Noble landowners opposed Muslim conversion for economic self-interest

Evidence

Those who owned the lands that were rented or cultivated by Muslims had economic motives to avoid change. Nobles in particular had often in medieval times given inducements to Muslims to come and work their lands. Little had changed by the beginning of the sixteenth century. A steady drift from royal (realengo) to noble estates had taken place because Muslims could be enticed to leave by the better conditions offered by some of the nobles. Muslims both in the Ebro basin and in Valencia excelled in producing high-yield crops on the good irrigable tracts that they tended for Christian lords, and also in dry farming on unirrigated lands (secano) to which they were themselves increasingly condemned. Their masters did not want to lose them. Muslims were a vulnerable minority who would show gratitude for a little local protection, for being left alone to live according to the religion of their ancestors. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 431

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the class-based interest analysis of tolerance/repression seen in other chapters on Ferdinand’s policies and to Marxian analyses of why elites protect productive minorities.