The Jews of Moslem Spain, Vol. 2/3

About the Book -- The Jews of Moslem Spain, Vol. 2/3

The second and third volume of a monumental survey of the Jewish community in Spain under Moslem rule offers the reader access to a difficult subject...written in a style that is both authoritative and lively.

Called by Choice "the most comprehensive survey of a magnificent era," The Jews of Moslem Spain , the story begins in 711 C.E., on the slopes of Gibraltar, when the Moslems conquered the Iberian peninsula and moves through centuries of the flowering of Jewish culture, the "Golden Age of Spanish Jewry.

Eliyahu Ashtor"s work is based on many sources: Arabic chronicles, geographical writings, Hebrew inscriptions, literary and documentary sources and Geniza records as well as data unearthed through topographical research in ancient Jewish quarters that have survived for centuries in Spanish towns.

Ashtor tells a rich and complex story. Written with extraordinary clarity and appreciation for the dramatic, a vivid recreation of daily life emerges.

The book is a classic, both in its enduring validity as a basis for generations of scholarship and in its continuing popularity among readers everywhere.

In a new introduction, David J. Wasserstein, Professor of Islamic History at Tel Aviv University, looks at the changes in scholarly perception of historical facts and problems since Ashtor wrote; he also examines developments in historiographical concern during that time.

About the Author -- The Jews of Moslem Spain, Vol. 2/3

Eliyahu Ashtor ---

Historian and educator, Eliyahu Ashtor taught in Paris, Harvard University and is now Professor of Moslem History at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His writtings have made major contributions to the study of Islamic social history in the Near East during the Middle Ages.

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Reviews

"Excellent idiomatic translation preserves the style and grace of the original . . . . The standard authority on the subject . . . written in a lively style [that] at times has the flavour of an historical novel." —Journal of Semitic Studies

"The most fascinating scholarly all-around history of the Jews in Moslem Spain . . . the authoritative classic." —Religious Zionist Newsletter

"Narrative history ought, after all, to be readable, and this work is certain to find a large and enthusiastic readership anxious to learn just how the story will end." —Bulletin, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London