Table of Contents

Maps
A Note on Translations and Transliterations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I. TRAVELS AND TRAVEL NARRATIVES
Chapter 1. Medieval Jewish Travelers and Their Writings
Chapter 2. Travel Motivations: Pilgrimage and Trade
Chapter 3. Levantine Journeys: Choices and Challenges
PART II. TERRITORY AND PLACE
Chapter 4. Facing a Gentile Land of Israel
Chapter 5. Medieval Mingling at Holy Tombs
Chapter 6. Marvels of Muslim Metropolises
PART III. ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER
Chapter 7. Ishmaelites and Edomites: Muslims and Christians
Chapter 8. Near Eastern Jews: Brothers or Strangers?
Chapter 9. Karaites, Samaritans, and Lost Tribes
Chapter 10. Assassins, Blacks, and Veiled Women
Conclusion
Chronology of Travelers and Works
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

The first comprehensive investigation of premodern Jewish travel writing about the Islamic world, Reorienting the East examines Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic travel accounts from the mid-twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries that subvert, or reorient a decidedly Christian vision of the region and reflect changing Jewish self-perceptions.

About the Author

Martin Jacobs is Associate Professor of Rabbinic Studies in the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Washington University in St. Louis.

Reviews

"An original, comprehensive, and clear account of medieval and early modern Jewish travel writing. Martin Jacobs discusses all known relevant Jewish writings from the period, giving the textual history of each and often comparing them to contemporary Christian and Muslim texts. Any reader of this book will come away not only with a clear picture of Jewish travel writing but also with a good introduction to the main concerns of contemporary scholarship on medieval and early modern travel writing more generally."
*Iain Macleod Higgins, University of Victoria*

"Impressive and unique. . . . A timely discussion of Jewish identity and reflections on self and 'other' in the premodern Islamic world. Jacobs clearly and cogently demonstrates the complexities of Jewish identity in the Mediterranean and the Islamic world."
*Josef Meri, Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge*