The Moriscos were subject to systematic expulsions from Spain's various kingdoms between 1609 and 1614, the most severe of which 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. Furthermore, the overall success of the expulsion is subject to academic debate with estimates on the proportion of those who avoided expulsion or returned to Spain ranging from 5% to 60%. 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. From then on, the practice of Islam by Spain's indigenous[dubious – discuss] population was considered to have been effectively extinguished in Spain.
The backstory . . .
The surrender of Granada in 1492 . . .
Islam has been present in Spain since the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the eighth century. At the beginning of the twelfth century, the Muslim population in the Iberian Peninsula — called "Al-Andalus" by the Muslims — was estimated to number as high as 5.5 million, among whom were Arabs, Berbers and indigenous converts. In the next few centuries, as the Christians pushed from the north in a process called reconquista, the Muslim population declined. At the end of the fifteenth century, the reconquista culminated in the fall of Granada and the total number of Muslims in Spain was estimated to be between 500,000 and 600,000 out of the total Spanish population of 7 to 8 million. Approximately half of the Muslims lived in the former Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state in Spain, which had been annexed to the Crown of Castile. About 20,000 Muslims lived in other territories of Castile, and most of the remainder lived in the territories of the Crown of Aragon.
The Christians called the defeated Muslims who came in their rule the Mudéjars. Prior to the completion of the Reconquista, they were generally given freedom of religion as terms of their surrender. 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.
When Christian conversion efforts on the part of Granada's first archbishop, Hernando de Talavera, were less than successful, Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros took stronger measures: with forced conversions, burning Islamic texts, and prosecuting many of Granada's Muslims. In response to these and other violations of the Treaty, Granada's Muslim population rebelled in 1499. The revolt lasted until early 1501, giving the Castilian authorities an excuse to void the terms of the Treaty for Muslims. In 1501 the terms of the Treaty of Granada protections were abandoned.
"Following the forcible conversion of the Andalusī Muslims of Granada in 1501, similar edicts of conversion were promulgated that forced the Muslims populations of Castile (1502), Navarre (1515) and the Crown of Aragón (1526) to convert to Christianity, thereby criminalizing Islam as a public religion in the Iberian peninsula for the first time in 800 years."
"The new population of New Christians, as they were called, were referred to (derogatorily) as Moriscos. The Spanish government as well as the Church and Inquisition threatened any who continued to adhere to Islam—in any shape or form—with the death penalty, which usually meant being burned at the stake."
"Despite this legislation, many (perhaps even most) of these individuals held firm to their former beliefs, practicing dissimulation (taqīyyah)—a practice legitimized by a 1504 fatwa by the Mufti of Oran Ahmad ibn Abī Juma‘a—and adhering in secret to their cultural and religious practices. Those who were discovered were subjected to interrogation and torture by the Inquisition before being executed; at least several thousand individuals were subjected to this over the course of the sixteenth century. Around 1566/1567, additional legislation was introduced that essentially banned many of the cultural practices of the Andalusīs, including their dress, names, traditional festivals, and even dances, while any use of the Arabic language itself, whether written or spoken, was officially criminalized. This coincided with an increasing amount of repression against the Moriscos in Granada, where, along with the Kingdom of Valencia, one of the biggest Andalusī communities in Spain resided."
From: "The Royal Edict of Expulsion (1609) and the Last Andalusi Muslims (“Moriscos”) of Spain"
A hidden existence?
During and following the Reconquista of Spain and Portugal, Morisco women donned traditional veils and heavy layers of clothing reminiscent of their Moorish roots and appeared to go about their lives as newly minted Catholics. But their existence was much like their clothing, shrouded from full view, at once both familiar and foreign. Their presence reminded the Castilians that there were limits to the control of Morisco cultural and religious devotion. It was an idea that both attracted and repelled, creating with it a sort of mystique.
Encapsulated in Morisco veiling, Castilian women took up the practice, adopting it to their own uses evolving into tapadas, a type of veiling that covered the entire face, leaving only a single eye exposed.1 Interestingly enough, Castilian women who popularized the style embraced the same two-fold experience, becoming enticingly exotic yet threatening. More importantly, women dressed in tapadas found freedom in the act of veiling, a sense that through hiding they maintained an internal freedom. Morisco women found much the same sense of internal sovereignty with the act of covering their bodies and faces, which reflected their hidden lives.
Once part of the dominant ruling culture of the region, Morisco’s came to occupy a peripheral existence that inspired an excess of suspicion and hostility from Castilian Catholics. The suspicion was not entirely unfounded. Within the home, Morisco mothers continued to teach traditions as well as the Arabic language. Publicly, the adherence to Christian practices took the place of Muslim worship, but not necessarily within the home. But this activity came with great risk. Under the culture of the Inquisition, Moriscos who were found to practice Islam were questioned, usually under torture and executed. It went beyond mere religion, reading and writing in Arabic and later donning traditional Morisco clothing could result in execution. By the mid-16th century, Morisco society could only exist in increasingly smaller confines. The dwindling space had occurred slowly with the erosion of the Caliphate. It was a reflection of the very space of an empire turned kingdom, then eaten up by Christendom until it no longer existed at all. Even before the completion of the Reconquista, the sense of Moorish loss resounded in the formerly great Caliphate as a harbinger of Morisco fate.Revolt: Morisco Women on the Way to Alpujarras, April 3, 2017 by K.P. Kulski
Either convert or be expelled!
In 1501 Castilian authorities delivered an ultimatum to Granada's Muslims: they could either convert to Christianity or be expelled. Most did convert, in order not to have their property and small children taken away from them. Many continued to dress in their traditional fashion, speak Arabic, and secretly practiced Islam (crypto-Muslims). The 1504 Oran fatwa provided scholarly religious dispensations and instructions about secretly practicing Islam while outwardly practicing Christianity. With the decline of Arabic culture, many used the aljamiado writing system, i.e., Castilian or Aragonese texts in Arabic writing with scattered Arabic expressions. In 1502, Queen Isabella I of Castile formally rescinded toleration of Islam for the entire Kingdom of Castile. In 1508, Castilian authorities banned traditional Granadan clothing. With the 1512 Spanish invasion of Navarre, the Muslims of Navarre were ordered to convert or leave by 1515.
However, King Ferdinand, as ruler of the Kingdom of Aragon, continued to tolerate the large Muslim population living in his territory. Since the crown of Aragon was juridically independent of Castile, their policies towards Muslims could and did differ during this period. 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. However, the landed elite's exploitation of Aragon's Muslims also exacerbated class resentments. In the 1520s, when Valencian guilds rebelled against the local nobility in the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, the rebels "saw that the simplest way to destroy the power of the nobles in the countryside would be to free their vassals, and this they did by baptizing them." The Inquisition and monarchy decided to prohibit the forcibly baptized Muslims of Valencia from returning to Islam. Finally, in 1526, King Charles V issued a decree compelling all Muslims in the crown of Aragon to convert to Catholicism or leave the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal had already expelled or forcibly converted its Muslims in 1497 and would establish its own Inquisition in 1536).
In Granada for the first decades after the conversion, the former Muslim elites of the former Emirate became the middlemen between the crown and the Morisco population. They became alguaciles, hidalgos, courtiers, advisors to the royal court and translators of Arabic. They helped collect taxes (taxes from Granada made up one-fifth of Castile's income) and became the advocates and defenders of the Moriscos within royal circles. Some of them became genuine Christians while others secretly continued to be Muslims. The Islamic faith and tradition were more persistent among the Granadan lower class, both in the city and in the countryside. The city of Granada was divided into Morisco and Old Christian quarters, and the countryside often have alternating zones that are dominated by Old or New Christians. Royal and Church authorities tended to ignore the secret but persistent Islamic practice and tradition among the population.
Outside Granada, the role of advocates and defenders were taken by the Morisco's Christian lords. In areas with high Morisco concentration, such as the Kingdom of Valencia and certain areas of other kingdoms, former Muslims played an important role in the economy, especially in agriculture and craft. Consequently, the Christian lords often defended their Moriscos, sometimes to the point of being targeted by the Inquisition. For example, the Inquisition sentenced Sancho de Cardona, the Admiral of Aragon to life imprisonment after he was accused of allowing the Moriscos to openly practice Islam, build a mosque and openly made the adhan (call to prayer). The Duke of Segorbe (later Viceroy of Valencia) allowed his vassal in the Vall d'Uixó to operate a madrassa. A witness recalled one of his vassals saying that "we live as Moors and no one dares to say anything to us". A Venetian ambassador in the 1570s said that some Valencian nobles "had permitted their Moriscos to live almost openly as Mohammedans."
In 1567, Philip II directed Moriscos to give up their Arabic names and traditional dress, and prohibited the use of the Arabic language.
In addition, the children of Moriscos were to be educated by Catholic priests. The reaction was a Morisco uprising in the Alpujarras from 1568 to 1571.
During the course of this rebellion, thousands of Moriscos openly repudiated Christianity, took up arms against the Spanish government and sought the aid of the Ottomans. The rebellion was one of the most violent affairs of the sixteenth century. Various atrocities were committed by the rebels against Christians—including many Andalusīs who had embraced Christianity—and priests were particularly singled out as a symbol of the Inquisition. 
As a result of this rebellion, the King of Spain, Philip II (r. 1556–1598) dispatched his half-brother Don Juan of Austria (d. 1578) to Granada to pacify the region. The uprising was brutally suppressed by Don Juan of Austria after nearly three years. One of his worst atrocities was to raze the town of Galera, to the east of Granada, and to sprinkle it with salt, having slaughtered 2,500 people, including 400 women and children.Following the rebellion, during which tens of thousands of Moriscos and Old Christians had perished, as many as 80,000 Andalusīs/Moriscos from Granada were forcibly deported and dispersed throughout the Kingdom of Castile.
From: "The Royal Edict of Expulsion (1609) and the Last Andalusi Muslims (“Moriscos”) of Spain"
The Expulsion of the Moriscos
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). They were ordered to depart "under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence... to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange... just what they could carry." Estimates for the number expelled have varied, although contemporary accounts set the number at between 270,000 and 300,000 (about 4% of the Spanish population).
The majority were expelled from the Crown of Aragon (modern day Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia), particularly from Valencia, where Morisco communities remained large, visible and cohesive; and Christian animosity was acute, particularly for economic reasons. 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. Many villages were totally abandoned as a result. New laborers were fewer in number and were not as familiar with local agricultural techniques.
In the Kingdom of Castille (including Andalusia, Murcia and the former kingdom of Granada), by contrast, the scale of Morisco expulsion was much less severe. 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. Furthermore, the internal dispersion of the more distinct Morisco communities of Granada throughout Castile and Andalusia after the War of the Alpujarras, made this community of Moriscos harder to track and identify, allowing them to merge with and disappear into the wider society.
Young children and the orphans who are younger than four years of age are permitted to remain behind by the consent of their guardians. Children who have Christian parents shall not be expelled nor their mothers, even if they are Andalusīs. In cases where the father is Andalusī and the mother a Christian, the woman shall be permitted to remain with her children who are younger than six years of age, but her husband will be expelled.This decree was proclaimed on the 22nd of September 1609 A.D.
After those in the Kingdom of Valencia had been expelled, those in Andalusia and neighboring territories were commanded to depart. In order to do so, they had rented ships. However, while they had amassed near the [Guadalquivir] river near Seville, the King issued a command that contradicted the first, ordering that those Moriscos departing to Muslim lands should have their young sons and daughters younger than seven years of age to be taken away. About a thousand children were taken away from their parents this way in al-Hajar al-Ahmar alone. They also took the children of those who had crossed to Tangiers and Ceuta, as they did for all the others. God Almighty will ensure that there is just recompense for this act, through the hands of the sovereign rulers of the Muslims who were chosen and favored by Him.”
From: "The Royal Edict of Expulsion (1609) and the Last Andalusi Muslims (“Moriscos”) of Spain"
Although many Moriscos were sincere Christians, adult Moriscos were often assumed to be covert Muslims (i.e. crypto-Muslims), but expelling their children presented the government with a dilemma. As the children had all been baptized, the government could not legally or morally transport them to Muslim lands. Some authorities proposed that children should be forcibly separated from their parents, but sheer numbers showed this to be impractical. Consequently, the official destination of the expellees was generally stated to be France (more specifically Marseille). After the assassination of Henry IV in 1610, about 150,000 Moriscos were sent there. Many of the Moriscos migrated from Marseille to other lands in Christendom, including Italy, Sicily or Constantinople, Estimates of returnees vary, with historian Earl Hamilton believing that as many as a quarter of those expelled may have returned to Spain.
The overwhelming majority of the refugees settled in Muslim-held lands, mostly in the Ottoman Empire (Algeria, Tunisia) or Morocco. However they were ill-fitted with their Spanish language and customs.
The homogenization of states in early modern Europe OR ethnic cleansing?
If one recalls that in the early 17th century the entire population of Spain was only about 7.5 million, the expulsion of the Moriscos must have constituted a serious deficit in terms of productive manpower and tax revenue. In the Kingdom of Valencia, which lost 1/3 of its population, nearly half the villages were deserted in 1638 and much of the agricultural production of the land declined considerably, greatly weakening the Spanish economy. There is a lot of disagreement about the number of Moriscos who perished either in armed rebellion or on the journey into exile. Pedro Aznar Cardona, whose treatise justifying the expulsion was published in 1612, stated that between October 1609 and July 1611 over 50,000 died resisting expulsion, while over 60,000 died during their passage abroad either by land or sea or at the hands of their co-religionists (many of whom considered the Andalusīs to have been apostates from Islam due to their Spanish language, names and dress) after disembarking on the North African coast. If these figures are correct, then about 17% of the total Andalusī/Morisco population of Spain perished in a period of two years. Henry Charles Lea, drawing on many contemporary sources, whose combined evidence cannot be lightly dismissed, puts the death rate at 67% to 75%, although this is admittedly a higher estimate that is difficult to verify. The expulsion of the Moriscos has been characterized by several scholars and historians as an example of systematic ethnic and religious cleansing, which should be seen in light of the broader context of the homogenization of states in early modern Europe.
From: "The Royal Edict of Expulsion (1609) and the Last Andalusi Muslims (“Moriscos”) of Spain"
A demographic threat?
The demographic factor was certainly one of the decisive arguments in favor of expulsion employed by Juan de Ribera in three memoranda to Philip III in 1602. He warned the King that, unless he took swift action, Christian Spaniards would soon find themselves outnumbered by Muslims, as all Andalusīs married and had large families, whereas a third or a quarter of all Christians remained celibate after joining the priesthood, monasteries, nunneries, Holy Orders or for other reasons; many, for example, entered military service and died in battle, while others traveled to the Indies. Ribera’s fears were prompted by a census of the Valencian population that he himself had supervised in this same year, which revealed that the Andalusī population had increased by one-third. Thus, in addition to the cultural, religious, and security dimensions of the “Morisco problem,” the demographic threat was a further reason why the Spanish authorities felt compelled to expel the Andalusīs from Iberia.
From: "The Royal Edict of Expulsion (1609) and the Last Andalusi Muslims (“Moriscos”) of Spain"
Go back to Africa?
One final points needs to be kept in mind when thinking about the expulsion of the Moriscos. Despite the predominance of the national narrative of the “Reconquista” that emphasizes the supposed “foreignness” of the Iberian Muslims in order to paint a picture of an embattled and indigenous Christian society fighting against a brutal ruling caste of foreign Muslim conquerors, an 800-year struggle that culminated in the latter being legitimately conquered, converted and expelled “back to Africa,” the reality was far more complicated.
Even a basic study of the demographics, culture, and society of medieval Iberia demonstrates that a substantial component (even the majority, according to some historians) of the Muslims of Spain and Portugal were actually indigenous to the country (or, more accurately, as indigenous as those peoples who came to be known as Castilians, Catalans, and Portuguese). Many of these Muslims were actually speakers of Castilian, Catalan or Portuguese and throughout the Middle Ages were usually bilingual. The original class of Arab/Berber settlers who made up the initial class of conquerors numbered no more than 30-40,000 and the bulk of the Muslim population of al-Andalus/medieval Iberia was made up of Hispano-Romans or Visigothic converts. In addition, there were later arrivals of Slavs, West Africans, Basques and northern Iberian converts to Islam to al-Andalus that greatly contributed to the diversity of the Andalusii population.
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