Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World

Susan L. Einbinder is Professor of Hebrew Literature at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. When Crusader armies on their way to the Holy Land attacked Jewish communities in the Rhine Valley, many Jews chose suicide over death at the hands of Christian mobs. With their defiant deaths, the medieval Jewish martyr was born. With the literary commemoration of the victims, Jewish martyrology followed. Beautiful Death examines the evolution of a long-neglected corpus of Hebrew poetry, the laments reflecting the specific conditions of Jewish life in northern France. The poems offer insight into everyday life and into the ways medieval French Jews responded to persecution. They also suggest that poetry was used to encourage resistance to intensifying pressures to convert. The educated Jewish elite in northern France was highly acculturated. Their poetry--particularly that emerging from the innovative Tosafist schools--reflects their engagement with the vernacular renaissance unfolding around them, as well as conscious and unconscious absorption of Christian popular beliefs and hagiographical conventions. At the same time, their extraordinary poems signal an increasingly harsh repudiation of Christianity's sacred symbols and beliefs. They reveal a complex relationship to Christian culture as Jews internalized elements of medieval culture even while expressing a powerful revulsion against the forms and beliefs of Christian life. This gracefully written study crosses traditional boundaries of history and literature and of Jewish and general medieval scholarship. Focusing on specific incidents of persecution and the literary commemorations they produced, it offers unique insights into the historical conditions in which these poems were written and performed. "An impressive examination of the character and function of the poetry of martyrdom commemorating Jews who perished at the hands of their Christian countrymen. . . . Cogent, clearly argued, and inclusive in contextualizing historic, social, cultural, and political materials.... An excellent scholarly work." "Einbinder should be congratulated . . . for giving this material its long overdue attention and for generating further debate. No longer sidelined, Einbinder's 'patient poetry' has at last found a sympathetic interpreter."---Rebecca J.W. Jefferson, Journal of Jewish Studies "A serious work, attentive to nuanced meanings and readings of primary sources. Students of interdisciplinary studies will find something of merit in this affecting study."---Stephen D. Benin, Religious Studies Review "Susan Einbinder's impressively researched and movingly written book opens a window on a world that not too many medievalists are familiar with: that of the poetic commemoration of Jewish suffering in medieval France."---Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Speculum "Einbinder uses very impressive tools, and her work is on the cutting edge in Jewish studies. I know of no other book in English that takes this poetry so seriously or that is as successful in integrating the literary, historical, and religious dimensions of the poems."-Marc Saperstein, George Washington University "Einbinder approaches her subject beautifully and is always aware of the interplay of poetry and history. This is an interdisciplinary work of the first order-one that reads poetic texts as historical texts embodying the changing and developing attitudes of a community. Its subtle analysis also illuminates the complex interaction of Christianity and Judaism."-Thomas Head, Hunter College and The Graduate School, City University of New York

"Winner of the National Scholarly Jewish Book Award, Jewish Book Council" Seth Schwartz is the Gerson D. Cohen Professor of History at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He is the author of Josephus and Judaean Politics and coauthor, with Roger Bagnall, Alan Cameron, and Klaas Worp, of Consuls of the Later Roman Empire. This provocative new history of Palestinian Jewish society in antiquity marks the first comprehensive effort to gauge the effects of imperial domination on this people. Probing more than eight centuries of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule, Seth Schwartz reaches some startling conclusions--foremost among them that the Christianization of the Roman Empire generated the most fundamental features of medieval and modern Jewish life. Schwartz begins by arguing that the distinctiveness of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods was the product of generally prevailing imperial tolerance. From around 70 C.E. to the mid-fourth century, with failed revolts and the alluring cultural norms of the High Roman Empire, Judaism all but disintegrated. However, late in the Roman Empire, the Christianized state played a decisive role in ''re-Judaizing'' the Jews. The state gradually excluded them from society while supporting their leaders and recognizing their local communities. It was thus in Late Antiquity that the synagogue-centered community became prevalent among the Jews, that there re-emerged a distinctively Jewish art and literature--laying the foundations for Judaism as we know it today. Through masterful scholarship set in rich detail, this book challenges traditional views rooted in romantic notions about Jewish fortitude. Integrating material relics and literature while setting the Jews in their eastern Mediterranean context, it addresses the complex and varied consequences of imperialism on this vast period of Jewish history more ambitiously than ever before. Imperialism in Jewish Society will be widely read and much debated. "Schwartz has presented nothing less than a learned and bold bombshell with this important, groundbreaking book. His thesis is that to make sense of the remains of ancient Judaism, one must consider the effects of shifting types of imperial domination and that there is a direct connection between the rise of the synagogue and the religious ideology that justified its construction and the rise of Christianity. This is the most original and the most provocative book on this period that has appeared in many years. It will, and deservedly, be the subject of debate for a long time to come."---Louis H. Feldman, The Forward "Important. . . . Schwartz challenges many long-held ideas about Jews in antiquity. . . . This work is recommended as fascinating reading for anyone interested in the history of the Jews and Judaism."---James E. Seaver, History: Reviews of New Books "Schwartz is a leading expert on the Jews in the Roman Empire. Using scholarly publications, he has produced a new synthesis that will provoke much debate among scholars. . . . [His] carefully argued positions must be taken seriously." "A bold feat of reinterpretation that is certain to stir up controversy in scholarly circles."---Stuart Schoffman, Jerusalem Report "This is a brilliant and provocative book, which will undoubtedly stimulate much debate among historians of Judaism and of the ancient world. But it deserves, as well, a wide audience among all those interested in the impact of imperial power on regional cultures."---J. B. Rives, International History Review "Schwartz's study is wide-ranging, rich, well-informed, polemical, creative, unconventional."---Jonathan J. Price, Religious Studies Review "An invaluable piece of current scholarship on ancient Judaism. . . . This book represents a fresh and unique look at a familiar subject, and it should be required reading for any serious scholar of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, or ancient Mediterranean religions."---Daniel Bernard, J

William Chester Jordan is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. His many books include Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership (Princeton), The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians, Men at the Center: Redemptive Governance under Louis IX, and From England to France: Felony and Exile in the High Middle Ages (Princeton). The thirteenth century brought new urgency to Catholic efforts to convert non-Christians, and no Catholic ruler was more dedicated to this undertaking than King Louis IX of France. His military expeditions against Islam are well documented, but there was also a peaceful side to his encounter with the Muslim world, one that has received little attention until now. This splendid book shines new light on the king's program to induce Muslims-the "apple of his eye"-to voluntarily convert to Christianity and resettle in France. It recovers a forgotten but important episode in the history of the Crusades while providing a rare window into the fraught experiences of the converts themselves. William Chester Jordan transforms our understanding of medieval Christian-Muslim relations by telling the stories of the Muslims who came to France to live as Christians. Under what circumstances did they willingly convert? How successfully did they assimilate into French society? What forms of resistance did they employ? In examining questions like these, Jordan weaves a richly detailed portrait of a dazzling yet violent age whose lessons still resonate today. Until now, scholars have dismissed historical accounts of the king's peaceful conversion of Muslims as hagiographical and therefore untrustworthy. Jordan takes these narratives seriously-and uncovers archival evidence to back them up. He brings his findings marvelously to life in this succinct and compelling book, setting them in the context of the Seventh Crusade and the universalizing Catholic impulse to convert the world. "Jordan's book, full of imaginative sympathy with those undergoing total displacement, constructs an intricate picture of the convert experience in France. . . . He writes in measured prose, guiding readers along unfamiliar historical paths."---Michael Duggan, Catholic Herald "[This] book has a great deal to offer historians working on range of topics. For those concerned with missionary activity during this era, Jordan's ability to shed light on the post-conversion experiences of these families represents a real step forward in our knowledge."---Nicholas Morton, Journal of Religious History, Literature, and Culture "Jordan carefully tracks down and puts together the records of the crown's financial outlays and legal and administrative measures for these immigrant converts. This painstaking detective work provides a fascinating study that will be of great interest to historians of the crusade and of the French crown."---John Tolan, Journal of Ecclesiastical History "This short but very exciting book argues persuasively and conclusively that King Louis IX of France organized and implemented a substantial program to resettle in France men and women who had converted from Islam to Christianity. A highly significant contribution."-Sean L. Field, University of Vermont "This exquisite, sharp, and brilliant book reveals a wholly unappreciated facet of the long history of Europe and Islam. The Apple of His Eye was a total revelation to me."-Cecilia Gaposchkin, Dartmouth College "William Chester Jordan's brilliant detective work has uncovered the previously unimagined: more than a thousand former Muslims living in the France of King Louis IX. Combining imagination with great learning, Jordan recreates the thought-world of King Louis and the challenges these immigrants faced in a strange, cold land."-John Gillingham, author of William II: The Red King "In this hugely enjoyable and engaging book, William Chester Jordan deftly brings to light

"Mark R. Cohen, Winner of the 2010 Goldziher Prize, The Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations at Merrimack College" "Runner-Up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in History, Jewish Book Council" Mark R. Cohen is Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and a well-known authority on the Cairo Geniza and the history of the Jews in the medieval Islamic world. His publications include more than 80 articles and reviews and several books, among them: Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt (Princeton), which won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish history in 1981; Jewish Life in Medieval Egypt 641-1382, translated into Arabic, 1987; The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi: Leon Modena's Life of Judah, (Princeton); and, most recently, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, (Princeton), which has been translated into Hebrew, Turkish, and German. What was it like to be poor in the Middle Ages? In the past, the answer to this question came only from institutions and individuals who gave relief to the less fortunate. This book, by one of the top scholars in the field, is the first comprehensive book to study poverty in a premodern Jewish community--from the viewpoint of both the poor and those who provided for them. Mark Cohen mines the richest body of documents available on the matter: the papers of the Cairo Geniza. These documents, located in the Geniza, a hidden chamber for discarded papers situated in a medieval synagogue in Old Cairo, were preserved largely unharmed for more than nine centuries due to an ancient custom in Judaism that prohibited the destruction of pages of sacred writing. Based on these papers, the book provides abundant testimony about how one large and important medieval Jewish community dealt with the constant presence of poverty in its midst. Building on S. D. Goitein's Mediterranean Society and inspired also by research on poverty and charity in medieval and early modern Europe, it provides a clear window onto the daily lives of the poor. It also illuminates private charity, a subject that has long been elusive to the medieval historian. In addition, Cohen's work functions as a detailed case study of an important phenomenon in human history. Cohen concludes that the relatively narrow gap between the poor and rich, and the precariousness of wealth in general, combined to make charity "one of the major agglutinates of Jewish associational life" during the medieval period. "This book will undoubtedly be required reading for anyone interested in the study of poverty and charity, both in medieval Islam and in the Jewish tradition. Because its source material is so exceptionally rich, it can be argued that it is also an important contribution to the understanding of non-European premodern charitable institutions. The lucid presentation of the material, especially the translated documents in the companion volume, make this work very useful for undergraduate and graduate students."---Yossef Rapoport, International Journal of Middle East Studies "Cohen has made the first comprehensive book-length attempt to study the subject of poverty in a premodern Jewish community. This book is an important contribution."-Miriam Hoexter, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "Cohen's book constitutes a significant contribution both to the study of the Jewish world of medieval Egypt and to the study of poverty and charity in medieval society generally."-Amy Singer, Tel Aviv University

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2015" Jonathan Marc Gribetz is assistant professor of Near Eastern studies and Judaic studies at Princeton University. How religion and race-not nationalism-shaped early encounters between Zionists and Arabs in Palestine As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists, aspiring peacemakers continue to search for the precise territorial dividing line that will satisfy both Israeli and Palestinian nationalist demands. The prevailing view assumes that this struggle is nothing more than a dispute over real estate. Defining Neighbors boldly challenges this view, shedding new light on how Zionists and Arabs understood each other in the earliest years of Zionist settlement in Palestine and suggesting that the current singular focus on boundaries misses key elements of the conflict. Drawing on archival documents as well as newspapers and other print media from the final decades of Ottoman rule, Jonathan Gribetz argues that Zionists and Arabs in pre–World War I Palestine and the broader Middle East did not think of one another or interpret each other's actions primarily in terms of territory or nationalism. Rather, they tended to view their neighbors in religious terms-as Jews, Christians, or Muslims-or as members of "scientifically" defined races-Jewish, Arab, Semitic, or otherwise. Gribetz shows how these communities perceived one another, not as strangers vying for possession of a land that each regarded as exclusively their own, but rather as deeply familiar, if at times mythologized or distorted, others. Overturning conventional wisdom about the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gribetz demonstrates how the seemingly intractable nationalist contest in Israel and Palestine was, at its start, conceived of in very different terms. Courageous and deeply compelling, Defining Neighbors is a landmark book that fundamentally recasts our understanding of the modern Jewish-Arab encounter and of the Middle East conflict today. "[F]ortuitously for readers, Gribertz's work contextualize(s) a present-day shift toward religious rhetoric, symbols, and organizations in the conflict. He shows that religion was once central for Jews and Arabs seeking to understand each other, and that nationality is in fact a latecomer to that encounter. But more importantly, he shows that a religious encounter need not mean a holy war."---Raphael Magarik, Haaretz "An essential contribution to the growing conversation."---Noah Haiduc-Dale, H-Net Reviews "In the ever-growing and highly saturated field of Arab-Israeli conflict studies, it is rare for a book to break new ground and challenge long-held and well-entrenched perceptions. This is one of those rare exceptions." "[A] field-changing new book. . . . Indeed, such a sensitive treatment of historical texts, in light of multiple political contexts, geographic frames, and religious and cultural discourses should serve as a model for many historians working to interpret, categorize, and contextualize the texts they encounter--and for all those who study how changing circumstances change the terms of discourse and lead to mutual understanding or misunderstanding." "Gribetz's fascinating book makes a major contribution to the literature on early Zionist-Arab encounters, in particular, and to the intellectual history of late Ottoman Palestine and the Levant, more generally." "This book is a truly extraordinary scholarly accomplishment. From this point forward, anybody who wants to understand the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict will not be able to do so without consulting Gribetz's work."-Israel Gershoni, coeditor of Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East "Drawing on prodigious research in a range of sources in Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages, Gribetz examines two groups-Jews and Arabs-whose national identities were developing simultaneously in Palestine around the turn of the twentieth century. He provides a broad and sy

"Finalist for the 2012 Best First Book in the History of Religions Award, American Academy of Religion" "Honorable Mention for the 2014 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History, Association for Jewish Studies" Yaacob Dweck is assistant professor of history and Judaic studies at Princeton University. How the Jewish culture war over Kabbalah began The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a range of previously unexamined sources, this book tells the story of the first criticism of Kabbalah, Ari Nohem, written by Leon Modena in Venice in 1639. In this scathing indictment of Venetian Jews who had embraced Kabbalah as an authentic form of ancient esotericism, Modena proved the recent origins of Kabbalah and sought to convince his readers to return to the spiritualized rationalism of Maimonides. The Scandal of Kabbalah examines the hallmarks of Jewish modernity displayed by Modena's attack-a critical analysis of sacred texts, skepticism about religious truths, and self-consciousness about the past-and shows how these qualities and the later history of his polemic challenge conventional understandings of the relationship between Kabbalah and modernity. Dweck argues that Kabbalah was the subject of critical inquiry in the very period it came to dominate Jewish life rather than centuries later as most scholars have thought. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions. "In this excellent monograph, Dweck situates Modena's literary activity in the polarity between print and manuscript, paying critical attention to the reading and writing practices informing these polemics. . . . This is a meticulous work of scholarship, from its careful examination of ligatures in handwritten manuscripts to the nuanced ways in which Dweck outlines broader intellectual currents, such as early modern skepticism and the emergence of historical criticism." "Dweck's meticulous and illuminating study has itself breathed new life into the Ari Nohem. It gives one reason to hope that it will finally become available in an English translation and that Yaacob Dweck will make the publication of such a volume one of his future projects."---Howard Tzvi Adelman, Jewish Review of Books "Dweck is to be commended for a sophisticated and readable study that greatly enhances our knowledge of the relationship between mysticism and philosophy, and print and manuscript, in early modern Jewish culture."---Daniel Stein Kokin, Renaissance Quarterly "The Scandal of Kabbalah is a valuable study. It situates Modena's work in a wide variety of contexts, each of which enriches and challenges our understanding of Ari Nohem. Clearly written and highly readable."---Michela Andreatta, AJS Review "The Scandal of Kabbalah is excellent. It is one of the first studies to take cutting-edge scholarship on the history of the book and apply it to a Hebrew text. Yaacob Dweck makes a serious contribution to scholarship on Leon Modena, to Jewish intellectual history of the early modern period, and to the history of the Hebrew book."-Elisheva Carlebach, Columbia University "An extremely learned and valuable piece of scholarship."-Matt Goldish, Ohio State University

"Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies" Rachel Manekin is associate professor of Jewish studies at the University of Maryland. She is the author of The Jews of Galicia and the Austrian Constitution: The Beginning of Modern Jewish Politics. An in-depth exploration of the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox homes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries The Rebellion of the Daughters investigates the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox, mostly Hasidic, homes in Western Galicia (now Poland) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In extreme cases, hundreds of these women sought refuge in a Kraków convent, where many converted to Catholicism. Those who stayed home often remained Jewish in name only. Relying on a wealth of archival documents, including court testimonies, letters, diaries, and press reports, Rachel Manekin reconstructs the stories of three Jewish women runaways and reveals their struggles and innermost convictions. Unlike Orthodox Jewish boys, who attended "cheders," traditional schools where only Jewish subjects were taught, Orthodox Jewish girls were sent to Polish primary schools. When the time came for them to marry, many young women rebelled against the marriages arranged by their parents, with some wishing to pursue secondary and university education. After World War I, the crisis of the rebellious daughters in Kraków spurred the introduction of formal religious education for young Orthodox Jewish women in Poland, which later developed into a worldwide educational movement. Manekin chronicles the belated Orthodox response and argues that these educational innovations not only kept Orthodox Jewish women within the fold but also foreclosed their opportunities for higher education. Exploring the estrangement of young Jewish women from traditional Judaism in Habsburg Galicia at the turn of the twentieth century, The Rebellion of the Daughters brings to light a forgotten yet significant episode in Eastern European history. "A well-written study. . . . [and] excellent introduction to the history of attitudes of Hasidic leaders and their followers in Eastern Europe toward the education of Jewish girls, particularly in Galicia, before World War II and explains continuing trends among ultra- Orthodox women in both United States and Israel."---Harriet Pass Freidenreich, Journal of Modern History "Around 1900, reports of the disappearance of Jewish girls in Galicia emerged and became a literary trend and a topic in the collective memory among Habsburg Jews. The Rebellion of the Daughters applies objective historical research on the causes and circumstances of this phenomenon. It weaves the runaway issue with broad trends in Orthodox Judaism, the Liberal Habsburg educational system, and responses in the Second Polish Republic after World War I."---Scott Berg, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies "The Rebellion of the Daughters deftly examines the profound crisis that tore apart Jewish families in Austrian Galicia at the turn of the century, one that underscored the true social costs of the neglect of Jewish education for young women and girls. This is an indispensable contribution to the social and cultural history of Jews in Central Europe."-Hillel J. Kieval, Washington University in St. Louis "Well-researched and compelling, The Rebellion of the Daughters is one of the few books to elucidate the lives of Jewish women in Galicia and contributes to our understanding of the relationship among Jews, the state, and the Catholic church."-ChaeRan Freeze, Brandeis University "Using an impressive range of primary sources, The Rebellion of the Daughters fills an important gap in the scholarship on Eastern European Jewry."-Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center

Joseph Shatzmiller is the Smart Family Professor of Judaic Studies at Duke University. He is the author of Shylock Reconsidered and Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society. Demonstrating that similarities between Jewish and Christian art in the Middle Ages were more than coincidental, Cultural Exchange meticulously combines a wide range of sources to show how Jews and Christians exchanged artistic and material culture. Joseph Shatzmiller focuses on communities in northern Europe, Iberia, and other Mediterranean societies where Jews and Christians coexisted for centuries, and he synthesizes the most current research to describe the daily encounters that enabled both societies to appreciate common artistic values. Detailing the transmission of cultural sensibilities in the medieval money market and the world of Jewish money lenders, this book examines objects pawned by peasants and humble citizens, sacred relics exchanged by the clergy as security for loans, and aesthetic goods given up by the Christian well-to-do who required financial assistance. The work also explores frescoes and decorations likely painted by non-Jews in medieval and early modern Jewish homes located in Germanic lands, and the ways in which Jews hired Christian artists and craftsmen to decorate Hebrew prayer books and create liturgical objects. Conversely, Christians frequently hired Jewish craftsmen to produce liturgical objects used in Christian churches. With rich archival documentation, Cultural Exchange sheds light on the social and economic history of the creation of Jewish and Christian art, and expands the general understanding of cultural exchange in brand-new ways. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions. "Clearly, this book is only the beginning of a series of works dedicated to the study of material links between medieval Jewish and Christian communities and of the interdependence they unveil. And we can only hope that its successors will keep up the high standards of writing and methodological expertise established in Cultural Exchange by Joseph Shatzmiller."---Andor Kelenhegyi, European Review of History "Cultural Exchange shows that Jews adopted many aspects of Christian art in works made for them. The book's arguments shine through and the exploration of cross-fertilization, most particularly the frescoes and decorations discovered in medieval and early modern Jewish houses in Swiss and German lands, is a tour de force. This important and creative book brings fresh information and insights to bear on fundamental issues of cross-cultural interaction."-William Chester Jordan, Princeton University "This valuable book supports the view that medieval Jews in northern Europe, Iberia, and other Mediterranean societies were open to the style and iconography of their Christian neighbors, despite the protest of Jewish and Christian authorities. While other books on medieval Jewish economic activity, religious customs, and illuminated Hebrew manuscripts have made this case, no other book provides a comprehensive state of the field for researchers and general readers alike."-Ivan G. Marcus, Yale University

"Runner-Up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in History, Jewish Book Council" Mark D. Meyerson is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel. This book significantly revises the conventional view that the Jewish experience in medieval Spain--over the century before the expulsion of 1492--was one of despair, persecution, and decline. Focusing on the town of Morvedre in the kingdom of Valencia, Mark Meyerson shows how and why Morvedre's Jewish community revived and flourished in the wake of the horrible violence of 1391. Drawing on a wide array of archival documentation, including Spanish Inquisition records, he argues that Morvedre saw a Jewish "renaissance." Meyerson shows how the favorable policies of kings and of town government yielded the Jewish community's demographic expansion and prosperity. Of crucial importance were new measures that ceased the oppressive taxation of the Jews and minimized their role as moneylenders. The results included a reversal of the credit relationship between Jews and Christians, a marked amelioration of Christian attitudes toward Jews, and greater economic diversification on the part of Jews. Representing a major contribution to debates over the Inquisition's origins and the expulsion of the Jews, the book also offers the first extended analysis of Jewish-converso relations at the local level, showing that Morvedre's Jews expressed their piety by assisting Valencia's conversos. Comparing Valencia with other regions of Spain and with the city-states of Renaissance Italy, it makes clear why this kingdom and the town of Morvedre were so ripe for a Jewish revival in the fifteenth century. "In his eloquent style, [Meyerson] highlights the complex inner workings of a multicultural society such as that of medieval Morvedre, and presents a new methodology that other Hispanists should apply to their studies." "Mark D. Meyerson constructs a subtle understanding of Spain before the Expulsion. He details not only the political relationship between the kings and 'their' Jews, but even more interestingly, the complex relationship between open Jews and the conversos of 1391." "Making a signal contribution to our knowledge of the Jews of medieval Spain is surely no easy matter. Mark D. Meyerson has performed precisely such a service in these two valuable volumes. All those concerned with the history of the medieval Iberian peninsula and/or its Jews are deeply indebted to him."---Robert Chazan, Ecclesiastical History "Elegantly conceived and painstakingly documented, Mark D. Meyerson's A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain stands as a strong and solid contribution both to medieval Iberian history and Jewish history. . . . Meyerson has given the Jews of Morvedre a historical agency and a uniquely human subjectivity that would otherwise have remained silent."---Horacio Chiong Rivero, Sixteenth Century Journal "This more than authoritative book might not bequeath all the right answers, but it most certainly asks all the right questions."---David Marx, davidmarx.co.uk "This is the most detailed history yet written of any Jewish community in Mediterranean Spain, in the town of Morvedre in the Kingdom of Valencia."---GlennW. Olsen, European Legacy "This is a wonderful, brilliant book, rich in detail, painstakingly reconstructed from inquisition archives in Madrid, a variety of municipal and ecclesiastical archives in Valencia, and especially the Aragonese royal archives in Barcelona. It is certainly the most detailed and wide-ranging history to date of any Jewish community in the lands of the Crown of Aragon (i.e., Mediterranean Spain) and will take its place among the best histories of a particular Jewish community for all of medieval Europe. If genius is the capacity for taking infinite pains, I nominate Mark Meyerson's A Jewish Renaissance in F

Heather J. Sharkey is an assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In 1854, American Presbyterian missionaries arrived in Egypt as part of a larger Anglo-American Protestant movement aiming for worldwide evangelization. Protected by British imperial power, and later by mounting American global influence, their enterprise flourished during the next century. American Evangelicals in Egypt follows the ongoing and often unexpected transformations initiated by missionary activities between the mid-nineteenth century and 1967--when the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War uprooted the Americans in Egypt. Heather Sharkey uses Arabic and English sources to shed light on the many facets of missionary encounters with Egyptians. These occurred through institutions, such as schools and hospitals, and through literacy programs and rural development projects that anticipated later efforts of NGOs. To Egyptian Muslims and Coptic Christians, missionaries presented new models for civic participation and for women's roles in collective worship and community life. At the same time, missionary efforts to convert Muslims and reform Copts stimulated new forms of Egyptian social activism and prompted nationalists to enact laws restricting missionary activities. Faced by Islamic strictures and customs regarding apostasy and conversion, and by expectations regarding the proper structure of Christian-Muslim relations, missionaries in Egypt set off debates about religious liberty that reverberate even today. Ultimately, the missionary experience in Egypt led to reconsiderations of mission policy and evangelism in ways that had long-term repercussions for the culture of American Protestantism. "Sharkey's focus on twentieth-century issues is especially welcome, since relatively few scholars have chosen to concentrate on this phase of Presbyterian mission history. . . . [S]he has added significantly to what can be known about Protestant mission history in the Middle East, the rapidly evolving character of Christian-Muslim relations since the nineteenth century, and the social, cultural, and political aspects of these encounters."---Stanley H. Skreslet, International Bulletin of Missionary Research "This book will be of interest to several audiences. Specialists will welcome it as a provocative theorization of a critical period in the region's intellectual history. . . . The work will also be of interest to Cold War historians. . . . This is a rich work that succeeds in situating a remarkable chapter in Ethiopian history in a broader, comparative context."---James De Lorenzi, International Journal of African Historical Studies "American Evangelicals in Egypt is an important book. . . . While some should read the book out of a general interest in Egypt or the history of Presbyterian missions, there is much more to be found here."---David Greenlee, Missiology "Sharkey . . . offers a lucid account of the activities of American Presbyterians in Egypt for over a century and makes a persuasive case that the missionaries' work had far-reaching ramifications."---Lisa Joy Pruitt, Journal of American History "Sharkey's book has opened up a neglected field of research in modern Egyptian and Middle Eastern history. More generally, readers and researchers in international, imperial, religious, cultural, social, and political history would do well to make use of Sharkey's many insights."---Donald Malcolm Reid, International History Review "Sharkey deftly weaves American, Egyptian, and British history based on archival research in both English and Arabic. She impresses the reader with her knowledge of each field and convinces her audience of the interconnectivity of each history in an age of state building and imperialism."---Lisa Pollard, American Historical Review "Sharkey's excellent study of the his

Jonathan Elukin is Associate Professor of History at Trinity College. This book challenges the standard conception of the Middle Ages as a time of persecution for Jews. Jonathan Elukin traces the experience of Jews in Europe from late antiquity through the Renaissance and Reformation, revealing how the pluralism of medieval society allowed Jews to feel part of their local communities despite recurrent expressions of hatred against them. Elukin shows that Jews and Christians coexisted more or less peacefully for much of the Middle Ages, and that the violence directed at Jews was largely isolated and did not undermine their participation in the daily rhythms of European society. The extraordinary picture that emerges is one of Jews living comfortably among their Christian neighbors, working with Christians, and occasionally cultivating lasting friendships even as Christian culture often demonized Jews. As Elukin makes clear, the expulsions of Jews from England, France, Spain, and elsewhere were not the inevitable culmination of persecution, but arose from the religious and political expediencies of particular rulers. He demonstrates that the history of successful Jewish-Christian interaction in the Middle Ages in fact laid the social foundations that gave rise to the Jewish communities of modern Europe. Elukin compels us to rethink our assumptions about this fascinating period in history, offering us a new lens through which to appreciate the rich complexities of the Jewish experience in medieval Christendom. "Challenges the standard view that this was a dark period for Jews."---Sheldon Kirshner, Canadian Jewish News "Instead of emphasizing the conflicts between Christians and Jews, Elukin shows how deeply interconnected the two groups were in their everyday lives...Elukin...makes use of cutting-edge scholarship on medieval Europe to clarify the differing circumstances that controlled Jewish lives...As a lucid, up-to-date survey of Christian-Jewish relations in the pre-modern period, it is helpful and thought-provoking." "Elukin argues that Jewish-Christian relations in the Middle Ages were not limited to persecution and violence, isolation and exclusion. Rather, he asserts that a degree of fluidity existed between Christians and Jews that allowed for 'normal' relations between them....This book will serve as a useful supplement for undergraduate and graduate courses on the Middle Ages."---J. Haus, Choice "While claims to historiographic innovation are overblown, the book still has the merit of bringing together in a single volume a great deal of previous scholarship that demonstrates the multi-faceted nature of medieval Jewish-Christian interactions in various parts of Europe."---Alexandra Cuffel, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is an engaging and worthwhile book: but it will leave the reader with more questions than answers; perhaps that is what a good book is all about."---Harvey J. Hames, The International History Review "[T]he volume that Elukin has generated is a remarkable and wholly praiseworthy one. I hope that it gains the wide readership that it richly deserves."---C. Nederman, English Historical Review "This concise, provocative, and frequently speculative volume is yet another salvo against what Salo Baron famously labeled 'the lachrymose conception of Jewish history.' . . . Elukin's book is a welcome contribution."---Jonathan Boyarin, Speculum "Elukin displays a commendable knowledge of current literature on a variety of topics. . . . However, this is a commendable effort and a welcome contribution to our understanding of medieval Jewish-Christian relations."---Norman Roth, American Historical Review "Elukin's treatment of the Jewish-Christian relations in medieval Europe is an excellent contribution to the discussion of the subject. . . . Elukin's emphasis on the need to read the sources critically in the light of the medieval background is a salutatory reminder for profe

"Winner of the 2008 Albert C. Outler Prize, American Society of Church History" Sidney H. Griffith is a professor at the Catholic University of America, where he teaches Syriac and Christian Arabic. Amid so much twenty-first-century talk of a "Christian-Muslim divide"--and the attendant controversy in some Western countries over policies toward minority Muslim communities--a historical fact has gone unnoticed: for more than four hundred years beginning in the mid-seventh century, some 50 percent of the world's Christians lived and worshipped under Muslim rule. Just who were the Christians in the Arabic-speaking milieu of Mohammed and the Qur'an? The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque is the first book-length discussion in English of the cultural and intellectual life of such Christians indigenous to the Islamic world. Sidney Griffith offers an engaging overview of their initial reactions to the religious challenges they faced, the development of a new mode of presenting Christian doctrine as liturgical texts in their own languages gave way to Arabic, the Christian role in the philosophical life of early Baghdad, and the maturing of distinctive Oriental Christian denominations in this context. Offering a fuller understanding of the rise of Islam in its early years from the perspective of contemporary non-Muslims, this book reminds us that there is much to learn from the works of people who seriously engaged Muslims in their own world so long ago. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions. "The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque makes a contribution to the understanding of relations between Christians and Muslims that is both necessary and enriching. Its author, Sidney Griffith, has almost unparalleled knowledge of his subject, and brings together here the fruit of decades of painstaking work in Syriac and Arabic to piece together a history that gives color to Christian-Muslim relations, and illuminates many of the points of controversy between the faiths by situating them in a historical context."---David Thomas, Middle East Journal "This splendid book provides a revelatory account of those Christians--and they were legion--who lived under Islamic rule between the time of Mohammed and the Mongol conquests in the Near East during the 13th century....Through a close reading of the texts they produced, Griffith explores the unique theological and ecclesiological visions fashioned by these often unsung Christians."---Jonathan Wright, Catholic Herald "This is a wonderfully written and important book--so much so that immediately after reading it, I started recommending it to students in two courses on 'Eastern Christianity and the Encounter with Islam' that I am teaching currently. From Griffith we should expect nothing less than such a masterful treatment for he has spent the last thirty years researching Muslim-Christian relations, research he displays here with elegance and cogency--and in a thirty-page bibliography, which is most useful."---Adam A. J. DeVille, LOGOS: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies "Sidney Griffith's work is a milestone in the field of classical Christian-Arabic studies. It provides specialists in the field as well as the general reader with wide-ranging information, precious insights and judicious assessments."---Christian Troll, The Tablet "In [The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque], Griffith sets out to correct important facets of the history of Muslim/Christian interaction. One of the most fascinating aspects of this history is the way in which the Arabization of oriental Christians provided them with a new language and a new cultural medium in which to rearticulate doctrines that they considered central to their faith."---M. Swartz, CHOICE "In today's English-speaking world, Griffith's lucid reintroduction of these thinkers should be welcomed both by Christians seeking to honor non-European expressions of Christian faith and by Muslims interes

Sidney H. Griffith is Ordinary Professor in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America. His books include The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic and The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque (Princeton). From the first centuries of Islam to well into the Middle Ages, Jews and Christians produced hundreds of manuscripts containing portions of the Bible in Arabic. Until recently, however, these translations remained largely neglected by Biblical scholars and historians. In telling the story of the Bible in Arabic, this book casts light on a crucial transition in the cultural and religious life of Jews and Christians in Arabic-speaking lands. In pre-Islamic times, Jewish and Christian scriptures circulated orally in the Arabic-speaking milieu. After the rise of Islam--and the Qur'an's appearance as a scripture in its own right--Jews and Christians translated the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament into Arabic for their own use and as a response to the Qur'an's retelling of Biblical narratives. From the ninth century onward, a steady stream of Jewish and Christian translations of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament crossed communal borders to influence the Islamic world. The Bible in Arabic offers a new frame of reference for the pivotal place of Arabic Bible translations in the religious and cultural interactions between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions. "[M]eticulous but eminently lucid."---Eric Ormsby, Literary Review "Griffith offers an exhaustive yet engaging discussion of the history of translations of the Bible." "This book by Sidney Griffith is of great value to whoever is interested in the complex issue of relationship between Hebrew-Christian Scriptures and Muslim ones. . . . Griffith depicts in a synthetic but very valuable way the relationship between respective Scriptures, mirror of relationships between respective communities."---Valentino Cottini, Islamochristiana "Griffith's book is a welcome introduction to the field and is written in an accessible style, directed to a broad audience. . . . The Bible in Arabic will hopefully inspire much needed further research."---Ronny Vollandt, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations "The Bible in Arabic is an important contribution not only as a corrective to inter-religious debate in the twenty-first century, but also because it succeeds it drawing the Bible into a dialectical tradition of exchange that has become severely hampered by dominant discourses on identity politics that fill the spectrum between cultural clash and calls for tolerance."---Rana Issa, SCTIW Review "The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the People of the Book in the Language of Islam . . . marks a high point in the author's academic scholarship. This comprehensive exploration demonstrates his ability not only as a biblical scholar but also as an adroit historian of religion, able to apply an advanced hermeneutic approach to the primary sources."---S.M. Hadi Gerami, Al-Bayan "There is no other book that offers so much on the general subject of the Bible in Arabic in so slim a volume and with so many potential avenues for future research. Enough work still remains for a host of scholars in preparing editions and studies of the texts touched on here and those still in manuscript, but Griffith's book will remain a worthy guide well into the execution of that forthcoming scholarly enterprise."---Adam Carter McCollum, Journal of the American Oriental Society "This book opens up a new world. With consummate learning and characteristic intellectual courtesy, Sidney Griffith reveals an Arabic civilization of unexpected diversity, where Muslims, Jews, and Christians continued to debate, for a thousand years, the conflicting messages of their three, intricately intertwined scriptures. We emerge the richer for this generous vision of the religious textu

"Winner of the 2008 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Gender Studies, Association for Jewish Studies" "Winner of the 2005 Koret Jewish Book Award in History, Koret Foundation" "Runner-Up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies category, Jewish Book Council" Elisheva Baumgarten is Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History and the Gender Studies Program at Bar Ilan University. This book presents a synthetic history of the family--the most basic building block of medieval Jewish communities--in Germany and northern France during the High Middle Ages. Concentrating on the special roles of mothers and children, it also advances recent efforts to write a comparative Jewish-Christian social history. Elisheva Baumgarten draws on a rich trove of primary sources to give a full portrait of medieval Jewish family life during the period of childhood from birth to the beginning of formal education at age seven. Illustrating the importance of understanding Jewish practice in the context of Christian society and recognizing the shared foundations in both societies, Baumgarten's examination of Jewish and Christian practices and attitudes is explicitly comparative. Her analysis is also wideranging, covering nearly every aspect of home life and childrearing, including pregnancy, midwifery, birth and initiation rituals, nursing, sterility, infanticide, remarriage, attitudes toward mothers and fathers, gender hierarchies, divorce, widowhood, early education, and the place of children in the home, synagogue, and community. A richly detailed and deeply researched contribution to our understanding of the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors, Mothers and Children provides a key analysis of the history of Jewish families in medieval Ashkenaz. "Baumgarten's writing of Ashkenaz medieval history as seen through a gender perspective advances a more inclusive reading of Jewish history." "[T]horoughly researched and lucidly written. . . . Baumgarten has opened an erudite and well-constructed window into an area of Jewish life . . . that has long eluded sustained productive treatment by modern scholarship. She has advanced the field considerably in this estimable work."---Ephraim Kanarfogel, American Historical Review "[Baumgarten's] scholarship is thorough and meticulous, and her judgment is intelligent and reliable. . . . She has thus made a major contribution in so carefully and convincingly delineating the interconnections of medieval Jewish and Christian family life."---Sarah Lipton, Medieval Review "In Elisheva Baumgarten's erudite and captivating chronicle of Jewish family life in the Middle Ages, several surprising revelations may cause us to rethink our presumptions about medieval Jewish women. . . . Baumgarten displays not only mastery of Jewish sources, but a considerable familiarity with Christian texts and anthropological literature."---David Wolpe, The Jerusalem Post "This thoughtful and elegant work is guided by an overriding big idea: with respect to childbirth and nurturing, Jewish parents in medieval France and Germany developed many practices very similar to their Christian neighbors. The strength of Baumgarten's work arises from two achievements. One is her wide and wise reading of the historical literature on gender and society in medieval Europe. The other is her sensitive use of a wide range of original sources, including manuscripts as yet unavailable or little used in Jewish social history. This book will be read with pleasure and benefit by all those interested in medieval and early modern Europe."-Miri Rubin, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London

"Winner of the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize" "Winner of the Middle East Medievalists Book Prize" "Winner of the Haskins Medal, Medieval Academy of America" "Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Writing Based on Archival Material" "One of the Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2020" Marina Rustow is the Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East and professor of Near Eastern studies and history at Princeton University. She is director of the Princeton Geniza Lab and a MacArthur fellow, and is the author of Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate. A compelling look at the Fatimid caliphate's robust culture of documentation The lost archive of the Fatimid caliphate (909–1171) survived in an unexpected place: the storage room, or geniza, of a synagogue in Cairo, recycled as scrap paper and deposited there by medieval Jews. Marina Rustow tells the story of this extraordinary find, inviting us to reconsider the longstanding but mistaken consensus that before 1500 the dynasties of the Islamic Middle East produced few documents, and preserved even fewer. Beginning with government documents before the Fatimids and paper's westward spread across Asia, Rustow reveals a millennial tradition of state record keeping whose very continuities suggest the strength of Middle Eastern institutions, not their weakness. Tracing the complex routes by which Arabic documents made their way from Fatimid palace officials to Jewish scribes, the book provides a rare window onto a robust culture of documentation and archiving not only comparable to that of medieval Europe, but, in many cases, surpassing it. Above all, Rustow argues that the problem of archives in the medieval Middle East lies not with the region's administrative culture, but with our failure to understand preindustrial documentary ecology. Illustrated with stunning examples from the Cairo Geniza, this compelling book advances our understanding of documents as physical artifacts, showing how the records of the Fatimid caliphate, once recovered, deciphered, and studied, can help change our thinking about the medieval Islamicate world and about premodern polities more broadly. "[T]hose seeking to ask important questions about the Jewish-Arab dynamic in medieval times will … find much to glean [in this book]."---Dr. Stu Halpern, Jewish Book Council "A handsome volume with compelling illustrations . . . . This magisterial study is a must for anyone interested in the geniza but also for anyone considering how we relate to the texts of our predecessors and what we hope to leave to those who follow."---Elka Weber, Segula Jewish History Magazine "Ferociously thoroughly researched, beautifully written."---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement "A pleasure to read. Rustow writes exceptionally well, approaching her material with an often informal, jocular tone, which makes all the talk of ligatures, tax receipts and bureaucracy go down more smoothly."---Christian Sahner, Times Literary Supplement "[Rustow's] book under review deserves to be perused and read for generations to come."---Ephraim Nissan, Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei " A tremendous service to the scientific community. Rustow enthralls her reader with her style and her art of telling intricate stories."---Frédéric Bauden, Medieval Encounters "With great historiographical skill, Rustow brings new insights into the history of the medieval Middle East through a holistic analysis of the surviving state documents of the Fatimid dynasty. This is a splendid book."-Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge "There are few books like this one that take the reader on such a long-distance journey across centuries and writing systems. The Lost Archive is a veritable magnum opus that will remain a point of reference for decades to come."-Konrad Hirschler, Freie Universität Berlin

Ross Brann is the Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies and the Chair of Near-Eastern Studies at Cornell University. His books include The Compunctious Poet, recipient of the 1992 National Jewish Book Award in Sephardic Studies. He wrote Power in the Portrayal with the support of the Guggenheim Foundation. Power in the Portrayal unveils a fresh and vital perspective on power relations in eleventh- and twelfth-century Muslim Spain as reflected in historical and literary texts of the period. Employing the methods of the new historical literary study in looking at a range of texts, Ross Brann reveals the paradoxical relations between the Andalusi Muslim and Jewish elites in an era when long periods of tolerance and respect were punctuated by outbreaks of tension and hostility. The examined Arabic texts reveal a fragmented perception of the Jew in eleventh-century al-Andalus. They depict seemingly contradictory figures at whose poles are an intelligent, skilled, and noble Jew deserving of homage and a vile, stupid, and fiendish enemy of God and Islam. For their part, the Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic texts display a deep-seated reluctance to portray Muslims in any light at all. Brann cogently demonstrates that these representations of Jews and Muslims--each of which is concerned with issues of sovereignty and the exercise of power--reflect the shifting, fluctuating, and ambivalent relations between elite members of two of the ethno-religious communities of al-Andalus. Brann's accessible prose is enriched by his splendid translations; the original texts are also included. This book is the first to study the construction of social meaning in Andalusi Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, and Hebrew literary texts and historical chronicles. The novel approach illuminates nuances of respect, disinterest, contempt, and hatred reflected in the relationship between Muslims and Jews in medieval Spain. "A substantial contribution to our knowledge of inter-faith and inter-cultural relations. . . . Few authors could achieve what [Brann] has done in such an economical [way]."---Cynthia Robinson, Near Eastern Studies "A substantial and methodologically innovative contribution to our knowledge of inter-faith and inter-cultural relations, both in al-Andalus and in the medieval world at large. . . . Few authors could achieve what [Brann] has achieved and broaden the scope of a field of inquiry to the extent that he has done in such an economical [fashion]."---Cynthia Robinson, The Medieval Review "Brann negotiates the boundary between literary and historical studies with considerable finesse and graceful erudition."---Mark D. Meyerson, American Historical Review "Brann's book is elegantly written, scholarly in drawing on previous studies, yet original in its insights. The author makes his case that medieval Jews and Muslims in al-Andalus admired, scorned, deplored, and were envious of each other in varying measure and that each group's representation of the Other teaches us less about that other than about itself."---Consuelo López-Morillas, Speculum "This book is a significant contribution to the field. Its new approaches and new interpretations yield extremely interesting and convincing results. With good writing and good translations, Brann deftly guides the reader, even the nonspecialist reader, through the argument."-Mark Cohen, Princeton University, author of Under the Crescent Cross "Power in the Portrayal makes a groundbreaking contribution both to Jewish studies and to Islamic studies. Impressively up-to-date on the relevant scholarship in several languages, Brann boldly blends social history and literary study to illuminate texts and figures both Jewish and Muslim. Undoubtedly the most significant of these is the large-scale and sustained re-reading of controversies surrounding Samuel ha-Nagid. We now possess, virtually for the first time, a grounded and contextualized understanding of this leading Jewish personality of Musli

David N. Myers is Professor of Jewish History and Vice-Chair of the History Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of Re-Inventing the Jewish Past. Nineteenth-century European thought, especially in Germany, was increasingly dominated by a new historicist impulse to situate every event, person, or text in its particular context. At odds with the transcendent claims of philosophy and--more significantly--theology, historicism came to be attacked by its critics for reducing human experience to a series of disconnected moments, each of which was the product of decidedly mundane, rather than sacred, origins. By the late nineteenth century and into the Weimar period, historicism was seen by many as a grinding force that corroded social values and was emblematic of modern society's gravest ills. Resisting History examines the backlash against historicism, focusing on four major Jewish thinkers. David Myers situates these thinkers in proximity to leading Protestant thinkers of the time, but argues that German Jews and Christians shared a complex cultural and discursive world best understood in terms of exchange and adaptation rather than influence. After examining the growing dominance of the new historicist thinking in the nineteenth century, the book analyzes the critical responses of Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Leo Strauss, and Isaac Breuer. For this fascinating and diverse quartet of thinkers, historicism posed a stark challenge to the ongoing vitality of Judaism in the modern world. And yet, as they set out to dilute or eliminate its destructive tendencies, these thinkers often made recourse to the very tools and methods of historicism. In doing so, they demonstrated the utter inescapability of historicism in modern culture, whether approached from a Christian or Jewish perspective. "David N. Myer's sparkling new book studies what happened to Jewish thought when, in modern times, history left behind its earlier, sacred incarnations and became a subject of secular investigation by critical scholars. . . . Two innovations in Myer's book are especially noteworthy. First, Myers integrates the study of Jewish trends with the examination of corresponding Christian developments, since they were often contemporaneous. . . . Second, Myers is especially interested in the ways in which his protagonists reacted to the project of Jewish history. . . . Not the least of the accomplishments of Myer's outstanding work of history is that, intentionally or not, it raises the question of whether history is up to the acknowledgement of its own limitations."---Samuel Moyn, The Forward "As David Myers maintains in his fine new book, nowhere was the challenge of secular history more keenly felt than among the Jews of Germany. One virtue of Myer's book is that he places his subject within the wider 'crisis of historicism' that shaped nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German thinking about every aspect of social life, from politics to religion and the arts."---Mark Lilla, The New Republic "Resisting History is a major contribution to the study of Jewish thought. Myers' research is impeccable and he articulates his insightful theses convincingly. This monograph will appeal to scholars and general audiences alike." "If the Christian confrontation with historicism is well documented, much less is known about that of Judaism. For this reason alone, David Myers' recent book represents an important contribution to contemporary understanding; his work should elicit interest from students of Jewish, Christian, German, and modern thought alike."---Thomas Albert Howard, Books & Culture "No brief review like this can convey the quality of this book. Its richness of detail in integrating German and German-Jewish responses to the rise of historicism in the wake of the Enlightenment; its objective yet compassionate handling of the particular contributions Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Leo Strauss, and Isaac Breuer ma

Sarah Stroumsa is the Alice and Jack Ormut Professor Emerita of Arabic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her books include Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker (Princeton) and Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Rāwandī, Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, and Their Impact on Islamic Thought. An integrative approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus Al-Andalus, the Iberian territory ruled by Islam from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, was home to a flourishing philosophical culture among Muslims and the Jews who lived in their midst. Andalusians spoke proudly of the region's excellence, and indeed it engendered celebrated thinkers such as Maimonides and Averroes. Sarah Stroumsa offers an integrative new approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus, where the cultural commonality of the Islamicate world allowed scholars from diverse religious backgrounds to engage in the same philosophical pursuits. Stroumsa traces the development of philosophy in Muslim Iberia from its introduction to the region to the diverse forms it took over time, from Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism to rational theology and mystical philosophy. She sheds light on the way the politics of the day, including the struggles with the Christians to the north of the peninsula and the Fāṭimids in North Africa, influenced philosophy in al-Andalus yet affected its development among the two religious communities in different ways. While acknowledging the dissimilar social status of Muslims and members of the religious minorities, Andalus and Sefarad highlights the common ground that united philosophers, providing new perspective on the development of philosophy in Islamic Spain. "[O]ffers a novel account… of Andalusian philosophy during this time of dizzying political change and explosive intellectual developments." "A wonderful piece of scholarship… a new and comprehensive approach to the history of Jewish and Muslim philosophy." " A masterful work."---James A. Diamond, Medieval Encounters "Andalus and Sefarad is both a masterful synthesis and a breath of fresh air. . . . [It is] persuasive, multifaceted, authoritative, and well documented."---Anna Ayse Akasoy, Journal of the American Oriental Society "Stroumsa's fascinating and well-told narrative is premised on the controversial but appealing claim that Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus are parts of the same story and must be studied together. She effortlessly crosses religious, cultural, community, linguistic, and philosophic borders. This together with her vast erudition and fresh insights enable her to make a compelling case for the integrative intellectual history presented in this book."-Steven Harvey, Bar-Ilan University "This book offers a detailed and fascinating overview of the philosophical encounter between Jews and Muslims in the time of convivencia on the Iberian peninsula. Going well beyond discussion of familiar names like Averroes and Maimonides, it demonstrates that there was a shared intellectual culture that spanned religious divides and made medieval Andalus the most ecumenical space for philosophy in premodern Europe. Sarah Stroumsa, a leading expert on the relation between Jewish and Islamic thought, is a sure guide, and her book is required reading for anyone with an interest in Andalusian thought."-Peter Adamson, author of Philosophy in the Islamic World

"Winner of the 2005 Meritorious Publication Award, University of Cape Town" David M. Goldenbergis Isidore and Theresa Cohen Chair of Jewish Religion and Thought at the University of Cape Town, and Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. He was formerly President of Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, Associate Director of the Annenberg Research Institute for Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Editor of The Jewish Quarterly Review. How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shape over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery. Goldenberg begins by examining a host of references to black Africans in biblical and postbiblical Jewish literature. From there he moves the inquiry from Black as an ethnic group to black as color, and early Jewish attitudes toward dark skin color. He goes on to ask when the black African first became identified as slave in the Near East, and, in a powerful culmination, discusses the resounding influence of this identification on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking, noting each tradition's exegetical treatment of pertinent biblical passages. Authoritative, fluidly written, and situated at a richly illuminating nexus of images, attitudes, and history, The Curse of Ham is sure to have a profound and lasting impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery, and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. "[A] sweeping and ambitious work. . . . [T]he research is meticulous and important." "Goldenberg's study is clearly a work of mature scholarship on an important theme. . . He writes in an accessible style and makes complex matters intelligible to nonspecialists. In fact, I often became so engrossed in his argument that I thought I was reading a detective story."---Daniel J Harrington, America "Goldenberg has produced what may well become the definitive study of race and slavery in the Old Testament texts. . . . In a work particularly valuable for its comprehensiveness and philology, Goldenberg's research is monumental; the writing is clear as a bell; the arguments are not only cogent, but honest. . . . In short, this is a wonderful book and I hope that it finds many readers."---Molly Myerowitz Levine, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "For so massively erudite a work this book is remarkably accessible. Goldenberg is sufficiently persuaded of the importance of the case he is making- that the Bible does not measure people's worth by the color of their skin--not to encumber the main body of his book with the kind of extended academic argument in whose thickets most readers would soon be lost. . . . [He has a] conviction that a scholarly work, if it has something important to say, should not be just for scholars."---John Pridmore, Church Times "An outstanding and comprehensive study." "[A] masterly book. . . . With scrupulously meticulous and erudite scholarship, Goldenberg examines a plethora of source material and is a competent and assured guide through this labyrinth."---Desmond Tutu, Times Higher Education Supplement "The Curse of Ham will clearly have a significant impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery and on the study of early Judaism, Christi