Jewish Experiences on a Christian Frontier: Jews in Conquered Valencia

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1 Bailey 1 Jewish Experiences on a Christian Frontier: Jews in Conquered Valencia Charlie Bailey History 400 Professor Douglas Sackman

2 Bailey 2 Introduction and Historiography The history of medieval Spain is steeped in tradition, most notably the central debate which has permeated the field since In that year, the Spanish historian Americo Castro coined the famed term convivencia to refer to the relatively peaceful coexistence of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the medieval Spanish world. Castro was writing with a quest in mind, the objective of which was to explain the identity of Spanish national character. In fact, he went so far as to claim that a blending of these typically conflicting cultures led to a unique situation in medieval Spain, and that this cultural smoothie was the root of Spanish national identity. 1 Castro s heavy inclusion of Jewish and Muslim influences led to a fierce rebuttal from another Spanish historian, Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz. In his work España: Un Enigma Historico (1956),Sanchez-Albornoz claimed that true Spanish identity existed long before the initial incursion of Islam on the peninsula, and that Islam had no influence upon it. 2 Historians of Spain on all sides of the debate have taken up pens to make their ideas known, creating one of the grand scholarly arguments of Spanish history. Notable among these are scholars such as Maria Rosa Menocal, David Nirenberg, Mark Meyerson, Robert Burns, and many others whose works the last 40 years have conflated and redefined the debate around convivencia, from depicting Spain as a place of toleration and cooperation to claims that the violence between Christians, Jews and Muslims was essential to the smooth functioning of Spanish society. 1 Kenneth Wolf, Convivencia in Medieval Spain: A Brief History of an Idea, Religion Compass 3 (2009), Ibid, 73.

3 Bailey 3 While multitudes of historians have worked within the theoretical framework provided by convivencia, some more recent scholarship suggests that the paradigm established by the convivencia debate may have run its course in terms of usefulness to the field. In a 2009 article, Maya Soifer argues that convivencia has become simply another polarizing term within the historiography which draws strict lines between toleration and persecution and seems to leave little gray area behind. 3 Thus, the historiography has been impeded by the existence of and insistence that convivencia is a uniquely Iberian phenomenon instead of considering other social and political issues in the peninsula. That being said, I still believe the convivencia thesis to be a valuable and useful frame of reference for historical debates of Medieval Spain. However, I do not believe that neither convivencia nor conflict accurately portray Spanish society. Rather, investigating the complexities of the Spain s storied past may be the most productive method of exploring Spanish medieval history. Thesis Statement Despite being a small minority within a Christian and Muslim majority, Jews were able to find great success in medieval Valencia under Aragon and Castile. Through their unique relationship with the crown in which they were technically possessions of the king, the Jewish people were able to exert a relatively large measure of influence and autonomy despite persecution and suspicion from much of the Christian and Muslim population. This relationship was at its height during the reign of James I and the 3 Maya Soifer, Beyond convivencia: critical reflections on the historiography of interfaith relations in Christian Spain, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 1 (2009), 19.

4 Bailey 4 conquest of Valencia in the thirteenth century, when Jews proved to be an invaluable asset for the effective colonization of the Valencian frontier, particularly when the crown faced competition from the church. The crown navigated the tension created by this competition by employing the Jews in a variety of capacities, from landowner to financier to bailiff, and used the unique relationship as royal possessions to prevent the church from acquiring land or taxes that the crown greatly desired. From Crescent to Cross The historiography of the Jewry of Medieval Iberia has tended to separate Jewish history into two distinct eras, loosely defined as pre- and post The defining moment of this distinction was the crushing defeat of the Almohad Caliphate, which was led by the caliph Muhammad al-nasir, in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa at the hands of an organized force of Christian opponents. Since 1195 the Almohads, a group of Berber Muslims from North Africa, had been gaining ground on the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula, capturing land and cities such as Trujillo and Cuenca. As the Almohads advanced northward and captured more Christian territory, a call for Crusade was made by Pope Innocent III in 1211, spurring the kings of Iberia s Christian nations to join forces in order to defeat the pressing threat to Spanish Christendom. The Christian victory at Las Navas signaled the start of the final decline of Muslim power in the peninsula, though they remained an influential group until their eventual expulsion in So then, how does the defining battle of the Reconquista relate to the history of 4 Thomas Bisson, The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 38.

5 Bailey 5 Iberian Jews? As a persecuted minority within the peninsula, the Jewish people were essentially subjugated under either Christian or Muslim authority depending on where they were located. It has typically been argued that living under the rule of Muslims constituted a Golden Age for the Jews of Iberia. 5 However, this argument should only extend to Jewish life before the Almohads became the dominant Muslim group in Al- Andalus. Compared to the Muslims of the Ummayad Dynasty and Cordoba Caliphate, and even the Almoravids whom they succeeded, the Almohads were particularly oppressive. 6 According to Bernard Septimus, when they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar This fierce Berber dynasty invaded Muslim Spain in the middle of the twelfth century and outlawed religions other than Islam, thus ending open Jewish life in Muslim Spain and prompting widespread flight to the Christian north, resulting in personal, political, and cultural trauma as the Jews made their way north. 7 Septimus notes the roots of the historiographic debate brought up by Jonathan Ray. Ray states that the historiographic trend to dichotomize the history of Iberian Jews into pre- and post- Las Navas de Tolosa has led to scholars debating which regime Jews were better off under. Any benefit this comparison may provide to the historiography of Iberian Jewry, Ray argues, is offset by the oversimplification of Jewish history to a relatively two-dimensional pattern of 5 Jonathan Ray, Between the Straits: the Thirteenth Century as a Turning Point for Iberian Jewry, Journal of Medieval Studies 4 (2012), The Almoravids were another Berber group from North Africa who conquered parts of al-andalus in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 7 Bernard Septimus, Hispano-Jewish Views of Christendom and Islam in In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews between Cultures, ed. Bernard Dov Cooperman (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998), 44.

6 Bailey 6 achievement and decline. 8 While I agree with Ray that the comparison can lead to an oversimplification, it is still a valuable tool with which to analyze the fate and roles of Iberian Jews. The historical value of the comparison is increased when placed in the context of a similar debate within the communities of Iberian Jewry. As the Jewish population transitioned from life under Muslim to Christian rulers (and sometimes vice-versa), the question of whether the grass really was greener was on the tongues of many Iberian Jews. As mentioned above, the traditional view was that life under Muslim rulers was far superior for a Jew than life in Christendom. However, with the rise in power and influence of the Almohads, the perception of contemporary Jews seems to have shifted in the opposite direction. One such example of this shift in opinion can be seen in a commentary on the Bible dated to approximately A Jewish man Bahya ben Asher of Saragossa wrote, The term oyvekha [your enemies] is used for Ishmael [Islam] and sonekha [your foes] for Esau [Christendom] because an oyev is worse than a sone. For the sone, though he harms, is not devoid of mercy; whereas the oyev is one who feels unremitting enmity in his heart, and is thus devoid of mercy In a similar vein it was said: Better under Edom than under Ishmael. 9 Bahya has made it clear in this passage that neither Christians nor Muslims were benevolent rulers of the Jews, but interestingly notes that Christians show, or at the very least possess, a measure of mercy that the Muslims simply did not have. 8 Ray, Between the Straits, Bahya ben Asher, Beur al ha-tora, ed. C.D Chavel (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-rav Kook, 1968), III, p In Hispano- Jewish Views of Christendom and Islam, in In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews between Cultures ed. Bernard Dov Cooperman (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998), 46.

7 Bailey 7 This indicates that the impression left by the fearsome religious restrictions of the Almohads was still playing a role in Jewish perceptions of life under Muslim rule, as Bahya was writing in Saragossa in At that point, Saragossa was a Christian territory and Almohad influence had significantly declined, as Muslim territory had essentially been reduced to the Emirate of Granada existing as a tribute state to Castille for nearly 50 years. 10 Life for a Jew under Muslim rule was further described by the famed Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who wrote in 1172, You know, my brethren, that on account of our sins God has cast us into the midst of this people, the nation of Ishmael, who persecute us severely, and who devise ways to harm us and debase us We have borne their imposed degradation, their lies, and absurdities, which are beyond human power to bear. We have become as in the words of the Psalmist: But I am as a deaf man, I hear not, and I am as a dumb man that opens not his mouth [Ps. 38:14] We listen and remain silent In spite of this, we are not spared from the ferocity of their wickedness and their outbursts at any time. On the contrary, the more we suffer and choose to conciliate them, the more they choose to act belligerently toward us. 11 Maimonides seems to have been describing a form of oppression in which Muslims went out of their way to harm and debase Jewish subjects, even if the Jews are trying to keep their heads down and stay out of sight. From the descriptions of life under Muslim rule provided by Bahya and Maimonides, it is no surprise that the Jews of Iberia were flocking northward to live under Edom. For in addition to the possibility for a less religiously restricted life, Jews found ample economic opportunity within the Christian kingdoms. 10 Bisson, Medieval Crown, Maimonides, Epistle to Yemen in Irgot ha-rambam, ed. Sheilat, I, p 108f. In Hispano-Jewish Views of Christendom and Islam, in In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews between Cultures ed. Bernard Dov Cooperman (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998), 44.

8 Bailey 8 The Church and Colonization As Jews were moving north into the Christian kingdoms, Christians were expanding south as they conquered Muslim territory. For much of the mid thirteenth century, James I of Aragon was taking part in this expansion in the Muslim territory of Valencia. After his conquest of Valencia, James I was challenged with the administrative dilemma of settling the vast tracts of land. However, this was not a simple organizational problem. Among the obstacles he faced was the issue of colonizing an area with such an entrenched and large population of begrudgingly submissive Muslim inhabitants. This was further complicated by the apparent reticence of Christian commoners from Aragon and other Christian kingdoms to pick up and settle the new territory. The lack of Christian settlers appears to have been one of the great regrets and stressors of James I s life. As the scholar Robert Ignatius Burns notes, Even in the last years of his life, the king was to complain to the people of Barcelona that only 30,000 had been settled in the kingdom of Valencia, though he estimated that 100,000 settlers were necessary to guarantee its security. 12 With such a deficiency of actual Christians with which to meet James I s goals of reforming the realm according to the Christian manner of life, an additional ally was necessary to continue the occupation process after the military phase had come to a close. 13 James I found both ally and competitor in the power of the Christian church. The church and the organization of the parish system came to be powerful factors in the Christian settlement of Valencia. The aforementioned existence of a hostile 12 Robert Burns, The Parish as a Frontier Institution in Thirteenth-Century Valencia, Speculum 37 (1962), Ibid, 246.

9 Bailey 9 Muslim majority posed serious problems for the establishment of any firm royal control in the region in a timely manner following the conquest of Valencia, but some sort of Christian institution was required to focus the energies of settlement, lest the overwhelmingly Islamic surroundings reassert a dominant Muslim influence in the area. Thus, the establishment of a Valencian diocese was amongst the first tasks James I and his advisers took on. Not only would the creation of a diocese bring James I greater prestige and respect within the greater Christian community, but in addition, as Burns writes, A fully organized church provided a border area with an institutional framework more stable and resilient than any the crown could hope to erect for some time. Such an organization, once engaged with its environment and marshaling the energies of its people, could do more than anything else to impose the patterns of Christendom on the new region. 14 The church was able to accomplish this imposition of Christian patterns because of the adverse conditions for Christian settlers within Valencia directly following the conquest. Christian settlers were entering a land which was at once both foreign and familiar. Valencia itself was an area of great fertility, renowned throughout Iberia as an agricultural and commercial center with potential for growth and profit. Landscapes appeared familiar to Christian settlers, but the existing cultural atmosphere, from the architecture to the legal system to the sounds of the towns and cities of the region, was heavily Islamized. Christian settlers on their own lacked many basic institutions which they were accustomed to in Christian society. For example, Christians needed schools, 14 Robert Burns, The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Reconstruction on a Thirteenth Century Frontier Volume 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), 11.

10 Bailey 10 hospitals, meeting places, cemeteries, and other public assistance but were entering an environment which offered them nothing but a Muslim majority population who were indifferent at best. To satisfy these colonial requirements, the church stepped in as a one-stop-shop centralized institution within the parishes of the Valencian diocese. 15 While the church building itself served as a centralized institution for local parishioners, the organizational structure of the diocese led to the acceptance of the parish as a social and administrative unit, particularly in towns. Thus, taxes, grants, and other financial issues like debts were collected or assigned by parish. In addition, governmental positions such as justicar and counsellors were elected from each parish. These factors led to a sense of district patriotism amongst the Christian settlers, an invaluable contribution to the colonization effort. 16 As reward for these services, the church was granted vast landholdings, further cementing its position on the Valencian frontier. 17 The church received land not only as a reward for its service as a centralizing institution but also as part of a strategy for defending the expanding frontier against Islamic retaliation. The Catholic Church and the Papacy at large in turn financed the exploits of sovereigns who supported their local churches, though these sovereigns were often wary of engagements with the powerful, if distant, Papacy in Rome. 18 Unlike when using Jewish citizens as bailiffs and administrators, the crown had relatively little bargaining power, making the church a much riskier ally. The Jews depended on the crown for protection, while the Catholic Church was essentially a powerful foreign nation 15 Burns, Frontier Institution, Ibid, Ibid, J. Lee Shneidman, The Rise and Fall of the Aragonese-Catalan Empire Volume 1 (New York City, NY: New York University Press, 1970), 245.

11 Bailey 11 whose influence was felt across Europe. Thus, the competition between the church and the crown provided opportunities for Jews to find work not only in the established Christian kingdoms, but on their frontiers and new territories as well. Jewish Roles in a Christian World The Jewish people of Iberia may have flocked north in droves, but not without certain reservations. Maimonides, for example, made the choice to stay living under the oppression of the Almohads for fear of his family being subject to the cultural backwardness of Christian Spain. 19 However, it was this same backwardness which gave migrating Jews such vast opportunity. According to Septimus, The intellectual belatedness of medieval Christian Spain (as compared to the rest of Europe) allowed Jews to fill a professional vacuum as physicians, scientists, translators, administrators, and the like. The old Hispano-Jewish tradition of royal service continued, as did occupational differentiation and relative economic prosperity. 20 Clearly the Jewish people operated at many levels of society, serving any from their poorest coreligionists to the king and other nobility. The role of the Jewish physician encapsulates this professional mobility quite well. The physician was not restricted to practicing within the limits of his municipality, nor his religion. A Jewish physician was free to practice within Muslim and Christian 19 Septimus, Hispano-Jewish Views, Ibid, 45.

12 Bailey 12 quarters, and often was called upon to aid sick persons in rural areas. 21 As the knowledge of medical experts began to be more sought out in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, governments required medical practitioners to pass examinations for official licensing, including physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, and barbers. In order to treat Christian patients, Jewish physicians had to pass these examinations, which in typical Iberian fashion, were administered by a physician of their own faith with a Christian physician assisting. 22 Despite this licensing requirement for physicians of any faith, Jewish physicians commanded a significantly lower rate than their Christian counterparts for their services, aiding the growth in popularity of Jews in the medical profession. In addition to their relatively low cost, the status of Jews as royal possessions cemented the role of elite Jews among the courts and nobility. The crown laid claim to the lives and property of all Jewish citizens in the realm, evidenced by the sale and transfer of whole Jewish communities, such as the Jewry of Barbastro, detailed in royal financial transactions. 23 Thus, in this context of possession, some physicians in service of the king might receive royal privileges of various sorts, such as freedom of movement for themselves and their patients and exemption from taxation or from wearing identifying clothing. 24 While these select elite enjoyed the benefits of their high social status, their very visible presence incited a variety of reactions within and outside of their religion. Some Jews farther down the social ladder viewed these elite physicians as paragons 21 Maud Kozodoy, The Jewish Physician in Medieval Iberia , in The Jew in Medieval Iberia ed. Jonathan Ray (Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2012), Ibid, Document 44, in Foundations of Crusader Valencia: Revolt and Recovery , ed Robert Burns, vol ii of Diplomatarium of the Crusader King of Valencia: The Registered Charters of its Conqueror Jaume I (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1991), Ibid,

13 Bailey 13 of the Iberian Jew, a source of pride and honor which were difficult to come by as a persecuted minority, and medical knowledge became a status symbol in certain Jewish communities. Some Christians, however, were suspicious of these elite Jews, either from jealousy of their place within the king s circle or from confusion that what they believed were an inferior people could ascend so high in their social world. Even some conversos, those Jews who either by choice or force converted to Christianity, had great contempt of the Jewish physician. 25 One such converso claimed that Jewish physicians manipulate commoners to elevate their own status until they work under a member of the nobility, upon whom they can further manipulate so as to exert their power to do whatever harm they wish. 26 These varied responses indicate the complex status of the Jewish people in the Christian world, and point to a tension between the favor and protection of the king and the persisting persecution and intolerance from some Christians, even as Jewish people filled professional voids and provided valuable services. The importance and complexity of the relationship between the crown and the elite Jews was expressed in the fourteenth century with the construction of the El Transisto synagogue in Toledo, part of the Christian kingdom of Castile-Leon, a neighbor of Aragon. A courtier under the employment of the Castilian monarch Pedro I, Samuel ha-levi Abulafia, commissioned the synagogue. In his designs, Abulafia included not only inscriptions upon the synagogue s walls praising Pedro I but the coat of arms of Castile-Leon as well. According to Jonathan Ray, On one level, these symbols represent the 25 Ibid, Marcelino Amasuno, The Converso Physician in the Anti-Jewish Controversy in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Castile, in Medicine and Medical Ethics in Medieval and Early Modern Spain: An Intercultural Approach, ed Smauel Kottek and Luis Garcia Ballester (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1996), 115.

14 Bailey 14 close ties between Castilian Jews and their royal protectors often cited as evidence of interreligious convivencia. 27 Clearly, a Chrisitan king granting permission to his courtier to build a synagogue may indicate the cooperation and coexistence characteristic of convivencia. However, Ray proceeds to state that At the same time, such a prominent display of royal favor also functioned as a reminder to the Jews who worshipped there of Abulafia s elevated position at the royal court, and of the subsequent power and prestige it afforded him within the Jewish community. 28 Ray seems to be saying that while certain Jews may have been able to find success, it often was only possible as a reminder of the Jewish people s status as dependent on royal power, a relationship which was manifested in the Crown of Aragon as well. Some great lords were granted the privilege of having Jewish vassals, but the vast majority of Jews within Aragon were dependent on the king and his royal power for the protection of their rights. Furthermore, the Jews of Aragon were required to pay a tax directly to the king for their status as royal treasure, which became a notable, if not massive, contribution to the king s wealth. This dependency on the crown isolated the Jews and painted targets on their back, as the king was not the only power in Aragon. Wealthy nobles and the Catholic Church were actively competing with the king for control of various parts of the small nation, and came to target the Jews in their rhetoric when the king s influence was weak. 29 Jews were also more prone to be victims of general criminal acts, such as assaults and robberies when royal power waned. Due to their 27 Ray, Between the Straits, Ibid, David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1996), 28.

15 Bailey 15 dependence on the king, appeals for rectification of these crimes often was framed in terms of how the loss of the Jews became the loss of the king when it was time to collect their taxes, another reminder to the Jewish citizens of Aragon that they were possessions first and subjects second. 30 Jews enter the Frontier The relationship of king and his Jewish subjects entered new territory in the process of colonizing the Valencian frontier in the second half of the thirteenth century, but the roles Jews played in economic life remained largely the same. With the establishment of the territorial code of laws known as the Furs of Valencia, Jaume emphatically ruled out the possibility that [any in Valencia] would be able to question his possession of non-christians and their property The Furs advanced a vision of pervasive royal authority that threatened anyone who violated the king s regalian rights Accordingly, it maintained that all Jews would be subject to royal dominion, even if they resided within noble or ecclesiastical domains. 31 However, the significance of certain roles was greatly increased. Such roles included the Jewish bailiff, moneylender, and administrator. The tax collecting role of the bailiff was indispensable on the Valencian frontier, as the crown was desperate to reap the income of taxing the local Muslim subjects. However, the role did not come without complications. Mark Meyerson notes that, 30 Ibid, Thomas Barton, Contested Treasure: Jews and Authority in the Crown of Aragon (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press 2015), 75.

16 Bailey 16 The very linguistic skills and cultural sensibilities that potentially brought the polyglot Jewish bailiffs closer to the Muslims also rendered the bailiffs particularly useful to Christian authorities in ruling over them. When the Jewish tax collector was a former Valencian dhimmi the latter did not view him as more of a comrade or his official actions with greater equanimity. On the contrary, even though he was probably a more efficient administrator for the crown, the Muslims regarded him as an upstart taking advantage of a world their world turned upside down. 32 The Jewish bailiff then was an important intermediary between the colonizing Christians and the antagonistic colonized Muslims. By acting as tax collector among other roles, Jewish bailiffs, and by extension the Jewish people at large, came to be seen in a highly negative light by the local Muslim population who saw them as taking advantage. The possibilities for a bailiff to take advantage of a local Muslim population can be clearly seen in a charter of approval granted by Prince Pedro. The charter notes that Prince Pedro concedes and approves all the grants and establishments made by Our bailiff to whatsoever Saracens of Alfandec and its districts, both as to houses and properties and as to any other thing granted, established, or put in place by him in the entire aforesaid bailate of Alfandec. The prince promises resolutely to observe and keep ratified whatever is in the receipts or charters made by him. 33 Obviously, some Muslims were concerned with how little power they had in this process of grants of property and other goods and naturally resented the Jewish bailiff and his royally granted authority. However, to the king and municipal Christian governments, the distaste for Jewish bailiffs held by the Muslims was not of great concern. For despite the vast majority of the Valencian population at large being made up of Muslim inhabitants, most of the wealth and influence in a given community was typically 32 Mark Meyerson, Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom: Society, Economy, and Politics in Morvedre, (Boston, MA: Brill, 2004), Document 993 in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 572.

17 Bailey 17 concentrated amongst the local Christian and Jewish communities. 34 This is just one example of how problematic the task of attempting to colonize and dominate an established foreign population was for the crown, and allies were required if its efforts were to be successful. Bailiffs in Action In combing the charters and documents in Burns collection of translations known as the Diplomatarium of the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia, one may trace the travels and duties of a couple notable Jewish bailiffs. The first of these men, Vives the son of Jucef Ibn Vives, was the bailiff 0f Alfandec de Marinyen. 35 He makes his initial appearance in the Diplomatarium in a document dated to the 12 th of March, Prince Pedro sold to Vives, Our Jew, and to whom[ever] you wish from the immediately past January through the succeeding full two years: all the revenues, income, profits, fines, and other rights We have and receive and ought to receive and have in Ribbarroja and its districts, and from the Saracens of Liria. [This sale] we make to you [in return] for 4,600 Valencian sous in each of those two years, which you are obliged to pay to Us or to whom We shall direct in Our stead. 36 Essentially, in order to make a profit on this region, Vives is counting on tax and fine revenues in Ribbarroja and Liria to exceed the 4,600 sous he owes the crown. In many situations, the role of the bailiff was this simple and straightforward: collect taxes, pay the 34 Elena Lourie, Anatomy of Ambivalence: Muslims under the Crown of Aragon in the Late Thirteenth Century in Crusade and Colonization: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Aragon (Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum 1990), Present day La Valldigna 36 Document 780, in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 342.

18 Bailey 18 crown the designated amount, and attempt to keep the rest. However, this was obviously not always the case. Just 5 months later in August of 1268, Vives was owed a considerable sum of money for the various payments and tasks he completed at the crown s command. Vives was due 9,644 sous for various loans he made to relatives of the crown, the purchase of a steed, the payment of dog handlers, as well as the purchase of a mule and several wineskins. In addition, he was owed another 12,550 sous for when he acted as debtor for the Christian bailiff of the city of Valencia, Arnaldo de Romani. All in all, Vives was given sole permission to draw from the crown revenues of Alfandec de Marinyen until he had recovered the full 22,614 Valencian sous, with the sole caveat that 950 sous remain annually to pay the salary of Arnau de Fores, a knight in custody of the castle of Alfandec. 37 This document serves to illuminate the large sums of money passing through Vives hands, and the importance of his role. Given that a Christian knight was paid 950 sous annually for the safekeeping and caretaking of a castle, Vives was responsible for a significant deal of money in even this isolated exchange. While large scale loans and debts were not uncommon, it is exaggeration to say their scale was the norm. Vives was responsible for relatively petty payments, such as Ten sous that you gave for the falconers at Our order and for 16 sous that you gave to Berenguer Genet for a tunic. 38 Even for small sums such as these, Vives was to draw from crown revenues from Alfandec. 37 Document 854, in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Document 916 in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 488.

19 Bailey 19 Thus, while the role of bailiff was certainly a coveted position, it was not all glitz and glam. Vives coreligionist and coworker Astruc Jacob Shashon, bailiff of Morella, Peniscola, and Burriana, played a similar role in his region. Astruc first appears in the Diplomatarium in a document dated the 7 th of November, The document states that the king owed Astruc some 21,307 Jaca sueldos, the standard currency in Aragon. 39 In addition, the king was indebted for Astruc s loan of 200 cafises of barley, 133 cafises of wheat, and 10,000 quarters of wine. 40 Astruc was to recover what he was owed from the revenues, income, and profit of Morella and its entire district, and 500 sous that the bishop of Tortosa is bound to give Us each year as firstfruits, and all Our revenues and income from the castle of Peniscola and its districts and villages, and the salt monopoly. 41 While it is important to ask why the king needed roughly 300,000 pounds of wine, it is equally important to note that the king essentially ordered the bishop of Tortosa to directly pay his Jewish bailiff. While not necessarily an intentional jab at the church, I still found this detail interesting and a possible indication of some tension between the crown and the church, with Jews caught in the middle. Other mentions of Astruc shed light on the variety of ways in which monetary exchanges were completed and the different roles a bailiff played. For example, on May 3 of 1268, Astruc was given several mill establishments by the crown. In operating these 39 As of 1247, Valencian sous were worth roughly 15 Jaca sueldos, though this exchange varied greatly by time and place casif is approximately equivalent to a half hectare. 1 quarter is approximately equivalent to.64 liters. Another source notes 1 quarter as equivalent to 30 pounds; Robert Burns, Society and Documentation in Crusader Valencia (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), 106-9; Document 592, in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Ibid, 121.

20 Bailey 20 mills, Astruc was bound to pay for the expenses of milling, such as the millers themselves, as well as give two thirds of the generated revenue in payment to the crown. 42 This clearly demonstrates the symbiotic aspect of the relationship between the crown and the Jews. Astruc benefits by gaining ownership of the mills and the possibility of profit, while the crown gets a trusted agent, whom they officially possess, to take on this important venture to ensure reliable payments. In February of 1269, the king granted a tax exemption to Astruc, for your mill located in the district of Morella freeing it from that cafis of grain at the measure of Morella, that you were obliged to pay annually to Us and Ours as a rental on the said mill. 43 From exemptions to property to cash, the crown rewarded those Jewish bailiffs deemed helpful with a variety of prizes envied by nearly all in the medieval Spanish world. Church, Jews, and Crown in the Valencian Frontier The church then was essentially just another force in Valencia vying for power and control. The establishment of churches, from the steeples which reached skyward to the din of their bells, was a heavy spiritual burden on the local Muslims and a great boon for incoming Christians. However, the role of the church was not limited to acting as a reminder of Christian superiority or a valuable organizational and administrative tool. Rather, the Catholic Church attempted to include itself at many levels of municipal government in Valencia, often leading to various levels of interaction with Jewish settlers 42 Document 835, in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Document 895 in Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , trans./ed. Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 467.

21 Bailey 21 and administrators. The role of the Jew as a landowner is one such example of this interaction and illustrates the competition between the allied church and crown. Jonathan Ray notes that Jewish landownership on the Iberian frontier was thus an extension of the Jews unique social and legal relationship to the crown, a relationship which generally protected the former from extraordinary taxation by the church and their local municipalities and that the crown would defend the right of Jews to own land even as they faced criticism and opposition from Christians and the church. However, this was not simply an act of kindness the crown was showing its Jewish subjects. 44 Ray further states that due to the crown s legal ownership of all Jewish subjects and their property, kings sought to control Jewish property that they would confiscate, protect, or redistribute at their pleasure... As conquest passed into colonization, many more Jewish settlers would come to possess both urban and rural land through a variety of means, and landownership would remain an integral part of Jewish social and economic life 45 Thus, this was not simply an isolated strategy. Rather, it appears that there was a pattern of competition between the crown and the church. Despite appearances of allegiance between church and crown, the role of the Jews points to a major tension between the two. For a conquering people, money and land are by far the two highest priorities in terms of expected gains, and in the case of Aragon s conquest of Valencia, the Jewish people came to play an integral role in the control of 44 Jonathan Ray, The Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 2006), Ibid, 53.

22 Bailey 22 both. By their status as royal possessions, the Jews came to be useful tools for the crown to manipulate the ownership of land and the payment of taxes, both at the expense of the church. For, as has been previously noted, the church was already making massive land gains by necessity through its role as a powerful organizational and centralizing force on the frontier. Jews in Valencia also played the important part of financier and moneylender, jobs which were generally tolerated as a necessity though still frowned upon as manipulative by many in the general public, evidenced by multiple attempts to curb excessive interest fees among other practices. 46 However, the unique relationship between the crown and the Jewish people proved once again to be beneficial to both sides. For example, Gregory Milton states that Finance in Valencia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, from Jewish and Christian creditors, derived from economic need. The Valencian church attempted to control it, with limited effect. The crown found advantages in regulating it, often by using the existence of anti-usury and anti-jewish attacks as a rationale to investigate lenders (especially Jews) and enforce collection (primarily from Christians). In the process, the crown gained revenues from fines, fees, and exemption payments, making regulation, instigated by religious rhetoric, a rewarding industry. 47 By using the status of Jews as royal possessions as an excuse to investigate their loans and debts, the crown was able to profit from Christian debtors. Thus, the crown had to provide further legal protection for these Jewish lenders if this strategy were to continue. Such legal protection came in the form of the royal exemption, essentially a get 46 J. Lee Shneidman, The Rise of the Aragonese-Catalan Empire Volume 2 (New York: New York University Press, 1970), Gregory Milton, Jews and Finance in Medieval Iberia, in The Jew in Medieval Iberia, , ed Jonathan Ray (Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2012),

23 Bailey 23 out of jail free card a Jewish lender could purchase directly from the crown. Milton further explores how the crown profited off of Jewish lending when he notes that Through judicial fines engendered by complaints of usury and payments for exemptions from such accusations, the count-kings found a useful and profitable stream of revenue by extorting taxes and special payments from Jews under their authority. These exemption payments should not be seen as proof that Jewish leaders charged excessive interest. Buying exemptions from the crown simply precluded the severe risk that prosecution of complaints posed for any Jewish creditor. 48 Therefore, the crown was making use of existing popular anti-jewish sentiment to profit off not only the Jews themselves, but the Christians who owed them money as well, all while limiting the considerable influence of the church. Conclusions and Possibilities for New Research The relationship between the royalty of Aragon and Castile to their respective Jewish subjects was demonstrably complex, to say the least. The Jews were a persecuted minority in the Christian kingdoms of the north, regions to which they fled only in the face of extreme marginalization at the hands of the oppressive Almohads. The Jews filled many professional voids in their new Christian surroundings within the court and outside it, from landowner to physician to bailiff. However, regardless of their official profession, the Jews were possessions of their respective king, dependent on him for physical and legal protection and sometimes employment. While the king was not nearly as dependent on the Jews as the Jews were on him, he nonetheless came to rely on them as an ally in the effort to colonize Valencia after the conquest of James I. The church was by 48 Ibid, 241.

24 Bailey 24 far the most active partner to the crown in colonizing Valencia, but tensions between the two over possession of land, claims to tax revenues, and other issues led to a measure of competition rather than cooperation between the two forces. The crown navigated this tension by employing the Jews in a variety of capacities, from landowner to financier to bailiff, and used the unique relationship as royal possessions to essentially box the church out from acquiring land or taxes that would otherwise go to the crown. The research and findings of this paper are simply one more look into the muddied waters of Medieval Spain s history and the complexity of its intermingling religions, relationships, and politics. I do not think this work lands on either side of the traditional convivencia debate but rather is supportive of Soifer s claim that perhaps the convivencia model has run its course and that investigating the complexity of Spain s past is the next route to discovering historical truth.

25 Bailey 25 Bibliography Primary Sources ben Asher, Bahya. Beur al ha-tora. In Hispano-Jewish Views of Christendom and Islam, in In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews between Cultures edited by Bernard Dov Cooperman (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998), 46. Originally published by C.D Chavel, ed., Beur al ha-tora (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-rav Kook, 1968), III. Burns, Robert, ed. Foundations of Crusader Valencia: Revolt and Recovery Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Burns, Robert, ed. Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Burns, Robert, ed. Unifying Crusader Valencia: the Central Years of Jaume the Conqueror Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Document 44. In Foundations of Crusader Valencia: Revolt and Recovery , translated and edited by Robert Burns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1991), 39. Document 592. In Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , translated and edited by Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Document 780. In Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , translated and edited by Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 342. Document 835. In Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , translated and edited by Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Document 854. In Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , translated and edited by Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Document 895. In Transition in Crusader Valencia: Years of Triumph, Years of War , translated and edited by Robert Burns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 467.

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