Jews in European Middle Ages

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

According to the stereotype of Medieval Europe this was a uniform, purely Christian society, but of course the reality was much more complex. During the 1,000 years of history under consideration, ‘Europe' needs to be reframed as part of the ‘Eufrasian world zone', as at least Europe, Western Asia and North Africa were closely connected through migrations, trade and expansions. For example: We know for sure that Jewish people from Israel/Palestine already migrated to cities in the Western part of the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries A.D., but it is unclear whether these communities persisted throughout the so-called Barbarian Invasions north of the Pyrenees or Alps, respectively. From the 11th century onwards, Jewish life is well attested in most parts of the Euro-Mediterranean area. In this seminar we will mainly investigate the history of Jewish people living under Christian rule in Western Europe as well as under Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Most written source materials, which are still extant today, were produced by Christians (or Muslims respectively) who either ruled over their Jewish subjects or who most likely recorded atrocities against their heterodox neighbors. Very often these sources are distorted through an inversion of perpetrators and victims. They therefore need to be read with greatest attention and care. It is one aim of the seminar to enable students to deconstruct these distortions and reconstruct the real power relations which shaped the events and their recordings. This of course also holds true for other individuals and groups which were presented as ‘others' to the respective mainstream society. As religion played an important role as a marker of identity and group formation throughout this period, we will also address the portrayal of alleged heretics and so-called ‘pagans' in Christian sources. But we will of course also listen to medieval Jewish voices and scrutinize their portrayal of the surrounding societies and their actions. We will use these medieval examples to critically analyze and discuss how these societies dealt with individuals and groups which they perceived and constructed as ‘other'. Finally, we will also discuss if certain forms and phenomena of anti-Jewish discrimination and violence might justly be understood as premodern forms of Anti-Semitism.