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.
Author(s): Phillip Lieberman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 337
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title
Title page
Copyright information
Contents
LIst of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Preface
List of Abbreviations
1 The Field of History and the Fields of Iraq
Introduction
2 Jewish Occupational Choice and Urbanization in Iraq
Jewish Settlement in Babylonia at the Rise of Islam
Jewish Urbanization in the Early Centuries of Islam
Economic Alternatives to Urbanization
Changing Landholding Patterns in Iraq
The Population of Baghdad
What Happened to the Jews?
3 Conversion to Islam among the Jews of Early ʿAbbāsid Iraq
Writing Oneself In or Out: Conversion to Islam in the Wake of the Conquest of Iraq
Geonic Materials on Conversion from Judaism
The Frequency and Location of Conversion to Islam
Conceiving of Conversion: Approaches from Elsewhere
Conclusion: The Role of Assimilation to Islamic Culture in the Retreat of Iraqi Jewry
4 Onomastics, the Cairo Geniza, and Jewish Exceptionalism
What's in a Name?
5 The Early Vulgar Judeo-Arabic Spelling (EPJAS) and Westward Movement
Whither EVJAS/EPJAS?
How Much Arabic?
Arabic among Jews in Iraq
The Penetration of Arabic into the Jewish Community of the West
Classical Arabic among the Jews of Tenth-Century North Africa
Palestine and Babylonia: Karaites and Se'adya
Urban versus Rural in Tenth-Century Judeo-Arabic
Enhanced Urban-Rural Contacts in the Tenth Century
Some Historical Problems with Blau and Hopkins' Solution
Seʿadya and Arabic in the Documents Preserved in the Geniza
Contextualizing the Disappearance of EVJAS
Conclusion
6 The Development of Jewish and Islamic Commercial Law in the Early Islamic Centuries
Legal Sources from the Early Islamic Centuries
The Development of Jewish Commercial Law: Rabbanite Sources
The Basic Models for Commercial Cooperation from the Talmud to the High Middle Ages
The ''Wage as a Worker'': Indications of Deepening Commercial Networks
Dividing Profits and Losses: Exposure to Islamic Partnership Practice
''Administrator'' as ''Investor'': Developing Patterns of Investment
Other Changes in Commerce Visible in the Law
Law and Literature: Writing for One's Audience
The Suftaja - Expanding Penetration into Long-Distance Trade, Gradual Acceptance by Jurists
The ''Economic Factor'' and the Expanding Acceptability of Documents
Dating the Expansion of Markets
Developments in Rabbanite Law - Conclusions
Detail from Karaite Materials Shedding Light on the Development of Commercial Law
Proto-Karaite/Early Karaite Authorities: Adumbrating Commercial Law
Developments in the Law: Tenth and Eleventh Centuries
The Twelfth Century: Evidence of Further Development
Islamic Commercial Law from Shaybani to Kasani
Comparing Developments in Rabbanite, Karaite, and Islamic Commercial Law
7 Migratory Movements throughout the Islamic Mediterranean in the Early Islamic Centuries
Political and Military Stimuli
The Thughur: Migration due to Military and Political Forces
Immigration More Broadly: ''Religious'' as well as Military
Controlling Local Economies and Urban Unrest by Managing Migration
Economic Forces on the Individual
Talab Al-ilm and ''Religious'' Forces Revisited
''Push'' versus ''Pull'' Factors in General
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
