Religious and Ethnic Identities in the Process of Expulsion and Diaspora

Religious and Ethnic Identities in the Process of Expulsion and Diaspora.

Formation from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century

POSTER

CentralEuropeanUniversity

Department of Medieval Studies

Workshop

Organizer: Katalin Szende

Conference coordinator: Annabella Pál

Conference aid: Mariana Bodnaruk

Religious and Ethnic Identities in the Process of Expulsion and Diaspora Formation from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century

June5-8, 2013

DESCRIPTION

Conference Program

Abstracts

Practical Information

Conference Program

June6, 2013 (Thursday)

9.00–10.00Greeting of the participants; Introductory lecture

John Tolan (RELMIN, Université de Nantes), Exile and identity

10.00 – 10.30 Coffee break

10.30 – 12.45 Session A. Expelling societies, chair Felicitas Schmieder

10.30 – 11.15 – Kyra Lyublyanovics (CEU), Spies of the enemy, pagan herders and vassals most welcome: shifts and drifts in the Cuman Hungarian relations in the 13th 14th century

11.15 – 12.00 – Julien Théry (Université de Montpellier), L'expulsion des juifs de 1306: historiographie et nouvelles lignes d'interprétation possibles

12.00 – 12.45 – Katalin Szende (CEU), Scapegoats or competitors? The expulsion of Jews from Hungarian towns on the aftermath of the battle of Mohács (1526)

12.45 – 14.00 – Lunch break

14.00 – 15.00 – Travel from Budapest to Vác

15.00 – 16.30 – Sightseeing in Vác (Cathedral, German town, exhibition, synagogue)

16.30 – 17.00 – Travel to Alsópetény

17.00 – 17.30 – Coffee break

17.30 – 19.00 – Walk in and around Alsópetény (Parish church, Werbőczy-monument, Jewish cemetery)

19.00 – 21.00 – Common dinner and wine-tasting

21.00 – 22.00 – Return to Budapest

June 7, 2013 (Friday)

9.00 – 12.30 Session B. Exiles, chair Julia Burkhardt

9.00 – 9.45 – Robin Mundill (University of St Andrews), Banishment from the edge of the world: The Jewish experience of Expulsion from England in 1290

9.45 – 10.30 – Nadezda Koryakina (RELMIN), Expulsion and its consequences according to Sephardi responsa

10.30 – 11.00 Coffee break

11.00 – 11.45 – Carsten Wilke (CEU), Losing Spain, securing salvation: Mental adaption to exile among refugees of the Iberian Inquisitions

11.45 – 12.30 – Marcell Sebők (CEU), Victims of Reformations? 16-17th-century refugees and their impact on artistic and cultural production

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch break

14.00 – 16.45 Session C. Community recomposition, chair Matthias Riedl

14.00 – 14.45 – Lajos Berkes (HeidelbergUniversity), Greeks in Egypt after the Islamic conquest

14.45 – 15.30 – Josep Muntané (RELMIN), Où sont finis les juifs de Catalogne? Une révision du terme « sefardi » en tant que appliqué aux juifs de Catalogne

15.30 – 16.00 –Coffee break

16.00 – 16.45 – Tijana Krstić (CEU), In search of the post-expulsion Morisco 'community' in Ottoman Istanbul, 1610s-1640s

17.30 - 19.00 Guided walk in the Buda castle area: Jewish and Ottoman-related sites (optional)

19.00 – 21.00 –Common dinner

June 8, 2013 (Saturday)

9.00 – 11.45 Session D. Absorption, chair TBA

9.00 – 9.45 – Patrick Sänger (HeidelbergUniversity), The Hellenistic king Ptolemy VI(180-145 BC) and his politics towards Jewish refugees: A case of generosity and calculation

9.45 – 10.30 – Georg Christ (University of Manchester), The making of the Jewish diaspora in Alexandria in the later Middle Ages: a re-evaluation

10.30 – 11.00 – Coffee break

Session E. Representations

11.00 – 11.45 – Marianne Sághy (CEU), The expulsion of the Templars:Constructing religious deviancein politics andfolklore

11.45 – 12.30 – Marianna D. Birnbaum (UCLA/CEU), The Jew(s) of Malta between expulsion and literary representation

12.30 – 13.30 – Round-table concluding discussion

13.30 – 14.30 – Common lunch (Nádor 13)

14.30 – 16.00 Walk in the Jewish district of Budapest (optional), guided by Borbála Lovas

June 9, 2013 (Sunday)

Free program, departure

Abstracts

Spies of the enemy, pagan herders and vassals most welcome:

shifts and drifts in the Cuman Hungarian relations in the 13th-14th century

Kyra Lyublyanovics (CentralEuropeanUniversity)

The Cumans, a nomadic steppe people of Eurasian origin, formed one of the largest ethnic minorities in medieval Hungary. They first entered the HungarianKingdom in the mid-thirteenth century as a group of tribal fragments fleeing from the invading Mongols. Although the Hungarian king saw them as valuable allies against the Mongols, a general suspicion and animosity surrounded the newcomers, their khan was killed, and due to the serious conflicts with the Hungarian population they left the country. In one years' time, the king invited them again as military allies, and now the conflicts were handled more wisely. Aristocratic ties were quickly formed, and in the late thirteenth-century the Cumans' interests and way of life had a considerable impact on Hungarian politics. However, the king's attempts to use them in the political power-play against influential Hungarian families led to renewed conflicts and violence, and at the end of the thirteenth century parts of the Cuman population left Hungary again, while the remaining Cuman groups had to undergo a long and gradual integration process.

These shifts and drifts in the Cuman-Hungarian relation are traceable on a number of levels, from sources revealing the changing political interests to the role of Franciscan missionaries, the use of the Cuman attire, or the presence – and disappearance – of the spectacular burial rites of the Cuman nobility. On the level of the commoners, however, a more peaceful picture of slow assimilation is seen: archaeological finds testify to a quick adaptation to the new economic environment, while traditions associated with the more intimate sphere of the household – probably important elements of the Cuman identity – were kept well into the Early Modern period.

Scapegoats or Competitors? The Expulsion of Jews from Hungarian Towns in the Aftermath of the Battle of Mohács (1526)

Katalin Szende (CentralEuropeanUniversity)

This paper discusses the expulsion of the Jewish population from the major towns of Hungary in 1526 in its economic and political context. This cataclysm of the Hungarian state also brought a major disruption in the presence of Jews in the main trading centres of the country. Until the early sixteenth century, Hungary was one of the few lands in Europe which rather accommodated than expelled Jews: exiles from France, Germany, Austria, and Spain had become temporarily or permanently part of local society. Hostility started to manifest itself by the late fifteenth century and shortly after the battle of Mohács led to the expulsion of the Jews from the free royal towns where they had settled in significant numbers: Buda, Sopron, Bratislava (Pressburg, Pozsony) and Trnava (Tyrnau, Nagyszombat).

On the surface one might think that the Jews were easy targets to blame for the national tragedy. Examining the course of events in the towns mentioned above, however, I argue here that the expulsion was mainly due to changing business conditions. The transformations in the make-up of the clientele of Jewish moneylenders that Michael Toch has pointed out for most of late medieval Europe, namely, a change from princes, the high clergy, and town governments to the lower strata of urban society, can be observed in Hungary as well. This changed the attitudes of rulers and civic authorities towards Jewish money lending; instead of providing assistance to the lenders as valuable business partners, as before, they rather found it convenient to consider the interests of the more numerous and potentially more seditious group of debtors.

The political conditions, nevertheless, did play a role in the process. When King Louis II fell on the battlefield, the Habsburgs as claimants to the throne were ready to grant the towns’ wishes and consented to the expulsion of the Jews, thus securing the loyalty of these important strongholds in a critical period. The Jews of Buda suffered a different fate, being captured and transported by the invaders to the Ottoman Empire. In any case, unlike many other expulsions, this time accusations of a ritual character seem to have played a negligible role. In the countryside remaining under Hungarian rule, Jews continued to live under the protection of noble landowners and even kept up some business contacts with their former compatriots.

Banishment from the Edge of the World - the Jewish Experience of Expulsion from England in 1290

Robin R. Mundill(University of St Andrews)

This paper will attempt to analyse the varying explanations for the Expulsion of the Jewish community from England in 1290. It will briefly consider contemporary views and the subsequent historiography as well as to delineate the most recent interpretations.

In some ways the final Expulsion seems to be a reversal of royal policy. The Jews were probably invited to come to England in the wake of William the Conqueror and have been seen by some chroniclers and historians as just an adjunct of Normanisation. They had the royal protection and ‘belonged’ to the crown and were in effect directly answerable to the crown in all they did. Thus after a presence of almost two centuries an analysis of why this reversal of royal policy evolved will be attempted.

The paper will commence by initially tracing the mechanics and the procedures of the first wholesale Expulsion of a Jewish community in Western Europe in brief. Consideration will then be given to wider explanations and the longer term causes which have down the centuries been utilised to explain that Expulsion, be they sociological, economic, religious or, political. Thus can the English model be explained in terms of a possible consequence of the Jews’ legal status, a consequence of their financial debility, a solution to a perceived “Jewish problem” or an expression of bigotry, or as Edward I’s government claimed their failure to comply with anti-Jewish legislation.

An attempt will also be made to try to decide what part Edward I and his advisors, the host population and the Church played in the banishment of the Jews. In this attempt to define the preconditions of Expulsion in England some thought will be given as to whether the driving forces were conjunctural, structural or simply whimsical.

Finally the consequences of the Expulsion both for the Jews who left the edge of the world over seven centuries ago and for their host nation will be considered as well as how the memory of the Expulsion has been conserved and mythified in England.

Expulsion and Its Consequences According to Sefardi Responsa

Nadezda Koryakina(Université de Nantes)

This paper deals with the terms galut (“diaspora”), anusim (those forcibly converted), and related issues found in Sefardi Responsa literature. An attempt will be made to examine how the term galut was used before the expulsion of Jews from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497). In most cases, this meant Jews living out of the land of Israel. The widespread expression amudei galut (the Columns of Diaspora) signified the Jewish sages of Babylon. The expulsions of the late fifteenth century added new meaning to the diaspora due to the large number of the expelled population and its distinctive character. The notion galut sefarad was introduced into texts.

Consideration will be given to the question of whether any other expulsions left traces in the Responsa literature. Striking Hebrew Chronicles of the First and Second Crusades as well as later sources describe the expulsion of Jews from various countries. However, one cannot find any evidence for this in Responsa literature or, at least, nothing has been preserved.

Issues that were raised in Responsa regarding the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal will be considered, including the cohabitation of different communities. The expelled Jews sometimes joined another Jewish community in the land where they arrived, as happened in Palestine, Greece, Italy, etc. Another important issue is authority, law, and justice. Was any of the communities (either the hosting community or the expelled one) allowed to impose its rules and customs on another one?Did they remain autonomous or define rules that would be obligatory for both of them?

As a separate issue, the status of Jews forcibly converted to Christianity will be considered. Before the expulsions of the late fifteenth century the word anusim was attributed to those who were compelled to do something (to give testimony, for example) under constraint. After these expulsions, when many Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, the word anusim changed meaning in Responsa literature and was attributed mostly to forcibly converted Jews.

To conclude, the issue of expulsion received scant mention before the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century. After the expulsion, which became one of most dramatic episodes in Jewish history, the word galut, which signified in previous times the Jews who lived out of the land of Israel, becameused as well for those expelled from the Iberian Peninsula (galut sefarad). After a large number of Sefardi Jews moved to other countries, tension was raised between different communities compelled to cohabitate, and the issue of other various Jewish Diaspora groups was brought into focus. The identity of these groups was challenged by differences in community life that became acute vis-à-vis Spanish and Portuguese immigrants.

Losing Spain, Securing salvation: Mental Adaption to Exile among Refugees of the Iberian Inquisitions

Carsten L. Wilke (CentralEuropeanUniversity)

After the mass expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492-1497, persecutions of the Inquisition against Judeoconverts remaining in the Peninsula brought about a second expulsion, this time in the form of a steady trickle of individuals who throughout the Early Modern Period sought refuge in destinations all over the globe. These exiles were not Jews forced to choose between their country and their faith, but "New Christians" who had been deeply assimilated to Catholic society and who reintegrated Judaism, if ever, only after the loss of their homeland. In some literary sources emerging from this group between 1550 and 1650, migration appears as an ambivalent movement between geographic, linguistic, and religious identities. The authors, writing in Portuguese, Spanish, or Latin, develop topoi from the religious, metaphysical and love poetry of the Renaissance in order to give coded expression to the psychological crises and cultural processes set in motion by their exile.

Victims of Reformations?

16-17th-century refugees and their impact on artistic and cultural production

Marcell Sebők (CentralEuropeanUniversity)

The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformations resulted in various attempts to expel certain groups of people who were either Catholics or already members of a Protestant church. These waves of expulsion intensified mobility within Europe and beyond the continent, forcing the refugees to find new settlements and homes. This lecture deals withexiled men who ended up offering their services to a host in a courtly and/or urban environment. A good majority of refugees were well-trained literati and artists, therefore their possible contributions to local institutions, scholarship or artistic production and representation were welcome. The lecture offers a few life-stories as brief case studies – on Netherlanders at Central European courts, on Huguenots in the DutchRepublic, on Hungarian galley-slaves who escaped to Germany and Holland – to demonstrate their integration into hierarchies and systems that could ensure resuming their discontinued existence. By the same token, the paper also aims at examining questions of simulation and assimilation.

Greeks in EgyptAfter the Islamic Conquest

Lajos Berkes(University of Heidelberg)

When the conquering Islamic troops reached Egypt the country was part of the Byzantine Empire with an (at least partially) Greek-speaking and Hellenized élite. Historiographic sources inform us that the majority of the Greeks left the country after the conquest. This pattern conforms to the traditional narrative which emphasizes the conflict between the monophysite Copts and Chalcedonian Greeks. Recent scholarship has, however, challenged this view significantly. The boundaries between Greeks and Copts, monophysites and Chalcedonians, seem to have been less pronounced than has been assumed. Furthermore, it has been realized that the role of the Hellenized élite of the country had remained important for a long time after the conquest. Although at least a part of this élite seems to have left the country, most representatives of the local élite stuck to their positions. This paper focuses on the remaining Greek élite of Egypt after the Islamic conquest in the context of diasporas. The investigation will be based mainly on the vast corpus of documentary papyri from Egyptand partially on historiographic sources. A close look at the sources can give insights into the process of how a cultural diaspora tries to preserve its values and identity in a new environment after a great many of it members have left.

«Où sont finis les juifs de Catalogne? Une révision du terme «sefardi» en tant que appliqué aux juifs de Catalogne»

Josep Muntané (Université de Nantes)

L’application du terme «sefardi» aux juifs qui habitèrent à la péninsule Ibérique est aujourd’hui un sujet de débat parmi les historiens de celle partie de l’Europeparce que le mot «sefardi» a perdu son sens générique pour adopter des connotations politiques spécifiques qui attribuent à ces juifs-là une identité politique, nationale, celle de «Séfarade» équivalent à une vision unitaire postérieure d’Espagne, que ne correspond pas à la réalité qu’ils vécurent. Le significat que «Séfarade» avait pour les juifs bas médiévaux est le même significat qu’il a eu après pour ceux qui dès la diaspore s’identifièrent avec ce territoire ou pour ceux qui leur attribuèrent avec ce terme, notamment les historiens espagnols? Est-ce que le fait de vivre dans les royaumes divers de la péninsule Ibérique eut quelque conséquence dans la création d’une identité spécifique de ces juifs-là? Est-ce qu’ils pouvaient être considérés comme des juifs «castillans», «catalans»…? Ou, encore plus important, est-ce qu’ils eurent cette vision d’eux-mêmes, en autres paroles, est-ce que l’idée de nation pénétra dans l’identité du juif médiéval ou, par contre, il se maintint toujours dans un niveau supranationale, enraciné seulement et toujours dans l’idéal de la terre d’Israël? Mais si cette identité nationale exista, est-ce qu’elle peut être trouvée soit avant soit après de leur expulsion, le 1492?J’essaierai de situer les principales lignes du débat, l’état de la question et des possibles voies d’étude.

In search of a "Morisco Community" in Ottoman Istanbul, 1610s-1640s

Tijana Krstić (Central European University)

One of the more intriguing yet comparatively underexplored migrations during the age of confessionalization is the expulsion of the Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula between 1609 and 1614, followed by their dispersion and settlement in, among other places, Ottoman territories of North Africa, Istanbul, and Anatolia. Against the extant historiography's tendency to study Moriscos almost exclusively in the context of Iberian history, this paper sets up a broader, comparative framework. It examines how Venetian, French, and Ottoman diplomats resident in Istanbul imagined, described, and contested the image of the Morisco refugees in various official genres as their respective imperial agendas met and clashed in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In dialogue with Moriscos' own writings, the paper examines whether we can speak of a "Morisco community" in exile.