Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain / Edition 2

by Norman Roth

Overview

The Jewish community of medieval Spain was the largest and most important in the West for more than a thousand years, participating fully in cultural and political affairs with Muslim and Christian neighbors. This stable situation began to change in the 1390s, and through the next century hundreds of thousands of Jews converted to Christianity. Norman Roth argues here with detailed documentation that, contrary to popular myth, the conversos were sincere converts who hated (and were hated by) the remaining Jewish community. Roth examines in depth the reasons for the Inquisition against the conversos, and the eventual expulsion of all Jews from Spain.

"With scrupulous scholarship based on a profound knowledge of the Hebrew, Latin, and Spanish sources, Roth sets out to shatter all existing preconceptions about late medieval society in Spain."-Henry Kamen, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"Scholarly, detailed, researched, and innovative. . . . As the result of Roth's writing, we shall need to rethink our knowledge and understanding of this period."-Murray Levine, Jewish Spectator

"The fruit of many years of study, investigation, and reflection, guaranteed by the solid intellectual trajectory of its author, an expert in Jewish studies. . . . A contribution that will be particularly valuable for the study of Spanish medievalism."-Miguel Angel Motis Dolader, Annuario de Estudios Medievales

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299142346
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	12/27/2002
Edition description:	1
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Norman Roth is emeritus professor of Hebrew and Semitic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Maimonides: Essays and Texts and Jews, Visigoths, and Muslims in Medieval Spain.

Editorial Reviews

"Roth is impressive in telling the conversos story. He makes extensive use of new sources and gives detailed case studies to show the progress of conversos in economic, political, and cultural life. His survey of the literature is the work of a historian's historian."--Charles Brockwell, Historian

From the Publisher

Reinterpreting primary sources, argues that most of the Jews in Spain who converted to Christianity in the 14th and 15th centuries were sincere Christians, despite the accusations of the Inquisition at the time. The converts encountered hostility both from faithful Jews who watched many of their community's leaders desert them, and birthright Christians who suspected that Jews only pretended to embrace Christianity to advance themselves. Roth chronicles the rising tensions that culminated in the 1492 expulsion. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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