The Jews Of Islam

Probing the Muslims' attitude toward Judaism as a special case of their view of other religious minorities in Islamic countries, Bernard Lewis demolishes two competing stereotypes: the fanatical warrior, sword in one hand and Qur' an in the other, and the Muslim designer of an interfaith utopia. Available for the first time in paperback, his portrayal of the Judaeo-Islamic tradition is set against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history.

Helping Jews understand Islam--a reasoned and candid view

DIV The powerful cultural and spiritual forces that fuel the conflict in the Middle East. /div

Focusing on the Arab World and Turkey, the authors show how Christian and Jewish minorities survived and even prospered under Islam thus modifying the view of Islam as dogmatic and unbending. They demonstrate that the decline of these minorities occurred in the wake of confrontation with the Christian West, the Crusades, the Spanish Reconquista, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in North Africa and the Balkans as a result of colonialism and the First World War, and the creation of the state of Israel.

In this volume, Jacob Lassner examines the triangular relationship that during the Middle Ages defined - and continues to define today - the political and cultural interaction among the three Abrahamic faiths.

This volume contains fifteen articles on the communal, social, and intellectual life of medieval Jewry in Islamic lands. The book is divided into three parts. Part I, 'Communities and Their Leaders' is devoted to the old Babylonian center in the East and the Andalusian community in the West. Part II, 'Self-Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Others' investigates the ways in which medieval Jews living under Islam viewed their gentile neighbours and expressed their own identity. Part III, 'Religious Philosophy, Mysticism, and Spirituality in Islam and Judaism' explores the impact of Islamic thought on the Jewish intellectual tradition. The collection depicts a civilization at once unified and diverse, revealing both consistent patterns of leadership and scholarship as well as distinctively local identities and collective memories.

This landmark book probes Muslims' attitudes toward Jews and Judaism as a special case of their view of other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim societies. With authority, sympathy and wit, Bernard Lewis demolishes two competing stereotypes: the Islamophobic picture of the fanatical Muslim warrior, sword in one hand and Qur'ān in the other, and the overly romanticized depiction of Muslim societies as interfaith utopias. Featuring a new introduction by Mark R. Cohen, this Princeton Classics edition sets the Judaeo-Islamic tradition against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history. For those wishing a concise overview of the long period of Jewish-Muslim relations, The Jews of Islam remains an essential starting point.

Essays on the symbiotic relation ship between Jews and Muslims, including their history, social life, architecture, religion, music, and literature.