Gottfried Liedl, a Viennese historian of Islamic Spain, argues that Naṣrid Granada may be considered one of Europe's first "modern" states.
- In the Castile-Granada border, cases involving both Muslims and Christians were handled by both Christian and Muslim judges through a codified system of cooperation (the so-called "judges of the frontier," juez de la frontera in Spanish and qādī bayna al-mulūk in Arabic). "Liedl describes this arrangement as a type of secular international law (Völkerrecht) in which, instead of the primacy of religion, the authority of the rulers of Granada and Castile over their subjects is displayed and enacted."
- The Naṣrids undertook military reforms that Liedl sees as foreshadowing the Military Revolution of the Early Modern era. This includes an army composed of well-drilled and heavily armed infantry directly loyal to the emir (many of them being Berber and Spanish renegades) rather than the nobility-controlled or tribal cavalry armies of the Almohads. There was an extensive focus on drill even on a popular level, as seen by the propagation of the crossbow (not a traditional Muslim weapon) at all levels of the kingdom's society. Granada was also very early to adopt gunpowder and firearms. The entire kingdom was also heavily fortified (Liedl even sees antecedents of the trace italienne design here).
- Liedl also argues for Granada's economic modernity. "Genoa helped supply Granada with goods the latter needed for its commerce with Castile, and when Genoa faltered economically in the fourteenth century, Granada came to its aid with both grain and gold. Like the cities of Italy, Granada’s economy depended on the intensive agricultural cultivation of its littoral along with a drive to colonize its hinterlands (Binnenkolonisation), and benefited from the late-medieval shift in Mediterranean trade from luxury goods to mass production. In Iberia, the contrast between Granada and Castile could not have been greater, with the former enjoying close economic ties with Catalonia, Genoa, and North Africa, while Castile had no major port on the Mediterranean. Where the economy of Castile, in area fifteen times larger, was largely based on sheep herding, Granada—with its intense and extensive agricultural practice—boasted a tax income in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries of roughly 560,000 dinars, or twice that of Castile. It was this economic strength which not only enabled the Nasrids to pay Castile intermittent exorbitant [tribute] but also provided the wealth it needed to mount and train the army and build the fortifications discussed... By the end of the fifteenth century, each inhabitant of Granada paid three times as much in taxes to his ruler than a Castilian subject his king, pointing not only to the higher degree of economic production that existed in Granada, but also to the power of the Nasrid bureaucracy. The city of Granada itself had some 200,000 inhabitants."
- Liedl then argues for an incipient proto-nationalism in Granada. "Citing the observations of Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), Ibn al-Khatīb (d. 1374) and al-Qalqashāndī (d. 1418)... the inhabitants of Granada understood themselves first and foremost as people of al-Andalus (ahl al-Andalus) and only then as members of a broader Muslim umma."
- Liedl also argues for a Granadan modernity in its relative openness. "Whereas previous scholars... had seen the fact that Granadan historian and vizier Ibn al-Khatīb (d. 1374) had based his history of the Iberian Christian kingdoms on Christian sources as evidence of an interest in Christian affairs exceptional among Muslim scholars, Liedl observes that few if any Christian scholars of the time drew on Muslim historical sources for the history of North Africa or al-Andalus. He claims that support for the Granadan population’s modern intellectual curiosity is provided by the examples of an ‘Abdallāh b. Sahl (fl. twelfth century) who taught the natural sciences to Christian priests from Toledo, and a certain alKinānī from Malaga, who habitually traveled through the Christian kingdoms seeking theological debate with bishops there. For Liedl, these individuals testify to a broader curiosity, inquisitiveness and openness on the part of the Granadan population."
- Overall, Liedl argues that "the unique nature of Granada—facetiously characterized by Liedl as 'a freak of the Islamic world'—was in large part due to the strength of its state, a strength reflected in its anomalous building of large public squares that were used for the drilling of soldiers. The militarized nature of the city was not only directed against external enemies: the exceptionally broad streets—otherwise almost unknown in the Muslim world—that connected all main parts of the city, enabled quick and ordered troop movements to crisis points to put down internal revolts."