ECU Libraries Catalog

Jewish life in medieval Spain : a new history / Jonathan Ray.

Author/creator Ray, Jonathan (Jonathan Stewart) author.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2023]
Description343 pages : maps ; 24 cm.
Subject(s)
Series Jewish culture and contexts
Jewish culture and contexts. ^A540726
Contents Introduction -- Chapter 1. At the Edge of the West: Jewish Life in al-Andalus -- Chapter 2. Spanish Jewry in Transition -- Chapter 3. Conflict and Confluence in the Thirteenth Century -- Chapter 4. Jewish Society in the Fourteenth Century -- Chapter 5. Death and Taxes: Riots, Plague, and Debt in the Mid-Fourteenth Century -- Chapter 6. 1391 Riots, Conversion, and the New Status Quo -- Chapter 7. Jewish Society in the Fifteenth Century.
Abstract "Jewish Life in Medieval Spain is a detailed exploration of the Jewish experience in medieval Spain from the dawn of Sephardic society in the ninth century to the expulsion of 1492. An important contribution of the book is the integration of the rise and fall of Jewish life in Muslim al-Andalus into the history of the Jews in medieval Christian Spain. It traces the collapse of Jewish life in Muslim Spain, the emigration of Andalusi Jewry to the lands of Christian Iberia, and the long and difficult confluence of these two distinct Jewish subcultures. Focusing on internal developments of Jewish society, it offers a narrative of Jewish history from the inside out, bringing to light the various divisions and rivalries within the Jewish community. This approach, in turn, allows for a deeper understanding of the complex relations between Spanish Jews and their Muslim and Christian neighbors. Jonathan Ray's original perspective on the Jewish experience is particularly instructive when considering the widescale anti-Jewish riots of 1391. The combination of violence and mass conversion of the Jews irrevocably shifted the dynamics of interreligious relations as well as those within the Jewish community itself. Yet even in the wake of these tragic events, the Jews of Spain continued to flourish, fostering a culture that they would carry into exile and that would preserve the memory of Jewish Spain for centuries to come"--Front flap of dust jacket.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN9781512823837
ISBN151282383X

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