Abstract

It would be difficult to find a group of Muslims in early modern Europe of more interest to the social or cultural historian than those known as the “Moriscos,” i.e. the Muslims converted to Catholicism by Royal decree who lived in Spain through the entire sixteenth century until their expulsion in 1609–14. This was a group which was subjected to strenuous evangelizing and assimilating efforts by mainstream society but which was at the same time the victim of marginalization and stigmatization and, eventually, a process of expulsion with all the features of ethnic cleansing. Most contemporary European readers will feel a sense of deep discomfort when reading about the treatment of the Moriscos, reminiscent as a process and as a cultural and political problem of much of what occurs today in reaction to the immigration of Muslims into Europe.