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her family and soldiers, Isabella enjoyed a
moment of intense personal triumph.
The terms under which Granada had
been yielded obliged the queen to extend
tolerance and a generous degree of self-
management to the Muslim population
after their native ruler went into exile. At
first Isabella abided by these commitments,
impatient though she was for Granada to be
integrated into Christian Castile. The priests
employed by Archbishop Talavera to hold
discussions with Muslim clergy engaged in
the sort of polite, scholarly, and gradualistic
dialogues that might have continued a
regime of benign tolerance indefinitely.
However, under the influence of her new
confessor, F
RANCISCO
J
IMÉNEZ
DE
C
ISNEROS
,
whom she appointed in 1492 and named
archbishop of Toledo in 1495, Isabella
undertook a more urgent timetable and a
more aggressive approach to conversion.
These measures provoked violent attacks
upon Cisneros and, ultimately, a general
revolt in the region. By 1499 Cisneros had
persuaded Isabella to order the prompt
departure from Castile of all Muslims who
would not embrace Christianity. Having
already decreed a similar banishment of her
Jewish subjects, in 1492, Isabella could now
rejoice in presiding as a truly Christian
monarch over a truly Christian realm.
Although the conquest of Granada had
preoccupied the attention of the Castilian
queen in 1492, she had spared time to fund
the bold project of a transatlantic expedi-
tion to Asia laid before her by the navigator
C
HRISTOPHER
C
OLUMBUS
. By 1493 Colum-
bus was back from what was eventually
recognized, not as Asia, but a New World of
two continents and a multitude of islands.
Ferdinand remained preoccupied with the
ongoing crises in the Old World, particu-
Queen Isabella I
(Library of Congress)
fruits of their collaboration. Ferdinand also
shared with his wife the C
ONQUEST
OF
G
RANADA
(1492), the last Muslim strong-
hold on the Iberian Peninsula.
The expulsion of the Moors was a project
particularly dear to the heart of Isabella.
Not only did the continued presence of this
alien foothold in Spain offend her pride as
a monarch; it also represented a challenge
to the universality of what she devoutly
believed to be the one true faith. The war
that was waged for nearly 10 years and cul-
minated in the fall of G
RANADA
was a cru-
sade that preoccupied her, while it never
engaged the full attention of Ferdinand
who had far more interest in the main cur-
rents of European affairs. Entering the cap-
tured city of Granada in January 1492 amid
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