Maresco — i.e. Morisco, (Spanish ‘Moor-like’). From the late 1400s to the early 1600s Moors – Iberian Muslims – were forced to convert to Catholicism. Suspected of having mostly become covert Muslims they were expelled from Spain by the decree of 1610. Contemporary accounts speak of 200,000 to 600,000 refugees. About 3,000 who wished to remain Catholic were able to find new homes in Italy, especially Livorno; the ovewhelming majority settled within the Ottoman Empire and Morocco. Famous became the community which based at Salé, fought as corsairs against Christian merchants, and the comminity which conquered Timbuktu and the Niger Curve with help of European-made guns.