Byzantine Jewry in the Mediterranean Economy - Hardcover

Holo, Joshua

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521856337 ISBN 13: 9780521856331

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Using primary sources, Joshua Holo uncovers the day-to-day workings of the Byzantine-Jewish economy in the middle Byzantine period. Built on a web of exchange systems both exclusive to the Jewish community and integrated in society at large, this economy forces a revision of Jewish history in the region. Paradoxically, the two distinct economic orientations, inward and outward, simultaneously advanced both the integration of the Jews into the larger Byzantine economy and their segregation as a self-contained body economic. Dr Holo finds that the Jews routinely leveraged their internal, even exclusive, systems of law and culture to break into - occasionally to dominate - Byzantine markets. In doing so, they challenge our concept of Diaspora life as a balance between the two competing impulses of integration and segregation. The success of this enterprise, furthermore, qualifies the prevailing claim of Jewish economic decline during the Commercial Revolution.

About this title

Book Description:

Joshua Holo's Byzantine-Jewish economic history challenges two prevailing historical claims. Byzantine Jews, leveraging exclusive trade structures to advance their integration into Byzantine markets, belie the assumption of segregation and integration as competing forces. Moreover, this mercantile success also contradicts the claim of Jewish economic decline during the Commercial Revolution.

About the Author:

Joshua Holo is Associate Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0521856337
• ISBN 13: 9780521856331
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 298