Fall of Granada

Felipe III issues a proclamation expelling the Moriscos. Over 300,000 people are banished, including about one-third of the population of Valencia. Parts of the Spanish countryside become deserted. Agriculture and industries sustained by the Moors decline significantly. In subsequent decades and centuries, Andalusi émigrés and their co-religionists recall with nostalgia…

A new rebellion takes shape in the Alpujarras under the leadership of Ibn Humeya. The uprising follows a decree by Hapsburg monarch Felipe II requiring Moors to abandon Arabic and their prior customs. Knights of the Order of Calatrava — the first Spanish military order (founded in 1164) — play…

Carlos V, grandson of Isabel and Fernando, and Hapsburg emperor Maximilian become rulers of Spain and other European lands. In 1523, Carlos orders the construction of a new Renaissance-style cathedral inside the former Great Mosque of Córdoba, and a large palace on the site of the Alhambra.

Cisneros commands the burning of thousands of Arabic books in Granada’s public square, considering them worthless and heretical. Mudejars — struggling to preserve their beliefs and culture — begin writing in Spanish but retain the Arabic script, a form known as Aljamiado.

Mudejars begin a revolt in the Alpujarras mountains south of Granada. Jiménez de Cisneros arrives in Granada with the court of the Spanish Inquisition. He seeks abrupt conversion of Moors to Christianity. Mudejars became Moriscos during mass baptisms in the Cathedral of Granada, formerly the Great Mosque.

On January 1, Castilian troops take control of the Alhambra palace under agreed-upon terms of surrender. The next day, Boabdil gives the keys to the city to the Catholic monarchs in a ceremony attended by Christopher Columbus. Within a few weeks, the Catholic monarchs issue a decree expelling all Jews…