Though manifest under different regionally derived labels such as ghetto and mellah, compulsory urbanization of Jews was not a common practice during the Middle Ages, when forced conversion or expulsion was the norm. A review of the urbanization of Jews will assess how this early modern phenomenon began in the Mediterranean region, considered the cradle of this new epoch. On the other hand the Jewish quarter, district or neighborhood was nothing new by the mid-fifteenth century, nor was it limited to a specific region of the Christian or Islamic worlds. Whether by compulsion or free will, Jews in the Middle Ages (and earlier) for various reasons habitually chose to reside in relative proximity to each other. One example discussed in the previous chapter was the Jews of medieval Speyer, Germany. In Speyer the Jews lived together near the cathedral so they would be under the bishop's protection. This is in contrast to Prague, where in 1473, the small number of Jews residing outside of the Judenstadt voluntarily relocated into it, and remained there until it became an assumed requirement. Further south, in Palermo, Sicily, the Jews residing in the central part of the city were expelled in 1312, but were permitted to live elsewhere. Those Jews who had to relocate ended up settling in a peripheral neighbourhood of the city, where other Jews were already established.