Marranos or Secret Jews (Spanish and Portuguese, literally "pigs" in the Spanish language, originally a derogatory term from the Arabic ????? muharram meaning "ritually forbidden," stemming from the prohibition against eating the flesh of the animal among both Jews and Muslims), were Sephardic Jews (Jews from the Iberian peninsula) who were forced to adopt the identity of Christians, either through coercion as a consequence of the persecution of Jews by the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition, or who, for form's sake, became Roman Catholic converts. Many Marranos maintained their ancestral traditions as crypto-Jews, by publicly professing Roman Catholicism but secretly adhering to Judaism. However, this view has recently come under severe criticism from historians such as B. Netanyahu(?), who believe that many Marranos were actually fully-fledged Christians. Netanyahu uses the court records of Don Isaac Abravanel, the seni

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