American Jewish Archives Journal, Vol 44, No. 01 (1992)

30 American Jewish Archives
new political horizon in Iberia and a radically new direction in the
history of its Jews.
The Bifurcation of the Sephardic Phenomenon
By the the fourth quarter of the thirteenth century, Navarre, Portugal
and Aragon-Catalonia had completed their respective territorial
expansions, leaving the culmination of the Reconquista to Castile.
These events were to prove profoundly significant for the fate of Iber-
ian Jews. They were to prove no less significant for the history of all
Iberia, and, beyond, the trajectory of Western European civilization.
The kingdom of Navarre was active in the Reconquista only until
the middle of the eleventh century. Its participation ended in the
reign of Sancho 111 "the Greater" (1004-1035)~ when Navarre essen-
tially reached its final boundaries, no less at the expense of nearby
Christian lands in Le6n, Ribagorza, Sobarbe and Aragon than the dis-
integrating Muslim caliphate. At the time Navarre was Iberia's prin-
cipal Christian state. But its primacy did not survive the reign of
Sancho's eldest son and successor, Garcia (1035-1054)~ as it was
quickly overshadowed by its neighbors, Aragon and Castile.
The remaining Christian polities in Iberia completed their major
roles in the Reconquista around the same time. Portugal, having
achieved its most spectacular gains under Sancho I1 (1223-1246)~
rounded out its boundaries under his brother, Afonso I11 (1246-1279).
Aragon-Catalonia completed its section of the Reconquista under
Jaume I (1213-1276)~ and Castile its principal phase under Fernando
111. In all three the process occasioned dramatic transformations in the
interrelationsips of their respective Old and New Guards.
Until the conclusion of the Reconquista, New Guards could antici-
pate their aggrandizement through the further pursuit of the Recon-
quista, especially since the farther south its penetration, the richer the
Muslim territories became. The impending termination of the Recon-
quista exhausted such prospects. It therefore put the New Guards in
each advancing realm on a collision course with their Old Guards.
Unable to generate additional power through the desiccating Recon-
quista, the New Guards faced two alternatives: to wrest power
forcibly from the Old Guard or to generate new and potentially deci-