Geopolitical leverage and economic value delayed Muslim persecution in Spain.

Evidence

The experience of Muslims in imperial Spain was both similar to and different from that of Jews. Unlike Jews, Muslims were not immediately forced to convert in 1492 or face expulsion. Indeed it was not until 1500 that they faced the same fate. A majority of Muslims were agricultural workers or skilled artisans in the textile and silk industries and as such were not in direct competition with the Old Christians who had aggressively pushed the blood purity laws. The monarchy as well as feudal lords considered these Muslims to be a useful labor force and a source of fiscal revenue. … Iberian elites believed that the Moors were the domestic representatives of powerful Muslim Mediterranean kingdoms (as well as the Ottoman Empire) and therefore had to accord these heretics different treatment from that of the Jews who lacked this kind of protection. Thus, geopolitical factors played a role in the differential treatment of Jews and Muslims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 120

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the Milgrom trade-institutions material: external reputation/power protects a group here the way reputation systems protected traders. — connects to: Geopolitical leverage, not religion, drove Spain’s differential treatment of Jews and Muslims; Muslims escaped full persecution in Spain through economic utility and Ottoman diplomatic leverage — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 132; Muslims’ perceived inferiority in Spain tracked the geopolitical power of Muslim states (+7 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The asymmetry between Jews and Muslims — where protection from persecution depends on external geopolitical strength — is a genuinely illuminating frame for antisemitism and Islamophobia as structurally different forms of exclusion.

Broader Connections

• Muslims escaped full persecution in Spain through economic utility and Ottoman diplomatic leverage #expands (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 132
• Geopolitical leverage, not religion, drove Spain’s differential treatment of Jews and Muslims #expands (0.92)
• Geopolitical and economic utility, not religion, drove discrimination against Muslims #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 120
• Geopolitical fear of Muslim powers protected Iberian Moors from Jewish-style persecution #corroborates (0.88)
• Muslims’ perceived inferiority in Spain tracked the geopolitical power of Muslim states #expands (0.82)
• The economic subjugation of Muslims fueled violent religious antagonism #complicates (0.80)
• Anti-Muslim polemics legitimated Christian subjugation of Spanish Muslims #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 71
• Latent Islamophobia operates through tacit assumptions and enabling geopolitical context #expands (0.75) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 42