“At the beginning of the thirteenth century,” says Mr. Joseph Jacobs, B.A., in the “Jewish Encyclopædia,” “the Shushans, the Al-Fakhkhars, and the Alnaquas, were among the chief Jewish families of Toledo, Samuel Ibn Shushan being nasi [the chief of Sanhedrim] about 1204. His son built a synagogue which attracted the attention of Abraham ben Nathan of Lunel, who settled in Toledo before 1205. During the troubles brought upon Castile by the men of ‘Ultrapuertos’ in 1211-12, Toledo suffered a riot; and this appears to have brought the position of the Jews more closely to the attention of the authorities. In 1219 the Jewish inhabitants became more strictly subject to the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Toledo, who imposed upon every Jew over twenty years old an annual poll-tax of one-sixth of a gold mark; and any dispute about age was to be settled by a jury of six elders, who were probably supervised by the nasi, at that time Solomon ben Joseph Ibn Shushan. In the same year papal authority also interfered with the affairs of the Toledo Jews, ordering them to pay tithes on houses bought by them from Christians, ‘as otherwise the Church would be a considerable loser.’” A significant phrase! But not only houses and land all over the country were mortgaged to the Jews, but also church plate and even the sacred vessels. Jewish usurers were said to drink out of the chalices used for the Precious Elements. The exasperation of the Christians was disregarded by Alfonso X. the Learned, who entertained a profound respect for the erudition and traditions of the Jews. A Hebrew, Don Zag Ibn Said, directed the compilation of the famous Alfonsine Tables; and under the patronage of the monarch, Toledo became famous for its translations from the Arabic into Hebrew, Latin, and Spanish. The rabbis distinguished themselves in medicine and astronomy. While doing his utmost to draw the oppressed race within the fold of the Catholic church, the Learned King granted permission to the Jews of Toledo to erect that beautiful synagogue which, under the name of Santa Maria la Blanca, ranks to-day among the national monuments of Spain. “The Spanish Jews,” says Mr. Scott, “by reason of the peculiarities of their situation, the hostility of their rulers--which their pecuniary resources and natural acuteness often baffled, but never entirely overcame--and their successive domination by races of different origin, faith, and language, were impressed with mental peculiarities and characteristics not to be met with in their brethren of other countries. Their religious formalism was proverbial, and the Hebrew of Toledo observed more conscientiously the precepts of the Pentateuch and Talmud than the Hebrew of Damascus or Jerusalem.” Thus we find the Jews of Toledo siding against the rationalising theories of the great Maimonides, himself a native of Cordoba, and whose tomb is a conspicuous landmark on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.