In Part 2, we will discuss why Toledo became so important in the Spanish Jewish community.

The importance of the Sephardic Jews was crucial, mainly because they were in touch with Western Europe. Their significance grew even more with the rise of disputes between the Pope and Byzantium, which to a certain extent also paralyzed the trade between Eastern and Western Christians. 

Luxury goods in Western Europe flowed in many cases through Spain, and Jews who played a very important role in this long-distance trade even managed to establish contact with India and China from where spices, incense and silk were imported into Europe. The Jewish merchants in Eastern Europe bought the captured pagan Slavs from the Christians (one of the main business routes went as far as Prague). They paid in Sudanese gold, a major currency in the Al-Andalusian economy. This trade has had a significant impact on the European economy, as the Sudanese gold had a major impact on the value of European currencies in the Middle Ages.

The economic boom of the Jews soon led to the development of Jewish culture in a tolerant and flourishing Muslim environment. During this period, excellent Jewish poets, philologists and philosophers were born in Al-Andalus, such as Šlomo ibn Gabirol (long known as Avicebron in the Christian environment), Shmu'el ha-Nagid, and Moshe ibn Ezra. It was important to note that, through contact with Muslims, al-Andalusian Jews learned Greek philosophy and Muslim astronomy, mathematics and medicine. 

Toledo was therefore—unsurprisngly--one of the Jewish cultural centers in al-Andalus. During the 11th century, when Toledo was ruled by the Muslims, it had a large Jewish population of about 4,000. This population was divided into separate communities generally according to place of origin.  Toledo was also the center of the Karaites in Spain. Jewish occupations included textile manufacture, tanning, and dyeing, military and commerce. 

Toledo became a center of Jewish scholarship, translation, and science. The astronomer Zarkal (Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Ben Yachya) lived there for a time in the mid-11th century. and The biblical commentator Judah Ben Samuel Ibn Bal'am was born and educated in Toledo in this period. Several Jewish authors who wrote in Arabic were born and probably educated at Toledo even after its conquest by the Christians. Judah ha-Levi and Abraham ibn Ezra were also born in Toledo but educated at Cordova.

The situation of the Jews in Toledo remained unchanged after the town was conquered by Alfonso VI in 1085. During the 12th century it continued to be a center of learning. Jews and apostates translated works of mathematics, astronomy, and other subjects from Arabic into the spoken vernacular and into Latin. From then on, the community developed until it became the most prominent in the kingdom of Castile and one of the most important in Spain. Toward the close of the 15th century, the sources mention that ten synagogues and five battei midrash existed. Toledo also has many remnants of Jewish tombstones, some of which are preserved in the archaeological museum of the town.

The Jews of Toledo were expelled with the other Jews of Spain in 1492, and the last exiles left Toledo on the seventh of Av. They left behind them the debts owed to them by Christians, and the government determined the procedure for their collection. Toledo is one of the few towns of Spain where remnants of Jewish edifices have been preserved, amongst them the famous medieval Synagogue of Toledo.

Though there is no active community there, the Old Jewish Quarter in Toledo can still be visited today. It’s one destination worth visiting when on a Jewish tour in the Iberian Peninsula.

Also read: The Castilian City Of Toledo (Part 1)

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