Explanation:
Here is your answer read though y: The golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula, which coincided with the Middle Ages in Europe, was a period of Muslim rule during which, intermittently, Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life flourished.The nature and length of this "Golden Age" has been debated, as there were at least three periods during which non-Muslims were oppressed. A few scholars give the start of the Golden Age as 711–718, the Muslim conquest of Iberia. Others date it from 912, during the rule of Abd al-Rahman III. The end of the age is variously given as 1031, when the Caliphate of Córdoba ended; 1066, the date of the Granada massacre; 1090, when the Almoravids invaded; or the mid-12th century, when the Almohads invaded.Image of a cantor reading the Passover story in Al-Andalus, from the 14th century Haggadah of Barcelona.Having invaded southern Spain and coming to rule in a matter of seven years, Islamic rulers were confronted with many questions relating to the implementation of Islamic rule of a non-Islamic society. The coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians during this time is revered by many writers. Al-Andalus was a key center of Jewish life during the early Middle Ages. As Sefarad, al-Andalus was the "capital" of world Judaism.MarÃa Rosa Menocal, a specialist in Iberian literature at Yale University, claims that "tolerance was an inherent aspect of Andalusian society".[1] Menocal's 2003 book, The Ornament of the World, argues that the Jewish dhimmis living under the Caliphate were allowed fewer rights than Muslims but were still better off than in the Christian parts of Europe. Jews from other parts of Europe made their way to al-Andalus, where in parallel to Christian sects regarded as heretical by Catholic Europe, they were not just tolerated, but where opportunities to practise faith and trades were open without restriction save for the prohibitions on proselytisation and, sometimes, on synagogue construction.Bernard Lewis takes issue with this view, calling it ahistorical and exaggerated. He argues that Islam traditionally did not offer equality or even pretend that it did and argues that it would have been both a "theological as well as a logical absurdity."[2] However, he also states:Generally, the Jewish people were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community. Furthermore, the restrictions to which they were subject were social and symbolic rather than tangible and practical in character. That is to say, these regulations served to define the relationship between the two communities, and not to oppress the Jewish population.[2]Mark R. Cohen, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, in his Under Crescent and Cross, calls the idealized interfaith utopia a "myth" that was first promulgated by Jewish historians such as Heinrich Graetz in the 19th century as a rebuke to Christian countries for their treatment of Jews.[3] This myth was met with the "counter-myth" of the "neo-lachrymose conception of Jewish-Arab history" by Bat Ye'or and others,[3] which also "cannot be maintained in the light of historical reality".[4]Birth of the Golden AgePrior to 589, the Jews experienced a Golden Age under the Arian Visigoth occupiers of Spain.[citation needed] The Visigoths were mainly indifferent towards Jews and allowed them to grow and prosper. After the Visigoths joined the Catholic Church, they placed ever greater economic burdens on the Jewish population, and later persecuted them severely. It is possible that Jews welcomed the Muslim Arab and mainly-Berber conquerors in the 8th century.A period of tolerance dawned for the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula. Their number was considerably augmented by immigration from North Africa in the wake of the Muslim conquest.[citation needed] Immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East bolstered the Jewish population and made Muslim Spain probably the largest centre of contemporary Jews. Especially after 912, during the reign of Abd al-Rahman III and his son, Al-Hakam II, the Jews prospered culturally, and some notable figures held high posts in the Caliphate of Córdoba. Jewish philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, poets and rabbinical scholars composed highly-rich cultural and scientific work. Many devoted themselves to the study of the sciences and philosophy, composing many of the most valuable texts of Jewish philosophy. Jews took part in the overall prosperity of Muslim Al-Andalus. Jewish economic expansion was unparallelled. In Toledo, after the Christian reconquest in 1085, Jews were involved in translating Arabic texts to the romance languages in the so-called Toledo School of Translators, as they had been previously in translating Greek and Hebrew texts to Arabic. Jews also contributed to botany, geography, medicine, mathematics, poetry and philosophy.[5]
