Maimônides Benjamin de Tutela: narrativas, judaísmos e trocas culturais no Mediterrâneo do Sec. XII

Abstract

Often, Jewish history is conceived and written under nationalist and fundamentalist biases that occur in a specific context. In contrast to various conservative historical strands that presented a historiography of purification of origin and identity, we present a more nuanced history of Jews in which processes of cultural exchange were possible, although tensions and conflicts also occurred. Throughout the 12th century, most Jewish communities across the Mediterranean under Islamic rule or under Christianity, albeit to varying degrees, flourished and their members were able to rise through the social ranks, interact with their peers in society and gain access to to the world and to the knowledge of his time. Amidst various contexts, a new way of thinking about Judaism was born, giving Jewish history a cultural and religious connotation. Sephardic authors such as Maimonides and Benjamín de Tudela reveal to us the plurality of part of this medieval Jewish world. For this historical undertaking, we apply the philosophical book Guia dos perplexos by Maimonides and the travel book O Itinerário by Benjamín de Tudela as sources to study and understand the Jewish communities of the twelfth century. When dealing with sources, we interpret them critically to extract more than the contexts in which they were written, but also the possible intentions and ideologies on which the authors drew. Concepts such as fluid identity and hybrid culture helped us to understand the process of cultural exchange that took place between Jews and their peers, as well as the social, economic and political circumstances that led to this contact.Under the prism of the world history approach, we note the dimensions of the connections and the key points where such processes occur.