ABSTRACT
The conquest of the Muslim Kingdom of Granada and its union to the Crown of Castile took ten years, from 1482 to 1491.1 As the Christians gained control over the territory, the need to establish forms of convivencia (lit. living together) with the Muslim population which remained after the war and to organize new settlement and administration became apparent. For this purpose the pacts or capitulaciones (capitulations) agreed upon between conquered and conqueror were taken as the points of departure. Until the years 1500-1502, the Christian settlers, mostly of Andalusian origin, who were attracted to Granada by the allotment of lands and other real estate, lived together with the Muslim mudejares of Granada.2 From the beginning of the sixteenth century, baptized Muslims and their descendants, known as moriscos, remained a unique cultural community, distinct from that formed by the cristianos viejos (Old Christian) settlers and their descendants.
