El territorio de la costa oriental de Granada en época nazarí a la luz de un testimonio castellano a mediados del siglo XVI

Abstract

A document dating from 1559, kept in the General Archives of Simancas (Spain), serves as the basis of this study of the demographic clusters in the Sierra de Lújar, an area along the eastern coast of the province of Granada. The evolution of this area and its population is traced from the Nazarí period of Moorish rule through the Castilian conquest. Characteristic of this area in Nazarí times was its system of independent farm-steads that were overlooked —but not dominated— by the castle of Castell de Ferro. Under Castilian rule, the area’s defensive elements were fortified and the farmsteads were abandoned to a great extent, to be used thereafter only for very profitable agricultural products that required little care, such as the mulberry tree (whose leaves were used in the breeding of silk-worms) and the grape.