Boabdil

Boabdil (properly Abu-Abdallah, and nicknamed Ez-Zogoiby, 'the unlucky'), the last Moorish king of Granada, dethroned his father, Abu-l-Hasan, in 1481, and two years later was defeated and taken prisoner by the Castilians near Lucena. He was set free on condition of paying tribute, and returned to Granada to struggle with his father and with his heroic uncle, Ez-Zaghal, for the throne. Thus the Moors wasted the strength they sorely needed for the final struggle with the Christians. The fall of Malaga and Baza was but the prelude to the siege of the capital itself, which was finally starved out towards the close of 1491, spite of the reckless courage of the Moors and of Boabdil, whose weak and vacillating nature fell from him in the hour of battle. The unhappy king gave up to Ferdinand the keys of the city, then turned his back on Granada, and rode on towards the mountains. At Padul, on a spur of the Alpujarras, he turned to take a last look at the towers of the fair palace and city he had lost. 'Allah Akbar' ('God is great'), he exclaimed, as he burst into tears. His mother stood beside him. 'You may well weep like a woman,' she said, 'for what you could not defend like a man.' The spot from which Boabdil looked his last on Granada still bears the name of el último sospiro del Moro, 'the last sigh of the Moor.' He soon crossed to Africa and flung away his life in battle.