Sephardic Frontier

Jonathan Ray

Description

No subject looms larger over the historical landscape of medieval Spain than that of the reconquista, the rapid expansion of the power of the Christian kingdoms into the Muslim-populated lands of southern Iberia, which created a broad frontier zone that for two centuries remained a region of warfare and peril. Drawing on a large fund of unpublished material in royal, ecclesiastical, and municipal archives as well as rabbinic literature, Jonathan Ray reveals a fluid, often volatile society that transcended religious boundaries and attracted Jewish colonists from throughout the peninsula and beyond.The result was a wave of Jewish settlements marked by a high degree of openness, mobility, and interaction with both Christians and Muslims. Ray's view challenges the traditional historiography, which holds that Sephardic communities, already fully developed, were simply reestablished on the frontier. In the early years of settlement, Iberia's crusader kings actively supported Jewish economic and political activity, and Jewish interaction with their Christian neighbors was extensive.Only as the frontier was firmly incorporated into the political life of the peninsular states did these frontier Sephardic populations begin to forge the communal structures that resembled the older Jewish communities of the North and the interior. By the end of the thirteenth century, royal intervention had begun to restrict the amount of contact between Jewish and Christian communities, signaling the end of the open society that had marked the frontier for most of the century.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Jewish studies
• Spain
• History of Europe
• Spain (groupe)
• 1500

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801461774
• Langue: English

Extrait

T h e Se p h a r d i c F r o n t i e r

a volume in the series Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past Edited by Barbara H. Rosenwein

A list of all the books in the series may be found on the last page of the book.

the Sephardic Frontier thereconquista and the jewish c o m m u n i t y i n medieval iberia

jonathan ray

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

This book is published with the aid of a grant from the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and United States Universities.

Copyright © 2006 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2006 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ray, Jonathan ( Jonathan Stewart) The Sephardic frontier : the reconquista and the Jewish community in medieval Iberia / Jonathan Ray. p. cm.— (Conjunctions of religion and power in the medieval past) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-4401-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8014-4401-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Jews—Spain—History—To 1500. 2. Jews—Portugal—History—To 1500. 3. Spain—Ethnic relations—History. 4. Portugal—Ethnic relations —History. 5. Spain—History—711-1516. 6. Portugal—History—To 1385. I. Title. II. Series: Conjunctions of religion & power in the medieval past. DS135.S7R38 2006 946'.0004924—dc22

2005025040

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and mate- rials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine- free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I. The Jewish Settler and the Frontier

1.

2.

3.

The Migration of Jewish Settlers to the Frontier

Jewish Landownership

Moneylending and Beyond: The Jews in the Economic Life of the Frontier

Part II. The Jewish Community and the Frontier

4.

5.

6.

7.

Royal Author ity and the Legal Status of Iber ian Jewr y

Jewish Communal Organization and Author ity

Communal Tensions and the Question of Jewish Autonomy

Maintenance of Social Boundar ies on the Iber ian Frontier

Conclusion Glossar y Bibliography Index

[ v ]

vii ix

1

11

15

36

55

73

75

98

131

145

176 181 185 195

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The completion of this book could not have been achieved without the generous assistance and support of a number of people. It was inspired by my studies at the Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and bears the intellectual imprint of my teachers and colleagues. A principal goal of this book, to locate the development of Sephardic history within the broader narrative of medieval Iberia, is a direct result of the disparate yet often complementary approaches of the history departments of these two institutions. My initial research was made possible by a fellowship program sponsored by the Charles H. Revson Foundation, as well as a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, both of which supported my collection of archival data. Among the archives I visited, I owe special recognition to Spain’s Bibilioteca Nacional and the Archivo Histórico Nacional, Portugal’s Arquivo Nacional/Instituto Torre do Tumbo, the Archivo de la Catedral de Sevilla, and the Archivo de la Corona de Aragón/Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó in Barcelona. The necessary research for this study would not have been possible without the patience, attentiveness, and consideration of their respective staffs. In particular, I thank the ACA’s Jaume Riera, archivist and scholar, for sharing his intellectual energy and vast knowledge of both the archive and medieval Catalan Jewry. Throughout the research and writing of this book, I have also relied on the unflagging help and support of the li- brary staffs at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Butler Library of Columbia University and Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University. I owe a debt of gratitude to David Wachtel of the Rare Book and Manu- script Collection at JTS and my friend and colleague Maud Kozodoy for

[ vii ]

[ viii ]

help in guiding my reading of the Hebrew sources. I also thank Adam Kosto, Seth Schwartz, and Raymond Scheindlin for their willingness to read early drafts of the manuscript and for their insightful and cogent comments. Most important, I owe thanks to my teacher and friend, Benjamin Gampel, who continued to provide invaluable advice and support throughout the process of composition and revision. A generous grant awarded to me by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein post- doctoral fellowship, under the auspice of the Program in Judaic Studies at Yale University, enabled me to complete this book. The arguments set forth here were also greatly shaped by the intellectual climate at Yale, in particu- lar, the many provocative conversations I enjoyed with Ivan Marcus, Paul Freedman, Rebecca Kobrin, and Paula Hyman. I am also deeply indebted to Barbara Rosenwein and John Ackerman at Cornell University Press for their detailed and helpful editorial advice and guidance. Finally, I thank my friends and family for their seemingly boundless energy, support, and good- will. Thank you to all those who have helped along the way; I remain for- ever grateful.

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

J. R.

ACA ACC ACJ ACS ACM AMC AME AMM AHN AHPC ANTT ARM AUC BCC BN CML Adret

ABBREVIATIONS

Archivo de la Corona de Aragon

Archivo de la Catedral de Córdoba

Archivo de la Catedral de Jaén

Archivo de la Catedral de Sevilla

Archivo de la Catedral de Murcia

Archivo Municipal de Sevilla

Archivo Municipal de Elche

Archivo Municipal de Murcia

Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid

Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Córdoba

Arquivo Nacional/Instituto Torre del Tombo

Archivo del Reino de Mallorca

Archivo de la Universidade de Coimbra

Biblioteca de la Catedral de Córdoba

Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid

Camara Municipal de Lisboa

Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret.Sheelot u-Teshuvot, (Re- sponsa).Vol. 1 (Bologna, 1539); vols. 2 & 3 (Leghorn, 1657, 1778); vol. 4 (Vilna, 1881); vol. 5 (Leghorn, 1825); vols. 6 &

[ ix ]