Statement
The period of Islamic rule in Spain (Sefarad in Hebrew, al-Andalus in Arabic) is commonly recalled as a 'golden age' of Jewish history. Like Fatimid Egypt, Muslim Spain in the tenth and eleventh centuries became a center of Jewish that culture in its own right. A survivor of the defeated Umayyad dynasty had fled there, and his descendant Abd ar-Rahman III (912 to 961) founded the Córdoba Umayyad caliphate in 929 as a counter-caliphate to Baghdad.
References
p. 165
supports · main text · ch. 6
Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman. The Jews: A History. 3rd edition. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.
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p. 165
supports · main text · ch. 6
Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman. The Jews: A History. 3rd edition. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.
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p. 521
supports · timeline
Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman. The Jews: A History. 3rd edition. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.
Section: Timeline of Jewish History
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Scholarly debate
Was Muslim Spain a 'golden age' for the Jews?
2 positions · no single answer · take a seat →
- A
The popular memory of a golden age
Popular memory, according to the authors
Islamic rule in Spain is remembered as a 'golden age' of Jewish history, and Samuel ha-Nagid, minister of the king of Granada, reached arguably the peak of what a dhimmi could attain.
- B
A golden age with limits and an abrupt end
Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman
The Granada massacre of 1066 shows coexistence could turn into violence, and the Almohad persecution marked the end of this era, with the center of Iberian Jewish life moving to Christian territory.