Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily

After their enslavement under Roman rule, Jews in Sicily eventually assimilated into society and worked in professions such as philosophy, medicine, artisanal pursuits, and farming.

[1] The order wasn't only directed towards Jewish Sicilians but also a smaller number of Muslims and other religious communities were forced to convert.

After the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon to Queen Isabella I of Castile, the Moors were finally forced out of Granada in 1492, completing the so-called Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1492, as part of an attempt to maintain Catholic orthodoxy and purify their kingdom of Moorish influence, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the forced expulsion or conversion of all Jews on pain of death.

[3] The great part of the Sicilian Jewish community fled to the Ottoman Empire, especially to what is since the 20th century Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, and were well received there.