A Polemical Tale and its Function in the Jewish Communities of the Mediterranean and the Near East

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-227
Author(s):  
Miriam Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Folk Narrative ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Arabic Speaking

Abstract The parodical narrative Toledot Yeshu (TY) has been the object of burgeoning interest in the past decade. It has recently become evident that this work was quite popular in Judeo-Arabic, and circulated continuously in Arabic-speaking Jewish communities from at least the eleventh century until nearly the present day. The following is a first foray into the Judeo-Arabic textual tradition of this narrative. From the sixteenth century and beyond, TY circulated in Arabic-speaking communities in collections of folk narrative. Close examination of the textual tradition of TY in Judeo-Arabic as preserved in four parallel manuscript fragments from the twelfth—fifteenth centuries provides further, more subtle evidence linking TY to this genre, and suggests that TY served primarily as literary entertainment in the Near East. I conclude with consideration of the codicological context of TY manuscripts preserved in Europe, and propose that this Near Eastern function contrasts to TY’s primarily polemical function in Europe.

Artisans to Producers

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-148
Author(s):  
Fanny Bessard
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Near East ◽  
Physical Change ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Islam

This chapter considers the physical change of the workspace chronologically, geographically, and by industry. From the case studies of pottery, glass, and textile making, as well as food processing, it discusses the standardization of the Roman practice, as seen at Timgad in North Africa, of zoning and conglomerating crafts in early Islam across the Near East and Central Asia. While acknowledging this continuity with the past, it examines the novelty and significance of manufacturing after 800, when ‘post-Roman’ ceased to be a meaningful description of Near Eastern economy, and questions whether urban crafts experienced differentiated or similar forms of development.

Comments

2000 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-73
Author(s):  
Stuart Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Degree Of Isolation

Because of the climate and the nature of the sites, most archaeological material in the Near East has survived the passage of time in a reasonably well preserved state (at least, until recent decades). It remains true, however, that occasional deposits with exceptional preservation provide a level of detail that opens up new areas of interpretation to archaeologists. The classic examples are, perhaps, Çatalhöyük and Nahal Hemar. The ‘Burnt Village’ at Sabi Abyad is proving to be another where the new evidence is leading to a series of publications offering interpretations of the settlement which will have profound implications for our perception of the late Neolithic in northern Mesopotamia. This stimulating article amplifies one area of discussion, attempting to bring some of the most striking features of the ‘Burnt Village’ into a single, unified interpretation. Importantly, this unified interpretation draws on a range of contemporary approaches to understanding the past and, given the tendency of near eastern archaeologists to function in a degree of isolation from wider archaeological trends, this article is to be particularly welcomed. Inevitably it can be criticised in certain areas and it might have gone further in others but these comments start from the basis of welcoming, enjoying and being stimulated by this piece of work.

Ancient Near Eastern History: the Case of Cyrus the Great of Persia

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMÉLIE KUHRT
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Standard Picture

This chapter examines how an historian of the ancient Near East sets about reconstructing a picture of the past using material of great diversity in terms of type and historical value. It demonstrates this approach by considering the figure of the Achaemenid king, Cyrus II ‘the Great’ of Persia. The discussion begins by creating a conventional image of the king and consolidating it. It then analyses the evidence that has been used to strengthen the picture and presents some historical realities. The basis for the standard picture of Cyrus the Great is provided by material in classical writers and the Old Testament. Cyrus introduced a new policy of religious toleration together with active support for local cults, exemplified by the permission he granted to the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, with generous funding from central government. The chapter also considers the date for Cyrus' defeat of the Median king Astyages (550), as well as his conquest of Babylon itself.

Judges 1–12

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Sasson
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Faith Traditions ◽  
Over Time

Profound changes have occurred in the study of early Israel over the past four decades. In recent years, the pendulum of scholarship has swung toward literary and theological readings that are not significantly informed by the literature of the ancient Near East. Jack M. Sasson’s commentary to the first twelve chapters of the book of Judges is a refreshing corrective to that trend. It aims to expand comprehension of the Hebrew text by explaining its meaning, exploring its contexts, and charting its effect over time. Addressed are issues about the techniques that advance the text’s objectives, the impulses behind its composition, the motivations behind its preservation, the diversity of interpretations during its transmission in several ancient languages, and the learned attention it has gathered over time in faith traditions, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. In its pages also is a fair sampling from ancient Near Eastern documents to illumine specific biblical passages or to bolster the interpretation of contexts. The result is a Judges that more carefully reflects the culture that produced it. In presenting this fresh translation of the Masoretic text of Judges as received in our days, Sasson does not shy away from citing variant or divergent readings in the few Judges fragments and readily calls on testimonies from diverse Greek, Aramaic, and Latin renderings. The opinions of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sages are reviewed, as are those of eminent scholars of recent times. With his Introductory Remarks, Notes, and Comments, Sasson addresses specific issues of religious, social, cultural, and historical significance and turns to ancient Near Eastern lore to illustrate how specific actions and events unfolded elsewhere under comparable circumstances. This impressive new appreciation of Judges will be of immense interest to bible specialists, theologians, cultural historians, and students of the ancient world.

Is There Anything New under the (Mediterranean) Sun? Expressions of Near Eastern Deities in the Graeco-Roman World

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 345-370
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Heuristic Device

Abstract The concept of divine translatability was a prominent feature of Graeco-Roman religion. Major deities of the Greek and Roman pantheons had their origins in the ancient Near East, and the Greeks and Romans equated members of their pantheons with ancient Near Eastern divinities having similar characteristics and functions. This study employs salient examples of equations and correspondences between the Graeco-Roman and ancient Near Eastern pantheons, as well as attestations of multiple manifestations of the same deity based on function or geographic region, as a heuristic device for problematizing the issue of divine translatability in general. It is asserted that a deity is but a projection of human will, a signifier without a signified. This, in turn, locates the phenomenon of divine translatability within the realm of the subjective, making any reasonable “translation” of two or more deities as valid as any other, with no external adjudication of the matter possible.

Acorn eating and agricultural origins: California ethnographies as analogies for the ancient Near East

Antiquity ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (258) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy McCorriston
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Climate ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Agricultural Origins ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Mediterranean

Since cereals and legumes were successful domesticates, archaeologists and botanists have investigated early domestication with particular emphasis on these plants. What about other foods, which may have been staples in their own time, for which we have no simple continuity into a later subsistence in the classic region of Near Eastern domesticates? The mediterranean climate, and the lifeways, of California provide an analogy.

Conceptualizing the Past in Museum Exhibitions of Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Art

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-273
Author(s):  
Rachel P. Kreiter
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
African Art ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Museum Displays ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Art Canon ◽  
International Strategies ◽  
Selection Of

Should Egypt be exhibited as part of the ancient Near East? This chapter considers the museological place of objects that cannot currently be accommodated in either the Egyptian or ancient Near Eastern canons. First, the chapter broadly defines the traits shared by objects in the Egyptian art canon and argues that museum displays have been primarily responsible for its formation. Then a selection of exhibitions that have incorporated Egyptian material with that of the Near East and traditional African art are considered in order to demonstrate the benefits of an international approach to display. The conclusion is that, as a powerful technology of knowledge production, a curatorial vision that integrates cross-cultural and international strategies into the display of permanent collections would encourage a broadening of the types of objects included in regional and global canons.

Cultivating Roots: The Promotion of Exilarchal Ties to David in the Middle Ages

AJS Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-110
Author(s):  
Arnold Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
King David ◽  
Rare Exception ◽  
Cultural World ◽  
The Middle Ages

Jewish sources emanating from the Islamic world of the Middle Ages abound in references to individuals bearing the title nasiء (“prince”; plural, nesiءim). In the unique religious and cultural world of the medieval Near East this biblical designation signified, with rare exception, descent from King David through the line of the Babylonian exilarchs. While at one time the title was restricted to incumbents of the exilarchate, by the eleventh century CE it had been appropriated by a broader circle of individuals who claimed descent from David but were often only distantly related to occupants of that office. These nesiءim enjoyed a measure of status in the Jewish communities of the Near East that was informed by the importance of noble ancestry in Arabic society in general and Islamic veneration for King David in particular.

Matthiae, Paolo / Pinnock, Frances / Nigro, Lorenzo / Marchetti, Nicolò (with the collaboration of Licia Romano): Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 5 May–10 May 2009, “Sapienza”, Università di Roma. Volume 1. Near Eastern Archaeology in the Past, Present and Future. Heritage and Identity Ethnoarchaeological and Interdisciplinary Approach, Results and Perspectives. Visual Expression and Craft Production in the Definition of Social Relations and Status; Matthiae, Paolo / Pinnock, Frances / Nigro, Lorenzo / Marchetti, Nicolò (with the collaboration of Licia Romano): Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 5 May–10 May 2009, “Sapienza”, Università di Roma. Volume 2. Excavations, Surveys and Restorations: Reports on Recent Field Archaeology in the Near East; Matthiae, Paolo / Pinnock, Frances / Nigro, Lorenzo / Marchetti, Nicolò (with the collaboration of Licia Romano): Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 5 May–10 May 2009, “Sapienza”, Università di Roma. Volume 3. Islamic Session. Posters Session

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Waalke Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Near East ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Craft Production ◽  
International Congress ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Visual Expression ◽  
Definition Of
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