II. Pursuing "dhimmitude" 1492 -- in Christian Spain, the Reconquest and Re-taking from the Muslims

The Jewish Expulsion

Part II of a look at Muslim expansion in Spain; and its aftermath - 
Christian Rule and Expulsion of the Jews.

This, after centuries, of living together under the Muslims

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This follows up the earlier post on the status of dhimmi for subject Jews and Christians under Muslim rule, at Spain Road Ways, Pursuing "dhimmitude" to 1492.

Jews were expelled from Spain in about 1492. From there, many ended up in Eastern and Central Europe. This is the second part of our look at  "dhimmitude" -- the condition or status of non-Muslims under Muslim rule.

Spanish Synagogue, Prague, CZ

II. Jewish life at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

What happened then?

Here is the "Spanish Synagogue" in Prague, the Czech Republic, see Czech Republic Road Ways, Prague, Jewish Quarter.

Whoever built this clearly valued a heritage from and in Spain. How did this get to Prague.

History here focuses on an old event, and a recent one:

Edict of Expulsion. The old event. This is the expulsion of the Jews from Spain by formal Edict of Expulsion in 1492. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's Christian armies had defeated the Muslims who ruled Spain from the 8th Century until 1492. This is called the "Reconquest" of Spain, from the Muslim conquering of the Visigothic Kings and others, the first invasion being in 711. The expelled Jews went wherever they could find homes, out of Spain. You can still see the empty Jewish Quarters, especially in Seville, where the occupiers now are Christians, clubs, very scenic and old, but no longer Jewish.

The Spanish Jews, ending up in Turkey, Italy, North Africa and elsewhere, became known as the Sephardim.

A loss to Spain - Spain caused its own brain drain.

The Spanish Christian response was not a new angle. Earlier Christians, the Visigoths, ruling before the Muslims, also forced conversion or expulsion, see ://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8636/History.html.

Petr Ginz. The recent event: Some Jews ended up in Central and Eastern Europe. Read "The diary of Petr Ginz," by Chava Pressburger, his sister, about his life in World War II in Prague. His whose grandmother attended this synagogue, also known as the Dusni Synagogue - -see Places of Petr Ginz. The conditions under which the Jews were expelled, and where some of them ended up.

The persistence of ethnic memory in all of us.

Dhimmi Status - after Muslims are Gone.

1. Most sites address how bad it was or must have been. With that background, see the numerous sites decrying the treatment of Christians and Jews under Muslim rule, see for example, ://www.jewishmag.com/57mag/dhimmi/dhimmi.htm. No doubt atrocities happened - but the essence of the "dhimmi" status under the Muslims, the subservient legal status afforded Christians and Jews in Muslim lands, was essentially economic, political, religious, social - behavior and privilege oriented. We have been looking around our Koran, and see no requirement or advisement for atrocities on top.

2. Does applying a separate type of "dhimmi" legal status, even temporarily, offer some constructive way to meet our own issues with different populations.

See the dabblings with a plank on dealing with immigrants without documentation here now, and until further study can be made. How to suspend ferocities until after an election, so we all can stop and think.

See Pose Juxta: Plank, Lawful Temporary Residence Permit (Red Card).

If "Dhimmi" as a theory or legal status was indeed intended as an administrative, functional - even if clearly unequal - legal status, the inequality was part of the overall social - religious structure and in their time made sense.

I do not yet see that a cruel or humiliating enforcement or implementation was required - that looks like the normal variations among rulers. Is it worth exploring. Yes. See exploration discussion of possible uses of this legal status approach for us in transitional immigration issues at Hello, Fodder, Dhimmi Status; and Joy of Equivocating, Dhimmi fact-finding.

2. With the "dhimmi" status in mind as to how Muslims did it, then look at the "dhimmi" status imposed by Christians over Jews in Christian lands. The Spanish Inquisition killed Jews who would not convert, and committed terrible atrocities in order to obtain confessions and conversions. Ferdinand and Isabella than expelled them all - the Edict of Expulsionn in 1492. Liquidate property, throw them out.

See ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/expulsion.

3. Compare: Muslim dhimmi laws that permit ongoing life, even protect it, but impose restrictions - harsh ones, but so far no advocacy for atrocities against compliant "dhimmis." Is this accurate?

Christian dhimmi laws - the Edicts of Expulsions in Spain and other countries- that permit no "dhimmis" to live there at all, and certainly not in the country they had populated for centuries, living with Muslims and Christians alike. Kill and expel. Or torture, and persecute, as in Inquisitions.

A hope for future co-existence: Can we as people recognize that the abusive form, that a religion takes in its interactions with others from time to time, is a function of the leaders' agendas and interpretations, and not necessarily at all what the scriptural basis of the religion may have intended.

How does any religion change depending on the interpretations of authorities.

Here, on this little island, let's say, is the founding place of a major religion. All that we have of the life and teachings of the founder now is two chimneys, one at each end.

For Christians, this is an apt analogy. So much was never written down, until it became other people's differing recollection, or hearsay filling in, all the rest did not survive, or is still in desert jars, for some reasons intentional, others not.

For Jews, or Muslims, let them interpret as they will.

For all of us, what was originally intended may well be in the mists, after all the intervening "inspired" interpreters filling in the gaps between the chimneys to suit them. Everybody dhimmis everybody, so we all need help from somewhere and that 's the truth. Bhlpppthpt.

Who is the pot calling which other kettle black?://www.bartleby.com/59/4/potcallingth.html. Or six of one, half dozen of the other, etc. See ://www.goenglish.com/SixOfOneAHalfDozenOfTheOther.asp. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the .....

I. Pursuing "dhimmitude" in Arab-Berber - Muslim Spain 750-1492 C.E.

 This is part I of a look at Muslim expansion into Spain: to 1492. 
The Status of Dhimmitude - the Infidel in a Muslim Society

For part II, after 1492, 
see Spain Road Ways, Pursuing dhimmitude 1492 - in Christian Spain, the Reconquest 

Christians retake Spain.

Here: 


Part I. Islamic Expansion in Spain through the centuries - Arab, Berber in Spain.

This looks at the Muslim invasions and occupation of Spain 711-1492 CE.  The Visigoths had taken over in the 5th Century in Spain, following the fall of Rome.  See ://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml.  Note that the Ottomans, out of Turkey, came much later - in 1369 with the Ottomans invading Bulgaria and heading north.

Note there were not Ottomans in Spain. The Ottoman Empire spread out of Turkey into Central Europe and Europe later.

1. Arab. Berber.

Muslims in Spain were Arabs and Berbers. See this Fordham University site for Islamic history - at ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html. And here are a series of maps showing Islamic conquests from time to time, including in Spain, at this University of Pennsylvania site ://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map2.jpg. More maps at ://www.al-bab.com/arab/maps/maps2.htm.

Gibraltar, Mosque

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The invaders were also known as "Moors," and included Arab, Berber and African persons, with the largest genetic group now being identified as Berber, from North Africa - see ://sjohn30.tripod.com/id4.html. For Berber history, see ://www.adrum.com/history.htm. Their language was spoken from the Canary Islands to Egypt, now mostly in the mountains of Algeria. Fierce fighters.

2. Ottomans. These are not the same. 

The Ottomans were a a different Muslim Empire from the one that conquered Spain. Spain's conquerors were Arab-Berber Muslims, not Ottoman. Ottoman means the Turkish Muslims of a later era, that began their expansion out of Turkey in about 1300. See map at ://www.naqshbandi.org/ottomans/maps/default.htm.

The Ottomans do appear to have taken areas around Algiers. by its greatest extent in about 1699, but they then stopped. That map site also shows the extent of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, leaving only Turkey itself by 1924. Scroll down.

3. The status of Dhimmi. Dhimmitude. Dhimmis.

Regardless of which group or branch is Islam is the topic, our understanding is that each imposed a particular status on Christians and Jews after conquest by Muslims. From Arab- Berber entry at Spain, probably near Gibraltar, and then extending briefly to Poitiers, France; to the Ottomans from Turkey later knocking on the doors of Vienna, the Balkans, Asia, Central Europe.

The meaning of Islam has not been a focus of our education of ourselves or our children, to our demonstrated peril in terms of decisions we make and conclusions we draw in a vacuum as to that heritage. So, we look here at Dhimmitude.

Hot topic. Search for "dhimmi" or "dhimmitude" and you will find invective as well as objective assessment. See Hello, Fodder - Dhimmi status posts; or Europe Road Ways Themes - Kosovo I and II posts. And Joy of Equivocating, Fear of Fog, Facts before Conclusions.

4. Jewish History in the Islamic Empires.

Go here for a timeline on Jewish topics from their history in Spain. ://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8636/History.html.

What was life for a Jew or Christian in the Spain experience, who chose not to convert to Islam in Spain in those years, we will let you know. So far, we see a kind of "chastened subservience" applied, see see ://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/. A legal status with overtones of humiliation? And, the element of forbidding arms to be used against Muslims - see ://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1022035. Need to see all the cites. Still looking. Complex area.

Christian retribution against Jews after the Christian reconquest.

Dhimmi status looks benign compared to the fate of the Jews in 1492- the Reconquest, when the Christians finally drove out the Muslims, from Granada at that late date. The Christians expelled the Jews - no-one could remain who would not convert. See the Edict of Expulsion itself at ://www.sephardicstudies.org/decree.html.

So any discussion of dhimmitude, stay with restrictions; has to be seen against its Christian counterpart - get out. This sourcebook from Fordham University lets you read all about it, from original texts: ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1492-jews-spain1.html.

The invective sites in looking up Islamic law that you will find, may or may not be found to be supported by history. You need to check up on each site you find. Please do not rely on conclusions from talking heads or neighbors at the coffee shop without finding facts. Good idea.

We should criticize others, when our own Crusades were holy wars, and offensive, not just defensive, see overview of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the rationales at Spain Road Ways, Castles, Crusades.

5. The meaning of the Koran.

Where did dhimmi come from. Is it written. For those of us with an interest in what the Qur'an says, note that it cannot be translated - all is phrased as interpretation or meaning. I understand that these versions are among the best,

• "The Meaning of the Glorious Koran," 1930, by Marmaduke Pickthall, see ://www.al-sunnah.com/call_to_islam/quran/pickthall/; and
  
• "The Koran Interpreted," by A. J. Arberry ://arthursclassicnovels.com/arthurs/koran/koran-arberry10.html.
  

Arberry looks more poetic, as the Christian King James version reads more poetically than later versions. Pickthall may be easier to understand.

Status of research so far:

It looks like the conditions of dhimmitude for the conquered - second class status, no political say, no ownership of land, deference to Muslims, and pay a special tax (reducing income available) is nothing more than what good Christian men rejoiced in doing to their Christian women for several thousand years.

See next section, looking at after 1492's Edict of Expulsion of the Jews, at Spain Road Ways, Pursuing dhimmitude 1492 - in Christian Spain, the Reconquest.