The Jews in Medieval Egypt

Jews lived in Egypt over many centuries, from biblical times until the middle of the previous century. Nevertheless, Jewish life in medieval Islamic Egypt was for many years an obscure and understudied theme. The present book offers the reader a wide-ranging picture of Jewish life in medieval Egypt as depicted by most recent scholarship. Starting from the last phases of the Byzantine era and ending with the Mamluk period, the book presents a scholarly yet vivid description of Jewish communal organization, judiciary, economic frameworks, family life, and lingual practices, as well as religious and literary activities of the medieval Jews of Egypt.

• Introduction, Miriam Frenkel
• 1. Between the Hellenistic World and the Cairo Genizah: The Jewish Community in Late Antique Egypt, Tal Ilan
• 2. A Concise History of Islamic Egypt, Yehoshua Frenkel
• 3. The Community's Borders; Converts and Renegades, Moshe Yagur
• 4. Communal Self-Government: The Genizah Period, Mark R. Cohen
• 5. Introduction to the Legal Arena, Oded Zinger
• 6. Jewish Economic Life in Medieval Egypt: Images, Theories, and Research, Jessica Goldberg
• 7. Jewish Family Life in Medieval Egypt, Miriam Frenkel
• 8. Situating Egyptian Pietism, Elisha Russ-Fishbane
• 9. Languages and Language Varieties Used by Medieval Egyptian Jews, Esther-Miriam Wagner
• 10. Hebrew Poetry in Medieval Egypt, Joseph Yahalom
• 11. The Last Phase–The Jews in Medieval Egypt under the Mamluks (1250–1517), Amir Mazor
• Bibliography

Miriam Frenkel is Professor of Medieval Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the Menahem Ben-Sasson Chair in Judaism & Islam Through the Ages and head of the School of History.