Embarkation of moriscos in Valencia by Pere Oromig

A morisco (Spanish) or mourisco (Portuguese), meaning "Moor-like", was a nominally Catholic inhabitant of Spain and Portugal of Muslim heritage. Over time the term was used in a pejorative sense applied to those nominal Catholics who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam. Similarly, converted Jews (conversos) who secretly held to Judaism were called marranos.^[1]

[edit] History

In the medieval period, Iberian Muslims who had come under Christian rule as a result of the Reconquista, who were also known as Mudejars, had been tolerated on the peninsula, although treated as inferiors by Christian authorities. In the early 1500s, this policy of toleration gradually began to change.

After the fall of Granada in 1492, under the Treaty of Granada, the government granted the Muslim population the same sort of toleration with discrimination which had traditionally been extended by medieval Spanish rulers. That promise was short-lived. When peaceful conversion efforts on the part of Granada's first archbishop, Hernando de Talavera, brought subversive opposition, Cardinal Cisneros took stronger measures: forcing conversions, burning Islamic texts, and prosecuting some of Granada's Muslims. In response to these and other violations of the treaty, Granada's Muslim population rebelled in 1499. The revolt, which lasted until early 1501, gave the Spanish authorities an excuse to void the remaining terms of the treaty.

In 1501, Spanish authorities delivered an ultimatum to Granada's Muslims: they could either convert to Christianity or leave. Most did convert, but often only superficially. Many continued to dress in their traditional fashion, speak Arabic, and some secretly practiced Islam. Many used the aljamiado writing system, i.e., Castilian or Aragonese texts in Arabic writing with scattered Arabic expressions. In 1502, Queen Isabella formally rescinded toleration of Islam for the entire crown of Castile. In 1508, Castilian authorities banned traditional Moorish clothing. With the absorption of Navarre into the crown of Castile in 1512, the Muslims of Navarre were ordered to convert or leave by 1515. However, Ferdinand, as King of Aragon, continued to tolerate the large Muslim population living in his territory. Since the crown of Aragon was juridically independent of Castile, their policies towards Muslims could and did differ in this period.

Historians have suggested that the crown of Aragon was inclined to tolerate Islam in its realm because the landed nobility there depended on the cheap, plentiful labor of Muslim vassals.^[2] But, the landed elite's exploitation of Aragon's Muslims exacerbated class resentments. In the 1520s, when Valencian artisans rebelled against the local nobility in the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, the rebels "saw that the simplest way to destroy the power of the nobles in the countryside would be to free their vassals, and this they did by baptizing them." ^[3] The Inquisition and monarchy decided to prohibit the forcibly baptized Muslims of Valencia from returning to Islam.

In the last step, Charles V issued a decree compelling all Muslims in the crown of Aragon to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain by the end of January 1526. Thus through the threat of expulsion, many Muslims of Spain became Moriscos.

Aljamiado text by Mancebo de Arévalo. c. 16th century^[4]

Until the reign of Philip II, Moriscos were seldom subject to prosecution by the Inquisition. By contrast, judaizing conversos were more often prosecuted in this period. Some Moriscos rose to positions of wealth and prominence and wielded influence in society. Moreover, Aragonese and Valencian nobles in particular were interested in keeping their Morisco vassals under personal control; they tried to protect them from Inquisitorial prosecution by advocating patience and religious instruction. However, in 1567 Philip II changed tack. He directed Moriscos to give up their Muslim names and traditional Muslim dress, and prohibited their speaking Arabic. In addition, their children were to be educated by Christian priests. In reaction, there was a Morisco uprising in the Alpujarras from 1568 to 1571.

Spies reported that the Ottoman Emperor Selim II was planning to attack Malta and from there move on to Spain. They said he wanted to incite an uprising among Spanish Moriscos. In addition, "some four thousand Turks and Berbers had come into Spain to fight alongside the insurgents in the Alpujarras," ^[5] which was an obvious military threat. After the government defeated the rebels, they expelled some 80,000 Moriscos from Granada. Most settled elsewhere in Castile. The Alpujarras uprising hardened the attitude of the monarchy, for "the excesses committed on both sides were without equal in the experience of contemporaries; it was the most savage war to be fought in Europe that century."^[6] As a consequence, the Inquisition's prosecution of Moriscos increased after the uprising.

[edit] Huguenot support

French Huguenots were in contact with the Moriscos in plans against Spain in the 1570s.^[7] Around 1575, plans were made for a combined attack of Aragonese Moriscos and Huguenots from Béarn under Henri de Navarre against Spanish Aragon, in agreement with the king of Algiers and the Ottoman Empire, but these projects foundered with the arrival of John of Austria in Aragon and the disarmement of the Moriscos.^[8][9] In 1576, a three-pronged fleet from Constantinople was planned to disembark between Murcia and Valencia while the French Huguenots would invade from the north and the Moriscos accomplish their uprising, but the Ottoman fleet failed to arrive.^[8]

Toward the end of the 16th century, Morisco writers challenged the perception that their culture was alien to Spain. Their literary works expressed early Spanish history in which Arabic-speaking Spaniards played a positive role. Chief among such works is Miguel de Luna's Verdadera historia del rey don Rodrigo (c. 1545-1615).

[edit] Expulsion

La Expulsión de los Moriscos. A painting by Vicente Carducho. Museo del Prado, Madrid

Disembarking of the Moriscos at Oran port (1613, Vicente Mostre), Fundación Bancaja de Valencia

At the instigation of the Duke of Lerma and the Viceroy of Valencia, Archbishop Juan de Ribera, Philip III expelled the moriscos from Spain between 1609 (Valencia) and 1614 (Castile).^[10] They were ordered to depart "under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence... to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange... just what they could carry."^[11] Estimates for the number expelled in this second wave have varied, although contemporary accounts set the number at around 300,000 (about 4% of the Spanish population). The majority were expelled from the Crown of Aragon (modern day Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia). In contrast, the majority in the first wave were expelled from Andalusia shortly after the events of 1492.^[12][13] Some historians have blamed the subsequent economic collapse of the Spanish Mediterranean on the attempted replacement of morisco workers by Christian newcomers. Not only were there fewer of the new laborers, but they were not as familiar with the local techniques.

Adult moriscos were often assumed to be covert Muslims (i.e. crypto-Muslims), but the arrangements for expulsion of their children presented Catholic Spain with a dilemma. As the children had all been baptized, the government could not legally or morally transport them to Muslim lands. Some authorities proposed that children should be forcibly separated from their parents, but sheer numbers showed this to be impractical. Consequently, the official destination of the expellees was generally stated to be France (more specifically Marseille). After the assassination of Henry IV in 1610, about 150,000 moriscos went there.^[14][15]. Most of the moriscos then migrated to North Africa, leaving only about 40,000 to settle permanently in France.^{[16] [17]}.

Those moriscos who wished to remain Catholic were generally able to find new homes in Italy (especially Livorno). The overwhelming majority of the refugees settled in Muslim-held lands, mostly in the Ottoman Empire (Algeria and Tunisia) or Morocco.

"During the reign of Sultan Saadian ech Sheikh Mohammed (1554-1557), the Turkish danger was felt on the eastern borders of Morocco and the sovereign, even though a hero of the holy war against Christians, showed a great political realism by becoming an ally of the King of Spain, still the champion of Christianity. Everything changed from 1609, when King Philip III of Spain decided to expel the moriscos which, numbering about three hundred thousand, were Muslims who had remained Christian. Rebels, always ready to rise, they vigorously refused to convert and formed a state within a state. The danger was that with the Turkish pressing from the east, the Spanish authorities, who saw in them [the moriscos] a "potential danger", decided to expel them, mainly to Morocco…."

^[18]

Based at mainly northern towns of North Africa, some Morisco men fought as corsairs against Christians. Some Morisco mercenaries (in the service of the Moroccan sultan), armed with European-style guns, crossed the Sahara and conquered Timbuktu and the Niger Curve in 1591. A Morisco worked as military advisor for Sultan Al-Ashraf Tumanbay II of Egypt (the last Egyptian Mamluk Sultan) during his struggle against the Ottoman invasion in 1517 led by Sultan Selim I. The Morisco military advisor suggested that Sultan Tomanbey use men armed with guns instead of depending mainly on cavalries. Arabic sources recorded that Moriscos of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt joined Ottoman armies. Many Moriscos of Egypt joined the army in the time of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.

Numerous Moriscos remained in Spain, living among the Christian population. Some stayed on for genuine religious reasons, some for merely economic reasons. It is estimated that in the kingdom of Granada alone, between 10,000 and 15,000 Moriscos remained after the general expulsion of 1609.^[19] Scholars have suggested that the Mercheros (also Quinquis), a group of nomadic tinkerers traditionally based in the northern half of Spain, may have had their origin among surviving Moriscos.

[edit] In literature

Miguel de Cervantes' writings, such as Don Quixote and Conversation of the Two Dogs, offered interesting views of Moriscos and put them in a favorable light. In the first part of Don Quixote (before the expulsion), a Morisco translates a found document containing the Arabic "history" that Cervantes is merely "publishing". In the second part, after the expulsion, Ricote is a Morisco and a good mate of Sancho Panza. He cares more about money than religion, and left for Germany, from where he returned as a false pilgrim to unbury his treasure. He however admits the righteousness of their expulsion. His daughter María Félix is brought to Berbery but suffers since she is a sincere Christian.

[edit] Extended meaning

In historical studies of minoritisation, morisco is sometimes applied to other historical crypto-Muslims, in places such as Norman Sicily, 9th-century Crete, and other areas along the medieval Christian-Muslim frontier.

In the racial classification of colonial Spanish America, morisco was used as a term for the child of a mulatto and Spaniard.

[edit] Morisco descendants and Spanish citizenship

In October 2006, the Andalusian Parliament asked the three parliamentary groups that form the majority to support an amendment that would ease the way for morisco descendants to gain Spanish citizenship. The proposal was originally made by IULV-CA, the Andalusian branch of the United Left.^[20] Spanish Civil Code Art. 22.1, in its current form, provides concessions to nationals of several countries and Sephardic Jews historically linked with Spain. It allows them to seek citizenship after five rather than the customary ten years required for residence in Spain.^[21]

This measure could benefit about five million Moroccan citizens, who are considered to be descendants of moriscos. It could also benefit an indeterminate number of people in Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya, Egypt and Turkey.^[22]

Since 1992 some Spanish and Moroccan historians and academics have been demanding equitable treatment for moriscos similar to that offered to Sephardic Jews. The bid was welcomed by Mansur Escudero, the chairman of Islamic Council of Spain.^[23]

A recent DNA study by the University of Leeds (2008) of the Y chromosome among the current population of Iberia (i.e. Spain and Portugal) suggests that 11% of Iberian males have traces of Moorish ancestry.^[24]. The study has come under criticism since the Sephardic result is in contradiction ^[25][26][27] or not replicated in all the body of genetic studies done in Iberia and has been later questioned by the authors themselves ^{[28][29][30][31]} and questioned by Stephen Oppenheimer who estimate that much earlier migrations, 5,000 to 10,000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean might also have accounted for the Sephardic estimates. "They are really assuming that they are looking at this migration of Jewish immigrants, but the same lineages could have been introduced in the Neolithic"^[32]. The rest of genetic studies done in Spain estimate the Moorish contribution ranging from 2.5/3.4%^[33] to 7.7%^[34].

[edit] See also

• Aben Humeya, leader of the Morisco revolt
• Al-Andalus, the part of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule.
• Aljamiado, a Romance language written in Arabic characters-
• Almogavars, rough Christian soldiers
• Andalusian Arabic, the former language of Moriscoes.
• Conversos, the baptized Jews and Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula and their descendents.
• Crypto-Islam
• Crypto-Judaism
• Hispano-Moresque ware
• Hornachos, a village inhabited by Moriscos.
• Limpieza de sangre, the rules of ethnic discrimination against Conversos.
• Marranos, baptized Jews
• Moors, the Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.
• Morisco Revolt
• Mozarabs, Christians under Islamic rule.
• Mozarabic language, the Romance language spoken in Al-Andalus.
• Mudéjar, Muslims under Christian rule
• Muladi, a Christian converted to Islam after the Islamic conquest
• Persecution of Muslims
• Philip III of Spain
• Reconquista, the conquest of Al-Andalus by the Christians of the North.
• Moorish Science Temple of America

[edit] External links

• A web site is dedicated to the research and study of the Moriscos - Moriscos.org
• Detailed article by Professor Vincent Barletta
• 1911 Encyclopedia
• The expulsion of Muslims from Spain by Professor Roger Boase
• Columbia Encyclopedia
• Aljamiado-morisco manuscripts
• Treaty of Granada
• Moriscos culture influence in Morocco. Study in Spanish with Arabic translation

[edit] Further reading

• Chejne, Anwar G. (1983). Islam and the West: The Moriscos, a Cultural and Social History. SUNY Press. pp. 250. ISBN 0-87395-603-6.  (read the book)
• Harvey, L. P. Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
• Perry, M. E. The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

[edit] Sources

• Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion and Expulsion, by H. C. Lea, (London 1901)

[edit] References