Muslims in Spain After the Fall of Granada

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MUSLIMS IN SPAIN AFTER THE FALL OF GRANADA: SUPPRESSION, RESISTANCE, ECLIPSE, ANDRE-EMERGENCEAuthor(s): M. ALI KETTANISource: Islamic Studies, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Winter 1997), pp. 613-631Published by: Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, IslamabadStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23076032Accessed: 10-03-2015 16:02 UTC

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2/20

Islamic Studies 36:4

(1997)

MUSLIMS IN SPAIN AFTER THE FALL OF

GRANADA:

SUPPRESSION,

RESISTANCE, ECLIPSE,

AND RE

EMERGENCE

M. ALI

KETTANI

INTRODUCTION

The

genocide

to which the Andalusian Muslims were

subjected

in the 16th and

17th centuries

is

a sordid

tragedy

of colossal

magnitude

which has left its scars

on the

memory

of the

Muslims,

especially

those of the Western

Mediterranean,

both the descendants of the Andalusians and others. It is sad to note that the

two

main

perpetrators

of this

genocide

against

the

Andalusians,

the so-called Catholic

rulers,

were

glorified by

the

Vatican. It would have been more conducive

to

the

moral

prestige

of the Vatican to have excommunicated them.

We shall

attempt

in the

following pages

to

briefly

relate the

tragic

developments

which not

only

put

an end to the last

vestiges

of Muslim

political

power

in the

Iberian

Peninsula,

but also

describe

the

extraordinary

persecution

which made it

virtually

impossible

for the Andalusian Muslims

to live

openly

as

Muslims. The

present paper

argues

that while the

public

observance of

Islam

came

to an

end,

the Muslim

populace

of Andalusians tried its best to remain

faithful to Islam. Generation after

generation

the Andalusians

kept

Islam alive

in their hearts. The fact that

their

ancestors

were Muslims was never erased

from their

memory. During

the twentieth

century

a number of

developments

led

to the

rise of Andalusian

nationalism,

which has

paved

the

way

for the

phenomenon

of Islamic revival in Islam.

THE FALL OF GRANADA

After a series

of

agonising

wars,

Granada was taken over

by

the united Castellan

and

Aragonese

forces on

January

2, 1492,

twenty

three

days

before the

date

agreed upon

between them and its last Nasrid

ruler,

Abu 'Abd Allah.

The

capitulations

comprised

47 articles in which the victorious Catholic monarch

guaranteed

the

protection

of the Islamic

faith,

its

institutions such as

mosques

and

madrasahs,,

imams and

qâdïs,

and Islamic laws.

They

also

guaranteed

freedom of

religion

and

protection

of the Arabic

language.

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3/20

614

m. ali

kettani/Muslims

in

Spain

After the

Fall of Granada

Granada,

however,

was not the first Muslim

city

to fall to the Christian

forces.

Indeed,

since the

11th and 12th centuries and the fall of other Islamic

cities

such as Toledo

(1085 ce)

and

Saragossa

(1118

ce),

large

numbers

of

Muslims

had fallen under the Christian control.

Although

they

were

subjected

to much persecution, they were allowed to keep their Islamic faith. The Muslims

who were thus

subjugated

and called

Mudejars,

were

organized

into

jamâ'ats

with their

mosques,

their

madrasahs and their

fuqahä'.

They

even

developed

a

literature

in the

Spanish language

written in Arabic

script,

called

Aljamiado.

In

the

beginning

of the 16th

century,

a

quarter

of the

population

of

Arayon

(its

capital

is

Saragossa)

and one third of the

population

of the Pais Valenciano

(its

capital

is

Valencia)

were Muslims.

After the

collapse

of their

resistance,

the Muslims of the

Kingdom

of

Granada feared that

they

would

be

treated

like the

Mudejars.

Later events

showed that the

Catholic rulers did not

respect

their

commitments,

and that the

Catholic

Church exceeded all limits of

propriety

in their effort to

destroy

all

traces

of Islam from

Spain, sparing

no

atrocities

whatsoever.

OPPRESSION

OF THE ANDALUSIAN MUSLIMS

AND THEIR FORCED

CHRISTIANIZATION

(1492-1568)

After

the fall of

Granada,

the Catholic

rulers

appointed

Count de Tendía as the

Governor

of the

conquered Kingdom

of

Granada,

and

Herando de Talevera as

its

Bishop.

As for the

general population,

several members of Muslim

aristocracy

decided to

emigrate

to Muslim countries because

of their lack of

faith

in the

promises

of the Catholic rulers.

Some of

them,

including

a few

princes,

even succumbed to

professing

Catholicism,

but the masses

remained

loyal to Islam and decided to resist all external pressures in order to protect their

faith.2

The first act of

betrayal

was

witnessed even before the end of the 15th

century

when the Great

Mosque

of

Granada was taken over

by

the Catholic

Church

and converted into a cathedral.

Then,

the

priests

organised parties

of

zealots

to

pressurize

the

Muslims

to

convert to

Christianity.3

In

1499,

the Catholic rulers

invited

Cardenal

de Cisneros to Granada

in order to increase

the

pressure upon

Muslims so that

they might accept

Christianity.

The Cardinal seized

most of the

mosques

and

changed

them into

churches. He concentrated

his efforts on the Andalusian

elite such as the

'ulama',

pressurizing

them

to

convert

to

Christianity.

This led to a revolt under

the leadership of Ibrahim ibn Umayyah in the popular quarters of Albaicin in

Granada which

spread

to the

Alpujaras

Mountains in 1500. The rebellion was

put

down

by

a

relentless use of force. The

mujâhidïn

were

virtually

exterminated

and their

families sold into

slavery.

The

same

happened

in 1501 in Almeria and

Ronda.4

In

1500,

the

Spanish

State and the Catholic Church launched forcible

baptization

of the Muslims

on a mass

scale.

In

1501,

all the

remaining mosques

were converted

into churches. On October

12,

1501 a

royal

decree was issued

ordering

all books written in Arabic to be

put

to

the fire. Piles of books were





4/20

Islamic Studies

36:4(1997)

615

thus

brought

together

at

many places

in the different cities

and towns of al

Andalus and

reduced to ashes. This was one

of the several crimes

perpetrated

against

learning

and

culture

that can

hardly

be

forgotten.

The next

step

was to

prohibit

the use of Arabic

language,

a

prohibition

whose

violation invited the

penalty of death. The Muslims of al-Andalus solicited help from abroad but

these

pleas

had little effect on

Sultan

Abu

'Abd

Allah of

Morocco,

or the

Ottoman Sultan

Bayezid,

or Sultan al-Ashraf of

Egypt.

In due time the Catholic

Church

established the

Inquisitions

in order to ensure

that there remained no

trace of Islam

left in the Iberian Peninsula.

The

Inquisition

tribunals

spared

no

means,

howsoever

cruel,

to force

people

to

profess

the Christian faith.

They

passed

harshest

sentences

against

people,

basing

them on

the

most

flimsy

grounds.

Anyone

whom

they

could

seize,

rarely

escaped

death

and his

properties

were confiscated

by

the

corrupt priest-judges.

Many

victims

of

these

tribunals

were

burnt alive

along

with their

families in

groups

of

"auto da

fes"

in

great

feasts which were

gleefully

witnessed

by

the

King,

the nobles and the common

people.

Many

of the victims could avert

being

burnt

alive,

but

many

of them

had the

good

fortune of

dying

natural deaths before the

outrageous

end of

burning

them

alive could befall them.5

As the Granadan Muslims could

no

longer

put up open

resistance and

their

cries for

help

to the

Muslim lands went

unheeded,

they

followed

a

different

stratagem:

they gave

their tormentors the

impression

that

they

had

accepted

Christianity.

In strict

secrecy,

however,

they

did their best to

maintain their

Islamic

faith and

practice. They

were called Moriscos or

New Christians and

were

subjected

to merciless

persecution.

In

1508,

a

royal

decree forbade the Islamic

dress. In

1510,

new taxes

were imposed on the Moriscos. In 1511, another royal decree ordered the

burning

of Muslim

books and forbade

slaughtering

animals

according

to Islamic

rules,

etc. Similar decrees

continued to be issued

until the death of the Catholic

King

Ferdinand

in

1516.

Ferdinand's

son,

Carlos

V,

initially

treated the

Granadan Muslims

with a

degree

of

leniency.

But in

1523,

he issued

a

royal

decree

ordering

the

baptism

of all the

remaining

Muslims.

All

those

who refused

were to be enslaved.

The Moriscos

complained

to the

King

about the

unfairness

of the

decree,

pointing

out that

they

had never

truly

embraced

Christianity,

but

they

had

been Muslims

upon

whom

Christianity

was

imposed.

Carlos

V came

to Granada to

investigate

the truth of the

statement

only

to conclude

that the

Moriscos

were true Christians and

that

they

should

obey

the laws of the Catholic

Church. The Moriscos collected

80,000

gold

ducats and

paid

it to the

King

in

exchange

for

exercising

leniency

in the

implementation

of his decrees. The

King

promised

to

grant

the Moriscos a

reprieve

of 40

years during

which

period they

were to

become assimilated to

Christianity.

A

special

annual

cess was

imposed

on the Moriscos

as a fee for

keeping

these

harsh laws

in

abeyance.6

Carlos

V

died

in

1555.

He was succeeded

by

his

son,

Philip

II,

a

fanatic

who was a weak

monarch and

was, therefore,

completely

controlled

by

the Catholic

priests.

In

1566,

at the end of the

40

years period

decreed

by

his

father,

Philip

II decided to

implement

the

de-Islamizing

laws

intending

to force





5/20

616

m ali

kettani/Muslims

in

Spain

After the Fall of Granada

people away

from Islam with full force. As a result he

punished

the violators of

those laws with

imprisonment, expulsion,

confiscation of

property

and

burning

people

to death. This decree was read

by

the

udges

of the

Inquisition

tribunals

in

processions

across towns

and cities.

As no effort

of the

Moriscos

helped

them

escape the implementation of this decree, they started to think in terms of a full

fledged uprising

to free themselves from this

nightmare.7

THE GREAT REVOLT OF

GRANADA

(1568-1570)

Some Muslim

groups

fled to the mountains of Granada and Valencia after

valiantly breaching

the lines of communication of

the

enemy.

As the Governor

of

Granada

formed a

police

force to

implement

the new

laws,

including

the law

that Morisco

children would be seized and be raised under the care of the

priests

in the churches as Christians.

In such

circumstances,

a

group

of Muslim

leaders

met in Albaicin towards the end of 1567.

They

made

plans

to rise in revolt.

After

making

due

preparation

both within the

country

and

outside,

they

did rise

in revolt. These revolutionaries sent

delegations

to

Algiers

and

Morocco,

seeking

from their rulers arms and

money

before

starting

the revolt. All

they

received in return were

generous

promises.

Within

al-Andalus,

the

organizers

sent secret

delegations

to Muslims

virtually

all across the

country.

When

they

returned,

they

estimated the numbers of those

ready

to

join

the revolt at

45,000.

They

found

only

the Muslims of the

provinces

of

Granada,

Malaga

and Almeria

who

effectively supported

the revolt.

But

the

Muslims of

Murcia,

Valencia

and

Aragon

did not

support

it for

they strongly

feared that the revolt would not

succeed.

Moreover,

they

entertained

the

hope

that

eventualy

the Ottomans would

come to their

help

and

somehow rescue them from their

present

state.8

Subsequently, the organizers of the Revolt met for the second time in

Albaicin,

studied the

reports

of

the

delegate

that had visited different

parts

of al

Andalus as well as Morocco and

Algiers,

and decided

to start the revolt in

April

1568. This

date had to be

postponed

as the Christian authorities

got

wind of the

revolt and

started

arresting

the Muslim leaders.

In

the third

meeting

that was

held

in

September

1568 in

Albaicin,

26 leaders of

the revolt

got together,

elected Fernando

de Valor Y Cordoba as the Sultan of al-Andalus. He

immediately

took

up

his

Muslim

name,

Muhammad ibn

Umayyah,

and decided

a new

date,

January

1, 1569,

for the start of the revolt. The revolt however

actually

started on December

23,

1568. The reason was that a

group

of

Spanish

soldiers started

committing

excesses

against

the

people

of Cadiar in

Alpujaras.

Enraged by these acts, a group of Muslim mujâhidïn reacted violently

whereupon

Muhammad

ibn

Umayyah

left Granada and reached the

Alpujaras

Mountains

where

people

renewed their oath of

fealty

to him on December

29,

1568.

Ibn

Umayyah appointed

the commanders of the

army

and settled in

Laujar,

making

it the

temporary capital

of al-Andalus.

He

also

appointed

governors

to the

provinces.

Thereafter he launched the

struggle

with a two-fold

aim:

(1)

to

expel

the Christian

army

and

priests

and to convert the churches

back into

mosques,

to restore the Islamic

identity

of the Andalusians

by

reviving

their Muslim

names and

dress

and

establishing

Muslim

public prayers;

and

(2)





6/20

Islamic

Studies 36:4

(1997)

617

to seek

support

from the Ottoman

Empire

and the rulers of

Morocco

by sending

delegations

abroad.

In

the

beginning

the reaction of the

Spanish

State was slow and

disorganized.

Then,

two armies were formed to attack the rebels from Murcia

in the East, and from Granada in the West. Subsequently, Spain solicited

support

from the Christian states of

Europe

which it received. The

Spanish army

that left Granada started to attack the civilian

population

with

great ferocity.

The

most atrocious attack was launched on

January

8,

1569 when 2400 Muslim

children,

women and old men were massacred in one

night

in

Jubiles. The

Spanish army

that left Murcia followed the 'scorch

the earth

policy'

and

destroyed

the

families of the

mujähidin

whom

they

found on their

way,

killed

almost all

of

them,

violated

the

honour of the

women and sold the few survivors

into

slavery.

In the course of time the

mujähidin

were left no other

option

but

to follow

the tactics of what is

presently

called the

guerilla

warfare

against

the

Spanish

army.

The

hordes of the

Reconquesta

did not

spare

even

those who had no

hand in the revolt. In

Granada,

on

March

17, 1569,

the authorities

gathered

150

leaders of the Muslims.

They

were all killed without

mercy

in an

orgy

of death

that

went on all

night along. Only

the father and brother of Muhammad ibn

Umayyah,

Antonio and

Francisco,

were

spared.

All

properties

of the Muslims

were confiscated

regardless

of whether

they

supported

the revolt or not.

This brazen

cruelty

further inflamed the revolt:

more men

joined

the

mujähidin, thereby reinforcing

the insurrection.

However,

the

much

awaited

support

from the rulers of the

Ottoman

Empire

and those of North Africa never

arrived. The Ottomans first

pleaded

that

they

were too

occupied

with the

problem of Cyprus, whereas the North Africans seemed to use the Andalusians

simply

as a

pawn

in

their

game

of international

politics.

In due

course

the

King

of

Spain

formed a new and

more

powerful army

which was led

by

his

illegitimate

brother,

Juan de Austria.

But

the

mujähidin

were able

to

expel

the Christian soldiers from most

of the

mountains,

and

extended their

operations

to Almeria

in the East and Ronda

in

the

West,

leaving

the

Christians

only

with the

large

cities.

As the Christians feared a revolt

in

the

city

of Granada in

May

1569,

they expelled

its Muslim

population

and

dispersed

them in Castilla.

Then the

army

of

Juan de Austria moved from

the

coast

to

reconquer

the

Alpujaras

Mountains. But on this

occasion the

mujühidín put up

a

fierce resistance. This

led the Christians to resort to a ruse.

They spread

the rumours that Sultan

Muhammad ibn

Umayyah,

was

ready

to

yield

to the

enemy

to rescue his father

and brother. Thus

they

succeeded

in

dividing

the ranks of the

mujähidin,

which

led to the

assassination of Sultan Muhammad ibn

Umayyah

in October 1569

in

Laujar. Thereupon

the

mujähidin

chose Muhammad

ibn Abbou as the new

Sultan. The latter

reorganized

the

army

of the

mujähidin

and

appointed

new

commanders.

He was able to

liberate

Orgiva,

the

capital

of

the

Alpujaras

Mountains,

and extended the

areas of the liberated territories.





7/20

618

m. au

kettanl/Muslims

in

Spain

After the

Fall of Granada

The

army

of Juan the Austrian then doubled its

efforts,

the

number of

its soldiers

increased,

and it

began

to

reconquer

the

territory

held

by

the

mujähidln.

One of the

most

grievous

events was the

conquest

of Galera

which

was

strongly

defended

by

Muslims,

inlcuding

Muslim women.

After a resistance

of three months, the Christian army entered that city in February 1570, and

under the orders of Juan the Austrian its

population

was

exterminated and salt

was

sprinkled

over the whole land.

Galera remains in ruins even

today.

The resistance

put up

by

the

Muslims

against

the invaders

gradually

weakened. Their cries for

help

to the Ottomans and the

rulers of North Africa

remained

largely

unheeded. The last letter of Sultan Ibn

Abbou to the Mufti of

Istanbul dated

February

11, 1570,

in

which he entreated for his intercession with

the Ottoman Sultan for

help,

concluded with these words: "We are

facing

two

strong

armies of the

enemy.

If we are defeated in the

coming

battle,

Allah will

put

difficult

questions

to the Ottoman Sultan on the

Day

of

Judgement;

on the

Day

when neither

power

nor

pretext

will be

of

any

avail to him from His

judgement".9

Under these circumstances it was natural

for

the

Andalusians to suffer

defeat. But

they

continued to battle as small

groups

of

mujähidln, preferring

to

die

fighting

rather than surrender. In March

1571,

Sultan Ibn Abbou was

killed

by

an

enemy agent.

His

body

was

brought

to

Granada,

carried across the

city

in

procession

and

decapitated

in

the main

square.

His dead

body

was

put

on

display

at the main

gate

of the

city.

The Muslim

resistance, however,

continued

even after his death until

1573

when

it was

completely overpowered.10

THE DISPERSION OF THE

MUSLIMS AFTER THE

REVOLT

(1570-1608)

After the

expulsion

of the

people

of the

city

of

Granada as a result of

enforcing

the

royal

decree

of March

1570,

a new

tragedy

befell

the

people

of al-Andalus.

The Christian authorities decided to

punish

the

entire

population

of the former

Kingdom

of Granada

by expelling

them from their

homes,

confiscating

all their

properties

and

dispersing

them all across

Spain.

The

purpose

was

obviously

to

totally uproot

them,

reduce them to utter

poverty,

and

scatter them

among

the

Christians so that

they

lose their Islamic

identify."

After the

expulsion

of about

7,000

Moriscos from the

city

of

Granada

to other

parts

of

Spain

in

compliance

with the

royal

decree of March 1570

ordering

the

expulsion

of

Moriscos from the

remaining parts

of

Granada,

these

Moriscos too were dispersed all over Spain. Thus about 50,000 Moriscos were

brought together

and were

forced

by

the

army

to walk in

groups

to

Toledo,

Cordoba,

Sevilla and La

Mancha,

and

from there to other

places.

More than

17,000

died of exhaustion on the

way.

The Christian

army

persisted

in

its effort

to

disperse

the Moriscos to different towns and

villages

of the

country

till

the

end of

1570.

Subsequently

a new decree

was issued

in

November 1571

ordering

the

dispersal

of more Granadan

Moriscos.

Thus,

by

the end

of

1571,

more than

80,000

Andalusian Muslims had been driven out of their

homes,

scattered all

over

Spain

and reduced

to a terrible state of

poverty, misery,

and sickness.





8/20


(1 997)

619

The

Spanish government

then

brought

50,000

Christians

into the

Kingdom

of Granada and

gave

over to them the homes

of the Muslims who

had

been banished.

However,

this colonization effort failed

since

in

the course of

time

many

Granadans

returned home and

many

Christians left.

Many

Muslims

also continued to put up resistance in the countryside and the mountains. The

Government, however,

kept issuing

orders to

expel

Muslims from Granada until

1585.

The

presence

of the

Granadan Muslims in Castilla

revived Islamic

feelings

among

the

Mudejar

Muslims. The result

was that the Church and the

State knew

no more what to do.

They

were

scared of the Muslims who

kept

coming together;

scared

of their contacts with the

Ottomans;

scared of their

proselytism,

etc. In a state of

panic they

issued one decree after

another

forbidding

the Moriscos to live

near the sea and to contact the Muslims of

Aragon

and

Valencia,

etc. The

Inquisitions

also increased the number of their

victims and

subjected

them

to even

greater

torment. But all

this failed to

undermine the

religions

faith

of the

Moriscos,

or to make them

abandon the

hope

that one

day they

would

be freed.12

The

hopes

of the

Moriscos were focussed on the Ottomans who

remained in close

contact with them. Ottoman

ships

often landed on the shores

of

al-Andalus,

carrying away

hundreds

of families to

Muslim

lands. The

Moriscos of

Aragon

also maintained contact with

the Protestants of

France,

hoping

that

they

would

join

hands with them

against

their Catholic

oppressors.

By

the end of the 16th

century,

both the

Spanish

State and the Catholic

Church had lost the

hope

that

they

would be able to convert these

Muslims into

true

Christians,

or that

they

would be able to

eradicate

their

allegiance

to Islam.

They began, therefore, to consider drastic solutions, solutions of a savage

nature,

to the Muslim

problem. They

decided

upon

the

following:

(1)

to muster

all Moriscos to

special quarters

where

they

would be exterminated

gradually;

(2)

to

exterminate them either

instantly

or in the due

course of

time

by separating

men from

women,

or

by castrating

all men

so that

they

would not be able to

procreate;

or

(3)

to

banish them from

Spain.

The third solution

gained increasing support.

But the Catholic Church

was worried about the

loss

of

'Christian'

souls,

as

they

continued to consider the

Moriscos to

be Christians

despite

all evidence to the

contrary.

The

State,

on the

other

hand,

was worried

by

the

prospect

of

banishing

the

Muslims for this

might

provide

demographic strength

to the Mediterranean Muslim states.13

THE

GREAT EXPULSION

(1608-1613)

In November

1608,

the

Spanish government

decided to banish

all

the

Moriscos

of

Spain.

The decision was

kept

secret as

they

did not want

the

Moriscos to

leave the

country

with their

possessions.

At the same time

due

preparations

were

made to banish first of all the Muslims of

the

Pais Valenciano. In November

1609,

the

Spanish King

signed

the order to banish all

Mariscos, men,

women

and

children,

of Valencia

to North Africa within three

days

after which

all

those

who had failed to leave would be

imprisoned

and those who resisted

expulsion





9/20

620

m. ali

kettani/Muslims

in

Spain


would

be killed. The Moriscos were

required

to

stay

in their

homes,

waiting

for

the officers of the State. Those who were thus banished were not

permitted

to

take with them more than what

they

could

personally carry.

All those who

destroyed

or

hid

their

belongings

were

to

be

punished by

death. The

properties

left behind by these persons were handed over to the Christians. Children under

the

age

of six were handed over to Christian families to be raised as

Christians.14

Many

Muslims chose to

put up

armed resistance

against

the

high

handedness.

They kept

on

fighting

in the mountains until

they

were

exterminated. Others found themselves

overpowered

and saw no

other

option

but

to

willy nilly accept

cruel orders.

They

were herded in different

ports

such as

Alicante,

Denia,

Valencia. On their

way, they

were attacked

by

Christian mobs

who took

away

from them the

meagre belongings

that

they

were

carrying.

Thus,

between

September

1609

and

January

1610,

about

130,000

Valenciano Muslims

were

forcibly transported

out of

Spain

in

ships

and

dumped

on the coasts of

North Africa.

Many

ship

owners

preferred

to steal

the

belongings

of

the

passengers

on

board

and

dump

those

hapless

creatures in the sea. In

May

1611,

a decree announced a

prize

of 60

gold

pounds

to whoever

brought

a

Muslim

alive with the

right

of

keeping

him

as a

slave,

and 30

gold pounds

to whoever

brought

the dead

body

of a Muslim.

After

the Valencia

Region,

orders

were issued in

April

1610 to banish

the Moriscos of

Aragon.

More than

61,000

of them were

then

forcibly

transported

under

harrowing

condition.

They

were followed

by

about

4,000

Moriscos

of

Catalogna.

In December

1609,

King

Philip

111 ordered the

expulsion

of the Muslims of

Andalusia,

Extramadura and Murcia.

Thus,

about

52,000

Moriscos were

expelled

from these

provinces.

In

December 1609

something

similar

happened

in Castilla. The

Spanish

King

ordered

the

expulsion

of the

Muslims of

Castilla,

whereafter about

50,000

Muslims were

expelled

from that

region.

Thus,

it is

estimated that

between

1609 and

1614,

about

330,000

Muslims were banished from

Spain

under the most

tragic

and inhuman

circumstances,

carrying

with them no

more

than

their

bodies. In March

1611,

King Philip

III

walked

at

the

head

of a

long procession

of

Leaders,

giving

thanks to God for

purging

the

country

of its Muslim

populace.

Of the

expelled

Andalusian

Muslims,

about

60,000

settled in

Morocco,

160,000

in the Ottoman

Empire including

about

65,000

in

Algeria

and

55,000

in Tunisia, and many in Izmir, Istanbul and Bosnia. About 10,000 Andalusian

Muslims settled

in

the Christian states of

Europe

and America. About

70,000

were

killed,

having

been drowned in the sea and

30,000

managed

to return to

Spain.15

Spanish history

books

claim

that this

great expulsion purged

Spain

of

Muslims and that the

places

which the Muslims left were resettled

by

Christian

immigrants.

However,

historical evidence shows that

the

percentage

of

those of

Muslim

origin

in

Spain

amounted in the

beginning

of the 17th

century

to about

35

per

cent of the

population,

or about

2,000,000

people.

Of

these,

only

few





10/20


(1997)

621

Muslims from

Andalusia,

and a

great

number of those from

Aragon

and

Valencia

were

expelled,

i.e. less than

20%

of the Muslim

population

of

Spain.

The rest were considered

good

Christians,

and hence allowed to

stay

on.

They

were

left

leaderless,

as

slaves,

children,

women and

men,

with even less

knowledge of Islam. For all practical purposes, Islam was considered dead in

Spain

after a

presence

of about 900

years.

But was it?16

ISLAM

IN SPAIN DURING THE 17TH

CENTURY

The

persecution

of

Muslims

in

Spain

did not

stop

with

the

Great

Expulsion

of

1609. In

1614,

the

Spanish King

issued an order to the

governors

of all the

provinces

asking

them to

stop

seeking

hidden Moriscos since the Great

Expulsion

was over. The

only

exceptions

to this were those

who had

returned.

They

were

required

to be banished and to be

put

to

death if

they

were found

to

have returned

against

Royal

decrees

ordering

the

governors

to

pursue

the

Moriscos

who were found

guility

of

returning

to their homes.

King Philip

III died in 1621. His son

King Philip

IV received a

report

in

1621

from the

Inspector

of

Royal

Properties

in

Catalogna, informing

him

that

a

large

number of Moriscos

in

Aragon, Catalogna

and Valencia had not left the

country,

and that

many

of those who had been banished

had in fact returned

home,

that

they

lived in

peace

and

were

protected

by powerful persons.

The

Inspector requested

the

King

to take

action

against

those

Moriscos,

but the

King

did not

care to

respond.

In

1623,

the

Spanish

Cortes declared that much

injustice

had been

committed

against

the Moriscos who had returned

and

requested

the

King

to

put

an end to

the

chapter.

In

1624,

the Cortes

requested

the

King

to issue a

royal

decree on the question. The King felt that there was no need for a decree, but

advised the tribunals to

stop accepting

new

denunciations

of Moriscos.

Complaints,

however,

continued

to be made about the Moriscos in Castilla and

Andalusia.

In

1625,

the

City

of Seville

published

a

report

stating

that a

large

number of

Muslims,

both slaves and

freemen,

had

kidnapped

Christian children

and

raised

them as Muslims. But

the

King finally

decided to issue

a

decree

in

1626

in which he ordered that

"no harm

should

be done to Moriscos who

remained

in the

country

as

long

as

they

lived

away

from the coast". But the

Spanish

State

did not

forget

the

Moriscos,

as in 1634

an official

report

from

Murcia claimed

that it was full of Moriscos.

The

King

ordered that

they

should

be watched and checked whether they were good Christians or not.

As for the

Inquisitions, they

continued to

persecute

Muslims in the 17th

century.

In

1616,

this

infamous tribunal in Denia and

Valencia

inquired

as to

what should

be done with the enslaved Andalusians

who were

planning

to flee

to Muslim

lands.

In

1620

and

1625,

the same tribunals

condemned Moriscos

accused of

witchcraft. In

1625,

the

tribunal of Seville executed a Morisco

in

front

of a crowd of

Christians,

and in 1625 the tribunal

condemned an enslaved

Morisco to

100

lashes,

to

hard labour on the boats

for four

years

and then





11/20

622

m. ali

kettani/Muslims

in

Spain

After the Fall

of Granada

imprisonment

for the rest of his life. All this was

merely

because of

writing

Muslim

slogans

on the

gate

of a church.

In

1633,

the

Inquisition

tribunal of Cuenca

persecuted

for two

years

a

Muslim and his

family

who had returned from exile on

flimsy grounds.

In

1667,

the

Inquisition

tribunal of Almadén condemned a Morisco to

lashing

for

oking

about Christian

rituals. In

1680,

a man from Cadiz was

burnt alive

in

Madrid

in front of a

huge

crowd,

as he was accused of

having

converted from

Christianity

to Islam.

In

1689,

the

Inquisition

tribunal of Cordoba

expelled

from

the

city

a

group

of slaves who were accused of

being

Muslims. In

fact,

the

Inquisition

tribunals of

Spain persecuted

at

least

177 Christians who

converted

to Islam

and fled to Muslim

lands

after

they

were somehow

caught

in

wars with

Spain.17

Another

proof

of Muslim

presence

in

Spain

in the 17th

century

is the

continuous

hope

of

many

communities for freedom from the Christian

yoke.

In

1624, the State Council presented a report on two families from Granada, the

Cuellars

and the.Madrids who

controlled the silk

industry. They

were accused

of

being secretly

Muslims and of

having

contacts with Muslims

of

North

Africa.

In

1641,

a

conspiracy

for a revolt in

Andalusia,

led

by

an

Andalusian

prince,

Tähir

al-Horr,

was discovered. Tähir

al-Horr

died

in

battle near

Estepona.

But

many

descendants of the Muslims have

organized

themselves

since 1644 in bands that attacked the Government

caravans,

seized

spoils

and

distributed them to the

poor.

The

plan

of a

popular

revolt

was discovered

in

1650,

and five

leaders

were

executed,

four

of

them

after

being subjected

to cruel

torture. These

popular

revolts of the descendants of the Muslims

persisted

throughout

the

century,

the most notable of

which

being

the revolts of

especially

Cordoba and Seville.18

Many

visitors to Andalusia in the 17th

century

met Muslims who had

kept

their Islam a secret. The most known

among

them was Muhammad

Ibn

'Abd al-Wähid

al-Ghassänl,

an

Ambassador

of Sultan Isma'Tl

of

Morocco,

who

made an official

visit

to Andalusia in

1690.

Many

Andalusians,

including

officials,

informed him that

they

were

secret Muslims.19

ISLAM

IN

SPAIN

IN

THE I8TH CENTURY

The fact that Muslims survived in

Spain

in

the 18th

century

is evident from the

decisions made

by

the State Council on

September

20,

1712

ordering

the

"expulsion

of Muslims to North Africa". The

order, however,

remained

unimplemented.

It was the last decree

against

the

Moriscos,

more than

one

century

after the

Great

Expulsion

of 1609.

The

Inquisition

tribunals,

however,

continued their task to

eradicate

every

trace of Muslims. In

1724,

these tribunals

expelled

a

large

number of

Andalusians accused of

being

Muslims. In

1726

they prosecuted

in

Granada

alone no less than

1,800

persons

(360 families)

who were accused

of

professing

Islam

secretly.

All

this

proves

the existence of

Islam

on a

large

scale in

Spain

in that

period.





12/20

Islamic

Studies 36:4

(1997)

623

Similar

prosecutions

were held

against people

accused of Islam in

Granada

in 1727. In

May

1728,

46

persons

and

in

October

1728,

28 other

persons

professing

Islam were condemned and their

properties

confiscated. The

fanatic element of the

city

renewed their

request

to the

King

to

purify

Granada

of its Muslim population. As late as 1769 a secret mosque was discovered in

Cartagena

in the

province

of

Murcia,

indicating

that

Muslims were

secretly

organized

their.

In fact several travellers to

Spain

in the 18th

century

reported

about the

presence

of Islam

in

that

land,

albeit

in

secrecy.

In 1766 and 1768 the Sultan

of

Morocco sent

his ambassador to

Spain,

Ahmad Ibn al-MahdT

al-Ghazäl,

himself

an

Andalusian who

originally

hailed from

Malaga,

met

many persons among

the

people

and officials

in

the

provinces

that he visited were

Muslims,

albeit

secretly.

He also visited several cities such as

Seville, Jaen, Granada,

Murcia

and Alicante. He

observed about the

people

of

Loja

(a

province

of

Granada):

"They

are

similar to the

people

of Granada

in their attraction of Muslim

origin,

men,

women

and

children,

some make some secret

signs

of

belonging

to

Islam,

others

say

it

openly".20

In the

years

1775-1776,

the British traveller

Henry

Swinburne visited

Andalusia

and informed that he

had met in Granada

many

secret Muslim

families.

In

1779,

the Sultan

of Morocco sent another

ambassador to

Spain,

Mohammed ibn

'Uthmän al-MaknasI. He

reported

that he had met

a

great

number

of Muslims in

Loja

and Granada.21

Finally,

in

1786-1787,

another British

traveller,

Joseph

Towsend,

reported

that a

judge

of

the

Inquisition

tribunal of Granada

told him:

"Today,

all

people

believe

that Both Muslims

and

Jews

are numerous

in

Spain.

Most

Muslims live in the mountains, and most Jews are in large cities.

Both

keep

their faith

completely

secret". This was confirmed

by

another British

traveller,

George

Barrow,

in

1787.22

Furthermore,

a

large

number of

Muslims,

joined

the bands of

gypsies

in

order

to avoid

anything

similar to the Great

Expulsion

of

1609. This

explains

the

great

Muslim influence on

the culture of the

Spanish

gypsies

of

today.23

THE

BIRTH OF

ANDALUSIAN NATIONALISM

IN

THE 19TH

CENTURY

In the 19th

century,

several travellers

who visited

Andalusia,

such as a Britisher

who

visited the town

of Alhamara

in

1809,

the writer

Miniano who visited

Alpujaras in 1828, and the English traveller Ford who also visited Alpujaras in

1848.

They

all

reported

the

presence

of a

diluted

Islam

in Andalusia.

The

feeling

of

being

differentfrom the

Christians,

of

being oppressed

by

an

alien

identity

which

imposed

itself on them

by

force

grew

in the whole

country, especially

its southern

part

after the invasion of

Spain by

the armies of

Napoleon

in 1808.

For the first

time the

enemy

of

the Andalusians had

been

defeated

by foreign

forces.

The Andalusians

rose

against

the

French

invaders,

not

as

Spaniards,

but as

Andalusians,

for

the

first

time since

the fall of Granada.

The French

marines surrendered

on

July

14,

1808 to

the

Andalusians,

and the





13/20


14/20


15/20

626

μ·

ali

kettani/Muslims

in

Spain


Blas

Infante and Jose Andres

Pasques presented

a

request

to the

League

of Nations to

recognize

the Andalusian Nation.

By

1921,

Bias Infante had started

linking up

with Andalusians all over

the

world,

especially

in the

Maghreb

and in

South

America. On

January

13,

1923,

Spain

entered a

long period

of

dictatorship.

The Government closed the

Andalusian Centres and accused the Andalusian nationalists of

working against

the

Spanish

State.

Bias Infante maintained a low

profile

and moved to the

Province

of Huelva.

On

September

15, 1923,

and

during

the

war

of liberation

of

al-Arriir

Muhammed

ibn 'Abd al-Karlm al-KhattabT in the Rif

mountains,

Bias Infante

went to Morocco. He visited the tomb of

Al-Mu'tamid ibn 'Abbäd of Seville in

Aghmat

where

he

declared his

Islam. He then tried to contact the Islamic and

Arab movements

around

the world.

In

1930,

the

dictatorship

was

removed,

and Infante moved back to the

province of Seville. He renewed his activism for Andalusian nationalism, but

now

with a

strong

Islamic

emphasis,

as Infante demanded the restoration of

Andalusian

land,

history,

culture and

identity

and

the

removal of the

stranglehold

of the Catholic Church from the lives of the Andalusians.

By

1936, however,

the Civil War broke out

in

Spain,

on

August

2,

1936,

the militia

of

General

Franco

kidnapped

Bias Infante and on

Monday

August

10, 1936,

shot

him to

death

in a street of Seville. He died

shouting

the

slogan:

"Long

live free Andalusia".25

THE FIRST MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS

Since the

great expulsion

of

1609,

it looked as

if Islam had ceased to exist

in

Spain. The persecution of Muslims continued and the Catholic Inquisition

continued

its sinister task until the 19th

century.

After World War

II,

Muslim

immigration, especially

from

Morocco,

slowly

increased,

especially

after 1960.

By

1990,

the number of Muslims in

Spain

had reached the

figure

of about

250,000

which included about

140,000

Moroccans.

These

Muslim

immigrants

were able to

organize

themselves

only

after

a

new

law was enacted in 1964 which allowed for the existence of non-Catholic

religious organisations.

In 1967 a new law was enacted which

permitted

a

slightly greater degree

of

religious

freedom. Arab

students,

mostly

from the

Greater

Syria region,

established the first Islamic Students Association in

Granada

in

1966,

which seems to have been a direct

sequel

of the

visit

of

Shaykh

Abü'l Hasan

'All

al-NadawT of India to

Spain

in 1963. This association

was

officially registered only

in 1971 under the name of "The

Islamic

Association in

Spain".

After

1974,

this association

opened

branches in

Madrid,

Oviedo,

Saragoza,

Valencia, Santander,

Santiago

and

Malaga

in addition to its

headquarters

in

Granada.

Until

1978,

the "Islamic

Association

in

Spain"

remained

basically

a

campus

association. Later on it moved to the

community

but

split

into two

groups

after the establishment of "The Islamic Centre in

Spain".

The latter had





16/20


(1997)

627

its

headquarters

in Madrid with branches in

Barcelona,

Palmas,

Granada,

Seville

and

Malaga.

Later on

in

1981,

Prince

Salman,

the Governor of

Riyadh,

Saudi

Arabia,

built a

mosque

near his

palace

in Marbela in the

province

of

Malaga.

In the 1990s another

mosque

was built

by

the Saudis in

nearby

Fuengirola

in the

province

of

Malaga.

In

1990,

the

Kingdom

of Saudi Arabia also

completed

the

construction of the Islamic Centre of

Madrid,

which is

administered

by

the

Muslim

World

League.

In

1990,

the number of

mosques

and

places

of

prayer

established

by

the

immigrant

Muslims

increased

dramatically throughout Spain, especially

in

Andalusia, Madrid,

Valencia and

Catalugna.

Until

1960,

the Andalusian Muslims had

kept

their Islam

secret,

or had

to

emigrate

to a Muslim

country,

usually

Morocco.

But after the death of

Franco

in

1975,

Spain changed completely

as it

became,

for the first time since the fall

of

Granada,

a multicultural

decentralized democratic

country. During

that same

year,

three

young people

from Puertollano

(Province

of Ciudad

Real)

went to

England

and became Muslims

at the hands of

a Scottish

Muslim,

Sheikh Abd al

Qädir

al-Sufi

(now al-Muräbit).

They

were followed

by

others,

and

in

1977,

their Sheikh ordered them to

move

to

Cordoba

and start an Islamic movement.

This

group

did not remain for

long

time

in

Seville,

and then in

Huelva,

they

moved to Granada and formed an

organization

called

the

"Association for

the Return

of

Islam to

Spain".

It

was

registered

with the

Ministry

of Justice in

1980 under the name of

"Religious

Association

for the

Propagation

of Islam in

Spain".

This association soon became

very strong

and

hundreds

of Andalusians

joined

Islam

through

it.

However,

the

strong personality

of its

Scottish

leader,

the continuous changes of his direction (from Sufi to DarqawT to Mälikl, to

Muräbit)

and of its name

(from

the above

names to "Islamic Association in

Spain"

to

"al-Muräbitün")

led to the division of this association into a multitude

of

associations,

most of them centred in the

province

of

Granada,

most

specifically

in the

city

of Granada and

mostly

in the

old

quarters

of Albaicin.26

Although

this association

has,

over the

course

of

years,

ceased to have

a

leading

role in Islamic

activities,

it

played

an

important

role in

the

beginning

and

provided

a

strong push.

One of the

major

reasons

why

this

group

lost its

drive seems

to be its lack of

appreciation

of the historical dimension of

Andalusia.

THE Y AM A A ISLAMICA DE AL-ANDALUS (YIA)

In

1980,

the

Spanish

Courts

approved

a law

guaranteeing

freedom of

religion.

In the same

year,

Andalusia with its

eight provinces,

and with Seville as its

capital,

was

granted

the status of an Autonomous

Regipn.

This

region

recognized

Bias Infante as its founder and all the

political

elements

unanimously

adopted

the

political programme

of Bias

Infante,

inlcuding

the

flag

and the

national anthem of the

Region.

The

Region

has an area of

87,268

square

kilometres and a

population

of about seven

million

people.

This

development

has

created a

favourable climate for the rivival of Islam in

Andalusia.





17/20

628

m. ali kettani/Muslims in

Spain

After the Fall

of

Granada

The first Islamic

organization

established

by

Andalusians was the

Islamic Association

of Cordoba in 1980. The

City

of Cordoba then offered the

Islamic

Association the

mosque

of Cadi Abu Othman which then

lay

in

ruins.

This

mosque

had been converted into the Convent of Santa Clara

after the

conquest of Cordoba. The Catholic Church resisted the efforts of the Muslims

to have the

original

position

of the

mosque

restored. The

Muslim efforts could

not succeed

owing

to the

stiff

opposition

put up by

the Church.

In

fact

by

1983

even the Islamic Association of the Cordoba ceased

to

exist.

Nevertheless,

during

the three

years

of its

existence

many

Andalusians embraced Islam.

At the

present

the Islamic

organization

which

mainly

carries the

Andalusian

Islamic tradition is the "Yamaa Islamica de Al-Andalus"

(YIA).

It

was

established in Seville in 1982

by

a

group

of

young

Andalusians who had

become Muslims

around

1981.

This

organization

spread very quickly

from

Seville

to all the

provinces

of Andalusia.

It

had to

face,

from the

beginning,

the

attack

of

many

Arab nationalists who

were not

happy

to see the

emergence

of

the Islamic

trend

indicating

the

beginning

of the return

of Islam

to Andalusia.

New centres of the Yamaa

were,

however,

opened

in

Granada,

Jerez

and

Malaga

in

1983,

and in other cities. Later

in

1986,

the Yamaa established

itself

in Cordoba

by

buying

a house which it converted into

an

Islamic centre

with

the

result that the entire

community's

centre of

gravity

moved from Seville

to Cordova.

In

October

1983,

the Yamaa

organized

its first

public

activity

in Seville

in

memory

of

al-Mu'tamid Ibn 'Abbäd. It was a

great

success

which

is

evident

from

the

presence

of more than four thousand

participants.

The celebration

started with the

performance

of the

Maghrib

prayers

in

congregation

near

the

river Guadalquivir. The function came to an end in an old palace in the quarter

of Triana

where the

teachings

of Islam

were

explained

to the audience and the

poems

of al-Mu'tamid

were recited. In

November-December

1983,

the Yamaa

organized

a "Cultural

Week on Andalusian Culture"

in

Malaga

in

co-operation

with the

University

of

Malaga.

In

January

1984,

the Yamaa

started its

protest

at the celebration of the

conquest

of Granada

by

the

Christians,

a

celebration

which was conducted in an

unseemly

manner

by

the Church and the

officialdom of the

Spanish

State.

The

protest

gained

momentum

and most

of

the citizens of Granada demanded the

abolition

of this celebration and its

replacement

by

acts which

signify

fraternal

feelings

towards

the Muslims. In

July

1984,

the Yamaa

organised

a

camp

seminar in Collogos Vega near Granada where 200 Andalusian Muslims stayed

together

for several

days

in a

truly

Islamic

atmosphere.

In

July

1985 the Yamaa

organized

the First

Congress

of

European

Muslims

in Seville in an effort to co-ordinate the work of those who were

discovering

the worth

of Islam in different

parts

of

Europe. Representatives

arrived from

Portugal, Spain,

France,

Italy, Germany,

Britain,

Cyprus

and

many

other countries.

In December

1987,

the Yamaa

organized

a conference

in

its

newly

established centre in Cordoba as the

headquarters

of the Andalusian Muslim





18/20


(1997)

629

community.

In

July

1989 the Government of

Spain recognized

Islam as

a

religion

which had

deep Spanish

roots.

In

September

1989,

the

First International

Congress

of

Andalusians was

held

in

Castellar de la Frontera in the

province

of Cadiz. In this

congress,

representatives

of the Andalusian

diaspora

around the world took

part.

Thus,

in

1980s,

vigorous

effort was made to establish Islam as a

new

reality

in Andalusia. It was

successful in this effort to a

great

extent.27

THE AVERROES

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

From the

very beginning,

the

problem

of

educating Spanish

Muslims was

very

acute. The Yamaa tried to

bring

teachers from Muslim countries to teach Islam

in its

different centres. To overcome the

language

barrier,

the

Moroccans who

spoke Spanish

were

preferred

as teachers.

However,

this solution did not

always

prove adequate

for

several reasons.

Hence,

the Yamaa started

sending young

people

to

study

Islam and

Arabic

in

Muslim countries. Dozens of

young

Andalusians were thus

sent to Saudi

Arabia,

Algeria,

Tunisia, Morocco,

Jordan,

Pakistan

and

Malaysia.

This too created certain

problems

since

many

students

who went abroad suffered from

cultural

shock,

and others

did

not contribute to

the work of

the Muslim

community

after their return to their homeland.

Thus,

the

idea of

establishing

an Islamic

University

in Cordoba

was

born. The first

meeting

to

plan

this was held in the

University

of Madrid in

March 1989. It was followed

by

other

meetings

and

in

the course of time an old

house was

bought

near the Great

Mosque

of Cordoba

(presently

a

Catholic

cathedral).

It was

renovated with the result that it became conformable to the

Andalusian architectural tradition. The

Mosque

forms

part

of

this renovated

house and is the first regular mosque in Cordoba after the conquest of that city

in 1236. The

building

was

inaugurated

in

October 1994

and

classes were started

in

October 1995 with 25

students,

the

majority

of whom is from

Spain.

The official name of the

University

is "Universidad Islamica

International Averroes de

Al-Andalus".

It

is headed

by

a Board of 30

members,

including distinguished

Muslims from

Andalusia,

Europe,

and several Muslim

countries. The Board elected Mr Amadou Muhtar

M'Bow,

the former Director

General of

UNESCO,

as its chairman.

Agreements

were reached with

International Islamic Universities to

provide

assistance in

drawing

up

the courses

of instruction and for

exchange

of teachers and students.

This

University

is

meant to serve as

the centre

of Islamic

scholarship

in Andalusia. Most of its teachers and students are Andalusians.

Uptil

now ithas

been well received

by

the Andalusian

community

at

large.

THE ANDALUSIAN DIASPORA

Since the

fall

of

Granada,

and even before that there has been a

continuous flow

of Andalusian

emigrants

who

fled from their

homeland

owing

to the brutal

oppression

to which

they

were

subjected. They

especially

emigrated

to the coasts

of the Muslim countries on the Mediterranean.

Thus,

a

great

number of

Andalusians

during

16th,

17th and 18th centuries

left

Andalusia to settle down





19/20

630

Μ· AL|

KETTANi/Muslims

in

Spain


in

Morocco,

Algeria

and

Tunisia,

so much so

that about 10

per

cent of the

populations

of these

three countries could be considered

of Andalusian

origin.

Most of the

emigrants

settled in

existing

cities

(Fes, Marrakech, Tlemcen,

Algiers,

Tunis),

but some of them even established

new settlements

(Rabat,

Tetuan, Testour, Soliman, etc.).

The Andalusians

brought

Andalusian culture to the North African

countries.

They

contributed

to

Arabicizing

the coastal

regions

since these

refugees

had a

higher

level of culture than

the locals. Andalusians also became

leaders

in

many

fields,

especially

in

politics,

culture and

economy. Many

of

them led the defence of the

Maghrebi

countries

against European

invasion,

and

many

continued to serve as the

vanguard

of the effort to ensure the

security

of

Muslim lands

against

the efforts to

subjugate

them.

Other Andalusians

emigrated

to

the Ottoman

State,

including

the

Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Turkey,

Lebanon,

Syria, Egypt

and

the

Arabian Peninsula.

Traces of this

emigration

are observable

even

today

in the name of

many

families.

However,

not all the Andalusians

who

fled

their

country

had the

opportunity

to move to Muslim

countries. Some fled to France and Switzerland

in the

hope

of

reaching

Muslim Ottoman

lands,

but

for one

reason

or the other

many

of them were unable

to do so. With time

they

were Christianized but

Islam and

al-Andalus were not

completely

erased from their

memory.

Many

Andalusians also fled to America. The

Spanish

state

forbade

these so-called "New Christians"

from

moving

to the

newly

conquered

territories

of

America,

but it was not

always easy

to

implement

this

prohibition.

As

Muslims

were discovered in the New

World,

Inquisitions

were established to

persecute them. Some of them fled to North America where the Melungeons in

the

Appalachian

Mountains are believed to be their descendants.

The Andalusians who embraced Islam

in

Andalusia

in recent

years

were

very eager

from the

beginning

to establish links with this Andalusian

diaspora.

This was one

of the reasons

underlying

the

holding

of the First International

Andalusian Conference

in Castellar de la Frontera

(Province

of

Cadiz)

in 1989.28

CONCLUSION

It is

quite

evident that the Andalusians did not leave Islam of their

free

will. On

the

contrary, they

were

subjected

to the most atrocious

persecution,

continuously

for several centuries.

Eventually, they

became

deprived

of their

names,

their

culture,

almost their roots and their

identity.

But a flicker of love for Islam

always

remained in their hearts. More

specifically,

the

feeling

of

being

different

from

the rest

of

Spain

was never

quite

obliterated.

Blas

Intante,

the man who

developed

the

theory

of Andalusian

nationalism,

based it on its Islamic roots. He

paid

for this effort

with

his life.

His 'crime'

lay

in

telling

the Andalusians that

they

were

different

from

other

Spaniards.

But Infante's efforts enabled the return of Islam to Andalusia after

the death of Franco

in

1975,

which

soon

led to the restoration of

democracy

in

Spain.





20/20


(1 997)

63 1

In

1980,

there

was

not a

single mosque

in

Spain

and

only

a few Islamic

associations.

At the

present,

in

1996,

there are 180

mosques

and

prayer

halls

in

Spain

of which 50 are in Andalusia

alone. Of

those in

Andalusia,

more than half

have been established

by

the Andalusian returnees to Islam.

At the

pesent

Islam is

recognized

as a

religion

in

Spain.

With effect

from

1996-97,

Islamic education

will

be

imparted

in

public

schools to Muslim

children.

The

Islamic Commission of

Spain, representing

all the Muslims of the

country,

has been established to

negotiate

with the State

as

regards guaranteeing

Muslims their

rights.

Thus,

as the Muslims in

Spain

stand at the threshold of the

twenty-first

century, they

have

good

reasons to feel much more at home in their homeland

than

they

felt until

two decades

ago.

For

good

reason

they

have

begun

to

look

forward

to a

bright

future when the

tragic rupture

between Islam and

Spain

will,

in all

likelihood,

become a relic of the

past.

'Μ.A. Ladero

Quesada,

Los

Mudejares

de Castilla en

Tiempo

de

Isabel

I

(Vallalolid:

1969).

^Hernando de

Baeza,

Las Coses de

Granada,

ed. M. Muller

(Gottingen:

1863).

'Luis del Marmoral

Caravajal,

Historia del Rebelion Y

Castigo

de los Moriscos

(Madrid:

Revista

de

Occidente,

1978).

"A.

Domínguez

Ortiz

y

Bernard

Vincent,

Historia de tos Moriscos

(Madrid:

Revista de

Occidente,

1978).

5J.

Caro

Baroja,

Los

Moriscos

del Reino de

Granada

(Madrid: 1976).

'•ibid.

1lbid.

"Diego

Hurtado de

Mendoza,

Guerra

de

Granada,

ed.

(Madrid: 13,

Blanco

Gonzalez, 1970).

''As'ad

Hammäd,

Mihnat

al-

'Arabft

Ί-Andalus

(al-Mu

'assasat al-

'Arabiyyah

li Ί-Diräsät wa

Ί

Nasr).

"'Diego

Hurtado de

Mendoza,

op.

cit.

"Bernard

Vincent,

L.

Expulsion

des

Morisques

du

Royaume

de Granada et leur

Repartition

en Castille

(1570-1571),

Melanges

del Casa

Velazquez,

vol.

VI,

1970.

l2Pedro

Longas,

Vida

Religiosa

de tos Moriscos

(Madrid: 1915).

"B.

Vincent,

op.

cit.

HH.C.

Lea,

History of

the Moriscos

of Spain,

Their Conversion and

Expulsion

(London:

1901

).

"M.A.

Kettani,

Inbi'âth al-Islâm

fi'l-Andalus

(Islamabad:

Islamic Research

Institute,

1992).

"'Boronát

y

Barrachina,

Los Moriscos

Españoles y

su

Expulsion

(Valencia:

1901).

"A.

Domínguez

Ortiz,

"Felipe

IV

y

los

Moriscos", MEAII,

voi.

VII,

No.

8.

'"Fernando

Repiso,

Símbolos

y

Derechos Andaluses

(Sevilla:

1980).

'''Muhammad

ibn 'Abd

al-Wahhâb

al-GhassänT,

"Rihlat al-WazTr fi Iftikâk

al-Asïr",

Manuscript

No.

11329,

al-Khizänah

al-Hasaniyyah,

Rabat,

Morocco.

2"Ahmad ibn al-Mahdï ai-Ghazäl, Natljat al-Ijtihâd fi' al-Muhâdanah wa'l-Jihâd, ed. Ismä'TI

Haqqî

(Beirut:

1980).

2lHenry

Swinburne,

Travels

Through Spain

in

the Years

1975 and 1976.

"Joseph

Towsend,

A

Journey Through Spain

in

the

Years 1786 and

1887,

3 volumes.

23Manuel

Barrois,

Las Oscuras

Raices del Flamenco

(Sevilla: 1986).

MJuan

Anstonio Lacomba

Abellan,

Regionalismo

y

Autonomia en la Andalucía

Contemporanea

(1835-1936)

(Granada: 1988).

5Manuel Ruiz

Lagos,

Blas

Infante

(Fondation

Blas

Infante, 1984).

"Jacinto

Bosch

Vila,

"The Muslims of

Portugal

and

Spain",

Journal

of

the Institute

of

Minority Affairs,

vol.

7,

No.

1,

January

1986.

"Kettani,

op.

cit.

2KIbid.,

chapter

12.

Muslims in Spain After the Fall of Granada

Documents