Post-Classical Middle East: The anti-Semitic riots of Granada, 1066

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The anti-Semitic riots of Granada, 1066

Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: Post-Classical Middle East
Forum Discription: SW Asia, the Middle East and Islamic civilizations from 600s - 1900 AD
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33715
Printed Date: 28-Apr-2024 at 00:43
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.56a - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: The anti-Semitic riots of Granada, 1066

Posted By: Salah ad-Din
Subject: The anti-Semitic riots of Granada, 1066
Date Posted: 10-May-2013 at 20:01

In 1066, Yusuf ibn Nagrila, the 'Arabized' son of a Jewish rabbi and poet, was serving as wazir to Badis al-Muzaffar, the ruler of Muslim Granada. In December of that year, riots broke out in which the Muslim majority of the population attacked and killed its Jewish minority - Ibn Nagrila himself was crucified. Estimates for the casualties range as high as 4,000 persons.

Islamic al-Andalus was known as one of the most religiously and culturally tolerant landscapes of medieval Europe. Muslims, Christians, and Jews coexisted and shared the best features of their civilizations with one another, and despite the 'Reconquista' of lore, little of the violence in early medieval Spain was motivated by religious ideologies.

The 1066 Granada Pogrom stands out precisely because such an events were an extreme rarity in al-Andalus. What triggered it? Was it, as is usually claimed, simple resistance to a person of Jewish ancestry rising to such such power within the local government?