Spain
Moriscos were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown obliged, under threat of death, to convert to Christianity or self-exile after Spain outlawed the open practice of Islam by its sizeable Muslim population (termed mudéjar) in the early 16th century.
The government distrusted Moriscos and between 1609 and 1614 began to expel them systematically from the various kingdoms of the united realm.
They were marginalised and persecuted for more than a century before the Spanish state decided they were incapable of becoming “good and faithful” Christians – but they still considered themselves Spaniards even when they were dumped on the beaches of north Africa.
The most severe expulsions occurred in the eastern Kingdom of Valencia.
The exact number of Moriscos present in Spain prior to expulsion is unknown and can only be guessed on the basis of official records of the edict of expulsion.
The large majority of those permanently expelled settled on the western fringe of the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Morocco.
The last mass prosecution against Moriscos for crypto-Islamic practices occurred in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences.
