Muhammad III of Granada

Muhammad III was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus from 8 April 1302 until 14 March 1309. He ascended the throne after the death of his father Muhammad II. He was responsible for the construction of the Great Mosque of the Alhambra as well as the Partal Palace. His reign was notably short; he was replaced by his half-brother Nasr on 14 March 1300. Muhammad was later executed five years later in the alhambra.

About Muhammad III of Granada in brief

Muhammad III was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus from 8 April 1302 until 14 March 1309. He ascended the throne after the death of his father Muhammad II. He was responsible for the construction of the Great Mosque of the Alhambra as well as the Partal Palace. He is known to have had a sense of humour and to have favoured poetry and literature. His reign was notably short; he was later known by the epithet al-Makhlu’. He was replaced by his half-brother Nasr on 14 March 1300. Muhammad was later executed five years later in the alhambra. His father was Muhammad II and his mother was his father’s first cousin. His descendants later migrated to Spain and settled as farmers in Arjona. The future Muhammad III was a prominent companion of the Islamic prophet Ubadah’d Sa’d Sa’ad. He died on 15 August 1257 in Granada on the Iberian Peninsula. His son Muhammad II was the first son of Muhammad I and his first cousin of Muhammad III. Muhammad I was the son of Banu Nasr or Banu al-Ahmar, according to historian and vizier Ibn al-Khatib, and descended from the Nasrid clan, which later became known as Banu Sa’d. Muhammad II died in 1257 and his son Muhammad III became the first Granadan sultan. He had the reputation of being both cultured and cruel. He became visually handicapped, which 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 on-going war against Castile. 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. He 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. Granada controlled both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, which alarmed its larger neighbours, Castile, the Marinids, and Aragon, who by the end of 1308 had formed a coalition against Granada. The three powers were in the midst of preparing for an all-out war against GranADA when Muhammad was deposed in a palace coup. His foreign policy was increasingly unpopular among his nobility, and he was universally distrusted. He also oversaw construction of a nearby public bathhouse, the income from which paid for the mosque, which was used to fund the mosque. Under the reigns of his grandfather, Muhammad I, Granada intermittently entered into alliance or went to war with either of these powers, or encouraged them to fight one another, to avoid being dominated by either.

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