Jews among Muslims: Communities in the Precolonial Middle East

294 Pages·1996·29.98 MB·English

by  Shlomo Deshen

JEWS AMONG MUSLIMS
Jews among Muslims
Communities in the Precolonial
Middle East
Edited by
Shlomo Deshen
Professor of Anthropology
Tel-Aviv University, Israel
and
Walter P. Zenner
Professor of Anthropology
University of Albany, New York, USA
Selection, editorial matter and Chapter 1 © Shlomo Deshen
and Walter P. Zenner 1996
Chapters 2-19 © Macmillan Press Ltd
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
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claims for damages.
First published 1996 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-62656-6 ISBN 978-1-349-24863-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24863-6
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 9 8 76 5 4 3 21
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
Contents
Preface vii
Notes on the Contributors viii
Acknowledgements ix
Part I Introduction 1
1 Jews Among Muslims in Precolonial Times:
An Introductory Survey 3
Walter P. Zenner and Shlomo Deshen
2 Traditional Jewish Society and Modern Society 25
Jacob Katz
3 Jewish Acculturation in Premodern Societies 35
Stephen Sharot
4 Islam and the Jews: Myth, Counter-Myth, History 50
Mark Cohen
5 Sephardic Rabbinic Responses to Modernity:
Some Central Characteristics 64
Zvi Zohar
Part II Morocco 81
6 Patronage and Protection: The Status of Jews in
Precolonial Morocco 83
Allan R. Meyers
7 Community Life in Nineteenth-Century Moroccan Jewry 98
Shlomo Deshen
8 Jewish Existence in a Berber Environment 109
Moshe Shokeid
9 Saddiq and Marabout in Morocco 121
Norman Stillman
Part III Tunisia and Tripolitania 131
10 Southern Tunisian Jewry in the Early Twentieth Century 133
Shlomo Deshen
v
vi Contents
11 Communal Organization of the Jews of Tripolitania
during the Late Ottoman Period 144
Harvey E. Goldberg
Part IV Syria and Iraq 159
12 Syrian Jews and their Non-Jewish Neighbors in 161
Late Ottoman Times
Walter P. Zenner
13 Jews in Late Ottoman Syria: Community,
Family and Religion 173
Walter P. Zenner
14 Baghdad Jewry in Late Ottoman Times:
The Emergence of Social Classes and of Secularization 187
Shlomo Deshen
15 The Religious World of Jewish Women in Kurdistan 197
Susan Starr Sered
Part V Yemen 215
16 The Social Structure of Jewish Education in Yemen 217
Shlomo D. Goitein
17 The Authority of the Community of San'a in 232
Yemenite Jewry
Yosef Tobi
Part VI Iran 245
18 Dhimmi Status and Jewish Roles in Iranian Society 247
Laurence D. Loeb
19 Prestige and Piety in the Iranian Synagogue 261
Laurence D. Loeb
Recommended Readings 271
Index 280
Preface
This work stems from many decades of effort and affection which we, as
social anthropologists, have invested in research on Jews from Muslim
lands for over thirty years. We have been engaged in uncovering the
present-day life of Middle Eastern Jews in Israel, the United States, in
other countries in Europe and the Americas, as well as North Africa.
Together with our interest in the present, we both have a lively interest in
the social history of these people.
In 1982, we published a volume of selections which tried to reconstruct
the lives in Jews in traditional Middle Eastern societies, as well as synthe
ses by anthropologists and historians. Jewish Societies in the Middle East:
Community, Culture and Authority was well received at the time.
But, since 1982, much has been published on the Jews of North Africa
and Southwest Asia, both by professional historians and anthropologists.
Anthropological thinking has become more critical of earlier theoretical
approaches. The perspectives of scholars have been affected by political
changes in the relationship of Israel and her Arab neighbors. We decided
to respond to these developments by editing a new volume.
The present book incorporates several of the articles which appeared in
Jewish Societies in the Middle East, These have been edited and abridged
and we have added new articles, both general synthetic pieces and historical
ethnographies which present new perspectives.
Several colleagues, most notably Norman Stillman, Kevin Av ruch, and
Jane Gerber, encouraged us to publish this work. We also would like to
thank Niko Pfund and Jennifer Hammer of New York University Press
and Tim Farmiloe and Gntinne Twomey for their assistance in publica
tion. Keith Povey has helped us greatly in copy-editing and indexing. This
work would have been impossible without the work of our colleagues who
allowed us to republish their articles. The patience, support, criticism and
assistance of our wives, Hilda Deshen and Linda Zenner, have been in
valuable throughout the years in keeping us on track.
We want to dedicate the work to the memory of the many Jewish
communities of North Africa and Southwest Asia which have been de
serted, destroyed and transplanted in the course of the twentieth century.
SHLOMO DESHEN
WALTER P. ZENNER
Vll
Notes on the Contributors
Mark Cohen is Professor of History at Princeton University.
Shlomo Deshen is Professor of Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University.
Shlomo D. Goitein was associated with the Institute of Advanced Studies
at Princeton at the time of his death in 1985.
Harvey E. Goldberg is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem.
Jacob Katz is Professor Emeritus of Social History at the Hebrew Uni
versity in Jerusalem.
Laurence D. Loeb is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Univer
sity of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Allan R. Meyers is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the School of
Public Health at Boston University.
Susan Starr Sered is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bar-l1an
University.
Stephen Sharot is Professor of Sociology at Ben-Gurion University in
Beersheba.
Moshe Shokeid is Professor of Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University.
Norman Stillman holds the SchustermanlJosey Chair in Judaic History at
the University of Oklahoma.
Yosef Tobi is Associate Professor of History and Comparative Literature
at Haifa University.
Walter P. Zenner is Professor of Anthropology and Jewish Studies at the
University of Albany (State University of New York).
Zvi Zohar is Senior Scholar at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
viii
Acknowledgements
The editors and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to
reproduce copyright material: Harvey Goldberg and the Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs for H. Goldberg, 'Communal Organization of the Jewish
of Tripolitania during the Late Ottoman Period', Jewish Political Studies
Review, 5, 3 & 4, Autumn 1993; Norman Stillman and Magnes Press for
'Saddiq and Marabout', in Sephardim and Oriental Jewish Heritage, 1982;
Mark Cohen for 'Islam and the Jews', Jerusalem Quarterly, 38, 1986;
Laurence D. Loeb for 'Dhimmi Status and Jewish Roles in Iranian Soci
ety', Ethnic Groups, 1, 1976, and 'Prestige and Piety in the Iranian Syna
gogue', Anthropological Quarterly, 51, 1978; YosefTubi for 'The Authority
of the Community of Sun'a in Yemenite Jewry', in Jewish Societies in the
Middle East, ed. S. Deshen and W.P. Zenner (University Press of America,
1982); Allen R. Meyers for 'Patronage and Protection: The Status of Jews
in Precolonial Morocco', in Jewish Societies in the Middle East, ed. S.
Deshen and W.P. Zenner (University Press of America, 1982).
Every effort has been made to contact all the copyright-holders, but if
any have been inadvertently omitted the publishers will be pleased to
make the necessary arrangement at the earliest opportunity.
IX
Part I
Introduction