A01=S. D. Goitein
Author_S. D. Goitein
cairo geniza
Category=JBCC
Category=NHB
Category=NHF
community
democracy
discarded writing
education
ephemeral writing
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
historiography
history
interfaith relations
jewish history
judaica
judaism
letters
local government
manuscripts
medieval
medieval renaissance
mediterranean
name of god
nonfiction
personal letters
religion
religious
religious bigotry
sephardim
social history
social services
state power
worship
Product details
- ISBN 9780520221598
- Weight: 862g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 19 May 2000
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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 II, subtitled The Community, explores the nature of medieval religious democracy, including discussion of the community, social services, local government, worship, education, interfaith relations, relations between religion and the state, and the relations between the communities and the state.
S. D. Goitein (1900-1985), scholar, administrator, professor, and author of 500 or more books and articles in Hebrew and English, worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton until his death. A Mediterranean Society was awarded the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Society after publication of the first two volumes. Subsequent volumes received the National Jewish Book Award.
