Una amistad inesperada: Domingo de Toral y Valdés y los judíos de Alepo
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Domingo de Toral y Valdés is recognized today as having written one of the last soldier autobiographies at the height of the Spanish Empire (1630s), although it went unpublished until the 20th century. Throughout this work, there are detailed descriptions of Spain’s military failures in Flanders, North Africa, Persia, and India, which is why the few scholars who have written about this text almost always focus on the Domingo’s criticism of the incompetence of the Spanish brass. However, one overlooked aspect of this autobiography is Domingo’s unexpected ability to observe, and then later represent, with favorable words and in an even-handed tone, non-Catholics (a not-so-insignificant trait of someone from 17th-century Spain, where Jews and Muslims could not live). It is his time in Aleppo that most piqued my interest because of his captivity there by Muslim authorities and the bonds he forms with the Jews of the city, most notably the rabbi. These Jews, descendants of those expelled in 1492, still maintained their Iberian identity by speaking Spanish fluently, living (clandestinely) in Madrid, and sending their children to study in Spain. Therefore, my conference paper will analyze this specific example of a favorable treatment of Jews and then put it in context with other captive works written by Spanish Catholics of the era that similarly (and surprisingly) represent Jews in a positive light.
