War reaches the Nasrid capital
Late fifteenth-century Castilian and Aragonese campaigns took parts of Granada as war strained resources and interacted with Nasrid dynastic rivalry. The capital faced siege and supply pressures while Muhammad XII negotiated. In 1492 the city surrendered, transferring palaces and public authority. Terms addressed religious practices, property and residents’ rights. New officers subsequently had to govern through institutions and communities already present within the city and its surrounding territories.
Residents’ faiths and royal policies
Initial terms allowed parts of established life to continue, but subsequent royal and church policies brought preaching, pressure and coercion. Muslim households confronted conversion and migration, followed by rebellions and repression. Iberian Jewish residents also faced an expulsion order in 1492, disrupting property, families and commerce. Changed religious identities did not remove suspicion or unequal treatment, leaving households to negotiate names, habits and communal ties under increasingly demanding official policies.
Land, buildings and movement
Palaces, religious buildings and land received new uses, with churches, facilities and settlers entering the town. Migration to North Africa and elsewhere maintained family and commercial links. The Alhambra preserved earlier courtly spaces alongside later modifications. Farming, crafts and services continued under changed institutions. Across generations, movements of people, altered property rights and administrative work turned a military transfer into enduring changes in the lived organization of local society.