1.

The encounter of Jewish culture and religious traditions with both

Islam and Catholicism: similarities and differences.

First of all, it is necessary to clarify that one cannot really speak about a single
“encounter” between Judaism and the two cultures. Although certain patterns in the
relationships between Jews and Christians and Jews and Muslims can be observed, the
truth is that these relations varied greatly depending on the specific temporal and local
setting.

In this sense, for example and in opposition to the common image of Islamic tolerance
towards Judaism, we see the persecution that the Almohads carried out against the Jews
in the XII century, which forced personalities like Maimonides and Abraham ibn Ezra
to leave the Muslim Iberian Peninsula. On the other side of the border, kings like
Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284) in Castile, or Jaime I the Conqueror (1208-1276) and
his son Pedro III the Great (1240-1285) in Aragon kept Jews as physicians and
counselors, thus contradicting the previously established rule in the Fourth Council of
Lateran (1215-16), that forbade the employment of Jews for public positions or as
government officials.1

This has been said, the situation of the Jews as vassals of Muslims and Christians can be
framed along certain lines. Of those, probably the most prominent (and which
influenced every other aspect of the Jewish relations) were the differences in the legal
status of the Jews in each region: whereas in Muslim territories the Jews were subject to
the Islamic law; in the Christian states of the Middle Ages, the Jewish people ended up
constituting a sort of property of the king.2

In this manner and despite numerous cases of arbitrariness, the Jews under Muslim
jurisdiction experienced a relative degree of stability thanks to the more or less constant
attachment of their rulers to the reference established in the Umar Pact, which was
sustainably held as binding law by the Islamic jurists.3 This probably contributed largely
to the alleged prosperity of the Jews in Muslim territories.

1
Pérez, Joseph, Los Judíos en España, Marcial Pons Historia, Madrid, 2005, p. 53.
2
Cohen, Marc R., Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princenton 1994, p. 57.
3
Ibid.
In contrast to this situation, that of the Jews in Christian Europe went from being
controlled by the church to being controlled by the local civil ruler; 4 and was
systematically dictated by the temporary interests of the local authority, as well as the
strength of the Jewish community and its capability to negotiate the terms of its legal
status.5

With this frame in mind, we can intuit two parallel lines of influence on a North
(Christian)-South (Islamic) axis. In the first line we see the origin of diverse
manifestations of Jewish culture in Muslim territories that will be further developed by
the Jews in Christian Europe. The least representative of these is probably the
adaptation of the Arabic poetry, that through the Andalusian author al-Harizi influenced
the works of Immanuel of Rome.6

Much more influential is the systematic halakhic compilation Mishneh Torah written by
Maimonides in the Egypt of the XII century. This work – possibly following the format
of fiqh7 volumes such as Shafii’s Kitab al-Umm (c. IX) or al-Sarakhsi’s Kitab al-
Mabsut (c. XI),8 will establish the model for later codices of Jewish Law used in Europe
such as the Shulkhan Arukh of Joseph Karo and Mosses Isserles’ Mapah.

At the end of our list, and with an even greater impact, we find a work in the border
region of XIII century’s Leon9, in the Iberian Peninsula: the Zohar. This book, attributed
mainly to Mosheh de Leon, is considered to have established the foundations of Jewish
mysticism – together with Sefer Yetzirah; 10 and will permeate diverse aspects of the life
of the communities around Europe, such as liturgy or tradition and superstition.11

4
Ibid.
5
Compare the evolution in the status of the Jews through the documents: “Bishop of Speyer Grant of Lands and
Privileges to the Jews”. Source: Cave, Rory C.; Coulson, Herbert H., A Source Book for Medieval Economic History,
Biblo & Tannen, New York, 1965, pp. 101-102; and Rubin, Alexis, Scattered Among the Nations, pp. 113-115.
6
Gottheil, Richard; Elbogen, Ismael, “Immanuel b. Solomon b. Jekuthiel“, Jewish Encyclopedia,
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8090-immanuel-b-solomon-b-jekuthiel (accessed 23/11/2016).
7
Eng.: Islamic jurisprudence.
8
This assumption has yet to be checked. No readings or systematic comparison of Mishneh Torah with the mentioned
books has been conducted for this paper.
9
Vid. Maíllo Salgado, Felipe, De la desaparición de al-Ándalus, Abada, Madrid, 2004. In his book, Prof. Maíllo
explains the influence that the Mozarabes fleeing from al-Andalus had in the development of the court bureaucracy
until the XII century in the kingdom of Leon, thus providing a powerful example of the hybridization of cultures that
took place in Iberian Peninsula.
10
Jacobs, Joseph; Broydé, Isaac, “Zohar”, Jewish Encyclopedia, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15278-
zohar (accessed 23/11/2016).
11
As stated by Dr. Roni Weinstein during his seminar The Jews in Medieval Christian Europe, at Paideia,
Stockholm, 31/10-11/11/2016.
On the other side, we find how the anti-Semitic rhetoric and displays of violence
advance through Central Europe to the South, reaching their peak in the killings and
mass-assault of the Iberian Jewries in 1391 and the final expelling of all Jews from
these territories in 1492.

This way, whereas the three first Crusades were accompanied by popular persecution of
Jews like in Worms and Mayence (1096); later, in Würzburg, after the preaching of
Radulph in 1146; and in York in 1190,12 the main anti-Jewish campaigns in the Iberian
Peninsula, such as the Navarreria, the Shepherd’s Persecution or the uprising in Estella
happened at a relatively late stage (1277, 1321 and 1328 respectively), were limited to
the areas bordering with the Pyrenean System; and, in the case of the Shepherd’s
Persecution, the violence was mainly conducted by mobs crossing from the South of
France and faced severe retaliation by the civil authorities.1314

In a similar fashion, the popular accusations of the profanation of the communion,

which are first documented in England in 1144, don’t appear in the Spanish sources
until 1250.15 During the same period, we observe the burning of the Talmud in Paris in
124216 and, in parallel, to the comparatively benevolent Barcelona disputation in 1263. 17
The expulsion of Jews, such as those in England in 1290, and then in France in 1304
and again in 1394,18 won’t find an equivalent in the Iberian Peninsula until 1492.

In conclusion, the relations between Jews and Christians and Jews and Muslims,
although framed in their respective legal systems, were not constant and were in
contrast dependent largely on the political and economic setting and on the spread of
certain streams of thought and had as a result the development of certain manifestations
of Jewish culture in response to their particular context.

12
Gottheil, Richard; Jacobs, Joseph, “Crusades”, Jewish Encyclopedia,
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4785-crusades-the (accessed 26/11/2016)
13
Pérez, Joseph, Los Judíos en España, Marcial Pons Historia, Madrid, 2005, p. 113.
14
Gottheil, Richard; Kayserling, Meyer, “Jaca”, Jewish Encyclopedia,
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8376-jaca (accessed 26/11/2016).
15
Pérez, Joseph, Los Judíos en España, Marcial Pons Historia, Madrid, 2005, p. 103.
16
Ibid., p. 92.
17
Ibid., p. 96.
18
Ibid., p. 92.