About the Author

Shelomo Dov Goitein (1900 - 1985) was born in the village Burgkundstadt in southern Germany. He attended the universities of Frankfurt and Berlin, where he studied Islamic history under Joseph Horovitz; obtaining his doctoral degree in 1923. In 1928, he was appointed Professor of Islamic History and Islamic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he founded the School of Asian and African studies and the Israel Oriental Society. In 1938-1948, he served as Senior Education Officer in Mandatory Palestine. From 1948, he began his life's work, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. Goitein moved to the United States in 1957 and continued his work at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Goitein was awarded honorary degrees from many universities.