"Once captured, the defense of Cordoba was left in the hands of Jews, and Granada, Málaga, Seville, and Toledo were left to a mixed army of Jews and Moors. The Chronicle of Lucas de Tuy records that "when the Christians left Toledo on Sunday before Easter to go to the Church of the Holy Laodicea to listen to the divine sermon, the Jews acted treacherously and informed the Saracens. Then they closed the gates of the city before the Christians and opened them for the Moors." (Although, in contradiction to de Tuy's account, Rodrigues Toledo's Historia de rebus Hispaniae maintains that Toledo was "almost of completely empty from its inhabitants," not because of Jewish treachery, but because "many had fled to Amiara, others to Asturias and some to the mountains," following which the city was fortified by a militia of Arabs and Jews (3.24). Although in the cases of some towns the behavior of the Jews may have been conducive to Moslem success, such was of limited impact overall. The claims of the fall of Iberia as being due in large part to Jewish perfidy are no doubt exaggerated.
In spite of the restrictions placed upon the Jews as dhimmis, life under Moslem rule was one of great opportunity in comparison to that under prior Christian"