Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience 0029115744, 9780029115749

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Introduction: An Enigma of 1492
1. Volatile Origins: The Early History of Jewish Life in Spain
2. The Birth of Sepharad: From the Muslim Conquest to the Caliphate of Cordoba
3. The Golden Era: The Emergence of Sephardic Civilization
4. The Reconquista: Jews and the New Realities of Christian Spain
5. Path to Expulsion: The Decline and Destruction of Spanish Jewry
6. Return to the Islamic World: The Sephardic Diaspora in Muslim Lands
7. The Westward Journey: Europe and the New World
8. Encounter with Modernity: Ottoman Decline and the Ascendance of the West
9. Revival and Return: Sephardic Jews in the Post-War Era
APPENDIX 1 The Edict of Expulsion
APPENDIX 2 Immigration Tables
Notes
Introduction
Chapter i. Volatile Origins
Chapter 3. The Golden Era
Chapters. Encounter with Modernity
A Note on Further Reading
Index

Citation preview

TH E JEWS OF SPAIN

TH E FREE PRESS A Division o f Macmillan, Inc. N ew Y ork

Maxwell Macmillan Canada T o r o n to

Maxwell Macmillan International N e w Y o r k O x f o r d S in g a p o r e S y d n ey

THE

JEWS OF

SPAIN A H istory o f the Sephardic Experience JANE S. GERBER

The author gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce printed and photographic material from the following sources: American Jewish Historical Society, ASAP/Mike Ganor, Robert Altai, Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, Ben Zvi Institute, Beth Hatefutsoth, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, Frédéric Brenner, Centre for the Study o f Jews of Holland in Israel, Detroit Institute o f Arts, Etan Dor-Shav, The Israel Museum, Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam, Jewish National and University Library, Leo Baeck Institute, Penguin Books, Photo MAS, Prado Museum, Tel Aviv Books, University of Alabama Press. Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia. Raymond Scheindlin, Wine, Women, and Death (1986) and The Gazelle (1991). Poems of Judah al-Harizi and Solomon ibn Gabirol, used by permission o f the publisher. Cornell University, Ithaca. Joseph F. O’Callaghan, A History o f Medieval Spain. Copyright © 1975 by Cornell University. Three maps, used by permission o f the publisher. José Luis Lacave, Manel Armengol, and Francisco OntaAön, Sefarad, Sefarad: La Espada Judla (Barcelona: Comisiön Quinto Centenario, 1987), p. 136, photograph No. I. Copyright © 1987 Lunweg Editores, S.A. Archives o f the U. Nation Museum of Italian Jewish Art, Jerusalem. Two photographs, courtesy o f the U. Nahon Museum. Copyright © 1992 by Jane S. Gerber All rights reserved. No part o f this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. The Free Press A Division of Macmillan, Inc. 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022 Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc. 1200 Eglinton Avenue East Suite 200 Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N1 Macmillan, Inc. is part o f the Maxwell Communication Group o f Companies. First Free Press Paperback Edition 1994 Printed in the United States of America printing number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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library of Congress Catafoging-m-Publkation Data Gerber, Jane S. The Jews o f Spain: a history o f the Sephardic experience / Jane S. Gerber p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-02-911574-4 1. Jews—Spain—History. 2. Sephardim—History. 3. Spain—Ethnic relations. I. Title. DS135.S7G47 1992 946'.004924—dc20 92-26941 CIP

Dedicated to the memory of I.

D av id Satlow

and E dw ard G er ber

CONTENTS

Preface vit Introduction: An Enigma o f 1492 ix 1. Volatile Origins: The Early History o f Jewish Life in Spain I 2.

The Birth o f Sepharad: From the Muslim Conquest to the Caliphate o f Cordoba 27 3. 4. 5. 6.

The Golden Era: The Emergence o f Sephardic Civilization 59 The Reconquista: Jews and the New Realities o f Christian Spain 91

Path to Expulsion: The Decline and Destruction o f Spanish Jewry 115

R eturn to the Islamic World: The Sephardic Diaspora in Muslim Lands 145 7.

8.

The Westward Journey: Europe and the New World 177

Encounter with Modernity: Ottoman Decline and the Ascendance o f the West 213 9.

Revival and Return: Sephardic Jews in the Post-War Era 253 Appendix 1 The Edict o f Expulsion 285 Appendix 2 Immigration Tables 291 Appendix 3 Maps 293 Notes 299 A Note on Further Reading 309 Index 319

PREFACE Where are they, the hundred seventy and seven holy communities, overflow­ ing with good, which once lived in Castile at ease and in contentment? How they were all destroyed in an instant, from the smallest to the biggest. . . —Anonymous chronicle

The history o f the Jews o f Spain is a remarkable story that begins in the rem ote past and continues today. For more than a thousand years, Sepharad (the Hebrew word for Spain) was home to a large Jewish community noted for its richness and virtuosity. Summarily expelled in 1492 and forced into exile, their tragedy o f expulsion marked the end o f one critical phase o f their history and the beginning o f another. Indeed, in defiance o f all logic and expectation, the expulsion o f the Jews from Spain became an occasion for renewed creativity. N or have five hun­ dred years o f wandering extinguished the identity o f the Sephardic Jews, or diminished the proud memory o f the dazzling civilization which they created on Spanish soil. This book is intended to serve as an introduction and scholarly guide to that history. It is directed to the general reader who is inter­ ested in the history o f the Jewish people and to the student for whom a one-volume overview is sorely needed. Specialists will recognize my debt to the pioneering studies o f Ashtor, Baer, Beinart, G. Cohen, and Yerushalmi, as well as to the younger scholars pursuing new avenues o f research today. Aside from the insights I have gained from my col­ leagues and students, I have been deeply impressed by several contem­ porary Sephardic leaders who, in the course o f our friendship, have im parted to me the special sense o f dignity and pride so integral to Sephardic Jews. The daunting task o f encompassing two thousand years o f history

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as rich as that o f the Jews o f Spain required difficult choices o f selection and omission. It is hoped that the necessary telescoping o f events and unavoidable condensation will not lead to distortions. In keeping the debate o f scholars to a minimum, I hope to present the saga o f a unique people in an easily accessible fashion. I am especially grateful to the Maurice Amado Foundation for its generous support o f the photographic section o f this book. Its dedica­ tion to the furtherance o f Sephardic education has provided new im­ petus to the study o f Sephardic civilization. To my editor, Adam Bellow, I owe a special debt o f gratitude for his probing questions, sound judgment and superb advice. I am also gratefül to Charles Flow­ ers for his skilled editorial assistance. Finally, I can hardly imagine having completed this project w ithout the patience o f my husband, Roger, and the encouragement o f my daughters, Dina, Debbie, and Tamar. M ishkenot Sha’ananim

Jerusalem July 1992

INTRODUCTION An Enigma of1492 After the Spanish monarchs had expelled all the Jews from their kingdoms and lands in January, in that same month they commissioned me to undertake the voyage to India with a properly equipped fleet. —Christopher Columbus

O n the evening o f August 2, 1492, two great dramas were simulta­ neously unfolding in Spain. In the port o f Palos, three caravels under the command o f Christopher Columbus were undergoing final prepa­ rations for their historic journey o f discovery. And throughout the country, the nation’s Jews were spending their last night on Spanish soil after a sojourn that had lasted more than 1,500 years. The simultaneity o f these two events, which was noted by the explorer in his log, was not accidental. The epochal meaning o f his discovery may have eluded Columbus during his lifetime, but the Jews well realized that they stood on the threshold o f a terrifying unknown that m ight yet mark the beginnings o f an age o f redem ption, or so they dared hope. Five hundred years have elapsed since that summer when one o f the m ost brilliant collectivities in Jewish history was expelled from its home, but its descendants, the Sephardim (from the Hebrew word for Spain, Sepharad), continue today as one o f the major branches o f the Jewish people. Deeply rooted in the Iberian peninsula since the dawn o f their dispersion, these Jews had fervendy nurtured a love for Spain and felt a deep loyalty to her language, regions, and traditions. Long after their expulsion, this loyalty and some o f the special char­ acteristics o f Spanish Jews bom in Iberia would endure as a living legacy o f a medieval Golden Age. In fact, Spain had been considered a second Jerusalem. A t the same time, however, the effects o f long

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centuries o f persecution on Iberian soil would also cling to the Sephardim like a shadow. When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s decree o f expulsion was promulgated on March 31, ordering the 300,000 Jews o f Spain to leave within four m onths, the Sephardim reacted with shock and disbelief. (At Jewish request, an initial deadline o f July 31 would be postponed to August 2 because o f the holiday o f Tisha B’av.) Surely, they felt, the prominence o f their people in all walks o f life, the sheer longevity o f their communities (which had already survived centuries o f uprisings, discrimination, and local pogrom s), and the presence o f so many Jews and Christians o f Jewish ancestry (conversos) in the inner circles o f the court, municipalities, and even the Catholic church could provide pro­ tection and avert the decree. The biblical book o f Obadiah itself spoke o f “the exile o f Jerusalem that was in Sepharad,” and the Sephardim believed themselves to be descendants o f Judaean royalty, tracing their lineage back to King David. For hundreds o f years, theirs was a community o f shared vitality and unbroken creativity, admired by all o f world Jewry. Spanish Jews were especially proud o f their long line o f poets, whose secular as well as religious songs continued to be recited. Their philosophers had been influential even among the scholars o f the W est, their innovative gram­ marians had earned a lasting place as pioneers o f the Hebrew language, and their mathematicians, scientists, and innumerable physicians had won acclaim. The resourcefulness and public service o f Sephardic dip­ lomats also filled the annals o f many Muslim kingdoms. In fact, they had not just resided in Spain; they had co-existed side by side w ith Muslims and Christians, taking the notion o f living together (la canvivencia) with utm ost seriousness. But the harsh reality o f expulsion was all too implacable, even as their two leading statesmen and community leaders, Abraham Seneor and Don Isaac Abrabanel, struggled throughout that tense spring to have the decree rescinded. Seneor, chief tax collector o f Spain and rob de la cone (court rabbi), had served as the critical go-between in the betrothal o f Ferdinand and Isabella, providing the funds for the pre­ cious gift that sealed the match. His assistant and eventual successor Abrabanel, although a relative newcomer to Spain, had earned respect in the highest political circles for his fiscal advice and was also consid­ ered to be one o f the leading Jewish intellectuals o f the day. The king was willing to listen to their pleas and even accepted a substantial bribe from Abrabanel, but the decision stood.

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The vanished land o f Sepharad provides one o f the great themes o f Jewish history, somewhat analogous to the destruction o f the Temple and the Babylonian Exile. Yet it is not always clear to the observer pre­ cisely w hat Sepharad m eant to the Jew. Was it a real or mythic place? O r was it a m oment in time? Was it a memory o f a fleeting era o f song? O r was it the particular personality o f the singer o f that mel­ ody? O r did Sepharad connote a special sense o f nobility? It was probably some com bination o f all o f these elements. A t the heart o f Sephardic self-definition lies the memory o f a Jewish Golden Age o f philosophy, poetry, and science in tenth and eleventh century Andalu­ sia that predates the Spanish Golden Age by 500 years. Sepharad also denotes the reality o f a degree o f integration unknown elsewhere in medieval times. Only in m odem Germany and the U nited States have the surrounding cultures been as beckoning to the Jew. Jewish historians agree that Sephardic Jewry as a unique, definable portion o f world Jewry emerged from the fertile commingling o f three civilizations in Iberia in medieval times. Jews had probably reached the westernm ost edge o f the M editerranean in antiquity when the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem. Thereafter, they remained w ithin the cultural orbit o f the Greco-Roman Jewish world for hundreds o f years, enjoying a flourishing life on the peninsula. They were already an an­ cient, rooted community when Spain embraced Catholicism in the sixth century. D uring the sixth and seventh centuries, the final years o f Visigothic Christian rule and among the m ost turbulent in Jewish history, severe persecutions forced the community to disperse or go underground. But w ith the passing o f the Christian Visigothic kingdom in 711, Spanish Jewish life slowly revived. Spain became part o f a dynamic Muslim empire as well as a participant in M editerranean Jewish civilization. Yet the country was never entirely subdued by Islam. Judaism flourished in an unusual, indeed unique, environment as one component o f the me­ dieval Iberian scene that included Muslims and Christians. It was pre­ cisely because o f this interaction that special sparks and creative energies were generated. In all o f medieval Europe, only in Spain were Jews not the sole m inority in a homogeneous Christian state. Consequently, Jews experienced two overlords on one soil as Iberia remained home to

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all three faiths from 711 to 1492. Living side by side with (Christians and Muslims, Jews shared the misfortunes and fortunes o f both. It is not accidental that Spain invented special words to denote Muslims who lived under Christian rule ( tnudejar) and Christians who lived under Islam ( nwzarabs) in recognition that these cultural bound­ aries were fluid. M ore than once, the Jews served as cultural interm e­ diaries between the two realms, becoming permanently shaped by the pattern o f oscillating control between Christendom and Islam. Since the two major peninsular powers were locked in a batde that persisted for centuries, the atmosphere o f “holy war” inevitably shaped the destiny o f the Jews, who found themselves caught between the warring blocs. In this climate o f continuous crusade and crisis, both Islam and Christendom were altered. Early flexibility and toleration in Islamic Andalusia soon gave way to intolerance and fanaticism, and Christian exclusivity (hegemonism) eventually replaced m ulticulturalism. The most drastic symptom o f this change was the reappearance o f the dreaded practice o f forced conversion, which culminated in laws o f racial purity, ghettoization, and expulsion. The experience o f Sephardim raises the issue o f acculturation and assimilation as no other Jewish community has. For many centuries Jewish civilization borrowed freely from the surrounding M uslim cul­ ture. Even after Jews moved into Christian Spain, their interaction w ith the dominant culture persisted. W hen persecutions overwhelmed the Sephardim in 1391 and they were offered the choice o f conversion or death, the numbers o f converts outnum bered the considerable num ber o f martyrs. The very novelty o f this mass conversion, unique to Jewish experience, has induced scholars to seek causality in the high degree o f acculturation attained by the Sephardim. Medieval commentators, es­ pecially, were fond o f placing the blame for the breakdown o f commu­ nal discipline upon Jewish acculturation, and some o f the greatest modem Jewish historians, such as Itzhak Baer, have cited in addition the corrosive impact o f Averroist philosophy and the cynicism o f Spain’s assimilated Jewish courtier class. But in the wave o f mass conversions and the sharp communal conflicts, it was not just the philosophers who succumbed in the face o f persecution. Admittedly, in all o f the great ages o f Jewish history, Jews have freely borrowed ideas and institutions from the broader culture sur­ rounding them, transforming these borrowings to create something both new and compatible w ith Judaism. W hen given a modicum o f political freedom and tolerance, Jews have engaged in intensive pro-

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longed dialogue w ith the civilizations o f the world. A Jewish culture that did not adapt to new waves o f thought would have become frozen in an ancient mold. To a large extent, then, the story o f Jewish history is the story o f creative cultural adaptation, and nowhere was this pro­ cess more thoroughgoing than in Spain. Jewish encounters with Islam and Christianity were more profound and enduring, their fruits more varied and rich. As it has been preserved and transm itted, Sephardic history in large part centers upon versatile personalities who were not ghettoized but mixed in the wider society w ith an unusual measure o f confidence. Their familiarity with secular culture did not derive from living in a society that was welcoming and tolerant; like all medieval Jews, the Sephardim were often scorned by the majorities among whom they lived. Nevertheless, they exhibited a rare zeal to embrace the larger world around them , and indeed this openness to the broad intellectual currents o f the wider society is one o f the most pronounced Sephardic traits. Their experience also demonstrates the possibilities o f m inority cultural achievement even in times o f tension and extreme pressure to conform. It has been remarked that all great themes in world history have revolved around the idea o f exile. Perhaps no people has been more keenly aware o f the consequences o f exile than the Jews, who have endowed their own experience with moral and theological dimensions. Jewish history has been played out in the shadow o f an intense aware­ ness o f homelessness, coupled with a striving for ultimate redemption. The diaspora was seen as a history o f waiting for redemption, not always patiently, and more than any other Jewry, Sephardic thinkers combed biblical sources in order to find clues to the date o f the end o f exile. Especially attuned to the pain o f exile, they constantly sought remnants o f Jewish sovereignty somewhere in the world and also raised innumerable false messiahs in this process o f “pushing the end o f days.” Theirs was no ordinary yearning for redem ption, and ultimately it broke all bounds in the seventeenth century, erupting in one o f the m ost bizarre and destructive messianic movements in all o f Jewish history. Sephardim believed in the im poster Sabbetai Zevi out o f an explosive need to believe (see the end o f chapter 6). The Sephardic sense o f incompleteness and loneliness in exile was paradoxical, however, for their exile in Sepharad was not only comfort­ able but not quite an exile. In the minds o f her sons and daughters, Sepharad was a second Jerusalem. Expulsion from Spain, therefore, was

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as keenly lamented as was exile from the Holy Land. The sense o f being

doubly exiled gave Sephardic history both a new dynamism and a height­ ened sense o f despair after 1492. Still, no medieval Jew sang as poignantly o f exile as did the Sephardic Jew. None argued as cogendy about it, either, or spent as much time and effort calculating when that exile would end and re­ demption begin. The tension between rootedness and roodessness, be­ tween Spain and Zion, gave the Sephardic diaspora a special coloration, for Zion was not only a future reality for them but an attainable des­ tination. Each generation o f Sephardim seems to have reestablished concrete links with the land o f Israel through imm igration o f members o f the community. It is perhaps surprising that the expulsion from Spain should be considered in a class by itself in Jewish history, for it was only the last in a long line o f expulsions that removed all Jews from western Europe by 1500 (with a few exceptions in Italy and Germany). The exclusion o f Jews from England in 1290 left scarcely a ripple, and if the fourteenthcentury expulsions from France and Germany were immortalized in dirge, they were not lamented as a wrenching departure. Only in the case o f Spain was the plight o f an exilic community construed as an exile within exile. Historians m ust wonder why members o f this one community re­ tained such loyalty to a country that so brutally expelled them 500 years ago, proudly preserving the names o f Iberian cities in their own names. W hat made the Sephardic experience different? H ow did Sephardic Jewry become a definable entity within world Jewry? W hy did its di­ aspora remain distinctive in identity although not substantially distinc­ tive in Jewish practice? There are no other instances in Jewish history o f such a close and enduring identification o f the Jews w ith a land outside the Holy Land. Jews have lived in every com er o f the globe, yet only Sepharad has lent its name to a division o f world Jewry. Even today, refiigee Sephardic congregations in contemporary Canada call a new synagogue kehillat anshei Castilia (the congregation o f the people o f Castile), though it was established in the 1980s by émigrés from Israel whose ancestors have lived for centuries in M orocco and had last stepped on Castilian soil 500 years ago. Remarkably, during the turm oil o f the early 1990s in Serbia, fifty-seven Sephardic Jews o f Sarajevo sought to return, not to the land o f Israel but to Spain, and successfully sought asylum from King Juan Carlos. The main division o f w orld Jewry, the Ashkenazim, have never exhibited the same nostalgia and

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longing for a lost exile. Even their name is more vague. Ashkenaz does not refer to a clear association o f Jews w ith a definable geographic unit. Rather, the term refers to a cultural complex that began in the Rhine­ land in medieval times and stretched eastward. N o country, not even m odem Germany, ever held the same revered place in the consciousness o f its Jewish residents as did Spain. Significantly, Sephardic identity w ith the country arose even before there was an entity known as Spain. By the eighth century, it was recognized that there was a separate Jewry in Iberia designated as Sephardic; Spain itself would not be­ come a reality until the end o f the M iddle Ages when Granada was conquered, the Muslims were subdued, and her many kingdoms were united. W hen the great medieval scholar Moses Maimonides signed his letters as Moses ben M aimon ha-Sefaradi (“the Sephardic Jew” ) in the twelfth century, he expressed a reality that his readers undoubt­ edly understood. The Spanish element in the Sephardic identity, reflecting a special relationship w ith both Spain’s Christian and Islamic culture, continued long after the ties w ith the country were severed. H ow strange it seems that Sephardim scattered in Turkey and Bulgaria, Curaçao and Pernam­ buco, sang ballads about medieval Spanish knights and maidens in their medieval Spanish language, Ladino. Throughout the Turkish-speaking world, the conversation o f Sephardic Jews, especially women, would be peppered w ith Spanish proverbs. The classical genres o f Spanish oral literature w ould be preserved for centuries in the Balkans in romances as each im portant life-cycle event was marked by Jewish festivities rich in Spanish song. This portable folk culture was preserved in Ladino until it was brutally and decisively wiped out in Europe during W orld War II by the Holocaust and destruction o f the Jews, including m ost Eu­ ropean Sephardim. Retention o f the Spanish language served to unite the Sephardic diaspora until the eve o f its destruction. A final feature distinguishing Sephardic history that recurs with surprising frequency is the notion o f descent from royal and aristocratic lineage. Indeed, claims o f noble ancestry cling to Sephardic history from their earliest myths o f origin in Spain in Roman times. Such claims are unusual among Jews and may perhaps be related to the influence o f ideas o f honor, race, and lineage among their Hispanic neighbors. Sephardim remained aristocrats even in their exile, albeit aristocrats fallen on hard times. Even today, Sephardic Jews pride themselves on their noble bearing and illustrious ancestry. Their sense o f localism and “pedigree” is often

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reflected in meticulously detailed marriage contracts and family trees that trace generations o f ancestors back to the medieval cities o f Spain. The Sephardic self-perception o f aristocracy has not always endeared them to other Jews nor it is easily comprehended.

Christopher Columbus arrived in Spain in 1484. The Inquisition had just been established in Castile, charged by the king and queen to ferret out the “heretics” who secretly engaged in Jewish practices. Jews and conversos were being subjected to the closest scrutiny as rumors and blackmail struck terror among thousands. In such circumstances, the arrival o f Columbus, an inconspicuous visitor, evoked no comment. In later centuries, both Spanish and Italian patriots have claimed him; but in fact the background o f this obscure map maker and sea captain is extremely vague. H e himself was always quite evasive about his origins, although he claimed to come from Genoa. In Spain he referred to himself as a foreigner (extranjero), but he kept his journals and made marginal notations in his books in Spanish, not Italian; his letters to his brother Bartholome and his son Diego were also w ritten in Spanish, and he wrote Latin in a recognizably Spanish manner. Yet his Spanish was the language o f the fourteenth century, and his char­ acteristics seemed to suggest a Catalan background. Furtherm ore, al­ though he made an elaborate show o f his Christian piety, he always kept company with Jews and Muslims. At first, his negotiations to obtain Ferdinand and Isabella's backing for an unprecedented westward voyage to India were unpromising. The kingdom o f Castile was not in strong financial shape, for its treasury was depleted and whole provinces devastated by Ferdinand and Isabel­ la's protracted war to reconquer Granada and reunify Spain under Christian ascendancy. Besides, the explorer's terms were much too high: he was demanding the titles o f admiral as well as viceroy o f all the realms he m ight discover and conquer, along w ith a tenth o f their riches. Eventually, as the world knows, the royal couple would be convinced to support Columbus's proposal; what is less well known is how their decision was influenced by the intercession o f powerful Jew­ ish and cmverso courtiers who pressed his cause and gained agreement to most o f his terms. Even as these negotiations were taking place, the king and queen

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were drafting the historic decree o f expulsion, apparently w ith the aid o f courtiers in the inner circles o f power. It was during the period between the drafting o f the document and the public announcement that Abrabanel and Seneor had tried to have it revoked. Was there any coordination between AbrabaneFs pleas and the enthusiastic petitions at court on behalf o f Columbus? As it happens, the public announce­ m ent o f the coming expulsion took place on the same day that Colum­ bus was ordered to ready his fleet. Is it significant that a Jewish presence hovered so closely around this decisive voyage, or that so many o f the principal actors at this court were involved in both affairs? And how had this obscure petitioner been able to obtain such powerful backing and make such influential friends at the center o f power? Somehow, Columbus had quickly established himself among the m ost prom inent converso figures at court. In addition to Abrabanel, Seneor, Santangel, and Sanchez, Jewish converts who served the mon­ archy included Alfonso de la Caballeria, vice chancellor and political councillor o f Aragon, and Juan Cabrero, the royal chamberlain. Evidendy, these courtiers were still trusted and retained as faithful servants o f the king and queen, even though the Inquisition hovered in the background. Finance m inister Luis de Santangel and Don Isaac Abrabanel were so enthusiasdc about Columbus’s voyage that they offered to advance the sum o f five million maravedis as a loan to the king and queen to equip a fleet for the explorer, rejecting the queen’s famously dramatic pledge o f her own personal jewels to finance the trip. (Santangel prob­ ably got some o f this money from his relative Gabriel Sanchez, the treasurer-general o f Aragon, also a converso, but he apparently offered at least 17,000 ducats from his own purse.) Isabella accepted the loan, and Columbus’s project was finally approved. The initial obstacle to Columbus’s trip, however, was not expense but the skepticism o f the scientific junta that was assembled in Spain to scrutinize his proposal. After all, he had already been rebuffed by the Portuguese, who were then preem inent in exploration. Focused on the possibilities o f the eastward routes, Lisbon was not interested in Co­ lumbus’s schemes for sailing to India in the opposite direction. Interestingly, cosmography, map-drawing, and astronomy at this time were almost exclusively Jewish occupations. For example, the work o f the fourteenth-century M ajorcan Jewish scientists Abraham Cresques, “M aster o f Maps and Compasses,” and his son Yehuda, known as “the Compass Jew” or “Map Jew,” were part o f the intellec-

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mal baggage o f all explorers. Their cartographic inventiveness was marrhpfl by Jewish technological advances, for die essential device used for determining the position o f a vessel at sea, the quadrant, was known as the quadrans Judaicus after its Jewish inventor. It was used in con­ junction w ith an improved astrolabe manufactured by two Jewish phy­ sicians o f the Lisbon court. Masters Rodrigo and Joseph Vecinho. (The latter, a pupil o f the famous Sephardic astronomer Abraham Zacuto who would later play an im portant role in Columbus’s fortunes, was still attending King John o f Portugal when the explorer arrived in Lisbon for the first time in the 1470s.) Finally, the preferred astronom ­ ical tables o f the day, the Alfonsine Tables, had been prepared in Span­ ish for Alfonso the Wise in the thirteenth century by two Jewish court astronomers. Columbus was the proud possessor o f his own copy. Despite popular belief, by the 1480s all educated people knew that the earth was spherical. Yet many still doubted the technical feasibility o f Columbus’s proposal. The actual distance between the Azores, the m ost westward landfall known at the tim e, and the “eastern end o f India” was unknown, thus rendering a westward voyage foolhardy at best. Columbus, relying on several miscalculations, was convinced that the ocean expanse he would have to cross was actually quite narrow and could be easily traversed by the day’s oceangoing vessels. But his op­ ponents in King John’s scientific councils, choosing to reject his pro­ posal in 1484, were more correct than he. H is erroneous calculations put “India” more or less on the actual site o f the N orth American continent. When Columbus moved on to Spain with his schemes, he was immediately befriended by Diego de Deza, a prom inent theologian o f reputed converso background at the University o f Salamanca as well as tutor to the heir-apparent, Prince Don Juan. W hen Deza summoned a conference o f scientists to give the explorer a hearing, their doubts were dispelled by Zacuto himself, who probably taught at the university even though he was a practicing Jew. The outstanding astronomer o f the day, he had produced the standard tables o f the surs, moon, and sun in his Almanac Perpetuum. Originally composed in Hebrew but available also in Spanish and Latin, this work was used by Vasco da Gama as well as Columbus. In fact, Columbus believed it had rescued him more than once: in the m ost dramatic instance, he used the Almanac to predict an eclipse, thus quelling a mutiny w ithin his ranks. As early as 1487, Columbus had the backing o f Seneor and Abrabanel and received a royal stipend. Does this connection w ith Jews

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XIX

prove, as some historians have argued, that the explorer shared their background? Such scholars have also noted the eager involvement o f Santangel and o f the prom inent converso family o f Alfonso de la Caballeria in backing the explorer. They wonder why Columbus sometimes dated his correspondence by Jewish reckoning from the date o f the destruction o f the Second Temple (la casa secunda) rather than by the birth o f Christ. They also wonder about the strange cipher used in all o f his letters to his son except the only one Diego was told to show to the Queen: it seems to resemble the Hebrew abbreviation for bcEzrat haShem (“w ith the help o f God”) that is commonly found in Jewish correspondence. Even the explorer’s signature, which he insisted his son use after his death, has been the subject o f Jewish exegesis. M ore­ over, it is clear that he had an unusually strong interest in Jewish m atters, which would be understandable and indeed common among conversas but definitely atypical for a Spanish O ld Christian. Atypical, too, was his frequent use o f O ld Testam ent allusions to describe the hazards o f his journey. Finally, his letter announcing his discovery was sent, not to the royal couple, but to the conversas Sanchez and Santangel. In a sense, this could be construed as the natural courtesy owed the latter for putting up his own money. But what is to be made o f his exclamation in another letter? I am not the first admiral of my family. Let them give me the name they will, for, after all, David, a very wise King, kept ewes and lambs and later was made a King of Jerusalem, and I am the servant of the same Lord who raised David to that state.2 M oreover, six identifiable conversos were aboard the three vessels that left for the New W orld on the night o f the expulsion o f the Jews. Others m ight have been present as well, but it was typical for conversos to hide as much o f their Jewish background as possible in order to evade the scrutiny o f the Inquisition. Sanchez’s nephew Rodrigo was included as fiscal inspector for the expedition. The translator Luis de Torres, who spoke Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic, had converted only a short tim e before. (H e would become the first European to explore Cuba and w ould discover the Indians’ use o f tobacco.) M aestre Ber­ nal, the apothecary, and M aster M arco, the physician, were also con­ versos. W hat lay behind these and similar connections? Perhaps Santangel, reeling from the devastation wreaked upon his family by the long arm

XX

Introduction

o f the Inquisition, was animated more by personal than by scientific motives to become involved in the voyage. Perhaps he shared the dream o f many contemporaries that Columbus m ight find a kingdom o f the Lost Tribes, a possible asylum for Jews far from the reaches o f the Inquisition. O r perhaps the conversos and the explorer shared an obdu­ rate attachment to some form o f Judaism that has disappeared. The mystery cannot be solved. Perhaps the explanation for the conspicuous involvement o f so many Jews and conversos lies in the fact that Jews constituted some o f the m ost educated segments o f the population and took a lively interest in all scientific matters. O r, alternatively, they may simply have regarded his voyage as a promising business opportunity and hence agreed to underwrite the venture. Additionally, both Christians and Jews were intrigued by exotic stories which explorers circulated regarding the wealth and lure o f lost kingdoms. These alone could account for the interest o f so many Jews in Columbus’s plans. Yet, w ith all the pressing issues o f state confronting these converso ministers, it seems strange that so many o f them were actively involved with plans for the voyage o f an unknown adventurer whom many described as decidedly disagreeable. Unless, that is, he had managed to ignite their apocalyptic yearnings or offered concrete possibilities for refuge. Certainly no Jew, least o f all a converso who had had a brush w ith the dreaded Inquisition, felt secure; and false hopes o f messianic redemption, embellished by reports o f distant kingdoms o f the Lost Tribes o f Israel, fired the imagination o f thousands at this time.

W hether Columbus was an Italian o f converso origin, a Spaniard, or a Jew will never be known, since his heirs—for unknown reasons— destroyed m ost o f his private papers and other archival materials. But his dependence upon conversos and Jews for the initial commission to sail is a m atter o f record. These frightened courtiers had ample reason to encourage explorations in search o f new kingdoms, particularly if they believed it possible that one o f them could turn out to be the realm o f the Lost Tribes. Any potential benefits the Sephardim m ight have hoped to obtain from the voyage were never realized. By the time news o f his great find reached the mainland, they had already been expelled. Some conversos

Introduction

XXI

did emigrate to the Americas during the 1500s, hoping to distance themselves from the Inquisition once and for all. However, such at­ tem pts were unsuccessful. From the vantage point o f Sephardic history, the m ost im portant individual who crossed the path o f the explorer—and left a lasting mark on both the expedition and the Jews o f Spain—was also the most representative o f both his class and culture: Don Isaac Abrabanel. In the last m onths o f frantic negotiations to rescue his community, Abrabanel was offered the choice o f remaining in Spain, retaining his riches, and gaining further honors—if he converted. H e chose instead to lead his people into exile w ith dignity. For centuries thereafter, his far-flung progeny in Turkey, Italy, H olland, Palestine, the American Northwest, and even Poland, from the humblest tailors to world-renowned musi­ cians, have repeated the expression, Basta mi nombre que esAbrabanel (It is enough that I am named Abrabanel). As a young man, Abrabanel worked with his father at the court o f the Portuguese king Alfonso IV and also engaged in family business that extended beyond Iberia as far as Flanders. The king was a biblio­ phile who liked to surround himself w ith intellectuals and must have been impressed w ith Abrabanel, who published his first learned treatise in his twenties, a work that exhibited familiarity with Christian litera­ ture and several European languages. In 1471, the young scholar would be vividly confronted w ith the spectacle o f Jewish despair: 250 M oroc­ can Jews captured in the Portuguese conquest o f Arzila that year were brought into the country as slaves. Moved to action, Abrabanel traveled the countryside for six m onths, exhorting his brethren to redeem and rehabilitate their refugee co-religionists. In 1483 he was forced to flee Lisbon for Spain, the victim o f political machinations and court intrigue surrounding the succession to the throne. Leaving his fortune behind, he began his career anew in the service o f Ferdinand o f Aragon and soon achieved prominence and recouped his wealth. W hat drew him to the Spanish court? H ow did he serve Ferdinand and Isabella from 1484 through 1492, gaining ever m ore honors and greater prestige even as his community's fortunes were sinking? Was he attracted by an irresistible offer to reorganize the finances o f the kingdom in order to pursue the war against Granada, or was he guided in his decision to reenter public service by the introduc­ tion o f the Inquisition in Spain at this time? D id he hope to strengthen the monarchy's ability to counteract the anti-Jewish sentiments o f the burghers, clergy, and feudal lords? D id he hope that his prominence

XXII

Introduction

would counteract the influence o f hostile conversos at court? D id he feel a “calling” to leadership in the hour o f his people’s greatest need, based on his oft-proclaimed conviction that he was descended from the house o f David? We cannot know what motivated him, but it is surely suggestive that he had witnessed the expulsion o f the Jews from Andalusia, seen the disastrous early trials o f the Inquisition that wreaked havoc upon scores o f secret Jews, and was familiar with the anxiety and impending destruction o f the powerful Santangels. H e was living in a time o f m ounting terror for the Jews. The high point o f his public career came in the spring o f 1492, soon after he learned o f the expulsion decree, when he tried unsuccessfully to prevail upon the monarchs to revoke the edict. Going into exile, he found refiige in the kingdom o f Naples until 1494, when he was forced to flee yet again. D uring the last decade o f his life he wrote unceasingly, once again combining the roles o f communal leader, political activist, biblical commentator, and philosopher.

From our vantage point, it is obvious that 1492 marks the end o f one spectacular chapter in the continuing odyssey o f the Jewish people and the beginning o f another. At least two routes o f exile followed the expulsion: one ran direedy eastward from Spain to the world o f Islam, the other through Portugal to northern Europe. The larger group o f exiles took the first, closing a circle that had begun with the Arab conquest o f Iberia in the eighth century. This Spanish-speaking dias­ pora, which stretched from M orocco across N orth Africa to Egypt and Palestine, also included countless communities along the northern shores o f the M editerranean and up into the Balkans. Scarcely had these exiles planted new roots in the O ttom an Empire than dozens o f out­ standing rabbis, creative mystics, and towering legal figures like Samuel de M edina, Joseph Caro, Jacob Berab, Moses Cordovero, Jacob ibn Zur, David ibn Abi Zimra, and Solomon Alkabetz began to flourish. Sephardic craftsmen and skilled artisans enlivened the markets o f the Near East while diplomats and courtiers like Don Joseph Nasi and Dona Gracia Mendes, Moses Ham on and the Picciottos, influenced the course o f Ottom an diplomacy. By the eighteenth century, this Asian and Africa diaspora, along

Introduction

xxiii

w ith their host societies, entered an era o f decline. An intellectual and demographic stagnation set in that was not arrested until the introduc­ tion o f western ideas and technologies in the nineteenth century. Even as these ideas began to percolate down to all levels o f Jewish society, the strong strain o f mysticism so characteristic o f post-expulsion Sephardic Jews remained prom inent. Ladino- and Arabic-speaking, the Jews o f M uslim lands m ore closely resembled the depressed state o f their M us­ lim neighbors on the eve o f the m odem era than the phantoms o f their glorious ancestors. The second route o f exile followed a m ore circuitous path. Sephardim who w ent northw ard generally began their wanderings in Portugal and only belatedly followed the path out o f Iberia, usually as secret Jews o r marrams. These Jews entered Europe in small numbers, form ing secret communities in H olland, the Spanish-held Netherlands, and towns in southern France. Their arrival coincided w ith an era o f m ajor transform ation on the Continent. By the seventeenth century the weight o f economic gravity was shifting to the Atlantic. In England and H olland, the religious intolerance o f the Reform ation was yielding to a new m ercantilist appreciation o f the economic benefits that m ight ac­ crue from toleration. Thus the Sephardim o f western Europe would become pioneers and beneficiaries o f a new age. W ith Amsterdam as its center, the Sephardic dispersion moved across the Atlantic to Brazil, Curaçao, Surinam, and New Amsterdam. These Portuguese-speaking m erchants were distinguished by aristocratic bearing, a sense o f pride, and a need to remain inconspicuous, bom o f the hazardous experience o f having been crypto-Jews under the gaze o f the Inquisition. Their diaspora produced great philosophers like Spinoza and m ultitalented personalities like the rabbi-printer Menasseh ben Israel or the econo­ m ist Isaac Pinto. They could be found among the explorers o f the Far East as well as at the frontiers o f m odem science and economic thought. Sephardic m igrants would be the pioneering element in the resettle­ m ent o f Jewish communities all over western Europe. They would also be the first Jews to arrive on N orth American shores in the 1650s. The Sephardim retained their interest in secular culture even as their schools and communities were showing the first signs o f decline. U lti­ mately, this Portuguese-speaking diaspora was engulfed either by the dominance o f the Ashkenazim or, in Europe, by the forces o f destruc­ tion that annihilated nearly all the Jews o f Europe in our century. Very few survivors o f the W estern Sephardic diaspora can be found today, despite their tenacious attem pts to retain their proud lineage.

XXIV

I n tr td u c tU n

Wherever they wandered after 149^ the Sephardim characteristi­ cally did not join the existing congregations o f Israel but instead term ed their own synagogues and communities. This phenomenon had oc­ curred previously in Jewish history when Babylonian Jews established their own congregations in Palestine or Palestinian Jews had retained separate institutions in Egypt. Usually, however, such separate identity lasted only one or two generations, since the children and grandchil­ dren tended to discard traditional ways and settle down in their adopted country. The case o f the Sephardim was completely different, for m ote than other Jews they remained loyal to their past. They were also more contentious, forming splits even among themselves, and m ore unwill­ ing to relinquish their cherished traditions. Finally, they also displayed a tendency to overwhelm other Jewish communities and impose their own ways, especially where they arrived in large numbers, as in Turkey or Morocco. Throughout much o f the long history o f the Jewish dispersion, Sephardim were the largest group. Forming an absolute m ajority in medieval times, they reached as high as 90 percent o f the world Jew­ ish population in the twelfth century. But by 1700 they comprised only 50 percent, and their decline was steady thereafter. Living in in­ creasingly depressed conditions in deteriorating Muslim societies, Sephardic numbers remained constant or declined at precisely the m o­ m ent that the Ashkenazic Jews o f Europe began to experience a pop­ ulation explosion. By the tw entieth century, an absolute reversal had occurred: in 1930, Sephardim were less than 10 percent o f w orld Je­ wry, or slightly more than one and a half million out o f sixteen mil­ lion. M ost were M iddle Eastern Jews, and thus their center o f gravity was decisively in the East. After the Holocaust and the destruction o f the European Jews, the relative weight o f Sephardim has once again shifted. Today, Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jews comprise 25 percent o f world Jewry and fully 60 percent o f the state o f Israel. M ost observers, puzzled about how to define the Sephardic world today, question the current tendency to lump Sephardic Jews together with Jews from Muslim lands. This prac­ tice recognizes that the two communities are akin in liturgy and legal traditions, in hundreds o f years o f coexistence, and in countless other ways. The centuries during which m ost Sephardim have lived among the Jews o f the Islamic world have blurred the distinctive features that once divided the Jews o f Spain from their brethren. Joined by political boundaries and shared intellectual traditions, Jews o f N orth Africa, the

Introduction

XXV

N ear East, and Spain all came under the influence o f the venerable rabbinic academies o f Baghdad long before their peoples came together in exile. A fter 1492, centuries o f wandering m uted the separate identity o f Spain’s Jewish offspring still further. The “exiles o f Jerusalem who were in Sepharad” became the exiles o f Sepharad in Djerba and Gibraltar, Belgrade and Valona, Cairo and Alexandria, Casablanca and Meknes. N either the paths o f their dispersion nor the process o f cultural amal­ gam ation have been predictable or easily comprehended. Especially today, the postw ar Jewish world has witnessed remarkable, unpresaged change. Perhaps m ost extraordinary has been the return o f Sephardic and M iddle Eastern Jews to the land o f Israel. Although that nation is m ost often associated w ith its socialist pioneers who came from eastern Europe, a large num ber o f its contemporary leaders, artists, and buildo s are draw n from the Sephardic masses arriving after 1948. Over the last generation perhaps one m illion Jews from Muslim lands have returned to Israel, becoming the majority today. In this old-new state the designations o f Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and M iddle Eastern Jews are increasingly a thing o f the past. Attempts to unite these various exiles have been implicit in the process o f nationbuilding. Even as these groups come together, however, the lessons o f the long, fascinating Sephardic story are compelling and significant. Over­ shadowed by the much larger and more familiar story o f Ashkenazic Europe, the complete saga o f a Jewry that spoke Judeo-Arabic, JudeoSpanish, Catalan, Serbian, Turkish, Judeo-Tatar, or M arathi and were heirs to a glorious past in Valencia and Saragossa, Aragon and Aleppo, has yet to be fully told. Their journey was unparalleled, involving a continuous wrestling w ith the great cultures they confronted and a determ ination to keep alive the memory o f Sepharad w ith the call to Jerusalem. For D on Isaac Abrabanel there was no mistaking the unique quality o f his people as he departed with them from Spain: From the rising of the sun to its setting, from north to south, there never was such a chosen people [as the Jews of Spain] in beauty and pleasantness, and afterwards, there will never be another such people. God was with them, the children of Judea and Jerusalem, many and strong. . . a quiet and trusting people, a people filled with the blessing of God with no end to its treasures.3

1

The exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will inherit the cities of the Negev. —Obadiah 1:20

The beginnings o f Jewish life in Spain are cloaked in myth and legend. According to medieval Sephardic traditions, Jews reached the Iberian peninsula in biblical times. Thus the city o f Tarshish toward which Jonah sailed in hopes o f evading God’s command was thought to be Tartessus, originally a Phoenician and later Carthaginian seaport on the M editerranean coast. The tombstone o f Adoniram, King Solomon’s general, supposedly was unearthed in M urviedro. As early as the first century o f the common era, the designation “Sepharad” m entioned in the biblical book o f Obadiah was considered by Jewish teachers to be identical with Ispamia or Spain. One particular folk tradition has lasted virtually to the present day: the legend that some o f ancient Jerusalem’s aristocratic families, deported first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and then again by the Roman conqueror Titus in 70 CE, resetded on the Spanish shore. These and similar traditions attesting to the Sephardic community’s biblical origins were probably a form o f self-defense, for m ost o f them emerged when anti-Semitism was intensified during the Christian re­ conquest o f Muslim Spain. It was as if Spanish Jews were proclaiming that they could not be charged (as indeed they were) with “killing Christ,” because they were nowhere near Palestine at the time o f the crucifixion. Still, these legends do not entirely violate historic truth. M igration o f Jews throughout the Roman diaspora (c. 200 BCE-200 CE) was so widespread that the ancient Greek geographer Strabo reportedly ex­ claimed, “This people has already made its way into every city, and it is not easy to find any place in the habitable world which has not received this nation and in which it has not made its power felt” (Josephus, Antiquities^ XIV, 115). M ore specifically, it is known that Jewish mer­ chants and travelers followed the expansion o f Phoenician and Syrian trading colonies all along the shores o f the M editerranean, certainly including the Iberian peninsula. Ships that brought wares from the East also invariably left Jewish settlers in their wake. Somewhat contrary to popular belief, perhaps, Jews in the Roman diaspora flourished in some measure because the Empire recognized Judaism as a legal religion (religio licita). It was in Imperial Roman interests to perm it a combination o f religious toleration and measured ethnic, cultural self-government to the Jews since they constituted an im portant economic and cultural force throughout the Empire. Ac­ cordingly, Jews were treated as an autonomous, self-governing people and exempted from the obligation o f recognizing the cult o f the em-

Volatile Origins

3

peror. But this exemption also had a negative side since pagan Rome did not understand the exclusivist claims o f a monotheistic faith and therefore assumed that the Jews were unpatriotic. Rome also continued to recognize the Jewish cultural ties to their national homeland in Palestine even after the great Jewish revolts there in the first and second centuries. Thus, Jews from throughout the di­ aspora were perm itted to send contributions to their political and cul­ tural institutions in the H oly Land. This gesture had considerable symbolic and practical implications for such a far-flung dispersion, be­ cause deference to Palestinian religious leadership provided a sense of unity. A t the same tim e, Jews ran their practical affairs on a day-to-day basis at the local level, each community being sovereign even though they all shared the same organizational patterns, adjusting them to meet local requirements. Congregations were typically autonomous even in the many cities in the Empire that had more than one. Throughout these early centuries, the Jewish population increased rapidly (in no small part, as a result o f vigorous proselytizing). Ultimately, Jews would constitute 25 percent o f the Roman population in the Eastern M editer­ ranean and ten percent in the Empire as a whole. According to some estimates, the total Jewish population at the beginning o f the common era may have been eight million. The m ovem ent westward began after Titus’s destruction o f Judea and was spurred on by Rome’s brutal suppression o f a revolt in Pales­ tine in 135. As Jews fanned out to the fiirther comers o f the M editer­ ranean, Italy and Spain to the north, the African coast to the south, they built settlements that have left us such archaeological traces as ruins o f synagogues, the underground burial caverns known as catacombs, and trilingual (Hebrew , Latin, Greek) tombstone inscriptions. One such tom bstone dating from sixth-century M érida confirms the proud claims o f later Spanish Jews that they were descended from the “founding fathers” o f the nation. In the case o f Spain, the archaeological record reveals clearly that Jews did not live as isolated individuals or families but as organized communities that, while cohesive and traditional, also received cultural cues from the surrounding milieu. Such acculturation is indicated, for example, in the great num ber o f funerary inscriptions that are w ritten only in Latin. A t the same tim e, Spanish Jews remained connected to classic Judaism and faithful to their ancient beliefs, as shown by the occurrence o f traditional Jewish symbols alongside many o f these Latin inscriptions.

4

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SPAIN

In fact, the Jewish concept o f monotheism was spread to others with relative ease during the first centuries o f the common era, setting the stage for the successful Christian evangelizing to follow. Typically, the proselytes o f Judaism were strongly influenced by contact w ith established Jewish communities or their missionaries but did not nec­ essarily become full-fledged converts. These so-called “God-fearers” (sebomenoi) did adopt some Jewish practices, however, making them receptive to subsequent Christian conversion. As the records o f the early Church show, it was invariably true that wherever a Christian missionary appeared he found Jews already established. According to Christian tradition, Saint Paul preached in Spain. Well into the com­ mon era, Judaism remained an expansionist, proselytizing religion with a significant conversionist bent. Hispania or Ispamia was one o f the wealthiest provinces o f the Empire. Its inhabitants, granted citizenship in 212 by the Em peror Caracalla, participated in a flourishing commerce: rich soil and mild cli­ mate made the province into Rome’s granary, agriculture and livestock were cultivated throughout the peninsula, while Spanish horses were coveted in the Roman circuses for their swiftness and grace. In addi­ tion, a significant portion o f the country’s wealth came from minerals; its gold and silver mines, heavily dependent upon slave labor, provided a steady annual income to Rome. At its height the Empire maintained a superb communications net­ work that facilitated the transfer o f information and interchange among such a widely dispersed people as the Jews. The great Roman highway, the Via Augusta, began in the capital and stretched 13,000 miles through Italy and Gaul to terminate at the port o f Cadiz in southwestern Spain. Troops and goods moved easily along the ancillary routes that radiated out to the many towns o f the peninsula. The basic unit o f administration was the municipality ( civitas). The historian Pliny, who served as the procurator in Spain, describes 360 different towns in the province, all o f them sharing a basically Roman appearance w ith their temples, arches, aqueducts, and amphitheaters. Even today, remnants o f these ancient public works can still be seen, such as the aqueducts in Segovia and Tarragona, the am phitheater in Tarragona, and the bridges o f M érida and Salamanca. One measure o f the tranquillity o f the province is that only one Roman legion had to be stationed there to keep Spain within the Empire. So long as Rome was tolerant and prosperous, Jewish life flour­ ished. Archaeological remains all along the Spanish coast attest to the

Volatile Origins

5

density o f Jewish settlem ent in this period. Early Church councils in­ dicate that Jews mixed freely among their neighbors and were generally regarded w ith favor. The works o f pagan writers suggest that attitudes tow ard Jews varied according to social class; some admired Jews for their “temperance, wisdom, courage, and justice”1while others resented w hat they perceived as clannishness because o f the Jews’ refusal to recognize the pagan gods.

D eterioration o f Jewish life in Spain began in the fifth century, when the Roman Em pire converted to Christianity under the Emperor Con­ stantine. For one thing, the Jewish population declined throughout the M editerranean region as the Empire became increasingly chaotic and lawless. The conditions that had been critical to Spain’s prosperity were breaking down. Beginning in the third century, for example, the small freeholds were progressively being absorbed by the great landed estates. The invasions o f various German tribes from western Europe merely accelerated a trend to ruralization as the latifundia o f Roman times continued to grow through confiscation, a symptom o f the general lawlessness and breakdown in imperial rule. As the cities declined, trade diminished and industrial production was reduced to essential items. Naturally, Jews suffered along w ith the rest o f the population as gold and silver were drained to the East, onerous tolls were introduced, the road system disintegrated, and the overall economy declined. M ore im portantly, o f course, a confrontation between the new state religion and Judaism was inevitable: Christianity defined itself as the suc­ cessor to its older (and, as is often said, rival) sibling in the divine drama. Conversion to Judaism became a capital crime. This com petition for con­ verts from among the same pagan population provides part o f the back­ ground for early Spanish ecclesiastical legislation against the Jews. Even before the Empire converted to Christianity, the vexing prob­ lem o f the status o f the Jews was the subject o f a historic ecclesiastical council convened in Elvira in the year 306. Participants were especially concerned about the close social relations between neighboring Chris­ tians and Jews. Evidendy, the Jewish community was a substantial and influential presence, and some rabbis were held in alarmingly high esteem by many Christians. In Canon 49 o f the Council o f Elvira, the Christian believer is given specific instructions on this issue:

6

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It seems appropriate to w arn farm ers n o t to perm it th a t th eir fru its, w hich they receive from G od as a g ift o f grace, be blessed by Jews so th a t o u r blessing should n o t appear as w orthless and despised; if anyone continues to act in such a m anner despite o u r p ro h ib itio n , he w ill be driven away from th e C hurch.

The council was even more exclusionary in another decree (Canon 50): I f any o f th e priests o r believers eats his m eal w ith a Jew , w e decide th a t he does n o t participate in th e com m union so th a t he atones.2

Precisely because Jews were still an influential force in Spain, the Elvira Council deemed it necessary to insulate Christian believers from the seductions o f Judaism by derogating both its tenets and its leaders. Restrictions were imposed to lim it opportunities for social interaction between the two faiths; Christians were specifically warned not to ask rabbis to bless their fields. In short, the work o f this council typified an emergent body o f legislation designed to isolate Jews from the larger community throughout the Empire while hammering out a doctrine that defined and affirmed the lowly place o f Judaism in history. Perhaps surprisingly, the historical separation o f Christianity from Judaism, with its profound consequences for Jewish communal life, was a long and complex process. After all, the Church had emerged directly out o f the synagogue in the first century, and Christianity would never totally disassociate itself from its Jewish origins. O n the contrary, Chris­ tian apologists argued the supremacy o f their belief over Judaism by making recourse to promises and predictions in the Hebrew scriptures. In a sense, then, early Christians could be said to have defined them ­ selves in terms o f the religion they rejected. Consequendy, Church thinkers could not simply dismiss Judaism out o f hand. Their m ost troubling challenge was the enigmatic perse­ verance o f the Jewish people after the advent o f Jesus had made their religion obsolete. A partial solution was to reinterpret selected ancient Hebraic texts, yet even then the Church had to retain many Jewish elements, unable either to abandon or acknowledge their origin. An­ other tactic was to regard Judaism as a perfidia, or perversion o f the true faith. Therefore, the appropriation and reinterpretation o f the scriptures, a process which began w ith Paul’s career in the first century, was fo-

Volatile Origins

7

cused on working out an earthly role for Jews to play that would be consistent w ith the essential Christian message. Church thinkers rein­ terpreted the scriptures to become proof texts o f the basic, two-edged doctrine: Christian election, Jewish obsolescence. O ut o f obstinacy and perverseness, the Jews refused to understand the shared scriptures “properly,” blind to the validations o f Christianity there and the proof that their belief had been superseded. But even as Christians and Jews disagreed about the true meanings o f the ancient texts, it was Scripture that linked them. H ow should the bearers o f the old tradition be treated so that they would not pose a “threat55 to the fledgling new faith? In other words, w hat purpose should Jews serve in the new Christian world order? A fateful rationale was devised from the doctrine o f Christian su­ persession: the Jews would be preserved because their veneration o f the O ld Testam ent bore witness to the truth o f Christianity. At the same tim e, they would be tolerated only minimally, so that their debased state itself would provide visible proof o f their “rejection” by God. Their misery would also demonstrate what would befall those who did n o t accept Jesus as the Messiah. In addition, the maligning o f Judaism would serve to enhance the self-esteem o f Christians. Finally, the doc­ trine implied that strenuous efforts should be made so that a saving rem nant o f the Jewish people would “see the light,” since their con­ version was to presage or accompany the Second Coming. The paradoxes o f a doctrine that simultaneously advocated tolera­ tion and discrim ination, preservation and persecution, conversion and persuasion, would plague the Jews for centuries. M odem scholars have collectively labeled these contradictions “the teaching o f contem pt.” Its legacy was an enormous edifice, built over several centuries, that pro­ vided much o f the material from which theological anti-Semitism in W estern civilization evolved.3 After Constantine’s conversion, attacks against Jews were no longer solely verbal, confined to council deliberations and doctrinal disputes. Even though the status o f Judaism as a lawful religion was not formally revoked, those in positions o f authority in the state now shared the increasingly hostile ecclesiastical attitude. The pen o f the bishops began to guide the hand o f the emperors, and the currents o f anti-Semitism in the early Church formed a powerful partnership with the pagan antiSemitic legacy. Assaults upon the person and property o f Jews followed as a m atter o f course, and their situation began a long decline toward the medieval position: the Jew as pariah and demon. It was not possi-

8

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blc, after all, for the simple folk and lower clergy to discern the doctrinal nuance between preserving the Jews and hum iliating them , all the while praying for their conversion though asserting that conversion should not be forced. For the man in the street, derogation and persecution frequently won out over theological subtlety.

In 409, Spain was overrun by three different Germanic tribes—the Suevi, Vandals, and the Alani—who all, but especially the Vandals, ravaged the countryside. A few years later, yet a fourth tribe, the Visig­ oths, drove out the Vandals and established themselves in Spain, in the process destroying many o f the Roman institutions on such ideological grounds as, for example, the contention that the public baths encour­ aged softness and effeminacy. The Visigoths constituted an ethnically and religiously alien ele­ ment in their new domain. A small group o f German-speaking warriors and herdsmen never exceeding 200,000, they practiced Arianism, a form o f Christianity that did not recognize the Trinity. Yet they ruled over something like eight million Latin-speaking trinitarian Catholics, most o f them farmers. In such circumstances, it was useful to tolerate Jews, who could either mediate between the foreign elite and the in­ digenous majority or serve as a convenient ally, when the occasion arose. The several centuries o f Jewish life under Visigothic rule are among the most obscure in all o f Jewish history. We do know that when the Germans arrived, they found a Jewish population that was well inte­ grated and in fact formed an influential part o f society. Initially, Jewish life did not undergo drastic change as a result o f the invasion. The patterns o f Jewish autonomy established in Roman times continued to be respected. Local communities were led by elders, sometimes includ­ ing women. The synagogues supported schools, the community was allowed to own property, and Jewish legal traditions were so well established that local Jewish courts were able to adjudicate in m ost instances. The community leadership played a strong role in regulating all aspects o f daily life: it was empowered by tradition to supervise such economic activities as controlling prices, regulating wages, and regu­ lating the markets, including the use o f weights and measures. In ad­ dition, each community had a highly organized network o f self-help

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and welfare institutions, each administered by a special committee: the public kitchen ( tamhui), a chest for the needy, funds for orphans, dow­ ries for indigent brides, and resources for the ransoming o f Jewish captives. In sum, the community was capable o f withstanding a variety o f strains from external sources and buttressing its members even in extremely adverse conditions.4 U nder the Visigoths, the Jews o f Spain presented a varied economic profile and worked in a wide range o f occupations. Some held ranking posts in the governm ent or the army; others were recruited and orga­ nized for garrison service; still others continued to hold senatorial rank. Many Jews possessed landed wealth, perhaps using slaves to till the land.

We should pause for a moment to discuss the issue o f Jewish slave­ holding, which would prove to be a recurrent thorn in the side o f both ecclesiastical and lay leaders in Visigothic times—not because either authority had any special moral scruples but because the practice chal­ lenged accepted notions o f Jewish subservience and also became a prime means o f proselytism to Judaism. Precisely because the institution o f slavery among the Jews touched a vital nerve in the Christian-Jewish contest for converts in these early centuries, it has been the subject o f lengthy discussion and much controversy. Later, in medieval times, Jews were rarely slaveholders, although in the ninth century they did play a role in the extensive M uslim slave trade in the pagan Slavic lands. They never became involved, on the other hand, in the slave trade in Africa, which was dom inated in the M iddle Ages by the Arabs at first and then by the Turks. N either Christian nor Muslim objected to slav­ ery in itself; the landholdings o f the Church were worked extensively by slaves throughout the M iddle Ages, and Islamic civil bureaucracies and m ilitary rulers both relied heavily on slaves. Chiefly, Jewish slavehold­ ing inspired a voluminous polemical literature because it posed a special kind o f religious threat. U nder Judaic law, which detailed a solicitude for slaves that was unparalleled in other civilizations, the Jewish slave­ holder was subject to certain obligations that made his religion an attractive and available option for his slave. The master was obliged to perm it his slaves to rest on the Sabbath. Non-Jews working in a Jewish home were considered to be part o f the household and to be treated

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with respect and kindness. In many cases, a kind o f semiconversion o f slaves occurred, in which some Judaic practices were observed. Further, it was a prime duty o f Jews to ransom all Jews from servitude, for the holding o f Jewish slaves was declared to be illegal in the Talmud (Baba Batm f.8). Therefore, the slave who converted was immediately freed. Such conversions became quite commonplace since the Talmud pro­ hibited Jews from keeping uncircumcised slaves. (See Babyl. Talmud, Gittin 8a-9a, nb-isa, 37b-45^, 4 6 b - 47 a.) The ShulhanAruch, the late medieval Jewish legal code, has this to say o f slavery (Yoreh Deah, 267,27): M ercy is th e m ark o f piety and no m an m ay load his slave w ith a grievous yoke. N o non-Jew ish slave m ay be oppressed: he m ust re­ ceive a p o rtio n from every dainty th a t his m aster eats: he m ust n o t be bullied n o r scornfully entreated; b u t m ust be addressed gently, and his reply heard w ith courtesy.

Slaves were not only given positions o f trust in the household but were also allowed to do business on their own account. Some are included on the lists o f larger donors to charity or as owners o f boats. In Muslim lands, one o f the last rites o f a dying Jew was the freeing o f his household servant. Moreover, it was forbidden for a female slave to work in a Jewish household in the absence o f another female or if a female member o f the household objected to her presence. By contrast, the Islamic slaveholder was entitled to engage in sexual relations w ith his female slaves.5 Church authorities became extremely concerned about the practice o f Jews owning Christian or pagan slaves. For one thing, it was not uncommon for Christians to offer themselves as collateral for loans. Also, a debtor m ight default on his loan and became dependent upon, or even enslaved to, a Jew. It was partly for these reasons that in the sixth century Pope Gregory the Great explicitly expressed his concern to the various monarchs o f the W est that pagan or Christian slaves m ight convert to Judaism.

The Visigothic German invaders set up the political center o f their new kingdom at Toledo, but in fact held little dom inion outside the city

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walls. Undisciplined and strife-ridden from the outset, the Visigoths never established a principle o f succession and orderly dynastic rule. D uring the several hundred years o f their reign, the country was in a state o f almost continuous political turm oil if not anarchy. In contrast to the earlier centuries o f stability, the Visigothic era was a time o f m ounting anti-Jewish legislation. The single institution the Germanic outsiders managed to control was the Church. The Visigothic monarchs appointed bishops, struc­ tured dioceses, and convened the clerical councils in Toledo that en­ acted legislation on behalf o f the Church’s “welfare.” This relationship began when, in 587, King Reccared I converted to Catholicism and Bishop Leander o f Seville reportedly declared, “Now we are one na­ tion.” The Visigothic elite would be absorbed into the rest o f the nation, but the Jews would be left as the only “alien” element in Spain. This is the real implication o f the conversion o f the Visigoths. A lthough religiously united at the top, the state remained deeply di­ vided politically and at the grassroots level. The eighteen kings who ruled from King Recarred’s conversion until the Arab conquest o f Spain in 711 represented at least fifteen different families. Seven o f these mon­ archs were deposed or murdered, and numerous pretenders or usurpers simply took over parts o f Spain, m inting coins in their own name.6 Perhaps, as some have suggested, the monarchy’s desire to win over the clerical party was responsible for their sudden turn toward active persecution o f the Jews. We cannot really say with certainty what mo­ tivated this change in policy, but one thing is unmistakably clear: the tw o centuries o f Visigothic persecutions following Recarred’s conver­ sion comprise one o f the darkest periods in Jewish history and omi­ nously portend future Spanish policies toward the Jews. Alm ost immediately, the newly Catholic King Reccared convened the first Council o f Toledo in order to win endorsement for his decrees to “regulate” relations between Christians and Jews. This overtly eccle­ siastical assembly and its successors would often be led by the ruling m onarch rather than by the titular head o f the Spanish Church, the bishop o f Seville. Typically, canons enacted by a council were con­ firmed by the king, thus becoming the law o f the land, but they also entered the annals o f the Church. By that route the anti-Jewish laws o f Visigothic Spain, having been absorbed into Canon Law, served as legal precedents in other parts o f Europe, even though they had been specifically devised to address local conditions or suit the whims o f Spanish royalty.

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In the lan g u ag e o f a constitution issued by Reccared, one aim o f the new legislation was to lim it Jewish influence on Christians.7 In other words, the Elvira decree to this effect promulgated three centuries ear­ lier had had only limited success, for Jews were still integrated in Span­ ish society. Dismayed by this source o f both Christian attrition and resulting Jewish strength, the Church joined w ith King Reccared to bring Jewish slaveholding to an end. The monarch decreed that all slaves held by Jews should be handed over forthw ith to Christian slave­ holders (a measure that not only weakened the m inority community but also guaranteed that they could no longer participate in agricul­ ture). In the same exclusionary vein, the death sentence was instituted for any Jew found proselytizing. But conversion o f Christian slaves to Judaism was only part o f the perceived problem. Clerics and kings, engaging the broader issue o f Jews exercising any authority at all over Christians, became determined to make the Jews’ worldly position con­ form to the lowly status assigned them in Church doctrine. Thus, they were forbidden to intermarry or to hold public office. In 613, King Sisebut issued a radical decree at the Third Toledan Council that called for the forced conversion o f all Jews. Any Jew who refused baptism would be given one hundred lashes and, if still resistant, would be banished and deprived o f all property. N ot only did he affirm the proscription on slaveholding; he also forbade Jews to hire Christian workers. Sisebut confirmed his predecessor’s death penalty for Jewish proselytism and required that any Christians who had converted should either revert or be publicly flogged and en­ slaved. Some clerics, notably Isidore o f Seville, reprimanded the king for this decree, but not on humanitarian grounds. Like Pope Gregory the Great (390-604), who had condemned forced conversions in a famous letter to the bishops o f Arles and Marseilles in 591 but had also lauded Reccared for the rest o f his anti-Jewish legislation, they objected that such conversions could not possibly produce genuine believers. Even so, Sisebufs decree was perm itted to stand. The results were devastat­ ing. Jewish children were wrested from their parents, who were legally prohibited from fleeing the country. Church and state joined together in supervising the forced conversions. The convert who received the sacraments o f the Church was not perm itted to revert to Judaism; punishment for lapses was severe. It seems likely that as many as 90,000 Jews were converted under the terms o f Sisebutis decree, while un­ counted thousands more were able to escape. Thus began a century o f

Volatile Origins

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forced conversion and martyrdom. Council followed upon council, is­ suing anti-Jewish decrees w ith increasing ferocity. As Gregory wisely foresaw, however, forced conversions were often pro forma. Many Jews continued to practice their ancient religion in secret, thus ensuring that “crypto-Judaism” would be a long-standing problem on Spanish soil. (Medieval Spain would learn little from the failures o f its Visigothic past in using forced conversion as an instru­ m ent o f public policy. ) Clearly, religious coercion would neither assure conform ity nor resolve the country’s political rifts. Certainly, the pop­ ulation at large drew distinctions; converts were automatically suspect, and Christians began ferreting out crypto-Judaic practices and inform­ ing on the practitioners. Such peculiar designations as “baptized Jews” and “non-baptized Jews” entered the national lexicon along w ith the novel racial conception o f Old and New Christians. The latter were not allowed the slightest doubts about their new faith; wavering or luke­ warm converts were threatened with expulsion from Spain by the Eighth Council o f Toledo. These seventh-century persecutions, which clearly foreshadowed the drastic policies o f the Inquisition, seem indic­ ative o f a uniquely Spanish racial interpretation o f the question, “Who is a Jew?” in the ancient and medieval worlds. O utbursts o f intolerance were by no means limited to Spain. In the first quarter o f the seventh century, when Byzantine and Persian mili­ tary forces confronted each other in a series o f bloody campaigns in Syria and Palestine, Jews in Palestine sided w ith the Persians. Possibly in reprisal, Byzantium’s Em peror Heraclius decreed a forced conversion o f his Empire’s Jews in 632. In Langobard, Italy, in 661, persecution also took the form o f forced baptism, and some twenty years after Sisebufs decree, the Jews o f M erovingian France m et the same fate as well. W hether or not these drastic measures were related to the larger context o f sweeping Muslim victories in the Near East is not clear, but it is significant that in these early centuries the fate o f forced converts was already assuming especially tragic forms in Spain. In this vein, the Visigoths prom oted the concept o f a unitary Iberian kingdom that ideally combined political w ith religious unity. The rulers o f the Chris­ tian kingdom o f Asturias-Leon in the north o f Spain would preserve this ideal o f unity and reconquest through the M iddle Ages. O n the other hand, the Visigothic anti-Jewish laws were repeated w ith such regularity in the successive Toledan councils that one suspects they were implemented sporadically and were only temporarily success­ ful. We can discern a recurrent cycle. A persecutory king would be

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deposed, then the Jews who had fled (especially those in neighboring M orocco or Narbonne, France) would return. Harsh measures would be relaxed for a time, only to be eventually affirmed yet again by a subsequent ruler. These cycles succeeded each other w ith astonishing frequency as civil wars and royal conspiracies tore Spain apart. A glance at the rapidly changing succession o f the Visigothic rulers juxtaposed w ith the major anti-Jewish decrees8 suggests the political m otivation behind many o f the peaks o f repression:

AssassinattdJDeposed Reccared I Liuva II W itteric G undem ar Sisebut Suinthila Sisenand C hindlla T ulga C hindasuith R eccessuinth W am ba Erw ig Egica W itiza Achila R oderick

5 8 6 -6 0 1 6 0 1 -6 0 3 6 0 3 -1 0 6 1 0 -1 2 6 1 2 -2 0 6 2 1 -3 1 6 3 1 -3 6 6 3 6 -4 0 6 4 0 -4 2 6 4 2 -5 3 6 4 9 -7 2 6 7 2 -8 0 6 8 0 -8 7 6 8 7 -7 0 2 7 0 2 -1 0 710?—13? 7 1 0 -1 1

Anti-Jewish Decree **

* *

** * ** ** * ** ** * *

** **

In 680, King Erwig gained the throne only after a particularly brutal batde for succession. Typically, he unleashed a fresh spate o f antiJewish legislation, including twenty-eight different laws in the first tw o months o f his reign. A t first, the themes were familiar—for example, Jews were given one year to have themselves baptized or face the con­ sequences. His predecessor, King Recessuinth, had referred to the Jews as a “contagious pestilence”; Erwig not only coined the term Judaeorum pestis (the plague o f Jews) but was soon advocating the extermination o f the Jews. H e appealed to the Twelfth Council o f Toledo to rise up against “the leprosy o f Jewish corruption.” By 69+, the Jews were finally pushed to the edge o f revolt, but their plans were thw arted by inform ­ ers. Infuriated by this failed attem pt at insurrection, the Toledan Coun­ cils now declared all Jews to be slaves, ordered their goods ronfisrat-«*^

Volatile Origins

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and bound their children under the age o f seven over to Christian slavemasters to be raised as Catholics. Visigothic Spain contributed a novel feature to the sordid history o f persecution o f die Jews. The forced converts were compelled to re­ nounce their faith and pledge their devotion to Christianity in extraor­ dinarily elaborate oaths o f abjuration. They had to vow to have no further contact w ith practicing Jews or participate in any Jewish festi­ vals. Instead, they promised to present themselves before priests at church services during all Jewish and Christian festivals and there eat pork and other foods specifically forbidden under Jewish law. The pen­ alties for breaking these macabre pledges included death by burning or stoning, or confiscation o f all property and sale into permanent slavery. The cruel forced oaths were characterized by a disdainful tone toward Judaism; for example, the convert had to dedare his traditional religion to be a “superstition” or the “vomit o f my former error.”9 (These and similar phrases were appropriated from Pope Gregory’s 591 letter spell­ ing out the dangers o f forced baptism.) King Erwig, who would reign until 687, added the requirem ent that all business transactions between Jews and Christians begin w ith the Lord’s Prayer and consumption o f a dish o f pork. N o convert could travel w ithout the permission o f his parish priest. An additional m ethod o f underm ining and demoralizing the Jews was to force attendance at lectures and sermons. To help assure implem entation o f his policy, Erwig ordered bishops to denounce any colleague who did not comply fully. Outside Spain, events were occurring that undoubtedly influenced the nature and severity o f these repressions, for religious extremism was becoming the rule rather than the exception elsewhere in the M editer­ ranean world. The war o f 610 between Christian Byzantium and Persia provoked violent anti-Christian measures in the Persian-controlled East. Jews welcomed the Persian forces as liberators from their Byzantine persecutors in Antioch and elsewhere. In Palestine, the Jews formed a potent m ilitary force alongside the Persians, who captured Jerusalem in 614 and are said to have deported 37,000 o f its inhabitants. Rumors immediately circulated that Jews were involved in these actions and probably filtered back to the W est, further exacerbating ChristianJewish relations in Spain. N o sooner did the Persian menace subside in the East than the new faith o f Islam burst forth from the Arabian Peninsula, swept through the ancient M editerranean provinces o f the Byzantine Empire, and threatened proud Constantinople itself, Byzantium’s capital. As the

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Muslim armies spread westward across N orth Africa, Spanish Jews were seeking asylum in Morocco. Undoubtedly, the Visigothic monarchs in Spain at the end o f the seventh century made a political con­ nection between the distant and increasingly powerful enemy that could not be touched and the increasingly vulnerable “enemy55at home. Since many Jews had “defected55 to the Muslim stronghold, in other words, they were fair game. Yet another excuse for exacerbating persecution o f the Jews was the series o f natural disasters that afflicted Spain from the beginning o f the century, leaving its agriculture and economy in a shambles. Bad har­ vests, plagues o f locusts, and famine reduced the population by half during Erwig5s relatively brief reign, producing an atmosphere o f hys­ teria in which conspiracy theories flourished. Eventually, the country literally lay in ruins, its commerce strangled, irrigation systems de­ stroyed, and cities decimated.

Ironically in this chaotic time, an actual conspiracy o f certain Visigothic princes turned out to be far more devastating for their kingdom than any o f the imaginary conspiracies attributed to the Jews. W ith disputes raging over the succession to the Visigothic throne, the heirs o f King W itiza (702-10), aided by the Byzantine governor o f the M oroccan coastal outpost o f Ceuta, opened the gates o f Spain to a small Arab force. Later legends embroidered the story o f die fall o f Visigothic Spain with a romande subplot: the governor seeking revenge for Visig­ othic King Rodericks seduction o f his beautiful daughter. In truth, the regime fell as a result o f the combined forces o f internal collapse and the passivity o f the Hispanic masses weary o f Visigothic dom ination and continued instability. Although historians have traditionally depicted the invasion o f Spain as almost an accident or an afterthought to the conquest o f Morocco, it is more accurate to consider it as one more victory in an ever-widening circle o f a century-long process o f Islamic expansion. Undoubtedly, the Arabs had heard rumors o f Spain’s great riches and initially sent their small reconnaissance party across the Straits—400 troops commanded by an Arab general named Tarifa—to find out the truth. Instead o f untold wealth, they discovered widespread discontent and found themselves welcomed as liberators by the warring sons o f

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Witdza, the tired city dwellers, and the persecuted Jews. After T arifai initial foray revealed that the peninsula was ripe for conquest, a much larger force o f Berbers under Tariq ibn Ziyad invaded in 711 and Visigothic resistance swiftly collapsed. Some defiance continued at the purely local level, but w ithin four years almost all o f Spain had capitulated. In such a short period o f tim e and w ith very few troops at their disposal, the Muslims had moved into the heart o f Europe, beginning an occu­ pation that w ould continue for nearly 800 years. The M uslim armies arriving from N orth Africa marched under the banner o f a religion only a century old. W hen its founder, the prophet M uhammed, died in 632, the movement was confined w ithin die bor­ ders o f Arabia; but w ithin the next few decades victorious Muslim armies subdued the Persian Empire and much o f Byzantium w ith cy­ clonic speed. By the beginning o f the eighth century, this new Islamic empire extended from the shores o f the Atlantic in the W est to the Indian Ocean and China in the East, and its armies stood at the portals o f Europe, soon to occupy Sicily as well as Iberia. In fact, this relentless advance w ould not be stopped until 732 at Poitiers, France (the Battle o f T ours), where the Muslims would be defeated by Frankish warriors under Charles M artel. Subsequent expeditions into France through the western Pyrenees were also repulsed, leading the Muslims to give up attem pting to advance in this direction. A t the same tim e, Muslims were suffering reverses in northw est Spain. The exploits o f the Christian prince Pelayo and his bands o f rugged m ountaineers in Galicia have inspired many highly embellished stories that have entered the lore o f Spain, but in fact he was successful in retaining large portions o f territory, thus providing a base for the ultim ate Christian reconquest. U nder the leadership o f die King o f Asturias, Alfonso I (739-57), much o f northw est Spain and Portugal was reconquered and proclaimed heir to die Visigothic legacy. This continuing presence o f an independent Christian enclave in the m oun­ tainous north served as a constant challenge and later rallying point against Islam’s dom ination o f the peninsula.

The conquest o f Spain was achieved during a period o f heady expansion and w ith seeming invincibility. Yet, it was not only the speed o f the Arab conquests but the permanence o f their effects that was truly as-

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tonishing. The ever-expanding waves o f m ilitary occupation introduced the faith o f Islam and its Arabic language, engulfing and ultimately supplanting the ancient Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Aramaic-speaking cultures and empires. Finally, when the dust settled, the characteristic Muslim sense o f an extended community ( umma) descended over the entire M editerranean and a new era began. Tariq’s conquest o f Spain, far from being part o f an integrated plan o f territorial expansion, was almost serendipitous. H is original invading force o f 12,000 was very small, yet, according to Arab chron­ icles, city after city meekly capitulated as these N orth African Berbers (perhaps including as few as seven Arabs) drove deeper into Spain. These chronicles, which provide richly detailed accounts o f the jihad, portray both victories and setbacks w ith surprising accuracy. From diem we learn that Christians usually fled their towns, leaving the gates unguarded; few but Jews remained behind. The invaders gath­ ered them together into principal cities or fortresses, frequently leav­ ing these almost vacant cities in the hands o f Jewish patrols, who acted as the local miliria and guarded the gates, while they continued their advance. The Arab chronicles o f these events are almost con­ temporaneous with the conquests and are consistent w ith w hat we know about the confusion and conspiracies in Spain at the tim e, as well as w ith the standard Arab military tacric o f rapidly pressing a forward advance while utilizing non-Muslims as a rear guard. U n­ doubtedly, the Jews cooperated because they regarded these invaders as liberators. They did not, however, invite the Islamic forces to in­ vade or work to deliver Spain to them. These charges were circulated by Christians in the M iddle Ages, a revision o f history reflecting two complementary themes: the explanation o f Spain’s fall to Islam as the consequence o f Jewish treachery, and the tendency to portray Jews in the w orst possible light in terms o f stereotypes based upon Gospel accounts o f Jewish “betrayals” in the first century. But the historical truth is unmistakable. By 715, a full-scale inva­ sion o f Berbers and Arabs had conquered all o f Spain except for the mountainous areas in the northw est, which they skirted in their ea­ gerness to proceed further north into France. In addition to Arabs and Berbers, the mixed and internally divided conquerors included tribesmen from Syria, Egypt, and Yemen, fortune seekers and adven­ turers, merchants and purveyors. M ost, o f course, sought little more than booty and self-aggrandizement, but the Berbers who engineered

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the trium ph would not be given their fair share o f the rewards. In accordance w ith the custom o f M uslim conquerors, land was not equally divided: the few Arabs who participated in the invasions seized the choicest fertile plains and valleys, and the disgruntled Ber­ ber m ajority were allotted the inferior rocky hillsides. An economic division between the tw o groups developed, governed by a garrison­ like polity. Soon after the conquest, the Arab m inority was aug­ m ented by elite Arab forces brought in from the East, thus forming a dom inant upper class that controlled the economy and the state bu­ reaucracy. Yet they were divided by the same rivalries and tribal fac­ tions that plagued Arab rule at the other end o f the M editerranean. The challenge was thus to m aintain a delicate balance. Each group staked its claim: the Arabians in the Guadalquivir valley, the Syrians in Granada, the Egyptians in M urcia, and the Berbers in the hill country o f Andalusia as well as the high plains o f central Spain and Extremadura. In none o f these territories did they form a clear ma­ jority, nor was Christian Spain entirely subdued. (This would take generations to achieve and was never really completed.) A t first, the M uslim state was governed by a highly decentralized authority, an em inently practical course for a society characterized by deep cultural and social cleavages. These traditional divisions were buttressed by Spain’s m ountainous geography, which isolated and regionalized the peninsula. Small w onder that centralization and unification did not occur until the ninth century. Even then, it had to be fostered by M uslim adm inistrators w ho consciously adopted a policy based upon statecraft practices in the East. A nother distinctive feature o f the Muslim conquest was the small num ber o f the indigenous Spanish population who initially converted to Islam. Mass conversion did not occur until the ninth century. In general, converts became a M uslim underclass. Meanwhile, Christians continued to live willingly in areas controlled by the Arab invaders, who called them Musttfrib (mozarabs in Castilian), just as many Mus­ lims w ould later choose to live under the victorious returning Chris­ tians (mudejar in Castillian). M uch o f the vigor o f social relations in medieval Spain derived from this rich ethnic diversity. For all groups, religious affiliation was the prim ary reference point, defining ethnicity as well. Linguistic diversity was quite common; as far as we can tell, it was an accepted part o f the landscape. Paradoxically, this extraordinary heterogeneity—“old” and “new” Muslims, Jews and Christians, Berbers

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and Arabs, Yemeni Arabs and Syrian Arabs—accounts in no small mea­ sure for both the chronic instability o f Muslim Spain and its remarkable intellectual ferment. The invasion promptly set off a wave o f Jewish imm igration to the newly conquered province known as Andalusia. These Jews were now able to reunite with relatives who fled in the last decades o f Visigothic persecution and immediately improve their position. Many returned from refuge in M orocco on the heels o f the Muslim armies. Signifi­ cantly, the m igration o f Jews (as well as Muslims) back and forth across the narrow straits separating Europe from Africa would become a con­ stant feature o f life in medieval Spain, in part because o f deliberate government policy. Thus in 740, when the Berbers living in the north­ ern cities o f Spain revolted because they felt cheated in the allocation o f the spoils o f conquest, Damascus sent an army o f 27,000 warriors to suppress them. Once victorious, these Syrian Arabs refused to leave, adding one more element to the country’s ethnic diversity. Still other foreigners, Muslim and Jew, were attracted by the lure o f the pacified country. Elsewhere in the Islamic world, it was not uncommon for Jewish merchants and suppliers from many lands to follow the M uslim conquerors and form the nuclei o f new Jewish communities, even as far as the Gobi Desert and China. By the tenth century, when Andalusia had established her reputation as a thriving intellectual center, she be­ came a magnet for scholars who in turn attracted further Jewish and Muslim immigration. The dynamism o f the Muslim conquests was bom o f a selfconfidence rooted in religious belief and their record o f worldly success. U nited by Islam and the Arabic language, the disparate Muslim forces were imbued with a sense that they held the truth and had a duty to bring it to the rest o f mankind. The worldview behind their jihad was relatively simple. The world was divided into two main parts: con­ quered territory, called the House o f Islam (dar el-Islam). and territory still to be conquered, called the House o f W ar (dar el-Harb) Ideally, the House o f Islam was one unified community; waging war for the sake o f Islam was a pillar o f faith accorded the highest religious m erit: the believer who died in battle with the infidel was a martyr who would enjoy ample rewards in Paradise. It followed that the world was not regarded in territorial or lin­ guistic terms; in fact, some Muslim countries remained nameless until the twentieth century. Rather, religion was the yardstick for classifying and differentiating groups, relegating Judaism and Christianity to an

inferior status in the Muslim scheme o f things. Yet it was something o f a privileged status, too, since these two groups alone were in the House o f Truce {dar al-sulh) or Covenant (dar el~Ahd). Under Islamic legal theory, all religious m inorities who were not monotheists had to choose between Islam and death. But the existence o f monotheistic Judaism and Christianity was accepted and given a niche, however uncomfort­ able, in Muslim society. Muhammed himself, as a merchant in Mecca and lawmaker in M edina, had interacted w ith Jews in commerce and politics and had much to say about them , based on his experiences. His utterances, incorporated both in the Koran and in the collections o f oral traditions known as Hadith^ were the authoritative source o f reference for all believing Muslims, providing the fundamental guidelines for behavior between the two groups. But the legal status o f the Jews under Islam was never static, based as it was upon diverse traditions that emerged in a vast territorial ex­ panse over a period o f several hundred years. The Muslim empire was never one entity but rather a dynamic human reality composed o f dif­ ferent languages, people, cultures, and regimes. It was m ost open to the talents and self-expression o f other peoples, especially if they were m onotheistic, during its period o f greatest unity, about 800 to 1200. After 1100, as the Muslim world started to fragment and became prey to various feudal and military dynasties, the status o f Jews declined steadily, w ith only a brief respite during the sixteenth-century Ottom an renaissance. From the earliest years o f Muhammed’s movement, the eastern periphery o f the Muslim world tended to be harsher to Jews and Christians than the west, the heterodox Shi’ite regimes there even more so than the Arab and Sunni regimes. In contrast, the conquerors o f Spain were the m ost lenient in all Islam, especially during the first centuries o f their rule. To some extent, this passionate new religion defined itself in op­ position to its two predecessors.10 To rebut those who believed in the divinity o f Jesus, for example, the Koran describes God as “unique, alone, H e does not beget and is not begotten, none is equal to him.” At the same tim e, Judaism and Christianity both were recognized as kin­ dred, if inferior, faiths also based on revelations. The continuing exist­ ence o f these separate m onotheistic faiths was (and is) justified in a single verse in the Koran: Say, O believers! I shall n o t w orship w hat you w orship. You do n o t w orship w hat I w orship. I am n o t a w orshipper o f w hat you have

w orshipped, and you are n o t w orshippers o f w hat I have w orshipped. T o you, your religion. T o m e, my religion. (Sura 109 )

Judaism received the special attention o f Muslim theologians be­ cause Muhammed had encountered many Jews during his career in Arabia. In the course o f hammering out his new faith, in fact, he had engaged in many verbal exchanges with the substantial and articulate Jewish community in Arabia, especially the vital group in the M edina oasis. (By contrast, there was only a limited Christian presence in the Arabian peninsula.) Muhammed drew upon many elements o f Judaism in the development o f his doctrines, including the fast, the concept o f charity as an obligation, the content and direction o f prayer, and a myriad o f details concerning daily human conduct. In fact, he conveyed his religious message to the Jews o f M edina, having come to regard himself as the pinnacle and seal o f all o f the ancient biblical prophecies, and offered them his leadership. H e contended that the Koran con­ tained the true revelation that Jews and Christians fail to follow. W hen the Medina Jews rejected him out o f hand, he was struck to the core. First he angrily confronted them in debates whose echoes are preserved in the Koran, vividly excoriating them as corrupters o f Scripture and enemies o f Islam. But polemics soon gave way to military campaigns that brought terrible consequences to all Arabian Jews, though some were treated differendy from others. W here politically expedient and militarily feasible, Muhammed did not hesitate to expel some Jewish tribes from Arabia entirely or to decapitate all male members o f others. Those “infidels” who survived were required to subm it to M uslim su­ premacy and pay tribute. The Prophet drew a distinction between those Jews with whom he was willing to contract treaties, deeming them descendants o f Abraham who had been granted a partial revelation, and those who had to be subjugated because they were an ignoble people with a rebellious, malevolent spirit. Muhammed officially accorded a low level o f toleration to Jews, as to Christians, but the relative tolerance or intolerance o f Islam tow ard these two faiths has been the subject o f lively controversy since the nineteenth century. European Jewish scholars, frustrated w ith the slow progress o f Jewish emancipation in their own place and tim e, tended to romanticize and embellish whatever benevolence could be seen in Muslim religious tolerance, but others have emphasized the harsher aspects o f Islamic attitudes. It has been frequently pointed out that Muhammed recognized the validity o f Judaism and Christianity be-

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cause both possessed w ritten revelations, but the Islamic approach to toleration refined in the Muslim schools o f law during the first cen­ turies o f the movement is quite unlike W estern Lockean notions o f freedom .11 Classical Islamic legal theory holds that the possessors o f Scripture, or Ahl al-Kitab, should be opposed until they surrender. Thereafter, the im position o f payment o f tribute in the form o f dis­ crim inatory taxes (the djizya was a poll tax, the haradj was a tax on produce from the land) was only one o f several obligatory signs o f hum iliation, but these special non-Muslims were also to be protected (hence the term Ahl ed-dbimma^ “protected people”). In other words, subjugated Jews and Christians were perm itted to reside in the House o f Islam w ith certain lim itations placed upon them. The Koran is quite clear on this point: F ig h t against such as th o se w ho have been given th e S cripture and believe n o t in A llah n o r in th e L ast D ay, and forbid n o t th a t w hich A llah h ath forbidden by his m essenger and follow n o t th e religion o f tru th , u n til they pay th e trib u te readily, being b ro u g h t low . (Sura 9 :29 ).

Elsewhere, the Koran characterizes the lot o f non-Muslims as “hu­ m iliation and wretchedness,” since they are ‘Visited with w rath from Allah” (Sura 2:61). The distinctive nature o f Islamic toleration is further elaborated in one o f the earliest Muslim legal handbooks, Abu Yusufs eighth-century classic Kitab al-Kharadj (Book o f Taxes). This scholar’s unique ap­ proach joins symbols and practices o f toleration with signs o f humili­ ation; in other words, the Jews and Christians should indeed pay the special taxes and be humbled, in accord w ith the Koran, but should also be perm itted to worship their own tradition. H e warns: I f you take th e poll tax from them , you have n o claim on them o r rig h ts over t h e m . . . . T herefore, place a poll tax upon them and do n o t enslave them and d o n o t let th e M uslim s oppose them o r harm them o r devour th eir pro p erty except as p erm itted .12

In addition to fiscal exploitation, Abu Yusuf lists numerous other measures to differentiate Jews and Christians (dbimmis) from Muslims. These “marks o f distinguishing” or “marks o f recognition,” which also served to provide tangible proof o f the bearer’s inferiority, included clothing o f a special color, distinctive (and sometimes ludicrous) foot-

wear and headgear, restrictions upon the use o f animals, prohibitions against walking in certain areas, and lim itations upon choice o f occu­ pation. All forms o f worship were to be inconspicuous in order to avoid giving offense to Muslims; in addition, there were lim itations on the size o f synagogues and churches, no new synagogues could be built, and older religious structures could not be repaired. Over the course o f time, these discriminatory laws assumed outrageous forms, especially in Iran and Yemen from the seventeenth century onw ard.13 Collectively, the restrictions on dhimmis were known as the Pact o f Umar, but it should be noted that these regulations were not followed in all places at all times. Indeed, in Muslim Spain, they were usually more honored in the breach. Arab pragmatism coupled w ith the cir­ cumstances o f rapid conquest called for the utilization o f m inorities, a circumstance that tended to inspire a sense o f optimism among the Sephardim. (When the situation reversed, they could be plunged into despair.) For example, there was a proliferation o f new synagogues, Jews commonly wore lavish clothing and adopted Muslim patronyms, and, as we shall see later, there was an influential Jewish general and vizier in the person o f Samuel ibn Nagrela. Still, when the discrepancy between theory and practice became too great—that is, when Jews waxed too powerful or enjoyed too many rights—there was always the danger that Muslim reformers would insist upon a restoration o f strin­ gent dress codes and other onerous and hum iliating restrictions. The Pact o f Umar provided a potential source o f inspiration for such fun­ damentalist leaders and religious reformers as the eleventh-century Almoravids and twelfth-century Almohade rulers who imposed antiJewish restrictions during times o f religious fervor or social stress. It was partly as a result o f the application o f the harsher codes o f Islam that Jews began their wholesale exodus from Muslim Spain in those two centuries.

In general, however, the “protected status” o f dhimmi offered the Jews o f Spain several im portant freedoms: they could freely practice their faith, they could nurture their religious and communal institutions, they were perm itted to engage in a wide variety o f professions, and they could settle more or less where they chose and move freely throughout

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M uslim territories, except in the Arabian peninsula. Compared to these essential privileges, disabilities involving social status and prestige were m inor. In fact, the blend o f religious guarantees w ith subtle discrimi­ nations did not strike Jews as particularly menacing, especially in rela­ tion to the conditions they had faced in Visigothic Spain or in Byzantium. In other words, the comparatively mild limitations o f Is­ lamic Spain held out great promise for Jewish setdement. But despite the euphoria o f the first centuries o f the Islamic move­ m ent, when it seemed as if the entire world m ight soon convert to the true faith, Spain would never be entirely won. Although the country was formally annexed to the Umayyad caliphate in 713-14, local auton­ omy prevailed in practice since it always took several months for the caliph’s commands to reach this province from Damascus, 2,500 miles distant. As we have seen, the rapid conquest was followed by a slow consolidation o f Muslim power. Relations between warring Spanish factions were exacerbated when troops sent from Damascus to quell Berber insurrections refused to leave after doing their job, and the non-M uslim population seethed under a succession o f unpopular Ber­ ber and Arab governors. While the conquerors quarreled over the di­ vision o f their booty, Jews and Christians were in charge o f many administrative tasks. The continuing cultural confrontations among Jews, Muslims, and Christians were enacted in the presence o f the Islamic south and the unconquered Christian north. Ostensibly formed by the Duero River and demarcated by a line o f castles, this border was both physical and mental. In actual fact and in apprehension, the Christian kingdoms— Leon, Navarre, Asturias—never ceased to be an irridentist threat. Con­ sequently, M uslim rulers tended to rely upon the economic and administrative talents and services o f Jews more than Muhammed’s discrim inatory ideology had anticipated or intended. In the middle o f the eighth century, a violent coup d’état in Dam­ ascus drove the last Umayyad caliph from power, and the caliphate was moved to Baghdad. A lone survivor, ‘Abd ar-Rahman I, evaded the massacre in Syria and escaped to Spain, where he was able to re-establish the Umayyads as an emirate or princedom in Cördoba in 756. H e and his successors immediately began pacifying a divided country by set­ ting up a strong army and bureaucracy. Driven also by the desire to equal the splendor o f their rivals in Baghdad and other foes, they w ould ensure that Persian traditions o f statecraft and social life, art

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and architecture, that dom inated Abbasid political institutions in Baghdad, would soon flower abundantly, as would new forms o f cul­ tural expression. No Jewish inhabitant o f eighth-century Spain could possibly have anticipated the remarkable consequences for their community. Now, after the horrors o f Visigothic rule and the uncertain beginnings o f Muslim-Jewish relations, they were about to embark upon a new and vibrant chapter in their history. Just as the Muslims o f Al-Andalus or Andalusia were poised to emerge as a distinctive unit w ithin the larger Islamic community that surrounded the M editerranean, so the Jews o f Spain were about to become, in the fullest sense, the distinctive group­ ing known as Sephardim.

In the days o f Hasdai the Nasi they began to chirp, and in the days o f Samuel the Nagid they sang out loud. —Abraham ibn Daud, Sefcr ha-Qabbalah

A German nun visiting Cordoba in the tenth century was moved to exclaim that the city represented “the majesty and adornm ent o f the world, the wondrous capital . . . radiating in affluence o f all earthly blessings.” Even a contemporary Muslim, Ibn Hawkal, who was deeply familiar with the splendors o f medieval Islam, remarked that neither in Syria nor in Egypt nor in all the countries o f N orth Africa could a comparable city be found. As was apparent to these observers and indeed all visitors, a brilliant era was dawning in Spain. Forever after­ ward, the tenth and eleventh centuries would be remembered by Jews as the nation’s “Golden Age,” an epoch in which they enjoyed unusual political power and could participate actively in the dom inant culture. No less cherished in Islamic memory, the period gave rise to the legend that when Allah was creating the world, Andalusia asked for five things: clear skies, a sea well stocked with all manner o f fish, trees laden with every species o f fruit, beautiful women, and a just government. Allah agreed to every one o f these requests but the last, having decided that if all were granted Andalusia would rival Paradise. Christians, too, found the city an especially inviting place to live in the tenth century, but for Christian Spaniards, it is the sixteenth cen­ tury—the period o f Christian ascendancy—that is recalled as the coun­ try’s Golden Age. From the political point o f view, Spaniards usually view the reign o f the Catholic monarchs (1479-1516) as the era o f their greatest achievements, while foreigners tend to regard the age o f Charles V and Philip II (1516-98) in this light. But the Sqjlo de Oro o f Spanish arts and literature that includes Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderön, El Greco, Velasquez, and M urillo begins somewhat later and continues into the seventeenth century. The differing Jewish, Muslim, and Chris­ tian concepts o f a golden age reflect the more fundamental differences in the ways that the three groups view their historical experience in Iberia. ‘Abd ar-Rahman I had originally chosen Cordoba as the Andalusian capital because o f its central location and the fertility o f the surrounding countryside, making it a natural market for all branches o f agriculture. By the 900s it had reached its zenith, becoming home to at least 100,000 inhabitants o f various nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. (Accord­ ing to some Arab geographers, the total could have risen as high as half a million.) It boasted 700 mosques and perhaps as many as 3,000 public baths w ithin the city limits, paved and illuminated streets, indoor plumbing in luxurious homes, and countless villas dotting the banks o f the Guadalquivir. The air was filled w ith the humming o f 5,000 looms

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weaving silk and brocades, w ith the cascading o f waters over the brightly colored ceramic-tiled basins o f its innumerable fountains and reflecting pools. Perhaps because o f their desert origins, the Muslims were especially appreciative o f water as well as landscaping that used tropical trees to provide shade and frame dramatic views. Twenty-eight suburbs, alive w ith thriving markets, fanned out to the expansive out­ skirts o f the city. Nowhere else in all o f Europe could such splendor and sophistication be found. Cordoba’s sparkling cultural life was enriched by seventy libraries, w ith the caliph’s library alone reportedly stocking 400,000 volumes. Recognized as a center o f medicine and technology, the city also housed numerous observatories. Consciously im itating Baghdad, the first sev­ eral Umayyad princes were more esthetes than bureaucrats, im porting talented architects and scientists from the East and establishing schools to translate classical works into Arabic. Energetically pursuing a policy o f city building and the patronage o f culture in the broadest sense, they built palaces as well as mosques, endowed hospitals and hospices. The foundations o f Cordoba’s legendary splendor in the tenth century were laid enthusiastically by the series o f rulers who established the city as the imperial seat o f the Islamic empire in the West: cAbd ar-Rahman I (756-88), cAbd ar-Rahman II (822-52), cAbd ar-Rahman III (912-61), and al-Hakam II (961-76). Cordoba’s great mosque was an architectural gem that rivaled in size and beauty the m ost famous religious monuments in the Islamic heartland. The cinnamon-colored exterior, stark and understated, stood in sharp contrast to a rich interior w ith an elaborately carved wooden ceiling, enameled and gilded doors, and geometrically subde tilework. Illum inating the vast inner spaces were 4,000 lamps filled with per­ fumed oil and 300 candelabra partially constructed from the church bells o f the cathedral o f Santiago. Ornam entation included Koranic quotes in elaborate Arabic script, vegetal motifs sculpted in the capitols o f endless rows o f columns, and intricate abstract leaf-scroll patterns derived from Arabic calligraphy. This grand mosque was repeatedly enlarged under the Umayyads in order to house the constantly increas­ ing num ber o f worshippers in the city. N ot only did it set the pattern for Islamic art in Spain, it also served as a source o f inspiration and im itation for synagogue architecture. The embellishment o f Cordoba reached a peak in the tenth century when cAbd ar-Rahman III began building a new imperial enclave to honor his favorite concubine, Zahra. A t M adinat az-Zahra, a colossal

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undertaking that created an economic boom in the city, m ore than 13,000 household attendants, including jesters and poets, would vie with diplomats and courtiers for the attention and favor o f the ruler. Their machinations took place in a 400-room palace constructed from tons o f marble and semiprecious stones sent from Constantinople as the gift o f Leo IV, the Byzantine emperor. Arab accounts describe this lavish enclave only in superlatives, but it is as difficult to distinguish accurate description from hyperbole as it probably was at that tim e to distinguish between the authentic and the ornamental. The site took twenty years to complete, requiring the labor o f some 8,000 workers aided by 1,000 mules, but was used only briefly before being destroyed by more puritanical Muslim forces in the eleventh century. Yet the memorable brilliance o f Golden Age Cördoba had not been achieved overnight. It took the Umayyads some time to consolidate their rule and organize their territory after an initial, and prolonged, period o f discord and turbulence. In the beginning, Christians or Mozarabs (Christians who lived in Muslim Spain), smarting under the discriminatory Islamic regulations, sent frequent appeals to neighbor­ ing Christian rulers to intervene on their behalf. Some o f these princes, keeping a constant eye on the internal discord in al-Andalus, were not loath to foment revolt there. Christian converts to Islam, the muwaUadun, saw little chance o f gaining access to positions o f power, since the new Arab aristocracy treated them w ith suspicion and contem pt. It seemed as if the Jews alone made no irredentist claims and had no foreign protectors who m ight step in to help them. Despite these early strains however, the state grew in affluence, its wealth based upon a diversified economy that combined agriculture, industry, and trade. Soon after the original conquest, the Muslim in­ vaders had begun restoring and improving the ancient Rom an irriga­ tion canals and aqueducts, which had fallen into disuse. They also introduced profitable new crops from the East such as citrus fruits, bananas, figs, cinnamon, and almonds. To supply the growing demand for conspicuous consumption, cash crops like cotton, silk, flax, and wool were added as well. The peasants who grew this produce would be predominantly non-Muslims, and thus subject to discrim inatory taxes, but the economic inducements to till the soil were still consid­ erable. It has been observed that conquerors often deliberately settle in a place that reminds them o f home, or if possible refashion the subju­ gated country to resemble their own. Apparently, the Umayyads longed

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for the Levant, establishing in Spain the same trees, plants, and food crops their forefathers had cultivated in Syria, and serving the same traditional foods on their tables. The wholesale im portation o f Syrian styles o f living produced an extensive Syrianization, as it were, o f the entire Andalusian countryside. Seville, which became known as Hims al-Andalus, strove to model itself on Damascus, the Syrian capital.1 U nder the Umayyads, Andalusia’s lively cities emerged as centers o f industry whose markets overflowed with staples and luxuries from Italy, N orth Africa, Egypt, and even further east, alongside colorful displays o f such local goods o f recent invention as lead crystal, especially fine leather, fine locally produced silk (Kurtubi in contemporary Hebrew sources), crimson Shadhuna silk (produced near Seville in the tow n o f that nam e), ivory carvings, and luster-glazed ceramics. W ith all their religiosity, M uslim legal authorities were not ascetics; in fact, the abun­ dant display o f these luxuries was regarded as a natural human indul­ gence, and the enjoyment o f worldly goods was condoned. According to an old Arab proverb, when Allah bestows favors on man, he wants them shown off. Elaborate attire was justified by the saying, “Squander on your back, and save on your belly.* Jewish tastes m irrored those o f the Muslims, and Spanish silks dyed brilliandy in many colors were especially prized. As the luxury com­ merce thrived, gold and silver circulated throughout the country, and agriculture, always the backbone o f its economy, flourished. And even in the face o f the Islamic prohibitions against consumption o f alcohol, vintners from the Cördoba countryside brought their wines to eager customers in the city. The description o f this cornucopia o f riches given by the tenthcentury Jewish statesman Hasdai ibn Shaprut is convincingly detailed: T h e land is rich, abounding in rivers, springs, and aqueducts; a land o f com , o il and w ine, o f fru its and all m anner o f delicacies; it has pleasure-gardens and orchards, fru itfu l trees o f every kind, including th e leaves o f th e trees u p o n w hich th e silkw orm feeds----- T here are also fo u n d am ong us m ountains . . . w ith veins o f sulphur, porphyry, m arble and crystal. M erchants congregate in it and traffickers from th e ends o f th e earth . . . brin g in g spices, precious stones, splendid w ares fo r kings and princes and all th e desirable things o f E gypt. O u r king has collected very large treasures o f silver, gold, precious things, and valuables such as n o king has ever collected. H is yearly revenue is ab o u t 100,000 go ld pieces, th e g reater p art o f w hich is derived from th e m erchants w ho com e h ith e r from various countries and islands.2

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The Jews o f Spain participated in this prosperity as part o f the larger economic universe, a virtual free-trade zone established by M us­ lim control o f the M editerranean world. The unity o f the M editerra­ nean under Islam in a Pax Islamica is somewhat reminiscent o f its ancient unity under the Pax Rotnana o f the first and second centuries. Political boundaries w ithin the Muslim orbit were not barriers to trade and an economic unity prevailed. Trade was fundamental to Islamic life from the outset, in large part because Muhammed had been a merchant. According to Muslim (but not Jewish) tradition, Abraham’s son Ishmael, the forefather o f Islam, was a textile merchant. The quasi-global economy o f Islam eventually stretched from Iberia to the Indian Ocean as ideas and men, goods and armies, moved freely between East and West. M obility was facilitated by early oral Islamic tradition, which regarded travel for the sake o f knowledge (tibia or talab el-Utn) as a venerable and pious activity that m ight even assure entry into Paradise. According to one source, the Prophet himself said, “Those who go out in search o f knowledge will be in the path o f God until they return” (al-Tirmidhi, Sunan, 39:2). O r, as the traditional phrase put it, “In mobility there is blessing” (fil baraka baraka). (In the Talmud, too, travel for the sake o f learning was commanded.). N ot surprisingly, Arabic travel literature increased during the eighth and ninth centuries, expanding the available knowledge o f routes and o f the remote areas o f the explored world. As Muslims departed Spain to study at the feet o f famous scholars in N orth Africa, Cairo, and Persia, Sephardic intellectuals traveled to such academies o f learning as Kairouan on the Tunisian coast, and the revered Yeshivot o f Sura, and Pumbeditha in Baghdad. Medieval Jewish documents spanning almost a thousand years, preserved in the treasure trove known as the Cairo Geniza, show how natural it was for Jews to be on the move.3 Their religious persuasion was no barrier to travel, and the surrounding cul­ ture helped revive and reinforce the ancient Talmudic custom o f trav­ eling in order to learn. The Geniza documents note quite casually the frequency w ith which Jews also moved between Spain and Sicily, Aden and the Indian Ocean, for the sake o f contracting marriages for their offspring or establishing new branches o f business. Evidently, it was not even unusual to make several journeys from Spain to India during one’s lifetime. Jews preferred to travel by sea, because one did not desecrate the Sabbath by gaining mileage on the water; the requirem ent o f halting a land caravan for a day could be extremely expensive. M ore-

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over, the Muslims had made the sea routes eminendy safer by con­ structing lighthouses along the shores and introducing new, improved naval vessels; even so, ships in this era stayed fairly close to shore, and in w inter, when tides were tricky, traders took the land routes. A me­ dieval Jewish m erchant m ight well own a home in Iberia and another elsewhere, perhaps in M orocco or in the Near East. Thus was fashioned an overarching culture and cosmopolitan community that shared many features, exchanging new tastes and technologies along w ith goods and services. The storehouse o f thousands o f commercial and personal papers discovered in the Cairo Geniza indicates how remarkably free travel was in the medieval M editerranean world. The concept o f law was personal, not territorial, and a person was judged according to the law o f his religious community. Geniza letters are oblivious to political bound­ aries as Jewish m erchant families moved back and forth between rival kingdoms. To be sure, there were customs stations everywhere, but both Christian and M uslim powers seemed intent upon preserving a free-trade community in the M editerranean. Maimonides remarks ca­ sually in a responsum that Jews were regular passengers on boats com­ m uting between Seville and Alexandria. Serious studies o f this era have pointed out that the learned mer­ chant was the standard-bearer o f medieval Islamic civilization. The Mus­ lim pilgrim ’s standard wish was “May your hajj be accepted, your sin be forgiven, and your merchandise not remain unsold.” Jews drew freely from this intellectual and commercial climate as a large and influential m erchant class began to rise all over the M iddle East in the eighth and ninth centuries. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian mercantile families dealt w ith each other in partnerships, and “formal friendships” characterized business relationships. These bonds o f friendship were solidified by marriages concluded between families all over the M editerranean and the Indian Ocean route. The family was considered the ideal form o f business partnership, w ith ties o f blood superseding ties o f marriage. The Geniza collection includes over 300 letters to and from the Tunisian Jewish merchant-scholar Nahrai ben Nissim, a regular com­ m uter between Tunisia and Egypt in the eleventh century. His trans­ actions over the course o f a fifty-year career (1045-96) involved merchandise from Spain, N orth Africa, Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and India. H is extremely diversified trade included almost all the staples and lux­ uries o f the commercial world o f his day: flax and silk, olive oil and spices, metals and books, jewels and chemicals, food and hides. His

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detailed surviving accounts reveal a man o f exceptional organizational and intellectual abilities who worked in partnership w ith a variety o f experts, but it appears that such versatility in trade was an exception. Usually, leading merchants worked closely with others who specialized in one item o f commerce. The remarkable Nahrai was also a talented scholar who was honored by his peers in Egypt, Palestine, and N orth Africa. The international trader is a familiar figure in the Geniza correspon­ dence, for merchants were practically commuters and would casually remark about the ordinariness o f long-distance trips, although a spirit o f adventure also permeates many o f their letters. Such business travel was commonplace in part because merchants felt they had to protect their merchandise, in part because they believed that “one who is present sees what one who is absent cannot see.”4 Although the rhythm o f life in all Jewish communities was determined by the religious cal­ endar, it was also shaped by the comings and goings o f their itinerant merchants. As one o f the Geniza correspondents writes, ‘T h e syna­ gogue is desolate, for the M aghrebis have left.” From a ninth-century Arabic account, Kitab el-Masalik waH Mamalik ( The Book of the Roads and Kingdoms ), we learn incidentally o f the remarkable commercial activities o f the Radhanites, a Jewish firm whose operations may have been based in Spain or southern France. Their name may derive from the Persian “knower o f the way.” Very little is known about them other than the Arabic description o f their routes and merchandise, from which we learn that their trade stretched across several continents w ith branches in many ports and commercial outposts. Their representatives followed four distinct land and sea routes. One went northw ard through Europe via Prague, Bulgaria, and the land o f the Khazars. Two proceeded along the M editerranean littoral and ended in Iran and Iraq (the trip from C6rdoba to Baghdad normally took a year). The fourth w ent by sea and land all the way to China. Generally speaking, m ost o f the commercial agents o f the Radhanites went only part o f a route, making trades with colleagues who had accumulated merchandise on an adjacent leg o f the whole route. Factors specific to medieval Jewry helped the Radhanites acquire monopolies. For example, Muslims were excluded from European mar­ kets, and Christians were virtually barred from Islamic waters; only Jews could travel as commercial agents in both realms. In addition, like all Jews, the Radhanites could be assured o f hospitality among co-

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religionists dispersed all along their transcontinental route through N orth Africa and Asia as well as in the European hinterlands. The naturalness w ith which the medieval Jew engaged in commerce over long distances should not obscure the fact that considerable peril was involved. Geniza letters are replete w ith allusions to the hazards o f nature and the merchants’ sense o f gratitude to God for deliverance from danger. In anticipation o f the ever-present threats o f piracy, ban­ ditry, and assaults by the crew, merchant ships tended to sail in con­ voys. Frequently, such phrases as “We arrived safely in Alexandria for God protected us from pirates” appear in the Geniza letters. Piracy, which colored all aspects o f sea commerce, was a part o f the continuing holy war between Islam and Christendom and was especially active near Byzantine shores and in the Eastern M editerranean in die eleventh century. So well known and feared was the pirates’ nest off the coast o f Libya that merchants would write their families in relief as soon as they passed by safely. Jews captured by pirates could count on ransom and rescue by fellow Jews in the area when they were brought to a slave market, generally deprived o f all possessions including the clothes on their back. Repeatedly, communities in Cairo and especially Alexandria were sum­ m oned to redeem men and women from the hands o f pirates. One fragm ent indicates how the Jews in Cairo were burdened w ith frequent requests for ransom and had to organize collections in other commu­ nities: W e tu rn to you today o n behalf o f a captive w om an w ho has been b ro u g h t from B yzantium . W e ransom ed her fo r 24 dinars besides the governm ent tax. Y ou sent us 12 dinars; w e have paid th e rem ainder and th e tax. Soon afterw ards sailors b ro u g h t tw o o th er prisoners, one o f them a fine young m an possessing know ledge o f th e T orah, the o th e r a boy o f ab o u t ten. W hen we saw them in the hands o f the p irates, and how they beat and frightened them before o u r ow n eyes, w e had p ity o n them and guaranteed th eir ransom . W e had hardly settled th is, w hen another ship arrived carrying m any prisoners. A m ong them a physician and his w ife. T hus w e are again in difficulties and distress. A nd o u r stren g th is overstrained, as th e taxes are heavy and th e tim es critical. . .5

Several other factors also helped establish Jewish prominence in international commerce (and benefited the Radhanite monopolies). Jewish m ultilingualism, a reflection o f their complex history, facilitated

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trade with other national groups. Traders used Hebrew, Arabic, Per­ sian, and Greek as well as “the language o f Franks, Andalusians, and Slavs.” At the same time, Hebrew was understood in educated Jewish circles the world over, giving them a kind o f linguafranca not only for trade but also for religious and intellectual discourse. Sometimes, for example, merchants would return to Spain w ith letters from the rab­ binic scholars o f Baghdad or Palestine, typically responses to questions about ritual. The excited Sephardic community would gather for a public reading and celebration. Finally, merchants also benefited from the uniform legal code o f the Talmud, which was recognized as binding for all Jews, regardless o f country o f residence. The operations o f the Radhanites are fairly representative o f trends in M editerranean trade in this period. Luxury goods from the Islamic heartland—e.g., textiles and metalwork produced in Spain, Cairo, or Kairouan—were exchanged in the O rient for spices and exotic sub­ stances like musk from China, in the W est for raw materials such as the fur and tim ber o f Christian Europe. (Spain’s demand for raw materials increased in response to the burgeoning economy and ambitious con­ struction programs o f the Umayyads. ) The Radhanites brought incense for churches in the W est and also introduced Europe to the use o f sofas and mattresses as well as ancient medicinal plants. Slaves figured prom ­ inently on the bills o f sale in the area o f the Crimea, the very w ord “slave” deriving from “Slav.” By the late M iddle Ages, the Slavic lands were, along with the Nordic lands, the last outposts o f paganism in Europe and were therefore regarded as the m ost desirable arena for the Muslim slave trade. Slaves were needed for agriculture, for domestic service in the caliphal household, and for harems and royal guards, and were one o f the few commodities that Byzantium could export to the Islamic world.

Despite its fame, Cördoba was never the sole seat o f Andalusian culture. Comparatively small but dazzling centers o f Islamic civilization, con­ sciously im itating the capital, emerged also in Seville, Granada, Mälaga, and Lucena. They competed for talent in an atmosphere o f rivalry that redounded to the benefit o f poetry and science, if not always to political stability. W hen Cördoba was sacked by the Almoravids in the eleventh century, Seville became Andalusia’s leading urban center. (Neverthe-

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less, Cördoba would remain a major center o f Jewish life into the fourteenth century, as can be seen from the magnificence o f its syna­ gogue at this late date.) W hen Seville in turn was taken by Christian forces in 1248, Granada assumed the role o f cultural and political center o f the progressively contracting Muslim kingdom until it finally fell in 1492. These Islamic cities did not have citizens in the modem sense. Each was an island that held separate peoples, tribes, and communities, with many foreigners coming and going, adding to the complex mix. Orga­ nizationally weak, their urban markets nonetheless dominated the sur­ rounding regions. M ost major towns were located on the sites o f former Rom an setdements but had been revived and redesigned along the pattem o f cities throughout the Muslim world. Such public areas as the markets and the mosque were centrally located; communal activities were held in these open spaces, often around a tiled fountain. O ther­ wise, the streets were generally quite narrow and serpentine, with nu­ merous cul-de-sacs. Shops were concentrated in specific districts according to w hat they produced or sold. Typically, residences lined w inding streets that followed the natural slope o f the terrain to allow for drainage through a channel in the middle o f the adjacent valley. M ain thoroughfares were unnamed, but the small alleys were named for the people who lived there. Behind austere undecorated walls, the pri­ vate homes, built around airy patios, were luxurious to the point o f opulence. The central fountain or pool o f the patio garden was usually surrounded by flower beds and columns o f stylized palm trees with birds and arabesque foliage carved in the boughs. Perhaps stone stat­ uary o f lions or deer stood beside the pool. Poets, in particular, enjoyed the artificial order created by these settings, which were often the site o f poetry readings and celebrations.6 They and their middle-class mer­ chant patrons disported themselves in surroundings not unlike the fa­ mous Lions5C ourt built several centuries later in the Alhambra fortress at Granada. In fact, some historians suggest that the cluster o f orna­ mental statuary there originally belonged to an eleventh-century Jewish courtier from the city, Joseph ibn Nagrela. As we have seen, Jewish residence in many o f the urban jewels o f Andalusia predated the Muslim conquests. As the towns expanded, so did the Jewish population. But no exclusively Jewish neighborhoods existed in the cities and towns o f the Golden Age, even though areas o f Jewish residential concentration were common. Generally speaking, Jews preferred to reside in walled neighborhoods with gates that could

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be barred for security; the blocks o f houses in such a cul-de-sac were often protected by a guard who would make his rounds at night with dogs and a lantern. Before the Muslim conquest, the Jewish quarter o f Cördoba had been confined to a southwestern neighborhood near the city wall, but it was moved and enlarged in the tenth century. Jewish residence became so conspicuous near the city’s northern gate, in fact, that Arab historians o f the M iddle Ages called it Bab el-YaJmd, the Gate o f the Jews. Christians seem to have lived alongside Muslims in areas o f mixed residence in Cördoba, but elsewhere (Valencia, for example) they congregated in separate neighborhoods, as the Berbers did in Granada and Saragossa. In sum, the practice o f residential segregation in medieval Muslim times was not necessarily discriminatory but rather a tim e-honored trait typical o f M iddle Eastern patterns o f city dwelling. Cördoba’s highly developed Jewish community would be matched and then surpassed by the Sephardic Jewish community o f Seville in the eleventh century. There, too, they resided in more than one district, playing an im portant role in the transform ation o f the city into a re­ gional center o f culture after the sack o f the capital. Because the Guad­ alquivir became wide enough near Seville to allow oceangoing vessels to dock there, the city would emerge as a principal focal point o f overseas commerce; from the ninth century onward, silk weaving and metalwork were im portant sources o f income. The Jews o f Seville were especially active in both foreign trade and the textile industry; they were intellectually active, too, as we know from their tenth-century corre­ spondence with Saadiah Gaon o f Baghdad, then the foremost scholar in the Jewish world. Questions o f proper Jewish burial, issues o f marriage, inheritance, and divorce, and uncertainty regarding interpretations o f law constituted the heart o f the correspondence. W hen the sage rose to prominence, traditional scholarship in Spain was in its early formative stages. Even after the Christian reconquest o f the city, Jews remained a significant force in local affairs, as can be inferred from the inclusion o f Hebrew in the multilingual epitaph o f Ferdinand III in the royal chapel o f the cathedral o f Seville as late as 1279. Before the ascendancy o f Cördoba and its magnetic appeal to An­ dalusian Jewry, the spiritual center o f Jewish intellectual life in the region had been Lucena. Well into the M iddle Ages, Jews form ed a substantial majority o f the population living in the fortified inner city. But in the tenth century and afterward, the alumni o f the town’s rab­ binical academy generally went to Cördoba to pursue their intellectual and worldly careers. Even so, they remained proud o f their training in

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Lucena, boasting that it was the first Spanish Jewish intellectual cen­ ter to correspond w ith the prestigious academies o f Jewish learning in Iraq. N o less im portant, Lucena is remembered in tradition as a “city o f song,” where the Hebrew language and its poetry were lovingly cultivated. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the town’s rabbinical academy, whose renowned and beloved teachers included Isaac ibn Ghiyyat, Isaac al-Fasi, and Joseph ibn Megash, introduced a new cur­ riculum that would serve as the model o f Sephardic learning for gen­ erations.7 There was also a large Jewish community in Granada, the chief city o f eastern Andalusia. In fact, according to some medieval legends, the city had been founded by Jews after the destruction o f the first Temple o f Jerusalem and the beginning o f the Babylonian Captivity. Because o f its large and dynamic Jewish population, the tenth-century Arab his­ torian Ahmed ar-Razi called it “Granada o f the Jews.” By io66, the ibn Nagrelas, a family o f Sephardic courtiers, were so powerful that envious Muslims became enraged at w hat they considered to be the arrogadon o f too much power by Jews and rose up, causing widespread destruc­ tion and Jewish flight. Moses ibn Ezra, one o f the exiles, was among the city’s m ost talented Hebrew poets and would nostalgically lament the demise o f “beautiful Granada land” in his wanderings. Yet Jews re­ mained in the city even after the persecutions and continued to partic­ ipate in all aspects o f life until its fall in 1492. O ther cities w ith strong, influential Jewish communities included Calatayud, its very name derived from the Arabic Kalaat el-Tahud (quarter o f the Jews) and M érida, from which many Sephardic families proudly claimed their origin. According to tradition, it was the first Spanish city founded by the Jerusalem exiles, making it the home o f a special nobility and ancient aristocracy. Toledo, too, was an im portant center o f Jewish life throughout the Visigothic and Muslim periods, retaining its prem ier position in both Jewish life and Castilian politics practically until the eve o f the final expulsion o f the Jews from Spain. Though always overshadowed by Cördoba, which would ever be re­ garded as their intellectual home, the Sephardic communities o f the smaller cities w ith their m ini-courts began to emerge with individual clarity in the ninth and tenth centuries. In the eleventh century, as they effectively replaced Cördoba, all o f these independent Spanish kingdoms housed a Jewish courtier class along with a Jewish artistic circle that m irrored the court life o f the fallen capital. But Spanish Jews did not confine themselves to these so-called royal cities o f

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Spain. They could also be found in organized urban concentrations, with their own residential area and scientific, artistic, and intellectual circles, in Barcelona, Saragossa, Tarragona, Valencia, and many other localities; and many also worked the land as vintners, farmers, and cultivators o f grain. Andalusia’s prosperity percolated down to the Jewish and Christian middle classes in the ninth and tenth centuries, and they were able to share fully the Muslims’ taste for acquiring luxury goods and decorative arts. In the Geniza trove, dowry lists from widely dispersed M editer­ ranean communities reveal that the Sephardic bourgeoisie accumulated expensively brocaded textiles, wall hangings, tapestries, and elaborate carpets from Egypt and Persia. Household inventories o f merchants show that they owned private libraries that included medical and ethical texts. A much more im portant indication o f Sephardic assimilation, how­ ever, is the role o f Jews as cultural intermediaries, a role that would in fact typify their position in Spain. They were well equipped to arbitrate between the mutually exclusive and hostile worlds o f Christianity and Islam precisely because they lived in the heartland o f Islam as well as on the Iberian peninsula, in Europe as well as in Africa, and never became totally parochial to any given place. Eventually, individual Jewish personalities would become distin­ guished in this role. W hen the ninth-century emirs al-Hakam II and ‘Abd ar-Rahman II decided to adopt the administrative practices o f the Abbasids in Baghdad, one Jewish intermediary was particularly influ­ ential. Abu al-Nasr M ansur, music master for the latter ruler’s court at Cördoba, was inspired to introduce sweeping innovations by im porting one o f Baghdad’s virtuoso entertainers, a certain Ziryab. The newcom­ er’s mandate to “civilize” the still backward Hispanics by teaching them Abbasid arts and manners was tantam ount to a cultural revolution. Although Ziryab was potentially a rival, the Jewish musician convinced ‘A bd ar-Rahman II to set him up in grand style and give him free reign to serve as the arbiter o f taste. The foreigner soon won the confidence o f the monarch, even enjoying special access to the royal private cham­ bers through a secret passageway. N ot content merely to establish a music conservatory for the youth o f the court and introduce innovative new musical instrum ents, Ziryab composed and taught music himself to the m ost talented women in the royal harem. H e reformed etiquette (thus revolutionizing daily life) by introducing a set order to meals: soup, fish, main m eat courses and

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fowl, sweets. Insisting upon the use o f tableclothes as well as cutlery, he redesigned the wooden spoon in order to bring some refinement to the gluttonous table manners o f the wealthy. In the same vein, he estab­ lished glass factories to produce fine crystal goblets that were soon famous beyond Cordoba. Ziryab’s influence extended to personal hy­ giene and fashion, for he introduced perfumes, cosmetics, depilatories, and toothpaste, set the vogue in hairstyles, prescribed separate ward­ robes for summer and winter, and altered protocol to match the Persian customs o f the luxurious Abbasid court. N ot least, this innovator brought in astrologers from India and Jewish doctors from Iraq and N orth Africa. In sum, Ziryab’s reforms would set the tone o f Cordoban court life for something like thirty-five years and be disseminated quickly among the lesser kingdoms o f Andalusia as well. Political intrigues, too, were a fact o f daily life in the courts o f Spain, where there was no principle o f orderly succession to power. Harems were large, and each o f the wives pressed the claims o f her son, while each rival advisor became enmeshed in the domestic quarrels and m anum itted slaves rose up to take advantage o f the palace rivalries and factionalism. Jewish translators and physicians employed in the palace could also become involved in the conspiracies. The rise to power o f Samuel ibn Nagrela, refugee from Cordoba to Malaga and subsequendy to Granada, was based upon his skills as a tax collector, his gifts as a w riter, and, not least, his luck in backing a successful contender for the throne. H ostilities between the Berbers from N orth Africa and the Andalusians opened the doors o f the courts to many ambitious politi­ cians. Ibn Nagrela was briefly imprisoned in 1020 as a result o f political intrigue but catapulted to the highest political position in Granada in the 1030s as a result o f political adroitness. The stakes in these political intrigues were extremely high: a life o f privilege or violent death, im­ prisonm ent or great fortune. In M uslim Spain, in fact, individuals played a special role in the process o f launching and then sustaining the era that became a Golden Age for the Sephardim. H istorians o f the Jews have been especially intrigued w ith the problem o f defining and explaining such rare peri­ ods. H ow does such a golden era begin? W hat are its distinguishing hallmarks, and what brings it to an end? Obviously, the absence o f persecution alone is not the defining factor. One tantalizing line o f investigation is the possible role played by the host culture in the emergence and articulation o f new Jewish cul­ tural forms. For instance, do Jews need to live in an interesting milieu

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in order to be culturally creative themselves? H ow absorbent m ust the m inority culture be to partake fully o f the culture o f the majority? O f course, it is impossible to answer these questions fully w ithout ref­ erence to the elusive process o f cultural borrowing and adaptation in general. But it can certainly be said that a distinctive factor in Spain was the large number o f unusually gifted Jewish individuals who suc­ ceeded in negotiating the process o f cultural borrowing in a fashion all their own. In the corridors o f power o f the dazzling courts o f Andalusia, the wiliest and most talented courtiers—be they Muslim, Jew, or Chris­ tian—set the tone o f an era. There could have been no Golden Age for the Jews o f medieval Spain w ithout the involvement o f outstanding Sephardim in the government and its bureaucracy. But the notion o f a golden age includes more than politics and administration. In Cördoba, Lucena, and Granada, for example, there was an exceptional flowering o f Hebrew poetry, only one indication that this unique period in the history o f Jews m ust be understood as a combination o f political, ar­ tistic, intellectual, and social elements.8

In 929 cAbd ar-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph o f Cordoba and set out to pacify the warring Muslim factions on the peninsula in order to create a unified kingdom. In his view, one way to accomplish this aim was to make peace with Christians by offering them the opportunity to participate in affairs o f state and by granting them religious freedom. His conciliatory attitude toward m inorities, combined w ith his active encouragement o f arts and commerce, ushered in a reign o f tranquillity and affluence. His servants, who included Berbers, Arabs, m anum itted slaves, Christians, and Jews, were adroitly exploited and balanced one against the other. ‘Abd ar-Rahman III loved the ceremonial aspects o f the caliphal office. In the somewhat inaccessible suburb o f Cordoba known as Madinat az-Zahra he established a lavish court where he surrounded him­ self with a wide circle o f men o f means and taste, along w ith a host o f craftsmen, skilled artisans, storytellers, jugglers and other entertainers, bookkeepers, gardeners, jewelers, and, o f course, poets. A talented Jew or Christian m ight gain entrée through the recommendation o f a M us­ lim friend connected w ith the court. A m anum itted slave from Africa or

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Eastern Europe could also rise, if he or she possessed special talents or was befriended by the “right” patron. Although no talent was rejected, Jews tended to have the skills considered especially useful to the new caliph. An island o f tolerance in the tenth century, the caliphate o f C6rboda was especially inviting to Jews because they confronted sporadic forced conversions in the Byzantine Empire and occasional outbursts o f fundam entalist antagonism from Muslim rulers in the East. In N orth Africa, too, the consolidation o f Fatim id rule was accompanied initially by warfare and tribal devastations. Political power in Spain at this tim e was not broken down simply into Christian and M uslim blocs, for ‘Abd ar-Rahman I ll’s selfproclaim ed caliphate presented a direct challenge to the established Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, which viewed his actions as usurpation o f power and overt rebellion. Muslim politics were further complicated by the emergence o f the Fatimids in 909 in N orth Africa, a Shi’ite dynasty whose conquest o f Egypt and Palestine in 969 destabilized the M editerranean. The rivalry o f diese three great Islamic empires, each claiming legitimacy as the rightful heir to the mantel o f Muhammed (the office o f caliph being technically the successor to the Prophet), was m irrored in the rivalry o f the European Christian powers o f Byzantium and the H oly Rom an Empire. The entire geopolitical situation induced ‘Abd ar-Rahman III to turn his gaze toward Byzantium, the natural enemy o f both the Abbasid and the Fatim id dynasties because o f their geographical proximity, but he also had to remain wary o f the move­ m ents o f the Christian kings in the north o f Spain. U pon his death in 961, his son al-Hakam II (961-76) continued die policy o f expanding the power o f the Andalusian kingdom while also supporting the arts. D iplom atic missions flowed in and out o f the lavish complex o f palaces at M adinat az-Zahra amidst vivid trappings o f power in luxu­ riously appointed quarters. A t one point, reportedly, ‘Abd ar-Rahman HI lined the four-mile path to his palace from the city w ith soldiers to receive a delegation, while richly attired attendants waited at the gates. I f an ambassador was not to his liking, the hapless diplom at m ight be kept w aiting to present his credentials for as long as three years. His Healings w ith Germans, Catalans, Byzantines, Castilians, and rulers o f sm aller principalities called for m ultilingual talents and diplomatic aplomb. The first m ention o f Jewish participation in the Umayyad caliph’s court occurs in connection w ith diplomatic exchanges between ‘Abd

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ar-Rahman and the emperor o f Byzantium, Constantine VU Porphyrogenitus. Even prior to the emergence o f Hasdai ibn Shaprut as a courtier in Cördoba, the Jews had equipped themselves to engage in new public roles. The Sephardic courtiers o f the Golden Age shared a cultural ori­ entation and political ethos with the ruling Muslims. Their humanistic education was exceedingly broad, including a remarkable variety o f subjects from astronomy to astrology, geometry to optics, calligraphy to rhetoric, philology to metrics. A client who sought advice from a Jewish physician would find himself speaking w ith a poet, philosopher, and linguist as well. The interdenom inational court physicians regularly produced translations, a task that typically involved invention and com­ mentary. A special emphasis on the arts and foreign tongues m irrored the prevailing Arab cultural mores that judged a man by his literary skills as well as his social graces. But as Sephardic fathers prepared their sons for their new roles in tenth-century Spanish society, cosmopoli­ tanism and the secular sciences were not sufficient to assure the ambi­ tious young courtiers a respected position in the Jewish community or, for that m atter, in Jewish history. It was also essential to complete rigorous schooling in the Hebraic tradition, including the Bible and Midrash, Hebrew language study, the Talmud, and codes and com­ mentaries. Although the secular and religious curricula were certainly disparate, one o f the Sephardic intellectual's distinctive characteristics was an ability to blend these separate academic traditions, while bearing himself with sophistication and speaking with dignified eloquence. In actual fact, these courtier-intellectuals constituted only a small m inority o f the Jewish community, but because they were able to play m ultiple roles at court and articulately set down their (sometimes egoistic) au­ tobiographies, they have shaped the way in which Sephardic history developed, was preserved, and is now perceived. To some extent, the history o f the Jews in Muslim Spain is indeed a history o f the forceful, versatile personalities who charismatically dom ­ inated the Jewish communities while at the same tim e managing to negotiate their way in Gentile society. These m ultitalented individuals self-consciously integrated Jewish traditions w ith Arabic and Islamic culture in order to create something dynamically new. In fact, the Jewish people would not again experience such a thoroughgoing syn­ thesis o f Judaic culture with foreign elements until the m odem era. As we shall see in detail later, poetry was the principal medium through which this process occurred, primarily in the Hebrew language, in a

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short but brilliant period o f poetic innovation (950-1150). In addition, philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences provided fruitful opportu­ nities for Jewish creativity and cultural borrowing. It has often been remarked that Arab society has a special attach­ m ent to its language; poetry, in particular, is held in high esteem. In Andalusia, perfection in the use o f Arabic was not only a prerequisite for public service, but refinement in diction and expression to the point o f affectation, especially in court circles, was an avenue for rapid ad­ vancement. For the Arab, in fact, nuances o f speech and ornamental expression were extraordinarily prized, and Muslim society exhibited a passion for eloquence, delighting especially in decorative details or ar­ cane phrases that originated in the pre-Islamic period known as the Jahiliya. In addition, educated people were expected to be at home in a broad curriculum, derived from the ancient Greek classics, that had come to Spain from the East sometime in the ninth century. N o doubt understanding the implications for political success, the Sephardim quickly adapted this new curriculum to their own needs and also adopted some o f the subdeties o f Arabic. Indeed, since Jews had long emphasized the verbal over the visual or pictorial, they probably felt a special affinity for the Muslim’s preference for language over image. Both groups rigorously (and comfortably, since religion was not an issue) studied the rhymed pronouncements and huge linguistic res­ ervoir o f the pre-Islamic bards. One generation o f Jews learned Arab rhetoric, and their sons, to a remarkable degree, perfected and adopted the language as their own. M ost o f the philosophic and scientific classics composed by Sephardic scholars until the twelfth century, including some o f the m ost profoundly Jewish texts, were w ritten in Arabic. The unusual reverence given the Arabic language by both Muslim and Jew cannot be overestimated. To the followers o f the Prophet, the exceptional virtuosity o f the language was proof o f divine favor; to be specific, they believed (then and now) that the excellence o f the Arabic in the Koran was proof o f the perfection o f Islam itself. The case for the cultural superiority o f Arabic was made forthrightly in the eleventh century by al-Tha’alibi (d. 1038): W hoever loves the P rophet loves the Arabs, and whoever loves the Arabs loves the Arabic language in which the best o f books was re­ vealed. . . . W hom soever G od has guided to Islam . . . believes that M uham m ed is the best o f prophets . . . that the Arabs are the best o f peoples . . . and that the Arabic language is the best o f languages.9

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Such flaunting o f the alleged excellence o f the Arabic language occurred often in verbal jousts at the Umayyad courts o f medieval Spain. N ot surprisingly, the Sephardic reaction was first to assert and explore the special qualities o f Hebrew, but Jewish courtiers also en­ gaged vigorously in the linguistic pyrotechnics displayed by the m ore gifted and inventive o f the Muslim poets and elocutionists. Such in­ ventiveness often led to glibness; many court activities were extremely superficial if not frivolous, and life at the center o f Andalusian power frequently verged on the decadent. Later generations o f Sephardic courtiers, in feet, would elegantly rue the laxity o f their lives at court, but it is impossible to determine how fer from the accepted code o f Jewish decorum they actually strayed and how much their expression o f remorse is simply a literary convention.10

To the medieval Jewish chronicler Abraham ibn D aud, the cultural renaissance o f his people was embodied in tw o men, Hasdai the Nasi and Samuel the Nagid. The golden age was perhaps a century longer than the period spanned by their lives, the 950s through the 1050s, but they are indeed apt examples, for each vividly illustrates the amalgam o f politics and poetry, worldliness and piety, Judaism and Islamic taste, that was unique to Spanish Jewry. Hasdai (the Nasi) ibn Shaprut (915-70) was certainly not the first medieval Jew to become prom inent in public life. Several Jewish figures also emerged from obscurity in Iraq at about the same time. But Hasdai is the first courtier Jew whose life we know in great detail and whose role was so central in launching a cultural movement that became iden­ tical with a new era.11 Ibn Shaprut was the scion o f a learned family. H is father Isaac, who hailed from Jaén in Eastern Andalusia, m igrated to Cordoba before his son’s birth, probably attracted by the intellectual and economic oppor­ tunities offered by this burgeoning cultural center. W ealthy, pious, and philanthropic, in his adopted city the elder ibn Shaprut endowed a synagogue and reportedly subsidized Jewish scholars. In keeping w ith the customs o f his class, he provided his son w ith private tutors in Hebraic studies and languages. The young man also studied Latin with Christian clergy, as well as Romance, a Latin dialect that was the pre­ decessor o f Castilian and was spoken by many Christians and Muslims.

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It was ibn Shaprut’s singular medical skills, notably his discoveries o f antidotes for poisons, that first gained him the attention o f ‘Abd ar-Rahman III and his courtiers. In the ongoing palace conspiracies, countless princes, whether in power or aspiring to the throne, fell victim to the poisons o f the scheming harem members. In the early 940s, when the young scholar was barely thirty years old, he won many friends in the royal household w ith his rediscovery o f an ancient com­ pound, theriaca, that was considered to be effective not only against poisoning but also against jaundice, snakebites, impotence, and the plague. Overnight, he joined the council o f doctors who customarily served the rulers. Trusted physicians were often appointed to administrative posts; in this traditional fashion, Hasdai embarked upon his political career and quickly made a mark for himself, particularly in dealing with customs revenues. One position led to another as he gained the caliph’s confi­ dence, for the gratitude o f cAbd ar-Rahman proved to be as large as his colossal architectural ambitions and his need for money to fulfill them. Before long, the ruler appointed him head o f the Jewish community, a position known as nasi (prince) among the Jews, and eventually he was entrusted w ith sensitive diplomatic negotiations on behalf o f the ca­ liphate. Because the occasional alliances Muslim rulers formed with Christian pow er could irritate the sensibilities and provoke the animos­ ity o f the Islamic religious establishment, it was not uncommon to make discreet use o f Jews or Christians as diplomats. Jews were pref­ erable, o f course, since they had no natural alliances w ith Cördoba’s Christian rivals and therefore posed no political threat. Like other men o f his class, whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, Hasdai surrounded him self w ith cultivated spirits and young, gifted talent; support o f such talent was considered to be a mark o f quality. Soirees in the courtier’s presence or home were scintillating affairs. Fathers exhorted their sons, as no doubt Hasdai’s father had, to make their way among the learned, to tend to the poor w ithout fee, to seek the company o f poets, and to write w ith elegance and learning. Hasdai and his colleagues among the emerging Sephardic leadership have been described as “worldly O rthodox Jews, who were as chic in Arab tastes as they were fastidious in their Jewish ones.” In a phrase, they com­ bined “Torah, Greek wisdom, and poetry.”12 Hasdai ibn Shaprut was able to benefit enormously from an ex­ traordinary diplom atic opportunity. In the late 940s, the interests o f the Christian em peror o f Byzantium, Constantine V II, began to coincide

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with those o f the Cordoban caliphate. The Abbasids o f Baghdad, from whom Spain wanted to be completely independent, were attacking the Byzantine Empire. In addition, both Constantine and ‘Abd ar-Rahman showed a special interest in the arts and sciences and were equally unaffected by the traditional theological inhibitions that kept Christen­ dom and Islam apart. Their common intellectual interests were com­ plemented by their shared antagonism toward the caliph o f Baghdad, in keeping with the old Arab adage, “The enemies o f my enemies are my friends.” In opening their diplomatic negotiations with each other, how­ ever, they had to confront the problem o f finding someone who could conduct delicate conversations between a Christian and a Muslim power in this era o f warring faiths. Because o f his substantial gifts as a translator and negotiator, ibn Shaprut rose from relative obscurity to prominence in the sensitive negotiations between Spain and Byzantium. His first task was a m atter o f translation. Typically, the diplomatic delegations o f Europe, especially Byzantium, would be welcomed to M adinat az-Zahra with great ceremony, including the declamation o f poetry composed for the occasion, and the exchange o f valuable gifts such as exotic animals, exquisite fabrics, and im portant books. One exceptional gift from Constantine, however, a rare first-century Greek manuscript by Dioscorides, posed a problem. De Materia Medica, con­ sidered to be a classic textbook for pharmacology, was not entirely unknown in Spain, having been translated into Arabic in Baghdad in the ninth century. But the translation was so flawed that many o f the herbs and remedies described were unidentifiable. Because none o f the caliph’s court translators knew Greek, ar-Rahman asked the emperor to send help, whereupon a certain Nicholas, a monk learned in Greek and Latin, was dispatched from Constantinople forthw ith. Hasdai was part o f an ecumenical team o f translators appointed to work w ith this Byz­ antine, including a Greek-speaking Sicilian Arab and five Andalusian Muslims. Nicholas translated from the Greek to Latin, Hasdai rendered the Latin into Arabic. Previously, medical students had been forced either to travel to Baghdad for their scientific training or to learn from instructors im ported from the East. Because the Cordoban courtierrabbi was successful in translating the prized medical work, the caliph­ ate now began to function as an independent scientific center, and Hasdai’s reputation grew enormously: not merely because he had dem­ onstrated linguistic skill but because his achievement furthered Spain’s autonomy, a cultural as well as political aim that was im portant to both Muslims and Jews.

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Thereafter, Hasdai would be entrusted w ith several challenging diplom atic assignments that involved the Christian kingdoms to the north, like Burgundy or Léon, and also the German em peror O tto I (936-73). In his role as statesman, Hasdai reveals the other face o f the Sephardic Jewish courtier: his continuing sense o f responsibility to the Jewish community. H e and his like saw themselves as heirs to such biblical personalities as Joseph, Daniel, and Esther, all o f whom had worked in foreign courts for the welfare o f their fellow Jews. In turn, Hasdai’s career became the prototype o f Sephardic leadership for sub­ sequent generations; court influence, political connections, and aristo­ cratic bearing were to be considered admirable only when used in the combined role o f courtier-defender to accomplish “the great good for Israel.” Patronage o f Jewish learning was part o f this amalgam. Records show, for example, that when Hasdai went abroad on a diplom atic mission to conduct state affairs he would inquire about the welfare o f beleaguered Jewish communities at every opportunity. Given his reputation, Jews w ould w rite to describe their plight, confident that they could rely upon his assistance. From surviving letters, we learn that the Jews o f southern Italy were threatened w ith religious persecution and that the governm ent banned and confiscated their books. In addi­ tion, scholars were arrested for teaching Judaism and several were in danger o f execution. Sketchy accounts also reveal that the Byzantine emperor Romanus I Lekapenos, who ruled from 919 to 944, introduced sweeping and-Jewish measures in his realm. In defense o f Byzantine Jewry, ibn Shaprut wrote tw o letters to Empress Helena and had them delivered by ‘Abd ar-Rahman’s envoy in 948, presumably having gained the caliph’s permission to dispatch personal mail w ith an official dip­ lomatic envoy. In one strongly worded letter to the empress, who was the real power behind the throne, he reminded her that his Islamic monarch was tolerant o f the numerous Christians in Spain. In a sepa­ rate incident, he also undertook a defense o f the Jews o f Toulouse. Apparently, they were forced to offer thirty pounds o f wax fix church candles annually and present this special tax at the cathedral gate on Easter Eve, a requirem ent that was clearly provocative. In addition, as each Jew made his offering, the bishop would respond w ith a resound­ ing slap. We do not know from the surviving correspondence whether o r not ibn Shaprut was successful in having these hum iliating ceremo­ nies e lim in a te d , but the very existence o f a “prince o f Israel” in Islamic Spain was seen far and wide as proof and consolation that God had not abandoned his people.

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Above all else, however, it was ibn Shaprut’s elegant Hebrew cor­ respondence w ith Joseph, king o f the Khazars, that would be lovingly preserved by the Jews in Spain and circulated for centuries because it so poignantly expressed his exemplary personal qualities. The Khazars were nomadic Turkish tribes who had wandered for centuries in the inaccessible Central Asian region where Byzantine and M uslim borders met. By the seventh century, their kingdom had spread to the Crimea and encompassed several cities that contained Jewish, Muslim, and Christian setders. D uring waves o f Byzantine persecution in the eighth century, the Khazars had more than once given refuge to Jews. In fact, finding themselves caught between the warring armies o f Byzantium and Islam and pressed by both regimes to convert, the Khazars con­ verted to Judaism themselves some time in the eighth century. By the ninth century, Khazaria covered much o f Russia in a vast area between the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, the Volga, and the Dnieper. News o f this sovereign Jewish kingdom filtered back to the West, arousing hopes and yearnings among Jews there, who had often smarted under the taunts that their dispersion and impotence were proof o f rejection by God. A t the very least, existence o f the Khazar state nurtured Jewish feelings o f self-esteem. As Hasdai himself con­ fessed to Joseph, the Khazar king, “We have been cast down from our glory and have nothing to reply when they say daily unto us, ‘Every other people has its kingdom, but o f yours there is no memorial on the earth .5 55H e had been moved to address his royal co-religionist w ith joy: “Blessed be the Lord o f Israel, who has not left us w ithout a kinsman as defender nor suffered the tribes o f Israel to be w ithout an indepen­ dent kingdom .5513 On a more “practical55 level, Hasdai asked Joseph whether he pos­ sessed secret knowledge o f when the Jewish dispersion would end and all Jews be gathered together by their Messiah and reconstituted as a nation in the land o f Israel. This query was neither casual nor unusual. During the Middle Ages the Jews in Muslim lands, particularly the Sephardim, repeatedly searched for facts or clues to help them calculate the date o f the Messiah’s coming and the end o f Jewish exile. Messianic speculation o f this nature engaged some o f the best minds in Spain, including such leading Jewish figures in subsequent centuries as Solo­ mon ibn Gabirol, Abraham ibn Daud, Abraham bar Hiyya, Judah haLevi, Moses Maimonides, Moses ibn Ezra, and Isaac Abrabanel.14 These yearnings were often channeled into poetry, sometimes into quasi-political movements that involved armed uprisings to bring an

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end to statelessness and hasten the redem ption. The activists produced false messiahs w ith some regularity. O f course, the failure o f each move­ m ent w ould exacerbate dependency, but the expectancy and longings o f the masses were n o t destroyed. The mere knowledge o f the Khazar autonom y provided a consolation o f sorts. Before Hasdai began his correspondence w ith King Joseph, he had found his curiosity m ounting as travelers brought back information about the unlikely kingdom. W hen Byzantine diplom ats visited in C6rdoba, he questioned them intensely. H e decided to said his own em­ issary, Isaac bar N athan, to Khazaria in the sum m a o f 946. But the Byzantines were afraid that Cördoba m ight enter into a diplomatic relationship w ith a northern neighbor that was hostile and aggressive to the C hristian em pire, and they refused his request to provide Isaac with a ship and let him proceed northw ard from Constantinople. Isaac was able to obtain a derailed description o f the Khazar kingdom, however, from a Khazar Jew he m a in Constantinople. Subsequently, Hasdai w rote a letter o f introduction to King Joseph that eventually reached Khazaria by a circuitous route through the Balkans and E aston Eu­ rope. In his reply, the Khazar ruler explained in detail the disputations between M uslim, Christian, and Jew that had led to the nation’s adop­ tion o f a synchreristk form o f Judaism. H e could supply no secret knowledge about the date o f redem ption but shared Hasdai’s messianic yearnings. The tw o men corresponded as one royal officer to another, w ith H asdai proudly describing his exalted position as well as that o f all Jews in Spain. And indeed, at hom e, this successful diplom at was bringing about an astonishing change w ithin his own community. U ntil his ascen­ dancy, Andalusian Jews had typically turned to Baghdad’s rabbinic scholars for instruction and guidance, much as Islamic Spain, despite political rivalry w ith the Abbasid dynasty, still turned to the East for cultural leadership. The acknowledgement o f the preeminence o f the gaottim, o r intellectual leaders o f the Eastern rabbinical academies (the Yeshivot o f Sura, and Pum beditha in Baghdad), as the ultim ate inter­ p ré ta s o f Jewish law for the entire diaspora was part o f a continuous tradition o f Jewish learning in Iraq stretching back hundreds o f years to the creation o f the Babylonian Talmud. Traveling m âchants took do­ nations to the academies for their upkeep and also brought along ques­ tions about the application o f Jewish law to various life situations. But, w ith Hasdai playing a central role, the Andalusian Jewish com m unity entered a new era o f indcpendaice and cultural autonomy

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in the tenth century. First, he actively patronized scholars and founded an academy o f learning in Cordoba under the direction o f the immi­ grant scholar, Moses ben Hanoch. W hen the Sura Talmudic academy was temporarily closed, he procured its library, ensuring that the Jews o f Andalusia would become less dependent on the East for religious guidance. No longer, for example, did they have to ask Baghdad to determine the Judaic calendar. In establishing this new cultural auton­ omy, Hasdai drew heavily upon the model o f Babylonia, just as £Abd ar-Rahman drew upon the Abbasids. Still, Sephardic leadership was not merely a reflection o f Muslim attitudes but a result o f the process o f Jewish m aturation in Spain, even though some parallels w ith Baghdad may have been intended. For example, Hasdai’s civil authority w ithin the Jewish community o f Cördoba was not unlike that o f the Jewish “civil leader” (exilarch or rosh ha-golah) in the Abbasid capital; similarly, religious authority for the Sephardim was the province o f the Rosh Teshiva (Moses ben Hanoch, in Hasdai’s day), a position something like that o f the Babylonian gaon. Even so, the analogy between Spain and Baghdad should not be overemphasized, since Hasdai’s career as courtier-rabbi was quite unlike any leadership role in the East. 15 Once news o f the intellectual ferment in Cördoba began to circu­ late, gifted scholars from N orth Africa and Egypt followed in the foot­ steps o f the artisans and merchants who had earlier come to Spain to seek their fortune. It is w orth m entioning that some o f them would find Hasdai a mercurial patron. Although he enjoyed the com petition among the poets and was duly flattered by their praise, he was capable o f suddenly turning against a favorite and dismissing him in disgrace, or worse. H e reportedly not only discarded his secretary Menahem ibn Saruq in favor o f a newcomer from N orth Africa, Dunash ben Labrat, but also had the hapless poet throw n into prison.

Such power in the hands o f a Sephardic courtier reaches its apogee in the career o f Samuel ibn Nagrela (993-1055), known as Samuel the Nagid. H e rose to the highest position o f state, an astonishing achieve­ ment even in the tenth- and eleventh-century Spain that temporarily lowered the boundaries between Jew, Muslim, and Christian. An ac­ complished statesman who probably attained the position o f vizier in the Kingdom o f Granada, ibn Nagrela exhibited the standard multi-

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plicity o f talents—gifted Hebrew poet and patron o f poets, biblical com m entator and exegete philosopher. But his m ost impressive feats were performed as the leader o f Muslim armies. An unconventional man living in unusual times, he would win power in part because o f the special conditions connected w ith the downfall o f Cördoba. cAbd ar-Rahman I ll’s immediate successor, AlHakam II (961-^76), was able to continue the great caliph’s political and cultural policies until his death. But then Andalusia was engulfed by the Arab political instability that marked each moment o f succession. Even­ tually, over thirty petty Muslim kingdoms (the-so-called party king­ doms) would emerge. From the perspective o f Jewish history, this fragm entation o f M uslim power and continuing internecine warfare had two im portant results. O n the one hand, opportunities for Sephardic courtiers increased dramatically. The proliferation o f over­ night kings, insecure and sensibly fearful o f relying upon the loyalty o f their own ministers or relatives, turned to Jews to further their political aims. Since each o f these m inor courts had its own system o f patronage, there was a wide array o f openings available to the courtier-rabbis. On the other hand, the growing disorder encouraged Christian attempts to reconquer Spain, thus fanning the flames o f Islamic fundamentalism. Consequently, Jews were increasingly caught between what they called the forces o f Edom (Christianity) and Ishmael (Islam). Especially after the fall o f Toledo to the Christians in 1085, Jewish intellectuals and ban vivants o f the Muslim courts began to feel estranged and vulnerable, even as they continued their privileged lives under the returning Cath­ olic princes. Only against this background can we fully understand the meteoric career o f Samuel ibn Nagrela. Bom in Cordoba in 993, he was educated both by his father and by the son o f the revered Rash Teshivah Moses ben Hanoch. H e imbibed the family tradition o f descent from the nobility o f M érida and from ancient Levâtes who were poets in the Temple o f Jerusalem; throughout his life, in fact, he would show par­ ticular pride in this aristocratic lineage, claiming direct descent from King David. So gifted in rabbinics that he tried his hand at serious Talmudic scholarship while still young, he also trained in the classical curriculum o f the courtiers, including ancient sciences and Arab poet­ ics. U ndoubtedly, he drew inspiration from the career o f Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who had died only a generation before and whose achieve­ ments were recalled in detail in the Jewish community o f Cördoba. Young Nagrela’s precocity apparently also extended to Islamic the-

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ology, for he is reported to have m et and exchanged views w ith ibn Hazm, greatest o f the Spanish Muslim theologians. O n one occasion, they vigorously debated the concept o f “the chosen,” w ith the Jewish youth confidently arguing the traditional biblical view o f Israel’s special rela tio n sh ip with God. Such interfaith dialogues were not approved by ofiicial Muslim religious circles or by the ideology o f Islam, but because o f the relaxed religiosity and tolerance that still characterized the last years o f the Cordoban caliphate, they were probably not uncommon. Even so, they surely required a great deal o f assurance on the part o f the Jewish participant. In 1013, when Nagrela was just twenty years old, the caliphate o f Cördoba dissolved. The breakup o f Andalusia had begun four years before when Berbers, along w ith former Slavs known as Saqaliba and “Andalusians” (i.e., all Muslims o f Arab and Iberian stock), tore the country apart in internecine warfare. In the process, a Berber force sacked and destroyed Cördoba, massacring its inhabitants, pillaging the city, and burning the palace complex to the ground. The unity o f the peninsula was sundered as the three groups parceled out the country into rival kingdoms. One group o f Berbers, known as the Hammudids, controlled the southern coast up to Granada, ruling M âlaga and Algeciras. A rival Berber dynasty, the Zirids, took control o f Granada. But o f the several Andalusian dynasties, the Abbadids o f Seville were the strongest, eventually taking Cördoba. Seville would remain the m ost brilliant successor to Cordoba until its reconquest by the Christians in 1248. The frequent clashes involving these so-called “party kings” gave the Christian princes in the north the opportunity to begin their re­ conquest. The Nagrela family fled to Granada, where Samuel’s remark­ able epistolary and calligraphic skills reportedly attracted the attention o f a m inister to King Habbus, the town’s Berber ruler. This tale o f “discovery,” however, bears the fanciful hallmarks o f Islamic legend. It is much more likely that Nagrela attracted the king’s notice by saving him from conspirators plotting a coup d’état. Later, by supporting a successful contender for the throne named Badis, he wöuld rise to the highest political position in Granada. A proud man sumptuously attired in silks for his court appearances, Nagrela wielded his considerable power w ith intelligence and prudence. But his lofty position in the Muslim state was inherently dangerous, for it conflicted with both the letter and spirit o f traditional Islam. For a Jew to be accepted as physician or financier or diplom at was one thing; a Jewish vizier was another m atter entirely. Roundly cursing the

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“miserable worms” who opposed him, Nagrela was forced out o f office in 1020 under obscure circumstances, then brought back to power when the political tides turned. Still, he did not lose his characteristic selfconfidence. H e would write poetry proclaiming his nobility and com­ paring his feats on the battlefield with those o f ancient biblical heroes. Such poems were composed during the heat o f actual battle, as he led the armies o f Granada from 1038 to 1056. Unusually for a medieval Jew, he was evidently thrilled by the experience o f warfare, dwelling often upon the personal satisfaction he received from military success and graphically evoking the ferocity o f Arab and Berber warriors. It was not only the novelty o f his political power, military prowess, and battle poetry that assured Nagrela fame among Spanish Jews, how­ ever, for he was also an accomplished Talmudic scholar and polemicist. A generous patron to some o f the leading Hebrew poets and students o f Torah in his day, he purchased many im portant books for Spain, reinforcing the country’s growing cultural independence by assuring that copies were made for several communities and individual scholars. The first known owner o f a great private library, he was im portant in establishing the Sephardic tradition o f placing value on fine books. In addition, his endowments supported learning in Iraq, the M aghreb, Sicily, and Egypt, as well as the Jewish academies in Palestine. It is difficult to determine precisely what led to the downfall o f Nagrela and his family. One factor may have been the escalation o f his debates w ith his Muslim interlocutor, ibn Hazm. In one particularly audacious treatise, Nagrela pointed out numerous inconsistencies and contradictions in the Koran; Ibn Hazm responded w ith a brilliant coun­ terdefense, attacking similar weaknesses in the Bible and taunting the Jews for their loss o f sovereignty and temporal power. W hen the daring Nagrela parried by pointing to the continuous line o f Jewish grandees in Baghdad and Spain, his Islamic opponent thundered that not only should the arrogance o f this Jew be condemned and his name blotted out, but that the king who had elevated him should also be eliminated. H e warned Badis to “stay far away from these impure, evil-smelling, unclean people, upon whom God has inflicted curse and malediction, contem pt and abasement, infamy, ire, degradation and vileness as upon no other people.” These words o f the sage inspired others. Around 1066, the M uslim polemicist Abu Ishaq wrote a fierce tirade against Joseph ibn Nagrela and condemned the king “who has chosen an infidel as a secretary,” thus enabling the Jews o f Granada to become “great and proud and arrogant.”16 H e exhorts his co-religionists to rise up against

Nagrela and the entire Sephardic community, defending such an action as legitimate since the Jews had broken their contractual arrangement with the Muslim community by seizing excessive power. For all his wisdom and experience, Samuel ibn Nagrela seems not to have understood that m ounting religiosity among the Muslims was making his situation increasingly perilous. W riting criticism o f the Koran or leading the armies o f Islam into battle did not suit the lim­ itations on a Jew’s position in the Muslim world as laid down in the days o f the Prophet. Moreover, this nagid (head o f the Jewish com­ munity) o f the Jews lived ostentatiously on a hilltop commanding a view o f the River Vega, hosting banquets and salons, winefests and witty encounters between Jewish and Muslim court favorites. H is ex­ alted position brought a fresh influx o f Jews into Granada, while he continued to move freely (though protesting deep personal misgiv­ ings) in the charmed political circles o f the vulgar Berber princes who held power. The Muslim masses were not captivated. They saw an infidel strutting on the battlefield w ith sword unsheathed, wearing or­ namental robes embroidered w ith Koranic verses. H ow little Nagrela understood their resentment became dear when he bequeathed his title, rank, and position to his less able son Joseph. M uslim precept was usually much harsher than practice, but that harshness could be easily invoked with a shift in the political wind, and Andalusian tol­ erance eventually wore thin, with calamitous results. In 1066 thou­ sands o f Jews in Granada were slaughtered, the Nagrela family was toppled, and Jewish prominence throughout the numerous party kingdoms was quashed. These petty kingdoms themselves would last only until 1091, but in their brief existence these “turbaned Italian republics” had produced a flourishing culture, even as they battled with each other to replace the defunct caliphate o f Cordoba. Meanwhile, the Christian reconquest went forward. When Toledo fell in 1085, the prince o f Seville sought assistance from the Almoravid kingdom o f M orocco, a choice that was particularly unfortunate for non-Muslims. Indeed, the Almoravid ruler, Yusuf ibn Tashufin (1090-1106), would temporarily succeed in reunit­ ing Andalusia under one crown, but his devotion to the ascetic M alikite form o f Islam spelled the end o f the hedonistic culture o f the Golden Age. The easygoing interaction o f Muslims w ith Jews and Christians was one o f the first casualties. In addition, Islamic judges now set a serious public tone, and stricter enforcement o f Koranic principles ac­ companied a strong opposition to belles lettres and the entire Andalu-

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sian secular cultural enterprise. As life became more restrictive for both Jews and Christians, they began to m igrate to Christian Spain. The Golden Age thus began drawing to a close decades before 1147, when the invasion o f the zealously fundamentalist Almohad Muslims from N orth Africa would set off a wave o f pogroms and spur Jewish flight. Yet before this annihilation o f Jewish life in medieval Muslim Spain, the Sephardim produced an outpouring o f Hebrew secular and religious poetry unm atched in any other previous period o f Jewish history.

T hey m ingled am ong the nations and learned their ways.

—Psalms 106:35

In the spring o f 1140 Judah Halevi, renouncing the “good life,” bid farewell to Spain. His decision caused astonishment. The darling o f the court, he was at the peak o f his poetic and philosophical powers and the height o f his career, his every poem eagerly awaited and recited by Jews throughout the nation’s Muslim and Christian realms. Having em­ braced Andalusian culture and attained a position that included royal favors as well as fame, he renounced everything in order to return to the land o f Israel, supposedly to weep amid the ruins o f Zion. In some ways, Halevi’s surprising decision signals the end o f an era, but it was not wholly inconsistent with the complex, paradoxical personality o f this singular character o f the Golden Age. Seven years after Halevi’s departure from Spain, the Andalusian experiment of Muslim-Jewish symbiosis ended abrupdy with the inva­ sion o f a zealous fundamentalist dynasty from N orth Africa, the Almohades. The youthful Moses Maimonides and his family were forced to become refugees at this time, drifting from one Andalusian city to the next. But Halevi had not been clairvoyant: his flight reflected the pres­ sures upon courtier Jews caught between Jewish loyalties and the at­ tractions o f Arab culture. Judah Halevi was bom in Tudela, the northernm ost outpost o f Muslim rule, in 1075* Reared in the Andalusian Judeo-Arabic cultural tradition, he received his Hebrew education from Isaac Alfasi in Lucena, then became secretary to the great scholar’s illustrious successor, Joseph ibn Migash. For a while, he lived in Seville and Granada, savoring the pleasures o f Muslim culture, but his budding career coincided with the fall o f Toledo to the Christians in 1085 and the conquest o f Granada by the Almoravids in 1090. The Jews o f Spain found themselves attacked by all o f the warring powers in their recurrent batdes on the peninsula. In 1096 the Christian-Muslim conflict reverberated throughout the M editerranean as Europe’s Christians set out to recapture the Holy Land from Islam. Halevi, a sensitive artist, could not avoid confronting the historical events swirling around him. His life marks the zenith o f the Golden Age but also reflects the Jewish community’s subsequent rejection o f its ideals. U ntil the age o f fifty, Halevi was the consummate courtier— bon vivant, court doctor in Cordoba, respected communal leader, patron o f talents. H e wrote poems in almost every genre then fashionable, leaving an enormous oeuvre that is integral to the Sephardic and Ashkenazic prayerbooks. His gifts were first discovered during a literary evening when, as an un­ known youth, he exhibited a genius for poetic improvisation before the

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assembly o f leisured, educated gendemen. This successful debut led to lifelong friendship w ith the Granadan poet, Moses ibn Ezra. Through­ out his brilliant career, Halevi remained close to the royal court, whether in Spain or later in Egypt and was regarded as the “quintes­ sence and embodiment55 o f Andalusia, but he described himself as deeply divided, a man “whose life is Spain and whose desdnadon is Jerusalem .55This paradox requires a closer look at the place o f the poet in the Jewish cultural revolution in Spain . 1 The poetic revolution that symbolizes the era began inconspicu­ ously even before Hasdai ibn Shaprut invited Jewish talent from N orth Africa and the Near East to join die coterie o f literati who adorned his private “court.55At the end o f the ninth century, experiments in prosody produced a new form o f poetry that lay somewhere between classical Hebrew and Arabic meter. Such seemingly “literary55 developments actually excited the imagination o f the larger society; at social gather­ ings, Jews heatedly debated fine points o f philology. By Hasdai’s day, a breakthrough in Hebrew poetic form occurred as a result o f the professional rivalry between two gifted poets in his service, Dunash ben Labrat and Menahem ibn Saruq. In their venomous exchanges Dunash daringly introduced Arabic rhymes and meter into Hebrew, thereby inventing tools that could be used for a poetic revolution. New forms would open the way for new poetic content, a process aided by the kinship between the two languages. Poetry in the ancient Hebrew tradition, especially in the Bible (which served as the model for all subsequent poetry), had neither m eter or rhyme, relying instead for poetic effect upon the use o f par­ allelism. Postbiblical Hebrew poetry, at least the examples Jews chose to preserve before the Golden Age in Spain, was w ritten in this pre­ fixed mold o f accepted conventions and earmarked for designated places in the liturgy. The new poetry that emerged in tenth-century Cordoba, however, utilized Arab forms that derived from the pre-Islamic literary tradition. One was the muwashshab9 a strophic verse form consisting o f five or six stanzas and a final couplet, w ritten either in the colloquial tongue or in Romance. Another form adopted for Jewish secular and liturgical purposes was known as the zajal. These prosodic innovations were m ore radical than m ight at first appear, for the Arab forms were associated w ith popular street tunes, love songs, and drinking songs. But the Islamic motifs and conventions were soon refashioned by the Sephardic poets and interwoven with Hebrew, especially biblical, tra­ ditions, producing a new poetry remarkable both for its brilliant adap-

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tation o f Arab themes and skillful interlacing o f philosophical and scientific concepts. N ot only Jewish secular poetry but also religious works were dramatically transformed and flourished in this atmosphere o f cultural borrowing .2 Poetry would become the finest expression o f the two centuries o f Golden Age culture, but almost as remarkable were the achievements in Arab philosophy, medicine, science, music, song, dance, and the visual arts. In addition, despite its elitism, the amalgam o f power, poetry, philosophy, and science touched several classes outside the courts, not just the powerful. A casual tourist traversing the lanes o f Seville, Gran­ ada, or Malaga could delight in the sounds o f the strum ming o f a lute accompanying a Hebrew song, possibly mixed with the muffled laugh­ ter o f an inebriated group o f nocturnal revelers. In coundess courtyards, along the verdant river banks, or beside bubbling fountains in shaded patios, middle-class Sephardic men would be singing o f the vagaries o f friendship, the beauty o f women or young men, the idleness o f youth, and the continuing exile o f the Jews. The secular themes o f their H e­ brew and Arabic songs would be repeated in similar social settings among their Muslim and Christian neighbors, in Arabic and Romance. A society o f professional poets was emerging, and their verses were recited in courts, salons, on the streets, and at exclusive parties. Sur­ prisingly, their poems were also declaimed in the synagogues and on the battlefield. Andalusia was not alone in encouraging this flowering o f poetry, for the Jewish consumers o f the new culture comprised an international class o f merchants and craftsmen so well-grounded in Hebrew that they could appreciate the allusive cleverness o f a newly coined phrase or rhyme. In Baghdad, Kairouan, Muslim Sicily, or Cairo, poetic enter­ tainment was also a part o f leisure activity; as works traveled from city to city, a poem that struck the fancy o f worshippers m ight be incorpo­ rated into the local liturgy. Research in the Hebrew language had, in fact, been bom in Baghdad and N orth Africa, where linguistics and grammar were considered integral to a Jewish education. Ironically, then, the medieval Arab city became the venue o f a new linguistic and poetic sensibility in the Judaic tradition. In this environment, any Jew pretending to good breeding was expected to learn Arabic linguistics, too. But Spain stood above other Muslim cultural centers because o f the sheer volume and intensity o f its literary outpouring, as well as the participation o f virtuosos from all three major religions. Andalusian Jews consciously set their minds to

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m astering the Arab cultural curriculum o f grammar, poetics, and sci­ ence through disciplined study. (A parallel situation would have been inconceivable in Christian Europe, for Latin culture was considered indistinguishable from the Church and thus completely beyond the pale for Jews.) The popularity, not to say omnipresence, o f poetry in the daily life o f Andalusia is almost staggering. A poem would be dispatched by the poet on perfum ed stationery; the recipient m ight have it read aloud to the accompaniment o f music. The secretaries to statesmen were ex­ pected not only to compose official correspondence in artistically form ed script but also to dash off poems for special occasions. States­ men themselves m ight produce government documents, such as pass­ ports, in rhymed prose. Now that elegance in the use o f language was not considered the exclusive preserve o f the Muslim, any practitioner o f rhetoric could gain access to the seat o f power, as did Hasdai ibn Shaprut and Samuel ibn Nagrela. (It should be stressed that Jews did not discover how to w rite poetry because o f Arab influence; they had been w riting communal poetry for at least half a millennium. Rather, the H ebrew poets in Spain were the first to confront and manipulate a literary tradition not their own.) Professional poets, dependent upon the whims o f their patrons, often w rote panegyrics as well as special poems for family occasions. A disproportionate num ber o f patrons, o f course, were courtiers who were also men o f learning, and they were influential in the careers o f many poets. The w riter was expected to act as his sponsor’s official secretary and public relations official, ever alert to prepare poems that w ould enhance the reputation o f the patron or demolish his foes. (Pre­ dictably, a num ber o f such works suffer from excessive exaggeration and flattery.) N ot infrequently, posterity knows the patron only through the efforts o f the poet, as with Yequtiel ibn Hassan, a courtier in Sa­ ragossa w ho has survived obscurity solely because o f his encouragement o f the great poetic genius, Solomon ibn Gabirol. When Yequtiel was m urdered, his protégé was forced to flee, but composed a moving elegy to the magnanimity o f his deceased sponsor and protector, as we will see later in this chapter. Gabirol, like many other poets, would serve several masters in his short life (1020-57?)W hen paper was introduced into the Islamic world in the ninth century by Chinese merchants, books became more affordable and readily available throughout the West. The appearance in Spain o f Jewish classics from the great centers o f learning in Baghdad helped

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the local community assert its religious and cultural independence from the East. Both ibn Shaprut and ibn Nagrela actively acquired books from abroad for this purpose. As is clear from the property lists o f the Cairo Geniza, where such books are set down as prized pos­ sessions, the scholar-merchant was a common figure in the Egyptian, N orth African, or Spanish Jewish community. The intellectual value o f books for Jews o f the period has been embodied in the ethical will that Judah ibn Tibbon, “the father o f translators,” left to his son: G o over your H ebrew books every m onth, the Arabic ones once in tw o m onths, and the bound volumes once in three m onths. A rrange everything in good order so that you need n o t go to the trouble o f searching for a book w hen you need it.3

Love o f books went hand in hand with love and encouragement o f the w ritten word. Book collecting would continue as an active tradition until the 1492 expulsion, when refugee scholars would describe the loss o f their libraries as the m ost bitter consequence o f exile. In more than one case involving a famous scholar, moreover, books were somehow salvaged from destruction only to come in handy as ransom money for the ill-fated owner. M ost o f the poets o f the Golden Age worked in a variety o f literary disciplines. Gabirol, for example, produced excellent works o f philos­ ophy, grammar, and ethics as well as a prolific outpouring o f poetry. H e claims that at age sixteen he composed a 400-verse poem setting forth the rules o f Hebrew grammar. Nagrela, as we have seen, was a sub­ stantial Talmudist and polemicist; he was also a versatile and prolific poet and grammarian, who wrote several treatises in philology. Perhaps surprisingly, his political prowess as vizier and military leader seems to have enhanced rather than diminished his poetic skills. Judah Halevi (1075-1141) was equally at home in religious and secular poetry, phi­ losophy and medicine. Hasdai ibn Shaprut’s grandson, who mastered music in both theory and practice, also excelled in speculative philos­ ophy and politics, rising to the position o f vizier to the king o f Sara­ gossa in 1066. H e was proficient in arithmetic, geometry, physics, logic, and Arabic. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164), a biblical exegete o f extraordinary erudition, was also accomplished as poet, grammarian, storyteller, astrologer, and mathematician. Much to the delight o f contemporary and future audiences, he composed many linguistic rid­ dles. Towering above all o f these writers, however, was Moses Mai-

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monides (1135-1204), a giant in almost every field o f learning but poetry. These literary figures worked w ith Arabic as the foundation stone o f the poetic revolution, just as the language had been the key to politics for their predecessors. Widely diffused among all the peo­ ples in M uslim lands by the tenth century, Arabic was the medium o f science, adm inistration, and the marketplace. The scientific and philo­ sophical works composed by the Sephardic Jews were usually w ritten in the Arabic language but in Hebrew script, thereby further synthe­ sizing the Islamic heritage w ith their own. By contrast, their poetry was in Hebrew, precisely because they wanted to show off the beauty o f their language and o f the Bible. The combinations o f the two lan­ guages, so akin in so many ways, led Jews to devise new modes o f H ebrew verse as adaptation o f Hebrew to Arabic took place. Like their Arab contemporaries, the Jewish poets were preoccupied with the theory o f poetry, and one o f them , Moses ibn Ezra, wrote an ars poetica, Shirat Tisrael. As the careers o f the courtier-rabbis show so clearly, the use o f elegant Arabic was highly prized in Muslim society, but it was never the sole language used in Spain. Hebrew and Romance were also considered instrum ents o f subtle expression and were developed spe­ cifically for poetic purposes; on occasion, Jewish poets used all three languages w ithin a single poem. Halevi, for example, wrote Hebrew love poems w ith final stanzas or poetic refrains in Romance, thus gift­ ing later generations w ith some o f the oldest examples o f this medi­ eval Spanish language. In some cases, a Sephardic poet would transcribe the final Spanish lyrics o f a love poem in Hebrew. Nagrela w rote poetry in Aramaic, although the language had been primarily confined to Jewish legal literature. Further, the exploration o f various languages took place in an atmosphere o f curiosity about language in general. Early in the poetic renaissance, dictionaries and manuals o f poetry were compiled, and Hasdai supported the scholars Menahem ibn Saruq and Dunash ben Labrat in their studies o f comparative lin­ guistics. GabiroPs long poem on Hebrew grammar was part o f this activity. These and other linguists were heirs to a tradition o f philological studies that had originated in Baghdad or N orth Africa and been trans­ ported to Spain by imm igrant scholars. By studying the grammatical foundations o f Hebrew, it was possible to enrich the language by coin­ ing words not found in the Bible. This was particularly im portant because, unlike Arabic, Hebrew had not been a spoken language

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for centuries and therefore had a somewhat lim ited vocabulary. M uch like Arabic, however, it is a language in which m inute changes in vo­ calization can produce major changes in meaning; therefore, the work o f the philologists was crucial in defining the rationale for linguistic expansion. Far from being simply an intellectual exercise, however, the new experiments with Hebrew were motivated by profound ideological aims. The Muslim claims that the Koran represented the perfect ex­ pression o f God’s will and speech had a marked effect upon the Jews, who were encouraged to delve into the text o f the Bible in or­ der to discover and exalt the special beauties o f their own tradition. Another stimulus to biblical studies was the challenge from the Karaites, a Jewish sect that emerged in Baghdad in the eighth century and spread to Egypt, Palestine, N orth Africa, and Spain, becoming a force to reckon with in Iberia by the tenth and eleventh centuries. They were outspokenly opposed to using the Talmud and rabbinic tradition as authoritative sources, arguing that they were manmade rather than divinely revealed. The Karaites studied the Bible and the Hebrew language intensively in order to derive traditional justifica­ tions for their innovations in Jewish practice. In response to this chal­ lenge, the rabbinic leadership also intensified its study o f the scriptures. As the medieval poets learned more about their tradition, drinking deeply o f biblical Hebrew, scriptural influence grew more pervasive, whether as direct quotation, arcane allusion, or indirect reference. Nagrela wrote a poem addressed to his son describing his successful relief o f the siege o f Lorca that contains no less than seventeen recognizable biblical allusions in its thirty-one lines. Occasionally, a poem m ight be memorable only because o f its allusiveness or deft alternation o f a bib­ lical text. Yet the use o f religious themes and linguistic innovations ran parallel with a revolution in poetic content, for the new poetry was intended for new purposes: entertainm ent, amusement, and self-expression, as well as for displaying virtuosity. The standard bearers o f the Golden Age approached both life and art with joie de viw e; laughter and playfulness went hand in hand w ith lyrical expressions o f religious sentiments. This blend o f secularity and piety m irrored the Muslim conviction that the pleasures o f this world are insignificant compared to the rewards o f the next. Yet it was common for the same individual to celebrate both worlds with equal verve. A poem would m ost likely be introduced to

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guests after a leisurely meal, recited by the poet, while a charming youth, male or female, served goblets o f wine throughout the evening’s entertainm ent, which would normally include professional dancers and musicians. The resulting mixture o f alcohol, perfume, soft music, dozing, and verse sometimes glistens through the lines o f a sensual courtly poem .4 The scintillating conversation focused on politics and literature. These elegant salons and drinking parties—exclusive conviv­ ial events for a select group o f Jewish men who considered them the best setting for the recitation o f poetry—brought together communal leaders, religious thinkers, and other members o f the most prom inent social class. For such gatherings, whether Jewish or Islamic, there were set themes for improvisation, which was a highly valued skill. Poets vied in cleverness, composing works that could be recited both backwards and forward, or using only words that started with the same consonant, or w riting a lengthy poem w ithout ever using a particular letter. Some­ times, such ingenuity was carried to the extreme, as when the thirteenthcentury w riter Judah al-Harizi composed a 200-word letter in rhymed prose and also a ten-verse poem in which every word contained the letter resh, along w ith a similar letter and poem in which that letter was entirely absent. W ine was a favorite topic for improvisation among Arabs, despite Islamic injunctions against consumption o f alcohol. So, too, the Jews picked up the them e and embellished it. The poet would bring his talents to bear upon the bouquet, color, and bubbles o f the wine, or even upon die beauties o f the crystal goblet in which it was served. Some poets composed entire collections o f wine poems. One by Nagrela, w ritten at the Granada court, reveals how the themes and spirit o f Hebrew poetry were deeply connected with the general cultural milieu o f the eleventh century: Friend, lead me through the vineyards, g ive me wine A n d to the very brim shall joy be mine; Perchance the love you pledge me with each cup M a y rout the troops around my care’s ensign A n d i f in love fo r me, eight toasts you drink Fourscore the toasts in love fo r you I link; A n d should I pre-decease you, jrien d, select Same spot where vineyards tw ist, my grave to sink .

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In grape-juice have my body laved, and take W ith divers spices, grape-pips—These shall make A ll my embalming. M ourn me not, g u ita r A n d pipe with music’s sound shall cheer my wake. A n d on the place th a t shall conceal my mold L et not the earth be heaped and rocks be rolled To raise a monument: to mark the spot R ather a pile o f wine-jars, new and old .5 I n a n o th e r p o e m , N ag rela celebrates a n ig h t o f d rin k in g as a so u rce o f literary in sp ira tio n :

M y friend, tell me, W hen shall I pour you my wine ? The cry o f the cock woke me. A n d sleep has deserted my eyes. Come out and see the morning light Like a scarlet thread in the East. M ake haste, g ive me a cup, Before the dawn starts to rise. O f spiced pomegranate juice, From the perfumed hand c fa g irl, Who will sing songs. M y soul Revives and then dies.6 E v en G ab iro l, b est rem e m b ere d fo r h is relig io u s p o e try , c o m p o se d a t least te n p o em s o n th e su b je ct o f w ine. B u t alm o st any o b je c t m ig h t b ec o m e th e focus o f a p o e m in th is tra d itio n . T h e th irte e n th -c e n tu ry p o e t Ju d a h al-H a riz i, fo r exam ple, e n u m e ra te d th e exploits o f a flea in rh y m e, a n d H ale v i c o u ld n o t resist c o m p o sin g an o d e u p o n th e discovery o f h is first g ray h air:

When a g ra y hair appeared all on its own Upon my head, I cut it down. “Y ou are the victor now,” it said, “B u t what w ill you do, once my banners are spread ?”7

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Even on inconsequential subjects, Halevi exhibits the skills o f a m aster craftsman:

H er cheek—the sun— beneath its veil of hair Red as a ruby, and beneath, a brow O f moistened marble (color wondrous fair!) I fancied her the sun, which rising reddens Clouds of morning with its crimson.8 And Abraham ibn Ezra was able to transform his reflections upon an old, tattered cloak into a work o f art: I have a cloak that is like a sieve to sift wheat or barley. I spread it out like a tent in the dark o f the night, and the stars shine through it: through it I see the moon and the Pleiades, and Orion, flashing his light. I am afraid o f counting all its holes, which are shaped like the teeth o f a saw. No thread can hope to mend its gaps with warp and woof I f a fly landed on it with its fu ll weight, it would quickly regret its foolishness. O God, give me a robe ofglory in exchange— This would be properly tailoredft Yet for all o f this lightheartedness, melancholy meditations upon death and the ephemeral nature o f life were never very far removed from the im agination o f the typical court poet, sometimes even break­ ing through in moments o f m errim ent and carousing. Rather than conclude that one m ust seize the day, however, thoughts o f the immi­ nence o f death provoked profound religious expressions o f God’s eter­ nity. A flood o f refreshingly new devotional poems composed to fill specific spots in the religious calendar were transformed by the poet’s inclusion o f his own religious feelings. This new liturgical poet m ight address his own soul or interject musings upon philosophical and sci­ entific ideas. Gabirol enriched the standard poetic praise o f the marvels o f the universe as proof o f the wonders o f the Creator w ith descriptions

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based upon the new findings in astronomy and cosmology. Similarly, Isaac ibn Ghiyyat (1038—89) used scientific data in his religious poetry for Yom Kippur, another example o f a medieval thinker interweaving nature with the Divine in order to extol the majesty o f God. Gabirors philosophic ruminations on the kingship o f God in his Keter M alcbut enlarged the religious self-expression o f the Jewish people for their m ost solemn H igh Holidays. A t the same tim e, every stanza o f this extended poem closes with a biblical quotation, to the undoubted de­ light o f his discerning audience. Far from being rare, this remarkable facility for moving between the secular and religious was typical o f the Golden Age poets. M ost o f the liturgical poets also introduced themes from secular Arabic love poetry into their verse as well as reworking familiar themes from The Song of Songs in refreshingly new ways. Gabirol composed a series o f thirteen poems in which God and Israel address each other on the subject o f redemption. As Israel, the lover, demands union either w ith God or his annointed Messiah, erotic allusions are interlaced w ith themes from The Song of Songs: Come tom e at dawn, love, Carry me away: For in my heart Pm thirsting To see my folk today. For you, love, mats ofgold W ithin my halls PU spread. PU set my table for you, PU serve you my own bread. A drink from my own vineyards PU pour to fill your cup— Heartily you’ll drink, love, Heartily you’U sup. PU take my pleasure with you A s once I had such joy W ith Jesse’s son, my people’s prime, That Bethlehem boy. 10 Gabirol may have been the first to use such secular love themes to describe the love between God and Israel, but the idea o f frustrated

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love became a favorite for other Jewish liturgical poets, who felt that it m irrored the plight o f the nation. Also, the biblical image o f God’s desert romance w ith his chosen people was not far removed from the rom antic desert ballads that were standard fare in pre-Islamic poetry.

The intrinsic appeal o f natural beauty was not ignored by the Hebrew poets o f this period. In a complex poem that wedded biblical allusion w ith religious symbolism, Moses ibn Ezra celebrated the loveliness o f a rose in the garden along w ith the pleasures o f drink. For ibn Nagrela, a rose in full bloom , scented w ith myrrh, is both a summons to revelry and a rem inder o f m ortality. The poem Gabirol composed in honor o f his m urdered patron draws its solemnity from the juxtaposition o f natural beauty w ith the feet o f death: Behold the sun a t evening, red A s i f she wore vermilion robes. Slipping the wraps from north to south She covers in purple the western side. The earth—she leaves it add and bare To huddle in shadows all night long. A t once the sky is dark; you’d think Sackcloth it wore for Tequtiel.11 But perhaps the m ost novel o f all medieval Jewish poems are Nagrela’s works about his experiences and accomplishments in warfare. A nything but conventional, as we have seen, and convinced that he was the noble descendant o f ancient Israelite kings, he compared his deeds w ith those o f antiquity. A t the same time, even when m ost caught up in the frenzy o f battle, he would pause to reflect upon die mcagemess o f his power in contrast w ith the countless legions o f faceless warriors w ho had succumbed on the battlefield throughout the ages: "W here arc the folk who long ago inhabited this place ?/Where are the men who built and those w ho wrecked?” Nagrela would claim that some o f his battle poems were no m ore than a pedagogical tool, dictated to his young sons in order to introduce them to the fine arts o f calligraphy and prosody. Even if that is true, the work stands alone, for no other poet w riting in H ebrew shared his knowledge o f m ilitary action. In his poem

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about the Battle o f Alfuente, luridly authentic descriptions evoke the great victory o f August 1038: Then A v—the mouth of ancient woe— departed, and Elul arrived, speeding good fortune. Ihn Abbas pitched his tents on the mountainside, and we pitched ours in the pass, taking no heed c f his army, as though it were a passing caravan Then he drew near and, with many words, tried to incite my men against nie. B ut when my adversary saw that my company spoke with my voice, as one man, he uncovered spears, swords, and lances, and prepared his weapons for battle. M y enemy rose—and the Rock rose against him. How can any creature rise up against his Creator? Now my troops and the enemy’s drew up their ranks opposite each other. On such a day of anger, jealousy, and rage, men deem the Prince o f Death a princely prize: and each man seeks to win renown, though he must lose his life for it. The earth’s foundations, overthrown like Gomorrah, reeled to and fro. Every face turned red, or black as the bottom o f a pot. I t was a day of darkness and thick fog. The sun was as black as my heart. The tum ult was like that of a cloudburst, like the roar of breakers when the sea is swept by a storm. A s the sun came out, the earth rocked on its pillars as i f it were drunk. The horses lunged back and forth like vipers darting out o f their nests. The hurled spears were like bolts o f lightning, filling the air with light. Arrows pelted us like raindrops, as i f our shields were sieves. Thür strung bows were like serpents, each serpent spewing froth a stinging bee. Thür swords above thür heads were like glowing torches which darken as they fall. The blood of men flowed upon the ground like the blood of the rams on the comers of the altar.

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Stilly my gallant m m scorned their lives, preferring death. These young lions welcomed each raw wound upon their heads as though it were a garland. To die— they believed—was to keep the faith; to live— they thought■ — was fbrbiddm .. ,12 Like medieval Jews everywhere, the Andalusian writers mosdy con­ centrated on a somewhat different struggle, their tenuous position be­ tween the warring worlds o f Islam and Christianity. As Halevi expressed it, “W hen they are locked in battle, we fall as they go down.” Similarly, themes o f exile and redem ption were central to Jewish poetry, reaching new heights o f poetic expression in the works o f the Golden Age. Often, the poet laments the lost glory o f the Jews or expresses the hope o f future redem ption, asking how long God can continue “to cast off the remnants o f Joseph.” Halevi, confident that God was still attached both to his people and to their traditional land, wrote a marvelous collection o f odes to Zion in his m ature years, as he began to think o f em igrating to Israel. One o f them is perhaps the most famous o f all medieval poems: M y heart is in the East and I am at the edge o f the West. Then how can I taste what I eat, how can I mjoy it ? How can I fulfill my vows and pledges? while Z im is in the domain o f Edom, and I am in the bmds of Arabia? I t would be easy for me to leave behirul all the good things o f Spain; it would be glorious to see the dust o f the ruined shrine.13 As we have seen, the poetry o f the convivial Golden Age was en­ meshed in a materialistic, hedonistic way o f life that allowed for the coexistence o f worldly and religious impulses. While this tension lay at the heart o f their literature, it is not at all clear how successfully the Sephardic intellectuals balanced these seemingly irreconcilable poles in their daily lives and careers. We do, however, have some hints here and there. In introspective passages, Halevi expressed misgivings about the indiscretions o f his youth, and the drinking songs he composed early in

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his career stand in stark contrast to his m ature ballads and odes. In some works, ibn Ezra championed a life o f pleasure and abandon, but he also composed complex penitential liturgy. Ibn Gabirol certainly par­ ticipated in court life but expressed loathing for the excesses and su­ perficialities he encountered there. But how lax in behavior were the courtier-rabbis, when all is said and done? It is hard to say. True, there was rabbinic dispensation for some behavior that m ust have appeared to many to be a breach o f Jewish conduct. For example, in the eleventh century, one o f the greatest medieval rabbinic leaders, H ai Gaon o f Baghdad, condoned (or at least weakly rationalized) the frivolity o f winefests in the following responsum: As to your question as to one in our time who drinks [wine] to the accompaniment of music, especially among non-Jews: he is culpable and to be excommunicated, unless he is a courtier and works for the protection of the Jews and trusts himself not to lapse into licentious­ ness, and unless it is known that at the time (of drinking and listening to music) he is concentrating on the destruction of the Temple, and he is forcing his heart to be sad and not enjoying himself. And when he listens (to the music) only out of deference to the king in order to ben­ efit Israel. For the last hundred years and more there have been in Iraq men in the king’s service whom the rabbis permitted such things.14 Medieval Andalusia marked the high point o f Jewish assimilation o f Muslim cultural trends, but there were dangers inherent in this process. Assimilation sometimes took the form o f social breakdown or intellec­ tual floundering, and voluntary conversions from Judaism were hardly unheard of. As we shall see, some Jews were frankly confused by the novel philosophical arguments and rational discussions they heard in the exclusive salons o f Islamic society. It would take their greatest leaders in the East and West, Saadiah Gaon in the tenth century and Moses Maimonides in the twelfth, to meet this intellectual challenge.

Jewish philosophy was almost as radically influenced by the encounter with Islamic culture as Hebrew poetry. The Muslim conquests had been followed by an official program o f translating Greek classics into Arabic; consequendy, for the first tim e, Jews were exposed fully to the conceptual world o f classical antiquity as they adopted the Arabic lan­ guage. In this way, Arabization introduced them to an entire philo-

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sophical literature, originally w ritten in Greek and Syriac, and to a new theological language capable o f expressing new concepts. By the tenth century, the Muslims were seriously engaged in the task o f trying to reconcile their own revealed religion w ith the philosophies o f ancient Greece, particularly Aristotle’s. It was because o f this tradition o f seek­ ing the wisdom o f ancient Greece that ibn Shaprut was commissioned to translate the Greek text given his caliph by the emperor o f Byzan­ tium , who was apparendy confident that such a gift would not offend the M uslim ruler. Like Islam, Jewish civilization was predicated upon respect for both theological and philosophical wisdom; neither, in contrast w ith the an­ cient Greeks, had developed these ideas through a rationalistic approach. Hence, it could be assumed that no conflicts would arise between the two modes o f learning. In medieval Spain, however, Muslims and Jews both began to contem plate religious questions in a new way, thanks to the Arabic translations o f Greek thought. As Jews reread the Bible in light o f unfamiliar rationalistic philosophic formulations, they began to ques­ tion its textual contradictions as well as its numerous anthropomorphic references to God, even as they tried to reconcile apparent conflicts be­ tween reason and revelation. In the Bible, and in the Koran as well, God is depicted as a person when he is acting as creator, judge, ruler. The philosophically trained were disturbed by the scriptural metaphors that refer to G od in bodily terms—his outstretched hand, his feet—and by the passages that attribute to him such emotions as anger. By the ninth and tenth centuries, in fact, a large and elite class o f Jewish thinkers became engaged w ith Greek ideas. First in Baghdad, then in Spain, this new Jewish philosophy permeated the thinking and teachings o f communal and religious leaders, then filtered down to educated laypeople. Greek literature wasn’t confined to scholars. In­ cluded in the Cairo Geniza is the inventory o f a physicians’ library placed at auction; it contained thirty-seven volumes o f Galen’s writings translated into Arabic. As ideas flowed freely among the different faith communities o f the Iberian peninsula, Jews had to learn to hold their own, for religious polemic had attained a new level o f sophistication. Following the Mus­ lim lead in regard to the Greeks, but puzzled by the challenges o f the classic authors, Jews w ith advanced training in the rabbinic tradition and a grow ing familiarity w ith science and philosophy slowly began to develop a distinctive new philosophical literature. O n the other hand, not only did Jewish and Muslim thinkers (Mu-

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takallimun) share a common vocabulary and common intellectual con­ cerns, they also found that they would arrive at similar answers to theological issues. For example, both believed that the existence o f God is proved by the fact that a created world implies a creator, and both agreed that the attributes applied to God were not the same as his essence, for he is transcendent and unknowable. In fact, the philosoph­ ical interchange among the various faiths in Spain was so close that not until the nineteenth century—and then only by accident—was it dis­ covered that Avicebron (or Avicebrol), the unknown author o f the medieval philosophical work called the Fons Vitay was actually Gabirol. U ntil his Hebrew original, Mekor Hayyim, was discovered in a rare manuscript collection at the Bibliothèque Nationale, scholars through the ages had assumed Avicebron to be Muslim or Christian.

Gabirol was only the first o f a series o f im portant Spanish Jewish phi­ losophers: Bahya ibn Pakuda, Abraham bar Hiyya, Judah Halevi, Jo­ seph ibn Zaddik o f Cördoba, Abraham ibn Daud o f Toledo, and Moses ben Maimon, who was also known as M aimonides or the Rambam. Halevi and Maimonides are o f particular interest. Judah Halevi, like Gabirol, was an innovator in poetry as well as philosophy, though in his m aturity he would renounce verse w ith a stem warning: “Let not the wisdom o f the Greeks beguile thee; it has flowers and no fruit.” His intellectual journey from consummate Span­ ish poet and courtier to pilgrim and wanderer is m irrored in the con­ versations o f the pagan king and rabbi in his m ost famous work, the Kuzari. Composed in the 1130s, it is his m ost im portant personal state­ ment on the nature o f Jewish history and the Jewish people, and would appear in no less than twenty Hebrew editions between 1506 and 1887. The plot is centered upon the dramatic conversion o f a pagan Khazar king to Judaism, a story popularized among Spanish Jews by corre­ spondence between Hasdai ibn Shaprut and a later Khazar ruler, King Joseph, in 960, as discussed in chapter 2. According to King Joseph’s account to ibn Shaprut, one o f his predecessors, King Bulan, had a series o f dreams in which an angel appeared and promised him m ight and glory. Thus encouraged, Bulan was indeed victorious in many batdes. Taking note, both the Byzantine emperor and the Muslim caliph sent him envoys with presents and also

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missionaries, hoping to induce him to adopt their respective religions. The king decided to engage the Muslim and Christian emissaries in an examination o f their faiths and asked a rabbi to participate as well. Q uestioning each o f the three separately, Bulan discovered that, while each believed his religion to be best, both the Muslim and the Christian respected Judaism as a repository o f religious truths. Therefore, he decided to convert to Judaism, a decision that was in effect a declaration o f neutrality, as well as being an adroit political move for a kingdom located at such a vulnerable crossroads. Borrowing this historical event, Halevi fictionalizes a series o f wideranging dialogues between king and rabbi in which the latter defends Judaism against the dom inant faiths. Using both characters as his m outhpiece, Halevi airs some o f his major preoccupations, including the perfection o f the Hebrew language, the relationship between God and Israel, the reasons for the survival o f the Jewish people, and the deceptions o f the other m onotheistic faiths and philosophy. Questions o f power and powerlessness, however, were upperm ost in the author’s m ind, for no medieval Jew could ignore the taunts o f the other faiths that the lack o f Jewish sovereignty—their continuing subjugation to other nations—was a sign o f divine rejection. But for Halevi, the real source o f truth was in history, not in philosophical speculation or con­ tem porary signs o f power. Metaphysical truths, unlike those o f logic, cannot be gleaned from philosophers, for “the God o f Abraham is different from the God o f Aristotle” just as the history o f the Jews is unlike the history o f all other nations. The Jews possessed the word o f God, for they had all stood at Sinai. M oreover, prophecy had not only been bestowed upon them then but would once again be granted them when they returned to Israel, a land peculiarly suited to prophetic revelations and communion with God. In addition, the Hebrew lan­ guage is the sole medium for true prophetic communication.15 A t the end o f his enlightening, persuasive exchange with the rabbi, Halevi’s king asks why, if the land o f Israel is superior to all others, the rabbi him self doesn’t go there. The question had been troubling Halevi for at least a decade. H is arguments for the primacy o f Hebrew had been framed as a repudiation o f an Arab chauvinist movement, alarabiyya. His odes to Zion were w ritten at this time. N ot too long before his announcement that he was emigrating, he had declared, “Greece and its wisdom have drowned me in mucky grease, Islam and its language have painted me dark, and Christendom has dissected and destroyed me.”16 Plainly reflecting his creator’s personal decision, the

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rabbi in the Kuzari replies to the king, “Jerusalem can only be rebuilt when Israel yearns for it to such an extent that they embrace her stones and dust,” a reference to Psalms 102:14-15- Indeed, it was soon after completing the K uzari that Halevi announced that he was becoming a pilgrim to Palestine. Yet his inner contradictions were not so easily resolved. Despite his impassioned denunciation o f poetry, he continued to compose poems until his last days and would immortalize his voyage to the East in 1140 in an unusual sequence o f poems about the sea in the beautiful An­ dalusian style: This wind ofyours, O West, is all perfume— it has the scent of spikenard and apple in its wings. Wind, you come from the store­ house of spice merchants, and not from the common storehouse o f winds. You lift up the swallow’s wings, you set me free, you are like the purest perfumes, fresh from a bunch of myrrh. Everyone here longs for you; by your good graces, they ride over the sea upon a mere plank. Oh, do not abandon the ship, when the day draws to its end or when it begins. Smooth out the ocean, break a path through the sea until you reach the holy mountains, and there subside. Rebuke the east wind that whips up the sea and turns it into a boiling cauldron. B ut how can the wind help, for it is a prisoner of the Rock—sometimes held back and sometimes let loose? Only God can grant my deepest wish: for He is maker of high mountains and the creator of winds!17 During the hazardous journey, the poet burst forth in song: Has a flood come and laid the world waste? For dry land is nowhere to be seen. There is neither man, nor beast, nor bird. Have they all perished, all lain down in torment and died? I f only I could see a hill or

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valleyy I would be comforted; even a desert would delight me. I look in every directiony and there is nothing but sea and sky and ship and leviathan churning the deepy until it seems that the abyss is white with age! Deceitfully, the sea cavers the shipy as though it had taken it by theft. The sea is in turmoil, but my soul is fu ll ofjoyyfor she is drawing near to the temple o f her God. 18 Contrary to popular legend, Halevi did not travel directly from Spain to the W estern Wall o f Jerusalem, only to die violendy before reaching it. New inform ation from the Cairo Geniza describes a chapter o f Halevi’s life that was previously completely unknown: he served as court poet in Egypt and tarried for almost a year in Cairo and Alexan­ dria, spending tim e with his business associate and confidant, the en­ terprising merchant-scholar Halfon ben Netan’el Halevi. Drawn back into the world o f courtiers, he composed panegyrics, became once again involved in communal intrigues, and even professed his fascina­ tion w ith the veiled women o f Egypt in a poem confiding, “The heart is enchanted and forgets its age.” Still, having traversed half the known world to weep in Zion, Halevi did board a ship for the East. Reliable history leaves him there in the harbor, impatiendy awaiting the west winds and continuing to compose in Andalusian meters.

Moses M aimonides towers over his contemporaries as the greatest son o f Sepharad, the outstanding representative o f Jewish rationalism for all time. Living at the end o f the Golden Age, a time o f renewed perse­ cution and uncertainty for Jews, Maimonides attained wide recognition and enormous influence as a jurist and philosopher, community leader and physician. His enormous intellectual and literary output constitutes one o f the era’s greatest individual achievements. His prodigious legal writings mark a high point in the history o f Jewish legal thought. Soon after his death in 1204, his m ost famous philosophical work. Guide for the Perplexed, sparked widespread and furious controversy, and for gen­ erations his supporters and detractors would argue about this work. So

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great was his impact that Jewish admirers in later generations would rank him near Moses, the legal giant and founder o f Judaism, saying, “From Moses to Moses, there was no one like Moses.” Christian me­ dieval scholars would pore over his works for centuries, and his M uslim contemporaries mourned his death with official public ceremonies in Egypt. At his request, he was buried in Tiberias in Palestine. The original epitaph (later removed) on his gravestone read: “H ere lies a man, and yet not a man; If thou wert a man, then heavenly creatures created thee.”19 Because he was a prolific w riter o f letters and legal opinions to Jewish communities far and wide, we know a great deal about his life. He was bom in Cördoba in 1135, son o f M aimon, a judge (dayyan ) in the local rabbinical court. Maimonides’ father was descended from a long line o f judges and had studied with the greatest legal scholar o f Spain, Rabbi Joseph ibn Megash (who was also Halevi’s teacher). In keeping with the accepted practice among educated Jewish families o f the time, the father served as tutor to his son, introducing Maimonides to the broad curriculum o f sciences and law, languages and philosophy, so popular among Sephardim. Maimonides5m other died in childbirth, and the young Moses was reared by his father’s second wife in the company o f a younger brother, David. Some accounts also m ention a sister, but the sibling relationship between the two brothers was espe­ cially close. Maimonides later recalled, “H e was my brother and my pupil; my only joy was to see him.” The family took its roots quite seriously; Maimonides was told that his lineage went back to Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi, the great second-century editor o f the classic Jewish legal compendium known as the Mishnah, and even farther back to King David. In 1147 a fanatical fundamentalist Muslim dynasty known as the Almohades swept into Spain from Morocco. N orth Africa had already provided Spain w ith a series o f warriors o f the faith, the Almoravids, to engage with the Christian troops o f the Spanish reconquest. Although the Almohades were Berber tribesmen like their Almoravid predeces­ sors, unlike them they were consumed by a puritanical spirit. Railing against the religious laxity and sumptuous courts o f the Almoravids, they demanded the conversion o f all Jews and Christians. Their light­ ning push out o f the Sahara, through M orocco, and into Spain left a trail o f Jewish martyrs and forced converts. The M aimon family, like tens o f thousands o f other Jews in Spain, began to wander. M ost Jewish refugees from the Almohades fled northw ard to the

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Christian realm, but the Maimons fled to Almerfa, wandering for several years through M uslim Spain, witnesses to devastation everywhere. Despite the continuous upheaval o f these years and Maimonides’ youth, he nonetheless managed to w rite his first two books, an introduction to the term inology o f logic and a work on the rules o f the calendar. The form er revealed how basic Aristotle was to his training, temperament, and life’s work; both sprang from a youthful interest in logic and sci­ ence that would continue throughout his life. Like all o f his w riting except his great Hebrew work, the Mishneh Torah, these books were composed in Arabic. In 1159 and 1160 the family settled in Fez, a choice o f asylum that continues to puzzle historians. Since M orocco was the heartland o f die Almohades and no practicing Jew was tolerated, scholars are divided over the question o f how the Maimons managed to survive there w ith­ out converting. Persecutions did wax and wane; it is possible, but not at all certain, that the M aimons entered the country during a lull and were not forced to convert. Thousands o f M oroccan Jews had been martyred in the first wave o f persecutions, and thousands more had accepted Islam in order to save their lives. Probably, m ost o f the Jews who endured the fury o f the 1140s continued to practice a subterranean form o f their faith, observing whatever they could in their homes while paying lip service to Islam. M aimonides later alluded to these years in the introduction to his Mishneh: “Since we w ent into exile, the perse­ cutions have n ot stopped. I have known affliction since childhood, since the wom b.” Jewish leaders urged their fellow believers to stand firm against forced conversion, even if the result was martyrdom. In his Epistle on Martyrdom, however, M aimonides suggested that the persecuted Jew should publicly adopt Islam while m aintaining crypto-Judaism and not seek m artyrdom unless forced to transgress Jewish commandments in public. H e also excoriated one w riter who advocated martyrdom for “long-winded foolish babbling and nonsense” and for misleading and hurting the Jews. In a sweeping view o f the Jewish past, Maimonides marshals examples o f heretics and sinners from the Bible to show that even oppressors o f Israel were rewarded by G od for a single act o f piety o r respect. H ow m uch greater then, he argues, will be the reward o f the Jews “w ho despite the exigencies o f forced conversion perform com­ m andm ents secretly.” H is response to calls for martyrdom is logical as well as humane, for he divides Jewish precepts into those which m ust always be obeyed (e.g., the prohibition against m urder) and those

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which may be violated if necessary. In his opinion, concessions were possible w ithout compromising Judaism, and Maimonides therefore counseled temporary conversion followed by departure from the lands o f persecution: A victim of this persecution should follow this counsel: Let him set it as his objective to observe as much of the Law as he can.. . . He must not think that what he has already violated is far more grievous than what he observes, let him be as careful about observance as possi­ ble. . . . What I counsel myself, and what I should like to suggest to all my friends and everyone that consults me, is to leave these places and go to where he can practice religion and fulfill the law without com­ pulsion or fear.. . . Moreover, when two Jewish cities are at one’s elbow, one superior to the other in its actions and behavior, more observant and more concerned with the precepts, the God-fearing individual is obliged to depart from the town where the actions are not at their best, and move to the better township... . But if the place is gentile, the Jew who resides there must by all means leave it and go to a more suitable location.. . . If he is compelled to violate even one precept, it is forbidden to stay there. He must leave everything he has, travel day and night until he can find a spot where he can practice his religion. 0 According to Maimonides, since the Almohades were aware that Jewish professions o f faith in Islam were insincere, Jews were in effect being asked to make a false utterance, not to become martyrs. His response served to counteract the wave o f despair among the Jews o f Morocco. Maimonides remained with his family in M orocco for at least five years. In light o f his advice to depart rather than profane Judaism, it seems that he did not face religious coercion. Apparently, m ost Jews in N orth Africa, for at least a generation, weathered the Almohade on­ slaught by following Maimonides’ advice. So widespread in fact was crypto-Judaism that the Almohade ruler Abu Yusuf Ya’qub al-M ansur (1184-99) supposedly remarked, “If I knew for certain that they became faithful Muslims, I would allow them to mix and intermarry w ith M us­ lims; if I knew for certain that they were infidels, I would kill the men and hand their children and property over to Muslims. However, nei­ ther fact is certain.” In 1165, when a new wave o f persecution began, the Maimons abruptly fled to Palestine. Jewish life was scarcely tenable in a Holy Land under the dom ination o f the Crusaders, however; after a brief

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sojourn, the family departed for Egypt. W hen their father died there, the tw o brothers pooled their inheritance to start a gem business. David managed the firm while Moses, the silent partner, pursued his scholar­ ship. W hile the one would ply the Indian Ocean, the other would compose his m ajor works in O ld Cairo. Several letters that somehow found their way into the Geniza illuminate the deep affection shared by the tw o brothers. In 1173 David’s boat capsized in the Indian Ocean and he was drowned, a tragic personal loss that Maimonides would repeatedly la­ m ent for the rest o f his life. His brother’s death also meant that his m aterial security evaporated, forcing him to draw upon his knowledge o f medicine to support himself. Soon, his fame as a physician brought him to the attention o f the ruler Saladin and his vizier, al-Afdal. This courtier was a lover o f rare books, a skilled military and financial ad­ m inistrator, a w riter, and also, according to some accounts, a hypo­ chondriac. In 1187, when al-Afdal fell seriously ill, he had Maimonides brought into the official council o f doctors. Thereafter the skilled new physicians’ fame began to spread. Ever the scholar, he composed many im portant medical tracts on nutrition, drugs, poisons and antidotes (that favorite topic o f Muslim potentates), sex, hem orrhoids, and asthma. These papers were characterized by the principle o f moderation in diet, in sleep, and in one’s overall approach to life: man should lead a life pleasing to God through a proper balance o f food, drink, and rest. H e should do nothing to harm his health, eat less than required to surfeit himself, and exercise caution in his choices: “Eat what is easily digested, fowl rather than oxmeat, and beef rather than bull meat. These are harmful foods which should be avoided—large salted fish, old ferm ented cheese—nor w ould I recommend milk more than a day old.” H e also recommended a small am ount o f wine on a daily basis. M aimonides’ tracts w ould be required reading in European medical schools for centuries, until the entire curriculum o f most schools changed in accordance w ith the teachings o f the Renaissance. The med­ ical oath attibuted to M aimonides, however, is still used in some schools for its stirring idealism:

Thy eternal providence has appointed me to watch over the life and health cfThy creatures. May the lovefor my art actuate me at all times, may neither avarice nor miserliness, nor thirst for glory, orfor a

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great reputation engage my mind; for the enemies of truth and philanthropy could easily deceive me and make me forgetful of my lofty aim of doing good for Thy children. M ay I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain. Grant me strength, time, and opportunity always to correct what I have acquired, always to extend its domain; for knowledge is immense and the spirit of man can extend infinitely to enrich itself daily with new requirements. Today he can discover his errors ofyesterday and tomorrow he may obtain a new light on what he thinks himselfsure of today. Oh God. Thou has appointed me to watch over the life and death of thy creatures; here am I ready for my vocation, and now I turn unto my calling. 21 In addition to his medical works, Maimonides wrote several trea­ tises on astronomy, a choice o f subject that, along w ith his use o f Arab and ancient authors for reference, was typical o f the broad, enlightened background o f Jewish medical practitioners trained in the Golden Age. Service in the palace and the harem, which would have been con­ sidered a distinct honor for most people, was to Maimonides a painful distraction from his scholarly and communal responsibilities. By the n8os he had probably become the official head o f the Jewish commu­ nity. Even so, he somehow found time to answer hundreds o f questions on Jewish law addressed to him from all over and to produce major works o f law and philosophy. We get a vivid glimpse o f his daily routine from Maimonides himself, in a letter he sent to his translator Samuel ibn Tibbon: I dwell in Misr (Fustat) and the Sultan resides in Cairo; these two places are two Sabbath days’ journey distant from each other. My duties to the Sultan are very heavy. I am obliged to visit him every day, early in the morning; and when he or any of his children, or any of the inmates of his harem, are indisposed, I dare not quit Cairo, but must stay during the greater part of the day in the palace. It also frequently happens that one or two of the royal officers fall sick, and I must

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attend to their healing. Hence, as a rule, I repair to Cairo very early in the day and even if nothing unusual happens, I do not return to Fustat until the afternoon. Then I am almost dying of hunger.. . . I find the antechambers filled with people, both Jews and Gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and bailiffs, friends and foes—a mixed mul­ titude who await the time of my return. I dismount from my animal, wash my hands, go forth to my patients, and entreat them to bear with me while I partake of some slight refreshment, the only meal I take in the twenty-four hours. Then I go forth to my patients, write prescriptions and directions for their several ailments. Patients go in and out until nightfall, and some­ times even, I assure you, until two hours and more during the night. I converse with and prescribe for them while lying down from sheer fatigue; and when night falls, I am so exhausted that I can scarcely speak. In consequence of this, no Israelite can have any private interview with me, except on the Sabbath. On that day, the whole congregation, or at least, the majority of the members, come unto me after the morning service, when I instruct them as to their proceedings during the whole week; we study a little together until noon, when they depart. Some of them return, and read with me after the afternoon service until the evening prayers. In this manner, I spend that day.22 In 1165, the Jews o f Yemen were subjected to persecution and forced conversion. As often happened in such times, a messianic pretender arose among them , promising redem ption if they converted. W hen the despairing Yemenite Jews turned to him for advice, Maimonides rec­ ognized that he faced a twofold challenge. O n the one hand, he must reaffirm the community’s belief in Judaism, which had been weakened by taunts that Islam had trium phed, and do so in such a fashion that Islam would be unequivocally repudiated. O n the other, it was neces­ sary to neutralize the pretensions o f the false messiah while affirming the integrity and validity o f the Jewish belief that the future redemption prom ised in biblical prophecies would one day come. M oreover, be­ yond these immediate and urgent questions, Maimonides faced the implicit issues o f the significance o f the Yemen community’s suffering, the need for an effective way o f responding to Islam’s claims, and the possibility o f predicting the date o f the Messiah’s coming. H is Epistle to Yemen, composed in 1172, shares the despair o f the persecuted community and renounces Islamic assertions in no uncertain terms. Using biblical prooftexts, he demolishes Islam’s arguments o f religious supremacy. In addition, while maintaining that the precise

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date o f redemption could not be ascertained, he nevertheless revealed that an ancient tradition passed down in his family through the gener­ ations held that the Messiah would appear in 1216. By offering such a distant date, he could calm the messianic fever but also console the suffering Jews. Yet neither his medical treatises nor works o f religious philosophy best exemplified the man’s originality and brilliance; his m ost enduring influence derives from his encyclopedic w riting in the field o f Jewish law. His earliest legal study, a Commentary on the M ishnah, form ulated the “Thirteen principles o f the Jewish faith,” which were later incor­ porated into the Jewish prayerbook. This alone established the pioneer­ ing work as a classic o f Judaism, but it has also been deemed im portant for its argument that the interpretation o f Oral Law is a rational en­ terprise subject to specific rules. Maimonides’ greatest legal study is the Mishneh Torah, completed in 1178, and to this day its fourteen books are regarded as one o f the most im portant Jewish works ever w ritten. In contrast to his other writings, which are often highly technical and even esoteric, this m on­ umental attem pt to organize all o f Jewish law in a single code is w ritten in a clear Hebrew, undoubtedly intended to be read and understood by the entire Jewish world. In addition, it is systematically organized so that the reader can immediately find what Jewish law says about a specific issue. (Systematization o f Jewish tradition had begun in Iraq in the ninth century under the influence o f Arab legal traditions.) M ore­ over, unlike the Talmud, the Mishneh Torah does not set down the many different points o f view derived from centuries o f legal disputes among rabbinic scholars about intricate points. Rather than try for such comprehensiveness (with the attendant confusing diversity o f opinion and disputed decisions), Maimonides aimed to facilitate comprehen­ sion o f the law and illustrate the logical connections between subjects covered in the Talmud. Finally, he did not resist adding daring expla­ nations o f law that marked a deviation from the accepted Talmudic mode o f discourse, and he included discussions o f philosophical issues. Although such melding o f Jewish legal tradition w ith broader philo­ sophic currents was pervasive in Sephardic intellectual circles, it was still quite novel for a text o f Hebraic law. But it was Maimonides5 last major work, the March Nebukhim or Guide for the Perplexed, that is his richest symbiosis o f the classical philosophical and ancient Jewish traditions. Completed in 1190, it posed special challenges to his contemporaries as well as to succeeding gen-

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erations, in part because it was not w ritten for the average reader. In fact, the very tide indicates the intended audience, those select contem­ poraries learned in classical science and philosophy as well as rabbinic scholarship who m ight be floundering in the apparent inconsistencies between the two tradidons. Maimonides’ formal introduction to Guide for the Perplexed makes its aim clear: The first purpose of this treatise is to explain the meanings of certain terms occurring in books of prophecy.. . . it is not the purpose of this treatise to make its totality understandable to the vulgar or to begin­ ners in speculation, nor to teach those who have not engaged in any study other than the science of the Law.. . . Its purpose is to give indications to a religious man for whom the validity of our Law has become established in his soul and has become actual in his beliefsuch a man being perfect in his religion and his character, and having studied the sciences of the philosophers and come to know what they signify. The human intellect having drawn him on and led him to dwell within its province, he must have felt distressed by the externals of the Law.. . . He would remain in a state of perplexity and confu­ sion as to whether to follow his intellect.23 For this reader, troubled by an Aristotelian rationality that seemed to conflict w ith revelation, Maimonides could explore the sophisticated, perhaps confusing notions that biblical material could be allegorical and that Aristotelianism could provide proof o f the existence o f God. In his view, divine revelation had been purposely couched in a fashion that could meet the needs o f both the masses and the elite, enabling the form er to live properly while offering the latter a key to the secrets o f the universe. In other words, he felt that Judaism and its traditions could be presented as a rational system, even if, on the surface, some o f its modes o f presentation seemed to conflict with reason. Yet M aimonides was equally convinced that the perplexity o f the elite believer could not be resolved by reason alone. In the first place, he thought that conflicts between faith and reason were more apparent than real; thus he believed that every instance o f an expresssion in Hebraic literature that repelled reason was in fact a figure o f speech that could be translated into the language o f reason. Secondly, what ulti­ mately m attered was man’s knowledge o f God, which could be exquis­ itely attained by the performance o f M itzvot as well as by an understanding o f created things. Occasionally, intellectual insight into religious truth was granted to the m ost profound o f prophets, like

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Moses. Yet even this highest form o f knowledge was not attained by arbitrary divine intervention but because prophets were the m ost intel­ lectually refined and rationally prepared o f men. Like Halevi, Maimonides sensed the ironies o f his age. H e had found refuge from Spain on the doorstep o f Palestine in Egypt, the ultimate symbol o f exile. Despite his power and honors in the Jewish community, his fame throughout the M editerranean, and his mastery o f so many fields o f knowledge, he understood and was concerned by the continuing decline o f Jews in Muslim lands. Suspecting that the weight o f Jewish history was turning from the world o f Islam toward Chris­ tendom, he reveled in the intellectual brilliance o f the correspondence he received from his brethren in France, as is evident in a letter he wrote in 1202 to scholars in Lunel: My friends and colleagues, be strong and of courageous hearts. In this difficult period, you and those who live in your vicinity are the only ones who carry high the banner of Moses. You study the Talmud and cultivate the other sciences as well. But here in the East the men of wisdom are decreasing and dying out. Palestine still has three or four places where intellectual life prevails. In all of Syria there is only Aleppo, where a tiny few cultivate the study of Torah, but they are not very ardent about it. In Babylon there are two or three places of learning; in Yemen and the other Arabic countries there is little study of Talmud, and there is no interest whatsoever in theoretical re­ search. . . . In Maghreb, as we know, a heavy doom weighs upon the Jews. Thus salvation can reach us only from you. Be strong and cou­ rageous and stand by the law. You cannot rely on my labors. I can no longer come and go. I am old and weary, not with the burden of years, but because of my suffering body.24 Even as he wrote so profoundly o f ancient and continuing tradi­ tion, however, Maimonides in forced Egyptian exile was a symbol o f the decay and dispersion o f the Golden Age, as was Halevi, who had chosen to leave Spain. O ther great talents who were scattered around the M editerranean by the persecutions o f the Almohades included the Kimhis and the ibn Tibbons, and Abraham ibn Ezra, all products o f the special Andalusian environment that fell apart in the twelfth and thir­ teenth centuries. Understandably, Jews today often look back at the culture-rich 200 years or so o f the Golden Age as emblematic o f all Spanish history. In the glow o f shared memory, the com bination o f striking cultural artifacts, political ease, and economic integration into

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the dom inant culture outshines the Almohade destruction that fol­ lowed. Jews in M uslim Spain had fashioned a rich culture w ithout sacrificing many o f their traditional values. Integration o f Muslim in­ terests in literature, philosophy, and science with ancient Jewish norms was the result. For a while, the Sephardim were able to sustain their new forms o f creativity in the Christian north. Removed from the special atmosphere and hum an alchemy o f al-Andalus, however, the unique symbiosis o f Jewish and M uslim culture did not survive long, and a new era in Sephardic life began to unfold in Christian Spain. There, the intellectual heirs o f the Golden Age, whether philosophers or translators in south­ ern France, or poets, mathematicians, and scientists in Castile and Ara­ gon, were forced to contend with unfamiliar forces o f reaction and repression. N o longer would their heritage o f synthesizing secular and religious learning be considered appropriate or acceptable.

O n o u r side, C hrist, G od and m an. O n the M oors’, the faithless and dam ned apostate, M uham m ad. W hat m ore is there to say? — Chronique latine des rois de Castille,

43

The advent o f the fierce Almohades postponed but could not long prevent the relentless fall o f one Muslim city after another to reinvig­ orated Christian forces. A decisive batde at La Navas de Tolpsa in 1212 and the capitulation o f Seville to Ferdinand III in 1248 virtually com­ pleted the long centuries o f Catholic reconquest, the Reconquista. Only the small enclave o f Muslims in Granada, as we have seen, was able to hold out until 1492. In the course o f the prolonged crusade for hege­ mony on the peninsula, the two societies, Christian and M uslim, stood side by side, each restructured with a new and more m ilitant perception o f self. But Spain was not a unique or isolated country; she was part o f Europe and the M editerranean world, and her Jews were increasingly subject to forces changing the landscape o f both. During the long campaign o f reconquest from the eleventh through the thirteen centuries, Spain’s Jews had found themselves constantly on the move. Muslims, ever more fervent in their religiosity as they en­ dured increasingly prolonged and fierce encounters w ith the Christian enemy, adhered more stricdy to Islamic precepts, including the enforce­ ment o f restrictions against non-Muslims. The Berber forces who came from N orth Africa to stem the Christian tide o f reconquest affirmed and strengthened this trend. Jews found themselves enticed into Christian Spain, moving from an area o f active intolerance into one o f past and future animosity. At the same time, Christian warriors believed them ­ selves launched upon a great crusade. The ideal o f reconquest was partially religious—to launch a massive offensive against Islamic foes— and partly ethnic—to oust the Muslim usurpers o f the old Visigothic state. A special spirit o f piety was forged on the batdefield that would yield trouble for the Jews later on. The burgeoning Catholic religious orders—primarily Franciscans and Dominicans but also Cistercians and Benedictines—grew in influence, as did a peculiar and obsessive notion o f honor (honra), noble birth, and Christian valor in the new military orders o f Calatrava, Alcantara, and Santiago organized in response to the Almohade invasions. In these new orders, knights were ordained in a quasi-religious ceremony and imbued w ith a spirit o f chivalry and warfare in the service o f the Christian community. Close internal and family ties united the orders fraternally with the ecclesiastical hierarchy. As in the other crusading movements o f Europe, deep religious pas­ sions were aroused, capable o f seriously underm ining the increasingly fragile position o f the Jew. Moreover, Spain’s crusade against Islam had a special edge. The warriors o f the faith did not have to go east to fight theccinfidel”; the batde was fought almost entirely on Iberian soil.1

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A t first, the Sephardim found themselves in a favorable position as the five Christian kingdoms o f Spain sought to colonize the newly recaptured towns and territories. In some places—Toledo, Saragossa, and Tortosa—Jews were offered special inducements to replace the fleeing M uslim population: land grants, elective privileges, and tax ex­ emptions. Occasionally, as in Valencia and Catalonia, the Jewish com­ m unity (aljama) was even exempted from internal customs duties for several years. These incentives were spelled out in charters called jueros also affirming that Jews were to be tolerated under the protection o f the king. As a result, the autonomy o f the aljama was strengthened as old Jewish quarters were augmented or resettled and new ones established. Jews rented stalls in the bazaar, used grants given them to farm the land, and leased houses from nobles, princes, and monasteries. Abandoned agricultural properties were distributed to them as individuals or as groups. Favorable laws made clear that their lives and property were to be secure. N ot only Jews, however, but also the Christians (the socalled mozarabs) and even Muslims (termed mudejar in the recaptured lands) were induced and cajoled to remain in the reconquered areas as artisans and tillers o f the soil. By and large, a mutually beneficial arrangement seemed to be evolv­ ing: while the Christians pursued the business o f war, it was left to the Jews to cultivate a great variety o f the arts o f peace, including the building and reorganization o f commerce and industry.2 In addition, they were often settled in fortresses to serve as a garrison or assigned other military responsibilities. Some were given charge o f the finances o f Catholic religious orders, such as the order o f Santiago, and others were entrusted with collecting the tribute from Granada. (Though re­ m aining an independent Muslim state, the Nasrid kingdom o f Granada was required to pay a heavy tribute to the Christians.) Periodically, the anomalous situation arose o f Jews being placed in a position o f authority over Muslims, who remained a majority o f the population in the newly conquered Christian kingdoms, as when James I o f Aragon conquered Valencia in 1238 and appointed the Jews as bailes to administer the tow n, rewarding them for their efforts w ith houses and estates. Such visible exercise o f power by Jews was not only offensive to Muslims but also ran counter to Church doctrine, as well as popular con­ ceptions o f the “proper55place o f Jews. As early as 1081, Pope Gregory VII had admonished Alfonso VI on this very subject: “D o not in your king­ dom perm it Jews in any way to be lords o f the Christians or to have any authority over them .55 By the thirteenth century, this doctrine was so

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widely accepted that King Alfonso X incorporated its restrictive spirit in his famous code o f law. Siete Partidas: “N o Jew may ever hold an es­ teemed position or public office so as to be able to oppress any Christian in any way whatsoever55 (7:24.3).3 Yet, even as new legislation was re­ peatedly enacted to reinforce this concept, Jews continued to hold con­ spicuous administrative and political offices until 1492. In fact, in comparison with the rest o f Europe, reconquered Spain remained a country o f wide opportunity for Jews. And as monarchs exploited the know-how o f their Sephardic subjects and installed them in positions o f prominence, other Jews were attracted to settle in the community, even from abroad. The case o f Toledo, the capital o f Castile, is typical. When Alfonso VI reconquered the kingdom in 1085, the local Sephardim were perm itted to remain. Soon, encouraged in part by the rescue activities o f the local Jewish courtier Joseph ha-Nasi Ferrizuel (also known as Cidellus), more Jews joined them. Ferrizuel, the king’s personal physician, served in several im portant capacities, including tax collector and bailiff, and enjoyed wide political and eco­ nomic power in Castile for a generation. Acknowledged by the author­ ities as the local nasi, he worked to consolidate the reconstructed Jewish community. During the reconquest o f Saragossa in 1118, a Jew named Elazar served the king, later entering the service o f Ramon Berenguer, count o f Barcelona. In sum, Jewish service facilitated a smooth transition from M uslim to Christian rule. Internally, the transition was also less dramatic than m ight appear, since the structure o f the aljama, the location o f the Jewish quarter, and the actual status o f the Jews did not change dras­ tically. Indeed, their participation in commerce as well as in the allim portant textile industry grew significandy, and it looked, on the surface at least, as if they m ight retrieve their former prestige and power during the economic recovery o f the Reconquista. N onthieatening be­ cause they were politically neutral, they were generally trusted by their Christian monarchs to handle heavy responsibilities, despite any objec­ tions from Church authorities. Unlike the nobility, after all, the polit­ ically weak Jews were in no position to revolt against a king. But the situation challenged the very core o f canon law and the ecclesiastical worldview. Gregory V II was only one in a succession o f popes who chastised Spanish kings on this point, but their warnings generally proved fruidess, even as the protests did not prevent Ferrizuel from continuing to serve Alfonso VI and several o f his heirs. In fact, a sustained tug o f war over the status o f Jews was waged between royal

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and ecclesiastical authorities in Europe, partly as a feudal struggle over tu rf and partly as a question o f principle. To take another example. Pope H onorius III became irate when Ferdinand III (1217-52), conqueror o f Seville and Cördoba, did not require Jews to wear a special badge and clothing, as decreed by the papacy at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. W hen he demanded an explanation, the king replied that Castilian Jews would flee to M uslim Granada if the hum iliating restrictions were en­ forced. Such an exodus, he claimed, would be disastrous for the revenues o f his kingdom. In this instance, the pope relented. O n the other hand, the local laws and customs (fitem) were more typical o f favorable royal attitudes toward the Jews as a whole. For example, the fiten o f Teruel in 1176 states, “The Jews are die slaves o f the crown and belong exclusively to the royal treasury.” Therefore, anyone who injured o r m urdered a Jew had to pay a special fine or wergild (the am ount subject to negotiation) not to the family o f the victim but to the king. The term s o f royal protection o f Jews were also spelled out in a royal proclamation when James I, the king o f Aragon, conquered M ajorca in 1247. In consolidating his kingdom, he granted many priv­ ileges specifically to Jews and offered financial inducements for them to settle there. It should be noted that the economic considerations behind such a policy were n ot slight: an estimated thirty-five to sixty percent o f the income in every one o f the Iberian kingdoms was provided by Jews. It logically followed that royalty’s assumption o f jurisdiction over the economically productive and politically skilled Jews would become an issue in relations between kings and their municipalities, whose tow n charters gave th a n the right to regulate their own finances, con­ duct elections, and administer justice. W hy, then, should the monarch be allowed to control the Jews who lived within their precincts? As municipal institutions m atured during the M iddle Ages, they grew strong enough to clash w ith royalty, especially on this issue. Conse­ quently, the fitem often drafted to entice Jews into newly reconquered areas were a reflection o f competing forces in Spanish society: crown. Church, nobility, and municipality. The Book ofCustoms ofCastile asserts that Jews, even when living on lands owned by the nobility or the religious orders, are "the property o f the King, and live under his protection and for his service.” The fiten in Ledesma places Jews under joint custody o f king and city, while the charter o f Salamanca makes a different distinction: Jews may indeed have no lord but the king, yet they are undo- the protection o f the city and m ust pay their taxes to its officers. In all o f these cases, however, the concept o f “protection” was

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amorphous at best, even when articulated in a legal deed. These laws and charters were no guarantee o f permanent security to the Jews: moreover, they were never intended to offer political and economic equality. Ultimately, conflicts between the various social forces would place the Jews in a precarious position as the balance o f power shifted back and forth. There were inherent dangers in being a recipient o f royal protection, for the Jewish official gradually became associated in the popular imagination w ith royalty and its privileges, even as municipal­ ities, the knights, and the burghers began to articulate a separate col­ lective identity in opposition to the kings. Royal domains increased, and crown revenues swelled, but so, too, did the expenses o f the neverending spiral o f accelerating warfare, a burden imposed only by royalty but often collected by Jews in their service. Especially when a king was absent or politically vulnerable, anti-monarchic sentiment, from w hat­ ever quarter, could spill over to engulf the Jews who were in highly visible positions o f power. Parenthetically, the historical stereotype that Jews were the sole, or even the principal, group o f state financiers in this period is belied by the facts. M ost finance officials, tax farmers, and moneylenders were Christian, and the Jews who assumed these roles were being assimilated into, rather than differentiated from, this mainstream endeavor. The role o f the Sephardim in state finances has been erroneously exagger­ ated in the w ritten record because, unlike their Christian counterparts, they were subject to special regulation and their activities were specif­ ically reported. In addition, their own brethren deeply resented the advantages o f the powerful few and repeatedly opposed the favored tax status that could be granted or sold to Jewish fiscal agents down until the reign o f Ferdinand and Isabella. Tax exemption was especially bur­ densome to the m inority community since these royal officials were often its richest members. They and their families, emerging as a divi­ sive class o f “privileged” Jews, were considered to be an assimilating and otherwise negative presence. Communal regulations repeatedly placed the recipients o f royal favors under a ban.

For a deceptively long whilc, reconquista Spain retained many o f the cultural features o f Andalusia and would change only gradually. For

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centuries, in fact, the Castilian state remained a curious blend o f three traditions: the Arab princely courts, European agrarian feudalism, and the unique strain o f Christian piety peculiar to Spain. The contact between M uslim and Christian cultures and the “osmosis o f manners” were pervasive in all spheres o f life, m ost notably in agricultural tech­ niques and technology, as well as language and literature.4 As the form er structures o f the vanquished Muslim states were dismantled, Jews reemerged as a cultural bridge between the two. As far as their own cultural development was concerned, Jewish religious and cultural life remained rich and varied. The former seats o f Jewish learn­ ing—Cordoba, Lucena, Granada—now lay in ruins, but Sephardic scholarship continued and indeed thrived in Toledo and in the Catalan port city o f Barcelona. Iberian Jewry held a central place in the Jewish world during the centuries o f reconquest, absorbing cultural influences from the m ore piedstic Ashkenazic Jews o f the N orth and serving as a m ajor force in the cultural life o f Jews in Europe. Poets continued to w rite in the Andalusian mode at the same time that Kabbalisdc cultural strains were strengthening. As we have seen, the Jews who earlier fled Muslim Spain had scat­ tered in all directions, carrying Andalusian traditions w ith them. In addition to the prom inent M aimon and ibn Aqnin families, who fled to M orocco, others sought asylum in Europe. In Provence, for example, the émigrés Joseph Kimhi and Judah ibn Tibbon would produce trans­ lations o f Judeo-Arabic classics (going from Arabic to Hebrew to Latin or the vernacular) that would influence N orthern European Christians as well as Jews. M any Andalusian luminaries, however, relocated within reconquered Catholic Spain, often encouraged by rescue committees set up at the frontiers by courtiers like Judah ibn Ezra. They would return to prominence, but the transition was not always smooth; in fact, many found adjustment ,to the less sophisticated ambiance o f reconquista Spain distinctly painful. The distinguished scholar Abraham ibn D aud, or Avendauth, nostalgic for the “good old days” o f Cördoba, reconstructed a history o f the Jews intended to validate the former way o f life o f the courtier-rabbi class. The eleventh-century poet Moses ibn Ezra, virtually alone in Granada after his friends and colleagues fled, bemoaned the “desert o f savages” among whom he lived: Throughout my life I have known success. . . . But now the tears flow from my eyes as I seek to overcome my grief at my loneliness in my native land, without a companion at my side . . . and I see no man

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about me of my family and kin. I remain in Granada, a city of declin­ ing bustle and splendor, like a stranger in the land . . . Less dramatically, m ost o f the other Andalusian intellectuals tried to hold onto their unique heritage, seeking patrons who appreciated this culture and would encourage them to perpetuate it. But the aging courtier-rabbis were estranged from both Jewish laymen and Christian courtiers. They were increasingly out o f step w ith the changing times, which had no place for the former ideal cultural model that blended secular sciences with Hebraic traditions. The supremacy o f philosophy was soon to be challenged by more conservative Jewish voices. Meanwhile, Arabic would for some time remain the spoken lan­ guage o f the region, particularly around Valenica. Consequently, many Jews found a niche in the new Christian society by virtue o f their mastery o f the language and Islamic culture. Because these intellectuals were also at home in Latin as well as all o f the Spanish regional ver­ naculars—Castilian, Catalan, Navarresc—they could provide very spe­ cialized services to their monarchs. The courtier Sheshet Perfet, for instance, reportedly attained a high position “only through the w riting o f Arabic.” W hen James I conquered Majorca, there was no one capable o f w riting out the treaty o f capitulation except tw o Jewish courtierinterpreters from Saragossa, Bahya and Solomon Alconstantini. As in Andalusia, successful interpreters frequently moved on to become diplomats for the Christian kings, serving as ambassadors to the various Muslim kingdoms in N orth Africa. O ther form er courtier families re-emerged to vie w ith upstarts among their brethren. The venerable Andalusian families o f ibn Ezra, ibn Shushan, Alfakhar, H a­ levi, Abulafia, and ibn Zadok returned to public service as tax farmers, administrators, physicians, and courtiers in Toledo. In Barcelona and Saragossa, the Sheshet, Benveniste, and Eleazar families continued their close relationship to the court, becoming advisors to kings, bailiffs, and property owners. As in former times, these prom inent families com­ bined political power with patronage o f arts, usually m arried among themselves, and fought fiercely for favors from rival contenders for power. There was a distinguishing and dispiriting new factor, however. In Muslim Spain the rank and file o f the Jewish population had shared the values o f the courtier-rabbis and tended to emulate their tastes and habits; but now there was a widening gulf between courtier and aljama, exacerbated by a gradual decline in the social position o f the Jews as a whole. As time passed, the privileged classes no longer read the same

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books or even necessarily shared the same interests as their humbler brethren. N ot all courtiers continued to regard themselves as defenders o f the com m unity, and some became cynical and self-serving.

The transform ation o f Spain to Christian rule was accompanied by a new mixing o f cultures, for coexistence o f Muslim and Christian peo­ ples ranged along a continuum from active warfare or tense stalemate to mere proxim ity, from absence o f conflict to m utual borrowing. W ithin this perspective o f changing relationships and convivmüa, Jews again, found a niche as cultural intermediaries as they had in Umayyad Spain. In reconquered Toledo, for example, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews rubbed shoulders in a daily exchange o f goods and ideas, the Sephardic courtiers became the vital link in the process o f cultural transmission o f andern and Islamic classics to Christian Europe. After all, an entire center o f M uslim culture, including scholars, scientists, and artists, along w ith their libraries, had entered the heart o f Spanish Christendom intact. W hen Toledo’s Archbishop Raimundo (1126-52) form ed an interdenom inational, international group o f scholars to translate Arabic classics into Latin, he invited several Jews and Jewish converts to participate. The work o f translation in medieval times was n o t a largely objective act, accurately reproducing a work from one language in another. Scientists would create as they translated, in the process form ing new syntheses o f knowledge. Alfonso X (1252-84) con­ centrated the translation activities that had been scattered about Spain in one location and subdivided and organized the labors o f his trans­ lators. Being m ultilingual, Jews could easily render the Arabic text into a Caatilian o r Catalan version .that a Christian scholar would translate into Latin. This project was truly cooperative in practice as well as spirit, for scholars worked by reading aloud to each other. A t precisely the same tim e, scholars w o e swarming into the city from other parts o f Europe, «»al««g Toledo the continent’s entryway for the knowledge that had come from the East in mathematics, philosophy, medicine, botany, astronom y, and practical geometry and was being translated from the Arabic by the form er residents o f Andalusia.6 Gerard o f Cremona, D om ingo Gonzalvez, Johannes Hispanus (probably a convert known as John o f Seville), and Avendahut (prob­ ably the Jewish scholar Abraham ibn Daud) collaborated on several

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im portant translations o f Arab and ancient Greek classics. Another con­ vert, Pedro Alfonso o f Huesca (d. m o), compiled up-to-date astro­ nomical tables from the Arabic as well as moral tales and fables that would later be used by Boccaccio. During the reign o f Alfonso X, the reader in the synagogue o f Toledo, Isaac ibn Sid, edited the famous astronomical tables that became known as the Alfonsine Tablets, while three o f the king’s physicians, Judah Kohen and Samuel and Abraham Levi, translated Arabic astronomical and astrological works into Castil­ ian. Another Toledan Jew, M aestro Pedro, translated the entire Koran into Latin in a single year, 1143. It was as a result o f this extraordinary outpouring o f translation, too, that the philosophies o f M aimonides, Gabirol, Averroes, and al-Ghazzali, the giants o f Andalusian Judaism and Islam, reached a European audience and eventually influenced the great medieval Christian scholars Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aqui­ nas. These activities would reach their peak under Alfonso, who was known as “the Wise” because o f his penchant for learning, and sum­ moned Jews to his court specifically to translate works from Hebrew as well as Arabic. The translators had to create a Castilian language that could accommodate the new philosophy and science, for neither the Spanish vernacular nor the Latin o f the day had the appropriate vocab­ ulary for such concepts. W ith their return to Christian Spain, Hebrew became the main vehicle o f Jewish cultural expression. Castilian was o f particular interest to Ferdinand III, who patron­ ized scholars and prom oted the use o f the language after he recon­ quered Seville. H e encouraged Jews to contribute their talents to this and other enterprises o f the state. As noted earlier, the m ultilingual inscription on his tom b in the chapel o f the cathedral o f Seville— Arabic, Hebrew, Castilian—symbolized his vision o f his kingdom as the home o f all three faiths. Similar cultural exchange occurred else­ where on the Iberian peninsula, as large populations m igrated and commercial relations with the rest o f Europe were expanded. As we have seen, even poets writing in Muslim Spain, like Judah Halevi, would include entire strophes w ritten in contemporary Castilian, or Romance. Even as late as the fifteenth century, when the condition o f the Jews had sharply deteriorated, they were still engaged in cultural interaction and transmission. The exceptional Bible translation o f Rabbi Moses Arragel, for example, the Alba Bible, was executed in collabo­ ration with a Dominican friar and Christian illuminators while perse­ cution o f his people raged throughout Spain. Even earlier, however, the interm ingling among the three groups

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Jewish life in Spain can be traced as far back as the ancient Roman province ofHispamia. Evidence o f Jewish cultural integration alongside the practice o f Juda­ ism is seen in ancient Jewish tombstones like the one above, containing Latin inscriptions. Remnants o f a mikveh or ritual bath (right) in Besalü attest to the continuous presence of orga­ nized Jewish communities with well-defined religious institu­ tions throughout the M iddle Ages. {ASAP/Mike Ganor)

The city of Toledo (above), the center of Christian political and cukural life in Spain until 1516, also housed a vibrant Jewish quarter (juderia), visible at right. {FrédéricBren­ ner) The Muslim conquest of Spain in 711 inaugurated an era of Jewish cultural flower­ ing. One of this period’s greatest Hebrew poets and philosophers was Solomon ibn Gabirol, whose statue (below left) commemorates his career in the Muslim kingdom of Malaga. {ASAP/Mike Ganor) When the Almohade dynasty conquered Spain in the 12th century, Moses Maimonides (below right), the greatest Jewish philosopher and jurist of the Middle Ages, was among those who fled the ensuing fundamentalist persecution. {Beth Hatefutsoth)

Jews served in the courts of the Muslim Kingdom of Granada until its fall in 1492. The Lion’s Court o f the Alhambra (b e lo w le f t ) is thought to have been modelled on the home of Jewish courtier Samuel ibn Nagrela. After the Christian reconquest of Seville in 1248, Jews presented the symbolic keys above to Ferdinand III with the inscription (in Hebrew, Latin, and Castilian) “God will open, then the king will enter.” (ASAP/Mike Ganor) Ferdinand’s tomb in Seville with its similar trilingual inscriptions (b e lo w r ig h t) bears further testimony to the multicultural character of medieval Spain. {Photo M AS)

Alfonso X (called the Wise) patronized all kinds of learning at his court, and the “Book of Chess” {above) which he commissioned depicts the shared intellectual and social life of Christians, Muslims, and Jews during his reign. At the same time, his repressive legal codes betray the spread o f anti-Jewish attitudes in Spain, and his famous “Cantigas de Santa Maria” {below) portray a demonized image of Jews. (Photo M AS)

Despite increasing persecutions, Jews were central to the explosion of scientific and technical learning that launched the great age of discovery. The armillary sphere above was constructed around 1200 by a Jewish astronomer for Alfonso X. {Beth Hatefutsoth) The famed Catalan Adas, showing the world and its navigational routes in six panels, was drawn by the Jewish cartographers Abraham and Judah Cresques in Majorca around 1375 and presented to Charles V of France. {Bibliothèque Nationale)

Two surviving synagogues in Toledo are monuments to the continuity o f Jewish communal strength in Christian Spain. The synagogue built in 1203 by Joseph ben Shushan, who was financier to Alfonso VIII of Castile, was converted to a church in 1411 and became known as Santa Maria la Blanca. It is an elegant example of mudejar architec­ tural Stvle. {Above, ASAP/Mikc Ganor; ryjbt, Frédéric Brenner)

The synagogue known as El Transito (below le ft) was built in 1357 by Samuel Halevi Abulafia, the treasurer of Peter I. Abulafia was eventually exe­ cuted by this king, called Peter the Cruel; but the street that leads to the synagogue (below) still bears his name. Noted for its decorative friezes and in­ scriptions, the synagogue was con­ verted to a church in 1494. At left is a view of the women’s gallery. (ASAP /Mike Ganr/T)

In 1480, as Ferdinand and Isabella prepared to launch their final war against the Mus­ lim stronghold of Granada, the Inquisition was established to root out false converts (iconversos) who engaged in secret Jewish practices. Sentencing and punishment were carried out in dramatic public gatherings, like the one above in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid, known as autos da fé. These persecutions continued to intensify until, in March of 1492, shortly after the fall of Granada and the reestablishment of Christian hegemony, the king and queen issued a writ {below) that decreed the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. (Photo M AS: A uto de Fé on Plaza M ayor de M adrid. Painting bv Francisco R izzi. Musco del Prado, M adrid)

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symbolized on Ferdinand I ll’s burial m onument was never as joyous and productive in reconquered Christian Spain as in Andalusia. Each time the king m et with the Cortes, he had to listen to harangues and petitions from m alcontent nobles who wanted to restrict the rights o f Jews. As the thirteenth century wore on, still other anti-Jewish currents flowed into Spain from many different directions. From northern Eu­ rope appeared French, Italian, and German settlers and adventurers who sought their fortune in the still sparsely occupied regions o f re­ captured Spain, transporting anti-Jewish traditions flourishing in north­ ern Europe. Also moving southward were crusaders, including pious pilgrims on the way to Spain’s national shrine at Santiago de Compos­ tela, along w ith m igrating followers o f the Cluniac and Cistercian mon­ asteries. By the middle o f the thirteenth century, these extremely negative influences combined w ith the settling down o f society as the Reconquista neared its successful conclusion. The time was ripe for traditional negative attitudes toward Jews to reassert themselves. Spain’s porous borders were breached as she began to share Europe’s deeply rooted anti-Jewish patrimony.

In the summer o f 1263, Rabbi Moses ben Nahman o f Gerona (also known as Nahm anides), the great biblical and Talmudic scholar and rabbi, was ordered by James I to appear at the royal palace in Barcelona. A t the instigation o f a zealous apostate, the Dominican friar Pablo Christiani, the king was staging a religious debate; Nahmanides was to serve as the Jewish disputant for a subject fraught with danger and laden w ith centuries o f controversy. H ad the messianic mission been fulfilled w ith Jesus? D id the Talmud itself offer proof that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, and was the Messiah divine or human? Pablo hoped to hasten the conversion o f the Spanish Jews by convincing his oppo­ nent that the Messiah had indeed come in the person o f Jesus and that the Jews’ m ost Jewish o f texts proved it. (According to some modem comm entators, the debate was actually part o f a Dominican plan to convert all Jews in Europe.)7 N ahm anides, th e n in his sixties, w as pro b ab ly n o t su rp rised by th e royal sum m ons, fo r h e h ad already played an active role in o th e r h eated ideological controversies, such as th e d eb ate convulsing th e Jew s o f F rance as w ell as S pain over th e p ro p er place o f rationalism in Jew ish

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life. As one o f the greatest rabbinical figures o f the thirteenth century, Nahmanides showed consummate skill in amalgamating the several in­ tellectual trends then emerging among the Jews in Spain. H is legal writings bear the influence o f the Jewish Talmudic scholars o f France (the Tosafists) and the mystics or kabbalists o f Provence. A personally modest man, he had earned a reputation for being able to m ediate disputes, even as he had seen the climate o f opinion shifting in his lifetime from free inquiry to fear o f dissent. H e had already been called upon to defend Judaism, probably even engaging, albeit reluctantly, in contentious religious dialogues with some o f the actively conversionist friars. In this instance, however, he could hope that his good personal relationship w ith the king would protect him and his brethren from any negative reactions to his presentation. James had specifically promised the rabbi that he could speak freely and that public decorum would be maintained. In any event, the royal command could not be refused.

The summons was unusual but not inexplicable, for thirteenth-century Europe was a continent obsessed with questions o f dogma and faith, conformity and nonconformity. Fear o f heresy was ram pant, and Spain lay at the very border o f southern France, the territory that was con­ sidered the seat o f heresy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In addition, as we have seen, the papacy had long been pressing vigorously for greater restrictions on the Jews. In pursuit o f these related aims, control o f orthodox thinking and control o f the Jews, the popes turned their gaze toward Spain, which was fully entering the orbit o f European politics at last. To counter the threat o f heresy—which included any supposed blasphemy against the saints, rituals, and credos o f the Church—Rome created special preaching orders o f Dominicans and Franciscans, em­ powering the former order in particular to combat all hints o f religious nonconformity. Thus, the special mechanism o f inquiry known as the Inquisition was established so that the Dominicans could m ore effec­ tively ferret out and extirpate all heretics. The life-and-death struggle waged by the new mendicant orders against heresy and “the forces o f darkness” introduced a new weapon, the so-called “dialogue o f controversy,” specifically designed to spread the faith and preserve orthodoxy.8 Now, armies o f learned Christian«

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would actively pursue the conversion o f Muslims and Jews as a high priority, preaching the mysteries o f the faith in order to persuade the uninitiated. This ideal, fervently held in the highest ecclesiastical circles, was deeply shared throughout European culture. Marco Polo gives a long account o f the “secret conversion” o f the caliph o f Baghdad in the opening chapter o f his famous journal, for example. Undoubtedly, his readers were moved by this talc although it was no more than wishful thinking. Closer to home, Franciscans were courting martyrdom to bring the message o f the Gospels to Tunis, the heartland o f Islam. The m endicant friars who formed the vanguard o f this proselytizing movement had been carefully trained in special schools where instruc­ tion in Hebrew and Arabic language and philosophy formed the core o f the curriculum. As early as 1235, the Dominican master-general wrote from M ilan to all Dominicans, enjoining them to “be prepared to learn Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, or some other outlandish language.” At least five Dominican language schools focusing on conversation were set up in the kingdom o f Valencia alone in the thirteenth century. Perhaps the m ost effective teachers were the many zealous converts from Judaism or Islam, who were eager to prove their orthodoxy and were sensitive to the psyche o f their form er co-religionists as well as being adept in their mode o f arguing. D uring the heated exchanges o f the debate in Bar­ celona, Nahmanides turned to Christiani and asked, “Are you the one who asked the king to assemble the Jewish scholars that they m ight debate with you?” The question suggests that he understood the apos­ tate’s role in persuading James I to stage the event. Barcelona was a major base for these missionizing activities. Its leading spirit from 1238 to 1240 was Raymond de Penaforte, the driving force behind the mission schools and master-general o f the Domini­ cans. H e aimed his program simultaneously at Muslims and Jews. His presence beside the king in the royal court during the disputation in 1263 was consistent with his activist stance toward missionizing. It was de Penaforte who opened and closed the proceedings at Barcelona, concluding w ith a lengthy disquisition upon the doctrine o f the Trinity. T h e m ovem ent h ad its lum inaries, w hose efforts underscore th e ferv o r o f its aim s. R am on L ull, fo r exam ple, a Franciscan tro u b ad o rtu m ed -m y stic, w as as unsw erving in energy as indom itable in faith. T w o m assive han d b o o k s w ere p ro d u ced especially fo r th e preaching friars: th e Pugio Fidei advenus Mauros et Iudaeos by R aym ond M artin i (p re se n t a t B arcelona as a silen t w itness and perhaps also as coach) and th e Summa contra Gentiles by T hom as A quinas.

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Coincidentally, the kings reigning in the thirteenth century were the most vigorous and learned in Spanish history, and they vied w ith each other in supporting the conversionary movement. James I, busily engaged in proselytizing efforts in Aragon, chastised Alfonso the Wise for spending more time on scholarship than on converting Muslims. Alfonso had indeed founded his Arabic and Latin language schools in Seville in 1253 in order to explore Islamic culture, not “save souls.” Still, his legal corpus Siete Partitas not only endorsed the missionary out­ reach to Jews but also offered economic incentives for conversion. At the same time, following canon law, he decreed that Christians who converted to Judaism would be executed. Royal spouses, too, became involved in the movement. Queen Blanca o f Aragon, wife o f James II, provided in her will for a scholarship fund for “the Dominican friars at Jativa, studying in Hebrew and Arabic.” B ut aside from th e conversionary m ovem ent, th e b attle fo r C h ris­ tian suprem acy in Ib eria assum ed several o th e r form s. F o r o n e th in g , th e C hurch so u g h t to exercise co n tro l over th e m inds o f th e faith fu l by b anning th e use o f Bibles w ritten in th e vernacular. F o r an o th er, in response to concerns ab o u t heresy am ong p racticin g C h ristian s rath e r th an Jew s o r M uslim s, bloody crusades w ere launched in so u th e rn France against th e g ro u p s know n as A lbigensians an d W aldensians. By extension, th reats to o rth o d o x y could include th e “p ro p er faith ” o f Jew s as w ell, since th eir in tern al disagreem ents m ig h t spill o ver in to th e C hristian com m unity. O nce it w as decided th a t heretics co u ld n o t be to lerated in th e C hurch, th e q u estio n o f th e co n tin u ed to le ratio n o f th e presence o f Jew s in E u ro p e w as inevitably raised. F o r th e m om ent, how ever, th e advocates o f to le ratio n prevailed, fo r pope and king w ere in agreem ent th a t th e c o n tin u atio n o f th e be­ n ig h ted Jew ish com m unity perform ed a positive fu n ctio n . As A lfonso X phrased it, ‘T h e ir ‘captivity* serves as p erp etu al rem in d er o f d escent from those w ho crucified Jesus .”9 O n th e o th er h an d , to le ratio n d id n o t m ean ren o u n cin g th e conversionist dream . B eginning in so u th ern France and Italy , th e prosely­ tizin g m ovem ent began to g ain w ide acceptance, and th e cen tu ries-o ld o p p o sitio n to forced conversion began to w eaken. I t is n o accident th a t this latter tre n d em erged w hen anti-Jew ish sen tim en t w as o n th e rise T he pernicious role o f converts to C h ristian ity loom s large in th e breakdow n o f th e Jew ish com m unity in Spain. T h eir n u m b er seem ed to increase in response to th e g ro w in g legal restrictio n s u p o n th e com ­ m unity, and ecclesiastical au th o rities d id n o t fail to n o tice th is ob v io u s

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cause-and-effect relatio n sh ip . B u t th ey argued th a t th e in tro d u c tio n o f h u m iliatin g m easures ag ain st th e Jew s, such as th e w earing o f special clothes an d d istin g u ish in g badges, d id n o t co n stitu te forced conver­ sio n s; rath e r, th ey w ere inducem ents to “voluntary” conversion. In S pain, d iscrim in ato ry c lo th in g legislation p ro v id ed th e kings n o t only w ith a w eapon o f in tim id a tio n b u t w ith a new source o f revenue as w ell, because exem ptions to th e restrictio n s w ere sold. In som e cases, w ealthy co u rtiers, physicians, an d o th e r influential people w ere able to keep b u y in g exem ptions practically u n til th e eve o f th e expulsion.

A nother approach to persuasion, related to the staged religious disputation, was the introduction o f compulsory Christian sermons into the synagogues. They were delivered in the vernacular and had a particularly demoralizing impact on the Jews. In 1242, Aragon’s James I issued a typical decree: W henever the archbishops, bishops, Dominicans o r Franciscan m onks, visit tow ns or localities inhabited by Saracens o r Jews and wish to espouse the w ord o f G od to those Jews o r Saracens, the latter shall foregather at such calls and patiendy listen to these persons. Should they refuse to come voluntarily, ou r officials shall compell them to d o so w ithout subterfuge.10

Three years later, the im position o f such sermons was incorporated in a papal bull. In the event, James would soften his original decree somewhat. A t first, he allowed the monks into the synagogues en masse, but in response to Jewish pressure, he relented slightly in 1263, declaring that no m ore than ten monks and their attendants could “invade” a synagogue at one tim e. This restraint calmed the Jews to some extent, since it eliminated the hostile crowds who often accompanied the im­ passioned preachers and caused riots and injury. M eanwhile, the Dominican order’s goal o f intruding itself into the Jewish community as policeman o f Jewish thought was furthered by the inner tensions and internal disputes raging among the Jews o f Spain and southern France over the philosophical writings o f Maimonides. Perhaps it was inevitable that Jews should begin to echo the narrowing intellectual horizons o f their surrounding environm ent as Christian Europe turned from rationalism toward pietism and mysticism. But m ore than ideas was at stake in the Jewish debate, which reflected deepening social as well as intellectual cleavages that became explosively charged by the 1230s. Especially in Provence, quarrels raged amidst bans and counterbans, as tw o ideological camps arose in battle between

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“faith” and “reason.” This tragic controversy w ithin the Jewish com­ munity enabled the Dominicans to gain a foothold.

In 1232, some Jews in southern France, unable to resolve their inner divisions about philosophy arid free thought, invited the Dominicans to intervene in the so-called “Maimonidean controversy.” (Nahmamdes had tried to intervene but failed.) O f course, the friars were only too happy to oblige, for such spiritual crisis and disequilibrium could only advance their designs for greater control over the m inority community. Thus a dangerous precedent for interference in internal Jewish life was set. In this case, the Dominicans acted w ith alacrity. In 1233, Maimonides Guidefar the Perplexed was burned as a heretical work. In 1242, an apostate in France, Nicholas D onin, charged that the Talmud was a heretical work and persuaded the pope to have it publicly burned at M ontpellier. Meanwhile, some Church authorities realized that it would be pref­ erable to use the Talmud for missionary purposes rather than consign it to the flames. A foremost proponent o f this approach was the apostate Pablo Christiani. It was upon his appearance in public life at the Dis­ putation o f Barcelona that zealous converts, some o f whom showed special malevolence, began to emerge as the bane o f Jewish life in Spain. Christiani, for example, was knowledgeable in Jewish sources and adept in the writing o f polemics; he devoted his life to attacking the Jewish people and rabbinical literature. H e may have been pursuing a personal vendetta, for during his long career he took several initiatives to un­ dermine the strength and self-confidence o f his former co-religionists. While he represented the new trend in ecclesiastical circles tow ard missionizing as opposed to crusading, he also felt that it was imperative to approach the infidel on his own terms in a m ultipronged attack. Even after the passage o f more than seven centuries, the proud, solitary figure o f Moses Nahmanides in the royal palace, courageously confronting the combined forces o f church and state in the persons o f the king, the leading Dominicans and Franciscans, and hostile elements o f the general population, evokes awe and sadness. N ot only did the occasion pit him against experienced foes and the new scholarship o f the friars, it also sharpened conversionary pressure on his brethren. In addition, he was compelled, for tactical reasons, to question the au-

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thoritativc nature o f parts o f the Talmud, thereby opening up a Pan­ dora’s box in the long, steady decline in self-confidence o f the Jews o f Spain. The Jews were m ost reluctant to engage in any religious debates w ith either Muslims or Christians. Such debates were fraught with peril, a no-win situation for the Jewish participant. If he spoke freely, he m ight arouse the ire o f his powerful opponents; but if he was too submissive, he could demoralize his brethren. Therefore, as defender o f the faith, Nahmanides had to satisfy two audiences simultaneously. He had to counter Christiani’s missionizing arguments by proving that his opponent did not truly understand Judaism, but he also had to justify the belief o f Jews in the classical sources o f their religion. The Christian participant was also not unaware o f the palpable dangers o f religious debate. Should he fail, he m ight engender doubts among Christian believers, or even subject himself to mockery from his Jewish opponent. O n the other hand, if he succeeded, he m ight inspire a wave o f Jewish apostasy or (less desirable from the official perspec­ tive) an upsurge in persecution o f the Jews. The stakes were extremely high. Two versions o f the D isputation o f Barcelona have survived, Nah­ manides’ own record in Hebrew and a Latin account penned by his foes. Despite the varying points o f view, both agree that the rabbi succeeded in speaking openly during the four or five sessions held during the week o f July 20. Obviously, Nahmanides had prepared him­ self very well. From prior encounters, he was familiar with Christiani’s technique, daring and innovative for its tim e, o f reading the Talmud Christologically. In other words, just as Christian apologists had for centuries used the O ld Testament to prove the “truth o f Christianity,” the friar tried to use the Talmud as a prooftext. H e could certainly achieve a major victory if he could convincingly demonstrate that this quintessential Jewish source showed Jesus to be the Messiah, thus nul­ lifying the continued relevance o f the ceremonial and legal traditions being practiced by the Jews. As Nahmanides expected, Christiani brought up an obscure text he had found by scouring through the vast Talmudic corpus; it declared that the Messiah was bom on the day o f the destruction o f the Temple. In dealing w ith this text, the rabbi faced a serious dilemma. If he denied the authenticity and binding authority o f a rabbinic text, he would be placed in an unfavorable light with the Jews and m ight even call the cherished messianic tradition into question, which would be troubling

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and even traumatic for his brethren in the audience. O n the other hand, he could not accept Christianias reading o f the text. Nahmanides’ solu­ tion was to dismiss the importance o f the passage. Specifically, he ar­ gued spiritedly that only the legal part o f the Talmud, known as the halakhab, was authoritative to Jews. The text cited by Christiani was in the sermonic and homiletic body o f Talmudic material, the agyadab. Furthermore, the rabbi argued, even if the text had been in the halakhahy it would prove nothing about the messiahship o f Jesus: he was long dead when the Temple was destroyed. But in drawing distinctions between different layers o f tradition in the Talmud, Nahmanides was using an argument unknown outside limited circles o f learned Jews. The suggestion that any part o f the Talmud was not an authoritative guide to Jewish life could prove in the long run to be confusing at best or deeply demoralizing.11 The king took an active part in the debate, interjecting a question now and then to bolster his friar’s arguments or to clarify a m oot point. Despite his efforts and the fervent arguments o f Christiani, however, Nahmanides was so impressive that the Franciscans asked that the de­ bates be discontinued, and the crowd in attendance became unruly. James I ended the disputation, but he supposedly remarked to N ah­ manides, “Never have I seen anyone who was in the wrong argue so well as you have.” H e is also reported to have provided the rabbi w ith some monetary compensation, presumably for the mastery o f his per­ formance. After the disputation, Nahmanides lingered in Barcelona in order to rebut some charges raised by de Penaforte in a compulsory sermon in the synagogue the following Sabbath. Thereafter, he returned to Gerona and composed his account, apparently giving a copy to the bishop o f the city. In this fashion it may have fallen into the hands o f Dom in­ icans, who in any event charged the rabbi with w riting blasphemy. The self-assured tone o f his writing so enraged the O rder that he was forced into exile in 1267, leaving his family behind and settling alone in Pal­ estine. Meanwhile, James I acceded to Christiani’s request to be allowed to missionize among the Jews o f Aragon; he also set up a commission to purge all Jewish books o f “blasphemy” w ithin three m onths. Thus was the main thrust o f Raymond de Penaforte’s program against the Jews fulfilled and the victory o f Nahmanides, if victory it was, nullified. T he D isp u tatio n o f B arcelona is o n e o f th o se h isto rical tu rn in g po in ts w hose full im portance becom es clear only w ith h in d sig h t. W e can see now th a t th e personality and in terests o f N ahm anides reflect a

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new in tellectu al reality in Spain, fo r th e trad itio n s o f n o rth e rn E u ro ­ pean Jew ry w ere g ain in g w id er currency as C h ristian Spain becam e increasingly d etach ed fro m th e Islam ic w orld. T alm udic scholarship h ad becom e a new focal p o in t o f learn in g am ong th e Sephardic elite, challenging th e fo rm er u n iq u e blend o f science and philosophy w ith rabbinics. In fact, by th e th irte e n th cen tu ry m any Spanish Jew ish leaders n o t o nly sh ared th e intellectual o rie n tatio n o f th e ir b reth ren to th e n o rth ; th ey w ere also developing a new and p ro fo u n d in terest in th e spreading n o tio n s o f pietism an d m ysticism know n as kabbalah. I t has been sug­ g ested th a t th e rap id acceptance o f th is new m ovem ent w as a definitive rejectio n o f th e dazzling, so p h isticated A ndalusian culture. In d eed , n o th in g w as fu rth e r from th e intellectual kabbalists th an th e previous attem p ts a t h arm o n izin g Judaism w ith foreign cultures. O p p o rtu n ities fo r in terrelig io u s com m unication w ere dw in d lin g in any event, and Jew ish creativity tu rn e d inw ard, exploring new and m ore irratio n al realm s o f Jew ish religious experience. T h e scholars w orking at a v ib ran t kabbalisdc cen ter established in G erona included N ahm anides. A S ephardic scholar, M oses d e L éon, p ro d u ced a classic o f kabbalist th o u g h t, th e Sefer ha-Zohar {Book of Splendor), betw een 1280 an d 1286.

In Castile the mystics formed a partial alliance with the anti­ rationalists who were involved in the continuing Maimonidean contro­ versy. Finally, the great Barcelona rabbi and communal leader Solomon ibn Adret (1235-1310) issued a sweeping ban in 1305 on the study o f philosophy (called “Greek thought”) and science, except medicine, by people under the age o f twenty-five: Woe to mankind because of the insult to the Torah! For they have strayed fa r from it. Its diadem have they taken away; Its crown have they removed. Every man with his censer in his hand offers incense Brfore the Greeks and the Arabs. Therefore have we decreed for our community that for the next fifty years, under threat of the ban, no man under twenty-five shall study the books which the Greeks have

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written on religious philosophy and the natural sciences. Nor shall any member of the community teach any Jew under twentyfive any of these sciences lest they drag him away from the superior law of Israel. How can a human being not be afraid to judge between the wisdom of man and that of the Supreme Being. . . . Medicine, though one of the natural sciences, has not been included in our general prohibition because the Torah permits the physician to heal. 12 As is clear from th e above, ib n A d ret co u ld n o t en tirely co n d em n “G reek th o u g h t,” n o t d id he unqualifiedly su p p o rt a tu rn to m ysticism . Like m any Sephardic intellectuals o f th is changing tim e, h e counseled a m oderate p ath betw een th e extrem es o f rationalism an d m ysticism . In ad d itio n to m ysticism an d anti-ratio n alism , th e Jew ish leaders 5 response to th e declining p o sitio n o f th eir com m unity an d g ro w in g pressures from th e o u tsid e also to o k a collective p o litical form . T h e rabbis tried to stren g th en com m unal discipline by p ro m u lg atin g sw eeping regulations to stren g th en th e aljama an d create an advisory council o f representatives o f th e larger Jew ish com m unities. A lth o u g h efforts to establish a centralized supracom m unal o rg an izatio n never lasted, in tim es o f crisis assem blies o f com m unal representatives d id m eet to take a u n ited stance o n critical issues o f security. In A rag o n in 1354, such an assem bly m et to co n fro n t th e persecu tio n s o f Jew s sparked by th e Black D eath (see below ). Sim ilarly, th e Jew s o f C astile convened in 1432 in V alladolid to cope w ith th e rapidly d eclin in g co n ­ d itio n s an d passed b ro ad regulations reg ard in g in tern al discipline. A dditionally, com m unal au th o rities w ere invested w ith b ro ad pow ers to m aintain discipline and p u n ish transgressors o f Jew ish law . T hese abortive attem p ts a t unified political actio n in th e face o f persecution h ad little ho p e o f co u n terin g th e m o st alarm ing new facto r th a t began to im pinge u p o n Jew ish life in Spain. N o t from th e h ig h est levels o f church an d state b u t from th e com m on p eople an d th e ir pas­ to rs arose an unpreced en ted p o p u lar im age o f th e Jew as an o d io u s, even diabolical figure. S preading everyw here— in a rt an d arch itectu ral o rn am en t, in m usic an d religious p ag ean t, in w eekly serm ons an d rum ors spread by priests— th is harm ful d ep ictio n w as rein fo rced , w ith cruel irony, by th e increasing iso latio n and seg reg atio n o f th e Jew ish

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community. Drawing ultimately upon early pagan and Christian sources, the popular imagination conjured up images o f Jews as destroyers o f Christianity, purveyors o f evil, desecrators o f hallowed Christian relics, sorcerers, enemies o f mankind—indeed, veritable in­ carnations o f the Devil, or at least traffickers with him in evil. The Devil was a real presence in the m ind o f medieval man, and through a long process beginning w ith the equation o f the synagogue w ith the Devil in the Gospels, the Jew and the Devil were linked. Theologically, one belonged either to the kingdom o f Christ or the kingdom o f the Devil. The medieval world also inherited the ancient calumny that Jews were sorcerers who used Hebrew as the medium o f their magic. The identification o f Jews as poisoners had already appeared in Al­ fonso 3Cs Siete Partidas, which decreed that a Christian could take medicine from a Jew only if a Christian physician was acquainted w ith the contents.13 By the early fourteenth century popular belief in the Jew as poi­ soner, intent upon the destruction o f Christianity, began to spread in Europe. Sometimes the Jew was accused o f alliance with lepers in this plot. The results were devastating. In town after town, and by 1321 throughout the whole o f France, the Jews were temporarily expelled. N or was there any lim it to the crimes that the gullible population o f Eu­ rope attributed to the Jews. The more fantastic the charge, the more plausible it seemed. It was believed that Jews needed Christian blood, together w ith lizards, spiders, frogs, sacred hosts, and human flesh, to concoct a brew that would disguise their distinctive signs and odors!14 Among the catalogue o f alleged atrocities was the kidnapping and m urder o f Christian children for the purpose o f obtaining their blood for ritual use. Although papal authorities repeatedly repudiated and condemned this calumny, it cropped up everywhere in Europe after it first appeared in the twelfth century, becoming a ready source o f in­ come for the establishment o f local shrines dedicated to the martyred “victims” o f the Jews. M ost o f these accusations, usually linked with Easter, were instigated by the clergy, but even the liberal, broad-minded Alfonso X was not above lending credence to the myth. In his Siete Partidas, he declared, “We have heard it said that in certain places on Good Friday the Jews steal children and set them on the cross in a mocking m anner.” In such an atmosphere, it is not surprising that Jews were even assigned the blame for cataclysmic natural disasters. In 1348, the dreaded Black Death swept mysteriously through Europe, erupting virtually

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overnight w ithout warning and carrying off almost twenty percent o f the continent’s entire population. The inconceivable, apparently inex­ plicable horror led to hysterical popular outbursts against the diabolical Jews, who were accused o f spreading the disease by poisoning wells. Rumors o f well-poisoning raced through France, Spain, and Germany, gaining immediate credence, for no one doubted that Jews were asso­ ciated with sorcery. In truth, Jews suffered equally from the plague; so great was the number o f their victims that new cemeteries had to be acquired. But neither logic nor royal calls for restraint could silence the vile accusations. In response to this crisis, the Jews o f Aragon formed a regional association that would not only seek the king’s support but also send representatives to Rome to ask the pope to condemn the calumnies. They also agreed to come to the joint defense o f any com­ munity that was attacked and to send “envoys from all the communi­ ties” to the sessions o f the Cortes in order to ccwatch over the interests o f the communities.” This practical program reveals that the commu­ nity in Aragon, at least, was sensitive to the needs o f the hour. In the event, their representative body would not outlive the crisis o f the plague, but they did obtain a papal bull denouncing the accusations o f well-poisoning. Unfortunately, the persistent and growing anti-Jewish sentim ent across the land could not similarly succeed in melding the Jews o f Iberia into one strong communal organization. O n the one hand, de­ mocratizing tendencies were undermining the traditional privileges o f the oligarchy o f select families, and several attem pts were made to bring about such unification. On the other, social and regional divi­ sions remained too persistent, too profound, for the reform attem pts to endure. Even so, the communal regulations from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries show that the separate Jewish communities joined together in a large network o f welfare institutions. They also shared a willingness to accept communal discipline and a deep con­ cern for the communal good, as if the divisions seen in the internal ideological battles had not really riven the community. Similarly, it seems that the weakening o f self-confidence produced by anti-Semitic legislation was offset by a feeling o f continuing cohesion. N onethe­ less, the hate, destruction, and killing caused by the superstitious bar­ barism o f 1348 was not an isolated or anomalous incident. W ith dismal regularity, the ludicrous but potentially lethal rumors surfaced again and again, particularly the charge that Jews made a habit o f desecrating the host.

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In this atmosphere o f heightened tension a prelate in Seville, Ferrant M artinez, launched an anti-Jewish campaign in 1378, haranguing his townspeople about the “iniquity” o f the Jews. His proposals to alleviate the “Jewish problem ” were drastic: destruction o f every one o f the city’s twenty-three synagogues, confinement o f all Jews to a ghetto, cessation o f all contact between them and Christians, and the removal o f Jews from all positions o f influence. His activities became more bellicose and ominous after the deaths o f the archbishop and king o f Castile in 1390. N o one opposed his poisoned diatribes, and the Jews o f Seville were attacked on June 4,1391. A contemporary record notes succincdy that the rioters, after setting fire to the gates o f the Jewish quarter, “killed many o f its people, but m ost changed their religion . . . and many died to sanctify the Lord’s name and many violated the holy convenant [by converting ].”15 O bviously, th e soil w as fertile fo r M artinez’s attacks. As th e p o ­ grom s sp read quickly fro m city to city th ro u g h o u t Ib eria an d th e Bale­ aric Islands, Jew s w ere everyw here given th e sam e choice: conversion o r d eath . In C astile in p articu lar, th e m obs felt th a t th ey could ram page w ith im p u n ity because o f th e void a t th e cen ter o f pow er, and few com m unities w ere spared. E stim ates o f th e to ta l Jew ish p o p u latio n in 1391 range w idely, b u t it is generally believed th a t, w hen o rd er was finally resto red after a b o u t a year o f rio t, perhaps 100,000 Jew s con­ v erted , a n o th e r 100,000 h ad been m u rd ered , and y et an o th er 100,000 som ehow survived by g o in g in to h id in g o r fleeing to M uslim lands. T h e relig io u s fervor p ro p ellin g th e p ersecutors w as unm istakable; converts w ere sp ared w ith o u t exception. T h e rio ters m arched u p o n th e Jew ish n eig h b o rh o o d s as if em barked o n a crusade, and th e disorders ceased after th e Jew s con v erted and th eir synagogues w ere transform ed in to churches. T h e “crusaders” them selves cam e from all w alks o f life. In V alencia, th e h oly w ar w as in stig ated by th e heads o f th e m unici­ p alities, b u t in o th e r areas th e im petus cam e from th e com m on folk. (T h e m obs, in p articu lar, w ere also m o tiv ated by econom ic envy o f th e size, w ealth , and prom inence o f th e m edieval Jew ish com m unity, and it is n o accident th a t th e first objects destro y ed w ere th e records o f loans ow ed to Jew ish m oneylenders.) In som e instances, Jew s w ere able to avoid conversion fo r a tim e by

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paying generous sum s to nobles w ho agreed to h id e th em in local fortresses, b u t they w ere u ltim ately h an d ed over to th e tenacious m obs and converted. T here w as slighdy less pressure in A rag o n , th an k s to feeble attem p ts by th e king and queen to co n tro l th e rio ters. B u t it w as only th e frantic intercession o f R ab b i H asd ai C rescas, th e leader o f th e kingdom ’s Jew ish com m unity, th a t rescued th e Jew s o f Saragossa fro m certain destru ctio n . E lsew here, th e w o rk o f conversion w as n o t im ­ peded, and it should be stressed th a t n o t ju st th e sim ple folk o r th e h ighly assim ilated chose to convert rath er th an be killed. In C ö rd o b a, “g reat and sm all d id n o t rem ain w ho h ad n o t changed th e ir relig io n .” O n M ajorca, th e gov ern o r evacuated th e Jew s to a fo rtress in Palm a, b u t th ere, to o , th e m ob broke th ro u g h an d p resen ted th e stan d ard ultim atum . A m ong th e island’s forced converts w ere Y ehuda C resques, a fam ous carto g rap h er, and Isaac N ifoci, a n o ted astro n o m er. In th e o b literatio n o f th e B arcelona com m unity, w hich w o u ld n o t be reestab ­ lished u n til m odem tim es, even its renow ned rab b i, Isaac b ar S heshet P erfet, m ay have been am ong th e converts. A lthough th e year-long orgy o f anti-Jew ish d estru ctio n w as u n usual even by th e standards o f m edieval anti-S em itism , m uch m o re u n usual w as th e Jew ish response. U n til 1391, conversion in th e face o f p ersecu­ tio n h ad been literally u n thinkable in C h ristian lands. W hen Jew s faced th e fury o f th e m obs in th e R hin elan d d u rin g th e F irst an d Second C rusades in 1096-1147, they un h esitatin g ly chose m arty rd o m , becom ­ ing an exam ple th a t echoed in Jew ish litu rg y an d shared m em ory. Be­ fore taking th eir ow n lives, these A shkenazic Jew s h ad recited a blessing: “Blessed be th o u th e L o rd o u r G od, K ing o f th e U niverse, w h o has com m anded us to sanctify H is nam e in p u b lic.” T h eir m arty rd o m , o r kiddush ha-Shem (sanctification o f th e nam e o f G o d ), w as co n sid ered th e norm . G iven th e context o f lo n g -stan d in g Judaic tra d itio n , th e n , th e collective conversion in 1391 o f nearly 100,000 Jew s, w hatever th e ir individual m otives, is evidence o f an enorm ous ero sio n o f faith . T h e presence o f these new converts, know n as conversos, w o u ld be a source o f p ro lo n g ed anguish fo r th e Jew s and o f m o u n tin g an tag o n ism fro m th e C h ristian p o p u latio n . As C hristians th ey w o u ld n o lo n g er be su b ­ ject to discrim inatory legislation and w o u ld rapidly rise to prom inence. M any, how ever, forced against th e ir w ill to co n v ert, w o u ld have g rea t difficulty ad ju stin g to th eir new id en tity . U ltim ately , th e issue o f th e conversos w o u ld lead directly to th e d rastic rem edy o f expulsion. T h u s, th e year 1391 set th e stage fo r th e last ch ap ter o f th e Sephardic exile in Iberia.

And what will it profit our lord and king to pour holy water on the Jews calling them our names, “Pedro,” or “Pablo,” while they keep their faith like Akiba or Tarfon. . . . Know, Sire, that Judaism is one of the incurable dis­ eases. —ibn Verga, Sheba Tehudah

Among the riches and pleasures of joyous Asia I find myself a poor and wearied traveler, amidst the abundance of gold and fatness of the burning land of Africa, a wretched, famished and thirsty exile. Now Europe, O Europe, my hell on earth, what shall I say of you . . . ? —Samuel Usque, Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel

After the devastation o f 1391, the Jews attem pted to reintegrate the fragments o f their surviving communities under the leadership o f Rabbi Hasdai Crescas o f Aragon. Homeless refugees had to be resettled, the aljamas rebuilt, and normality reestablished. But more than physical rehabilitation was needed in die ruined juderias (Jewish quarters), for the survivors were traumatized and anguished. It was not easy to re­ store their self-confidence or to find an explanation for the complete destruction o f their former glories. Jewish leaders counseled repen­ tance, taking the traditional view that persecution had been divine punishm ent for sin. Still more troubling was the phenomenon o f the unprecedented mass conversions. On a practical level, the survivors had to deal with the m ost intractable question o f all: how to relate to the growing body o f cmversos who were, after all, their own relatives. O n a spiritual level, they had to come to grips with understanding the meaning o f the wave o f conversions. Obviously, some o f the forced baptisms were the in­ stinctive responses o f frightened victims who assumed that they could return to Judaism once the storm died down, while others were m oti­ vated by pragmatic self-interest as much as fear. In addition, some cmversos may have been considering the option even before the riots but had hesitated because o f the social stigma. But these and other expla­ nations did not address the central fact: the overall scope o f the con­ versions was mind-boggling. N ot surprisingly, several contemporary commentators thought the cmverso phenomenon was symptomatic o f a major spiritual crisis unique to Spanish Jewry. In Iggeret Musar (Epistle ofEthical Adnwnitim), Sol­ omon Alami, an eyewitness to the rampages, argued that the conver­ sions stemmed from a breakdown within the Jewish community. Offering the traditional explanation o f divine punishm ent for Jewish “sins,” Alami singled out the prideful, decadent, and flamboyant be­ havior o f community leaders in Spain: I f we ask ourselves why all this happened to us, then we have to accept the truth: w e ourselves are at fault. . . . W e and our iniquities caused this evil to happen. O u r sages were jealous o f each other and disre­ spectful . . . there was m uch quarreling am ong the wise men. . . . T hen there were those scholars w ho attem pted to interpret the Scrip­ tures in the Greek m anner and clothe it in Greek dress. They believed th at Plato and Aristotle had brought us m ore light than Moses o u r master----- N ow , if a man should n o t be able to “live by his faith,” why should he suffer death for it and endure the joke and the shame

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o f dispersion am ong the nations? I t serves no good purpose to quote Scriptures as support for philosophical opinions: the way o f reason and the way o f faith are to o far apart and will never m e e t.. . . Those w ho read a few columns in a book o f Greek philosophy will soon tear to shreds the scroll o f the T o ra h .. . . T he next in line o f decadence were the leaders o f the communities and those favored and trusted by the kings. T heir riches and their high position made them forsake h u m ility .. . . They acquired cosdy wagons and horses, dressed in pre­ cious g arm e n ts.. . . They gave up study and industry and cultivated idleness, vainglory, and inordinate a m b itio n .. . . Everyone chased af­ ter coveted positions; envy estranged a man from his fellow and they didn’t m ind denouncing one another before the C o u r t . . . . T he bur­ den o f taxation they shifted to the poorer classes. In the end, the C ourt itself found them despicable and removed them from their p o w e r .. . . T here is no com munal spirit am ong us. People quarrel over tri­ fles; they hold banquets, listen to music, imitate the gentiles in their clothes and hairdress.1

If we are to credit Alami’s sweeping indictment, power and access to the court had corrupted the Jewish leaders, while their own law courts were weakened by ignorance and indifference. Materialism and vanity had become ram pant as assimilation destroyed the moral fiber o f the community. O f course, he singled out the study o f philosophy for special condemnation, for his point seems to be that the Sephardim stum bled precisely as a result o f those qualities that had made them unique—their ability to imbibe secular culture, their ease o f association w ith kings and courtiers, their esthetic appreciation and understanding o f ancient science and philosophy. The very hallmark o f their distinc­ tion and creativity had been their undoing. For Alami, in short, the breakdown o f Spanish Jewry was a breakdown o f spirit. Yet his analysis, if indeed it reliably sheds light on the motivations o f the upper-class converse does not explain the conversions o f thou­ sands o f simpler folk, who were not reading Aristotle or perfuming themselves for appearances at court. N or does it explain why the con­ versions continued voluntarily after the cessation o f the pogroms o f 1391. Throughout the next century, in fact, still further demoralization would become apparent. In that vein, as many as 50,000 more Jews joined the Christian fold by 1415At the same tim e, and perhaps also demoralizing for those left behind, many o f the potential victims o f the riots managed by one means or another to emigrate, marking the beginning o f a significant new demographic trend. For example, several famous scholars con-

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verted and set off soon afterward to find a more congenial place to revert. Profiat Duran, a grammarian and philosopher, may have pro­ fessed Christianity but secredy practiced Judaism in Perpignan for sev­ eral years, writing polemical works and defenses o f his traditional faith while in exile there. Barcelona’s Sheshet Perfet reached Algeria after a period o f wandering in Tunisia. Armed with an extensive library sal­ vaged from the upheaval, he was duly acknowledged as rabbi and judge o f the Algerian community, despite his earlier conversion. Also, schol­ ars and their coteries from Valencia and M ajorca departed for N orth Africa, including Zemah Duran and his son Simon ben Zemah, who had not converted. The tribulations experienced by m ost, if not all, o f the emigrants to N orth Africa are echoed in the following report: O ne day, a ship arrived here from Majorca w ith forty-five forced conversos from Majorca, Valencia, and Barcelona. T he governor w anted to adm it them to the city for reasons o f self-interest, for he w ould collect from them one doubloon per head, an arrangem ent prom pted by a certain person. They were originally adm itted free o f charge, and the qadi rebuked some Arabs w ho came and asked him n o t to let them land because o f the rise in prices.. . . B ut that person called upo n the people to urge the governor n o t to let them land, in order th at they m ight return to M ajorca and none o f them come here.2

Despite the difficulties, however, the refugees succeeded in estab­ lishing émigré communities on N orth African soil, in some cases con­ sciously im itating the ordinances and precedents o f Toledo. Ironically, as their brethren dealt with persecution and weakened communities in Iberia, they would encounter or provoke friction with indigenous Jews in their new homes. Jewish customs have always differed from place to place, with local customs prevailing provided they do not run counter to Judaic law. The Sephardim angered N orth African communities by their attempts to introduce their own customs in certain areas o f per­ sonal law (i.e., marriage and inheritance) as well as in kashrut, or dietary practices. In addition, the indigenous Jews were annoyed by the atti­ tude o f the newcomers that their ways were superior. Finally, the many conversions among them raised a host o f vexing social problems. Soon, an im portant body o f rabbinic literature was created in an attem pt to resolve these issues.3 A statistically significant emigration o f conversos to the eastern M ed­ iterranean began after 1391, gaining momentum throughout the fif­ teenth century. Recoil from the persecutions in Spain impelled some to

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em igrate; o th ers w ere m o tiv ated by a fervent conviction th a t th e m es­ sianic era w as near. E n tire fam ily g ro u p s banded to g eth er an d ren ted ships to m ake th e ir w ay to P alestine since th ey w ere b arred from C hris­ tia n vessels. T his m ovem ent co n trasted sharply w ith th e previous m i­ g ratio n , w hich involved prim arily th e scholarly and th e elderly w ho so u g h t b u rial in th e H o ly L and. S oon, th e Sephardic settlem en t in Jerusalem increased noticeably, an d by th e m id-century th e com m unity h ad becom e so h etero g en eo u s th a t H eb rew , th e only language shared by all, becam e its spoken language. Sephardic colonies also grew in C o n stan tin o p le, V alona (A lb an ia), C rete, and th e V enetian islands in th e D odecanese. A fter 1440, renew ed m essianic expectations w ere in ­ sp ired by biblical prophecies, astrological in dications, and stellar con­ fig u ratio n s, as w ell as th e feeling th a t th e fall o f C o n stan tin o p le in 1453 w as a sig n o f im m in en t red em p tio n . M eanw hile, in all th e lands o f th eir d isp ersio n , intracom m unal rivalries betw een Jew s enlivened th eir daily exchanges.

The frictions in the Muslim countries closest to Spain foreshadow similar problems that would recur for at least a generation after the expulsion o f 1492. In m ost cases, refugees would cling stubbornly to their Iberian customs and would also reassume, with apparent sponta­ neity, their roles as diplomats, financiers, courtiers, and translators in service to the N orth African kings and princes. O f course, the nuclei o f Sephardic setdements from 1391 would ease the adjustment and inte­ gration o f the much larger influx o f the expulsion; in fact, these later refugees probably followed routes into exile carved out by relatives a century before. A principal difference between the two events, however, is the veritable resuscitation o f sleepy communities in N orth Africa by the m igrations at the end o f the fourteenth century. For the first time in several centuries, scholars and physicians, mathematicians and as­ tronom ers, reappeared in person and actively, vibrandy carried on their work in the m idst o f these communities. M eanw hile, as th e d u st w as settlin g in Spain, th e Jew s w ere deeply d ivided in to th re e separate gro u p s: th o se w ho openly co n tin u ed to practice Judaism , th o se w ho h ad becom e conversos and rem ained so, and th o se w h o privately ren o u n ced th e ir forced baptism s secredy m ain tain ­ in g th e ir adherence to Judaism . Som ehow , eith er th ro u g h h id in g o r flig h t, th e faith fu l Jew s h ad rem ained a recognizable com m unity, even th o u g h th ey w ere im poverished, defeated, and severely trau m a­ tized . E ven after th e year o f rio ts, bands o f m arauders an d flagellants c o n tin u ed to w an d er th ro u g h th e Spanish countryside, subjecting com -

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munities to forced conversionist sermons and converting surviving synagogues into churches. Often at the head o f these mobs was Vincent Ferrer, a fiery preacher and zealous advocate o f forced conversion who would lead mobs into the Jewish quarters o f Spain and forthw ith con­ vert the synagogues. His dreaded arrival in zjuderia, accompanied by bands o f frenzied believers whipping themselves w ith chains, usually ended in mass conversions o f frightened Jews. Ferrer was instrum ental in winning over to the cross some o f the m ost articulate and prom inent converts, such as Solomon Halevi o f Burgos. Christened Pablo de Santa Maria, he rose to the position o f chancellor o f the kingdom o f Castile and soon emerged as one o f its m ost inflammatory anti-Jewish leaders and the guiding spirit behind a body o f far-reaching anti-Jewish legis­ lation enacted in 1412. These Laws o f Valladolid restricted Jewish res­ idential rights, increased limitations on Jewish occupations, and drastically circumscribed relations with Christians. In such an environment, the surviving Jews were tom between summoning the will to rebuild and succumbing to grief. Their homes, synagogues, and workshops were destroyed, their careers in ruins, and the tax-paying base o f the community severely depleted. M ost scholars had been martyred, and no qualified judges remained to man the courts o f Jewish law. Worse, no family had been spared death or conversion. Poignant testimony to such tragic dissolution is available in surviving wills in which a Jewish woman leaves her property to both her Jewish and her Christian children, the latter now known by their baptismal names. Yet the communities did manage to endure. Convening imme­ diately after the disaster to strengthen and rebuild, despite the progres­ sive narrowing o f the Jewish economic base, they placed special emphasis on replenishing the ranks o f scholars by supporting Hebrew education. They also strengthened internal discipline, spelling out pen­ alties to curb the influence and activities o f Jewish informers. These informers would denounce their brethren to the secular authorities, thereby endangering the safety o f the community as well as its judicial autonomy. Sometimes, they sought to gain favors at court in return for their betrayals.4 The second group, the perhaps 100,000 cmversos or New Chris­ tians, were referred to by practicing Jews as the tmusim, “the forced ones.” W hatever the label used, the communities did not turn their backs on these converts, who were still their children, siblings, and even spouses. In return, some conversos, as we have seen, assumed their new identity with gusto, even to the point o f becoming zealous Jew-baiters;

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b u t m o st trie d to m erge inconspicuously in to th e general p o p u latio n . A t first, th e m ajo rity w ere an ill-defined g ro u p , n o lo n g er Jew ish in nam e b u t n o t y et C h ristian in deed. Som e, pro b ab ly only a very few , becam e non b eliev in g C atholics w h o could follow th e o u tw ard form s o f th e d o m in an t faith w ith few qualm s because o f th eir general religious skepticism . T h eir stu d y o f p hilo so p h y and free th o u g h t h ad convinced th em th a t n o relig io n h eld th e “tru th ” and th ey had already ceased to be believing Jew s. F o r all cmversos, w h eth er stru g g lin g spiritually o r n o t, th e liftin g o f th e econom ic restrictio n s th a t form erly applied to them as Jew s m ean t th a t th e ir m aterial lo t im proved overn ig h t. T h eir p en t-u p talen ts n o w released, th ey w ere able to rise to som e o f th e h ig h est p o sitio n s in areas th a t w ere previously o ff lim its— th e n o b ility , th e m unicipal offices, and even th e m ilitary an d religious orders. T h e th ird g ro u p , Jew s w h o had converted only u n d er extrem e pres­ su re an d secretly retu rn ed to Judaism w hen th e w ave o f persecution ceased, n o w faced h o stility from th e m ajority p o p u latio n , w ho d eri­ sively called th em marrams (sw in e), o r tu rn co ats. T hey o f course p re­ ferred to reg ard them selves as anusim . T hey m ay have co n stitu ted a significant if p ath etic m in o rity w ith in th e converso category, b u t th eir actual n u m b er is still th e subject o f controversy. C rypto-Judaism , by its n atu re, eludes th e eye o f th e h isto rian and escapes all w ritte n records. T ru e, later In q u isitio n rep o rts p ro jectin g th e m em ory o f victim s back to th e 1430s an d 1440s describe various secret Jew ish practices am ong th e cmversos a t th e tim e. O n th e o th e r h an d , such evidence, usually ex­ tracted u n d er to rtu re , m u st be in te rp re te d w ith cau tio n . I t is know n th a t marram netw orks o f fam ily an d business ties w ere stro n g . M ar­ rams fro m various localities w o u ld help each o th er, and they w ere careful to co n tract m arriages only am ong them selves. A ccording to later In q u isitio n trials, marrams w o u ld co n tin u e to m ake especially valiant attem p ts to adhere to fundam ental Jew ish p re­ cepts, even th o u g h th e ir n o tio n s o f w h at co n stitu ted Jew ish practice w o u ld , o f necessity, becom e b lu rred w ith th e passage o f tim e. W ith u tm o st secrecy, th ey avoided fo rb id d en foods, fasted m eticulously, p re­ p ared th e ir hom es fo r th e S abbath, and kindled S abbath candles. P eo­ ple w o u ld feign illness to avoid w o rk in g o n th e S abbath and m ig h t p rep are tw o separate d inners o n F rid ay evenings, th e m eat d in n er th a t w as co n sid ered ap p ro p riate fo r th e S abbath an d also a fish d in n er, in case an o u tsid e r hap p en ed by. R itu al slau g h ter o f anim als h ad to be p erfo rm ed o nly w ith in in n er cou rty ard s, o f course. Som e fam ily fes­ tivals, like th e Passover Seder, co u ld be p erfo rm ed a t hom e; th e par-

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ticipants paid careful attention to detail and stressed the underlying message o f freedom for the nation. In order to avoid detection, other festivals would be observed in the countryside. Purim , which com­ memorates the miraculous deliverance o f the Jews o f Persia through the efforts o f Queen Esther, became the archetypical marram festival. She was, after all, a w#mw0-like figure, circulating incognito in the court o f the enemy. W ith time, she would become even m ore cele­ brated and revered as Saint Esther in the separate Judaism o f these

conversas.5 Significantly, these secret Jews often found it necessary to enlist the active cooperation o f Jewish authorities in the observance o f such cus­ toms as circumcision, bar mitzvah, and other life-cycle events. Rabbis would officiate at a marram couple’s wedding or at a burial after the “public” church rites had been performed. Naturally, even though the Jewish ceremonies were clandestine, rumors about secret marram ob­ servances circulated widely. Bound by ties o f history and family, the three groups—observing Jews, conversas, and marrams—remained in touch w ith each other, ini­ tially living side by side in the same neighborhoods. Boundaries were fluid. According to Jewish law, after all, forced conversions had no validity because a man can be held responsible only for those actions he takes o f his own free will. In other words, the conversas were still Jews, albeit Jews who had “sinned.” In response to the Rhineland massacres o f 1096 mentioned earlier, in fact, medieval rabbinic traditions tended to regard converts with special consideration, especially if they did not publicly transgress Jewish law and attem pted to observe at least some Judaic precepts. Certainly, the door was open for the convert to return. Practicing Jews were at first quite compassionate and sympathetic to the converts, therefore, while communal solidarity and tradition required that assistance be given to any co-religionist who sought aid in con­ tinuing to practice Judaism. This harmonious ideal became compli­ cated, however, by the question o f what relationship would be appropriate for the community to maintain w ith the sons and daughters o f converts. Steeped in the Christian way o f life, this generation became increasingly detached from the beliefe and traditions o f their parents as the fifteenth century progressed.

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T h e q u estio n o f th e “Jew ishness” o f th e cmversos p o p u latio n is com plex. L ike any g ro u p , th e N ew C hristians included people w ith a variety o f m otives, beliefs, an d approaches to life. T h e convert lived in a kind o f “in terim ” society, his id en tity perhaps in flux fo r decades. A t any one p o in t, h e m ig h t w ell find h im self playing m ore th an one role— as a p racticin g C h ristian try in g to in teg rate h im self in to th e m ajority culture socially an d econom ically, an d as a loving relative still in in tim ate con­ ta c t w ith his Jew ish fam ily m em bers. I f he m et to ta l rejection from th e C h ristian w o rld , h e m ig h t becom e m ore passionately co m m itted to his h eritag e; conversely, h e could c o u n ter th e difficulties in h eren t in his new id en tity by becom ing a Jew -baiter. W ere m o st o f th e cmversos relu ctan t C hristians, b u t C hristians n o n e­ theless, q u ite p rep ared to assim ilate if th ey w ere n o t constantly re­ m in d ed o f th e ir o rig in s by an anti-S em itic population? O r w ere m o st really Jews? A t w h at p o in t d id a cmverso sto p th in k in g o f h im self as a Jew? A n ad d ed obstacle to evaluating th e religious quality o f th e con­ v e rts life, w hich w o u ld be virtually im possible in any case, is th a t n o special provisions w ere m ade fo r teaching h im th e w ays o f his new faith. B esides, even a sincere co n v ert m ig h t co n tin u e p racticing Jew ish m ores as a m atte r o f h ab it. C u ltu ral an d eth n ic aspects o f Jew ish id en tity w o u ld n o t be o b literated by forced baptism . W hat w e lack are th e to o ls fo r d iscern in g in n er attitu d es. A t first, C h u rch au th o rities w ere n o t tro u b led by th is problem . A ssum ing th a t th e converts w o u ld becom e sincere C hristians over th e course o f tim e, th ey ten d ed n o t to d istin g u ish betw een N ew and O ld C h ristian s. U n fo rtu n ately , th e m asses d id n o t share th is a ttitu d e o f acceptance. U n p rep ared fo r th e m assive influx o f new converts, unsetd e d by th e ir rap id an d h ighly visible econom ic ascent, m any Spaniards reg ard ed th em as hypocrites w h o only w an ted to p u sh them selves in to th e choicest places in society. In sh o rt, th e com m on people to tally rejected th e ir new fellow com m unicants, an d th e n o b ility w ere a t best am bivalent, even th o u g h cmversos gained en tree in to society and th eir ch ild ren d id in term arry w ith th e u p p er classes. T o th e surprise o f th e clergy, th e peo p le began to dem and th a t th e converts be separated from o th e r believers. T h e C h u rch w as p rev en ted fro m m aking any such d istin ctio n , how ­ ever, o n d o ctrin al g ro u n d s. A conversion, even if forced, w as deem ed irrevocable. B aptism w as indelible, regardless o f th e personal m otiva­ tio n s o f th e convert. (C o nsequently, converts could n o t be allow ed to rev ert, n o m atte r h o w severe th e ir in n er d o u b ts o r feelings o f rem orse,

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and any m anifestation o f Judaism w o u ld earn th e d eath pen alty fo r heresy.) D octrinally, ecclesiastical au th o rities sim ply co u ld n o t d raw th e racial o r ethnic d istin ctio n s th a t seem ed so obvious to th e general p o p ­ u latio n . O f course, th e p o sitio n o f th e clergy o p en ed avenues o f advance­ m en t fo r m any sincere conversos w ith in th e h ierarchy o f th e C h u rch an d its religious orders. O ne o f th e m o st fam ous w as S olom on H alevi, w hom w e have m et before. T his form er rab b i o f B urgos, w h o becam e bishop o f th e city u n d er his baptism al nam e o f P ablo de S anta M aria, becam e best know n, u n fo rtu n ately , fo r his ann-converso a ttitu d es and program s. E ven m ore p ro m in en t w ere B artolom eo C arranza, w h o be­ cam e archbishop o f T o led o and th en prim ate o f all Spain, an d H e r­ n an d o de T alavera, w h o becam e archbishop o f G ranada. St. Ig n atiu s L oyola’s successor as head o f th e Society o f Jesus w as th e converso D ieg o Lainex. T here is an even m ore astonishing exam ple o f d ev o u t conver­ sion: th e p atro n sain t o f Spain, T heresa o f A vila, w as o f converso d e­ scent. A t low er levels o f th e C hurch, m onasteries an d convents p ro v ed to be g o o d places o f refuge fo r th e N ew C hristians, fo r few q u estio n s ab o u t one’s p ast w o u ld be asked th ere and it w as possible to tra in fo r a distin g u ish ed career in o n e o f th e religious o rd ers. I t w as also possible, it tu rn s o u t, fo r such retreats to becom e islands o f crypto-Judaism . C ertainly, th is w as th e suspicion o f th e general p o p ­ u latio n , w ho believed th a t virtually all o f th e converts w ere g u ilty o f Judaizing. R einforcing th is suspicion, o f course, w as th e c o n tin u in g existence o f th e Jew ish com m unities. O bserving Jew s co u ld be th e source o f in fo rm atio n ab o u t H eb raic tra d itio n fo r conversos, giv in g th em th e assistance th a t w o u ld enable th em to becom e marrams. F o r th is reason, th e clergy becam e even m ore zealous in a ttem p tin g to convert th e rem aining Jew s, b u t th ey w ere n o t su p p o rted by royalty, w ho ten d ed to assist p racticing Jew s in stren g th en in g th e ir com m uni­ ties. F o r on e th in g , th e kings o f Spain w ere typically in terested in preserving th e self-serving relatio n sh ip w ith th e Sephardim fro m w hich they h ad derived so m uch benefit fo r centuries. F o r an o th er, royalty q u ite sensibly d istru sted public d iso rd er, and th ey feared th a t th e con­ verso q u estio n m ig h t take o n an an ti-E stab lish m en t co lo ratio n . Finally, th e h ig h literacy rate and w ide array o f talen ts fo u n d am ong th e co n ­ verts m ade them a particularly attractiv e g ro u p o f civil servants. D esp ite all o f these m otives, how ever, th e kings o f th e fifteen th cen tu ry w ere able to d o little to keep an t i-converso h o stilities in check. M o st w ere so w eak th ey co u ld barely h o ld o n to th eir th ro n es.

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Even in light o f all o f the obstacles and growing hostility, the waves o f conversion did not cease. The Jews had scarcely recovered from 1391 when they were ordered to send delegates to Tortosa “to be lectured on the truth o f Christianity” in a public disputation, the longest ever staged, from February 1413, through November 1414. This time, how­ ever, there was no Nahmanides, or in fact any other towering intellec­ tual leader, to speak self-confidendy w ith a voice o f authority. In fact, several o f the Jewish participants probably harbored doubts about their faith even before they were summoned, because several o f them, in­ cluding key members o f the prom inent houses o f Caballeria, Bonifos, and D on Vidal (Benveniste), converted and entered the royal service while the debates were still in progress. “Debate” is hardly the word for the actual event, which was more like a pageant, held in the intim idating presence o f Pope Benedict XIII in a large auditorium draped in ecclesiastical purple. According to Jew­ ish accounts at the tim e, “there were seventy chairs for the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, all dressed in gold vestments. There also were other grandees o f the Roman Church as well as burghers and nobles, approximately one thousand persons.. . . This was true throughout the disputation. O ur hearts melted and turned to w ater.” At times, the audience was as large as 2,000. Presiding as the chief spokesman for Christianity, depressingly enough, was the converso Gerönimo de Santa Fé (Joshua ha-Lorqui before Ferrer converted him during the 1412 campaign), who was a particularly learned and aggressive opponent o f Judaism. H e never al­ lowed his hapless opponents to see the texts used against them or to coordinate their rebuttals; indeed, they presented a sorry spectacle as they disagreed w ith each other. O f course, not even the m ost polished and convincing o f performances would have made much difference to the outcom e o f the D isputation in the particular circumstances of Tortosa. The truth o f Christianity was never considered to be in ques­ tion, as the pope made clear in his opening statement: You, the Jewish sages, o ught to bear in m ind that I am n o t here, nor have I sent for you to come to this place, in order to discuss which o f th e tw o religions is true. F or I know that my faith is the only true one;

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yours had once been true but it has since been superseded. You have come here only on account o f G erönim o w ho has prom ised to prove, through the very Talm ud o f your masters w ho are wiser than your­ selves, that the Messiah has already come. You shall debate before me this topic exclusively.6

In effect, the Jewish delegates were subjected to one long conversionist sermon regarding the indisputable truth o f Christianity. Spuri­ ous sources were produced in order to confuse them ; mockery and disrespect were flagrant. Even before the proceedings were brought to a close, rumors flew throughout Spain that the Jewish delegates had been soundly “defeated” and had all converted. This hearsay precipi­ tated a mass rush o f disheartened Jews to the baptismal font, further swelling the ranks o f the problematic conversos. Consequendy, through­ out the second decade o f the fifteenth century, the defections o f Jews were publicly and widely trum peted by the gleeful clergy. Many Jewish communities entirely disappeared, and the demoralization o f the Sephardim throughout the land increased. Perhaps the m ost telling evidence o f Jewish fear during these trou­ bled years can be found in a series o f laws prom ulgated in 1432 by representatives o f several active communities o f Castile at the initiative o f Rabbi Abraham Benveniste, treasurer to King Juan II and rob de la carte, or chief rabbi. Convening in Valladolid (where earlier anti-Jewish laws were enacted in 1412), the representatives produced a series o f ordinances ( Takkanot) designed to introduce regional cooperation to meet the challenges they faced at the local level. The wide range o f issues included the upkeep o f synagogues and schools and agreement on the methods o f electing judges and the extent o f their judicial pow­ ers. M ore reflective o f the threatening atmosphere, however, were sev­ eral ordinances that touched specifically on Jewish-Christian relations. For example, Jews were prohibited from summoning a co-religionist before secular or ecclesiastical courts. Additionally, measures were adopted to prohibit individuals from obtaining tax exemptions, a sub­ ject of increasing bitterness w ithin the community. Special legislation, known as sumptuary legislation, was introduced to prevent Jews from displaying any luxury or extravagance.7 We know that such sumptuary laws were generally introduced in medieval France, Germany, or Italy when Jewish relations with their neighbors were especially troubled. Rabbi Benveniste set a personal example o f modesty for the commu­ nity, reportedly wearing nothing but black on his visits to the court.

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Eventually, it became dear that the cmverso issue in Spain transcended lines o f dass, ideology, or religious faith. Even by the middle o f the fifteenth century, there was simply no easy answer to the question o f who was a Jew or a Christian. But for m ost o f the population, the conviction began to spread that Jewish ancestry or “race,” not professed religious belief, defined who was a Jew. Therefore, as conversos contin­ ued to rise in prominence in every walk o f life, calls for restrictions and discrim ination against them m ounted. Thousands o f them had only the dimmest memories o f their prior religion by this time, yet in the eyes o f so-called O ld Christians they bore the stigma o f their origins. The hostility tow ard Jewish converts climaxed in Toledo in 1449 in a po­ grom aimed exdusively at the conversos. In its aftermath, the municipal council introduced statutes that differentiated between “Old” and “New” Christians in religious and governmental employment, striedy lim iting the activities o f the converts. The resentment o f the Christian populace was clearly evident in the preamble to these “purity o f blood” (limpieza de sangre) ordinances: W e declare the so-called conversos, offspring o f perverse Jewish ances­ tors, m ust be held by law to be infamous and ignominious, unfit, and unw orthy to hold any public office o r any benefice w ithin the city o f T oledo, o r land w ithin its jurisdiction, or to be commissioners for oaths o r notaries, o r to have any authority over the true Christians o f the H oly Catholic C hurch.8

By this act, the very purpose o f the pogroms o f 1391 and subsequent conversionary movements—i.e., to convert the Jews and bring them completely and permanendy into the Christian fold—was thwarted. The conversos were now isolated as a new class, neither Jewish nor Christian, that was unassimilable and could not be redeemed. Paradox­ ically, the restrictive laws became increasingly complex as the actual Jewishness o f the conversos became more remote, even mythical. The Toledo statutes were swiftly overruled by Pope Nicholas V because they violated the precept that, as he declared, “all Catholics are one in body according to the teaching o f our faith.” Although he thus decreed that racial origin did not determine whether or not one was a Catholic, the kings nevertheless approved the racial laws in 1451* “Blood

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purity” statutes would not only prevail but increasingly cast an everwider net throughout Spain and Portugal in the sixteenth century. By 1555, limpieza de sanjjre was an official requirem ent for entry to public of­ fice; thereafter, all descendants o f Jews were barred from holding posi­ tions o f authority in the army, the university, the Church, and the municipality. In order to discredit Spaniards o f questionable or ambig­ uous ancestry, elaborate books o f genealogy were compiled. For the next several generations, until the odious statutes were wiped off the books in the eighteenth century, Catholic descendants o f medieval converts were stigmatized unless they were able to devise or purchase false genealogies. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for example, the safest claim was ancestry from peasant stock, for urban origins, evidence o f literacy, or any connection w ith the liberal professions, particularly medicine, im­ mediately tainted one. In that vein, merchants and men o f affairs were automatically considered to be descended from conversas. I t is little w o n d er th a t a sixteenth-century S panish cleric. P adre P edro, w as bew ildered and exasperated by th e attitu d es o f his people: W e Spaniards have succeeded in creating a nation o f madmen. W e still distinguish between N ew Christians and O ld Christians. . . . W e search for Jewish blood which hardly exists, almost one hundred years after the expulsion o f the Jews. W ith such an attitude, it can only bring dishonor on us.9

T he m arriage o f F erd in an d and Isabella in 1469 seem ed to au g u r th e possibility o f stab ility after a p ro lo n g ed p erio d o f political chaos an d civil w ar. From th e Jew ish perspective, th e u n io n o f th e tw o g reatest Iberian kingdom s o f A ragon and C astile th ro u g h m atrim o n y w o u ld have a stabilizing effect. F rom th eir tragic p ast experience as a sm all, vulnerable m in o rity in m edieval E u ro p e, th ey h ad learned th a t th e ir best hope fo r security lay w ith a stro n g central pow er th a t could keep o rder. A lso, it w as privately believed am ong Jew s th a t F erd in an d w as him self descended from Jew s and w o u ld th erefo re o p p o se fu rth e r p e r­ secutions. A braham S eneor, th e ch ief tax farm er o f Seville, alo n g w ith o th er p ro m in en t Jew s and conversos o f th e co u rt, pressed th e king’s candidacy fo r Isabella’s han d , engineered a clandestine m eetin g be­ tween th e tw o , and even, according to H eb rew accounts, p ro v id ed th e b etro th al gifts th a t F erd in an d needed to seal th e m atch. Jew ish c h ro n ­ iclers recorded th e com m unity’s h o peful a ttitu d e to w ard th e w edding: A nd in every province and city, w ord that the king o f A ragon was now also the king o f Castile was greeted w ith joy and exhilaration by the

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Jews, because they said to one another: “H e is our brother and flesh, w ith Jewish blood in him. You have blessed the w ork o f his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.” (Job 1:1 0 )10

A t first, their expectations appeared to be fulfilled, for the united crown was shared by tw o very energetic leaders who were quite capable o f gradually restoring order to Spain. Also, Jews were immediately appointed to prom inent positions in the royal administration, reassur­ ing the frightened community. In addition to Abraham Seneor and Isaac Abrabanel, there were the cmverso statesmen Luis de Santangel, Gabriel Sanchez, Alfonso de la Caballeria, Sancho de Patemoy, and Felipe Climent. W ithin the royal household, Isabella was able to con­ ceive Prince John because o f the medical treatm ent o f her Jewish phy­ sician, Lorenzo Badoc. The king and queen, attem pting to curb the excesses o f the nobles and city councils, made clear by example that Jews should not be harmed. O n several occasions, they intervened personally to stop antiJewish disorders and punished those who fomented the violence. When she defended the Jews o f Trujillo in 1477, Isabella declared, “All the Jews o f my kingdoms are mine and are under my shelter and protection, and it is up to me to defend and p ro tea them and to maintain their rights.”11 M oreover, when the municipalities defaulted on their debts to Jews, the royal couple supported the creditors. O r when a town like Bilbao barred Jews from spending the night within its walls, they were defended by the monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella also proteaed the tdjamas from abuse by the city councils by establishing orderly means o f collecting the Jewish tribute; in some cases, as in Câceres, they chose to intervene to lighten the community’s tax load. In short, a wealth o f evidence reveals that, until the very eve o f the expulsion, the rulers o f Aragon and Castile regarded the Jews as lawful subjects deserving protection. In fact, even as plans for the expulsion were being laid, they continued to uphold this royal policy. Jewish confidence in their support was indeed not, as some scholars have claimed, based on lack o f sophistication or wishful thinking. W hat lay behind Ferdinand and Isabella’s long-standing support and defense o f the Jews? O n one level, they were concerned to uphold the supremacy o f the state by m aintaining both the public order and the sound condition o f the treasury. But they also took their religious responsibilities seriously and were apparently alarmed by the reports they constantly received about alleged Judaizing activities by the aw-

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versos. It was not exclusively for political reasons that they received the title o f “the Catholic monarchs” ( les Reyes Catolicos) from Pope Alex­ ander VI in 1494 * Isabella, in particular, was said to have been deeply impressed by the rumors. Alonso de Hojéda, a Dominican prior o f Seville, warned her that conversas were meeting secretly to practice their ancient rites and argued that this threat could be countered adequately only by an In­ quisition under royal control. H e explained that it would conveniendy serve a dual function: on the one hand, it would strengthen the m on­ archs’ political hand; on the other, it would ferret out and destroy the country’s Judaizing heresy. Therefore, in 1478, the royal couple asked for and received permis­ sion from Rome to act upon the prior’s advice. The Spanish Inquisition began operating three years later in Seville w ith a dramatic auto-da-ß, in which dozens o f members o f some o f the m ost prom inent converso families were burned at the stake. In the following decade, the Inqui­ sition branched out to cover m ost o f the country and caught tens o f thousands o f secret Jews in its net. It is estimated that 700 people were burned in Seville alone during this period. By the end o f the century, perhaps as many as 30,000 conversos were destroyed throughout the land. The officers o f the Inquisition seemed to harbor a special animus toward converts who held positions o f influence as courtiers and finan­ cial agents o f the crown, although converts from all strata were victim­ ized. Members o f the family o f Christopher Columbus’s chief sponsor. Luis de Santangel, were among the first to fall—some burned alive, others burned in effigy, with Santangel’s son and namesake Luis forced to appear in a public processional on July 17,1491, in a sambenito (sacred sack), a distinctive hooded cloak which was the special garb o f a pen­ itent accused o f Judaizing. From the outset, the Spanish Inquisition moved w ith thoroughness and brutality, its use o f secret confessions extorted under torture con­ sidered the ideal way to ensnare the maximum num ber o f Jews. D uring a period o f grace, people were invited to come forth to confess and inform upon one another; those who informed would later share in the * Ostensibly granting this title in recognition of Ferdinand and Isabella’s services to Christianity in the conquest of Granada, the pope also hoped to gain their support against the territorial ambitions of the French king Charles VUI, who intended to conquer Italy. The tide ule roi catholique had been bestowed upon the French monar­ chy in the fourteenth century.

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confiscated property o f the accused. Because accusations were made in secret and hearsay was acceptable, the circle o f intim idation widened swiftly, as did the practice o f blackmail. The accused never m et his accuser. Practically overnight, die H oly Office was flooded w ith hun­ dreds, then thousands, o f files packed w ith detailed testimonies about secret Jewish activities. Those who did not confess during the official grace period but were later implicated in Judaizing faced extreme pun­ ishm ent after long and painful interrogation. The Inquisition became infamous for its diabolical use o f water tortures and ropehanging, later depicted so movingly by Goya. In theory, the purpose o f the torture was to extract a confession in order to save the soul o f the accused. Partly to spread the word that Judaizing was an extremely grave crime, elaborate public celebrations and processionals were spectacu­ larly staged in public squares like M adrid’s Plaza Mayor. Here the sentences and punishments o f the “criminals’’ were jubilantly pro­ nounced before an enormous crowd o f spectators, including thousands o f peasants who would throng in from the countryside to witness the proceedings in a fiesta-like atmosphere. Following the Inquisitors and the clergy in a solemn processional, the guilty paraded through the square carrying tapers and clad in sambenitos. These yellow garments were decorated w ith the Cross o f St. Andrew or w ith representations o f devils being thrust into the flames o f Hell. The prisoners also wore tall m itres w ith similar decorations. The solemn, macabre processionals culm inated at stages or scaffoldings specially erected in the square. Thereupon, as a cross was held up, the populace took a common oath to defend the faith. Next, a distinguished clergyman would deliver a long sermon bristling w ith insults about die accused and their accursed practices. Afterward, the penitents were paraded individually before the pulpit to receive their sentences, a formality that would sometimes take the entire day. The m ost heinous crimes, including Judaizing, were punished w ith burning at the stake. The “honor” o f lighting the pyre was generally given to some distinguished guest, such as visiting roy­ alty. Sometimes, if the prisoner confessed, he would be “reconciled” to the Church and forced to do penance o r receive severe punishment. But in the w orst cases, prisoners were burned even after their confessions, some professing to the last their undying belief in the God o f Israel. For lesser offenses, some prisoners were condemned to wear the sambenito for a lifetime; after death, the garm ent would be displayed on the wall o f the cathedral for generations, subjecting the wearer and his descen­ dants to en d u rin g hum iliation and obloquy. Indeed, descendants o f all

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o f the condemned were excluded from any public dignity so long as the Holy Office held sway in Spain. The mode o f operation o f the Inquisition remained virtually un­ changed until its abolition in the nineteenth century, spreading terror among hundreds o f thousands o f innocents. It should be stressed that the public executions were not frequent occurrences; nonetheless, the shadow o f their flames illuminated the memories o f Spain’s victims for centuries. Ironically, the horror o f this first decade o f the Inquisition caused a recoil in the cmverso population that sent many o f them back to their Jewish roots. The religion and tradition that was painted as a crime by the Christians became again a source o f honor and pride to the Sephardim. In fact, Jews became increasingly willing to risk even the pyre o f the auto-da-fé in order to remain faithful to the God o f Israel.

A policy o f partial expulsion, aimed explicitly at separating practicing Jews from their converso brethren, was introduced by the Inquisition in Andalusia at the end o f 1482. Jews were expelled from the dioceses o f Seville, Cordoba, and Câdiz in 1484, and soon thereafter from selective setdements such as Saragossa and Teruel. Some towns initiated and carried out expulsions on their own, even in defiance o f protests from the crown. In retrospect, it appears that several experiments in the treatm ent o f Jews were proceeding simultaneously, not only expulsion but also confiscation, expropriation, and temporary spoliation. As the Inquisition uncovered nests o f crypto-Judaism, it no longer seemed sufficient to strive to isolate cmversos from Jews and both from the O ld Christians. Inexorably, the climate was becoming favorable for the dras­ tic move o f expulsion o f Jews on a national scale. In 1478 the batde with the kingdom o f Granada was renewed, and for the ensuing decade Castile relendessly pursued the offensive against the last Muslim outpost in Spain. The resources o f the Christian state, reorganized through the acumen o f Ferdinand’s Jewish and cmverso advisors, oiled the machinery to continue the battle. The Muslim ruling house, deeply divided within, was unable to w ithstand the m ounting zeal o f the enemy forces. At the end o f 1491, King M uhammed XII, known to the Christians as Boabdil, agreed to surrender, thereby hop­ ing to spare himself and ensure religious freedom for his subjects. In-

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d eed, th e M uslim s w ere tem p o rarily allow ed to retain th eir m osques o r em ig rate freely, if th ey chose. A ccording to legend, B oabdil sighed alo u d as he left G ranada, w hile his m o th er railed th a t he had n o t been m an en o u g h to defend th e city. T h e fall o f G ranada w as g reeted w ith ju b ilatio n th ro u g h o u t E u ro p e b u t especially in Spain, w here th e m onarchs could now tu rn th eir en­ ergies to th e unresolved q u estio n o f th e conversas and th e Jew s. In fact, as th e final cam paign against G ranada w as reaching its clim ax, antiJew ish tracts w ere b eing circulated in o rd er to gain even m ore p o p u lar su p p o rt fo r a n atio n al expulsion.

In 1490-91, a hideous blood libel accusation known as the case o f El N ino de la Guardia was trum ped up, and lurid confessions o f atrocities were extracted from Jews after particularly vicious tortures. Thus began the last trial o f the Jews in Spain. In the small tow n o f La Guardia in the province o f Toledo a converso, Benito Garcia, was hailed before the Inquisition and charged with taking part in the crucifixion o f a Chris­ tian child on the eve o f Passover. Under torture, he named several conversos and Jews involved in an alleged plot to overthrow Christianity. Even though there was no missing child in La Guardia, nor the slightest foundation to the pathological charge o f ritual m urder, the Jews o f Spain once again became the victims o f this medieval calumny. Grand Inquisitor Torquemada appointed a special investigative commission that predictably found the accused guilty, and a public execution fol­ lowed in Avila. The townspeople became so agitated by anti-Jewish passion that Jews there had to seek special protection from the king. The sixteenth-century Inquisitor Luis de Paramo later stated that the La Guardia affair was one o f the factors that moved Ferdinand and espe­ cially Isabella to sign the expulsion decree.12 The proceedings o f the La Guardia trial reveal that the blood libel charge o f 1490 was not solely an action against Benito Garcia or any other unfortunate innocents but rather against the entire Jewish and converso population, carefully prepared and orchestrated by the Inquisition w ith total disregard for even the vaguest concepts o f le­ gality. Apparently, Torquemada was preparing the nation for the ex­ pulsion decree, which would be made public only three months after the verdict. The decree’s anti-Semitic poison would thus fall on re­ ceptive ears. O n Jan u ary 2,1492, th e Spanish stan d ard w as raised over th e to w er o f th e A lham bra, th e palace fortress in G ranada th a t sym bolized th e fo rm er g lo ry o f th e Islam ic k ingdom o f al-A ndalus. C hristians th ro u g h -

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o u t victorious Spain exulted, fo r th e stru g g le ag ain st th e M uslim s h a d exhausted th e energies o f th e n a tio n fo r m ore th an a decade. M oreo v er, th e fall o f th e kingdom o f G ranada’s last stro n g h o ld term in ated a cru ­ sade o f reconquest th a t h ad been w aged o ff an d o n fo r cen tu ries. Y et th e Jew s h ad rejoiced along w ith th e ir n eig h b o rs, h o p efu l th a t stab ility and tran q u illity could now re tu rn to th e cou n try . S oon after th e fall o f G ranada, how ever, ru m o rs began to circulate in th e in n er circles o f th e c o u rt th a t an expulsion decree to expel all unconverted Jew s w o u ld so o n be p ro n o u n ced . T h e specific dates fo r th e form ulation, p ro m u lg atio n , and public an nouncem ent o f th e decree rem ain in d isp u te, b u t it w as p ro b ab ly signed a t th e en d o f January an d p ro m ulgated at th e en d o f M arch. I t w as d u rin g th is in terim th a t A brabanel and Seneor trie d to influence th e au th o rities to revoke th e decree. In his in tro d u ctio n to his com m entary o n th e form er p ro p h ets, A brabanel recalls th a t he m et th ree tim es w ith th e king, ceaselessly b u t vainly pleading fo r his people. A lth o u g h he also en listed th e su p p o rt o f p o w ­ erful co u rtiers, F erd in an d sto o d firm as Isabella g o ad ed him to stick to his resolve to rem ove th e Jew s from Spain. A brabanel is q u ite succinct in his ow n d escrip tio n o f th e dram atic en co u n ter w ith th e royal couple, b u t C apsali and chroniclers w h o based th e ir accounts u p o n his fill in several dram atic details o f th e last defense o f th e S ephardim by th e ir n o b lest leader: O n that day, D on Isaac Abravanel was given permission to speak and to defend his people. There he stood, like a lion in w isdom and strength, and in the m ost eloquent language he addressed the king and queen. D on A bram Seneor, too, addressed the monarchs, b u t even­ tually all agreed n o t to pursue the m atter any m o r e .. . . T hen the tw o sages decided to write their w ords dow n and to send them to Q ueen Isabella, for they thought that maybe by this means the queen m ight consent to their p le a .. . . Thus D on Isaac Abravanel sent a letter to Q ueen Isabella, in which he chastised her mercilessly and show ed no respect for her ra n k .. . . H e then arranged to have the letter deliv­ ered to the queen while he fled for his life.13

A n o th er account o f a m eeting betw een th e co u rtiers an d th e royal couple adds a b itte r to u ch o f hu m an in terest. A ccording to In q u isito r de Pâram o, leading Jew ish p etitio n ers offered F erd in an d a b rib e o f unspecified size to induce him to rescind th e expulsion. A s h e h esitated , T orquem ada cam e rag in g in to th e ro o m , fearin g th a t th e k in g w o u ld relent.

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H e loved greatly the glory o f G od and w hat was good for the Catholic Church, and therefore he gave a clear sign o f his love. H e w ent to the palace, hiding a crucifix under his cloak, and he addressed the king w ith great and holy frankness: “I know about the King’s business. See here the crucifix o f our Savior, w hom the wretched Judas sold for thirty pieces o f silver to his enemies and betrayed to their persecutors. I f you applaud this action, sell him for a higher price. I, for my part, resign from all power. I will n o t take any blame; you will be respon­ sible to G od for this business deal.” H aving said this, he p u t dow n his crucifix in front o f them and left.14

Scholars continue to disagree on the precise m otivation and degree o f culpability o f the various key actors in the formulation o f the drastic expulsion measure. Some contend that the decree was the result o f a national conversionary wave, part and parcel o f the spreading convic­ tion that Spain should be purged o f all “infidels” once the Muslim stronghold was vanquished. They buttress this point o f view by point­ ing to the crown’s readiness to readm it Jewish exiles who agreed to convert and to the provisions o f the decree that expressly enabled Jews who converted to remain in the country. Indeed, the decree appears to be an open invitation to conversion, and those who converted did retain their positions and their fortunes. Some contemporaries, however, believed that Ferdinand, a wily and avaricious ruler who was the model for Machiavelli’s ideal “Prince,” was interested only in exploiting the Jews behind a mask o f Christian piety. If so, he was extremely clever at hiding his ruthlessness, tem po­ rarily protecting his Sephardic subjects during the 1470s and 1480s while apparently planning their elimination. Following this line o f rea­ soning, they cite his borrow ing large sums from Abrabanel and his brethren to pay for the conquest o f Granada, then expelling them be­ fore the debt could be repaid,, at the same time confiscating their enor­ mous accumulated assets. O n the other hand, there are many who argue that Ferdinand and Isabella never themselves intended to oust the Jews but were intim i­ dated into making the decision by the queen’s confessor, Torquemada. These observers cite the various protective decrees and renewals o f Jewish privileges that the monarchs continued to issue as late as 1492.15 But these protective measures could have been ruses to dull suspicion until every last ducat and maravedi had been drained from the Sephardim before they were expelled. Isabella, in particular, is often seen as religiously zealous enough to engage in such deception, and her

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fervor for religious crusade and Christian unification was well known. Some o f the Hebrew chroniclers closest to the events adopted the view that she was the motivating force behind the expulsion, even if encour­ aged by Torquemada, likening her to the wicked biblical queen Jezebel. Eliyahu Capsali’s sixteenth-century account, which is the classic Jewish explanation o f the expulsion, suggests that she played the deci­ sive role: As we mentioned, w hen Q ueen Isabella had seen how the city o f Granada refused to surrender, she had made a vow. N ow th at G ranada had indeed fallen to Spain, she decided to keep that vow in full. Actually, Isabella had always hated the Jews, and had been involved in an ongoing argument w ith her husband Ferdinand, for ever since her marriage she had been asking him to exile the Jews o f Spain. In this she was spurred on by the p riests.. . . W hen, however, she saw th at the king was reluctant to take such a step, she told him: “You no d oubt love the Jews, and the reason is that you are o f their flesh and blood. In fact, the reason the Jews arranged for you to marry me is so that you w ould act as their protector.” W hen the K ing heard this terrible thing, he took his shoe off and threw it at the Q ueen, hitting her. She then fled the room and the hatred between them continued for a long period o f tim e.16

Yet another explanation is found in the surviving fragm ent o f a fascinating Hebrew chronicle o f the de la Cabelleria family w ritten immediately after the expulsion. It suggests that court intrigue involv­ ing some malevolent conversos in the family may have helped foster the decree. They were conversos “accustomed to the evil o f sinning, starting with the days o f Fra Vicente [Ferrer],” who “thought evil o f God’s nation” and “conspired to destroy the name o f Israel from the land.” W hether in their eagerness to disassociate themselves from the Jews, or out o f fear for their own positions, some converso counselors o f the king had become the worst enemies o f their people.17 Some exiles, like Solomon ibn Verga (c. 1450-1520), saw clearly the hand o f Torquemada behind all o f the traum atic events: In Spain there was a priest w ho had trem endous hatred for the Jews, and the rule is that whoever afflicts the Jews becomes a leader by d oing so. H e was the confessor to the queen, and he instigated the queen to force the Jews to convert. I f they w ould not, they were to be p u t to the sword. The queen pleaded to the king and begged him to d o this. Some time later the king gave in and decreed, at the advice o f his

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wife, that all the Jews had to convert, and those that did n o t had to leave his kingdom . This was issued as a royal decree.18

In th e final analysis, th e expulsion is b est u n d ersto o d as th e culm i­ n a tio n o f a com prehensive policy o f C h ristian unification th a t h ad been em erging in Spanish society even before th e co n q u est o f G ranada. O th e r explanations d o n o t h o ld u p . F o r exam ple, econom ic jealousy w as n o t cen tral, fo r th e Jew ish com m unity w as n o lo n g er especially w ealthy by 1492; th e few rich m en w ere greatly o u tn u m b ered by a p o p u latio n o f m o d est artisans. N o r h ad p o p u lar antagonism reached an in to lerab le th resh o ld . A nti-S em itism w as unpredicatable and could al­ w ays be fanned by fanatics, b u t actual ag itatio n w as probably less pow ­ erful a facto r th an in 1449, th e tim e o f th e T o led o po g ro m and its afterm ath . In ad d itio n , th e aristocracy, th o u g h perhaps th reaten ed by th e rise o f a rich converso class, w as n o t especially hostile to w ard Jew s. E vidently, som e aristo crats resen ted finding them selves dep en d en t u p o n th em fo r loans an d political backing, b u t Jew ish chroniclers o f th e six teen th cen tu ry m ake clear th a t deep cu ltu ral affinities and ties had developed betw een th e conversos and th e nobles w ho drew th eir pow er fro m in h erited statu s and landed w ealth. T h e b est explanation fo r th e expulsion can be derived from th e decree itself. I t w as necessary, according to th e tex t, to rem ove th e p ern icio u s presence o f th e Jew s an d th eir living Judaism because they w ere having a c o rru p tin g influence o n “bad C h ristian s.” N o o th er rem ­ edy w o u ld solve th e pro b lem o f th e conversos: T hus the great damage caused to Christians by their participation, connection and conversation w ith the Jews has been discovered. Since it is clearly dem onstrated that they always try by all means at their disposal, to destroy and draw away the Christian believers from o u r H oly Catholic Faith, to separate them from it, to bring them near to their faith . . . by initiating Christians into their rituals and religious customs, by organizing assemblies in which they read to them and teach them and their children, providing them w ith books from which they could recite their prayers and announce their fast-days, gathering together to read and study the stories o f their Bible, announcing to them the festivals before their celebration, inform ing them w hat they have to observe and do, giving them from their houses the unleavened bread and ritually slaughtered m e a t.. . . Therefore . . . we have agreed to order the expulsion o f all Jews and Jewesses in o u r kingdom . Never should any o f them return and come b a c k .. . . A nd if they are found living in our kingdoms and dom ains they should be p u t to death.19

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The decree o f expulsion was greeted by the Jews w ith despair and disbelief. They were given four m onths to wind up their affairs and were not perm itted to take any gold, silver, or precious metal w ith them. Recognizing that they could not avoid a forced journey into the unknown, they sought frantically to divest themselves o f their property, but the task was virtually hopeless in the time allotted. The accumulated communal treasures o f generations included exquisite synagogues and ancient cemeteries, ritual baths and halls. As for private buildings, how could they sell quickly so many villas and vineyards, orchards and grainfields? The market was flooded still more by workshops and ateliers, thousands o f homes, and unrem itted debts. The contemporary priest Andrés Bemäldez describes how m ost possessions went for a pittance: a vineyard for the price o f a handkerchief, a house for a donkey, a workshop for a piece o f linen or a loaf o f bread. Some people buried their valuables in the hope that they would return later. Agonized scholars dispersed family libraries that had been preserved for genera­ tions, even as they tried to commit some o f this treasured wisdom to memory. AbrabanePs description is still moving: The people heard this evil decree and they m ourned. W herever w ord o f the decree reached, there was great m ourning am ong the Jews. There was great trem bling and sorrow the likes o f w hich had n o t been experienced since the days o f the exile o f the Jews from their land to the land o f foreigners. T he Jews encouraged each other: L et us strengthen ourselves on behalf o f our faith, on behalf o f the T orah o f our G od . . . if [our enemies] let us live, we will live; and if they kill us, we will die. But we will n o t profane our covenant, and o u r hearts will not retrogress; we will walk forward in the name o f the L ord o u r G od.20

The author o f their distress, Ferdinand, coldly calculated how much he could reap from the decree. For one thing, he cynically ordered Jewish communities to pay the communal taxes due for the next several years so that he would not lose revenue by their departure. Debts outstanding to Jews were deferred or transferred to the crown. To ensure that their children would have extra protectors during the upcoming ordeal, many families hurriedly m arried them off. The major problem, however, was finding a country o f asylum. England and France had banished their Jewish communities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. After the Black Death o f 1548, which wiped out

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almost a fifth o f Europe’s population, many German towns had ex­ pelled Jews or destroyed their communities, accusing them o f causing the deaths by poisoning wells. Almost all o f Italy had refused to admit the Spanish refugees, while the few existing Jewish communities there could not handle much immigration in the face o f restrictions placed upon them. N orth Africa was a possibility, but the hapless Sephardim had to bribe ruthless ship captains and rely upon unsafe vessels; in the event, many refugees w ound up adrift on the M editerranean. The exodus began in the first week o f July. The majority o f the Jews from Castile, num bering about 120,000, set off for neighboring Portu­ gal, where, for a hefty fee. King John II granted them a temporary entrance perm it good for eight m onths. Those unable to pay for the perm it were forthw ith sold into slavery. At the end o f the period o f asylum, 600 families o f affluent Jews would be perm itted to remain, at a cost o f 100 cruzados per household, along w ith a certain number o f skilled craftsmen and artisans. The king at first agreed to provide ships to take the rest o f the community elsewhere. Much more promising, in the short run, was the reaction o f the independent kingdom o f Navarre, which refused to be persuaded by the enemies o f the Jews to bar their immigration. Several thousand Sephardim sought sanctuary there and set up their own communities o f “foreigners” (foranos) and “newcom­ ers” (nuevamente venidos) alongside the original Jewish inhabitants (aljama de lasjudios nativos). Unfortunately, the expelled Jews would not long find peace in either Portugal or Navarre, for in both kingdoms they would be forcibly converted to Christianity w ithin a few years. Perhaps as many as 20,000 Andalusian Jews flocked to the port o f Càdiz en route to N orth Africa, but there is no way o f knowing how many actually succeeded in crossing the M editerranean safely. This route was especially hazardous, according to testimonies from N orth African communities, because o f the piracy endemic to the area. Fur­ ther risks included a new outbreak o f the plague, along with the closing o f M uslim coastal cities to the infected wanderers. O ther contem porary accounts give us faint but poignant echoes o f the fates o f refugees sailing farther eastward. On August 24, nine plague-ridden caravels entered the Bay o f Naples after drifting from port to port that had refused them entry. According to a Genoese historian who saw the passengers, “one m ight have taken them for spectres, so emaciated were they, so cadaverous in their aspect, and with eyes so sunken: they differed in nothing from the dead, except in the power o f m otion, which indeed they scarcely retained .”21

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Later in the same m onth, another convoy reached Marseilles, where the small Jewish community was hard pressed to ransom n8 Sephardim from Aragon held hostage by a captain threatening to sell them on the slave market in the Levant. According to the fragmentary Hebrew report o f this incident, the local Jews borrowed 1,500 ecus from a Christian moneylender, promising repayment within four m onths, even for those hostages who m ight convert to Christianity. The refugees were freed, clothed, and resetded, and the debt was paid off the fol­ lowing February, albeit late. T h ro u g h o u t th e final w eeks, th e steadfastness o f th e S ephardim w as so rem arkable th a t even th e generally unsym pathetic observer and chronicler A ndrés B em äldez w as m oved to w rite w ith ad m iratio n : In the first week o f July they took the route for quitting their native land, great and small, young and old, on foot or horses, in carts each continuing his journey to his destined port. They experienced great trouble and suffered indescribable misfortunes on the road, some fall­ ing, others rising, some dying, others being bom , some fainting, others being attacked by illness. There was not a Christian b u t that pitied them and pleaded w ith them to be baptized. Some from misery were converted, but they were the few. The rabbis encouraged them and made the young people and w om en sing and play o n pipes and tambours to enliven them and keep up their spirits and thus they left Castile and arrived at the ports where some em barked for Portugal.22

M any called o u t aloud to th e L o rd fo r succor o n th e ir jo u rn ey and w ept b itterly u p o n reaching th e shores o f th e M ed iterran ean . B u t th is was n o t th e en tire story. A lth o u g h so m eth in g like 175,000 Jew s left Spain in th e sp rin g and sum m er o f 1492, an o th er 100,000 chose to convert d u rin g th o se final m o n th s o f panic, sw elling th e ranks o f th e already large g ro u p o f conversos. A nd after experiencing h arsh recep tio n s elsew here, m any o f th o se expelled w o u ld retu rn an d co n v ert, an d th e ir p ro p erty w ould be resto red to them . As w e have seen, am ong th o se w h o chose conversion w as n o n e o th er th an th e leading Jew ish c o u rtier A braham S eneor, alth o u g h his case is am biguous. F o r on e th in g , th e p ro sp ect o f exile fo r an o cto g e­ narian is n o sm all m atter. F o r an o th er, sources close to th e p e rio d suggest th a t Isabella th reaten ed d ire consequences to his b reth ren if Seneor d id n o t convert. She apparendy th o u g h t th a t th e en tire com ­ m unity w ould be in sp ired to follow th e exam ple o f th e ir leader. O n th e contrary, his nam e has been preserved in H eb rew sources as A braham

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Sone Or (i.e., the H ater o f Light). H e remained as chief counselor and financier to the crown, gaining even greater honors in his new persona as Fernando Nunez Coronel. Indeed, at least half o f all o f the Jews could not find the strength to leave Spain and accepted conversion. As we have seen, many Jews who refused to convert decided to take advantage o f the expensive eight-m onth-long reprieve offered in Por­ tugal by John II, who perm itted 600 families o f affluent Jews to stay. At the end o f the reprieve period, however, the king changed his mind about giving the rest passage elsewhere, accused them o f reneging on their part o f the bargain, and gave them the choice o f conversion or being handed over as slaves to his Christian subjects. In an act o f unaccountable cruelty, the king ordered that many Jewish children be forcibly wrested from parents who refused to con­ vert and sent to the virtually uninhabited Portuguese island o f Sao Tom é, off the coast o f W est Africa. The Portuguese Jewish chronicler Samuel Usque recalled the incident in his torm ented memoirs: T he island o f Sao T om é had recently been discovered. I t was inhabited by lizards, snakes, and other venom ous reptiles, and was devoid o f rational beings. H ere the king exiled condem ned criminals, and he decided to include am ong them the innocent children o f these Jews. T heir parents, had seemingly been condem ned by G od’s sentence. W hen the luckless ho u r arrived for this barbarity to be inflicted, m others scratched their faces in grief as their babes, less than three years old, were taken from their arms. H onored elders tore their beards w hen the fruit o f their bodies was snatched before their eyes. T he fated children raised their piercing cries to heaven as they were mercilessly to m from their beloved p a re n ts.. . . Several w om en threw themselves at the king’s feet, begging for permission to accompany their children; b u t n o t even this moved the king’s pity. O ne m other, distraught by this horrible unexplained cru­ elty, lifted h er baby in her arms, and paying no heed to its cries, threw herself from the ship into the heaving sea, and drow ned em bracing her only child. Finally, w hen those innocent children arrived at the wilderness o f Sao T om é, w hich was to be their grave, they were throw n ashore and w ere mercilessly left there. A lm ost all were swallowed up by the huge lizards o n the island and the remainder, w ho escaped these reptiles, w asted away from hunger and abandonm ent.23

Tem porary relief from conversionist pressure came in 1495, when John died and his successor, M anuel I, ordered that all enslaved Jews be

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released. The respite was brief. The new monarch was am bitious to ally himself with the throne o f Spain by marrying Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter. They would agree to the match only on the condition that he expel the Jews from Portugal. His decree o f expulsion, prom ulgated on December j, 1496, gave them until the end o f 1497 to depart. In fact, M anuel d id n o t w an t to encourage th e Jew s to leave, fo r a very practical reason. U nlike Spain, his k ingdom d id n o t have a converso p o p u latio n th a t could rem ain b eh in d to serve as th e n a tio n ’s m iddle class after th e expulsion. H e w an ted , th erefo re, to elim inate Judaism w hile retain in g th e Jew s. H is so lu tio n w as to try to force all P o rtu g u ese Jews to convert. O n M arch 19,1497, d u rin g th e Passover h o lid ay , o rd ers w en t o u t th a t all Jew ish children betw een th e ages o f fo u r an d fo u rteen by seized an d converted; in ad d itio n , th ey w ere to rem ain perm an en tly separated from paren ts w h o refused to convert. A t th e sam e tim e, Jew s w ho h ad decided to leave th e co u n try w ere to ld th a t th ey co u ld d e p a rt only from L isbon. W hen th ey arrived, com ing from all o ver th e co u n ­ try , they w ere shocked to find th a t th eir ch ild ren , to o , w ere tak en aw ay. M oreover, n o boats h ad been readied in p o rt to tra n sp o rt th em in to exile, an d an arm y o f p riests aw aited th em o n th e palace g ro u n d s. A fter they had been d ragged to th is site, th ey w ere b ap tized en masse. T h e decree o f expulsion d id n o t have to be carried o u t, because all th e Jew s o f P o rtu g al w ere n o w C hristians. T h e ironies o f th e situ atio n are as clear as th ey are p o ig n an t, in term s o f u n d erstan d in g th e converso problem . S pain h ad expelled h er Jew s in o rd er to elim inate th e ir influence o n conversas, b u t th e expulsion had only succeeded in sw elling th e ranks o f th e conversas w ith in h e r borders. N ext d o o r, th e forced conversions o f M anuel e n tra p p ed th e stalw arts w h o had fled from Spain, th ereb y ad d in g scores o f th o u san d s o f unw illing converts to th e to ta l converso com m unity. T h e com bined effects o f these tw o events, th erefo re, ad ded vast num bers o f conversas to th e body p o litic o f Spain an d P o rtu g al. In th e special circum stances o f d ie latter, M an u el accepted th e ar­ gum ents o f th e forced converts th a t, given th e su d d en an d v io len t n atu re o f th e ir conversion, th ey needed tim e to ad ju st to th e ir new id en tities. H e agreed to m ake n o in q u iries in to th e ir relig io u s practices fo r th e next tw enty years and fu rth e r decreed th a t n o d istin ctio n s w o u ld be m ade betw een N ew an d O ld C h ristian s, in th e h o p e th a t th e co n ­ verts “w ould lose th e ir accustom ed h ab its an d be confirm ed in o u r h o ly faith .” B u t th e king’s assum ptions p ro v ed to be unrealistic. A s in S pain, th e

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distinctive mass o f forced converts could not possibly change their religious identity overnight. Stalwarts o f Judaism by definition, since they had escaped to Portugal in the first place to avoid conversion, they remained an entire Jewish community—rabbis, scholars, beggars, busi­ nessmen—even though they had been forcibly baptized. Immediately, therefore, the populace began to make invidious comparisons between themselves and these New Christians, who quickly began rising to positions o f prominence in the country that refused to let them leave. In 1506, a mob led by two Dominican friars staged a massive pogrom in Lisbon, killing at least 2,000 New Christians. The survivors implored the king to let them leave; when he consented, several thousand emi­ grated, m ost o f them destined for the Ottom an Empire. Their brethren continued to pour out o f the country by the boatload until 1521, when the ban on emigration was restored. M ost converts, however, remained in Portugal. By dispatching or­ ganized delegations to Rome, they managed to ward off the introduc­ tion o f the Inquisition to Portugal. Since this effort required the payment o f substantial bribes, it seems clear that the New Christian community was a cohesive group able to pool its resources for con­ certed action. In other words, their sense o f group identity continued to be strong. Ultimately, however, they failed at keeping out the Inquisi­ tion, which was instituted in Portugal in 1536. The delay seems only to have intensified the fervor o f the Inquisitors, for their behavior was even more drastic and sweeping than in Spain, their methods more vicious, and the results more terrifying. Also, the special circumstances o f the cmversos played a role; since they had to face the full impact o f Inquisitorial zeal w ith no practicing Jewish community from which to draw sustenance as fear pervaded their households, their crypto-Judaic practices grew even more subterranean, their Judaism more fervent. For the next several hundred years, in fact, the fading remnants o f Judaism were secretly cultivated in Portugal, even as normative Judaism faded. As in Spain, blood purity statutes kept alive the distinction between the converts and Old Christians, consolidating a brotherhood o f believers in a conspiracy o f suffering. O ver tim e, a new relig io n , n eith er w holly Jew ish n o r w holly C ath ­ olic, evolved am ong th e secret Jew s o f P o rtu g al. I t w as a b elief th a t co m b in ed secrecy w ith fear, p artial m em ory w ith substantial loss. Its observances in cluded m uch fasting, abbreviated prayers in w hich only o n e H eb rew w o rd (“A d o n ai,” o r G o d ) w as retain ed , sh o rten ed festivals th a t co u ld be covertly observed a t hom e, and a special set o f rituals

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reserved prim arily fo r w om en. T h e forced converts w o u ld rem ain co u ­ rageously loyal to th is new faith even in extremis, as is ev id en t fro m literally tens o f thousands o f In q u isitio n dossiers. T h e echoes o f th e ir fo rtitu d e w o u ld reach across th e A tlantic in to th e N ew W orld. In ad d itio n to P o rtu g al, th e sm all kingdom o f N avarre h ad seem ed an im m ediately convenient refuge in 1492. A tin y enclave o f Jew s g a th ­ ered th ere direedy from th e so u th o f Spain, feverishly th rew them selves in to reb u ild in g th eir lives, and w orked o n stren g th en in g th e ir aljama. By th e beginning o f 1498, how ever, th e influence o f F erd in an d an d Isabella had prevailed over th e o p p o sitio n o f th e local dynasty an d these refugees, to o , h ad to face th e choice betw een exile an d conversion. G eography played a significant p a rt, in th is instance, because N avarre w as a land-locked kingdom ; France to th e n o rth an d C astile an d A ra­ g o n to th e so u th w ere closed to th e Jew s. T hus th e last forced conver­ sion o f Ib eria to o k place, and th e sto ry o f th e Sephardim o f Spain as a legally co n stitu ted and recognized body cam e to an end. T h eir h isto ry thenceforw ard w ould be o f a dou b ly exiled com m unity scattered to virtually all com ers o f th e earth .

B rothers and teachers, friends and acquaintances: I, Isaac Z a rfa t. . . proclaim to you th at Turkey is a land w herein n o thing is lacking, and where, if you will, all shall yet be well w ith you. T he way to the H oly L and lies open to you th ro u g h Turkey. . . . H ere every m an may dwell at peace u nder his ow n vine and fig-tree . 1 — Isaac Zarfati

Resh Lakish has said: T he H oly O ne, Blessed be H e, does n o t sm ite Israel unless H e has created for them a healing beforehand. — Babylonian Talm ud

Megittah 13b

T he expulsions from Spain an d P o rtu g al w ere echoed in Sicily and m any Italian states d u rin g th e sixteenth cen tu ry , as Jew s w ere driv en o u t to d rift like flotsam from o ne M ed iterran ean p o rt to th e next, briefly finding refuge only to be p u shed o u t again, alw ays to w ard th e East. Sicily’s Jew s, u n d er th e crow n o f th e kingdom o f A rag o n , suffered expulsion in th e sum m er and au tu m n o f 1492. T h e Jew s in S ardinia faced th e sam e fate, and a n u m b er o f th em , like a su b stan tial g ro u p fro m Spain, so u g h t refuge in th e kingdom o f N aples. N aples in tu rn expelled her Jew s in 1497; A pulia and C alabria expelled th eirs in 1510. R efugees from th e Italian and Spanish expulsions w h o fo u n d asylum o n th e D alm atian coast in R agusa (present-day D u b ro v n ik ) w ere o u sted in 1515. In 1569 th e Jew s o f th e Papal States, w ith th e exception o f R om e and A ncona, w ere expelled. In sh o rt, 1492 m arked th e b eg in n in g o f decades o f upheaval. C onsequendy, global Jew ish setd em en t p attern s w ere drastically altered w ith in a g en eratio n : th e M uslim w o rld once again becam e hom e to hun d red s o f new o r revitalized centers o f Jew ish life. In th is com plex diaspora o f th e Sephardim , tw o separate branches began to form . T h ro u g h o u t th e lands o f th e E astern M ed iterran ean an d in th e Balkans, th ere w as a large and h etero g en eo u s d iasp o ra o f m ig ra­ tio n o f L adino- and A rabic-speaking Jew s. In w estern E u ro p e, th e sm aller branch o f th e Sephardic fam ily w as prim arily crypto-Jew ish an d Portuguese-speaking. As th e form er g ro u p w ended th eir w ay to w ard th e H o ly L an d , th ey tended to be introspective and m elancholy, fo r th e w o rld th ey knew h ad literally collapsed and n o relief seem ed in sig h t. A n u n p reced en ted flo o d o f h istory books flow ed from th e pens o f refugees as survivors so u g h t hin ts o f redem ption in th e tragedies aro u n d them . Sam uel U sq u e’s Consolation for the Tribulations ofIsrael painfully assem bled a p anoram a o f Jew ish disasters, suggesting how each m arked th e fulfillm ent o f b ib ­ lical prophecy. Joseph ha-K ohen’s The Vale c f Tears m ournfully c h ro n ­ icled th e litany o f Jew ish disasters, seeking signs o f co m fo rt. T rad itio n al acceptance o f suffering— indeed, tran sfo rm atio n o f th e suffering itse lf in to a privilege o f service to G od— altern ated w ith fury an d in n er reli­ gious d o u b ts. F o r Y ehudah Z arco, a H eb rew p o e t from R h o d es, th e traum a o f Jew ish h isto ry caused a tem p o rary loss o f faith. E legies w rit­ ten after th e expulsion defiandy q u estio n th e w ays o f th e D ivine: “A las, o u r F ath er, is th is th e recom pense w e have sought?” “Is th is th e w ay a father treats his children?” R ab b i Solom on A lkabetz, th e g rea t p o e t o f Safed, w ro te th a t th e Jew s h ad already suffered to o m uch, calling u p o n G od to take notice and save them .

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E very step o f resettlem en t w as strew n w ith obstacles. O nce th e h u rd les o f d ep artu re from th e ir native lands w ere overcom e, th e ex­ pelled S ephardim still h ad to find m odes o f tra n sp o rta tio n and secure places o f asylum . In Spain, fo r exam ple, boats from Italy and N o rth A frica crow ded in to th e co u n try ’s p o rts as w o rd began to circulate th a t ten s o f th o u san d s o f Jew s n eed ed passage elsew here. U n fo rtu n ately , all to o m any sh ip captains, w h eth er G enoese, R agusan, N eap o litan , V e­ n etian , Spanish, o r A rab, w ere venal en o u g h to try to sell th eir passen­ gers an d seize th e ir belongings. In ad d itio n , th e nearest refuge, ju st across th e straits in N o rth A frica, w as barred to Jew s: th e Spanish occu p ied th e p o rts o f A lgeria and T unisia, th e P o rtu g u ese occupied n o rth e rn M orocco. F u rth erm o re, th e in d ep en d en t sheikhs o f th e coastal reg io n s refused to g ra n t th e refugees access to th e in terio r, even if they w ere successful in m aking p o rt. T h e few exiles w h o w ere so determ ined to m ake th e ir w ay to th e safety o f F ez th a t they succeeded in m oving in lan d in M o rocco w ere despoiled en ro u te. A glim pse o f th e h ardships is fo u n d in th e chronicle o f E liyahu C apsali, w h o w as involved in refugee resettlem en t in C andia, C rete, and u n d o u b ted ly h eard th e follow ing from eyew itnesses: Those com munities that lived near the sea boarded boats from Biscay, Catalonia and Castile, some large and some small, for w hen news o f the decree was announced, these boats came from as far away as G enoa and Venice. Some set sail for the M uslim lands, such as O ran, Alcasar, and Bougie, which are far from the coast o f Cartagena. T h o u ­ sands and tens o f thousands o f people came to the p o rt o f Oran. The inhabitants o f the country, on seeing the great num ber o f ships, com­ plained and said: L o, they are making the country narrow for us; and they are com ing as enemies, to destroy us and take us as slaves and b o n d sw o m en .. . . Assemble yourselves and let us go to the fortified cities and fight for ourselves and ou r children. A nd so they did: they shot at the ships w ith cannon and other instruments and destroyed p art o f the Jews. B ut in the end, w hen they heard o f the expulsion, the king received them kindly, for an intercessor stood up for them at the palace in the person o f R. A b ra h am .. . . O nce the Jews finally landed o n dry land, they sought for themselves places to settle, b ut the city was to o small to absorb them. T he king then built them w ooden housing outside the city walls . . . 2

C apsali goes o n to re p o rt th a t a bakehouse in o ne o f th e w o oden h u ts cau g h t fire an d th e refugees o f O ran lo st everything th a t th ey had b een able to salvage fro m Spain.

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F requently, ships loaded w ith exiles w ere ab an d o n ed by th e ir cap­ tains at sea and left to flo at ad rift. I f th e passengers d id n o t die o n th e w ater, they m ig h t w ell suffer th e fete described by th e P o rtu g u ese Jew ish chronicler Sam uel U sque: They were cast, like victims o f contagion, upon a barren beach, fer from hum an help. Babies begged for w ater and m others raised their eyes to heaven for help, while others, reduced to despair by hunger and abandonment, dug their ow n graves.3

A similar account by Solomon ibn Verga, (c. 1450—c. 1520) one o f the most im portant and eloquent chroniclers o f the generation o f ex­ pulsions, provides more details o f the special agony o f those trying times: I heard pass from the lips o f the old, departed from Spain, o f a boat, and the fatal blow it was dealt. T he skipper cast all ashore in a place uninhabited, and there m ost o f them died o f hunger; those struggled to stay on their feet until they could find a place o f settlement. A nd one Jew am ong them, he, his wife and their tw o sons strove to go on; the woman, rather than let her feet stray, fainted and died. T he man bore his sons, and he also fainted, as did the sons, from the hunger cast over them. W hen the man overcame his weakness he found his sons dead. In a frenzy, he rose to his feet and exclaimed, “M aster o f the universe! You hasten to make me abandon you. K now , my Faith, against the will o f those residing in heaven, I am a Jew and a Jew I shall remain; and all that you have caused me to bear and will further bring upon me shall not hinder me from w orshipping you.” A nd he gathered dirt and weeds and covered the tw o children and w ent in search o f a settlement.4

I t is n o t su rp risin g th a t th e Jew s in exile felt th a t all th e biblical predictions o f catastrophe w ere reaching fru itio n . B ut th ere w as m ore. N o t lo n g after 12,000 Jew s arrived safely in T lem cen, a strategic o u tp o st o n th e b o rd er betw een A lgeria an d M o ­ rocco, alm ost 3,000 o f th em w o u ld succum b to th e plague. M any o f th e survivors, unable to w ith stan d th e rig o rs o f life in N o rth A frica, re­ treated to Spain, as w o u ld exiles from m any o th e r Islam ic p o rts. F o r one th in g , th ey fo u n d them selves cau g h t in th e c o n tin u in g b attles be­ tw een Spaniards, O tto m an T u rk s, an d th e local B erber forces. F o r an o th er, th e M uslim p o p u latio n s w ere relu ctan t to receive th e large num bers o f w an d erin g refugees. In m any cases, how ever, th e lo a d

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Jewish communities were able to intercede and bring about the admis­ sion o f their brethren, albeit at great cost. To take one example recalled by the astronom er and historian Abraham Zacuto, Columbus’s famous supporter, in 1499 the Algerian Jewish community generously redeemed fifty Jews who had been imprisoned for two years in Seville. In the long run, however, the Sephardim who reached Morocco were the m ost fortunate o f the exiles to N orth Africa. The king o f Fez, M ulai M uhammed esh-Sheikh, had agreed to let them settle outside the city walls. N ot only the reported “kindness o f the King” but also the city’s reputation as a center o f learning soon attracted as many as 20,000 refugees. M ost were suffering from cholera, a circumstance that m ight explain why they were not allowed to join the Jewish community inside the city. But as they arrived, the local Jews emerged to welcome them, pay their ransoms, and supply them w ith food and clothing. Yet readjustm ent even in this relatively peaceful atmosphere was nonetheless extraordinarily difficult. The introductions to books com­ posed in the M aghreb during these traum atic years are filled with la­ ments over lost libraries, disease, insecurity, and continuing harassment. The recollections o f one refugee intellectual, Judah Hayyat, are espe­ cially harrowing: O ne Ishmaelite from Spain, from the same locality as I, arrived there [M orocco] and told slanderous stories about me, and people believed him as if there had been three witnesses. They smote me, they w ounded me, they took away my veil from me and threw me into a deep pit w ith snakes and scorpions in it. They presendy sentenced me to be stoned to death, bu t prom ised that if I changed my religion they w ould make me captain over t h e m . . . . B ut the G od in w hom I trust frustrated their design. W hen I had been there for almost forty days in darkness and in gloom , w ith scanty bread and w ater by measure, my belly cleaving to the ground, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in w ant o f all things, G od stirred up the spirit o f the Jews in Chechaouen, and they came thither to redeem me, and I rewarded them for my redem ption by giving them nearly tw o hundred books w hich I had.5

In fact, local conditions were so harsh that many refugees decided, if reluctantly, to take up the wanderer’s staff anew. Ibn Hayyat, for example, remained only briefly in Fez before moving on to Naples and from there to Venice. H e finally settled down in M antua, where he was able to resume his scholarly career. This odyssey was typical for the

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exiled Sephardic sages, w h o characteristically m oved fro m place to place u n til they finally reached th e O tto m an E m pire. Som e, like Jacob B erab, co n tin u ed to w ander even w ith in th e em pire; h e m oved a ro u n d N o rth A frica fo r years before settlin g a t last in Palestine. S tab ility w as th e exception, m obility th e rule, d u rin g th e first cen tu ry o f exile. F ragm entary tales o f m isfo rtu n e th a t have survived show th a t th e suffering w as by n o m eans confined to th e N o rth A frican coast. Sephardim forced to flee from N aples in 1540 w ere ro b b ed by th e ir R agusan captain an d abandoned in M arseilles. O nly because th e F ren ch king Francis I to o k p ity o n th em w ere th ey able to m ake th e ir w ay to th e L evant. In 1558, a b o atlo ad o f refugees fleeing P esaro w as b arred from R agusa and sold in to slavery in A pulia by th e sh ip 's crew . S till m ore tragic w as th e fate o f fifty-tw o passengers o n a G reek sh ip in 1583; all w ere m u rdered at sea. F req u en tly , Jew s becam e paw ns in th e im pe­ rial contests o f E urope. F o r ©cample, w hen Spain's C harles V c ap tu red T unis in 1535, all o f th e Jew s th ere w ere so ld in to captivity. N o r co u ld th e assurances o f th e clergy be tru sted . T w en ty -fo u r Jew ish m erch an ts, form erly marrams, w ere b u rn ed a t th e stake in A ncona in 1553 by o rd e r o f th e Papal In q u isitio n , even th o u g h all h ad expressly been g ran te d perm ission to revert to Judaism u n d er charters o f p ro tectio n . In th e fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, th erefo re, it w as th e O tto ­ m an E m pire, th en at th e zen ith o f h er pow er, th a t alone afforded exiles a place w here “th eir w eary feet co u ld find rest.” T h e O tto m an s in itially established a bridgehead in A natolia aro u n d 1300, th e n expanded re­ lentlessly from th ere th ro u g h so u th eastern E u ro p e all th e w ay to th e D anube. T hey had bypassed C o n stan tin o p le b u t u n d e r M ehm et I I fi­ nally conquered th e B yzantine capital in 1453, c o n tin u in g th e ir cam ­ paigns u n d er Selim I w ith th e capture o f Syria and E gy p t. T h e last o f th e con q u erin g sultans, Suleim an th e M agnificent (1520-66), c ap tu red H u n g ary in 1526, besieging V ienna in 1529. In th e E ast he to o k Ira q an d m ost o f th e Caucasus in 1535, w hile also extending O tto m a n c o n tro l over m ost o f N o rth A frica. A t its peak o f expansion, th e E m pire encom ­ passed approxim ately 250,000 Jew s. H e r sultans— Bayezid II, M ehm et II, Suleim an th e M agnificent— w ere dynam ic, farsighted rulers w h o w ere d elig h ted to receive th e tal­ ented , skilled Jew ish outcasts o f E u ro p e. T h e artisans an d craftsm en am ong th em w ere recognized as a v ital force fo r an ex panding em pire. T he m erchants w ere seen as a valuable su p p lem en t to th e existing w ar­ rio r and agrarian classes, fo r th ey w ere a people capable o f tak in g risks, know ledgeable a b o u t prices an d econom ic co n d itio n s in far-o ff places.

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and eager to retain o r renew th e ir contacts all over E urope. In ad d itio n , th ese fo rm er E u ropeans w ere n o t a t all in terested in advancing th e m ilitary designs o f th e ir erstw hile rulers. B ayezid II, resp o n d in g to th e expulsion from Spain, rep o rted ly exclaim ed, “Y ou call F erd in an d a w ise king, he w h o im poverishes his co u n try and enriches o u r ow n!” H e n o t only w elcom ed th e Sephardic exiles b u t o rd ered his provincial gover­ n o rs to assist th e w anderers by o p en in g th e borders. In d eed , th e refu­ gees w o u ld find th e O tto m an state to be pow erful, generous, and to leran t. Jew s have trad itio n ally view ed th e events o f h isto ry , perhaps espe­ cially th e actions o f n atio n s, as p a rt o f a larger divine schem e. In this vein, th e O tto m an policies, w eighed against th e vicissitudes o f th e day by th e un u su al cluster o f h isto rian s w ho em erged am ong th e exiles, w ere seen to convey h id d en m essages ab o u t G od’s in ten tio n s. C apsali, in p articu lar, discerned special redem ptive p o rten ts in th is unprece­ d en ted Islam ic largesse an d com pared th e T urkish leaders to th e ancient P ersian C yrus, w h o h ad in v ited th e Jew ish exiles in B abylon to retu rn to th e lan d o f Israel. H e confidendy described th e w orking o f G od’s w ill in th e decisions m ade by Islam ic rulers: In the first year o f the Sultan M ehm et, K ing o f Turkey . . . the L ord aroused the spirit o f the king, Sultan M ehm et, K ing o f Turkey, and his voice passed through his kingdom and also by proclamation say­ ing: This is the w ord o f M ehm et king o f Turkey, the L ord G od gave me a kingdom in the land and he com manded me to num ber his people the seed o f Abraham his servant, the sons o f Jacob his chosen ones, and to give them sustenance in the land and to provide a safe haven for them. L et each one w ith his G od come to Constantinople the seat o f my kingdom and sit under his vine and under his fig tree w ith his gold and silver, property and catde, setde in the land and trade and become part o f it.6

M oreover, as d id o th ers o f his g en eratio n , C apsali believed th a t th e o p e n -d o o r policy w as p a rt o f a divine strategy to b rin g th e Jew s nearer th e lan d o f Israel in p rep aratio n fo r th e ir redem ption. Follow ing the establishment o f Sultan Selim’s rule in Egypt all false gods will be eliminated and banished, and this will be a tim e o f redem ption. A nd ou r righteous Messiah will come . . . because ever since the expulsion from Spain, G od has started to gather the exiled from Israel and Judea in the lands o f the dispersion and he is assem­ bling them from the four com ers o f the earth.7

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The Empire’s policy not only welcomed Jews but also sought to increase their num ber in specific sites. Initially, this aim was accom­ plished with a harsh system known as sw&m*, the forced m ovem ent o f entire population groups. After his conquest o f Constantinople in 145$, for example, Sultan M ehmet decided to make the capital o f Byzantium his own, renaming it Istanbul, and sent an order transferring “his ow n people and many o f the Hebrews” to the city. U ntold suffering m ust have attended the transfer o f Jews from Thrace, Anatolia, and R um dia, while those still under Christian control on the nearby islands o f Crete and Rhodes composed lamentations in fear o f later enduring a sim ilar fete. The policy was continued or renewed for generations. In 1516, when Selim II conquered Egypt, he brought Jewish craftsmen and m erchants from Alexandria and Cairo in order to augment the middle class in the imperial capital. Similarly, when Suleiman the M agnificent captured Rhodes in 1523, he ordered 150 wealthy Jews transferred there from Salonika. W hen he vanquished Cyprus in 1571, he commanded that 1,000 Jewish families o f artisans and merchants be forcibly moved there from SafecL, Palestine. In this instance, Jewish delegations repeatedly petitioned him to reduce the num ber o f deportees, warning that Safccfs textile industry would otherwise be ruined. The Sultan replied, “In the interests o f the said island, my noble command has been w ritten,” and ensured that the coerced migrants would be granted tax exemptions for twenty years as well as free housing. Such incentives were obviously not entirely successful, for in 1579 the governor o f the island tried to detain too Jews from Salonika when their ship bound for Palestine anchored in the Cypriot port o f Famagusta. In th e lo n g ru n , how ever, th e d read ed d e p o rta tio n s m ade it possible fo r Jew s to p ro sp er in th e n ew centers o f com m erce. In d eed , th e staguns w ere largely fo rg o tte n in h istorical retrospectives; m o re im p o rta n t w ere th e m ajor peaceful m ig ratio n s an d th e su b seq u en t renaissance o f Jew ish life th ro u g h o u t th e O tto m an lands. T h e c o n tin u in g expansion o f th e E m pire, com bined w ith its c o n tin u in g attractiveness as a haven, co n ­ trib u te d to th e increase in th e Jew ish p o p u latio n all through th e six­ teen th century. As w e have seen, th e L isb o n m assacre o f 1506 stim u lated th e m ig ratio n o f th o u san d s o f P o rtu g u ese conversas. W h at th ey en co u n ­ tered , and helped b u ild , w as th e estab lish m en t o f Jew ish com m unities along all o f th e im p o rta n t trad e ro u tes fro m th e W est to T urkey. B o th R agusa’s (D u b ro v n ik ’s) “Jew S treet,” a com m ercial w ay sta tio n o n th e ro u te from V enice, an d Sarajevo’s Jew ish q u a rte r d a te fro m th is p erio d .

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Selim ITs conquest made it possible for Cairo’s ancient Jewish com­ m unity to accept exiles and assist them in resettlement. On the other hand, many cities saw the establishment o f Jewish communities for the first tim e in centuries. In Vienna, for instance, the refugees from Iberia were granted a foothold despite a general prohibition against Jewish settlem ent. Demographically, the sheer numbers o f the Spanish exiles, along w ith their abundant talents and leadership skills, would culturally over­ whelm the Arabic-speaking Jewish communities already established in the Levant, although these indigenous Jews, known as the musta’ariba,, would be able to retain their language. In this fertile intermingling, such communities as Edim e (Adrianople), Izm ir (Smyrna), and Bursa enjoyed a new lease on life. The Sephardic influence also led to the creation o f several entirely new Jewish centers o f great significance at the very heart o f the Empire. Above them all, Salonika and Istanbul towered as representative o f this new era in Jewish civilization. Salonika especially, soon to be known as die “Jerusalem o f the Balkans,” dwarfed all other O ttom an cities in term s o f its concentration o f Sephardic population, num ber and variety o f congregations, diversity o f talent and abundance o f intellectual leaders, and the presence o f influential Jewish diplom ats. According to one authority, in 1430 2,509 Jewish households ( 17,563 people) were registered in the city. By 1519, there were m ore than 4,000 households, divided into twenty-four congrega­ tions, and by mid-century, the total num ber o f congregations had in­ creased to forty-four. In 1553, a German traveler, Hans Demschwam, presumably using inform ation from the rolls o f male taxpayers, esti­ m ated that there were 20,000 Jewish males in the city. Jews would thus constitute the majority o f the population, outnum bering the combined total o f Greeks and Turks living there. Visitors remarked with surprise that the entire commercial life o f the city ground to a halt on the Sabbath. D uring the same general period, Turkish census reports reveal that Istanbul’s Jewish population in 1477 was 1,647 households (perhaps 11,529 people), o r about 11 percent erf the city’s total population, but rose by 1535 to 8,070 households (56,490 people). Dernschwam’s 1553 esti­ m ate found 15,000 Jewish males there. In 1638, the Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi visited the capital and reported that the 11,000 Jewish families (77,000 people) num bered twice the local Greek population. But census figures alone can hardly convey the diverse cultural rich­ ness and cosmopolitanism o f the O ttom an Jewish communities. In the first place, the original Greek-speaking Jewish population in Istanbul,

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the Romaniots, retained indigenous traditions that had developed over the course o f centuries in Christian Byzantium. In addition, successive waves o f immigration from Germany, Hungary, Provence, and Bohe­ mia throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries not only rein­ forced the Romaniot community but also introduced separate houses o f worship and ritual practices. The mix became even more complex and diversified, o f course, when the post-1492 migrants arrived w ith their own customs, Spanish language, characteristic life-style, and a new sense o f Sephardic pride and assertiveness. It was not long before La­ dino triumphed over Greek, Provençal, Italian, and Yiddish in the mar­ ketplaces, workshops, and several o f the synagogues—a living rem nant o f the lost “homeland” o f Spain. Coincidentally, the strong desire o f the immigrants to retain their distinctive languages and modes o f organization was compatible w ith the decentralized structure o f the Empire. Each O ttom an tow n was autonomous; w ithin its walls, every religious and national group was organized in a separate congregation. From the perspective o f their new rulers therefore, it was quite natural for the Jews to preserve and cul­ tivate a welter o f suborganizations and subdivisions. O ttom an author­ ities cared only for the continued maintenance o f public order and the timely remittance o f taxes by a humble dhimmi (Jewish and Christian) population. The sixteenth-century Salonika rabbi Joseph ibn Leb ex­ plained how this worked: In Salonika, every [Jewish] m an speaks his ow n native tongue. W hen the exiles arrived, each vernacular group founded an independent congregation, there being mobility from congregation to congrega­ tion. Each congregation maintains its poor; each congregation is en­ tirely separate in the Crow n register. Thus each congregation appears to be an independent city.8

Indeed, not since ancient Alexandria had Jews been so well orga­ nized in so many groupings. These independent congregations based on language and common origin elected their own officers, w ith the wealthier taxpayers generally exercising a controlling influence. Each congregation strove to meet all the needs o f its members, setting up separate schools, charity chests, burial grounds, law courts, and, o f course, houses o f worship. At the same tim e, all congregations w ithin a city were loosely joined together in a representative body o f delegates elected to handle such general questions as taxation, upkeep o f the Yeshiva (the school o f higher Talmudic learning), and urgent commu-

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nity m atters. In Istanbul, the various congregations followed the will o f the m ajority in the representative delegate body, but in Salonika, each congregation had almost total freedom. In such large cities, dozens o f congregations retained a flavor o f the “old country,” bearing such names as “the congregation o P Lisbon, Evora, Catalonia, Gcrush Sepharad (Spanish exile), Sicily, Apulia, Cala­ bria, O tranto, the M aghreb, Provence, Saragossa, Corfii, Toledo, Ara­ gon, Andalusia, and Cördoba. The size o f a congregation ranged from several dozen to almost 300 members. Splits and schisms were not uncommon, apparently unconnected to size or the passage o f time. Although such fragm entation could lead to friction, it could also result in increased opportunities for leadership and self-expression. Perhaps it would seem natural for new groups to coalesce once the first immigrant generation died out, but in fact splits continued to occur and the num­ ber o f congregations m ultiplied faster than warranted solely by the new waves o f immigration. For example, the Old Catalan and New Catalan congregations may well have been formed as a result o f divisions be­ tween those who arrived earlier and those who came later, but dates o f arrival cannot account for many other congregational breakoffs. Leg­ islation prohibiting splits was adopted, but it was ineffective. The Gerush Sepharad, Lisbon, and Catalan congregations each succeeded only tem porarily in holding its membership together. One group left the Lisbon congregation to form Evora, then the remaining members o f Lisbon split into O ld Lisbon and New Lisbon. Individual personal differences were only partially a factor in the schisms and splits. Perhaps the continuing stream o f cx-conversos into the Lisbon congregation sparked special controversy, because these émigrés tended to keep to themselves, m aintaining social ties established long ago in Iberia. In any event, the impression one receives o f sixteenth-century Salonika and Istanbul is o f large, heterogeneous communities humming with a great variety o f activities, crisscrossed by dozens o f organizations and m ulti­ ple identities. Despite these internal tensions and divisions, the com­ m unity as a whole would band together to assist marrams. When, for example, Venice decided to expel its New Christian population in 1550, Salonika’s leaders graciously invited the forty families facing homeless­ ness. “Come here on a trial basis,” they wrote, “if you will be pleased to stay w ith us and you find that your affairs will succeed here, you may remain. Otherwise, you may depart w ithout owing us any taxes for the entire period o f your experimentation.”9 Over tim e, the original regional differences between the Jews began

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to blur because o f at least three factors: intermarriage between the various Jewish groups, mergers o f congregations, and the development o f new social and commercial ties. The organizational structure that remained kept a strong Spanish coloration in language, dress, customs, and manners. In addition to the passage o f time, another factor m uting the differences between the Sephardim and other Jews was the intro­ duction o f a widely accepted, leveling code o f law. The Shulhan Aruch, created by Rabbi Joseph Caro in 1564, embodied and codified Sephardic legal usage. Finally, linguistic diversity began to diminish w ith the triumph o f Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), an admixture o f Turkish, Hebrew, and Spanish that became the linguafranca o f the community, gradually helping to meld a more homogeneous culture. I t is still n o t clear precisely w hy th e o rig in al frag m en tatio n w as q u ite so p ersisten t and long-lived. W as it a resu lt o f O tto m a n policies th a t ten d ed to divide foreign gro u p s in o rd er to supervise th em m ore effectively? O r had th e Jew s h o p ed to ease th e ir ad ju stm en t to new lands by preserving som e aspects o f th e Spanish h eritag e o f w hich th ey w ere alm ost arrogantly proud? P erhaps th e answ er lies in th e co n v ictio n o f rabbis th a t diversity w ould encourage g reater religious observance. T h at is th e suggestion o f one o f E gypt’s g reat Sephardic leaders, R ab b i D avid ib n A bi Z im ra: W ith the breaking away o f groups from their fellow-townsmen and their com m on language, there is also a corresponding breaking up o f devout hearts; nor are their prayers o f praise to G od united. B ut if they are o f one city o f origin and o f one language, then will peace dwell am ong them , for each will feel at hom e and know his status.10

In Salonika, new com ers w ere a t first assigned to a p articu lar co n ­ g reg atio n by lo t, in p a rt so th a t th e b u rd en o f in teg ratin g th e refugees w ould be shared an d in p a rt so th a t n o o ne co n g reg atio n w o u ld expand at th e expense o f th e o th ers. As tim e passed, how ever, an d exiles arrived w hose background w as checkered w ith m any false starts elsew here, it becam e clear th a t it w o u ld be b est to d eterm in e w hich co n g reg atio n al affiliation w ould be m o st ap p ro p riate fo r them . T o th a t en d , th e com ­ m unity w orked o u t an agreem ent th a t “anyone im m ig ratin g to th e city being o f second g en eratio n Italian b irth , even th o u g h th e g ran d fath er had o rig in ated in P o rtu g al o r C astile o r A ragon o r an o th er kin g d o m , shall g o to th e Italian synagogue. H ow ever, if his fath er w as b o m in o n e o f th e above-m entioned kingdom s, th e n he shall jo in th e co n g reg atio n

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o f his native tongue.”11 Even this compromise caused problems with the Aragonese congregation, however, who felt their growth would be inhibited because no one o f Jewish origin now remained in Spain ex­ cept the marrams, and they seemed to be settling into a crypto-Jewish existence o f increasing assimilation. Such diversity masked but did not entirely conceal acrimony over many issues. For example, there was much lively discussion o f the competing claims o f rich and poor in sharing community decision­ making. Rabbi Samuel de M edina, Salonika’s greatest community leader, came out strongly in favor o f the “financial majority” (i.e., those who paid taxes) against the “majority o f souls,” because it was the wealthy who paid for community services, supported the indigent, and m et the government’s levies. But even more hotly contested were the legal questions raised by the canverso past o f many o f the newcomers. Just as the rabbis o f Algeria after 1391 had been sorely pressed to make just decisions when hum anitarian concerns conflicted w ith Jewish law, so too the rabbinical authorities o f Turkey, Egypt, and N orth Africa found themselves wrestling constantly with the problems raised by the forced conversions o f Iberia. For many o f these new émigrés who had lived as Christians for years in Portugal, Antwerp, or Italy but were now returning to Judaism, only the Jewish law courts o f the Ottom an Em pire could ,solve many complex issues o f marriage and divorce. Yet some o f the m ost difficult cases facing Turkey’s rabbis, for example, revolved around matters o f custom, not law. Both Sephardic and indigenous Jews manifested pride in the customs hallowed by the usages o f parents and grandparents and were convinced o f the correct­ ness and antiquity o f their respective habits and practices. Each group tended to be particularly tenacious where food was concerned. The Sephardim, reacting to the many restrictive laws imposed upon them during the last century o f Jewish life in Spain, were more lenient than indigenous Jews in their interpretations o f what constituted kosher meat. Debates over this m atter erupted throughout the Empire. Occa­ sionally, the two contending communities resorted to Muslim author­ ities to resolve their essentially irreconcilable differences. Another source o f tension was the wide social gap that resulted as, for the first tim e, large numbers o f European Jews lived among the Jews o f the Islamic world. The indigenous Ashkenazim were astonished at the worldliness o f the Sephardim, who in their turn were openly dis­ dainful o f their less sophisticated neighbors. Previously tranquil com­ m unities became embroiled in controversies that sometimes endured

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for decades. From the bitterness o f these squabbles, one gets the im­ pression that much more than halakhic issues were at stake as Sephardim insisted on proclaiming their noble lineage and the sanctity o f their divergent customs. For their part, the Ashkenazim condemned the new­ comers for their imperious demeanor, fractious tem peram ent, and fierce loyalty to those questionable habits. Ultimately, however, the superior numbers, erudition, and selfconfidence o f the Sephardim won out in m ost places and their customs prevailed, obliterating the centuries-old traditions o f the N orth African, Greek, and Middle Eastern Jews. But perhaps their greatest cultural innovation was the art o f Hebrew printing. Soon after printing was introduced in Rome in 1470, the open-minded Jews o f Iberia took to this new technique w ith delight. By the 1480s, Hebrew printing presses functioned in Spain at Guadalajara and H ijar, in Portugal at Lisbon, Leiria, and Faro. At the time o f the expulsion printers carried their type with them into exile, setting up presses in Fez, in Italy, and in Turkey. David and Samuel ibn Nahmias, refugee brothers from Spain, set up a press in Istanbul in 1493 and began printing almost immediately. By 1510, a press was functioning in Salonika. Later, it would become fa­ mous as the enterprise o f the Soncinos, a family o f printers who mi­ grated from Italy. Between 1530 and 1547, they published over forty volumes in Hebrew. Printing would continue to flourish in Salonika even after a fire devastated much o f the Jewish quarter in 1620. Still later, refugees from Poland set up printing shops in Istanbul and Sa­ lonika, and presses sprouted in Smyrna in 1657, in Safed, and in Egypt. The conservative Turkish authorities were wary o f this new invention, however, and perm itted the Jews to print only in Hebrew or Latin type, never Arabic letters. (W hen Turkish Muslims finally decided in the eighteenth century to begin their own printing enterprises, they had to turn to Jews for advice and assistance.) A glance at the works printed in O ttom an lands offers fascinating insight into the world o f the literate Jew o f that place and time. A t one level, it seems that m ost congregations produced and printed their own prayerbooks (undoubtedly a factor in preserving communal subdivi­ sions). In addition, the early printings included many manuscripts penned by the last generation o f rabbis in Spain, probably saving these works from certain extinction. Perhaps m ost im portantly, however, a voluminous literature o f rabbinic responses flooded from the presses o f Salonika and Istanbul, testifying to the enormous productivity o f the rabbis o f the first generations o f resettlement. Their work helped their

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troubled brethren cope w ith the change and adaptation they had to face daily. The literature o f Ottom an Jewry also included poetry and scien­ tific works, and from the press in Safed the new kabbalistic writings poured forth to reach all comers o f the Jewish world. One o f the m ost creative figures in the new scholarship was Rabbi Joseph Caro, m entioned earlier as the author o f the Shulhan Aruch. Bom in Spain in 1488, he was brought by his family to Portugal during the expulsion. After the forced conversions o f 1497, they moved on to the Balkans, where young Caro would begin the monumental task o f compiling all o f the Jewish laws in use in his day. This compendium, which he called the Beit Yosef and worked on for decades, was a com, mentary on the earlier Sephardic legal code, thcArba’ah Turim w ritten by Jacob ben Asher. For a generation virtually on the point o f disin­ tegration, Caro tried to determine and explain the “correct” legal rul­ ings that should be followed by the Sephardim in exile. Their confusion, which was monumental, was caused not only by the expulsion but also by the plethora o f response being produced by the many rabbis in Tur­ key. Caro based his assessments upon the giants o f Sephardic jurispru­ dence: M aimonides, Alfasi, and Asher ben Yehiel. After he completed the complex and ambitious Beit Yosefs he wrote the previously men­ tioned Shulhan Aruch, essentially a digest o f Jewish law w ithout com­ mentary or source citations. As we have seen, this clear and concise work not only became the definitive code o f Jewish law among Sephardim. W ith Ashkenazic glosses added, it emerged as the handy legal manual for all o f world Jewry, serving as a unifying force through­ out the deeply divided Sephardic diaspora. Practically useful as it was, it owed its popularity at least in part to the rapid dissemination made possible by the Hebrew printing presses o f the Empire. One would never suspect from this crisp, detached legal compilation that Caro had deep mystical leanings and w ould settle among a sympathetic group of like-minded exiles in Safed. Even more ambitious than printing and distributing Caro’s Beit Yostf was the Salonika presses’ publication o f the Talmud, a project so enormous few generations have succeeded in carrying it out. The type was brought from Portugal by the printer D on Yehuda Gedalia, and the first tractates appeared between 1519 and 1523. Proudly regarding the expensive undertaking as a communal responsibility, the city’s Jews drew up a detailed appeal for financing, including the floating o f a loan that would be repaid from the proceeds o f selling the work. The surplus was earmarked for the poor o f the Holy Land. After the Talmud was

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publicly burned in Italy in 1552, a second edition was printed on the Salonika presses. Gedalia’s influence extended to secular literature as well. In his house he founded a literary society that would continue to hold meet­ ings for fifty years. The salon’s talented members included Saadiah Longo, a famed poet who wrote in the Andalusian tradition, and poets all over the Empire sent their works to be recited there. Gedalia also acted as a patron to scores o f needy refugee intellectuals, including the Portuguese physician Amarus Lusitanus (né Juan Rodrigo de CastelBranco), who had led an extraordinary life as a marram before arriving in Salonika and reverting. After medical training at the University o f Salamanca, he had fled Portugal and enjoyed an illustrious medical career in Antwerp, France, and Ancona and Pesaro in Italy. A t one point, he gave a series o f anatomy lectures to scholars in Ferrara that was considered shocking, in part because at one session he dissected twelve cadavers in front o f his audience in order to demonstrate the function o f valves in the circulatory system. H e was appointed as a physician to the pope, but his position did not spare him the anguish o f the auto-da-fé in Ancona. H e fled to Salonika, w rote about medicine under Gedalia’s aegis, and was honored as the glory o f the medical world o f the day until he fell ill while tending victims o f the plague in the city and died in 1568. In his career and others, we see again and again that the Sephardic exiles were intent upon transporting their multifaceted culture and re­ newing it on Ottom an shores. Indeed, if one mark o f a great civilization is the ability to export itself and establish a thriving culture in distant places, then surely the evidence from Turkey proves the greatness o f the Sephardic tradition. Consciously working to this end, in 1547 Sephardic printers produced the Constantinople Pentateuch, a trilingual literal translation o f the Bible w ith the Hebrew, Castilian, and Judeo-Greek texts printed in three parallel columns. Similarly, they had produced a Ladino translation o f the Book o f Psalms in 1540. In addition to pre­ serving texts, however, the O ttom an presses also sustained links to the living Hispanic culture. It is especially noteworthy that the contem po­ rary bestseller in Spain, the converso author de Rojas’s La Celestina, was published in Salonika in Hebrew translation. The exiles would in fact keep abreast o f Iberian literary trends for centuries; in the seventeenth century, Spanish travelers were deeply moved to hear the latest Spanish poems recited in the Jewish quarter o f Aleppo, Syria. Even after such links were finally broken, the Ladino presses would remain active, pro-

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during an encyclopedic classic o f biblical and folk lore, xhcMe’am Loez, in the early eighteenth century and numerous translations from West­ ern literature, especially French, in the nineteenth. W hen Jewish culture began to decline in Turkey in the eighteenth century as a corollary o f Ottom an decline, Ladino presses were founded in Belgrade, the new center o f Sephardic civilization, although publishing continued in Sa­ lonika and Istanbul. (The preservation o f the Spanish language was reflected in oral traditions as well. The Turkish Jews handed down medieval Spanish ballads, proverbs, popular songs, and rhymed cou­ plets well into the tw entieth century, with much o f the material dating back to preexpulsion times.) It is impossible to overestimate the role that printing played in keeping the Spanish component o f Sephardic culture alive. The presses disseminated Ladino works to Jewish populations, like the Romaniots, who had never known Spanish language or literature. Ultimately, it was this language beloved by the Sephardic exiles that prevented them from blending into the local Jewish communities in the Balkans, Turkey, and elsewhere. The anomaly persisted o f a persecuted people—very Jewish, but also very Spanish—who preserved an archaic form o f a language, the tongue o f their preexpulsion past, that became enriched w ith new elements from Turkish, Greek, and Slavic sources. In short, the Jew­ ishness o f the M editerranean Sephardi was preserved and transm itted in an archaic Spanish garb that not only prevented total assimilation but also enabled him to “conquer” his Jewish neighbors culturally. Even back in the sixteenth century, however, not all parts o f the Sephardic diaspora were as successful in preserving Hispanic traditions as the Jews in Turkey. Except for the northernm ost section o f Morocco, where a local dialectical variant (hekatiya) was spoken among Jews until this century, Ladino practically died out in that country. The principal cause may be that Hebrew printing was short-lived there because the Inquisition cut off the supply o f paper to N orth Africa in the 1520s. The printers o f Fez were forced to seek their livelihood elsewhere, and scholars followed them to Italy, Turkey, and Palestine. Censorship pre­ sented overwhelming obstacles to the Sephardic press in Italy in the sixteenth century, causing many printers to move their type, paper, production techniques, and themselves to Turkey or Holland.

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As a natural consequence o f being a m inority population w ithin other cultures, Jews tended to be influenced by the dom inant culture wher­ ever they settled. Especially in N orth Africa, they were deeply influ­ enced by Muslim religious trends, even while they strictly adhered to the Judaic rituals they had transported from Spain. For example, the traditional respect for learning remained a criterion for communal lead­ ership, but the quality o f “saintliness” assumed a new importance. This was especially true in those N orth African regions where M uslim “saints” played a prom inent role in the social and religious life o f the people. In much the same way, Jewish life began to be shaped to an increasing degree by pious men known for their good works, curative powers, and knowledge o f the emerging body o f mystical lore (kab­ balah). Special memorial celebrations (htiloulot) at the tom b o f a ven­ erated saintly personality generated new forms o f religious expression that have persisted among Jews from the area down to the present. Along with this new influence, however, the Iberian model o f rab­ binic leadership, the scholar adept in both Hebraic and secular learning, became the Ottom an ideal as well. The traditional Sephardic pattern o f lay leaders—merchants, physicians, diplomats—dom inating commu­ nity affairs also continued, for refugees soon gravitated tow ard the seats o f political power, offering their services as courtiers to M uslim rulers in N orth Africa and Turkey. These tw o elements o f community lead­ ership, the rabbis and the lay leaders, were frequently allied by marriage throughout the Sephardic diaspora. For generations, m arital as well as business connections would meticulously preserve the family trees that attested both to the interconnectedness o f the émigré community’s elite and to their illustrious descent from a great Spanish city or a noted line o f courtier families. In other words, the helm o f leadership in the newly formed émigré setdements remained in the hands o f the Toledanos, Benvenistes, ibn Yahyas, Abrabanels, ibn Adrets, and dozens o f other former Iberian “grandees.” N othing like this had ever occurred among m igrating Ashkenazim. In sharp contrast to the structure o f Christian religious communi­ ties in the Empire, the Jews had no religious hierarchy. Although each congregation was headed by a rabbi, the marbitz Torah, who was paid for his services, the sages o f the community commanded respect in proportion to their stature as scholars. There was a kind o f chief rab­ binate in Istanbul during the early part o f the sixteenth century, but it soon gave way to the localized rabbinates. The office o f chief rabbi, haham bashi, was not established until the nineteenth century.

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Unfortunately, the remarkable role assumed by the Sephardim in O ttom an diplomacy has never been thoroughly researched. The first openings for governmental service, as in the Muslim conquest o f Spain, were in translating and diplomatic negotiating, two roles that were virtually indistinguishable. The Sephardim, given their practiced facility in languages, knowledge o f Europe, and evident desire to retain their ties w ith marranos there, apparently sought opportunities to return to Iberia as representatives o f Islamic merchants and rulers. O n such busi­ ness trips and diplomatic missions, they could not only keep in touch w ith relatives but could also help them in secredy observing Jewish rites or in removing their assets abroad in preparation for flight. For exam­ ple, entire groups o f conversas who wanted to revert to the faith o f their fathers m ight be circumcised by a visitor from Turkey or Holland. (Reversion was often accompanied by circumcision, a particularly au­ dacious act given the vigilance o f the Inquisition. ) There was also a kind o f underground railroad clandestinely maintained by Sephardic refu­ gees for the crypto-Jews left behind in Iberia. Inquisition records shed occasional but only partial light on these activities, which were by their very nature rarely recorded to reach the eyes o f later generations. The diplomatic role played by the Sephardic emigres was scarcely less complex. To the delight o f their Muslim employers, they frequendy harbored a deep and abiding resentment toward Spain, one o f the chief enemies o f the O ttom an Empire. At the same time, they could accom­ plish delicate feats o f diplomacy at the highest level o f government but out o f the public eye. For a M oroccan monarch, say, to deal openly with Christian Europe could excite the entire religious establishment and fan the flames o f anti-dynastic revolt. In any case, Muslim diplo­ mats were loathe to go to the “lands o f the infidel,” and the notion o f enduring the politesse and rituals o f negotiating with “infidels” was anathema. In all ways, it was better public policy to leave such disagree­ able assignments in the hands o f the dhimmi, under the pretense that they were mere commercial agents and translators. Consequendy, Jews negotiated treaties between the king o f Fez and Portugal, between the Ottom ans and France. In all these and similar cases, the ironies always lay close to the surface. For example, as perquisites owing to their high position, both the Jewish ambassador from Fez to Holland, a certain Samuel Pallache, and the Jewish diplom at or resident merchant from M orocco to London were given extraterritorial rights to worship, even while Jewish residents in both places could not. And as the Sephardic diplom atic activities ranged beyond Iberia into France or England, the

emigres were also able to expand their efforts to contact relatives and strengthen their interlocking commercial enterprises. Yet the allegiance o f these diplomats to their Muslim rulers was beyond suspicion. The unforgettable cruelties they had endured had not ended with the extinction o f Judaism in Iberia. Periodic eruptions o f Inquisitorial zeal sent shockwaves through the Sephardic diaspora as boadoads o f émigrés brought harrowing stories o f new persecutions. Special memorial services would be held in the new Sephardic commu­ nities for the victims o f the latest auto-da-fé back in Europe. Special prayers calling upon God to avenge the martyrs were composed and inserted in the prayerbooks: May the great, mighty, and terrible G od avenge the vengeance o f H is holy servant. . . w ho was burned alive for the sanctified unity o f H is name. May he seek his blood from his enemies by his m ighty arm and repay his foes according to their deserts. May the K ing, in H is mercy remember unto us H is merit, as it is w ritten: “Rejoice, O ye nations, H is people, for H e will avenge the blood o f H is servants, and will render vengeance to H is adversaries, and will absolve the land and H is people.” 12

Clearly, there was no danger that the Sephardic representatives o f the Ottom an Empire would waver in their loyalties to the rulers who had protected them from such persecution and allowed their new com­ munities to thrive.

Success in international diplomacy was only the beginning o f the Sephardic contribution to the developing Empire. From the O ttom an point o f view, the Jews were carriers o f Europe’s latest technological secrets, whether in medicine, artisanry, or trade. Many o f them had studied in the advanced universities o f Portugal or Italy before finding refuge in Muslim lands or Holland. To the horror o f some European observers, refugees were able to bring their knowledge o f how to make gunpowder and munitions to the arsenals o f Istanbul, Fez, Marrakech, and Cairo. In 1551, a European visitor to Turkey described the Sephardim there as “not long since banished and driven from Spain and Portugal, who, to the great detrim ent and damage o f Christendom , have taught the Turk several inventions, artifices and machines o f war.

The majority o f the Sephardic exiles o f 1492 gravitated east to the Ottoman Empire where they established important new centers o f Jewish life. Observers noted the prominence o f Jews in commerce, crafts, and even positions of confidence in the Turk­ ish court. Jewish craftsmen and merchants like the one portrayed above at left (etched in 1714 after a drawing by Jean Baptiste Vanmour) plied their trades throughout the growing empire. At right, a Jewish woman brings her merchandise for sale to the ladies o f the harem, who were not permitted to go out. {Israel Museum)

Gracia Nasi, also known as Dona Gracia Mendes {above left), a marrano refugee froi Portugal, became a wealthy and prominent cultural patron as well as a political force i 16th century Ottoman affairs. She helped to build new synagogues and other institi tions in Salonika, Izmir, and most notably, the Mayor Synagogue {below) in Burs; {Bronze medal, 1553, by Pastorino de Pastorini: Jewish National and University Library, Schwadron Collection

Ottoman Jewish life began to decline in the 17th century, however, and the worldwic Jewish furor over the false messiah Sabbetai Sevi {above right) was partly responsib for its ultimate loss of vitality. {Engraving from Thomas Coen en }s Book, Arnst, 1669. Jewish Nation and University Library)

Sephardic refugees also estab­ lished important new communi­ ties in Italy. Sixteenth-century Venice housed two Sephardic congregations, one of Jews from Portugal and Spain, the other of Sephardic merchants from O t­ toman lands. At left, a detail of the latter synagogue, known as the Scola Levantina. {Bah Hatefutsoth) Livorno and Ferrara were also centers o f Jewish life and commerce. Below, the Great Synagogue o f Livorno (Leg­ horn), which was destroyed in World War II. (U. Nahon Museum, Jerusalem)

Gracia Nasi, also known as Dona Gracia Mendes (above left), a marram refugee from Portugal, became a wealthy and prominent cultural patron as well as a political force in 16th century Ottoman affairs. She helped to build new synagogues and other institu­ tions in Salonika, Izmir, and most notably, the Mayor Synagogue (below) in Bursa. {Bronze medal, 1553, by Pastorino de Pastorini: Jewish National and University Library, Schwadron Collection)

Ottoman Jewish life began to decline in the 17th century, however, and the worldwide Jewish furor over the false messiah Sabbetai Sevi (above right) was pardy responsible for its ultimate loss of vitality. {Engraving from Thomas Coenen’s Book, Arnst, 1669. Jewish N ational and University Library )

Sephardic refugees also estab­ lished important new communi­ ties in Italy. Sixteenth-century Venice housed two Sephardic congregations, one of Jews from Portugal and Spain, the other of Sephardic merchants from O t­ toman lands. At left, a detail of the latter synagogue, known as the Scola Levantina. {Beth Hatefatsoth) Livorno and Ferrara were also centers of Jewish life and commerce. Below, the Great Synagogue o f Livorno (Leg­ horn), which was destroyed in World War II. (U. N ahm Museum, Jerusalem)

Cultural links with Iberia per­ sisted among Jews, like Don F ran cisco L opes S uasso {right), who nurtured their aristocratic Portuguese heri­ tage. The Suassos were typi­ cal o f the great mercantile marrano families who en ­ gaged in the far-flung comm e rc e a n d f in a n c e s o f 17th-century Amsterdam. They had served the King of Spain and were loyal sup­ p o rte rs o f th e H o u se o f Orange. (Jewish Historical M u ­ seum , A m ste r d a m , on loan fro m Amsterdam Historical Museum)

The most brilliant Jewish community of the 17th cen­ tury was that o f Amsterdam, where Sephardim built rich synagogues, sheltered Jewish refugees, and played an active civic role. Scholar and printer Menasseh ben Israel {at right) was also a rabbi and served as a teacher to Baruch Spinoza. Moreover, he went as an am­ bassador to England to dis­ cuss the readmission of Jews with Oliver Cromwell. (Jewish H istorical M useum , A m sterd a m : J. van Velzen Collection)

Rembrandt van Rijn had his house in Amsterdam’s Jewish q u arter and sketched and painted many Jews, including the A lgerian-born R abbi Jacob Sasportas (left), best known for his courageous opposition to the Sabbatean heresy. Below, at left, a view of the Portuguese Synagogue or “loden Kerken” in Am­ ste rd a m , co n se c ra ted in 1675; the most famous syn­ agogue of Europe, its architecture inspired other synagogues in London and the Caribbean. (Jewish Historical M useum, A m sterdam , on loan from Bibliotheca R osen th a lia n a , Amsterdam)

Above, a funeral at the Portuguese Jewish cemetery in Ouderkerk a.d. Amstel. The etching by Romegn de Hooghe was made around 1680. (Jennsh Historical Museum, Amsterdam)

Baruch Spinoza, the greatest modern Jewish rationalist philosopher, was born in Amsterdam in 1632 of marram parentage. For daring to question the fundamental tenets of Judaism, he was excommunicated by the Portuguese community of Amster­ dam in July 1656. {Leo Baeck Institute, New York)

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such as how to make artillery, arquebuses, gunpowder, cannonballs and other weapons.”13 A Spanish visitor remarked ruefully, “Here at Con­ stantinople are many Jews, descendants o f those whom the Catholic King Ferdinand ordered to be driven forth from Spain, and would that it had pleased God that they had drowned in the sea in coming hither! For they taught our enemies the m ost o f what they know o f the villanies o f war, such as the use o f brass ordnance and firelocks.”14 Similar complaints were voiced by Spanish diplomats in Morocco. At the same tim e, medical knowledge became a pathway to prom ­ inence for many Sephardic physicians, as it had in Andalusia so many generations before. Eagerly courted by sultans and pashas, they were given pensions to serve as permanent “official doctors.” And, as we can see in the career o f Moses Ham on, for example, these royal physicians could be very effective in defending the Jewish community. The H a­ mon family, which had originated in Granada in the 1450s, emigrated to Turkey after the expulsion. Moses5 father, Joseph, became physician first to Sultan Bayezid II and later to Selim I. Moses would serve as official doctor to Selim I, also, and then to Suleiman the Magnificent, becoming one o f the m ost powerful Jews in Turkey. In the 1530s, when several communities were hit with a wave o f persecution after Arme­ nians charged that they were using Christian blood for ritual purposes, he obtained an imperial decree (ferman ) repudiating the blood libel and prom ising imperial protection against all such accusations in the future. In his community leadership role, Ham on patronized several o f the Jewish schools in Istanbul and Salonika and sponsored the publication o f a num ber o f im portant rabbinical books by the scholars o f his day. But he also produced many writings o f his own in the fields o f medicine and pharmacology and actively participated in Sephardic cultural cir­ cles, where Hebrew poets like Saadiah Longo recited and disseminated their work. On the local political level, when some paralyzing squabbles threatened to get out o f hand in the Salonika community, he inter­ vened, and several disruptive communal officers were brought to trial. In the larger sphere o f diplomacy, he arranged a peace in 1540 between Istanbul and Venice. In 1588 he negotiated the renewal o f the agreement on residential rights and tax for the Jewish community in Salonika. Despite these and other illustrious achievements in both di­ plomacy and medicine, he ultimately fell from favor, the victim o f court intrigues, and bequeathed his privileged status to his sons. The tradi­ tion o f having physicians serve in official and unofficial capacities in Turkey would continue for more than a century after the expulsion. In

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1618, for example, forty Ottom an Jewish physicians were appointed to the sultan’s court, in addition to the foreign Jewish physicians em­ ployed there.

Even Ham on’s remarkable career pales beside the exploits o f his con­ temporaries Dona Gracia Mendes and her nephew D on Joseph Nasi, who were to become the m ost im portant Jewish personalities in the Ottom an Empire. Dona Gracia was bom Beatrice de Lima in Portugal in 1510, a child o f the first generation o f forced Portuguese conversas. While married to the marram banker Francisco M endes, she apparently became adept both in banking and the gem trade. W hen her husband died in 1537, she left Portugal and expanded his business, moving w ith her family from one European commercial center to the next. It is probably no coincidence that she left her homeland one year after the introduction o f the Inquisition; her sojourn in Europe was marked by close shaves with the Holy Office in Antwerp and Italy. In Ferrara she finally discarded all pretense o f Christian identity and began openly practicing Judaism. As she continued her complicated business activi­ ties, the clients to whom she extended loans included the Hapsburg emperor Charles V and Francis I o f France. She was also engaged in helping marrams escape from Portugal. In 1553, perhaps because o f her former crypto-Judaism, she was forced herself to flee precipitately to Istanbul. Moses Ham on and Sultan Suleiman helped her transfer her capital there. Chroniclers o f the day record w ith awe her majestic arrival in the Ottom an capital, where she settled in a sumptuous villa in an exclusive neighborhood. Dona Gracia’s achievements in Istanbul became legendary, typify­ ing the style and quite possibly the flaws o f Sephardic leadership in general. She organized a consortium o f Jews and Muslims that traded on a grand scale in wheat, pepper, and raw wool in exchange for European goods. H er commercial agents could be found in all the major Ottom an cities and European ports. She used her extraordinary wealth to publish im portant books, fund schools and hospitals, and subsidize dozens o f students. She also founded houses o f worship, including the synagogue o f La Seniora or ha-Giveret, which was named in her honor and still stands in the city today. Despite all o f these activities, however, history remembers D ona

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Gracia principally for her extraordinary diplomacy in defense o f mar­ rams. W hen the twenty-four merchants were burned in Ancona, as m entioned earlier, she responded in 1556 by trying to organize all Jews in the O ttom an Empire in a boycott o f the Italian port. In this effort can be seen three im portant, interconnected factors in the life o f the time: the continuing sense o f cohesiveness o f the marram community, the clash between the great powers o f Istanbul and Rome, and the limits under which even the m ost adroit Jewish politician was forced to operate. A s noted previously, the marrams in Ancona had been allowed to setde there w ith the express promise that they would not be prosecuted for the “crime55 o f reverting. Pope Julius III, understanding full well that the conversions in Portugal had been forced, reaffirmed this per­ mission as recently as 1553. But his successor, Paul IV, was a zealous opponent o f the Reform ation who did not feel bound by the charters granted to Jews so that they could trade in the Papal States. Thus the practicing Jewish merchants in Ancona, including two o f Dona Gracia’s business agents, were summarily seized, tortured, and condemned to the stake. As soon as she heard o f the death sentence. Dona Gracia took decisive steps to save them , recruiting the aid o f Suleiman and even dictating the firm letter he dispatched to the pope. At the same time, she roused rabbis throughout the Empire, urging them to join in solidarity w ith the condemned Jews o f Ancona. The surviving marrams there fled to the neighboring city o f Pesaro, if they could, and sought access from the duke o f U rbino, promising to organize a boycott o f Ancona to the benefit o f this much m ore m odest port. Dona Gracia determined to spread this effort throughout the Empire. T h e sto ry o f th e b o y co tt has been frequently reto ld th ro u g h th e eyes o f tw en tieth -cen tu ry political activism . 5 W hat sh o u ld be em pha­ sized h ere is th e un u su al sense o f Sephardic solidarity revealed by th e atte m p t, fo r th e p lig h t o f th e marrams o f A ncona w as p o rtray ed and perceived as th e p o ten tial fate o f all marrams, an o u trag e to exiles all across th e M ed iterran ean . E qually im p o rta n t is th e special assertiveness o f D o n a G racia as a p o litical player w hose sex, incidentally, seem s to have p o sed n o obstacle in rallying forces b eh in d her. Finally, it should be n o te d th a t th e Sephardic m erchants as a g ro u p h ad th e ability to shape th e policies o f a figure as to w erin g as Suleim an th e M agnificent. In itially , m o st O tto m a n Jew s in d eed follow ed D o n a G racia’s urgings to d iv ert all tra d e fro m th e A d riatic to Pesaro. In T urkey, she flexed h e r considerable m uscle w ith o u t apology, g o in g so far as to th reaten

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loss o f funds to th o se rabbis w ho d id n o t stan d firm w ith h er. E ven so, T urkish Jew s w ere divided from th e start. Som e felt th a t re ro u tin g to Pesaro w ould cause to o g reat a com m ercial loss, w hile o th ers w o r­ ried th a t th e b o y co tt w ould endanger th e Jew s rem aining in A ncona and unnecessarily expose Jew s in all o f th e P apal States to retaliatio n . Still o th ers argued th a t th e marrams w ere responsible fo r th e ir ow n fates, having th reaten ed all Jew s by settlin g in th e P apal States an d reverting to Judaism . I f th ey h ad only com e to th e O tto m a n E m p ire in th e first place, ran th e argum ent, they w o u ld never have faced such persecution. In th e event, despite th e enthusiasm o f m any O tto m an Jew s, it proved im possible to achieve u n ite d action to sustain th e b o y co tt. Sev­ eral in terestin g factors help explain w hy. O n th e o n e h an d . D o n a G ra­ cia’s behavior, w hich can perhaps b est be described as d eterm in ed and self-righteous single-m indedness, w as itse lf controversial. She m ay have seen h erself as th e legitim ate p ro te c to r o f h e r fellow marrams, b u t h er use o f financial clo u t to g e t h er w ay w ith th o se w h o o p p o sed h er w as w idely disliked. O ne can even infer personal d istaste fo r h er m eth o d s from h in ts d ro p p ed in th e an ti-b o y co tt rab b in ic decision o f Istan b u l’s R abbi Joshua Soncino. O p p o sitio n also reflected divisions w ith in th e Sephardic com m unity itself, fo r th e P o rtu g u ese cx-marranas seem to have been a self-isolating g ro u p th a t provoked jealousies an d o u trig h t anim osity. T his factor, to o , is im plied in th e decision by S oncino, w ho w as o f Italian descent. Ironically, D o n a G racia g ained th e su p ­ p o rt o f th e A shkenazic and R o m an io t rabbis b u t co u ld n o t overcom e th e congregational and class divisions am ong Istan b u l’s Sephardim . (H e r failure sh o u ld n o t surprise anyone fam iliar w ith th e in ab ility o f Jew s in m o d em tim es to organize a b o y co tt in th e face o f th e T h ird R eich. A gain, in tern al com m unal divisions w o u ld prove to be th e d e­ cisive facto r in m ilitatin g against a u n ite d p o litical stan d , even as som e argued against u sin g th is p articu lar econom ic w eapon to p ro te c t Jew ­ ish security.) E ven th o u g h D o n a G racia w as n o t able to im plem ent h er cherished boycott, th is first businessw om an o f E u ro p e h ad an im pressive career from m any o th er stan d p o in ts. T o th is day, she is th e subject o f legend am ong th e Jew s o f T urkey. A fter h er d eath in 1566, h er place in O tto ­ m an diplom atic circles w as filled by h er nephew an d son-in-law , D o n Joseph N asi. A favorite o f Selim II, he a t once carried o n th e c o n tin u in g expansion o f his au n t’s com m ercial em pire and also, to all in te n ts an d purposes, acted as th e E m pire’s fo reig n m in ister. H e n eg o tia te d an

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O ttom an treaty with Poland, for example, and arranged for assistance to a revolt in the Netherlands against the Spanish Hapsburgs. Mean­ while, like his famous aunt, he worked to rescue marrams from Europe. For his keen diplomatic advice that led to the Ottom an conquest o f Cyprus, he was rewarded with a dukedom on the island o f Naxos and concessions to develop the city o f Tiberias in Palestine. Calling upon the Jews o f Italy to return to this ancient site in the land o f Israel, he rebuilt the city walls and started a silk industry there. Meanwhile, from his palatial Istanbul residence overlooking the Bosphorus, Don Joseph endowed schools and scholars in the manner o f Italian Renaissance princes and set up a printing press on his estate. When he died in 1579, his widow, Reyna, took over his philanthropic activities. Considering the traumas that the refugees had undergone and their continuing sense o f dejection, it is testimony to their resiliency as well as their talents that, only one generation after the expulsion, a Golden Age o f Jewish culture emerged in Turkey. Scarcely had the first exiles setded down when a remarkable burst o f creativity manifested itself early in the sixteenth century, even as more émigrés were still pouring in. Dozens o f major intellectual figures began w riting im portant legal decisions and new rabbinic commentaries, publishing them in the emerging Hebrew presses and thus spreading their influence and per­ spectives beyond their local congregations. Because many refugee rab­ bis had studied under the last rabbis o f Castile, they brought the m ethods o f the Spanish sages to the congregational schools they insti­ tuted now in the synagogues o f Salonika. Castilian decrees were also introduced as guidelines for community affairs by Sephardim who as­ sumed the m ande o f leadership in Egypt, Palestine, and throughout N orth Africa. New schools o f higher Jewish learning soon dotted the Ottom an map. The m ost famous, the Yeshiva in Salonika known simply as the Talmud Torah, was founded in 1520 by Sephardic exiles and would function for four centuries. The pride o f the entire community, the school was noted for a cosmopolitan student body drawn from all over the Em pire and Italy, and for a broad curriculum that included Talmu­ dic and Hebraic studies, Greek and Latin, medicine, astronomy, and the natural sciences.

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P rin tin g and m unitions-m aking, m edicine an d diplom acy, d id n o t by any m eans exhaust th e special skills b ro u g h t to T urkey by th e Sephardic diaspora. Jew s becam e especially p ro m in en t in go ld - an d silversm ithing, th e im p o rt-ex p o rt trad e, and textile m an u factu rin g . Salonika d e­ veloped a rep u tatio n as an in d u strial cen ter largely because o f th e Sephardic p ro d u ctio n o f su p erio r-q u ality w o o l th a t w as com parable to th e long-haired Spanish m erino w o o l th e Jew s h ad seen m an u factu red in Spain. T h e em igres w orked in all facets o f textile m anufacture, in ­ cluding spinning, w eaving, and dyeing, b o th in factories an d in hom e w orkshops. T he m ain streets o f Salonika, as w ell as th e Jew ish q u arters o f Istan b u l, w ere lin ed w ith shops dealing in textile go o d s. G uilds o f Jew ish textile w orkers o rganized th e ir o w n w elfare an d social in stitu ­ tio n s, generatin g special legislation to c o n tro l th e p ro d u ctio n , sto rag e, pricing, and m arketing o f textile goo d s, w hile com m unity a u th o rities periodically issued regulations to co n tro l th e flow o f raw m aterials, regulate co m p etitio n , and p ro tect p o o r artisans in th e trad e. T h e agents o f th e Salonika textile m erchants w ere w idely visible th ro u g h o u t th e Balkans and Italy, and th eir w o o l w as so highly p rized th a t th e O tto ­ m ans o p ted to collect th e Jew ish com m unity h ead tax in th e fo rm o f bo lts o f clo th to be used fo r th e uniform s o f th t janissaries, th e su ltan ’s elite m ilitary force. U n fo rtu n ately , som e o f th e m ore am b itio u s tex tile m erchants even sen t th eir agents back to Spain, w here th ey w ere occa­ sionally picked u p by th e In q u isitio n and trie d as backsliding C h ris­ tians. O u tsid e T urkey th e diversity o f Sephardic o ccupations w as equally im pressive. In B ulgaria, Jew ish tan n ers shared co n tro l o f th e leath er in d u stry w ith M uslim s. In M orocco, th e refugees becam e synonym ous w ith th e gold- and silversm ithing m onopoly. In P alestine, th e Sephardim transform ed tin y Safed in to a cen ter o f silk p ro d u ctio n fo r th e m arkets o f Syria an d E gypt. In every area o f th e d iasp o ra, in ad d i­ tio n , Sephardic m erchants w ere typically th e leaders in in tern atio n al com m erce, th eir trad e links stren g th en ed by fam ily ties th ro u g h o u t th e for-flung provinces o f th e O tto m an E m pire.

Intellectually and spiritually, th e S ephardim w ere a resdess lo t, to m by d o u b ts ab o u t them selves and filled w ith an anxious sense o f urgency to u n d erstan d th e cause o f w h at th ey called “th e en o rm o u s w rath ” th a t

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had descended upon them. As we have seen, the traditional Jewish belief that suffering is a punishm ent for sin was considered by many to explain the expulsion. M ore specifically. Rabbi Yosef Yaavetz argued that Jewish scholars who had flirted with rationalism and Greek and Arabic philosophy were responsible for the disaster. A t the same time, he believed that expulsion was a sign o f God’s special concern for the children o f Israel, not His rejection o f them, because their moral stam­ ina and religious faith were being tested. This tradition-based interpre­ tation was echoed by Rabbi Abraham Gabison in Algeria and Rabbi Moses Almosnino in Salonika. But theirs was not the only interpretation to be heard as a chorus o f voices arose after the expulsion that was unlike anything heard since Jewish antiquity. For the first time in centuries, Jews were w riting history not only in order to record the events o f their age but also to counsel and console their readers. In addition, throughout Europe there were messianic stirrings in the air. Undoubtedly, one reason was the approach o f the half-millennium, but the expulsion experience itself was also a factor. For example, the historian Joseph ha-Kohen explained that he was w riting so “that the children o f Israel may know . . . for behold, the days approach.” Such messages o f hope and anticipation fell on extraordinarily receptive ears everywhere, from the depths o f mar­ ram communities in the villages o f Castile to the highest court circles in Italy where D on Isaac Abrabanel made his messianic computations. Paradoxically, this expectation o f messianic redemption took hold and strengthened just as the Sephardim were striking new roots in remote places—the Adas m ountains, the Sahara desert, the steppes o f Central Asia—while clinging to their Iberian language and customs. Just be­ neath the surface o f the network o f new communities, therefore, were submerged the tensions between waiting and rebuilding, hope and despair, that were ready to ignite when the spark o f messianism was struck. W ith their world in upheaval, it is not surprising that so many Jews turned to radical formulations and possible soludons to the question o f the meaning o f their history. Seemingly small incidents, like the career o f the litde-known David Reubeni, reveal the depth o f this need. This messianic pretender appeared in Italy and Portugal in the 1520s, pro­ claiming him self to be a commander-in-chief from the lost Israelite tribes o f Reuben, Gad, and Menasseh sent to announce the coming redem ption. Coundess marrams in Portugal were convinced by his message and prepared themselves for wondrous events o f liberation.

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Among them was a converso courtier, Diego Perez, who w ent so far as to have himself circumcised and change his name to Solomon M olcho. He also went to Salonika to study the kabbalah, then followed Reubeni to Italy as the latter tried to engage Pope Clement V II in some fanciful schemes to liberate the Holy Land with the use o f marram troops. The pope was intrigued, but Emperor Charles V was alarmed by the stir­ rings among the marrams and handed M olcho over to the Inquisition. H e was burned at the stake in 1532, but his novel career made a pro­ found impact upon the Ottom an Jews o f his day. Reubeni m et a violent end in 1538. Even the most unrealistic schemes were eagerly sought to relieve the suffering o f the marrams, either through “abnormal” means like military campaigns or more traditional modes o f “pushing God’s hand to act.” Like Molcho, many intellectuals turned increasingly to the study o f the Zohar and the kabbalah in order to understand the signifi­ cance o f their exile. T he m ost im p o rtan t cen ter fo r such m ystical reflection w as th e sm all to w n o f Safed in th e G alilean hills o f Israel. N o t o n ly its silk p ro d u ctio n b u t also its rem arkable co n cen tratio n o f rabbis, m ystics, an d sp iritu al personalities tu rn e d th is obscure provincial to w n in to a p ro m ­ in en t place o f refuge in th e sixteenth century. B etw een 1500 and 1600, its Jew ish p o p u latio n grew to over 10,000 w hile tw en ty -o n e synagogues and eighteen T alm udic colleges w ere established. A special school fo r p o o r children, su p p o rted by th e affluent Jew ish com m unity in Istan b u l, h ad 400 students. D raw n from a b rillian t g ath erin g o f first-g en eratio n exiles, th e m ys­ tics o f Safed engaged in study, co n tem p latio n , and m ed itatio n , w hile attractin g m any disciples. F asting frequently and engaging in m ystical m ed itatio n , they w o u ld take lo n g w alks to th e to m b s o f ancien t teachers bu ried in th e G alilee and h o ld special vigils o f an ascetic n atu re. T h e revered leaders am ong them —Joseph C aro, S olom on A lkabetz, M oses C ordovero, H ayyim V ital— to tally rev o lu tio n ized th e w ay th e ir co n ­ tem poraries th o u g h t ab o u t th e relatio n sh ip o f G o d to Jew ish h isto ry and th e Jew ish people. T h eir m en to r w as Isaac L uria, fo u n d er o f th e Safed school o f m ys­ ticism th a t w ould com e to bear his nam e. B om in 1534 in Jerusalem to an A shkenazic fath er and Sephardic m o th er, h e w as reared by an uncle in E gypt and stu d ied th e kabbalah th ere. In 1569 he m oved to Safed an d in tro d u ced an entirely new stru ctu re o f Jew ish m ysticism , infused w ith m essianic m eaning. In w h at becam e know n as th e L u rian ic kabbalah, w hich apdy su ited th e co n d itio n s an d asp iratio n s o f his g en eratio n ,

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L u ria d arin g ly suggested th a t th e exile o f th e Jew s w as n o t divine p u n ish m en t a t all. R ath er, it m irro red th e divine state and h ad a cosm ic p u rp o se o f th e h ig h est o rd er. D ivine sparks, he explained, had been scattered everyw here d u rin g th e in itial act o f creatio n and still needed to be rec o n stitu ted . T h e exiled Jew s w ere n o w in a u n iq u e p o sitio n to do ju st th a t. In o th e r w o rd s, th eir suffering served a purpose: by m eans o f exile an d p ro p er fulfillm ent o f th e com m andm ents, com bined w ith m ys­ tical p rep aratio n an d im p lem en tatio n , Jew s could g ath er th e divine sparks dispersed am ong th e n atio n s and becom e p artn ers w ith G od, as it w ere, in lib eratin g th e universe. M oreover, L u ria assured his disci­ ples, th e process o f resto rin g cosm ic w holeness w as so near com pletion th a t th e ro le o f Jew s w as critical in b rin g in g ab o u t th e final im m inent fulfillm ent o f histo ry . S oon after his d eath in 1572, his faithful stu d en ts to o k his m essage to th e m ajor centers o f Jew ish life in O tto m an lands an d Italy. E ven th o u g h L urianic kabbalah w as an esoteric m ovem ent restricted to a select g ro u p o f follow ers, its d o ctrines co u ld be reshaped u n d e r th e rig h t circum stances to appeal to a m uch w id er audience. I f som eone charism atic sh o u ld appear, capable o f linking these m ystical d o ctrin es to th e populace lo n g in g fo r R ed em p tio n , th e Jew ish people w ere ready to respond.

Even as Luria’s ideas began to spread, Ottom an Jewry experienced an extraordinary upheaval that united the many trends in the air— messianism, hopelessness, kabbalism, marranism. The catalyst was Sabbetai Zevi, a man very much the product o f his time who was able to stir the messianic hopes o f the Jewish world. As a youth, he studied kabbalah in Izm ir, imbibing the messianism and mysticism around him. Meanwhile, Jews waited expectantly for the year 1648, which fit into the numerological lore o f messianism. Jewish mysticism possessed a long tradition o f trying to discern the date o f the Messiah’s advent through a careful reading o f biblical and sacred texts. Kabbalists believed that the numerical equivalents o f crucial Hebrew words in key passages contained the necessary clues. After the expulsion from Spain, the idea gained wide currency that a time o f disaster could turn into a messianic moment. According to one reading o f the classic, the Zohar^ the year 1648 provided a propitious date. In addition, since terrible sufferings would accompany the advent o f the Messiah, the pogroms in Poland that year could be construed as the “messianic woes” and “birth pangs” o f the messianic tradition. Hordes o f Ashkenazic refugees from Cossack massacres perpetrated by Bogdan Chmielnitski flooded into Istanbul. Suddenly, as i f in response to th e d isap p o in ted expectations, Zevi

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began to make “messianic55gestures, overturning traditional Jewish law and pronouncing the ineffable name o f God. U nder the tutelage o f a certain Nathan o f Gaza, he became ever more convinced o f his messiahship and announced reforms that violated many o f the norms o f Judaism. H e publicly proclaimed his messiahship in May 1665. Soon, word o f the “Messiah’s55 bizarre activities spread from Palestine to the diaspora. The populace in several Turkish cities became so wildly agi­ tated by the reports that the bazaars were immobilized and trade came to a standstill. In 1666, th e M uslim au th o rities arrested Z evi an d im p riso n ed him at G allipoli, w here he h eld c o u rt as Jew s flocked to see th e “M essiah ,55 com posed hym ns in his h o n o r, and w en t fo rth to spread w o rd o f his rem arkable feats. In Septem ber, d eterm in ed to squelch th e m ovem ent, th e T urks offered Zevi a choice o f conversion to Islam o r d eath . H e converted. M any T urkish Jew s follow ed su it, alth o u g h m o st, confused, sim ply aw aited th e next tu rn o f events. M eanw hile, th e resourceful N ath an o f G aza, cleverly u sin g elem ents o f th e L urianic kabbalah, ex­ plained th a t Zevi’s apostasy w as in fact a p a rt o f his m essianic role. T h a t is to say, by choosing to descend in to th e abyss o f apostasy, Z evi w as actually hastening th e red em p tio n o f th e w o rld . C o nversion, th e sym ­ bol and core o f Sephardic anguish, th u s ceased to be an act o f sham e, fo r Zevi had taken o n h im self th e evil o f all th e conversos. In th e event, th is self-proclaim ed M essiah rem ained an ap o state, b u t even after he died in exile in 1676, th e m ovem ent in his nam e co n tin u ed to ag itate th e Sephardic diaspora as N ath an o f G aza k ep t elab o ratin g u p o n th e m ean­ in g o f Zevi’s career. As a resu lt, Jew s in A m sterdam an d Italy , G erm any and th e N ear E ast, w ere jo in ed to g eth e r in a w ave o f ex pectation th a t offered tem porary consolation. E ventually, o f course, th e tru e im plica­ tio n s o f th e w hole affair becam e ap p aren t, and deep dep ressio n d e­ scended u p o n O tto m an Jew ry .16 Subsequently, th e Sephardic d iaspora o f th e E ast en tered an era o f stag n atio n , even as th e co n d itio n s in M uslim lands began to d eterio rate. B eginning late in th e reign o f Suleim an th e M agnificent in th e six teen th century, th e E m pire began a slow process o f decline th a t sp read to all layers o f society. E u ro p e w as sufficiently d istracted th a t it w as unaw are o f th is pervasive d e terio ratio n u n til in 1683 th e O tto m an s failed fo r th e second tim e to cap tu re V ienna. S oon th ereafter, th e choicest O tto m a n conquests in E u ro p e, in clu d in g H u n g ary , Serbia, W allachia, an d D al­ m atia, w ere ceded to E u ro p ean rule. W ith th e T reaty o f K arlo w itz in 1699, th e O tto m an forces w ith d rew fro m alm ost all o f H u n g ary , p o r-

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tio n s o f Slovenia an d C ro atia, th e P olish territo ries, and recognized V enice’s claim s in th e M orea an d D alm atia. T h is in glorious treaty sig­ naled th e beginnings o f a lo n g p erio d o f u n rem ittin g decline. M eanw hile, th e O tto m an Jew s w ere to m by conflicts betw een be­ lievers an d nonbelievers in S abbetai Z evi as records w ere altered o r h id d en , alm ost as if th e Jew s w an ted to extirpate th e very m em ory o f th is com m unal disaster. As th e seventeenth century drew to a close, th e intellectu al élan o f O tto m an Jew ry seem ed to be spent. T h e focus o f Sephardic destiny sh ifted to E u ro p e and beyond, w here P ortuguese refiigees w ere in v en tin g new approaches to Jew ish life as they knocked o n th e d o o rs o f th e W est.

Therefore (if it please your highness), it follows that the Jewish nation, though scattered through the whole world, are not therefore a despicable people but a plant worthy of being planted in the whole world and received into popu­ lous cities. —Menasseh ben Israel, Humble Address to Oliver Cromwell,

1655

The government of the United States . .. gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. .. . May the children of the Stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. — G eorge W ashington to the Jews o f N ew port, R hode Island, in

1790

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a steady stream o f New Christians embarked upon tw o parallel journeys: a physical trek northw ard to freedom, and a spiritual voyage back to the practice o f Judaism. Almost all o f these Sephardim were crypto-Jews, bom several generations after the expulsion and so with no personal experience o f life in a Jewish community. W hat united them instead was a sense o f shared oppression, the collective identity o f belonging to the so-called Portuguese nacion, and their close family links to Jews in the diaspora. This background, so different from that o f the Sephardim who mi­ grated to Ottom an lands immediately after the expulsion, produced an equally different evolution and history. W ithin decades o f the expul­ sion, small groups or individual marmno refugees appeared in western Europe. To outsiders there, they were considered to be Portuguese merchants, but they began taking their first tentative steps toward more open forms o f Jewish expression. In relatively intolerant France and Flanders, they did so hesitantly and furtively; in a growing num ber o f cities in Italy, they could observe their religion openly. W herever they went in western Europe, their status was ambiguous but infinitely more secure than in Iberia. The newcomers entered a Europe in transition, a continent rocked by religious wars that would destroy its equilibrium for decades. In the N orth, the Protestant Reformation would inaugurate unanticipated vistas o f religious toleration as countries like Holland, smarting under the Spanish yoke, began to consider the advantages o f religious free­ dom. In England, where anti-Catholic feeling also ran high, Protestants regarded Jews with new interest as they deliberated the benefits o f Jewish immigration. M ercantilist arguments could be heard alongside Protestant millenarian fantasies about the “approaching end o f days and conversion o f the Jews.” Yet even as the Sephardim began to negotiate a new presence in Protestant Europe, in Italy the Counter-Reform ation provoked reaction against the Renaissance and its humanism, institut­ ing repressive measures against Jews. The very communities that had found a new lease on life there after 1492 experienced new hardships in the sixteenth century as fresh expulsions caused a wave o f homelessness in the Papal States and the kingdom o f Naples. Still m ore dram atic w as th e disru p tiv e im pact o f th e T h irty Y ears 5 W ar, th e co n tin u o u s conflict in th e seventeenth cen tu ry th a t devastated en tire regions. As a result, som e absolute m onarchs becam e receptive to ad m ittin g g roups o f Jew s to help reb u ild th e ir territo rie s. As lo n g as such groups w ere sm all en o u g h , th ey w ere received w ith a m odicum o f

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tolerance in Germany. But in 1648 a crisis in Poland and Lithuania forced the largest concentrations o f Jews in the world from their homes. Over the following six years, perhaps 100,000 Polish Jews were slaugh­ tered and tens o f thousands forced to flee in the wake o f the Cossack persecutions led by Bogdan Chmielnitski during the MuscoviteSwedish invasion o f Poland. These Ashkenazic refugees pushed west­ ward, flooding the small Sephardic communities o f Ham burg, Amsterdam, London, and elsewhere. Thereafter, indeed throughout m ost o f the seventeenth and eigh­ teenth centuries, these wanderers, who were officially called Betteljudm or Schnorrjuden (beggar Jews) in the W est, were a great source of anxiety to their established brethren, for they were extremely poor, traditional in observance, and conspicuously differentiated in dress and demeanor.1 It was o f course essential to find asylum for them, but the prospect o f the continuing influx o f tens o f thousands o f such refugees raised the spectre o f anti-Semitism among the newly emancipated Sephardim. Indeed, this unequal meeting o f impoverished Ashkenazim and aristocratic Sephardim w ould place unusual strains on ancient Jew­ ish traditions o f solidarity and m utual assistance. M oreover, the demo­ graphic future o f western European Jewry as predominantly Ashkenazic became indisputable by the end o f this period, as a result o f Ashkenazic fecundity and Sephardic assimilation. Sephardim would remain vastly outnum bered by their brethren in every W estern settlem ent, rapidly assimilating as they moved up in society. By 1790, the Sephardim in Holland numbered only about 3,500 souls against 25,000 Ashkenazim. Similar situations held true in En­ gland and France and would soon be reflected in America as well. In Europe, each group kept its own (if frequently parallel) set o f commu­ nal institutions—synagogues, charities, and even cemeteries. But over the course o f tim e they grew increasingly distant socially, religiously, and economically. In 1812, for example, the marriage o f Moses M ontefiore, the future Sephardic leader o f all o f British Jewry, to Ashkenazic Judith Cohen was frowned upon by his family.

A t the same tim e that Sephardim were on the move everywhere in Europe, many New Christians departed incognito from Spain and Por­ tugal for the New W orld. Since they were officially barred from settle-

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mcnt in Spain’s colonics, utm ost secrecy was essential. Frequently, they signed on as ship captains or crew, which they were perm itted to do, then illegally transported other co-religionists or jumped ship in South America themselves. It was generally acknowledged that Jewish cap­ tains knew all o f the secret coves where illegal passengers and goods could be landed in the New W orld. All o f South America, along w ith Central America and Mexico, was part o f the Spanish colonial Empire from 1492 until the 1820s, with the exception o f Brazil, which fell to the Portuguese (after brief Dutch rule), and the northeastern coastal region o f the continent, which was also briefly held by the Dutch. Secret Jews in relatively large numbers immigrated to the Spanish dom inions, play­ ing an im portant role in the commerce o f the Empire. They were propelled by a spirit o f adventure and commercial enterprise, combined with the hope that with distance from Iberia they could discard their stigmatized identities and leave their sambmitos behind. They would be disappointed in this hope. The Inquisition aggressively pursued them into the New W orld after its establishment there in 1569 , reaching a height o f persecution in Mexico in 1 5 9 6 . Another great roundup o f secret Jews led to a spectacular auto-da-fé in Lima in 1639. Jewish set­ tlements were therefore forced to remain underground, shadowy col­ lectivities o f former fellow countrymen and family groups. One o f the most prom inent o f these secret Jews, Luis de Carvajal, rose to the governorship o f New Spain in 1579, but after he reverted to Judaism in Mexico he was caught and burned at the stake along with several mem­ bers o f his family. The secret Jews received some assistance from the legal Jewish pres­ ence in the Caribbean islands and from Jews as far away as Venice, Pisa, and Provence. But they led haunted lives, nonetheless, holding secret prayer meetings (sometimes in warehouses) and often communicating among themselves in code in order to avoid detection. Hundreds were eventually caught and prosecuted as Judaizers. Many died as martyrs at the stake; many others were condemned to serve in the galleys that plied the sea between Mexico and the Philippines. Yet despite the vigorous activity o f the Inquisition, groups o f secret Jews continued to arrive in South America from Iberia and other parts o f Europe and persisted in practicing their Judaism. They comprised approximately 10 percent o f the non-Indian population. Many escaped into the vast in­ terior o f the continent to avoid detection, leaving faint traces o f former crypto-Jewish practices still discernible today among Indian groups in Mexico and Brazil.

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As suggested earlier, the crypto-Jews o f Latin America maintained ongoing spiritual and commercial contacts with the open Jewish set­ tlements that dotted the Caribbean islands administered by the Dutch, French, and English. W hatever disabilities Jews may have faced in the European m other countries were substantially reduced in these islands because the colonial powers were quite interested in prom oting trade in the Caribbean. Thus, by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thriv­ ing Jewish communities could be found on St. Thomas, Curaçao, Ja­ maica, Barbados, St. Eustache, M artinique, and in Surinam. Soon thereafter, as we shall see, five small but historically significant Sephardic communities began to flourish in N orth America. It would have been difficult to predict from their modest beginnings—fugitives from the Spanish and Portuguese or rejected paupers dispatched by London’s Bevis Marks synagogue—that these small groups o f shopkeepers and merchants would establish the foundations o f what would eventually become the m ost populous Jewish community in history, the Jews of the U nited States.

D uring the seventeenth century, the nascent Sephardic communities o f western Europe gradually won the right to worship and residence with relatively few restrictions. The Amsterdam community became the m other to the rest, outstripping them in culture, affluence, and Jewish learning. It played the critical role, for example, in reeducating the Sephardim in France and in defending the introduction o f legal Jewish residence in England. A satellite community in Ham burg was given essential spiritual and moral support by their Amsterdam brethren. Significantly, it was from D utch Brazil that Jews were first able to make their way to N orth America, and it was the D utch W est India Company that successfully pressured Governor Peter Stuyvesant o f New Amster­ dam to allow them to enter. In sum, the period o f Sephardic ascendancy in western Europe coincided w ith and was partially dependent upon Holland’s vitality in the seventeenth century. A century later, when shifting patterns o f European trade spelled the end o f Dutch supremacy, transforming H ol­ land into a second-rate power, the aristocratic Sephardic merchant fam­ ilies o f Amsterdam also declined, as did the interconnected communities o f Bordeaux, H am burg, Venice, and London. The Sephardim were

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thus consigned to an increasingly marginal role. A t their height, how­ ever, they earned a permanent place in Jewish history by nurturing, sheltering, and re-Judaizing the exiles from Spain as well as opening the gates for legal recognition o f the right o f Jews to live in Europe as practicing Jews. These were not inconsiderable achievements for a group that never numbered more than several thousand, often having to take the greatest o f risks and invent ruses and subterfuges to keep their religion alive.

In 1492, approximately 10,000 Jews departed direcdy for Italy w ith their leader Abrabanel. Italy was not unified into a single country at the tim e, and these immigrants lived scattered in several communities enjoying various degrees o f sufferance. Although m ost cities barred them from entering, some more enlightened rulers, deeply immersed in the Re­ naissance, took a personal interest in the Jews. Before long, the Sephardic impact could be felt in Naples, Ferrara, Venice, and Livorno. After the practicing Jews o f 1492 came the conversos in the early 1500s. For some Renaissance princes like the duke o f U rbino or the Medicis, the Jewish presence represented a commercial asset as well as an intel­ lectual curiosity. The Sephardim in their turn, being temperamentally and historically attuned to the surrounding culture, shared in the gen­ eral artistic revolution o f the Renaissance. Social barriers between Jews and Christians began to break down. Christians could be found attend­ ing Jewish plays in the Jewish quarter, and Jews taught Christians about Hebrew printing and language. Renaissance luminaries like Pico della M irandola would commission Latin translations o f Hebrew classics from Elijah del M edigo, a Jewish scholar who had arrived in Venice from Crete. The Jewish poet and playwright Solomon Usque, a Portuguese refugee, translated the poetry o f Petrarch into Spanish. In general, Sephardic Jews had a smoother adjustment to Jewish life in Italy than in Muslim lands. The Italian communities were already quite heterogeneous, being composed o f indigenous Jews who had been in Italy for over a millennium as well as refugees who had arrived from Germany and France during the course o f the fourteenth century. In addition, Sephardic Jews shared many cultural affinities w ith in­ digenous Italian Jews, not least o f which was a receptivity to the sec­ ular culture o f their environment. Only in Rome did local Jews object

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to the arrival o f the Sephardim, fearful that the influx would precipitate an outbreak o f anti-Semitism. But their opposition did not prevail, and a small Sephardic community established itself in the capital o f Chris­ tendom . A t the other extreme o f hospitality was the city o f Ferrara and its ruler from the enlightened house o f Este, Duke Ercole I, who perm itted the Spanish exiles to settle in 1492. Este policy was to offer refuge to Jews whom they deemed to be “useful” and grant them autonomy, tax reductions, and permission to engage in trade or practice medicine. In 1553 Ercole II went one step further than his father, giving Ferrara’s conversos the right to settle and to revert. The city now housed ten synagogues and had become one o f Europe’s m ost im portant centers o f Hebrew printing, thanks to a press founded by the poet Usque. It was in this same year that the Ferrara Bible was printed. But the enlightened situation changed dramatically almost overnight, in spite o f the tolerant local nobility. Only a year later, in 1554, Pope Paul IV introduced several repressive measures. Censorship o f Hebrew printing led to the closing o f Ferrara’s press in 1556. Rome’s influence caused the town to require the wearing o f a Jewish badge. Before long, the number o f synagogues was reduced to three. Finally, the ghetto was introduced in 1624, and the community w ent into rapid decline. D uring Ferrara’s heyday, however, several illustrious Sephardic women found a haven there. Jewish women in general shared a brilliant chapter in the artistic life and communal politics o f sixteenth-century Renaissance Italy. W hether in medicine, business, poetry, or communal leadership, they engaged in public life to an unusual degree. Benvenida Abrabanel, wife o f Samuel, the head o f the Naples community, and niece o f D on Isaac, was a woman o f many talents. Well educated, she served as tutor to Leonora, the daughter o f Spanish viceroy Pedro de Toledo and later grand duchess o f Tuscany. Benvenida, though de­ scribed by a contemporary as “one o f the m ost noble and highly spirited women who have existed in Israel since the time o f our dispersion,” was not unusual among Sephardic women o f the time for her involvement in culture and politics, or for her level o f education. We hear, for example, o f a Talmud Torah for girls in late fifteenth-century Rome. Some women emerged as poets and literati, their salons providing a cultivated setting for artistic soirees. W hen the expulsion o f the Jews from Naples was decreed in the 1530s, Benvenida, following in the footsteps o f her distinguished uncle, tried to have the order rescinded. W ith the support o f her royal charges,

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she petitioned the emperor but was unsuccessful. She left w ith her community for Ferrara, where she resumed her business activities with her banker husband. After his death, she continued to engage in business, but her fame rested primarily on her piety. She is remem­ bered for her largesse and for her efforts in ransoming hundreds o f Jews from pirates. H er Jewish loyalty and activist approach to life recall her most famous contemporary, Dona Gracia Mendes (who, in­ cidentally, returned openly to Judaism in Ferrara before moving on to Turkey). Like Sephardic Jews everywhere, Benvenida yearned for signs that Jewish redemption was near. While still in Naples, she was caught up in messianic stirrings sparked in the 1520s by the appearance o f the messianic pretender David Reubeni discussed earlier. H e announced that he had been dispatched by his king to request a m eeting with the pope and asked the Jews o f Venice to arrange a papal audience. In 1523 Reubeni entered Rome on a white horse in accordance w ith one o f the many Jewish traditions about the Messiah; during this impressive entry, a banner was unfurled that had the Ten Commandments embroidered on it by Benvenida. Reubeni made a proposition to Clement V II that was audacious and fantastic but also quite in keeping w ith the spirit o f the age: the Jews would join forces with Christendom in a Crusade to oust the Turks from the Holy Land. Reubeni progressed from Rome to Portugal, where he caused a furor among the crypto-Jews. Eagerly hoping for release from their captivity, many o f them recognized him as the long-awaited Messiah. Reubeni’s impact on Diego Perez (Solomon M olcho) has already been described. The dramatic careers o f these two men reveal how avidly the Sephardic diaspora sought a redeemer, even in enlightened Renaissance Italy. The link between this yearning and activist political schemes to liberate the secret Jews is characteristic o f the culture o f post-expulsion Sephardim everywhere.

Venice was even more culturally vibrant than Ferrara, for it housed a large, heterogeneous Jewish community that included several different Sephardic elements. Some had come directly from Iberia in the 1490s, others had arrived a little later as conversos and socialized somewhat separately, and still others were Sephardic merchants from Turkey and

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the Levant. Each group formed a separate congregation, supported its own synagogue, and perpetuated its own ritual and subculture. Venice offered a curious mixture o f tolerance and intolerance, re­ flecting the general tides o f fortune o f Italy’s Jews. As early as 1492, the city forced its Jews to wear distinguishing hats (yellow until 1500, then red). Its ghetto was established in 1516 on the site o f an iron foundry, from which the word “ghetto” derives, and would eventually become one o f the m ost crowded in Europe, enduring until 1797. Yet its den­ izens were profoundly Italianized and highly prized the city's flourish­ ing secular culture. We know that Jewish dance masters and musicians delighted the community, while rabbis were vexed by the prevalence o f cardplaying on the Sabbath and by the frequency o f amorous liaisons between Christians and Jews. Hebrew printing began in 1515 upon the arrival o f Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer from Antwerp. Several printing houses thrived, attracting Sephardic scholars from all over Europe and N orth Africa.2 But in Venice too, as in the other Italian cities, the Catholic Counter-Reform ation had a crippling economic and cultural impact upon the Jews. In 1550, convenos who had reverted were expelled from the city’s ghetto. In 1571, Jews were barred from working in printing and paralyzed by prior censorship which had not been enforced earlier; the famed Venetian printing industry rapidly declined. Nevertheless, as long as Venice remained a significant emporium with a thriving Eastern trade, her Sephardim continued to prosper, playing a special role in that commerce as a result o f their family and business connections in the O ttom an Empire. The only place in Italy where the Catholic reaction did not prevail was Livorno (Leghorn). No ghetto was introduced there, nor was distinctive Jewish clothing required. In an enlightened charter issued in 1593, the grand duke o f Tuscany, Ferdinand I de Medici, assured the Jews to whom he was granting settlem ent rights that “none shall be able to make any inquisition, inquiry, examination or accusal, against you or your families, although living in the past outside our Dominion in the guise o f Christians.”3 This declaration was tantam ount to an invitation to convenes to setde and return to Judaism. By the seventeenth century, Livorno had become a fascinating cen­ ter o f Sephardic life and also a great M editerranean port, having re­ placed Pisa in importance because o f the silting o f the River Amo. In 1675 the tow n was declared a free port, and international commerce took a leap forward. By 1689 more than 3,000 Jews could be counted in

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Livorno, and Portuguese and Spanish served as the m ajor languages o f commerce (and o f aU communal business until the nineteenth century). O f the ijo commercial houses in the 1700s, fifty were owned by Jews engaged in trade w ith Egypt, N orth Africa, and Turkey. Livorno’s Jews formed their own diaspora o f commercial colonies in the Levant and also set up a separate “nation” in Tunis, where they lived in a separate quarter. Known as the Grand, a term derived from the Arabic for Livorno, they were sometimes in conflict w ith the local Jewish popu­ lation, the Tuansa, who resented both their separatism and their special commercial relationships w ith the authorities. Meanwhile, Livorno, unlike the other Jewish communities in Italy that began to languish in the seventeenth century, remained a very cosmopolitan center into the eighteenth century. Later sons o f the community who achieved fame outside included Moses M ontefiore, the painter M odigliani, and Sabato Morais, the founder o f Conservative Judaism in America. In sum, then, the Sephardic community in Italy enjoyed the fruits o f the Renaissance in their first generation o f expulsion from Spain, but in m ost places that freedom was cut short by the zealous CounterReformation. Censorship, ghettoization, the decline o f printing, and the zeal o f the Italian Inquisition in pursuing form er conversas, as at Ancona, ended what began as a new diaspora o f great promise. M ore­ over, even as tolerance flourished briefly in the N orth, Jews were being evicted from the South. In a myriad o f different forms, from the music o f Salomone de Rossi w ith its echoes o f M onteverdi to the spell-binding sermons o f Leone de M odena in the Venetian ghetto, from the endur­ ing illuminated Hebrew manuscripts to the achievements o f m ultital­ ented rabbis, Italy’s Sephardic refugees enjoyed an exceptional, if brief, flowering in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Their decline set in gradually, subject as always to vagaries, whims, and prejudices o f the regnant authorities. As reaction hardened, Sephardim sought m ore favorable places to settle, using Italy as a stepping-stone to either H ol­ land or Turkey .4 Their continuing propensity to wander during the centuries after the expulsion is nothing short o f extraordinary.

The fate o f Jews who moved northw ard was quite different from their reception in Italy. In general, they had to enter countries surrepti­ tiously, usually as “Portuguese merchants,” although the truth behind

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this disguise was no secret. Their numbers are difficult to estimate because many never joined the clandestine Jewish enclaves that began to congregate in Bordeaux, Antwerp, Ham burg, and Amsterdam in the sixteenth century. N or can we say w ith certainty why some chose to leave Spain and Portugal and others did not. A t times, the motivating factor was a brush w ith the Inquisition, as when a marram's name was extracted from a torture victim. Sometimes, a sense o f revulsion against Christianity m ight sweep over the New Christian forced to watch an auto-da-fe, reawakening an appreciation o f his Jewish heritage. M ost often, though, the new émigré was impelled by his sense o f frustration at the social and professional restrictions caused by the laws o f blood purity. In many cases—how many, we shall never know for sure—the New Christian who decided to become a secret Jew was following in the footsteps o f family members who had insisted on passing down Jewish traditions, ever dimming though they were, from one generation to the next. Also, a random encounter with a Jew visiting from abroad could inspire the Iberian converso to reconsider his identity. Even the negative assessment o f O ld Christians suggests how deep the longing must have been; they claimed that every New Christian lived with esperanza, the hope that he would someday rejoin the Jewish people. It is remarkable, considering the nearly insurm ountable obstacles standing in the way, how many o f the New Christians eventually acted upon those desires. The num ber o f these new emigres varied from decade to decade, but the exodus never entirely ceased. As we have seen, emigration was banned in Spain and Portugal after the expulsion. It was hoped that the New Christian would adjust to his new identity once he accepted the fact that no exit was possible. O n the eve o f Passover in 1506, however, a bitter massacre o f the New Christians occurred in Lisbon. As a result, they succeeded in convincing King M anuel to lift the ban on emigra­ tion tem porarily .6 A fresh wave o f panic emigration followed immedi­ ately upon the introduction o f the Inquisition into Portugal in 1536. Each new auto-da-ß would send shudders through the New Christian community, propelling a new wave o f émigrés beyond its borders. Ironically, the first choice o f refuge became Spain, which joined in a political union w ith Portugal in 1580 that would last until 1640. D ur­ ing that period, countless New Christians made their way back to Spain, encouraged by the ruling that they could not be tried there for “crimes” o f Judaizing comm itted in Portugal. The separate Holy Of­ fices in the tw o countries did indeed exchange information on sus-

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pected crypto-Jews, but Spain decided not to extradite fugitives from her jurisdiction. The unexpected result was that she once again faced a marrano problem that had become nonexistent within her borders by this time. The Portuguese immigrants, suspected o f crypto-Judaism by definition, were regarded as a separate group o f Christians—the portujjueses de la naçion hebrea or simply portupfueses de la nafion or homens da naçao. Even among themselves, the conversos in Lisbon, M adrid, or Seville referred to each other as “Portuguese” or “M en o f the N ation,” and the term “Portuguese” became synonymous with “Jew5" or “Judaizer” not only in Spain but wherever these Portuguese New Chris­ tians went in western Europe. W hat distinguished the conversos who w ent north, regardless o f their motives for flight, was the fact that they knew precious little about their heritage. Even those who fervently sought to embrace Judaism imme­ diately and in full did not know precisely what rabbinic Judaism was or what membership in an openly constituted Jewish community actually entailed. Consequently, their re-Judaization was not always smooth. The Amsterdam community would be forced to engage in a constant struggle to reintegrate these Jews. Another factor was that, in contrast with the Sephardim who were welcomed by indigenous communities in the Muslim world, they found no open Jewish communities in Eu­ rope to buttress them from culture shock. Everything had to be created from scratch; in the beginning, their communities had to be formed in secret. Many myths about the unusual piety and steadfast loyalty o f these marrams have survived, but the more sober reality is that, like m ost people, these pioneering Jewish settlers who returned to their faith in Europe had human frailties. Courageous they were, but they were also not above pettiness and snobbery, insecurity and self-consciousness, as they set out to gain acceptance in a Europe that was not yet sure that it would tolerate them. W ith tenacity, they would convince the gentile authorities to accept their presence, they would provide the impetus for opening many new lands to the renewal o f Jewish life, and they would contribute to their new homes commercial élan and entrepreneurial skills. Even more remarkably, they would produce scholars and rabbis, dignified leaders and enthusiastic followers, create a vibrant Jewish literature in Spanish and Portuguese, and establish vital communities in lands that had either never seen a Jew (i.e., Brazil) or not perm itted Jewish life for centuries (i.e., England). D uring the seventeenth cen­ tury, the Portuguese Jewish diaspora stretched rapidly from the O tto-

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man Empire to Goa on the Indian subcontinent, from Denmark and northern Germany all the way to Brazil and the islands o f the Carib­ bean. Though so widely scattered, its members retained their identity as Portuguese Jews, seeing themselves as citizens o f a nation with a uniquely heroic and tragic past. The life o f Balthazar de O robio offers a fairly typical example o f the special difficulties o f this journey .7 Bom in the Portuguese town o f Braganza around 1617, he belonged to a community that had produced generations o f New Christian martyrs. At the auto-da-fö o f 1593-1602 in Coimbra, m ore than 800 o f them had been tried and punished, includ­ ing de O robio’s maternal and paternal grandparents. N ot long after his birth, his family, like so many other Portuguese New Christians, fled to Spain to avoid the Inquisition. Even though conditions were only slightly less ominous there, they were able to teach the boy the practices o f Judaism. H e also learned the terrors o f discovery when his uncle was caught and imprisoned by the Portuguese Inquisition. Like many others o f his background, de Orobio chose to go into medicine, one o f the few professions not barred by the “blood purity” regulations. From 1633 through 1635, he combined his medical studies w ith Christian theology. This academic program was not at all uncom­ m on among the New Christians, as would become evident later. In some cases, for example, the result would be skepticism toward both Judaism and Christianity when émigrés moved to the relative freedom o f the N orth. In fact, there were many intellectuals who went so far as to deny the central Jewish doctrine o f the unique election o f Israel and indeed to reject all religious particularism. For many New Christians, study o f Christianity was useful later on in interfaith discussions with dissident Christians in Holland. In the long process o f returning to Judaism, in other words, they could draw upon their arsenal o f theo­ logical knowledge in order to understand better the divergences be­ tween the tw o faiths. But de O robio’s career was suddenly interrupted when he went into hiding in 1640. It seems that his family had been betrayed at last to the H oly Office, their valiant maintenance o f crypto-Jewish practices laid bare in m inute detail, and they were forced to escape to Bayonne. Eventually de O robio, turned in by a servant, was arrested, tortured, im prisoned, and then penanced in an auto-da-fé in 1656. Thereafter, he was sentenced to a kind o f house arrest in Seville. The w riting on the wall was clearly legible, however, and he himself fled to Bayonne not long before his family was burned in effigy at a great auto-da-fé in Seville

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in 1660. By 1662, w hen he m ig rated to A m sterdam , he w as finally ready to th ro w o ff th e cloak o f being N ew C h ristian . Jo in in g th e Jew ish com m unity th ere, he changed his nam e to Isaac, an d his w ife Isabel becam e E sther. H e explained th is tra n sitio n w ith u n ap o lo g etic frank­ ness:

In Spain, I presented a Christian appearance, since life is sweet; but I was never very good at it, and so it came out that I was in fact a Jew. If, then, whilst I was there, confronted with the risk of [loss of my] freedom, status, property, and indeed life itself, I was in reality a Jew and a Christian merely in outward appearance, common sense shows that in a domicile where Providence from above affords me a life of freedom, a true Jew is what I shall be.8 After instruction with Moses Raphael d’Aguilar o f Amsterdam, de Orobio became one o f the leading intellectuals and apologists o f the community, composing major defenses o f Judaism in Spanish. Such stellar accomplishments were indeed unusual for someone cut off from Jewish life for so many decades, but in its overall contours, de O robio’s biography was a familiar story o f the day: flight from the Inquisition, study o f medicine and theology, temporary asylum in France, whole­ hearted embrace o f Judaism in Holland. As can be expected, he also had the characteristic Sephardic affection for all things Spanish. As de Orobio’s career suggests, France was im portant as an under­ ground railroad to freedom, even though no Jews were legally allowed there after the expulsion in 1394* The case o f the Bordeaux region, however, was somewhat ambiguous, since it had been occupied by the English at that time; i.e., it had not technically been a part o f France. In the event. New Christians began drifting into the country almost im­ mediately after the Spanish expulsion, but they were forced to live as Catholics and settle primarily in a few places near the Spanish border, most commonly in the border town o f St.-Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne, and Bordeaux. It was better to seek asylum further away, using France only as a stepping-stone to Amsterdam or to Flanders, which was frequently the portal to Italy or the O ttom an East. A t first. N ew C hristians w h o chose to stay in F rance rem ained fo r all in ten ts and purposes a marram com m unity, secredy p racticin g Ju ­ daism . S oon after th e establishm ent o f th e In q u isitio n in P o rtu g al, how ever, they began to seek reg u larizatio n o f th e ir precarious existence and som e degree o f p ro tectio n from p ro secu tio n by p e titio n in g th e F rench g overnm ent fo r letters o f n atu ralizatio n . P erhaps th e m ove w as

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taken at that time because o f pressure caused by the increased flow o f em igration from Portugal. In any event, the French government did respond in 1550 w ith “Letters o f Naturalization and Dispensation” (more commonly known as Lettres Patentes) that granted the “Portu­ guese merchants” the right to settle and trade in the territories o f the Bordeaux Parliament. The language is telling: Among the said Portuguese, known as New Christians, there has arisen a great desire, which grows day by day, to take up residence in this our Kingdom and to bring their wives and families, bearing with money and chattels, in the manner that has been set forth to us by those whom they have sent hither.9 In other words, the w ord “Jew” is not used here or anywhere else in the letters, although it is made clear that no inquiries will be made into their private lives. These instruments o f recognition and protection were considered so im portant by the Jews that they paid dearly for their renewal in 1574,1656,1723, and 1776, even though the documents did not grant them equality, freedom to setde anywhere they chose, or the right to engage in any occupation other than trade. By the renewal o f 1723, language caught up w ith reality. The “Portuguese merchants” were called “Jews,” and from then on, they would openly deal with the governm ent as practicing Jews in an organized Jewish community. It would be w rong to infer, however, that life for the French com­ m unity immediately became settled and secure. For one thing, from its emergence in the sixteenth century it remained quite small, leaning heavily on the great Jewish center o f Amsterdam for both material aid and, more im portantly, the spiritual support needed for re-Judaizing refugees. Business ties also linked the two communities, but m ost ref­ ugees stayed only temporarily in France before going on to the “Dutch Jerusalem.” For another, Jewish life itself remained precarious. In 1619, for example, Catherine de Fernandes, a sixty-year-old marram newly arrived in St.-Jean-de-Luz, was caught feigning communion by a Por­ tuguese priest who saw her remove the consecrated wafer from her m outh. She was immediately imprisoned, but an angry crowd removed her from her cell, dragged her through the streets, and burned her alive. All New Christians were immediately expelled from the tiny border tow n.10 E ven in B ordeaux after th e p ro m u lg atio n o f th e Lettres Patentes, th e N ew C h ristian s p racticed Judaism secredy, c o n tin u in g to have th eir

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children baptized and registered in the parish registries, which referred to the fathers as “Portuguese merchants.” Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in fact, m ost Sephardim o f “the N ation” bore two names, the Christian name o f their baptism and their Jewish name. Although they were tacitly recognized by the surrounding pop­ ulation as Jewish, they were also well integrated into mainstream life, able to trade and circulate in Catholic society with relative ease. This economic result o f the Lettres Patentes was their greatest benefit. N one­ theless, the stereotype that all o f the New Christians o f Bordeaux were rich, successful merchants is unfounded; although several wealthy fam­ ilies did indeed dominate communal life there for generations, the ma­ jority o f the émigrés remained poor. Only some o f the New Christians ever became openly active in the Jewish community, which gradually strengthened and became more cohesive. Eventually, the elders in their executive council, ox:Mohamad, could exercise great control over mem­ bers o f the congregation, even expelling those deemed to be “undesir­ ables.” O ther New Christians, however, preferred to remain secret Jews or “unaffiliated,” feeling sufficiently insecure about openly proclaiming themselves to be Jewish. As late as 1734, perhaps confirming their fears, the government closed the Bordeaux synagogue. B ayonne, th e o th er m ajor settlem en t o n F ren ch soil, developed along m uch th e sam e lines as B ordeaux, com m encing as an inconspic­ uous enclave o f marrams an d em erging as an o p en com m unity o n ly in th e seventeenth century. A ccording to In q u isitio n reco rd s, it also served as a center fo r re-Judaizarion o f Ib erian em igres an d also p ro v id ed o n g o in g sp iritu al assistance to crypto-Jew s w h o rem ained b eh in d in Iberia. A series o f dates is revealing: in 1654, th e com m unity o b tain e d land fo r a cem etery; in 1670, it h ired a rab b i; by 1679, th e synagogue n o lo n g er had to be concealed. In b o th o f these com m unities, as elsew here, th e S ephardim c o n tin ­ u ed to feel fiercely p ro u d o f th eir aristo cratic ro o ts. W hen in th e eig h ­ teen th century V oltaire h u rled his verbal attacks a t Jew s in general, th e F rench Sephardim defended them selves by em phasizing th e ir sep arate­ ness from th eir lesser (as w ell as m ore tra d itio n al an d less w ell-off) A shkenazic b reth ren and th e su p erio rity o f th e ir m oral qualities. In revolutionary France, to th e ab id in g disapproval o f m any o th e r Jew s (an d o f h isto rian s), they p etitio n e d th e M alesherbes C om m ission fo r th e em ancipation, n o t o f all Jew s, b u t only o f “th e N a tio n .” T hey g o t th eir w ish in 1790, a year before th e A shkenazim , w h o w ere th e m ajo rity o f th e Jew s in th e co u n try . (W hen th e la tte r w ere em ancipated, th e

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separate status o f the Sephardim as “the Nation” disappeared.) The arrogance o f some Sephardim was not confined only to more tradi­ tional Jewry, however; members o f the two French communities com­ plained frequently throughout the eighteenth century about the high­ handed rule o f the privileged elders. N ot until the French Revolution would this oligarchy agree to relinquish control. Thus, in looking back at Sephardic life in France, we see an uneven development. Their elitism, whether toward Ashkenazim or less fortu­ nate Sephardim, is not attractive but may in part have reflected the hostility they encountered in their new country. Having worked so long to establish their social integration as secret Jews, they felt their safety and economic well-being threatened by association with the much more conspicuous, differentiated Ashkenazic Jews o f eastern France. The m entality o f the elite Sephardim in France is frequently revealed in the nature o f their appeals for toleration from the larger society. They vaunt their economic usefulness as well as the enlightenment o f their ways. In Bordeaux, for example, the small community numbered about 1,000 in the eighteenth century. Their enterprises included large-scale banking and, because they had several firms that could outfit ships for oceangoing commerce, significant trade with the French colonies across the Atlantic. A t the same time, they did not turn away brethren who were in need, although help was usually a m atter o f assisting poor marrams in moving along elsewhere, to French colonies like Canada or to Amsterdam. In the final analysis, any evaluation o f the place o f the Sephardim in French history m ust remain tentative, for there is no authoritative his­ tory o f the community during its formative years. Offering a convenient transit route and source o f Judaization at the very gates o f Spain, the community was also pivotal in introducing the concept o f legal recog­ nition for open, visible Jewish settlements and in wringing emancipa­ tion for the Jewish people as a whole. In fact, its achievements became the standard against which revolution and emancipation elsewhere could be measured.

New Christian settlem ent in the Netherlands reflected the tumultuous religious wars o f the sixteenth century. Catholic Spain’s dom inion over Catholic Flanders and Brabant and Protestant Holland created an un-

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easy union. Although Jews from Iberia were attracted to the Spanish Netherlands, and Antwerp in particular, because o f its central role in European commerce, their identities had to remain subterranean. Em­ peror Charles V perm itted New Christians to move to Antwerp pro­ vided they did not revert to Judaism. Indeed, many New Christians who went to France and the Netherlands were not marranos. They simply wanted to take advantage o f the greater commercial opportuni­ ties and more relaxed atmosphere the Netherlands offered in contrast to Spain or Portugal. Many, however, were secret practitioners o f Judaism who correcdy assumed that the local Inquisitions would not molest them. Among Antwerp’s m ost prom inent secret Jewish residents were Diego Mendes and his sister-in-law Dona Gracia, new arrivals from Portugal in 1537. By the 1J70S a secret Jewish community in the city numbered between 4 0 0 and 5 0 0 souls. Philip II complained bitterly in 1564 that they assembled in their synagogues, followed their rites in secret, and made a mockery o f the Catholic faith. W hen H olland re­ volted and won her independence from Spain in 1J79, Antwerp re­ mained under Spanish rule. D uring the revolt and subsequent occupation by Spanish troops, the d ty was subjected to especially harsh treatm ent that led to the ouster and departure o f thousands o f Protes­ tant and New Christian merchants in 1585. M ost o f these victims o f religious warfare made their way to Holland. T he b lo o d lettin g o f th e Flem ish p o p u latio n co n tin u ed in th e p ro ­ tracted h o stilities o f th e W ars o f th e Spanish Succession. W hen w arfare betw een Spain and th e D u tch finally en ded in 1 6 4 8 after eig h ty years o f conflict, th e L ow C o u n tries w ere sp lit. T h e P ro te stan t N o rth em erged as an in d ep en d en t, religiously to le ran t H o llan d , w hile th e C ath o lic S o u th , th e Spanish N etherlands o f F landers an d B rab an t, c o n tin u ed to b ar legal Jew ish setdem ent. N o t u n til th e o ccu p atio n o f th is area by French revolutionary forces in 1792 w ere Jew s th ere able to discard th e ir crypto-Jew ish m asks. D u tch principles o f religious to le ratio n w ere b o rn o u t o f th e exi­ gencies o f w arfare and th e need to establish peace am ong h e r religiously heterogeneous p o p u latio n . N ew C h ristian skills an d co n tacts w ere w el­ com ed d u rin g th e p ro tracted w arfare w ith Spain. A rticle X III o f th e T reaty o f U trech t, w hich ratified th e u n io n o f th e n o rth e rn provinces, declared th a t n o o ne w as to be p ro secu ted fo r his religious beliefs. A lthough th is clause w as in ten d ed to benefit d ie P ro testan ts an d keep peace am ong C h ristian s, it p ro v id ed th e legal basis u p o n w hich Jew s im m ediately began to take u p residence an d seek reco g n itio n in H o i-

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land. There the Sephardim would find the ideal conditions to create a New Jerusalem. The D utch capital was the emporium o f seventeenth-century Eu­ rope, her harbor teem ing w ith ships brimful o f goods from the Amer­ icas and the Far East. H er people eagerly invented themselves as a new nation; beguiled by commerce and its possibilities, they were nonethe­ less characterized by sobriety o f behavior and a distaste for both super­ stition and any pretension o f nobility. The city’s great wealth was based on three factors: her fleet, her thriving trade, and a policy o f tolerance that attracted some o f the m ost enterprising and ambitious souls on the Continent. Indeed, it was clearly recognized that tolerance o f religious diversity was sound policy: Next to the freedom to worship God comes freedom to make one’s living for all inhabitants. Here [in Amsterdam] it is very necessary to attract foreigners. And although this is of disadvantage to some old residents who would like to keep the best solely for themselves and pretend that a citizen should have preferences above a stranger, the truth of the matter is that a state which is not self-sufficient must constantly draw new inhabitants to it or it will perish.11 In this newfound mercantilism, marrams became especially prom­ inent. In 1604 a certain Manuel Rodrigues de Vega petitioned the city’s burgomasters to be allowed to establish silk mills there along with two other Portuguese Jews. In short order, the Sephardim would develop not only the domestic silk industry but also the silk trade, much o f the tobacco trade, and commerce in sugar, corals, and diamonds. Eventu­ ally, Sephardic poets, dram atists, calligraphers, and copper-etchers w ould also be found alongside the customary merchants, bankers, and physicians. Now that it seemed the Jews could finally cease their wanderings, they began to pour into H olland from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, and Antwerp. A t first, religious services were held inconspicuously in private homes as well as at the residence o f Samuel Pallache, a Sephardic Jew w ho was M orocco’s ambassador to the Netherlands from 1612 to 1616. To a certain extent, the position o f the Jews was regularized in 1597 when burghers’ rights were granted to members o f the “Portuguese nation” in Amsterdam. It is not until 1606 that one finds the first official reference to Joodsche GemcmU (the Jewish Congregation), but by 1609 the Sephardic community num bered 200 souls and supported two syn­ agogues. A decade later, a third house o f worship would be founded. In

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1614, the cemetery o f Ouderkerk was purchased and would remain the community’s hallowed burial ground for generations. T his g ro w th o f a distinctive com m unity, com bined w ith lively re­ ligious discussions betw een C hristians and marrams, in d u ced th e city governm ent in 1615 to co n fro n t squarely th e q u estio n o f h o w to h andle th e Jew s. S hould they be officially p erm itted to settle? I f so, sh o u ld th ey be g ran ted religious freedom ? T h e m unicipality addressed th ese qu es­ tio n s to tw o leading citizens. O n e o f th em , H u g o G ro tiu s (1583-1645), rendered a landm ark o p in io n in th e b attle fo r to le ratio n o f th e Jew s in E urope. G ro tiu s w as only th irty -tw o years o ld w hen he w as ap p ro ach ed o n th e q u estio n o f th e adm ission o f th e Jew s to H o llan d , b u t he w as already a distin g u ish ed H eb raist, p ro m in en t th eo lo g ian , an d a recog­ nized dram atist. H e w ould later be considered th e fath er o f in te rn a ­ tio n al law fo r his classic w o rk o n th e law o f w ar and peace. H e w as a friend o f A m sterdam ’s em inent rab b i and scholar M enasseh b en Israel (b o m M anuel D ias Soeiro as a N ew C h ristian ), a charism atic p erso n ­ ality o f w hom w e w ill hear m ore later. In Remonstantie, his tra c t o n th e Jew ish q u estio n , G ro tiu s p rovided a b aro m eter o f th e em erg in g a tti­ tudes o f to leratio n o f th e Jew s in a fascinating b len d o f m edieval p rej­ udices and m ore en lig h ten ed ideas. A lthough he duly catalogued th e alleged “crim es” co m m itted by Jew s th ro u g h th e ages, G ro tiu s advocated a d m ittin g th em to H o llan d , explaining th a t th eir an ti-C h ristian behavior w as caused by th e perse­ cutions they h ad suffered fo r th eir religion. H e fervently h o p ed fo r th e ir ultim ate conversion b u t felt it im possible as lo n g as th ey associated solely w ith C atholics. In o th er w o rd s, it w as essential to w elcom e Jew s in to th e co u n try because only m em bers o f th e D u tc h R eform ed C h u rch could lead th em eventually to th e baptism al fo n t. In ad d itio n , G ro tiu s argued, th e presence o f Jew s co u ld be benefi­ cial in m ore w ays th an one. A ssociating w ith th em co u ld h elp non-Jew s im prove th eir know ledge o f H eb rew (an arg u m en t com m only m ade by seventeenth-century P ro testan ts). M oreover, in tru e m edieval fashion he explained th a t th e co n tin u in g existence o f th e Jew s as a separate people “serves as an exam ple an d as evidence o f th e tru th o f th e H o ly Scriptures o f th e O ld T estam en t.” T o forestall th e o b jectio n s o f th o se w ho feared th a t th eir relig io n m ig h t som ehow be im posed u p o n th e cou n try , G ro tiu s w ro te th a t Judaism , b ein g m o st fo reig n , w as th e least likely religion to c o n stitu te a d an g er to “tru e belief .”12 B u t after conceding th e Jew s th e rig h t to practice th e ir faith , h e proceeded to set do w n fo rty -n in e articles fo r reg u latin g th e ir statu s in

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H o llan d . T h ey w ere to d em o n strate th e ir faith in m onotheism and n o t sp read h eretical beliefs am ong C hristians. T h eir to ta l num bers could be lim ited , h e felt, b u t he also p ro p o sed th e revolutionary idea th a t they n o t be restricted in o ccu p atio n o r place o f residence. T hey sh o u ld be allow ed to observe th e ir ow n S abbath and to o p erate th eir o w n p rin t­ in g presses. O n th e o th e r h an d , th ey sh o u ld be p ro h ib ited from h o ld in g p u b lic office, pro sely tizin g , in term arry in g w ith C hristians, o r bearing arm s. D esp ite th e b len d o f tolerance and b ig o try , G ro tiu s’s approach cam e o u t o n th e liberal side. T h e concrete resu lt w as th a t th e com m u­ n ity in H o llan d w as legally recognized by th e m unicipality in 1615 and w as never b u rd en ed w ith th e m edieval restrictio n s o f having to w ear badges an d live in g h etto s.

Once the decision was made, Amsterdam became an even more powerful m agnet for oppressed Jews from other parts o f Europe. The atmosphere o f toleration was made more attractive by the growth o f dozens o f organizations and welfare institutions in the community, for the city’s Jews were living openly as Jews. In 1615, a boatload o f émigrés arrived from Nantes; in 1617, seventy-three Sephardim expelled from St.-Jean-de-Luz appeared. Ironically, it becam e b e tte r to be know n in A m sterdam as a Jew th a n as a “P o rtu g u ese m erch an t,” thanks to an ti-Ib erian sen tim en t after th e breakaw ay fro m Spain. M any D u tch intellectuals becam e fascinated w ith th e som ew hat exotic in h ab itan ts o f th e Jew ish q u arter and so u g h t th em o u t fo r conversation. A t th e o u tse t o f his career R em b ran d t, y o u n g and u n k n o w n , sketched m any o f his P ortuguese neig h b o rs, in ­ clu d in g M enasseh ben Israel. C onversely, th e S ephardim reaped th e benefits o f th e lively intellectual life created by A m sterdam ’s savants, w h o eagerly cu ltiv ated th eo lo g y , philosophy, ju risp ru d en ce, m athem at­ ics, an d o rie n tal languages. In 1617, tw o years after G ro tiu s’s affirm ation o f th e ir rig h t to d o so, th e heads o f th e Jew ish school v o ted to establish a p rin tin g press. W ith in th e decade, several p rivate H eb rew presses w ere also set u p , in clu d in g th a t o p erated by th e renow ned intellectual M enasseh ben Israel. D u rin g its first tw en ty years, his m ultilin g u al press pro d u ced m o re th a n sixty tid es, in clu d in g B ibles, prayerbooks, and his ow n o rig ­ in al w orks. W ell k n ow n am ong th e ph ilo so p h ers, scientists, an d th eo ­ logians o f A m sterdam , h e gave serm ons th a t a ttracted flocks o f C h ristian s as w ell as Jew s, an d w o u ld even rep resen t his en terp rise at th e F ran k fu rt B ook F air in 1634. By th is tim e, since H eb rew p rin tin g h a d decayed in V enice, A m sterdam w as effectively th e Judaic p rin tin g

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capital o f Europe. One especially successful printer was Joseph Athias, who founded his press in 1658 and was adm itted to the booksellers5 guild three years later. The scope o f his operation can be inferred from his remark that “For several years I myself printed more than a m illion Bibles for England and Scodand.5513 A t some point, he gained the exclusive right to print the Bible in Yiddish; in 1670 he was granted a fifteen-year monopoly on the sale as well as the printing o f Englishlanguage Bibles. M eanw hile, in co n trast w ith th e Sephardim in th e O tto m a n E m ­ p ire, th e P o rtu g u ese Jew s o f A m sterdam rem ained deeply im m ersed in Spanish and L usitanian h ig h cu ltu re as it evolved in th e six teen th an d seventeenth centuries. W hile th e O tto m an S ephardi d istin g u ish ed h im ­ self by co n tin u in g to use m edieval Spanish in everyday speech, w ritin g th is L adino in H eb rew characters an d in co rp o ratin g H eb rew an d o th e r w ords and expressions, th e A m sterdam S ephardi used th e living Span­ ish o r P ortuguese o f his day, co n stan d y chan g in g linguistically an d w ritten w ith R om an characters. In fact, th e cu ltu re o f th e P o rtu g u ese Jew ish ém igrés bore so few traces o f th e tra d itio n al H eb riac sp irit th a t m ost o f its m em bers knew n o H eb rew at all w h en th ey arriv ed in A m sterdam . T hey h ad to be laboriously schooled as ad u lts by th e com ­ m u n ity ^ tu to rs an d rabbis. As surviving lists o f p riv ate b o o k collections show , they co n tin u ed th e ir in terest in Ib erian literatu re, w hich w as a m ajor source o f th e ir shared com m unity prid e. T h ey created so m eth in g o f a m in iatu re L isbon o r M ad rid o n th e banks o f th e A m stel, o n Jod enbreestraat, p o p u lated by p oets an d d ram ad sts w ritin g in Spanish and P o rtuguese as w ell as m en resem bling Jew ish hidalgos (S panish noblem en o f low er rank) w h o preserved th e m anners o f th e n o b ility and retain ed th e ir solidarity w ith o th e r Ib erian Jew s. In th is latte r regard, they w ere o f course sharply a ttu n e d to th e fate o f th e marrams being h o u n d ed o n th e peninsula. W h o w as n o t, fo r exam ple, p rofoundly m oved by th e fate o f th e tw en ty -fo u r-y ear-o ld Isaac de C astro T arto s, a B razilian Jew w h o d ared to v isit P o rtu g al in 1647? W hen he w as d enounced by spies an d hailed before th e In q u isi­ tio n in L isbon, he refused to renounce his faith an d w as b u rn ed a t th e stake o n D ecem ber 15. W hen new s o f his d eath reached A m sterdam , R abbi Saul M o rteira (1596-1660) delivered a p o ig n an t elegy in th e A m sterdam synagogue .14 F o r all th eir so p h isticatio n an d p rid e in th e ir secular h eritag e, h o w ­ ever, m o st co n tin u ed to h arb o r w ell-founded fears o f th e In q u isitio n . Even in A m sterdam Sephardic Jew s u sed aliases in business, if only to

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p ro te c t relatives an d business associates w h o h ad rem ained b ehind in Ib eria. Som e peo p le even assum ed several pseudonym s. T h eir fears w ere n o t p aran o id . In 1655, th e Spanish consul to H o llan d , helped by spies, collected th e actual an d assum ed nam es o f A m sterdam Jew s w ho tra d e d w ith S pain, alo n g w ith th e nam es o f th eir correspondents th ere, th e assu m p tio n b ein g th a t relatives o f D u tch Jew s m u st be crypto-Jew s. T hese lists w ere tu rn e d o ver to th e In q u isitio n . N ew C h ristian m er­ ch an ts in S pain, in tu rn , w o u ld o ften keep th eir records in a coded sh o rth a n d in case th ey w ere cau g h t by th e In q u isitio n o r h ad to flee in haste. Y et, fu rth e r testify in g to th e intellectual ferm ent an d sp iritu al com ­ plexity o f life in A m sterdam ’s Jew ish com m unity, it is o ften clear th a t som e o f its m em bers h ad retu rn ed to Judaism w ith sp lit identities. In th is co n tex t, th e life o f th e g rea t seventeenth-century p o e t an d dram atist D an iel L evi (M ig u el) de B arrios (1630-54) is especially revealing. B om in th e A ndalusian to w n o f M o n tilla in to a N ew C h ristian fam ily, h e becam e a devotee o f Spanish cu ltu re, even serving as a captain in th e n a tio n a l arm y. B u t w h en his fam ily m oved to Italy in 1660, h e reverted to Judaism u n d e r th e influence o f an a u n t an d w as circum cised in L iv o rn o . A fter an ill-fated trip to A m erica, de B arrios settled in A m ­ sterd am in 1662 an d five years later fo u n d ed a th eatrical com pany there. E ven a decade later, h e co u ld w rite w ith p rid e o f his Ib erian ro o ts:

Hail to thee, Montilla, my progenitor, Hail to thee, O Spain, For the lion snatches me away from thee by force.15 F a r fro m b ein g sim ple nostalg ia fo r th e “o ld co u n try ,” th is w as a cu ltu ral d e v o tio n th a t extended back to Seneca an d th e Stoics o f an tiq ­ u ity as w ell as to such Spanish R enaissance figures as th e p o e t L uis de G o n g o ra. T h is stance aro u sed so m uch criticism from th e com m unity estab lish m en t in his new hom e th a t de B arrios w as forced to retrea t to B russels, w h ere h e b efrien d ed th e local an d Spanish aristocracy w hile c o n tin u in g to w rite Spanish p o etry and express his love fo r th in g s Ib erian .

But the community’s ethnic or quasi-racial definition as Spanish or Portuguese was nonetheless indisputable, as can be seen clearly in the example o f the dowry society known as the Santa companhia de dotar Orfans eDmzelaspobres. This charitable organization, established in 1615

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by the community exclusively for the benefit o f young girls o f Portu­ guese origin, had grown to 400 members by 1683. Its bylaws reveal an unusual tension between ethnic attitudes and rabbinic norms, for the definition o f potential loan recipients actually contradicts Jewish law, which is matrilineal. The illegitimate daughter o f a “Portuguese” man and a non-Jewish woman was eligible to receive a dowry, but not the illegitimate daughter o f a “Portuguese” woman and a gentile father. In other words, lineage was passed down through the father, in contra­ diction to Jewish law.16 A m sterdam ’s Jew s have been called a “b ran d plucked fro m th e fire .”17 T h e enorm ous challenge facing th e ir rabbinical leaders th ro u g h ­ o u t th e sixteenth and seventeenth centuries w as h o w to h elp im m ig rat­ ing marrams adjust to th e tex tu re o f Jew ish custom s an d th e form alities o f an organized com m unity. T hey w ell u n d e rsto o d th a t a Jew w h o h ad learned ab o u t his heritage from a C h ristian tex t w as g o in g to be a d ifferent kind o f believer from one w h o h ad g ro w n u p w ith in a com ­ m unity and w ould need help in rein teg ratin g . H e w o u ld n eed prim ers to teach him from scratch and m ig h t balk a t th e strictu res o f Judaism . A m sterdam ’s sp iritu al leaders w ere less concerned w ith w h at Jew ish returnees believed privately th an w ith w h at th ey said publicly, frilly aw are th a t th ere w o u ld be lin g erin g after-effects from th e experience o f an only partially tran sm itted crypto-Judaism . A t th e sam e tim e, m any marrams retu rn ed to th e faith o f th eir fathers w ith g rea t zeal and h igh expectations. N aturally, som e w ere m ore stro n g ly in terested in theology th an in ritu al, and som e w o u ld g rap p le fo r years w ith sp lit identities. A m sterdam ’s Jew ish leadership w as invested w ith th e au th o rity to co n tro l th e co n d u ct o f its m em bers, in clu d in g religious behavior. T h eir w eapons included fines an d an aw esom e ban o f excom m unication. N ev­ ertheless, because o f th e relatively free and o p en atm osphere o f th e D u tch m etropolis, it so o n becam e ap p aren t th a t som e retu rn ees to Judaism felt com pelled to express th e ir religious d o u b ts regardless o f th e social consequences. In th e intellectual ferm ent th a t excited A m sterdam ’s Jew s in th e seventeenth century, th ree dissenters trie d to assert th e ir religious in ­ dependence w ith in th e Sephardic com m unity. A lth o u g h by n o m eans th e sole dissenting voices, B aruch (B enedict) S pinoza (1632-77), U riel da C osta, and D r. Ju an de P rad o w ere th e m o st fam ous skeptics. E ach in his individual fashion rejected som e o f th e fundam ental principles o f Jew ish faith and set th e elders o f th e com m unity o n edge. D e P rad o an d

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d a C o sta w ere N ew C hristians b o m in Ib eria w ho h ad retu rn ed to Judaism , w hile S pinoza w as b o m o f marram p aren ts in A m sterdam and ed u cated w ith in th e Jew ish com m unity th ere. T hey w o u ld all be banned. D a C osta, h u m iliated by his excom m unication, com m itted suicide, declaring h im self n eith er Jew n o r C h ristian b u t a d eist w ho believed only in reason and th e law o f n atu re. D e P rad o , by co n trast, resp o n d ed to excom m unication by publicly recan tin g his u n o rth o d o x view s b u t co n tin u in g to espouse th em privately, w hile Spinoza w ith ­ d rew en tirely fro m th e com m unity. T h eir in tellectu al p ro b lem w as com plex. F o r Spinoza especially, one o f th e m o st b rillian t m inds to em erge in A m sterdam ’s P o rtu g u ese Jew ­ ish co m m u n ity an d a fo u n d er o f m o d em secularism , m any trad itio n al Jew ish ten ets appeared to be in conflict w ith reason and th e law s o f n atu re. H e fo u n d th e n o tio n o f m iracles uncom fortable, th e descrip­ tio n s o f G o d in th e T o rah unacceptable to his reason, an d th e law s o f th e T o rah arb itrary . H is attacks o n th e B ible as a m an-m ade docum ent an d his d o u b ts a to u t th e u n iq u e n atu re o f th e Jew s as G od’s chosen p eople led to his excom m unication o n July 27,1656, w hen he w as only tw en ty -fo u r:

The gentlemen of the Ma’amad [the ruling council] make known to you, that having for some time known the evil opinions and works of Baruch de Espinoza, they had endeavored by various ways and prom­ ises to drawn him back from his evil ways: and not being able to remedy him, but on the contrary, receiving every day more news about the horrible heresies he practices and taught to others, and the awful deeds he performed . . . resolved that the said Espinoza be put in herem [ban] and banished from the nation of Israel.. . . We warn that none may contact him orally or in writing, nor do him any favor, nor stay under the same roof with him, nor read any paper he made or wrote.18 T h e herem w as n o t uncom m on in Spinoza’s day. A perso n could be excom m unicated by th e sto lid D u tch C alvinists o r th e aristocratic S ephardim fo r any n u m b er o f m in o r offenses, such as speaking to o lo u d ly d u rin g prayer services o r associating w ith people w ho d id n ’t pay th e ir taxes. W h at d istin g u ish ed S pinoza’s case w as his choice to rem ain o u tsid e th e co m m u n ity after excom m unication, a lonely m an in a w o rld w here th e u n attach ed an d unaffiliated w ere n o t y et a com m on phenom ­ e n o n . H e d id n o t becom e a social o u tcast o r pau p er, how ever, b u t c o n tin u ed to associate w ith th eo lo g ian s w hile earn in g a m odest living

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as a lens grinder and optician and receiving an allowance from friends and admirers. His scholarship was daunting as he attem pted to strike out on an independent intellectual path. W hen Spinoza died in Febru­ ary 1677, he had not returned to the community but had hammered out new and revolutionary notions about individual reason and the defini­ tion o f God. Even today, his lonely course has gained him recognition as a founder o f modernity but has barred him from being frilly accepted as a son o f the Sephardic community o f Amsterdam.

O n th e very day th a t Spinoza w as excom m unicated, his fam ous teach er, M enasseh ben Israel, w as in L o n d o n . A fam iliar figure in th e lively th o ro u g h fares an d literary salons o f th e seventeenth-century D u tc h em ­ porium o f A m sterdam , he w as know n fo r scin tillatin g serm ons to w hich b o th Jew s and C hristians w o u ld flock. F ro m his p rin tin g press, w hich set new standards o f excellence in E u ro p e, p o u red fo rth his o w n plays and treatises in several languages. H is h ouse w as a g ath erin g place fo r scientists. B u t his en d u rin g fam e w o u ld be g ained o n th is trip to L o n ­ d o n to p etitio n O liver C rom w ell fo r th e readm ission o f th e Jew s, even th o u g h he w o u ld feel th a t he failed dism ally. W hen ben Israel arrived in 1655, th e illegal Jew ish presence in E n ­ gland w as already several centuries old. Legally, Jew s h ad been b arred since th eir expulsion in 1290, b u t, as elsew here o n th e C o n tin en t, P o r­ tuguese N ew C h ristian m erchants h ad established a sm all, secretly o r­ ganized presence in th e 1500s. O ne o f th e ir m o st fam ous m em bers w as D r. R o d rig o L opez, physician to Q u een E lizabeth. By th e late 1580s, w hen anti-S panish hysteria w as ram p an t in E n g lan d , N ew C h ristian s even gained a m easure o f acceptance an d w ere able to supply useful in fo rm atio n to th e E nglish th ro u g h th eir relatives and inform ers in Spain and P o rtu g al. T h e F landers relatives o f a D r, H e c to r N u n ez conveyed im p o rtan t in fo rm atio n a b o u t th e Spanish A rm ada to h im in L on d o n . H e an d A lvardo M endes o f C o n stan tin o p le p ro p o sed fo rm in g an A nglo-T urkish alliance against Spain, th e com m on foe— only o n e o f various anti-S panish schem es b ein g ban d ied a b o u t a t th e tim e. S till, m o st p o p u lar appraisals o f th e Jew w ere decidedly negative, co m b in in g m edieval religious and econom ic stereotypes. Shakespeare and M ar­ low e, w ritin g in th e 1580s and 1590s, w ere fam iliar w ith th e general anti-Jew ish sentim ents o f th e ir day. In ad d itio n , it has b een su g g ested

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that Shylock in The Merchant o f Venice was inspired by the trial o f Dr. Lopez in London in 1594 on charges that he had tried to poison his royal patient. In 1609, for reasons that are still unclear, all Portuguese New Christians were expelled from London. Despite this in c id en t however, a new philo-Semirism was emerging in England, bom o f the Puritan religious revolution.19 For one thing, the Protestant familiarity w ith the Old Testament and the Hebrew language, in particular, rendered the Jew an object o f positive curiosity. It was suggested that Hebrew was the original lan­ guage o f hum anity or lingua humana. In fact, several theologians hoped to recover the secrets o f the ancient biblical prophets through a better understanding o f Hebrew learning; this aim led them to closer scrutiny o f both the ancient Hebrews and contemporary Jews. O n an entirely different level were the expectations o f the millenarians who were crop­ ping up in England and wanted to hasten the "end o f the days.” By 1650, they had won broad support, and although they had not devised any precise program for readm itting Jews, the millenarians had re­ m inded the common folk that these biblical people still existed and had portrayed them in a positive light. Moreover, the multiplicity o f sec­ tarian groups in England struggling for recognition made the idea o f religious pluralism increasingly acceptable if not inevitable. By 1650 the climate for toleration had been established "not excepting Turkes, nor Papists, nor Jewes.”20 Menasseh ben Israel could also capitalize on another stream in En­ glish thought: many English Protestants were familiar with conditions in H olland, where they had come into contact with Jews and had also seen at close quarters the economic benefits o f religious toleration. Practical arguments regarding such economic advantage would not fall on deaf ears. From ben Israel’s personal perspective, his upperm ost concerns were undoubtedly the new spectre o f tens o f thousands o f Ashkenazic refugees streaming westward from Poland, straining to find refuge, newly created Dutch refugees from Brazil returning to Europe in search o f asylum, and the constant litany o f stories o f martyrdom coming from Iberia. Only recendy, new autos-da-ß had been staged in Lisbon, Evora, and Coimbra. The fact that England had overthrown its royalist governm ent and was under Cromwell’s eccentric republic seemed to augur well for a reversal o f the ban on Jews. Ben Israel’s mission in the autum n o f 1655 was swift, his stay in E n g la n d brief. Traditional scholarly accounts claim that his plea for readmission played upon Puritan religious sentiments, arguing that

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England alone, by barring Jews, was holding up the Second Coming. Indeed, he had in 1650 drafted a pamphlet, The Hope ofIsrael, in which he consoled the Sephardim with the hope that redem ption was immi­ nent, but he did not use this argument w ith Cromwell. Instead, in a pamphlet titled The Humble Addresses, he tried to cajole the leader into considering the economic advantages o f readmission and requested that Jews be granted equality, freedom o f worship, a cemetery, and syna­ gogues. C rom w ell in tu rn su b m itted ben Israel’s p e titio n to a W hitehall conference o f prelates, law yers, and m erchants. T h e records o f th e p ro ­ ceedings have been destroyed, b u t it is clear th a t th e assem bled g ro u p could n o t agree beyond conceding th a t th ere w as n o legal o b jectio n to readm ission. A w are th a t th e arg u m en t o f political expediency an d th e Jew ’s econom ic usefulness w o u ld n o t prevail against th e m erchants o f L o n d o n , C rom w ell played u p o n th e religious sen tim en ts o f th e p artic­ ipants, invoking th e dream o f co n v ertin g th e Jew s. A pparently, h e d id n o t succeed. I t w as agreed only th a t “th ere is n o law w hich fo rb ad e th e Jew s’ retu rn in to E ng lan d ,” o n th e assum ption th a t th e expulsion h ad been a m atter o f royal prerogative and th erefo re affected o nly th e p eo ­ ple im m ediately concerned a t th e tim e. N o law w as passed to read m it th e Jew s to E n g lan d .21

Soon after, in March, Menasseh ben Israel joined w ith several conversos to petition Cromwell once again. This time, however, they asked simply to be allowed to worship privately w ithout being molested and to bury their dead. W ithout fanfare, they were perm itted late in 1656 to lease a house to be used as a synagogue and to acquire a burial plot in 1657. This proved to be the sum and substance o f the great “debate for readmission o f the Jews to England.” O n the positive side, however, since no declaration for readmission was made, none could be stricken from the statute books when Cromwell was overthrown, the monarchy restored, and his enactments annulled. A crestfallen ben Israel left: E ngland in 1656, an d he w o u ld n o t live to see th e fru its o f his labor. A tin y com m unity o f fo rty fam ilies in 1660 w ould grow to 800 souls by 1695, w hen th e Bevis M arks synagogue w as established, and w o u ld spark th e cu rio sity o f th e in q u isitiv e Sam uel Pepys, w h o paid a visit. T here w ere n o residence lim itatio n s o r eco­ nom ic restrictio n s, and E nglish Jew ry grew w ith o u t p u b lic d elib era­ tio n s o r pronouncem ents. T he Sephardic com m unity o f E n g lan d w as a m odel o f d ig n ity an d decorum . Because o f g reater acceptance o f n o n co n fo rm ist religious

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groups in the late seventeenth century, they were able to feel somewhat m ore secure. Concentrating on overseas trade and brokering, they en­ joyed the fruits o f England's economic ascendancy as Holland's for­ tunes began to decline. They engaged in a diverse range o f trades but were particularly active in commodities and the diamond trade with India. Compared to the battles o f their brethren on the Continent, their emancipation was anti-climactic. In the long run, any wrenching na­ tional debate over their existence was averted by the familiar and prac­ ticed Sephardic ability to integrate w ithout requiring major adjustments on the part o f the surrounding society. By the second and third gen­ eration, many had integrated so completely that they were members of , the Church o f England and could be found on country estates amusing themselves w ith such pastimes as hunting and shooting.22 Indeed, be­ tween 1740 and 1800, the number o f marriages celebrated at Bevis Marks fell by 43 percent, as radical assimilation undercut the strength o f the organized Sephardic community. The m ost famous product o f this process was, o f course, the nineteenth-century political giant Benjamin Disraeli, no longer a member o f the community but still quite conscious o f his noble origins. O f course, it should be mentioned that many loyal members o f the Sephardic community continued to have great influ­ ence upon British Jewry, probably none more strongly than Sir Moses M ontefiore, the nineteenth-century leader who was indefatigable in the defense o f beleaguered Jews everywhere.

The story o f the establishment o f open Jewish life in the New W orld begins in Brazil. After the Dutch conquered this colony from the Por­ tuguese in 1623, Sephardim from H olland as well as Iberia flocked there. Very quickly, an im portant Jewish setdem ent was anchored in Recife, w ith synagogues, a rabbi, charitable institutions, and a kosher meat slaughterer. D uring the Dutch occupation, which lasted until 1654, the community grew to 1,000 worshippers. These settlers became actively engaged in the sugar trade, many as plantation owners, and in merchant shipping, but m ost members o f the community eked out their living as petty tradesmen in the town. This basic pattern o f occupational distri­ bution remained characteristic o f the colonial Sephardic Jew in Amer­ ica, although a few ventured into unconventional trades, like the owner o f a gambling hall in Recife. In the early 1650s, as the enterprising

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community o f émigrés thrived under the leadership o f Rabbi Isaac Aboab de Fonseca, who crossed the seas from Amsterdam, perm anent Jewish settlements arose elsewhere in the region: in the D utch colonies o f Surinam and Curaçao, in the English colonies o f Barbados and Jamaica. Intracommunal relations among the few settlements strength­ ened, but the young colony in Recife would be short-lived. W hen the Portuguese recaptured Brazil in 1654, the Sephardim fled in all direc­ tions, fearful that their reversion to Judaism would make them prime targets o f the Inquisition. Some moved on to the Caribbean, others returned to Europe. N ot interested in fighting a battle against the Portuguese for religious freedom, these refugees from Brazil instead sought a measure o f anonymity so that they could live out their lives safely and productively, avoiding the Inquisition at all costs. One group o f twenty-three refugees floated into the harbor o f New Amsterdam in September 1654, after a harrowing several m onths, hav­ ing been taken captive by Spanish privateers as they fled Recife. Thanks to Governor Peter Stuyvesant, their first reception on N orth American soil was a rude one. Unable to pay for their passage at sea, they peti­ tioned the governor for permission to land. Stuyvesant, who had al­ ready revealed his antagonism toward Jews in prior encounters in Curaçao, responded by asking the Dutch W est India company to en­ sure that “the deceitful race—such hateful enemies and blasphemers o f the name o f Christ—be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony.” Along with his anti-Semitic feelings, he was also con­ vinced that giving the Jews freedom would open the doors to others whom he disliked almost as much: “Giving them liberty, we cannot refuse the Lutherans and the Papists.”23 An autocrat, he believed that the colony should be in strict conformity w ith the tenets o f the D utch Reformed Church. But the West India Company had other goals. M indful o f the commercial role the Jews were playing so well in H ol­ land, its board ruled that the émigrés be allowed to remain, provided that they not become a public charge. W ithin the decade, New Amsterdam fell to the English, and the initial trauma o f setdem ent in N orth America was probably forgotten. When the colony became New York, its Jews already had a burial ground and were meeting privately in homes for worship. In 1730, the community built its first synagogue, Shearith Israel, on M ill Street. B u t it is im p o rtan t to recognize th a t Stuyvesands recep tio n an d religious objections anticipate w h at w as to be a le itm o tif in colonial A m erica. P o p u lar conceptions n o tw ith stan d in g , th e colonies w ere a

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cau ld ro n o f religious intolerance. T h e degree m ay have varied w idely, w ith am bivalence to w ard Jew s in som e colonies m atched by o u trig h t exclusion in o th ers, b u t m o st w ere q u ite restrictive. Paradoxically, co­ lonial relig io u s diversity p ro v ed to be very fo rtu n ate fo r th e Jew s, since th e e x ten t o f o u tw ard difference displayed by Sephardim in P ro te stan t colonies w as infinitesim al com pared w ith th e varied rites o f Shakers, Q uakers, B aptists, an d C atholics. T h e Sephardim w an ted only to be left to p ray q u ied y an d d id n o t seek to establish sw eeping principles o f how to go v ern m in o rid es. B u t th e religious diversity w as so g reat an d th e antagonism s so deep betw een P ro testan ts an d o th e r P ro testan ts, be­ tw een P ro testan ts an d C atholics, th a t it w as eventually realized in A m er­ ica th a t th e o nly p a th to survival, m uch less p ro sp erity , lay w ith to leratio n . Y et even th o u g h th e Jew s o f colonial A m erica w ere practically in ­ visible— o nly 2,500 o u t o f a p o p u latio n o f tw o and a h a lf m illion a t th e tim e o f th e A m erican R ev o lu tio n — th ey faced occasional dangers. F o r instance, Jacob L u m b ro zo , a M aryland m erchant, w as charged w ith blasphem y in th e 1650s because h e d enied th e div in ity o f Jesus. In itially , o n ly five colonies p erm itted Jew ish setdem ents: N ew Y ork, R h o d e Islan d (N e w p o rt), Pennsylvania (P h ilad elp h ia), G eorgia (Sa­ v an n ah ), an d S o u th C aro lin a (C h arlesto n ). In G eorgia, th e Sephardic as w ell as A shkenazic new com ers, w ere paupers dispatched from L o n ­ d o n to be d u m p ed o n G o v ern o r O g leth o rp e. A t first, th e Savannah setd ers, w hose ch arter specifically b arred C atholics, d id n o t w an t to take th e Jew s eith e r, b u t th e presence o f a D r. N u n ez in th e g ro u p ch anged th e ir m ind. Y ellow fever h ad recendy decim ated th e ir m inis­ cule ranks, an d th e local physician w as o n e o f th e victim s. Soon, Jew s em erged as an im p o rta n t com m ercial elem ent in G eorgia, trad in g in vanilla an d in d ig o and becom ing th e first vin tn ers in th e colony. C o n d itio n s in R h o d e Islan d w ere also conducive to setriem ent be­ cause th e colony’s fo u n d er, R o g er W illiam s, like th e P u ritan s o f E n­ g lan d , h eld Jew s in h ig h regard. H e w elcom ed th em , seeing th em b o th as p o ten tia l converts an d as rep o sito ries o f O ld T estam ent w isdom . Jew s w ere a ttracted (as w ere Q uakers) because W illiam s d id n o t w an t to set u p an established ch u rch in his colony. By th e eig h teen th century, N e w p o rt h ad becom e th e m o st im p o rta n t p o rt in N ew E ngland, and its co n g reg atio n b o asted a beau tifiil, colonial-style house o f w o rsh ip , n o w th e o ld est-stan d in g synagogue in th e U n ited States. T h e ships o f th e city’s S ephardic m erchants A aro n L opez an d Jacob R ivera ex­ p o rte d co lo n ial p ro d u cts to Jam aica, B arbados, an d L o n d o n . L opez’s

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bills o f lading indicate how extensively a Jewish colonial m erchant could engage in all branches o f commerce, from fish, cheeses, choc­ olate, rum, potash, and soap, to kosher meat for the Jamaican market. His fleet totaled thirty ships; like Rivera’s, some carried slaves, though Lopez was not himself a slaveowner. Aside from these tw o men, there is scant evidence o f Jewish involvement in the eighteenthcentury slave trade, despite the moral context within which slavery flourished. One reason may have been that die British barred Jews from owning slaves, allegedly because it was feared they would en­ courage slave insurrection. Jewish lack o f participation in slaving is particularly surprising in light o f the commercial and family ties that linked the Jews o f die N orth American mainland w ith those in the Caribbean islands. The well-known routing o f the slave trade in tri­ angular fashion through those islands m eant that much o f Caribbean commerce was involved. The South Carolina colony was especially promising for Jewish setdemcnt. One drafter o f its charter was the great English political philosopher John Locke, whose advocacy o f religious toleradon in his homeland was enshrined therein. It is therefore not surprising that South Carolina would later become the first state to grant Jews the franchise. M oreover, the first Jew recorded as holding political office in the colonies, the English Sephardic Jew Francis Salvador, represented South Carolina at the first and second provincial congresses in the 1770s. H e also fought as a volunteer in a Georgia regim ent, riding twenty-eight miles to arouse that colony’s m ilitia against the British attack on South Carolina in 1776. W hen he was killed by Indians in July o f that year, he perhaps became the first Jew to die in defense o f the new U nited States. In Pennsylvania, William Penn restricted the rights o f Jews, barring them from voting or holding public office. Ironically, the Liberty Bell, which was cast in London, was brought to American shores in 1751 on ÛicMyrtiUa, a ship owned by the Philadelphia Jewish firm o f Levy and Franks. David Franks, a third-generation American, was excluded from voting in the colony because as a Jew he “didn’t profess belief in Jesus Christ.” N evertheless, th e first Sephardic synagogue in Philadelphia, Mikve Israel, h ad been fo u n d ed by 1747. T h ro u g h o u t th e colony, as elsew here, Jew s becam e actively engaged as trad ers an d m erchants, tak in g th e am en­ ities o f th e d ty to a p redom inantly agrarian p o p u latio n . T h e Jew ish p ed ­ d ler w ith a pack o n his back w as a com m on sig h t o n th e fro n tiers. H e

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to o k a g re a t risk in g o in g am ong th e In d ian s and backw oodsm en, b u t co lo n ial m erch an ts w ere apparently an in tre p id lo t.

After all, the m ajor arena o f Sephardic activity in America was in the economic sphere, not in theology or religious discussion. Although it was Sephardim who built the first synagogues in the country, their congregations took scant interest in scholars. Instead, these God-fearing merchants were eager to become part o f their new society, to stand guard on the H udson, to venture into the wilds o f the interior, or to fight for the right to bear arms. Their cultural frame o f reference was the Sephardic diaspora, especially its Caribbean, London, and Amsterdam poles, but they quickly became Americanized, even as they dutifully continued to keep the m inute books o f their congregations in Portu­ guese well into die eighteenth century. This is particularly surprising since Ashkenazim from Germany and Poland already outnumbered Sephardim by the American Revolution. Yet for some time, the Ash­ kenazim bowed to Sephardic custom and remained within the few Sephardic congregations. None o f the acrimony between the two branches o f Jewry in Europe spilled over onto American shores. Per­ haps on explanation for this harmony lies in the fact that they simply had to get along in order to survive, let alone to find eligible Jewish mates for their children, to assure the continuity o f the community. As friction w ith England increased in the 1770s, m ost Sephardim threw in their lot on the side o f the Whigs. They saw their future as American and republican and decided to disband their congregations in New York and New port as the British approached. New York’s Gershom Seixas moved his congregation to Philadelphia; the Newport comm unity fled to Connecticut. For die first time, Jews served as com­ missioned officers on W ashington’s staff, and a company o f South Caro­ lina troops included so many Jews it was dubbed the “Jews’ Company.” O ne o f W ashington’s staff, Benjamin Nunes, had begun his military service w ith General Pulaski before serving in regiments headed by General D e Kalb and Lafayette and would lead French troops in the crucial siege o f Savannah. It was Nunes who memorably proclaimed, “O n religious grounds I am a Republican.” By th e en d o f d ie eig h te en th cen tu ry , Sephardic Jew s w ere a t hom e in A m erica. T h e level o f in te g ratio n th ey h ad achieved w o u ld rem ain inconceivable in E u ro p e fix m any m ore decades. Y et w hile they con­ sid ered them selves A m erican, th ey h ad also succeeded in tran sp lan tin g an d reestab lish in g a co m m u n ity m uch along th e lines o f w h at th ey had k n o w n fo r cen tu ries. F ew w ere very rich , few very p o o r. I f alm ost

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none was learned, they appeared to be content w ith their lot as a merchant community, hoping to be left alone after so many generations o f wandering. Perhaps one o f American Jewry’s m ost prom inent fig­ ures, Georgia’s Mordecai Sheftall, a patriot condemned by the British as one o f the subversive “liberty people,” best summed up the American Jewish view in a letter to his son in April 1783: Every real wisher to his country must feel himself happy to have lived to see this longe and bloody contest brot to so happy an issue. More especially as we have obtained our independence—An entire new scene will open itself, and we have the world to begin again.24 A t th e tim e o f th e A m erican R ev o lu tio n , Sephardic Jew s w ere liv­ ing in a society th a t w as still com ing to term s w ith new experim ents in religious openness an d to leratio n o f diversity. As late as 1787, eleven o f th e th irteen colonies co n tin u ed to deny Jew s political equality. I t w o u ld take m any years fo r th e new principles o f th e rev o lu tio n to prevail. B u t Sephardic num bers w ere sm all and th eir d isabilities m in o r. T h e ir p rin ­ ciple problem s o f survival and co n tin u ity in A m erica w o u ld stem n o t from intolerance b u t from th a t very openness and u n p reced en ted ac­ ceptance th a t poses such a challenge to A m erican Jew ish survival in o u r ow n day. F o r, given th e enorm ous p o ten tial fo r religious strife, A m er­ ica sensibly resisted th e tem p tatio n to set u p an established ch u rch . C onsequendy, religious acceptance o f th e Jew s evolved w ith in a b ro ad er fram ew ork o f religious to lerad o n . T o achieve civic harm ony, th e A m er­ ican so lu tio n w as to em phasize th e elem ents th a t all g ro u p s h ad in com m on. N aturally, th is su ited th e tem p eram en t o f th e S ephardim , w ho had becom e m asters in accom m odating to th e d o m in an t cu ltu res am ong w hich they alw ays co n stitu ted a sm all m in o rity . T hey h ad also learned to restrict th eir religious practices to th e ir hom es an d syna­ gogues, th u s com partm entalizing th e ir lives, as it w ere, in a w ay th a t m ade them inconspicuous. T he Sephardim succeeded in fo sterin g th e resetd em en t o f Jew s in w estern E u ro p e and A m erica because o f th e u n iq u e attrib u tes th a t th ey had gained from th eir historical background. In sum , th ey w ere cry p to Jew ish im m igrants schooled in secular learn in g an d also in th e survival skills necessary to conceal th e ir tru e religious id en tity . A t th e sam e tim e, they h ad n o t lived in cu ltu ral iso latio n p rio r to th e ir arrival in F rance, H o llan d , E ngland, o r A m erica, and th ey w ere u n w illin g to live in cul­ tu ral iso latio n once adm itted . P rofessor Y osef Y erushalm i describes

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them as the “first considerable group o f European Jews to have had an extensive and direct personal experience completely outside the organic Jewish community and the spiritual universe o f the normative Jewish tradition.”25 It was this experience that made it relatively easy for them to enter the mainstream o f western European countries and the United States. In fact, by the end o f the eighteenth century, many families o f marram descent had completely cut their ties w ith the Jewish commu­ nity and were settled on their country estates in Hertfordshire or Sur­ rey, removed entirely from the Jodenbreestraat in Amsterdam, or living on their own in the O hio River Valley. They did not resolve the ten­ sions o f living undifferentiated lives in an open society while remaining Jews, but that is the dilemma o f all m inorities, perhaps especially Jews, in the m odem world. W hat they did do, and admirably, is establish pioneering settlements in W estern societies, successfully sustaining their encounters w ith dom inant non-Jewish cultures, and in effect lay down the guidelines for the m odem Jewish experience.