Morisco

[9][10] In 1517, the word morisco became a "category" added to the array of cultural and religious identities that existed at the time, used to identify Muslim converts to Christianity in Granada and Castille.

Unlike Granadan and Valencian Moriscos, they did not speak Arabic but, as vassals of the nobility, were granted the privilege to practice their faith relatively openly.

Castile's Moriscos were highly integrated and practically indistinguishable from the Catholic population: they did not speak Arabic and a large number of them were genuine Christians.

When the king forbade further raids, the Moriscos lost contact with Islam and became a substantial part of the population of the islands, reaching one-half of the inhabitants of Lanzarote.

[41] While the Moors chose to leave Spain and emigrate to North Africa, the Moriscos accepted Christianity and gained certain cultural and legal privileges for doing so.

[24] A legal opinion, called "the Oran fatwa" by modern scholars, circulated in Spain and provided religious justification for outwardly conforming to Christianity while maintaining an internal conviction of faith in Islam, when necessary for survival.

[49] The writing of a Morisco crypto-Muslim author known as the "Young Man of Arévalo" included accounts of his travel around Spain, his meetings with other clandestine Muslims and descriptions of their religious practices and discussions.

[52] The Young Man wrote at least three extant works, Brief compendium of our sacred law and sunnah, the Tafsira and Sumario de la relación y ejercio espiritual, all written in Spanish with Arabic script (aljamiado), and primarily about religious topics.

For example, the Treaty of Granada, which governed the surrender of the emirate, guaranteed a set of rights to the conquered Muslims, including religious tolerance and fair treatment, in return for their capitulation.

Historians have suggested that the Crown of Aragon was inclined to tolerate Islam in its realm because the landed nobility there depended on the cheap, plentiful labor of Muslim vassals.

At the instigation of the Duke of Lerma and the Viceroy of Valencia, Archbishop Juan de Ribera, Philip III expelled the Moriscos from Spain between 1609 (Aragon) and 1614 (Castile).

Some historians have blamed the subsequent economic collapse of the Spanish Eastern Mediterranean coast on the region's inability to replace Morisco workers successfully with Christian newcomers.

This was due to the fact that their presence was less felt as they were considerably more integrated in their communities, enjoying the support and sympathy from local Christian populations, authorities and, in some occasions, the clergy.

Everything changed from 1609, when King Philip III of Spain decided to expel the Moriscos who, numbering about three hundred thousand, were converted Muslims who had remained Christian.

In addition, "some four thousand Turks and Berbers had come into Spain to fight alongside the insurgents in the Alpujarras",[89] a region near Granada and an obvious military threat.

Villarubia's entire Morisco population were the target of three expulsions which they managed to avoid or from which they succeeded in returning from to their town of origin, being protected and hidden by their non-Morisco neighbours.

Dadson provides numerous examples, of similar incidents throughout Spain whereby Moriscos were protected and supported by non-Moriscos[97] and returned en masse from North Africa, Portugal or France to their towns of origin.

A similar study on the expulsion in Andalusia concluded it was an inefficient operation which was significantly reduced in its severity by resistance to the measure among local authorities and populations.

It further highlights the constant flow of returnees from North Africa, creating a dilemma for the local inquisition who did not know how to deal with those who had been given no choice but to convert to Islam during their stay in Muslim lands as a result of the Royal Decree.

Morisco integration had reached high levels at the time of expulsion, they formed a strong socio-economic block with complex family ties and good-neighbourly relations.

This explains why Spain was not affected on the whole by the expulsion whereas the Valencian Community was devastated and never truly recovered as an economic or political powerhouse of the kingdom, ceding its position, within the Crown of Aragón, to the Catalan counties to the north, which never had a sizeable Morisco population to begin with.

Among them are the Vaqueiros de Alzada of Asturias, the Mercheros (present throughout northern and western Spain), the Pasiegos of the Pas Valley in the mountains of Cantabria and the Maragatos of the Maragatería region of Leon.

Genetic studies have been performed on the latter two, both showing higher levels of North African ancestry than the average for Iberia, although only in the case of the Pasiegos was there a clear differentiation from adjacent populations.

[95] A wide number of recent genetic studies of modern-day Spanish and Portuguese populations have ascertained significantly higher levels of North African admixture in the Iberian peninsula than in the rest of the European continent.

[109][110] Common North African genetic markers which are relatively high frequencies in the Iberian peninsula as compared to the rest of the European continent are Y-chromosome E1b1b1b1(E-M81)[93][111] and Macro-haplogroup L (mtDNA) and U6.

Studies coincide that North African admixture tends to increase in the south and west of the peninsula, peaking in parts of Andalusia,[112] Extremadura, Southern Portugal and Western Castile.

[citation needed] A recent study of various Tunisian ethnic groups has found that all were indigenous North African, including those who self-identified as Andalusians.

[108] In October 2006, the Andalusian Parliament asked the three parliamentary groups that form the majority to support an amendment that would ease the way for Morisco descendants to gain Spanish citizenship.

According to the President of Andalusi Historical Memory Association, Nayib Loubaris, this measure could potentially cover as many as 600 families of Morisco origin in what today is Morocco, who would have moved to Rabat and various other cities across the country.

Such families are easily recognizable by their Spanish surnames such as Torres, Loubaris (from Olivares), Bargachi (from Vargas), Buano (from Bueno), Sordo, Denia, and Lucas.