TY  - BOOK
AU  - Jacobs,Martin
TI  - Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim World 
T2  - Jewish Culture and Contexts
SN  - 9780812246223
U1  - 915.604/14089924 23
PY  - 2014///]
CY  - Philadelphia : 
PB  - University of Pennsylvania Press, 
KW  - Middle Eastern
KW  - LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - African Studies
KW  - Asian Studies
KW  - Jewish Studies
KW  - Medieval and Renaissance Studies
KW  - Middle Eastern Studies
KW  - Religion
N1  - Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; A Note on Translations and Transliterations --; List of Abbreviations --; Introduction --; Part I. Travels and Travel Narratives --; Chapter 1. Medieval Jewish Travelers and Their Writings --; Chapter 2. Travel Motivations: Pilgrimage and Trade --; Chapter 3. Levantine Journeys: Choices and Challenges --; Part II. Territory and Place --; Chapter 4. Facing a Gentile Land of Israel --; Chapter 5. Medieval Mingling at Holy Tombs --; Chapter 6. Marvels of Muslim Metropolises --; Part III. Encountering the Other --; Chapter 7. Ishmaelites and Edomites: Muslims and Christians --; Chapter 8. Near Eastern Jews: Brothers or Strangers? --; Chapter 9. Karaites, Samaritans, and Lost Tribes --; Chapter 10. Assassins, Blacks, and Veiled Women --; Conclusion --; Chronology of Travelers and Works --; Glossary --; Notes --; Selected Bibliography --; Index --; Acknowledgments; restricted access; Issued also in print
N2  - Reorienting the East explores the Islamic world as it was encountered, envisioned, and elaborated by Jewish travelers from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. The first comprehensive investigation of Jewish travel writing from this era, this study engages with questions raised by postcolonial studies and contributes to the debate over the nature and history of Orientalism as defined by Edward Said.Examining two dozen Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic travel accounts from the mid-twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries, Martin Jacobs asks whether Jewish travelers shared Western perceptions of the Islamic world with their Christian counterparts. Most Jews who detailed their journeys during this period hailed from Christian lands and many sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean aboard Christian-owned vessels. Yet Jacobs finds that their descriptions of the Near East subvert or reorient a decidedly Christian vision of the region. The accounts from the crusader era, in particular, are often critical of the Christian church and present glowing portraits of Muslim-Jewish relations. By contrast, some of the later travelers discussed in the book express condescending attitudes toward Islam, Muslims, and Near Eastern Jews. Placing shifting perspectives on the Muslim world in their historical, social, and literary contexts, Jacobs interprets these texts as mirrors of changing Jewish self-perceptions. As he argues, the travel accounts echo the various ways in which premodern Jews negotiated their mingled identities, which were neither exclusively Western nor entirely Eastern
UR  - https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812290011
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780812290011
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780812290011.jpg
ER  -