JEWS IN MUSLIM SPAIN This research p

This research paper examines the status, accomplishments and influence of the Jewish communities in Muslim Spain during the 11th century. That century witnessed a remarkable intellectual and cultural renaissance as well as economic prosperity in the parts of Spain under Muslim rule in which Jewish elites and communities participated and toward which they made major contributions, a Golden Age of Jewish achievement and Muslim-Jewish collaboration. Paradoxically, some of the factors which enabled the Jews to expand their influence, particularly in practical affairs, such as the growing disunity of the Muslim empire in Spain, also made the 11th century a time of great trial and stress for many Jews, who increasingly found themselves caught in the middle of the great struggle between Muslims and Christians for political and religious dominance in the Iberian Peninsula. That struggle produced great migrations of Jews within Muslim Spain and from Muslim to Christian Spain and elsewhere which in the long run helped spread to the West important scientific and other intellectual currents originating in the East, but also weakened the position of the Jews in the Muslim community and, as the century ended, left them uncomfortably dependent upon their new found Christian protectors.

Jews in Spain Before 711 AD. Jews migrated to Spain long before the Arab conquest of 711 AD. Some accompanied Phoenician colonizers as traders in

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ic education. He used these talents and his skills in administration and diplomacy to rise in the ranks of the Berber Sinhadja kingdom of Granada where he achieved great distinction, at first behind the scenes as a political adviser and tax collector and eventually in the 1030s as vizier or chief adviser to King Habbus. After the latter's death in 1037, Samuel became vizier to the new king Babis whom he served as a military, diplomatic, financial and political minister until his death in 1056. During that period Granada became the preeminent Muslim principality and the Jewish community of Granada, which Samuel headed, the most prosperous and influential in all of Spain. This Arab grammarian and rhetoretician, Hebrew poet, Hebrew law scholar and multi-purpose intellectual achieved more political power than any Jew in the Middle Ages. Granada enjoyed an economic boom in which Jewish textile manufacturers, metal workers, and other artisans and professionals such as physicians dominated Granada's economic life. After his death in 1056, his son Joseph became vizier and ruled until 1066 until he was assassinated by Muslim purists. In the aftermath of Joseph's death, the Jewish quarter of Granada was subject to a pogrom in which many die

Category: History - J