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Historian Dr Elizabeth Drayson tells the story of the last Muslim king of Granada, Boabdil, and explains why he remains a potent symbol today.

Boabdil was defeated in 1492 by the forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella after he was betrayed by his family and undermined by internal conflict. It marked the Christian re-conquest of Spain and brought to an end the era in which Christian, Muslim and Jew had lived peacefully together. Boabdil, however, remains a potent symbol of resistance to western Christendom today.

Drayson is a senior college lecturer at Murray Edwards College and Peterhouse and a member of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Cambridge. She is also author of The King and the Whore: King Roderick and La Cava and The Lead Books of Granada.