Ismail I, Sultan of Granada

Ismail I (1279 – July 6, 1325) was the grandson of Muhammed II al-Faqih and the fifth Nasrid ruler of the Moorish Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula in 1314–1325.

Ismail I was the son of the princess Fatima, daughter of Muhammed II al-Faqih and nephew of both sultans Muhammed III and Nasr. His father was Abu Sa'id Faraj, also a cousin as well as brother in-law to the sultans Muhammed III and Nasr, and his own wife Fatima.

A cultured and refined man, he significantly added to the Alhambra complex and the palace of Generalife. He also built the Alcazar Genil after 1319, which functioned as a residence for the elderly women of the sultan’s household, and a new palace complex that later developed into the Palacio de Comares. Ismail I fathered at least four sons: Muhammed, Ismail, Faraj and Yusef; two of whom would succeed him respectively as Muhammed IV and Yusuf I.

Ismail I was assassinated by his cousin, Muhammad who was the governor of Algeciras; the men had argued over a slave girl seized at one of Ismail's raid on the Spanish town of Martos. Servants carried the dying Ismail I to his mother Fatima’s chambers where he perished from his wounds on July 6, 1325. Ismail I was buried at night on the second day after his death near his grandfather Muhammad II's resting place, in an area of gardens between the north precinct wall of the Alhambra and the modern Church of Santa Maria. All subsequent Nasrid monarchs were also buried here.

References

• The Alhambra From the Ninth Century to Yusuf I (1354). vol. 1. Saqi Books, 1997.