Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain

Beginnings of the Golden Age

Muslim conquest of Christian Spain

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

Status of Jews under Islamic law

A period of tolerance dawned for the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula. Their number was considerably augmented by immigration from North Africa in the wake of the Muslim conquest. Immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East bolstered the Jewish population and made Muslim Spain probably the largest centre of contemporary Jews. Nevertheless, their numbers were comparably low to the other ethnic groups on the Iberian peninsula and Eliyahu Asthor estimates their number at a little over 0.5% of the total Iberian population, but with a presence of up to 15-20% in some towns and cities. Especially after 912, during the reign of Abd al-Rahman III and his son, Al-Hakam II, the Jews prospered culturally, and some notable figures held high posts in the Caliphate of Córdoba. Jewish philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, poets and rabbinical scholars composed highly-rich cultural and scientific work. Many devoted themselves to the study of the sciences and philosophy, composing many of the most valuable texts of Jewish philosophy. Jews took part in the overall prosperity of Muslim Al-Andalus. Jewish economic expansion was unparallelled. In Toledo, after the Christian reconquest in 1085, Jews were involved in translating Arabic texts to the romance languages in the so-called Toledo School of Translators, as they had been previously in translating Greek and Hebrew texts to Arabic. Jews also contributed to botany, geography, medicine, mathematics, poetry and philosophy.

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

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

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

Other authors criticize the modern notion of Al-Andalus being a tolerant society of equal opportunities for all religious groups as a "myth". Jews were living in an uneasy coexistence with Muslims and Catholics, and the relationship between the groups was more often than not marked by segregation and mutual hostility. In the 1066 Granada massacre of much of the Jewish population of the city, the Jewish death toll was higher than in the much-publicized Christian pogroms in the Rhineland slightly later.

End of the Golden Age

Crises in al-Andalus

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

Anti-Jewish riots and intra-Muslim wars

Beginning in 1090, the situation deteriorated and Muslim religious attitudes hardened further with the invasion of the Almoravids, a puritan Muslim dynasty from Morocco. The Jewish community of Granada, barely re-established following the massacre, was destroyed during the sack of Granada by the Almoravids that same year. Jews were slowly pushed out from civil and political positions, though there were some exceptions and some Jews even held the title of "vizier" ("nasi") such as the poet and physician Abu Ayyub Solomon ibn al-Mu'allam, Abraham ibn Meïr ibn Kamnial, Abu Isaac ibn Muhajar and Solomon ibn Farusal. Nevertheless, Andalusian religious scholarship was still ongoing and the art of Hebrew poetry reached a highpoint with the verses of Judah ha-Levi. However, from that time onwards, Jews were sometimes safer in northern Spain under Christian rulers.

In 1146, the fundamentalists Berber Almohad dynasty begun their conquest of al-Andalus, defeating the Almohads and bringing almost all of Islamic Spain under their control by 1172. The Almohads tolerated neither and Christians nor Jews and, having already extinguished the indigenous Christian communities that had existed in North Africa for a millennium, the Almohads also put the Jews before the choice between conversion and death. Many Jews, and even Muslim scholars, fled the Muslim-controlled portion of Iberia either to more tolerant Muslim countries such as Ayyubid Egypt and Syria or fled over the frontier into Christian Spain. The notable Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) was forced to flee from Al-Andalus to avoid conversion by the Almohads. In Letter to Yemen, Maimonides wrote:

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

There were also mass conversions of Jews to Islam, but similar to under the Visigothic rulers, they often practised their religion secretly and were mistrusted by Muslims. Questioning their sincerity, the Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur still treated the new converts to Islam as if they were dhimmis, not only limiting their civil rights but also having them wear distinguishing clothing consisting of blue-black garments, ludicrous caps and the shikla. Yaqub's son changed the colours later to yellow garments and turbans, a colour that the Muslim in general frowned on since the times of Muhammad himself.

Fall of al-Andalus and Jewish exodus

Thus, the Almohad persecutions ended the flourishing Jewish settlements in Muslim Spain at the end of the twelfth century. The Jewish presence in Iberia continued in the Christian territories until the Jews were forced to leave or to convert to Christianity in the Alhambra Decree of 1492 and a similar decree by Portugal in 1496.

Notable Jewish figures

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