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the situation, and were only too willing to promote the designs of an
enemy whose success, they were convinced, would enure to their
own advantage and security. Numerous considerations of profound
significance impelled them to this course. They themselves and the
Arabs were derived from a common origin. Both sprang from the
same branch of the great human family. Many of their customs were
identical; their traditions denote a similar source; their languages
vary but little in construction and pronunciation, and have been so
slightly modified by the vicissitudes of centuries that the Hebrew
rabbi and the Bedouin sheik of to-day can readily communicate with
each other by means of their respective idioms. Both nations had for
centuries been accustomed to a pastoral life on the vast plains of
Asia, where the illimitable monotony of the landscape, the unbroken
stillness of immense solitudes, the magnificent spectacle of the
unclouded heavens glowing with the most gorgeous constellations of
the firmament, have always impressed upon the nations subject to
these potent and omnipresent influences the conviction of the unity
of God. The caravans that issued from the Desert exchanged the
precious commodities of that region for the wares manufactured and
imported by the Hebrews of Alexandria, Damascus, and Antioch.
Although in the early ages of Islam the Jews were often harshly
treated, the Arabs were quick to perceive the advantages to be
obtained from their commercial experience and literary knowledge.
As Hebrew enterprise was instrumental in opening to the world the
lucrative and important trade of the Arabian Peninsula, so Hebrew
genius disclosed to the descendants of Ishmael the capacity of their
own tongue, which until then had found no permanent mode of
expression. The first book which appeared in the Arabic language
was written by Javaich, a Syrian Jew. It was the translation of a
medical work by a famous practitioner of Alexandria, and the
practical character of the subject not only indicates the serious
nature of early Hebrew research, but also becomes a matter of
curious significance when the subsequent interest and proficiency of
Arab scholars in everything concerning the scientific acquirements of
that profession are considered.
 The impulse thus early exerted by Jewish culture upon the Arab
intellect was eventually productive of the most extraordinary results.
The scholars soon surpassed their instructors in the extent and
profundity of their knowledge. The Arab mind assimilated, with
wonderful ease and insatiable avidity, the useful and valuable
information afforded it, while its critical faculty enabled it to reject
what it intuitively perceived to be spurious. In all the countries
subject to the Khalifates of Mecca and Damascus, the Hebrew
opened to the Moslem conqueror the avenues of literature and
science. He was treated by the Mohammedan princes with far more
consideration and justice than he had ever experienced under Pagan
or Christian domination. His synagogues were erected in the shadow
of Moslem minarets. His academies became famous as centres of
learning. The works of Grecian philosophers, the fragmentary
treasures of Alexandrian erudition, were, through his efforts, made
familiar to the studious of the great Mohammedan capitals. In the
distribution of literary patronage the Jews were the most
distinguished recipients of royal munificence. In proportion to the
eminence they attained in the province of letters, their political
power and financial prosperity increased. They enjoyed the familiar
confidence of the monarch, when his favorite councillors dared not
venture without a summons into his presence. They amassed great
fortunes in the various branches of trade and industry. Their
mercantile occupations brought them frequently in contact with their
fellow-sectaries, who, in other parts of the world, maintained under
the weighty sceptre of cruel and bigoted sovereigns an existence
fraught with danger and hardship.
These facts were well known to the Spanish Jews who had,
amidst the multiplied catastrophes afflicting their race, survived the
effects of Visigothic tyranny. Notwithstanding the successive
persecutions of which they had been the object, they were still
numerous in the Peninsula. The phenomenal vitality of a people
which, from time immemorial, has preserved its integrity under the
most adverse conditions, enabled it to defy the malice of courts and
the edicts of councils whose office and pastime was the pitiless
extirpation of heresy. The Jews flourished in defiance of bloodthirsty
laws. In many ways they evaded the effects of proscription.
Thousands apostatized. Multitudes secretly purchased immunity by
means of the arts of corruption. Of those who had gone into exile,
the majority quickly returned and took up their residence in other
provinces, where, unknown to the populace, and often with the
venal connivance of civil officials and prelates, they were permitted
to pursue their avocations in comparative security. The Israelitish
element was so preponderant in Toledo, Lucena, and Granada, at
the time of the Moorish invasion, that they were known as Jewish
cities. This large population formed a separate state, an imperium in
imperio, whose members, exasperated by the memory of intolerable
suffering and sustained by the hope of retribution, were ready to
embrace the first opportunity to avenge the oppression of centuries.
Thus the fatal policy of the Visigoths—weak, violent, and corrupt—
had introduced an organized, powerful, unscrupulous, and vindictive
enemy into every province and city of their tottering empire. With
their African brethren the Jews of Spain maintained an intimate and
frequent correspondence. Numbers of the latter had sought a refuge
beyond the sea, as their descendants did, under similar
circumstances, seven centuries afterwards. The settlements of the
Mauritanian coast swarmed with indigenous or exiled Hebrews,
attracted thither by the superior facilities they offered to commercial
pursuits. All of these shrewd and intelligent traders were perfectly
familiar with the condition of the Visigothic monarchy; with its
apparent splendor and actual decay; with the political and social
disorganization pervading every department of the state and every
rank of society; with the tyranny of the King; with the universal
disaffection of the nobles; with the grasping avarice of the clergy,
whose exactions spared neither the plenty of the rich nor the
starving wretchedness of the poor; with the weakness of the army,
whose soldiers, subsisting by pillage, had neither weapons to arm
nor officers to command them; with the abject misery of the people,
who, protected by none and plundered by all, insecure in the pursuit
of every employment, a constant prey to licensed brigandage, with
no recollection of the past but the bitter reminiscence of unprovoked
and repeated injury, with no hope of the future save in the
intervention of a more powerful, perhaps a more ruthless, oppressor,
were certain of tranquillity only in the silence and oblivion of the
grave.
The advent of Moslem supremacy, which promised a new and
splendid career to the down-trodden race, was welcomed by the
Jews of Africa with all the enthusiasm of an impulsive and excitable
people. Al-Maghreb had scarcely been conquered before the Moslem
generals were more conversant with the details of Visigothic
weakness and demoralization than the councillors of Roderick
himself. The minute and secret ramifications of Jewish society united
in a common cause the widely distributed communities of Africa and
Spain; the intelligence and resolution of the conspirators, whose
hostility was increased by the bitterness of sectarian hatred,
rendered their enterprise and activity the more dangerous; and a
propitious opportunity alone was awaited to pour upon the fertile
and defenceless plains of the Peninsula the resistless torrent of
Moslem invasion. That opportunity soon arrived. The fortress of
Ceuta, lost by treason, fell into the hands of the Arabs; the Visigothic
power, crushed in one great battle, succumbed to the superior valor
of an enterprising enemy; and within the short period of fourteen
months the sceptre of empire passed from the feeble hands of a
barbarian dynasty to the control of a foreign race, whose mental
capacity and intellectual ambition, as yet untried, were subsequently
found to be equal to the most exacting demands of a refined and
highly developed civilization. In these events, whose consequences
produced such radical modifications in the religious, political, and
domestic conditions of European society, Hebrew energy and craft
were eminently conspicuous. One of the principal divisions of Tarik’s
army was commanded by a Jew. During the invasion, Jewish guides
conducted the Moslem squadrons along the highways of an
unknown country, furnished information of the enemy’s movements,
disclosed the whereabouts of military supplies and hidden wealth.
When the slender numbers of the Arab forces would not admit of
their diminution for garrison duty, the Jews volunteered their
services to defend the conquered cities and faithfully discharged the
important trust. The obligations thus incurred by the Moorish
invaders to their allies were of the most important character. The
latter not only facilitated an enterprise whose difficulty, without their
co-operation, would have been enormously increased, if not actually
rendered impracticable, but, the country once subdued, they
directed the attention of the Arabs to elegant pursuits, of whose
nature and value they had hitherto remained in ignorance. Moslem
civilization in Europe owed an incalculable debt of gratitude to the
Jews. They were its real founders. They inculcated a taste for
letters. They promoted the investigations of science, the
development of industry and the arts. Their refined tastes and
intellectual employments aroused a noble emulation in the minds of
their pupils and imitators, which, in turn, reacted upon their own
talents and aspirations. Hebrew genius and ambition were no longer
hampered by the malicious interference of royal councils and
ecclesiastical synods. The Jewish merchant and the Jewish banker
pursued their way to opulence and distinction, unmolested by the
extortionate demands of corrupt officials and tyrannical farmers of
the revenue. Their scholars were not insensible to the advantages to
be derived from the study of ancient learning, and the Greek and
Latin classics were thoroughly familiar to the Spanish Jew, whose
commentaries upon them were of considerable extent and of
unquestionable authority.
Under a government favorable to their existence and prosperity,
their numbers rapidly increased. The depopulation resulting from the
conquest of an already impoverished and exhausted territory
required an extraordinary and immediate remedy. Publication was
everywhere made throughout the Orient inviting the settlement of
immigrants in Spain. Lands and houses were promised to all who
were willing to change their domiciles for new homes in the distant
and recently founded Mohammedan empire. In the multitude that
responded were, it is said, fifty thousand Hebrew families,
amounting to not less than a quarter of a million individuals. These,
with their fellow-sectaries already established in the Peninsula,
composed a most important element of its population. Highly
favorable social and domestic conditions, among which must be
considered the prevalent institution of polygamy, caused in after
years a prodigious multiplication of the race. The colonists brought
with them the devotion to learning which they had imbibed in the
presence of the great memorials of ancient civilization on the banks
of the Nile and the Euphrates, and many volumes of native and
foreign lore which were destined to form the nucleus of the
magnificent libraries of Moorish Spain. History has repeatedly
mentioned the tireless assiduity with which the Jews, secure and
tranquil under the tolerant administration of the khalifs, devoted
themselves to the cultivation of letters. Their diligence was only
exceeded by the marvellous proficiency they attained in every
branch of useful knowledge. They mastered with ease the most
abstruse and perplexing mathematical problems. The rabbis were
great linguists; there were few of them not thoroughly conversant
with the numerous idioms of Europe and Asia. Medicine and
astronomy, their favorite pursuits, under their direction soon
acquired an unprecedented, almost a magical, development.
The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries represent the epoch of
the greatest fame and influence of the Spanish Jews. This period,
coincident with the highest power and civilization of the Hispano-
Arab empire, had, however, been preceded by two centuries of
uninterrupted progress. The enlightened policy of the Western
khalifs, from the accession of the Ommeyade dynasty, attracted to
their capital the learned of every country and of every profession. Of
these strangers, the Hebrews constituted the largest proportion of
any one race, excepting the Arabs. The schools and academies they
founded vied in educational opportunities and literary culture with
the Moslem institutions of similar character whose reputation was
unrivalled in the world. The interpretations of the Scriptures and the
Talmud, as promulgated by the synagogues of Toledo and Cordova,
were acknowledged everywhere as of the highest and most binding
authority. A constant and profitable intercourse was maintained with
their kinsmen of the Orient, which promoted an interchange of
ideas, and was consequently of incalculable advantage to the mental
development of both divisions of the race. The intellectual
supremacy of the Spanish Jew was, however, rarely disputed. The
opportunities he enjoyed in the society of the most splendid of
mediæval capitals; the vast stores of information at his disposal; the
great libraries collected by the khalifs to which he had access; the
permanent distinction which awaited successful competition in the
public contests for literary precedence; the favor of the sovereign,
often himself a scholar of great erudition and varied
accomplishments, always a liberal patron of science and the arts; the
applause of the multitude; the substantial pecuniary benefits which
promised a life of ease and opulence to all whose abilities were
sufficiently eminent to merit public recognition and recompense;
with these manifold privileges and incentives it is not singular that
Hebrew genius obtained and preserved an exalted rank in the
literary society of the age. Encouraged by the influence which they
wielded, and presuming upon the favor of a liberal and indulgent
sovereign, the Jews of the Moorish empire formed an organization
modelled after the institutions of their ancestors which could
scarcely have been tolerated under a severe and jealous despotism.
They elected as their king a prince of the house of Judah, who, while
not openly invested with the insignia of royalty, received the homage
and the tribute of his subjects. Under this potentate judges and
priests were chosen, who exercised the functions performed
centuries before in the days of the independence and renown of the
Hebrew nation. The Moors countenanced, and even approved of, the
establishment of this anomalous system. Its officials, despite their
grandiloquent titles, were strictly subordinated to the authority of
the khalifate. They were suffered, however, to administer the affairs
of those who acknowledged their jurisdiction; their decisions in
theological matters limited to their faith were unquestioned; and
they were intrusted with the collection of taxes, whose amount and
apportionment had been previously determined by the regular
officers of the imperial treasury.
 The eminently practical character of the Jewish mind did not
confine itself to speculations upon the traditions of the Talmud or
disquisitions concerning abstruse points of philosophy. The Hebrew
sages embraced with the greatest ardor the fascinating pursuits of
mechanical invention and scientific discovery. In medicine and
surgery they particularly excelled. They wrote treatises on the
application of hydraulics and the comparative merits of various
systems of irrigation. They thoroughly understood the principles of
horticulture. The excellence of the manufactures for which the
Khalifate of Cordova was famous was, to a considerable extent,
indebted to Jewish talents and industry. In many instances the
nationality of Hebrew scholars was obscured through the similarity of
their names and occupations to those of their distinguished
associates in the great Moslem centres of learning. Many Jewish
doctors received Arab appellations and wrote almost exclusively in
the Arabic language. Among these was Ibn-Zohr, who, for these
reasons, has been generally considered a Mohammedan, but whose
parentage, religion, associations, and education were entirely
Hebrew.
The tenth century witnessed the culmination of Jewish greatness
in Europe. In its rapid advancement, it had kept pace with the ever-
progressive march of Moslem power and culture. Wherever the
Saracens established themselves, the Jewish population increased.
The harmonious co-operation of the two races—one of which, while
nominally tributary to and dependent upon the other, was in reality
upon a footing of friendly intimacy with its acknowledged superior—
proved of immense advantage to both, in the promotion of every
measure which could enure to the substantial benefit of humanity. In
the consideration which they enjoyed, and in the prosperity and
distinction which were the reward of intelligent and useful effort, the
Jews lost the memory of the calamities which had been their lot for
so many centuries. In common with all peoples who have attained
the highest civilization, they abandoned themselves to luxury. The
men were clothed in the richest of silken fabrics. The jewels of the
women equalled in brilliancy and value the choicest treasures of the
imperial harems. The great Hebrew functionaries of state, who
possessed the confidence of the sovereign, appeared in public,
guarded by retinues of armed and magnificently attired eunuchs.
Their mansions exhibited all the luxurious appointments of the
fastidious sybarite. The Rabbi Hasdai-ben-Schaprut was one of the
principal ministers of Abd-al-Rahman III. Al-Hakem II. enlisted the
services of Jewish ambassadors in important embassies. Hischem II.
ordered a translation of the Talmud to be made into Arabic, and
caused its literature to be introduced as a branch of study in the
Moslem colleges. The educated Moors treated with the greatest
honor and respect the princes and officials of the hierarchy chosen
by the assemblies of the Synagogue. The beginning of the tenth
century witnessed the destruction of the renowned academies of
Persia, whose members, by the promulgation of liberal doctrines,
had rendered themselves obnoxious to Oriental despotism. Their
societies dissolved, these learned men were forced to seek security
in exile. Some of the most famous, including the Rabbi Moses, of the
Academy of Pumbedita, were taken by African corsairs and exposed
for sale in the slave-market of Cordova. Such was the eminent
reputation of this doctor, that, as soon as his identity was disclosed,
he was unanimously elected prince of the Hispano-Hebrew nation.
These Oriental scholars were not the only exiles who enriched the
universities of Spain with their accumulated stores of wisdom. From
every country where the hand of persecution was raised against the
Jew refugees flocked by thousands into the Peninsula, until the
Ommeyade khalif included among his subjects a larger proportion of
the people of this race than any other sovereign of the age. The list
of rabbis who illuminated with their genius and learning the reign of
the Cordovan princes is both instructive and interesting, especially
when we consider the benighted condition of contemporaneous
Europe. In France, during the ninth century, a Christian bishop
declared the rabbis preached better than the priests.
The active minds of these gifted scholars enabled them to master
at the same time the most complicated problems of widely different
branches of scientific knowledge. The difficulty and novelty of the
subject were always the strongest incentives to their industry. The
study of jurisprudence enjoined by their law, as a religious duty, was
always entered upon in the beginning of their literary career, no
matter to what professions they were subsequently to be devoted.
Rabbi Hasdai-ben-Schaprut wrote a commentary on the botanical
treatise of Dioscorides, of which he had made an Arabic version;
Rabbi Judah, who lived under Abd-al-Rahman III., was renowned for
his acquaintance with both Hebrew and Arabic literature; Joseph
translated the Talmud for Hischem II.; Manasseh-ben-Baruch
compiled a critical lexicon, a colossal monument of patience and
erudition. To Isaac-ben-Chanan is ascribed the rendering into classic
Hebrew of the complete works of Aristotle. Isaac Alphes codified the
laws of the Talmud; Samuel-ben-Alarif, the minister of Habus, King
of Granada, renowned alike as statesman, astronomer, and poet,
composed a panegyric of his sovereign in seven languages. Moses-
ben-Ezra wrote poems which disclose instructive scenes of mediæval
life and manners; the grammatical works of Judas-ben-David were
recognized as authoritative wherever the Hebrew tongue was
spoken; Isaac-ben-Baruch was one of the most learned and
accomplished mathematicians of his time. In addition to these
names, famous in the history of letters, the Hebrew community of
Spain included poets like Judas Levi, whose works, translated into
Arabic and Latin, obtained a wide and deserved popularity;
astronomers like Ben-Chia; geographers like Isaac Latef; physicians
like Charizi; travellers like Benjamin of Tudela, whose writings may
still be perused with pleasure and advantage; natural philosophers
like Solomon-ben-Gabirol, who had the rare faculty of clothing
scientific conceptions in poetical language; universal geniuses like
Moses-ben-Maimon and Ben-Ezra, whose talents illustrated and
embellished every subject within the realm of human knowledge.
Not less noted were the Jewish physicians, who did not, however,
exist as a distinctive profession, their commanding abilities being
also displayed in other departments of literature and science.
Most prominent among the names which immortalize the golden
age of Hebrew erudition is that of Moses-ben-Maimon, popularly
known as Maimonides. A native of Cordova, and sprung from a
family which had furnished many learned and distinguished
members of the Jewish hierarchy, he enjoyed from his earliest youth
the unrivalled educational advantages of the great Moslem capital.
His mind was formed and his tastes developed under the most able
instructors of the University of Cordova, and it has even been stated,
upon disputed authority, however, that he was the pupil and friend
of the famous philosopher Averroes. The profession of medicine
which he adopted, and in which he afterwards so greatly excelled,
he regarded rather as an instrument with which to observe the
secret characteristics and incentives of human nature than as a
means of livelihood. At the age of thirty, his reputation for prodigious
erudition had spread far beyond the limits of the Moslem empire of
the West. The fanatical policy of Abd-al-Mumen, founder of the
Almohade dynasty, demanded the conversion of the Jews;
thousands, under the fear of death, renounced their religion, and
among them was Maimonides, whose resolution was not proof
against the prospective sufferings of martyrdom. Escaping soon after
to Egypt, where his renown had preceded his arrival, he became the
friend and adviser of the Sultan. It is said that whenever he left his
house he was compelled to pass through lines of people, some of
whom desired his opinion on metaphysical questions, and others,
who were afflicted with various ailments, that sought the aid of his
medical knowledge. Such was his devotion to his profession, that in
the care of his patients he deprived himself of sleep, and many times
fainted from sheer exhaustion. In the midst of his arduous duties he
found time for the composition of many voluminous treatises,—on
biblical and rabbinical literature; on the action of remedies; on the
duties and responsibilities of man as inculcated by the higher
philosophy. His principal work, More-Hanebushim, “The Guide of Lost
Spirits,” is one of the masterpieces of Hebrew literature. The learning
it displays, the profound knowledge of mankind it reveals, the
originality of its conceptions, the ingenuity and logical force of the
argument, the sublime moral maxims it inculcates, and the elegance
and beauty of the style, owing little to the native harshness of the
idiom in which it is written, stamp it as one of the most remarkable
productions of the human mind. The genius of this great writer
regarded as diversions undertakings which would have appeared
formidable tasks to men of inferior capacity. His medical works,
fourteen in number, and especially his learned commentary on
Hippocrates, were long the guide of the profession, and to this day
many of his precepts for the treatment of disease are employed by
the intelligent practitioner. He was one of the first to recognize that
mental derangement is often the result of physical indisposition.
Maimonides was more familiar with the doctrines of Christian
theology than the majority of the prelates whose duty it was to
inculcate them. His understanding rejected with contempt the
alluring and prevalent delusions of the age, which too frequently
contaminated the wisdom of the scholar with the mummeries of the
impostor. His condemnation of judicial astrology, in which he
exposed by irrefutable arguments the absurdities and dangers of
that puerile but fascinating science, was adopted and promulgated
as authoritative by both Popes Sixtus V. and Urban VIII. While he
criticised with uncompromising severity the faults of his sect and the
weakness and inconsistency of many of its traditions, Maimonides
never intentionally swerved from the path of orthodox Judaism. His
surroundings and associations were, however, on the whole not
favorable to the maintenance of archaic theological systems. The
intellectual society of Cordova was deeply infected with infidelity.
The instructors of youth, the professors of the University, were
disciples of Averroes. Religious commentary had long been
supplanted by philosophical skepticism. Even the populace, always
the last to abandon the obsolete opinions of theological infancy,
were imbued with the same iconoclastic ideas. The sublime
conceptions of India, the doctrine of Emanation and Absorption, had
been largely adopted by the educated communities of Moorish
Spain. The exposure of the Hebrew dogmas to the mocking and
sarcastic raillery of his learned companions produced no effect upon
the faith of Maimonides. His principles were too firmly grounded to
be shaken by the jeers of polished atheism. While his progressive
ideas caused him to be for a time regarded with suspicion by the
stricter of the Hebrews, they eventually contended with each other
in paying tribute to his lofty genius, and in their extravagant
admiration styled him “The Eagle of Jewish Literature,” “The Guide
of the Rabbis,” “The Light of the Occident.” The liberal character of
his doctrines may be inferred from the following passage taken from
the preface to his works: “The end of religion is to conduct us to
perfection, and to teach us to act and think in conformity with
reason. In this consists the distinctive attribute of human nature.”
Maimonides was one of the most eminent personages of his time.
No writer of his nationality ever attained to such an exalted rank,
even among those who dissented from his opinions. The kindness of
his disposition was not less remarkable than the extent of his
intellectual acquirements. Although a born polemic and
controversialist, he never voluntarily wounded the feelings of an
adversary. The object of his investigations was invariably the
discovery of truth. His learning, his critical acumen, his quickness of
perception, his accuracy of judgment, his talent for argument, were
unrivalled. His system aimed at the reconciliation of revealed maxims
and scientific deductions; at the co-ordination of Biblical and
Talmudical ideas with the principles of ancient wisdom and
contemporaneous philosophy. Such a task was beyond even his
great abilities. The studies of the infidel schools of Spain had,
unconsciously to himself, affected his religious belief. The
instructions of Averroes were not conducive to the existence of rigid
Judaism. Maimonides was, in fact, a pantheist. Throughout his
writings, despite their mysticism, the doctrine of Emanation is
everywhere prominent. He refers to successive spheres born of
Divine thought. He considers the absorption of the souls of the good
into the Divine Essence. While admitting the indestructibility of force,
he rejects the idea of the eternity of matter. With him, as with the
majority of scholars who had been educated under Arabic auspices,
the authority of Aristotle was paramount. His works, while
professedly written to elucidate and confirm the Talmud, really
undermined it. His Mischne Thora and Commentary on the Mischna
are prodigies of dialectical skill and varied erudition. In the first of
these, a religious code, ten years of constant labor were expended.
 The life of Maimonides was an eventful period in the history of his
race. Then it reached the highest point of intellectual distinction, but
among its sages none ranked with the distinguished rabbi. In
addition to his vast stores of universal knowledge, he had profited by
the practical benefits of travel. He had visited Fez, Montpellier, Cairo,
Bagdad, Jerusalem. He was the court physician of Saladin. He
refused a similar employment tendered by Richard I., King of
England. He was raised to the important office of Chief Rabbi of all
the Hebrew communities of Egypt. From the East and West, his
countrymen sought his opinion on abstruse questions of religion and
philosophical doctrine, and accepted his answers as infallible. His
influence was by no means confined to members of his own sect. His
works, translated into Latin, were diligently studied by Christian
polemics, and furnished arguments to successive generations of
schoolmen. Diffused throughout the South of France, their rationalist
opinions played no small part in the promotion of the Albigensian
heresy.
But while the intellectual supremacy of Maimonides placed him far
in advance of his contemporaries, he was by no means the only
distinguished scholar of his epoch. Ben-Ezra, equally proficient in the
departments of medicine, literature, and astronomy, enjoyed a
reputation second only to that of the Greatest of the Hebrews. His
inquisitive mind, stimulated by years of assiduous application, sought
in the scenes of foreign lands the valuable experience and intimate
acquaintance with human life which are not to be obtained by the
perusal of books alone. The remarkable abilities of Ben-Ezra were
exercised alike in the solution of mathematical problems and in the
composition of sacred poems. In his knowledge of astronomy, he
surpassed the most accurate observers of an age especially devoted
to the cultivation of the grandest and most fascinating of sciences.
In his moments of mental relaxation he embodied in verse the rules
of the game of chess; and the preface to this poem, in which the
reader is warned against the evils of cards and dice, proves
conclusively that gaming implements supposed to have been
invented hundreds of years afterwards were familiar to the Spanish
Jews and Moors in the early part of the thirteenth century.
Not unworthy rivals of Ben-Ezra in the contest for literary
precedence were Nachmanides, who at the age of sixteen was the
honored associate of the most learned of the Jewish nation, and
whose precocious maturity acquired for him in early manhood the
title of Abu-Harushma, “The Father of Wisdom;” Joseph Hadain,
whose charming verses were the delight of the people of Cordova;
Solomon-ben-Gabirol, and Abraham-ben-David-Halevi, distinguished
philosophers, in whose writings were illustrated the principles of
theological reform and independent criticism demanded by the bold
and progressive spirit of the age. Among the Jews of Spain were
also many original poets, fabulists, and writers of romance. Such
were the most eminent scholars whose attainments reflected honor
on the Hebrew name, under the beneficent rule of the Moslem
princes of the West, an era coincident with the darkest period of
European history. Besides these there were others in every
community, some of rabbinical rank, some of humble station, with
talents that elsewhere would have raised them far above mediocrity,
but who were obscured and overwhelmed in the dazzling glare of
literary excellence. The commercial prosperity of the Jews; the
universality of education, whose institutions afforded facilities
nowhere else attainable in the world; the naturally inquisitive bent of
the Hebrew mind, whose acuteness seemed capable of solving
questions when all others had failed, and whose versatility was equal
to the most varied and arduous undertakings; the superhuman
industry which shrank from no task, however difficult; the
consideration with which they were treated by sovereign and
plebeian alike, gave full scope to the capabilities of a race of men
who never previously, even in the days of Judea’s splendor, had been
afforded such opportunities for development. The generous
emulation provoked by the intellectual efforts of their Saracen rivals
was exerted by the Jews in every branch of learning and every
department of scientific research. Through the literary productions of
these two nations alone was the way of knowledge accessible. A
thorough acquaintance with Arabic and Hebrew was indispensable to
the ambitious student. Latin, whose corrupted idiom was the
language of the Church, was the vehicle of priestly intercourse, and
the medium through which were transmitted Papal decrees and
ecclesiastical tradition. The ancient classics of Greece and Rome
were practically unknown outside the Peninsula; and there is good
reason to believe that a majority of the famous prelates of the time
were ignorant that they had ever existed. The accurate
retranslations of these works into Latin from the Arabic, into which
they had been originally transcribed, first revealed their merits to
Western Europe, and paved the way to the revival of learning. The
impulse imparted by this means to literary curiosity and investigation
found its culmination in the epoch which produced Aretino, Petrarch,
Boccaccio, and Dante. The Italian Renaissance, the dawn of modern
European intelligence and progress, received its inspiration from the
civilizing influences and cultivated tastes brought to extraordinary
perfection in the great cities of Southern Spain.
The dissolution of the Moslem empire, its subsequent division and
gradual conquest, naturally effected great changes in the political
relations and ultimate destiny of the Hebrew race. Under the petty
kings who administered with various fortune the shattered fragments
of the magnificent inheritance bequeathed by the Ommeyade
khalifs, the condition of the Jews changed with the caprices and the
passions of each new tyrannical potentate. For the most part,
however, they received indulgent and often flattering treatment. The
Mohammedan sovereigns recognized the value of such subjects;
there were many whose political sagacity was not obscured by
prejudice, and who still observed the tolerant precepts of Islam. At
Granada the Jews had always been popular; there is a tradition that
the capital of the kingdom was founded by them. In the fourteenth
century, there were fifteen thousand Hebrew families resident in that
city. While the rest of the Peninsula was convulsed with revolution
and disorder, and their kinsmen were being everywhere persecuted
and robbed by Papal inquisitor and Christian king, the Jews of
Granada pursued their occupations in peace, under the protection of
the Zirite and Alhamar dynasties, until the final success of the
Spanish arms involved their nation in irretrievable ruin.
The Jews were the principal medium through which Moorish
civilization was permanently impressed upon Europe. Their peculiar
characteristics; their vitality amidst the most dreadful misfortunes;
the intimate relationship maintained by their communities, where
distance and territorial isolation seemed matters of little importance,
and their wide distribution were most important factors in the
maintenance and dissemination of knowledge. The Jew travelled
with safety in lands where a price was set upon his head; outside of
Moslem jurisdiction, even among strangers unfamiliar with his story
and his creed, the Saracen was an outcast. The requirements of
royal and ecclesiastical incompetency contributed to the preservation
of that learning which ignorance and fear constantly incited to
destroy. As the Peninsula yielded by degrees to the steady
encroachments of Christian power, the superior abilities of the Jews
proved a potent safeguard against oppression. In spite of the furious
protests of fanatics, they exercised the most important public
employments. Kings of irreproachable orthodoxy habitually availed
themselves of their unrivalled medical attainments. The physicians of
Alfonso X., Pedro el Cruel, Henry III., Juan II. of Castile, of Jaime I.
of Aragon, of Duarte and Juan I. of Portugal, were all members of
the detested sect. Their tact and discernment caused their services
to be enlisted in the settlement of perplexing questions of diplomacy.
The early times of the Reconquest were far from exhibiting the
vindictive and intolerant spirit which marked its termination. The
Hebrew colony at Toledo numbered twelve thousand souls. Its
academy stood first in rank among similar institutions in Europe. A
vast sum was annually paid by this tributary population into the royal
treasury of Castile.
The king, the noble, and the scholar treated the Jew with favor,
often with the highest consideration. The clergy and the mob were
ever his bitterest enemies. His extraordinary influence was daily
manifested in defiance of savage laws which public sentiment
enacted and applauded, but was unable to enforce. The hated
sectary, proscribed by both the ecclesiastical and civil powers,
pursued his way, indifferent to the edicts of either the altar or the
throne. He dictated the policy of the government. He made treaties
with foreign nations. He flaunted his wealth in the faces of the
rabble. With strange inconsistency, members of the priesthood sold
him Christian serfs, whom their own decrees declared it was illegal
for him to own. They pledged with him the consecrated vessels of
their calling for money with which to indulge in forbidden pleasures.
His opulence was his most serious offence. In the thirteenth century,
one-third of the entire real-property of Castile was in the possession
or under the control of the Hebrews. At the death of Pedro II. of
Aragon, they had acquired possession of all the demesnes of the
crown, by the purchase of claims against the state. At one time they
owned nearly all the city of Paris. Their pomp and insolence aroused
the envy and hatred of the nobles, many of whom were virtually
their prisoners for default in the payment of debts. During the reign
of Pedro el Cruel, Joseph-ben-Ephraim, the royal tax-gatherer, rode
in a magnificent coach, guarded by a retinue of fifty armed
attendants. His clerks were the sons of Spanish grandees. It was
long a popular saying in Europe that “The Castilians had the pride
and the devotion, the Jews the talents and the money.”
The Spanish cavaliers who had experienced the prowess and
courtesy of their Moorish adversaries, as a rule, cherished no
bitterness against the Jews. Those who, in the course of events,
were absorbed with the territory of the growing kingdom, often
elicited admiration and respect by reason of their commanding
talents and erudition. The political administration of Castile and
Leon, under Alfonso VIII., was committed to a Jew; and his
physician, who was of the same race and enjoyed the royal
confidence, was chosen by the nobles as an intermediary between
themselves and their sovereign in a transaction which required the
exercise of the greatest ability and discretion. A beautiful Jewess
was for many years the mistress of Alfonso IX., over whom her
empire, while unbounded, was never abused; until at last the clergy,
scandalized rather by the nationality of the favorite than by the
gravity of the sin, caused her to be sacrificed to public resentment.
It requires but a glance at the writings of the few mediæval
reformers to infer how much consistency there was in this simulated
indignation. The works of these alone are sufficient to establish the
existence of universal sacerdotal depravity among those censors of
public morals whose scruples were excited by the influence ascribed
to the charms of a lovely infidel. Under Alfonso el Sabio, the Jews
received greater consideration than under any other Christian
monarch of Spain. The famous Alphonsine Tables, drawn up under
the direction of Hebrew astronomers, were the most memorable
scientific achievement of the epoch. Their cost, which exceeded the
enormous sum of four hundred thousand ducats, is indicative not
only of the interest of that prince in undertakings whose importance
was neither understood nor appreciated elsewhere, but of the value
attached to the services of great scholars, whose knowledge had
been imparted by a civilization which their royal patron considered it
his political and religious duty to eradicate.
The indulgent policy of Don Pedro el Cruel towards his Hebrew
subjects was one of the most remarkable peculiarities of his
sanguinary reign. His financiers and his confidential advisers were
members of that proscribed race. The treasurer of the monarchy,
Samuel Levi, whose position and favor enabled him to amass a
princely fortune, is remembered by Jewish tradition as one of the
great benefactors of humanity. The extraordinary power he wielded;
the splendor of his retinue; the sumptuous appointments of his
palace; his patronage of letters; the prodigal generosity he displayed
in the relief of the unfortunate and the deserving of every
nationality, have exalted, perhaps exaggerated, his merits in the
memory of his countrymen. His greatest claim to distinction,
however, consists in the erection, at his own expense, of a superb
synagogue at Toledo. This edifice, unique of its kind, was built by
the most skilful Moorish artificers of Granada, and its decorations
suggested the most finished and elegant models of Arab art. Its
walls were embellished with miniature horseshoe and stalactitic
arches, whose openings were relieved by polygonal ornaments and
golden stars. Belts of foliage alternating with appropriate inscriptions
composed the frieze; and the ceiling, which was of the incorruptible
cedar of Lebanon, resembled, in the maze of its geometrical designs,
the artesonados of the Alhambra. In common with the other
principal synagogues of Toledo, the earth upon which the pavement
was laid was said to have been brought from Mount Sion, a tradition
which enhanced their sanctity in the eyes of the worshipper.
Many converted Hebrews, as the reward of their apostasy, were
raised to the most exalted civil and episcopal dignities; unusual
literary accomplishments in a Spanish prelate during the Middle Ages
were almost infallible indications that his information had been
derived from infidel sources; and Catholic piety recognized no more
ardent defenders of the dogmas of the Church than the converted
Jews, Paul, Bishop of Burgos and Grand Chancellor of Castile, and
Alfonso de Spina, Rector of the University of Salamanca. The
celebrated Bible produced at Alcalá de Henares through the
munificence of Cardinal Ximenes, at a cost of fifty thousand pieces
of gold, and which required the unremitting labor of fifteen years,
was the work of apostate Jews. Three secretaries of Queen Isabella
were of the despised nationality. One of them, the famous chronicler
Pulgar, had held the same office of trust under King Henry IV.
The intolerance of the Spanish clergy increased in an exact ratio
with the decadence of Moslem power. As ecclesiastical supremacy
became strong enough to control the policy of the throne, the
privileges of the Jews, already greatly curtailed, were almost entirely
abolished. As yet, however, the sovereign was unable to dispense
either with the taxes they paid, which were the most important part
of the royal revenues, or with the financial talents and sterling
honesty which insured their proper disbursement. It was not until
the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella that fanaticism was allowed to
prevail over the wise and prudential considerations of policy which,
though frequently interrupted by scenes of horror and carnage, had
in practice ignored for centuries the fulminations of ecclesiastical
synods and councils. As the rise of Hebrew greatness in the
Peninsula dates from, and is attributable to, the Moslem conquest, in
like manner its decay progressed with the declining fortunes of the
Saracens, and its destruction was coincident with the disappearance
of their empire.
Scattered throughout Europe, the Jews alone preserved for future
generations the precious heritage of Arab science and culture; and
had they not proved capable of retaining and transmitting it, the
discoveries of Moorish genius, banished with those who made them,
would have been forever lost to posterity. The effects of civilization,
whose arts, distributed through the agency of the Hebrews, were
productive of such great results, were principally manifested, as
might readily be conjectured, in the countries contiguous to or most
intimately connected with the Peninsula. The tide of Hebrew
emigration and trade rolled steadily into France, Portugal, Italy. The
states of Provence and Languedoc, under the Gothic name of
Septimania, early overrun by the conquerors of Spain, were, long
prior to that time, subject to Hebrew influence. Attracted by the
salubrious climate and the excellent commercial facilities of the
coast, the Jews settled there in great numbers. The overthrow of the
Mohammedan power in that region was not followed by the
immediate abolition of the social and educational systems which it
had inaugurated, and whose perpetuation was insured by the most
favorable climatic and ethnological conditions. At Lyons, the Jews at
one time were held in such esteem that the market day was
changed from Saturday to Sunday in deference to their religious
prejudices. In Provence, practically free from the humiliating
distinctions of caste, they enjoyed the same privileges and were
entitled to the same protection as other citizens. At Béziers,
Carcassonne, Avignon, Montpellier, and Narbonne the Hebrew
element predominated. It has already been stated that the famous
school of Montpellier owed its origin to the Arabs and the Jews. The
Moslem conquest vastly increased the Hebrew population, which had
already been numerous in Southern France for more than eight
hundred years. The mystery which in times of mediæval darkness
enveloped everything derived from Hebrew and Arabic sources, the
peculiarities of the written, the incomprehensibility of the spoken,
idioms, in which education was imparted, the methodical treatment
of disease, so thorough in application, so successful in results,
pursued by its graduates, and immeasurably superior in every
respect to the mummeries of priestly superstition, invested the
University of Montpellier with a reputation which, acquired at the
expense of sacerdotal influence, was attributed by the ignorant to
the invocation of infernal spirits. The infidel physicians of that
institution were shunned by the devout as sorcerers. The Church
excommunicated all who had recourse to them. Not only in that city,
but through the greater part of Christendom, it was considered far
better to permit an invalid to perish than to secure his recovery by
the aid of practitioners whose methods were denounced from every
pulpit as diabolical and infamous. Christian women often died in
childbed rather than summon a Jewish midwife, whose profession
was exercised with signal ability, and whose education was little less
thorough and profound than that of the doctors of the medical
school. Such sacrifices were regarded as peculiarly meritorious, as
establishing beyond doubt the consistent piety of the victim. Under
existing circumstances, there was no relief for the priest-ridden
sufferer, for the practice of medicine was confined to the Jews. The
application of relics, even when strengthened by the most edifying
exhibition of faith, could hardly prevail against a fatal distemper. On
the one hand was the terrifying prospect of impending dissolution;
on the other, the assurance of divine displeasure and the certainty of
sacerdotal condemnation. In the midst of this general intolerance the
Lords of Montpellier stood firm. They were proud of their city,—
proud of its wealth, its enterprise, its intelligence, its reputation.
They thoroughly appreciated the conditions under which that
reputation had been created. Their Jewish subjects were the
wealthiest, the most learned, the most law-abiding of citizens. They
had more than once discharged with credit important public
employments. They had their exchange, their banks, their schools,
their cemeteries, even their own wells for purposes of ablution. They
worshipped in a magnificent synagogue, which in richness and
beauty vied with the most splendid mosques, and from whose ceiling
of aromatic woods were suspended hundreds of golden lamps. Not
only had their hereditary commercial instincts made Montpellier a
great and prosperous emporium, but their ingenuity was exhibited in
the establishment of many important branches of manufactures. The
cloths exported by them were especially noted for delicacy of finish
and texture. In the goldsmiths’ shops was produced elegant jewelry
of classic design. Not a few of the sacred vessels used for the
celebration of the mass in the cathedrals of Europe were fabricated
by the Jewish artisans of Montpellier. Some of the most lucrative
departments of industry for which Mohammedan Spain was famous
were represented in that city, among them those of silk, leather, and
porcelain. The incorporation of the dominions of the Lords of
Montpellier into the French monarchy not only subjected the Jews to
the disabilities and persecutions elsewhere the heritage of their race,
but, as a necessary consequence, proved fatal to the prosperity of
that flourishing provincial capital. Royal and episcopal avarice rioted
in a new and productive field of legalized extortion. The Jews were
robbed and expelled, recalled under promises of immunity, and
plundered again and again. The feudal law of mortmain authorized
the confiscation of their property if they were converted; if they
refused this questionable privilege, official oppression at once
reduced them to beggary.
With the increase of Christian influence in Southern Europe their
condition grew more and more desperate. At Toledo, a riot having
broken out on account of the levy of an obnoxious tax, the public
disorder was made an excuse for the spoliation and massacre of the
Jews. In many districts in Europe people were prohibited from
furnishing them with the necessaries of life. At Aix, a Jew was flayed
alive for alleged blasphemy, and a column was erected to
commemorate the pious deed. The menacing eloquence of St.
Vincent Ferrer is said to have driven fifteen thousand Valencian
Hebrews to the Catholic communion. The cry raised against Jewish
rapacity by dishonest or insolvent debtors enured to their benefit in
the proceeds resulting from pillage, and by the forcible recovery of
chattels deposited with brokers as security. Public hatred was not
confined to denunciation of their financial methods; their learning
and its depositories shared the common obloquy. Hebrew
manuscripts were destroyed whenever found. At Salamanca alone,
six thousand were consumed in a single bonfire. In Paris, in one day,
twenty-four cart-loads of literary treasures were committed to the
flames. Monkish intolerance raged everywhere against these
dangerous competitors for popular favor and pecuniary gain. This
prejudice extended to their language; its study was forbidden under
penalty of excommunication; and it was constantly proclaimed from
the pulpit that whoever acquired it became from that moment to all
intents and purposes a Jew. Gradually excluded from all mechanical
trades and liberal professions, the unhappy people were driven to
the business of brokerage. To this unpopular calling, whose
commercial necessity was as yet unrecognized by European
ignorance, Hebrew enterprise was ultimately, for the most part,
restricted. The practice of usury, reprobated by those whose
improvidence or vices forced them to have recourse to it for
temporary relief, had existed in Europe long before the stigma
arising from its abuse attached to the Jewish name. The Lombards
and Florentines, whose unfeeling rapacity belied their claim to
humanity, were those who first rendered it odious; and the Apostolic
See repeatedly sold to commercial organizations the privilege of
financial oppression. The small amount of cash in circulation
authorized the imposition of enormous rates of interest. In Spain,
under Christian domination, the rate was limited to thirty-three and a
third per cent., and in other countries it was even more exorbitant,
but regulated, as such matters always are, by the natural laws of
supply and demand. The Italian brokers, who plied their calling in
France, not infrequently exacted one hundred and twenty per cent.
per annum. The edicts of kings and the anathemas of councils were
ineffectually directed against this evil, which threatened the
impoverishment of every necessitous person of credit, produced
unspeakable suffering, and seriously retarded the progress of
national prosperity. Those loudest in their denunciations were
generally the first to apply for pecuniary advances to the objects of
their simulated wrath. Catholic sovereigns secretly pledged the royal
jewels with Hebrew usurers; and it was the public boast of the latter
that the sacred vessels of cathedrals and religious houses were the
greater part of the time at their absolute or conditional disposal. The
glaring inconsistency which characterized every phase of Jewish
persecution was thus unusually conspicuous in the condemnation of
their usurious practices.
In Portugal, whose proximity to and original incorporation with
the Hispano-Arab empire had attracted a large Hebrew immigration,
the Jews, as elsewhere, availing themselves of the superior
attainments acquired under Moslem institutions, speedily grew rich
and powerful. There, also, in an ignorant society debased by the
predominance of a narrow and despotic ecclesiastical system, their
toleration became for a time a political necessity. Their services were
so indispensable to all orders of the state that the disabilities
imposed upon them were regarded as merely nominal, and the laws
regulating their intercourse with each other and with the Christians
remained for the most part inoperative.
In Italy, the hand of the Jew was visible in the energy and
enterprise of the maritime states of Venice, Genoa, Leghorn, and
Naples. A less intolerable existence was insured to him under the
shadow of the Papal throne. The exiles of Western Europe, expelled
by the short-sighted policy of irrational fanatics, were coldly
welcomed on the banks of the Po and the Tiber and on the sunny
shores of the Adriatic. The industry and culture inherited from the
golden age of Moslem domination became sources of wealth,
mercantile importance, and literary distinction to the Italians, whose
reluctant hospitality was eventually repaid a hundred-fold by the
profit derived from the labors of these refugees and the results of
the emulation excited by their example. It was thus that, after the
lapse of five centuries and at a distance of a thousand miles, the
civilization of the Moslem empire in Spain produced, through the
agency of an alien and exiled race, the glorious revival of arts and
letters in Italy. That the Jews should be credited with the
dissemination of Arab science and literature is demonstrated by the
fact that in whatever country those of Spanish extraction, or their
descendants, established themselves, the people of that country
quickly experienced an intellectual impulse unknown to others not
exposed to similar associations. Modern civilization has ill-requited
the priceless benefits it has received from Jewish learning and
Jewish skill.
The tenacity of the mind of the Israelite was amazing. It never
relaxed its hold upon a valuable idea once within its grasp. Much as
it communicated, its secretive character induced it always to
suppress far more than it imparted, a habit which increased its
mysterious influence. It had the peculiar quality of immediately
quickening into life the more sluggish mental natures of all with
whom it was brought in contact. No disposition, however harsh or
ascetic, was proof against the exertion of its power. The Jewish
colonies, transplanted into the midst of an ignorant population,
became at once foci of learning. Bigotry itself regarded with awe and
respect the intellectual superiority which anticipated and checked
hostile measures directed against its continuance, and, without the
employment of force, nullified laws especially enacted for its
repression. It was not strange that prosperity maintained in the
presence of such obstacles should be attributed to diabolical
interference. Into his new home the Jew brought not only the
energy and acuteness which were the guaranty of his success, but
the intelligent curiosity which was the principal factor of his
extraordinary mental development. Not a few possessed extensive
libraries, luxuries absolutely unknown in many European countries
where even writing materials did not exist, or, if they did, were
unavailable. The scattered books to be found in churches and
monasteries were palimpsests, ancient parchments from which the
productions of classic authors had been laboriously effaced to make
room for saintly homilies and patristic legends. Perfection in
calligraphy had kept pace with the other artistic achievements of the
Spanish Hebrews. Their Biblical manuscripts had a world-wide
celebrity for accuracy of text and beauty of ornamentation. Many
were illuminated with arabesques and floral designs executed in
colors and embellished with gold. So highly were these copies of the
Scriptures valued that in Spain one of but ordinary merit readily
brought a hundred crowns.
The number of Hebrew writers who attained distinction in the
Middle Ages was enormous. The great catalogue of Bartholoccius,
which enumerates those of Spain, Italy, and France—countries
particularly subject, directly and individually, to Arab influence—fills
four volumes in folio and contains four thousand names. Among
these, authors of Spanish origin largely predominate. The activity of
the Hebrew intellect was not hampered by conventional restrictions
of sex, nor deterred by the difficulties or demands of any profession
or calling. Among that people, precautions arising from Oriental
jealousy, which had been observed from time immemorial, required
the seclusion of women; and this custom was naturally unfavorable
to female education. They were practically the slaves, first of their
fathers, then of their husbands. In public they always appeared
veiled from head to foot. In so little esteem were they ordinarily
held, that it was not considered necessary to instruct them even in
the doctrines of religion. Whatever talents, therefore, Jewish females
possessed were, until the Saracen domination in Europe, unknown
and undeveloped.
The educational facilities afforded the Moorish women under the
beneficent sway of the Ommeyade khalifs, and the prominence
attained by many of them in the world of letters, did not fail to
exercise its influence upon the habits and the career of their Jewish
sisters. This fact is of the greatest importance, in view of the strict
subordination enforced upon Hebrew women in all periods of their
history, a regulation largely due to their naturally dependent
condition and their alleged intellectual inferiority. In the cultivated
society of Cordova, the stubborn tenacity of long-established
prejudice vanished before the enlightened and progressive spirit of
the age. Under such circumstances, even the severe authority of the
rabbis became, in a measure, relaxed; and while the names of no
Jewish women pre-eminently distinguished for learning have come
down to us, it is an unquestionable fact that they were allowed to
enjoy, to an extent hitherto unprecedented, the literary advantages
whose possession was generally admitted to constitute an exclusive
privilege of the masculine sex. As the policy and traditions of the
Synagogue discouraged such innovations, it is not strange that no
record of their results has been preserved. The exhaustive
researches of Kayserling have brought to light the name of a single
Hebrew poetess, Xemosa, of the era of the khalifate; but all
particulars of time and locality, of her literary career, and of the
character of her works are missing.
The most remarkable peculiarity of the Hebrew character was its
versatility. In every pursuit in which his talents were employed the
Jew of Spanish origin rose to unrivalled distinction. The marvellous
erudition and diversified accomplishments of their scholars were not
inferior to those of the Moorish philosophers of Cordova in the most
glorious days of Moslem dominion. They became equally proficient in
many branches of abstruse science, any one of which was sufficient
to exhaust the mental resources of an ordinary student. Their
eminence in the practice of medicine gave rise to the popular belief
that an admixture of Jewish blood was absolutely essential to
success in that profession, an opinion not confined to the vulgar, but
seriously discussed by a learned Italian historian. The fact that the
study of astronomy should have been almost always combined with
that of medicine is one of the most singular incidents in the annals
of literature. It might be explained by a predilection for astrology, if
Hebrew intelligence had not long outgrown the belief in that
delusion, so prevalent in the infancy of knowledge. In familiarity with
the visible heavens, with the motions of the planets, and the relative
position of stars, in accuracy of mathematical calculation, in
dexterous use of the astrolabe and the armillary sphere, they
surpassed all other observers except the Arabs. So popular was this
science among them in Spain during the thirteenth century that the
Jewish astronomers of Toledo alone exceeded in numbers all the
others of Christian Europe combined. The invaluable services they
rendered to learning were not inferior to the ingenious methods by
which they facilitated international communication and promoted the
convenience and security of trade. When suddenly expelled from
France by Philip Augustus, they left with Christians in whom they
could confide their personal property, which, from its bulk or its
value, they were unable to carry with them. After their arrival in
Italy, they drew through Lombard merchants upon the custodians of
their chattels, either for the goods themselves or for the cash
realized from their sale. In this way Europe became indebted to the
Jews for the general introduction of bills of exchange, previously
invented by their countrymen at Barcelona, which from a benefit to
mercantile transactions in the settlement of foreign obligations have
now grown to be a commercial necessity.
Popular prejudice against the Hebrew nationality was aggravated,
not only because of the eminent ability in matters of literature and
finance, implying superiority, which it displayed, but on account of its
control of the markets of the world and of its possession of the
greater part of the money in circulation west of the Bosphorus. From
the tenth century, when the Moorish ports of Southern Spain had
become the emporiums of the Mediterranean, to the sixteenth, when
the discovery of Columbus and the passage of the Cape of Good
Hope had opened a new field to the cupidity and ambition of
Europe, the trade of three great continents was subservient to the
enterprise of the Jews. The commercial heritage bequeathed to their
allies by the Phœnicians had endured through changes of empire,
through the wrecks of successive dynasties, through persecutions of
incredible atrocity, for more than twenty centuries.
The persistency which is a marked ethnological peculiarity of the
Jews is at once the cause and the effect of their claim to Divine
favor. The more intelligent of that people have never expected the
appearance of a personal Messiah. They regard the popular myth of
his coming as symbolizing the termination of national exile,—a mere
allegorical allusion to the eventual independence and tranquillity
which hope, deepening through ages into belief, assured them would
one day be the condition of their race. This conviction, founded
rather in the knowledge of its justice than in any well-defined
prospect of its realization, sustained them through a long series of
grievous trials and misfortunes. Accused of crimes such as the
utmost ingenuity of malice has never imputed to any other sect,
they retaliated by acts of self-sacrifice and generosity. In the midst
of the futile solemnities of the Church, the pomp of processions, the
intonation of litanies, the muttering of prayers, the smoking of
censers, the exhibition of relics, they administered the remedies of
scientific medicine to the suffering stricken with the pestilence.
During the first visitation of the plague at Venice, in addition to a
liberal donation, they lent the government a hundred thousand
ducats for the relief of the poor. In time of national peril, their loyalty
never faltered, except when their spirit had been exasperated by
continued oppression. The funds they advanced were employed to
drive the Arabs out of Spain. Moorish domination, established
through their instrumentality, was thus indebted to their
contributions for its overthrow. The most exacting requirements of
retributive justice were certainly satisfied with the penalty exacted
by fate for this perfidious act of ingratitude.
Modern prejudice, like mediæval ignorance, is reluctant to confess
the obligations learning owes to Hebrew genius and industry. The
Jews were, in turn, the teachers, the pupils, and the coadjutors of
the Moors; the legatees and the distributors of the precious stores of
Arab wisdom. The rabbis, few of whom, it may be remarked, were
not expert workmen in the mechanical trades, a knowledge of which
was enjoined by their religion, spread the love of letters everywhere.
All treatises in Arabic, of practical or scientific value, were translated
into Hebrew. Their familiarity with every branch of classical literature
is apparent in their writings; even the Fables of Æsop were
reproduced in their language. Purity of diction and elegance of style
were striking characteristics of all the literary productions of the
Spanish Jews. The most eminent Christian prelates of Spain during
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were apostate rabbis. The
proficiency of their medical practitioners has already been repeatedly
alluded to. For years after the banishment of the Jews from the
Peninsula, entire districts remained without the benefits of medical
treatment. Such as were able resorted to foreign countries at great
expense and inconvenience; the vast majority of invalids suffered