After a decade of military campaigns and sieges, Granada finally surrendered on January 2, 1492. “After so much labor, expense, death, and shedding of blood,” the monarchs announced, “this kingdom of Granada which was occupied for over seven hundred and eighty years by the infidels” had been liberated.128 “Church bells pealed across Europe in celebration when Granada fell. That door through which Islam had entered Europe through the West was finally shut after a span of over seven hundred years.”
