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The first volume of the English edition appeared in 2017 with subsequent volumes following in due course. The volumes may be purchased individually as they appear or as a set once all 7 are available. Both the German and the English editions will also be available online.
The first volume of the English edition appeared in 2017 with subsequent volumes following in due course. The volumes may be purchased individually as they appear or as a set once all 7 are available. Both the German and the English editions will also be available online.
It has been long known that Jews, among many others in Cairo, were victims of violence during the revolt of the Ottoman governor Ahmed Pasha (1523-1524), and that they would commemorate their sufferings each year, during a local Purim festival. For the first time, this book draws on a wealth of documentation in Turkish, Italian and Arabic on these acts of violence and their context. It highlights the contribution of Capsali (d. 1550), whose chronicle of the revolt in Hebrew – neglected by scholars – has been translated here; it also prompts readers to reconsider the history of the anonymous liturgical chronicle (megillah), and therefore that of the festival as well. As the last avatar of a five-century-old historiographical tradition, it thoroughly recasts the presentation of facts along with an analysis of the social dynamics at work in the revolt, contextualizing them within the history of the transition from the Mamluks to the Ottomans in Egypt and Syria.
It has been long known that Jews, among many others in Cairo, were victims of violence during the revolt of the Ottoman governor Ahmed Pasha (1523-1524), and that they would commemorate their sufferings each year, during a local Purim festival. For the first time, this book draws on a wealth of documentation in Turkish, Italian and Arabic on these acts of violence and their context. It highlights the contribution of Capsali (d. 1550), whose chronicle of the revolt in Hebrew – neglected by scholars – has been translated here; it also prompts readers to reconsider the history of the anonymous liturgical chronicle (megillah), and therefore that of the festival as well. As the last avatar of a five-century-old historiographical tradition, it thoroughly recasts the presentation of facts along with an analysis of the social dynamics at work in the revolt, contextualizing them within the history of the transition from the Mamluks to the Ottomans in Egypt and Syria.
The series published an average of 3,5 volumes per year over the last 5 years.
Abstract
A single folio from MS 119 in the Geneva Genizah includes two unknown and unpublished piyyutim in Aramaic, which are presented in this study for the first time. The two hymns can be precisely dated to the year 1148, the time of the Second Crusade. They resemble each other to a significant extent in terms of content and prosody, referring to a dire historical situation that can be explicitly linked to the siege of Damascus in the summer of 1148. This study presents a critical edition of the two Aramaic piyyutim together with an English translation alongside other textual elements within the remarkable context of this unique folio.
Abstract
Books are living forms that must be understood not simply as they were at the moment and place of their creation, but also as they changed through time and space. This article focuses on a little-known medieval mahzor from the Rhineland, currently in Houston, which has been published in only three catalogue entries. It begins by introducing the manuscript and then goes on to focus on what is perhaps its most remarkable aspect: its extensive mutilation. After examining how and why other medieval Jewish manuscripts were intentionally altered, this essay explores the various campaigns that modified the Houston Mahzor and what can be known about the manuscript’s missing texts and images. Reimagining the Mahzor as it once was reveals a richly illuminated manuscript with strikingly unusual images. Studying how it was intentionally altered over time uncovers a range of reactions from its varied audience, Jewish and Christian, German and Italian, medieval and modern.