Exiles in Sepharad

The Jewish Millennium in Spain

Jeffrey Gorsky

• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780827612518
• eBook ISBN: 9780827612396
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The dramatic one-thousand-year history of Jews in Spain comes to life in Exiles in Sepharad. Jeffrey Gorsky vividly relates this colorful period of Jewish history, from the era when Jewish culture was at its height in Muslim Spain to the horrors of the Inquisition and the Expulsion.

Twenty percent of Jews today are descended from Sephardic Jews, who created significant works in religion, literature, science, and philosophy. They flourished under both Muslim and Christian rule, enjoying prosperity and power unsurpassed in Europe. Their cultural contributions include important poets; the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides; and Moses de Leon, author of the Zohar, the core text of the Kabbalah.

But these Jews also endured considerable hardship. Fundamentalist Islamic tribes drove them from Muslim to Christian Spain. In 1391 thousands were killed and more than a third were forced to convert by anti-Jewish rioters. A century later the Spanish Inquisition began, accusing thousands of these converts of heresy. By the end of the fifteenth century Jews had been expelled from Spain and forcibly converted in Portugal and Navarre. After almost a millennium of harmonious existence, what had been the most populous and prosperous Jewish community in Europe ceased to exist on the Iberian Peninsula.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Chronology
• Introduction
• Part 1. La Convivencia
• 1. A Marriage of Convenience
• 2. The Visigoth Persecution of the Jews
• 3. Muslim Rule
• 4. Jews of Muslim Spain
• 5. Judah Halevi and The Kuzari
• 6. A Golden Age of Poetry
• 7. The End of the Caliphate
• 8. Maimonides
• 9. Christian Rule
• 10. Jews in Castile and Aragon
• 11. Book of Splendor and Kabbalah Mysticism
• Part 2. The End of Tolerance
• 12. Toward 1391
• 13. Seeds of Destruction
• 14. The Conversion of the Jews
• 15. The Church Campaign against the Jews, Postconversion
• Part 3. The Age of the Converts
• 16. New Christians
• 17. Converts and Castile
• 18. Anti- and Pro-Converso Writings
• Part 4. The Spanish Inquisition
• 19. The Catholic Monarchy
• 20. Origins of the Inquisition
• 21. The Inquisition
• 22. Arrest, Trial, and Punishment
• 23. Inquisition Expansion
• Part 5. The Last Iberian Jews
• 24. Spain and Expulsion
• 25. The Last Jews of Iberia
• Part 6. After Expulsion
• 26. Purity of Blood
• 27. Jewish Blood, Black Blood
• 28. Conversos and the Beginnings of the Modern Novel
• 29. Coming to America
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Jeffrey Gorsky