Medieval Responsa Literature on Niddah: Perpetuations of Notions of Tumah
In Jewish religious practice, the menstruating woman is referred to as the niddah. Until the destruction of the First and Second Temples in 560 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., the niddah was restricted in two ways: she was barred from Temple worship and by extension kept apart from all foodstuffs and vessels that were used for Temple worship; and sexual intercourse with her was forbidden
On the Language of Conversion: Visigothic Spain Revisited
In fifth-century Spain, the Visigoth conquerors – Christians and Arians – had to live with the native Hispani, who were Roman by culture and law and Catholic by faith.
Fossils as Drugs: pharmaceutical palaeontology
The present paper surveys the medicinal applications of a number of fossils which were well known in classical, mediaeval and renaissance times….
Medieval Jewish manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan
Over 150 medieval Jewish documents have been discovered in Afghanistan. The works were found, purportedly by shepherds looking for sheep, in the mountains of Samangan province, which lies along the Silk Road trade route.
Wayward Women: Representations of Mobile Jewish Businesswomen in Medieval Northern Europe
This thesis focuses on representations of Jewish female economic travel, which were frequently depicted even though traditional Rabbinic Judaism dictated travel as a distinctly male activity.
Hanukkah in the Middle Ages
Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by Judah Maccabee and his followers after the Maccabean Revolt against Greek rule around 160 BC.
Greeks in Early Medieval Barcelona?
The aim of this article is to draw attention to a group of persenal names which occurs almost exclusively in the city of Barcelona in tilese decades around the year 1000, which may throw some additional llght on the range of externa1 cgntacts. The name in question is that of Greco.
Culture in the Time of Tolerance: Al-Andalus as a Model for Our Time
It existed in any number of different political configurations over nearly eight hundred years, and it was and has been called many names, all of them imprecise for different reasons: al-Andalus in Arabic, ha-Sefarad in Hebrew; the names of a half-dozen different cities when they were at its center; Castile at other moments.
Natural Qualifications of a Medieval Poet According to Moshe Ibn Ezra
The most important attainment of the Arabs, in Ibn Ezra’s opinion, is the distinction they achieved in the field of rhetoric.
Traditional healing with animals (zootherapy): medieval to present-day Levantine practice
Since ancient times animals and products derived from different organs of their bodies have constituted part of the inventory of medicinal substances used in various cultures; such uses still exist in ethnic folk medicine.
The Order of Lighting the Hanukkah Candles: The Evolution of a Custom and the Influence of the Publication of the Shulhan Arukh
Nevertheless most Jews are unaware that the ritual of the lighting and more precisely the order in which Hanukkah candles are lit, underwent an evolution over many centuries and that the order which has been adopted by the overwhelming majority of Jewish people was initially a marginal rite originating in France.
Magical Letters, Mystical Planets: Magic, Theosophy, and Astrology in the Sefer Yetsirah and two of its Tenth-century Commentaries
Examines the effective power of symbols, and of the Hebrew letterform specifically, and theosophy, the belief that the created world can be used to learn about the divine.
Miracle or Magic? The Problematic Status of Christian Amulet
The Church Fathers and intellectuals made the distinction between the miracle of the relics and sacred words of the Bible, verba sacra….
Flesh of My Flesh – Greek Patristic Exegeses of the Creation of Eve
How do the Greek Fathers deal with these two sometimes conflicting descriptions of creation? Some, most notably John Chrysostom, treat it at length.
The development of education for deaf people
Some aspects of the history of blind education, deaf education, and deaf-blind education with emphasis on the time before 1900.
Khazaria: A Forgotten Jewish Empire
Nicholas Soteri reflects on the early religious controversies of Eastern Europe, focusing in particular on an often overlooked kingdom, the Khazar.
Colophoned Hebrew Manuscripts Produced in Spain and the Distributionof the Localised Codices
The mobility of individual Jews, by cholee or by economic necessity, and of entire
communities by forcé, made them agents of cross-cultural contacts and influences
The Exceptional Jewess and the Foolish Jew
In 1555, Pietro Fortini, a Sienese real estate investor, vicar, and paper industry entrepreneur began composing his two-part collection of novellas…
A Ready Hatred: Depictions of the Jewish Woman in Medieval Antisemitic Art and Caricature
The medieval mind was not entirely comfortable with the notion of Jesus’ circumcision. On the one hand, it was a well-known fact of his early childhood, and was celebrated as a holiday in the religious calendar.
Maimonides: an early but accurate view on the treatment of haemorrhoids
Moses Maimonides was not only one of the most influential religious figures of the middle ages, but also a pioneer in a wide variety of medical practices.
Deplatonising the Celestial Hierarchy. Peter John Olivi’s interpretation of the Pseudo-Dionysius
These two different pedigrees could not be easily reconciled. The encounter of biblical and Neoplatonic angels produced one of the most crucial questions that theologians had to face in the second half of the thirteenth century…
Research on Byzantine Jewry: the state of the question
Research on Byzantine Jewry: the state of the question By Nicholas de Lange Jewish Studies at the Central European University IV, 2003–2005, eds.…
Richard I and the Jewish “Servi Camarae” as a Funding Source for the Third Crusade
Richard I and the Jewish “Servi Camarae” as a Funding Source for the Third Crusade By Dana Cushing Published Online (2011) Introduction: This…
Neighbors, Partners, Enemies: Jews and the Monasteries of Germany in the High Middle Ages
German-speaking lands in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were home to the largest Jewish communities north of the Alps and Pyrenees and thus constituted key locations for Christian-Jewish interaction.
The Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Religion of Intent: Interiority and the Emergence of Selfhood Across Religious Boundaries
The Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Religion of Intent: Interiority and the Emergence of SelfhoodAcross Religious Boundaries Elliot, Serena M.A. Thesis (History), North Carolina State…