Peace in the Material World

Objects as a Meeting Points for Islamic and Christian Traditions in Late Sixteenth-Century Spain

Abstract

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 early seventeenth centuries, several intellectual proposals sought to encourage a mutual understanding between the two communities, but all without exception supported an uncompromising view of coexistence. This chapter 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.