Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain

The golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, which coincided with the Middle Ages in Europe, was a period of Muslim rule during which Jews were accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life flourished.

The nature and length of this "Golden Age" has been debated, as there were at least three periods during which non-Muslims were oppressed. A few scholars give the start of the Golden Age as 711–718, the Muslim conquest of Iberia. Others date it from 912, during the rule of Abd al-Rahman III. The end of the age is variously given as 1031, when the Caliphate of Córdoba ended; 1066, the date of the Granada massacre; 1090, when the Almoravids invaded; or the mid-12th century, when the Almohads invaded.

Historiography and nature of Golden Age

Image of a cantor reading the Passover story in Al-Andalus, from the 14th century Haggadah of Barcelona.

Having invaded southern Spain and coming to rule in a matter of seven years, Islamic rulers were confronted with many questions relating to the implementation of Islamic rule of a non-Islamic society. The coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians during this time is revered by many writers. Al-Andalus was a key center of Jewish life during the early Middle Ages.

María Rosa Menocal, a specialist in Iberian literature at Yale University, claims that "tolerance was an inherent aspect of Andalusian society".^[1] Menocal's 2003 book, The Ornament of the World, argues that the Jewish dhimmis living under the Caliphate were allowed fewer rights than Muslims but were still better off than in the Christian parts of Europe. Jews from other parts of Europe made their way to al-Andalus, where in parallel to Christian sects regarded as heretical by Catholic Europe, they were not just tolerated, but where opportunities to practise faith and trades were open without restriction save for the prohibitions on proselytisation and, sometimes, on synagogue construction.

Bernard Lewis takes issue with this view, calling it ahistorical and exaggerated. He argues that Islam traditionally did not offer equality or even pretend that it did and argues that it would have been both a "theological as well as a logical absurdity."^[2] However, he also states:

Generally, the Jewish people were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community. Furthermore, the restrictions to which they were subject were social and symbolic rather than tangible and practical in character. That is to say, these regulations served to define the relationship between the two communities, and not to oppress the Jewish population.^[2]

Mark R. Cohen, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, in his Under Crescent and Cross, calls the idealized interfaith utopia a "myth" that was first promulgated by Jewish historians such as Heinrich Graetz in the 19th century as a rebuke to Christian countries for their treatment of Jews.^[3] This myth was met with the "counter-myth" of the "neo-lachrymose conception of Jewish-Arab history" by Bat Ye'or and others,^[3] which also "cannot be maintained in the light of historical reality".^[4]

Birth of the Golden Age

Prior to 589, the Jewish population of Spain was tolerated by its Arian Visigoth rulers and placed on equal footing with the other ethnic and religious communities of the region. The Arians may have preferred the Jewish population to the Catholic one, as they did not fear political enmity from the Jews.^[5] The Visigoths were mainly indifferent towards Jews and allowed them to grow and prosper. After the Visigoths joined the Catholic Church, they placed ever greater economic burdens on the Jewish population, and later persecuted them severely. It is possible that Jews welcomed the Muslim Arab and mainly-Berber conquerors in the 8th century.

A period of tolerance dawned for the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula. Their number was considerably augmented by immigration from North Africa in the wake of the Muslim conquest.^{[citation needed]} Immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East bolstered the Jewish population and made Muslim Spain probably the largest centre of contemporary Jews. Especially after 912, during the reign of Abd al-Rahman III and his son, Al-Hakam II, the Jews prospered culturally, and some notable figures held high posts in the Caliphate of Córdoba. Jewish philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, poets and rabbinical scholars composed highly-rich cultural and scientific work. Many devoted themselves to the study of the sciences and philosophy, composing many of the most valuable texts of Jewish philosophy. Jews took part in the overall prosperity of Muslim Al-Andalus. Jewish economic expansion was unparallelled. In Toledo, after the Christian reconquest in 1085, Jews were involved in translating Arabic texts to the romance languages in the so-called Toledo School of Translators, as they had been previously in translating Greek and Hebrew texts to Arabic. Jews also contributed to botany, geography, medicine, mathematics, poetry and philosophy.^[6]

'Abd al-Rahman's court physician and minister was Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the patron of Menahem ben Saruq, Dunash ben Labrat and other Jewish scholars and poets. In following centuries, Jewish thought flourished under famous figures such as Samuel Ha-Nagid, Moses ibn Ezra, Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi.^[6] During 'Abd al-Rahman's term of power, the scholar Moses ben Hanoch was appointed rabbi of Córdoba, and as a consequence al-Andalus became the center of Talmudic study, and Córdoba the meeting-place of Jewish savants.

It was a time of partial Jewish autonomy. As "dhimmis", "protected non-Muslims", Jews in the Islamic world paid the jizya, which was administered separately from the zakat paid by Muslims. The jizya has been viewed variously as a head tax, as payment for non-conscription in the military (as non-Muslims were normally prohibited from bearing arms or receiving martial training) or as a tribute. Jews had their own legal system and social services. Monotheist religions of the People of the Book were tolerated but conspicuous displays of faith, such as bells and processions, were discouraged.^[7]

Comparing the treatment of Jews in the medieval Islamic world and medieval Christian Europe, the Jews were far more integrated in the political and economic life of Islamic society,^[8] and usually faced far less violence from Muslims, but there were some instances of persecution in the Islamic world as well from the 11th century.^[9] The Islamic world classified Jews and Christians as dhimmis and allowed Jews to practice their religion more freely than they could in Christian Europe.^[10]

Other authors criticize the modern notion of Al-Andalus being a tolerant society of equal opportunities for all religious groups as a "myth".^[11] Jews were living in an uneasy coexistence with Muslims and Catholics, and the relationship between the groups was more often than not marked by segregation and mutual hostility. In the 1066 Granada massacre of much of the Jewish population of the city, the Jewish death toll was higher than in the much-publicized Christian pogroms in the Rhineland slightly later.^[11] The notable Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) was forced to flee from Al-Andalus to avoid conversion by the Almohads. In Letter to Yemen, Maimonides wrote:

Dear brothers, because of our many sins Hashem has cast us among this nation, the Arabs, who are treating us badly. They pass laws designed to cause us distress and make us despised.... Never has there been a nation that hated, humiliated and loathed us as much as this one.^[12]

End of the Golden Age

With the death of Al-Hakam II in 976, the caliphate began to dissolve, and the position of the Jews became more precarious under the various smaller kingdoms.^{[citation needed]} The first major persecution was the 1066 Granada massacre, which occurred on 30 December in which a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, crucified the Jewish Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred many of the Jewish population of the city. According to one source, "more than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day".^[13] It was the first persecution of Jews on the Peninsula under Islamic rule.

Beginning in 1090, the situation deteriorated further with the invasion of the Almoravids, a puritan Muslim dynasty from Morocco. Even under the Almoravids, some Jews prospered although far more so under Ali III, than under his father, Yusuf ibn Tashfin. Among those who held the title of "vizier" or "nasi" in Almoravid times were the poet and physician Abu Ayyub Solomon ibn al-Mu'allam, Abraham ibn Meïr ibn Kamnial, Abu Isaac ibn Muhajar and Solomon ibn Farusal. The Almoravids were ousted from the peninsula in 1148, but the region was again invaded, this time by the even more puritanical Almohads.

During the reign of the Berber dynasties, many Jewish and even Muslim scholars left the Muslim-controlled portion of Iberia for the city of Toledo, which had been reconquered in 1085 by Christian forces.

The major Jewish presence in Iberia continued until the Jews were forced to leave or to convert to Christianity in the Alhambra Decree of 1492 and a similar decree by Portugal in 1496.

Notable figures

Kaula al Yahudi, military commander appointed by Tariq ibn Ziyad during the Muslim conquest of Hispania
Abu al-Fadl ibn Hasdai, philosopher, vizier at Taifa of Zaragoza
Joseph ibn Hasdai, poet, father of Abu al-Fadl ibn Hasdai
Yekutiel ben Isaac ibn Hassan, poet, talmudist and vizier at Taifa of Zaragoza, fell from favor, executed.
Abu Ruiz ibn Dahri fought in the war against the Almohades.
Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, traveller, probably a merchant.
Amram ben Isaac ibn Shalbib, scholar and diplomat in the service of Alfonso VI of Castile
Bahya ibn Paquda, philosopher and author of Chovot HaLevavot
Bishop Bodo-Eleazar; according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "a convert to Judaism ... [who]... went to Córdoba, where he is said to have endeavored to win proselytes for Judaism from among the Spanish Christians."
Dunash ben Labrat (920–990), poet
Isaac Albalia, astronomer and rabbi at Granada
Jehiel ben Asher, poet
Joseph ibn Migash, diplomat for Granada
Maimonides, also known by the acronym 'Rambam', author of Mishnah Torah, Guide to the Perplexed, and commentator on the Mishnah, rabbi, scholar, physician, and philosopher
Menahem ben Saruq, philologist
Nachmanides, also referred to by the acronym Ramban, scholar, rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator.
Solomon ibn Gabirol, poet and philosopher
Moses ben Enoch, rabbi and Talmudic scholar
Yehuda Halevi, poet and philosopher
Samuel ha-Levi, treasurer of king Pedro I "the Cruel" of Castile
Abraham ibn Ezra, rabbi and poet
Moses ibn Ezra, philosopher and poet
Benjamin of Tudela, traveler and explorer
Samuel ibn Naghrillah, king's minister at Taifa of Granada and poet
Joseph ibn Naghrillah, king's minister, son of Samuel ibn Naghrillah
Hasdai ibn Shaprut, royal physician and statesman
Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, translator and physician
Joseph ibn Tzaddik, rabbi, poet and philosopher.
Abraham ibn Daud, astronomer, historian, and philosopher. He is sometimes known by the abbreviation Rabad I or Ravad I.

Notes

^ "Press Release: The Ornament of the World by María Rosa Menocal". August 28, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-08-28.
^ ^a ^b Lewis, Bernard W (1984). The Jews of Islam
^ ^a ^b Cohen, Mark R. (October 1995). Under Crescent and Cross. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01082-X.
^ Daniel J. Lasker (1997). "Review of Under Crescent and Cross. The Jews in the Middle Ages by Mark R. Cohen". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 88 (1/2): 76–78. doi:10.2307/1455066. JSTOR 1455066.
^ Arianism, Kaufmann Kohler, Samuel Krauss, Jewish Encyclopedia
^ ^a ^b Sephardim by Rebecca Weiner.
^ Fred J. Hill et al., A History of the Islamic World 2003 ISBN 0-7818-1015-9, p.73
^ Mark R. Cohen (1995), Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, pp. 66–7 & 88, ISBN 0-691-01082-X, retrieved 2010-04-10
^ Mark R. Cohen (1995), Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, pp. xvii, xix, 22, 163, 169, ISBN 0-691-01082-X, retrieved 2010-04-10
^ Mark R. Cohen (1995), Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01082-X, retrieved 2010-04-10
^ ^a ^b Darío Fernández-Morera: "The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise", The Intercollegiate Review, Fall 2006, pp. 23–31
^ Avraham Yaakov Finkel (translator): "Rambam: Selected Letters of Maimonides", Yeshivat Beit Moshe, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1994, ISBN 0-9626226-3-X, p. 58
^ Granada by Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia. 1906 ed.

References

Esperanza Alfonso, Islamic culture through Jewish eyes : al-Andalus from the tenth to twelfth century, 2007 ISBN 978-0-415-43732-5
Mark Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages 1995 ISBN 0-691-01082-X
Joel Kraemer, "Comparing Crescent and Cross," The Journal of Religion, Vol. 77, No. 3. (Jul., 1997), pp. 449–454. (Book review)
"The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise" by Darío Fernández-Morera – critique of view of Al-Andalus as tolerant society