Abu'l-Walid Ismail ibn Faraj[1] was the son of Fatima bint al-Ahmar and Abu Said

Faraj ibn Ismail. Ismail's mother Fatima was the daughter of Sultan Muhammad II (r.
1273�1302) and the sister of the sultans Muhammad III (r. 1302�1309) and Nasr (r.
1309�1314), the two immediate successors to and sons of Muhammad II. Ismail's
father, Abu Said Faraj was also a member of the royal family, the son of Ismail ibn
Nasr, who was a brother of the dynasty founder Muhammad I (r. 1238�1273).
Therefore, Ismail was related to the ruling Nasrid dynasty in two ways: through his
mother he was the grandson of Muhammad II and great-grandson of Muhammad I, while
through his father he was a great-nephew of Muhammad I.[2] Abu Said married Fatima
during the reign of her father, Muhammad II, for whom he was a trusted advisor as
well as a cousin. Abu Said was also appointed governor of M�laga by Muhammad II.[2]
M�laga was the second largest city of the Emirate of Granada after the capital,
Granada, and its most important Mediterranean port, without which "Granada was no
more than an isolated mountain-girt city," according to the historian L. P. Harvey.
[3] Abu Said's father, Ismail ibn Nasr, had also served as its governor until he
died in 1257.[4]

The emirate was the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, founded by Muhammad
I in the 1230s.[5] Through a combination of diplomatic and military manoeuvres, the
emirate succeeded in maintaining its independence, despite being located between
two larger neighbours: the Christian Crown of Castile to the north and the Muslim
Marinid Sultanate in Morocco. Granada intermittently entered into alliance or went
to war with both these powers, or encouraged them to fight one another, in order to
avoid being dominated by either.[6] From time to time, the sultans of Granada swore
fealty and paid tributes to the kings of Castile, an important source of income for
Castile.[7] From Castile's point of view, Granada was a royal vassal, while Muslim
sources never described the relationship as such, and Muhammad I, for instance, on
occasions declared his fealty to other Muslim sovereigns.[8]