Yusuf II of Granada
Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Muhammad was sultan of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in the Iberian Peninsula, from January 1391 until his death. He was the 11th sultan of the Nasrid dynasty and the first son of his predecessor, Muhammad V.
When Yusuf was about three years old, his father was dethroned and the family went into exile in Fez, the capital of the Marinid Sultanate of Morocco. His father regained the throne in 1362 and the young Yusuf was given command of the Volunteers of the Faith, a corps of North African soldiers available to fight for the emirate. He became sultan after his father's death in 1391. Yusuf's government was initially dominated by his minister, Khalid, until Khalid was suspected of conspiring against the sultan and executed. Yusuf then took control of his government and appointed the poet Ibn Zamrak, his father's vizier, as his vizier in July 1392.
Yusuf continued his father's peace treaty with Granada's neighbour Castile and signed a treaty with another Christian neighbour, John I of Aragon, in August 1392. He died on 5 October 1392, after less than two years on the throne. A medieval Christian writer said that he was killed by a poisoned tunic given to him by the Marinid Sultan Abu al-Abbas Ahmad. Yusuf's death by poisoning is considered plausible by modern historians, but the report's veracity is doubted and may be exaggerated; no other sources corroborate the account. He was succeeded by his son Muhammad VII and by another son, Yusuf III.
Birth and family exile
Yusuf was the first son of Muhammad V of Granada, and the only one born during the first of the sultan's two reigns. Although his date of birth is unknown, historian Francisco Vidal Castro estimated that he was born 757 AH or 1356 AD. Yusuf was about three years old when his father was dethroned on 23 August 1359; a group of men under Muhammad el Bermejo scaled the walls of the Alhambra that night and enthroned the sultan's half-brother, Ismail II. Yusuf was walking with his father in the Generalife gardens just outside the Alhambra complex; this allowed the sultan to escape to Guadix in the eastern part of the emirate before going into exile across the Mediterranean Sea to Fez, the capital of Morocco's Marinid Sultanate. Yusuf was left in Granada, but around 25 November the new sultan allowed him and his mother to join the dethroned sultan in Fez.Muhammad V returned to al-Andalus on August 1361, creating a rival court in the Marinid Andalusian outpost of Ronda and beginning a civil war against Muhammad VI, who had dethroned Ismail II a year before. Muhammad V, supported by Peter of Castile, gained the upper hand; Muhammad VI fled the Alhambra and sought asylum with Peter on 13 March 1362. Muhammad V entered the abandoned royal palace and retook the throne; Muhammad VI was murdered by Peter on 25 April, and his head was sent to Muhammad V.
Return to al-Andalus
Yusuf was still in Fez during his father's second accession, and the recently enthroned Marinid Sultan Abu Zayyan Muhammad attempted to use him as a bargaining chip so Muhammad V would return Ronda to him. The Marinids yielded; Yusuf was allowed to return to Granada with his father's vizier, Ibn al-Khatib, although Ronda remained under Granadan control. Yusuf's party arrived in Granada, the capital city, on 14 June 1362. His brothers, Abu Nasr Sa'd, Nasr and Abu Abdullah Muhammad, were born afterwards.Yusuf was circumcised in 764 AH ; this has helped historians determine his birth year, because boys were customarily circumcised at age seven. Muhammad removed Yahya ibn Umar, of the Volunteers of the Faith, from his post on 26 June 1363. The Volunteers were North African soldiers fighting for Granada, and their chief had always been a dissident prince related to the Berber Marinid dynasty; however, the sultan appointed the young Yusuf chief and Sa'd a commander. Yusuf also received a tax-free estate by his father.
Muhammad V presided over one of the dynasty's longest reigns. Around the time that Yusuf reached adulthood, he was detained and summoned to court on the suspicion of rebelling against his father; he was acquitted, however, after an investigation. In 1390, when his father and John I of Castile signed a treaty that extended peace between their kingdoms, Yusuf and John's son Henry added their signatures. Yusuf was about 35 years old when his father died in January 1391.
Rule
Yusuf II took the throne on 15 January 1391, the day of his father's death, and adopted the of al-Mustaghni bi-llah. He sent a letter that day to Alonso Yáñez de Fajardo, the Castilian adelantado of Murcia, confirming the continuation of the truce which Muhammad V had signed with John I in 1390. Although bilateral treaties typically expired on the death of either signatory, the 1390 treaty remained in effect because both successors – Yusuf and Henry III – had also signed it. Yusuf maintained peace with Aragon, whose King John I had had good relations with Muhammad V. In March 1391, Yusuf sent the Aragonese king a letter notifying John of his father's death and his enthronement; the king replied with the customary condolences, expressing surprise at the sultan's delay in sending the letter.During the first year of his rule, Yusuf imprisoned the poet Ibn Zamrak in an Almerían dungeon. His reign was dominated by Khalid, his father's, who became his first minister. Khalid imprisoned the sultan's three brothers; Yusuf did not hear about them again, and they died in captivity. Yusuf received a report suspecting Khalid of a conspiracy with Yahya ibn al-Saigh, the Jewish royal physician, to poison him. The sultan ordered them both executed; Khalid was bound and hacked to death with a sword in his presence, and Yahya was imprisoned and beheaded.
Yusuf then took control of his government. A few months before his death, he faced another conspiracy led by his son Muhammad. Their conflict was resolved peacefully with the help of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Abbas Ahmad, and Muhammad acknowledged his father's authority.
In July 1392, Yusuf restored Ibn Zamrak as vizier. He signed a five-year peace treaty with Aragon on 14 August which was similar to previous treaties. The treaty seemed to favour Aragon's Muslim subjects ; two weeks later, John I allowed them to appear in public without a distinctive, previously mandatory badge. On 29 August, John wrote a letter authorising the Muslims of Zaragoza to send a representative to the Nasrid court. The letter was never sent, however, probably because of the king's concern that it would provide a pretext for Granada to intervene in his internal affairs.