Antiquity and Excellence of the Jewish Diaspora in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

This paper analyses Jewish legends dealing with the origins of their settlement in the Iberian Peninsula. These stories, originally aristocratic traditions, turned into general ones: they contributed to the self-confidence and pride of the whole Spanish Jewry and gave reasons for the Sephardic predujices towards other Jews. Some of these legends are found in the Spanish historiography of the 16th and 17th centuries: historians and chroniclers made use of them in order to prove the excellence (or lack of excellence) of cities, regions and peoples of the Hispanic Monarchy.