1492: When the last Muslim ruler left Granada

January 2, 1492: ‘On the red walls of Al-Hamra the sacred wings of Jesus Christ are waving. The Muslim Sultan, dressed in fine clothes, accompanied by seventy eighty knights, came out to kiss the hands of the royal couple (Ferdinand and Isabella).

‘Under the treaty of retreat Isabella and Ferdinand would not accept the offer to kiss the hand and the keys of Granada would pass from the hands of Muhammad XII to Christian hands.

Muhammad XII’s mother, Barab, insisting on saving her son from this humiliation, specifically included this clause in the treaty.

The Muslim Sultan’s love was received with respect and his son was handed over to him, who was being held as a hostage by Ferdinand.

‘Then came a serious and dignified procession of about four hundred prisoners carrying crosses and chanting prayers. When the royal couple got down from their horses and paid homage to the cross, the eyes of all those present were filled with tears. There wasn’t a person there who didn’t have tears streaming down their cheeks.

‘The Christian eyes were moist with the sense of the goodness of Jesus Christ, while the eyes of the Sultan and his companions were unable to hide their pain. Why not that Granada is the most distinguished, the highest gift in the world.’

It was written by an eyewitness and it mentions the incident when the ruler of Granada, Muhammad Abu Abdullah, handed over the keys of the Alhambra to the invaders Ferdinand and Isabella, extinguishing the last lamp of Muslim power from Spain after 781 years.

It is said that Muhammad Abu Abdullah, the last crown prince of Al-Hamra, passed through the gate to present the keys of the shrine built by his ancestors to Ferdinand, he requested that this gate be broken down so that no one could pass through it in the future. .

Ferdinand accepted this request and chose the door. What will be going through Abu Abdullah’s heart at that time? The same thing that must have happened on Adam’s heart when he left Paradise.

Flight of Shaheens by Naseem Hijazi

Although Naseem Hijazi has put all the debris of the fall of Granada on him by calling Abu Abdullah a hateful villain in the black and white sentimental novel ‘Shaheen’ more than Punjabi films, but the fact is that Abu Abdullah is the current of history. was swimming in the opposite direction.

The fall of Granada was the writing on the wall, which was bound to happen sooner or later. Even if the ‘traitor’ Abu Abdullah had not been born, Granada would have fallen five to ten years later, even if not in 1492.

Within the next few decades, the Spanish Empire emerged as the world’s first global superpower, dominating vast swaths of the world’s five continents.

This empire in the 16th century is still called the golden age of Spain’s history. During this time, this empire not only ruled over a large area but also excelled in literature, poetry, painting, architecture and sculpture.

It was under the patronage of Spain that Christopher Columbus discovered the New Continent, making the first circumnavigation of the world.

Painters like El Greco and Velasquez, Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, were born in the same period, and the cathedrals built during this period are still considered architectural masterpieces.

The first brick of European colonialism was laid by Spain. In such a situation, how long can the small, backward state of Grenada hold back against this heavy flood?

Our ‘exciting’ historical novelists also forget that the Nasrid dynasty of Granada existed solely because it was a tributary of Castile.

Not only did the Muslim Nasrid rulers of Granada regularly pay tribute every year, but they also sent their soldiers and supplies to the wars of Castile to show their loyalty and obedience.

Even in 1248, when Ferdinand the Third laid siege to Muslim Asheville, al-Ahmar, the founder of Al-Hamra, himself participated in the battle with five hundred chosen horsemen on behalf of the Christians against the Muslims.

Technology war

When at last the Granada and the Christians came to face each other, it was no longer the war of old. The doomsday trick was over and now this war was a technology war.

Ferdinand’s army had the most advanced cannons and guns for the time, while the Muslims still relied heavily on arrows and axes.

The Muslims had built strong fortresses that were almost impossible to conquer in a conventional siege, but Ferdinand had unorthodox mortars and stone cannons, before which the Muslim ‘leaden’ forts proved to be piles of sand.

In fact, the decline of Muslims not only in science and science but also in war had already begun two centuries ago.

Historians write that in 1495 Ferdinand had 179 cannons, while the Kingdom of Granada had nothing but half a cannon taken from the Christians.

Queen Isabella gave special attention to the development of explosive weapons and for this purpose, expert war engineers were sent from Italy, Germany and France.

Every Christian army was accompanied by gunners and gunsmiths who not only repaired damaged cannons but could also make new cannons on the battlefield if needed.

It was not easy to transport this heavy artillery to the jungle-covered mountainous regions of the Kingdom of Granada. For this purpose, another army of laborers and volunteers was working behind the Christian army, which cleared the forests in a wide area and leveled the small and big hills and laid a network of roads and bridges on all sides. So now the delivery of armies, artillery and supplies became very easy.

Oh Maleqa, where has the power of your castle gone?

Shortly before the fall of Granada, when Ferdinand’s forces laid siege to the city of Granada, the city was traditionally impregnable.

The ramparts were high, the central citadel was built on top of a mountain called Jabal al-Faro, from which arrows could be rained down on the attacking forces and boiling water could be thrown at them.

But Ferdinand brought with him ‘seven sisters’. It was seven huge cannons that fired day and night and reduced Jebel Alfaro to ash and smoke. They were blown up by placing explosives under the city’s ‘Flakbos’ walls.

When the victorious Christian forces entered the city and made all the men slaves and the women concubines and banished the city, the women of Malacca used to walk in the streets covering their breasts and chanting:

‘O owner! O city of Jameel, O reliable village! Where has the strength of your castle gone? Where is the awe of your constellations? Of what use are these wide walls that cannot save your children? Now they will go to strange lands mourning each other, and strangers will laugh at them.’

Isabella, known as the ‘Catholic Queen’, experimented with patrolling war hospitals for the first time in world history. His army was accompanied by a team of doctors who treated the wounded immediately, the cost of which was paid by the Queen from her own pocket. That is why Isabella is also called the ‘Queen of Hospitals’.

‘The Peacock’s Last Sigh’

Well, let us go back to the day of January 2, 1492 and try to guess what must have been going through Abu Abdullah’s heart that day.

According to eyewitnesses, Abu Abdullah’s eyes did not dry even after that. According to tradition, he left Granada with his companions and family members directly from this event.

When he reached the peak from where Alhambra could be seen for the last time, tears welled up in his eyes once again. His ‘Barab’ mother Aisha was with him. Out of his mouth:

Are you crying today as women cry over a king you did not protect as men do?

‘Why are you shedding tears like women for what you could not defend like men?’

If this tradition is correct, then on this occasion, there should have been tears of blood in the eyes of Sultan-e-Griya Kanan’s mother because it was Aisha who incited her son to rebel against her husband Abul Hasan Ali.

The Spaniards still remember this spot on the hill as ‘The Peacock’s Last Sigh’. Salman Rushdie has written a novel called Moor’s Last Sigh, disposing of it.

Ferdinand, in a show of ‘great magnanimity’, granted Abu Abdullah a small estate in the southern mountains of Granada, but he did not stop there and went straight to Morocco.

Before reaching there, he wrote a letter to the Sultan there which has been copied by the historian al-Maqri. What is the letter? It is a Kasamparsi mask, in which the missing Khoi Sultani has been placed on one side, and on the other side, a hand-knot is drawn from the inside of the silk sleeve:

‘Sahib-e-Qashtalia (Ferdinand) has arranged for us a dignified residence and has written with his own hand a guarantee of protection. But we did not accept him as the successor of Banwal Ahmar.

‘Our trust in God does not allow us to remain in disbelief. We have received well-wishing messages from far and wide with welcome offers. But we cannot choose any region other than our fatherland.

‘We can only accept the shelter of our relatives. Not for the sake of meanness, but for the sake of consolidating the fraternal relations between us, and for the fulfillment of the covenants of our adversaries, in which we are enjoined not to seek help from anyone but the Banumarians. .

‘Therefore we have come over long land and across stormy seas, hoping that we will not be turned back, that our eyes will be cleansed and that great wound on our souls healed. Time will be provided.’

This request did not go in vain, as al-Maqri records that Abu Abdullah settled in the Moroccan city of Fez. It is difficult to say whether his abysmal wound was healed or not, but it is certain that he died at a very ripe age, that is, 35 years after the fall of Granada.

It seems that the last Sultan of the Al-Ahmar dynasty did not have the opportunity to bring with him much wealth, as the historian al-Maqri met his great-grandsons in 1618 who lived on zakat and sadakat.

May the name of Allah be.