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This landmark book probes Muslims' attitudes toward Jews and Judaism as a special case of their view of other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim societies. With authority, sympathy and wit, Bernard Lewis demolishes two competing stereotypes: the Islamophobic picture of the fanatical Muslim warrior, sword in one hand and Qur'an in the other, and the overly romanticized depiction of Muslim societies as interfaith utopias. Featuring a new introduction by Mark R. Cohen, this Princeton Classics edition sets the Judaeo-Islamic tradition against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history. For those wishing a concise overview of the long period of Jewish-Muslim relations, The Jews of Islam remains an essential starting point.
List of contents
Contents NOTE ON ILLUSTRATIONS viii FOREWORD ix FOREWORD TO THE PRINCETON CLASSICS EDITION xiii ONE Islam and Other Religions 3 TWO The Judaeo-Islamic Tradition 67 THREE The Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods 107 FOUR The End of the Tradition 154 NOTES 193 INDEX 227
About the author
Bernard Lewis, geboren 1916 in London, lehrte bis 1986 an der Princeton University. Er ist Verfasser zahlreicher Handbücher und Untersuchungen zur arabischen Welt, wurde vielfach für sein Werk ausgezeichnet und gilt als einer der besten Kenner des Nahen Ostens.
Summary
This landmark book probes Muslims' attitudes toward Jews and Judaism as a special case of their view of other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim societies. With authority, sympathy and wit, Bernard Lewis demolishes two competing stereotypes: the Islamophobic picture of the fanatical Muslim warrior, sword in one hand and Qur'ān in the other, and the overly romanticized depiction of Muslim societies as interfaith utopias.
Featuring a new introduction by Mark R. Cohen, this Princeton Classics edition sets the Judaeo-Islamic tradition against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history. For those wishing a concise overview of the long period of Jewish-Muslim relations, The Jews of Islam remains an essential starting point.
Additional text
"[A] pioneering and masterful primer."---Jacob Neusner, Boston Globe
Report
"An elegant and masterly survey. It is a measure of Mr. Lewis's gift for synthesis that all the many findings of recent sholarship, including his own in the Turkish archives, are made to fit into a coherent and plausible pattern."--New York Times Book Review
