The Crusades

In 63 BCE the Romans conquered Palestine, where most Jews of the time lived, and created the province of Judea. In 66 CE the Jewish forces rebeled. Roman forces crushed the rebels, captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple. When revolts broke out again in the next century, Romans leveled Jerusalem. In 135 CE, they drove the Jews out of their homeland and forbade them to return. Jews scattered throughout communities around the Mediterranean and Babylonia.

During the 4th century of CE, the emperor Constantine adopted Christianity and created a new capital of Constantinople (the Greek city of Byzantium), which led to a different Roman presence in the area. The region became dominated by Christians with churches built on holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Galilee. The Jews  were deprived of their relative autonomy, as well as their right to hold public positions, and were forbidden to enter Jerusalem except on one day of the year to mourn the destruction of the Temple.

Islam

In the 7th century the Persians gained control of the city with the help of the Jews. However, in 629 the Byzantines (Romans) regained control of the city and again expelled the Jewish population. There was a new power rising at the same time. Islam with its roots in Judaism and Christianity began to dominate the area. In 632, four years after the  death of Muhammad, Arabs began to expand into Palestine. They took control of Damascus in 635 with the caliph ruling from their, with Jerusalem taken in 638. Eventually the Muslims took control of Iraq to India and Central Asia, as well as North Africa and Spain under the Umayyad dynasty (661-750) and the Abassids (750-1258).

During this period, Jewish settlement in the area resumed. As "People of the Book" the Jewish community was "protected" under Islamic rule, which safeguarded their lives, property, property, and freedom of worship in return for payment of special poll and land taxes. However, the subsequent introduction of restrictions against non-Muslims  affected the Jews' public conduct as well as their religious and legal status. The imposition of heavy taxes on agricultural land compelled many to move from rural areas to towns, where their circumstances hardly improved, while increasing social and economic discrimination forced many Jews to leave the country. By the end of the 11th century, the Jewish community in the area had diminished considerably and had lost some of its organizational and religious cohesiveness.

The Jewish economy developed during this time as the restrictions on Jewish economic activities were almost nonexistent. Other factors which contributed to their rise as traders. The vast territory of the caliphate opened new trading opportunities. The Hebrew language common to all Jews as well as Arabic used throughout the caliphate  made it easier to communicate. As conflicts between Christians and Muslims increased, Jews were tacitly recognized as a neutral element. Since there were Jewish communities throughout the Mediterranean, they could find security and perhaps ransome money for pirates on the seas. The growing Jewish merchant class traded in slaves, spices,  pharmaceuticals, metals, and textiles. They even formed partnerships with Muslims or Christians at times. Many also made a living in crafts and textiles such as dyeing and silk production.

Byzantium

In comparison with the populous Jewish communities in the Islamic areas, Byzantine Jewry was numerically very small. The traveler Benjamin of Tudela found about 9,000 Jews in Byzantium. Modern scholars estimate about 12,000 in a population of 15 million. Jews in the area found persecution during the early years. They also blamed during a theological debate of icons in the 8th and 9th centuries with both sides of the debate attacking Jews. In the two centuries leading up to the Crusades, the Jewish population met with periodic forced conversions, although many of these attempts ended in failure.

However, there were not many restrictions on Jewish economic activity. Most made a living as farmers. Many engaged in trade and some were wealthy merchants. As in the Arab areas, many made living in crafts and textiles.

Western Europe

At the start of the Early Middle Ages, Jewish existence under western Christendom was fairly peaceful. Jews were small in number and therefore did not threaten or pose resentments from those in power.

The Crusades

The Crusades, as Christian holy wars, first began in the 11th century. Preludes to these wars were in Spain and Sicily where there was fighting to reconquer territories from the Muslims. During these earlier wars, Jews at the time were suspected of plotting the destruction of Christianity in complicity with the Muslims. In 1063 massacres against the Jews in Spain and France were so severe that Pope Alexander II (1061-73) found himself compeled to intervene and protect the Jews.

The Crusades to the Holy Land began after many Church reforms in Cluny (France) reached their peak. Everybody was suddenly aware of the fact that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was under the control of Muslim infidels. The idea spread that it was necessary to take the Holy Land from the Turks. Once arriving there the Jewish role in the crucifixion was recalled as well as venting frustration from the difficulty in fighting a war far away from home. These beliefs set the stage for the bloody attacks on Jews in the Near East as well as Western Europe.

The First Crusade began a speech from Pope Urban II calling for call to arms against Turks in order to save Christendom. The first group was a group of peasants under a religious leader Peter the Hermit. Later knights and feudal lords began their trek on the way ravaging Jewish homes and synagogues. Some of these Jewish communities took their own lives in a ritualistic manner rather than succumb to the Crusaders. During the Second and Third Crusades, a similar pattern followed with crusaders attacking the "Christ Killers" in the countryside. The Christian
Church, especially under Bernard of Clairvaux did, however, have a greater role in protecting the Jews.

The First Crusade saw European victories. Once cities and areas were under European control, Jews fled probably with an understanding of what was happening to the Jews in Europe. Once Jerusalem was taken, Jews were burned alive, sold into slavery, and small number survived but converted. Rural Jews in the area were either expelled or obliterated.

 

Once Crusader states were established, however, (after 1110) the Crusaders ruled but as a small percentage of the population and did allow for some toleration. Jews were permitted settlement except in Jerusalem. In the 12th and 13th centuries there were also increasing numbers of Jews as pilgrims and immigrants from the East and West.  Historians disagree on how well off economically Jews were in the Crusader states. We can surmise through leters and tax rolls that there were opportunities, especially as trading merchants in the coastal cities.