Between east and west: A Jewish doctor from Spain

In these lines, Mosheh ibn 'Ezra, a medieval Jewish poet born in Granada, expressed only too well the general feeling of catastrophe, both personal and cultural, experienced by the Spanish Jews living in Muslim Spain, who were forced to leave the country of their birth as a result of the religious persecution of ahl al-dhimma by the ruling Almoravids and Almohads. Modem historians as well have described the events of the end of the eleventh century and the first half of the twelfth in much the same fashion. 2 There is no doubt that the Jewish community of al-Andalus was traumatized by those tragic events, especially the educated elite, which had extremely close ties to Arab culture. However, the exodus of these Jews to Christian countries, especially to the northern Iberian Peninsula, to the south of France, and to Italy, opened a new chapter in medieval Jewish cultural history, a chapter even grander perhaps than what is generally called 'The Golden Age' of the Jews in Muslim Spain. These educated, Arabic speaking This article was translated by Elizabeth Maor.