Mudéjar
Mudéjar were Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period following the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for Mudéjar art, which was greatly influenced by Islamic art, but produced typically by Christian craftsmen for Christian patrons. Mudéjar was used in contrast to both Muslims in Muslim-ruled areas and Moriscos, who were often forcibly converted and may or may not have continued to secretly practice Islam. The corresponding term for Christians living under Muslim rule is Mozarabs.
Starting from the eleventh century, when larger regions previously under Muslim control fell to Christian kingdoms, treaties were established with the remaining Muslim population which defined their status as Mudejar. Their status, modelled after the dhimmi, established a parallel society with its own religious, legal, administrative and fiscal autonomy and institutions, while being subject to their Christian kings and lords. Soon after the fall of Granada in 1492, the policy towards Mudéjar changed and they were forced to either convert or emigrate.
Etymology
Mudéjar was originally the term used for Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Iberia after the Christian Reconquista but were not initially forcibly converted to Christianity or exiled. The word Mudéjar references several historical interpretations and cultural borrowings. It was a medieval Castilian borrowing of the Arabic word Mudajjan مدجن, meaning "subjugated; tamed", or al-Madjun المدجون meaning "those who remained or stayed on", referring to Muslims who remained and submitted to the rule of Christian kings. The term likely originated as a taunt, as the word was usually applied to domesticated animals such as poultry. The term Mudéjar also can be translated from Arabic as "one permitted to remain", which refers to the Christians allowing Muslims to remain in Christian Iberia.Another term with the same meaning, , was used by Muslim writers, notably al-Wansharisi in his work Kitab al-Mi'yar. Mudéjars in Iberia lived under a protected tributary status known as, which refer to. This protected status suggested subjugation at the hands of Christian rulers, as the word resembled meaning "tame animals". Their protected status was enforced by the fueros or local charters which dictated Christians laws. Muslims of other regions outside of the Iberian Peninsula disapproved of the Mudéjar subjugated status and their willingness to live under subjugation.
History
Origin of the ''Mudéjar''
In the eight century, Arab and Berber forces defeated the Visigothic Kingdom in Spain and conquered the majority of the Iberian peninsula and ended the Visigothic kingdom that had ruled since the sixth century. The first Muslim emirate emerged in 756, followed by the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba from 929 to 1031. The 10th and 11th centuries saw the rise of Christian principalities in León, Castile, Asturias, Navarre, Aragón, and Catalonia. These kingdoms started retaking these territories and especially from the eleventh century onwards, larger groups of Muslims, who lived in these regions, came under Christian rule and became known as Mudejar. Especially influential in creating this new status was the surrender treaty during the conquest of Toledo where the fact that Muslims were a numerical majority allowed them to significantly influence the reasoning and wording of the treaty. Further conquests and treaties resulted in a permanent status of protection for Muslims widely acknowledged by all Christian authorities. These agreements in the Aragonese and Castilian frontier lands contrast with the strict policies of the Almoravids concerning dhimmis after 1130.In the middle of the thirteenth century, Christian military success transformed the Iberian peninsula as several regions under Muslim control from the Algarve, the Guadalalquivir basin to the cities of Murcia and Valencia came under Christian control. There were two ways in which the Muslim populations were treated: those who accepted terms of surrender might be allowed to continue living in the region and became Mudéjar while those that held out to the bitter end and refused terms of surrender were expelled, though there were exceptions. As the newly acquired territories often lacked labour force, those that were willing to make themselves useful or had services to offer which made them valuable might be allowed to stay if they practised their religion discreetly. At the same time, there was a massive influx of Christian folk from the North.
Middle period
Soon after the conquests of these new territories, the Mudéjar of Andalucia rebelled 1264, instigated by the emirate of Granada. After some initial success, the revolt was quelled by joined Castilian and Aragonese forces by 1267. Then, king Alfonso X of Castile aimed to reconstruct Andalucia and Murcia by expelling the Mudéjar and persuading Christians to settle in the newly evacuated areas. Nevertheless, the conquered population were treated with relative tolerance and allowed to continue their religious observance, allowing for both King Fernando III and Alfonso X to name themselves as "King of the Three Religions". By 1300, only enclaves of Mudéjar remained in Andalucia. In Valencia, where the Mudéjar were in the majority, the Mudéjar revolted unsuccessfully soon after its conquest several times throughout the thirteenth century, in the 1270s with the help of their Marinid and Granadan allies.At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Mudéjar had apparently arrived in a stable equilibrium with the Christian-dominated society they lived in: they enjoyed a clearly defined and legitimate legal status with broad rights and privileges and had maintained their religious and personal liberties as well as cultural identity. This status, however, was changed by a series of crisis in the mid-fourteenth century, such as wars, economic uncertainty and most dramatically the Black Death. The Valencian Mudéjar revolted again in 1359 inspired by the messianic pretensions of a Mudéjar called Cilim and in 1364 due to the difficult conditions caused by the Aragonese war with Castile. At the same time, anti-Mudéjar violence, often fuelled by fears of the Mudéjar being a fifth column or spiriting Christians away to the slave markets of Granada or the Magrhib, was often directed against the morerías. As Maria Teresa Ferrer i Mallol points out, these attacks tended to coincide with periods of war with the sultanate of Granada or with rumours of possible Granadan attacks. The use of Granadan cavalry by king Peter the Cruel for raiding in Aragonese lands cultivated a popular fear of Mudéjar collaboration with the enemy which, while not generally true, was lend credence by occasional complicity of Mudéjar in Granadan raiding and spying for the Marinids. The Mudéjar population in Aragon was around one-third while in Valencia it was still around two-thirds.
These tensions intensified in the fifteenth century in which economic competition and depression, religious reactionism, continuing civil disorder and a growing threat of a war with the sultanate of Granada undermined the Christian-Muslim relations and stoking the perception of Muslims as disloyal, generically distinct foreigners. This, together with the Mudéjar's strengthening of relations with foreign Muslim regimes, resulted in the entrenchment of many Mudéjar communities across the Iberian peninsula. Especially the relation with the Ottoman Empire, whose advances threatened the Aragonese possession of Sicily, rendered the sultanate of Granada more formidable and the allegiance of the Mudéjar more uncertain. In 1487, both the sultanate of Granada as well as the Mudéjar established relations with the Ottomans whom they saw as the last hope of saving the sultanate of Granada.
Decline and end
During the decade long war of the united crowns of Aragon and Castile against the sultanate of Granada, the Aragonese policy regarding Mudéjar did not change and they were not viewed as a military problem. Though it was reported in 1486 that the Mudéjar were funding the Granadan war effort, a likely possibility as the Mudéjar were bound to the last Islamic state on Spanish soil by religion and kinship and the Nasrid sultan likely exercised a spiritual leadership over the Valencian Mudéjar, the results of the investigation ordered by king Ferdinand II of Aragon are not known. As the prospect for a successful outcome for Granada faded, negotiations for surrender began and were finalised in November 1491. These capitulaciones were far more detailed and generous than those which had been current in the peninsula since the eleventh century, including security and freedom of movement for all Muslims, Islamic law in its broadest possible sense and visible signs of Christian domination to be minimised. Essentially, they created a functioning Islamic principality under Christian rule. This and the other postwar policies of Ferdinand II affirm his belief in the continuing viability of Mudejarism and the view that the Mudéjar were a valuable asset. Though most of the Muslim aristocrats emigrated to North Africa, most religious authorities and common folk remained, some even returning after having first chosen to emigrate to North Africa. The equilibrium was further upheld by the newly installed archbishop Talavera, who adhered to the letter and spirit of the capitulaciones and took an optimistic approach to missionising and an open approach to the maintenance of folk customs.By 1498 this balanced approach broke down as Mudéjar were banned from living in Granada and the militant Cardinal Cisneros set out to abrogate the capitulaciones by coercing Mudéjar to convert and suppressing public manifestations of Arabo-Islamic culture, most notably by confiscating and publicly burning Islamic religious texts. In response, the Mudéjar of Granada rose in rebellion and the region was not subdued until 1501. After that, the Mudéjar of Granada were given the choice to remain and accept baptism, reject baptism and be enslaved or be exiled. Just a couple of years prior, in 1497, Islam had been outlawed by Portugal, possibly as king Manuel I aimed to obtain rights of sovereignty over the kingdom of Fez from the pope. Soon afterwards, after several Mudéjar populations in Castile had converted, Ferdinand and Isabella promulgated a decree ordering the conversion or departure of all Muslims remaining in the Crown of Castile in 1502. After that, the last redoubt of medieval European Islam was the Crown of Aragon, though Mudéjar were now in the minority amounting to some 30%.
The death of Ferdinand II in 1516 sparked another political transformation in which Spain became part of the Hapsburg bloc, set against the equally powerful Ottoman Sultanate and its ally France, and was ruled by Carlos I who was little disposed to tolerate "enemies of the faith". During the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, in which local craftsmen rebelled against royal authority, the Mudéjar were seen as confederates of the aristocracy and therefore attacked. Carlos I., however, also turned against them and issued in 1526 an edict that ordered the suppression of Islamic worship and traditions in the Crown of Aragon. This transformed it, like the rest of the "new kingdom of Spain", into a nation of Christians alone. Following the forced conversions, the newly baptised Christians faced suspicions that they were not truly converted but remained crypto-Muslims, and were known as Moriscos. The Moriscos, too, were eventually expelled, in 1609-1614.