Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain - Softcover

Roth, Norman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299142345 ISBN 13: 9780299142346

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002

Synopsis

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

About this title

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.
 

From the Back Cover

"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

"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

"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

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299142345
• ISBN 13: 9780299142346
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 466