Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain by Matthew Carr

Author:Matthew Carr [Carr, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Spain & Portugal, Religion, Christianity, General, Christian Church, Social Science, Emigration & Immigration, Discrimination & Race Relations, Islamic Studies
ISBN: 9781595586407
Google: xe1cEsnX2yYC
Amazon: 1595586407
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2011-07-04T08:00:00+00:00

These periodic disarmaments were among various attempts by Spain’s rulers to neutralize the perceived Morisco security threat. In October 1575, a royal decree prohibited Valencian Moriscos from approaching the coastline without an official permit. In 1581, in response to the “many murders, robberies and lootings” attributed to Morisco bandits, the Granadinos of Castile were ordered to carry identification papers at all times to prove their place of residence. The Moriscos of Castile were also banned from carrying weapons, except for knives with rounded points. In Granada, any Morisco caught carrying weapons could be hanged. In Valencia in August 1586, Moriscos were prohibited from changing their place of residence. In 1588, Philip instructed the authorities in Aragon to increase their vigilance along the French frontier in order to prevent contacts between Aragonese Moriscos and French Huguenots.

There were also sporadic attempts to ban Moriscos from certain professions that were deemed to pose a security risk, such as the manufacture of saltpeter and gunpowder. The Morisco muleteers, or arrieros, who dominated the Spanish transportation industry, came under particular suspicion. Morisco muleteers were often accused of smuggling weapons, gunpowder, and forbidden manuscripts in their baggage trains, and official searches occasionally did discover these banned items. But it was impossible to exclude Moriscos from a profession that Christians were generally averse to doing themselves, nor was it feasible to seal Moriscos in their different regions.

As much as the authorities tried to police the Moriscos, sixteenth-century Spain simply lacked the resources to allay its own fears. How could the authorities be certain that Morisco blacksmiths or metalworkers were not manufacturing weapons or musket balls to replace those that had been confiscated? How could they distinguish the horse smugglers who regularly crossed the Pyrenees from foreign spies or Moriscos seeking assistance for a putative revolt? How could Valencian Christians ever be sure that Morisco fishing boats did not liaise with corsair ships out of sight of land? In 1582, the Council of State drew up a detailed list of proposals to reduce the possibility of a Morisco uprising in Valencia and instructed the viceroy to ensure that all town councils were well supplied with gunpowder, muskets, and musket balls and to establish a Christian militia that would engage in regular shooting practice and shooting competitions between different towns as a show of strength visà-vis the Morisco population. Yet it was not until 1597 that these proposals finally resulted in the establishment of the Valencian militia known as the Efectiva.

There were also periodic attempts to make Spain’s Mediterranean coastline more secure. In 1575 the Valencian authorities reactivated Giovanni Antonelli’s plan for a system of defensive forts along the coast, which had lapsed through lack of funding. Similar efforts were tentatively undertaken in Andalusia, but their inadequacies were glaringly revealed by the English raids on Cádiz in 1587 and 1596. The more vulnerable Spain felt itself to be, the more the threat of the Moriscos was magnified in the eyes of Philip and his ministers. In the post-Granada era, these anxieties led to a new emphasis on Inquisitorial coercion.

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