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 F

The Treaty of Granada (1491), signed between Abu Abdallah [Boabdil], king of Granada, and Isabella and Ferdinand, queen and king of Castile and Aragon.

Article 3. Isabella, Ferdinand, and Prince Juan [their son] will, after the surrender, accept all Granadans – from King Abu Abdallah [Boabdil] down, great and small, men and women – as their vassals and natural subjects. In return the monarchs guarantee to let them remain in their houses, estates, and to protect their inheritance now and for all time. Isabella and Ferdinand will not allow any harm to be done to the Granadans without due legal process and without cause, nor will the Granadans have their estates and property or any part thereof taken from them; furthermore, the Granadans will be honoured and respected by all Christian vassals …

Article 14. Neither Abu Abdallah nor any other Moor of Granada will have to pay taxes on their houses for three years. They will simply have to pay a harvest tax of one-tenth in August and autumn, and one–tenth on cattle in their possession in April and May, as the Christians are accustomed to paying.

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.

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 H

Alejandro Ferrant y Fischermans, a Spanish painter of historic and religious themes, depicts payment of parias in the 11th century in a detail from Payment of tributes to Sancho Garcés III (1865). The payment of parias by Muslim rulers to Christian rulers was a signifi cant element of their relationship until 1492.