Two minorities facing the Iberian Inquisition: the 'Marranos' and the 'Moriscos'

Based on a paper delivered at the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Oslo, 2000. Examines inter-minority relations between Iberian converted Jews (Conversos, "Marranos") and converted Muslims ("Moriscos") in the 16th-early 17th centuries in Spain and other countries. Some writers maintain that the affinity between their status and common experience of being excluded minorities led to mutual solidarity between these groups. Others see a great measure of antagonism between them; for example, the "Moriscos" adopted anti-Jewish motifs from the Christian society. Based, in particular, on data from Inquisition trials, finds signs of rapprochement and mutual solidarity between "Marranos" and "Moriscos" as well as mutual rejection. Concludes that the "Marrano"-"Morisco" alliances may have existed concomitantly with mutual distance. Attraction or rejection between these minorities was strongly influenced by circumstances of time and place.