ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in more detail developments in three major arenas of medieval Jewish life—the largest and oldest medieval Jewry, that of the Muslim Near East; the vital Jewry of the Iberian peninsula; and the young immigrant communities of northern Europe. It focuses on these three sets of Jewish settlements because of their importance on the medieval scene, because they illuminate broad developments in medieval Jewish life, and because of their significance for postmedieval Jewish history. Jews were well enough settled throughout the Muslim world to reinforce their theoretical protections with everyday acceptance. For more than a century prior to the Muslim conquest, the Visigothic rulers of Spain had exerted considerable pressure on Iberian Jewry. Northern Europe lay outside the range of Jewish settlement in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Northern European society felt itself increasingly threatened by such groups as Jews, heretics, homosexuals, lepers, and witches. All these groups began to suffer enhanced hostility and increasing persecution.
