This article is about Muhammad II, the second monarch of Nasrid Granada (the last Muslim state in Spain). He had a rather long life and managed to ensure the survival of his small kingdom by defending and often manouvring against its larger neighbors. After passing GA I took the reviewer's follow up feedback and after some research added more information to the biography. I hope it's ready for an FA review now.
HaEr48 (
talk)
03:57, 13 July 2019 (UTC)reply
Comment from Tim riley
A few points on the prose: the text is mainly in British English ("realise", "manoeuvring", "recognised", "neighbours") but the American spellings "center" and "centered" keep cropping up. And though "mountaneous" is a splendid word, it isn't in the OED: "mountainous" would be better. If the article is indeed meant to be in BrE, "This likely offended Muhammad" would be better as " This probably offended Muhammad".
There are a few duplicate links that would be better eradicated: "Muhammed III", "Nuño González de Lara", "Córdoba". That's all from me on the prose. The content looks excellent, and I expect to be supporting, but I'd prefer to wait until others more expert than I have had their say. – Tim riley talk06:49, 13 July 2019 (UTC)reply
" which originated from Arjona" But was he born there himself? Also, state whether it was a town or what it was.
Updated to the "town of Arjona". I didn't find any source explicitly saying he was born there so I didn't add it to the article. But it seems likely given his father's biography.
HaEr48 (
talk)
13:57, 15 July 2019 (UTC)reply
"He became the sole heir after the death of Yusuf without descendant" Reads a bit awkwardly, how about "Yusuf, who did not leave a descendant," or similar?
"Before Abu Yusuf left, Muhammad's court poet wrote a poem expressing fear of Castile's power and appealing for the Marinids' continued help." Sounds interesting, could it perhaps be quoted here for flavour ?
@
FunkMonk: Done. Note, the English source didn't quote complete verses (sometimes only phrases), so I had to translate some of the them myself. Please review the style, etc. of the translation.
HaEr48 (
talk)
13:18, 17 July 2019 (UTC)reply
Makes this come much more alive than just pure description, and also underlines the point about the importance of poetry during his reign. Shouldn't this sentence begin with a capital letter, though? "that the mosques in this land".
FunkMonk (
talk)
21:34, 17 July 2019 (UTC)reply
"who was checked by the North African Volunteers of the Faith" Any background on these? Had they been brought by the Marinids? I see they are explained under Governance and legacy, but wouldn't it be best at first mention?
Infante is actually a Spanish royal title, usually for a king's son. Sources about Spanish history in this period (e.g. O'Callaghan) often uses "Infante X" to refer to such a person, even in subsequent mentions, so I'm just imitating that because it feels useful to hint that these people are very high-ranking. The part you highlighted reads "Infantes Sancho, Peter and John" because there are three infantes. I added "(Prince)" at the first mention of the word - would that help? Another alternative is to not use the title, but it means losing the hint that these people are high-ranked (there are more infantes mentioned in this article). Do you have suggestions?
HaEr48 (
talk)
14:12, 18 July 2019 (UTC)reply
"A rift broke out between the king and his son" It is not very clear here that Sancho was the king's son, could maybe be stated clearly when he is introduced.
"Muhammad died on 8 April 1302 (8 Shaban 701 AH)" Any idea of from what? And you could maybe add II to his name here and elsewhere.
The possible poisoning by his son is discussed in the following sentence. Apart from this I didn't find any additional info about the cause of death.
HaEr48 (
talk)
14:12, 18 July 2019 (UTC)reply
"Late that year, Granadan forces defeated Infante Henry near Arjona and nearly captured him." Why? Last thing mentioned was they were allies?
The previous part of the paragraph talked about Henry leading Castile as regent, and the previous section was talking about Granada switching sides and being against Castile. The "peace overtures" were just part of the war, since it didn't work, they were still at war. Which part mentioned they were allies?
"They were often located in mountainous or other areas that are difficult to reach" Why not keep the entire sentence in past tense?
All of the sources used appear to be reliable. I am unable to find any other sources which would materially add to the content of the article. I found no unattributed close paraphrasing. I consider the sources to be current. A reasonable mix of perspectives are represented. Everything that I would expect to be cited, is. I have carried out a limited spot check of a few citations, and in those cases the sources referred to seem to support the text cited.
Hyphens are inconsistently used in ISBNs. (Catlos is the odd one out.)
The Volunteers were a component of Granada's military made up of warriors from North Africa, largely political exiles who migrated with their families and tribes.[46] They were so integrated with Granada that they still defended Granada against Castile despite Granada also being at war with the Marinid state where they came from. Why should this be notable? They were exiles from Morocco and almost certainly didn't have any loyalty to the government that exiled them.
"I removed "They were so integrated with Granada that ..." to make it less dramatic. The source I use (
Harvey p. 159) seem to think this is noteworthy. Maybe you're right, but arguably there is a difference between joining a holy war abroad and being in a foreign army that is at war with your home country, exiled or not. Thank you for your review!
HaEr48 (
talk)
02:53, 28 July 2019 (UTC)reply
I reviewed this at GAN, and am very happy with the changes and additions since. I also added a few minor things on Muhammad's contributions to the institutions of the Nasrid state and did a few minor copyedits. after going it over, I really can't think of anything to complain about. There is potentially some scope for expansion (I am pretty sure that some more details about his legislative and administrative activities could be found in very specialist sources), but otherwise the article is comprehensive, and none of the—otherwise excellent—sources I have at my disposal on al-Andalus come close to it in terms of completeness. So definitely support, and well done to
HaEr48.
Constantine ✍ 16:59, 20 July 2019 (UTC)reply