Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam

Abstract

This text undertakes a detailed analysis of creative symbiosis that existed between Jewish and Muslim religious thought in 8th to 10th centuries, bringing disciplinary approaches of religious studies to bear on questions that have previously been examined by historians and by specialists in Judaism and Islam. The book's thematic approach provides an exmaple of how difficult questions of influence might be opened up for broader examination. In Part I, Trajectories, author explores early Jewish-Muslim interactions, studying such areas as messianism, professions, authority and class structure and showing how they were reshaped during first centuries of Islam. Part II Constructions, looks at influences of Judaism on development of emerging Shi'ite community. This is tied to wider issue of how early Muslims conceptualized the Jew. In Part III, Intimacies, author tackles complex esoteric symbiosis between Muslim and Jewish theologies. An investigation of milieu in which Jews and Muslims interacted sheds new light on their shared religious imaginings. Throughout, Wasserstrom expands on work of social and political historians to include symbolic and conceptual aspects of interreligious symbiosis.