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.
Noble status (In contemporary U.S., a worker is the lowest category
or class of being: everyone is a "manager"). Thus there are no hotel
"doormen": There is a president doorman, a vice-president doorman,
manager doorman, assistant doorman, doorman in training, etc. but
god-forbid, no doorman! Who would want to go to a hotel with "doormen"?
A person chooses to be a doorman? Obviously such a person is deranged!
Thus in Spain, everyone who was anyone was a Hidalgo. Thus no one
actually wanted to be associated with work! Everyone was a Hidalgo.
Perhaps it is easy to understand why Spain fell behind the world:
no one worked!) In fact, a parasitic class often evolves into useless
people. Thus Ivan Goncherov's novel "Oblomov". "Oblomovshchina" is
the name of Russian version of "Hidalguías".
Spanish racism, was expressed by the Catholic church's Holy Inquisition.
Moriscos were Andalusian Moslems, a people living in Andalusia for
centuries. The Spanish reconquest resulted in the forced conversion of
these Moslems. These "New Christians" were hated by the
"Old Christians" and were discriminated against by the Holy
Inquisition as well as these "Old Christians". Forced conversions
using Auto-da-Fés in which "New Christians" were burned
alive at these Catholic theatrical performances (used to terrorize the
"Old Christians" to keep them cowed, as well as to confiscate
the property of the "New Christian" Moriscos to finance the
Inquisitional clerics). Moriscos were persuaded to be baptised by other
means as well, such as to be forced to become galley-slaves, etc.
It is easy to understand why the Moriscos didn't wish to be Catholics:
they saw Catholics with their graven images of Christ on the Cross, Mary,
various saints, etc. as idolators. To teach Catholicism to the Moriscos, very
little money was set aside for low level "doctrinarios" or priests or
"frailes" to teach the Moriscos. Furthermore, these teachers of
Catholicism were poorly educated, and were corrupt about finances, as well
as dissipated: the Catholicism these teachers represented were all too
persuasive to the Moriscos.
Various strategies were discussed by the King and corrupt counselors such
as the Duke of Lerma, Archbishop Juan de Ribera, etc. to deal with Moriscos:
"[S]end the Moriscos to sea and scuttle the vessels,..."
(Count of Chinchon and Juan de Idiaquez)
1.
"[T]he Inquisition should proceed against all the Moriscos of the crown
of Castile, without sparing the life of a single one—either inflicting
natural or civil death, or perpetual exile, or the galleys for life."
2
"[T]o enslave all the males of proper age and send them to the galleys or to
the mines of the Indies, perhaps depleting them gradually by taking every year
four thousand youths for each service." (Archbishop Ribera)
3, 4
"...to massacre such a multitude would cause general horror." (Archbishop Ribera)
5
"[T]he Moriscos could all be massacred in a single day, or the king could
condemn all adults to death and the rest to perpetual slavery, or he could
sell them all as slaves to Italy or the Indies, or could fill his galleys
and liberate the Christians serving there, especially the clerics, and
abolish the custom by which the superiors of the Orders send their peccant
bretheren to the galleys so save the expense of keeping them in prison."
(Fray Bleda) 6
"A scheme of shipping the Moriscos of Valencia to the fisheries of
Newfoundland, under the guard of soldiers, who should recieve grants of
land and allotments of vassals, as did the conquistadores in the Indies..."
(Inquisitors of Valencia) 7
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.
About one quarter of the population in Spain were Moriscos. When the Moriscos were
expelled, Spain became depopulated. Monies collected from the Moriscos as taxes were no
longer available. Old Catholics that depended upon Moriscos were ruined. the tabla de los
depositos of Valencia (bank of deposits) was bankrupted, as was the tabla de Barcelona.
8
"[T]he king had granted to the Inquisition all the [Morisco] lands that had fallen in
to the crown in Valencia and Aragon". 9
Thus the Inquisition gained enormously valuable lands, was now made worthless due to the
persecution of the Moriscos (the Inquisition was now bankrupted too).
The Moriscos, attempting to salvage earned wealth, engaged in counterfeiting coinage.
This led the Old Catholics to speculate in counterfeit coinage too, and eventually
the government was forced to "control" this counterfeit coinage. Thus "[T]he State was
the chief counterfeiter." 10
"[T]he Christian population had a settled aversion to labor, which was contemptously
regarded as dishonoring." Indeed, was viewed as a Spanish national characteristic.
Agriculture was distasteful. Thus Spain supplied "raw goods" while France, Flanders,
and Italy worked these raw materials into finished products (Spain became a third
world country), falling behind in industrialization at just the wrong time for the
international world that was begining to industrialize. Spaniards viewed themseles
as "Hidalgos" now! Thus Spain could prowdly proclaim themseles as "prodigals".
11
Daughters and wives were placed in convents. Seminaries held the sons of peasants,
while fields were deserted, sons could not earn a living and became beggars, tramps,
or thieves. 11
Whatever useful population remained was siphoned off into endless foreign wars in
the New World. A smaller population now had to pay larger amounts of taxes.
12 The land was now a desert for workers.
The church bankrupt, everyone unable to do the labor to survive, with a very, very
bleak economic future (for centuries). However, the Spanish Inquisition's racial
hatred had bankrupted everyone to create a parasitic class of Hidalgos and to destroy
the Moriscos. Now, the Inquisition had firmly planted racial hatred, to gain a uniform
state religion (except hidden, crypto Jews and Moriscos of course, still remained).
1
"The Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion amd Expulsion", Lea, Henry; p. 296
2
ibid., p. 297
3
ibid., p. 297
4
ibid., In fact, the quicksilver mines (Mercury mines) of
Almaden were used for Moriscos. p. 354
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