A new broad and insightful perspective on the life of Jews in the Middle Ages

This book contributes to the history of medieval Jewry in general, as a basis for a comparative study of the position of the Jews in Christian Europe in the Late Middle Ages. The eight articles written by leading experts on this topic pay special attention to the following issues: the measure of tolerance of the Mamluk rulers and the Muslim populace toward the Jews; Jews in government positions and as court physicians; conversion and attitudes toward converted Jews; the Sufi (mystical) nature of Jewish leadership and its relation to the Sufi Islamic discourse; professional, intellectual, and legal interactions between Jews and Muslims. In the end, the contributions help us to sharpen our understanding of Jewish life during the Middle Islamic Period in the Near East.

Autorentext
Yehoshua Frenkel is Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa. His research interests embrace popular culture, Islamic etiquette, communal practices, social history, and legal discourse in Middle and Late Caliphate Egypt and Syria (1055-1517). Stephan Conermann, PhD, is the Speaker of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bonn. His research interests include slaveries, narrative strategies in historiographic texts, transition periods, reconciliation processes, global history, and rule and power. His work is focused on the Mamluk and Delhi Sultanates, the Mughal and Ottoman Empires, and the Crossroads Area "Transottomanica." Stephan Conermann, PhD, is the Speaker of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bonn. His research interests include slaveries, narrative strategies in historiographic texts, transition periods, reconciliation processes, global history, and rule and power. His work is focused on the Mamluk and Delhi Sultanates, the Mughal and Ottoman Empires, and the Crossroads Area "Transottomanica." Prof. Dr. Uwe Baumann lehrt Anglistik: Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft an der Universität Bonn.