Sometime in the first half of the 16th Century, following the Christian conquest of Islamic Spain (the Reconquista), the family fled to Morocco, where Jews, like Christians, were tolerated as long as they accepted Islam as the official religion. How they arrived is unclear. One Italian historian states, "Verso i Paesi Bassi emigra anche la famiglia Pallache, forse dal Portogallo o dalla Spagna, oppure, secundo un'altra ipotesti, dalla nativa Spagna emigra a Fez, dove un Isaac Pallache è rabbino nel 1588" (translation: "The Pallache family also emigrated to the Netherlands, perhaps from Portugal or Spain, or, according to another hypothesis, they emigrated [directly] from their native Spain to Fez, where one Isaac Pallache was rabbi in 1588.")[4]