The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East: Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West

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Phillip Lieberman (Vanderbilt University, Tennessee)

The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East

Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West

Phillip Lieberman (Vanderbilt University, Tennessee)

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English

Cambridge University Press
27 February 2025

Middle Eastern history; Medieval history; Islam; Judaism

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.

By: Phillip Lieberman (Vanderbilt University Tennessee)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 546g
ISBN: 9781009060950
ISBN 10: 1009060953
Pages: 335
Publication Date: 27 February 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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.

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.

Reviews for The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East: Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West

'… 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 '… 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