Page  42

MOSHE YAGUR

Iberian Migrants in Cairo

Geniza Documents

Between Identification and Identity

One of the interesting facets of identity

is how it is articulated and shaped or

reshaped in the face of change. When

dealing with notions of identity based

on geographical origin, it is worthwhile to examine

the influence of migration: how migrants construct

their identity, how they present it to their new

society, the degree to which they keep contacts

of various kinds with the old homeland, and the

extent to which they maintain and develop contacts

with other fellow migrants from the same place.

In the historiography of Jewish communities in the

high middle ages, an examination of the ways that

Jewish migrants from the Iberian Peninsula defined

themselves and interacted socially with the Jewish

communities in their new locales, as well as with

fellow Iberian migrants, is crucial for understanding

the social meaning of ìSephardic identityî in

that period.

Fortunately, the tens of thousands of manuscripts of

documentary nature preserved in the Cairo Geniza

open a path for us to examine this issue by identifying

cases of migrants who left the Iberian Peninsula

and settled in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean.

Incidentally, the late tenth to the mid-thirteenth

centuries, which is the period in which most Geniza

documents were written, more or less coincides

with the peak of Jewish intellectual creativity in

the Iberian Peninsulaóthe so-called ìGolden Ageî

of Sephardic history. It was during this period in

al-Andalusóthose parts of the peninsula that were

part of the Arabo-Islamic worldóthat Jewish intellectuals,

from H.asdai Ibn Shaprut. to Abraham Ibn

Ezra, celebrated the uniqueness of their heritage and

its perfect pedigree, an understanding inherently

tied to their identification of Islamic al-Andalus

with biblical Sepharad, and of the Andalusi Jews as

the direct descendants of ìthe Jerusalemite exile

community of Sepharadî (Obadiah 1:20).

Yet how strong was this notion of ìSephardic exceptionalismî

beyond the elitist circle of intellectuals?

Did it trickle down from this circle into other social

strata that were less intellectually inclined? Was this

claim for intellectual superiority meaningful also in

daily life, in social and economic interactions? Most

importantly, did this claim form a significant part

of Iberian migrantsí identity, did it influence their

actions and interactions with non-Iberian Jews,

Page  43

and did it help them in identifying themselves and

presenting their identity? The documents of the

Cairo Geniza, which provide us with an unparalleled

view of the daily lives of people otherwise mostly

unknown to us, present us with an understudied

source to answer these questions.

The Cairo Geniza documents clearly attest to the

ongoing ties between the eastern and western parts

of the Mediterranean, including the Iberian Peninsula,

ties that included trade, migration, pilgrimage, written

communications, and the exchange of ideas. Yet

the issue at stake is how Jewish migrants from the

The manuscript, probably a 13th-century amulet for a

pilgrim, reads: ìIf I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right-

hand wither. Abraham son of Judah, may he rest in Eden,

Sephardi from the city of Jayyan (JaÈn), known as Sarraf.

Ha-Shem, for his sake, will privilege him to go to Jerusalem,

the holy cityÖî Reproduced by kind permission of the

Syndics of Cambridge University Library

Page  44

peninsula defined themselves vis-‡-vis their

geographical origins? Did they identify themselves

as ìSephardiî or ìAndalusi,î did they choose to

interact mainly with other Iberian migrants, and

did they form their own social structures? To put it

differently, how ìSephardicî were these migrants?

Geniza documents show that the equation of Arabic

al-Andalus with biblical Sepharad was widespread.

As early as the very beginning of the eleventh century

(not more than a generation after Ibn Shaprut.),

there are already various persons identifying themselves

as ìha-Sephardiî in the eastern Mediterranean,

attaching this toponym to their signatures on private

letters and court records. These figures were,

moreover, identified as such by Jews in their host

society in the east, in documents of various genres,

from commercial correspondence to charity lists to

communal appeals. Furthermore, we find that the

terms ìSepharadî and ìal-Andalusî were used

interchangeably, depending mostly on the linguistic

context. The same person might be identified as

ìSephardiî in a Hebrew or Aramaic document,

and as ìAndalusiî in a Judeo-Arabic or Arabic one.

The interchangeability of these apparently equivalent

geographical identifiers was part of a larger fluidity in

such terms. The very same migrants who identified

themselves as Sephardi/Andalusi in some documents

would also sometimes sign their names

without giving any hint of their Iberian origins.

Other Iberian migrants identified themselves

according to their specific hometown in the peninsula

rather than the general Sephardi/Andalusi identifier,

apparently hinting at the greater significance of

their local identity over their all-Iberian origin.

Iberian migrants could also identify themselves

more broadly as ìMaghrebi,î i.e. coming from

ìthe west,î an Arabic term encompassing the

entire North African coast west of Egypt and all the

way to the Atlantic Ocean, including the Iberian

Peninsula. It seems that for the Iberian migrants

documented in the Geniza, being explicitly identified

as a ìSephardiî or ìAndalusiî was not of much

importance, and could quite easily be exchanged by

other identifiers, whether geographical or otherwise

(ìthe merchant,î ìthe judge,î etc.)

So far, an examination of Geniza documents has

revealed no signs of ìSephardic uniqueness,î even

beyond the question of onomastics. There is no proof

that these migrants prayed differently, intermarried,

or used their networks and familiarity with the

peninsula to dominate trade with it, to list just a

few possibilities. On the contrary, most of our

information on these Iberian migrants is due to the

fact that they were thoroughly integrated into the

local eastern networks and society. They traded

with locals and migrants from other places, prayed

in the Palestinian-rite synagogues, and were deeply

involved in the politics of local communities and

regional institutions of the east. Even when there is

evidence of communal dissent, it appears as part of

a larger Maghrebi affiliation, and thus does not offer

any intimation of a specifically Iberian identity.

Keeping in mind that Geniza documents are as yet

far from being exhausted or even fully deciphered,

this study shows that currently, the view from

the east and the examination of Iberian migrants

there fails to present any significant examples of

ìSephardicî identity up to the thirteenth century.

It seems that the crystallization of this identity, to

the point where it formed a significant part of oneís

own sense of self as well as oneís social identification,

was still yet to come. .

Page  45