Maya Soifer Irish
Kingdon Fellow (2025–2026)
Associate Professor, Department of History, Rice University
The Politics of Antisemitism in Medieval Spain and the Riots of 1391
From June 1391 to April 1392, Christians in dozens of Spanish cities went on a brutal rampage, massacring and forcibly converting thousands of Jews. The first outbreak of violence happened in the southern city of Seville, where local Christians broke down the gates of the Jewish quarter, and indiscriminately killed men, women, and children inside. From Seville, a wave of violence quickly spread through other cities in Castile and into the kingdom of Aragon. To this day, there has been no satisfactory explanation of the causes of the massacre in Seville. Scholars usually focus on the instigator of the riot, Archdeacon Ferrán Martínez, a canon at the Cathedral Chapter of Seville, and his “religious fanaticism.” Using a variety of little-known documentation, including unpublished archival material, The Politics of Antisemitism in Medieval Spain, shows that the causes of the riot went much deeper than the actions of one man. The book’s overarching argument is that antisemitism in medieval Spain was deeply intertwined with political struggles and crises of authority. The study demonstrates that antisemitic rhetoric and persecution were not simply expressions of religious intolerance but were strategically deployed by local political elites, urban factions, and church figures to consolidate power and reshape society. It argues that the politics of antisemitism during a century of crises played a crucial role in weakening royal authority, reshaping urban spaces, and justifying persecution, setting the stage for the 1391 massacre of Jews in Seville.
Dr. Maya Soifer Irish’s research focuses on religious violence and toleration, and investigates the legal, social, and economic situation of religious minorities in Iberian Christian societies. She is the author of Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile: Tradition, Coexistence, and Change (The Catholic University of America Press, 2016). Her articles have appeared in The Journal of Medieval History, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, Medieval Encounters, Sefarad, and many edited volumes. In 2019, she held a Fellowship at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Michigan). She has served as President of the Fourteenth Century Society, President of the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain, and President of the Texas Medieval Association.
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