Sixteenth-century Castilian could semantically distinguish Moriscos from Moors while asserting their equality

Evidence

A NOTE ON TERMS I have almost always translated the word Saracenus as Muslim; the word Muslim in a translated passage must represent Saracenus or one of its equivalents, Maurus, Ismaelitus and Agarenus. (Occasionally Saracenus has another meaning, for example, when it is applied to pre-Islamic Arabs.) In mediaeval usage it was possible to become a Saracen or a Moor, just as later men were said to ‘turn Turk’. Saracen means a man who holds the same religion as Muhammad, that is, a Muslim. | prefer to avoid its use in modern English because of its quaint and romantic associations. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 106 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The older Moorish meaning of morisco survives to the present day — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 50; The caste term morisco derived from moros, meaning Moor or Muslim; The word morisco first meant simply Moorish as an adjective — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 48 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christendom named Muslims Saracens, Moors, Ishmaelites, and Agarenes interchangeably #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 106
• The caste term morisco derived from moros, meaning Moor or Muslim #complicates (0.78)
• Jews and Moors were interchangeable stock figures of otherness in early modern Europe. #complicates (0.78)
• Jews and Moors served as Europe’s archetypal others for expressing strangeness #complicates (0.76) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 952