Why a Booktrail?
1400s: A story of Granada – Arabic and Christian – and a world of history and culture merged together.
Granada
What you need to know before your trail
Abu Jaafar is a bookbinder living with his life and two children. He and his apprentices are witness to Christopher Columbus and his entourage returning from the New World in a triumphant parade featuring exotic plants and animals and human captives.
Granada is changing in many ways – the new rulers of the city are confiscating books and culture. Abu Jaafur quietly moves his rich library out of town. Persecuted Muslims fight to form an independent government, but increasing economic and cultural pressures on the Arabs of Spain and Christian rulers culminate in Christian conversions and Muslim uprisings.
Travel Guide
Granada
The 1400s were a difficult and dangerous time in Granada – The Moors surrendered to the Catholic monarchs, Jews were not allowed to remain in the area and were persecuted before they were forced to leave. Catholics ran around burning books in Arabic and forcing the Arabs to convert to Christianity.
What must it have been like to be a Muslim living in Granada at that time?
The war might have ended on 2 January 1492, and from then on the old Muslim-ruled Kingdom of Granada became part of the Crown of Castile. This new kingdom in itself was kingdom was the setting of a Muslim rebellion in 1499-1501
The city of Granada, which had been the last center of Muslim power in the Iberian Peninsula,was annexed which meant that it lost its importance on the political and economic stage and instead entered a long period of decline.
Streetview Maps
D) El Generalife
E) Albaicin and the Alhambra in the distance
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Granada
Author/Guide: Radwa Ashour Destination: Granada Departure Time: 1400s
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