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The Journey of Deacon Bodo from the Rhine to the Guadalquivir: Apostasy and Conversion to Judaism in Early Medieval Europe
The story of Bodo begins in the ninth century around the time of the death of Charlemagne in 814. It centres on a young Aleman aristocrat and his conversion to Judaism in 838, followed by his flight to the Muslim world of Al-Andalus. His apostasy constitutes an arresting footnote in the history of the Carolingian period, his change of faith viewed as a shocking episode attributed by some to an overly lax policy towards Judaism and its powerful merchants. Another factor could be ascribed to the study of Judaism and its links with Christianity, which was a feature of the time.
Bodo moved from a monastery on the Rhine, where he went as a small boy, to the imperial court, where he was now a gifted young scholar groomed for a top position. His unexpected abandonment of Christianity challenged his background and learning, and this was seen as a rebuke of the court network to which he belonged. Bodo left behind a growing conflict over succession between the emperor, Louis the Pious, and his sons that culminated in a civil war following the emperor’s death. As a result, the Frankish Empire was partitioned into three separate kingdoms in 843.
Meanwhile in Spain, two years after fleeing the Frankish world, Bodo debated the merits of Judaism and Christianity in Córdoba with Albarus Paulus, a beleaguered Christian in the Muslim world, not only airing criticisms of Christianity, but also some failings of the Carolingian imperial court. In 847 he is mentioned in the court annals as stirring up opposition in Islamic Spain against Christians, asserting that they should be forced to convert or be executed. This reported incident may be linked to a significant number of self-imposed deaths by Christians who, feeling increasingly persecuted, sought to provoke Islam by denouncing the Prophet and bringing about their execution.
The experience of Bodo’s apostasy was far from other men and women who renounced Christianity for Judaism are also examined in conversion narratives recorded in the following two centuries. These episodes offer an illuminating study of religious changes taking place in Europe and the East where Christianity, Islam and Judaism competed in the ninth century and beyond. Bodo’s experience can be viewed as part of a wider phenomenon depicting men and women who travelled as pilgrims, refugees or converts seeking to find a home and escape persecution because of their beliefs.
Bodo moved from a monastery on the Rhine, where he went as a small boy, to the imperial court, where he was now a gifted young scholar groomed for a top position. His unexpected abandonment of Christianity challenged his background and learning, and this was seen as a rebuke of the court network to which he belonged. Bodo left behind a growing conflict over succession between the emperor, Louis the Pious, and his sons that culminated in a civil war following the emperor’s death. As a result, the Frankish Empire was partitioned into three separate kingdoms in 843.
Meanwhile in Spain, two years after fleeing the Frankish world, Bodo debated the merits of Judaism and Christianity in Córdoba with Albarus Paulus, a beleaguered Christian in the Muslim world, not only airing criticisms of Christianity, but also some failings of the Carolingian imperial court. In 847 he is mentioned in the court annals as stirring up opposition in Islamic Spain against Christians, asserting that they should be forced to convert or be executed. This reported incident may be linked to a significant number of self-imposed deaths by Christians who, feeling increasingly persecuted, sought to provoke Islam by denouncing the Prophet and bringing about their execution.
The experience of Bodo’s apostasy was far from other men and women who renounced Christianity for Judaism are also examined in conversion narratives recorded in the following two centuries. These episodes offer an illuminating study of religious changes taking place in Europe and the East where Christianity, Islam and Judaism competed in the ninth century and beyond. Bodo’s experience can be viewed as part of a wider phenomenon depicting men and women who travelled as pilgrims, refugees or converts seeking to find a home and escape persecution because of their beliefs.
228 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2019
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September 3, 2024
A refreshingly thoughtful narrative, full of learning yet light in touch. Rather than sounding like a dissertation, Frank Riess emphasizes the difficult re-creation of mindsets which in early medieval Christendom, enticed a few (Riess estimates from Cairo Genizah's fragmented archives, 15,000) who fled Catholic Europe for relatively if still parlous "safer" Muslim-ruled asylum, the Near East.
Riess wisely discounts any romanticized "convivencia" among those in Moorish Spain; the plight of the "dhimmi" second-class monotheists under Islamic rule wasn't the tolerant, bucolic realm which some recently conjure up. Riess, who did a previous study of the Narbonne region during this period, integrates the tale of Bodo-turned-Eliezer, a monk turned Jew who fled Alemania for Al-Andalus around 840. This scandalous turnabout presaged others such as Johannes-Obadiah of Norman Oppida, "the woman from Narbonne," or manic refugees whose compelling, unfortunately piecemeal accounts of escaping Iberian Christian persecution (and it must be stressed, in Islamic domains, neither Christians nor Jews could convert to each other's faiths, only to the dominant one) dramatically make relevant those who for millennia share similar stories of desperation and exile.
Therefore, the title of this work's too limiting. Riess exhausts what can be discerned about Bodo, but this would've resulted in a monograph. Even a couple-hundred pages means half of this, at least, delves into related but not always immediately germane matters. But the results both inform the medievalist and enlighten those outside the academy seeking erudition. There's insight into the central problem: does Judaism recognize converts as equal to those born into "the tribe"? And, how does "anxiety of influence" shake the confidence of Christian apologists who refuse to accept that there's "two covenants" (to use the post-Vatican II phrasing) and instead impose supersessionism (again, not a term used by Riess) and refuse to allow "rabbinical" Judaism its legitimacy after Jesus?
True, as we lack from the defaced (given the clerical scribes' outrage kindled by Bodo's transition to Eliezer) manuscripts of Bodo's debates with a fierce Mozarabic Christian foe a complete picture of their disputation over which belief-system is better, and likewise the Cairo evidence is literally shredded, a fuller understanding of the dynamics, this study for its brevity insists on roaming wide.
The formation of the Rhine, the forests of Germania, the battles of Visigoths and Franks, Viking raids, Byzantine weakness, Ummayid expansion, Augustine and Jerome, powerplays among the Carolingians, the testimony of Maimonides and Judah Halevi, oblates, the routines of a Benedictine monastery, the rise of Gregorian chant, and the academies which taught the Babylonian version of the Talmud all enter the scenes. Even if these digress, their telling captures the wider contexts, intellectually, diplomatically, and strategically during these centuries in which so much has been eradicated for us who struggle to piece the storylines together from scraps, rumors, spats, and fancy might glimpse fleeting truths about the convictions leading those who, standing up against formidable oppression, and often death at the hands of their overlords, emirs, and prelates, risked their lives to attest to firmer allegiances, by birth, marriage, adoption, or affirmation, to their souls.
Riess wisely discounts any romanticized "convivencia" among those in Moorish Spain; the plight of the "dhimmi" second-class monotheists under Islamic rule wasn't the tolerant, bucolic realm which some recently conjure up. Riess, who did a previous study of the Narbonne region during this period, integrates the tale of Bodo-turned-Eliezer, a monk turned Jew who fled Alemania for Al-Andalus around 840. This scandalous turnabout presaged others such as Johannes-Obadiah of Norman Oppida, "the woman from Narbonne," or manic refugees whose compelling, unfortunately piecemeal accounts of escaping Iberian Christian persecution (and it must be stressed, in Islamic domains, neither Christians nor Jews could convert to each other's faiths, only to the dominant one) dramatically make relevant those who for millennia share similar stories of desperation and exile.
Therefore, the title of this work's too limiting. Riess exhausts what can be discerned about Bodo, but this would've resulted in a monograph. Even a couple-hundred pages means half of this, at least, delves into related but not always immediately germane matters. But the results both inform the medievalist and enlighten those outside the academy seeking erudition. There's insight into the central problem: does Judaism recognize converts as equal to those born into "the tribe"? And, how does "anxiety of influence" shake the confidence of Christian apologists who refuse to accept that there's "two covenants" (to use the post-Vatican II phrasing) and instead impose supersessionism (again, not a term used by Riess) and refuse to allow "rabbinical" Judaism its legitimacy after Jesus?
True, as we lack from the defaced (given the clerical scribes' outrage kindled by Bodo's transition to Eliezer) manuscripts of Bodo's debates with a fierce Mozarabic Christian foe a complete picture of their disputation over which belief-system is better, and likewise the Cairo evidence is literally shredded, a fuller understanding of the dynamics, this study for its brevity insists on roaming wide.
The formation of the Rhine, the forests of Germania, the battles of Visigoths and Franks, Viking raids, Byzantine weakness, Ummayid expansion, Augustine and Jerome, powerplays among the Carolingians, the testimony of Maimonides and Judah Halevi, oblates, the routines of a Benedictine monastery, the rise of Gregorian chant, and the academies which taught the Babylonian version of the Talmud all enter the scenes. Even if these digress, their telling captures the wider contexts, intellectually, diplomatically, and strategically during these centuries in which so much has been eradicated for us who struggle to piece the storylines together from scraps, rumors, spats, and fancy might glimpse fleeting truths about the convictions leading those who, standing up against formidable oppression, and often death at the hands of their overlords, emirs, and prelates, risked their lives to attest to firmer allegiances, by birth, marriage, adoption, or affirmation, to their souls.
Displaying 1 of 1 review