The loss of Andalusi territories had several consequences for the population living within them. The changes in rulers and frontiers caused some of the population to seek exile in other territories, while a large part of the population remained, but with changes in their status. The progression of territorial losses was quite uneven in the Peninsula: while the northern taifa of Saraqusta was lost in the early twelfth century, the Nasrid kingdom of Granada remained under a Muslim ruler until almost the beginning of the sixteenth. Well before the fall of Granada, we see regular Andalusi settlements1 in two of the Ottoman regencies in North Africa: Algiers and Tunisia. How did the Andalusi/Morisco communities negotiate this relocation with the Sublime Porte? What was the organization behind the escape routes that allowed groups of Moriscos to settle in different locations in these two regencies? What was given in exchange for the assistance of the Ottoman sultans? This paper explores the exile of Spanish Muslims during the Morisco period, before the mass expulsions of 1609 to 1614, as well as the negotiations and strategies the Morisco leaders implemented to
The Archivo Histórico Provincial of Zaragoza preserves the transcripts of several Inquisition trials related to Jews and Muslims in the 1500s. One of these trials is the one against Joan Zambriel the Younger (AHPZ 27/5). It deserves our attention not only because it is far more voluminous than other trials (more than 400 folios), but especially because of the information it contains on the escape routes of the Aragonese Moriscos and their organization. The document reveals the existence of a well-organized network in France led by a Morisco, and a consolidated structure able to aid Aragonese Moriscos in their escape to the Ottoman regencies in the Maghreb.
This extensive document contains the Inquisition case against Joan Zambriel, an alfaquí (faqīh), and his son, together with other relatives who, to prevent the arrest of Zambriel, assassinated three officers (familiares) of the Inquisition, the local priest, and his young servant. They then fled to France, pursued by a spy who gave relevant details of their escape route, their provision of horses, the passes they used, and the support organization that the escapees found on the other side of the Pyrenees.
The document also provides information on the organization of Morisco communities in Aragon and on how the leaders of such communities were interconnected. The spies also informed on other groups and notable leaders who were en route to join the caudillo beyond the Pyrenees. Their names include the Zafar family of Ambel, the Compañeros of Huesca, and the Yzquierdos of Segorbe.2
The diplomatic correspondence of the Ottoman sultans reveals further details of this organized network, describing how notable Moriscos had dealings with the Sublime Porte to ensure that their co-religionaries would be well received and settled in the Ottoman regencies in North Africa. Recent research4 has proven that the reception of these groups of exiles came in exchange for their knowhow and might also have acted to dissipate tensions5 between locals and Ottoman populations in both regencies.
1 The Case Against Joan Menor Zambriel
Joan Menor Zambriel (the Younger) and his father, later identified in the document as “Joan el Mayor” (the Elder), were the fuqahāʾ of a small village southeast of Zaragoza, Plasencia de Jalón. The document describes how, in
The first set of documents in the volume is a series of letters from the Inquisition, stating that an exemplary punishment must be imposed or else New Christians would not respect the authority of the Holy Office in Aragon.7 Together with this request, sent to the king and other authorities, the Inquisition demanded that all Moriscos be disarmed.8 Frequent reports of arms manufactured, traded, or hidden by Moriscos appear in the literature.9
The exports of horses involved the passadores, those who took not only horses but also people across the Pyrenees to France; most of these were Aragonese small landowners such as Antonio de Bardaxí. Due to the frequent conflicts12 between the Inquisition and the Aragonese noblemen, these passadores were accused of having agreements with the Moriscos—were even accused of heresy—in an attempt to bypass the protection offered by the noblemen.13
Manuscript AHPZ Inq. 27/5 describes the incident that triggered a broad investigation of the Moriscos’ escape routes, their leaders, and their alleged agreement with the Ottoman sultans.
In July 1559 Joan Zambriel Menor from Plasencia de Jalón,14 together with four other persons,15 killed three officers of the Inquisition, the local priest, and his servant, when these tried to arrest Joan Zambriel. After disposing of the bodies, the five Moriscos from Plasencia began their escape toward France with horses they had quickly readied.
This group of five fugitives is referred to as the matadores (assassins) in the manuscript. The Inquisition immediately called some of its spies to try to locate them and intercept the group before they crossed the border with France. One of the spies, a certain Covarrubias, was most explicit in giving information about the passes across the Pyrenees. He feared that the objective of the fugitives, as for many other Moriscos, was to reach Béarn: “many new
The Inquisition, once having agreed that this event called for severe retaliation to reaffirm its power in Aragon, planned its action in secret. On the night of 20th July 1559, a group of three hundred armed horsemen surrounded the small village of Plasencia de Jalón. Their orders were to prevent any person from escaping the village and to arrest anyone who attempted to leave. At dawn, several officers of the Inquisition arrived, with the objective of arresting and questioning the members of the most prominent families of the village: those bearing the surnames Albengalí, Abenrabí, and Zambriel.
The Moriscos of the village, after the killings, were aware that the Inquisition intended to impose an exemplary punishment to prevent them from feeling entitled to challenge its authority. The numerous statements (deposiciones) collected in the manuscript prove this. Lope de Bellito, a wagoner, hid his daughter Gracia Bellito, married to Ferrer de Abenrabí, in his house. Questioned about her flight from Plasencia, she stated that “it was said they were going to destroy the village.”18
this crime by Zambriel and his sons had them so full of feeling and sorrow that there was no room left in their minds for thinking good thoughts. And they hoped that, as God knew they were innocent, the world would know it too; for in all their lives there had been no shadow of guilt upon them in this case, and they would like to act so as to show that they would pursue these bad Christian converts. And that I might see what they could and should do: for they would go to France, Castile, Valencia, or anywhere with orders to do whatever they are told, so that these men might not escape punishment.19
This public display of worry and concern did not prevent the raid against the village, nor the Inquisition’s placing of several spies22 in Plasencia to monitor the people’s movements. All were under suspicion.
More than twenty people were arrested in the raid. The prominent families were included, plus their servants. The Albengalís arrested included: Adrián and his wife, Ferrer and his wife, Manuel and his wife, another Ferrer with his wife and two daughters, Pascual and his wife Leonor, and a certain Felipe. The Abenrrabís suffered the same fate with the arrests of Luis and his wife, Ferrer and his wife, and Hierónimo with his wife and daughter. Others arrested were Joan Ferrer, Zambriel’s uncle; his son-in-law and his wife, and all the servants of the two Zambriel fugitives (father and son).
At the same time the Inquisition ordered the arrest of the five fugitives, with controls on all the borders. Despite these arrangements, however, Zambriel the younger and his party managed to reach France, save for his father, who was wounded, arrested, and died later in the Inquisition prison of Zaragoza.
The third action sparked by the incident was the campaign for disarming the Moriscos in Aragon, instigated by the Inquisition. For the Aragonese noblemen, owners of many Morisco villages, these were their subjects, and they wanted to limit the power of the Inquisition, arguing that the call for disarmament was against their law and customs.23
[Disarming the Moriscos] should begin in the most suspicious villages, that is, Ricla, Villafeliche, Sestrica, Almonacid, Torrellas, Los Fayos, Ejea, Calanda, and others like them.24
In the village of Torrellas … he knows that some of the said converts have gone to the principality of Arné in France and to the kingdom of Valencia … He knows that those who leave do so unarmed and very secretly, and he knows this because some of his vassals have departed in this way, which they could not do if they bore arms.25
In the year 1538 … a convert who was said to be very wealthy left the Kingdom of Aragon with his wife, children, and family, and with him went other Moriscos from the same kingdom, and they reached the Kingdom of Valencia … A nuncio of this Holy Office was sent to arrest him, and he,
with another nuncio from Valencia, seized him. And as they were escorting him, many of the converts from this same kingdom who had crossed to Valencia came out to the highway, and they killed the nuncio of the Holy Office and wounded the one from the Inquisition in Valencia very badly, and they took the prisoner from them and bore him away. This Holy Office had, in a village of converts, a commissioner who was the vicar … Those converts conceived such hatred of him that they looked for a Morisco from elsewhere and, on finding him, gave him a sum of money to kill that commissioner … In November 1556 that Morisco, guided by those converts, killed the commissioner.
In the same year of 1559 … the said familiar seized him [a new convert] … Many converts from that village came out with arquebuses and shotguns, and by force … took the prisoner back … They killed the three officers … and a youth who was the servant of one of them … After they were dead the struck them with so many blows, slashes, and stab wounds that they tore them to pieces … They slit the throat of the local vicar, who was a commissioner of the Holy Office, and after that every one of them cut and sliced him as much as they could, leaving no part of his body untouched … The criminals, with the prisoner, went to a village of converts who took them in and gave them what they needed, and set them on the road to France, where in fact they went, and from there to the lands of the Moors.27
The inquisitors promoted the removal of arms from the Moriscos to protect their commissioners and informants, due to the violence against them when they attempted to carry out their arrests. Their efforts, however, were not entirely successful. Between 1599 and 1605 eleven moriscos were executed by the Inquisition for having stabbed informers (malsines), which means that
2 The Caudillo of the Moriscos in France
When the Inquisitors received news of the deaths in Plasencia de Jalón, they set in motion a network of spies. One of them, Covarrubias, informed them from Jaca about the whereabouts of Joan Zambriel’s party: they had crossed the Pyrenees on their way to Oloron, where they were to meet a most intriguing character, the caudillo (leader) of the Moriscos beyond the Pyrenees: “Hernando del Castillo, who is their caudillo28 in this region, emptied out the village last night at midnight with all his household, his family and companions who were with him; it happened so quickly that I do not know where [they went].” According to the spy it was necessary to close all the borders, from Bayonne to Perpignan, “from sea to sea,” because the Moriscos constantly crossed to France: “for by now they know all the passes well, and they have very good guides and great friends on one side and the other.”29
Hernando Calderero, or del Castillo, considered the leader of the Moriscos in France, had two sons: Gonzalo (who lived in Aragon, “on the border with Navarre”) and Lope (who lived in France). He and his sons controlled all the passes through the mountains, and had “more than 500 converts” in France. He traveled with his entourage using a series of houses he had rented in Oloron and Carcassone. The reports on the leader added that “all those who cross do so by order of Castillo. And he and his sons come here to show the way through the passes, and to wait for those who wish to cross. And he has more than 500 converts there, and they must be supplied from here, because they are always very well equipped.”30
The connections of Hernando Calderero/del Castillo with the Aragonese elites are not yet known, but he seems to have been an affluent Morisco, well settled and well connected in both Spain and France.
The document identifies other fugitive Moriscos from well-known families: “Diego the Elder from Torrellas, and the son of Zafar, the one from Ambel, who will also go in a few days to join the caudillo.”32
The escape routes mentioned in the manuscript include Pamplona and Jaca, from which the Pyrenees were crossed in order to reach the seaports of Agde, Toulon, or Marseille.
those who are in Carcassonne and two others, and Zambriel, left last Sunday, and two young men from Alcalá have stayed behind.38 waiting for the money I wrote you about … These two from Alcalá, I have heard, left their homes through Vizcaya, and in San Sebastián, in Fuenterrabía, they embarked by sea, since there is only a narrow bay; they went to Bayonne and from Bayonne came here in search of Castillo, and not finding him they sought out Zambriel, as I have written. I continue to believe that they are going to Venice, through the passes and lands I have written about.39
The second piece of information concerns their intended destination, in this case Venice. What remains to be discovered is their ultimate destination, perhaps Salonica or Istanbul; the main ports used to reach the Ottoman regencies in North Africa were those mentioned in the south of France.
The places named in the different sources, whether Inquisition records or Aljamiado manuscripts, include several routes for reaching the Pyrenees and a network of locations that run parallel to the mountain range: Saint Jean de Luz, Bayonne, Oloron, Pontacq, Carcassone, Agde, Marseille. The route to Venice passed through Marseille, where there was already a Morisco colony comprising some familiar surnames: Dr. Calavera (¿Musa from Calatayud?), Gaspar Yzquierdo, and Martín Yzquierdo.40
Hernando del Castillo/Calderero seems to have been an Islamic scholar from Castile. In AHPZ Inq. 5/27 he is described as the caudillo de los moriscos in France. Although we do not have all the information about this character, he
The organization of the aljamas continued to serve the Morisco communities despite the persecutions of the Morisco elite, especially between 1575 and 1585. Although the great Aragonese Morisco families were decimated,42 the aljamas seem to have continued to rely on certain organizations and the leadership of a few individuals, named cabezas (heads) or caudillos. During the 1610 expulsion, the Aragonese communities traveling into exile by crossing through Provence were aided by one Gabriel Yzquierdo.43 Could he have been a member of the Yzquierdo family, already settled in Marseille in the 1560s? If so, the influence of the notable houses of Aragonese xerifes would continue in the diaspora, as in the cases of Zapata and Cárdenas, who arranged deals for the Morisco exiles either in Provence or in the Ottoman regency of Tunis.44
3 Escape and Settlement in Ottoman Lands: the Pattern
There is a precedent for the escape routes of the Aragonese Moriscos to Islamic lands beyond Europe: that of the Andalusis from Valencia.45 Apparently, Andalusis were not only welcome in the Hafsid kingdom of Tunis, but were also offered relevant positions in the administration: “The majority of teachers
The Franco-Ottoman alliance between Francis I and Suleyman I49 was to prove essential for Spanish Muslims between the forced conversions of the 1500s and the expulsions of the 1600s (see below Ibn ʿAbd-al-Rafiʿ’s statement on these negotiations, and how the Sultan’s letters guaranteed the passage of the Moriscos through France under his protection).
The case of Zambiel sheds light on a phenomenon that occurred regularly during the sixteenth century, particularly after the forced conversion of the Moriscos. When we look at the interactions between the Spanish Mudejars/Moriscos and the Ottoman Empire, we find a pattern: several groups leave the
To offer but a summary of the embarkations of Moriscos51 in the feared corsair ships manned by Ottomans and Andalusis, we will mention some cases, just to present the proposed pattern: May 1527, 1,400 Moriscos from Nules, Mascarell, and Vall de Uxó. October 1529, 500 Moriscos from Pacent and Murla. July 1538, 1,200 Moriscos from Villajoyosa. 1562, twenty-three Moriscos from Níjar, forty-eight from Huebro. 1566, eighty-five Moriscos from Tabernas, thirteen monfíes, fifty Moriscos from Lucainena. 1569, 2,700 Moriscos are arrested at Inox while waiting to embark. 1582, 2,000 Moriscos from Alicante, all the Moriscos from Callosa de Ensarrià, some Moriscos from Polop, Orba, Laguar, Gallinera, Altea.
This information relates to the pattern of exiles who flee across the Pyrenees in the cuadrillas: groups, comprising fifteen to thirty Moriscos, that took to the roads of Aragon and Navarre in order to travel to France. All of these groups had a destination in common: tierra de moros (land of the Moors, or Muslim lands). Several of these cuadrillas were detained and we know of their members and guides, even the price they paid, through the corresponding Autos de fe. Juan Fierro, from Naval, was a passador; he was arrested in 1607 near Jaca. The Moriscos in his cuadrilla had paid between eight and ten escudos for his services: “This criminal escorted and guided others to France, and said in the presence of witnesses that he had escorted and guided other new converts to France, and that he would guide as many as he could; he earned his living with what they paid him.”52
it is necessary to have a commissioner in Aranda … because it is a place on the frontier with Castile through which some converts go … Montalbán is the district on the border of Valencia where the converts who go from this kingdom to that of Valencia cross, to continue from there to Moorish lands … Calpe is … entirely empty and below it are Maella, Fabara, and many other villages that border on Catalonia, and many converts pass through this district from this kingdom to Valencia and Catalonia, and from there to Moorish territory … [There are] two towns in particular, inhabited only by Moorish converts, one called Calanda of about five hundred residents and the other Foz, which must have one hundred fifty; and since they are remote and far from the other districts that have commissioners, it is essential to have one in Alcañiz … That is where nearly all the groups of Moriscos who are leaving this kingdom assemble, and where those who come from Moorish lands to escort them welcome and receive them.53
A Morisco was condemned to the stake in 1567 because between 1551 and 1567 “his job had been to convey converted Moors from these kingdoms to Turkey.” Two brothers from Belchite, Gerónimo and Juan Fénix,54 had the same occupation, taking cuadrillas to Perpignan. In Plasencia de Jalón, Alexandre Pariente charged twenty escudos per person to take New Christians to Marseille. Juan de Fuentes, of Béarn, arrested in Villafranca, stated that he had taken nineteen Moriscos in seven trips, and that they had left Spain to avoid persecution.55
Pedro el Corto (the Short), a Morisco from Puybolea, Huesca, escorted three other groups of converts who were going to France and from there to Moorish lands, [in exchange] for money they gave him … Joan Serrano, from Plasencia … because they crossed to France with other Moriscos and from there to Moorish lands to live as Moors … Miguel Caxal, from Urrea de Jalón, who was leaving this kingdom with his parents and others against the edicts of the Holy Office, and they were seized in Navarre, beyond Pamplona; he confessed that he was going to France and from there to join the Moors … Jerónimo Burguera, from Plasencia, because he had conveyed a group of male and female converts in his cart, crossing from this kingdom to Navarre, and he was arrested in Pamplona and claimed that he did not know they were going anywhere but Pamplona, because they hired him to go that far … Lorente Montero Mayor, from Urrea de Jalón, is among those who were crossing to France … Pedro de Cortes, from Urrea de Jalón, head and caudillo of one of the groups of converts who were going to France and were arrested beyond Pamplona, confessed that he was going to Moorish lands and that he had lived as a Moor … Amador Abijuesque was arrested, and confessed that he was going among Moors to renounce the faith of Christ … Jerónimo Benamir, from Rueda de Xalón … Francisco Elmideo, from Urrea de Xalón, was in the group with two young children of his, confessed that he was going to Moorish lands and that he had practiced as a Moor … Isabel de Ceuta, wife of the said Pedro de Cortes, who was going with her husband to Moorish lands … Maria la Albengala, a widow, a convert from that village of Urrea, was going with the group [to live] among Moors; Candida la Ceutina, the daughter of that widow, the same … Lorente Montero the
Younger, the son of converts, from the same village, was going with the group to France; he was arrested in Navarre before reaching Pamplona; Miguel de Granada, stepbrother of the said Montero, arrested with the same group; Jerónimo Granada, brother of the said Miguel, the same; Anna de Abenragua, wife of Lorente Montero the Elder … Francisco Coscullar, of Cadret, was arrested while going to France … he confessed that he was going to Moorish lands, was found to be circumcised, then revoked what he had confessed and continued to insist on revoking it without giving any legitimate reason … [he was] transferred to the secular authorities.57
A few days ago we wrote in another [report] to the gentlemen of the council that a great number of Moorish converts from this kingdom, men and women, were crossing to France intending to go from there to Moorish lands to renounce [?] the Faith … Two groups were apprehended, one of them two or three leagues on this side of Pamplona and the other beyond Pamplona … the group was of about thirty persons … [They had paid], they say, up to nine hundred escudos.59
Immediately after the baptism there were fifteen Morisco families from Arévalo who left the town; some settled in Barbary (specifically in Tetouan and Fez), others in Granada … The merchant Gabriel Cordero, who was executed by the Holy Office in that year for having taken part in a clandestine network of Moriscos who were taking people to Algiers or Salonica … Gaspar Andado … participate[d] very actively in the secret organization of Moriscos in Valladolid in 1565: he was in charge of helping those who were escaping the Inquisition, offering them temporary hiding places and then money and other resources for their escape … It is known that they came and went from Arévalo to Valencia and took
letters for Algiers, and a Morisco called Miguel Bori from there always guided them, and that a brother of his who lives there goes and comes from Valencia with the letters for Algiers and he even goes over there with messages … In recent years some Moriscos with their wives from Valladolid, Palencia, and Burgos traveled to Salonica from Valencia, since they could not cross to Algiers.60
From the first quarter of the sixteenth century to 1610, tens of thousands of Mudejars/Moriscos fled Spain toward Ottoman lands. These were not random individuals but large groups, sometimes entire communities, that left Spain and arrived in the Ottoman regencies.61 How were they settled in their new destination? Was this resettlement a one-time occasion, a regular series of waves, or a continuum?
Ibn ʿAbd al-Rafīʿ explains the negotiations behind these migratory waves:62 the envoys of the Moriscos, including their xerifes, were sent to broker a deal with the Ottoman sultan.
Some of our people went secretly to the Maghreb and others to the Middle East … some of our coreligionists went to Belgrade, in the province of the
great Constantinople. The alfaquí Abū al-ʿAbbās met the eminent minister, the late Murād Pacha, one of the ministers of his highness the Sultan [Suleyman] the Magnificent and the Great Khan, who is of Ottoman lineage … and he informed him of the lamentable and urgent situation of our Andalusi coreligionists in France and other countries. The minister … wrote with the Sultan’s permission—may God make him prevail over his enemies—to the king of France—may God destroy him—giving him orders to take the Andalusis and the Ottoman subjects who were there in his own ships to Muslim lands.63
It seems that the xerifes formed an alliance with the Ottoman sultans which also involved passing through France, and reaching ports where the Ottoman fleet would transport them.
All these questions led to the Ottoman plan to settle and employ thousands of Moriscos who left Spain and reached the regencies in the course of a century. What could the Moriscos offer in exchange for such a generous invitation? When we look at the data, we see that Moriscos were not treated as pariahs or exiles, but rather as skilled people who could contribute with their knowledge of different technologies, trades, and sciences to the Ottoman regencies. They exchanged their knowhow in these varied fields for the sultans’ protection. Note that during al-Ḥaǧarī Bejarano’s efforts in France to resolve an incident in which some Moriscos had been robbed, he had already secured the support of the sultan: “the Moriscos’ goods should be rendered to me, and in the letters from the king [of France] it says and ordains that what is done is to honor the Great Ruler [the sultan].”64
4
When we observe the distribution of Moriscos in the Ottoman regencies we find the following pattern: Moriscos leave the Iberian Peninsula, as individuals or in groups. They reach a port or are embarked on Spanish shores by Ottoman corsairs. Then they land in a location under Ottoman rule (if some Moriscos had to travel to Salonica because they “couldn’t” go to Algiers, does this mean that they had to be “assigned” a specific location for resettlement?). According to the letter of the Andalusis to Sultan Suleyman I (see below), they were settled in specific areas “to be developed.” There the Andalusis (as they are referred to in the Ottoman documents) were employed in a variety of trades.
5 Construction
[Ca. 1580] Cherchell is famous for the rich wood of its forests, and there was a numerous community of Spanish Moriscos installed there, who were in charge of building [the ships] as well as piloting them.66
… this place called Cherchell … its inhabitants and residents (who all were, as they continue to be today, Moriscos escaped from Granada, Valencia, and Aragon, and who also were employed as corsairs, with frigates and brigantines, as they continue today, and being good navigators
and having been born in Spain, caused great damage and thefts in all its coasts and seas).67 By order of our Sultan, they [the Andalusis] were able to migrate to Islamic countries. They were placed in the areas of Berchek, Cherchel, and Tlemcen, in order to develop these areas.68
Grâce aux deux firmans émanant de l’autorité suprême ottomane respectivement datés du 28 juillet 1571 et du 14 novembre 1573, leur insertion dans la vie économique d’Alger est ainsi rapidement concrétisée par l’offre de postes de travail à la mesure de leur qualification.69
Ga’far, born in Murcia, was “el maestro mayor de las obras de Argel”; he worked as an architect, with a builder from Almería. Other Morisco “master builders” were “Musa al-Andalusí, Ali al-Taghrí, al-Qaštulí, Musa al-Yasrí al-Andalusí al-Himyarí.” Many of the buildings by these alarifes were later donated to a welfare fund dedicated to new Morisco arrivals, the “Šarikat Al-Andalus.”70 The status of these Moriscos was noted by Fray Melchor de Zúñiga, who stated that Musa al-Yasrí was a “Moor, while being Spanish; they have raised him to the status of a Turk.”71
Civil engineering was also developed in Algiers by two Moriscos: “los dos moriscos, españoles de los expulsos.” Zúñiga mentions how the Moriscos were also employed in hydraulic improvements in the city (“with his skill he has adorned the city with so many fountains that there is scarcely a street without water”),73 as well as in building the defenses “in the fortifications and the pier, where everything is under his direction.”74
Morisco workers also mastered metalworking: “the foundryman, who is also one of the expelled Spaniards, has produced some steel cannons, not as perfect as one would wish, but the trouble they take with this is so great that soon they will have the skills they need for this product; for beyond the respect they give them … all those who engage in a craft are called masters, to do them that honor.”75 Note again the deference paid to the Moriscos because of their skill and knowledge.
The manufacture of weapons was also supervised by Moriscos: “they also make … shotguns, as well as cutlasses, arrows, bows; others make quivers and the strings for firing the bows.”76 Note also by Haedo: “They practice all these trades, because all of them master some craft. Some make arquebuses, others
6 Agriculture
There are many grapevines, of the same type and yield; and vines that climb up and entwine in the tallest trees … Those vines were planted by the Moors expelled from Granada; because before that not only did they not plant them, but they pulled up the ones planted by Christians, using those fields for other crops.80
7 Trade
There are also records of Morisco traders, in both Algiers and Tunis, who were wealthy enough to buy slaves.81 Trade among the Mediterranean ports was constant and the Moriscos had an important role in it, whether as manufacturers, traders, transporters, or agents on both shores.82 The silk trade was firmly
8 The Military
Leaving his second brother Cheredin … in Algiers to keep watch … he set out with no less than a thousand Turkish shotgunners and five hundred Andalusi Moriscos from Granada, Aragon, and Valencia, who were coming every day from all over Barbary to live in the city of Algiers, because they got along well with the Turks, from whom they received soldiers’ combat pay, those Moriscos being also arquebusiers.85
9 The Corso
The most lucrative business in which the Moriscos were involved was the corso: “From 1618 to 1626, about 6,000 Christians were captured, and the prize money amounted to more than fifteen million pounds. In ten years, from 1629 to 1639, Morisco customs registered the figure of twenty-five or twenty-six million ducats.”88 At an individual level, the income was more than attractive: “The booty of Morato [Arraez] was more than 200 captives and 15,000 ducats, paid by the Marquis of Lanzarote to ransom his family, plus a galleon.”89
The principal captains with him were Sala Raez (who later was King of Algiers) and Xaban Raez, Tabaca Raez, Haradin Raex, Isuf Raez; who, after having seized some people and ships around those islands and along the coast of Spain, having been told of some Moriscos from the
Kingdom of Valencia and the estate of the Count of Oliva who wished to cross to Barbary to live under the Moorish religion, with their children and wives—and who would pay a large sum of money if they wished to escort them—the said corsairs were pleased with that. And one night they embarked more than two hundred of these Moriscos near Oliva, and put out to sea with them around the island of Formentera.90
Furthermore, having operated in these waters for years, and relying on the exiled Moors’ knowledge of the Iberian coasts, the corsairs’ expertise of the western Mediterranean was crucial for the Ottomans. The Gazavat itself records that the reason why the Ottomans called Hayreddin was because they were in need of ‘experts in naval affairs who knew the Spanish lands.’91
10 Religious Sciences
As mentioned above, in Hafsid Tunis there were several Islamic scholars of Andalusi origin. The same trend seems to have been continued, for in the Ottoman Archives we find the following instructions to the governor of Algiers dated 19 Raǧab 981/14 November 1573: “to assign available jobs to the Andalusi Islamic scholars and Qur’an memorizers.”92
Topkapi, Ottoman Archives, Ms A-DVNSMHM.d.23-19-244, which mentions the assignment of religious posts to ‘Andalusians and Mudejars’.
11
The settlement of the Andalusis in the Ottoman regencies of North Africa may have responded to an alliance between this community and the sultans of Istanbul (who were also in league with France). The negotiation might have gained them access to specific settlements in the regencies of Algiers and Tunis in exchange for their knowledge of different trades and sciences.
The case of Joan Zambriel proves that the continuous exodus from the Peninsula during the Mudejar and Morisco periods resulted from an alliance with the Ottoman sultans, whereby the Moriscos deployed a series of networks, led by their xerifes, in order to facilitate their escape and settlement, access to jobs, and positions. There seems to have been constant communication among groups of Moriscos in North Africa and in the Peninsula. There are also letters
There seems to have been a first stage, with several settlements of Mudejars (tagarinos) in Algiers. The documents also mention a large group of Moriscos from Granada. Later on, more tagarinos or Andalusis appear to have settled in Tunis, after it became a regency under Ottoman rule. Finally, during the expulsion, tens of thousands also settled in these in these Ottoman regencies, particularly in Tunis.
There are no definitive figures, but we are not dealing here with small, isolated groups. There were large contingents of exiles (tens of thousands relocated in a span of about 100 years), and an elaborate plan to employ the Andalusis in order to transfer knowledge of certain trades to the regencies: metalworking, woodworking, construction, irrigation, silk manufacture, agriculture, geography, navigation, etc.
For Algiers, Missoum has collected data on 70,000 Mudejars who settled in the region before 1529;94 then, “a quarter-century later, at the end of the War of the Alpujarras (1568–70), more than 30,000 of the 50,000 Moriscos who arrived on the North African coasts in the resulting deportations were transported in the ships of ʿAlǧ ʿAlī.”95 Benafri quotes Spanish and Ottoman sources indicating that between 1545 and 1551 several groups of about 15,000 and 20,000 Moriscos were settled in Algiers, so that that the city required an extension (possibly the current neighborhood of Tagarinos).96 An Ottoman firman of 1571, sent from the sultan to the governor of Algiers, states that the newly arrived must be given employment. The instructions to facilitate the settlement of the exiles had, no doubt, an effect on the numbers arriving in Algiers.
For Tunis, Penella quotes Captain Ellyat, a captive in Tunis, who stated that “Muhamad Rubio, from Villafeliche, ‘established in Tunis with those of his faction or his people’,” was settled in Tunisia before the expulsion, and that between “1609 and 1613 some 7,000 to 8,000 families of Moriscos had settled
To gain a more accurate view of this alliance and the networks deployed to resettle and employ tens of thousands of Andalusi Mudejars and Moriscos, particular attention should be paid to French and Ottoman sources, only partly explored so far, including the Ottoman Archives, the Topkapi Archives, ms. KK888 and the diplomatic collections Mühimme Defterleri (MD) and Mühimme Zeyli Defterleri (MZD), which include correspondence between Istanbul and the regencies in North Africa. Also, the “Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa,” “Tuhfetü’l-Kibar fi Esfari’l-Bihar,” and the correspondence of Ferīdūn Beg.
Appendix
Letter from the Andalusis to Suleyman the Magnificent99
We are fifty noble families, living in Granada and other cities of al-Andalus, where there are 364,000 poor Muslims. We lament our pain and difficulties which are inflicted upon us. Due to our faith, and the rejection of our enemy’s religion, we are subject to all kinds of tortures and oppression. They burn us. The enemies have surrounded us and intend to destroy us. They became united and attacked as swiftly as arrows. We have been subjected to ill treatment for years, and constantly they have tried to force us to deviate from the right path, to bring disaster upon us. Our neighbors and friends, the Moroccans, however, did not come to our aid. Although they are our coreligionists, they did not even respond to our cries for help. But your famous vizir Khairuddin, who recently fought in the path of Allah and caused great defeat upon the unbelievers, was always with us and the Maghrebi people. While he was in Algiers, he knew of our defenseless and impoverished situation. And we have assured him that we will accept his protection, and all the Muslims are ready to show our good faith and prove our obedience. Besides, thanks to him, justice, šarīʿa and trust prevail in all cities and places. So we asked Khairuddin for help, and he came and saved us. And thanks to him, many Andalusis who were in the hands of the infidels [were saved]. And by order of the Sultan, many of them were able to
Bibliography
ACA (Archivo de la Corona de Aragón), Consejo de Aragón, L. 221.
AHN (Archivo Histórico Nacional), Sección Inquisición, L. 1213, L. 962, L.988.
AHPZ (Archivo Histórico Provincial de Zaragoza), Inq. 27/5.
Anaya Hernández, Luis Alberto. “La invasión de 1618 en Lanzarote y sus repercusiones socioeconómicas.” In IV Coloquio de Historia Canario Americana (1984), 191–224. Las Palmas: Cabildo Insular, 1987. https://mdc.ulpgc.es/utils/getfile/collection/coloquios/id/1903/filename/1897.pdf
Brèves, François Savary. Relation des voyages de Monsieur de Brèves, tant en Grèce, Terre Saincte et Aegypte qu’aux royaumes de Tunis et Alger, ensemble un traicté faict l’an 1604 entre le roy Henry le Grand et l’empereur des Turcs, et trois discours dudit sieur, le tout recueilly par le S.D.C. (Jacques Du Castel). Paris: Nicolás Gasse, 1628.
Chergui, Samia “Les morisques et l’effort de construction d’Alger aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles.” Cahiers de la Méditerranée 79 (2009). http://journals.openedition.org/cdlm/4932.
Epalza, Míkel de. “Les Ottomans et l’insertion au Maghreb des Andalous expulsés d’Espagne au XVII siécle.” Revue d’Histoire Maghrébine 31–32 (1983): 165–73. https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/56593/1/1983_Epalza_Revue-dHistoire-Maghrebine.pdf.
Kastritsis, Dimitris. “Ferīdūn Beg’s Münşeʾātü’s-Selāṭīn (‘Correspondence of Sultans’) and Late Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Views of the Political World.” In Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, edited by Bazzaz, Sahar, Yota Batsaki, and Dimiter Angelov. Harvard: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2013. https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/4-feridun-begs-munse%CA%BEatu-s-sela%E1%B9%ADin-correspondence-of-sultans-and-late-sixteenth-century-ottoman-views-of-the-political-world-dimitris-kastritsis/
Ottoman Archive. Ms A-DVNSMHM.e576. Endülüs’deki Arapların Kanuni Sultan Süleyman’a gönderdikleri arzuhal; Endülüs’ün Gırnata vesair beldelerinde bulunan müslümanları spanyolların zulmünden kurtarmak için Cezayir’e nakledilmesini rica ettikleri [Letter from the Andalusis to Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, requesting the relocation of the Muslims from Granada and other places in Andalusia to Algiers in order to escape the persecution of the Spanish].
Ottoman Archive. Ms A-DVNSMHM.d.23-19-244 Cezayir’de bulunan Endülüslü ve Medceli ulema ve hafız-ı Kuran olanlara da mahlul olunca cihet tevcih olunmasına dair Cezayir beylerbeyisine hüküm [Order to the Governor of Algiers to employ the Andalusi Ulema and Hafiz-al-Qur’an].
Portonaris y Ursino, Domingo. Actos de Cortes del Reino de Aragón. Zaragoza, 1584. https://bvpb.mcu.es/es/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.do?path=159154.
Ruiz-Bejarano, Bárbara. “La resistencia identitaria morisca en Aragón: la palabra y las armas.” In Identidades cuestionadas. Coexistencia y conflictos interreligiosos en el Mediterráneo (ss. XIV–XVIII), edited by Borja Franco, Bruno Pomara, Manuel Lomas and Bárbara Ruiz-Bejarano, 261–78. Valencia: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2016.
Sayari, Nizar and Hichem Rejeb. “Origine du paysage Andalou dans le nord-ouest tunisien.” Cahiers de la Méditeranée 79 (2009): 1–21. http://journals.openedition.org/cdlm/4934.
Tayeb Bara, Mohammed. “La cultura morisca y su importancia en el desarrollo de Argelia en el siglo XVII.” Revista Argelina 9 (2019): 25–39. https://doi.org/10.14198/RevArgel2019.9.03.
For the case of Ibn al-ʿAbbār after the fall of Valencia, see Ramzi Rouighi, The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate: Ifrīqiyā and its Andalusis, 1200–1400 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). For the relocations after the fall of Granada see Chakib Benafri, “La posición de la sublime puerta y de la regencia de Argel ante la rebelión de los moriscos granadinos (1568–1570): entre esperanza y decepción,” AREAS: Revista International de Ciencias Sociales 30 (2011): 141–46. In 1570 the Morisco xerife Hernando el Habaquí negotiated the exile of 25,000 to 30,000 Moriscos from Granada to Algiers; Haedo, who lived in Algiers between 1578 and 1581, states that “mudéjares y tagarinos” occupied 1,000 houses (Diego de Haedo, Topographía e historia general de Argel (Valladolid: Diego Fernández de Córdova y Oviedo, 1612). See also Sakina Missoum, “Andalusi Immigration and Urban Development in Algiers (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries),” in The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain: A Mediterranean Diaspora, ed. Mercedes García-Arenal and Gerard Wiegers (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 329–56; Samia Chergui, “Les morisques et l’effort de construction d’Alger aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles,” Cahiers de la Méditerranée 79 (2009): 303–17; and John Derek Latham, “Towards a Study of Andalusian Immigration and its Place in Tunisian History,” Cahiers de la Tunisie 5 (1957): 203–52.
Two members of the Yzquierdo family were already established in Marseille: see Jorge Gil Herrera and Luis F. Bernabé Pons, “The Moriscos Outside Spain: Routes and Financing,” in The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain: A Mediterranean Diaspora, ed. Mercedes García-Arenal and Gerard Wiegers (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 219–38. Jacqueline Fournel-Guérin, “Les morisques aragonais et l’Inquisition de Saragosse (1540–1620)” (PhD diss., Université Paul Valéry, 1980), 82, also mentions the connection between the Zambriels and the Yz- quierdos: Luis Zambriel of Rueda de Jalón (near Plasencia) was arrested because he performed the Islamic prayer together with Jaime Yzquierdo, who read the Qur’an for the occasion, and prayed for the freedom of Juan Compañero, another xerife, who was in jail at the time. His son, Juan Compañero menor, was arrested on his return from Algiers, and executed in 1582: “Juan Compañero murió como moro públicamente … Se ha conocido claramente el ánimo con que vino de Argel”; Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional [AHN], Inq., Libro 989, 6r. See also Carmen Barceló and Ana Labarta, Archivos moriscos. Textos árabes de la minoría islámica valenciana 1401–1608 (Valencia: PUV, 2009).
The passadores were hired to accompany groups across the Pyrenees: they knew the passes through the mountains and frequently also provided the escapees with horses.
See Lotfi Aïssa, Mohamed Aouini and Houssem Eddine Chachia, Entre las orillas de dos mundos: el itinerario del jerife morisco Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rafīʿ, de Murcia a Túnez (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2017); Haedo, Topographia; Chergui, Effort de construction; Luis F. Bernabé Pons, “La nación en lugar seguro: los moriscos hacia Túnez,” in Actas del Coloquio Internacional “Los moriscos y Túnez” Cartas de la Goleta, 2 (Tunis: Embajada de España, 2009), 107–18; Bernabé Pons, “Notas sobre la cohesión de la comunidad morisca más allá de su expulsión de España,” Al-Qanṭara 29, no. 2 (2008): 307–32; Missoum, Andalusi immigration; Melchor Zúñiga, Descripción y República de la ciudad de Argel. BNE, Ms 3227, n.d.; Nizar Sayari, and Hichem Rejeb, “Origine du paysage Andalou dans le nord-ouest tunisien,” Cahiers de la Méditeranée 79 (2009): 1–21; Mohammed Tayeb Bara, “La cultura morisca y su importancia en el desarrollo de Argelia en el siglo XVII,” Revista Argelina 9 (2019): 25–39.
Míkel de Epalza, “Les Ottomans et l’insertion au Maghreb des Andalous expulsés d’Espagne au XVII siécle,” Revue d’Histoire Maghrébine 31–32 (1983): 165–73.
“Los mataron y hizieron pedaços … y echaron a todos cinco en un pozo”; Archivo Histórico Provincial de Zaragoza [AHPZ], Inq. 27/5, 2r.
On 7 August 1559, the Inquisitors of Zaragoza sent letters to their familiares (spies and officers) and to the king, reporting on the incident and requesting a severe and exemplary punishment, so that the Moriscos would not feel entitled to take similar action in the future: “let everything be done in such a way that—since the ministers of the Holy Office might fear, after this grave and dreadful crime, to carry out their work with the freedom they need that is so necessary in these times—the delinquents and those of their nation, and others who hear of the matter, may understand that such a crime and offense will be punished publicly and with great force” (“que todo se haga de tal manera que pues del grave y atroz delicto que han cometido podrán quedar con algún temor los ministros del Sancto Officio para no poder exercer sus officios con la libertad que conbiene y es neçesaria principalmente en estos tiempos, los delinquentes y los de su nación y los demás que del negocio tubieron noticia entiendan que con toda demostraçion y rigor se castiga semejante delicto y afrentamiento”); AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 1r.
“… you inform us of the act committed by the converted Moors in the village of Plasencia, and how they entered the lands of Monsr. De Vandoma, and how now would be a good occasion to confiscate the arms of the newly converted of that kingdom” (“nos dais aviso del caso que cometieron los Moros convertidos del lugar de Plasencia y cómo se passaron en tierras de Monsr. De Vandoma, y como agora abría buena ocasión de quitar las armas a los nuevamente convertidos desse reyno [my emphasis]”); AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 4r.
“The said converts make it their business to convey arms, like arquebuses, pistols, shotguns, and crossbows, with their ammunition and equipment, to the Kingdom of Valencia, and from there they pass them on to Moorish lands … They make gunpowder and we hear that they make it in quantity, never selling any to Old Christians … They work as muleteers, placing loads of those weapons inside baskets of sardines” (“Dichos convertidos hazen officio de passar dichas armas, como son arcabuzes, pistoletes, escopetas y vallestas, con munitiones y aparejo para ellas, al Reyno de Valencia, y de allí las passan a tierra de moros … hazen pólvora y teniéndose noticia que hazen mucha cantidad, jamás venden della a christianos viejos … hazen officio de recueros con las cargas de las dichas armas puestas en cestos de sardinas”); AHN, Inq. 1213. “In 1559 … that familiar and notary, having reached the village, seized one of the converts; and when they had him detained many women came out and attacked the familiar violently with their teeth and fists, yanking at his beard to make him release the prisoner … Hearing their cries many converts emerged … with swords and arquebuses and shotguns and crossbows … The familiars and the notary had to flee the village” (“En 1559 … los quales familar y notario llegados al lugar prendieron uno de los dichos convertidos, y teniéndole presso salieron muchas mugeres y a bocados y puñadas y mesando las barbas del familiar le hizieron mucha fuerça para quitarle el presso … a las bozes que daban salieron muchos convertidos … con espadas, arcabuzes y escopetas y ballestas … los dichos familiares y notario del Sancto Officio se hubieron de salir huyendo del lugar”); AHN, Inq. 1213. “In the past year of 1564, when a familiar of the Holy Office was in a village called La Muela … many converts came out with shotguns and other weapons … They wounded the familiar such that he died after four or six days” (“En el passado de 1564 estando un familiar del Sancto Officio en un lugar llamado la Muela … salieron muchos convertidos con escopetas y otras armas … hirieron dicho familiar, de suerte que dentro de quatro o seis días murió”); AHN, Inq. 1213. “On 14 April 1602, Dominica in Albi[s] in the morning, Gaspar Méndez, a judge in this town of Calanda, was found dead. He had twenty- nine wounds in his body, as follows: on his head, four contused and very penetrating blows [made by] a club or a hoe; on his face, three stab wounds and two contused blows like those on his head, also his eyeballs pierced with espadrille needles and burst; on his hands, three stab wounds; on his back, eight wounds from an espadrille needle and a dagger; … on his neck, one dagger wound and fifteen from an espadrille needle … and two stab wounds in his belly” (“A 14 de abril de 1602 dominica in albi por la mañana se halló muerto Gaspar Méndez, justicia desta villa de Calanda. Tenía veynte y nuebe heridas en su cuerpo, de la manera siguiente: en la cabeza quatro golpes contussos y muy penetrantes de palo o azada, en la cara, tres puñaladas y dos golpes contussos, como los de la cabeza, y más los ojos punchados con agujas de partinero y reventados, en las manos tres cuchilladas, en las espaldas ocho heridas de aguja de parteñero, y de puñal … en el cuello una puñalada y quince heridas de aguja de parteñero … y en la barriga dos puñaladas”); APC Libro de los Difuntos de Calanda, 245r. The deaths of several officers of the Inquisition in Aragon are documented: in 1556 the death of a vicar who was a commissioner of the Holy Office; in 1564, of an officer in La Muela; in 1567, an officer in Muel; in 1588, the death of the familiar Juan de Salcedo in Jarque, and of another familiar in Codo; in 1589, another in Gotor; in 1591, in Calatayud; in 1598, two familiars (father and son) were killed in Azón; in 1598, Dionís Pascual, a guard of the Holy Office, was murdered by Moriscos in Torrellas after arresting a convert; in 1602 in Calanda, besides Gaspar Méndez, the fami-liar Juan López was killed. Ruiz-Bejarano, “La resistencia identitaria morisca en Aragón: la palabra y las armas,” in Identidades cuestionadas. Coexistencia y conflictos interreligiosos en el Mediterráneo (ss. XIV–XVIII) (Valencia: PUV, 2016).
“Considering the great number of Moriscos, the fact that they are so heavily armed and so enraged against the Old Christians, living in their mistaken and perverse sect without hope of their submission, [and] having dealings with Turks and heretics, and [we being] unable to expect from them anything but disturbance and rebellion … it seems necessary and even required to proceed to disarm them” (“considerando el número grande de los moriscos, el estar tan armados y encorajados con los christianos viejos, vivir en su errada y perversa secta, sin esperança de reduzirse, tener intelligencia con los Turcos y herejes, y no poderse esperar dellos sino una comoción y rebellión … parece que es necessario y casi forçoso atender a desarmarlos”); Archivo de la Corona de Aragón [ACA], Consejo de Aragón, L. 221/9.
“Because much gold has been taken from the Kingdom of Aragon by foreigners and others from the Kingdom, much harm has come to its subjects. Because His Majesty, by will of the court, decrees and orders that any person of any status, native or foreign to this kingdom, may not take gold bars out of the kingdom through Béarn or through France, on pain of losing them. Regarding gold coins, the kingdom’s deputies are empowered … to proceed legally … so that gold not be removed from this kingdom” (“Por haverse sacado mucho oro del Reyno de Aragón, por personas estrangeras y otras del Reyno, ha venido mucho daño a los regnícolas de aquél. Porque su Alteza, de voluntad de la corte statuece y ordena, que persona alguna de cualquier preeminencia, natural o estrangero del dicho reyno, no pueda sacar rieles de oro del reyno por Bearne, o por Francia, so pena de perderlos. Y quanto a la moneda de oro, se da facultad a los Diputados del Reyno … puedan proveer por capítulo y condición … a fin que oro del presente reyno no se saque”); Domingo Portonaris y Ursino, Actos de Cortes del Reino de Aragón, 1584, unpag. Decades after the Zambriel trial, after the expulsion of the Moriscos, the consequences of gold coin exports were felt in the kingdoms of the Aragonese Crown: “Experience has shown its pernicious effects in the kingdom of Valencia, finding themselves without silver or gold after the expulsion of the Moriscos, and with many counterfeit coins” (“La experiencia muestra su perdición del reino de Valencia, hallándose perdidos sin plata ni oro después de la expulsión de los moriscos, y con gran número de moneda de vellón falsa”); “The state of poverty that has resulted in all parts of this kingdom from the explusion of the Moriscos, all the population and pensioners throughout it left in a diminished state, as is well known” (“El miserable estado en que han quedado todos los estados de este reino con la expulsión de los moriscos, quedando todos los censos y juros que están repartidos en todos los estados y tan disminuidos cuanto es notorio”); José María Sánchez Molledo, “El pensamiento arbitrista en el Reino de Aragón en los siglos XVI y XVII” (PhD diss, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1986), 970. See also: Bernabé Pons, “Cohesión de la comunidad morisca”; Gil Herrera and Bernabé Pons, “The Moriscos Outside Spain.”
Soledad Carrasco Urgoiti, El problema morisco en Aragón al comienzo del reinado de Felipe II (Zaragoza: Centro de Estudios Mudéjares, 2010).
Antonio de Bardaxí had a considerable business. He bought, sold, exchanged, and was an intermediary and trafficker of horses. These operations took place in the fairs of Huesca, Barbastro, Monzón, and Sariñena, and at his house in Benasque. The operations of taking horses, gold, and fugitives to France were carried out by himself or members of his family: “On the other side of the frontier, the most common destinations for the horses he exported or helped to do so were Bagnères-de-Luchon and Toulouse” (“Al otro lado de la frontera, los destinos más corrientes de los caballos que pasaba o ayudaban a hacerlo eran Bagnères-de-Luchon y Toulouse”); see Pilar Sánchez Núñez, “Ribagorza a finales del siglo XVI. Notas sobre Antonio de Bardaxí y Rodrigo de Mur,” Cuadernos de Historia Jerónimo Zurita, 65–66 (1992): 37–52; William Monter, Frontiers of Heresy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 86–87; Bernabé Pons, “Cohesión de la comunidad morisca”; Gil Herrera and Bernabé Pons, “The Moriscos Outside Spain.”
Plasencia can refer to two different locations, Plasencia de Jalón (Zaragoza) or Plasencia del Monte (Huesca). The latter had been suggested by Carrasco (El problema morisco, 56). However, according to AHPZ Inq. 27/5, the location mentioned must be Plasencia de Jalón, near the villages of Bardallur and Bárboles. The document expressly mentions that the horses prepared for the escape of the Morisco fugitives were in the “camino de Plasencia a Bardallur, a dos leguas y media.” The arrest of a relative of the alfaquí, Luis Zambriel, of Bardallur, who escaped when about to be arrested, is also mentioned, as is the raid on the village from the neighbouring villages of Alagón and Grisén.
The five fugitives were Joan Zambriel the elder, Joan Zambriel the younger (his son), Alexandre Monferriz, Monferriz’s brother-in-law Joan Albengalí, and a Castilian Morisco named Martín Oçén, a servant of Adrián Albengalí.
This character (“Bandoma” in the ms.) may be Antoine de Bourbon-Vendôme, viscount of Béarn, duke of Vendôme, also king of Navarre (jure uxoris) through his marriage to Jeanne d’Albret (1555–62). The text clearly refers to the county of Béarn, where some of the villages mentioned in the document are located.
AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 6r.
“se dezía habían de yr a asolar el lugar”; AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 22v.
“esta bellaquería de Çambriel y sus hijos los tenía tan llenos de sentimiento y tristeza que no les havía quedado el entendimiento libre para pensar cosa buena y que dessean que, como dios sabe su limpieza, el mundo la entienda, que en toda la vida se hallara en ellos sombra de culpa en este caso, pero que querrían hazer obras por donde se vea que son perseguidores destos mal cristianados y que yo viesse lo que podían y devían hazer que a Francia, Castilla, Valencia y a qualquiere parte yrán con diligencias a hazer quanto se les mandare para que estos no se salven”; AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 49r.
Note that the aljama continued functioning as usual, with their council and adelantados or representatives.
“lo dan por bueno y prometen de cumplillo, y en esto tanta tribulación y lágrimas que paresció que eran los que hubieran de padesçer la culpa de tan infernal maldad”; AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 50r.
“the least suspicious [persons] that can be found, so that they keep an eye on whether some leave, and where they go; that they may then alert the familiars, who can go where they are to arrest them” (“las menos sospechosas que se puedan haber para que tengan ojo si se salen algunos y adonde van para que después den aviso a los familiares que yrian para que los vayan a prender a donde se hubiesen ydo”); AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 19r.
Carrasco Urgoiti, El problema morisco, 49–60.
“[El desarme] se comenzase a hacer en los lugares más sospechosos, como son Ricla, Villafeliche, Sestrica, Almonacid, Torrellas, los Fayos, Ejea, Calanda y otros semejantes”; ACA, Consejo de Aragón, L. 221, 81.
“en el lugar de Torrellas … sabe que se han ydo algunos de los dichos convertidos al principado de Arnés en Francia y a Valencia y su reino … sabe que los que se van, se van sin armas y muy disimuladamente, y que lo sabe esto porque se le an ydo algunos vasallos suyos desta manera, que si llevaran armas no lo pudieran hazer”; AHN, Letter from the Supreme Council to the Inquisitors of Zaragoza, 12 October 1559, 24v–27v.
“El año de 1538 … se fue del Reyno de Aragón con su muger, hijos y familia un convertido de quien se hazía mucho caudal, y con él se fueron también otros moriscos del mesmo Reyno y aportaron al Reyno de Valencia … imbiaron a un nuncio desde Sancto Officio a prenderlo, el qual nuncio con otro de la Inquisición de Valencia lo prendieron, y trayéndole presso, salieron al camino real muchos de los mesmos convertidos que deste mesmo Reyno se habían passado al de Valencia y mataron al nuntio desde Santo Officio y al otro de la Inquisición de Valentia lo hirieron muy mal, y les quitaron el presso y se lo llebaron … “teniendo este Santo Officio por comissario al vicario de un lugar de convertidos … los dichos convertidos le concivieron tanto odio que buscaron un morisco estrangero y, hallado, le dieron cierta cantidad porque matasse dicho comissario … en noviembre de 1556 el dicho morisco, conduzido por los dichos convertidos, mató dicho comissario”; AHN, Inq. L. 1213, ff. 212r–214v.
“En el mesmo año de 1559 … el dicho familiar lo prendió … salieron muchos de los convertidos del dicho lugar con arcabuzes y escopetas, y por fuerca … les quitaron el presso … mataron los tres familiares … y un muchacho criado de uno dellos … después de muertos les dieron tantos golpes, cuchilladas y estocadas, que los hizieron pedaços … Al vicario del mesmo lugar, que era comissario del Sancto Officio … lo degollaron, y después de degollado cada qual que más podía le dieron tantas cuchilladas y estocadas, que no dexa-ron cosa sana en su cuerpo … los dichos malhechores con el presso se fueron a un lugar de convertidos, y allí los recogieron y dieron provissión de lo que habían menester y los encaminaron para que se fuessen, como de hecho se fueron, a Francia, y de ay a tierra de moros.” This description matches the attempted arrest of Joan Zambriel; see ACA, Consejo de Aragón, Legajo 221, 81.
“Hernando del Castillo, que es el caudillo dellos hazia este lugar, anoche a medianoche, él y toda su casa y familia y allegados que en ella tenía, se han ido; el adonde no lo puedo saber por la brevedad.”
“porque ellos saben ya muy bien todos los pasos, y tienen muy buenos guías y grandes amigos así de un lado como del otro”; AHPZ Inq. 27/5, 138v.
“todos los que pasan, se pasan por orden del dicho Castillo. Y que él y sus hijos vienen acá a enseñar los puertos y esperar a los que se quieren pasar. Y que tiene ya allá más de quinientos convertidos, y que los deben proveer de acá, porque de continuo van muy bien ataviados”; AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 84v.
“antes que llegasse a Oloron fue a un lugar que se llama Pontacq donde halló más … convertidos de moros … hombres y mugeres … y tienen alquiladas unas casas … y este lugar está en Bearne”; AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 84r. This part of the document is not entirely legible.
“Diego el Viejo, de Torrellas, y el hijo de Zafar, el de Ambel, que se irán también dentro de pocos días donde el Caudillo”; AHPZ, Inq. 27/5, 138v. Covarrubias’s report is full of details: “The son of Zambriel, as you must have heard there, reached this place very badly wounded. With him was the eldest son of Hernando del Castillo, nicknamed El Calderero, and one or two others, I do not know their names or where they come from, and they stayed here only a short time … [I do not know] how they guard the passes, beause eight days ago a son of the Elder came from Torrellas (so you will know which of the two, I mean the older in years), with two others … from that kingdom and from Castile. Your Majesty should know that if they do not close completely all the passes from Bayonne to Perpignan, that is from sea to sea, they will not stop coming regularly, because they already know all the passes very well and have very good guides and great friends on both sides. Take note that Hernando del Castillo, who is their caudillo in this region, emptied out the village last night at midnight with all his household, his family and companions who were with him; it happened so quickly that I do not know where [they went] … They would not be safe here because of what had happened there, and even if they were, since friends from our side are so close to Spain, others would have them killed. Of all those who were here, only Diego the Elder from Torrellas and the son of Çafar from Ambel still remain, but I think that within a few days they too will go to join the Caudillo. And if they do not do it, it will be because they are expecting some others from over there. On all this I will report … when there is something to tell, and Our Lord, etc. In Oloron, Friday [?] July 1559.” (“Su hijo de Çambriel, como allá habrán sabido, llegó a este lugar harto mal herido y juntamente con él su hijo el mayor de Hernando del Castillo, que llaman el Calderero, y otro o otros dos, que no sé cómo se llaman ni de dónde son, y pararon aquí muy poco … Ni cómo cierran los puertos, porque de ocho días acá a benido de Torrellas un hijo del Viejo, y por q sepan de qual de los dos, del más viejo en hedad, y otros dos … dese reyno y del de Castilla, sepa V Mg que mientras no cerraren muy bien todos los puertos desde Bayona hasta Perpignan, qes de mar a mar, que no cesarán de venir hordinariamente, por q ellos saben ya muy bien todos los pasos y tienen muy buenas guías y grandes amigos así de un lado como del otro. Por abiso Hernando del Castillo, que es el Caudillo dellos, bazió este lugar anoche a media noche, porqél y toda su casa y familia y allegados q en ella tenía se an ydo; el adónde no lo puedo saber por la brevedad … Que aquí no estarían seguros por lo q ay abía acaezido y que quando lo estubiesen que estando tan cerca de España amigos de los nuestros, otros los harían matar. Solamente an quedado aquí de todos los que aquí abía Diego el Viejo de Torrellas y el hijo de Çafar el de Ambel, pero creo que se yrán también dentro de pocos días donde el Caudillo. Y q si no se hará presto que es por aguardar algunos de los de allá. De todo abisaré como … quando aya de qué, y ntro señor etc, Olorón, viernes [?] de julio de 1559”).
See Mª Carmen Ansón Calvo, “La actividad inquisitorial aragonesa en el reinado de Felipe II y su repercusión en los súbditos moriscos,” in Felipe II (1598–1998), Europa dividida, la monarquía católica de Felipe II, coord. José Martínez Millán (Madrid: Parteluz, 1998), 3: 11–36. Ansón Calvo, Torrellas. Del esplendor morisco a la decadencia y la tendencia a su recuperación (Torrellas: Ayuntamiento, 2014).
Jaime Yzquierdo was also a Morisco leader: “Parece que con haber relajado a este [Jayme Izquierdo], que era tenido por caudillo de los moriscos …”; Fournel-Guérin, “Les morisques aragonais,” 83.
See Ansón Calvo, Torrellas, 224: “Zaydejos travelled to Valencia, visited Segorbe, and remained for some time in Valencian lands, where he made contact with some prominent Moriscos, returning furtively and briefly to Aragon in July 1577. Then he left his wife there and, after paying a hundred ducats to a guide, he left via Roncesvalles, arriving at Pau, where he dealt with some matters with a Lutheran captain, as reported by an Inquisition spy. Then he traveled to Marseille to seek Martín Izquierdo, a leader of the Morisco plots … (“Zaydejos viajó a Valencia, estuvo en Segorbe y permaneció un tiempo en tierras valencianas, donde conectó con otros destacados moriscos, regresando furtiva y brevemente a Aragón en julio de 1577. Después, dejó a su mujer en tierras aragonesas y, tras pagar cien ducados a quién le sirvió de guía, salió por Roncesvalles, llegó a Pau, donde según un espía de la Inquisición trató determinados negocios con un capitán de luteranos, después fue a Marsella para conocer si estaba ya allí Martín Izquierdo, un líder de los complots moriscos …”).
The so-called Morisco “ruta de Venecia” included two main destinations: Ottoman territory and its regencies. Luce López-Baralt and Awilda Irizarry, “Dos itinerarios secretos de los moriscos del siglo XVI (los manuscritos aljamiados 774 de la Biblioteca Nacional de París y T-16 de la Real Academia de la Historia),” in Homenaje a D. Álvaro Galmés de Fuentes (Madrid: Gredos, 1985), 547–82.
AHPZ Inq. 27/5, 84v.
“los que están en Carcasón y dos y el Zambriel se fueron el domingo passado y han quedado los dos jóvenes que son de Alcalá”; These two Castilians mentioned had followed a different route, but eventually joined Zambriel’s party.
“… que aguardan el dinero que os escribí … Estos dos de Alcalá tengo indicios que se fueron de sus casas por Vizcaya, y en San Sebastián, en Fontarrabia, se embarcaron por mar, que no hay sino un pequeño estrecho de agua, se fueron a Bayona, y de Bayona aquí, en busca de Castillo, y como no lo han hallado, fueron a Zambriel, como ya tengo escrito. Siempre estoy en que llevan el camino de Venecia, por los pasos y tierras que tengo escrito”; AHPZ Inq. 27/5, 200r.
Gil Herrera and Bernabé Pons, “The Moriscos Outside Spain,” 216.
Elías Amézaga, Auto de fe en Valladolid (Bilbao: Gráficas Ellacuría, 1966), 506: “relaxado en estatua por hereje apóstata y profesor de la secta mahometana.”
“All in all, the five cited tribunals of the Secretariat of Aragon [Barcelona, Logroño, Sicily, Valencia, and Zaragoza] in the period from 1540 to 1700 charged 7,003 Moriscos … of whom the Zaragoza tribunal charged 16.57% of the cases per year” (“En conjunto, los cinco tribunales citados de la Secretaría de Aragón, en el periodo temporal de 1540 a 1700, encausaron a 7.003 moriscos … de los que el Tribunal de Zaragoza lo hizo sobre 16,57% de casos por año”): Ansón Calvo, “Actividad inquisitorial aragonesa,” 14. See also Mª Pilar Sánchez López, “Organización y jurisdicción inquisitorial: el Tribunal de Zaragoza: 1568–1646,” (PhD diss., Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, 1989).
The Franco-Ottoman alliance seems to have played a role in the Moriscos’ passage through Provence. The king of France appointed Honoré Aymar to organize the movements of the expelled Moriscos, who were led by Gabriel Yzquierdo and Luis Zapata. In September 1610 they collected funds to help their poorer Muslim coreligionists to embark, and chartered three ships bound for Tunis. In a similar episode in Toulon, more prosperous Moriscos also helped those less fortunate. Ships were prepared to transfer about 300 Moriscos, 172 of whose passages were paid for by wealthy Moriscos in Toulon: Pierre Santoni, “Le passage des morisques en Provence,” Provence Historique 46, no. 185 (1996): 333–83.
Bernabé Pons, “La nación en lugar seguro,” 116.
Rouighi, Mediterranean Emirate.
Rouighi, Mediterranean Emirate, 127–28.
Rouighi, Mediterranean Emirate, 127–28.
Rouighi, Mediterranean Emirate, 136.
Édith Garnier, L’alliance impie. Éditions du Felin, 2008.
Gerard Wiegers, “Managing Disaster: Networks of the Moriscos during the Process of the Expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula,” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 36, no. 2 (2010): 141–68; Bernabé Pons, “Notas sobre la cohesión”; Houssem Eddine Chachia, “La instalación de los moriscos en el Maghreb: entre el relato oficial y el relato morisco,” in Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Descendientes de Andalusíes Moriscos (Ojós: Ayuntamiento, 2015), 125–42.
Francisco Velasco Hernández, Corsarismo, piratería y guerra costera en el sureste español (Cartagena: Nova Spartaria, 2019), 131 (table).
“Este reo pasaba y guiaba a los demás a Francia, y que dijo en presencia de los testigos, había pasado y guiado a Francia otros nuevos convertidos, y que guiaría a todos los que pudiese, pagándoselo por ganar su vida”; Fournel-Guérin, “Les morisques aragonais,” 120.
“es necessario tener un comissario en Aranda … por ser lugar de frontera de Castilla por donde se suelen yr algunos convertidos … En Montalbán … está esta partida en la raya de Valencia y por donde hazen su camino los convertidos que van deste Reyno al de Valencia para de allí yrse a tierra de moros … Calpe está … todo despoblado y por la parte baxa tiene a Maella, Fabara y otros muchos lugares que confrontan con Cathaluña, y por esta partida se passan muchos convertidos deste Reyno a Valencia y Cathaluña, y de allí a tierra de moros … [Hay] señaladamente dos pueblos, todos de convertidos de moros, que el uno se dize Calanda, que es cerca de quinientos vezinos, y el otro Foz, que tendrá ciento y cincuenta, y como están remotos y apartados de las otras partidas donde ay comissarios, es muy necessario haberle en Alcañiz … y ser la parte donde acuden casi todas las cuadri-llas de moriscos que desde Reyno se van, y donde se receptan y recogen todos los que de tierra de moros bienen a llevarlos”; Carrasco Urgoiti, El problema morisco, 160–64.
Gerónimo Fénix and Juan de Fénix appeared in the 1567 Auto de fe for this crime.
Fournel-Guérin, “Les morisques aragonais,” 95–96.
There is still little information on the Morisco communities established in Turkey. For those established in Istanbul and Salonica see Tijana Krstić, “Moriscos in Ottoman Galata, 1609–1620s,” in The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain: A Mediterranean Diaspora, ed. M. García-Arenal and G. Wiegers (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 269–87.
“Pedro el corto, morisco de Puybolea, Huesca, acompañó otras tres cuadrillas de convertidos que se passaban en Francia y de ay a tierra de moros por dineros que le dieron … Joan Serrano, de Plasencia … porque con otros moriscos se passaban en Francia y de allí a tierra de moros a vivir como moro … Miguel Caxal, de Urrea de Xalón, que se iba con sus padres y otros deste reyno contra los edictos del Santo Officio y fueron presos en Navarra, más allá de Pamplona, confesó que se iba a Francia y de allí a morisma … Jerónimo Burguera, de Plasenzia, por haber llebado en su carro una quadrilla de convertidos hombres y mugeres, y passado desste reyno al de Navarra, y fue presso en Pamplona y dixo que no sabía que fuessen a otra parte sino a Pamplona, porque para allí lo alquilaron … Lorente Montero Mayor, de Urrea de Xalón, es de los que se passavan en Francia … Pedro de Cortes, de Urrea de Xalón, cabeza y caudillo de una de las quadrillas de convertidos que se iban a Francia y fueron presos más allá de Pamplona. confeso que iba a tierra de moros y haver vivido como moro … Amador Abijuesque, estando culpado en dicho caso de haver traydo un quartago de Urrea para uno de los matadores se yba en la dicha quadrilla, fue preso y confeso lo dicho que se iba a morisma a renegar la fe de Xto … Jerónimo Benamir, de Rueda de Xalón … Francisco Elmideo, de Urrea de Xalón, iban en la quadrilla y llevando consigo dos hijos suyos pequeños, confesó que se iba a tierra de moros y haver hecho obras de moro … Isabel de Ceuta, mujer del dicho Pedro de Cortes, que se iba con su marido a tierra de moros … Maria la Albengala, viuda, convertida del dicho lugar de Urrea, iba en la quadrilla a morisma; Candida la Ceutina, hija de la dicha viuda, ídem … Lorente Montero, menor, hijo de convertidos, de dicho lugar, iba en la quadrilla a Francia; fue preso en Navarra antes de llegar a Pamplona; Miguel de Granada, hermanastro de dicho Montero, preso con la dicha quadrilla, Jerónimo Granada, hermano de dicho Miguel, ídem; Anna de Abenragua, mujer de Lorente Montero mayor … Francisco Coscullar, de Cadret, yendose a Francia fue preso … confesó iba a tierra de moros, hallóse estar retajado, después revocó lo que tenía confesado y persistió siempre en su revocado sin dar causa legítima dello … relaxado al braço seglar”; AHN, Inquisición, L.988: Memoria de las personas que salieron en el acto de fe que se hizo en Çaragoça en el séptimo dia del mes de junio anyo mil quinientos quarenta y nueve, ff. 30v–106r.
AHN, Inq, L. 962, 98r (29 October 1560).
“Pocos días ha que en otra que escribimos a los señores del consejo dimos quenta cómo gran número de conbertidos de moros deste reyno honbres y mugeres se pasavan en Francia para dende alli yrse en tierra de moros a renegar [?] la Fe … Fueron alcançadas dos quadrillas. Dellos la una desta parte de Pamplona dos o tres leguas y la otra pasada Pamplona … q serán asta treinta personas la quadrilla … A lo que se dize asta nobecientos escudos o más.” Note the reference to the removal of gold coins from the kingdom. The escudo was a Castilian coin, for in this period Aragonese currency was beginning its decline. See Javier Santiago Fernández, “Moneda y fiscalidad en Castilla durante el siglo XVI,” in IV Jornadas Científicas sobre Documentación de Castilla e Indias en el siglo XVI, ed. J.C. Galende Díaz (Madrid: UCM, 2005). The approximate value of one escudo was today’s €80 (hence, 900 escudos would be about €72,000): Bárbara Ruiz-Bejarano, “Praxis islámica de los musulmanes aragoneses a partir del corpus aljamiado-morisco y su confrontación con otras fuentes contemporáneas” (PhD diss., Universidad de Alicante, 2015), 589. See also Gil Herrera and Bernabé Pons, “The Moriscos Outside Spain.”
“Inmediatamente después del bautizo, hubo quince familias de moriscos arevalenses que se marcharon de la villa; unas se asentaron en Berbería (concretamente en Tetuán y en Fez) y otras en Granada … el mercader Gabriel Cordero, que fue relajado por el Santo Oficio en ese año por participar en una red clandestina de moriscos que llevaba gente a Argel o Salónica … Gaspar Andado … participa muy activamente en la estructura clandestina de los moriscos de Valladolid en 1565: era el encargado de facilitar la huida de los que escapaban de la Inquisición, ofreciéndoles un lugar provisional donde escon-derse y después dinero y otros recursos para escapar”; Serafín Tapia Sánchez, “Las élites de la comunidad morisca de Arévalo. Redes sociales y formación de liderazgos,” in De la alquería a la aljama, ed. A. Echevarría and A. Fábregas (Madrid: UNED, 2016), 457; “… saben que de Arévalo iban y venían a Valencia y llevaban cartas para Argel y siempre les encaminaba un morisco de allí que se llama Miguel Bori y que un hermano suyo que allí reside va y viene a Valencia con las cartas para Argel y aún pasa allá con avisos … los años pasados se pasaron a Salonique por Venecia algunos moriscos con sus mujeres de Valladolid, Palencia y Burgos, por no poderse pasar a Argel”; Tapia, “Las élites,” 464.
There are some pioneering works on the matter, such as Epalza, “Les Ottomans”; Benafri, “La posición de la sublime puerta.”
Chakib Benafri, “Endūlūs’te son mūslūman kalintisi morisko’larin cezayirè göçü ve OsmanlıYardimi (1492–1624)” (PhD diss., Hacettepe Üniversitesis Ankara, 1989), 213. Besides Benafri, other authors have contributed with data on the Andalusi settlements in the Ottoman regencies of Africa: see Nacereddine As-Saidouni, Le waqf en Algérie à l’époque ottomane. Recueil de recherches sur le waqf (Kwait: Awqaf Public Foundation of Kuwait, 2009), chapter “Les waqfs des Andalous en Algérie d’après les documents des archives algeriénnes,” 192–210.
“Algunos de los nuestros fueron a escondidas al Magreb y otros a Oriente medio … ; algunos de nuestros correligionarios fueron a Belgrado, en la provincia de la gran Constantinopla, el alfaquí Abū al-ʿAbbas se reunió con el magnífico ministro, el difunto Murād Pacha, uno de los ministros de su alteza Sultán el magnífico y el Khan mayor, el difunto Sultán Aḥmed Khan que procede del linaje de los Otomanos … y le informó de la situación lamentable y crítica de nuestros correligionarios andalusíes en Francia y en otros países. El ministro … escribió con la autorización del Sultán—que Dios le hace prevalecer sobre sus enemigos—al rey de Francia—que Dios lo destruya—dándole órdenes para llevar a los andalusíes y a los súbditos otomanos que estaban allí en barcos suyos hacia los países musulmanes”; Aïssa, Aouini and Chachia, Entre las orillas de dos mundos, 109–39.
“Que los bienes de los moriscos se me entreguen, y en las cartas del rey dice y manda que lo que haze es a honra del Gran Señor”; Ms D 565 Bologna, 168r, quoted in Juan Penella, “Los moriscos españoles emigrados al norte de África después de la expulsión” (PhD diss., Universidad de Barcelona, 1975).
Gilbert Meynier, “Vers l’heure ottoman,” in L’Algérie, coeur du Maghreb classique. De l’ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (698–1518) (Paris: La Découverte, 2010), 313: “Cherchell, ville antique quelque peu à l’abandon, est conquise par les frères [Barberousse, ca. 1516] … [elle] sera en grande partie repeuplée par des Andalous.”
“Sargel era famosa por la rica madera de sus bosques, y en ella se hallaba instalada una nutrida colonia de moriscos españoles, encargados tanto de construirlos [los barcos] como de manejarlos.” Velasco, Corsarismo, 254.
Haedo, Topographia, 51r: “este lugar de Sargell … los vecinos y habitadores dél (los cuales eran todos, como son hoy día, moriscos huidos de Granada, Valencia y Aragón, y que también se daban mucho al corso con fragatas y bergantines, como ahora también hacen; y siendo pláticos y nacidos en España, hacían grandísimos robos y daños en toda su costa y marina).”
Ottoman Archives, Ms 3154/1: “Endülüs’deki Arapların Kanuni Sultan Süleyman’a gönderdikleri arzuhal; Endülüs’ün Gırnata vesair beldelerinde bulunan müslümanları spanyolların zulmünden kurtarmak için Cezayir’e nakledilmesini rica ettikleri” (Letter from the Andalusis to Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, requesting the relocation of the Muslims from Granada and other places in Andalusia to Algiers in order to escape the persecution of the Spanish). I have to thank Mr. Jassim Salem Al Ansari (QASD Foundation) and Dr. Ersin Adigüzel (Yunus Emre Enstitüsü) for their help in locating, scanning, and translating some of the Ottoman Archives, particularly the collections containing the decrees of the Ottoman sultans.
Chergui, Effort de construction, 304.
Chergui, Effort de construction, 311.
“… moro siendo español como lo es que le han dado preminencia de turco”; Zúñiga, Descripción y República, 128r.
Chergui, Effort de construction, 313: “il manque seulement celui qui fasse les azulejos qu’ils ramènent du Levant,” quoique les morisques aient tenté d’introduire cette fabrication”; “les exilés d’al-Andalus avaient amplement contribué à l’essor de l’industrie de la céramique qui s’était établie au voisinage de leur quartier d’al-Qallâlîn.”
“con su oficio ha ilustrado la ciudad con tantas fuentes que apenas ay calle donde no ay agua”; Zúñiga, Descripción y República, 127v.
“en las fortificaciones y muelle, que todo está a su cargo”; Zúñiga, Descripción y República, 127v.
“el fundidor, que es asimismo español de los expulsos, ha sacado algunos cañones de acero, no con la perfección que los deseara, mas es el cuidado que en esto ponen tan grande, que a poco tendrán los oficios que hayan menester para éste género, porque de más de las honras que les hacen … todos los que son de algún oficio se llaman maestros, por darles aquella honra”; Zúñiga, Descripción y República, 127v.
“hazen también … así de escopetas, como de alfanjes, flexas, arcos, otros que hazen los carcaxes y sus tiras para tirar los arcos”; Zúñiga, Descripción y República, 127v.
“Ejercitan estos muchos y diversos oficios, porque todos saben algún arte. Unos hacen arcabuces, otros pólvora, otros salitres, otros son herreros … y otros semejantes oficios y artes”; Haedo, Topographia, 9r.
Sayari and Rejeb, “Origine du paysage andalou.”
Tayeb Bara, “Cultura morisca.”
“Ay muchas viñas de una naturaleza y fertilidad; i vides que trepan y enlazan los mas empinados árboles … An sido dichas viñas plantadas por los Moros expulsados de Granada; porque antes no solo no las plantaran, sino que desceparan las que avían plantado los Christianos, haciendo servir a los campos para otras cosechas”; Míkel de Epalza, Los moriscos antes y después de la expulsión (Madrid: Mapfre, 1992), 150.
Onofre Vaquer Bennasar, Captius i renegats al segle XVII. Mallorquins captius entre musulmans, renegats davant la Inquisició de Mallorca (Palma: El Tall, 2014), 167–68.
Such was the case of the Zafar family, with brothers who lived in Aragon and Algiers: Ángel Conte Cazacarro, “La inquisición y los moriscos de la ciudad de Huesca,” in Homenaje a Don Antonio Durán Gudiol (Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses, 1995), 217.
“The silk industry in sixteenth-century Granada was not just a source of royal taxation, or a luxury good for the rich elite of Spain. It was a part of the everyday life of Moriscos throughout the kingdom of Granada who worked hard to harvest mulberry leaves, cultivate silkworms, spin and dye raw silk thread, and weave silk cloth. Silk was produced in Morisco homes, where silk production was one of a variety of activities”; Elizabeth Woodhead Nutting, “Vivir por la seda. Morisca Women, Household Economies, and the Silk Industry in the Kingdom of Granada, 1400–1570” (MA diss., University of Texas, 2010), 49–50.
“La production de soie relevait du monopole des tisserands morisques (harrârîn), lesquels fournissaient à l’État l’une des plus importantes recettes fiscales. L’industrie textile (fabrication de bonnets: shwâshî) se trouvait, elle aussi, aux mains de cette diaspora; elle s’était considérablement développée pendant le XVIIe siècle. Les professions de couturier ou de tailleur (khayyât), celle de fabricant de babouche (bâbûjî) et celle de parfumeur (‛attâr) formaient trois autres métiers couramment exercés par ces derniers, qui trouvaient, par ailleurs, dans le rachat de captifs chrétiens une source de recette fructueuse”; Chergui, Effort de construction, 306.
“Dexando a su hermano segundo Cheredin … en Argel … se puso en camino con no más que hasta mil turcos escopeteros y quinientos moriscos andaluces de Granada, Aragón, Valencia, que de toda Berbaría se iban cada día recogiendo a vivir en la ciudad de Argel, por hallarse bien con los turcos, de los cuales recibían paga de soldados para la guerra, los cuales moriscos están también todos arcabuceros”; Haedo, Topographia, 53v.
“La principale force du Royaume consiste en dix mil soldats, entretenus en ceste ville, tant en pai qu’en guerre, sçavoir, six mil Ianissaires … & mil Morisques Grenadins ou Tagarins”; Brèves, Relation des voyages, 359.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Renata Holod, Antillio Petruccioli and André Raymond, The City in the Islamic World (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 435.
Khadra, Holod, Petruccioli and Raymond, The city, 652.
Luis Alberto Anaya Hernández, “La invasión de 1618 en Lanzarote y sus repercusiones socioeconómicas,” in IV Coloquio de Historia Canario Americana (1984), (Las Palmas: Cabildo Insular, 1987), 191–224.
“Los principales Arraezes que iban con él, eran Sala Raez (que después fué Rey de Argel) y Xaban Raez, Tabaca Raez, Haradin Raez, Isuf Raez; los cuales, después de haber tomado alguna gente y navíos por aquellas Islas y por la costa de España, siendo avisados de ciertos moriscos del Reino de Valencia, y del estado del Conde de Oliva, que se querían pasar en Barbaría a vivir en la ley de moros, con sus hijos y mujeres, y que si los querían pasar, que pagarían una suma grande de dineros, fueron los dichos cosarios dello contentos. Y una noche embarcaron junto a Oliva, más de doscientos destos moriscos, y luego se hicie-ron a la mar con ellos y a la vuelta de la Isla de Formentera”; Haedo, Topographia, 56r–v.
Emrah Safa Gürkan, “The centre and the frontier: Ottoman cooperation with the North African corsairs in the sixteenth century,” Turkish Historical Review 1 (2010): 134.
Ottoman Archives – Osmanlı Arşivleri, A-DVNSMHM.d.23-19-244: “Cezayir’de bulunan Endülüslü ve Medceli ulema ve hafız-ı Kuran olanlara da mahlul olunca cihet tevcih olunmasına dair Cezayir beylerbeyisine hüküm.” (Note the coding system for the Ottoman Archives: book number, page number, and decree number).
Dimitris Kastritsis, “Ferīdūn Beg’s Münşeʾātü’s-Selāṭīn (‘Correspondence of Sultans’) and Late Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Views of the Political World,” in Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, edited by Sahar Bazzaz, Yota Batsaki, and Dimiter Angelov (Harvard: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2013).
Missoum, Andalusi immigration, 334.
Missoum, Andalusi immigration, 337.
Benafri, “La posición de la sublime puerta.”
“Se habían instalado en Túnez unas 7,000–8,000 familias de moriscos, es decir, por lo menos unos 40,000 individuos”; Penella, “Los moriscos españoles emigrados.”
Martine Ravillard, “Los moriscos en Berbería,” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 30, no. 2 (1981): 617–29.
Istambul, Archive of Topkapi Palace [TSMA] Ms 3154/1. 10 Shaaban 948/December 1541.
“Sultan of the Two Continents, Emperor of the Two Seas” was the title adopted by Mehmed II in 1478 and used by his successors, Bayezid II (1481–1512), Selim I (1512–20), and Suleyman I (1520–66).