Granada’s fall was as inevitable as Constantinople’s. In both cases, there was a sorting process in which boundary territories that had wavered between Islam and Christendom had final settlements. By the time each last enclave fell, it was well surrounded and demographically overwhelmed. The processes that created both falls were separate and had been going on for centuries, but they concluded within 40 years of each other. And in both cases, the conclusion was only possible when one side became wholly unified.
Ferdinand and Isabella achieved national unity with their marriage, though not easily. Isabella’s brother was King of Castile, and he was very opposed to her marriage. He had a daughter but her paternity was widely challenged, so that was Isabella’s opportunity. By marrying the heir to Aragon, she could raise an army to win a civil war: and she did. By 1479, they had been married for ten years and were joint monarchs with equal power.
However, they did not create a country called “Spain.” Aragon and Castile remained separate countries; it was not a given that the Inquisition begun in Aragon would spread to Castile. They outlived their two oldest children, who died as young adults with no heirs. Ferdinand remarried after Isabella’s death and might have produced a separate Aragonese heir leading to disunion, but that’s not what happened. Their three daughters had children, and the oldest of these was also heir to Austria. Although the boy’s mother was declared insane, Charles became his grandfather Ferdinand’s heir as well as his father’s heir to Austria. He was able to maintain unity and then some: under Charles, Spain was part the first empire on which the sun never set. In this empire, the identity of individual kingdoms mattered less. They became a confederation that was eventually called “Hispania.”
Granada’s fall may have been inevitable, but its location was so favorable to defense that it could hold out for ten years of general war and siege. The Emir of Granada was a young man, too, who came to power just as the Spanish monarchs set up camp. He was captured in one battle, but was permitted to hold power as long as he paid tribute and did not attempt to defend his other cities, like Malaga. Finally, only his city and fortress itself remained, and instead of continuing to collect tribute, the King and Queen asked for surrender.
On January 2, 1492, the city surrendered peacefully in a formal ceremony and soon after, the Emir went into exile in Morocco. The Treaty of Granada provided that Muslim citizens were free to leave or stay, and their rights would be protected in either case. Muezzins would be free to call, nobody would be forced to convert, nobody would have to wear special badges like the Jews. Property was protected, application of the law would be equal. Muslims who stayed in Granada did well for about six years, with limited self-rule, such as a city council. But many Muslims left in 1492 and 1493, following the Emir.
The object lesson before Granada’s Muslims was very clear, because their port was soon jammed with evicted Jews. Would their turn come, if they didn’t leave now?
Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Jewish eviction order from their occupation of the Alhambra Palace. Their Inquisition had been urging the expulsion of the Jews, but until Granada fell, they were reluctant. Apparently Jews were a key part of the tribute-paying system, needed until they had direct rule. The Alhambra Decree gave Jews four months (from March 31 to July 31) to be baptized or leave. After that date, remaining Jews would be executed.
They were permitted to take their property with them, but providing it was not in gold or silver coin. That was a pretty big “but.” Land was not portable to begin with, nor were animals beyond one or two horses. Many Jews had extensive libraries, but it was hard to travel with scrolls and large books. The market was flooded with books, dishes, furniture, clothes, land, houses, and businesses. Muslims were already leaving Granada, selling their businesses and houses too (though they were not forbidden to take coins). Essentially, barring them from taking coins meant stripping them of possessions that they couldn’t carry in their arms or a small cart.
Or they could be baptized, joining the Converso population in its insecure existence, but keeping their property. Historians estimate that about half of the remaining Jews converted, while half left (absolute numbers? probably something between 50,000 and 100,000). Because Spain’s name in Hebrew was Sefarad, the Jews who arrived in North Africa, Italy, Greece, and Turkey were known as Sefardic. They spoke their own Yiddish, a Hebrew-Spanish blend called Ladino, written like Yiddish in Hebrew letters. Their community in Spain went back to Roman or even Hellenic/Greek times and was distinctly different in culture from the Jews of Northern Europe.
Fleeing Jews could cross into Portugal or pay for passage to North Africa. That’s probably what most of them did; crossing the Strait of Gibraltar was the shortest voyage and many probably had relatives in business on the southern rim of the Mediterranean. Both of these easy answers were disastrous; Portugal was only a few years from persecuting and evicting Jews, and Morocco refused to let Jewish refugees enter many of their cities. Jews who survived and were not sold into slavery returned to Spain to be baptized.
Genoese ships were also willing to take refugees, and a significant number of the Jews settled in Genoa. If Christopher Columbus was a Sefardic Jew from some earlier emigration wave to Genoa, it’s ironic that he’s best known for being associated with Ferdinand and Isabella. Some Italian ships probably took them to other cities, but the fall of the Medici family had turned Florence against Jews.
The exit route Ferdinand and Isabella never saw coming was that Sultan Bayezid II, son of Mehmet II, sent the Ottoman navy under Kemal Reis (Captain Kemal) and his nephew Piri, who later became a very famous explorer and mapmaker. They probably arrived first to invite Muslim refugees on board, and stayed for the Jews. Apparently, the Chief Rabbi of Constantinople had a very cordial relationship with both sultans, father and son, because Muslim rulers had great respect for impartial judgments. Now in his 70s, he urged Bayezid to import as many of his co-religionists as would come. It’s not clear to me if refugees paid for passage, but in any case, they were given instant citizenship, which was more than Northern Europe would do.
This longest route, the least likely and most unforeseen, was probably the safest at that times. Sefardic Jews settled large colonies in Thessalonika and Smyrna—renamed Izmir in Turkish. Some also settled in other cities including Constantinople. They were immigrants with high skills who quickly settled into existing neighborhoods and expanded commerce. It’s probably an exaggeration to say that the Ottoman rise in power over the 1500s was fueled by these Sefardic immigrants, but some historians do say it. It was certainly a wise choice for the Ottomans to make Spain’s loss their gain.