Valencia Later

After all the political turmoil, Valencia was possessed by James I of Aragon. He forced tens of thousands of Muslims to leave. There were Jews in Valencia, and in 1239 they were given their own quarter in which to live, with a cemetery for Jews on the outskirts. In 1390, this quarter had a high wall erected around its perimeter, with the cemetery still outside. The wall had three gates which were closed each night.

The wall, designed to help Christians feel "safe" from Jewish presence, did not prevent a pogrom in 1391. A parade of Christian youths marched to the Jewish quarter, claiming that Jews should be baptized or die. Thousands of Jews were murdered by the crowd; some converted; the Jewish quarter was destroyed.

Of course, no matter how wealthy or poor, free or conquered, Christian or Muslim or Jewish a European or Mediterranean country could be, sooner or later in the Middle Ages the Bubonic Plague came along. Plague came to the Iberian Peninsula in the spring of 1348, reducing the population of Spain (it is estimated) from 6,000,000 to under 2,500,000.

The Plague returned in waves. It was back again in March 1395; on 6 July the city council of Valencia met to determine how to combat the problem. Charitable donations were suggested to please God (whose anger was the ultimate source of their distress), and a procession to the chapel of Our Lady of Mercy was organized to ask for divine mercy. Funds were authorized for the removal of dead animals that had been thrown into the streets.

Something entirely different was also happening in Valencia that decade. Genoese traders realized that the Valencian climate was good for the growing of white mulberry, a fast-growing tree native to China and India. The important thing about white mulberry is that its leaves are the preferred food of a moth whose scientific name is Bombyx mori, and whose importance is their larvae, which we know as silkworms.

Silk as highly prized, and production had been controlled and kept secret for centuries by China. Once Mediterranean cultures discovered the secret, they worked hard to free themselves from dependence on the Far East. For a time, thanks to the Genoese merchants in Valencia, the area was a major center of silk production. Valencia became an economic powerhouse and entered into a Golden Age of expansion and building.

Unfortunately, a civil war in the 1520s created many internal problems. The city's prominence continued to slide until in the early 18th century the War of Spanish Succession marked the end of its independence.

Now, about the Genoese merchants who started silk production in Valencia. They traded in more than silk. I'll tell you more about them tomorrow, and the medieval slave trade.

Valencia Changing Hands

The takeover of the Taifa (Kingdom) of Valencia by the Almoravids lasted for a couple generations, and then there was swiftly shifting chaos.

In the 1140s, the Almoravid dynasty was losing respect and control, so the surrounding areas started forming their own independent small states again. One problem with the Almoravids was difficulty paying their Andalusian military. In March 1145, a local qadi ("judge"), Marwan ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, tried to manage the increasing mistrust, but the soldiers would not change their attitude about the political leadership and pressured Marwan to take control of the city.

Marwan still did not have the resources to pay the soldiers, so they replaced him with one of their own leaders, Ibn 'Iyad. Months later, in January 1146, Ibn 'Iyad called for a son of the ruler of Zaragoza to come and take control of Valencia. This was Sayf al-Dawla ibn Hud, who took the title of Caliph but was killed within days during a battle with Christians. Ibn 'Iyad then asked Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Mardanish to take over. Ibn 'Iyad was killed in battle in August 1147.

Christians weren't the only problem for Mardanish. The Almohads were replacing the Almoravids and becoming the dominant force in northwestern Africa, and were crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia. Mardanish allied himself with Castile to defend against the Almohads, but he died in 1172 and the Almohads had no trouble conquering the Kingdom of Valencia.

The Almohads in Valencia also lasted just a couple generations, weakening so much that the last Almohad ruler, Zayd Abu Zayd, in 1226 agreed to pay tribute to James I of Aragon to avoid war. Abu Zayd's people resented this and rebelled a couple years later. Zayd Abu Zayd and the Almohads abandoned Valencia and a descendant of Mardanish, Zayyan ibn Mardanish, was put in charge.* It was Mardanish who failed to keep Valencia when James I reconquered it after a months-long siege, told about here.

The story of Valencia does not end there. Let's look tomorrow at the later Middle Ages, the Black Death, and that Valencia had a good climate for growing white mulberry.

* Zayd Abu Zayd stayed friendly with James I and even converted to Christianity in 1236, changing his name to Vicent Bellvis. He married a "local girl," Isabella Roldán, and was gifted some localities to rule in Spain.

El Cid and the Almoravids

After the Almoravids were invited to help control Valencia by a usurping judge and were ultimately driven from the city by El Cid—Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099)—they continued to consider Valencia a goal. There were two different attempts in 1097 to defeat El Cid and take the taifa (Kingdom) of Valencia. The first attempt came to naught. In the second, the ruler of the Almoravids decided to take matters into his own hands.

Yusuf ibn Tashfin was an Almoravid ruler of Maghreb and the co-founder of Marrakesh. He had, a few years earlier, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar at the request of various Muslim groups in the Iberian Peninsula to help them fight against Christians. In 1090 he deposed the king of Granada, defeated Córdova, and drove the ruler of Seville into exile. Now, in 1097, he set out from Córdova on a mission of conquest. El Cid sent troops to counter him, but did not go himself. Although Tashfin did not capture any fortresses that were part of the Taifa of Valencia, he caused great damage to the land, and El Cid's son Diego was killed in one of the battles.

That same year, Tashfin's son, Muhammad ibn 'A'isha, succeeded in defending against El Cid's military at the city of Alcira. Tashfin was sufficiently confident of their dominance that he went back to Marrakesh, only to return two years later to continue assaults on the eastern provinces. That was in 1099, the same year El Cid died. El Cid's widow, Jimena Diaz, continued ruling Valencia, but in late 1100 an Almoravid force besieged Valencia against. After seven months, afraid of starvation, Jimena ordered the mosque to be set on fire (although her husband had converted it to a church), and fled.

Yusuf ibn Tashfin's Almoravid forces now took control of Valencia, as well as southern Iberia and Western Africa. This empire didn't last, however: in a couple generations it would break up due to civil war. What happened to Valencia then? We'll see tomorrow.

Valēntia

In 138 BCE, Rome founded a colony on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The name means "strength" or "valor," and according to Livy was given due to the valor of soldiers who had fought against a Lusitania rebel. After Rome fell, the city became part of the Visigothic Empire. Moorish invasions caused it to change hands in 714. Abd al-Rahman I (731 - 788) ravaged the city, after which it is referred to as Balânsia or Balansiyya, and also called Medina at-Tarab ("City of Joy"). It was controlled by the Caliphate of Cordova, until a civil war that broke up the caliphate and created the opportunity for Valencia to become its own kingdom, called the Taifa of Valencia.

In the last decade of the 11th century, a Castilian noble named Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar—but better known today as "El Cid" (c.1043 - 10 July 1099)—was in change of the garrison. While he was temporarily away, a coup d'état took place by a local judge. The judge called for help from the Almoravids, who not only forced out the rest of the Castilian garrison but also killed Valencia's ruler.

When he learned of this, El Cid returned with a combined Christian-Muslim army much larger than the Almoravids, setting up a siege and denying the city any food. The judge agreed to end the siege, and the Almoravids were escorted out of the city. This was in 1092. Negotiations with the judge continued. Another Almoravid force approached the city in 1093, but declined to fight El Cid and turned away.

With the city starving in April 1094, the judge surrendered. El Cid re-entered Valencia on 15 June, taking control as king. The Almoravids later that year returned, starting their own siege. El Cid took a two-pronged approach, sending a force out of the main gates to directly attack, then himself leading a smaller force from a different gate to attack their base camp. Realizing that the judge's existence might be motivation for another attempt to attack the city, El Cid executed the judge by a public burning. (see illustration)

El Cid set about shoring up defenses with a chain of fortresses, and none too soon. An Almoravid army of 30,000 besieged one of these fortresses in 1096. El Cid managed to break up the siege, but the enemy set a trap, ambushing he Christians in a narrow valley. El Cid managed to escape the trap, however.

Hostility between the Almoravids and El Cid continued for the rest of his life, as I'll describe tomorrow.

The (Re)Conquest of Valencia

James I of Aragon worked tirelessly to expand his control over regions of the Iberian Peninsula (and north into Languedoc). Stories from two knights (one a Hospitaller) of the riches in the Muslim-held coastal city of Valencia (Arabic Balânsia) got him thinking about adding it to his possessions. His plans for Valencia started out gradually, first going after places around it.

James started in 1233 by capturing the town of Burriana, 40 miles north of Valencia along the coast. He spent the next three years expanding from Burriana until, in 1236/7, James' uncle Bernat Guillem de Montpeller captured the town of El Puig, just 15 miles away from Valencia. Legend says that James rode up the highest hill in El Puig and saw Valencia in the distance. Supposedly, his horse reared up and brought its feet down so hard that one of its horseshoes became embedded in the hill and water sprang out of the ground. Another legend says that James had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that granted him the ability to take Valencia from the Muslims.

James' forces reached a suburb of Valencia on 22 April 1238, establishing a command post. Because Pope Gregory IX had authorized a Crusade, James was joined by soldiers from Catalonia, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Provence.

Valencia's current ruler, the Tunisian Zayyan ibn Mardanish, called for help from other Muslim allies. Only Tunisia sent help in the form of 12 ships, but they arrived too late. The siege of Valencia made food scarce, and negotiations for handing the city over to James began. On 22 September, the agreement was signed, allowing Muslims in Valencia to either leave and go far south or stay and submit to Christian rule. An estimated 50,000 Muslims left, replaced by about 30,000 Catalan settlers, who were still outnumbered by Muslims.

James officially entered the city as its ruler on 9 October (shown in the illustration above by a 19th-century artist), a day that is still celebrated as the Dia de la Comunitat Valenciana, the "Day of the (Autonomous) Community of Valencia."

The mosque was consecrated as a Christian Church. The Virgin Mary became the patron saint of Valencia due to James' vision. For the next several years, James continued to conquer more lands, advancing farther south.

What was it like from the other side of history? What about Valencia and Zayyan ibn Mardanish, seeing a half-millennium occupation of the city being threatened? Let's look at the changing history of Valencia, starting tomorrow.

James I of Aragon

James I of Aragon (2 February 1208 - 27 July 1276) reigned longer than any Iberian monarch. The Iberian Peninsula contained several different political entities; besides being King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpelier, James was eventually also King of Majorca, and even later King of Valencia.

He agreed with Louis of France to not try to reclaim the Catalan lands to the north that France had taken from James' father, Peter II of Aragon; in return, he prevented France from trying to push south into the County of Barcelona.

A great patron of the arts and learning, he wrote (actually, he dictated) the first autobiography of a Christian king, Libre dels fets (Catalan: "Book of Deeds").

In 1263, he presided over the Disputation of Barcelona, a debate on the identity of the Christian Messiah between a converted Jew, Pablo Christiani, and a Jewish rabbi, Nachmanides. On the question "Is the Messiah a divine or human being?" Nachmanides said:

"[... it seems most strange that... ] the Creator of Heaven and Earth resorted to the womb of a certain Jewish lady, grew there for nine months and was born as an infant, and afterwards grew up and was betrayed into the hands of his enemies who sentenced him to death and executed him, and that afterwards... he came to life and returned to his original place. The mind of a Jew, or any other person, simply cannot tolerate these assertions. If you have listened all your life to the priests who have filled your brain and the marrow of your bones with this doctrine, and it has settled into you because of that accustomed habit. [I would argue that if you were hearing these ideas for the first time, now, as a grown adult], you would never have accepted them." [The Disputation at Barcelona. p. 19. ISBN 0-88328-025-6]

Even though Christiani and the Dominicans claimed the victory, James was so impressed with Nachmanides' answers that he gave him 300 gold coins, telling him he had never heard "an unjust cause so nobly defended." James even attended the synagogue in Barcelona on the Sabbath after the Disputation, addressing the congregants, an event likely unique in Medieval Europe.

Rather than have the Talmud destroyed, James ordered the removal of passages that seemed offensive to Christians, creating a commission of the bishop of Barcelona and some Dominicans to oversee the censorship. One of the Dominicans, Ramón Martí (Raymond Martini), did not want the Talmud destroyed, because he claimed many passages in it confirmed the truth of Christianity. But don't think Martini was sympathetic to Judaism: he wrote two anti-Jewish books.

After the Disputation, Nachmanides wrote an account (see the passage above), but this account got him in further trouble. I'll finish talk of disputes and the Talmud with a brief bio of Nachmanides tomorrow.