The Formation of North African Otherness in the Canary Islands from the 16th to 18th Centuries

Juan Manuel Santana

doi:10.3989/chdj.2020.012

Abstract

The current study of the North Africans of the Canary Islands during the 16th-18th centuries represents a contribution to the question of the development of the Muslim stereotype in Spain. This population with origins almost exclusively in north-western Africa, an area known at the time as Barbary, was forcibly relocated to the islands. Most of the Old Christians at the moment of the Royal Decree of 1609 expelling of the Moriscos from the Peninsula declared that the Moriscos of the archipelago were good Christians and loyal vassals. The archipelago was hence the only area of the Spanish Crown where they were not expelled. Fear served the monarchies of new emerging modern state to secure power and fashion a proto-national identity that differentiated individuals of different cultures and religions. The Moriscos of the archipelago were therefore throughout three centuries one of the main collectives singled out for religious, political and economic reasons.

Highlights

The main objective of this article is to reveal the three scenarios explaining the development of the otherness of the North African Moriscos of the Canary Islands
The historiography of Spain has nurtured a Manichaean perspective based on the central premise of the illegitimacy of Al-Andalus from the moment of its domination of the Peninsula
This study focuses exclusively on the Canarian Moriscos, leaving aside other non-Catholic human groups such as sub-Saharan Africans, Protestants and in particular the indigenous population as they have already been the subject of research on this phenomena

Summary

Introduction

This is expressed through the notion of an Arab and Muslim “invasion” that generated violence, brutality and humiliation which simultaneously legitimised and glorified the Christian reconquest (García Sanjuán, 2016, pp. 133-135)

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion