1066 Granada massacre
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On December 30, 1066 (9 Tevet 4827), a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, crucified Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred most of the Jewish population of the city. "More than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day."[1]
According to Bernard Lewis, the massacre is "usually ascribed to a reaction among the Muslim population against a powerful and ostentatious Jewish vizier."[2]
Lewis writes:
Particularly instructive in this respect is an ancient anti-Semitic poem of Abu Ishaq, written in Granada in 1066. This poem, which is said to be instrumental in provoking the anti-Jewish outbreak of that year, contains these specific lines:
- Do not consider it a breach of faith to kill them, the breach of faith would be to let them carry on.
- They have violated our covenant with them, so how can you be held guilty against the violators?
- How can they have any pact when we are obscure and they are prominent?
- Now we are humble, beside them, as if we were wrong and they were right![3]
Lewis continues: "Diatribes such as Abu Ishaq's and massacres such as that in Granada in 1066 are of rare occurrence in Islamic history."[3]
Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud, in his historical work Sefer ha-Kabbalah [4], similarly writes of Joseph: "...he became haughty to the point of destruction; the Philistine (Berber) nobles grew jealous of him, until he was murdered...."
Walter Laqueur characterizes this episode as a pogrom: "Jews could not as a rule attain public office (as usual there were exceptions), and there were occasional pogroms, such as in Granada in 1066."[5]
Ibn Daud comments that the date of the massacre was presaged in the ancient work Megillat Taanit, which lists 9 Tevet as a fast day without giving a reason. (Other Jewish authorities, though, give other reasons for the commemoration.[6])
The Jewish community of Granada had recovered over the years following 1066, but in 1090 it was attacked again at the hands of the Almoravides led by Ibn Tashfin, the event considered by some as the conclusion of the Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ Granada by Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia. 1906 ed.
- ^ Bernard Lewis (1984): The Jews of Islam. Princeton University Press. p.54.
- ^ a b Bernard Lewis (1984): The Jews of Islam. Princeton University Press. pp.44-45
- ^ http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/vl/ravad/ravad01.pdf
- ^ Walter Laqueur: The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-530429-2 p.68
- ^ Taz, Orach Chaim 580:4; Magen Avraham, Orach Chaim 580:6.
References
- Nagdela (Nagrela), Abu Husain Joseph Ibn by Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia. 1906 ed.
- The Virtual Jewish History Tour. Granada (Jewish Virtual Library)
- 1066 December 30, Granada (Spain) (Jewish Agency for Israel)