Product Description
by Yaron Tsur (Author), Ursula Wokoeck (Translator)
This fascinating tour of the Jewish communities of the Ottoman Middle East, on the eve of the changes that would come to unsettle the Ottoman territories, reveals a surprisingly varied world. Visiting Istanbul, Damascus, Acre, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Basra, and Cairo, we see different landscapes, meet diverse Jewish societies, and encounter the range of their economic activities. We also see how Christians and Jews struggled with each other to establish their position in the Muslim world and secure their livelihood. In the process, the author reconsiders fundamental questions. What is a 'diaspora'? To what extent did the surrounding culture impact the Jewish communities of the area? And, most interestingly, how did these communities respond to the onset of modernity? Though relating to Jewish society in its entirety, the main focus is on its most powerful members: the notables, who were close to the ruling elite or involved in international trade. Tsur discusses their strengths and weaknesses, considers the relationship between their position and that of the rest of the Jewish community, and analyses their eventual downfall. His study offers new insights into the social mechanisms that enabled them to establish close ties with the ruling elite and to function within it.
Author Biography
Yaron Tsur is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, where he is head of the research unit on the Jews of Islamic lands. He is the founder and academic director of JPress, the Historical Jewish Press website of the National Library of Israel and Tel Aviv University. His books include The Jews of Casablanca: A Study of Modernization in a Colonial Jewish Society (Hebrew; with H. Hillel, 1995), and A Torn Community: The Jews of Morocco and Nationalism 1943-1954 (Hebrew; 2001), winner of the Zalman Shazar Prize for Research in Jewish History (2002).
