Session Abstract

Islam’s presence in Iberia suffered a mortal blow when Christian Spaniards conquered the Emirate of Granada in 1492.  With the fall of Islamic rule on the peninsula, a hegemonic Christian state was able to apply more pressure on an increasingly marginalized population.  Muslims were forcibly converted to Christianity or expelled.  Those who stayed, the Moriscos, formed a new segment of the population, one that persisted in Spain for another century.  Papers in this session will explore how Islam remained an element of society, politics, culture, and identity in the early modern Spanish imperial world.