Room II — Multifoil arch

Life in the Jewish quarter

In al-Andalus, most Jews were devoted chiefly to trade and craftsmanship. It is said that, to carry out these activities, Jews lived in quarters separate from the Muslims, yet there is no record of a specific Jewish quarter in Seville until the Christian conquest of 1248.

King Ferdinand III and his son Alfonso X began the Repartimiento — the apportioning of the city — from which many prominent members of the Jewish community benefited, receiving houses, fields and orchards, among other property in Seville. Although most of the houses and synagogues stood in Santa Cruz and San Bartolomé, this does not mean there were no Jewish houses and synagogues beyond these quarters.

Within the quarter, Jews followed their own laws according to the Torah — they even had their own mayor and their own bailiff — and women ran the committees that organised the community's activities.

Name
Torah scroll (replica).
Dimensions
55 cm high; 97 cm long when open.
Description
Torah scroll wound around two rollers. It is made up of a series of sections sewn together with animal sinew. The text is laid out in columns in black ink. The wooden rollers are decorated with mouldings and end in a point at the bottom. Written in Hebrew in square script.
Dating
1501–1600.
Provenance
Sephardic Museum of Toledo.
Photograph
Photograph of the original by Raquel Lozano Martín.

Synagogues in Roman times

Until the 4th century there seems to have been little tension between Christianity and Judaism in the Iberian peninsula. Christians and Jews often debated religious questions and led an active life side by side. Jews occasionally appear in accounts of Christian martyrs in Roman Hispania, as in the case of Saint Eulalia of Mérida. A certain concern about Jewish influence on Christian practice can already be seen at the Council of Elvira.

After Bishop Gregory's warnings about the synagogues at the Council of Elvira, tensions between Jews and Christians in Hispania can be documented from the early 5th century, with the celebrated circular letter of Severus of Minorca, which describes the attack on and sacking of the synagogue of Mahón and the forced conversions of the Jews of that town. This episode would be the first record of Jews losing a synagogue in Hispania.

Name
Seal of Seneor, son of Rabbi Samuel/Seneor d'Ebora.
Dimensions
3.70 × 2.70 cm.
Description
Shield-shaped seal with a ring on the back. It bears a schematic seven-branched candelabrum or menorah — a central object of Hebrew liturgy — whose foot resembles a fleur-de-lis. The inscription is the name of its owner.
Dating
1201–1400.
Provenance
Archaeological Museum of Seville.
Photograph
Photograph of the original by Isabel María Villanueva Romero.

Synagogues in Visigothic times

By the end of the 7th century, under the reign of Egica, the synagogues seem to have been eradicated, as Jews gathered in secret to celebrate their religious rites and festivals. Even so, we know these measures against Judaism were not applied with success: communities continued to exist until the end of the Visigothic kingdom and the arrival of the Muslims.

There were also punishments concerning the ownership of Christian slaves by Jews, born of the constant fear that Jews might be masters of Christian souls. There was likewise the fear that Jews would convert Christians to Judaism and circumcise them. Visigothic law rested on deeply religious grounds — above all the laws of Sisebut and Erwig, based on the writings of Saint Isidore of Seville.

Name
Bilingual capital (replica).
Dimensions
21 × 14 × 14 cm.
Description
A bilingual capital of small dimensions, unique and exceptional. It bears four Arabic inscriptions reading «protection», «blessing» and «happiness». A band of pine cones in high relief divides the capital horizontally; below it, in Hebrew characters, appears verse 6 of chapter 28 of Deuteronomy: «blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed when thou goest out».
Dating
1301–1325.
Provenance
San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo. Now in the National Archaeological Museum.
Photograph
Photograph of the original by Patricia Elena Suárez.

Relations between Muslims and Jews

According to Muslim sources, collaboration between Jews and Muslims allowed the former to remain in the peninsula and the two groups to stay in contact. Under Arab rule in al-Andalus, Jews were regarded as dhimmis — protected people allowed to practise their religion in exchange for special taxes, as were the Christians, since both were considered «people of the Book», in reference to the Bible.

Their age of greatest splendour came in the 10th and 11th centuries, when they held important offices and developed a rich Hebrew culture in many fields. In the days of the Taifa of Seville in the 11th century, Jews went on serving as counsellors and intermediaries. The arrival of the Almoravids and Almohads, however, put an end to this flourishing culture and to the literary and scientific coexistence of Jews and Muslims, forcing many Jews to flee to other lands.

Name
Tomb plaque of King Ferdinand the Saint.
Dimensions
15 × 30 cm.
Description
Alfonso X ordered a sarcophagus built to hold his father's remains. This tomb, made in 1279, bears an inscription in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin and Castilian. The Hebrew epitaph reads: «In this place is the sepulchre of the great King Don Fernando, lord of Castile and of Tolaitola, and of León and of Galicia, and of Isbilya and of Cortova and of Murcia, and of Jaén. May his soul be in the Garden of Eden. He who conquered all Sepharad, the Upright, the Just, the prudent, the Magnificent, the Strong, the Pious, the Humble, who feared God and served Him all his days; who broke and destroyed all his enemies, and exalted and honoured all his friends, and conquered the city of Isbilya, which is the head of all Sepharad, and died in it on the night of the twenty-second day of the month of Sivan, in the year five thousand and twelve of the creation of the World».
Dating
1279.
Provenance
Seville Cathedral.
Photograph
Photograph of the original by Pepa Rull.

The Repartimiento of Seville

From 1248, the date of the Christian conquest of the city of Seville, until 1253, when the event was formalised in writing, numerous groups of people kept arriving to live in the newly conquered city. Among the first measures taken, King Ferdinand III made numerous donations to Jewish families to promote peaceful coexistence.

After the death of Ferdinand III, his son Alfonso X carried on the work of repopulation and the official Repartimiento of the city. The Jewish population collaborated extensively with the Repartimiento. At first they were protected by the Crown under a favourable legal status that recognised them as equal in rights with the Christians.

Name
Seal of Abraham ben Sa'adia.
Dimensions
3.20 × 3.20 cm.
Description
Four-lobed seal with a ring on the back. The fleur-de-lis is an ornamental motif in wide use since antiquity, above all in the East. For the Israelites it was also a symbol of purity and simplicity. The inscription is the name of its owner.
Dating
1301–1350.
Provenance
Archaeological Museum of Seville.
Photograph
Photograph of the original by José Morón Borrego.

The synagogue of Santa María la Blanca

King Alfonso X counted his Jewish officials among the principal beneficiaries of the Repartimiento, and so they were granted three mosques to be converted into synagogues in the present-day quarters of Santa Cruz and San Bartolomé. These donations are extensively documented in the Archive of Seville Cathedral. Later, under the reigns of Alfonso XI and his son Pedro I in the mid-14th century, Jews wielded an even stronger influence at court, and it was King Alfonso XI himself who ordered a fourth synagogue built in Seville, asking the Pope to authorise prayer in the new temple.

Today the church of Santa María la Blanca is the only one that preserves remains of the old synagogue: restorations in 2004 uncovered windows and the women's gallery of the former synagogue, and in 2024 the hekhal.

Name
Siete Partidas, Partida 7, title 24: Laws concerning the Jews (digitised copy).
Dimensions
30 × 21 cm (copy).
Description
A legal code drawn up in Castile during the reign of Alfonso X with the aim of achieving a measure of juridical uniformity across the kingdom. Its original name was «Libro de las Leyes» (Book of the Laws); around the 14th century it received its present name, after the sections into which it was divided.
Dating
15th-century edition
Provenance
Biblioteca Nacional de España.

The Siete Partidas

Despite all these initial concessions, during his reign Alfonso X drew up a body of laws, the so-called Siete Partidas, intended to bring juridical uniformity to the territories of the kingdom. Partida 7 contains a title devoted specifically to the Jews, with eleven laws regulating their life, their synagogues, their conduct towards Christians and even their dress — they were to wear a mark upon their heads to identify them. These Partidas did not come into force at once.

At the end of the 14th century anti-Jewish feeling deepened, as Jews were blamed for the plagues striking certain cities. The spreading of this hatred was the work of an archdeacon of Écija named Ferrán Martínez, who preached against the Jews until, in 1391, Christians unleashed a massacre in the Jewish quarter of Seville. As a result, numerous families lost their lives, others emigrated, and many more chose to convert to Christianity.

The cemetery

The Jewish quarter also had a burial ground or cemetery located outside the walls. From 1485 to the present day, eight excavations have been carried out, revealing more than 400 individuals dated between the 13th and 15th centuries — proof of the intensive use of the cemetery and of the density of the population living in the quarter, although the full extent of the cemetery is not completely known.

The human remains found have been excavated and analysed by specialist anthropologists, and are kept in the storerooms of the Archaeological Museum of Seville. One brick tomb, without human remains, was removed and placed on public display on one side of the basement level of the car park on Calle Cano y Cueto, which can be visited today.