When it comes to Islamic Granada, the Nasrid dynasty springs to most people’s minds. Yet, it was another influential family that increased the city’s power, the Zirid dynasty. This family of Berber origin founded the independent principality, or Taifa, of Granada in 1013, shortly after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba. The first Zirid Emir, Zawi ibn Ziri, decided to move the capital from the city of Elvira to a higher place that would be more easily defended, Granada. Thus, the Zirids were the ones to build the city’s first great walls. Along with the Torres Bermejas, other fortifications from the Zirid period are the Albaicín walls, the so-called Alcazaba Cadima, the Gate of Elvira and the Alcazaba in the Alhambra! After the Zirid era, Granada would be controlled by other powerful Berber dynasties of al-Andalus, the Almoravids, and the Almohads. But, with the rise of the Nasrids, it would once again gain its independence.