Historical figures

Solomon ben Abraham

He was a prominent doctor, astronomer and exegete of the 14th century, born in Seville, where he died in 1345. His funerary inscription, engraved on a fragment of a Roman column, was found in 1580, when several men looted the old Jewish cemetery.

Kaula al-Yahudi

8th century. Jewish soldier.

At the end of the 7th century, the Visigoth king Egica declared at the Council of Toledo that he knew and had evidence of a conspiracy hatched by the Jews against the Christian Visigoth kingdom, militarily supporting the enemy of North Africa, the Muslims who had expanded the territory of their Umayyad caliphate from Damascus.

Although original documents from Sephardic sources on the matter have not survived to this day, the Arab chronicles describe that it was the Jewish soldier Kaula Al Yahudi who supported the Muslim general Tariq Ibn Ziyad with his troops, who entered the peninsula through Gibraltar and carried out the conquest of Granada and Córdoba in the year 711, and later Seville in 712, under the command of Musa Ibn Nusayr. It was then that the Visigothic repression against the Jews came to an end, the coexistence of the Jewish and Muslim communities in the peninsula began, and the Jews started to use the Arabic language.

Hasday ben Saprut

Córdoba, 10th century. Jewish doctor and diplomat.

Hasday is the first Jewish figure of great relevance in the history of al-Andalus, standing out both in the political and diplomatic spheres and in the cultural and intellectual ones. His education was especially solid in the fields of linguistics and medicine. According to Arab sources, he held important positions as director general of customs and minister, standing out particularly in the diplomatic field.

Thanks to his vast knowledge and personal skills, his mastery of Hebrew, Arabic and Latin, he became one of the main representatives of the Umayyad State abroad, especially at a time when the Umayyad State of Córdoba was one of the most important political powers in the Mediterranean.

In the field of medicine, his participation in the translation of the Arabic version of Dioscorides' work "De materia medica", sent to Córdoba by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII, is noteworthy.

Qasmuna al-Yahudi

Al-Andalus, 12th century. Poet.

Qasmūna was a poetess from al-Andalus, coming from a prominent Jewish family. Information about her comes only from two late Arabic sources written in Egypt. The first is an anthology of poems written by free women, and the second is a political and literary history of al-Andalus. In the latter, Qasmūna appears in a general section on the improvisational capacity of Andalusian poets, rather than in the specific section dedicated to women's poetry.

Only two short poems by Qasmūna have been preserved: one expresses her lament for seclusion and solitude, and the other reveals her amorous longings and fear of the passing of time and the loss of youth. In addition, a verse is preserved as the result of a poetic test that her father proposed to her, in which she had to complete the meaning of a verse that he started. Neither Qasmūna nor her father are mentioned in Hebrew sources, probably due to the lack of interest in Arabic poetry written by Jews.

Qasmūna's most famous poem, widely anthologized, opens with the remark that one day she looked in the mirror and saw that she was beautiful and that the time for marriage had come. She then speaks this verse:

Ayā rawḍatan qad ḥāna min-ha qaṭāfu-ha wa-laisa yurâ ḥānin yamudda la-ha yadā; fa-wā asafī yamdī-shshabābu mudayyaʿan wa-yabqâ-lladhī mā lanʾusammī-hi mufradā.

I see an orchard where the time of harvest has come, yet I see no gardener reaching out his hand to gather the fruit. What a pity! Youth withers away, wasted, and there remains in me, alone, that which I dare not name.

Zag de la Maleha

13th century. Chief treasurer of the royal treasury.

Also known as Yisuaq ben Sadoq, he is said to have been the son of Solomon ben Sadoq, tax collector for the King of Granada and ambassador of King Alfonso X. Zag de la Maleha was entrusted with the collection of debts and taxes of the kingdom, and all tax rolls were handed over to him for examination. He was also in charge of claiming the return of wages from knights who had not fulfilled their military duties.

But the struggle that broke out at the end of Alfonso X's reign between him and his son Sancho brought Zag into disgrace. The prince Sancho diverted military budgets to himself, and suspicion fell on Zag de la Maleha, so he was arrested. As an exemplary punishment, Zag was sentenced to death by hanging, and on the first Saturday of January 1281 all the Jews who were in their synagogues were imprisoned. They regained their freedom after paying 4,380,000 gold maravedís to the royal treasury.

Samuel Leví

Toledo, 1320 – Seville, 1361. Financier, politician, chief treasurer of Castile.

Samuel Leví held important positions in the court of the King of Castile, Pedro I. His main responsibility was to resolve the financial and economic affairs of the kingdom, which led him to become the chief treasurer and, later, a member of the Royal Council.

Residing in Toledo, Samuel lived in a luxurious mansion known as the "Palace of the Jew." Samuel was responsible for the construction of the Synagogue of El Tránsito in Toledo, inaugurated in 1357 and which, over time, was converted into a Christian church. In the synagogue, there are inscriptions in Hebrew praising King Pedro I for authorizing its construction.

The difficult political situation of Pedro I, involved in a war with his half-brothers who accused him of being favorable to the Jews, ended up affecting Samuel. After moving to Seville, Samuel was defamed by his enemies, accused of embezzlement, imprisoned and finally executed. The reasons why Pedro I allowed the execution of Samuel, who had been his trusted man, remain a mystery.

Jusaph Pichón

Seville, 14th century. Treasurer of Seville and Old Judge of the Jewish Quarter.

Jusaph Pichón, also known as Zag Pichón, was a Sevillian Jew who had come to manage the royal taxes under the reign of the Castilian monarch Enrique II, which made him one of the richest people in Seville and the Kingdom of Castile.

His success generated envy even among his own Jewish coreligionists, leading to his imprisonment and subsequent execution in his own home at the hands of three members of Seville's Jewish community. This was possible thanks to a summary execution order that they requested from the king, who, trusting in them, granted it without requiring them to reveal the identity of the alleged traitor.

Although the king, furious at the death of his administrator, sentenced those responsible to death, this incident only fueled the prejudice of the Christian population about the supposed excessive greed of the Jews. In addition, it increased the popularity of archdeacon Ferrán Martínez's anti-Semitic messages, which would trigger the massacre of 1391.

The Zarzals

Granada-Seville, 14th-15th century. Physicians.

Pharez ibn Zarzal was one of the most prominent Jewish physicians practicing medical science during the height of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in the 14th century. His medical skill made him a prominent figure in a time of great cultural and scientific splendor in Granada. His legacy continued with his son, Abraham ibn Zarzal, who also dedicated himself to medicine. However, after a coup d'état in Granada, Abraham was forced to flee and seek refuge in Castile, under the reign of Pedro I. There, Abraham also worked as an astrologer.

The Zarzal family's medical legacy extended to the next generation with Mosé ben Zarzal, Abraham's son. Born in Seville, Mosé achieved an even greater reputation than his father and distinguished himself as one of the most renowned physicians of his time. His fame even surpassed that of other contemporary physicians. Mosé ben Zarzal continued his career until his death in 1433, during the reign of Juan II.

Ysabel Hernandes

Seville, 16th century. Painter.

The measures taken against the conversos and the emigration of Jews during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs had a profound economic impact. The confiscations of property from the expelled Jews failed to compensate for the loss in royal revenues. This situation was aggravated because the confiscated income was mainly used to finance the expenses of the Inquisition courts and military campaigns. In response to this problem, certain measures were implemented.

One of the most detailed records of the Inquisition corresponds to Seville and documents the rehabilitations (habilitaciones) granted between 1494 and 1495, citing the various areas where these people resided, many of them outside the old Jewish quarter. In the list of some of the new converso families who, after paying, continued to live in Seville in 1510, the name of Ysabel Hernandes appears. This woman is credited with the profession of painter, although it is not clear whether she was an artist or a craftswoman.