Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Browse subjects
  3. Classical Studies
  4. Ancient history
  5. Content listing

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

23990 results in Ancient history

Page 347 of 1200

  • Chapter 27 - Mysticism

  • from Part III - Spiritual and Intellectual History
  • Edited by Robert Chazan, New York University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    01 October 2018
    Print publication:
    11 October 2018, pp 742-786

  • Summary

    In this chapter, I present an overview of the major expressions of Jewish mystical activity on the European continent from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries: merkavah mysticism, Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, the prophetic and theosophic kabbalah. Underlying the survey are three main methodological assumptions. First, mystical experience ought to be deemed principally as a spiritual event that occurs in history rather than an historical occurrence that is imbued peripherally with spiritual meaning. I pre­sume therefore, that in spite of the significant differences from one epoch to another, there are basic themes, motifs, and religious practices that recur in continuous lines of tradition. Second, the positing of recurrent patterns does not come at the expense of disallowing diversity. The assumption that there are enduring patterns does not ignore specific details and historical changes that would account for plurality. Generic claims are rooted in and must be tested against particularities. Third, I challenge the dichotomization of the intellectual currents of mysticism and philosophy in the middle ages as too simplistic. It is impossible to disentangle the threads of philosophy and mysti­cism when examining medieval kabbalah. This entanglement is both historical and ideational.

  • Chapter 3 - Mutual Perceptions and Attitudes

  • from Part I - Jews in the Medieval Christian World
  • Edited by Robert Chazan, New York University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    01 October 2018
    Print publication:
    11 October 2018, pp 54-75

  • Summary

    Mutual perceptions of medieval Jews and Christians were formed by sacred texts, popular interactions, legal and theological formulas, and more. For Christians, an underlying issue was Jewish responsibility for the crucifixion, which was determined to some degree by what Jews knew about Jesus’ nature as divine Messiah. To the degree that the Jewish intellect was deficient, this might affect the question of their full humanity. Treatment of Jews moved from the more tolerant early medieval period to an era of persecution, libels, diabolical conceptions of Jews, and polemical use of the Talmud (which stood at the center of several public disputations.) At the same time, daily interactions often took place in a relatively amicable environment. Jewish attitudes toward Christianity as a religion were governed by the theological/legal category of avodah zarah, or foreign worship. Since Christians worshipped Jesus as God, their religion fell into this category. At the same time, the economic consequences of this classification spurred further discussion, so that a distinction between Christianity and paganism came to be entertained. The most liberal position was formulated by R. Menahem ha-Meiri (13th/14th century). Some Jewish ritual developments may have been influenced by Christian practices. Christianity exercised an attraction for some Jews, especially in late medieval Spain. Generally speaking, each group saw the other as subject to eschatological punishment, though some would survive to recognize the true faith.

  • Chapter 31 - Material Culture and Art

  • from Part III - Spiritual and Intellectual History
  • Edited by Robert Chazan, New York University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    01 October 2018
    Print publication:
    11 October 2018, pp 860-881

  • Summary

    This chapter surveys medieval works of art made, commissioned, and consumed by Jews in the Middle East and Europe. Instead of presenting the material along a timeline, it approaches the material thematically and discusses synagogues and liturgical works within communal contexts, works of art (such as Passover haggadot) used within the private sphere, illuminated Bible used by scholars. It concludes with a section about scribes and artists. The main focus of the chapter is on the observation that Jews shared the visual cultures of the societies they dwelled within and, at the same time, established a variety of patterns to cope with these cultures, to partake in them, to avoid their religious messages and to create their own pictorial idioms. It discusses issues of patronage, religious mentality, reception, the manifold functions of works of art, and cultural interaction. The remains of the art and architecture of the Jewish minorities are embedded in the social and cultural history of those who produced and used them and brings to life aspects of their religious identities of which the written word offers but a partial image.

  • Chapter 5 - Italy

  • from Part I - Jews in the Medieval Christian World
  • Edited by Robert Chazan, New York University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    01 October 2018
    Print publication:
    11 October 2018, pp 98-128

  • Summary

    The history of the Jews in southern Italy and Sicily reaches back to antiquity. In the early Middle Ages the two territories diverged as one area remained under Byzantine rule while the other was conquered by Muslims. In both regions Jews formed a significant element in the urban population alongside a variety of other ethnic and religious groups. Such diversity was source of protection. Christian conquest by the Normans, who united the two regions, also brought protection, as the new rulers were keen to exercise authority, mainly fiscal, over the Jews. Later rulers, the Angevins in Naples and the Aragonese in Sicily, perpetuated this regime, although a severe persecution took place in southern Italy around 1290. A re-established community enjoyed strong royal protection until the end of the fifteenth century, although the Jews were expelled from Sicily in 1493 and from southern Italy during the sixteenth century. Thereupon the focus of Jewish life became northern Italy.

  • Chapter 10 - Northeastern Europe

  • from Part I - Jews in the Medieval Christian World
  • Edited by Robert Chazan, New York University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    01 October 2018
    Print publication:
    11 October 2018, pp 282-304

  • Summary

    Jews in Hungary and Poland arrived from western Europe, especially German lands. They played an important role in trade, money minting and financial life. The traditionally invoked explanation for tolerance, economic necessity in backward countries, has been exaggerated. Rather, Jews played a significant part in the building of royal power. Royal protection and legal systems in societies that incorporated many different groups with their own privileges were the basis of Jewish status. Their comparatively better position, however, should not be mistaken for harmonious coexistence. Indeed, royal protection raised ecclesiastical, noble, and eventually urban resistance; royal privileges and synodal legislation could be in conflict, and towns in the later Middle Ages endeavoured to restrict the sphere of Jewish activities. Violence was not unknown, and from the fourteenth century violence on a mass scale linked to anti-Jewish accusations spread. The community (kehilla) organization took firmer shape in the late Middle Ages. Jews adopted many features of the life of majority society, including architectural devices and names. Sheelot u-teshuvot show that the behaviour of Central European Jews ranged from scrupulous insistence on religious observance to complete disregard for the rules.

Page 347 of 1200