Language:
English
Year of publication:
2002
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Medieval History
Angaben zur Quelle:
28,2 (2002) 169-197
Keywords:
Jewish women History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Crusades
;
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
;
Antisemitism History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Jews
;
Judaism Relations
;
Christianity
;
Christianity and other religions Judaism
;
Antisemitism History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Conversion History
;
Jews History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Martyrdom Judaism
;
Antisemitism Historiography
Abstract:
Discussing the historiography of the First Crusade (1096), deals with two "underclasses": Jewish women and their reactions to the violence and the threat of forced conversion, and the "mob, " which has traditionally been focused on as the perpetrator of anti-Jewish violence. In contrast to an older understanding of the sources (Hebrew and Latin) as portraying historical reality, modern historians are more skeptical. Latter-day revisionists attribute the central role that Jewish women are given in some sources in regard to killing their children and themselves to several factors, e.g. models such as the biblical Queen Esther, the prominent role of women in Jewish society in Europe, and anti-Christian polemics. Recent scholarship reveals that Ashkenazi Jewry was not totally talmudo-centric, and does not undermine the idea that Jewish women provided leadership when it came to choosing martyrdom. The second historiographical issue relates to the view that this Crusade was a peasant or popular one. This view has been modified, with the undeniable role of the mob (including women and children) augmented by the participation and even leadership of noblemen, who were responsible for adding an element of military campaigns to the more spontaneous, pogrom approach of the mob.
DOI:
10.1016/S0304-4181(02)00006-4
URL:
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