ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we looked at acts of violen ce that were fu11y, partia11y, or purportedly sanctioned by the law; for the sake of convenience, I have ca11ed such acts official violence. Here I wish to turn my attention to violence that operated below the bar of legal sanctions: the unofficial versions. As pointed out earlier, these terms, o ffi ci al and unofficial, are organizing devices, not exclusive categories. As taxonomies of violence and resistance, they a110w us to examine social eruptions and gauge how social relations were negotiated and fought over. Bearing in mind that a11 forms of violence invoke legal, religious or moral principles to justify destructive actions, and that social disturbances are multivalent, boundaryshifting events that defy simple explanations, let us revisit the pogroms against lews in 1391 and the attacks, mainly in Toledo, against Conversos in the 1440s.
