The 1504 fatwa legitimating crypto-Islam may have preceded or followed local capitulation

Evidence

For a proper understanding of their motivation one would need far more detailed information on the chronology of various interacting processes that were taking place. Did, for example, the original decision of some Muslim leaders to strike a deal with the Castilians after the collapse of the risings in the Alpujarras precede the fatwa of 1504 by which crypto-Islam was legitimated (see below), or did it follow on as a consequence, as the logical implementation, of that policy of retreating into clandestinity? In other words, did the collapse of the resistance on the part of the local leadership create the situation that called into being the policy of taking Islam underground, or did the authorization of such a doctrine by Ahmad Bu Juma in the text I am about to discuss induce people like one “Francisco de Belvis” to adopt a policy that was no more than a realistic acknowledgement of what was going on in any case? It is unlikely that we will ever come across evidence to establish beyond doubt where the truth lies. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 233

Categorization

• QUESTION: Harvey leaves genuinely open whether religious legitimation of crypto-Islam caused or was caused by the political collapse. Worth chasing whether any later scholarship has found evidence on this sequencing.
• DEFINE: First mention of the crucial 1504 fatwa by Ahmad Bu Juma that legitimated withdrawing into clandestine Islam — a key concept for the rest of the book.