Middle Ages
The Jewish population of Malta peaked in the Middle Ages under Norman rule. The Normans occupied the islands from 1090, with five hundred Jews living on the main island and 350 on the sister island, Gozo. The Jewish people generally prospered during this period and were not required to live in ghettos. Most owned agricultural land or worked as merchants. Avraham Abulafia, a well-known Jewish mystic, lived on Comino from 1285 to his death in the 1290s.
In 1435 the Università demanded the abolition of a tax which was due to be imposed on the Jews. This was well appreciated by the Jewish Community in Malta and Gozo and a Gozitan Jew named Xilorun was chosen as an ambassador of the Maltese Deputies to the court of Sicily. In 1479 Malta and Sicily came under Aragonese rule and the 1492 Edict of Expulsion forced all Jews to leave the country. Because they made up such a large portion of the island's population the Spanish Crown forced them to pay compensation for the losses caused by their expulsion.
It is not clear where the Jews of Malta went, but they may have joined the Sicilian community in Levant. It is also likely that several dozen Maltese Jews converted to Christianity to remain in the country as did many Sicilian Jews. This is further evidenced by the large number of Maltese surnames thought to be of Jewish origin.
In the medieval era when Mdina was Malta's capital, one-third of its population was Jewish. A synagogue inside Mdina was destroyed by an earthquake in 1693. Deeds and other documents written by Jewish notaries in Maltese with Hebrew script are today located in the Mdina Cathedral Museum. They are amongst the earliest known Maltese language texts, dating back to the 14th century.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Jews In Malta
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