Jewish Officials at Royal Courts in al-Andalus and Castile (Tenth to Fourteenth Centuries): Continuities and Disjunctions
- Autores: Maya Soifer Irish
- Localización: A Plural Peninsula: Studies in Honour of Professor Simon Barton / coord. por Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo, 2023, ISBN 9789004425460, págs. 305-327
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
This chapter argues that there were significant continuities in the types of Jewish officials who served the rulers of Islamic al-Andalus and Christian Castile between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries. Unlike much of the scholarship on this topic, which has viewed these continuities through the lens of the court Jews’ self-image, predicated on their intellectual accomplishments, the supposed nobility of their lineage, and their commitment to rabbinic orthodoxy, this chapter examines the identities of Jewish officials from the point of view of their royal employers. While the adherence to the intellectual values of adab (Andalusi court culture) remained a marker of elite identity within the Jewish communities throughout the period, rulers were far more interested in the Jewish officials’ effectiveness as treasurers and tax collectors. I suggest that this disjunction between their self-perception and the actual demands of courtly service was a constant in the experiences of Jewish officials in medieval Iberia. The exercise of fiscal power on behalf of the state formed the material foundation upon which Jewish administrators could build and develop their refined cultural sensibilities.
