Moriscos. Moriscos is the name usually given to the Moors who remained in Spain after the taking of Granada in 1492; Mozarabes or Muzarabes, to the Christian Spaniards who lived in the parts of Spain under Moorish rule; Mudejares, to the Moors who submitted to the Christians in the earlier periods of the re-conquest.
To take first the Mozarabes. Christianity was freely, if contemptuously, tolerated under the Moorish rule. Occasional outbursts of fanaticism used to take place. These were often provoked by Christians defiantly seeking martyrdom, as in Cordova in the 9th century; this persecution lasted intermittently till 953, when it well-nigh ceased. The Mozarabes kept their ancient liturgy, though many of them had ceased to understand Latin, and spoke and wrote Arabic only, writing even Latin and Spanish with Arabic characters. They occasionally held councils, but indifference prevailed, and the Spanish conquerors were more astonished at the laxity of the Mozarabes than at their constancy in retaining their old faith. For Mozarabic liturgy, see LITURGY.
Mudejares.—Moorish names appear first in the 9th century as inhabitants of the country, and witnesses to documents, under Spanish rule. One of the earliest capitulations or fueros granted to them is that of Huesca (1081); by this and subsequent fueros (Tudela, 1115, &c.) the widest toleration was extended to them; they were allowed full exercise of their religion, laws, language, dress, and customs. The fuero of Jativa granted by Jaime I. of Aragon (1251) even provides that if any Saracen should become a Christian he should lose his landed property; that of Siliebar, near Seville (1255), allows them to build a castle for their defence. These capitulations seem to have been fairly observed till the 14th century, when a change of tone becomes apparent. In 1301 the Moors of Aragon were compelled to wear a distinctive dress, and in the next century their privileges were greatly curtailed; recantation was forced upon them. The Mudejares of Aragon, Valencia, and Castile had hitherto been faithful, had served loyally in war even against Moors, had taken the royal side in all popular movements; even as late as 1528 they appealed to their well-proved loyalty to the crown.
But their situation was greatly impaired by the incorporation among them of the Moriseos, after the fall of Granada (1492). The terms of the capitulation of Granada were to the full as liberal as those under which the Mudejares had lived loyally in Aragon, Valencia, and Castile for three or four centuries. Under Talavera, the first Archbishop of Granada, some attempt was made to observe these conditions, and with happy results. But the bigotry of Cardinal Ximenes, violating the capitulation, led to a rising in the Alpuxarras (1500–2) and to the expulsion of the Moriscos of Castile and Leon; though in 1503 and in 1510
Ferdinand forbade the expulsion of those of Aragon and Valencia. At the close of the rising in the Alpuxarras the alternative of exile or of baptism had been offered to the Moriscos. Those who chose exile went to swell the number of the Corsairs of Algeria and the Barbary States, who were henceforth a standing danger and annoyance to Spain. The newly-converted Moriscos (New Christians as they were called) became the objects of the severities of the Inquisition; as doubtful Christians they were regarded with greater jealousy and suspicion than as professed Mohammedans. Under danger of relapse their children were taken from them, and their young men sent to the galleys. In the war of the Germania in Valencia (1520) they were ruthlessly massacred by the populace, but were still faithful to the king and to the nobles who respected their privileges. The ever-increasing persecution provoked a still more serious rising under Philip II. in Granada. It was put down after two years of warfare by Don John of Austria (1563-70); many of the Moriscos, and especially the women, were given to the soldiers as slaves, and the rest, who did not emigrate, were removed to Castile, Valencia, and Murcia. The action of the Corsairs, avenging on Spain the wrongs of their fellow-countrymen, ruining the commerce, carrying off Christian captives, ravaging the coasts so that for leagues along the south-east it remained uncultivated, increased the bitterness against the Moriscos, who were suspected of being in league with the Corsairs, and directing their forays. Many returned openly to their ancestral faith; spasmodic attempts at genuine conversion proved fruitless; in 1599 the Archbishop of Valencia reported the conversion of one Morisco woman only as the result of a year's labour. Harsher measures were tried and failed; persecution only made them cling more firmly to their faith; partial expulsion only augmented the number of the Corsairs; and at last they were forbidden to leave the country by sea. The hatred, however, of Philip II. against the Protestants was stronger than his dislike of the Moriscos, and his reign is marked by constant vacillations in his policy towards them; and their lot cannot have been absolutely intolerable, for one charge against them was that their numbers increased continually while that of the old Christians diminished. The fear and suspicion aroused on both sides made it difficult for Spaniards and Moriscos, new and old Christians, to live together. After so many breaches of faith the Moriscos could trust no promise made to them by king or church. To the Spaniards it seemed intolerable to have an intestine foe, while the kingdom was so sorely pressed from without; and churchmen taught the king that anything, short of the extermination which he might commit with a safe conscience, was a mercy. In 1582 the total expulsion was first mooted; it was decided on in principle in 1599. In 1609-10 the whole of the Moriscos were expelled the kingdom, either by sea from Valencia, or through the Pyrenees from Aragon and Castile. All their goods were confiscated, except what they could turn into money, or carry with them on their persons; robbery, murder, assault, excesses of every kind against them marked their track; all their children under four years of age were taken from them to be brought up as Christians; over 500,000 Moriscos, chiefly agricultural labourers or farmers, left the country in which their people had dwelt for so many centuries. The results to Spain were like those which subsequently followed the emigration of the Huguenots from France. Even this does not end the story; the descendants of the children forcibly kept behind, or of those really converted to Christianity, were regarded with horror, and were constantly denounced to the
Inquisition. For nearly a century afterwards we find decrees of particular provinces expelling families for being descendants of the Moriscos. A taint of Moorish blood was sufficient to prevent the holding of any public office, even in the smallest municipality.
See Guerra de Granada, by Diego de Mendoza; Rebellion y Castigo de los Moriscos del Reino de Granada, by L. del Marmol Carvajal (both in vol. xxi. of Rivadeneyra's Biblioteca de Autores Españoles); Estado Social y Político de los Mudéjares de Castilla, by F. Fernandez y Gonzalez (Madrid, 1866); Condición Social de los Moriscos de España, by Florencio Janer (Madrid, 1857); La Expulsión de los Moriscos Españoles, by M. Danvila y Collado (Madrid, 1889).