The attempt to Christianize and assimilate Granada's…
1567 CE
The attempt to Christianize and assimilate Granada's persecuted Moriscos (Spanish Muslims forcibly baptized as Christians) has proceeded only very slowly.
Ultimately, they have proven not to be assimilable.
Though they are racially indistinguishable from their Old Christian neighbors (Christians who had retained their faith under Muslim rule), they have continued to speak, write, and dress like Muslims.
The Old Christians suspect the Moriscos of abetting the Algerians and the Turks, both enemies of Spain, and are fearful of their holy wars (jihads) that have terrorized whole districts.
Subjected to discriminatory taxation while their staple industry, the silk trade, is reduced by a misguided fiscal policy; ill-taught in their new faith, yet punished for ignorance by church and Inquisition; the Moriscos have turned outside Spain for Muslim support.
Having obtain legal opinions (fatwas) that assure them that it is permissible to practice Islam in secret (taqiyah), they produce books known as a'jamiados, written in Spanish, using the Arabic alphabet, to instruct fellow Moriscos in Islam.
The government in Madrid first sends a commission to inquire into titles of land, and this commission confiscates mainly Morisco land.