Forced conversion paradoxically increased Muslim population mobility across Spain

Evidence

Once the conversion had been forced through, it became increasingly difficult to prevent movement and mingling among the New Christian populations all over Spain. Tapia, for example, speaks of the convert community of ´Avila as being characterized by great mobility (Tapia 1991, 145), with some of them moving to Andalusia. The Moriscos knew better than to draw attention to themselves, so we cannot hope for firm statistics (although what the diligence of an acute investigator like Tapia is able to extract from the records is remarkable). In general, we only hear about the population drift incidentally, as, for example, when the count of Aguilar uses the fact that some estates were losing essential workers to support his argument that further “edicts of grace” (i.e., partial exemption from the Inquisition’s attentions) should be granted to the new converts (Tapia 1991, 223; Lea 1901, 52). — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 390

Categorization

• SEED: An article angle: how forced religious conversion and surveillance ironically produce the very mobility and networking the state feared — a pattern that recurs across persecution regimes.