Acknowledgements; Introduction: 'As if the Jews had no lord'; Part I: Prologue: the Kingdom of Castile; 1. The city of Valencia; 2. The Kingdom of Valencia; 3. The island of Majorca; 4. Barcelona; 5. Girona; 6. Elsewhere in Catalonia; 7. The Kingdom of Aragon; Epilogue, Part I; Part II: 8. King Joan; 9. Queen Iolant; 10. Duke Martí (and the Duchess Maria); Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.
Gampel investigates the anti-Jewish riots in 1391–2 in the lands of Castile and Aragon.
Benjamin R. Gampel is the Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His published works include The Last Jews on Iberian Soil: Navarrese Jewry 1479–1498 (1989), and Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World: 1391–1648 (1997).
'What set the devastating Iberian riots against Jews in
1391–2 in motion? Why were the rulers of Aragon relatively
ineffective in putting down the spiraling late-fourteenth-century
violence in their realm? Using rich new data from the Aragonese
archives, Professor Gampel addresses both these important
questions, provides valuable information on the evolution of the
persecution, and cautiously proposes new perspectives about the
riots' origins and how the rulers of Aragon dealt with them. In so
doing, he illuminates brilliantly one of the major disasters that
struck medieval Jewry.' Robert Chazan, New York University
'… a singular and highly impressive scholarly achievement: the most
exhaustive, detailed, and profound analysis to date of the events
of ten fateful months, between June 1391 and the end of March 1392,
which wrought destruction upon the Jewish communities of Spain …
Gampel focuses on the events in the territories ruled by the Crown
of Aragon, about which very rich documentation has been preserved;
however, his book also sheds light on the consequences of these
attacks for all the Jews of Spain. With a sharp eye and absolute
mastery of the abundant historical sources, he describes the
powerlessness of King Joan and the other members of the royal
family, their hesitant intervention during the crisis, their
ambivalent attitude toward the conversion of the Jews, and their
helplessness in response to the plundering of Jewish property. This
is the most important book written so far about what were without
doubt the most devastating attacks against Jews in medieval
Europe.' Yosef Kaplan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
'Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response,
1391–1392 chronicles one single year's daily violence, providing a
comprehensive survey of the events that led to, and followed, the
1391 massacres that stunned Aragonese Jewries, where religious
hatred laid the groundwork, and social and economic dynamics served
to incite the bloodshed. … Benjamin R. Gampel masterfully
transforms plain facts into a coherent narrative by analyzing the
royal response and its concern with the protection of the Jews, and
emphasizing how personal contingencies and individual behavior
influenced the course of events. The Zeitgeist peeps out throughout
the pages of the book, and the reader is provided with many
examples of Jews experiencing fear in their daily life, as a result
of their persecutors' 'diabolic spirit'. … The book will certainly
take a prominent place within Hispano-Jewish historiography.'
Javier Castaño, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC),
Madrid
'Using documentation and letters written by the royal family of
Aragon, preserved in Aragonese archives, historian Benjamin R.
Gampel gives readers the shape and scope of the events in Aragon
and the responses of King Joan I and the royal family to the
attacks on 'their Jew'.' Aaron Howard, Jewish Herald-Voice
'Gampel's monograph is a fine work and unquestionably a game
changer in the scholarship on the riots of 1391. … it is a treasure
trove of information for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of …
[this] tragedy …' Maya Soifer Irish, The Journal of the Association
for Jewish Studies
'Engaging, ambitious, and sobering, Anti-Jewish Riots represents a
major scholarly achievement.' Paola Tartakoff, The American
Historical Review
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