{"id":8409,"date":"2022-04-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/?p=8409"},"modified":"2022-05-14T11:15:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T15:15:09","slug":"the-nasrid-college-trade-and-multiculturalism-in-a-medieval-islamic-city-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/2022\/04\/20\/the-nasrid-college-trade-and-multiculturalism-in-a-medieval-islamic-city-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nasrid College: Trade and Multiculturalism in a Medieval Islamic City-State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Spain and North Africa, the late medieval period (ca. 1250-1500) was a tumultuous era that was characterized by political turmoil and mass violence. It was also the period that witnessed one of the greatest bursts of cultural efflorescence, intellectual creativity and administrative-political innovation in the region. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the cities of Toledo, Seville, Granada, Fez and Tunis, not unlike the city-states of Renaissance Italy during the same period, produced some of the most remarkable scholars and intellectuals in the history of the Western Mediterranean, despite the numerous challenges of the era. It was also the period that witnessed the rise of some of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in the region. One of the most iconic monuments associated with this period is the Alhambra, the royal and administrative center of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada between the 13th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup> centuries. Since the Middle Ages, there has been no shortage of interest in this palace-fortress complex, its monumental scale and its exquisite craftsmanship.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alhambra, Granada. Source: Wikimedia<\/em>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The history of another architectural and cultural gem from 14th<\/sup>-century Granada, which remains relative little-known beyond a small circle of specialists, is concealed behind an 18th<\/sup>-century Baroque fa\u00e7ade behind the Great Cathedral of Granada: the Nasrid College (al-madrasah al-na\u1e63riyyah<\/em>), constructed in April 1349.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baroque exterior of Palacio de la Madraza<\/em>, Granada. Photo by Mohamad Ballan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Oratory of the Nasrid College. Source: caminandogranada.com<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Oratory of the Nasrid College. Photo by Mohamad Ballan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Nasrid College was a rare example of a madrasah<\/em> constructed in medieval al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia).[2]<\/a> This structure, which was only excavated and restored over the past several decades and finally opened to the public in 2011, provides important insights into the intellectual, social and political history of Nasrid Granada during the 14th<\/sup> century. This short post seeks to provide an overview of the emergence of the Nasrid College, with particular attention to the cultural, political and intellectual context in which it emerged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasrid Granada, the last surviving Muslim polity in medieval Iberia, was a borderland city-state entrenched in the farthest reaches of the Islamic world, between Europe and North Africa, yet closely connected and integrated within both Latin Christendom and the Islamic world. The Muslim-Christian borderlands during this period were characterized by intermittent frontier warfare and shifting alliances between Nasrid and Castilian rulers, the emergence of a bilingual nobility (conversant in Romance as well as Arabic), and the permeability of the frontier, which facilitated the passage and migration of mercenaries and merchants, renegades and refugees, scholars and slaves between the Islamic world and Latin Christendom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Medieval Iberia, ca. 1470. Source: mapsontheweb.zoom<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, 1238-1492. Source Wikimedia<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the past several decades, there has been a substantial body of scholarship that has treated various aspects of the political, intellectual, cultural and social history of Nasrid Granada demonstrating the various ways that this polity and its inhabitants were shaped by this broader borderland context.[3]<\/a> By the 14th<\/sup> century, the Kingdom of Granada encompassed one of the most urban and diverse populations in late medieval Iberia. The mass migration of thousands of Andalusi Muslims to Granada in the wake of the Castilian, Portuguese and Aragonese conquest of Islamic Spain transformed it from a regional urban center into a thriving metropolis and one of the largest cities in the western Islamic world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent studies have challenged the conventional narrative of Nasrid decline and isolation by illustrating Granada\u2019s integration into the extensive intellectual, mercantile, commercial and diplomatic networks that characterized the late medieval Mediterranean world. The various communities of Christian merchants and mercenaries, particularly from Genoa, Castile and Arag\u00f3n, [4]<\/a> that were established across the Nasrid kingdom between the 13th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup> centuries often served as cultural intermediaries and conduits for the circulation and exchange of ideas between Latin Christendom and the Islamic West. The population of Nasrid Granada was characterized by social and cultural heterogeneity. The Andalusi Muslims who comprised the majority of the kingdom\u2019s roughly 250,000\u2013300,000 inhabitants were themselves descendants of communities from diverse geographic, social and ethnic backgrounds from across the Iberian Peninsula (and beyond), the consequence of centuries of acculturation, conversion and migration in the region. Granada was also home to various Jewish communities, and significant contingents of North African \u201choly warriors\u201d (ghuz\u0101h<\/em>) and their families, who played an important role in Nasrid society and politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Olivia Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages<\/em> (Cambridge, 2003), 248-249, 297-298, 302-303; Roser Salicr\u00fa i Lluch, \u201cThe Catalano-Aragonese Commercial Presence in the Sultanate of Granada during the Reign of Alfonso the Magnanimous,\u201d Journal of Medieval History<\/em> 27 (2001), 289-312.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nasrid Granada as depicted on the Catalan Atlas, 1375. BnF Espagnol 30.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nasrid Granada as depicted on the Catalan Atlas, 1375. BnF Espagnol 30.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Nasrid College was shaped by this dynamic history of cosmopolitanism, cultural exchange and transregional connections. Unlike the medieval Middle East, where colleges were ubiquitous, particularly from the 11th<\/sup> century onwards, the institution was a rather late arrival in medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa. It was the mosque, the home and the chancery that functioned as the most important spaces of learning prior to the 14th<\/sup> century. The first madrasas<\/em> (colleges) in the Islamic West only began to be constructed by the Marinids during the late 13th<\/sup> century.[5]<\/a> The Marinid dynasty in North Africa was particularly distinguished by a dedication to the construction of colleges during the late 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> centuries. The emergence of the college in late medieval Islamic West reflected the increased collaboration and intersection between learned elites, urban notables and ruling elites. From the inception of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, royal and noble elites worked closely with the urban scholarly and administrative classes whom they relied upon to govern and rule. These elites patronized various intellectual disciplines and genres of writing, ranging from philosophy and medicine to historiography, jurisprudence, and literature. The second Nasrid ruler, Mu\u1e25ammad II (r. 1273\u20131302), was even known as \u201cthe learned\u201d (al-faq\u012bh<\/em>)[6]<\/a> for his patronage, promotion and participation in the Islamic legal, theological and intellectual sciences. It was within a broader cultural milieu in which learning and knowledge served not only a practical purpose in royal courts, but came to constitute a central component of political legitimation, that the Nasrid College, one of the most important institutions in Nasrid history was constructed. In Mu\u1e25arram 750\/April 1349, the Nasrid College, located directly across from the former Great Mosque of Granada (today the cathedral) and near the main market, was completed.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oratory of the Nasrid College, Granada. Source: Wikipedia Commons<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ceiling of the Oratory of the Nasrid College. Photo by the Mohamad Ballan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Return next week to continue reading about the Nasrid College<\/a> and how it fostered knowledge and power in medieval Granada!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohamad Ballan
Mellon Fellow<\/a>, Medieval Institute
University of Notre Dame (2021-2022)
Assistant Professor of History<\/a>
Stony Brook University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Reading<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abu Rihab, Muhammad al-Sayyid Muhammad. al-Mad\u0101ris al-Maghrib\u012byah f\u012b al-\u02bba\u1e63r al-Mar\u012bn\u012b : dir\u0101sah \u0101th\u0101r\u012byah mi\u02bbm\u0101r\u012byah<\/em>. Alexandria: D\u0101r al-Waf\u0101\u02bc li-Duny\u0101 al-\u1e6cib\u0101\u02bbah wa-al-Nashr, 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aci\u00e9n Almansa, Manuel. \u201cInscripci\u00f3n de la portada de la Madraza.\u201d Arte Isl\u00e1mico en Granada<\/em>, pp. 337-339. Granada, 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Shahiri, Muzahim Allawi. al-\u1e24a\u1e0d\u0101rah al-\u02bbArab\u012byah al-Isl\u0101m\u012byah f\u012b al-Maghrib : al-\u02bba\u1e63r al-Mar\u012bn\u012b<\/em>. Amman: Markaz al-Kit\u0101b al-Ak\u0101d\u012bm\u012b, 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennison, Amira K ed. The Articulation of Power in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib<\/em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buresi, Pascal and Mehdi Ghouirgate. Histoire du Maghreb medieval (XIe\u2013XVe si\u00e8cle)<\/em>. Paris: Armand Colin, 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabanelas, Dario. \u201cLa Madraza \u00e1rabe de Granada y su suerte en \u00e9poca cristiana,\u201d Cuadernos de la Alhambra<\/em>, n\u00ba 24 (1988): 29\u201354<\/p>\n\n\n\n

________. \u201cInscripci\u00f3n po\u00e9tica de la antigua madraza granadina\u201d Miscel\u00e1nea de Estudios \u00c1rabes y Hebraicos Secci\u00f3n \u00c1rabe-Islam<\/em> 26 (1977): 7-26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferhat, Halima. \u201cSouverains, saints, fuqah\u0101\u2019.\u201d al-Qantara<\/em> 18 (1996): 375\u2013390<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvey, Leonard Patrick. Islamic Spain, 1250\u20131500<\/em>. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1990<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Tourneau, Roger. Fez in the Age of the Marinides<\/em>. University of Oklahoma Press, 1961<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makdisi, George. \u201cThe Madrasa in Spain\u201d http:\/\/www.persee.fr\/web\/revues\/home\/prescript\/article\/remmm_0035-1474_1973_num_15_1_1235<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mattei, Luca. \u201cEstudio de la Madraza de Granada a partir del registro arqueol\u00f3gico y de las metodolog\u00edas utilizadas en la intervenci\u00f3n de 2006.\u201d Arqueolog\u00eda y Territorio<\/em> 5 (2008): 181-192<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prado Garc\u00eda, Celia. \u201cLos estudios superiores en las madrazas de Murcia y Granada. Un estado de la cuesti\u00f3n.\u201d Murgetana<\/em> 139 (2018): 9-21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodr\u00edguez-Mediano, Fernando. \u201cThe Post-Almohad Dynasties in al-Andalus and the Maghrib.\u201d In The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume II: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries<\/em>, edited by Maribel Fierro, pp. 106\u2013143. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubiera Mata, Mar\u00eda Jes\u00fas. \u201cDatos sobre una \u2018Madrasa\u2019 en M\u00e1laga anterior a la Na\u1e63r\u00ed de Granada.\u201d Al-Andalus 35 (1970): 223\u2013226<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarr, Bilal and Luca Mattei. \u201cLa Madraza Yusufiyya en \u00e9poca andalus\u00ed: un di\u00e1logo entre las fuentes \u00e1rabes escritas y arqueol\u00f3gicas.\u201d Arqueolog\u00eda y Territorio Medieval<\/em> 16 (2009): 53\u201374.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secall, M. Isabel Calero.  \u201cRulers and Q\u0101d\u012bs: Their Relationship during the Na\u1e63rid Kingdom.\u201d Islamic Law and Society<\/em> 7 (2000): 235\u2013255<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seco de Lucena Paredes, Luis. \u201cEl \u1e24\u0101\u0177ib Ri\u1e0dw\u0101n, la madraza de Granada y las murallas del Albayz\u00edn.\u201d Al-Andalus<\/em> 21 (1956): 285\u2013296.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon, Elisa. \u201cLa Madraza Nazari: Un centro del saber en la Granada de Yusuf I.\u201d https:\/\/andalfarad.com\/la-madraza-nazari\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> For some significant studies of the Alhambra, see Olga Bush, Reframing the Alhambra: Architecture, Poetry, Textiles and Court Ceremonial<\/em> (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018<\/a>); Antonio Malpica Cuello, La Alhambra: Ciudad Palatina Nazar\u00ed<\/em> (Malaga: Editorial Sarria, 2007); Antonio Fern\u00e1ndez-Puertas, La fachada del Palacio de Comares<\/em> (Granada: Patronato de la Alhambra, 1980<\/a>); Oleg Grabar, The Alhambra<\/em> (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978); Antonio Gallego y Bur\u00edn, La Alhambra<\/em> (Granada: Editorial Comares, 1963); Basilio Pavon Maldonado, Estudios sobre la Alhambra<\/em> (Granada: Patronato de La Alhambra, 1975<\/a>); Leopoldo Torres Balb\u00e1s, La Alhambra y el Generalife<\/em> (Madrid: Editorial Plus-Ultra, 1953<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> For a general discussion of this question, see George Makdisi, \u201cThe Madrasa in Spain,\u201d Revue de l’Occident musulman et de la M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e<\/em> 15\u201316 (1973), pp. 153\u2013158 http:\/\/www.persee.fr\/web\/revues\/home\/prescript\/article\/remmm_0035-1474_1973_num_15_1_1235<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> For an important recent contribution, which reflects the most up-to-date scholarship on Nasrid Granada, see Adela F\u00e1bregas, ed., The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada between East and West<\/em> (Leiden, 2021).<\/strong> A significant historiographical overview and the current state of the field can be found in Antonio Pel\u00e1ez Rovira, \u201cBalance historiogr\u00e1fico del emirato nazar\u00ed de Granada (siglos XIII-XV) desde los estudios sobre al-Andalus: instituciones, sociedad y econom\u00eda,\u201d Reti Medievali Rivista<\/em> 9 (2008), 1\u201348.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> Olivia Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages<\/em> (Cambridge, 2003), 248-249, 297-298, 302-303; Roser Salicr\u00fa i Lluch, \u201cThe Catalano-Aragonese Commercial Presence in the Sultanate of Granada during the Reign of Alfonso the Magnanimous,\u201d Journal of Medieval History<\/em> 27 (2001), 289-312.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> For an excellent recent study of this development see Riyaz Mansur Latif, Ornate Visions of Knowledge and Power: Formation of Marinid Madrasas in Maghrib al-Aqs\u0101<\/em> (University of Minnesota PhD Book, 2011). Also, see Muhammad Abu Rihab, al-Mad\u0101ris al-Maghrib\u012bya f\u012b al-\u02bba\u1e63r al-Mar\u012bn\u012b : dir\u0101sa \u0101th\u0101r\u012bya mi\u02bbm\u0101r\u012bya<\/em> (Alexandria: D\u0101r al-Waf\u0101\u02bc li-Duny\u0101 al-\u1e6cib\u0101\u02bba wa-al-Nashr, 2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> This was an epithet he shared with his exact contemporary, Alfonso X of Castile-Le\u00f3n (r. 1252-1282), known as \u201cthe Learned\u201d (El Sabio).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> The most important scholarship about the Nasrid College includes La Madraza: pasado, presente y futuro<\/em> (Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2007), eds. Rafael L\u00f3pez Guzm\u00e1n and Mar\u00eda Elena D\u00edez Jorge; La Madraza de Yusuf I y la ciudad de Granada: an\u00e1lisis a partir de la arqueolog\u00eda<\/em> (Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2015), eds. Antonio Malpica Cuello and Luca Mattei.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Spain and North Africa, the late medieval period (ca. 1250-1500) was a tumultuous era that was characterized by political turmoil and mass violence. It was also the period that witnessed one of the greatest bursts of cultural efflorescence, intellectual creativity and administrative-political innovation in the region. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the cities … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Nasrid College: Trade and Multiculturalism in a Medieval Islamic City-State”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1846,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[324774,67956,264206],"tags":[518358,76103,518355,518371,518353,518367,518354,518370,518356],"class_list":["post-8409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arabic-languages-and-literatures","category-art-history","category-history-disciplines","tag-al-andalus","tag-global-middle-ages","tag-granada","tag-islamic-history","tag-medieval-iberia","tag-medieval-university","tag-nasrid-college","tag-nasrids","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8409"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8473,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8409\/revisions\/8473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}