RASGO - Red de Juderías de España. Caminos de Sefarad

Juderia street

The Jewish quarter of Seville included the current districts of Santa Cruz, Santa María la Blanca and San Bartolomé and it was separated from the rest of the city by a wall which came down from the start of Conde Ibarra street, passing through Mercedarias square, as far as the city wall. In general, there is a consensus amongst historians that since very distant times the children of Israel set up commercial relations with the Iberian tribes. Since that time, the Jewish ships started to arrive at the famous Tarsis, in other words, the magnificent Spanish region which owes its name to Tartesus or Guadalquivir.

It is possible that the Jewish quarter of Seville has been, if not the oldest, then one of the oldest in Spain. Hispalis (Seville) was, in actual fact, the key place in the Peninsula and Scipio later made it his capital. The Jews must have felt attracted by this big city which lent its name to the whole of Hispania. During the Visgoth era we assume the Sevillian Jewish quarter had a considerable influence as, in view of what they were like in trade and industry, they must have prospered where there was more wealth and population. What´s more, Seville was the most highly populated city in Spain, the intellectual capital of the kingdom, the centre of Catholicism, the inspiration for the councils of Toledo and the political capital from Teudis to Atanagildo. It was thus there that they must have carried out their activity and applied their capital.

During the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, the Jews who had contributed to the invasion were respected and treated generously by the Moslems and they settled in the cities taken, enjoying great influence in the new society, partly thanks to their financial clout. The Jewish quarter in Seville was one of the most numerous and undoubtedly the most hard-working of them all. At that time Seville not only stood out for its commercial relations facilitated by the importance of its river, but also for its schools of medicine where the main doctors in Spain came to study, including those of Córdoba such as the great Averroes; it was also prominent for its great philosophical movement which had separated from the Koranic orthodoxy and attracted the greatest thinkers like Tufail, perhaps the most original Spanish philosopher, and finally for its arts as, according to well-known proverb of the time, when a musician died, his instruments were sold in Seville. The prosperity enjoyed by the city allows us to believe that its extensive Jewish quarter must have shared this success.

The Jews were the largest, most important minority in Seville in the Late Middle Ages. Before the Christian conquest in 1248, it is likely that the Jewish quarter had lost population in the mid-12th century because of the Almohad invasion which expelled the Christians and Jews from their territories. What is for sure is that the majority of Jews who set up in Seville after the conquest were from Toledo, in an ebbing of those who in the 12th century had taken flight from Andalusia to Castile, fleeing the Almohad persecution. In any case, this does not mean that there weren´t any Jews in Almohad Seville. Alfonso X donated to the rabbiYuçaf Cabaçay a shop in Seville in front of the church of St. Mary´s and behind the shops of the Jewish moneychangers, a Jewish shop just like the ones which existed at the time of the Moors.

The legal framework of their collective was similar to that of Mudejars: the monarchs protected the practising of their religion, allowing them to have their own courts for internal civil cases and charged them some special taxes. However, the life of the Jewish quarter in Seville was far better than that of the Mudejars, at least until the late 14th century. First and foremost, because it was the second largest Jewish community in the kingdom after the one in Toledo with a maximum of four hundred families at the best times of the 14th century, around two thousand people. Also because it contained a group of rich Jews, royal and municipal tax collectors: names like those of Zulema Pintadura and his son Zag de la Maleha, tax collectors or main treasurers of Alfonso X, Yuçaf Pichón, who held the position with Enrique II a century later. Yuçaf Leví, the nephew of the famous tax collector of Pedro I, Samuel Leví, or the Aben Pex, go beyond the framework of local history. Other typical professions, more or less lucrative, were those of doctor, tailor, weaver, silversmith, silk dealer, some merchants and various craftsmen.

Since the early days of the Christian conquest the Jews had occupied their own district in Seville situated practically outside the walls to the north of the Citadel. We do know that in 1252 Alfonso X donated to the Jews three mosques in the Jewish quarter so they could convert them into synagogues. These synagogues match three current churches: Santa Cruz, San Bartolomé and Santa María la Blanca. The free district that the Jews occupied in Seville took up a great extent of the city. The wall surrounding it stretched from the current Colegio de San Miguel to the centre of the right-hand nave of the cathedral and, crossing the place occupied later by the Corral de los elms yard, it followed via Borceguinería to Carmona gate and fit into the wall?? which surrounded the city to the foot of the Golden Tower. After the Reconquest the Jewish quarter was reduced to that part described by the authors of the 16th and 17th centuries. The wall surrounding the Jewish quarter was, on its exterior side, that of the city but outside the site the mole of the Citadel stood out as well as the mosque district and part of the Borceguinería; the Jewish quarter was limited by the Wall which, starting at the Alcázar gate very near Vida street, went into Soledad street, reached the area where the church of St. Nicholas is today and ran around Toqueros street and Vidrio street to enter Tintes street via Armenta alley (in the past, Rosa street) to finally join the exterior wall of Carmona Gate.

Santa María la Blanca

The Jewish district connected with the countryside and with the city via three gates. The one which was outside the city seemed to be, according to the majority of the authors, the current Carne gate which the Arabs called Bab el Chuar or Pearl Gate. The second gate had access to Mesón del Moro street and was made of iron. The third, that of St. Nicholas, was opposite Rodrigo Alfonso street. Finally, there was a small gate called Atambor (drum) because at night it was closed to the sounds of the drum of the corps of guards. This gate gave out onto Rodrigo Caro street. The three gates were closed at ángelus ring and would not open until the following morning.

As regards the gate which gave out onto Prado, this was situated in a district which connected with the necropolis. Alfonso X granted to the Jews three synagogues, but the Jews gradually put up new ones as their prestige increased as they continued to obtain the favours of the Court. Açuyca or Azueica square occupied a separate site in the topography of the Jewish quarter; situated at the end of Archeros street, proudly revealed the synagogue of Santa María la Blanca situated behind the Carne Gate.

The aljama of Seville contained some Jewish personalities with great wealth and influence and hence, in the majority of cases, their activities went well beyond the urban framework of Seville, being played out throughout the Castilian kingdom. Some of them were great scientists, with medicine playing a prominent role, other held public office, posts which had been delegated to them by the monarchs. The following are worthy of special note: Samuel Leví, the right-hand man of King Pedro: the Treasurer and right-hand man of King Pedro. Samuel Abrabanel, John of Seville, Ibn Gauison, a famous Talmudist, Yosef ibn rabía Elazar: The learned astronomer Rabbi Salomón, tree of knowledge: Doctor, astronomer and exegete of great worth who shone in the 14th century. Moses ibn Zarzal, excellence in Medicine: Doctor to Pedro I. Yusaph Pichón: Appointed by Enrique II of Trastámara, tax collector for the city of Seville and its arch-bishopric, having been the main book-keeper of the King.

The Jews of Seville had their own institutions as occurred in the other aljamas of the kingdom. Their organisational system coincided in many aspects with that of the Christians. Hence, the maximum authority the Judío Mayor (Main Jew), Old Man or Judge of the aljama of the Jews of the noble city of Seville who governed it aided by a council of Jews. As far as religion was concerned, the Jews of Seville fiercely sought to safeguard their idiosyncrasy. Self-evidently, they had their Rabbis who provided the spiritual needs of the aljama and celebrated worship in the synagogues.

Santa Cruz Synagogue columns at the San Telmo Gardens

During the 13th and 14th centuries the Jews helped to jump start the economy of Seville. Many of them became servers of the Royal House, landlords of frontier rents who had to collect the royal duties (almojarifazgo) of Seville for Fernando IV. During his reign, Seville became the centre of major international trade. It is highly likely that the Jews took part in all the activities related with maritime trade, although owing to a lack of documents, this cannot be stated categorically.

The influence of the Jews in the Court was increased when Alfonso XI started to exercise the power effectively. The King made don Yuçaf de Écija the main tax collector who he appointed as his advisor. Said don Yuçaf built a synagogue in Seville in 1343.

From an institutional standpoint too, something else which set the Jews apart from the Christians were the special taxes they had to pay, both to the King and to the Church. The Jewish quarter in Seville reached its height under the reign of Pedro I, the King of Castile from March 26th 1350 until his death and the great patron of Jewish Seville. Surrounded by people who were constantly betraying him, don Pedro placed his trust in his treasurer, Samuel Ha-Levi. Don Samuel achieved such a degree of power and prestige that he was the envy of the court who accused him before the King of having stolen his rents. The King had him arrested, taking him to Seville in whose dockyards he died after having been tortured in around 1361. His assets were confiscated and they were said to be extensive as he was found to have great amounts of old and silver and they seized his properties in Toledo and Seville. This decision by Pedro I can be put down not just to the accusations made of don Samuel, but also for a wish to change economic policy, whilst simultaneous pleasing the clergy and quietening the rumours implying the King was a benefactor of the Jews.

The ill will towards the Jewish community, present for a century but more or less latent, came out into the open in 1354 when the Jews of Seville were accused of profaning the host. The black death of 1348 had stirred the population up and the Jews suffered the consequences of the years of depression after the epidemic.

Detail of the Santa Cruz square

However, the anti-Jewish mentality grew after the Trastámara dynasty came to the throne whose governance programme mentioned putting an end to the power that the Jews had achieved in times gone by, particularly under Pedro I. Enrique II heard complaints from the Castilian proxies against the Jews at the Courts of Burgos of 1367 at which the king was asked to reduce and postpone the payment timeframes for debts taken out with Jews, the seizure of the castles and fortresses owned by Jews and the segregation of the Jewish communities in closed districts. The King reduced the debt payments by a third and put back payment for two years, accepted the seizure of the fortresses, unless this should result in some disservice and rejected segregation arguing that non es razón de lo facer, ca se destruirían los Judíos (there was no reason to do so, it would destroy the Jews).

The same approach was adopted by the jurors of Seville in their petitions to the King in 1371. The King granted privileges to the jurors to avoid their feeling ignored by the aldermen and legislated against the buildings constructed by Christians near the Jewish quarter fence so that they wouldn´t exceed the height of the fence.

Juderia street

Against this tense backdrop, may Jews of good standing converted to Christianity, even before the slaughters of 1391. In the spring of this year the Archdeacon of Écija, Ferrand Martínez, started going round the city of Seville, haranguing and exhorting the people of Seville against the Jews. On March 6th the hate spread by the Archdeacon of Écija finally bubbled to the surface and there was a popular uprising in which the people entered the Jewish quarter, sacked the shops, handling the Jews roughly and pursuing them through the narrow streets of the Jewish quarter. After a while, and not without fear, some Jewish families returned to Seville, rebuilding their shops and houses. However, there would never be a Jewish district again. The district, its palaces and synagogues were Christianised. The converts were respected temporarily, but the important buildings were turned into palaces for Castilian nobles, convents or squares. The remaining Jewish community slowly began to withdraw, scuttling away into the interior streets where the only synagogue had remained, fearing the worst and only under the protection of laws issued by the King who wished to avoid any new attacks.

Of the three synagogues, two were expropriated and converted, one in the parish of Santa María de las Nieves, commonly called la Blanca, and the other in the parish of Santa Cruz, but not the current one but rather the one which was at the site now occupied by Santa Cruz square.

A few years later, when Enrique III was old enough to reign, one of his first acts of government was to sue and imprison the Archdeacon of Écija, don Ferrand Martínez. The King also imposed a high fine on the residents of Seville and its City Council, so high that it was not possible to pay it in cash and for a further ten years the municipality of Seville was paying in gold to settle the penalty imposed for the destruction of the Jewish quarter as we can see from the accounts of the Libro del Mayorazgo (Book of the Primogeniture) in the municipal archive. The Jews of Seville did not recover from the havoc which had been wrought. The Jewish quarter, which had numbered over five thousand residents, was reduced to a few hundred and it was difficult for them to attain sufficient number to organize a synagogue and that which today has been converted into the parish church of San Bartolomé, was built after said slaughter.

In the mid-15th century there were Jews spread throughout the congregations of the city and the walls and a large part of the Jewish quarter had disappeared, though in Santa Cruz, Santa María la Blanca and San Bartolomé there were still numerous Jewish families. The Court of the Holy Office set up at the church of Magdalena in Seville in 1480 to judge and punish heresies, spelt the end of the Jewish quarter. In 1481 some were sentenced to the stake just for being Jewish.

Agua alley

The decadence of the Jewish quarter was such that at the end of the 15th century there were virtually no Jews in Seville meaning that the decree of expulsion of the Jews issued by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492 was respected in all the cities of the kingdom except in Seville where almost no-one was expelled because there were no longer any Jews in the city. In general, it can be said that the life of the converts of Seville at the end of the 14th century and in the early 15th century was not at all easy. Hence, along with their great desire get back to normal and try to get back their lives and fortunes, it is quite clear that many of these conversions were insincere and hence, in a short space of time, these confesos (converts) as the documentation of the time called them, would practice their old beliefs again and, in any cases, sought exile in Portugal or Granada.

By contrast, in the 15th century the converts of Seville kept and increased their economic and social power. Some of them arrived actually formed important linages de including knights or the exerting of municipal power: Marmolejo, Sánchez de Sevilla and Martínez de Medina, converts from before 1391, Fernández Cansino, Susán, Lando perhaps. Other retain their money-lending functions, rent collection, liberal professions and, generally speaking, their previous livelihoods. A good number were sincere about their conversion to the Christian faith: others weren´t and the common people were suspicious of all of them as regards the Crypto-Judaism of some, using this as an argument to demand their social exclusion and sometimes attempt attacks on the houses of converts at the time of greatest social tension of the century, hence in 1465 and 1473-1474; in the end, the result for the Jews was expulsion so that their presence could not religiously attract the converts, frequently their relatives, or provide grounds for the latter to suffer «diversos desires con infamia». However, many converts would suffer a worse fate: the Court of the Holy Office, up and running since 1480.