- The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- The Nature of Jewish Studies
- Biblical Studies and Jewish Studies
- Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period
- The Literature of the Second Temple Period
- Historiography on the Jews in the ‘Talmudic Period’ (70–640 ce)
- Classical Rabbinic Literature
- The Narratives of Medieval Jewish History
- Medieval Jewry In Christendom
- Medieval Jewry in the World of Islam
- Rabbinic Literature in the Middle Ages 1000–1492
- The Study of Hebrew Literature of the Middle Ages: Major Trends and Goals
- Medieval Karaism
- Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries since 1492
- European Jewry in the Early Modern Period: 1492–1750
- Western and Central European Jewry in the Modern Period: 1750–1933
- Eastern European Jewry in the Modern Period: 1750–1939
- The Holocaust
- Settlement and State in Eretz Israel
- American Jewish History
- The Hebrew Language
- Modern Hebrew Literature
- Yiddish Studies
- Judaeo-Spanish Studies
- Judaeo-Arabic and Judaeo-Persian
- Other Diaspora Jewish Literatures Since 1492
- Halacha and Law
- Bible Interpretation
- Mysticism
- Jewish Liturgy and Jewish Scholarship: Method and Cosmology
- Jewish Philosophy and Theology
- Jewish Women's Studies
- Demography
- Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
- Music
- Jewish Theatre
- Jewish and Israeli Film Studies
- Anti-Semitism Research
- Jewish Folklore and Ethnography
- Modern Jewish Society and Sociology
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Islam arose in the seventh century in Arabia through the preaching of the prophet Muhammad (d. 632). Nineteenth-century Jewish historians of the ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’ school painted the experience of medieval Jewry in the world of Islam in idyllic, almost mythic terms and in stark contrast to the sorrowful, oppressive, persecutory history of Jews living in medieval Christendom. This rosy comparison between the ‘Golden Age’ under Islam and the era of persecution under Christendom, sketched against the background of the political agenda of nineteenth-century Central European Jewish intellectuals, was carried forth into the twentieth century, reinforced by the brutal Nazi persecution of the Jews culminating in the Holocaust. On the other hand, the Arab-Jewish dispute over Palestine generated a fresh political issue which impacted on the historiography of medieval Jewry in the world of Islam.
Keywords: Judaism, Islam, interreligious polemics, Arabia, medieval Jewry, Holocaust, Arab-Jewish dispute
Mark R. Cohen is Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- The Nature of Jewish Studies
- Biblical Studies and Jewish Studies
- Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period
- The Literature of the Second Temple Period
- Historiography on the Jews in the ‘Talmudic Period’ (70–640 ce)
- Classical Rabbinic Literature
- The Narratives of Medieval Jewish History
- Medieval Jewry In Christendom
- Medieval Jewry in the World of Islam
- Rabbinic Literature in the Middle Ages 1000–1492
- The Study of Hebrew Literature of the Middle Ages: Major Trends and Goals
- Medieval Karaism
- Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries since 1492
- European Jewry in the Early Modern Period: 1492–1750
- Western and Central European Jewry in the Modern Period: 1750–1933
- Eastern European Jewry in the Modern Period: 1750–1939
- The Holocaust
- Settlement and State in Eretz Israel
- American Jewish History
- The Hebrew Language
- Modern Hebrew Literature
- Yiddish Studies
- Judaeo-Spanish Studies
- Judaeo-Arabic and Judaeo-Persian
- Other Diaspora Jewish Literatures Since 1492
- Halacha and Law
- Bible Interpretation
- Mysticism
- Jewish Liturgy and Jewish Scholarship: Method and Cosmology
- Jewish Philosophy and Theology
- Jewish Women's Studies
- Demography
- Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
- Music
- Jewish Theatre
- Jewish and Israeli Film Studies
- Anti-Semitism Research
- Jewish Folklore and Ethnography
- Modern Jewish Society and Sociology
- Index
