Forced conversion drove Islam underground in Spain

Evidence

Writing toward the end of the sixteenth century but looking back on the immediate aftermath of the first conversions, Luis del M´armol described the situation. His words convey well the uncomprehending irritation and exasperation that was the reaction of many Christians to the failure of the policy of forcible conversion. It will be noted that he was aware of the strength of the Moriscos’ clandestine religion. He had had access to some of the intelligence of the Second Granadan Rebellion and knew very well that by his day Islam had not faded away at all. One may doubt whether most Christian observers, writing immediately after the conversions, would have known that Islam had gone underground in the way that M´armol does. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 370 (#expands, via linked claim)

Those who did not live near enough to the coast to plot such an escape had to find other means of surviving as Muslims. It is against this background that we must understand the reaction of the Muslim masses to conversion: it was to turn their religion, always hitherto thought of as essentially a faith to be lived and proclaimed in public, into a secret and underground phenomenon. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 272 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamic religious life among Moriscos was already clandestine within a decade of conversion; Clandestinity reshaped underground Spanish Islam into a distinct variant; Spain’s post-1492 Muslims were unique worldwide in being legally converted crypto-Muslims under Inquisition jurisdiction (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Forced conversion drove Spanish Islam underground where contemporaries soon lost track of it. #expands (0.95) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 370
• Forced conversion drove formerly public Islam underground and clandestine #expands (0.92) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 272