Zaragoza (Saragossa)

Aragon (Spain)

Zaragoza, on the Ebro in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain, was founded under Augustus as the Roman colony of Caesaraugusta (Arabic Saraqusta). In al-Andalus it was capital of the Upper March and, from 1018, of an independent taifa kingdom, later ruled by the Banu Hud, where the philosopher Ibn Bajja (Avempace) was born. Its Jewish community flourished in the same era, when the poet-philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol and the grammarian Jonah ibn Janah worked there. Alfonso I of Aragon conquered the city in 1118 and made it his capital. The Jewish community escaped the 1391 riots, partly through the intervention of Hasdai Crescas, and remained until the expulsion of 1492. Its university trained the neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

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