Meanwhile, Toledo was a fruitful place for Jewish scholars to work, particularly during the enlightened reign of Alfonso X the Wise of Castile (r. 1252–84), who patronized Toledo’s translators, including large numbers of Jews, encouraging them to render as much material as possible into Castilian vernacular rather than Latin. In doing so, he—and they—helped to lay the foundations for the Spanish language, which is today spoken by around half a billion people worldwide.
