Research On The Social Status Of Jews In The Byzantine Empire (641-1453)

The object of this dissertation is the Jews of the Byzantine Empire, research time is from the year of641to1453. The social status of Jews in the Byzantine Empire is very unique, it’s neither subordinated to the orthodox Christian system, nor to the polytheism and other pagan groups, but existed between the two. Their fate is closely connected to the Byzantium’s, showing a dynamic balance. In the long river of the Byzantine history, their social status was mainly depended on four factors:first, Byzantium’s powerful national strength; second, Byzantium’s strict centralized system, numerous bureaucratic politics, and the separate powers of administrative and military third, Byzantium’s sound and perfect legal system; fourth, Byzantium’s sympathy to retain Judaism, and shelter the Jews.From60BC, the Jewish kingdom’s national strength had been weakened, increasingly under the control of the Rome. In order to get rid of Roman rules, the Jews once erupted the largest uprising in AD66. After four years (70AD), the Romans conquered Judea (Judah), burned the Jewish Second Temple. A large number of Jews were in exile from Palestinian territories, they dispersed to North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor and Greece. With the rise of Byzantine Empire, these Jews were under the Byzantine rules. They mostly lived in cities, mainly engaged in handicrafts, commerce, and some professional careers, such as doctors and teachers. Although the Byzantine Jewish population shared less than10%, the social activities of the Jews did have profound effects to Byzantium. Dynamic Jewish economic activities provided Byzantium a great amount of money, and promoted development to Byzantine economy. Especially from the13th century, Western Europe experienced Business Revolution and enhanced their abilities of economy. But the continued development of the Jewish economy stimulated the revival of the Byzantine economy and slowed down the trend of decline of the Byzantine economy.At the aspects of political and religious lifes, the Jews were forced to drop as second-class citizens because of the "Eternal the Gentiles" identity, their lifes were strictly limited. In the coming centuries, they went through discrimination, persecution, and converting by the emperors, the churches, and the Christian Crusades. However, the hard period was not invariable. In the hard times, the Jews also got some protections from some of the emperors and the bishops, their heavy weight of lifes were at some release. In particular, after the year of1204, the Fourth Crusade aggressed Byzantium and Western Europe gradually caught up with the Byzantine Empire in political and economic aspects, Byzantium was more and more in dependence on the Jews, the Jewish social status had a greater degree of upgrading.In short, whether in economic, political or religious aspect, the social status of the Jews was closely related to the situations in home and abroad of the Byzantium, rendering dynamic equilibrium.This paper is divided into four parts, introduces the entire circumstance, the economy status, the political status, and the religious status of the Byzantine Jewish communities separately.The first part explains in detail of the origin, distribution, population, and management mechanism of the Byzantine Jewish communities. Byzantine Jewish communities are unique in Byzantine style, with strong characters of regional, autonomy, loss and transformation with dynamic equilibrium.The second part focuses on the economic status of the Byzantine Jews. This part is divided into two aspects:the occupations and the ratepayings of the Byzantine Jews. The Byzantine Jewish occupations had the Byzantine style. In the economic life of the Jews, the textile and leather industry became the star industries. The Jews had not only excellent skills, but also a large domestic and foreign markets as well, thus they had strong economic strength. In the aspect of ratepaying, the Jews were discriminated, being compelled of paying heavy taxes and so-called "Special Taxes" to the Byzantine emporers. However, in some periods, the Jews enjoyed loose and comfortable times, for instance, they had holden the position of "Tax Farmer", collecting taxes to Christian for the emporers. In brief, Jews stimulated the recovery of the Byzantine economy, and supplyed the Byzantine treasury funds. Especially in the difficult periods of the Byzantine economy, it relyed on the good running of the silk industry of the Jews in some degrees. Despite of restriction and discrimination, the Byzantine Jews had a great deal of contributions to the Byzantine economy, and this could not be denied.The third part analyzes the political status of the Byzantine Jews. This part is divided into three aspects:the Byzantine Jews political rights, the relationship with the Byzantine Emporers, and the political conflicts to the Byzantine Emporers. Byzantium was a centralized monarchy, having the supreme imperial power and the complete legislation. Therefore, the Jewish legal position and the attitude of the Byzantine Emperors to the Jews were the two important parts of the political status of the Jews. In the early ages of Byzantium, the Jews still had more privileges, because they were used by Christians to testify the victory of Christianism, in addition to the Roman period of antiquity. Until the beginning of Justinian I, Byzantine emperor gradually achieved a doubt, persecute anti-Semitic tradition, impacted by the Justinian I’s policy of governing the state and the invasions by the Persia. In the8-10th centuries, this anti-Semitic was in performance obviously. But, in this3centuries, due to some of the emperors’personal reasons and the domestic political backgrounds, the Jewish social status was up and down frequently. After the13th century, Byzantium experienced the pain of subjugated the nation, and again revived. During this period, the relationship between the Byzantine emperors and the Jews gradually eased, and the political status of Jews had been enhanced.The fourth part discusses the religious status of Jews breifly. Although Jewish religious status is closely related to their legal position, in this part, I will emphasis three aspects:the relationship bewteen the Christian Church and the Jews, the Crusades, and the Jewish religious culture. The Christian Church had a complex relationship with the Jews:sometimes they were the side of the emperors, persecuting against the Jews commonly; sometimes they were against the Byzantine emperors, protecting the Jews, despite using some tougher methods. From the Crusades aspect, in1096and1204, the first and fourth Crusades left the Jews not only the heavy disasters, but also lessons of blood and firm belief to Judaism. Jews were not only understood how to protect themselves in the difficult life of a foreign land, but also had more firmly Jewish faith. Last but not least, in the riligious culture aspect, although the Jews were restricted, but this situation did not affect their religious culture growing prosperity. Under the guidance of their frim faith, they created an outstanding achievement of Jewish religious culture.