70 Ashkenaz and Ashkenazim
addressed to him at Toledo from Jewish communities in
Spain, as well as from other European countries. Besides
rendering decisions and writing legal treatises represent-
ing a codex of Talmudic jurisdiction, he wrote commen-
taries on the Mishnah and work of the Tosafist school. He
wrote more than 1,000 responsa,or written answers, to
questions about Jewish life, law, and learning. In his ethi-
cal work, he expected integrity, courtesy, and sincerity in
dealings with non-Jews. His method was first a discus-
sion of numerous different opinions on a given issue, and
then an attempt to offer a solution. He died in Toledo in
1327.
Further reading:Asher ben Jehiel, Pathways of Eter-
nal Life, by Rabenu Asher, Lighting the Pathways: A Com-
pendium of Talmudic and Rabbinic Quotations and
Commentaries,trans. Moshe Yitzhok Elefant (Brooklyn:
Association for the Advancement of Torah, 1977);
Yitzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2
vols., trans. Louis Schoffman (Philadelphia: Jewish Publi-
cation Society, 1992).
Ashkenaz and Ashkenazim This is a Hebrew geo-
graphic term, which in the 10th and the 11th centuries
Jews used to refer exclusively to western GERMANY, and
later to greater Germany. After the expulsion of the Jews
from ENGLANDin 1291 and from FRANCEin 1306, the
term Ashkenazimeant European Jews in general, except
those of SPAINand ITA LY, the SEPHARDIM. The term was
linked with the use of Yiddish as a common language,
cultural and religious traditions, and the learning and
practices of French and German Jews. Ashkenaz appears
in the books of Genesis and Chronicles and as a place-
name in the book of Jeremiah. Medieval Jews utilized this
term as a designation for Germany. Ashkenazimreferred
mostly to German Jews but sometimes to all of northern
European Jewry. As northern European civilization began
to develop economically in the 11th and 12th centuries
large number of Jews moved from the Mediterranean to
the booming towns of northern France and Germany.
These Jews encountered substantial popular resentment
and had to form protective alliances with political author-
ities. The Jews furnished liquid assets to the economy
and could provide loans to their protectors who guaran-
teed their physical safety and businesses. Later Jews were
invited to settle in England and eastward in Slavic lands.
By the late 13th century, political leaders were more
strapped for funds to pay for wars and began to exploit
the Jews. The church began to demand a more explicit
isolation and limitation on the economic and social role
of the Jews. Stronger senses of nationality enhanced per-
ceptions of Jewish difference and irrational anti-Jewish
propaganda expanded. Encountering this hostility, the
Ashkenazi Jews responded by establishing new forms of
Jewish self-government, new religious rituals, and new
fundamentalist ideals of intellectual culture. The Jews
were expelled from England in 1290 and from France in- Thought not expelled from Germany, the Ashke-
nazi there moved farther eastward. By 1500 the major
center of Ashkenazi Jewry was in the kingdom of
POLAND. There were enclaves spread throughout the frag-
mented German empire, but Jewish settlement was
banned in France and England.
See alsoANTI-JUDAISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM;ASHER BEN
JECHIEL; ART AND ARCHITECTURE,JEWISH;HALAKAH;JEWS
ANDJUDAISM.
Further reading:Salo W. Baron, A Social and Reli-
gious History of the Jews,18 vols., 2d ed. (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1952–1983); Robert Chazan,
“Ashkenaz,” DMA, 1.585–86; Gertrude Hirschler, ed.,
Ashkenaz: The German Jewish Heritage (New York:
Yeshiva University Museum, 1988); Kenneth Re. Stow,
Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992); Bernard D.
Weinryb, The Jews of Poland: A Social and Economic His-
tory of the Jewish Community in Poland from 1100 to 1800
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America,
1973).
Assassins (Nizaris, Ismaili Nizari, Hashishin)The
Assassins were a sect of the Ismaili branch of the Shia.
They received this name from Europeans because they
practiced political murder while allegedly under the
influence of hashish. The Arabic name they were known
by in Syria, Hashishiyya,meaning “hashish smoker,” sug-
gested contempt rather than actual practice. European
chroniclers and travelers claimed the Assassins used
hashish to give them courage and a visionary expectation
of the sensual paradise they would gain by murdering
political leaders. No Muslim source confirms this myth.
They did, however, pursue a policy of assassination, pri-
marily of Sunni Muslims.
In 1094 a group of ISMAILISrefused to accept the new
Fatimid Shiite caliph in Cairo and moved to the moun-
tain fortress at Alamut in the mountains of Daylam near
the Caspian Sea in Iran. They preferred another, Nizar, as
caliph and began terrorist attacks and murders as sacred
duties in support of his candidacy, becoming known as
the Nizari Ismailis. Besides attacking Fatimid representa-
tives, they killed numerous members of the ABBASIDand
SELJUKgovernments, including two caliphs.
One group moved to Syria and established a moun-
tain headquarters in the 12th century at Masyaf. From
there the Syrian grandmaster, Rashid ad-Din as-Sinan,
known as the “mountain chief,” mistranslated by West-
erners as the mysterious and romantic “Old Man of the
Mountain,” became famous for his murderous activities
outside religious motivation and even for hire. Although
sometimes in league with the crusaders, the assassins
murdered two Christian rulers, Raymond of Tripoli in
1130 and Conrad of Montferrat (1146–92), the king of