Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East - Tracing the Demographic Shift From East to West

Challenges a foundational narrative 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 move from agriculture into urban crafts and long-distance trade-presenting an alternative revealing the complexity of interfaith relations in early Islam.

List 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-¿Abb¿sid 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.

About the author

Philip Lieberman is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, with affiliations in the School of Law, and departments of Classical and Mediterranean, Islamic, and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. A social, economic, and legal historian of the Jews in the medieval Islamic world, he is the editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism, v. 5 and author of Business of Identity, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Product details

• Authors: Phillip Lieberman, Phillip (Vanderbilt University Lieberman
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2025
• EAN: 9781009060950
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0906095-0
• No. of pages: 335
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; Islam, RELIGION / History, CE period up to c 1500, Medieval History, Judaism, Middle Eastern history