maliki legal school. The Nasrid slogan “those
who make [Islam] victorious through God” (in
Arabic Nasr means victory) mitigated Granada’s
vassalage to Castile and epitomized the ideology
of a frontier territory threatened by Christian (and
Muslim) enemies.
The architectural expression of Nasrid “vic-
tory” is the Alhambra fortress (Arabic: al-Hamra
“the red,” referring to its reddish hue). Perched
atop Sabika Hill, the Alhambra was a fortress
and royal capital. Muhammad I began the con-
struction of the Alhambra complex, and it was
completed during the reign of Muhammad V (d.
1391). Nasrid Granada’s population was over-
whelmingly Muslim since most native Christians
and Jews had migrated to Christian Iberia. The
capitulation agreement of 1492 allowed the Mus-
lims to retain their customs, but these rights were
successively rescinded. Granada’s mosqUes were
confiscated, and some 70,000 Muslims were forc-
ibly baptized and prohibited from using Moorish
dress, language, and customs. In the wake of Mus-
lim revolts in 1501 and 1568 and the evidence
of their continued Islamic practices, Felipe III
decreed their expulsion from Spain, which trans-
pired between 1609 and 1614.
See also cities; christianity and islam; sUFism.
Linda G. Jones
Further reading: Abd Allah b. Buluggin, The Tibyan:
Memoirs of Abd Allah b. Buluggin, the Last Zirid Emir of
Granada. Translated and edited by Amin T. Tibi (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1986); L. P. Harvey, Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Bernard
F. Reilly, The Medieval Spains (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1993).
Gülen, Fethullah (1941– ) leading Islamic
reformist thinker and preacher from Turkey
Born in a farming village near Erzurum in eastern
tUrkey, Fethullah Gülen, affectionately known
to his followers as Hoja efendi (a Turkish title of
respect), obtained his early edUcation at home, at
primary school, and from religious teachers. He
regards his mother as his first teacher and credits
his father, Ramiz Gülen, for teaching him Arabic.
He is reported to have memorized the qUran at an
early age. Although Sufi organizations had been
banned in Turkey by mUs taFa kemal atatUrk
in 1925, his teachers included several who had
been affiliated with the reformist naqshbandi sUFi
order. He also studied nonreligious subjects such
as modern science, philosophy, and history.
Gülen began to give sermons in local settings
when he was 16 and was greatly influenced by the
teachings of Said Nursi (d. 1960), a prominent
Muslim modernist thinker of Kurdish heritage
who was advocating the compatibility of modern
science and knowledge with Islam in Turkey.
A pious young man, Gülen received his first
appointment in 1959 as the imam at the prominent
Ucserefeli Mosque in Edirne, western Turkey. He
served there for two and a half years, then per-
formed his Turkish military service. When he got
out, he held various positions and gave talks on
religious and political subjects throughout the
country, concerned at the time with growing com-
munist influence. Inspired by Said Nursi and the
Nurcu movement, he favored the development of
an ideological alternative to the secular Turkish
nationalism of Ataturk (called Kemalism). His
tape-recorded sermons gained wide circulation
and were especially well received by university
students. After a military coup in 1971, Gülen
was sentenced to prison for three years for his
outreach activities. But this did not curtail his
popularity, and, in 1975, he organized conferences
dealing with the qUran, science, and Darwin-
ism. It is said that young people from throughout
Turkey flocked to hear his sermons and lectures.
During the 1980s, after another military coup,
Turkish authorities continued to monitor his
activities, even raiding his home. He was able to
act more openly in the 1990s because of main-
stream acceptance of religious parties such as the
reFah party in Turkish politics. Gülen had publicK 268 Gülen, Fethullah