Dr Hilary Pomeroy
The Jews of Spain: A ‘Golden Age’? An Historical and Cultural Overview, Part 1

Dr Hilary Pomeroy - The Jews of Spain: A ‘Golden Age’? - An Historical and Cultural Overview, Part 1

- The golden age of Spanish Jewry, was there really one? The centuries-long Islamic presence in Iberia left a rich and varied legacy, and it encompassed scientific, intellectual, and literary influences, and these would shape Sephardi culture. However, my concern now is not those intellectual and scientific trends. I want to look at the Muslim patrimony that was material, that is to say including architecture, food, visual arts, and also look at one rather unusual icon that is an Islamic one, the hand of Fatima, that is now very much linked with Judaism although of Islamic origin. Here is a map of Al-Andalus. In 711, an army from Morocco crossed over to and captured almost all of the Iberian Peninsula, reaching almost up to the top. Although this particular map is rather large, it didn’t go quite as far north as is shown. This was a dynasty known as the Umayyads, and their leaders were Arab, but the troops, the members of the army who crossed over, were Berbers from Morocco. But by conquering Iberia, the Umayyads now had vast territory from the Indus in the east all the way to the western border of Iberia. And as you can see, Iberia was very close to Morocco. It was only 9, 10 miles of sea dividing the two countries. So in fact, there is a tremendous amount of Moroccan influence on Jewish culture and Spanish culture which will vary from time to time. We have to consider once again the pact that the Arab invaders with their Berber foot soldiers brought into Iberia, and that was the Pact of Umar. But let’s just look quickly at the chronology of this. 711, we have the conquest of Iberia. And what is interesting that the Jews who were living in Iberia under the previous rulers, the Visigoths, had suffered deprivation, hostility, humiliations, and the arrival of the Muslims brought liberty with them. And so we have the opening of an Umayyad Emirate based in Cordoba, so ruled from Cordoba.

And in 756, however, Abd al-Rahman I made the, to a certain extent, Iberia independent. And furthermore, 929, a descendant of his, Abd al-Rahman III, made the caliphate completely independent of Baghdad. And that’s the time when the final extensions were being made to the Cordoba Mosque. Now, the use of the term golden, which is very often linked to Iberia, is a fairly fluid one. Very often it’s linked only with Hebrew poetry, the Hebrew poetry that emanated from Spain in a particular period, the mid 10th century to the mid 12th century. But I would argue that a golden age came to Spain for the Jews because they now had much more independence and freedom. Following the golden age, or the age of the Berbers, the Muslim rule broke down and there were civil wars, partly because there was no obvious line of descendants. The civil wars broke the country up into a series of kingdoms, between 30 and 60 kingdoms. And each of those kingdoms would have its own capital and its own culture, its own court. In 1031, the caliphate finally, finally collapsed, and the Spaniards asked the Berbers when returned to Morocco to help bring peace, which is what the Berbers did. They invaded from Morocco. The first dynasty was the Almoravids, who were fundamentalists who made life fairly difficult for everyone because, as I say, they were fundamentalists.

They wanted Islamic rule to be fully followed. But they were followed by an even stricter, more puritanical dynasty, the Almohads. Finally, the Almohads returned to Morocco, and the reconquest or the Reconquista moved south, leaving just one Arab-Muslim kingdom. That’s the kingdom of Granada. And in 1492, Granada fell to the Christian forces. And as you know, that’s the year of the Edict of Expulsion. Now, the Pact of Umar, which was brought and imposed everywhere that there was Muslim rule, it was a pact for those non-Muslims of the monotheistic religions, so Christians or Jews is the case in Spain. And they were all given under this pact religious freedom. Of course, wonderful for the Jews after their suffering under Visigothic Spain. They were self-ruling, independent, autonomous communities, and they had the great asset of having freedom of movement. Now, there were religious restrictions. For example, any place of worship, a church or a synagogue, had to be lower than a mosque, a Muslim one. And neither sect was allowed to build new synagogues or churches. Public acts of worship, such as processions, funerals, the ringing of bells, were not permitted. The dhimmi, the second-class citizens, could not study the Koran and could not be in a position of authority of the Muslims. Now, what is interesting is in particular that last ruling was very frequently not followed. In fact, none of these were followed all the time. For example, no new synagogues. In the 17th, 18th century, new synagogues were built in Turkey, in Muslim Turkey, and parts of Morocco. Oh, and of course, the dhimmi could not convert Muslims to Christianity or Judaism.

And in addition to these religious restrictions, we have economic ones: the jizya, the poll tax paid by every adult male, and a land tax. Now, the result of the land tax, which was for most people extremely high, was to drive people towards urban centres. And we begin to get the urbanisation of the Jews of Spain. Prior to that, many Jews had lived by farming. And when they in fact first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, they settled along the coast where they could grow vines, and that was important for religious reasons so that they could be sure that the wines were kosher. So we then have urbanisation and also Arabization of the population. Now, the humiliations, which have continued, for example, in Morocco well into the 20th century were one such as sumptuary laws. Jews were not permitted to wear sumptuous or luxurious textiles. And as you can imagine, this was frequently ignored. And we see that happening throughout the centuries Jews in Muslim lands really enjoying luxurious materials, silks and jewellery. They weren’t allowed to ride on camels or horses, which is why if there was a high ranking person, the occasional high ranking Jew who was allowed to ride a horse, it would always be stated, “He rode a horse.” They had to walk bare front in front of mosques and give way to Muslims. So to sum up, under the Umayyad dynasty, the early centuries gave religious freedom, social autonomy, economic opportunities, which the Jews grasped and began to prosper. Though in later centuries in the rule of the Almoravids and the Almohads there was instability, humiliation, and oppression as the dynasties became more and more puritanical and fundamental.

So to quote the scholar Ross Brann, whose book “The Compunctious Poet” I recommend, he says, “Jews afforded economic opportunity, "religious freedom, and social integration "in the defined role of protected people, "Jews were also caught up in the intellectual stimulation "and challenges of Islamic civilization.” So, what was that civilization? Let’s look at the cultural heritage. What form did it take? It affected architecture. Particularly, it would influence domestic architecture and above all synagogue architecture. The furnishings that you would find in the home, urban planning, calligraphy, illuminated manuscripts, music, cuisine, poetry. And when we think of artistic heritage in Western terms, we tend to think of painting as being the prime form of artistic generation. But in Islam, it’s the plastic arts that are important, sculpting, working with materials, as you will see. I want to quote one of the wonderful poems composed in Hebrew in the 10th century by Dunash ben Labrat. And this will give us the setting for what I’m going to talk about. He said, “Do not sleep. "Drink vintage wine, while henna and lily, myrrh and aloes, "pomegranates and dates, tamarisks and grapes, "and pleasant anemones fill the garden rows. "The singers are accompanied by cithern and viol, "the ripple of the fountains, the murmur of the lute. "All the little birds sing among the leaves, "in the tall trees, whose boughs are filled with fruit.” What’s interesting is this is an invitation to drink, rather shocking in a culture where Islam ruled and it was not really socially acceptable to be drinking. But this is the first example in Hebrew of a wine song, and they certainly existed in Arab literature. So, we’re having a glimpse at how the upper classes lived in Spain. So, he’s sitting in this wonderful garden where the fountains play. There’s the sound of music. There are fruits.

Now, all those fruits have been brought in from abroad. Oh, this is a lovely picture. It’s the only illuminated manuscript from Arab, from Muslim Spain that has survived. These are not Jewish figures, they are Muslim. But as you can see, there is an overwhelming sense of ease, of comfort, of hedonistic delights, music, gardens, trees, perfume. They’re drinking from their goblets. The women’s hair, their heads are uncovered apart from the princess on the left. And on the right, we have music being played. Now, perhaps the most important introduction into Iberia or the technological introduction was that of the water wheel. Remember that prior to this, Spain was very much an arid, and still is in parts an arid, arid country. And the Arabs, who leading these armies, and the caliphs and armies came from Syria, also a desert land, and they were able to completely transform the irrigation of Spain. Here is the water wheel in Hama. This is built many centuries ago. And here is the water wheel in Cordoba, and on the right you can see the Roman bridge. Now, what the water wheels were doing was they were lifting water up in these paddles that you can see. Those paddles will bring water up and drop it into channels. And so we have a very sophisticated system of irrigation that was controlled, very much controlled. It’s still controlled today, surprisingly. In Valencia, there is a tribunal that meets every Thursday at midday to discuss and consider any quarrels or disagreements about the distribution of water. I’m stressing this because, of course, once you have water and the land can be irrigated and it becomes fertile, then it will support a population. And the population in Islamic Spain grew and developed. Hasdai ibn Shaprut was a diplomat in the court of Abd al-Rahman III. He undertook diplomatic missions despite being a Jew.

As I said, really Jews or dhimmi could not have authority over Muslims. But he wrote a wonderful description of Spain at this time. The land is rich, abounding in rivers, springs, and aqueducts. Corn, oil, wine, there are pleasure gardens and orchards. Merchants come to this land from the ends of the world. And of course, under Islam, merchants were highly respected, and the Jewish merchants were not looked down on or traitors as they were later in Christian Spain. At this time, traffic, by the way, was far ranging. One could travel from Spain to the Far East or mainly to the Middle East in convoys, ship convoys, and it was safe because the Arabs built lighthouses along the shores. And as you may know, distances were not measured in kilometres or miles, but rather in days. So something, a city might be a number of weeks away. Now, the Muslims brought in agricultural manuals, and they brought a whole host of crops and fruit and vegetables and spices that we associate with Spain which were unknown until this time. These are dates not native to Spain in the palm grove in Elche. Now, here is the tannery in Fez where Jews worked. Jews, however having certain amount of independence, are second-class citizens depending on what period of time they were living. They had to undertake unpleasant jobs such as tanning, emptying latrines. And so here is the tannery in Fez, which is of interest because Maimonides, the great Spanish scholar, this is his statue in Cordoba, and who, when the Almohads invaded Morocco, was persecuted because under the Almohads you had to either convert to Islam, there was no more religious freedom, or go into exile.

And Maimonides’s family went into exile. His link with dates is that he recommended dates as part of a nutritious diet for those poor workers in the tanneries who were susceptible to all sorts of illness. Amongst the other horticultural introductions, and in fact this age is really known as a green revolution, crops such as grapefruit, bitter oranges. We always think of oranges as being native to Spain. In fact, they were native to China. Almonds, artichokes, sugar, sugarcane, rice. The rice from the Valencia is regionally rice often used in paella. Capers, spinach. And then one particular vegetable that was introduced, aubergine. And aubergine is a vegetable that throughout the history of Spain, until the expulsion, was always linked with Jews and very much in fact often looked down on. But these exotica and beautiful plants were looked down on. The Arabs also introduced noodles, pasta, and hard wheat. The importance of hard wheat is that during times of siege and during later periods of Islamic rule it was constant friction between those petty kingdoms that I mentioned to you. And another characteristic of Arab cuisine was this proclivity, the liking for sweet meats. And nuts such as hazelnuts and almonds and walnuts were introduced, so you get marzipan and all those mouthwatering pastries that we see at Sephardi celebrations and were typically Arab as well. Now in his poem, Dunash greets his friends, his visitors. He offers them wine and offers them food. And there is also music, because this is a cultured society for the elite. In the ninth century… Oh, this is saffron here is one of the spices that was introduced. Here are the rice paddies near Valencia. Couscous, another staple of Sephardi food. And the aubergine that I mentioned.

And this is a little metaphor from Arab poetry, but it’s very vivid and real. Look at the image of the aubergine, and this is how they describe it: “It looks like a red lamb’s heart "held in the talons of a vulture.” And when you read that, you can understand the description. But in addition to food, the music changed. The leaders, the rulers of Cordoba, Toledo, yearned for the culture that they had known in Syria. And in the mid ninth century, a particular musician was brought over from Baghdad and he introduced the sort of instruments that we associate with Andalusi music or Moorish music. Moors actually refers to the people of Morocco rather than Middle Eastern Muslims. This is an illustration. We don’t have any other illustrations prior to Christian Spain when beautiful illuminated Haggadot were produced. This is the “Golden Haggadah,” so-called because of the golden hue in the background. Gold leaf was used in this Haggadah, which, by the way, is at the British Library. And it introduced instruments that would then be introduced into Spain, including the adufe, this square drum, a tambourine. Ooh. Sorry, I’ll go back. And then a crucial instrument. This is the lute, which is the precursor of the guitar. And an illustration from another illustrated Haggadah, this is the “Barcelona Haggadah,” and you can see the instruments being played, including the ubiquitous oud, surprisingly a bagpipe, and kettle drums or naqareh, which would always be played in pairs and are still found in Andalusi music. Andalusi, by the way, is the term used for not just anyone from Andalusia, but for the Moors, the Muslims who stayed on after their expulsion in 1609.

So, it wasn’t only music and food that was introduced and to which we have a reference in that Bacchanalian poem. Town planning was greatly affected. We now have sophisticated cities with drainage, with sewage. I mentioned the importance of water. Now, there had been a certain amount of irrigation in Roman times, but that was for urban use, not for Arab or agricultural use. And you also now get the increasing use or appearance of public baths, the hammam. The hammam, which in Islam was so important because you had to have pure water for ablutions before a religious service, just as it’s equally important in Judaism. So let’s have a look at the architecture. By the way, there were street lamps, there were sewage, there would be sewage channels down the centre of the streets, libraries with huge numbers of volumes, copious copying books and treatises. This, by the way, is how we find the violin in Morocco. It’s Jewish musicians would play it with it resting on the knee. And another group of Moroccan Jewish musicians with those instruments that had been introduced into Spain. Jews were present in the Spanish courts as musicians and in the Moroccan courts. They were particularly feted and praised for their musicianship. By the way, Andalusi music is still esteemed in Israel, and there is an official Andalusi orchestra, the Orchestre Andalou, which in 2006 was awarded the Israel Prize, which is the highest cultural prize, well, prize for cultural excellence. Now, let’s look at the architecture. Here we have the exterior of the Cordoba Mosque, and it’s the Cordoba Mosque that will influence design and architecture, Sephardi design and architecture. And you can see how austere it is. But we’re now going to look at that gateway.

Or we will presently. Those austere exteriors have been kept for synagogues, the Cordoba Synagogue and the Toledo Synagogue. If you look at that Toledo Synagogue, you’d never know that in fact that it had been a synagogue actually because it was taken over and made into a church, which is why there’s a bell tower. But plain brick. Now, the entrance to the Cordoba Mosque, you get this very intricate design alternating red and white triangular voussoirs, the semicircular arch, which will be repeated over and over in Islamic architecture. So let’s go inside, and this is the interior of the Cordoba Mosque, and you can see row upon row of arches. We have columns. These were often spolia because it was customary to reuse columns or bricks from previous dynasties. It was a sign of power if you could reuse material from a church that had been in use. So, we’ve got columns, and then we have these semicircle arches going in every direction, and they’re standing on pillars. Now, this was the sign of the technological advancement, the advances in technology, engineering, and the understanding of the distribution of weight. And that’s the very beautiful interior again. It’s quite magical. And this is what is known as a minbar. This is where the imam would go to give his Friday sermon. This particular minbar was made in Cordoba. And you can see how religious furniture was greatly embellished and esteemed. This particular minbar made in Cordoba transported down the Guadalquivir River along the Atlantic Coast and overland to Marrakesh.

And I’m showing you this because if we then look at the “Sister Haggadah,” you see how that idea of the raised pulpit for the imam was copied in the synagogue. And this is the only way with these Haggadot that we can have an idea of what the interior of synagogues looked like. And you’ll notice how synagogues were lit by these oil lamps. And I just want to point out, go back, these finials. These are rimmonim from the Sefer Torah. Now, can you imagine at the time of the expulsion how many hundreds and hundreds of synagogues and ritual objects as well as manuscripts and books were destroyed? And the only two rimmonim that remain from Islamic time are in the cathedral in Palma de Mallorca. You see here the play of water inside the Alhambra, water being brought in along these channels. The stucco work, that is the carving into plaster that I mentioned before. And here we have a fountain. It’s rather unusual because unusually for Islamic arts you’ve got a reproduction of an animal. You shouldn’t have humans or animals reproduced. And there is a rumour, it’s not certain, but it is thought that this particular fountain was brought from Shmuel HaNagid, who became vizier, a great ruler, in the kingdom of Granada. Now, only three synagogues are extent, have survived today in Spain. Here we have the Synagogue of Santa Maria, two of them. We saw a glimpse, had a glimpse of the Cordoba Synagogue. And two of these synagogues are in Toledo. And again you see the repetition of these horseshoe arches, which are so typical of Visigothic and then Arab architecture. They are introduced, and this motif of semicircular arches that are supported being taken into the Jewish Sephardi vernacular. A view of the inside of the Santa Maria Synagogue.

Now, synagogues could be communal or they could be private. And this, believe it or not, is the private synagogue of the Transito, also in Toledo, of Joseph Abulafia. And here we have, in fact over here there is a tribute to the King Pedro for giving him permission to flourish. He became a finance minister. And calligraphy was terribly important, very highly esteemed amongst the Arabs, and it was a high form of culture. And here we have Hebrew inscriptions in the synagogue and also Arab inscriptions because the people working on the synagogues were certainly the Muslim craftsmen. And you can see how design is chiselled into the material, into the plaster. Now, it’s not only the architecture that was influenced by Islam and Islamic motifs, it was also the illustrations that were used in manuscripts, the few manuscripts that have survived, and a few have indeed survived. On the left, we have what is known as the carpet page and in fact also on the right. When you have images covering the whole of a page at the front or back of a volume, it’s known as a carpet page. And the design here with its same form of a Star of David. By the way, the Star of David didn’t become associated with Jews until well into the 12th or 13th century. But the design here, this is known as micrography, micro, small, and graphy, writing. So, I’ll try and show you. All these little branches are made up of micrography. You see this in this particular manuscript the design is in the form of a lozenge, very Arabic. Another example of an illuminated manuscript with the design in micrography, often containing Psalms. Now, there is one particular item I’d like to talk to you about now, which is very much associated with Islam. This is the hand of Fatima or the hamsa.

The hamsa in fact was not of Islamic origin, it was of Pagan origin, and it doesn’t seem to have been known in Spain under the original dynasties, but became known under the two Berber dynasties that arrived in the 12th, 13th century. And here is the main gate of the Alhambra palace. It’s the Puerta, it’s the Justice Gate, and above it, just above it, is a hamsa to bring good luck to the building. This is another, it’s a plate that’s actually stored at the Detroit Institute of Art. And you see how this is a non-Jewish representation of the hamsa, very artificial. And here we have the only ceramic evidence of a hamsa that was used by Jews in probably the 12th century, and here we have a naturalistic hand. Now, the hand of Fatima, Fatima being the daughter of Muhammad, is something that one should associate only with Islam, but it has been appropriated in the Sephardi world. On the left, we see rimmonim. These would be placed on top of the Sefer Torah. And on the right, a curtain for the Ark, again with the hands open, the importance of hands, and they are in the way the priest, the Kohen, open as the Kohen would hold his hands. These are amulets that were taken over and worn particularly by Jews as well as Muslims. It’s known that there was great belief in the frequent use of hamsas throughout Islamic Spain, mainly right down in the south.

This particular hamsa on the right, a Jewish one, it has a serpent on the right, which was supposed to be not vulnerable to fire so it would protect you. And now we go onto some more illuminated manuscripts, onto the ketubah. Ketubah were normally produced in Spain on parchment, although I must tell you that the Arabs, when they invaded Spain, they introduced papyrus, and paper was grown, sorry, papyrus was grown, producing lightweight paper. So there is, for example, a poem by a Hebrew poet saying, “Take a sheet of paper and write somewhere.” So it was lightweight, it was almost like airmail. Now, I’m showing you this ketubah from Morocco because it has the content, the legal content, is held within an arch, that arch that associated with Islamic architecture, but was retained and kept amongst Jews. And at the top, of course, you can see the two scrolls of the law. Another Moroccan Sefer Torah. And the jewellers in Morocco were silversmiths. Now, they had come, they brought their art of smithing, we are told, from Islamic Spain. Smithing was looked down upon by Muslims, which is why there’s so many Jewish Jews working in gold and silver producing wonderful artefacts. Further examples of the hamsa. On the right, these are pointers for the Sefer Torah. And really to conclude with the summing up of how various aspects of Islamic life have become part of Jewish and now Israeli heritage are these stamp covers from Israel depicting various Arab countries. Ironically, this one has come from Sderot. So very much the hamsa, which was an Islamic icon, has become Jewish and also Israeli. Now, just to return very briefly to this idea of a golden age. Well, the golden age is very often associated just with poetry and with language.

So let’s have a look at language use in Spain. Amongst the Muslims, there was classical Arabic and everyday Arabic. Now Jews, and it’s important to bear this in mind, they used classical Arabic, which is what Shmuel HaNagid used for interaction with the Muslim hierarchy. And then we have Judeo-Arabic for scientific work, and it was the everyday spoken language. By the way, if we refer to Judeo-Arabic or Judeo-any language, it means it’s a language written in Hebrew. And then we have Hebrew use, and this is what I’ll come onto next time, the use of Hebrew and the flowering, the growth of Hebrew poetry and especially thinking about the golden age of Hebrew poetry. So I would say that we have a cultural golden age that overlaps times when there was much freedom and autonomy for Jews, but it continues even under persecution in Islamic Spain under the fundamental Almohads and Almoravids. But of course, it’s a golden age if you can move about, if you can build your synagogues and follow the laws, a doctrine that’s set down for you, but it gives you an outline of how to live and how to be accepted. So, I look forward to my next session when I will discuss mainly Hebrew poetry.

Q&A and Comments:

Q: “Can we learn anything that would facilitate?”

A: The only thing we can say is that there are examples of harmony between Jews and Arabs, and that hopefully that could be reproduced.

Yes, I mentioned about the humiliations that Jews underwent. You know, in Spain on the whole they didn’t wear a yellow patch, but in Morocco mainly they walked in gutters. I don’t think that apprised to Spain.

Q: “What happens to the Muslims in 1492?”

A: 1492 is when Jews and Muslims were forced to convert, or, in the case of Jews, they had to leave the country. Sorry, the Jews had to leave the country. Muslims could stay, practise their religion, but with much less leniency than before, couldn’t use the hammam.

Q: “Why was the Toledo Synagogue called Santa Maria?”

A: Because you’ll find the case of many churches known as Santa Maria La Blanca, which had originally been synagogues, and very often when they were converted into the church, they would be given the name of the Virgin Mary.

Oh, I love visiting Spain. Thank you for that.

Q: Oh, “Did the Jews of Morocco have ties "with the Jews of Spain?”

A: I think I said at the beginning that there was a huge deal of contact between the two countries in the first couple of centuries of Islamic rule. Much of the academies and the yeshivot were led by Moroccan rabbis, Moroccan scholars. And then the Spanish Jews became more learned and didn’t need that help. But we tend to underestimate the contribution of the Jews of Morocco. So, there we are.

Q: “Why were Muslims allowed to stay in 1492?”

A: There were Muslims throughout the Mediterranean. Spain’s greatest enemy in the 15th century was Turkey. The Turks were Muslim. So, there was always fear that if one was harsh, Muslims were dealt with particularly harshly, they had allies, but the Jews were weak, they did not have those allies.

Oh, “When the poets wrote in Hebrew.” Yes, they didn’t use Arabic or Aramaic script. They wrote in Hebrew script.

Oh, the percentage of the Jews in the total Spanish population, probably about 1 or 2%. Jews gradually converted to Islam. The way we know about is the rate of conversion to Islam is through birth documents whether names become, whether you get Muhammad and Hasan rather than Hebrew names or Christian names.

No, you’re right. The Jews from Egypt are Mizrahi and that are not Sephardim. My background is Hispanic studies. I’m really a Hispanist, so, of course, I’m very particular about the use of Sephardi and Sepharad.

There’s a mention of the town of Lucena. Ah, Jeffrey. Lucena was known as the city of the Jews. Actually at one time, Granada had so many Jews that it was known as the city of the Jews. Lucena had a very important academy, Jewish academy, huge population of Jews, which was why it was known as a Jewish city, but it wasn’t self-governing any more than any Jewish community would’ve been. The city itself wasn’t ruled by Jews. It would’ve been ruled by Muslims.

Someone has recommended a very lovely book to read, but we have to be careful here. This is a former colleague, Maria Rosa Menocal, who’s written the book, whose book is “The Ornament of the World,” which is the name that was given to Cordoba as it flourished. And I only say be careful because it’s so beautiful and it makes everything seem so wonderful that it is somewhat romanticised, and I think, as I say, one has to be cautious when reading it. I think you can’t go wrong when reading “The Jews of Spain” by Jane Gerber or Jane Gerber, “The Jews of Spain” by Jane Gerber, as I say. For Moorish Spain, there’s the “Moorish Spain” by Fletcher.

And next week, I will use a fair amount translations of Hebrew poems by Peter Cole. His book “The Dream of the Poem” gives you a fair amount of background information about the Jews of Spain.

So, I’ll leave it there and look forward to continuing and clarifying this next week. Thank you very much indeed.