The Cure of Souls: On Forced Conversion

Joseph Ibn ‘Aqnīn

Ṭibb al-nufūs, Chapter 4 (selections)

ca. 1190

When we consider the persecutions that have befallen us in recent years, we are unable to find anything comparable recorded in the chronicles handed down to us by our ancestors. We are made the object of inquisitions in which both great and small testify against us. Their slightest statements render lawful the shedding of our blood, the…

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This chapter from the eclectic The Cure of Souls (Ṭibb al-nufūs), a moral guidebook written in the style of Arabic adab (polite, refined culture), details the Almohad persecution of the Jews. Ibn ‘Aqnīn particularly lamented the lowly position of his coreligionists and the degradations that they faced, a fate that he described as worse than the plight of the Israelites in Egypt. Ibn ‘Aqnīn finds scriptural precedent for the Almohad efforts to humiliate the Jews.

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Facing pages of illuminated manuscript with columns of text in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
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Challenges to the Jewish Community in the Early Medieval World

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As a minority population, Jews in both Christian and Islamic lands faced periods of persecution. 

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