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JewishHistoryעברית

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain

Date
31 March 1492 – 31 July 1492
Location
Crowns of Castile and AragonSpain
Then part of
Crown of Castile, Crown of Aragon
Perpetrators
  • Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile (State)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
165,000[1]About 165,000 emigrants, Isidore Loeb's estimate as cited by the Jewish Encyclopedia (source 1). Mariana's claim of as many as 800,000 is described in the dispute and is not used as the high end.
Country

66% – 92% of the Jewish population of Crown of Castile (c. 1370)[11]

Worldwide

13% – 21% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1490)[14]

Category
Expulsion
Confidence
DisputedThe number of Jews who left Spain is unknown. The Jewish Encyclopedia cites Isidore Loeb's estimate of about 165,000 emigrants and notes that Mariana claimed as many as 800,000; Andrés Bernáldez gave detailed figures for those who entered Portugal. Encyclopaedia Judaica (via JVL Granada) does not give a kingdom-wide total.

Summary

On 31 March 1492, in Granada, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile issued an edict ordering all Jews in their kingdoms to leave by the end of July or face death and confiscation of property. The stated reason was that unconverted Jews were drawing conversos back to Judaism. Jews were allowed to sell goods but not to take gold, silver or coined money. Many converted in order to remain; those who left went mainly to Portugal, Navarre, North Africa, the Ottoman Empire and Italy. The number of emigrants is disputed: Isidore Loeb, cited by the Jewish Encyclopedia, estimated about 165,000; earlier Spanish historians gave far higher figures.

Sources

  1. Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Spain (sections "Edict of Expulsion" and "Number of the Exiles"). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  2. The Alhambra Decree — Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews of Spain (1492). Florida Atlantic University, Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education
  3. Granada. Jewish Virtual Library (Encyclopaedia Judaica)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 800,000 – 1,300,000[14]c. 1490DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 1.3 million in 1490. Botticini and Eckstein Table 9 give about 0.8–1 million for the late fifteenth century; their Chosen Few summary puts world Jewry below one million on the eve of the 1492–97 Iberian expulsions.
  • Crown of Castile: 180,000 – 250,000[11]c. 1370Valdeón, cited by Hinojosa Montalvo, estimated about 180,000–250,000 Jews in Castile around 1370. Schraer gives 200,000–250,000 at the start of the 14th century.
  • Crown of Aragon: 27,000 – 60,000[12]c. 1391Schraer gives 30,000–60,000 Jews in the Crown of Aragon; Riera, cited there, records 27,000 across 76 aljamas in 1391.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
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  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
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  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
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  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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