The Last Muslim Sultan of Granada: Elizabeth Drayson (1492)
Professor Elizabeth Drayson, author of Lost Paradise: The Story of Granada
This week we head to Granada in southern Spain to witness one of the most important years in the history of not only Europe, but the whole world.
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In 711 a band of Berber tribesmen made the short voyage from North Africa to Southern Spain, landing near Gibraltar. To their surprise, the local people welcomed them and within a short time they had conquered most of the peninsular, defeating the Visigoths who had ruled as an unpopular elite for several centuries. The land they found mesmerised them with its beauty and natural abundance, they settled down, built cities and were joined by Arabs from across the vast Muslim Empire who made al-Andalus their home. Communities of Jews, who had suffered terrible persecution under the Visigoths, flourished, as did the Christians who chose to stay and live under Muslim rule. As the centuries passed, a vibrant civilisation, one of the most sophisticated on earth, developed. Al-Andalus became famous for its doctors, architects, philosophers, craftsmen and scholars. People rhapsodised about the beauty and wonder of its capital city, Cordoba.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, Christian Europeans, who had retained a foothold in the far north of the peninsular, began the long process of Reconquista, reclaiming the lands they saw as being rightfully theirs. Toledo fell in 1085 and over the following centuries these forces made their way slowly southwards, gradually defeating the Muslim rulers of the small city states like Zaragoza and Seville. By the late fifteenth century, only Granada remained in Arab hands, the rest of Iberia was under Christian rule once again, and in 1492, Boabdil, the last Sultan of Granada, handed over the keys of the city to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella – the joint Catholic rulers of Spain.
We are visiting this watershed moment in excellent company. Professor Elizabeth Drayson, an expert on Spanish culture and literature, explains that it marked the end of almost 800 years of Muslim rule in Spain and the end of a society where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together freely. In her new book, Lost Paradise, The Story of Granada, she reveals the full wonder of this city’s history, highlighting the experiences of some of its minority populations including Jews, Gypsies, women.
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Click here to order Elizabeth Drayson's book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
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Show Notes
Scene One: 2 January 1492, in Granada. Christian and Muslim royalty have assembled for the official surrender of the city to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.
Scene Two: Mid-July, 1492, on the road to Cádiz, the route to one of Spain’s biggest seaports, as Jewish families prepare to sail into permanent exile from their
homeland.
Scene Three: September 1492, in the old wood-panelled library of the University of Salamanca. Queen Isabella I of Castile meets Spain’s most renowned Humanist, Antonio de Nebrija, to accept his newly published grammar of the Spanish language.
Memento: The gold ring set with a turquoise owned by the last Muslim sultan of Granada.
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Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Elizabeth Drayson
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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About Elizabeth Drayson
Elizabeth Drayson is Emeritus Fellow in Spanish at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. She specializes in medieval and early modern literature and cultural history and is the author of books on the legend of King Roderick and La Cava, and the Lead Books of Granada, as well as The Moor’s Last Stand: How seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end, which was one of The Times and Sunday Times best history books of 2017. Her latest book, Lost Paradise: the story of Granada, was published by Head of Zeus in 2021. She lives in Cambridge and Norfolk.
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