medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A few scholars have identified Peter of Toledo as the person also known as
Petrus Alfonsi.
Helen and Allan Cutler suggest that Peter of Toledo, who in Toledo translated
Arabic texts for Peter the Venerable, is in fact Alfonsi. Book: The Jew as Ally
of the Muslim,University of Notre Dame, 1986, 52-80.
Peter van Koningsveld develops the same argument in more detail, “La Apología de
Al Kindî en la España del siglo XII.” Estudios sobre Alfonso VI y la
reconquista de Toledo, 1989, 127-29. He is able to show (1) that Peter of
Toledo was a convert from Judaism, and (2) that both he and Alfonsi were
familiar with al-Kindî’s anti-Muslim polemic. These two facts are far from
proof that Alfonsi and Peter of Toledo are one and the same; Koningsveld
acknowledges that this identification is conjectural.
I am looking for more information that Pedro was a Jewish convert and I am
looking for arguments to the contrary or any other identification of Peter
of Toledo. Suggestions? [Someone suggested he was a colonial administrator of
Brazil--I mean other identification of the Spanish, contemporary of Peter the
Venerable, Pedro de Toledo]
V. K. Inman
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