Boabdil, the surrender of Granada and the Moor's Last Sigh: fact and legend

Who was Boabdil?

He was the son of Muley Hacén (Abul Hasan Ali), king of Granada, and of Aixa, the queen tradition links to a palace in the Albaicín. Castilian writers sometimes just call him "the Moorish king", and do what they can with his name: as late as 1892, the scholar Manuel Gómez-Moreno calls him "Muley Baudili". His were years of war with Castile and, at the same time, of civil war among the Nasrids themselves.

Where was Boabdil made king a second time?

In the Albaicín. In 1487 Boabdil shut himself up in the quarter's Alcazaba, the old fortress on the hill, and there he was recognised as king for the second time. Hernando de Baeza, a chronicler of the time who witnessed much of what he describes, tells it, as quoted by Gómez-Moreno: all the religious scholars and elders of the city came to the houses where he was staying and swore obedience to him, as Baeza puts it, "in the name of the people", and kissed his foot. According to Gómez-Moreno, the quarter sided with one king and the rest of Granada with the other claimant, and its streets saw savage fighting.

And those houses? The Catholic Monarchs gave them to the Marquis of Zenete, and in 1662 they became a hospital for treating ringworm of the scalp. In 1892 Gómez-Moreno saw inside a Nasrid hall and a mirador, a lookout room, with tiles in "very vivid" colours; what state they're in today, we couldn't check.

Did his mother live in Dar al-Horra?

Nearby, in the same quarter, is Dar al-Horra, a 15th-century Nasrid palace built on the walls of an older fortress. The Patronato, which runs the Alhambra, says Boabdil's mother, Sultana Aixa, lived there. It's the most widely repeated identification, and a reasonable one, but it isn't proof. "La Horra" was a title, that of the queen mother. And Gómez-Moreno records another tradition: that Aixa, after Muley Hacén cast her aside, lived with her children in the Lions' quarters of the Alhambra.

What is on record is a piece of business: the Catholic Monarchs bought some orchards from Boabdil's mother, whom Gómez-Moreno calls, fittingly, "la Reina Horra". And the Dar al-Horra palace ended up with the victors: first with Hernando de Zafra, the Monarchs' secretary, and then with a convent founded by the queen in 1501.

How was the surrender of Granada agreed?

On paper. The terms of surrender, the capitulaciones, were signed on 25 November 1491, and Zafra himself was one of the negotiators. The story goes that he slipped secretly into the Comares Tower, risking his neck, so that the Moorish king would put his name to the terms, and that this is why the Monarchs gave him that tower as his emblem. Gómez-Moreno gives it as the traditional explanation, without citing any document.

What you can see is the emblem. On the doorway of the Casa de Castril, by the River Darro, finished in 1539, there's a tower with the word "COMARES" and a phoenix rising from the flames. The house takes its name from the lordship of Castril, which the Monarchs granted to Zafra.

Those terms promised a great deal. They recognised, for example, the right of Granada's Jews to stay in their homes. On 31 March 1492, in Granada itself, the Monarchs decreed their expulsion.

What happened on 2 January 1492?

The victors' version is carved in stone. Next to the Alhambra's Puerta de la Justicia, the Gate of Justice, there's a slab put up in 1599. It says the Monarchs conquered the kingdom and the city "por fuerça darmas", by force of arms; that the Moorish king gave up the Alhambra to them on 2 January 1492; that the very same day the Count of Tendilla became its governor and captain, left with 500 horsemen and 1,000 foot soldiers; and that the Moors were told to remain in their homes, just as before. Notice the detail: a surrender agreed on paper, told a century later as a conquest by arms.

Which way did Boabdil leave the Alhambra?

There are two versions here, and it's best not to choose. Gómez-Moreno says the Castilians opened a path from Los Mártires down to the River Genil, and that there Cardinal Mendoza's troops met Boabdil, who handed over the fortress to them. Washington Irving, in the revised edition of his Alhambra book, says Boabdil left by the Tower of the Seven Floors (Siete Suelos), leaving his vizier at the Gate of Justice. The two versions partly fit together, but neither cites a document from that day.

The Moor's Last Sigh: did Boabdil weep as he left?

It's the scene everyone knows. On the road to the Alpujarra, from the last rise where Granada can still be seen, Boabdil turns, looks back at the city and sighs, and his mother reproaches him for weeping like a woman over what he couldn't defend like a man.

No document from that day that we know of tells it. The oldest version we've found is by Friar Antonio de Guevara, chronicler to Charles V. In one of his Epístolas familiares (familiar letters) he writes that an old Morisco told it to him on that very rise, where Granada drops out of sight and the Lecrín valley comes into view. In his telling, the queen doesn't scold only her son: "It is only right that the King and his knights should weep like women, since they did not fight like knights."

In 1600 Luis del Mármol, who also says he heard it from very old Moriscos, places the rise near Padul and gives the mother different words: "You do well, my son, to weep like a woman over what you were not man enough to defend." According to him, the king had cried out "Alabaquibar", and the Moors named the spot "el Fex de Alabaquibar". The name "el último suspiro del Moro", the Moor's last sigh, turns up in the 19th century in Irving, who finds it already in use.

So it's an attributed legend: Castilian writers set it down decades later, from what old Moriscos told them, and they don't agree on the words.

What's pinned on him without proof

A king who loses his kingdom leaves keepsakes everywhere. At the Casa de los Tiros, in the Realejo, the inventories attributed an Arab sword to Boabdil; Gómez-Moreno thought it more likely belonged to the Infantes de Almería.

Fact or legend?

• Fact: in 1487 the Albaicín recognised Boabdil as king for the second time; the terms of surrender were signed on 25 November 1491; on 2 January 1492 the Moorish king handed over the Alhambra (slab of 1599).
• Identification, not proof: that Aixa lived in Dar al-Horra. "La Horra" was a title.
• Traditional explanation, no document: Zafra slipping secretly into the Comares Tower to get the king to sign.
• Two versions: Boabdil's way out, via Los Mártires or via the Tower of the Seven Floors.
• Attributed legend: the Moor's Last Sigh and his mother's words, written down decades later and at second hand (Guevara; Mármol, in 1600), in different wordings.
• Doubtful attribution: Boabdil's sword at the Casa de los Tiros.

Where to hear it

Podtour tells it across the city. On The Upper Albaicín, the stop "Boabdil, king again in the Albaicín" covers 1487, and the one before it, "The Lady's house", the doubts about his mother.

The 1492 slab is on the free route, The Alhambra from Outside, at the stop "The victors' signature". Zafra and his tower are at the Casa de Castril, on Legends of the Darro; the sword, at the first stop of The Realejo. The Moor's Last Sigh isn't on any route: the rise where it's set lies outside the city. To plan your trip, there's our Granada guide.

Further reading

• Manuel Gómez-Moreno, Guía de Granada (Granada, 1892), digitised copy from the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (in Spanish). https://www.alhambra-patronato.es/ria/handle/10514/6037
• Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, "El Palacio de Dar al-Horra, en la recta final de su restauración" (press release, 2014; in Spanish). https://www.alhambra-patronato.es/notas-prensa/el-palacio-de-dar-al-horra-en-la-recta-final-de-su-restauracion
• Antonio de Guevara, Epístolas familiares, part I, letter IV, "Letra para Garci Sánchez de la Vega", in Epístolas familiares y escogidas (Barcelona, Biblioteca Clásica Española, 1886), pp. 303–306 (in Spanish). https://archive.org/details/epistolasfamilia00guevuoft
• Luis del Mármol Carvajal, Historia del rebelión y castigo de los moriscos del Reyno de Granada, vol. I (1600; Madrid edition, 1797) (in Spanish). https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_KfUrAQAAMAAJ
• Washington Irving, The Alhambra (1832; author's revised edition, 1851), Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49947
• José Ramón Ayaso Martínez, "Luces y sombras en la historia judía de Granada", University of Granada (in Spanish). http://www.ugr.es/~jayaso/JUD-ESPAGNA/Articulos-ESP/15-9-02%204.pdf