Between Scylla and Charybdis

by Simonsohn, Shlomo

• ISBN13: 9789004196049
• ISBN10: 9004196048
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-31
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

The history of the Jews in Sicily covers a period of over a thousand years, from Antiquity to the Expulsion, based on some 40,000 archival records, most of them hitherto unpublished. It illustrates the political, legal, economic, social and religious vicissitudes of the Jewish minority and its relations with the surrounding majority of Romans, Moslems and Christians. While the antecedents of the Jewish presence on the island are shrouded in mystery, more and more historical records surface with the passage of time. Those become abundant toward the later Middle Ages.At that time the Jews in Sicily were citizens and suffered from relatively few disabilities. This was true in particular in the economic sphere. No discriminatory legislation forced them into moneylending and trade in old clothes. They engaged in agriculture and industry, trade and commerce, including international trade and shipping, and in most professions, which in turn enhanced their social status. There was as an unusually large number of craftsmen and physicians among them. The majority, however, were labourers, on the land and in town. In the fifteenth century the Jewish population reached 25,000 or thereabouts, over half of contemporary Italian Jewry. All this came to a sudden end with the expulsion order issued by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. Some 80% of the Jews went into exile, while the remainder converted to Catholicism, only to be caught in the net of the Spanish inquisition.This final volume of Simonsohn s series provides readers with an excellent opportunity to obtain the gist of the scholarship in the previous volumes. Replete with tables detailing commodity prices, wages and salaries, marriage contracts, and demographics this work is an extremely informative and very readable description of the interaction between Jews and non-Jews in a not-so-closed society in the Middle Ages."Randall C. Belinfante, Librarian/Archivist, American Sephardi Federation, New York (AJL Reviews, Nov/Dec 2011)This book is also available in paperback."

Author Biography

Shlomo Simonsohn is Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is a former rector of the university and former chairman of the Rectors and Presidents Conference of Israel. He has published extensively on the history of the Jews in Italy, the Papal See and the Jews, and cognate subjects.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
From Rome to Spain	p. 1
Romans, Byzantines, Moslems, Normans, Hohenstaufen and Angevin
Aragon and Spain
The First Millennium	p. 8
In Antiquity ?
In the Days of Byzantium
Moslem Ride (1) and the Geniza Correspondence
Taxes and Imposts (Islam)
Moslem Ride (2)
Return to the Ride of the Cross: Nonnan Sicily
The Hohenstaufen
Tlie Angevin Interlude
Jewish Settlements (1)	p. 45
Jewish Settlements A to Z
From Roman Citizens to Servants of the Royal Treasury	p. 53
Rome and Byzantium
Under Islam
Norman Rule
The Hohenstaufen
Angevin Domination
The Jewish Community (1)	p. 65
From Rome to Islam
Under Normans, Hohenstaufen and Angevin
Scholars and Poets	p. 71
Merchants, Artisans and Others	p. 77
The Geniza Merchants
Ships and Shipping
Trade and Business
Goods and Merchandise
From Count Roger to King Charles I
A Rural Community: Monte San Giuliano
Between Scylla and Charybdis	p. 94
The Aragonese Conquest
The Fourteenth Century
The Martins
Alphonso the Magnanimous
Modica and Noto
More Murder and Mayhem
The King's Jews	p. 127
Individual Privileges
Collective Charters and Pardons
The Sala and Other Protégés
Old and New Privileges
Iacob Xarchi
More Charters
King John and After
The Infamous Books
Last Charters
Taxation and Imposts	p. 161
Public Finances
Gisia, Augustale and Ius Baiulacionis
Other Direct Taxes
Indirect Taxes
Jewish Share in Taxes
Jewish Settlements (2)	p. 222
Jewish Settlements A to Z
Migrations to and from Sicily	p. 267
Population Movements
Aliyya to Jerusalem
Demography	p. 276
The Jews and the Law	p. 286
Servi Camerae Regis
Protector and Judge of the Jezus
The Church
The Badge
More Church Law
Direct Church Authority
Jewish Law
The Dienchelele
Jewish Courts after the Dienchelele
Slay them not lest my People Forget	p. 321
Jewish Attacks on Christianity
Conversion to Christianity: The Mendicant Orders
The Dominicans of Taormina and Elsewhere, the Inquisition
Conversions and Converts
The Jewish Community (2)	p. 337
Organization
Ordinances and Offices
Communal Finances and Elections
Institutions and Officers
Taxes and Discipline
Inter-Communal Cooperation
Social Classes and Tensions
Education and Culture	p. 369
The Educational System
Languages of the Jews
Scholars and Men of Letters
Manuscripts and Books
Minhagim and Traditions
The Economy	p. 393
General
Land, Farms, Vineyards and Plantations
Processing the Produce of the Soil: Wine and Cheese
Meat, Bread and Oil
Sugar
Tunny and Other Fish
Hides and Tanning, Candle-Making, and Wool
The Professions
Arts and Crafts: Iron and Smiths, Leather and Shoemakers, Textiles and Tailors, Dyeing and Dyers
Salt, Sweets, Corals and Jewelry
Builders, Transportation, Arms and Mining, Guilds
Labourers, Wages and Slaves
Trade and Commerce (1): Food-Stuff- Trade and Commerce (2): Fabrics, Real Estate, Money and International Trade
The Individual and the Family	p. 471
Marriage
Dowries
Divorce and Polygamy
Last Wills and Testaments
The Home
Crime and Punishment
The Expulsion	p. 504
The Edict of Expulsion
Publication in Sicily
The Expulsion Step by Step (1)
The Memorandum
The Expulsion Step by Step (2)
More Memoranda and Resolutions
The Expulsion Step by Step (3)
Some Departures
Petitions and Directives
More Departures and Mistreatment
The Exit Tax
The Expulsion Step by Step (4)
The Aftermath
Conclusion	p. 559
Tables:
Rulers 1282-1492	p. 568
Viceroys and Presidents	p. 570
Money, Weights and Measures	p. 572
Marriage Contracts and Dowries	p. 576
Wages and Salaries (of Jews)	p. 605
Prices of Commodities (traded by Jews)	p. 624
Bibliography	p. 639
Maps:
Jewish Sicily until 1300	p. 46
Jewish Sicily in the 14th and 15th Centuries	p. 224
Catania	p. 236
Messina	p. 245
Palermo	p. 251
Sciacca	p. 259
Syracuse	p. 261
Trapani	p. 264
Indexes
Index of Persons	p. 697
Geographical Index	p. 735
Subject Index	p. 744
Illustrations
Cammarata Torah rituals. Palma de Majorca, Cathedral [see cover and p. 435]	p. cover
Epitaph of Aurelius-Samohil and his wife Lasia Erine. Catania, Museo Civico, Castello Ursino, No. 540 [seep. 9]	p. 2
Jewish symbols on Sicilian artifacts in Antiquity. Lamp, Syracuse, Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi; Signet, Mozia, Whitaker Museum [see p. 11]	p. 3
Cession of land for the extension of the cemetery in Syracuse 1187/8. ASP, Tabulario della Chiesa Vescovile di Cefalù, No. 25 [see p. 58]	p. 4
Charles I of Anjou commissions Faraj Ibn Salim of Agrigento to translate the Kitab al-Hawi Muhammad al-Razi into Latin (Liber Continens) ca. 1279. Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale, Ms. Latin 6912 [see p. 74]	p. 5
Geniza letter (section) from Salama b. Musa Safaqusi in Mazara del Vallo to Iuda b. Moses b. Sughmar in Egypt 1064 and address. Philadelphia, Dropsie College 389 [see p. 85]	p. 6
Portal of the synagogue or hechal in San Filippo d'Argirò 1454. Church of SS. Salvatore [see p. 256]	p. 7
Building in the Jewish quarter of Trapani (detail). Palazzo Ciambra [see p. 263]	p. 8
Appointment (first) of Mose Bonavogla to post of dienchelele, 1420. ASP, R. Protonotaro, reg. 21, c.201r-v [seep.311]	p. 9
The synagogue of Caltabellotta (exterior) [see p. 354]	p. 10
Mill. Copperplate engraving by Philip Galle after Jan Van Straet. Nova Reperta 1584 [see p. 407]	p. 11
Sugar Refinery. Copperplate engraving by Philip Galle after Jan Van Straet. Nova Reperta 1584 [see p. 410]	p. 12
Ketiibbah, Caltabellotta 1456. Seville, Duke Medinaceli Archives [see p. 472]	p. 13
Will (end) of Ricca, wife of Manuel Balam. Signatures in Tudaeo-Arabic. Sciacca 1436. ASSc, Not. Andrea Liotta, reg. 2, 4 c. 227v [see p. 490]	p. 14
Edict of Expulsion (1492) in the Sicilian vernacular (opening). ASP, Tribunale del R. Patrimonio, Lettere Viceregie, reg. 177, c. 217v [see p. 504]	p. 15
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