Escaping into apocalyptic expectation made crypto-Muslim suffering bearable

Evidence

For Spain’s crypto-Muslims, there were now only two paths of escape from the intolerable clandestine lives in which they were trapped. They could seek actually to leave the country (but that was, of course, forbidden); or they could take refuge from the harsh realities of their lives in eschatology. They could escape from the trials of this uncertain world here-and-now by clutching at the certainties announced by their religion for the next. Morisco writings are full of texts relating to the End of Days. The Moriscos’ suffering was made perhaps marginally more bearable because they had trust in the ultimate justice of Allah, who would, sooner rather than later, come to judge all men and set everything to rights. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1241

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general pattern of millenarian and apocalyptic thinking as a coping mechanism among persecuted minorities, comparable to early Christian or Jewish apocalyptic literature under oppression.