Crises in al-Andalus With the death of
Al-Hakam II in 976, the caliphate began to dissolve, and the position of the Jews became more precarious under the various smaller kingdoms. The first major persecution was the 1066 Granada massacre, which occurred on 30 December in which a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in
Granada, crucified the Jewish vizier
Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred many of the Jewish population of the city. According to one source, "more than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day". It was the first persecution of Jews on the
Peninsula under Islamic rule.
Anti-Jewish riots and intra-Muslim wars , one of the greatest Jewish scholars of Al Andalus, born in
Córdoba, in
Arabic in the
Hebrew script. Beginning in 1090, the situation deteriorated and Muslim religious attitudes hardened further with the invasion of the
Almoravids, a puritan Muslim dynasty from
Morocco. The Jewish community of Granada, barely re-established following the massacre, was destroyed during the sack of Granada by the Almoravids that same year. Jews were slowly pushed out from civil and political positions, though there were some exceptions and some Jews even held the title of "
vizier" ("
nasi") such as the poet and physician
Abu Ayyub Solomon ibn al-Mu'allam,
Abraham ibn Meïr ibn Kamnial,
Abu Isaac ibn Muhajar and
Solomon ibn Farusal. Nevertheless, Andalusian religious scholarship was still ongoing and the art of Hebrew poetry reached a highpoint with the verses of
Judah ha-Levi. However, from that time onwards, Jews were sometimes safer in northern Spain under Christian rulers. In 1146, the fundamentalists Berber
Almohad dynasty begun their conquest of al-Andalus, defeating the Almohads and bringing almost all of Islamic Spain under their control by 1172. The Almohads tolerated neither and Christians nor Jews and, having already extinguished the indigenous Christian communities that had existed in North Africa for a millennium, the Almohads also put the Jews before the choice between conversion and death. Many Jews, and even Muslim scholars, fled the Muslim-controlled portion of Iberia either to more tolerant Muslim countries such as
Ayyubid Egypt and Syria or fled over the frontier into Christian Spain. There were also mass conversions of Jews to Islam, but similar to under the Visigothic rulers, they often practised their religion secretly and were mistrusted by Muslims. Questioning their sincerity, the Caliph
Yaqub al-Mansur still treated the new converts to Islam as if they were dhimmis, not only limiting their civil rights but also having them wear distinguishing clothing consisting of blue-black garments, ludicrous caps and the
shikla. Yaqub's son changed the colours later to yellow garments and turbans, a colour that the Muslim in general frowned on since the times of Muhammad himself.
Fall of al-Andalus and Jewish exodus Thus, the Almohad persecutions ended the flourishing Jewish settlements in Muslim Spain at the end of the twelfth century. The Jewish presence in Iberia continued in the Christian territories until the Jews were forced to leave or to convert to Christianity in the
Alhambra Decree of 1492 and a
similar decree by
Portugal in 1496. , Spain) ==Notable Jewish figures==