Bookshelf

The Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

Dolores Sloan offers a com­pelling por­trait of the Sephardic Jews, who cre­at­ed a Gold­en Age on the Iber­ian Penin­su­la under Moslem rule for almost 700 years, then con­tin­ued to advance sci­ence, med­i­cine, polit­i­cal econ­o­my, gov­ern­ment and the arts under the Chris­t­ian hege­mo­ny that followed.

For­ward by Jonathan Kirsch
ISBN 978–0‑7864–3817‑4
254pp. soft­cov­er 2009
pub­lished by McFar­land & Com­pa­ny, Inc.
Study Guide avail­able for class and book club from hello@doloressloan.com

From the Preface

“They watched the Romans come and go, saw the Van­dals and Visig­oths slay and slaugh­ter. They meld­ed their tal­ents and skills with the con­quer­ing Muslims—like them, chil­dren of Abra­ham, father to both religions—who used them well and taught them much. They served loy­al­ly the recon­quer­ing Chris­t­ian sires of Aragón and Valen­cia and Cat­alo­nia, yes, and Castile. Their maps chart­ed the way to vic­to­ry for the galleons, cogs and car­avels built in the ship­yards of Barcelona. Their appli­ca­tions of math and astron­o­my cre­at­ed and improved the instru­ments of Por­tuguese and Span­ish nav­i­ga­tors and explor­ers. Their under­stand­ing of nego­ti­a­tion and world affairs found them sought after by mon­archs for del­i­cate diplo­ma­cy. Their ships brought sweets and spices to the tables of the titled and wealthy. Their arti­sans and crafts­men, musi­cians and poets cre­at­ed objects and words to adorn and appre­ci­ate. And their men of med­i­cine min­is­tered to roy­al­ty and com­mon­er alike. Their sweat sweet­ened the soil of Sefarad.”