Huesca

HUESCA (Osca), city in Aragon, N.E. Spain. It had one of the most important Jewish communities in the kingdom. With Saragossa and Calatayud, they were the three major Jewish communities in the Kingdom of Aragon. The correspondence has been preserved of a learned and wealthy Jew of Huesca, Basaam b. Simeon, with an Arabic author of Umayyad origin, dating from the last generation of Muslim rule in the city. At this time Jews in Huesca engaged in agriculture and owned fields and vineyards. Many also were craftsmen and traders, especially cloth and silk merchants.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Baer, Urkunden, index; Baer, Spain, index; R. del Arco, in: Sefarad, 7 (1947), 271–301; R. del Arco and F. Balaguer, ibid., 9 (1949), 351–92; R. del Arco, in: Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón, 4 (1951), 320–409; F. Cantera, Sinagogas Españolas (1955), 229ff.; J. Caberzudo Astrain, in: Sefarad, 23 (1963), 265–84; Ashtor, Korot, 2 (1966), 169–73; idem in: Zion, 28 (1963), 45–46. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Balaguer, in: Cuadernos de historia, 12–13 (1961), 115–27; idem, in: Sefarad, 45 (1985), 341–51; D. Romano, in: Sefarad, 40 (1980), 255–81; A. Naval Más, in: Sefarad, 40 (1980), 77–97; A. Durán Gudiol, La judería de Huesca, (1984); M.B. Basáñez Villaluenga, La aljama sarracena de Huesca en el siglo XIV (1989), 77–78 and also documents.