Christian Crusades Timeline

(1095 - 1258)

Return to Timeline of Jewish History: Table of Contents

1096 Participants in the First Crusade massacre Jews in several Central European cities, beginning centuries of pogroms linked to the Crusades.
1096 More than 5,000 Jews were murdered in Germany in several different attacks.
May 3, 1096 Count Emico of Leiningen, on his way to join a Crusade, attacked the synagogue at Speyers and killed all the defenders.
May 27, 1096 1,200 Jews commit suicide in Mayence to escape Count Emico, who tried to forcibly convert them.
1085-1140 Judah Halevi (Jewish author).
1099 Crusaders (European Christians) capture Jerusalem and massacre tens of thousands of the city's Jews.
1100 Germans, including German Jews, migrate to Poland. It is seen as “the land of opportunity.”
1107 Moroccan Almoravid ruler Yoseph Ibn Tashfin orders all Moroccan Jews to convert or leave.
1109 Tiberias falls to the Crusaders.
1115 After reconquering Toledo, Spain from the Muslims, Alphonso I invited all Jews to return.
1120 Jews from Muslim countries begin to settle in Byzantium.
1124 Records of a Jewish gate in Kiev attest to the presence of a Jewish community there.
1135-1204 Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon; Jewish scholar).
1139 Judah Halevi completes his influential philosophy of Judaism known as The Kuzari. He is a friend of commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra, who also left Spain for the life of a wandering Jewish scholar.
1143 150 Jews killed in Ham, France.
1144 Jews in Norwich, England, are accused of murdering a Christian child in what is believed to be the first ritual murder charge. The blood libel, as well as others in England that follow in the 12th century, incites anti-Jewish violence.
1160-1173 Benjamin of Toledo, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Toledo.
1163 Benjamin of Toledo writes of 40,000 Jews living in Baghdad, complete with 28 synagogues and 10 Torah academies.
1171 Saladin (1138-1193) overthrows Fatimid dynasty in Egypt.
1187 Saladin recaptures Jerusalem from Crusaders grants Jews permission to re-enter.
March 16, 1190 Jews attacked, over 150 die after a six day standoff in York, England.
1190 Approximately 2,500 Jews live in England, enjoing more rights than Jews on the continent.
1191 French King Phillip starts the Third Crusade, cancels debts to Jews, drives many Jews out of France, confiscates their property.
1194-1270 Scholar and Jewish leader Moses Ben Nachman (Nachmanides).
1195 Moses Maimonides completes The Guide to the Perplexed, considered the most important work of medieval Jewish thought.
1211 A group of 300 rabbis from France and England settle in Palestine (Eretz Yisrael), beginning what might be interpreted as Zionist aliyah.
1198-1216 Pope Innocent III (Christian).
1204 First synagogue built in Vienna, a city where Jews enjoyed more freedom than in other areas of Austria.
1215 Fourth Lateran Council expands anti-Jewish decrees in Europe, forces Jews to wear the Yellow Patch, the "Badge of Shame.
1222 Deacon Robert of Reading, England, was burned for converting to Judaism, setting a precedent for the burning of "heretics".
1222 Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and a prime mover of the Lateran Council, forbids Jews from building new synagogues, owning slaves or mixing with Christians.
ca. 13th cen. The Zohar (a Jewish kabbalistic book): .
1227 Death of Genghis Khan (roving Mongol conqueror).
ca. 1230 Inquisition by Christians in Spain.
1232 The Jewish community of Marrakech, Morocco, is reestablished, leading to massacres of Jews caused by Islamic political revolt and grassroots hatred.
1239 Pope Gregory IX orders the kings of France, England, Spain and Portugal to confiscate Hebrew books, Following this edict, the Talmud is condemned and burned in France and Rome.
1225-1274 Thomas Aquinas (Christian scholar).
1240-1292 Spanish Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia.
1243 First accusation of desecration of the Host (the wafers used is Christian Mass) - the blood libel - in Berlitz, Germany.
1244-1517 Rule by Tartars, Mongols, Ayybids, and Mamelukes.
1247 Pope Innocent IV issued a Bull refuting blood libels and sent it throughout Germany and France.
1254-1517 Mamluk Islamic rule (new dynasty) in Egypt.
1258 Fall of Islamic Abbasid dynasty to Hulagu (Mongol).

Timeline of Jewish History