Early Middle Ages and Crusades
Zirid persecutions
1033-1044·Tunisie, Kairouan
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
extraordinary contributions and conversion pressures on the community of Kairouan
Kairouan was at that time the intellectual capital of Western Judaism: its academy corresponded with the Geonim of Babylonia, and the responsa it received from Sherira and Haï Gaon rank among the founding documents of the history of the Talmud.
The Zirid emirs, initially vassals of the Fatimids and later aligned with the Abbasid caliphate, pressured the communities of their territory through extraordinary levies and coercive conversions, against a backdrop of war and famine. The letters of the Genizah show merchants liquidating their affairs and making their way to Egypt or Sicily.
The Hilalian invasion, a few years later, completed the ruin of Zirid Ifriqiya and emptied Kairouan. The academy dispersed; its masters and their books moved on to Egypt and Spain, where they nourished the flourishing of the Andalusian schools.
- Period :
- Early Middle Ages and Crusades
- Type :
- Persecution
- Region :
- Egypt and Maghreb
- Country :
- Tunisie
Documents de la guéniza du Caire ; correspondance des gueonim de Babylonie.