Muhammad III of Granada

Muhammad III (Arabic: محمد الثالث; 15 August 1257 – 21 January 1314) was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 8 April 1302 until 14 March 1309, and a member of the Nasrid dynasty. He ascended the Granadan throne after the death of his father Muhammad II, which according to rumours, was caused by Muhammad III poisoning him. He had the reputation of being both cultured and cruel. Later in his life, he became visually impaired—which caused him to be absent from many government activities and to rely on high officials, especially the powerful Vizier Ibn al-Hakim al-Rundi.

Muhammad III inherited an ongoing war against Castile. He built upon his father's recent military success and expanded Granada's territory further when he captured Bedmar in 1303. He negotiated a treaty with Castile the following year, in which Granada's conquests were recognised in return for Muhammad making an oath of fealty to the King of Castille, Ferdinand IV, paying him tribute. Muhammad sought to extend his rule to Ceuta, North Africa. To achieve this, he first encouraged the city to rebel against its Marinid rulers in 1304, and then, two years later, he invaded and conquered the city himself. Consequently, Granada controlled both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. This alarmed Granada's three larger neighbours, Castile, the Marinids, and Aragon, who by the end of 1308 had formed a coalition against Granada. The three powers were preparing for an all-out war against Granada when Muhammad III was deposed in a palace coup. His foreign policy was increasingly unpopular among his nobility, and Vizier Ibn al-Hakim—who was, due to Muhammad's near-blindness, by now the power behind the throne—universally distrusted. Muhammad was replaced by his half-brother Nasr on 14 March 1309. Muhammad was allowed to live in Almuñécar, but—following an attempt by his followers to overthrow Nasr—was executed five years later in the Alhambra.

In contrast to the long reigns of his father and grandfather, Muhammad I, Muhammad III's reign was notably short; he was later known by the epithet al-Makhlu' ("the Deposed"). He was responsible for the construction of the Great Mosque of the Alhambra (later destroyed by Philip II in the sixteenth century) as well as the Partal Palace within the Alhambra. He also oversaw the construction of a nearby public bathhouse, the income from which paid for the mosque. He was known to have had a sense of humour and favoured poetry and literature. He composed his own poems, two of which survive today in Ibn al-Khatib's work Al-Lamha.

Al-Andalus, or the Muslim Iberian Peninsula, was ruled by multiple small kingdoms or taifas after the break-up of the Almohad caliphate in early thirteenth century. In the 1230s, Muhammad III's grandfather, Muhammad I, established one such kingdom, initially centred in his native Arjona and eventually becoming the Emirate of Granada. Before the middle of the century, the Christian kingdoms in Iberia, especially Castile, accelerated their expansion—also called reconquista—at the expense of the Muslims. As a result, Granada became the last independent Muslim state in the peninsula. Through a combination of diplomatic and military manoeuvres, the kingdom succeeded in maintaining its independence, despite being surrounded by two larger neighbours, Castile to the north and the Muslim Marinid state based in Morocco. Under the reigns of Muhammad I and his successor Muhammad II, Granada intermittently entered into an alliance, went to war with either of these powers, or encouraged them to fight one another to avoid being dominated by either. From time to time, the Sultans of Granada swore fealty and paid tributes to the Kings of Castile, which represented an important source of income for the Christian monarch. From Castile's point of view, Granada was a royal vassal, while Muslim sources never described the relationship as such, and Muhammad I, on other occasions, nominally declared his fealty to other Muslim sovereigns.

Muhammad ibn Muhammad was born on 15 August 1257 (Wednesday 3 Shaban 655 AH) in Granada. His father was the future Muhammad II, and his mother was his father's first cousin (a bint 'amm marriage). They belonged to the Nasrid clan—also known as Banu Nasr or Banu al-Ahmar—which according to later Granadan historian and vizier Ibn al-Khatib, was descended from Sa'd ibn Ubadah. Sa'd was a prominent companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, from the Banu Khazraj tribe in Arabia; his descendants migrated to Spain and settled in Arjona as farmers. The future Muhammad III was born during the reign of his grandfather, Muhammad I, the dynasty's founder. Earlier in the same year, his father was named emirate's heir. Muhammad III had a sister, Fatima, born c. 1260 from the same mother. Their father had a second wife, a Christian named Shams al-Duha, who was mother to their much younger half-brother Nasr (born 1287). Their father, also known by the epithet al-Faqih ("the canon-lawyer") due to his erudition and education, encouraged intellectual activities in his children: Muhammad was intensively engaged in poetry, while Fatima studied the barnamaj—the biobibliographies of Islamic scholars—and Nasr studied astronomy.

When he still had good eyesight, the future Muhammad III habitually read well into the night. He was named heir (wali al-ahd) during his father's reign and was involved in the affairs of state. As crown prince, he nearly executed his father's katib (secretary) Ibn al-Hakim (also Muhammad III's future vizier), because a rumour attributed the katib to satirical verses circulating at court that criticised Granada's ruling dynasty and angered the prince. Ibn al-Hakim escaped punishment by hiding in abandoned buildings until the prince's anger subsided.

Just before his death, Muhammad II oversaw a successful campaign against Castile, taking advantage of Castile's concurrent war against Aragon and the minority of the Castilian king, Ferdinand IV. He routed the Castilian army at the Battle of Iznalloz in 1295 and conquered some border towns, including Quesada in 1295 and Alcaudete in 1299. In September 1301, Muhammad secured an agreement with Aragon which planned a joint offensive and recognised Granada's rights to Tarifa, an important port on the Straits of Gibraltar taken by Castile in 1292. This agreement was ratified in January 1302, but Muhammad II died before the campaign materialised.

Muhammad III took the throne at the age of around 45, when his father died on 8 April 1302 (8 Shaban 701 AH) after 29 years of rule. There were allegations, cited by Ibn al-Khatib, that Muhammad III, perhaps impatient to assume power, killed his father by poison, although this rumour was never confirmed. An anecdote says that during his accession ceremony, when a poet recited: