Reconquista - The Last Kingdom of Islam - Part 1

today's video is sponsored by world of warships if you've ever wanted to combine your love of history warships and let's not forget that need to unleash a massive naval volley into the broadside of your enemy well this is the game for you world of warships combines the thrill of action and strategic gameplay you're gonna need not only out gun but also out think your opponent now I've been playing this for over a year and I especially love the idea of how focused the developers are and keeping the ships historically accurate as you make your way up through the ranks you'll actually be ascending through the times to the great gunships and what's more they're always upgrading the maps releasing new naval units and deploying the legendary ships from history if you sign up now is a new player you can use the invite code battle stations 2020 and you'll be started with a host of bonus items and with over thirty million players worldwide you'll always have someone to go toe-to-toe with and left the link in the description of the video below so give it a click and engage in your naval combat experience today and now for the video you've been waiting for [Music] [Music] in the year 12:30 on Daluz was in a dire situation by this point in history she was a far cry from the time of the formidable Maya caliphate that once held supremacy over the Iberian Peninsula the Almohad of North Africa her quote protector were now in decline themselves and no longer able to provide meaningful aid a land was fractured into a handful of petty typhus states that would often war amongst each other and the Christian kingdoms of the North had consolidated their power most notably Castile and Leon were now united and united under the warrior king Ferdinand the third was destined to extend a tract conquista as never before it would seem that the fall of al-andalus was now only a matter of time but despite the chaos there were those who are able to fight back of the two most prominent men to rise up is stronger at least at the beginning was a man named it'd been acquitted he would gain the title the Emir of the Muslims he rallied a number of the great remaining typhus states together and raised an army but when he attempted to push back that at conquista he was defeated on the battlefield repeatedly eventually the great typhus withdrew their support his own men turned on him and at the gates of al meriya which was his last stronghold he was killed ironically by the man he had placed in charge of the city but despite this setback there was another who would rise to prominence Abu Abdullah Mohammed even Youssef even Nasser known simply as eben Alomar was born into a very modest family in the very modest town of our own ha yet his family that Bono Nasser could trace their lineage back to a companion of the Prophet Muhammad himself and perhaps this instilled in the man a sense of destiny despite his humble start he was gifted with a cunning mind charisma and abundance and a very high sense of ambition when the Almohad of north africa essentially abandoned all Andaluz to an uncertain fate even al Ahmar saw an opportunity and seized it in the year twelve thirty-two he was elected as leader of our own ha the cities of guava and Bozza would quickly follow suit and in the following years hyeme al meriya and malaga would also join them but then in 1237 he truly hit the jackpot the city of Granada soon to be as capital opens its doors and proclaimed him to be their new Emir the early career of eben Alomar emphasized the highest principle of Sun Tzu's Art of War to wind without fighting his best hue Kennedy a professor of Islamic studies also explains quote even al Ahmar did not have to conquer any of the cities concerned and the people seem to have been only too relieved to accept an effective leader thus the foundations of the kingdom of Granada were laid by consent not by force end quote abu abdullah muhammad the eben yusuf eben nasser had thus begun the Kingdom of Granada his family name the banner Nasser would be given to this new dynasty and it would be known as the Nasrid in this beginning the characteristics that would allow the dynasty to endure became glaringly obvious this was gonna be a Jew dish and in many cases vicious diplomacy applied unapologetically to a ruthless conviction to survival even Alomar's trademark would be to enter into and out of alliances with the Christian kingdoms alternate between friend and foe with his Muslim rivals and basically eliminate anybody he felt was standing in his way Michael berry the author of the book an homage to all Andaluz emphasizes this quote all throughout his career even Alamar demonstrated his capacity as a master tactician combining pragmatism rudeness and a touch of deviousness end quote Hugh Kennedy goes on quote at various times even al ahmar pledged his loyalty to a bin Hood the Abbasid caliph of baghdad and the half seeds of tunis all of these moves were temporary and tactical more striking was his policy of accepting the Castilian alliance buying peace for himself with the catastrophe or the other more expendable Muslims end quote when his greatest rival the aforementioned even the hood that died in 1238 the Emir of Granada was simply left the last man standing while Granada was being established the warrior kings of Castile Portugal and Aragon were on the offensive Portugal on one side of the peninsula would push south to take all the land to the Algarve Aragon on the other side would take the Balearic Islands and eventually capture Valencia but they would both be overshadowed by Ferdinand the third king of a now united castile lyon who would take more land than all of his ancestors he managed to capture one tyfa after the next merida batha hos Ecija ube de would in time raise the Castilian flag then in 1236 he took the city of Cordoba the spiritual heart of al-andalus and ten years later he used his own ruthless diplomacy to take hyena which was one of even Alomar's strongholds but even Alomar recognized the no-win scenario he surrendered the city and became Ferdinand's vassal while this may have seemed like a step in the wrong direction for the Emir the loss of hyeme would actually improve the borders of the kingdom of Granada as they would now be fixed along the ridge of the Sierra Nevada range now being a vassal also meant that even Alomar was required to send military aid to assist Hardin and the third even if this meant attacking fellow Muslims indeed the Emir and his cavalry were present during the siege of the last great independent taifa they looked on as the City of Seville was taken by Castile in 1248 it was a strange place for even Olimar to be especially as he had gained power on the premise of being a defender of the faith but for the emir the pact with castile just had too many advantages becoming a vassal not only secured peace with Castile but it also meant that out of gone and Portugal could no longer bring in their armies attack unless they wanted to risk an all-out war with Ferdinand the third who at this point had already proved his military prowess now it goes without saying that there was a very heavy tribute that needed to be paid to castile but ironically enough this established a precedence the money flowing in from the emirate was just too good to pass up and eventually the military agenda of Castile became dependent on this cash flow basically granada became more valuable alive than dead now after the fall of Seville in 1248 Granada would grow in prosperity under the inspiring leadership of its Amir for the next 20 years even Alomar used the time to build up a vast network of fortresses he built them along the range of the sierra nevada to block nearly every pass and major crossroad meanwhile the infrastructure the land was enhanced and roads and bridges were upgraded strong points were established throughout the emirate as well and armies and Garrison's were created demand them this new ruler was gonna take every precaution with the city of hyena taken he was painfully aware that his capital was a mere 50 miles to the Castile ian's border the vast multitude of Muslim refugees that were fleeing the Christian advances would swell the population of the emirate in a very short time towns would become cities and the capital Ranade would explode with new residents the emirate would become the most densely packed region of the peninsula as a result the economy flourished skilled tradesmen would start producing luxury goods agriculture would generate a vast assortment of crops wool was harvested and became an extremely lucrative trade item in silk production which one usually thinks that china was cultivated and rendered into some of the most sophisticated textile in all of Europe and just as a side note silk production was done on a massive scale the Almohad cartographer al-idrisi noted in his chronicle three thousand farms raising silkworms in over 800 workshops in al meriya alone spitting out some of the finest cloth all of this would eventually make their way to the large and I should say well-protected southern ports of Algeciras Malaga and Al Maria the latter also being a major shipyard and from there the emirate would engage in trade throughout the entire Mediterranean her Goods would reach North Africa Western Europe and the Italian city-states at Genoa Pisa and Venice the emirate of Granada while a fragment of the Caliphate of Cordoba had established herself as a player in the western Mediterranean but from this time onward she would be perpetually engaged in a dangerous game of shifting alliances however her goal was always clear simply to survive Ferdinand the third died in 1252 and was succeeded by his son Alfonso the tenth who had ambitions to invade North Africa in 1262 this new Castilian King demanded from ibadallah Mar both military support and that his vassal relinquished the ports of tarifa and Algeciras this was something that the Emir simply couldn't do he came up with a thousand different excuses why he couldn't turn over the ports in while he was diplomatically keeping Alfonso's demands at arm's length he began to play his ace card far to the south the Banu Marin were a nomadic Sonata Berber tribe that were renowned for their fighting abilities they had been incorporated into the Almohad Caliphate and had served with valor in numerous campaigns they gained the reputation of being some of the fiercest cavalry in foot soldiers the Caliphate could produce but by the early to mid 13th century the Almohad dynasty had entered into a death spiral with one ineffectual leader after the next the ban who Marin rose up in 1215 is a renegade force and began to seize territory for itself at first they were confined to the Rif mountains but by 1248 they had taken a score as cities including Fez and Rabat as they consolidated their power a new Sultanate was established which after the tribes namesake would be known as the Metin it's now after taking Marrakesh in 1269 they became the Masters of Morocco their armies which it should be said relied heavily on Christian mercenaries had been honed after decades of fighting in the harsh lands of the Maghreb and they were now eager for another fight even a llamar coming under increasing pressure from Castile began hiring medinat mercenaries to balance out his forces he knew that a war was on the horizon and wanted to be one step ahead in 1264 Alfonso the tenth threatened the Emir's life and thus Granada and Castile declared war on one another the Emir was not gonna do his opponent a slight injustice if he went to war he was going all-in he brought in an entire Marinette force deployed his own army and then invoked the massive rebellion of the Muslims that were living under Castilian rule in the recently conquered territories these people were known as the muda Harz the muda ha rebellion spread quickly and initially it was successful at overthrowing Castilian rule in a few cities Alfonso the tenth was staggered and it required nearly all of his forces to contain the Muslim offensive and this even after neighboring Aragon got involved eventually the Castilian King invaded Grenada but even though he made it all the way to the capital Castilian forces were finally turned back and defeated this victory for Granada was achieved in part due to an elite Marinette cavalry force known as the volunteers of the faith or the GU SOT frustrated by his military setback the Castilian King retaliated by instigating a rebellion within Granada the Banu ash quelala were a prominent and powerful family that had been ardent supporters of the Nazareth but had since become quite disaffected sensing their disillusionment Alfonso provoked them into open revolt this revolt by the way would last intermittently for the next two and a half decades the situation was spiraling out of control and eventually both leaders had to settle on peace to address their respective domestic problems but now a new equilibrium was established first even Alomar the Emir of Granada who now tuck the name Mohammed the first proved without a doubt that his emirate was willing and capable of fighting back second the marinids of north africa would increasingly become more involved both politically and militarily in the Iberian Peninsula which seemed to them like fertile ground for their armies to plunder and third the Christian kingdoms of the North would increasingly expel the Muslims but this expulsion wasn't always equal Brian catless in his book the kingdoms of faith explains quote although it is true that some Muslim communities in Christian Spain suffered catastrophic violence and repression in many regions they enjoyed broad rights and lived in peace security and contentment integrated to a remarkable degree with their Christian neighbors and overlords thus it was not ideology or doctrine that most shaped policies towards the muda Harz but practical concerns where the Muslims were seen as reinforcing the power of rulers and the prosperity of their kingdoms their communities were protected and cultivated when they were perceived of as threatening or a liability or when it was simply more convenient to dispose of them their rights were eroded or simply abrogated this volatility was built into the mood of our experience and all but guaranteed that sooner or later the Muslim communities of Christian Spain would disappear end quote the peace that ensued was tenuous at best Granada once again became Castile vassal but make no mistake Castile had the military ability to attack at any point it was within the capacity of Alphonse of the tenth to concentrate his military and complete that I conquista but he didn't Alphonse of the tenth who was a philosopher King would be distracted at first by his attempt to become the Holy Roman Emperor and then later by putting down another major rebellion this time one that was started by his own son this gave Mohammed the first again the new name for an urban Alomar breathing room to build and keep his upstart Nobles the aforementioned banished kilala in check his attention turned back to a hill in his capital thus Abeka where for years he had been laying the foundation for a new palace city his work however was cut short he died in 1273 when he fell from his horse while he was on campaign maria meant a call in her book the ornament of the world puts this all into perspective quote even a llamar was able to ensconced shortly after he moved into granada he himself understood the perfection of the site at the top of the hill where the old red fort had stood he began to prepare it to become a Palatine City rebuilding fortified walls and bringing water to it from the mountains he probably did not live to see much more than these foundations completed but his son took over the task and under his direction there began to rise the most spectacular of all the memory palaces of Islamic Spain the Alhambra end quote the emirate existed in a state of perpetual threat but the leadership of her Emir and that of his descendants still found the time to create something awe-inspiring as Professor Brian catless puts it the Sultanate of Granada was a pale shadow of the old Caliphate of Cordoba but the dynasty would rule for the next 250 years through what would be the final cycle of glory for Islamic Spain end quote [Music] [Music]

Channel: Flash Point History

Views: 53,702

Keywords: Nasrid, Nasrid dynasty, Moors, Moorish Spain, Granada, andalusia, generalife, alhambra, Nasrid palace, nasrid palaces, what to see in granada, Moor, moors spain, Reconquista, Ferdinand III, cordoba, seville, ibn al ahmar, Muhammad I, alphonso X, marinids, the last kingdom of islam, islam, christian, invasion, battle, moorish architecture, the Alhambra, muslim spain, spain, history of spain, al andalus, history of islam, muslims of spain, islamic spain, kingdoms of faith, muslims in spain

Id: 9EaSHupQSkI

Length: 20min 2sec (1202 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020