Autumn 2009     Call Number: 26552     Credit/Hours:U 5
Instructor: Frank      Location: Hagerty Hall 0159
Days: Tuesday, Thursday
Start Time: 9:30am     Length: 2 Hours

Course Description:

A survey of ten centuries of medieval Jewish culture from the rise of Islam to the death of Shabbetai Zvi, the false Messiah (1676). 

Not open to students with credit for Hebrewl 216. Cross-listed in Hebrew. GEC arts and hums cultures and ideas course. 

Scattered through the lands of Christendom and Islam, medieval Jewish communities flourished from Spain to Persia, from England to the Yemen. Despite periodic persecutions, medieval Jewry proved to be enormously resilient and creative. Figures such as Saadya Gaon, Moses Maimonides, and Judah Loew of Prague provided their communities with dynamic leadership in troubled times, while bequeathing an impressive literary legacy to posterity. The rich and varied body of Hebrew classics composed during this period includes the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Nahmanides, the poetry of Ibn Gabirol and Halevi, the Codes of Jacob B. Asher and Joseph Karo, and that treasury of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar. This course surveys ten centuries of medieval Jewish culture from the rise of Islam to the death of Shabbetai Zvi, the false Messiah (1676). Focusing on key figures and representative subjects, the lectures will seek to offer a balanced picture of the Jewish experience in both the Christian and Islamic worlds. A generous selection of primary sources (in translation) will introduce students to the social, intellectual, and spiritual worlds of medieval Jewry.