Conquest Day - El Dia de la Toma

 

View of The Alhambra, Granada.

One of the great successes of Spanish National Television over the last few years has been the epic historical drama, "Isabel", a glitzy, no-expenses-spared retelling of how Queen Isabel and her husband Ferdinand united the Christian States of 15th Century Iberia and vanquished the last of the region's Moslem monarchs to bring about the birth of modern Spain.

The price of DVDs being what it is, I will wait until the box set of all three seasons of Isabel loses ground to the next big budget blockbuster and settles at a rather more affordable price. But I have seen enough of it to engender much scratching of the head in bemusement as I try to reconcile the glamorous, blond haired fantasy Isabel with the portraits and historical descriptions that present her as plump and with the round faced aspect of  a "peasant girl".

Cosmetic enhancement in order to create a more aesthetically pleasing Isabel aside, the historical events of the 2nd of January are celebrated in Granada as a local holiday, because it was on this day in 1492 that the forces of Isabel and Ferdinand entered the city of Granada, thus drawing the curtain down over nearly eight centuries of Islamic Al-Andalus and completing the Christian Reconquest of the region. The anniversary is marked by a ceremony in the Royal Chapel of Granada's cathedral, a parade combining both religious and secular elements, and culminates in the waving of banners and a salute to the victorious Catholic monarchs.

But what about the other player in the story of the demise of Moslem Granada? Abu abd-Allah Muhammed XII, far better known as Boabdil, was the last of the Nasrids, the final line of Moslem rulers to reign in Iberia. Short-lived though it was, the Nasrid dynasty flowered briefly and in spectacular fashion for it is the Nasrids who constructed that paragon of Islamic art and culture, the world-renowned Alhambra.

The story of how Boabdil gazed back tearfully at Granada on his way into exile and was reprimanded by his mother for doing so, has entered into popular myth and bears all the hallmarks of a romanticization of the truth. But the real story of Boabdil and the demise of Al-Andalus makes for fascinating reading. Sadly, Boabdil has been so eclipsed by the glory of the vanquishing Isabel and Ferndinand that it is difficult to track down a cohesive history of his life that does not merely concentrate on a rehashing of the myths (for anyone interested in this subject, I have written an article entitled "Boabdil - Spain's Last Moslem King" and would be happy to send you a copy.)

As anyone who knows anything about recording the past will agree, written history is usually a prerogative of the victorious and of the movers of church, business and the state for whom detailing unbiased fact is often not to their advantage. To add to the problem of getting an unbiased overview, modern historians love to bicker amongst themselves and challenge each other's take on the past. All to the good, maybe, in arriving at a more balanced understanding? Well, sometimes this leads to a disjointed picture of stark opposing monochrome that lacks the subtle shades of in-between that really make up this complex world of ours.

This is certainly the case with Al-Andalus and the Reconquest, depending on which of the more polarised accounts you read. For example, the Islamic era saw a flowering of culture, artistic achievement and scientific excellence, and the various Moslem dynasties exhibited a remarkable degree of tolerance towards the Jewish and Christian inhabitants of their domains. According to others, it was a period of intolerance, cruelty and the suppression and subjugation of women. In a similar way, the Reconquest and founding of modern Spain was either the glorious culmination of a holy crusade to vanquish the infidel Moors, or it unleashed the horrors of the Catholic Inquisition with its torture and burning of heretics, and the sustained persecution and expulsion of the Jews and the Moslems.

Look at it this way, and the 2nd of January is more than just a holiday. It seems that Isabel and her dramatized ascent to superstar status has the upper hand, while even something as seemingly innocent as a procession through Granada and an "All Hail to the Catholic Monarchs" has the power to perpetuate this imbalance. But spare a thought for Boabdil today, and let's not forget the marvellous legacy that he and his predecessors gave Spain in the form of their culture, architecture, music, cuisine and language.