HIS354H1

Jews of Arab Lands: From the Prophet Muhammad to European Colonialism

This course introduces the Jewish communities of Arab lands by examining their social, cultural, and political experiences from the Arab conquests to European colonialism. We will examine the sometimes “symbiotic” relationship that existed between Jews and Muslims as well as the factors that threatened it by considering both the history of everyday life and of high culture. Many of Judaism’s formative institutions and literary works were developed in the Middle East and we will explore how they developed in dialogue with Islamic culture. Finally, we will study the impact of Western colonialism and nineteenth-century encounters between “Western” and “Eastern” Jews.