THE ENTRANCE OF THE JEWS INTO SPAIN.
JEWS SETTLE IN SPAIN DURING THE REIGN OF KING SOLOMON.--JEWISH
AGRICULTURAL SKILL MAKES ANDALUSIA THE GARDEN SPOT OF
EUROPE.--PROSPERITY THE GREAT CRIME OF THE JEWS.--THE
BEGINNING OF JEWISH PERSECUTIONS IN EUROPE.--CRUEL
LAWS.--VENGEANCE.--JEWS CONSPIRE WITH COUNT JULIAN AND MOORS
AGAINST SPAIN.--VICTORY.--MOORISH APPRECIATION OF THE SERVICES OF
THE JEWS.
The week had passed. It was Sabbath Eve once more. Again we assembled
in the library hall of Chasdai ben Isaac to listen to the narrative of
"The Entrance of the Jews into Spain." When all were gathered Chasdai
began and spoke as follows: History is more communicative about the
entrance of the Jews into Spain than she is about their entrance into
any of the other West European countries. The Bible gives us sufficient
basis to build upon the fairly reliable theory that as early as the
time of King Solomon (1,000 B. C.) the Iberian peninsula was known to
the Israelites, that considerable traffic was carried on between them
and the autochtones of the Southwestern corner of Europe, and that
a settlement of a Jewish colony within the sunny lands of Andalusia
may have taken place then. We have a tradition which tells us, that
when in the early days of the Christian era the Jews of Spain were
attacked for having crucified Jesus, they claimed that neither they
nor their fathers had any share in the crucifixion, that they were the
descendants of Jews who lived in Spain long before the time of Christ,
and produced a gravestone upon which was inscribed: "This is the grave
of Adonirams, the servant of Solomon the king, who came hither to
collect the tribute for the king."
We know that when the Romans became complete masters of Spain in the
second century B. C. they found a considerable number of Israelites
domiciled there. About 60 A. C. the Jewish community of Spain must have
been strong and influential enough to make the coming of the Apostle
Paul among them necessary.[16]
[16] Romans xv:28.
Crowds of exiles wandered westward and swelled their number after the
terrible siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and in addition 80,000 slaves are
said to have been transferred thither and sold as slaves and speedily
ransomed by their more fortunate brethren. Historic sources are agreed
that these Jewish inhabitants of Spain by their passionate fondness
for agricultural pursuits, a passion which they had brought along from
the Holy Land, soon made Andalusia the garden spot of Europe, and by
their industry, frugality, skill in traffic and intellectual powers,
they became the pillars of the country's prosperity and acquired great
wealth and distinction.
It could not have been otherwise. In habits, aims and ambitions
there was an organic difference between the Jews and their warlike
fellow citizens. The Romans, as well as the Visigoths, were wedded to
military life. Every other calling or pursuit was degrading in their
eyes. Trading or tilling the soil was in their eyes only befitting the
slave. The uncertainty of their future, their roaming life, their habit
of living from plunder, developed in them traits that were just the
opposite to those of the Jews. The Jew hated war. His love for home was
intense. His industry and frugality, his religious life and his love of
study, were proverbial, and so in proportion as the others increased
in brutality and ignorance, in poverty and moral corruption, the Jews
reached the heights of prosperity, morality and intellect.
That prosperity, however, proved to be their curse. It is a mistake
to believe that the greatest crime of the Jews was their faith; it
was their prosperity. Idlers and spendthrifts have never yet been
thrilled with ecstatic delight at another's prosperity, and never is
their venom more poisonous and their wrath more bitter than when the
Jew is unfortunate enough to be fortunate. In Spain, as elsewhere,
a mighty power of soldiers, and monks, and priests, and dependants,
all unproductive laborers, stood arrayed against the handful of Jews,
the only productive laborers of the realm, and the battle cry was not
the Jews' money, but the Jews' "soul." There was great diplomacy
in this battle cry. They knew of the intensity of the Jew's faith
in his religion. They knew how he was wedded to the traditions and
hopes of his race. They knew that he would cheerfully part with all
his treasures rather than sacrifice an iota of his belief. They knew
that the industrial, and economical, and intellectual, and peace and
home-loving traits of the Jew were so deeply rooted, that he would at
once begin anew to acquire again, perhaps for the same end, all that
had been cruelly torn from him, just as the bees, nothing daunted by
the theft of their painfully hoarded wealth, will start anew to fill
the hive. And so, whenever they had need of the money of the Jews, and
that need was, alas, a frequent one, they became all at once painfully
concerned about the Jewish soul, and its final fate, and they never
failed to relieve the Jews of their treasures, even if they failed in
the saving of their souls.
Spain took the lead in Jewish persecutions and maintained its odious
distinction for centuries. Henceforth there is no lack of historic
material concerning the Jews in Spain. But, alas! until the time of the
conquest of Spain by the Moors, it is not a history of achievement, it
is a history of suffering--a martyrology. That martyrology began with
the Third Council of Toledo (589 A. C.) at which Recaredo presented his
abjuration of Arianism and was anointed as the first Catholic monarch
of Spain. At that council laws were passed, of which the spirit may be
comprehended from the following preamble and titles:
"Laws concerning the promulgation and ratification of statutes
against Jewish wickedness, and for the general extirpation of
Jewish errors. That the Jews may not celebrate the Passover
according to their usage; that the Jews may not contract marriage
according to their own customs; that the Jews may not practice
the Abrahamitic rite; that the Jews bring no actions against
Christians; that the Jews be not permitted to bear witness against
Christians."
The Jews knew what was wanted; they paid a large sum of money, and
the laws remained inoperative till Recaredo's successor, Sisebuto,
ascended the throne. This king entered into a league with Emperor
Heraclius, with the pious determination of "extirpating the dangerous
race throughout the world," and so he issued a law which gave the
Jews a year's time to decide whether they would confess Christ and be
baptized, or be shaved and scourged, their property confiscated, and
themselves forced to leave the country.[17]
[17] "Confessar la region cristian y bantizarse, o ser
decalvados, azotados, lanzados del reino y conficados sus
bienes." Codex Visigothorum xii., tit. iii.
Ninety thousand are said to have submitted to baptism, but with
them the enforced Christian rite was but a mask for their secret
Jewish belief and practices. And they had ample cause for regretting
their religious weakness, for baptism did not secure them from new
indignities and humiliation. They were despised for their apostacy, and
their property was taken from them as if they had not complied with
the king's edict. Thousands upon thousands fled to the northern coasts
of Africa, and with them fled the prosperity from the Gothic kingdom.
Having once discovered so excellent a source for satisfying their greed
for money, they had no intention of letting such golden opportunities
escape them. A few years had passed, and the baptized Jews, true to
their industrial and economical habits, had hoarded up some wealth
with which they might buy life from the infuriated mob, and so the
Fourth Council met at Toledo, in the year 633, and enacted the cruel
requirement that the children of those, who had accepted Christianity,
should be torn, forever, from their parent's heart, to be educated by
Christians in the Christian faith. The Sixth Council enacted a law,
that every king on his accession shall take an oath, that he will
execute all the laws against the Jews, and will issue others equally as
severe. Another law enacted the punishment of death upon Christians,
who should embrace Judaism, or commit "the monstrous and unutterable
crime of pursuing an execrable commerce with the ungodly." The Ninth
Council decreed, that all baptized Jews were bound to appear in the
church, not only on Christian, but also on Jewish holidays, lest, while
they outwardly profess Christianity, they should practice secretly
Judaism.
The Twelfth Council, of Toledo, 681, far surpassed its predecessors
in the cruelties of its enactments. The preamble complained that
"the crafty Jews had eluded all former laws," and then decreed that
hereafter 100 lashes would be inflicted upon the naked body, and after
that, the offender would be put in chains, banished, and his property
confiscated for any of the following offences: For rejecting the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, for not bringing children or servants
or dependants to baptism, for observing the Passover, the New Moon,
the Feast of Tabernacles, for violating the Christian Sabbath, or the
great festivals of the church. The circumcision of a child brought
additional tortures, upon the father mutilation, upon the mother the
loss of her nose. No marriage was hereafter to be contracted, without
solemn obligation that both would become Christians. All subjects of
the kingdom who harbored, assisted or concealed the flight of a Jew,
were to be scourged, and have their property confiscated. The Jew who
read or allowed his children to read books written against Christianity
was to suffer 100 lashes; on the second offense the lashes were to be
repeated, with banishment and confiscation. No Jew was to hold any
office by which he might have authority over Christians.
I shall spare you a recital of the numerous other cruel laws enacted,
and the account of the terrible sufferings endured. The land re-echoed
the piteous groans and lamentations of the lashed and scourged. Their
wealth purchased but temporary immunity and exemption.
"Certainly the heroism of the defenders of every other creed fades
into insignificance before this martyr people, who confronted all the
evils that the fiercest fanaticism could devise, enduring obloquy and
spoliation and the violation of the dearest ties, and the infliction
of the most hideous sufferings, rather than abandon their faith. For
these were no ascetic monks, dead to all the hopes and passions of
life, but were men who appreciated intensely the worldly advantages
they relinquished, and whose affections had become all the more lively
on account of the narrow circle in which they were confined. Enthusiasm
and the strange phenomena of ecstasy, which have exercised so large
an influence in the history of persecution, which have nerved so
many martyrs with superhuman courage, and have deadened or destroyed
the anguish of so many fearful tortures, were here almost unknown.
Persecution came to the Jewish nation in its most horrible forms, yet
surrounded by every circumstance of petty annoyance that could destroy
its grandeur, and it continued for centuries their abiding portion.
But above all this the genius of that wonderful people rose supreme.
While those around them were grovelling in the darkness of besotted
ignorance; while juggling miracles and lying relics were the themes
on which almost all Europe was expatiating; while the intellect of
Christendom, enthralled by countless superstitions, had sunk into a
deadly torpor, in which all love of enquiry and all search for truth
were abandoned, the Jews were still pursuing the path of knowledge,
amassing learning, and stimulating progress with the same unflinching
constancy that they manifested in their faith."[18]
[18] Lecky's Rationialism in Europe, (pages 270-271) vol. 2,
chap. 6, and also the following from Prescott's Ferdinand and
Isabella (p. 192), vol. 1:
"Under the Visigothic empire the Jews multiplied exceedingly
in the country, and were permitted to acquire considerable
power and wealth. But no sooner had their Arian masters
embraced the orthodox faith, than they began to testify
their zeal by pouring on the Jews the most pitiless storm
of persecution. One of their laws alone condemned the whole
race to slavery: and Montesquieu remarks, without much
exaggeration, that to the Gothic code may be traced all the
maxims of the modern Inquisition, the monks of the fifteenth
century only copying, in reference to the Israelites, the
bishops of the seventh."
The enemy succeeded in impoverishing the Jew, and in stifling
his energies and efforts for the good of the country, but failed
ignominiously in their effort to inspire him with a love for
Christianity, which perhaps was never sincerely wanted, and, if wanted,
the means chosen to secure the end were not such that are crowned with
success. The degraded and tortured Jew was filled with a bitter hatred
against Christianity, and with a burning longing for revenge.
* * * * *
And vengeance came. God had heard the wailings and seen the sufferings
of the people that never was born to die. The Gothic kingdom of Spain
was to suffer bitterly for its terrible crimes and the Jew was to be
rewarded a thousandfold for the sufferings he had endured for his
religion's sake. Weaker and weaker became that kingdom which the Jews
had made in former years the pride of Europe. It was beset by foes
within and by foes without. The tyranny of the church and of the throne
had instigated dissatisfaction among the grandees of the state, and
the insult of Roderick, the king, to Florinda, the young and beautiful
daughter of Count Ilyan aroused this bravest of Spanish warriors and
numerous powerful friends of his into open rebellion.
Nearer and nearer drew the Arab-Moors. They reached the Northwestern
point of Africa, where the Jews, who had fled and who had been banished
thither, and who had risen there to power and influence, greeted them
with a hearty welcome. The martial sound of the Moslem hosts made
as pleasant music to their ears as to the insulted father and his
wrath-inspired followers. Both parties conspired with the Moorish
chief, Amir Musa Ibn Nosseyr, for the invasion of Spain. Musa grasped
eagerly at this ardently wished-for opportunity. He dispatched his
valiant warrior Tarik, with 12,000 men across the narrow strait that
separated Africa from Europe, and Islam from Christianity. Roderik met
him at the banks of the Guadalete with an army eight times as large,
and that day was the last Spain beheld him and his army. On that day
Christianity ceased to rule within the land of Spain, and as its power
sank, there dawned once more the sun of prosperity unto Israel.
The Moors did not forget the valuable services of the Jews. The early
hatred against them in Arabia, for refusing to accept the creed of
Mohammed, had long since been converted into tolerance and good will.
Unlike the religion of Christianity, which started as the religion of
love and soon became the religion of the sword, Islamism began as the
religion of the sword but soon become the religion of love. Political
and religious freedom and social recognition was granted to the Jew
throughout the caliphate, and from that day unto this the two Oriental
people have lived in peace side by side upon the Occidental soil,
viewing with each other in their noble efforts to restore unto Spain
her original beauty and prosperity, and to make her in culture and
art and intelligence the mistress of Europe. We, sons of Israel, have
labored hard and zealously in this noble contest, but with all our
efforts our rival has passed beyond us, and humbly we cede the palm of
victory to the Arab-Moors."
Here Chasdai ben Isaac ceased. He had spoken of the sufferings of the
Jews with such perceptible anguish, he had related the part which
the Jews took in the conquest of Spain with such vivid animation,
and referred to the prosperity of the Jews under Moorish sway, and
to Moorish tolerance and intellectual greatness, with such touching
pathos that when he paused, a deep impressive silence ensued. At length
Abdallah ben Xamri, the Moorish poet laureate to Caliph Abder Rahman
III., arose, advanced towards Chasdai, and bowing low, thus he spoke:
"Your modesty must not bridle my tongue. I would appear an ingrate to
my people should it become known that I listened in silence to your
last remarks. The Arab-Moors forgot not their benefactors, nor are they
so boastful as to arrogate to themselves, or allow others to bestow
upon them a superiority which is unmerited.
Within our heart of hearts we treasure the services which your people
have rendered. We owe the Hebrew people much more than your modesty,
noble Chasdai, has suffered you to claim. You opened the portals of
Spain unto us, and to you alone belongs the credit of turning Spain
once again into a paradise, for a hundred years of uninterrupted
warfare under the banner of Islam, had unfitted us for agricultural and
mechanical and intellectual and artistic pursuits. You sowed the seeds
of our prosperity. We sat at the feet of your masters, and if we have
proven ourselves apt scholars, we bear testimony to the excellency of
your teachers. Far be it from us to claim superiority over our honored
rival. In the arts and sciences and philosophies your people hold
distinguished places. Your theologians have given us many a problem
which the wisest among us have failed to solve. In the purity of your
home and social life, and in your industries you serve the world as
models. In poetry I should never venture to compete for supremacy with
friend Dunash ben Labrat and Menachem ben Saruk. In diplomacy, where
lives the man who can equal you in intellect and sagacity, to whom else
do we owe our political greatness than to you, Chasdai ben Isaac, the
Jewish minister of our beloved Caliph Abder Rahman III."