The Jewish presence in Granada

Abstract

In contrast to almost all other Spanish cities and townships, nothing tangible survives in Granada that might be reminiscent of Judaism. There is no trace of an ancient synagogue on either side of the River Darro, neither on the hills nor on the plain. On the right bank, region of the oldest settlement, rises the hill of widest dimension, the ‘Albaicín’. On the left bank ascends the steeper hill ending in several summits: a pointed one atop the ‘Mauror’ slope is crowned by the ‘Torres Bermejas’ (Red Towers); the other, the majestic plateau ‘Sabika’, carries the Alhambra. to the west of the hills, the city on the plain spreads outwards into the valley, the ‘Vega’. No buildings in any of these areas reveal a Jewish past; Granada's urban nomenclature offers not the slightest hint of a former Jewish presence, and all current - and former - studies of Granada lack satisfactory information about the location of the historic Judaic quarter. There is no mention even of the last chief temple that must have existed until 1492, the year of the great exodus (decreed by Isabella and Ferdinand in this very city) of all the Jews from Spain. And yet, Granada, the town that has forgotten all about its Jews, is said to have once been known as ‘Garnāta-al-Yahūd’: Granada, city of the Jews, and later tradition has accepted this as a fact. I attempt in this study to show that, although some Jews lived there from Roman times, all of Granada never was a ‘city of Jews’. Second, taking as point of departure a remark in the new Encyclopedia Judaica (1971:852) that the Jewish quarter was “not located in a single place throughout the centuries of Muslim rule”. I shall show that the earlier Jewish quarters (preceding the Muslim conquest and lasting throughout the Zirid regime) were located on the Albaicín; third, it will be demonstrated that a Jewish quarter was established on the Mauror only in Nasrid times: and fourth, I shall explain why I think that the church of San Matías was built on the foundation of the last synagogue of Granada, a ‘Gima Abrahén’, which, erroneously, is believed to have been a mosque.