Judaism, Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt addresses the extraordinary rise and inner life of the Egyptian pietist movement in the first half of the thirteenth century. The creative engagement with the dominant Islamic culture was always present, even when unspoken. Dr Russ-Fishbane calls attention to the Sufi subtext of Jewish pietiem, while striving t to reduce its spiritual synthesis and religious renewal to a set of political calculations. Ultimately, single term or concept can fully address the creative expression of pietism that so animated Jewish society and that left its mark in numerous manuscripts and fragments from medieval Egypt. Russ-Fishbane offers a nuanced examination of the pietist sources on their own terms, drawing as far as possible upon their own definitions and perceptions. Jewish society in thirteenth-century Egypt reflects the dynamic reexamination by a venerable community of its foundational texts and traditions, even of its very identity and institutions, viewed and reviewed in the full light of its Islamic environment. The historical legacy of this religious synthesis belongs at once to the realm of Jewish culture, in all its diversity and dynamism, as well as to the broader spiritual orbit of Islamicate civilization.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10
019872876x
ISBN-13
9780198728764
eBay Product ID (ePID)
214479967
Dimensions
Weight
584g
Height
236mm
Width
172mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Oxford
Spine
22mm
Series Title
Oxford Studies in Abrahamic Religions
Author Biography
Elisha Russ-Fishbane Is Assistant Professor of Religion AT Wesleyan University.
