The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East
Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West
- Author: Phillip Lieberman, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
- Publication planned for: February 2025
- availability: Not yet published - available from February 2025
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781009060950
Paperback
Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available for inspection. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an inspection copy. To register your interest please contact asiamktg@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
-
In this book, Phillip Lieberman revisits one of the foundational narratives of medieval Jewish history—that the rise of Islam led the Jews of Babylonia, the largest Jewish community prior to the rise of Islam, to abandon a livelihood based on agriculture and move into urban crafts and long-distance trade. Here, he presents an alternative account that reveals the complexity of interfaith relations in early Islam. Using Jewish and Islamic chronicles, legal materials, and the rich documentary evidence of the Cairo Geniza, Lieberman demonstrates that Jews initially remained on the rural periphery after the Islamic conquest of Iraq. Gradually, they assimilated to an emerging Islamicate identity as the new religion took shape, sapping towns and villages of their strength. Simultaneously, a small, elite group of merchants and communal leaders migrated westward. Lieberman here explores their formative influence on the Jewish communities of the southern Mediterranean that flourished under Islamic conquest.
Read more- Shows how studying 'minority' groups are critical for understanding history of 'majority' groups
- Applies creative techniques to reading the limited sources we have to tell the history of the medieval Jewish and Islamic world
- Challenges long-held wisdoms about medieval Jewish history
Reviews & endorsements
'… a very suitable resource for those interested in Near Eastern studies, archaeology, and Jewish studies … [while] this book focuses on Jews, it can be considered as a very useful source for understanding the Islamic world of the Middle Ages too.' Maryam Ghasemnejad, Immigrants & Minorities
See more reviews'… this fascinating monograph rightly challenges scholarly narratives received too uncritically and opens the door to new research questions and possibilities, as is the mark of every worthwhile scholarly book.' Thomas A. Carlson, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Publication planned for: February 2025
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781009060950
- length: 335 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 152 mm
- availability: Not yet published - available from February 2025
Table of Contents
Preface
1. The field of history and the fields of Iraq
2. Jewish occupational choice and urbanization in Iraq
3. Conversion to Islam among the Jews of Early-ʿAbbāsid Iraq
4. Onomastics, the Cairo Geniza, and Jewish exceptionalism
5. The early vulgar Judeo-Arabic spelling (EPJAS) and westward movement
6. The development of Jewish and Islamic commercial law in the early Islamic centuries
7. Migratory movements throughout the Islamic Mediterranean in the early centuries of Islam.
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×