Joseph ibn Naghrela, or Joseph ha-Nagid , was a vizier to the Berbertaifa king Badis al-Muzaffar of Granada, during the Moorish rule of Al-Andalus, and the nagrid, or leader of the Iberian Jews.
Life and career
Joseph was born in Granada, the eldest son of Rabbi and famous poet and warrior Sh'muel ha-Nagid. Some information about his childhood and upbringing is preserved in the collection of his father's Hebrew poetry in which Joseph writes that he began copying at the age of eight and a half. For example, he tells how once he accompanied his father to the battlefield, only to suffer from severe homesickness, about which he wrote a short poem. His primary school teacher was his father. On the basis of a letter to Rabbi Nissim Gaon attributed to him, in which Joseph refers to himself as R' Nissim's disciple, it is possible to infer that he also studied under R' Nissim at Kairouan. In 1049, Joseph married Rabbi Nissim's daughter. After the death of his father, Joseph succeeded him as vizier and rabbi, directing at the same time an important yeshiva. Among his students were Rabbi Isaac ben Baruch ibn Albalia and Rabbi Isaac ibn Ghayyat. When the King, Badis and his heir Bulluggin, were poisoned and died in 1073, it was loudly rumored that Joseph had done it himself. Things only worsened for him from there. He launched into a series of backfired intrigues, mishandled and misjudged situations, resulting in the kingdom sliding into crisis.
Character
Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud describes Joseph in highly laudatory terms, saying that he lacked none of his father's good qualities, except that he was not quite as humble, having been brought up in luxury. The 1906 edition of the Jewish Encyclopedia states, "Arabic chroniclers relate that he believed neither in the faith of his fathers nor in any other faith. It may also be doubted that he openly declared the principles of Islam to be absurd." Arabic poets also praised his liberality. The Jewish Encyclopedia also reported that Joseph "completely ruled King Badis, who was nearly always drunk, and surrounded him with spies". Muslim leaders accused him of several acts of violence, which drew upon him the hatred of the Berbers, the ruling majority at Granada. The most bitter among his many enemies was Abu Ishak of Elvira, who hoped to obtain an office at court and wrote a malicious poem against Joseph and his fellow Jews. The poem made little impression upon the king, who trusted Joseph implicitly, but it created a great sensation among the Berbers.
Massacre
In hopes of attaining his father's dream, Joseph sent messengers to the ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Almeria, Ibn Sumadih, a traditional enemy of Granada. He promised to open the gates of the city to the king's army, if he promised to install Joseph as king in exchange for his submission and allegiance. At the last moment Ibn Sumadih pulled out, and on the eve of the supposed invasion, word of the plot got out. When word reached the populace, people claimed he killed the king and was about to betray the kingdom. On 30 December 1066, Muslim mobs stormed the royal palace where Joseph had sought refuge, captured, then crucified him. In the ensuing massacre of the Jewish population, many of the Jews of Granada were murdered. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia claims, "More than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day." However, the 1971 edition does not give precise casualty figures. This was possibly because the accounts of the massacre couldn't be verified, and as over 900 years had passed, it was subject to hyperbole. The Encyclopaedia Judaica also confirms the figures : «According to a later testimony, "more than 1,500 householders" were killed. » Joseph's wife fled to Lucena with her son Azariah, where she was supported by the community. Azariah, however, died in early youth. According to historian Bernard Lewis, the massacre is "usually ascribed to a reaction among the Muslim population against a powerful and ostentatious Jewish vizier." Lewis writes:
Particularly instructive in this respect is an ancient anti-Jewish poem of Abu Ishaq, written in Granada in 1066. This poem, which is said to be instrumental in provoking the anti-Jewish outbreak of that year, contains these specific lines:
Lewis continues: "Diatribes such as Abu Ishaq's and massacres such as that in Granada in 1066 are of rare occurrence in Islamic history." The episode has been characterized as a pogrom. Walter Laqueur writes, "Jews could not as a rule attain public office, and there were occasional pogroms, such as in Granada in 1066." Erika Spivakovsky questions the death rate, suspecting it to be an example of "the usual hyperbole in numerical estimates, with which history abounds."
