A Material Peace: The World of Objects as a Meeting Point Between Islamic and Christian Tradition in the Late 16th century Spain
Narratives of Peace in Religious Discourses - Perspectives from Europe and the Mediterranean in the Early Modern Era - Ludovico Battista
Francisco Moreno Díaz del Campo [+]
University of Castilla-La Mancha
Description
The forced conversion of Spanish Muslims to Christianity gave rise to the so-called “Morisco issue”. Until their final expulsion from Spain between 1609 and 1614, Moriscos were kept under surveillance and forced to adopt the cultural habits of Old Christians. In its efforts to bring about the conversion and socio-cultural assimilation of the Moriscos, the Hispanic Monarchy implemented a policy of political, social and religious control. In the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth century, several intellectual proposals sought to encourage a mutual understanding between the two communities, but all without exception supported an uncompromising view of coexistence. This paper offers an alternative and complementary vision of the confrontation vs. peace narratives that permeated the lives of Moriscos and Old Christians alike, focusing on the world of objects, where the two communities found common ground for both consensus and difference.