THE POSSIBILITY

16TH CENTURY ONWARDS A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE AND LEARNING

Granada had already attracted scholars from around Europe. But it may have grown into so much more and could have been the founding member of a series of great collaborative education and research centres across Europe, funded and run by people of all faiths. On elements such as social spaces, libraries and education, Granada was far ahead of its Christian neighbours and could have led the way in establishing a shared tolerance across all faiths, attracting and supporting the best minds in Europe to collaborate through learning and become a major driving force in literature, philosophy, law, and culture.

16TH CENTURY TWIN TOWERS OF POWER

As a seat of power in the Western Mediterranean, Granada could have become part of a powerful axis of Islamic influence, one of the twin poles of an Islamic empire of Europe, along with Constantinople (now Istanbul). Trade along the entire Mediterranean coastline, North, South, East and West, would have been influenced and in some cases controlled by such a powerful alliance. Europeans in some areas would have worn Islamic dress and followed the Islamic dating system, leading to a hugely different future for the continent.

1492 A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Having at last banished Islamic rule from the Iberian Peninsula, the evolving confidence and power of Aragon and Castile turned its focus on the wider world. But had Granada resisted and remained strong, and a potential threat, resources for such expansion may well have remained limited. Sponsorship of Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World may have never happened. Alliances with other foreign courts, such as marriage of Katherine of Aragon to the English Tudors, may have been rethought. And Conquistadors may not have crossed the Atlantic to gain the wealth that would fuel the Spanish superpower of the

16th century.