Ishmael on the border : rabbinic portrayals of the first Arab / Carol Bakhos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bakhos, Carol.

Series:

SUNY series in Judaica.

SUNY series in Judaica

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ishmael (Biblical figure).

Ishmael.

Esau (Biblical figure).

Esau.

Ishmael (Biblical figure)--In rabbinical literature.

Esau (Biblical figure)--In rabbinical literature.

Bible. Genesis--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Arabs in the Bible.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ishmael on the Border is an in-depth study of the rabbinic treatment of Abraham's firstborn son, Ishmael. This book examines Ishmael's conflicted portrayal over a thousand-year period and traces the shifts and nuances in his representation within the Jewish tradition before and after the emergence of Islam.In classical rabbinic texts, Ishmael is depicted in a variety of ways. By examining the biblical account of Ishmael's life, Carol Bakhos points to the tension between his membership in and expulsion from Abraham's household—on the one hand he is circumcised with Abraham, yet on the other, because of divine favor, his brother supplants him as primogenitor. The rabbis address his liminal status in a variety of ways. Like Esau, he is often depicted in antipodal terms. He is Israel's "Other." Yet, Bakhos notes, the emergence of Islam and the changing ethnic, religious, and political landscape of the Near East in the seventh century affected later, medieval rabbinic depictions of Ishmael, whereby he becomes the symbol of Islam and the eponymous prototype of Arabs. With this inquiry into the rabbinic portrayal of Ishmael, the book confronts the interfacing of history and hermeneutics and the ways in which the rabbis inhabited a world of intertwined political, social, and theological forces.

Contents:

Ishmael and Esau : marginalized men of the Bible

Ishmael in the Bible

Esau in the Bible

Ishmael in Tannaitic and Amoraic literature

The Tannaitic sources

The Amoraic sources

The rabbis and their others

The pairing of Ishmael and Esau in rabbinic literature

Esau as real other

Ishmael, the Ishmaelites, and the children of Keturah

The Arab descendants of Ishmael

Abraham's descendants and Israel's divine election

The role of Christianity in the depiction of other

Ishmael in later Midrashim

The treatment of Ishmael in Pirke Rabbi Eliezer

Abraham's visits in Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer

Abraham's visits in Arabic sources

Revisiting the visits

The Ishmaelites in Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-199) and index.

ISBN:

9780791481653

0791481654

9781423795261

1423795261

OCLC:

70869482