Category: Places
Knowledgebase entries on regions and cities of importance to Jewish history. With maps, photographs, and links.
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Bavel
Bavel – בבל (Babylonia) is what Jews called the region of present-day Iraq. In the Talmudic period it included Persia and was ruled in Sasanians. Later, in the period of the Geonim, by the Abbasid Muslim caliphate.
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Provence
The term used by Jews to refer to the Jewish communities of what is today the southern third of modern France, encompassing the regions today called Provence, Languedoc, and the Rousillon. Major cities of Jewish Provence in the medieval period include Narbonne, Lunel, Béziers, Montpellier, Perpignan, and Avignon, among others that where home to renowned…
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Tzarfat
צרפת – The Jewish community of northern France in the medieval period, part of greater Ashkenaz but known as Tzarfat in its own right. The name is taken from Ovadia 1:20, from which the term Sefarad is also drawn. With centers in Paris, Troyes, Rouen, Ramerupt, Évreux, Corbeil, Sens, Dampierre, Coucy, and other towns, this…
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Zaragoza (Saragossa)
Zaragoza, a city in the region of Aragon in northeastern Spain, is commonly known as Saragossa in English, סרקרסטה or סרקסטה in medieval Hebrew. It had a notable Jewish community in the medieval period, both under Muslim and Christian rule. A Roman city in antiquity, Zaragoza was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century and…