Editing Valencia (section)

===Middle Ages===
After the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]], Valencia became part of the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] from 546 to 711 AD.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Valentia (138 a.c. - 711) {{!}} Museu d'Història de València |url=https://mhv.valencia.es/es/historia-viva/valentia-138-ac-711 |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=mhv.valencia.es |archive-date=20 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420094735/https://mhv.valencia.es/es/historia-viva/valentia-138-ac-711 |url-status=live }}</ref> The city surrendered to the invading [[Moors]] about 714 AD.<ref name="Sanz2003">{{cite book |author=Coscollá Sanz, Vicente |title=La Valencia musulmana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxclI2EHjrMC&pg=PA16 |year=2003 |publisher=Carena Editors, S. L. |isbn=978-84-87398-75-9 |page=16 |access-date=14 November 2015 |archive-date=27 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427145425/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxclI2EHjrMC&pg=PA16 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Abd al-Rahman I]] laid waste to old Valencia by 788–789.{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=159}} From then on, the name of Valencia (Arabised as ''Balansiya'') appears more related to the wider area than to the city, which is primarily cited as ''Madînat al-Turâb'' ('city of earth' or 'sand') and presumably had diminished importance throughout the period.{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=160}} During the emiral period, the surrounding territory, under the ascendancy of Berber chieftains, was prone to unruliness.{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=161}} In the wake of the start of the [[fitna of al-Andalus]], Valencia became the head of an independent emirate, the [[Taifa of Valencia]].{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=163}} It was initially controlled by [[eunuch]]s,{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=163}} and then, after 1021, by Abd al-Azîz (a grandson of [[Almanzor]]).{{Sfn|Torró|2009|pp=164–165}} Valencia experienced notable urban development in this period.{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=165}} Many Jews lived in Valencia, including the accomplished Jewish poet and philosopher [[Solomon ibn Gabirol]], who spent his last years in the city.<ref name=Angel>Saénz-Badillos, Ángel. "Valencia". IN: ''Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World'', Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. First published online: 2010.</ref> After a damaging offensive by Castilian–Leonese forces towards 1065, the territory became a satellite of the [[Taifa of Toledo]], and following the fall of the latter in 1085, a protectorate of "[[El Cid]]". A revolt erupted in 1092, handing the city to the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravids]] and forcing El Cid to [[Siege of Valencia (1092–1094)|take the city by force]] in 1094, henceforth establishing [[Lordship of Valencia|his own principality]].{{Sfn|Torró|2009|pp=166–167}}

Following the evacuation of the city in 1102, the Almoravids took control. As the Almoravid empire crumbled in the mid 12th-century, [[Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn Mardanīsh|ibn Mardanīsh]] took control of eastern al-Andalus, creating a Murcia-centred independent emirate to which Valencia belonged, resisting the [[Almohad Caliphate|Almohads]] until 1172.{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=168}} During the Almohad rule, the city perhaps had a population of about 20,000.{{Sfn|Torró|2009|p=169}} When the city fell to [[James I of Aragon]], the Jewish population constituted about 7 per cent of the total population.<ref name=Angel/>

[[File:Plat àrab València.jpg|thumb|12th-century Arab dish]]
In 1238,<ref name="Guichard2001">{{cite book |author=Guichard, Pierre |title=Al-Andalus frente a la conquista cristiana: los musulmanes de Valencia, siglos XI-XIII |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vrzEdzdOMUC&pg=PA176 |year=2001 |publisher=Universitat de València |isbn=978-84-7030-852-9 |page=176 |access-date=14 November 2015 |archive-date=29 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529095118/https://books.google.com/books?id=0vrzEdzdOMUC&pg=PA176 |url-status=live}}</ref> King James I of Aragon, with an army composed of [[Aragonese people|Aragonese]], [[Catalans]], Navarrese, and crusaders from the [[Order of Calatrava]], laid siege to Valencia and on 28 September [[Conquest of Valencia (1238)|obtained a surrender]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Fifty thousand Moors were forced to leave.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} The Jews of Valencia were afforded a quarter for residence in 1239, which was surrounded by a high wall in 1390. The quarter had three gates, all of which were closed at night; the Jewish cemetery was permitted just beyond 'the Jew's Gate', the ''Portal dels Jueues''.<ref>[https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14628-valencia ''Jewish Encyclopedia''.]</ref>

Valencia endured serious troubles in the mid-14th century, including the decimation of the population by the [[Black Death|Black Death of 1348]] and subsequent years of epidemics—as well as the series of wars and riots that followed.

In 1391, there was a [[pogrom]] on the Jewish Quarter of Valencia, which became known as the [[Massacre of 1391]]. The violence against Jews had begun by Catholic mobs in Seville, then spread to all of Castile and on to the Crown of Aragon, which included Valencia. Although the royal guards tried to protect the Jews, thousands were murdered and those who survived were forced to convert. The Jewish quarter was destroyed.<ref name=Angel/>

By the late 14th century, [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] traders promoted the expansion of the cultivation of [[Morus alba|white mulberry]] in the area and later introduced innovative [[silk]] manufacturing techniques. Valencia became a centre of mulberry production and was, for a time, a major silk-producing centre.<ref name=silk>{{Cite web |url=https://www.uv.es/vlc-ruta-seda/es/blog-ruta-seda/blog-ruta-seda-1285971056578/GasetaRecerca.html?id=1285971184937 |publisher=[[University of Valencia|Universitat de València]] |title=La influencia de la seda en la historia y la cultura valenciana |date=7 June 2016 |first=Ricardo |last=Franch Benavent |access-date=20 July 2020 |archive-date=10 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410155213/https://www.uv.es/vlc-ruta-seda/es/blog-ruta-seda/blog-ruta-seda-1285971056578/GasetaRecerca.html?id=1285971184937 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Genoese community in Valencia—merchants, artisans and workers—became, along with Seville's, one of the most important in the Iberian Peninsula.{{sfn|Navarro Espinach|1994|pp=223–224}}

In 1407, following the model of the Barcelona institution created some years before, a ''[[Taula de canvi]]'' (a municipal public bank) was created in Valencia, although its first iteration yielded limited success.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://revistas.um.es/medievalismo/article/view/407021/274671 |pages=318–319 |publisher=[[University of Murcia|Editum]] |location=Murcia |issue=29 |year=2019 |journal=Medievalismo |title=La estructura del primer banco público de Europa: la Taula de Canvi de Barcelona (siglo XV) |first=Laura |last=Miquel Milian |issn=1131-8155 |doi=10.6018/medievalismo.407021 |s2cid=213263696 |doi-access=free |access-date=4 June 2022 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307042248/https://revistas.um.es/medievalismo/article/view/407021/274671 |url-status=live |hdl=10201/93080 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

The 15th century was a time of economic expansion, known as the Valencian Golden Age, during which culture and the arts flourished. Concurrent population growth made Valencia the most populous city in the Crown of Aragon.{{cn|date=February 2025}} Some of the city's landmark buildings were built during the Late Middle Ages, including the [[Torres de Serranos|Serranos Towers]], the [[Lonja de la Seda|Silk Exchange]], the [[Miguelete Tower]], and the Chapel of the Kings of the Convent of Sant Domènec. In painting and sculpture, [[Flemish people|Flemish]] and Italian trends had an influence on Valencian artists.

Valencia became a major [[History of slavery|slave trade]] centre in the 15th century, second only to [[Lisbon]] in the West,{{Sfn|González Arévalo|2019|p=17}} prompting a Lisbon–[[Seville]]–Valencia axis by the second half of the century powered by the incipient Portuguese slave trade originating in [[West Africa]].{{Sfn|González Arévalo|2019|p=19}} By the end of the 15th century Valencia was one of the largest European cities, being the most populated city in the Hispanic Monarchy and second to Lisbon in the Iberian Peninsula.{{Sfn|Santamaría|1992|p=373}}

Valencia also became one of the major ports of embarkation for Jews who left after the [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain|expulsion from Spain]] in 1492, [[Isaac ben Yehudah Abrabanel]] and his family among them, by special permission granted to him by King Ferdinand.{{cn|date=February 2025}}