Jewish Economy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327

Jewish Economy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327
Author: Yom Tov Assis
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004106154

This is a seminal study of the economic history of the Jewish community of Aragon, covering a period of about 125 years from the beginning of the thirteenth century until 1327. Among other topics, the book deals with the policy of the Crown towards money-lending and commerce in the Jewish community; the community's control over its members' economic activities; the Jews' loans to the king, and their taxes and subsidies to the Crown. The book offers information on the Jews' contribution to economic history, that has been very little studied so far. It will be of interest to economic historians, historians of Jewish Middle Ages, hispanists, and medievalists in general.

Jewish Economy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327

Jewish Economy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213-1327
Author: Yom Tov Assis
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2023-08-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004679200

This is a seminal study of the economic history of the Jewish community of Aragon, covering a period of about 125 years from the beginning of the thirteenth century until 1327. Among other topics, the book deals with the policy of the Crown towards moneylending and commerce in the Jewish community; the community's control over its members' economic activities; the Jews' loans to the king, and their taxes and subsidies to the Crown. The book offers information on the Jews' contribution to economic history, that has been very little studied so far. It will be of interest to economic historians, historians of Jewish Middle Ages, hispanists, and medievalists in general.

Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile

Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile
Author: Maya Soifer Irish
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2016-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813228654

5. Tamquam domino proprio: The Bishop and His Jews in Medieval Palencia -- Part 3. Jews and Christians in Northern Castile (ca. 1250-ca. 1370) -- 6. The Jews of Castile at the End of the Reconquista (Post-1250): Cultural and Communal Life -- 7. Jews, Christians, and Royal Power in Northern Castile -- 8. "Insolent, Wicked People": The Cortes and Anti-Jewish Discourse in Castile -- Bibliography -- Index

The Keys to Bread and Wine

The Keys to Bread and Wine
Author: Abigail Agresta
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2022-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501764195

How did medieval people think about the environments in which they lived? In a world shaped by God, how did they treat environments marked by religious difference? The Keys to Bread and Wine explores the answers to these questions in Valencia in the later Middle Ages. When Christians conquered the city in 1238, it was already one of the richest agricultural areas in the Mediterranean thanks to a network of irrigation canals constructed under Muslim rule. Despite this constructed environment, drought, flooding, plagues, and other natural disasters continued to confront civic leaders in the later medieval period. Abigail Agresta argues that the city's Christian rulers took a technocratic approach to environmental challenges in the fourteenth century but by the mid-fifteenth century relied increasingly on religious ritual, reflecting a dramatic transformation in the city's religious identity. Using the records of Valencia's municipal council, she traces the council's efforts to expand the region's infrastructure in response to natural disasters, while simultaneously rendering the landscape within the city walls more visibly Christian. This having been achieved, Valencia's leaders began by the mid-fifteenth century to privilege rogations and other ritual responses over infrastructure projects. But these appeals to divine aid were less about desperation than confidence in the city's Christianity. Reversing traditional narratives of technological progress, The Keys to Bread and Wine shows how religious concerns shaped the governance of the environment, with far-reaching implications for the environmental and religious history of medieval Iberia.

The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal

The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal
Author: François Soyer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2007-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047431553

In 1496-7, King Manuel I of Portugal forced the Jews of his kingdom to convert to Christianity and expelled all his Muslim subjects. Portugal was the first kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula to end definitively Christian-Jewish-Muslim coexistence, creating an exclusively Christian realm. Drawing upon narrative and documentary sources in Portuguese, Spanish and Hebrew, this book pieces together the developments that led to the events of 1496-7 and presents a detailed reconstruction of the persecution. It challenges widely held views concerning the impact of the arrival in Portugal of the Jews expelled from Castile in 1492, the diplomatic wrangling that led to the forced conversion of the Portuguese Jews in 1497 and the causes behind the expulsion of the Muslim minority.

Jewish Law in Transition

Jewish Law in Transition
Author: Hillel Gamoran
Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2008-10-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0878201424

The prohibition against lending on interest (Exodus 22:24) is a well-known biblical law: "If you lend to any one of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him." This prohibition was intended to prevent the wealthy from exploiting the unfortunate. In the course of time, it was seen to have consequences that militated against the economic welfare of Jewish society as a whole. As a result, Jewish law (halakhah) has over the centuries relaxed the biblical injunction, allowing interest charges despite the biblical prohibition. Hillel Gamoran seeks to explain how and when this law of high moral standing collapsed and fell over the course of the centuries. Talmudic rabbis believed that business agreements violated the biblical prohibition against lending in five areas: loans of produce, advance payment for the purchase of goods, buying on credit, mortgages, and investments. The Bible does not consider any of these activities, but all arise in postbiblical literature. How was the biblical law to be applied to situations that had not occurred in biblical times? And how could the rabbis allow these activities when they were hampered from doing so by the laws against lending on interest? To answer these questions, Gamoran examines the biblical prohibition against lending and postulates when it was written, why it was written, and to whom it applied. He then considers the early and later teachers of the Oral Law, the Tannaim and Amoraim, who expanded discussion of the ban in light of various business activities from 70 C.E. to 500 C.E. Finally, he explores how the original tannaitic proscriptions for each of the five activities were upheld or relaxed over the centuries. Each activity is considered in the period of the Geonim (ca. 650-1050), the Rishonim (ca. 1000-1500), and the Aharonim (ca. 1500-2000). For each period, Gamoran shows how the rabbis struggled with the law and with one another and used inventive interpretation to create the legal fictions necessary for business life to flourish.

Studies in the History of Culture and Science

Studies in the History of Culture and Science
Author: Resianne Fontaine
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2010-11-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004191232

An hommage to Gad Freudenthal, this volume offers studies on the history of science and on the role of science in medieval and early-modern Jewish cultures, investigating various aspects of processes of knowledge transfer and scientific cross-cultural contacts,

Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Hebrew Science

Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Hebrew Science
Author: Shlomo Sela
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004500979

The main focus of this book is the study of Abraham Ibn Ezra’s (1089-1167) scientific thought within the historical and cultural context of his times. His scientific contribution may be understood as the very embodiment of ‘the rise of medieval Hebrew science’, a process in which Jewish scholars gradually adopted the holy tongue as a vehicle to express secular and scientific ideas. The first part provides a comprehensive picture of Ibn Ezra’s scientific corpus. The second part studies his linguistic strategy. The third and fourth parts study Ibn Ezra’s introductions to his scientific treatises and the fifth part is devoted to studying four ‘encounters’ with Claudius Ptolemy, the main scientific character featuring in Ibn Ezra’s literary work.

The Experience of Power in Medieval Europe, 950–1350

The Experience of Power in Medieval Europe, 950–1350
Author: Robert F. Berkhofer III
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351889966

Taking their inspiration from the work of Thomas N. Bisson, to whom the book is dedicated, the contributors to this volume explore the experience of power in medieval Europe: the experience of those who held power, those who helped them wield it, and those who felt its effects. The seventeen essays in the collection, which range geographically from England in the north to Castile in the south, and chronologically from the tenth century to the fourteenth, address a series of specific topics in institutional, social, religious, cultural, and intellectual history. Taken together, they present three distinct ways of discussing power in a medieval historical context: uses of power, relations of power, and discourses of power. The collection thus examines not only the operational and social aspects of power, but also power as a contested category within the medieval world. The Experience of Power suggests new and fruitful ways of understanding and studying power in the Middle Ages.

The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture

The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture
Author: Judith R. Baskin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 559
Release: 2010-07-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1316224368

The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture is a comprehensive and engaging overview of Jewish life, from its origins in the ancient Near East to its impact on contemporary popular culture. The twenty-one essays, arranged historically and thematically, and written specially for this volume by leading scholars, examine the development of Judaism and the evolution of Jewish history and culture over many centuries and in a range of locales. They emphasize the ongoing diversity and creativity of the Jewish experience. Unlike previous anthologies, which concentrate on elite groups and expressions of a male-oriented rabbinic culture, this volume also includes the range of experiences of ordinary people and looks at the lives and achievements of women in every place and era. The many illustrations, maps, timeline, and glossary of important terms enhance this book's accessibility to students and general readers.