Tolerance and Coexistence in Early Modern Spain

The history of the moriscos (converts from Islam to Christianity and their descendants) has seen a resurgence in recent decades, although scholarly work on this topic remains dwarfed by the enormous literature on the conversos (converts from Judaism to Christianity and their descendants) in Spanish historiography. This effort by Trevor Dadson, along with a few other recent studies—notably those by James Amelang and Mercedes García Arenal—reminds us why moriscos merit closer scholarly attention. Dadson strongly rejects the dominant lens through which historians have viewed the moriscos for several decades, which has claimed that the moriscos were expelled from Spain because they refused to assimilate into normative Spanish society. In this monograph, drawn from his important 2007 Spanish-language book, Dadson argues that moriscos communities were in fact highly integrated into local society—culturally, religiously, socially, and politically. He further contests accounts of the expulsion of the moriscos (1611–1614) that claim all of the moriscos were successfully expelled. Dadson argues that an average of 40 percent of the morisco population remained behind or returned.

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