In Muslims in Spain, 1492-1814: Living and Negotiating in the
Land of the Infidel , Eloy Martín-Corrales surveys
Hispano-Muslim relations from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth
centuries, a period ...of chronic hostilities. Nonetheless there were
thousands of Muslims in Spain at that time: ambassadors, exiles,
merchants, converts, and travelers. Their negotiating strategies,
and the necessary support they found on both shores of the
Mediterranean prove that relations between Spaniards and Muslims
were based on reasons of state and on a pragmatism that generated
intense political and economic ties.These increased enormously
after the peace treaties that Spain signed with Muslim countries
between 1767 and 1791.
In Muslims in Spain, 1492-1814: Living and Negotiating in the Land of the Infidel, Eloy Martín-Corrales surveys Hispano-Muslim relations from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, a period ...of chronic hostilities. Nonetheless there were thousands of Muslims in Spain at that time: ambassadors, exiles, merchants, converts, and travelers. Their negotiating strategies, and the necessary support they found on both shores of the Mediterranean prove that relations between Spaniards and Muslims were based on reasons of state and on a pragmatism that generated intense political and economic ties.These increased enormously after the peace treaties that Spain signed with Muslim countries between 1767 and 1791. Readership: Of interest for the history of the political, diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations between Spain and Muslim countries of the Maghreb and Middle East in the Early Modern Age.
We have already described how Moriscos and slaves have attracted the greatest attention from historians, who have barely begun to turn to the many, previously neglected free Muslims living in ...Spain: exiles, merchants, adventurers, military men, spies, converts, and others.¹ The eighteenth century has received the least scrutiny, since the Morisco period was over and Muslim slavery gradually disappeared after the Spanish monarchy signed treaties of peace, friendship, and trade with the Sultan of Morocco, the Dey of Algiers, the Beys of Tunis and Tripoli, and the Ottoman Caliph. The growing number of Muslims who came to Spain after the establishment
We have already seen how the peace treaties signed by the Spanish monarchy with Morocco, the North African Regencies, and the Ottoman Empire favored increased trade among all parties. As a result a ...significant colony of Muslim (especially Moroccan) merchants began to form in several Spanish ports and other cities. In the almost half century between 1767 and 1814 we can identify three distinct periods. During the first, 1767–1780, we find records of the initial experiences of Moroccan merchants on Spanish soil. During the second, between the Aranjuez Agreement of 1780 and the Spanish-English war of 1779–1783, a
In Spain, as in Europe as a whole, Muslims were present in larger numbers from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries than has formerly been realized. As we noted above, the greatest ...attention has been focused on two specific minority groups, Moriscos and slaves. The first were expelled from Spain between 1609 and 1614, although a certain number managed to evade expulsion or return to the Peninsula later on. The second were almost always a minority among all slaves in Spain in the Early Modern period, except at specific times and places; the vast majority came from the Atlantic coast
The Muslim presence in Central and Western Europe during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries was greater than had been thought, at least up to a few years ago. Eastern Europe, of ...course, was an entirely different case, especially in the Balkans, ruled by the Ottoman Empire – though it began to lose territory in the 1700s – and in large regions of southeastern Europe that were gradually absorbed into the Russian Empire. In certain areas of these territories Muslims either ruled or formed a majority, while in others they were a significant minority. Nor did they disappear from Balkan lands altogether,
EPILOGUE Eloy Martín Corrales
Muslims in Spain, 1492-1814,
12/2020, Letnik:
3
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
In Spain as in the rest of Europe, except in unusual cases Muslim countries did not establish permanent embassies or consulates until the nineteenth century. The roles of consuls, representatives, ...and agents were filled for the Ottoman Empire by Greeks and Venetians, and for Morocco and the North African Regencies by other Europeans.¹
As we showed in Chapter 5, the Treaties of Peace, Friendship, and Commerce that Spain signed with Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, Tripoli, Algeria, and Tunis were based on the strict principle of reciprocity.² But we have also observed that the institutions supposed to defend the interests of North
Aside from exiles who had fled North Africa for political reasons, many other Muslims were able to reach the Iberian Peninsula, or Italy and the nearby islands, without too much difficulty. These ...were merchants and sailors who, contrary to all expectations, appear in Spanish ports in spite of the official state of hostility between their countries and the Hispanic monarchy. Some came intending to convert to Christianity, while others were more transient travelers or adventurers.
Hundreds of Muslims remained for long periods, or permanently, on Spanish territory for a variety of reasons. It is important to stress that the permanent
After the treaties initiated a period of peaceful relations and newly strengthened bilateral agreements, commercial exchanges increased and larger numbers of Muslims began to arrive in the Iberian ...Peninsula. As we shall see in the following chapters, ambassadors, special envoys, ships’ captains, sailors, merchants, exiles, travelers, converts, and adventurers visited Spanish territory, sometimes remaining for long periods and even dying there.
We shall speak first of the ambassadors, envoys, and ships’ captains (arraeces).¹ Spanish authorities actually created every possible delay and obstacle to their attempts to reach the monarchy’s domains. The Secretariat of State sent a stream of instructions along
PDF
