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Acknowledgments This edited volume is about religion, intellectualism, and culture in Judaism and Islam. There are few, if any, studies that resemble it when focusing on the medieval and early modern times. The authors recruited for this purpose rank among the best researchers in their field: historians, scholars of Arabic and Hebrew literature, musicologists, mathematicians, and philosophers. Indeed, some chapters are a mélange. The picture that emerges is that the relationship between Judaism and Islam is complex and depends on social conditions, common or contradictory interests, and religious and cultural exchanges. During the final preparations for the publication of this volume, one of the authors, Professor Juliette Hassine from Bar-Ilan University, passed away prematurely. She was a dear colleague, and we shall cherish her memory. We express our sincerest gratitude to the following people and institutions : Professor Fred Astren, director of the Jewish Studies Program at San Francisco State University; Bar-Ilan University’s Aharon and Rachel Dahan Center for Culture, Society and Education in the Sephardic Heritage and its director, Dr. Shimon Ohayon; and William Frost, president of the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation in New York. Without their gracious and generous financial support, the realization of this project would not have been possible. We are equally indebted to Yitzhak Kerner, the former administrative director of the Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University, and to its former dean, Professor Moises Orfali, for their invaluable advice, as preparation for the book was under way beginning in 2006. The help provided by Professor Eliezer Tauber, the former chair of our department, viii r Acknowledgments and his secretaries, Dganit Boni-Davidi and Ravital Yitzhaki, proved indispensable. Considerable work has been invested by Professors Brannon Wheeler, Avigdor Levy, Bat-Zion Eraqi-Klorman, and Dr. Alanna Cooper of our editorial board. They took out much time from their busy schedules to peer-review the chapters. We are thankful to Michael Glatzer, the academic secretary of the BenZvi Institute and associate editor of its prestigious journal, Pe῾amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry, for his great diligence in the initial editing process of the manuscript. Special thanks go to Elaine Durham Otto, who thoroughly and skillfully copyedited the work. Last but not least, we praise Amy Gorelick, editor-in-chief of the University Press of Florida, and Michele Fiyak-Burkley, both of whom took charge of accompanying the manuscript to press. ...

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