Muhammad I of Granada
Muhammad I of Granada, called Ibn al-Ahmar, the son of the red-haired man, was a soldier from Arjona who in the collapse of Almohad Spain took Jaen, Cordoba and Seville in turn and lost them, made himself the vassal of Ferdinand III of Castile to keep Granada, and out of that bargain built the last Muslim state in Spain, the emirate of the Nasrids, which lasted two hundred and fifty years and whose motto, that there is no conqueror but God, is carved over every wall of the Alhambra he began. He was born about 1195 in Arjona near Jaen to a family that claimed descent from a companion of the Prophet. When the Almohads fell apart after Las Navas de Tolosa, and the Christian kings and the local strong men divided al-Andalus between them, he had himself proclaimed at Arjona in 1232, held Jaen, was received in Cordoba and Seville and expelled from both, and in 1237 was invited into Granada by its people. It was the moment Castile was closing in. Ferdinand III took Cordoba in 1236 and besieged Jaen in 1245, and Ibn al-Ahmar rode into his camp and offered himself as vassal: Jaen, a yearly tribute of a hundred and fifty thousand maravedis and the service of his troops in exchange for Granada, Malaga and Almeria under Castilian protection. He kept the bargain and fought beside Ferdinand at the siege of Seville in 1248, against Muslims, and is said to have answered the cheers on his return with the words that became the dynasty's motto. The state he made was a strip of mountain and coast with a great city, filled with the refugees of the lost cities, paying its way with silk and the tribute it owed. He began the Alhambra on the hill above the old citadel in 1238, diverting the river Darro to water it, and moved the court there. He broke with Castile late, supporting the Mudejar rising of 1264, and paid for it. He died in January 1273 after a fall from his horse, on his way to fight the Christians, and his son Muhammad II held what he had made.
- Lived: 1195 CE – 1273 CE
- Nationality: Andalusi
- Roles: emir, monarch, founder
