The Jews in Muslim Spain c.800-1200: Prosperity and Uncertainty.

The era of Jews living under Muslim rule in medieval Spain is widely considered one of the most fertile and productive periods of Jewish history. Maimonides, writing in the late 12th century, clearly expresses his pride at being part of a great chain of Andalusian scholars. In his dispute with the Gaon Samuel ben Eli of Baghdad, he stated that in his opinion the chain of Spanish tradition, including the Rif and Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash, had produced the most brilliant scholars since the Amoraim. 

It can be argued that by the 10^th Century, Spain had replaced Babylon as the main centre of world Jewry. This wasn't simply due to the number of Jews living there, as there were different settlements in other European provinces, but rather was a result of the astonishing amount of material produced which covered a number of disciplines. But 'Spain' must not be understood as one unified country, rather as a series of provinces with localised identities and customs. I am therefore broadly differentiating between 'Muslim Spain' and 'Christian Spain', as will be explained below.

Under the Visigoth kingdoms in the 6^th and 7^th centuries, Jews living in Spain had not been allowed to openly practise Judaism and the official policy was forced conversion to Christianity. Whilst this had not always been imposed, when the Muslim conqueror Tarik b. Ziyad conquered the straits of Gibraltar in 711 as part of the Islamic conquest, there were no openly practising Jewish communities.  But as Islam continued to spread in the 8^th century, more Crypto(secret)-Jewish  communities kept appearing and friendly relations with the conquerors meant that several Jewish communities were in fact given several cities to garrison.

This was followed by the period of Umayyad rule. The Umayyad kingdom was established in Spain by Abd al-Rahman in 755 with its capital at Cordoba in Andalusia. In a period of relative economic prosperity, Jews were represented in many occupations including medicine, agriculture and commerce. The tolerance of Muslim Spain meant that it became something of a refuge for Jews fleeing the Christian kingdoms and incredibly in 839 the Frank Bishop Bodo converted to Judaism, married a Jewess and wrote a tract against Christianity.

These maps are useful to understand how what we call modern Spain was divided up over this period. The top one shows where the Arabic conquest had managed to reached by 1031. The bottom map shows how by the 13th century, the Christian 'reconquest' movement had forced the Islamic Kingdom to retreat.

In terms of scholarship, Jewish culture flourished amongst its Arabic counterparts. The Geonim from Babylon corresponded with rabbis and scholars from Lucena and Barcelona in particular. In fact, Lucena, Granada and Tarragona were designated by Arab Geographers as "Jewish cities".

In addition, the period of the 10^th century saw the rise of the Jewish court physician, who would attain the position of head of customs and foreign trade. A development that I am particularly interested in is the blossoming of Jewish literature which would certainly be regarded as unusual to a contemporary audience. The study of philology flourished, for example, where Hebrew grammar and language were examined and analysed systematically, with significant contributions from Dunash ibn Labrat and Menahem Saruk in particular. Hebrew poetry, which I will dedicate a separate post to, became a significant literary and cultural discipline right up until the expulsion of 1492.  

As I mentioned in my post on the Geonim, reliance on the Babylonian Geonim decreased markedly in the 10^th century. Communal leaders in Spain became characterised by their multi-faceted natures, functioning simultaneously as Halachic Poskim as well as statesman and communal leaders. The central community was in Cordoba where the chief rabbi resided. Cordoba had somewhat declined as the principle centre of Jewish life by the mid-11^th century with the Berber conquest. 
Throughout the 11th Century, by and large, the rulers remained tolerant and Jews remained prominent as taxfarmers, advisers and physicians serving different courts around Spanish lands.

The ethos of Jewish intellectual life can be characterised as a combination of desiring political power, the harmonious co-existence between religion and secular studies, and combining Talmudic studies with poetry and philosophy. This was epitomised by the personality of Shmuel ha Nagid, a poet and Halachist who was the commander of the army of Granada between 1030-1056. 

Several communities produced a number of outstanding scholars and personalities. Lucena was renown as a centre of Talmudic learning, the first Rosh Yeshiva being the great Talmudic and Halachic authority the Rif (R’ Isaac Alfasi - c.1013-1103) who remains an indispensable commentator on the Halachic sections of Shas to this day. He was succeeded by R’ Yosef ibn Migash, who the Rambam considered his teacher (although it is unlikely that he was ever taught directly from him). Saragossa was home to the famous ethical teachers R. Bahya ibn Pakuda, who wrote Chovat ha levavot and Solomon ibn Gabirol, author of the Mekor Hayim.

Whilst the 11^th Century can be considered a relatively stable century for Jewish life in Muslim Spain, the 12^th Century was characterised by upheaval. In 1146, the Almohads, a fanatic Berber dynasty from Morocco began the conquest of Muslim Spain, which put an end to the flourishing Jewish communities of Andalusia. Jewish religion was forbidden to be practised by the authorities. Synagogues and Yeshivas were closed and many were forcibly converted. Maimonides’ family were caught up in this crisis and forced to emigrate. Many fled to Christian Spain whilst others were forcibly converted.
By the mid-13^th century the Christian Castillans had conquered most of what I have described as Muslim Spain, leaving only Granada, which was ruled by the Arab dynasty until 1492.

As mentioned in the introduction, It is important when trying to visualise the Geography of this period that we do not impose contemporary borders onto the past. A unified ‘Spain’ would have meant little to the inhabitants of different provinces throughout the country. There were several different kingdoms: Aragon (not to be confused with a character from Lord of the Rings called Aragorn), Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia, Granada, Castille and Portugal (There might be more I may not have read the map correctly). For the vast majority of the period that I have just described, the Muslim expansion controlled most of these provinces with the exception of Castille and Catalonia. 

An interesting observation is that whilst in many ways this period could be described as being stable for the Jewish communities in Muslim Spain they always remained at the mercy of local rulers and were at constant risk of groups not playing by the rules. In Granada, for example, the son of Shmuel ha Nagid, Joseph, was assassinated by a group of Muslim locals unhappy at his attitude towards them. This then led to a massacre of Granada Jewry, the survivors being forced to flee to nearby towns in 1066.

 This sense of lack of accountability and dependence on the individual benevolence of the particular rulers is an important factor in considering Jewish attitudes towards their neighbours and is an essential qualification behind what can sometimes appear to be a prosperous existence. In my post next week I hope to focus on the different literary accomplishments of these Jewish communities, in particular the poetry of some notable figures such as R.Moses Ibn Ezra and R.Judah ha Levi (who will be the inspiration behind my upcoming ‘opinion’ posts).