Lecture
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Thursday 9.10.2025
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Jews and Judaism under Early Islamic Empires: The Geonites under the Abbasids and the Golden Age in Spain
Thursday 9.10.2025
Summary
The fourth lecture in this series concerns the status of Jews under Islamic rule during the first two caliphates (750-1200). The overview will cover the rise of Geonites in Bavel under the Abbasids, the final formation of the Talmud, and the rise of “Jewish sciences” alongside “Islamic sciences.” We also discuss the first Golden Ages of Spain.
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite teaches Chinese History, Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and sometimes Jewish history, at New York University. He is author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 2005); The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, 2009); co-editor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Culture, and Politics (Brandeis, 2013); The Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a Concept (Columbia University Press, 2017); and Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History (Hawaii University Press, 2023).