Muhammad III of Granada
Muhammad III was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 8 April 1302 until 14 March 1309, and a member of the Nasrid dynasty. He ascended the Granadan throne after the death of his father Muhammad II, which according to rumours, was caused by Muhammad III poisoning him. He had the reputation of being both cultured and cruel. Later in his life, he became visually impairedwhich caused him to be absent from many government activities and to rely on high officials, especially the powerful Vizier Ibn al-Hakim al-Rundi.
Muhammad III inherited an ongoing war against Castile. He built upon his father's recent military success and expanded Granada's territory further when he captured Bedmar in 1303. He negotiated a treaty with Castile the following year, in which Granada's conquests were recognised in return for Muhammad making an oath of fealty to the King of Castille, Ferdinand IV, paying him tribute. Muhammad sought to extend his rule to Ceuta, North Africa. To achieve this, he first encouraged the city to rebel against its Marinid rulers in 1304, and then, two years later, he invaded and conquered the city himself. Consequently, Granada controlled both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. This alarmed Granada's three larger neighbours, Castile, the Marinids, and Aragon, who by the end of 1308 had formed a coalition against Granada. The three powers were preparing for an all-out war against Granada when Muhammad III was deposed in a palace coup. His foreign policy was increasingly unpopular among his nobility, and Vizier Ibn al-Hakim—who was, due to Muhammad's near-blindness, by now the power behind the throne—universally distrusted. Muhammad was replaced by his half-brother Nasr on 14 March 1309. Muhammad was allowed to live in Almuñécar, but—following an attempt by his followers to overthrow Nasr—was executed five years later in the Alhambra.
In contrast to the long reigns of his father and grandfather, Muhammad I, Muhammad III's reign was notably short; he was later known by the epithet al-Makhlu'. He was responsible for the construction of the Great Mosque of the Alhambra as well as the Partal Palace within the Alhambra. He also oversaw the construction of a nearby public bathhouse, the income from which paid for the mosque. He was known to have had a sense of humour and favoured poetry and literature. He composed his own poems, two of which survive today in Ibn al-Khatib's work Al-Lamha.
Background
, or the Muslim Iberian Peninsula, was ruled by multiple small kingdoms or taifas after the break-up of the Almohad caliphate in early thirteenth century. In the 1230s, Muhammad III's grandfather, Muhammad I, established one such kingdom, initially centred in his native Arjona and eventually becoming the Emirate of Granada. Before the middle of the century, the Christian kingdoms in Iberia, especially Castile, accelerated their expansion—also called reconquista—at the expense of the Muslims. As a result, Granada became the last independent Muslim state in the peninsula. Through a combination of diplomatic and military manoeuvres, the kingdom succeeded in maintaining its independence, despite being surrounded by two larger neighbours, Castile to the north and the Muslim Marinid state based in Morocco. Under the reigns of Muhammad I and his successor Muhammad II, Granada intermittently entered into an alliance, went to war with either of these powers, or encouraged them to fight one another to avoid being dominated by either. From time to time, the Sultans of Granada swore fealty and paid tributes to the Kings of Castile, which represented an important source of income for the Christian monarch. From Castile's point of view, Granada was a royal vassal, while Muslim sources never described the relationship as such, and Muhammad I, on other occasions, nominally declared his fealty to other Muslim sovereigns.Early life
Muhammad ibn Muhammad was born on 15 August 1257 in Granada. His father was the future Muhammad II, and his mother was his father's first cousin. They belonged to the Nasrid clan—also known as Banu Nasr or Banu al-Ahmar—which according to later Granadan historian and vizier Ibn al-Khatib, was descended from Sa'd ibn Ubadah. Sa'd was a prominent companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, from the Banu Khazraj tribe in Arabia; his descendants migrated to Spain and settled in Arjona as farmers. The future Muhammad III was born during the reign of his grandfather, Muhammad I, the dynasty's founder. Earlier in the same year, his father was named emirate's heir. Muhammad III had a sister, Fatima, born from the same mother. Their father had a second wife, a Christian named Shams al-Duha, who was mother to their much younger half-brother Nasr. Their father, also known by the epithet al-Faqih due to his erudition and education, encouraged intellectual activities in his children: Muhammad was intensively engaged in poetry, while Fatima studied the barnamaj—the biobibliographies of Islamic scholars—and Nasr studied astronomy.When he still had good eyesight, the future Muhammad III habitually read well into the night. He was named heir during his father's reign and was involved in the affairs of state. As crown prince, he nearly executed his father's katib Ibn al-Hakim, because a rumour attributed the katib to satirical verses circulating at court that criticised Granada's ruling dynasty and angered the prince. Ibn al-Hakim escaped punishment by hiding in abandoned buildings until the prince's anger subsided.
Rule
Accession
Just before his death, Muhammad II oversaw a successful campaign against Castile, taking advantage of Castile's concurrent war against Aragon and the minority of the Castilian king, Ferdinand IV. He routed the Castilian army at the Battle of Iznalloz in 1295 and conquered some border towns, including Quesada in 1295 and Alcaudete in 1299. In September 1301, Muhammad secured an agreement with Aragon which planned a joint offensive and recognised Granada's rights to Tarifa, an important port on the Straits of Gibraltar taken by Castile in 1292. This agreement was ratified in January 1302, but Muhammad II died before the campaign materialised.Muhammad III took the throne at the age of around 45, when his father died on 8 April 1302 after 29 years of rule. There were allegations, cited by Ibn al-Khatib, that Muhammad III, perhaps impatient to assume power, killed his father by poison, although this rumour was never confirmed. An anecdote says that during his accession ceremony, when a poet recited:
For whom are the banners today unfurled? For whom do the troops 'neath their standards march?
He responded with a joke: "For this fool you can see before you all."
Peace with Castile and Aragon
Initially, Muhammad III continued his father's war against Castile, the alliance with Aragon and the Marinids, and support for Alfonso de la Cerda, a pretender to the Castilian throne. He sent an embassy to the Marinid Sultan led by his Vizier Abu Sultan Aziz ibn al-Mun'im al-Dani, and lent the Sultan—then besieging the Zayyanids at Tlemcen—a contingent of Granadan archers who were familiar with siege warfare. On 11 April, he wrote to James II informing the Aragonese king of his father's death and affirming his friendship with James II and Alfonso de la Cerda. On the Castilian front, Granadan troops under Hammu ibn Abd al-Haqq ibn Rahhu took Bedmar, near Jaén, as well as neighbouring castles two weeks after Muhammad III's accession. After the conquest, he sent the wife of the town's alcaide, María Jiménez, to the Marinid Sultan. On 7 February 1303, Granada and Aragon concluded a treaty of one year. In the same year, he faced a rebellion from his relative Abu al-Hajjaj ibn Nasr, the governor of Guadix. He swiftly suppressed the rebellion and ordered Abu al-Hajjaj to be executed by another relative, chosen probably to send a message.Muhammad III then started peace negotiations with Castile. In 1303, Castile sent a delegation led by the royal chancellor Fernando Gómez de Toledo to Granada. Castile offered to meet nearly all Granada's demands, including ceding Bedmar, Alcaudete, and Quesada. Tarifa, one of Granada's main goals, was to be kept by Castile. In exchange, Muhammad would agree to become Ferdinand's vassal and pay the parias, a typical peace arrangement between the two kingdoms. The treaty was concluded at Córdoba in August 1303 and was to last three years. In 1304, Aragon also concluded its war with Castile and assented to the Granada–Castile treaty, therefore creating peace between the three kingdoms, and leaving the Marinids isolated.
The agreement, and the resulting alliance with Castile and Aragon, gave Granada peace and a dominant position in the Straits of Gibraltar. However, it created its own problems. Domestically, many were not happy with the alliance with the Christians, especially the Volunteers of the Faith, a military group who came from North Africa to Granada to fight a holy war. Muhammad III subsequently dismissed 6,000 of his North African troops. The Marinid state was offended by the tripartite alliance isolating it. Aragon, while part of the alliance, was worried that strong Castile-Granada relations would mean the bloc could establish a choke-hold on the Strait and devastate Aragonese trade. The Aragonese king James II sent an envoy, Bernat de Sarrià to the Marinid Sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf, for negotiations—although ultimately these were unsuccessful.
The conquest of Ceuta and its repercussions
Taking advantage of the peace with the Christian powers, Granada attempted an expansion to Ceuta, on the North African side of the Straits of Gibraltar. The struggle for the control of the Straits, which controlled passage between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, was a recurring theme in Granada's foreign affairs—involving Castile and the Marinids—until the mid-fourteenth century. In 1304, the inhabitants of Ceuta declared independence from the Marinids, led by their lords from the Banu al-Azafi family. Granadan agents such as Abu Said Faraj, the governor of Málaga and Muhammad's brother-in-law, had been encouraging the rebellion. Abu Yaqub was occupied in a war against his eastern neighbour, the Zayyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen, and was therefore unable to take any strong action. In May 1306, Granada sent a fleet to capture Ceuta, sending their Azafid leaders to Granada and declaring Muhammad III the city's overlord. Their forces also landed in the Marinid ports of Ksar es-Seghir, Larache, and Asilah and occupied those Atlantic ports. Concurrently, a dissident Marinid prince, Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula, declared a rebellion, conquered a mountainous area in northern Morocco and allied himself with Granada. Abu Yaqub was murdered on 10 May 1307 and was succeeded by his grandson Abu Thabit Amir. Uthman responded by declaring himself sultan in May or June 1307, while Abu Thabit ended his grandfather's siege of Tlemcen and returned to Morocco with his troops.Abu Thabit retook Ksar es-Seghir and Asilah from Granada and Tangiers from Uthman after defeating him in a battle. Uthman had to take refuge in Granada, where he became commander of the Volunteers of the Faith. Abu Thabit sent envoys to Muhammad III demanding the return of Ceuta and prepared a siege of the town. However, he died at Tangiers on 28 July 1308 and was succeeded by his brother Abu al-Rabi Sulayman. Abu al-Rabi agreed to a truce with Granada, leaving Ceuta under Muhammad's control. The conquest of Ceuta, together with control of Gibraltar and Algeciras, gave Granada a strong control of the Straits, but alarmed its neighbours the Marinids, Castile, and Aragon, who started considering a coalition against Granada.