Muslim hosts were maneuvered into aiding the expulsion they opposed

Evidence

On the Tlemcen side of the frontier, some unescorted groups were treated by the desert dwellers in a way that might have been foreseen: they were robbed. To cross the territory of a desert tribe permission should be sought, tolls negotiated. Aguilar did what he could, which was very little. The local Muslim authorities must soon have realized that without being consulted they had been maneuvered into acting as unpaid agents facilitating an odious policy of ethnic cleansing that they would have opposed if they had had any voice in the matter. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1465

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: logistical pressure as a covert weapon — how Spain’s expulsion forced rival Muslim polities into unwitting collaboration, a case study in using geography against an enemy’s own co-religionists.