Granada’s Muslim rulers had three potential Islamic allies abroad.

Evidence

Before 1492, when the Muslims of Nasrid Granada were free to conduct international relations in the true sense of the term, they had looked to three potential allies within the Islamic world for help and support. At the greatest distance from Spain, but already, by the late fifteenth century, after the capture of Constantinople in 1453, the leading Islamic state, was the Ottoman Empire. Scarcely nearer at hand, but with a much more firmly established, indeed centuries-old, nexus of relations with the Iberian Peninsula, were the Mamluks of Egypt. And nearest of all, just across the water, in what Spain’s Muslims called al-udwa or allende, “the other side,” was, of course, North Africa, the Magrib, which, in the latter part of the fifteenth century and after, was undergoing a period of great instability. In Tunisia, culture under the Hafsids might flourish, but in terms of military power the regime there was weak, too. Further to the west, immediately across the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, lay al- Magrib al-Aqsa, Morocco. There the empire of the Banu Marin had long since collapsed, and various groupings were to dispute that legacy. The Saadids only emerged in Morocco as the clear successors in the course of the sixteenth century. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1546 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Granadan diplomacy seeking Muslim allies nearly triggered reprisals on Spanish Muslims — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1551; Granadan Muslims courted the Ottomans, Mamluks, and North African states — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1546

Broader Connections

• Granadan Muslims courted the Ottomans, Mamluks, and North African states #exemplifies (0.95) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1546