The 1171 Blood Libel in Blois: The…
1171 CE
The 1171 Blood Libel in Blois: The First Ritual Murder Accusation in Continental Europe
In 1171, Theobald V, Count of Blois, became responsible for the first recorded accusation of ritual murder against Jews in Continental Europe, an event that led to the execution of dozens of Jews and the spread of blood libel mythsthroughout medieval Christendom.
The Blood Libel and Church-Sanctioned Trial
- The accusation was based on the medieval Christian belief in ritual murder, the false claim that Jews kidnapped and killed Christian children for religious purposes.
- This case marked the first time that such an accusation was formally prosecuted on the Continent, following similar allegations made earlier in England.
- A church-sponsored trial was held, despite a lack of evidence.
- On May 26, 1171, fifty-one Jews (including seventeen women) were burned alive; another source gives the number at thirty-one.
Jewish Resistance and Martyrdom
- As they were burned, the victims chanted the hymn Alenu, traditionally recited at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, symbolizing their steadfast faith.
- Among the condemned was Pulcinella (Puncelina), a Jewish woman favored by Theobald, who had attempted to intervene on behalf of her community.
- Despite her influence, Theobald refused to release them.
Aftermath and Jewish Responses
- The massacre prompted Rabbi Rabbenu Tam to declare a fast and day of prayer in England, France, and the Rhineland, uniting Jewish communities in mourning.
- Following the executions, Theobald V initially ordered the expulsion of the remaining Jews from his lands.
- However, he was persuaded to reverse this decision in exchange for a ransom payment of 2,000 pounds.
Legacy of the 1171 Blood Libel
- This was the first recorded blood libel accusation in Continental Europe, setting a dangerous precedent for future anti-Jewish persecutions.
- It marked the beginning of widespread ritual murder accusations, which later fueled pogroms and expulsions across medieval Europe.
- The event reinforced Jewish communal solidarity, with commemorations of the victims continuing for centuries.
The 1171 Blois Blood Libel was a turning point in medieval anti-Semitism, contributing to the growing marginalization and persecution of Jewish communities in medieval Christendom.
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The Khmer-Cham war begun by Cham king Jaya Indravarman IV continues, with neither side making serious gains until 1171, when the Chams, who had learned from a shipwrecked Chinese mandarin the battle advantages in using horses instead of elephants, gain an important victory over the Khmers.
The Greeks, resentful of the increasing presence in Constantinople of Venetian merchants and the privileges accorded them following the two Crusades, entreat the emperor to act against them.
Following an anti-Latin demonstration in Constantinople in 1171, the emperor, to maintain order in his dominions, and egged on by Genoa, Pisa, and other of the Venetians' trading rivals, in a single day arrests all Venetian residents in Constantinople and the provinces and briefly confiscates their goods.
The Fatimids, Ismaili Shi’tes, had honored philosophical studies at a time when rulers in other countries declared philosophers as apostates or heretics.
The Fatimids had encouraged the study of Greek philosophy, giving support to scholars of any branch of philosophy.
The Fatimid Caliphs had invited numerous scholars from neighboring realms and collected textbooks on various branches of knowledge.
These will be destroyed by Saladin along with the Fatimids.
Saladin becomes Egypt's sole ruler, returning Egypt to official Sunni orthodoxy (despite the religious unorthodoxy of the Ismaili Fatimids, most of the dynasty’s subjects have remained orthodox Muslims).
Although non-Muslms are again subject to discrimination, Jewish intellectual life flourishes under Ayubbid rule with more than seven thousand Jewish families in Egypt, among them that of Maimonides, whose fame as a physician has spread rapidly; he soon becomes the court physician to Saladin.
Saladin obeys Nur ad-Din's order in 1171 to have the prayers in the mosques mention the Caliph of Baghdad instead of the Caliph of Cairo, who is now in his final illness.
Thus ends the weak and unpopular Shi'ite Fatimid caliphate and the great division in Levantine Islam from which the Latins had profited.
Saladin, The founder of the staunchly Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty, converts Al-Azhar University to a Shafi'ite Sunni center of learning.
Abd-el-latif delivers lectures on Islamic medicine at Al-Azhar; Maimonides delivers lectures on medicine and astronomy.
Nur ad-Din Zengi, the Sultan of Syria, allows Turan-Shah to travel to Egypt in 1171 to join his younger brother Saladin at a time of rising tensions between Nur ad-Din and Saladin.
Nur al-Din empowers Turan-Shah to supervise Saladin, hoping to provoke dissension between the brothers.
However, this attempt fails as Turanshah is immediately granted an immense amount of lands by Saladin who is in the process of rebuilding the power structure of the Fatimid state around himself and his relatives.
The iqta' or "fief" given to Turan-shah comprises the major cities of Qus and Aswan in Upper Egypt as well as the Red Sea port of Aidab.
Turan-shah is the main force behind the suppression of a revolt staged in 1171 by the Black African garrisons of the Fatimid army in 1171.
Turan-Shah develops a close relationship with the poet courtier 'Umara, who had been a power player in Fatimid politics before Saladin's ascendancy to the vizierate in 1169.
The last Fatimid caliph al-Adid dies on September 11, 1171, and the Ayyubid dynasty gains official control of Egypt.
A number of accusations of murder against Turan-Shah arises following the caliph's death.
According to a eunuch in the service of al-Adid's widow, al-Adid died after hearing that Turan-Shah was in the palace looking for him.
In another version, Turan- Shah is said to have killed al-Adid himself after the latter refused to reveal the location of state treasures that were hidden in the palace.
After the caliph's death, Turan-Shah settles in Cairo in a quarter formerly occupied by Fatimid emirs.
Emperor Manuel, in prosecuting the war with Venice that began in 1170, seizes Venetian outposts in the Aegean: …
…other Venetian holdings in the Adriatic fall to Hungary's Stephen III, who advances with his troops along the Dalmatian coast.
The Venetians, who break relations with Constantinople in 1171, will not forget this episode.
They, too, begin to think in terms of putting Constantinople under Western control as the only means of securing their interest in Greek trade.