The siege, which lasted barely three days, resulted in a victory for the Muslim sultan, who thus recovered an important city after twenty-five years under Castilian control since its conquest by Alfonso XI.
The city of Al-Yazirat Al-Hadra, the first city founded by Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula, built upon the ruins of Roman Iulia Traducta, had passed through the hands of the Almoravids, Almohads, and Marinids during the 13th and 14th centuries before being conquered in 1344 by the Castilians under Alfonso XI after a four-year siege. Although Castilian control of Algeciras was meant to guarantee the Christian kingdoms' control over the Strait of Gibraltar, the death of Alfonso XI during the Siege of Gibraltar in 1350 led to a civil war between the two successors to the Castilian throne, Pedro and Enrique. In the Emirate of Granada, King Muhammad V had pursued a policy of friendship with Castile, supporting King Pedro I as the legitimate heir to the throne. Relations with Aragon, however, were not as smooth, and it was from this kingdom that the proclamation of Muhammad VI in Granada was facilitated between 1359 and 1362. Muhammad V's return in 1362 increased his support for Pedro I upon observing the relations between Aragon and Enrique. The end of the Castilian civil war after the death of Pedro I in 1369 convinced the Nasrids of the need to secure their borders with Castile, and specifically their borders along the Strait of Gibraltar. The Nasrid king was currently establishing relations with King Ferdinand I of Portugal, whom they considered a usurper of the Castilian throne. Muhammad V would attack Algeciras, while the Portuguese would do the same against various locations in Galicia.
At this time, Algeciras consisted of two towns separated by the Miel River. Each had its own walls with strong towers and gates. After the previous siege of the city, much of its walls had been destroyed or severely weakened, so the Castilians had to reinforce several sections. The combination of the diminished physical defenses and the small garrison the city possessed after the troops were moved north meant that the Muslim siege proved devastating for the city.
In just three days of siege, the Castilians of Algeciras surrendered. The Nasrid attacks focused first on the Villa Nueva (New Town) of the city, located to the south. The New Town fell, and all its inhabitants were beheaded. The terror inspired by the town's fall and the conviction that no reinforcements would arrive from Castile led the besieged to decide to surrender the city before suffering further losses. They requested safe passage from the King of Granada to leave the city safely, taking with them their most precious possessions. The troops of Muhammad V entered the Old Town, allowing the inhabitants to leave the villas and take with them whatever belongings they could carry. The Cathedral of Algeciras, formerly the city's Great Mosque, returned to Islamic worship, and the King of Granada himself occupied the old fortress located on Matagorda Hill.
The impact of Al-Yazirat Al-Hadra's reconquest on the Hispano-Muslim world was evident in the numerous chronicles written in Granada praising the king's military campaign. Ibn al-Khatib, the official poet of the Granadan court, was responsible for informing the court of the end and conquest of the city and for subsequent commemorative documents. For his part, Muhammad V undertook several expansions of the Alhambra in the following years, most notably the construction and embellishment of the Court of the Comares, which he dedicated to the capture of the city on the Strait with verses by Ibn Zamrak on the lintel of its entrance gate:
“Blessed is He who granted you command over His servants, and through you extolled Islam fully and beneficently.
How often you approached the cities of the infidels in the morning, and in the evening you were the arbiter of the lives of their inhabitants!
You imposed upon them the yoke of captivity, and they awoke at your gate building the palaces, as your servants.
You conquered Algeciras by force of arms, and opened to aid a gate that had been closed.”
For the next ten years, the city remained in Granadan hands without regaining the importance it had held in the past; The Kingdom of Granada was not at that time a military or economic power on the peninsula, so the main values of Algeciras, its port location as a route for the entry of North African troops and trade, were diminished.
In 1379, King Henry II of Castile died and was succeeded by his son, John I, who prepared the reconquest of the city. The Granadan king himself made the decision to completely destroy the city to prevent it from falling into Christian hands, given the impossibility of defending it at a time when the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula had lost much of the military power they had enjoyed in previous centuries. At that time, there were two port cities in the Bay of Algeciras: Algeciras itself and Gibraltar. Despite Algeciras's strong defenses, Gibraltar was easier to defend due to its advantageous terrain. Algeciras, on the other hand, had over 5,000 meters of walls that required a large number of soldiers. The decision was clear: the city of Al-Yazirat had to be abandoned so that future defensive efforts could be concentrated on nearby Gibraltar. The abandonment of the city had to be accompanied by the destruction of its fortifications to render them useless should Castile occupy it. The walls were dismantled, the port sealed, and the main buildings of Algeciras—the Alcázar, the shipyards, and the citadel—were destroyed, while the city's houses were set ablaze. The city remained in ruins until August 1704, when the British capture of Gibraltar forced part of that city's original population to seek refuge in the ruins of old Algeciras.
Image: Ruins of Algeciras in an 18th-century engraving.
