The terms juderías and quarters or suburbs of Mozarabs have been used to refer to neighbourhoods in Andalusi cities inhabited by Jews or Christians, who formed the dhimmī group in al-Andalus. However, based on our current state of knowledge, there is no evidence to support the existence of such quarters in the urban history of al-Andalus, let alone ghettos where marginalized people lived
Christine Mazzoli-Guintard
Nantes Université
The Cliché of Confessional Quarters in Andalusian Cities
The idea that there were distinct confessional neighbourhoods in the cities of al-Andalus remains widespread, particularly within the global network of shared knowledge. For instance, the Wikipedia page on «Judería» states the following:
«The presence of Jews in Spain is documented from Roman and Visigothic times, although it is not confirmed that they lived in separate neighbourhoods. Such quarters emerged with the growth of Muslim cities in al-Andalus, which were spatially organized based on ethno-religious criteria (an Arab-Muslim medina—centered around the alcazaba and the mosque—and suburbs of different compositions, particularly Mozarabs—subjugated Christians—and Jews). […] The consolidation or establishment of Jewish quarters in Christian cities occurred sporadically throughout the Middle Ages, usually when urban spaces were reorganized following successive reconquests and repopulations […] while Jews either confirmed or relocated their settlements.»
But how was this cliché constructed? One factor contributing to its persistence lies in the vagueness of the terms juderías and Mozarab quarters. Lastly, what do the sources actually say about religious quarters in the cities of al-Andalus?
How Was the Cliché of Jewish and Christian Quarters in Andalusian Cities Constructed?
This commonplace idea emerged in the first half of the 20th century, from the pens of Orientalists and Medievalists. It was constructed from sparse and isolated data, often based solely on the presence of a place of worship: in Sigüenza, for instance, it is assumed that Christians lived clustered around a church within the city, as its name—Santa María de Medina—suggests. In Murcia, the Mozarab quarter is presumed to have been located around the Church of Santa María de la Arrixaca. In Zaragoza, the Mozarab quarter was thought to be in the northwestern corner of the city because the main church, Santa María, was situated there.
It also rests on much later evidence, particularly regarding the presence of Jews or juderías in Christian kingdoms. For example, from the mention of Jews in the privilege that Alfonso VI granted to the city of Santarem in 1095, E. Ashtor concluded that a Jewish community existed during the Muslim period. In the Kingdom of Aragon, Zaragoza’s judería occupied the southeastern corner of the walled city, and J. M. Lacarra assumed it occupied the same location during the Andalusi period. The same applies to Toledo’s judería and others.
On the other hand, the cliché of religious quarters in Andalusian cities was reinforced by observations made by Orientalists in the Maghreb during the first half of the 20th century. For É. Lévi-Provençal, the general appearance of the city of Fez at that time had barely changed over the centuries. He asserted that «the Muslim city,» as it was then called, had preserved the same features since the medieval period. É. Lévi-Provençal and other Orientalists of his era quickly drew parallels between the mellahs of Moroccan cities they could observe and the juderías of al-Andalus, about which they had very little data.
Finally, the notion of religious quarters in Andalusi cities also emerged from sometimes hasty readings of Medieval texts. In the case of Toledo, according to É. Lévi-Provençal, the Jews resided in a separate quarter referred to as the «City of the Jews» (madīnat al-yahūd), as mentioned in an 11th-century source, the Muqtabis by Ibn Ḥayyān, concerning a rebellion in the year 820. However, what Ibn Ḥayyān actually recounts is as follows: when the people of Toledo rebelled against the Emir of Córdoba, the leader of the revolt laid siege to the «City of the Jews» before moving on to Toledo, where he stayed for some time. It is unclear which «City of the Jews» is being referred to, as several Andalusi cities bore that name. What is certain is that this does not refer to a Jewish quarter in Toledo.
The idea of Jewish and Christian quarters in Andalusian cities is a commonplace notion built on fragile foundations, excessively late data, or an ahistorical conception of the Islamic city, disconnected in both time and space. Its persistence to the present day owes much to its inherent vagueness: it has turned the juderías and Mozarab quarters of Andalusian cities into invisible neighbourhoods, whose characteristics have never been clearly defined.
Juderíasand Christian Quarters in Andalusi Cities: Undefined and Invisible Quarters
The religious quarters of Andalusi cities, where people were grouped by shared faith, remain undefined in several respects. First, the very existence of these quarters varies depending on the religious group, as reflected in the lexicon: according to the DRAE, judería refers to both a Jewish quarter and the collective body of Jews, while mozarabía refers only to the people identified as Mozarabs. The existence of Jewish quarters is, indeed, much more likely to be stated as a fact than that of Christian quarters, as L. Torres Balbás noted in the 1950s, without, however, stimulating much subsequent debate. Christians “sometimes lived mixed with the rest of the population and other times in communities, in independent quarters or suburbs, whether within the madina or outside it […] In almost all the cities of Islamic Spain, Jews lived in communities, separated from Muslims, in suburbs or quarters designated for them. Removed from the main thoroughfares of the Islamic city, the juderías formed isolated nuclei within, with one or few entrances.”
Mentions of Christian quarters appear in Zaragoza, Tudela, or Calatayud, while Christians are said to have lived mixed with Muslims in Córdoba, Toledo, and Écija. Jews, in Granada, reportedly had their own quarter in the city center, while others resided in various suburbs of Granada. Thus, the geographic distribution of religious groups exhibits a wide range of situations. Regarding the juderías, the question also arises as to whether they were always enclosed by walls. Were the juderías always fortified, like the one in Lucena, described in the mid-12th century by al-Idrīsī, or like the judería of Lorca (14th-15th centuries), which was excavated twenty years ago?
Moreover, the religious quarters of Andalusi cities remain undefined regarding their location. Christian quarters were reportedly located within the walls in Toledo or Écija, but outside them in Valencia, Alcira, Murcia, or Granada, according to written accounts. Discrepancies arise concerning Córdoba, where it is debated whether churches, and thus Christian quarters, remained within the madina. Here again, the issue relates to the terminology, which has not been thoroughly examined. Both terms used to describe the topographical units of cities, barrio and arrabal, share a history in their Arabic etymology and semantic field. According to the DRAE, barrio is defined as «each of the parts into which towns and cities are divided» and as «a suburb or quarter outside a town.» When the geographer al-Himyarī (d. c. 1325) indicates that Écija had several suburbs (arrabales), one of which contained the main mosque and a church, what did he mean? L. Torres Balbás interpreted this rabaḍ as the city’s core, distinct from the urban alcazaba, located in the southeast of the enclosure. In this context, the rabaḍ was an intramural neighbourhood.
What are we, as 21st-century historians, analyzing when we designate a quarter as intramural or extramural? Are we considering proximity to the seat of power, traditionally fortified and located within the walls? Or are we examining a particular moment in the city’s formation?
Finally, the religious quarters of Andalusi cities remain undefined in their history — whether regarding their emergence, permanence, or displacement over time. For example, did the Christian quarter of Calatayud exist before 1120, when the King of Aragon conquered the city, or was it formed after the 1125 expedition? In Córdoba, in the suburb of Cercadilla, there is evidence of a Christian dhimmī presence from the 8th century until the Almohad period, with a population gap during the 11th century due to the fitna. It is generally thought that the juderías of Córdoba and Toledo remained in the same location after the Castilian conquest, while those of Seville and Granada were relocated.
Thus, the religious quarters in Andalusian cities are undefined in several aspects — location, enclosure, evolution over time, and social reality — rendering them invisible. However, in the past twenty years, the analysis of new sources, particularly legal texts, has brought a fresh perspective to the subject, while renewed methods of analyzing literary sources emphasize the archaeology of texts.
What Do Medieval Sources Say About Religious Quarters?
Medieval documentation already provides the terms used to designate a neighbourhood, understood as the basic unit of a city — both a spatial and social reality, as neighbours maintained relationships within it. For instance, ḥawma appears in the work of Ibn Sahl, an 11th-century Cordoban jurist compiling judicial cases from the Umayyad and Taifa periods, while rabaḍ is mentioned in Ibn Baškuwāl’s 12th-century biographical dictionary. These neighbourhoods are often named after architectural elements of the city: a mosque, a street, a gate, an almunia, or a ḥammām, with greater lexical diversity during the Almohad period. However, no term related to «neighbourhood» is ever associated with a specific religious community. Thus, linguistically, there is no evidence for the existence of strictly religious neighbourhoods.
However, Ibn Sahl’s work does contain references to Christians and Jews in certain judicial cases. Do we know where they lived, their neighbourhoods? Indeed, we do: they lived in mixed quarters alongside Muslims. In Cordoba during the 1030s, a mu’adhdhin (he who calls to prayer) was reported for disturbing his neighbours by climbing onto the mosque roof at night to pray loudly. One of the consulted muftis stated that the complainant could speak on behalf of «all those near the mosque, Muslims and others, provided they appointed him as their representative.» This indicates that Muslims and dhimmis shared the same ḥawma. Forty years later, two Cordoban neighbours appeared before a judge disputing a ruined building situated between their homes in the ḥawma of the Ṣawāb Mosque. One was Muslim, the other Jewish, representing the waqf properties of the synagogue. This shows that in the 1070s, a Muslim property could border one belonging to a Jewish place of worship. In the 11th-century Cordoba described by Ibn Sahl, there are no traces of strictly religious neighbourhoods, but rather mixed quarters where Muslims and dhimmis cohabited.
Similar findings arise from other sources spanning different periods. During the emirate era in Cordoba, the jurist Ṭālūt b. `Abd al-Ğabbār survived the 818 suburban revolt by hiding for a year in the house of his Jewish dhimmi neighbor, who sheltered him out of pious compassion, as recounted by the chronicler Ibn Ḥayyān. Both lived in the same neighbourhood. In the same century, and according to the same author, the Great Mosque of Toledo was adjacent to a church. When its minaret collapsed, the Toledans sought and received permission from Emir Muḥammad I (852–886) to rebuild it and annex the adjacent church to the prayer hall. Thus, until the 850s or even the 880s, Muslims and Christian dhimmis shared a neighbourhood around the Great Mosque of Toledo.
The same applies to the kanīsat al-nasārā (church) located near Écija’s Great Mosque, mentioned by al-Himyarī. While the source of his information remains unclear, it likely refers to a period when the Christian community still held significance, possibly the 10th century. A similar case arises in Lucena, where al-Idrīsī describes an unenclosed suburban area shared by Muslims and Jews. This overlapping of periods, especially the caliphal era, recurs throughout his work.
By the early 12th century in Cordoba, there is still evidence of shared neighbourhoods: after buying a house, a Muslim attempted to void the purchase, citing the shared use of a well with a neighbouring property owned by dhimmis. When consulted, Ibn al-Ḥāğğ (d. 1135) dismissed this argument, confirming the existence of mixed neighbourhoods. In Granada in early 1492, Jews lived in various city quarters alongside Muslim neighbours, as indicated in the capitulation treaty. Not all resided in the judería, whose existence was later noted by Jerónimo Münzer during his visit in 1494.
As it stands, there is no evidence that cities in al-Andalus had Christian or Jewish quarters defined as neighbourhoods where all members of these communities were forcibly concentrated, akin to modern ghettos. While it seems logical to assume pragmatic clustering around places of worship, literary and legal sources reveal topographical coexistence between Muslims and dhimmis throughout the long urban history of al-Andalus. Moreover, even after Alfonso X ordered the closure of Cordoba’s judería in 1272, obliging its inhabitants to reside there, not all Jews in Cordoba lived within that quarter.
Conclusion
Were there Jewish and Christian quarters in Andalusi cities? Yes, if we consider a religious quarter as the part of the city where members of a religious community tended to live for pragmatic reasons, such as proximity to places of worship. These quarters were identified by their centers rather than by strict boundaries, reflecting a distinctly medieval conception of space. Only one aspect remains consistent across the urban history of al-Andalus: occasions of topographical coexistence that fostered neighbourly relations among populations of different religions. Beyond this, each city followed its unique trajectory concerning its religious quarters, leaving their urban monographs yet to be written.
For further reading:
- ARCE SÁINZ, Fernando (2021): «Una interpretación política (más que religiosa) de la situación de los cristianos en al-Andalus a partir de la gestión de su arquitectura religiosa», Intus-Legere Historia, 15-2, pp. 140-159.
- COHEN, Mark R. (2008): Under Crescent and Cross. The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princeton: University Press.
- GALLARDO CARRILLO, Juan y GONZÁLEZ BALLESTEROS, José Á. (2006): «El urbanismo de la judería medieval de Lorca a la luz de las últimas excavaciones (2004-2006)», Alberca, 4, pp. 129-152.
- HINOJOSA MONTALVO, José (1999), Los judíos en tierras valencianas, Valencia: Diputación Provincial de Valencia.
- «Judería», Wikipedia, https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juder%C3%ADa, consultado 07/03/2023.
- LACAVE RIAÑO José L. (1992): «Las juderías del reino de Granada», Chronica nova, Revista de historia moderna de la Universidad de Granada, 20, pp. 253-298.
- MAZZOLI-GUINTARD, Christine (2003): Vivre à Cordoue au Moyen Âge, Solidarités citadines en terre d’Islam aux Xe-XIe siècles, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
- MAZZOLI-GUINTARD, Christine (2006): «Espacios de convivencia en las ciudades de al-Andalus», Espiritualidad y convivencia en al-Andalus, F. Roldán Castro ed., Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, pp. 73-89.
- MAZZOLI-GUINTARD, Christine (2009): «Juifs, chrétiens et musulmans en terre d’Islam: des quartiers multiconfessionnels dans la Cordoue des Xe-XIe siècles», Églises de l’ouest, églises d’ailleurs, B. Joly et J. Weber éd., Paris: Les Indes savantes, pp. 475-486.
- MAZZOLI-GUINTARD, Christine (2018): «Judíos, cristianos y musulmanes en las ciudades de al-Andalus: la experiencia del otro (ss. VIII-XV)», El legado de la España de las tres culturas, XVIII Jornadas de Historia en Llerena, F. Lorenzana de la Puente y F. Mateos Ascacibar coord., Llerena: Sociedad Extremeña de Historia, pp. 11-27.
- PELAÉZ DEL ROSAL, Jesús (2003): «La judería de Córdoba en época musulmana», Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval, A. M. López Alvarez y R. Izquierdo Benito, Toledo: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, pp. 57-72.
- TORRES BALBÁS, Leopoldo (1954): «Mozarabías y juderías de las ciudades hispanomusulmanas», Al-Andalus, 19, pp. 172-197, reed. en Ciudades hispanomulmanas, Madrid: Instituto hispano-árabe de cultura, 1985, pp. 195-215.
- VIGUERA MOLINS, María J. (2004): «Cristianos, judíos y musulmanes en al-Andalus», Cristianos, musulmanes y judíos en la España medieval: de la aceptación al rechazo, J. Valdeón Baruque dir., Valladolid: Ámbito-Fundación Duques de Soria, pp. 43-70.
- ZANÓN, Jesús (1989): Topografía de Córdoba almohade a través de las fuentes árabes, Madrid: CSIC.