November 25, 1491

Treaty of Granada (1491)

Granada's representatives accept negotiated terms for the city's surrender

The terms promised emigrants ten large ships held ready for seventy days, and barred Christians from entering Granada's mosques without permission.

25 November 1491, the royal camp in the Vega

At the royal camp in the Vega of Granada on 25 November 1491, Ferdinand and Isabella concluded capitulations with Yusuf ibn Comixa and Abu-Casim al Muley, acting for Granada's ruler Muhammad XII, known as Boabdil.

Granada's side agreed to deliver the Alhambra and the city's fortifications after a specified interval, and to become subjects of the Catholic Monarchs.

What the monarchs promised in return

The monarchs guaranteed security of persons and property, continued possession of homes and estates, protection of mosques and religious endowments, and adjudication of Muslim disputes by Muslim law and Muslim judges.

The agreement also provided regulated emigration to North Africa for inhabitants who chose to leave, including royal shipping during an initial period.

The Granada municipal transcription of Luis del Mármol's recension specifies ten large ships maintained for seventy days, three years of property-tax relief, and 500 prominent relatives held as hostages for ten days during the transfer.

The city did not change hands that day

The Alhambra was not handed over on 25 November. Muhammad XII formally surrendered Granada on 2 January 1492.

How long he was given is itself unsettled: the Mármol-based transcription says forty days, while a modern scholarly synthesis reports surrender within sixty.

"Treaty of Granada" compresses a bundle of capitulations and related grants, and surviving recensions and later transcriptions organise and count the clauses differently — so the traditional figure of sixty-seven articles describes one textual tradition rather than every instrument.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date of the underlying agreement is securely identified as 25 November 1491 by Spain's PARES archival catalogue.
“Treaty of Granada” compresses a bundle of capitulations and related grants. Surviving recensions, confirmations, and later transcriptions organize and count the clauses differently; published accounts therefore report different article totals and handover periods.
The municipal transcription based on Luis del Mármol says 40 days, while a modern scholarly synthesis reports surrender within 60 days. The city was actually transferred on 2 January 1492.
Some confirmation documents appear dated 1492 because a Nativity-style year beginning on 25 December was used; this does not move the original capitulation from 25 November 1491.