Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros, newly appointed Grand Inquisitor in 1508, has established the university at Alcala de Henares.

Its forerunner, the Universidad Complutense, one of the oldest universities in the world, had been founded by King Sancho IV of Castile as Studium Generale in 1293 in Alcalá de Henares.

With the patronage of Cardinal Cisneros, the University of Alcalá had been recognized in a 1499 papal bull.

During Muslim rule in Spain, the Jewish community of the city of Alcalá de Henares, one of the first bishoprics founded in Spain, had been granted equal rights as the Christians living in it.

In the Middle Ages, the Jewish congregation of the city paid taxes to the Archbishop of Toledo.

The Jews of Alcala are mentioned in the fourteenth-century Satire by Marrano Pero Ferrús.

During the fifteenth century, the Jewish congregation of the city is one of the largest in Castile, having about two hundred Jewish families.

Hebrew studies at the University of Alcala are encouraged by Jimenez de Cisneros, who brings some Jews and Marrano Hebraists to work in the city.