The origin of this strange people is absolutely unknown. Their roving propensity probably dates from the very foundation of the race, as the words Hebrew and pilgrim are derived from the same root. No question, however, can exist concerning their Semitic affiliations. Their geographical distribution was extensive in very early times. The most ancient collection of myths extant describes their migrations. They were numerous in China during the third century before Christ. Profoundly superstitious, implicit believers in omens, idolaters while professing monotheism, the facile dupes of wizards and magicians, the simplest phenomena of nature were always, in their eyes, invested with a mysterious or an astrological significance. Even their division into tribes has been traced by Dozy to a cabalistic association with the twelve signs of the zodiac.
The Israelites are first noticed in history as a horde of vagabond herdsmen in Mesopotamia. Oppressed by powerful neighbors, repeatedly enslaved, and reduced to those depths of moral degradation incident only to long-continued servitude, they still succeeded in preserving inviolate the principles of their religious and social organization. They were almost universally considered as outcasts, with whom it was contamination to associate. But in all their adversity their peculiar theocratic belief confirmed their resolution and sustained their hopes. They were the Chosen People of God. His Spirit was ever with them, speaking through the voices of their teachers, directing the councils of their rulers, illuminating the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, hovering about the Ark with its golden cherubim. They had the Divine assurance that one day their troubles would end, that the scattered members of their race would be again united, that they would inherit the kingdoms and possess the riches of the earth. Their arrogant exclusiveness was unconsciously, but none the less diligently, fostered by the prejudices and regulations of the countries within whose borders they fixed their residence. In each city they were confined to a certain quarter, within whose precincts Christian men were little disposed, and Christian women absolutely forbidden, to enter. The use of a distinctive costume, popularly regarded as a badge of ignominy, was imposed upon them. They were not allowed to marry outside their sect. The minute and innumerable restrictions of Hindu caste were not more rigid or vexatious than those ordinances which regulated the intercourse of Jew and Christian during the Middle Ages. The enforcement of these social distinctions, as well as the inexorable requirements of the laws, increased the isolation of the Jews in every community. In this manner their unity was preserved, and the extraordinary vitality which characterized their existence in all its phases was promoted.
In no part of Europe had their influence exhibited such constant, marked, and permanent effects as in the Spanish Peninsula. On its coast, with which their ancestors had long been familiar, and where archæological research has placed the Tarshish of Holy Writ, the establishment of the Hebrew is of such high antiquity that history has failed to record it; and it may not unreasonably be assumed that it antedated the Christian era by at least a thousand years. The turbulent and perfidious character of the Hebrew sectaries caused them to be regarded with apprehension by the Romans. In the time of Hadrian, their old and powerful families were distributed, as a measure of public safety, among the most widely separated provinces of the empire. The fact is well ascertained that the Spanish Jews were rich and numerous in the fifth century, and then practically controlled the commerce and the financial resources of the country. Even at that early period they were renowned for their intellectual accomplishments, their extensive literature, their dexterity in the mechanical employments, the assiduity with which they pursued the most abstruse branches of science, and their proficiency in those practical arts which tend to the amelioration of the condition of the human race and the prolongation of the term of human life. As has been mentioned in a previous chapter, although occasionally pursued by royal avarice and clerical animosity, the Jews did not experience in Spain the full effects of that hatred which seemed to be their unhappy birthright until the accession of Reccared, the first orthodox sovereign of the Visigothic dynasty. From the latter part of the sixth century, the malice accumulated in the church and the cloister through ages of alternate restraint and forbearance was unmercifully wreaked upon them. The Visigothic Code is largely taken up with the statement of their disabilities, the denunciation of their customs, the enumeration of their offences, and the description of the penalties to be inflicted by the avenging magistrate. The paternal character of the ecclesiastical legislation, then and long afterwards in the ascendant in the Councils, scrutinized with jealous vigilance not only the public actions of the offensive sectaries, but invaded with brutal violence the sacred privacy of domestic life. The celebration of all national religious festivals was prohibited. A Jew could not be a witness against a Christian; intermarriage of the two races was declared null and void, and all issue of such unions were subject to seizure by the clergy, to be reared and educated in monastic institutions; circumcision was declared illegal; and the grotesque cruelty of the law which enforced the use of pork as food violated without cause or excuse a rational prejudice of the Jew, established by Divine command and confirmed by the unbroken practice of countless generations of his kinsmen. The observance of these savage and unreasonable regulations was enforced by penalties of corresponding severity. The culprit was usually burned alive; in cases where it seemed that leniency might be properly exercised, he was stoned to death. The constant and systematic evasion of these laws, which even priestly malevolence hesitated to enforce, was the consequence of their extreme rigor. Many circumstances then, as subsequently, intervened to mitigate the condition of the Jews; the necessities of the state, the jealousy of the nobles, the venal and corrupt disposition of the clergy, who were often the first to violate the ordinances which they themselves had been instrumental in having enacted, were all enlisted, from time to time, in securing for the objects of popular hatred a temporary and precarious indulgence.
Under the Visigothic domination, as a rule, the policy of the government was decidedly hostile. The opulent were, as is usual in such cases, considered the most guilty; and thousands were seized, despoiled, and murdered on no other provocation than the evidences of prosperity and the imprudent and ostentatious exhibition of their wealth. In the Council, which chose the sovereign, ecclesiasticism always preponderated; and through its influence a clause was early inserted in the coronation oath which bound the king to suffer no other religion but the Roman Catholic in his dominions. Powerful protectors, whose services were purchased by the lavish distribution of bribes, averted the storm for the time; but about the beginning of the seventh century public opinion declined to be longer conciliated, and a frightful persecution was begun. An immense number, amounting, it is said, to ninety thousand, apostatized and publicly received the rite of baptism. Multitudes, who preferred banishment to renunciation of their faith, fled to France, Italy, and other countries. Such extreme measures drove the suffering Israelites to resistance, but their hereditary cowardice and their total want of organization rendered their exertions hopeless, and produced no result but an aggravation of their misfortunes.
While these events were transpiring in the Visigothic kingdom, Mohammedan conquest had spread from Central Arabia to the western extremity of the African continent. Before its irresistible force, the activity of the Berber savage and the discipline of the Roman veteran had alike been humbled in the dust. The dangerous proximity of the Moslem outposts at the south had more than once aroused the apprehensions of the proud and luxurious sovereigns of Spain. But their efforts had been directed rather to the indulgence of their passions and the extirpation of heresy than to the fortification of the frontiers of the kingdom against the ambition of an unknown and underrated foe. The Jews, however, fully realized the gravity of 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.