Under Crescent and Cross:
The Jews in the Middle Ages
(NEJS 140a, Fall 2016)
Tuesday, Friday 9:30-10:50
Professor Jonathan DecterT
Lown 210
X62960
This course surveys Jewish political, social and intellectual history in the domains of Islam and Christianity from the rise of Islam (622) to the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492). Topics include the legal and social status of Jews, Jewish communal organization, persecution and response, the nature of anti-Judaism, inter-religious dispute and violence, collective memory, and intellectual developments.
Required Texts:
Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in
Medieval Europe
Mark Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross. The Jews in the Middle Ages
Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthology of
Documents from the Cairo Geniza
Shalom Spiegel, The Last Trial
David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in
the Middle Ages
Readings are of two types: The first readings under a date/subject on the syllabus are required and must be done in advance of the session for which it is assigned. These can be from the assigned books, assigned articles on Latte, or online resources that can be found through LOUIS. Many sessions also have readings called SOURCES (these can all be found in a special section on the Latte site). SOURCES must be brought to class (you can print them out or bring them on an electronic device).
Requirements and Evaluation: You will be graded according to one short paper, one long paper, a take-home final, and class participation.
1. Short paper (worth 20% of final grade): Students will submit a short paper (3-4 pages) dedicated to analyzing a primary source (marked SOURCES on the syllabus). You are free to choose any SOURCE from among the syllabus assignments. This short paper is due on 10/11. The paper should present a close reading that links the source to its context and the broad concerns of the class (the exact content will vary depending on the type of source). You may wish to discuss the paper in detail with the TF or the Professor.
2. Research paper (35% of final grade): Each student will be able to pursue a topic of his/her choosing in depth. You may wish to explore a topic already on the syllabus in greater depth. A student may also pursue, in consultation with the professor, a topic not covered on the syllabus. All research papers should focus on a central problem or research question, make use of primary and secondary sources, and present a clear and well-argued thesis. The Research Paper is due on the last day of class. You must submit a proposal (one paragraph) explaining the problem you are investigating along with a starting bibliography no later than 10/21.
3. Take-home final (35% of final grade): This exam will consist of two essay questions (probably chosen from four) and will ask you to integrate broad themes of the semester. The exam will be open book, open note and untimed (it will be given out on the last day of class and will be due on a date during finals period to be announced).
3. Class Participation (10% of final grade): Regular participation (which presumes attendance) is essential. Participation means that the student shows clear evidence of having prepared the reading and an attempt to discuss broad ideas suggested by the text.
Other Policies
Academic Honesty You must complete all assignments alone. In your writing, you must follow rules of attribution, meaning that you must cite all sources consulted in preparing your papers. As stated in the Student Handbook, “Every member of the University community is expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty. A student shall not receive credit for work that is not the product of the student’s own effort.” Examples of penalties for a student found responsible for an infringement of academic honesty are no credit for the work in question, failure in the course, and the traditional range of conduct sanctions from disciplinary warning through permanent dismissal from the University.
Students with documented disabilities: Students with disabilities certified by the Coordinator of Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities in the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and First Year Services will be given reasonable accommodations to complete required assignments. Disabilities that are not documented and approved by the Office of Academic Affairs will not be given accommodations.
Late Assignments: Papers submitted late will suffer a 1/3 grade deduction per day late. For example, a paper that would have received a grade of A on the assigned date would receive an A minus if submitted one day late, a B plus if submitted two days late, and so on.
SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS (assignments are to be read for the date under which they appear)
8/26 Introduction
8/30 Under Crescent and Cross: the Parameters of the Jewish Middle Ages
Mark Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, 3-29
I. Under Crescent
9/2 Jews and Islamic Beginnings
Reuven Firestone, “Jewish Culture in the Formative Period of Islam” in David Biale, ed., Cultures of the Jews (online resource – find this by going to LOUIS and looking for Cultures of the Jews, then follow the links)
9/6 Jewish Status under Islam
Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, 52-76
Source: Passages from Qur’an; Pact of Umar
9/9 Jews in Islamic Empires: the World of the Geonim
Robert Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture, 35-82 (Latte)
Jonathan Decter, “The Hidden Exilarch: Power and Performance in a Medieval Jewish Ceremony” (Latte)
9/13 Jews in Islamic Empires (continued): Competition between Iraq and Palestine
Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia, 100-32
Talya Fishman, “Claims about the Mishnah in the Epistle of Sherira Gaon: Islamic Theology and Jewish History” (Latte)
9/16 Saadia Gaon
Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia, 235-332
Source: Saadia Gaon, Selected texts
9/20 The Cairo Geniza
Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1-42 (Latte)
Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, 88-103
Source: Geniza documents
9/23 The Cairo Geniza continued
Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages
Source: You may use the texts in this book as Sources for the purposes of the short paper.
9/27 Rabbanites and Karaites
Marina Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, introduction and chapter 8 (Latte)
9/30Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain)
Ross Brann, “The Arabized Jews” (Latte)
Source: Abraham Ibn Daud, The Book of Tradition, “The Succession of the Rabbinate”
10/7 Al-Andalus continued – The Career and Poetry of Samuel the Nagid
Ross Brann, Power in the Portrayal, 24-90 (Latte)
Source: Ibn Daud, The Book of Tradition, continued
Select poems of Samuel the Nagid
10/11The Jews in Persia
VeraMoreen, In Queen Esther’s Garden (Latte)
Source: Select literature of Shahin Shirazi
II. Under Cross
10/14 Ashkenaz
Ivan Marcus, “A Jewish-Christian Symbiosis: the Culture of Early Ashkenaz” in Cultures of the Jews, 449-514 (online resource)
10/18 Jewish Status under Christendom
Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, 30-51, 77-88, 107-110
Source: Robert Chazan, Church, State and Jew in the Middle Ages (selections)
10/21 Martyrdom and Memory: the Crusades
Ivan Marcus, “History, story, and collective memory: narrativity in early Ashkenazic culture,” in M. Fishbane, ed., The midrashic imagination, 255-279 (Latte)
Jeremy Cohen, “The Hebrew chronicles of the first crusade in their Christian cultural context” in Juden und Christen zur Zeit der Kreuzzuge, ed. Alfred Haverkamp (1999): 17-34
Source: Chronicles of the Crusade massacres
10/28Poetry and Polemic
Shalom Spiegel, The Last Trial
11/1 More on Inter-religious Polemics
Shalom Spiegel, continued
Source: Rashi, Commentary on Psalm 2, Commentary on Song of Songs (selections)
Source: “Honey Cakes and Torah: A Jewish Boy Learns His Letters” (Ivan Marcus)
11/4 Women and Family
Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children, 1-91
11/8 Women and Family continued
Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children, 92-190
Source: Dolce of Worms: The Lives and Deaths of an Exemplary Medieval Jewish Woman and Her Daughters (Judith R. Baskin)
11/11Back to Spain
Decter, “Ibraham Ibn al-Fakhkhar al-Yahudi: a Jewish Poet and Diplomat between Castile and the Maghrib” (Latte)
Yom Tov Assis, The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry, selections (Latte)
11/15The Barcelona Disputation of 1263
Robert Chazan, Barcelona and Beyond, 1-17 (Latte)
Source: The Vikuah (Disputation) of Nahmanides; Latin Version of the Disputation
11/18The Jew in Medieval Spanish Literature
Dwayne E. Carpenter: “Social Perception and Literary Portrayal: Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spanish Literature” (Latte)
Alfonso X, Songs of Holy Mary (Latte)
Field Trip to Rare Book Room to see facsimile of Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa Maria(Songs of Holy Mary)
11/22Violence in Late–Medieval Iberia
David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence, 3-17, 43-68, 127-65, 200-30
11/29Toward the Expulsion: Iberian Jewry 1391-1492
Benjamin Gampel, “A Letter to a Wayward Teacher: the transformations of Sephardic culture in Christian Iberia,” in Biale, ed., Cultures of the Jews, 389-440 (online resource)
12/2Overflow or TBD
12/6 Conclusion