The first kings of Granada, the Zirtians, had their castles and palaces in the hills of Albaicin, and nothing remains of them. The monarchs Ziries were in all probability the emirs who built the Alhambra, beginning in 1238. The founder of the dynasty, Muhammed Al-Ahmar, began with the restoration of the old fort.

When was Alhambra renovated by the Muslims of Spain?

It was originally constructed as a small fortress in 889 CE on the remains of ancient Roman fortifications, and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-13th century by the Arab Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada, who built its current palace and walls.

Why is Alhambra so famous?

The Emirate of Granada was the last Muslim dynasty on the Iberian Peninsula to capitulate in the Catholic Reconquista, in 1492. ... The Alhambra is the most important surviving remnant of the period of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula (711–1492).