The Nakba of Granada.. How did the last Ramadan pass for Muslims before the fall of Andalusia?

On a night when sadness was heavier than the cold of winter, and on the doorstep of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, southern Spain, the imaginations of wealth and luxury did not indicate that the fortified city was in danger of disappearing, but the barricades set up by its terrified people at its doors tell the stories of the calamities and calamities that ravaged Andalusia, after it was lost The prestige of the caliphate long ago exceeded three centuries and reached a pitiful state of weakness and disintegration, following the wars of recovery launched by the Christian kingdoms of the north on the Andalusian frontiers, and ended at the last strongholds in Granada, on which the Spanish armies imposed a stifling siege that lasted nine months, in which Muslims witnessed The last month of Ramadan under their fleeting rule.

Over the course of eight centuries, Andalusia was ruled by several countries, starting with the great expansion of the Umayyad era, through forcing its greatest ruler, “Caliph Al-Nasser” the European kings to come to him and kiss his hand on the scene of people, and then to the era of the kings of the sects (who numbered 22), who paid Tribute to Christian kings while they were humble.

After that, came the awakening of the Almoravid era, who delayed the fall of Andalusia for four centuries until their state disappeared, then they were succeeded by the Almohads who ruled the Maghreb, and the causes of the Andalusian rift are attributed to them. Which was established after the collapse of the Almohad state, but fell permanently on January 2, 1492. (1)

Constantinople vs Andalusia

Foreign translations tell another account of the Islamic conquests that swallowed up the ancient world from the borders of China to the shores of Andalusia, as they saw the defeated peoples in the Islamic advance and the loss of Jerusalem and the loss of the trace of Christ as a punishment from God for their sins, and the curse continued to haunt them even half a century before the fall of Andalusia, when he succeeded The Ottoman Sultan Muhammad Al-Fatih in the overthrow of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and the heart of Christianity in Europe for more than 11 centuries, then ordered the conversion of its greatest churches (Aya Sophia) into a mosque, and while the superiority in the East was Islamic par excellence, Andalusia was witnessing Christian expansion, in exchange for a spirit of surrender It hit the Islamic cities that did not find a supporter from the east, and they fell in succession like the fall of autumn leaves.

(2) (3)

In a few years, all the states of central and eastern Andalusia fell, leaving only Seville and Granada, and all of Andalusia turned to the south, which became a haven for the oppressed. The kingdoms of "Leon" and "Castile" under the banner of the fanatical King "Fernando III", and the latter began to write to the King of Granada, "Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar", until the correspondence ended with the signing of a treaty that stipulated in one of its clauses that the sons of Al-Ahmar should pay an annual tribute to the King of Castile, in addition to Military subordination to him in any future wars he fights, and the surrender of a number of forts that were previously under the rule of the Granada wing.

Ferdinand III, Isabella, Kings of Aragon and Castile

Under that treaty, the Christian kingdoms recruited the Muslim army of Granada to besiege the city of Seville, the greatest metropolis of Andalusia after Cordoba, and the last Muslim cities to fall before Granada. Our right to blood.

As a result of the reality on the ground, and the siege of Seville extending for 12 months, it finally surrendered at the hands of the Muslims and Fernando entered it, and after that it became the capital of his kingdom instead of the Islamic Toledo, which also fell before it.

The humble commitment that Ibn al-Ahmar undertook contributed to the loss of Seville, and then Granada, the last Islamic state in Andalusia.

The city was able to withstand for about ten years, until a long siege was struck in early 1491, when Muslims witnessed the last month of Ramadan under their rule.

Arab and foreign sources agree that the Spanish army used heavy artillery in its war, and then its soldiers burned all the farms and crops outside the walls.

The historian "Muhammad Abdullah Annan" mentions in his encyclopedia "State of Islam in Andalusia" that the vulnerable population did not find anything to eat during fasting, so they slaughtered cats and dogs, and ate mice.

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The spirit of defeat and surrender did to the Muslims in Granada what the weapon machine could not do. The sources indicated that the population density of the city, which gathered the diaspora of Muslims after the demise of their kingship, along with its impregnable fortresses and high walls, enabled it to withstand against the Christian kingdoms of the north.

Ibn al-Ahmar is attributed to having discouraged the army that wanted to fight, and entered into secret negotiations to hand over the city without a fight to Ferdinando III and Isabella, kings of Aragon and Castile, in exchange for a treaty respecting the freedom of the vanquished, to end with the fall of Granada, an Islamic rule that lasted nearly eight centuries.

Ramadan after the fall of Andalusia

The wresting of Granada from Islamic rule was seen as a counterbalance to the loss of Constantinople in favor of the Ottoman Turks, and while the Islamic East was reeling with its victories and glories, the Christian West in turn entered into thanksgiving prayers, the bells of churches rose, crosses were seen over the walls of Granada, and the streets of the kingdoms flooded Christianity held loud celebrations, coinciding with the congratulatory telegrams that came to the kings of Spain, while the defeated who had not yet left his country had bid farewell to the end of Ramadan, and with him all of Andalusia, which their ancestors conquered in the same month under the leadership of Tariq bin Ziyad, who gave it the title that is associated with it to this day.

Granada’s extradition treaty stipulated that Muslims would practice their rituals without prejudice to their mosques and minarets, and they were not prevented from fasting, but the defeated peoples who received Ramadan after several months of the fall imposed on them the victorious to hide everything old related to Islamic rule, so the tables of the merciful disappeared, and with them foods and sweets that were famous In Andalusia, mosques are no longer filled with Muslims in Tarawih prayers and prayer.

After several years of hidden restrictions, the Inquisition issued a decree in 1499 that closed all mosques, with the kingdom adopting a campaign of ethnic cleansing to Christianize the defeated peoples who lived other than the king's religion, thus officially revoking all the rights signed by Ibn al-Ahmar.

The law prohibited even Arabic names, and the Inquisition also forced Muslims to abandon their language and dress, and then the first uprising erupted in Granada in Ramadan in 1499, and the church met it brutally and succeeded in putting it down, despite the abandonment of a number of Muslims from their religion, and subjected to forced Christianization, he pointed out. The French historian "Louis Kardiac" in his book "Andalusian Moriscos and Christians 1492-1640" that the Inquisition received cases in the month of Ramadan more than any other month, and that the Moriscos who remained in Andalusia under Christian rule after the fall of Islamic rule and were forced to convert to Christianity preserved Fasting secretly in Ramadan, until the passage of nearly a century since the fall of Andalusia.

The book "The Andalusian Moriscos and Christians 1492-1640"

Foreign translations have referred to a ploy followed by Christians who were suspicious of the new members of their religion, where they applied the old proverb that advises to provoke a friend and push him to anger, with the intention of reaching the truth of his ideas, and in many cases the Moriscos did not tolerate such insults to Islam, nor did they The bad outcome prevents them from responding to those who made insulting statements to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

Despite all these atrocities, the Moriscos who were given Christian names kept their Islamic identity secretly, sometimes in public, and some even refused to drink alcohol and pork during the day in Ramadan before members of the Inquisition, which used these methods to ensure that they were faithful Christians.

Despite that, slander was enough to bring down those who resisted, and the delegates of the Inquisition were spread over the hills to arrest any Moresque who went out to survey the month of Ramadan, and as a result of the large numbers of those arrested, the church granted them an amnesty in some cases, provided that they did not return to their Islamic rituals, otherwise they faced the death penalty. burnt.

However, the records of the inspection records indicate that most of them were arrested again, and in 1906 King “Philip III” issued a decree after the approval of the Archbishop to expel all the Moriscos from Spain, to restore their old status before the Arab armies entered it, to close forever the separation of Islamic Andalusia from History of the Iberian Island.

Back to back.. Ramadan before the fall of Andalusia

For eight centuries, the Andalusian month of Ramadan was received with a warmth that exceeded its religious peculiarity, which it enjoyed in the Islamic countries of the East.

The conquest of those countries and their surroundings began on the first day of Ramadan in the year 92 AH and 711 AD, at the hands of the armies of "Tariq bin Ziyad".

However, during Ramadan, Muslims also received a crushing defeat in the Battle of the Martyrs’ Court in 732 AD, which the West records as having preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe.

Just as the Christian kingdoms also witnessed their biggest victories in this month, they experienced their harshest defeats in the Battle of Zallaqa in 1086, which is attributed to having delayed the fall of Andalusia for two centuries at the hands of the Almoravid army led by "Youssef bin Chafin".

For long periods, whenever Ramadan came to Muslims in Andalusia, its powerful princes and rulers paid a share of money from the state treasury in order to decorate mosques printed with the architecture of the Umayyad era in the east, in addition to lighting lamps in the streets and roads, as well as holding banquets for the poor and students of knowledge who traveled from their cities And they received lessons in the Mosque of Cordoba.

The Arab sources have referred to the spread of what was known as Asmat, or the “Sultan’s Hospice” in all parts of Andalusia, which is known today in the East as “The Tables of the Most Merciful”, and rewarding money is spent on them and held throughout the month of Ramadan. This is attributed to Andalusia as well as the invention of the “Qamar al-Din” drink. ".

Until the moment, the Muslim community in Spain still preserves some of the customs of their ancestors to this day, centuries after the demise of their state, and these candles are lit on the Night of Power, in addition to spraying musk throughout the mosques in Spain, which number about 300 mosques now, and Andalusian poetry mentions a narration Closer to the event, according to Abu Khasal Al-Andalusi, in which he said:

I find that you did not testify about it on the Night of Decree

The people stretched from it to the sea

Mountains of roses have been saddled with it

If that light shines from the dawn,

The light of dawn is about to fade and dry up

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Sources