Far Away Lands, The Medieval Sephardic Heritage - Ensemble Florata

Ensemble: Florata Album: Far Away Lands: The Medieval Sephardic Heritage Video: Add MS 14761 (XIV cent.) • The Jews of medieval Spain, the Sephardim, enjoyed the most glorious flowering of culture of any of the Jewish communities of Europe. Under the rule of the Moors especially, they prospered for seven centuries, from the Islamic conquest of Spain beginning in 711, to the final loss of Granada to the Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The Jews had suffered greatly under Visigothic rule, and the invading Moors in the eighth century were welcomed as liberators. Seven centuries later, in the landmark year that saw Christopher Columbus sail westward and the Muslim rulers, driven forever from Spain, the Sephardic Jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, and had to make new homes in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, where they were welcomed. Jewish scholars, scientists, philosophers, translators, mathematicians and musicians had been