In the year 1492, the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella captured Grenada from the Moors. The city surrendered on January 7, 1492 and the Catholic king and queen immediately ordered the expulsion of all Jews within three months’ time and the expropriation of all their wealth. The expulsion of this intelligent, cultured, and industrious ethnic and religious group was prompted only, in part, by the greed of the king and queen and the intensified nationalism of the people who had just brought the crusade against the Muslim Moors to a glorious close. The real motive was the religious zeal of the Church, the monarchies in presence, and the masses. Accordingly, the equivalent of 250 000 Jews were thrown in merchant ships and sent to other parts of Europe and North Africa, with no food or means to start a new life. It is considered one of the most inhuman mass expulsion in human history of people on the ground of their religious affiliation.

The Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile took control of the Emirate of Grenada (1238-1492), the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, on January 2, 1492. King Boabdil surrendered to Spanish forces and offered the key to the city in the Alhambra palace, an event Christopher Columbus witnessed as he received the support of the monarchy to sail to the Indies. The monarchy was under particular pressure from Isabella’s father, Tomas de Torquenada, and also papal appeals and influential militant figures to re-conquer Christian land from “impure” Muslims and their “filthy” allies, the Jews. In the same year that the monarchs took Grenada, Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in Christian Byzantium, further threatening Christendom and reinvigorating Europe’s crusading spirit.

The failure of the repeated attempts to establish in the kingdom of Naples the new Inquisition “all’uso di Spagna” led to an unprecedented decision: the expulsion of Christians of Jewish origins along with the Jews. This was a reversal of a religious policy persistently carried out in the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, namely, that of preventing New Christians and their descendants from leaving their native lands because they might thus return to Judaism. This policy shift is given ample consideration in rabbinical thinking as it is manifest in the Responsa literature of the sixteenth century. Thus, the decision to expel the converts along with the Jews was understood as permission for them to return to Judaism. There are several surviving rabbinic Responsa that refer to the expulsion of 1511 which is known in Hebrew sources as גרוש פוליא (Ğeruš Pulia - Expulsion of Apulia). The principal sources referred to in this article are the Responsa of R. David ha-Kohen of Corfu (d. ca. 1530) and that of R. Binyamin ben Matatyiah of Arta (ca. 1475 – ca. 1539)9 which offer precious information on the fate of the exiles, and particularly on Jewish converts to Christianity, as well as interesting details on the process of departure from Italy, the formation of new settlements, family relationships, and the mentality. However, the main concern in the following discussion focuses on the “converso” problem as perceived by the spiritual leaders of this period.

During the 16th century, the conversion of the Muslims and the Christianization of the Moriscos of Spain gave rise to large debates among the counsellors of the Catholic Kings and Church members in the definition of the royal policies vis-à-vis this minority. The precedent of the forced conversion of the Jews appears to be present at the various stages and on various issues concerning these debates. This lecture aims to analyze the extent of the “Jewish precedent” over the Morisco phenomenon, showing a strong link between the conversion and/or expulsion of the Jews and the conversion and/or expulsion of the Muslims and Moriscos from Iberian soil.