Uprising in the Alpujarras (1499–1501)

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The uprising in the Alpujarras (1499–1501) denotes various uprisings by the Muslim population of the Kingdom of Granada (the former Emirate of Granada ) against the Catholic rulers. The first uprising occurred in the city of Granada in 1499 in response to the forced mass conversion of the Muslim population to the Catholic faith in what was seen as a breach of the Treaty of Granada of 1491. The uprising in the city did not last long, but more massive revolts followed shortly afterwards in the nearby mountainous region of the Alpujarras . The Catholic armed forces, at times led by King Ferdinand himself, were able to put them down and imposed severe penalties on the Muslim population.

The Catholic rulers use these revolts to revoke the Treaty of Granada and the rights guaranteed to Muslims in it.

background

Forced conversions under Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros were seen as violations of the Granada Treaty and were the main cause of the uprisings.

The Emirate of Granada was the last area of ​​the Iberian Peninsula to be under Muslim control. In January 1492, Muhammad XII surrendered . of Granada (also called "Boabdil") the Catholic forces led by the Catholic Kings Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile . The Treaty of Granada , signed in November 1491, guaranteed the Muslims of Granada in return religious tolerance and fair treatment.

The then population of the former Emirate of Granada is estimated to be between 250,000 and 300,000. This was the majority of the people in the former emirate and about half of the Muslim population of what was then Spain.

Originally, the Catholic rulers kept to the treaty. Against the pressure of the Spanish Church, Ferdinand and the Archbishop of Granada, Hernando de Talavera , pushed through a laissez-faire policy towards the Muslims. They hoped that by interacting with the Christians they would recognize the "flaw" of their faith and renounce it. When Ferdinand and Isabella visited the city in the summer of 1499, they were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd, including many Muslims.

In the summer of 1499, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, the influential Archbishop of Toledo and confessor of Queen Isabella, arrived in Granada and began working with Talavera. Cisneros was alien to Talavera's approach. He began to imprison Muslims who did not cooperate with him, especially high-ranking ones, where they were treated roughly as long as they did not convert. Encouraged by the increasing number of conversions, Cisneros stepped up his efforts; in December 1499 he told Pope Alexander VI. that 3,000 Muslims converted in just one day. Cisneros' church council warned him that his methods could be viewed as a breach of the treaty. Álvar Gómez de Castro, a 16th century hagiographer, described his methods as "inadmissible".

Rebellion in the Albayzin

View of the Albayzin, where the first uprising took place (photo from 2010)

The increasing number of forced conversions led to resistance in the Muslim population, first in the urban population of the Albayzin (or Albaicín), the "old" Muslim quarter of Granada. The situation was made worse by the treatment of moose (Christians who converted to Islam). Provisions within the Treaty of Granada forbade the forced return of moose to Christianity, but allowed such converts to be interrogated by Christian clerics in the presence of representatives of Muslim religious bodies. Cisneros use this "loophole" to moose subpoena and then those who are not converted to lock back to Christianity. Often it was about women of Muslim men - which the Muslims saw as an attack on their families.

On December 18, 1499, a policeman named Velasco de Barrionuevo and his assistant picked up a female elk from the Albayzin as part of this practice . As she walked across a square, she shouted that she was being forced to become a Christian. The policemen were quickly surrounded by a hostile crowd; Barrionuevo was murdered, his assistant escaped with the help of a Muslim woman.

The incident turned into an open revolt. The residents of the Albayzin set up street barricades and armed themselves. An angry mob moved to Cisneros' house, but dispersed again. Over the following days the uprising became better organized. The Albayzin people elected representatives and leaders. In the ensuing confrontation, Archbishop Hernando de Talavera and General Marquis de Tendilla tried to defuse the situation through negotiations and signs of goodwill. After ten days, the uprising ended with the Muslims handing over their weapons to the police and the policeman's murderers, who were immediately killed.

Cisneros was then called to the Seville Court, where he had to answer for his actions in front of an angry Ferdinand. Cisneros argued that it was the Muslims who broke the treaty in the armed uprising, not him. He convinced Ferdinand and Isabella to offer collective forgiveness to the rebels in case they convert to Christianity. After Cisneros' return, Granada was considered a purely Christian city.

Uprising in the Alpujarras

Although the uprising in Albayzin appeared to be over and Granada had been declared a theoretically purely Christian city, the rebellion spread to the country. The leaders of the uprising in Albayzin fled to the Alpujarras . The inhabitants of this mountain area were almost exclusively Muslim and had only reluctantly accepted Christian rule. They revolted against the behavior of the Christian rulers, which they saw as a breach of the Treaty of Granada, and feared that they would be forcibly converted like the residents of the Albayzin. By February 1500, an 80,000-strong Christian army had been assembled to put down the uprising. Ferdinand came in March to direct the process.

The rebels acted wisely and used the mountains for a guerrilla war. However, they had no central leadership and no uniform strategy. The absence of a strategy on the part of the rebels enabled the Christian forces to defeat them area by area.

The insurgent towns and villages in the Alpujarras were gradually subdued, with Ferdinand personally leading the attack on Lanjarón . Surrendering rebels typically had to be baptized to save their lives. The towns and villages that had to be conquered were cracked down on. One of the bloodiest episodes took place in Andarax , where the Catholic forces under Louis de Beaumont captured and slaughtered 3,000 Muslims. Hundreds of women and children fled to a local mosque, which was then blown up. When Velefique was taken, all men were killed, the women enslaved. In Nijar and Güéjar Sierra the entire population was enslaved; only children were taken away to be raised as Christians.

On January 14, 1501, Ferdinand ordered his army to end the truce, as the uprising seemed over. However, further unrest broke out in Sierra Bermeja. An army under Alonso de Aguilar, one of the most famous Spanish leaders, set out to crush this uprising. On March 16, the army attacked the rebels. But the resistance was unexpectedly strong, the result of a defeat for the Catholic army. Aguilar himself was killed in battle, as was most of his army.

Nevertheless, the Muslims soon asked for peace. Ferdinand, worried about the current weakness of his army and the problems of warfare in the mountains, said the rebels had to choose between emigration and baptism. Free passage was granted only to those who could pay ten gold pieces; this was impossible for most of them. Accordingly, they had to stay and be baptized. The insurgents surrendered gradually from mid-April, as some wanted to wait and see how the first surrendering rebels were dealt with. Emigrants were brought under guard to the port city of Estepona , from where they traveled to North Africa . The remaining people were allowed to return to their hometowns after converting, laying down their weapons and transferring their possessions.

Aftermath

Picture of a "Morisco" family, Christoph Weiditz, 1529.

At the end of 1501 the uprising was suppressed. Having lost their rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Granada, Muslims now had the choice of (1) staying and being baptized, (2) rejecting baptism and being enslaved or murdered, or (3) exile . Because of the high fee for leaving Spain, conversion was the only realistic option. Accordingly, just a decade after the fall of the Emirate of Granada , the entire Muslim population of Granada became theoretically Christian. These converts were called nuevos cristianos ("new Christians") or Moriscos (Spanish morisco : "Moorish"). Although they converted, the Moriskos largely retained their idiosyncrasies, including language, proper names, dishes, clothing and some celebrations. Many secretly followed Islam even though they professed Christianity outwardly. The Pragmatica of Philip II of January 1, 1567 finally ordered the Moriscos to abandon customs, clothing and language and led to the uprisings of 1568–71 .

See also

literature

  • Matthew Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. New Press, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-59558-361-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • David Coleman: Creating Christian Granada: Society and Religious Culture in an Old-World Frontier City, 1492–1600. Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2003, ISBN 0-8014-4111-0 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • LP Harvey: Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2005, ISBN 0-226-31965-2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Henry Charles Lea: The Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion and Expulsion. Lea Brothers & Company, Philadelphia 1901 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 6, quote: "Outraged by Cisneros' efforts and the reports about the use of torture, the Muslims of Granada rose in December 1499 in an open rebellion that quickly spread to the nearby Alpujarras."
  2. Reconquista - Spain's Rise to Great Power. on lernhelfer.de.
  3. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 40.
  4. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 51.
  5. ^ Abrogation of the 1491 Treaty of Granada. on al-islam.org.
  6. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 57.
  7. ^ A b Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 58.
  8. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 59.
  9. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. Pp. 59-60.
  10. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. Pp. 60-61.
  11. a b Harvey: Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. P. 35.
  12. ^ Carr: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. P. 63.
  13. Harvey: Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. P. 36.
  14. Luis del Mármol Carvajal: Historia del [sic] Rebelión y Castigo de los Moriscos de Reino de Granada. Linkgua Ediciones, Barcelona 2009, ISBN 978-84-9897-987-9 , IV-xxvii.
  15. a b Lea: The Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion and Expulsion. P. 39.
  16. Lea: The Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion and Expulsion. P. 40.
  17. Harvey: Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. p. 48.
  18. Harvey: Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. P. 49.