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1. Introduction
- University Press of Florida
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1 Introduction Michael M. Laskier and Yaacov Lev The Divergence of Judaism and Islam is a thorough exploration of JudeoMuslim interaction from the end of the nineteenth century to the onset of the third millennium, focusing on the declining multiethnic Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, Arab lands, Central Asia, post–World War II Germany , and Australia. Our contributing authors treat the Judeo-Muslim relationship with a rich sampling of interdisciplinary approaches that include education, history , political science, anthropology, sociology, economics, and modern Hebrew and Arabic literature. The fifteen essays cut a swath across a panoply of themes incorporating a variety of cultural, literary, and social scientific perspectives. Through original and updated research, they provide insights generating a synergistic impact on a diverse reading audience eager to approach the tangled and fragile relationship with an eye open to nuance. Our edited study joins the best reference works, such as The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times, edited by Reeva S. Simon , Michael M. Laskier, and Sara Reguer (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003); Michael M. Laskier, North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria (New York: New York University Press, 1994, 2nd ed., 1997); Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1991); and Zvi Zohar’s edited volume about Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry: From the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times (New York: New York University Press, 2005). 2 · Michael M. Laskier and Yaacov Lev These works accentuate different aspects from our own. They adopt other methodologies or orientations. In the first place, they tend to focus mainly on Jewish communities per se within Islamic lands and less on the profound complexities inherent in Judeo-Muslim life. The main emphasis is placed on Jews living parallel Muslim society. In our volume, Muslims and Jews are treated with equal attention insofar as their positive interactions and divergences. Second, we go well beyond Arab and other Muslim milieus to assess the Judeo-Muslim relationship in the Balkans, the European Union, and Australia. My own [Laskier] North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century is essentially a political history of Maghrebi Jewry. It does not lend itself to social, economic, cultural, anthropological, and sociological analyses. Zohar’s book covers a host of themes related to religious and cultural factors and cuts across the medieval and modern periods, surveying too much in one monograph. The book written by Stillman and the edited counterparts by Simon, Laskier, and Reguer are either sourcebooks or textbooks. Stillman’s book is a continuation of his previous book on Jews in Muslim lands, covering the period well into the latter half of the twentieth century. Its strength lies in the presentation of an in-depth analysis supplemented by significant primary sources published as documents. Conceptually and methodologically, our project examines this complex relationship through four phenomena and developments: (1) common interests; (2) political modes of existence and social mobility in transitional societies; (3) challenges emanating from the Arab-Israeli and other regional upheavals due to rising nationalist tides; and (4) notions of conflict resolution via political and interreligious dialogue. The main thesis here differs markedly from that of our first edited volume, The Convergence of Judaism and Islam: The Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions. As this title suggests, the first book expounds on cultural, religious, and intellectual convergence and effervescence in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. In this separate volume about the interrelationship within a changing world, important aspects of commonalities and interdependence that persisted are raised. Nevertheless, problems of divergence often outweigh those of coming together, with mounting tensions overshadowing the relationship. Insofar as Jewish-Muslim interdependence and/or shared destinies are concerned, these prevailed in key provinces of the late-nineteenthcentury Ottoman Empire, the Balkans throughout the ages, Uzbekistan [54.224.43.79] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:20 GMT) Introduction · 3 well into the twentieth century, and precolonial Morocco. This also proves to be the case presently in Germany and Australia between Muslim immigrants striving to adapt to their new surroundings and the more deeply implanted Jewish communities. Jews of several Balkan states and in post-Ottoman Turkey weathered many crises, and most of their communities remained relatively intact over a long period of time—Turkey to current days, the Balkans until the mid-1940s. The dissolution of some Balkan communities or the significant depletion of their populations resulted from Nazi oppression rather...