MEDIEVAL SPAIN PT. II, FROM ABRAHAM BAR HIYYA TO ABRAHAM IBN EZRA AND BEYOND

This posting is a continuation of the series of the Jews of medieval Spain and their connections to the ancestral homeland. In this article, we focus on the period from the latter 11^th century to the latter 12^th century (and a little after).

Although much of Spain had been ruled by Muslims since their conquest of the area in 711, a small part of the Iberian Peninsula was ruled by Christians. In the north, there was the Christian Kingdom of Aragon, created sometime in the late 10^th/early 11^th century. Its two major cities was Valencia and Barcelona, capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Before the beginning of the Crusader Period (1099), there was a brisk correspondence between the rabbis of Israel and those of Muslim and Christian Spain. When the Crusader Wars broke out, all such correspondences ceased. But Spanish Jews, as with many other Diaspora communities, still managed to maintain connections, of varying degrees, to the Homeland.

Abraham bar Hiyya

Abraham bar Ḥiyya ha-Nasi, a Catalan Jewish mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, was born in Barcelona in 1070, and died in 1136 or 1145 (the records aren’t very clear) in Narbonne in, what is today, the south of France, but at the time, a part of the Kingdom of Aragon. Many of his writings were written in Hebrew and he would often reference the Biblical text. Always concerning himself with Jewish affairs in the Land of Israel, he would often receive news of their situation. No doubt the Crusader rule and the resulting wars with the former Muslim rulers, and their disastrous effects on the Jews were foremost in his mind. It was at this time that Jewish messianic expectations, both in Israel and the Diaspora, were very strong and predictions and yearnings for the coming of the Messiah, who would defeat Israel’s enemies and finally gather the exiles back to their homeland, was constant. Bar Hiyya, himself, was no exception to this line of thinking. In one of his astrological works, “Megilat haMegaleh”, by way of scientific calculations, he predicted the coming of the Messiah would occur in 1358 – two centuries after his lifetime. Toward the end of his life, the news he received from Israel, and Jerusalem specifically, was apparently contradictory. Then, as now, messengers of news were not very reliable, especially given the fact that there were very few notices of Jews living in Jerusalem during this period, prompting bar Hiyya to conclude that in his day, no Jew lived there. Yet there must have been some there, as the street in which they lived was called "Judairia" in contemporary Latin documents.  

Abraham ibn Daud

Meanwhile, many of the most renowned Spanish Jews either visited Israel and wrote of their experiences, or moved there in order to die on its holy soil such as the philosopher/rabbi of Saragossa, Bahya ibn Paquda who died in 1120. The historian Abraham ibn Daud from the city of Cordoba in Muslim Spain, was a contemporary of Abraham bar Hiyya, and like bar Hiyya, he often received news and information on the affairs of the Jews in the Homeland. It is not clear if he actually visited the Land of Israel or just received information from those travelers who did, but in c. 1137, he had informed his co-religionists in Spain, that the Jews of Jerusalem would assemble in their synagogue, and also would engage in the ancient custom of gathering on the Mount of Olives with Jews from other places, on the festivals of Sukkot and Hosha'na Rabbah. He adds that the "Minim", the Karaites, were in tents opposite the other Jews.

About the year 1140, one of the greatest poets of the time, Judah ha-Levi visited Jerusalem and was inspired to compose his "Zionide" before its walls. According to tradition, he was killed by an Arab horseman while at prayer at the Western Wall. 

Mainomides

In 1148, the Almohad Caliphate expanded their North African domains and conquered Muslim Spain. They were not particularly friendly to Jews and an intense period of persecution set in. For this reason, a prominent rabbinic authority, Maimon, along with his sons David, and Moshe otherwise known as the RamBam or, more popularly, Maimonides, was forced to leave, eventually settling in Morocco. But Morocco was also under Almohad rule. Consequently, they experienced the same type of persecution as in Spain, and in 1165, the family made their way to Israel, arriving at Acre which had become a major Jewish center. Their arrival in Israel was thereafter designated, a family festival, to be observed for all time, by them and their descendants. The family remained in Acre for some five months, striking up an intimate friendship there with the dayyan Japheth b. Ali. Together with him they made a tour of the Holy Land, including a visit to Jerusalem. "I entered the site of the Great and Holy House and prayed there on Thursday the 6^th day of Marḥeshvan." Three days later they paid a visit to the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. The days on which these two visits occurred, were, as well, designated as family festivals. Eventually, the family left Israel and sailed for Egypt, settling in Cairo and taking up residence in Fostat, the Old City of Cairo. It was here that Maimonides became a highly-respected physician and scholar of Jewish law. Eventually, he served as court physician to the ruling Ayyubid dynasty during which time, in 1187, the Sultan Saladin gained a military victory over the Crusaders in the Land of Israel. Afterwards, Saladin issued a decree for Jews to return to their ancient capital. Maimonides died in Egypt in 1204 and his body was brought to Tiberias for burial.  

Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra was known as one of the greatest of Bible commentators, philosopher and poet of sharp wit. He lived most of his life in Spain, but at the end of his life it is known that he immigrated to the land of Israel where he died. He was buried in the holy city of Tzfat. Since the death of ibn Ezra, Jewish travelers from Spain continued to visit Israel and write of their experiences. Two of the most prominent of these were Rabbi Binyamin ben Yonah, better known as Benjamin of Tudela, and Rabbi Yehuda al Harizi who came from Toledo. This close relationship between the Jews of Spain and the Land of Israel was to last until the 16^th century – after the expulsion of 1492 when the remaining Jews were forced into Christianity but very secretly, kept their Jewish traditions.