# The Muslim ban  
On 11 May 1526, the Spanish Crown passed the first in a series of antiMuslim decrees. It prohibited the introduction of gelofes, ${ }^{2}$ 'negros' from the Levant, blacks who had been 'raised with the Moors', and people from Guinea. Four years prior, the Wolof had led the first revolt by enslaved Africans in the New World. They had risen on the sugar plantation of Christopher Columbus' son, Diego Columbus, and killed a dozen white settlers. Wolof uprisings had also occurred in Puerto Rico, Colombia and Panama. In 1532, Spain issued a further decree, stressing the threat posed by 'arrogant, disobedient, rebellious and incorrigible' Wolof who had killed a number of Christians (Saco, 1938; Mari, 1979, pp. 90-98). On 14 August 1543, the Crown banned the introduction of free and enslaved Muslims who had newly converted to Catholicism, because they had caused much 'inconvenience' in the past. Finally, on 16 July 1550, the introduction of blacks from the 'Levant and Guinea' was once again proscribed because they were 'mixed with the Moors'. In addition to the alarm caused by the uprisings, the possibility that Muslims could convert Native Americans was a great source of concern for the Crown (Herrera y Tordesillas, 1726-1727, p. 175).