A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, Vol. I: Economic Foundations (0520221583) - Reviews and Prices
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A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, Vol. I: Economic Foundations (0520221583) - Customer Reviews, Information, Ratings, and Prices
A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, Vol. I: Economic Foundations (0520221583) - Reviews and Prices
This six-volume "portrait of a Mediterranean personality" is a composite portrait of the individuals who wrote the personal letters, contracts, and all other manuscript fragments that found their way into the Cairo Geniza. Most of the fragments from the Geniza, a storeroom for discarded writings that could not be thrown away because they might contain the name of God, had been removed to Cambridge University Library and other libraries around the world. Professor Goitein devoted the last thirty years of his long and productive life to their study, deciphering the language of the documents and organizing what he called a "marvelous treasure trove of manuscripts" into a coherent, fascinating picture of the society that created them. It is a rich, panoramic view of how people lived, traveled, worshiped, and conducted their economic and social affairs. The first and second volumes describe the economic foundations of the society and the institutions and social and political structures that characterized the community. The remaining material, intended for a single volume describing the particulars of the way people lived, blossomed into three volumes, devoted respectively to the family, daily life, and the individual. The divisions are arbitrary but helpful because of the wealth of information. The author refers throughout to other passages in his monumental work that amplify what is discussed in any particular section. The result is an incomparably clear and immediate impression of how it was in the Mediterranean world of the tenth through the thirteenth century. Volume I, subtitled Economic Foundations, gives an overview of the Mediterranean (history, peoples, culture) during the high middle ages; discusses the working class; the business world, and government's role in commerce; and provides a complete description of travel and seafaring.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A Mediterranean Society:
Goitein is an undisputed master of the Cairo Geniza, the eclectic collection 0f 20,000 documents, including marriage contracts, civil procedure and business contracts, marriage and divorce instruments, all shedding light on the most fascinating Jewish (and Islamic) Mediterranean society extending from North Africa, to Egypt and Palestine in the 10th to 13th centuries. However, unless you're working on a PhD dissertation, skip the above book and get the one volume compilation/synopsis of all of Goitein's... more info
Reality of the Jewish Mediterranean Family centuries ago:
A Mediterranean Society is a classic and essential reading for anyone studying Arab Jews in the classical period, offering a rather different perspective to the works of writers such as Maimonides. In this magna opus, Goitein described in fine and often intimate detail the economic activities, communal organization, family life, material civilization, and mentalité of the Arabic-speaking Jews of medieval Islam during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. Besides illuminating the activities of the... more info
classic of the field.:
this is a 6-volume set. Goitein's text is entertaining, well-written and full of anecdotes. This is a classic in the field and a good read for non-specialists.
