Treaty of Granada (1491)

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The Treaty of Granada was a treaty ratified on November 25, 1491 between the king of Granada Abú `Abd Allah Muhammad Boabdil and Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Castile, León, Aragon and Sicily.

Also known as the Capitulation of Granada the treaty relinquished the sovereignty of the Moorish Kingdom of Granada (founded five centuries earlier) to the Catholic monarchs of Spain. The treaty guaranteed a set of rights to the Moors, including religious tolerance and fair treatment in return for their unconditional surrender and capitulation.

The capitulation of 1492 contained sixty-seven articles among which were the following:

That both great and small should be perfectly secure in their persons, families, and properties.

That they should be allowed to continue in their dwellings and residences, whether in the city, the suburbs, or any other part of the country.

That their laws should be preserved as they were before, and that no-one should judge them except by those same laws.

That their mosques, and the religious endowments appertaining to them, should remain as they were in the times of Islam.

That no Christian should enter the house of a Muslim, or insult him in any way.

That no Christian or Jew holding public offices by the appointment of the late Sultan should be allowed to exercise his functions or rule over them.

That all Muslim captives taken during the siege of Granada, from whatever part of the country they might have come, but especially the nobles and chiefs mentioned in the agreement, should be liberated.

That such Muslim captives as might have escaped from their Christians masters, and taken refuge in Granada, should not be surrendered; but that the Sultan should be bound to pay the price of such captives to their owners.

That all those who might choose to cross over to Africa should be allowed to take their departure within a certain time, and be conveyed thither in the king's ships, and without any pecuniary tax being imposed on them, beyond the mere charge for passage, and

That after the expiration of that time no Muslim should be hindered from departing, provided he paid, in addition to the price of his passage, the tithe of whatever property he might carry along with him.

That no-one should be prosecuted and punished for the crime of another man.

That the Christians who had embraced the Mohammadan religion should not be compelled to relinquish it and adopt their former creed.

That any Muslim wishing to become a Christian should be allowed some days to consider the step he was about to take; after which he is to be questioned by both a Mohammadan and a Christian judge concerning his intended change, and if, after this examination, he still refused to return to Islam, he should be permitted to follow his own inclination.

That no Muslim should be prosecuted for the death of a Christian slain during the siege; and that no restitution of property taken during this war should be enforced.

That no Muslim should be subject to have Christian soldiers billeted upon him, or be transported to provinces of this kingdom against his will.

That no increase should be made to the usual imposts, but that, on the contrary, all the oppressive taxes lately imposed should be immediately suppressed.

That no Christian should be allowed to peep over the wall, or into the house of a Muslim or enter a mosque.

That any Muslim choosing to travel or reside among the Christians should be perfectly secure in his person and property.

That no badge or distinctive mark be put upon them, as was done with the Jews and Mudejares.

That no muezzin should be interrupted in the act of calling the people to prayer, and no Muslim molested either in the performance of his daily devotions or in the observance of his fast, or in any other religious ceremony; but that if a Christian should be found laughing at them he should be punished for it.