By Gerard Edery and Rabbi Chava Koster
When the Spanish Jews, or Sephardim, were forced to leave Spain in 1492 under the Inquisition’s Edict of Expulsion, the story goes that families took with them the keys to their homes in the hope of one day returning. These keys became a symbol of a glorious but painful heritage. As time passed, their diaspora expanded and yet whenever a person was given a gift of great value or importance, they were reminded to care for it like “la yave in kashun” (the key in the drawer). This was an expression in Ladino (the Medieval Spanish spoken by the Sephardim) symbolising the ever present hope of a return to their beloved Spain. It was not until 1968 that this cruel edict was officially revoked by the Spanish government.
The Konvivencia (Coexistence) of Jews and Muslims in Muslim Spain during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry (900-1200) remains one of the most intriguing and fertile examples the world has ever known for exploring the intercultural mix that was central to the Sephardic experience. The Sephardim came from a long history of wanderings and mighty empires—from Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, to Spain, North Africa and all of the Ottoman lands. Cosmopolitan and deeply involved in all social, political and artistic explorations of their time and place, their real spiritual homes were found in their Judaism, often expressed through sacred stories and songs, spiritual homes that could be unlocked by a simple memory, carried forth by beautiful melodies or poems influenced by other traditions and cultures, pagan or religious. The Sephardim traveled, traded, mixed and married, from Cordoba to Baghdad and far beyond. Following the Muslim invasions of Spain beginning in 711, they became known as the Jews under the crescent, with traditions firmly rooted in the Islamic world.
In the first three centuries of Muslim domination in Spain the Jews enjoyed great influence and prosperity. They were deeply implicated not only in Spain’s rich cultural life but in many governmental, political and financial affairs as well. Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-975) was a counselor to the great Caliphs of Cordoba, the ibn Nagrelas were viziers of Granada, the ibn Ezras, ibn Megash, and ibn Albalias were government officials in Granada and Sevilla. At the same time, the Sephardim were engaged in a considerable social and intellectual dialogue with influential circles of the Muslim population. Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses ibn Ezra, and Judah haLevi were but a few of the acknowledged and supreme geniuses in these fertile, intercultural exchanges.
In the early 11th century, stability prevailed among the three faiths. During this period, Islamic civilisation came into contact with the science, medicine, and philosophy of the Greco-Roman world. This happened much earlier than in European Christendom where Jewish life had, of necessity, become more defensive and insular. Arabic, which most educated Sephardim spoke fluently, became the default language of high culture during the Golden Age of Spain. The Jews had both access to and a deep interest in all of the translated texts read by Muslim intellectuals. This greatly facilitated the cultural konvivencia of the Judaeo-Arabic world and it is what led to the Jewish involvement and assimilation of philosophy, literature, science and medicine. It is also what made possible the brilliant careers of such luminaries as Judah ha-Levi, the poet, physician, and philosopher, Samuel ha-Nagid ibn Nagrela, the Jewish poet and vizier and the unparalleled figure of Moses Maimonides known as Rambam (1135?-1204). He was a Spanish-born Egyptian physician, rabbi, and philosopher who codified the Talmud in the Mishneh Torah (1170-1180) and attempted to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Jewish theology in his Guide for the Perplexed (1190).
The situation in Al Andalus (the Muslim part of Spain) began to deteriorate when the Caliphate of Cordoba disintegrated into a lot of smaller states called Taifas in 1008. These disunited statelets were unable to oppose the growing power of the northern Christian kingdoms. When Toledo fell to the Castillians in1085, the taifa kings had to call in the help of two warlike and fanatical Berber tribes, the Almoravids, then the Almohads who came up from the Sahara declaring a Holy War on all infidels in Al Andalus - Jews, Christians and even Muslims stood accused of diluting the holy tenets of Islam. The thriving Jewish communities of Al Andalus were destroyed and driven out. Even Moses Maimonides, the greatest son of Sepharad, was forced to leave and settle in Fez. The holy city of Fez in Morocco had always been the Mecca of the west for Islam, but even in the heart of the Muslim world Maimonides vowed to keep the Sabbath. In the spirit of Konvivencia he allowed melodies of the Arab street to be used in sacred prayer proclaiming that it did not matter where a melody came from as long as it served to inspire and open the heart to God. Some prayed to God, others to Adonai or Allah…and for others silence was their prayer!
The gradual but inevitable Reconquista refers to the medieval Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal) from the Muslim forces who had invaded the area in 711. After 1000, the Muslim caliphate of Cordoba began to fall apart as differing Muslim forces vied for supremacy.This provided the ideal opportunity for the Christian forces from the north to initiate the Reconquista, led by the Kingdom of Castile which captured the important Muslim city of Toledo in 1085. The kingdom of Aragón also began its own offensive against the Moors in the early twelfth century and the union with Catalonia in 1140 furnished additional military strength. In 1212, Pope Innocent III proclaimed a full crusade against the Moors. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in the same year provided the Christians with a decisive victory from which the Moors never fully recovered. Cordoba was captured in 1236 and Cadiz in 1262. By 1270, the Moors were confined to the small Kingdom of Granada in the south of Spain, which they held until 1492 when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella completed the Reconquista by capturing this last Moorish enclave. Even though the Reconquista allowed many Sephardim to return to their native land, the few Moors who had chosen to remain were forced to convert to Christianity, foreshadowing the Jewish persecutions to come soon after.
The fanatical and fundamentalist Spanish Inquisition all but guaranteed that what was left of the great Konvivencia would be destroyed once and for all. The riots, forced conversions, in Toledo, Sevilla, Barcelona and other Spanish cities forced many Jews to flee. A new melancholy crept into the daily lives of the Sephardim, yet they refused to be vanquished by this dark oppression, for they believed that the God of Israel would continue to hear their prayers. But on March 31, 1492 in Madrid, the formal edict of expulsion was declared: “I, Ferdinand, King of Spain and Queen Isabella have agreed to order the expulsion of all Jews and Moors in our kingdom, except for those who will agree to fully convert to Christianity, the one true faith. Never should any of the expelled return. If they are found living in our kingdoms and domains they will be put to death.” Those Jews who chose to stay and convert to Christianity became known as the Conversos, or more rudely, the Marranos (pigs). Yes, they converted to the Christian faith but valiantly continued to observe their Jewish practices in secret. Those who were discovered were immediately put to death.
In July 1492, when Spain expelled its Jewish and Arab populations as part of this Inquisition, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II sent out proclamations throughout his empire that the Spanish refugees were to be welcomed. He granted them permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire along with full citizenship. He ridiculed the conduct of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in expelling an educated and accomplished class of people who had made such profound contributions to the cultural, economic and political life in Spain. “You call Ferdinand a wise king, he who impoverishes his country and enriches our own Ottoman Empire? I, Sultan Bayezid II, welcome all Spanish Jews in exile. They’ll thrive here as they did in Al-Andalus. Their success will be our success.” This wise sultan threatened with death all those who treated the Jews harshly or refused them admission into the empire.
The Arabs and Jews of Spain contributed much to the rising power of the Ottoman Empire by introducing new ideas, methods and craftsmanship. The first printing press in Constantinople was established by the Sephardic Jews in 1493. It is reported that under Bayezid's reign, Jews enjoyed a period of cultural flourishing, with the presence of such scholars as the Talmudist and scientist Mordecai Comtino; astronomer and poet Solomon ben Elijah Sharbiṭ ha-Zahab; Shabbethai ben Malkiel Cohen, and the liturgical poet Menahem Tamar. No matter their successes, their souls and hearts would remain steadfast, thanking but one God, one King.
Though very quickly acclimating to the lands of their Diaspora, the Sephardim still missed their beloved Spain. Amidst the fragrances of flowers and sea, of lush gardens and orange trees, they would sit quietly and listen to their grandparents’ tales of a time and place that could only be revisited in the mind and heart. The Sephardic spirit always remained strong, hopeful and optimistic. They sang, danced and wove in and out of the many languages and traditions they absorbed throughout their wanderings and diasporas.
Legend has it that when the Jews of Al Andalus left, with only what they could physically carry, they remembered the open tent of their father, Avraham (Av Raham, the father of all nations). They carried that image of inclusion with them. It became their foundation, their spiritual tent, their inner temple - whether they dwelled in Salonika, Istanbul, or Amsterdam.
