Jews in Islamic countries in the Middle Ages / by Moshe Gil ; translated from the Hebrew by David Strassler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gil, Moshe, 1921-2014.

Series:

Études sur le judaïsme médiéval 0169-815X ; t. 28.

Etudes sur le judaïsme médiéval, 0169-815X ; t. 28

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Islamic countries--History--To 1500.

Jews.

Ethnic relations.

History.

Islamic countries--Ethnic relations.

Islamic countries.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 828 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2004.

Summary:

This book contains studies on the Jews in Muslim countries in the early Middle Ages, and is based on an extensive use of both Jewish and Muslim mediaeval sources.

Contents:

Part 1 In the Arab Peninsula (1-38)

Chapter 1 The Origin of the Jews of Yathrib (1-18) 3

1. Hijaz and Darum (1) 3

2. The Jews and the Bedouin (2-3) 4

3. The first settlers (4-5) 6

4. Further Muslim traditions (6-9) 7

5. Offspring of the Banu Judham (10) 11

6. Midian (11) 12

7. Judham (12) 13

8. Shuayb (13) 14

9. Balaam-Balak-Jethro (14) 15

10. The sons of Jethro (15-16) 16

11. Basrians against Ibn Ishaq (17-18) 17

Chapter 2 The Constitution of Medina (19-38) 21

1. An agreement between the leader and his disciples (19) 21

2. A general description of the 'Constitution' (20) 22

3. Traditions relating to the document and its preservation (21-22) 22

4. The unity of the document (23) 24

5. The time of the document (24) 25

6. The new unity (25) 26

7. Blood-money and redemption of prisoners (26-27) 28

8. The exclusivity of the document (28) 30

9. God's protection (29-30) 30

10. The new justice and the haram (31) 32

11. Restrictions relating to women (32) 33

12. A treaty with the Jews? (33-34) 35

13. No reference to the Jewish tribes (35) 37

14. The obligations of the Jews (36) 38

15. The severance of relations with the Jews (37) 40

Appendix From the biography of the Prophet (38) 42

Part 2 The Jews of Bablylonia and Persia (39-306)

Chapter 1 From Sasanian to Islamic Rule (39-67) 49

1. The uniqueness of Babylonian and Persian Jews and their situation under the Sasanids (39-44) 49

2. The Jews of Babylonia and Persia and the conquest (45-46) 55

3. The sources of the Bustanai story (47-51) 58

4. Bustanai and the Caliph: Arab sources (52-63) 67

5. The affair of the Persian princess (64-67) 77

Chapter 2 The Exilarchate (68-85) 83

1. The exilarch's status and responsibilities (68-70) 83

2. The exilarch in Arab sources (71-72) 88

3. The Rashut (73-74) 92

4. The exilarchs in the early period (75-78) 95

5. The crisis at the beginning of the ninth century (79-81) 105

6. The exilarchs in the tenth and eleventh centuries (82-85) 111

Chapter 3 The Yeshivot (86-135) 117

1. The savora'im (86) 117

2. The geonim (87-89) 120

3. The organization and structure of the yeshiva (90-95) 125

4. The studies (96) 136

5. The appointments (97) 139

6. Monies (98) 141

7. Right and left (99-100) 145

8. Babylonia the Diaspora Center (101-135) 150

Chapter 4 The Controversies in the tenth century (136-147) 207

1. The ancient controversies (136) 207

2. Pumbedita-Uqba-David b. Zakkai (137-141) 209

3. Babylonia and the calendar controversy (142-143) 218

4. Saadia Gaon's controversies (144-145) 224

5. Aaron ha-Kohen Gaon and the controversies at the Pumbedita yeshiva (146-147) 233

Chapter 5 The Sects (148-164) 241

1. The early sects (148-159) 241

2. Karaites (160-163) 260

3. The Tustaris (164) 269

Chapter 6 Annals of the Jews of Babylonia and Persia (165-280) 273

1. The legal and social status of the Jews of Babylonia and Persia, as it developed in the first three centuries of Islamic rule (165-171) 273

2. Taxes in the first generations of Abbasid rule (172-173) 287

3. Relations between Jews and Christians (174) 291

4. Jewish personalities in Umayyad times (175-179) 294

5. In the early days of Abbassid rule (180-185) 299

6. From the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the tenth century (186-207) 309

7. Jewish personalities in the ninth century (208-209) 344

8. Saadia Gaon; Sura's decline (210-213) 347

9. The renewal of the Sura yeshiva; Samuel ha-Kohen Gaon b. Hophni (214-220) 359

10. Dosa b. Saadia, Israel ha-Kohen, geonim of Sura (221-222) 372

11. The geonim of Pumbedita: from Semah b. Kafnai to Nehemiah b. Kohen Sedeq (223-225) 376

12. The geonim Sherira and Hayy (226-238) 381

13. Some Jewish personalities of the seond half of the tenth century (239-240) 406

14. Some eleventh century events (241) 410

15. Jewish figures in the eleventh century (242) 414

16. Two centuries of persecutions (243-245) 416

17. Fifty years of messianism (246-248) 421

18. The second half of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth century (249-250) 429

19. The Mongol conquest (251-252) 431

20. Exilarchs (253-268) 433

21. The later Babylonian geonim (261-268) 448

22. Jewish figures in the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries (269-280) 468

Chapter 7 The Jewish communities of Babylonia and Persia (281-306) 491

Part 3 Sicily and its Jews (307-332)

Chapter 1 Muslim rule in Sicily (307-316) 535

Chapter 2 Sicily's economy and the Jewish merchants (317-324) 563

1. Sicily's geographic position and its economy (317) 563

2. Local production and export (318-321) 564

3. The imports (322) 568

4. Coins and measures (323) 570

5. Taxes (324) 572

Chapter 3 The towns (325-326) 575

Chapter 4 The Jews of Sicily (327-332) 579

1. The Jews of Sicily (327-328) 579

2. Central personages among the Jews of Sicily (329-332) 585

Part 4 The Jews in the Economic Life of the Islamic World in the Geonic Period (333-399)

Chapter 1 Agriculture; land assets (333-334) 597

Chapter 2 The major occupations (335-336) 603

Chapter 3 Slaves (337-340) 607

Chapter 4 Jewish merchants and financiers (341-399) 615

1. The Radhanites (341-354) 615

2. Babylonian financiers (355-367) 638

3. The Tustaris (368-375) 663

4. The Jewish merchants in the ninth and tenth centuries; the migration to Egypt in the eleventh century (376-377) 676

5. The Ibn Awkal family (378-382) 679

6. Other Maghrib families (383-384) 687

7. The Tahirti family (385-391) 693

8. Nehorai b. Nissim (392-399) 705.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [749]-789) and index.

ISBN:

900413882X

OCLC:

54446503