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 language | English |
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Title of host publication | Religious Conversion |
Subtitle of host publication | History, Experience and Meaning |
Editors | Ira Katznelson, Miri Rubin |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Chapter | 8 |
Pages | 185-215 |
Number of pages | 31 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781317067009 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781472421494 |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2014 Ira Katznelson, Miri Rubin and the contributors. All rights reserved.