Description
After the conquest of the Valencian Muslim territories by the troops of King James I of Aragon and the creation of the new Kingdom of València in the 13th century, many were the orders and legislation for the Muslim population that decided to stay in the new Cristian territories, the Mudejares. In origin, these laws where somewhat permissive, and the Mudejares could practice their faith and rituals, usually living in separated neighbourhoods (morerias). They could call the prayer on Friday, and celebrate rituals such as weddings, processions and funerals.
But for different political and social reasons, from the beginning of the 16th century this toleration ended, and new legislation started to force the Mudejares to convert to Christianism or leave the country (first in Castille in 1501, then, in 1525 in València). The ones who stayed and converted became the Moriscos or cristianos nuevos, who were always suspected of continuing to live as Muslims.
In this paper I will analyse the orders given to those Moriscos taking as case studies two examples of Valencian legislation, the Instruccions by Archbishop Ayala (1566) and the Constituciones by Archbishop Loaces (1568). These documents contain very interesting information about how the life of Moriscos was before they were obligated to convert, and how the most important things to eradicate for the Christian authorities were related to ritual (public and private) and to the use of sound as means of communication and identity.
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