Women, Families, and Patterns of Inheritance among Fifteenth-Century Iberian Jews: The Hebrew Documentary Evidence

The analysis presented by the other participants of this session privilege the abundant Latin-Romance sources preserved (whether judicial or notarial records) concerning claims over dowries by Jewish women whether in Castile or in Aragon throughout the fifteenth century. In this paper I will focus on the coetaneous Hebrew documentary evidence preserved in order to highlight specific issues and problems, pointing to the contacts between Jewish and non-Jewish law. Jewish women appeared before courts, either Jewish or not, in order to initiate legal actions to support their claims over the dowry. Hebrew documents of a diverse typology, some still unpublished, account for a significant number of those collected through the project Ginze Sefarad. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and define patterns of inheritance and ideas about family in Castile and Aragon throughout the fifteenth century with the use of new sources, in addition to the analysis of the regulations on the devolution system contained in communal ordinances. Whether considered as partners or as competitors, women and familial history gain visibility through these sources, and allow us to take an alternative approach to Iberian Jewish social history, in need of a complete renovation of the methods, sources, and issues studied.