B. Netanyahu has achieved international recognition for his groundbreaking historical studies of Spain's Jews and Marranos. Best known among his works are Don Isaac Abravanel and The Marranos of Spain, whose conclusions concerning Marrano Christianization provoked widespread scholarly debate and praise.

The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain

Second Edition

By B. Netanyahu

The Spanish Inquisition remains a fearful symbol of state terror. Its principal target was the conversos, descendants of Spanish Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity some three generations earlier. Since thousands of them confessed to charges of practicing Judaism in secret, historians have long understood the Inquisition as an attempt to suppress the Jews of Spain. In this magisterial reexamination of the origins of the Inquisition, Netanyahu argues for a different view: that the conversos were in fact almost all genuine Christians who were persecuted for political ends. The Inquisition's attacks not only on the conversos' religious beliefs but also on their "impure blood" gave birth to an anti-Semitism based on race that would have terrible consequences for centuries to come.

This book has become essential reading and an indispensable reference book for both the interested layman and the scholar of history and religion.

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