Name Abu Ali, Children Muhammad XII of Granada Role Ruler Grandchildren Yusef, Ahmed, Aixa | Died 1485 Coronation date 1483 | |
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Similar People Muhammad XII of Granada, Muhammad XIII - Sultan of Granada, Aixa, Morayma, Isabella I of Castile | ||
Successor Muhammad XII of Granada | ||
Abu l-Hasan Ali (Arabic: أبو الحسن علي Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī; d. 1485), known as Muley Hacén in Spanish (Muley being derived from Arabic Mawlay = "My Lord"), was the twenty-first Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Spain, from 1464 to 1482 and again from 1483 to 1485.
Life
The son of Said, Abu l-Hasan Ali became sultan in 1464, and in 1477 he refused to pay tribute to the Crown of Castile. In 1481 he ordered a invasion to the city of Zahara de la Sierra by surprise, killing and enslaving Christians unarmed. This action is taken by Isabella I of Castile as a reason to start the war against Granada.
He was the father of Muhammad XII (also known as Boabdil), the last sultan of Granada, by his relative Aixa. He took a captive Christian slave named Isabel de Solís and fell in love with her, renamed after her conversion as his second wife Zoraida or Soraya (Thuraya="Star"), the daughter of Sancho Jiménez de Solís, Alcalde of La Peña de Martos, he had two sons. There are no other biographical elements on Zoraya: She could have joined him in his exile with her two sons. It seems that after the death of Abû l-Hassan, Zoraya and her two sons re-converted to Catholicism. The sons took the name of Juan de Granada and Fernando de Granada.
Abu l-Hasan Ali appears as a character, along with Isabel de Solís, in the novel "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks.