Yusuf III of Granada

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Yusuf III (Arabic: يوسف الثالث‎) (1376–1417) was the thirteenth Nasrid ruler of the Moorish Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 1408 to 1417. He inherited the throne from his brother, Muhammad VII, and was a noted builder and poet.

Life[]

Yusuf had constructed the northernmost of the Nasrid dynasty palaces on the hill of the Alhambra. His palace was allowed to fall into ruin after the Christian takeover, leaving only a lovely arcade and tower. Terraced gardens were reconstructed in the 20th century.

The following is a section of one of Yusuf's poems from Hispano-Arabic Poetry: A Student Anthology, published by James Monroe. It is typical of the romantic, yearning poetry of al-Andalus, which inspired the later romantic poetry of European chivalry. However, later Christian poems were strictly limited to male-female yearning, unlike this example.

O you who have aimed at my heart with the dart of a piercing glance:
Meet one who's dying, whose eye is shedding fast-flowing tears!
Who will claim justice from an alluring fawn
Slender of body as is the fresh, green bough,
Who has insisted on distance and shunning? ...
He has seduced me with the spell of his eyelids.
Had it been allowed—yet he shuns me ever—
I'd have won my desires by undoing his sash.

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