Boabdil

I fought on both sides; I would not have had the Spaniards beaten, and yet when the Moors lost I was vanquished with them; and when the poor young King Boabdil (I was his devoted partisan and at the same time a follower of his fiery old uncle and rival, Hamet el Zegri) heaved the Last Sigh of the Moor, as his eyes left the roofs of Granada forever, it was as much my grief as if it had burst from my own breast.

And if it be the will of God that thou shalt be deprived of thy daughter, do not thou tarry, old man, in this land of bloodshed and cruelty; but betake thyself to Cordova, where thy brother liveth in safety, under the shadow of the throne, even of the throne of Boabdil the Saracen; for less cruel are the cruelties of the Moors unto the race of Jacob, than the cruelties of the Nazarenes of England.''

Captain Mohammed Abdullah Al Boabdil, director of the learning and training section at Dubai Central Prison, highlighted the example of a Bulgarian prisoner serving a life term on a drug-related issue, who invented a device and registered a patent.

It is a beauty to behold, having been created for Boabdil, the last emir of the kingdom of Granada, in the 15th to 16th centuries.

Less known is the story of the man who handed over the city, Boabdil (also known as Abu Abdallah Muhammad XI), and Elizabeth Drayson looks at the sultan's life in her well-crafted work The Moor's Last Stand.

Muslim Spain, ascendant for some seven centuries, finally got wiped out when Boabdil handed over the keys of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1492, a tragic event in the annals of Islam, culminating in Christian Spain's marathon Reconquista drive.

The Moor's Last Stand presents the poignant story of Boabdil, the last Muslim king of Granada.

The most famous sentence said on this occasion was by Boabdil's mother, Aisha Al-Horra, who said to him, "Today cry like women for a monarchy that you could not defend as a man."