Arab rule brought a time of flowering for Spanish Jewry. Andalusian culture and power was represented by the caliph Abd ar-Rahman III, who made Córdoba the cultural capital of the West.

It was a Golden Age for the Jews; they learned Arabic and built prosperous communities in Seville, Granada and Córdoba, the capital. Under the Caliphate, the Jews were able to preserve their rites and traditions. Peaceful coexistence led to their economic and social flourishing.

The Jewish community of Córdoba enjoyed extraordinary growth under the protection of Abd ar-Rahman III, counting on royal support for their relations with the State.

13th century Sepharad (or Sefarad), known, as Al-Andalus by the Muslims or Andalusia by the Christians was special in Europe.

Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together. Many Jews were employed as translators and interpreters.

What can explain the unusual co-existence of Jews, Muslims and Christians in Spain in the Middle Ages? Even though the Christian kingdom was at war with the Muslim one, within the lands not under dispute, Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived daily side by side.

Muslims and Christians were fighting in Spain, and in the east for Jerusalem in the Crusades. And throughout Europe Jews were being confined to small quarters and denied almost all trades. In Spain, members of the three cultures spoke each other's languages, shared their philosophies and theologies, their science and their cultures. It was a fusion of social and cultural forces unique in the medieval world.

Cities like Toledo had a mix of churches, mosques, and synagogues. The intellectual interests treasured by the Muslim rulers continued to be valued by the Christians, and it is perhaps in philosophy and science that the three cultures worked most closely together, even though it was religious philosophy that kept them most divided.