Remote Hornachos was the only town exempted by name in the expulsion edict

Evidence

Yet in the final stages of the existence of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula it played a role disproportionate to its size. It came to be important in our period because it afforded a relatively inaccessible place of refuge where Muslims might live away from the constant surveillance of Christian neighbors, and in our period its population consisted predominantly of Muslims. Its special, exceptional status is evident from the way it is named in its own right in the proclamations relating to the final expulsion, de facto acknowledgement of the measure of independence that the Moriscos of Hornachos had carved out for themselves. (It was the only town to be singled out in this way—all the other edicts refer to kingdoms or other major administrative areas: see appendix 5.) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1686

Categorization

• XREF: A remote community’s disproportionate strategic importance parallels microstate analysis and the logic of defensible redoubts studied elsewhere.