Treaty of Granada

(1491)

The Treaty of Granada, also known as

the Capitulation of Granada or simply the
Capitulations,[1] was signed and ratified
on November 25, 1491,[2] between
Boabdil, the sultan of Granada, and
Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and
Queen of Castile, León, Aragon and Sicily.
It ended the Granada War, which had
started in 1482 and culminated in the
siege and battle of Granada, which began
in spring 1491.
 Treaty of Granada

The Capitulation of Granada by Francisco

Pradilla Ortiz: Boabdil surrenders to
Ferdinand and Isabella

Context The Reconquista and

the Spanish
annexation of the
Emirate of Granada

Signed November 25, 1491

Signatories Boabdil, Emir

Muhammad XII of
Granada
Ferdinand II and
Isabella I
 Full text

es:Tratado de Granada at Wikisource

The treaty provided a short truce,

followed by the relinquishment in
January 1492 of the sovereignty of the
Muslim Emirate of Granada (founded in
the 13th century) to Catholic Spain.[3] The
treaty guaranteed a set of rights to the
Moors, Muslim inhabitants, including
religious tolerance and fair treatment in
return for their surrender and
capitulation.[1] The Capitulations granted
native Jews in the surrendered territories
the choice of either converting to
Christianity or migrating to North Africa
within three years. That was
subsequently superseded by the
Alhambra Decree of 1492, which forced
all Jews in Spain to choose between
conversion or expulsion.[1]

Terms
The capitulation of 1492 contained sixty-
seven articles among which were the
following:

That both great and small should be

perfectly secure in their persons,
families and properties.
That they should be allowed to
continue in their dwellings and
residences, whether in the city, the
suburbs or any other part of the
country.
That their laws should be preserved as
they were before, and that no none
should judge them except by those
same laws.
That their mosques and the religious
endowments appertaining to them
should remain as they were in the
times of Islam.
That no Christian should enter the
house of a Muslim or insult him in any
way.
That no Christian or Jew holding public
offices by the appointment of the late
Sultan should be allowed to exercise
his functions or rule over them.
That all Muslim captives taken during
the siege of Granada, from whatever
part of the country they might have
come, but especially the nobles and
chiefs mentioned in the agreement
should be liberated.
That such Muslim captives as might
have escaped from their Christians
masters and taken refuge in Granada
should not be surrendered, but the
Sultan should be bound to pay the
price of such captives to their owners.
That all those who might choose to
cross over to Africa should be allowed
to take their departure within a certain
time and be conveyed thither in the
king's ships, and without any pecuniary
tax being imposed on them beyond the
mere charge for passage, and
That after the expiration of that time
no Muslim should be hindered from
departing provided he paid, in addition
to the price of his passage, the tithe of
whatever property he might carry along
with him.
That no one should be prosecuted and
punished for the crime of another man.
That the Christians who had embraced
Islam should not be compelled to
relinquish it and adopt their former
creed.
That any Muslim wishing to become a
Christian should be allowed some days
to consider the step he was about to
take.after which he was to be
questioned by both a Muslim and a
Christian judge concerning his
intended change and if, after that
examination, he still refused to return
to Islam, he should be permitted to
follow his own inclination.
That no Muslim should be prosecuted
for the death of a Christian slain during
the siege and that no restitution of
property taken during the war should
be enforced.
That no Muslim should be subject to
have Christian soldiers billeted upon
him or be transported to provinces of
this kingdom against his will.
That no increase should be made to
the usual imposts but that on the
contrary all oppressive taxes lately
imposed should be immediately
suppressed.
That no Christian should be allowed to
peep over the wall or into the house of
a Muslim or enter a mosque.
That any Muslim choosing to travel or
reside among the Christians should be
perfectly secure in his person and
property.
That no badge or distinctive mark be
put upon them, as was done with the
Jews and Mudejares.
That no muezzin should be interrupted
in the act of calling the people to
prayer and no Muslim molested either
in the performance of his daily
devotions or in the observance of his
fast or in any other religious ceremony,
but if a Christian should be found
laughing at them, he should be
punished for it.
That the Muslims should be exempted
from all taxation for a certain number
 of years.
That the Lord of Rome, the Pope,
should be requested to give his assent
to the above conditions, and sign the
treaty himself. [This request by the
Moorish side was not carried out.]

Implementation and
breakdown

Forced conversions under Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros were seen as violations of the treaty and the main reason
for the later rebellions by the Muslim population. Painting by Edwin Long
Initially, the Catholic conquerors
implemented and reinforced the
generous terms of the treaty. A joint
municipal council was established in
Granada, and the Muslims were allowed
to elect their own representatives.
Despite pressure from the Spanish
clergy, Ferdinand chose a laissez-faire
policy towards the Muslim in the hope
that interaction with Catholics would
make them "understand the error" of their
faith and abandon it. Hernando de
Talavera, a friar of converso origins
known for his moderation and piety, was
appointed as the archbishop of Granada.
He was known for his preference of
preaching based on "Catholic reasoning",
as opposed to "punishments and lashes".
When Ferdinand and Isabella visited the
city in the summer of 1499, they were
greeted by enthusiastic crowd, including
Muslims.[4]

At the same time, Cardinal Francisco

Jiménez de Cisneros, the archbishop of
Toledo, arrived in Granada and began
working alongside Talavera. Cisneros
disliked Talavera's approach, and began
sending uncooperative Muslims,
especially the noblemen, to prison where
they were treated harshly until they
agreed to convert. Emboldened by the
increase in conversions, Cisneros
intensified the efforts and in December
1499 he told Pope Alexander VI that
three thousand Muslims converted in a
single day. Cisneros's own church council
warned that these methods might be a
breach of the Treaty, the 16th-century
hagiographer Álvar Gómez de Castro
described the approach as "methods that
were not correct".[5]

In December 1499, amid the increasingly

forced conversions and triggered by an
incident involving an attempt by the
authorities to reconvert a Muslim woman
who had converted from Christianity, the
population of Albayzín, the Muslim
quarter of Granada, began an open and
armed revolt. Talavera and Captain-
General Tendilla resolved the situation by
negotiating with the Muslims.
Meanwhile, Cisneros was summoned to
the court in Seville to account for his
actions. He convinced the Catholic
monarchs to issue a collective pardons
on the rebels on the condition that they
converted to Christianity. Consequently,
the whole city of Granada nominally
became Christian, and the treaty began
to unravel.[6]

See also
List of treaties
Reconquista
Morisco Revolt
 Timeline of the Muslim presence in the
Iberian Peninsula

Notes
1. Harvey, L.P. (1990). Islamic Spain, 1250 to
1500. The University of Chicago Press.
pp. 313–325. ISBN 9780226319629.
2. Prescott, William Hickling (1904). Munro,
Wilford Harold (ed.). History of the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=bAZpA
AAAMAAJ&pg=PA242) . Vol. II. J. B.
Lippincott Company. p. 242. Retrieved
23 November 2015.
3. Early Modern Spain: A Documentary
History, ed. Jon Cowans, (University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 15.
 4. Carr, Matthew (2009). Blood and Faith:
The Purging of Muslim Spain (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=netlOtzI6R8C) .
New Press. pp. 51–57. ISBN 978-1-59558-
361-1.
5. Carr 2009, pp. 57–58.
6. Carr 2009, pp. 59–61.

References
Spanish Wikisource has original text
related to this article:
Tratado de Granada
Early Modern Spain: A Documentary
History, ed. Jon Cowans, University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2003. pp. 15–19
Conditions (https://books.google.com/
books?id=Ksf_tz5x5FwC&pg=PA15)
 In Spanish, the original source is
Historia de la Rebellión y Castigo de los
Moriscos del Reino de Granada by Luis
del Mármol Carvajal.
See also El Reino Nazarí de Granada by
Cristobal Torrez Delgado and Los
Moriscos del Reino de Granada by Julio
Caro Barrata.

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