Selected letters by the former UN worker in the Middle East

A compelling consideration of Jerusalem during the formative period of Islamic civilization

This first volume of a two-volume Handbook treats a challenging, largely neglected subject at the crossroads of several academic fields: biblical studies, reception history of the Bible, and folklore studies or folkloristics. The Handbook examines the reception of the Bible in verbal folklores of different cultures around the globe. This first volume, complete with a general Introduction, focuses on biblically-derived characters, tales, motifs, and other elements in Jewish (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ashkenazi), Romance (French, Romanian), German, Nordic/Scandinavian, British, Irish, Slavic (East, West, South), and Islamic folkloric traditions. The volume contributes to the understanding of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the New Testament, and various pseudepigraphic and apocryphal scriptures, and to their interpretation and elaboration by folk commentators of different faiths. The book also illuminates the development, artistry, and “migration” of folktales; opens new areas for investigation in the reception history of the Bible; and offers insights into the popular dimensions of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities around the globe, especially regarding how the holy scriptures have informed those communities’ popular imaginations.

The volume gives a detailed account of the available data of the biography of the Jewish philosopher ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284), provides an outline of his philosophcial thought, and analyzes in detail the reception of his thought and his writings among later Muslim and Jewish philosophers. An inventory of his entire œuvre provides detailed information on all extant manuscripts. The volume furthermore includes editions of nine of his writings.

Well-considered answers to the many questions raised by the situation in Iraq, past and present, are rare. This first comprehensive bibliography on Iraq is based on the Index Islamicus, the leading bibliography on the Muslim world, and will help its readers to find their way through the extensive secondary literature.

Illuminates the history of the many Jewish communities that lived in predominantly Muslim lands before European colonialism and the emergence of Zionism and Arab nationalism led to mass departures of Jews in the mid-20th century, offering a unique perspective, from within, on the historical background of some of the most vexing problems of the modern Middle East.

Arab-Jewish Literature: The Birth and Demise of the Arabic Short Story offers an account of the development of the art of the Arabic short story among the Arabized Jews during the twentieth century. An anthology of sixteen translated stories are included as an appendix to the book.