasribite tribes who welcomed the Prophet on his migration from Mecca..

It took the Catholic kings of Iberia more than two centuries to emerge as a united force when Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel of Castile got married. Before that wars within and the devastating plague helped Granada grow in the shadow as a prosperous and multicultural state.

There can be no doubt that Granada was considered the worthiest prize for the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand, that they decided to move their final resting place from Toledo (where they already had a mausoleum built for themselves) to Granada. However they chose not to be buried on the Hill. Their graves are in the Cathedral which is down the hill. 


I did not have the chance to go there.

THE HILL:

In about 200 years after the Muslim rule, there were significant differences between the people of mixed Arab and Spanish descent ie the Muladis, and the Arabs. In a bloody battle, the Arabs were defeated and sought shelter on a hill, the Sabikah Hill. A castle was built to secure it, and perhaps the mud had red hue, it was called Qalatul Hamra. It was ignored for another century or so. Then it was Ismail bin Naghrela, the Jew to reach the highest military post in Andalusia, who renovated and rebuilt the city.

The hill has a few other places to visit besides the Alhambra.

The Alcabaza


 This is the actual Fort. It is one of the two places on the hill which can be seen only once in a day. It offers a breathtaking view of the whole valley, from its tower. Sierra Nevada Mountains on the south, the palaces on the east, and the fertile valley on the west. 


The tower was the place for the administrators to see if the farmers are growing the crops on time and when is the right time to go down and collect the taxes. It was also the place to call the faithful to prayers five times a day. Later the Christians fitted it with the Bell. 

Charles V Palace.  

Then there is in-your-face unfinished palace of the most powerful man in history in his own time. Charles V, was the son of Ferdinand's and Isabel’s daughter. His father was the King of France. Pope gave him the title of  the Holy Roman Emperor, his dominion included Spain, Italy, France, Americas and Far East. After becoming the King of Spain, he renovated a room in Alhambra for himself.  He perhaps was not contented with that and wanted to have a palace in his own name.

It is built right where the original entrance was to Alhambra.  It is really an eyesore, for its location. It could have been a grand palace, but after his death , his son decided not to complete the palace and moved on to built his own palace in Madrid, Real.  So the Charles Palace is left without the dome in the middle. Now it is uses as an amphitheatre for open air concerts. 

There is a Mosque turned church, Mezqutiqa de Sante Maria, which was closed on the day of our visit. 

The Gardens

Generalife from Arabic JannatulAreef, are the best place to have the outside view of Alhambra. Gives one an experience of Moor's concept of a garden, a place like heaven on earth.

Next, the Palacios Nazaries or the Nazarid Palace or the Alhambra

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References:
http://www.andalucia-andalusia.com/Alhambra-Granada-Spain.html

http://www.adurcal.com/enlaces/ingles/14.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasrid_dynasty

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/i/irving/washington/i72a/contents.html