The last king of Andalusia, rejected by everyone.. An attempt to search for the tomb of Abu Abdullah al-Ahmar in Fez

Rabat - 

Al-Musalla Square in the Moroccan city of Fez turns into a place for holding the Eid prayers, while during the rest of the year it becomes a haven for the residents of the neighborhood to sit, meet and exchange conversations, while their children play in the square.

On one side of it stands a small mausoleum topped with a green dome. Residents say that it is the shrine of the righteous saint of Fez, while an archaeological research team is likely to be the resting place of Abi Abdullah al-Ahmar, the last king of the Nusayri state in Granada, who signed the treaty of handing over the last Muslim strongholds in Andalusia.

growing interest

Interest in the personality of Abi Abdullah al-Ahmar, the last prince of the Nusayri dynasty in Granada, increased through archaeological and historical research, novels and Spanish documentaries about this character, whose name was associated with the end of the Islamic presence in Andalusia.

Spanish producer Manuel Alonso Navarro recently presented his documentary film "The Tomb of Abi Abdullah" at the Cervantes Institute in Fez, in the presence of researchers and those interested in cultural affairs in the scientific city of Morocco.

The documentary follows the life of King Abi Abdullah of Granada and the circumstances that accompanied his accession to the throne to the siege imposed by Fernando and Isabella, kings of Castile and Aragon, on the city, which ended with Abi Abdullah's surrender and his departure to Morocco.

In his film, Navarro moved towards Fez, looking for information that would lead him to the place of residence of Abu Abdullah and his burial place.

This film was produced as part of a historical documentary series broadcast by the Spanish RTVE channel. It was expected to be shown in Fez in 2019, but the circumstances of the Corona pandemic delayed the show.

Navarro tells Al-Jazeera Net that his interest in the personality of Abu Abdullah, "Boabdil", as the Spaniards call him, stems from his interest in the history of Andalusia, a period that he believes is not much known in Spain despite its importance.

He points out that he read years ago the novel by the Spanish novelist and playwright "Antonio Cala", entitled "The Scarlet Manuscript", and it inspired him to search more about the personality of Abu Abdullah and about that important period in the history of Spain.

Zoghbi or statesman?

The Spanish describe him as El chico, while the Moroccans call him "Zoghbi", meaning "unlucky and ill-fated". In their imagination, he is a king who abdicated his land and did not preserve the throne of his ancestors.

Many historical sources deal with the life of Abu Abdullah in Granada since his birth and upbringing, and the struggles that took place in the Alhambra Palace and brought him to power with the support of his mother, Aisha.

Abu Abdullah assumed the throne at the age of 25 in a difficult circumstance characterized by the disintegration of kingdoms in Andalusia and their successive fall, and Granada, in turn, was subjected to a siege that lasted for months, resulting in the spread of hunger and disease among the people, so that its king decided to negotiate with the two Spanish kings and hand over the city in exchange for protecting the lives and money of the population.

The head of the Center for Moroccan Andalusian Studies in Fez, Saida Al-Alami, tells Al-Jazeera Net that Abu Abdullah Al-Ahmar had no choice after a long siege in which the crops decreased and the river dried up, so he decided, after consulting the people of the solution and the contract of his entourage, to surrender, stressing that this decision was not individual as indicated. In addition to some historical sources.

Navarro explains that the documentary work he worked on made him more aware and understanding of this character, as Abu Abdullah at that time was barely in the prime of his youth and a victim of circumstances, just as he was a piece driven by others in a complex Mediterranean policy board.

He adds, "I was greatly affected by the resistance he was exposed to during his stay in Fez, as he turned into a cursed one."

View of the old city in Fez (the island)

Life after Granada

Not many details are known about the life of this king after his exodus to Morocco, his burial place, and the lives of his sons after him.

Saida Al-Alami indicates that the Spanish sources dealt with the exodus of Abu Abdullah to Morocco as a major event in which she recorded her victory with the exit of Islam from Andalusia, and this event became a vehicle for novels, legends, drawings, tournaments, and everything was written about it in the language of the victor, while the Arab sources dealt with it briefly and did not care much about what Signed after arriving in Morocco.

She adds that the city of Fez (the capital of the state at the time) was full of chaos when Abi Abdullah arrived there, in addition to internal and external conflicts with Portugal and the Spaniards and the occupation of some Moroccan beaches.

The book "The Teacher of Morocco" reveals that after leaving Granada, Abu Abdullah Al-Ahmar headed towards the town of Andrash in the Al-Bishrat region near Almeria, and he spent a year there, but he could not bear to reside there, so he decided to go to Morocco.

Other sources say that his beloved wife, Maryam, died of grief and anguish in this town, and he could no longer be able to stay there after that.

Al-Musalla Square in Fez, which includes the shrine and where the Eid prayers are held (Al-Jazeera)

Al-Alami clarifies that Abu Abdullah received a stab from his closest men during his stay in Andalusia after handing over the city, if they betrayed him and sold his property, as some sources narrate, which made him decide to leave for Morocco with his family and entourage, carrying with him the remaining money.

About a century after his death, the historian and writer Ahmed al-Maqri, in his book "Nafah al-Tayyib from the moist branch of Andalusia," briefly dealt with Abu Abdullah's stay in Fez, as he indicated that the last king of Granada left Andalusia towards Melilla and from there to Fez, where he pleaded with its sultan with a lengthy message to stay in Medina, and during his stay there he built a palace similar to his palace in Andalusia, and he lived in Fez for 40 years until he passed away while he was in his seventh decade.

And from what was stated in the book, “The aforementioned sultan, after his descent in Melilla to the city of Fez, ended up with his family and children, apologizing for what he had preceded, eager for what he left behind, and he built some palaces in Fez on the way to the building of Andalusia. I saw them and entered them.”

He added, "He died - may God have mercy on him - in Fez in the year nineteen forty, and was buried in front of the chapel outside the door of Sharia. He left two sons, one of whom was Joseph and the other Ahmed, and after this Sultan was in Fez in the year 1027, they took from the endowments of the poor and needy."

Historical research

In 2013, a Spanish-Emirati research team relied on Al-Muqri’s narration in “Nafah Al-Tayyib”, to trace the burial place of Abu Abdullah Al-Ahmar in Al-Musalla Square in Fez, near Bab Al-Sharia.

The research led this team to an abandoned shrine known as the tomb of a righteous saint named Abu al-Qasim. Examination of the place by geological radar proved that the shrine contained two bodies, and the team confirmed that one of them belonged to the righteous saint Abi al-Qasim, and it was highly likely that the other body belonged to Abu Abdullah al-Ahmar, as he was It is customary for princes and sultans to be buried alongside the righteous saints.

The research team had a desire to exhume the remains of the body and conduct an analysis of the bones, but this desire collided with bureaucracy, according to what the team told Spanish media at the time.

Producer Manuel Alonso Navarro presenting his film "The Tomb of Abu Abdullah" at the Cervantes Institute in Fez (communication sites)

Kenza El-Ghali - who is currently the Moroccan ambassador to Chile - tried to help the research team to confirm his theory and extract the remains from the grave.

Al-Ghali - who was then holding the position of Deputy Mayor of Fez - explained to Al-Jazeera Net that she sought from her position to facilitate the work of these researchers, as she is also a researcher in the field of Andalusian studies, interested in the subject and a university professor.

Kenza al-Ghali helped the team communicate with the Ministries of Culture and the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, but all parties refused to grant the license, claiming lack of jurisdiction, so the team left Fez without achieving the goal.

Navarro believes that determining the burial place of the last king of Granada is a scientific and political problem and a simple solution can be found for it, and he proposes the formation of a joint working group between the University of Fez and Spanish archaeologists - including the Spanish historian Berkilio Martinez Inamorado - to complete the research, and he believes that this cooperation is necessary to determine the burial place. Abi Abdullah precisely.