Political Plots, Espionage, and a Shi‘a Text among the Moriscos

Abstract

This paper offers a new approach to understanding the Corónica y relaçión de la esclareçida deçendençia xarifa, a unique Shi‘a text from the last Spanish Muslim community in Tunisia. I argue that, in the light of recent analysis presented by Luis Bernabé, the Moriscos in Tunisia could have been working as spies for the Spanish monarchy. Were such a contention to be proven, it would have serious implications for our understanding of the relations between Spain and Persia in the seventeenth century.