Most of the descendants of those Muslims and Jews who submitted to compulsory conversion to Christianity rather than exile during the early periods of the Inquisition, the Moriscos and Conversos respectively, were later expelled from Spain, when the Inquisition was at its height, and Portugal.

The descendants of Muslims who converted to Christianity were called the Moriscos ( meaning " Moor-like ") and were suspecting of secretly practicing Islam.

Blas Infante, in his book Orígenes de lo flamenco y secreto del cante jondo, suggested that the word may derive from Andalusian Arabic fellah mengu, " Escapee Peasant ", referring to the formerly Muslim Andalusians ( Moriscos ), who stayed in Spain and, according to certain modern authors, are supposed to have mixed with the Romani newcomers.

* The Mudéjar and Moriscos: Muslim conversos.

In turn, much later, during the 18th century, some Moriscos ( Muslim and Jewish Spaniards forcibly converted to Catholicism ) also moved to Livorno from Spain.

These Mozarabs of Muslim origin, who converted en masse at the end of the 11th century, many of them Muladi ( ethnic Iberians previously converted to Islam ), are totally distinct from the Mudéjars and Moriscos who converted gradually to Christianity between the 12th and 17th centuries.

After the fall of the last Muslim kingdom on the Iberian peninsula, the Moriscos ( Andalusian Muslims in Granada and other parts of what was once Al-Andalus ) were forced to convert to Christianity or leave the peninsula.

On May 25, 1566 Philip II decreed the use of the Arabic language ( written or spoken ) illegal, doors to homes to remain open on Fridays to verify that no Muslim Friday prayers were conducted, and heavy taxation on Moriscos trades.

Even after the Germanies were suppressed it was ruled that these baptisms were valid, sparking a new revolt of the Moriscos ( Muslim " converts ").

Spanish Muslims officially ceased to exist, and the converted Catholic people of Muslim ancestry were known as Moriscos.

The Muslim minority suffered a blow in 1502 when it was forced to convert to Christianity ( the Moriscos ), to achieve religious conformity in the name of national unity.

The town of Hornachos was an exception, not only because practically all of its inhabitants were Moriscos but because of their open practice of the Islamic faith and of their famed independent and indomitable nature.

These scholars note parallels with a series of Morisco forgeries, the Sacromonte tablets of Granada, dating from the 1590s ; or otherwise with Morisco reworkings of Christian and Islamic traditions, produced following the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain.

The expulsion was carried out more severely in Eastern Spain ( Valencia and Aragon ), due to local animosity towards Muslims and Moriscos where they were seen as economic rivals by the citizenry.

These lands were populated, during the reconquest, by peoples from all over the peninsula, even from southern Spain ( see exile of Mozarabs from Al Andalus and even the dispersal of Moriscos from Granada in the 16th century ).

The Edict dealt only with Protestant and Catholic coexistence ; it made no mention of Jews, or of Muslims, who were offered temporary asylum in France when the Moriscos were being expelled from Spain.

They discussed about the possibility of an alliance between Holland, the Ottoman Empire, Morocco and the Moriscos, against the common enemy Spain.

Much later, the language of demonization would be invoked during the Spanish Inquisition, leading to the expulsion of Jews and Moriscos from Spain.

Moriscos (,, ), meaning " Moorish ") were Muslims who decided to convert to Christianity rather than leave Spain and Portugal.

One mean estimate of the Moriscos Population in Spain according to various censuses carried out between 1568 and 1609 gives the following populations by region:

French Huguenots were in contact with the Moriscos in plans against the House of Austria ( Habsburgs ), which ruled Spain in the 1570s.

Adult Moriscos were often assumed to be covert Muslims ( i. e. crypto-Muslims ), but expelling their children presented Catholic Spain with a dilemma.

Numerous Moriscos remained in Spain, living among the Christian population.

It is alleged that to provoke a rebellion which would give him a proper reason to expel the Moriscos of southern Spain, Philip II broke his promises previously made in treaties made with the Muslims and issued an edict requiring Moriscos to give up their Arabic names, their traditional Moorish dress, and even prohibited the speaking of Arabic and Berber.

However, he had created an insoluble problem that would not end until 1609 when the Moriscos were expelled from Spain.

The Edict of Fontainebleau is compared by many historians with the 1492 Alhambra Decree, ordering the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain ; and with Expulsion of the Moriscos during 1609-1614.

* The Moriscos of Spain ( Philadelphia, 1901 )

Between 1609 and 1614 the Moriscos were expelled from Spain.

Ricote, like all Moriscos, was expelled from Spain and has returned in disguise to retrieve the treasure he left behind.

It became an extinct language in Iberia after the expulsion of the Moriscos, which took place over a century after the Reconquista by Christian Spain.

In 1567, Philip II of Spain issued a royal decree in Spain forbading Moriscos from use Arabic on all occasions, formal and informal, speaking and writing.

In 1609, nominally converted Christian Moriscos were thereafter expelled.

Over time by scholars, the latter were called Moriscos, and the voice marrano was only to designate the Jews of converso descent.

Moriscos were far from being a homogenous population and were largely subdivided in four distinct groups or ethinicites:

The least hispanized of all the groups, this community spoke fluent Arabic, was well versed in Islamic doctrine and conserved the majority of cultural traits pertaining to Islamic Al Andalus: Dress, music, gastronomy, festivities etc ... After the War of Alpujarras ( 1568-1571 ) the Moriscos of Granada were deported to the various regions of the Kingdom of Castile, Extremadura and Andalusia.

Vassals of estate-owners who protected them due to the high tax revenue they provided, Valencian Moriscos were also relatively distinct population.

Unlike Granada and Valencia Moriscos, they did not speak Arabic but as vassals of the nobility were granted the privilege to practice their faith relatively openly.

Places like Muel, Zaragoza were inhabited fully by Moriscos, the only Old Christians were the priest, the notary and the owner of the tavern-inn.

Castille's Moriscos were practically indistiguisable from the Catholic population: They did not speak Arabic and a large number of them were genuine Christians.

For example, marriages between Castile Moriscos and " old " Christians were much more common than between the former and Granada moriscos.

In addition, the children of Moriscos were to be educated by Catholic priests.

Around 1575, plans were made for a combined attack of Aragonese Moriscos and Huguenots from Béarn under Henri de Navarre against Spanish Aragon, in agreement with the king of Algiers and the Ottoman Empire, but these projects foundered with the arrival of John of Austria in Aragon and the disarmament of the Moriscos.