The Alhambra Decree

by David Raphael

Three momentous events in the history of Spain took place in 1492: Columbus' discovery of America, the fall of the last Moorish bastion in Granada, and the expulsion of the Jews.

THE ALHAMBRA DECREE is a well-researched novel that vividly reconstructs the forces and the events surrounding the Edict of Expulsion declared by Ferdinand and Isabella, and that graphically relates the misfortunes and calamities that befell the dispersed Jewish exiles. Focusing upon the Jewish community of Segovia, the book describes the mass uprooting and dispersion of Spanish Jewry. Based upon original medieval Hebrew and Spanish documents, many of them eye-witness accounts, the horrifying tale of the expulsion is told as never before.

358 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

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Reviews

[Brigitte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was lent to me because of a trip to Spain in which a visit to the Alhambra Castle/Fortress in Granada is on the itinerary. The book is a historically fictionalized account of the Spanish Inquisition the resulted in the expulsion of Jews from Spain under the monarchy of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Not my usual genre, so I'm anxious to get back to a good mystery!

[Nicholas George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Straightforward and grim account of the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the fifteenth century (and Portugal, Naples and other kingdoms) based on historical documents and accounts. We follow several Jews, some fictional and some historical, as they leave Spain hoping for happier times yet fall to an array of grisly fates: torture, rape, burning, plague, starvation, disembowelment--even being ripped apart by lions or eaten by crocodiles! Some are given the option of converting to Christianity, but this of course is seen as a fate worse than death anyway. Christian (should I put that in quotation marks?) persecution of Jews is nothing new, of course, and (alas) exists today as well, but, aside from learning more of this historical period, I gleaned little additional understanding from this volume, other than revulsion at how "religion" can turn people against one another.

[Marilyn Silver · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old publication - but having just returned from another trip to the Iberian Peninsula, this time Portugal, I read this book. Described as a "historical novel": it is somewhat closer to "historical" than a novel, as it seems to be extensively researched from primary (and secondary) sources. The book is not as literary as the historical fiction of Richard Zimmler, also set in Portugal during the expulsion/Inquisition, but one does engage with the historic background and fictional and real characters. The projectory of the narrative is horrific and heartrending. There is a passage in the Passover story, to the effect of ...in each generation they rise up against us... This is such a story of horrors.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first this book read more like a dry history of the Jews in Spain. Then the various characters and personalities began to breathe life into the story, and I got caught up in what happened to them. The portion of the book that dealt with the actual 1942 expulsion of the Jews from Spain was hard to read as it documented how much suffering the various Jews continued to encounter with many of them losing their very lives.

This story told from the Jewish history viewpoint left my mind boggled with the acts of the various Christian rulers and nobles. How they could justify the way they abused this Jewish group of people and call themselves Christian I cannot understand.

I am glad I read the book and that I now know more about the history of the Jewish people.