Connie and I got to visit Granada for a few days. The famous Alhambra was begun by the first monarch of the Nasrid dynasty, Mohammed I ibn Nasr, who lived from 1238–1273, and then developed by other leaders for centuries. On January 2, 1492, the last Muslim ruler in Iberia, Emir Muhammad XII, (aka Boabdil) surrendered Granada to Fernando V and Isabella I, (“the Catholic Monarchs”). On our last day there, we ran into a former student of mine, Nicole, who had gone with Satya Patnayak and me to Costa Rica for a class trip about 10 years ago. She is teaching English in Granada now. She talked about how hard it is for people her age, for whom unemployment is officially at about 25%, but the real rate is much higher since so many are no longer looking for jobs that have not existed since the economic crisis in Spain began in 2008. We were not permitted to take pictures inside the Capilla Real, but of course somehow there are many pictures of it on-line, such as at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Capilla_Real_de_Granada . It is striking to see the place where Ferdinand and Isabel, the couple that first united much of Spain, are buried.

At one of the great restaurants at the Plaza de Bib-Rambla: Laseda. We loved the salmorejo, lomo de cordero, . . . . http://www.restaurantelaseda.com/

After dinner, I returned to the Mirador de San Nicolas, the overlook that provided a mesmerizing view.

Mathematics and mysticism go hand in hand in the geometric designs.

One last shot for the evening.

Inside Alhambra, the Arabic and geometrical designs are gorgeous. I don’t know what this says, but the phrase, “None conquers but Allah” is repeated 9,000 times in the entire complex.

Courtyard of the Lions

The Cathedral in Granada.

Generalife; the gardens.

Looking to the Nazrid Palaces and the Palace of Charles V.

Santiago, St, James leading the reconquest. We just watched a good video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM8HnvuKbAo&t=9s , When the Moors Ruled Spain.

A pure blood document.

Queen Isabel accepting the proposal of Columbus (which she did in Granada even though her advisers knew that Columbus had seriously underestimated the circumference of the earth. The Brooklyn Museum has a famous painting of this at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Emanuel_Gottlieb_Leutze_-_Columbus_Before_the_Queen.JPG

Torah from the 15th century.

Conversos Documents