Muhammad II was the Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al- Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 1273 until his death in 1302. Succeeding his father Muhammad I, he maintained Granada's independence in the face of its larger neighbours, the Christian kingdom of Castile and the Muslim Marinid state of Morocco. He added the Tower of the Ladies and the Tower of the Points to his father's palace and fortress complex, the Alhambra (pictured). To defend Granada against the Christians, he recruited soldiers from North Africa and organized them into the Volunteers of the Faith. He instituted the Nasrid royal protocol and the court chancery and increased the importance of the vizier in government. Muhammad II built a series of strongholds in strategic positions that remained for centuries as the backbone of Granadan border defences. He was known by the epithet al-Faqih, the canon lawyer, reflecting his education and his support for scholars and poets.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_II_of_Granada
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1689:
The Convention Parliament met to decide the fate of the English throne after James II, the last Catholic monarch, had fled to France as a result of the Glorious Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England
1905:
Russian Revolution: Unarmed demonstrators, led by Russian Orthodox priest Georgy Gapon, were massacred by the Imperial Guard outside the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29
1970:
The Boeing 747, the world's first wide-body commercial airliner, entered service for Pan Am on the New York–London route. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747
2006:
Evo Morales was inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first democratically elected indigenous leader. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
skimble-skamble: Confused, chaotic, disorderly, senseless. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/skimble-skamble
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
It will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her. --Francis Bacon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon