Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Disembarking of the Moriscos at Oran port: 1613
The music is Morisco music, found on Iberian Garden, Vol. 1 by
Altramar. The piece is Muwashshah: Mā li-l-muwallah, 1113-1198.
This music takes place at the beautiful gardens along the Guadalquiver, near Cordoba.
This is during the "convivencia" under Alfonso X (El Sabio - The Wise), the time
before Granda fell: when Christians, Moslems and Jews lived at peace with each
other. Muwashshah are songs in poetic form, with instrumental interludes in the
form of Ibn Bājja (Avempace): 1470-1520. This is Morisco art.
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Disembarcation of the Moriscos at Oran port: 1613 Return
Secret plans were made to expell the Moriscos. Army troops had to be located to
proper areas, as well as galleons and galleys to proper ports at the scheduled times.
Moriscos were then compelled by force if necessary. Moriscos had to quickly sell
property, animals, etc. trying to amass portable wealth that could be hidden (the
Crown limited the amount of precious stones, gold, or silver that could be taken),
while surrounding Old Catholics took advantage of the situation. As the Moriscos
walked to embarcation ports, the Old Catholics murdered the men, outraged the women,
seized and sold the survivors into slavery on the way to France and North Africa.
If lucky enough not to die of hunger or exposure to the weather, governmental officials
in France and North Africa (especially Arabs) also murdered, outraged, and sold Moriscos
into slavery. The merry view in the propaganda art above is not exactly the truth.
For those attempting to exit Spain through Navarre, across the Pyrenees into France,
runious fees were charged, no food, no shelter, freezing high altitudes assured that
few would survive. Once in France, the Moriscos were accused of being Spanish spies. The
Moriscos were stripped of most of their money by judicial sentence. Moriscos were
stoned to death in North Africa for refusing to enter mosques (these Moriscos viewed
themselves as Christians). Upon debarcation in Oran, the Moriscos were plundered and
slain and their women taken from them. These Moriscos were starved, and disease resulted
in two-thirds to three-quarters of the Moriscos dying. 1
1
"The Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion amd Expulsion", Lea, Henry; pp. 362 - 364
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