Constructing and undermining converso jewishness: Profiat

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2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The sudden conversion of thousands of Jews to Christianity that took place in the Iberian Peninsula between theanti-Jewish riots of 1391 and the final expulsion of the Jews at the turn of the fifteenth century caused the emergence of a new class the conversos (also known as the New Christians or marranos). Ever since these events, the true religious identity of the conversos has been under scrutiny, first by their early modern contemporaries (Jews and Christians), and later by historians who debated how Jewish and how Christian they really were. However, in recent years historians became more sensitive to the process in which converso identity was formulated, and the impact it had on the basic categories of identity the Jewish and the Christian. 2 Jews, Christians and converts who were living side by side wererequired to constantly articulate the meaning of being Jewish and determine to what extent this Jewishness and Christianidentity were exclusive concepts. This 1 This article is partly based on a paper presented at the 85th annual meeting ofthe Medieval Academy of America, Yale University, 18-20 March, 2010.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationReligious Conversion
Subtitle of host publicationHistory, Experience and Meaning
EditorsIra Katznelson, Miri Rubin
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Chapter8
Pages185-215
Number of pages31
ISBN (Electronic)9781317067009
ISBN (Print)9781472421494
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Ira Katznelson, Miri Rubin and the contributors. All rights reserved.

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