An immersive exhibit on the “Golden Age” of the Jewish diaspora who lived in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, known as the Sephardim, highlights the cultural and intellectual achievements of that period, according to the University of Miami, which hosts the exhibit.
The exhibition 'The Golden Age of the Jews of Al-Andalus', which will officially open on February 18, will showcase "the intellectual, cultural and social achievements of the Jewish communities in Al-Andalus" between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, according to the university center.
The first floor of the university's Otto G. Richter Library, home of the interactive exhibit, will house "a rich collection of artifacts and documents" that reflect what life was like at that historical moment in present-day Andalusia, Spain, which was ruled by Muslims.
"For the majority of the Jewish people in that region, the period was one of relative prosperity, tolerance and integration of the three main Abrahamic religions: Islam, Judaism and Christianity," the university said in a statement.
University of Miami professor Shai Cohen, who brought the exhibit to South Florida, defends the exhibition's relevance because it “highlights a unique historical moment of intercultural harmony, intellectual achievement, and coexistence.”
“While it is important to acknowledge that this period was not without its challenges, it demonstrates how Jews, Christians and Muslims were able to prosper together in the Iberian Peninsula, contributing to shared progress in science, medicine, art, architecture and philosophy,” the academic added in the note.
Cohen, a professor of Spanish, Hebrew and Sephardic Studies, notes that some historical studies estimate that as many as 120 million Latinos may have Sephardic ancestry, “a testament to the far-reaching impact of this community.”
The exhibition, which will remain open until the end of May, has been organized by the Sefarad-Israel Center and curated by José Martínez Delgado, from the University of Granada.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to enter the world of 12th-century Al-Andalus using virtual reality headsets and hand controls that will transport them to a medieval synagogue of the period.
The exhibition in Miami has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, The George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies, and the creative team of the university library. EFE
This type of exhibition is almost more necessary in Spain, but for the Spanish themselves, the Muslim period in Spain, and with it the Golden Age of the Sephardim, is totally forgotten in the history of Spain, not to say that for the right-wing and the Spanish fascists it is totally alien to Spain. On the other hand, it is the Reconquista, that is to say the defeat of the Moors and no less important the Expulsion of the Moors and Jews, which formed the state of Spain and the religious, or racist, unity of the Spanish people. It also coincided with the beginning of the brief Spanish Empire, which is still yearned for above all by the Spanish fascists. For example, in Almería, the penultimate province to be conquered by Spanish Catholics, just a few years before the last and most famous province of Granada, some Spanish neo-Nazis are busy leaving graffiti on a small monument to the Republican victims of the Nazi concentration camps, with graffiti such as “Almería judenfrei” (Judenfrey Almería), meaning that thanks to them, not a single Jew has lived in Almería since the Expulsion of the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. There were no Jews in Almería until very recently, and even now there are some Latin American Jewish immigrants and employees of Israeli companies involved in intensive agriculture. Apart from the graffiti of Spanish fascists and neo-Nazis, there is no shortage of anti-Semitic graffiti by communists and Moroccan immigrants. Until a few years ago Almería was the only Spanish city where no one has seen a single Jew within 200 kilometers. Since the Expulsion of the Catholic Monarchs there is only one known case of a Jew who lived in Almería in the 1s, or of the Masons, more of the same. Until a few years ago there were no Masons in what was once one of the Spanish provinces with the most progressive tradition, mainly due to historical figures who were Masons or related to Masonry, such as Los Coloraos, the libertarian heroes of the province who were shot by the absolutists for trying to bring back democracy in Cadiz in 70, or Nicolás Salmerón, who is the most important historical figure, provided that the right and the fascists have not already instilled their alternatives, mainly the Catholic Monarchs or who knows who else. From the little that is known, it seems that during the Civil War the fascists were especially cruel to Almería, now it is one of their spearheads, where massive votes for Vox began and one of the places that vote the most for the new far-right party.
A few years ago the book “The Jewish Quarter of Almería” was presented, a very short book, about 100 pages with photographs, which includes some important little-known facts, such as the curious fact that Christians were known as “Galicians”, just as Hispanic Americans call them today, surely because Galicia would be one of the few regions in the north of the peninsula where fewer “Moors” settled during the maximum period of Muslim expansion, or where there were more Christians, although currently, as recent scientific DNA studies have shown in recent years, the population of Galicia, or also including all the bordering regions, Asturias, León and western Castilla La Vieja, not to mention Portugal, are the regions with the greatest Muslim and Jewish heritage in all of Spain, except for the Canary Islands where the female part of the Spanish can be up to 40-60% South-Saharan, in addition the DNA of these Spaniards is one of the purest so it will help to discover the past of the Moors. present, since these, as with the Spanish, are now too mixed with other races. In Galicia and its surroundings the unusual percentage of Moorish and Jewish DNA is believed to have been due to the emigration of the latter to escape the persecutions of the Christian conquerors, or to displacements from Portugal, the Jews and the Moors went where they found a less hostile environment. The author also briefly denies a libel that many tend to take as a proven historical fact, not to mention the Spanish fascists and neo-Nazis, accusing the Jews of trading in slaves, including white sexual slaves from Europe and Spanish Christians that they supposedly sold to the Moors. The much-talked-about supposed trade was a hoax spread by prominent figures of the Spanish Catholic Church to rally Spanish Catholics against the Moors and Jews of al-Andalus, and it does not appear in any of the commercial documents found in the Cairo Genizah, or at least not in those that mention Almería, this being the main commercial city during the maximum Muslim splendour in Spain. For a few years now it has been known that it was largely the Jews who were in charge of trade in Muslim Almería, exporting and importing products by sea. Naturally this has been known from some of the documents found in the Cairo Genizah... you could be waiting if knowing it depended on the Spanish fascists.
According to the author of the book "The Jewish Quarter of Almería", the importance of the Jews in Almería was much greater than was believed or than what is still thought in Spain, and unlike the Jews of the rest of al-Andalus, those of Almería stood out in commerce. In any case, there are very few historical remains and documents from Almería that remain for researchers. Also in Almería during a period of Almohad fundamentalists the Jews were persecuted, when previously it was the Muslim city in which the Jews were most tolerated and a place of refuge during the persecutions in other cities of al-Andalus. For example, it is speculated that the Jewish doctor, rabbi and theologian Maimonides, editor of the Mishneh Torah, spent a short time in Almería. Although it is not entirely confirmed that Maimonides was in Almería, nor was he his first immediate destination after fleeing al-Andalus, it is also common to find in Spain the claim that he welcomed into his house in Almería and was a close friend of his supposed Muslim teacher Averroes, himself a victim of Almohad fundamentalism. This is one of the main different versions found in Spain about the relationship between the two great philosophers of al-Andalus. They even appear in television reports, where the two of them are seen as children playing alone happily in some patio or garden of a luxurious Muslim palace. It is assumed that it is the version of a few Spaniards among the most intellectual or most cultured, among other things, because the vast majority of Spaniards do not even know these two names, however this is not true and they never met, furthermore they are from different generations. In the end, the Muslim fundamentalists also prevailed in Almería after winning throughout the territory of the Caliphate of Córdoba, beginning the economic, intellectual and cultural decline, also in all of al-Andalus in general, where previously intellectuals and artists enjoyed the protection of the caliph, regardless of their religious belief. During the Almohad fundamentalist occupation, together with a short period of Christian conquest, the most important first Jewish quarter of Almería was completely destroyed. According to the author, Spanish Christians were also very uneducated and ignorant, they only lived to fight, apart from the fact that they frequently fought among themselves, or agreed to truces or joined the Moors as it suited them, they even sealed pacts through marriage. Or the famous Cid Campeador was rather a mercenary who sold himself to the highest bidder, he did not care whether they were Moors or Christians, he was not the "Moor-slayer" hero that all Spaniards have been led to believe or what the fascists are most interested in, furthermore commercial exchanges were normal, for example in the legend or fanciful tale of the same Cid "the Moor-slayer" includes a scam on some Jewish bankers or moneylenders that this superhero of Spanish fascism carried out on them, he asked for a loan from the Jews Raquel and Vidas leaving them as collateral a large chest of jewels and gold, but the Cid played a trick on them and filled it with sand.