Because their conversions had been coerced, many Catholic authorities and old Christians became suspicious that the Granadan Moriscos were only nominally Christian. While members of the elite were more integrated into old Christian society and were Catholic, some Moriscos continued to practice Islam in the privacy of their homes.17 Religious and cultural practices of the Morisco population varied greatly, not only according to social status but also with respect to geographic location. In Aragon, Valencia, and Granada, many Moriscos continued to practice Islam. Their proximity to Muslims in the Mediterranean and the continued presence of Muslim religious leaders—faqihs or alfaquíes as they were known in the Spanish documents—suggests that they were able to maintain some of their practices.18 By contrast, in Castile, many Moriscos had converted to Christianity several generations previously, and some even petitioned to have their status as old Christians legally recognized by the courts.19
During the first half of the sixteenth century, a number of laws were passed that placed restrictions on Morisco dress, speech, mobility, and a range of practices perceived as Islamic. By 1513, this growing “corpus of prohibitions” had cast suspicion on their public baths, butcheries, births, weddings and funerals, and on texts written in Arabic.20 Maintaining these practices became an offense that could render individuals liable for inquisitorial prosecution. Inquisitors reprimanded Moriscos for dancing and singing zambras, observing Muslim dietary practices and fasts, reciting prayers, and speaking the Arabic language. While many Spanish officials and clergy recognized that the new converts’ relationship with Catholicism was tenuous, they nevertheless developed a “politics of acculturation” whose goal was to completely assimilate the Morisco population within the next half century.21 The forced conversions therefore raised a number of unsettling issues for contemporaries, deepening suspicions about the Moriscos’ faithfulness, in both the term’s religious and political connotations.
The conversion campaigns undertaken by religious authorities stressed the persistence of Islam in Spain. The documents they crafted made Morisco practices appear uniform, as a formulaic set of examples of “Islamismo” that they hoped to eradicate. Among these, ecclesiastical authorities stressed praying the zala five times a day, performing the guadoc or ritual ablutions, observing Fridays, and fasting during Ramadan.22 Although many Moriscos did not speak Arabic outside of Granada and parts of Aragon, its use also became subject to persecution.23 Inquisitors ordered that books and manuscripts in Arabic and aljamiado be destroyed, and those discovered hidden in homes were confiscated and burned periodically. They stigmatized the fadas, or naming ceremonies for Morisco children to welcome them into the community, concerned that they were purposefully washing away the baptismal oil.24 Ecclesiastical authorities also prohibited the use of Muslim names like Hamete, Ali, Zahara, or Aixa.25
Religious practice often became confused with what some contemporaries argued was actually customary practice. In 1526 Charles V convened in Granada a panel of theologians, jurists, and prelates to debate policies toward the Granadan Moriscos. Doctor Lorenzo Galíndez de Carvajal’s Parecer on this issue was fundamental and discussed both beliefs and practices. He condemned anything that varied from the old Christian ways of doing things.26 Moriscas were forbidden to wear veils (almalafas), to use henna, and to carry amulets in the shape of hands, crescents, or stars. Moriscos were prohibited from becoming butchers because it was feared they would slaughter animals in the manner permitted in Islam.27 The Inquisition of Granada was established later that year, following Galíndez de Carvajal’s recommendation.28 However, these initial measures from 1526 failed to gain much ground following negotiations between the Crown and the Moriscos, with the support of Iñigo López de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla.
The Synod of Guadix (1554) compiled a number of both religious and customary practices of the Granadan Moriscos, presenting them as signs of continued adherence to Islam. Not only abstaining from pork but also eating couscous (alcuzcuz) came to be considered by ecclesiastical authorities a sign of Islamismo, and the Synod recommended that ecclesiastical authorities work to eradicate these practices.29 Finally, in 1566, the Royal Council in Madrid drafted a series of laws that were met with outrage when proclaimed publicly in Granada on 1 January 1567. These new laws proscribed a number of Morisco practices and increased the severity of the penalties for anyone who failed to obey them to imprisonment and fines.30 In addition to many of the above measures, they decreed that the Granadan Moriscos should learn and speak only Castilian within a period of three years, banned all books in Arabic, and prohibited Moriscos from owning slaves.31 Attempting a new round of negotiation, Francisco Núñez Muley, a member of the Granadan Morisco elite, composed a Memorial that he presented to the Royal Audiencia and Chancery of his city. Núñez Muley argued that wearing Morisco dress, dancing zambras, going to public baths, and conversing in Arabic was not incompatible with Catholicism. Concerning Morisco dress that included the veil for women, Núñez Muley pointed out that “it can be said that it is clothing of the kingdom and province, like in all the kingdoms of Castile.”32
These increasing restrictions prompted the Morisco population to respond in various ways. Many among those who remained faithful to Islam developed a confrontational attitude toward Christianity, producing a peninsular polemical literature in aljamiado, or Spanish written using the Arabic script. Its contours were shaped in response to the arguments put forth most likely by missionaries and parish priests, if not also by the old Christians in their midst. Other misunderstandings were simply the result of confusion over doctrine. Some missionaries sought to bridge the gap in understanding by presenting difficult concepts such as the Trinity in the sign of the cross. For example, in his catechism for the Valencian Moriscos (1566), Martín Pérez de Ayala instructed them to recite, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.”33 Missionaries active among the Moriscos hoped to reduce confusion about the Trinity by asserting the unity of God, so that the three elements of the Trinity could not be confused with three deities.
SIGNS OF ISLAMISMO: HOW INQUISITORS DEFINED ISLAM
When taken together, the extensively detailed trial records compiled during inquisitorial proceedings for Islamismo depicted Moriscos as unrepentant Muslims, thereby producing an image that Spanish jurists and theologians favoring expulsion seized upon. Much of the existing documentation concerning Moriscos, both in Spain and in Spanish America, comes from inquisitorial trials and correspondence. The terminology used to refer to Islam, as the “sect of Muhammad,” the “law of the Moors,” or the “law of Muhammad,” reflects the biases of ecclesiastical officials regarding Islam and presents a point of view that was also widespread.34 These records supplied images of Moriscos that individuals also drew upon when crafting accusations during local disputes. The public reading of edicts of faith listed a series of characteristics that came to essentialize Morisco-ness for an early modern Iberian audience. Yet what can we say about the religiosity of individual Moriscos and the importance Islam, Catholicism, or some combination of the two might have held in their daily lives? This question cannot be entirely dismissed, as lived religiosity was important in the lives of people across the early modern world. Preoccupation with salvation, and living and dying according to the precepts of the “true” faith, appear not only in the inquisitorial records but in a number of other sources. Individual struggles with faith surfaced during inquisitorial interrogations, often in tension with inquisitorial constructions of Moriscos.
When approaching her confessor in Mexico City with her wish to live and die as a good Catholic, María Ruiz may have known from her experiences in Granada that she might end up before inquisitors. Founded in Spain in 1478 to prosecute heresy among converts from