Fernando Iii and Muḥammad I of Granada: a Time of Collaboration Between Two “Incompatible Worlds”

Chapter 3 Fernando iii and Muḥammad i of Granada: A Time of Collaboration between Two “Incompatible Worlds”

Bárbara Boloix-Gallardo

1 Introduction

The first half of the thirteenth century saw substantial political, and above all, territorial change across the chessboard that comprised the medieval Iberian Peninsula.1 The general crisis that had been visited upon al-Andalus following the resounding Almohad defeat at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa or al-ʿIqāb, fought on the 14th of the Islamic month of ṣafar 609/July 16, 1212 ce, and the subsequent departure of the Caliph al-Maʾmūn in 625/1228 to the Maghrib – where the emergence of new local dynasties threatened the integrity of his domains, – turned al-Andalus into easy prey for the peninsular Christian kingdoms, above all, the crown of Castile.2 Indeed, the Estoria de España recog- nizes that, after the aforementioned struggle, “the Moors were so broken that they never again raised their heads in Spain.”3 This episode inaugurated an era of uncertainty in al-Andalus, known as the third Taifa period. Several local leaders – Ibn Hūd al-Mutawwakil in Murcia (r. 625–635/1228–1238), Zayyān b. Mardanīsh in Valencia (r. 625–638/1228–1241) and, finally, Muḥammad i (previ- ously known as Ibn al-Ahmar) in Arjona (r. 629–671/1232–1273) – assumed the

1 I would like to express my gratitude to my colleague Damian Smith and to Edward Holt for having invited me to take part in the international conference on “San Fernando and his Age,” which was celebrated at the campus of Saint Louis University in Madrid during October 6–7, 2017. 2 On this important battle for peninsular Christianity and its fatal consequences for the Almo- had dynasty, see Huici Miranda, Las grandes batallas de la Reconquista, 217–327; Vara Thor- beck, El lunes de las Navas; Rosado Llamas and López Payer, La Batalla de las Navas de Tolosa, a study which analyzes this battle in depth from both the Muslim and the Christian perspec- tives; Cressier and Salvatierra, Las Navas de Tolosa (1212–2012); Estepa Díez and Carmona Ruiz, La Península Ibérica. 3 fueron los moros tan quebrantados que nunca después alzaron cabeza en España: pcg, 689. The Estoria de España had the benefit of hindsight, being compiled over the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; for more on this important source, see Catalán, La “Estoria de España,” and below, fn. 15.

62 Boloix-Gallardo military defense of the Andalusi territory, aiming to reunify it under their re- spective authorities. Although the Murcian ruler, Ibn Hūd al-Mutawwakil, suc- ceeded at first in defending al-Andalus from the Christian kingdoms, creating an emirate that incorporated the most important Andalusi cities, nonetheless the military defeats that he suffered at the end of his life ultimately shook his authority and finally resulted in the widespread recognition of the authority of Muḥammad i. The power of the latter was consequently reinforced by the murder of Ibn Hūd in Almería in 635/1238 and the departure of Ibn Mardanīsh to Tunisia in 638/1241, making Muḥammad the principal leader of al-Andalus, an important part of which had recognized his power as ruler of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, a political entity that would survive, against all expecta- tions, for two and a half centuries.4 An important part of the political arena of the Iberian Peninsula during the first half of the thirteenth century was, therefore, presided over by two principal sovereigns: Fernando iii, king of Castile (and, from 1230, León), and Muḥammad i (629–671/1232–1273), the first emir and founder of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. One of the central policies of the Castilian king was the prosecu- tion of war with al-Andalus, the so-called “Reconquista,” to which end he un- dertook a series of conquests in the Muslim lands to the south of the Peninsula, and ultimately absorbed much of al-Andalus under Castilian control. However, despite both his ambition and the evident military success of Castile, Fernando iii established a political relationship with Muḥammad i based on respect, and permitting the existence and indeed the development of the Nasrid emirate of Granada. Throughout this chapter, the complex relationship between the crown of Castile and the Nasrid kingdom of Granada will be explored between the years 1232 and 1252, namely, from the proclamation of Muḥammad i as emir in Arjona (Jaén) to the death of Fernando iii. Although we will pay attention to the information provided by medieval Christian sources, this analysis will pri- marily be approached “from right to left,” that is to say, drawing closely on the Arabic sources composed in the Western Islamic domains of al-Andalus and the Maghrib, and rooted in Islamic political ideology.5

4 For a further explanation of this process, see Boloix-Gallardo, De la Taifa de Arjona, 17–40; and Boloix-Gallardo, Ibn al-Aḥmar, 77–9. 5 Because of this approach, the Islamic dates provided throughout this chapter are in both the Hegira and the Christian calendars in order to achieve a greater chronological accuracy.