Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law, and Ordinary Culture

Abstract

Book Review| July 01 2020 Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law, and Ordinary Culture Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law, and Ordinary Culture. Krakowski, Eve. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018. 350 pages. isbn 9780691174983. Tara Stephan Tara Stephan TARA STEPHAN is assistant professor in the Department of History at Hampden-Sydney College. Her current project examines categories of gender, class, and confessional identity in Mamluk-era chronicles and literature. Contact: tstephan@hsc.edu. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2020) 16 (2): 206–208. https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-8238216 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter Email Permissions Search Site Citation Tara Stephan; Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law, and Ordinary Culture. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 1 July 2020; 16 (2): 206–208. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-8238216 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsJournal of Middle East Women's Studies Search Advanced Search Eve Krakowski’s Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt artfully uses sources from the Cairo Geniza to reconstruct the crucial moment of girls’ and women’s first marriage, a period that she defines as “adolescence.” This study is a refreshing reexamination of some of the ideas and arguments about medieval Jewish society that S. D. Goitein (1967–93) initially presented in his monumental Mediterranean Society. For instance, Krakowski reinterprets Goitein’s conclusion that medieval Jewish families were composed of “cohesive patriarchal clans whose members lived together in extended households” (3). Using the concept of female adolescence, she reveals the importance of kin support for women and corrects previously held narratives about marriage, including the idea that there were preferences for cousin marriage and marrying female virgins.As Krakowski states in her introduction, “This book considers how such ordinary Jewish... Copyright © 2020 by the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies2020 Issue Section: Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.