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                                  THE

                            JEWS AND MOORS

                                  IN

                                SPAIN.

                                  BY

                         RABBI JOS. KRAUSKOPF.


                            [Illustration]


                             KANSAS CITY:

             M. BERKOWITZ & CO., PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS.

                                 1887.




                          _Copyright, 1886_,

                         BY JOSEPH KRAUSKOPF.

                        _All Rights Reserved._




                                  TO

                      THE MEMBERS OF CONGREGATION

                             B'NAI JEHUDAH

                                  OF

                        KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI,

                IN DEEP APPRECIATION OF THEIR KINDNESS

                           AND ENCOURAGEMENT

                              THIS VOLUME

                      IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.




PREFACE.


This volume is a reprint of newspaper reports of a series of lectures
delivered by the author from the pulpit of Congregation B'nai Jehudah,
Kansas City, Mo., during the Fall and Winter of 1885-1886.

The lectures were prepared to fulfill the requirements of popular
discourses, and designed to convey information upon a highly important
epoch of the world's history, that is almost neglected in English
literature.

The thought of publishing these lectures in book form was utterly
foreign to the author throughout their preparation, until an urgent
solicitation from very many persons, both Jews and Gentiles, in all
parts of this country, whose interest in these lectures was aroused by
their wide-spread republication by the Press, made it a duty.

  _Kansas City, Mo., January, 1887._

The following are two of the many letters addressed to the author,
requesting him to have his lectures on "THE JEWS AND MOORS IN SPAIN"
published in book form.


              LETTER FROM HON. T. T. CRITTENDEN,

                 Ex-Governor of the State of Missouri.


                                      KANSAS CITY, MO., MARCH 29, 1886.

RABBI JOSEPH KRAUSKOPF.

DEAR SIR:--Having read with pleasure and edification the series of
lectures delivered in the Synagogue, Kansas City, Mo., entitled "THE
JEWS AND MOORS IN SPAIN," in which you treat of the social, political,
religious and intellectual life of these Oriental nations, may I
inquire if it is your purpose to have them published in book form?

I think the lectures too valuable, too full of prolonged historic
research and thought to live only one day in the columns of a daily
newspaper. Even if they were designed "to adorn a tale or point a
moral" of the great race to which you belong, whose history commenced
with Abraham and will end with that of the human race, still the
history of that race was (and is) so intimately interlaced with the
history of the other races for the intervening centuries, that the
lectures are in part, so much the history of the other races, that they
can be read and studied by all men without prejudice or animosity. One
thing is certain, you have in the lectures divested history of much of
its dry and useless details, and make it a thrilling romance of facts,
presented in the simplest and purest Anglo-Saxon language.

I know not how others view the lectures, only speak this for myself--no
library is complete without the History of the Jewish race, and no
history of that race for the period covered, is more comprehensive,
truthful and impartial than that presented in these lectures. I think
the book would find a ready sale in all thinking, reading communities.

                                            Very Truly Yours,

                                                   THOS. T. CRITTENDEN.


                  LETTER FROM ARNOLD KREKEL,

        Judge of the U. S. Court, Western District of Missouri.


                                   KANSAS CITY, MO, APRIL 2, 1886.

RABBI JOSEPH KRAUSKOPF.

MY DEAR SIR:--Having attended a number of your lectures on "THE HISTORY
OF THE JEWS AND MOORS IN SPAIN," and read such as I did not hear,
allow me to give expression to my views regarding the same. Aside from
the interest the student of history must always feel in that part of
history of which your lectures treat, the manner of treatment specially
interested me. Relating historical facts, too often becomes dry and
irksome, and it requires more than ordinary skill of presentation to
make the subject interesting and attractive. In this you have fully
succeeded by interweaving with the facts those