Between Christians And Moriscos

This “excellent study” shows how a Spanish archbishop laid the groundwork for the seventeenth-century expulsion of the Moriscos (James B. Tueller, Renaissance Quarterly). In early modern Spain, the monarchy’s policy of converting all subjects to Christianity only created new forms of tension among ethnic religious groups. Those whose families had always been Christian defined themselves in opposition to forcibly baptized Muslims (moriscos) and Jews (conversos). Here historian Benjamin Ehlers studies the relations between Christians and moriscos in Valencia by analyzing the ideas and policies of archbishop Juan de Ribera. Appointed to the diocese of Valencia in 1568, Juan de Ribera encountered a congregation deeply divided between Christians and moriscos. He came to identify with his Christian flock, leading hagiographers to celebrate him as a Valencian saint. But Ribera had a very different relationship with the moriscos, eventually devising a covert campaign to have them banished. His portrayal of the moriscos as traitors and heretics ultimately justified the Expulsion of 1609–1614, which Ribera considered the triumphant culmination of the Reconquest. Ehler’s sophisticated yet accessible study of the pluralist diocese of Valencia is a valuable contribution to the study of Catholic reform, moriscos, Christian-Muslim relations in early modern Spain, and early modern Europe.

Here historian Benjamin Ehlers studies the relations between Christians and moriscos in Valencia by analyzing the ideas and policies of archbishop Juan de Ribera.

In early modern Spain the monarchy's universal policy to convert all of its subjects to Christianity did not end distinctions among ethnic religious groups, but rather made relations between them more contentious. Old Christians, those whose families had always been Christian, defined themselves in opposition to forcibly baptized Muslims (moriscos) and Jews (conversos). Here historian Benjamin Ehlers studies the relations between Christians and moriscos in Valencia by analyzing the ideas and policies of archbishop Juan de Ribera. Juan de Ribera, a young reformer appointed to the diocese of Valencia in 1568, arrived at his new post to find a congregation deeply divided between Christians and moriscos. He gradually overcame the distrust of his Christian parishioners by intertwining Tridentine themes such as the Eucharist with local devotions and holy figures. Over time Ribera came to identify closely with the interests of his Christian flock, and his hagiographers subsequently celebrated him as a Valencian saint. Ribera did not engage in a similarly reciprocal exchange with the moriscos; after failing to effect their true conversion through preaching and parish reform, he devised a covert campaign to persuade the king to banish them. His portrayal of the moriscos as traitors and heretics ultimately justified the Expulsion of 1609–1614, which Ribera considered the triumphant culmination of the Reconquest. Ehler's sophisticated yet accessible study of the pluralist diocese of Valencia is a valuable contribution to the study of Catholic reform, moriscos, Christian-Muslim relations in early modern Spain, and early modern Europe.

Converso and Morisco are the terms applied to those Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity (mostly under duress) in late Medieval Spain. Converso and Moriscos Studies examines the manifold cultural implications of these mass convertions.

Scientific Study from the year 2010 in the subject World History - General and Comparison, grade: 80, , course: History of Islam, language: English, abstract: Our study deals with a period in which the Andalusian Muslims began to descend rapidly from the summit. We intend to examine from socio-cultural and religious perspectives the history of the Moriscos, the Berber, Arab, Jewish or Spanish Muslims, who witnessed the fall of Gnrata after choosing Islam as a religion. Then, exposed to deportations and repressions, but had to stay in Andalusia for various reasons, officially accepted Christianity but have sought to transfer the Islamic faith they have hidden to the next generations. If the 16th and 17th century Europe is well studied, it can be seen that the Spanish struggle against the Moriscos is not only a religious war. The Protestant war which was fought inside against the Germans that began to strengthen in the north, the rivalry with the British beyond the ocean, and the Ottoman threat in the Mediterranean and Europe, which could extend to their vicinity at any time, pushed the Spaniards to cooperate with the Vatican, and they tried to establish Catholic Spanish union as a strong backbone against the threats outside. A Morisco was seen as an Ottoman spy, a Protestant as a German spy and a Jewish as a British, Ottoman or French spy. Spaniards could not have a problem with just a muslim Morisco. The Christianization and expulsion of Muslims, who work more, who are more educated, who have technical staff and paid more taxes, took too long because of the strategy instabilities of the Spanish Kings on the way to the Great Spain. Morisco is the name given by the Spaniards to a nation that either was converted by will or by force from Islam to Christianity, in Spain or Portugal at the time when the Iberian peninsula was occupied by the Spaniards. This word was also used for people who did not adopt Christianity but had to profess Christian faith, and who secretly and operatively continued to be a Muslim. Similarly, in Spain, people who seemed to have accepted Christianity, but who maintained the belief in Judaism, were called "Marranos" or "Jews of Seferad". With the Reconquista and the recapture of the peninsula in just the beginning of the 1500s, Muslims began to be forced to become Catholics. Those who did not accept were sentenced to death, while some lucky ones managed to escape to Morocco. During this difficult period, a number of people preferred to accept the Catholic faith and save their lives.

In 1502, a decade of increasing tension between Muslims and Christians in Spain culminated in a royal decree that Muslims in Castile wanting to remain had to convert to Christianity. Mary Elizabeth Perry uses this event as the starting point for a remarkable exploration of how Moriscos, converted Muslims and their descendants, responded to their increasing disempowerment in sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Spain. Stepping beyond traditional histories that have emphasized armed conflict from the view of victors, The Handless Maiden focuses on Morisco women. Perry argues that these women's lives offer vital new insights on the experiences of Moriscos in general, and on how the politics of religion both empowers and oppresses. Drawing on archival documents, legends, and literature, Perry shows that the Moriscas carried out active resistance to cultural oppression through everyday rituals and acts. For example, they taught their children Arabic language and Islamic prayers, dietary practices, and the observation of Islamic holy days. Thus the home, not the battlefield, became the major forum for Morisco-Christian interaction. Moriscas' experiences further reveal how the Morisco presence provided a vital counter-identity for a centralizing state in early modern Spain. For readers of the twenty-first century, The Handless Maiden raises urgent questions of how we choose to use difference and historical memory.

Forbidden Passages is the first book to document and evaluate the impact of Moriscos—Christian converts from Islam—in the early modern Americas, and how their presence challenged notions of what it meant to be Spanish as the Atlantic empire expanded.

This work is an academic pursuit that aims to produce innovative scholarly general interest that explores, through a fresh perspective and from a historical approach and a multidisciplinary angle, an understudied subject of Colonial and Early Independent Mexico’s History: Islam.