The Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia

215 Pages·2006·1.043 MB·English

by  Jonathan Ray

The Sephardic Frontier
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.
Sephardic
the
Frontier
reconquista
the
and the jewish
community in
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 vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
Part I. The Jewish Settler and the Frontier 11
1. The Migration of Jewish Settlers to
the Frontier 15
2. Jewish Landownership 36
3. Moneylending and Beyond: The Jews in
the Economic Life of the Frontier 55
Part II. The Jewish Community and the Frontier 73
4. Royal Authority and the Legal Status of
Iberian Jewry 75
5. Jewish Communal Organization
and Authority 98
6. Communal Tensions and the Question of
Jewish Autonomy 131
7. Maintenance of Social Boundaries on
the Iberian Frontier 145
Conclusion 176
Glossary 181
Bibliography 185
Index 195
[ v]

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]
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.
J. R.
[ viii] Acknowledgments
ABBREVIATIONS
ACA Archivo de la Corona de Aragon
ACC Archivo de la Catedral de Córdoba
ACJ Archivo de la Catedral de Jaén
ACS Archivo de la Catedral de Sevilla
ACM Archivo de la Catedral de Murcia
AMC Archivo Municipal de Sevilla
AME Archivo Municipal de Elche
AMM Archivo Municipal de Murcia
AHN Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid
AHPC Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Córdoba
ANTT Arquivo Nacional/Instituto Torre del Tombo
ARM Archivo del Reino de Mallorca
AUC Archivo de la Universidade de Coimbra
BCC Biblioteca de la Catedral de Córdoba
BN Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid
CML Camara Municipal de Lisboa
Adret 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]