Alhambra Decree
The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was an edict issued on 31 March, 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.
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Background
Beginning in the 8th century, Muslims had occupied and settled most of the Iberian Peninsula. Jews who had lived in these regions since Roman times, considered 'people of the Book' (dhimmis), thrived under Muslim rule. The Jews supported and sometimes even assisted the Muslim invaders due to the harsh treatment of the Jews by the Visagothic rulers of the Iberian Peninsula. The tolerance of the Muslim rulers attracted Jewish immigration, and Jewish enclaves in Muslim Spanish cities flourished as places of learning and commerce.
The Reconquista was the gradual reconquest of Muslim Spain by the Catholic Monarchs and had a powerful religious flavor: Spain was being reclaimed for Christendom. By the 14th century, almost all of Spain and Portugal had been taken back from the Moors.
Overt hostility against Jews became more pronounced (though there was more tolerance at first), finding expression in brutal episodes of violence and oppression. Thousands of Jews sought to escape these attacks by converting to Catholicism; they were commonly called conversos or New Christians. At first these conversions seemed an effective solution to the cultural conflict: many converso families met with social and commercial success. But eventually their success made these New Christians unpopular with the church and royal hierarchies.
Many of the ruling Spanish, both secular and religious, viewed Jews with deep suspicion and hostility. The Jews were also seen as being collaborators with the Muslims.
These suspicions on the part of Catholics were only heightened by the fact that some of the coerced conversions were undoubtedly insincere. Some, but not all, conversos had understandably chosen to salvage their social and commercial prestige by the only option open to them - baptism and embrace of Christianity - while privately adhering to their Jewish practice and faith. These secret practitioners are commonly referred to as crypto-Jews or marranos.
The existence of crypto-Jews was an irresistible provocation for secular and church leaders who were already hostile toward Spain's Jewry. The uncertainty over the sincerity of Jewish converts added explosive fuel to the fire of anti-semitism in 15th-century Spain.
Ferdinand and Isabella
The hostility toward Jews was brought to a climax by "The Catholic Monarchs" - Ferdinand and Isabella, whose marriage in 1469 led ten years later to the unification of the two principal Spanish kingdoms, Aragon and Castile. The result was a single royal state, the precursor of the modern state now known as Spain.
Ferdinand and Isabella took seriously the reports that some crypto-Jews were not only privately practicing their former faith, but were secretly trying to draw other conversos back into the Jewish fold. In 1480, the king and queen created the Spanish Inquisition to investigate these suspicions; under the authority of this new institution, thousands of converted Jews were killed within 12 years. It is not known how many, if any, had lapsed from their new Christianity, or were trying to convince others to do the same.
In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella completed the reconquista by forcing the surrender of the Muslim kingdom of Granada (Granada had in fact been a vassal state to Spanish royals for more than two centuries). The surrender of the city of Granada placed yet another large Jewish population under their rule, and Ferdinand and Isabella decided to act.
The Edict
The king and queen issued the Alhambra decree less than three months after the surrender of Granada. In it, Jews were accused of trying "to subvert our holy Catholic faith and trying to draw faithful Christians away from their beliefs."
All Jews were given just 4 months and ordered to leave the kingdom by "the end of July of this year." Jews were supposedly granted royal "protection and security" for the effective three-month window before the deadline. They were supposedly permitted to take their belongings with them - except "gold or silver or minted money".
The punishment for a Jew who did not leave by the deadline was death. The punishment for a non-Jew who sheltered or hid Jews was the confiscation of all belongings and hereditary privileges.
As a result of this expulsion, Spanish Jews dispersed throughout the region of North Africa known as the Maghreb. They also fled to south-eastern Europe where they were granted safety in the Ottoman Empire and formed flourishing local Jewish communities, the largest being those of Thessaloniki and Sarajevo. In those regions, they often intermingled with the already existing Mizrachi (Eastern Jewish) communities.
Scholars disagree about how many Jews left Spain as a result of the decree; the numbers vary between 130,000 and 800,000. Many (likely more than half) went to Portugal, where they only eluded persecution for a few years (see Portuguese Inquisition). The Jewish community in Portugal (perhaps then some 10% of that country's population ) were then declared Christians by Royal decree unless they left, but since their departure was severely hindered by the King (who needed their expertise for Portugal's overseas enterprises), the vast majority was forced to stay as nominal Christians.
Other Spanish Jews (estimates range between 50,000 and 70,000) chose in the face of the Edict to convert to Christianity and thereby escape expulsion. Not surprisingly, their conversion served as poor protection from church hostility after the Spanish Inquisition came into full effect; persecution and expulsion were common.
Many of these "New Christians" were eventually forced to either leave the countries or intermarry with the local populace by the dual Inquisitions of Portugal and Spain. Many settled in North Africa or elsewhere in Europe, most notably in the Netherlands and England (see Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands, History of the Marranos in England).
Don Isaac Abravanel and the Alhambra decree
Legend does claim that Don Isaac Abravanel, who had previously ransomed 480 Jewish converts of Malaga from the Catholic monarchs by a payment of 20,000 doubloons, now offered them 600,000 ducats for the revocation of the edict. It is said also that Ferdinand hesitated, but was prevented from accepting the offer by Torquemada, the grand inquisitor, who dashed into the royal presence and, throwing a crucifix down before the king and queen, asked whether, like Judas, they would betray their Lord for money.
The 1988 novel The Alhambra Decree by David Raphael contains a fictionalized response to the Alhambra decree attributed to Rabbi Don Isaac Abrabanel. It is commonly (and mistakenly) cited as genuine.[1]
The Alhambra Decree
The Kings Ferdinand and Isabella, by the grace of God, King and Queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon and other dominions of the crown - to the prince Juan, to dukes, marquees, counts, the holy orders, priors, knight commanders, lords of the castles, cavaliers, and to all Jews, men and women of whatever age, and to anyone else this letter may concern - that health and grace be unto them. It is well known that in our dominion, there are certain bad Christians that became 'Judaized' and committed apostasy against our Holy Catholic faith, much of it the cause of interactions between Jews and Christians. Therefore, in the year 1480, we ordered that the Jews be separated from the cities and towns in our domains and that they be given separate sectors, hoping that with such separation the situation would be remedied, and we ordered that the Inquisition be established in such domains; and at the end of twelve years it has worked and the Inquisition has found many guilty persons. Furthermore we are informed by the Inquisition and others of the great harm that persists to the Christians as they interact with the Jews, and in turn these Jews try by all manners to subvert our Holy Catholic faith and are trying to prevent faithful Christians to grow close to their beliefs. These Jews have instructed these Christians in the ceremonies and observances of their laws, circumcising their children, and giving them books with which to pray, and declaring unto them the days of fasting, and meeting with them to teach them the histories of their laws, notifying them when to expect the celebration of Passover and how to observe it, giving them the unleavened bread and ceremonially prepared meats, and instructing them in things from which they must abstain, both with regard to food items and other things requiring observance of the laws of Moses, making them fully understand that there is no other law or truth outside of this. And this is made clear based on the confessions from such Jews as well as those perverted by them that it has resulted in great damage and detriment of our Holy Catholic faith. And since we knew the true remedy of such damages and difficulties lay in the interfering of all communications between the said Jews and the Christians and sending them forth from all our dominions, we sought to content ourselves with ordering the said Jews from all the cities and villages and places of Andalusia where it appeared that they had done the most damage, and believing that this would suffice so that those and other cities and villages and places in our reigns and holdings would be effective and would cease to commit the aforesaid. And because we have been informed that neither this, neither is the case nor the justices done for some of the said Jews found very culpable in the said crimes and transgressions against our Holy Catholic faith have been a complete remedy to obviate and to correct such opprobrium and offense. And to the Christian faith and religion it appears every day that the said Jews increase in continuing their evil and harmful purposes wherever they reside and converse; and because there is no place left whereby to more offend our holy faith, as much as those which God has protected to this day as in those already affected, it is left for this Holy Mother Church to mend and reduce the matter to its previous state, due to the frailty of the human being, it could occur that we could succumb to the diabolical temptation that continually combats us, therefore, if this be the principal cause, the said Jews if not converted must be expelled from the kingdom.
Because when a grave and detestable crime is committed by some members of a given group it is reasonable that the group be dissolved or annihilated, and the minors by the majors will be punished one by the other; and those who permit the good and honest in the cities and the villages, and by their contact may harm others, must be expelled from the group of peoples, and despite minor reasons, will be harmful to the Republic, and all the more so for the majority of these crimes, would be dangerous and contagious. Therefore, the Council of eminent men and cavaliers of our reign and of other persons of knowledge and conscience of our Supreme Council, and after much deliberation, it is agreed and resolved that all Jews and Jewesses be ordered to leave our kingdoms and that they not be allowed to ever return. We further order in this edict that all Jews and Jewesses of whatever age that reside in our domain and territories leave with their sons and daughters, servants and relatives large or small, of all ages, by the end of July of this year, and that they dare not return to our lands and that they do not take a step across, such that if any Jew who does not accept this edict is found in our kingdom and domains or returns will be sentenced to death and confiscation of all their belongings. We further order that no person in our kingdom, notwithstanding social status, including nobles, that hide or keep or defend any Jew or Jewess, be it publicly or secretly, from the end of July and following months, in their homes or elsewhere in our reign, risking as punishment loss of all their fiefs and fortresses, privileges and hereditary rights. So be it that the Jews may dispose of their households and belongings in the given time period, for the present we provide our compromise of protection and security so that by the end of the month of July they may sell and exchange their belongings and furniture and any other item, and dispose of them freely per their assessment, that during said time no one is to do them harm or injury or injustice to their persons or to their goods, which would be unjustified, and those who would transgress this shall incur the punishment that befalls those who violate our royal security. We grant and give permission to the above mentioned Jews and Jewesses to take with them and out of our reigns their goods and belongings, by sea or by land, excepting gold and silver or minted money or any other item prohibited by the laws of the kingdom. Therefore, we order all councils, magistrates, cavaliers, shield-bearers, officials, good men of the city of Burgos and of other cities and villages of our kingdom and dominions, and all our vassals and subjects, that they observe and comply with this letter and all that is contained in it, and that they give all the type of help and favor necessary for its execution, subject to punishment by our sovereign grace and by confiscation of all their goods and offices for our royal house. And so that this may come to the notice of all, and that no one may pretend ignorance, we order that this edict be proclaimed in all the plazas and meeting places of all cities and in the major cities and villages of the diocese, that it be done by the town crier in the presence of the public scribe, and that no one nor anybody do the contrary of what has been defined, subject to the punishment by our sovereign grace and annulation of their offices and confiscation of their goods to whosoever does the contrary. And we order that it be evidenced and proven to the court with signed testimony specifying the manner in which the edict has been carried out. Given in this city of Granada the thirty first day of March in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1492. Signed, I, the King, I the Queen, and Juan de Coloma, Secretary of the King and Queen who has written it by order of our Majesties.
See also
- History of the Jews in Spain.
- Jewish refugees
- Jewish diaspora