Nasrid Granada · 1238-1492

Granada and the Alhambra

For 250 years the small kingdom of Granada survived as the last Muslim state in Iberia. Students explore the Alhambra, the surrender of 1492, and what happened to the Muslims and Jews of Spain afterwards.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1400 to AD 1492
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

For 250 years the small kingdom of Granada survived as the last Muslim state in Iberia. Students explore the Alhambra, the surrender of 1492, and what happened to the Muslims and Jews of Spain afterwards.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the kingdom of Granada and its neighbors on the map in 1400.
  • Describe the Alhambra and what its decoration tells us.
  • Explain what happened to Muslims and Jews in Spain after 1492.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1400

The last Muslim kingdom

Open the map in 1400. Find the small kingdom of Granada in southern Spain. Which large kingdom surrounds it on land?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1350

Ibn Battuta visits

Open Stories, choose Ibn Battuta under Travel with and jump to the step in Granada, 1350. What does the journey say about the city?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1492

The surrender

Move to 1492 and turn on Historical Events. Find the Siege of Granada. Then look across the sea: where could Muslims and Jews who left Spain go?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Granada survived for 250 years after most of al-Andalus had fallen. How could a small kingdom last so long?
  2. The Alhambra is covered in carved words, mostly poems and religious phrases, instead of pictures. Why might its builders decorate with writing?
  3. The surrender treaty promised Muslims they could keep their religion. Why was that promise broken within ten years?
  4. In 1492 Spain also expelled its Jews, and many found a new home in the Ottoman Empire. Why would the Ottoman sultan welcome them?
  5. How should Spain today remember its Muslim and Jewish past?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Suleiman the Magnificent, whose grandfather Bayezid II welcomed the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. Discuss: what did the Ottoman Empire gain from welcoming refugees?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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