| Title |
Eastern encounters beyond Byzantium : patterns of medieval and early modern Jewish-Christian polemics from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean. |
|---|---|
| Host Item |
Hebrew Union College Annual 95 (2025) 89-152 |
| Description |
While Jewish-Christian relations, and specifically polemic between Jews and Christians, have long been a focus of study for scholars of Byzantium and medieval Western Europe, Jewish-Christian relations under Islamic rule during the medieval and early modern periods, in lands surrounding the Indian Ocean or in Christian kingdoms outside of Byzantium and Europe, have received little scholarly attention. This article addresses this lacuna and analyzes the structure and nature of polemic in Egypt and the Levant, in lands ruled by or with a strong Armenian presence, as well as in Ethiopia, and, finally, India. In this article I posit that Jewish-Christian polemic in these regions comes about both as a result of local religious and political agendas, and through dynamic exchanges with Byzantium and Western Europe. In Egypt and the Levant hagiography and anti-hagiography were particularly important vehicles for polemic, as well as were formal polemical treatises, dialogues, (many of which still need to be edited), and depictions in historical chronicles. In Armenia and Ethiopia, hermeneutical Judaism was a frequently used polemical tactic, although in Ethiopia polemical treatises and hagiographies also figure prominently. Early modern accounts of actual Armenian Christian-Jewish relations under Safavid and Ottoman rule points to a degree of sympathy and cooperation in addition to polemic. Finally, in India, formal polemic by Christians against Jews is shown to be an early modern European importation. |
| Language |
English |
| National Library system number |
997013807278005171 |
| Links |
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries |
MARC RECORDS
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