Place · Iberian Peninsula
Valencia
Ancient names: Valentia
A city taken by El Cid in the 1090s and permanently by James I of Aragon (the book gives 1236 in one passage and 1238 in another).
39.4704°N 0.3768°W · representative coordinate · Pleiades 266090 ↗
Statements linked to this place
Each block is a sourced statement. Click the number to see the cited page.
Jews took part in the Reconquista's colonization effort from the very beginning. Two Jewish moneylenders, Raguel and Vidas, appear in the medieval epic of El Cid Campeador, who took Valencia from the Muslims in the 1090s (the city went back to Muslim rule and was finally retaken by James I of Aragon in 1236). Out of favor with King Alfonso VI, the Cid in the poem turns to them for money. The Reconquista sped up during the 1200s, and around 1250 the Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal controlled most of the peninsula. The big cities fell in turn: Córdoba (1236), then Valencia (1238), Seville (1248) and Murcia (1266). The fast tempo of conquest demanded a growing stream of settlers to repopulate the lands now under Christian rule, and many Jews were among the newcomers.
Community: Jews of Valencia
Jews took part in the Reconquista's colonization effort from the very beginning. Two Jewish moneylenders, Raguel and Vidas, appear in the medieval epic of El Cid Campeador, who took Valencia from the Muslims in the 1090s (the city went back to Muslim rule and was finally retaken by James I of Aragon in 1236). Out of favor with King Alfonso VI, the Cid in the poem turns to them for money. The Reconquista sped up during the 1200s, and around 1250 the Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal controlled most of the peninsula. The big cities fell in turn: Córdoba (1236), then Valencia (1238), Seville (1248) and Murcia (1266). The fast tempo of conquest demanded a growing stream of settlers to repopulate the lands now under Christian rule, and many Jews were among the newcomers.