Jews in the Middle Ages

Jewish history in the Middle Ages covers the period from the 5th to the 15th century. During the course of this period, the Jewish population gradually shifted from the Mediterranean Basin to Eastern Europe.

Historically, Jews are believed to have originated from the Israelite tribes of the Land of Israel. Their first migration to Europe began when large amounts of them moved to Italy, France, and Germany in the early 4th century. Afterwards, due to various pogroms that took place during the early Middle Ages, they fled mostly to Poland and Lithuania, and from there spread over the rest of Eastern Europe. These European Jews later came to be known as Ashkenazi Jews.

In 610, Visigothic ruler Sisebut prohibited Judaism after several anti-Jewish edicts were ignored, exiling Jews to return to Byzantine Spain under Sisebut's successor. In Suintila, Persian general Romizanes captured Jerusalem, allowing Jews to run the city. At this time, approximately 150,000 Jews were living in 43 settlements in the Land of Israel. Although Chintilla decreed that only Catholics were permitted to live in Visigoth, Spain, many Jews continued to live there. In 638, the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem took place, and King Erwig oppressed the Jews by making it illegal to practice any Jewish rites and pressing for the conversion or emigration of the remaining Jews.

In 691 there was the first account of Jews in England, and a few years later Jews helped Muslim invaders capture Spain, ending Visigoth's rule and beginning a 150-year period of relative peace, in which they were free to study and practice religion as they wished. In the wake of a narrow military defeat over Muslim forces, Leo III of Constantinople decided his nation's weakness lay in its heterogeneous population and began the forcible conversion of the Jews, as well as the New Christians. However, some were able to secretly continue their Jewish practices. In 1040, Rashi was born, and in the wake of the Norman conquest of England, Jews left Normandy to settle in London and other cities such as York, Norwich, Oxford, Bristol and Lincoln, where Pope Gregory VII prohibited Jews from holding offices in Christendom. Iban Iashufin, the King of the Almoravides, captured Granada and destroyed the Jewish community, as the survivors fled to Toledo. In 1095, Henry IV of Germany granted the Jews favorable conditions and issued a charter to the Jews and a decree against forced baptism. In 1171, after the birth of Rambam, Jews were accused of committing ritual murder and blood libel in the town of Blois. The adult Jews of the city were arrested and most were executed after refusing to convert. In 1210, a group of 300 French and English rabbis made aliyah and settled in Israel.

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