The Alhambra Decree: 1492 and the Expulsion of Spain's Jews

In 1492, while Christopher Columbus prepared to sail west, the Catholic Monarchs signed an edict that expelled every Jew from their Spanish realms. This is the story of the Alhambra Decree — the document that ended a thousand years of Jewish life in Iberia. We trace the rise of Jewish communities under Muslim rule, the 'Golden Age' of poetry and science in Córdoba, and the creeping persecution that followed the Reconquista. We meet Isaac Abravanel, the wealthy courtier who tried to bribe Ferdinand and Isabella to halt the edict, and his son Judah, who lured Columbus with promises of golden kingdoms. We hear of the traumatic mass departure from Cadiz and the ships that carried refugees across the Mediterranean. And we ask whether the decree was a matter of faith or politics — and what Spain lost when it forced out its most skilled traders and physicians. This episode sits at the crossroads of religion, money, and memory, and it still resonates today. #AlhambraDecree #ExpulsionOfJews #1492 #IsaacAbravanel #FerdinandAndIsabella #Sephardim #GoldenAgeOfSpain #Maimonides #Córdoba #Seville #Cadiz #JewishHistory #SpanishHistory #Reconquista #MedievalSpain #Inquisition #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo