Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

western writers emphatically invoke ‘Muslim piracy’ as the sole reason
justifying conquest. According to them Algiers had become a nest of Muslim
pirates that raided Spanish shores causing considerable damage; therefore,
Spain launched expeditions to end those piratical threats. 31
This simplistic
view, however, is loaded with complex issues. The so-called pirates were no
more than the refugee Moors and Moriscos 32
who escaped the carnage of
Reconquista, Inquisition, and forced Christianization which uprooted centuriesold
established Muslims from Andalusia and forced them to exile. In 1478, to
enforce political unity, the Spanish rulers expanded Inquisition to Muslims.
More, starting from 1492, they introduced policies furthering religious and
racial ‘purification.’ “Decrees implementing forced conversion or expulsion of
non-Christians appeared as formal policy designed to promote a Catholic,
Christian Spain.” 33 What ensued was genocide and terror: countless numbers of
alleged ‘Moorish apostates’ were burnt at the stake, 34 as the Catholics argued
cynically, ‘to avoid bloodshed.’ Inquisition was accompanied by a wave of
terror that caused hundreds of thousands more to flee Spain to North Africa for
31 Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, p. 272; Lane-Poole, Barbary Corsairs, p. 9-12; Muir, Expansion of
Europe, p. 81; Grammont, Histoire d’Alger, p. 5.
32 The term ‘Moors’ refers to Spain’s Muslims as opposed to ‘Moriscos’ who were forced into
Christianity. The term ‘Moor,’ from the Greek adjective maurus—meaning dark or black, was
originally used to indicate Blacks; later, it was applied to the inhabitants of North Africa of mixed Arab
and Berber races. In Andalusia, the name is given to Muslims of mixed Arab, Berber, and Spanish
blood. The Moors of Spain ultimately took refuge in North Africa between the 11 th and 17 th centuries
following serial losses of Muslim kingdoms in Spain. Generally, this term denotes ‘Muslim’ and
‘Black’ people in Renaissance Europe. For etymology see “Moor,” in The Concise English Dictionary,
p. 747.
33 Andrew C. Hess, “The Moriscos: An Ottoman Fifth Column in Sixteenth-Century Spain,” The
American Historical Review, 74: 1 (Oct., 1968), p. 3.
34 Zaimeche, “Granada,” pp. 14-6. Persecution of Muslims lasted until 1967 when, for the first time in
Spain’s history, freedom of religion was instituted.
29