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Muslims in Spain

MUSLIMS IN SPAIN

Introduction

The aims of this book are threefold. First, to show that the presence and activity of Muslims in general, and Moroccans in particular, in Spain throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries was more significant than has heretofore been thought.

Second, to demonstrate that Spaniards and Muslims were able to negotiate with each other – in spite of tensions and periodic confrontations – continuously during those centuries, which can be made to extend from 1492 to 1859, date of the outbreak of the African War (Guerra de África, 1859–1860) between Spain and Morocco.

 And third, to stress that in spite of prevailing opinion, Spanish policy toward Muslim countries was based as much on politics (the search for alliances and treaties against common enemies) and economics (securing indispensable imports of cereals from North Africa and the Levant) as on ideology (a spirit of crusade and an expectation of confrontation).

To make this case I will document the presence – permanent or temporary, frequently forced but often voluntary – of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Spain in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

I will reconstruct the traces of slaves, Moriscos (meaning only those who, after accepting baptism, continued their Islamic rites and practices), ambassadors and envoys, exiles, merchants, sailors, travellers, adventurers, and the thousands who fled from famine or punishment by the authorities in North Africa.

The situation changed considerably after Spain signed the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Trade with Morocco in 1767, and later pacts with the Ottoman Empire (1782), Tripoli (1784), Algiers (1786), and Tunis (1791).

Once peaceful relations were established with these states the number of Muslim slaves in Spain declined until none were left by 1791; only a few prisoners remained. But at the same time, the number of those who arrived freely on Spanish soil increased significantly.

In earlier years, however, Spanish monarchs had signed dozens of peace treaties with the rulers of North African dynasties, and many ambassadors and