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Marranos
''Marranos'' is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as well as Navarrese jews, who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued to practice Judaism in secrecy or were suspected of it. They are also called crypto-Jews, the term increasingly preferred in scholarly works over ''Marranos''. The term specifically refers to the charge of crypto-Judaism, whereas the term ''converso'' was used for the wider population of Jewish converts to Catholicism, whether or not they secretly still practised Jewish rites. Converts from either Judaism or Islam were referred to by the broader term of "New Christians". The term ''marrano'' came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree, which prohibited the practice of Judaism in Spain and required all remaining Jews to convert or leave. The Spanish Inquisition was established prior to the decree, surveilled New Christia ...
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New Christian
New Christian (; ; ; ; ; ) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction referring to the population of former Jews, Jewish and Muslims, Muslim Conversion to Christianity, converts to Christianity in the Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese empires, and their European colonization of the Americas, respective colonies in the New World. The term was used from the 15th century onwards primarily to describe the descendants of the Sephardic Jews and Moors that were Baptism, baptized into the Catholic Church following the Alhambra Decree of 1492. The Alhambra Decree, also known as the Edict of Expulsion, was an anti-Jewish law made by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Catholic Monarchs upon the ''Reconquista'' of the Iberian Peninsula. It required Jews to convert to Roman Catholicism or be Expulsions and exoduses of Jews, expelled from Spain. Most of the history of the "New Christians" refers to the Jewish converts, who were generally known as ''Conversos'' ...
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Spanish And Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, from Spain in 1492 and Expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Portugal, from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jews, Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal. The main present-day communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews exist in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, and several other Jewish communities in the Americas have Spanish and Portuguese Jewish roots though they no longer follow the distinctive customs of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Historical background Although the 1492 and 1497 expulsions of unconvert ...
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Massacre Of 1391
The Massacre of 1391, also known as the pogroms of 1391, refers to a murderous wave of mass violence committed against the Jews of Spain by the Catholic populace in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, both in present-day Spain, in the year 1391. It was one of the most lethal outbreaks of violence against Jews in medieval European history. Anti-Jewish violence similar to Russian pogroms then continued throughout the "Reconquista", culminating in the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain. The first wave in 1391, however, marked the extreme of such violence. After the massacres, Jews began to convert ''en masse'' to Roman Catholicism across the Iberian Peninsula, resulting in a substantial population of ''conversos'' known as '' Marranos''. Catholics then began to accuse— with or without substantiation—the ''conversos'' of secretly maintaining Jewish practices, and thus undermining the newly united kingdom's nascent national identity. Non-converted Jews were ultimate ...
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Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition () was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and lasted until 1834. It began toward the end of the ''Reconquista'' and aimed to maintain Catholic Church, Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and replace the Papal Inquisition in Spain, Medieval Inquisition, which was under Pope, papal control. Along with the Roman Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition, it became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition. The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify Heresy in Christianity, heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism. The regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified following Alhambra Decree, royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave Crown of Castile, Ca ...
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Crypto-Jews
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden'). The term is especially applied historically to Spanish and Portuguese Jews who outwardly professed Catholicism, also known as ''Conversos'', ''Marranos'', or the '' Anusim''. The phenomenon is especially associated with medieval Spain, following the Massacre of 1391 and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.Levine Melammed, Renee. "Women in Medieval Jewish Societies," in ''Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship''. Ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 105–106. After 1492 in Spain and 1497 in Portugal, officially they no longer existed. The Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition were established to monitor converted Jews and Muslims and their descendants for their continued adherence to Christian faith and practice, with severe penalt ...
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Sephardi Jews
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendants. The term "Sephardic" comes from '' Sepharad'', the Hebrew word for Iberia. These communities flourished for centuries in Iberia until they were expelled in the late 15th century. Over time, "Sephardic" has also come to refer more broadly to Jews, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, who adopted Sephardic religious customs and legal traditions, often due to the influence of exiles. In some cases, Ashkenazi Jews who settled in Sephardic communities and adopted their liturgy are also included under this term. Today, Sephardic Jews form a major component of world Jewry, with the largest population living in Israel. The earliest documented Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula dates to the Roman period, beginning in the fir ...
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Anusim
Anusim (, ; singular male, anús, ; singular female, anusá, , meaning "coerced") is a legal category of Jews in '' halakha'' (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically while forcibly converted to another religion. The term "anusim" is most properly translated as the "coerced nes or the "forced nes. Etymology The term ''anusim'' is derived from the Talmudic phrase ''averah b’ones'' (), meaning "a forced transgression." The Hebrew ''ones'' () derives from the triconsonantal root (Aleph- Nun- Samekh), and originally referred to any case where a person has been forced into any act against his or her will. In Modern Hebrew, the word ''ones'' is mainly used to mean rape, thus "anusim" (or female "anusot") nowadays means rape victims, the older meaning used only in the historical context. The term ''anús'' is used in contradistinction to ''meshumad'' (), (literally "self-destroyed") which means a person who has voluntarily abandoned the ...
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Belmonte, Portugal
Belmonte (), officially Town of Belmonte (), is a town and municipality and town in the district of Castelo Branco, Portugal. The municipality's population in 2021 was 6,205, in an area of . Belmonte is distinguished by its enduring Jewish community, which dates back to at least the 13th century. This community, numbering about 300 in 2008, preserved its faith through crypto-Judaism, maintaining Jewish traditions in secret despite the pressures of the Inquisition and forced conversions. Open practice was re-established with the founding of a synagogue in 1996. The Belmonte Jewish Museum, opened in 2005, chronicles this remarkable history. History Archaeological findings indicate that Belmonte’s lands have been occupied since prehistoric times, with notable megalithic sites in the parishes of Inguias and Caria dating back approximately 6,000 years. Ancient fortified settlements ( castros) existed in the mountains around Belmonte, such as the Castro of Chandeirinha in the mou ...
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Near East
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th century by modern Western geographers and was originally applied to the Ottoman Empire, but today has varying definitions within different academic circles. The term ''Near East'' was used in conjunction with the ''Middle East'' and the ''Far East'' (China and beyond), together known as the "three Easts"; it was a separate term from the ''Middle East'' during earlier times and official British usage. As of 2024, both terms are used interchangeably by politicians and news reporters to refer to the same region. ''Near East'' and ''Middle East'' are both Eurocentrism, Eurocentric terms. According to the National Geographic Society, the terms ''Near East'' and ''Middle East'' denote the same territories and are "generally accepted as comprisin ...
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Syrians
Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine Arabic, Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic, Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The culture of Syria, cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. By the seventh century, most of the inhabitants of the Levant spoke Aramaic. In the centuries after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 634, Arabic gradually became the dominant language, but a minority of Syrians (particularly the Assyrian people, Assyrians and Terms for Syriac Christians#Syriac identity, Syriac-Arameans retained Neo-Aramaic languages, Aramaic (Syriac), which is still spoken in its Eastern Aramaic languages, Eastern and Western Aramaic languages, Western dialects. The national name "Syrian" was originally an Indo-European corrupt ...
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Phoenicians
Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civilization which expanded and contracted throughout history, with the core of their culture stretching from Arwad in modern Syria to Mount Carmel. The Phoenicians extended their cultural influence through trade and colonization throughout the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula, evidenced by thousands of Phoenician inscriptions. The Phoenicians directly succeeded the Bronze Age Canaanites, continuing their cultural traditions after the decline of most major Mediterranean basin cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse and into the Iron Age without interruption. They called themselves Canaanites and referred to their land as Canaan, but the territory they occupied was notably smaller than that of Bronze Age Canaan. The name ...
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