Alhama

Title

Alhama

Description

Map shows the city of Alhama in Granada, Spain. Signature lower centre Georgius Hoefnagle. Reverse without text.

ca. 1545

Artist

Braun/Hogenberg (1572-1618)

Frans Hogenberg (1535 – 1590) was a Flemish and German painter, engraver, and mapmaker. Hogenberg was born in Mechelen as the son of Nicolaas Hogenberg In 1568 he was banned from Antwerp by the Duke of Alva. He travelled to London, where he stayed a few years before emigrating to Cologne. He is known for portraits and topographical views as well as historical allegories. He also produced scenes of contemporary historical events. George Braun (1541-1622), a cleric of Cologne, was the principal editor of the "Civitates Orbis Terrarum". The first volume of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum was published in Cologne in 1572. The sixth and the final volume appeared in 1617. This great city atlas, edited by Georg Braun and largely engraved by Franz Hogenberg, eventually contained 546 prospects, bird-eye views and map views of cities from all over the world. Braun (1541-1622), a cleric of Cologne, was the principal editor of the work, and was greatly assisted in his project by the close, and continued interest of Abraham Ortelius, whose Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1570 was, as a systematic and comprehensive collection of maps of uniform style, the first true atlas.

Historical Description

Granada is the capital of the province of Granada in Andalusia. After the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans, a settlement with the name Illiberis is documented. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the area initially came under the influence of the North African Vandal Empire, was under Eastern Roman rule for several decades after its collapse in 534, then belonged to the Iberian Empire of the Visigoths from the beginning of the 7th century and was then conquered by the Moors. After the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba, the Berber clan chief Zāwī ibn Zīrī seized power in the province in 1012 and made Granada, which was easier to defend than Madīnat Ilbīra, the seat of the Zīrīden dynasty. After the expulsion of the Almohads, the city became the capital of the Sultanate of the Naṣrids, the last Muslim-Moorish dynasty of the Emirate of Granada, from 1238 to 1492. In 1246, the then ruler of Granada, Muhammad I ibn Nasr, known as Ibn Al-Ahmar, surrendered the city to the Christian powers, and after the fall of the remaining Moorish territories, many Muslims moved to the area of Granada. In 1492, the last Nasrid ruler Mohammed XII capitulated and handed the city over to Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the so-called -Catholic Monarchs, thus completing the Reconquista, the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula for Christianity. According to a passage in the treaty concluded at the time, the Moorish population in Granada was allowed to continue practicing their religion freely, but the Naṣrids had to leave Granada. After revolts by the Muslims who remained in Spain, the so-called Moors, against the oppression (ban on practising their religion, expropriation) by the new rulers, they were first forcibly resettled to other parts of the Iberian Peninsula in the years 1569-1571 and then expelled to Africa in 1609-1611. Many settled in what is now Tunisia and Algeria and shaped the culture there. At the same time, Granada fell into economic insignificance. Silk production, for example, for which Granada was a center in the Middle Ages, declined completely. Granada has been the seat of an archbishopric since 1492. The University of Granada was built between 1526 and 1531 and was one of Granada's main sources of income, especially in the 20th century, after the end of the Franco dictatorship, tourism became increasingly important.