A Jewish Ideology of Martyrdom in a Comparative Perspective
During the first months of the First Crusade, groups of crusaders attacked the Jewish communities in the Rhineland, forcing them to choose between death and conversion to Christianity. Many converted, but many others chose to die as martyrs. Among these, some where killed by the crusaders, some kill...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
|
| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Year: 2009, Volume: 17, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-60 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | During the first months of the First Crusade, groups of crusaders attacked the Jewish communities in the Rhineland, forcing them to choose between death and conversion to Christianity. Many converted, but many others chose to die as martyrs. Among these, some where killed by the crusaders, some killed themselves, each other, or even their own children in order to prevent forcible conversion. This was the first large-scale persecution of Jews in Europe during the Middle Ages. These events are briefly described in a number of Latin accounts, but also at length in three Hebrew Chronicles. These Hebrew Crusade Chronicles introduce many ideas connected to martyrdom which are not found in earlier Jewish martyr texts. They also differ considerably from contemporary texts on martyrdom, written by Jews living under Muslim rule. In this article some of these new ideas are highlighted, and it is discussed how they connect to similar ideas in the Christian context of the Hebrew chroniclers. Methodological issues that relate to the study of a Jewish-Christian exchange of ideas in the Middle Ages are also addressed. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2009.17.1.43 |