Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in Medieval Spain: Cooperation and Conflict

Jews settled in medieval Spain at least by the third century, and under the Christian Visigoths (6th to 8th centuries) suffered increasing hostility and persecution, from which they were saved by the Muslim invasion (711). This text details the relations between Jews and Visigoths, and then with Muslims both in Muslim Spain proper (al-Andalus) and in later Christian Spain to the 15th century. It examines both the positive and negative aspects of those relations, drawing on a variety of sources. Political, socio-economic, scientific, cultural, literary and even sexual aspects of the history of the interaction between Jews and Visigoths, and Jews and Muslims, provide an insight into a period of great importance in history.