The sources and questions relate to Case study 1: The final stages of Muslim rule in Spain – Context and motives: Social and economic context in Iberia and Al-Andalus in the late 15th century; heavy taxation.

Source G

Diego Melo Carrasco, a professor of medieval history, writing in an article “En torno al vasallaje y las parias en las treguas entre Granada y Castilla (XIII–XV): Una posibilidad de análisis” [On vassalage and parias in the truces
between Granada and Castile (13th–15th centuries): a possibility of analysis], for the academic journal Medievalismo [Medievalism] (2012).

The parias [tribute] payments always existed between the two states in recognition of the hegemony [dominance] of Castile, and they were one of the main causes of confl ict between them. For Granada, making these payments was never pleasant, since they hinted at Granada’s inferiority with respect to Castile. In addition to monetary taxation, vassalage was accompanied by commercial exchanges, the development of border institutions and constant Castilian interference in domestic affairs in Granada.

The reason for the fighting between Castile and Granada would have been, almost always, the restoration of that vassalage, especially when the Muslim ruler did not want to accept it. That is to say, war was waged to restore submission and the parias payments. For their part, the Sultans of Granada visited their Castilian overlord on various occasions, especially during the 13th and 15th centuries, to pay their respects, request truces, or simply because they were called to court to resolve political issues.

The sources and questions relate to Case study 1: The final stages of Muslim rule in Spain – Context and motives: Social and economic context in Iberia and Al-Andalus in the late 15th century; heavy taxation.

Source E

José Enrique López de Coca Castañer, a professor of medieval history, writing in the article “Institutions on the Castilian-Granadan Frontier” in the collection of academic essays Medieval Frontier Societies (1989).

We can distinguish between treaties where the sultan of Granada agreed to be a vassal of the king of Castile [a vassal being a person who holds land on condition of service to a ruler], and truces, which were merely suspensions of hostilities. The Nasrid dynasty had begun its historical existence as a Castilian vassal in the mid-13th century. This vassalage had been a condition of survival, but it also meant that a basic contradiction was built into the fabric of the state.

For a Muslim ruler to be a vassal of a Christian sovereign revolted [went against] every principle of Islamic law. And the vassalage of Granada was not only humiliating but a financial burden. It involved the sultan’s attendance at the Castilian court and the sending of military contingents to fight against fellow Muslims as well as Christians. Granada also had to pay large sums of money, known as parias, as an annual tribute to Castile. In order to get the money, the sultans taxed their Muslim population far more heavily than Shari’a or religious law allowed.