extended period of time, and where Jews were not the only religious minority.
Yet the notion of a golden age for Jews in Muslim Spain, while perhaps ten-
able from the vantage point of Jewish culture, is harder to defend in light of
the tumultuous political climate of the Iberian Peninsula. From the eighth
through the end of the fifteenth century, Christendom and Islam met and
fought in Spain. In addition, during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries,
war between Muslim states continued unabated. Still, Muslim Spain was at
least no less hospitable to Jews than other parts of the Muslim world, and
considerably better for Jews than any part of Christendom prior to fifteenth-
century Poland.
The origins of Jews in Spain are a melange of mythical, semi-historical,
and historical accounts. The mythical origins trace Jewish life in Spain back
to the time of Solomon, who, according to legend, sent a tax collector to
Spain, who died and was buried there. The prophet Obadiah made reference
to “captivity in Sepharad,” which later became an epithet for Spain. There
were also tales of Jewish refugees from Babylonian and Roman captivity
settling in Spain. Semihistorical accounts, based on historical suppositions
or circumstantial evidence, include an assertion that since the apostle Paul
had traveled to Spain, there must have been Jews there, else why would he
have gone there in search of converts? Similarly, there was the presumption
that the Jewish presence extended to the farthest reaches of the Roman
Empire, which included Spain. The earliest historical evidence of Jewish
life in Spain, a tombstone of Anna Salo (Hanna bat Solomon), dates to the
third century C.E.
Crucial in understanding the situation of Jews in Spain is the fact that
Spain was a frontier region with respect to the early Christian and early
Islamic worlds. Thus, conditions in Spain until the high Middle Ages often
deviated from conditions closer to the center, sometimes to the advantage and
sometimes to the detriment of Jews. In fourth-century Spain, one of the few
extant sources from this period, the proceedings of a church council in Elvira,
suggests a close relationship between Jews and Christians, in contrast to the
deteriorating relations between Christians in Jews in points to the east. This
council found it necessary to issue a ban on Christians eating with and marry-
ing Jews, and Christians asking Jews to bless their crops.
This situation inverted following the Visigothic conquest of Spain during
the sixth century. The Visigoths, extremist Christians, went to great lengths
to limit the comforts of Jews in Spain. They heaped all sorts of restrictions
on them, culminating in efforts to force them to convert, in violation of
Augustine’s injunction to the contrary. By the beginning of the eight century,
Jewish life in Spain was on the verge of ending.
The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Muslim forces of Al-Tariq in
711 brought a major reprieve for Jews. As his army gained ground, he
recruited Jews in conquered towns to be standing garrisons, while Muslim
68 The Jews of Islam