Madrid: Choice Of
Historical Romantics?

NOAM M.M. NEUSNER

Staff Writer

T

he folks at the U.S.
State Department
may not have known
about it, but in choosing
Madrid for the Mideast
peace talks they have made
misty-eyed historical roman-
tics weep for joy.
Five hundred years after
their expulsion and defeats
at the hands of Christian
Spain, both Jews and
Muslims are coming back to
settle their differences.
"Spain was the meeting
place for three different re-
ligions," said Professor
Miriam Bodian, an expert on
Spanish Jewry at the Uni-
versity of Michigan. During
Spain's Golden Age, Jews,
Christians and Muslims
often shared "deep and fruit-
ful" relations, she said.
Jewish and Muslim coop-
eration in Spain was
highlighted by their shared
language (Arabic) and
cultural traditions. In addi-
tion, Jews served as generals
in Muslim armies and as
doctors for Muslim princes.
The Muslim conquest of
Spain in 711 C.E. also form-
ed the starting point of a
cohesive and secure Jewish

During Spain's
Golden Age, Jews,
Christians and
Muslims shared
deep and fruitful
relations.

community on the Iberian
peninsula. The Umayaad
kingdom, established in 755,
rendered Spain a haven for
Jews.
By the beginning of the se-
cond millennium, Jews had
-achieved great prominence
in Muslim Spain, and this
alliance was evident not
only in Jewish-Muslim coop-
eration, but in the closeness
of their cultures.
That was brought to an
end in 1492. In January,
Christian forces defeated
Muslim-controlled Granada,
thus signaling the end of
Muslim political power in
Spain.
Because the Jews and
Muslims had been close
allies, says Prof. Alan Fisher
of Michigan State Univer-
sity, the victory at Granada
made it easier for the Chris-
tians to expel the Jews that
same year.

That expulsion brought to
an end a culture that was
both productive and long-
lasting. Spanish Jewry's
most famous son,
Maimonides, is regarded as
one of the most important
interpreters of Judaism. The
Jews of Spain populated
Europe and the Near East,
spreading their culture,
language and traditions and
forever changing the face of
Jewry. Similarly, Muslims
populated North Africa, in
the areas which are now
Algeria, Morocco and Libya.
And, as any child can tell
you, in 1492, Columbus sail-
ed the ocean blue, setting
forth a process of Christian
growth in the New World.
Although he never reached
these shores, Columbus'
much-disputed accomplish-
ment set sail the birth of
America — now the chief
mediator of the Mideast
peace conference. Indeed, it
could very well be a New
World Order.
What's more, noted some
local observers, the relation-
ship between the two groups
— Jews and Muslims — were
forever altered by the events
in 1492. Israeli-Arab enmity
can be explained by the
watershed events of that
year.
Muslims took their defeat
as • a turning point in their
relations with the Christian
West. Now, five centuries
later, the political psychol-
ogy of the Arab world,
shaped by the defeat in
Granada, repeated Crusades
and, most of all Western
colonialism, now comes to
bear on Israel, which is
regarded as an outpost of
Western influence in an
Arab region.
"The circle is even more
complex," said Rabbi Daniel
Polish of Temple Beth El.

The theory, ripe for a great
sermon, nevertheless doesn't
fly with scholars.
"It is what we call the
magical garden theory of
hitory," said Professor
Juan Cole, a U-M expert on
Islamic history. He views
the two events .— this year's
peace conference, and the
expulsions, battles and
discoveries of 500 years ago
— as essentially separate,
with only coincidence to hold
them together.
"It's an intellectual card
game," he said, noting that -
both the Jewish and Islamic
calendars do not recognize
1492 — from the Christian

-

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

37