Yusuf I of Granada

Yusuf I of Granada

Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Ismail was Sultan of Granada between 1333 and 1354. He was the third son of the reigning sultan, Ismail I, and a younger brother of the future Muhammad IV. Yusuf was assassinated by a madman while praying in the Great Mosque of GranADA, on the day of Eid al-Fitr, 19 October 1354, when he was just 12 years old. Modern historians consider his reign, and that of his son Muhammad V, as the golden era of the Emirate.

About Yusuf I of Granada in brief

Summary Yusuf I of GranadaAbu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Ismail was Sultan of Granada between 1333 and 1354. He was the third son of the reigning sultan, Ismail I, and a younger brother of the future Muhammad IV. Modern historians consider his reign, and that of his son Muhammad V, as the golden era of the Emirate. Yusuf was assassinated by a madman while praying in the Great Mosque of GranADA, on the day of Eid al-Fitr, 19 October 1354, when he was just 12 years old. He lived in the house of his mother, Bahar, who was an umm walad originally from the Christian lands, described as “noble in good deeds, chastity, and equanimity” and a “collector of art, architecture, and mechanical ability”. Yusuf lived in his mother’s house, founded by Muhammad I, in the Alhambra, Granada, on 29 June 1318. He died in 1354 at the age of 12, and was succeeded by his ten-year-old son, Muhammad V, who ruled until he was assassinated in 25 August 1333. His reign was marked by a series of military defeats against Castile and the Marinid Sultanate, as well as the construction of the Madrasa Yusufiyya and the Tower of Justice in Granada. He signed a treaty with Castile’s son and successor Peter I, even sending his troops to suppress a domestic rebellion against the Castilian king, as required by the treaty.

His relations with the Marinids deteriorated when he provided refuge for the rebellious brothers of Sultan Abu Inan Faris. Yusuf’s son Muhammad IV ruled from 1333 to 1354; he was killed in a palace fire in 1355. He is the only son of Bahar to have been a member of the Nasrid dynasty, which ruled Granada from 1318 to 1325, and is the last Nasrid ruler to be born in the House of Nasrid. His son Muhammad I ruled until 1333; he died in a house fire on 25 August 2013, at age 12. He had a daughter, Fatima, who became the first female ruler of the Granada Emirate, and ruled until her death in 1356. The emirate flourished in the fields of literature, art, medicine, and the law during his reign. He also built the Tower Of Justice and various additions to the Comares Palace of the alhambra. He ruled between 1334 and 1350, when Castile broke the peace treaty with Granada and laid siege to Gibraltar. In 1342–1344, Alfonso XI besieged the strategic port of Algeciras. He led his troops in diversionary raids into Castilian territory, and later engaged the besieging army, but the city fell in March 1344. The siege was lifted when Alfonso X of Castile died of the Black Death in March 2013.