Jews and converts in late medieval Castile : breaking with the past
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Bibliographic Information
Jews and converts in late medieval Castile : breaking with the past
（Studies in medieval history and culture）
Routledge, 2021
- : hbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. [221]-244
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Jews and Converts in Late Medieval Castile examines the ways in which Jewish-Christian relations evolved in Castile, taking account of social, cultural, and religious factors that affected the two communities throughout the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
The territorial expansion of the Christian kingdoms in Iberia that followed the reconquests of the mid-thirteenth century presented new military and economic challenges. At the same time the fragile balance between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Peninsula was also profoundly affected. Economic and financial pressures were of over-riding importance. Most significant were the large tax revenues that the Iberian Jewish community provided to royal coffers, new evidence for which is provided here. Some in the Jewish community also achieved prominence at court, achieving dizzying success that often ended in dismal failure or death. A particular feature of this study is its reliance upon both Castilian and Hebrew sources of the period to show how mutual perceptions evolved through the long fourteenth century. The study encompasses the remarkable and widespread phenomenon of Jewish conversion, elaborates on its causes, and describes the profound social changes that would culminate in the anti-converso riots of the mid-fifteenth century.
This book is valuable reading for academics and students of medieval and of Jewish history. As a study of a unique crucible of social change it also has a wider relevance to multi-cultural societies of any age, including our own.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 For the greatest good: Jews in the service of the King 14
2 Demand and supply: Jews and taxes in fourteenth-century Castile 55
3 Neighbours in a century of strife 87
4 The disruption of civil war: prelude to a tragedy 107
5 Portrayal and self-portrayal of the Jew in Castilian and Hebrew literature 127
6 Pathways to conversion 149
7 Identity and power: the rebellions of 1449 198
Conclusions 214
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