{"product_id":"this-noble-house-jewish-descendants-of-king-david-in-the-medieval-islamic-east-hardback-9780812244090","title":"This Noble House; Jewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East (Hardback) 9780812244090","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThis Noble House\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eJewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eArnold E. Franklin (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812244090\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 14 November 2012\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e320 pages, 5 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.584 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Franklin's rich contribution to the field of Jewish history and culture in the medieval Islamic Near East . . . restores a key aspect of Jewish society to its proper place in historical scholarship, an achievement that is long overdue. Most importantly, Franklin's work fills in a major gap in our understanding of the complex negotiation and confident self-assertion of minority populations within the medieval Islamic world. For his sophisticated synthesis and analysis of a complex web of interconnected topics pertaining to Jewish prestige and power within medieval Islam, scholars of medieval Judaism and Islam alike owe Arnold Franklin a debt of gratitude.\" (\u003ci\u003eJewish History\u003c\/i\u003e) \"A welcome, thoroughly researched, and important study of the barely noticed shift in the attitude of the Jews of the Muslim East toward genealogy and the ways in which this shift was occasioned by their deep encounter with Islamic civilization. I applaud the ease with which Franklin incorporates such diverse materials.\" (Ross Brann, Cornell University) \"A substantial, rich, and original work that takes a typically Jewish topic into the heart of an Islamic cultural context.\" (Menahem Ben-Sasson, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis Noble House\u003c\/i\u003e explores the preoccupation with biblical genealogy that emerged among Jews in the Islamic Near East between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Arnold Franklin looks to Jewish society's fascination with Davidic ancestry, examining the profusion of claims to the lineage that had already begun to appear by the year 1000, the attempts to chart the validity of such claims through elaborate genealogical lists, and the range of meanings that came to be ascribed to the House of David in this period. Jews and Muslims shared the perception that the Davidic line and the noble family of the Prophet Muhammad were counterparts to one another, but captivation with Davidic lineage was just one facet of a much broader Jewish concern with biblical ancestry.\u003cbr\u003e Based on documentary material from the Cairo Geniza, the book argues that this \"genealogical turn\" should be understood as a consequence of Jewish society's dynamic encounter with its Arab-Islamic milieu and constituted a selective adaptation to the importance of ancestry in the dominant cultural environment. While Jewish society surely had genealogical materials and preoccupations of its own upon which to draw, the Arab-Islamic regard for tracing the lineage of Muhammad provided the impetus for deploying those traditions in new and unprecedented ways.\u003cbr\u003e On the one hand, the increased focus on ancestry is an instance of medieval Jews reflexively and unselfconsciously making use of the cultural forms of their Muslim neighbors; on the other, it is an expression of cultural competitiveness or even resistance, an implicit response to the claim of Arab genealogical superiority that uses the very methods of the Arab \"science of genealogy.\" To be sure, Franklin notes, Jews were only one of several non-Arab minority groups to take up genealogy in this way. At the broadest level, then, \u003ci\u003eThis Noble House\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates a strategy that various minority populations utilized as they sought legitimacy within the medieval Arab-Islamic world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Note on Transliteration, Names, and Dates\u003cbr\u003e Preface\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1.\"\u003ci\u003eShar\u0026amp;#299f\u003c\/i\u003e of the Jewish Nation\": Reconceptualizing the House of David in the Islamic East\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. \"The Truth of the Pedigree\": Documenting Origins and the Public Performance of Lineage\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Ancestry as Authority: Lineage and Power in Near Eastern Jewish Society\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. \"Designated in the Past and for the Future\": Davidic Dynasts and Medieval Messianic Anticipation\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. \"The \u003ci\u003eShar\u0026amp;#299f\u003c\/i\u003e of Every People Is Well-Born\": Genealogy and the Legitimization of Minority Culture\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e Appendix A. Halper 462: Transcription and Translation\u003cbr\u003e Appendix B. Tentative List of Davidic Dynasts Datable between ca. 950 and ca. 1450\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52555711480088,"sku":"9780812244090","price":50.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/this-noble-house-jewish-descendants-of-king-david-in-the-medieval-islamic-east-hardback-9780812244090","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}