The purging of Islamic Spain

Ali Muhammad
   The purging of Islamic Spain is a event in history that is not brought up in world history books. In 1609 King Phillip of Spain signed an edict proclaiming Muslims as heretics and expelled them from their lands that they had lived for generations and expelled the to North Africa. The expulsion of Muslims in Spain had been a long processed that seemed to start soon after the conquest of the last Islamic kingdom in Spain that was Granada and author Mathew Carr brings out a new book illustrating this history. The reconquest by castile of the last Muslim stronghold culminated a seven hundred year war in 1492 and it would be another century for strife and rebellion before the Spanish decided to end their multi-culturalist feudal society. The legacy of medieval coexistence was delivered a fatal blow and from the sixteenth century Muslims faced many pressures to conform to Spanish society and to convert. this included all aspects of daily life from how and where they ate to what they would wear and eventually these harassments lead to open hostility and rebellion. The constant raiding of Corsairs and the conquests of Islamic Turks on the western fringes of the Mediterranean also put pressure on Spanish Muslims as fear and hatred of their countrymen who worshipped another religion became the norm in the Spanish kingdom.

No where was this  paranoia was felt  in than the Spanish province of Valencia. the result was the inquisition and the forced Catholicism on the Muslims who secretly remained Muslims despite the public baptismal in order to remain a resident of the kingdom and avoid deportation to the Barbary.  The role of three generation's of Hapsburg rulers who decisions determined the fate of faith in Spain and whether a diverse population would be allowed. Carr writes about the succession of royal decrees between 1511 and 1526 that tried to push for a quicker assimilation of Muslims cultural characteristics that were backsliding attempts to convert them. These included bans of halel butchering and Moorish dress where women were covered up from head to toe that is still a source of intrigue and controversy in the European Union today. the author goes into the failures of forced conversions in Velancia after the 1522 decree and massacre where those who refused were shipped off in huge numbers to North Africa. The Moriscos lived in constant precarious position in a Christian society that was determined to erase all vestiges of Moorish rule and presence in their lands. A final last stand Muslim rebellion in Granda would see many Muslims enslaved and sold into markets. Spain's brutal tactics in the Americas was often repeated in Spain ostensibly for religious and national purposes where fear of their arch enemy Ottoman Turks and growing Protestantism in Europe lead to a extreme nationalism in an era before nationalism. The ethnic cleansing that Spain committed would be attempted again on Muslims in the Balkans some four hundred years later and is much  evidence that history often repeats itself and the author warned of this in his epilogue of this book and the growing hate and resentment of Islamic immigrants in Europe today.