Abstract
Hassan Najmi´s novel Gīrtrūd represents an example of the postmodern novel with its tra... more Abstract Hassan Najmi´s novel Gīrtrūd represents an example of the postmodern novel with its transtextual characters expressed fictionally. Hassan Najmi transforms the one-dimensional flat character, Mohammed, in Gertrude Stein´s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas into a three-dimensional dynamic character. In Gīrtrūd, the narrator Hassan becomes Mohammed´s voice – the very incarnation of Mohammed. They become each other´s double, fiction, reality, and mask of alterity. Through a kind of narrative game, the narrative voice – local form – reads, interprets and overwrites Western material/texts. As a postmodern novel, Hassan Najmi´s Gīrtrūd, narrates the story of Moroccan fiction in its complex relation to Western literature.
This article deals with Abraham Serfaty´s contribution to postcolonial studies in his early theor... more This article deals with Abraham Serfaty´s contribution to postcolonial studies in his early theoretical essays on Zionism, Arab nationalism and Arab/Moroccan Judaism. As a prominent intellectual and political theorist and activist, Serfaty´s double critique of both Zionism and Arab nationalism shows how both ideologies concur in denying the Arab Jew subject any kind of agency.
09.20-09.50 KEYNOTE
MOROCCAN FAMILY LAW: TRADITION,
MODERNITY AND HYBRIDITY
Joshua A. Sabih, dr.t... more 09.20-09.50 KEYNOTE MOROCCAN FAMILY LAW: TRADITION, MODERNITY AND HYBRIDITY Joshua A. Sabih, dr.theol/dr.phil, Professor in Arabic, Hebrew, Jewish & Islamic Studies, Copenhagen University Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
09.50-10.20 KEYNOTE BETWEEN JEWISH AND ISLAMIC LAW: INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS, FAMILY LAW, AND GENDER IN THE MOROCCAN LEGAL SYSTEM Jessica Maya Marglin, PhD, Professor of Religion, University of Southern California Jews have lived in Morocco for nearly two thousand years. Under Islamic rule, they were considered dhimmis, i. e. non-Muslim monotheists who accepted a second-class status and recognized the superiority of Islam. In exchange, Jews were granted a significant degree of autonomy - including the right to administer their own legal system. Jewish courts in Morocco - and indeed across the Islamic world - were vibrant institutions that handled the majority of intra- Jewish legal affairs. Jewish courts were especially important for matters of family law, especially divorce, marriage, and inheritance. Morocco’s legal system was highly pluralistic, accommodating the co-existence of Jewish and Islamic judicial institutions.
Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, an... more Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, an... more Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
Japheth ben Ali's Book of Jeremiah: A Critical Edition and Linguistic Analysis of the Judaeo-Arab... more Japheth ben Ali's Book of Jeremiah: A Critical Edition and Linguistic Analysis of the Judaeo-Arabic Translation his volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Arabic Bible translation. Within Medieval Judaism, the Karaite Jews became a prosperous community under the banners of Islam. One of the most salient signs of the Karaite community's strength and internal cohesion was the extensive scientific contribution that it made to the fields of Biblical studies, Hebrew philology and philosophy. This book presents for the first time a critical edition of one of the works of the leading Karaite scholars in biblical exegeses and translation, Japheth ben Ali's Judaeo-Arabic translation of the "Book of Jeremiah", drawing on five medieval manuscripts. As the majority of Karaite works, including Bible manuscripts, are in Judaeo-Arabic, relatively few of them have been published. A number of the Karaite Bible manuscripts were written in Arabic script, resulting in their being neglected by scholars, despite the significance of these manuscripts to the history of medieval Judaism and Bible textual Studies. The author of this volume focuses on some of the most important issues in the field of sociolinguistics, namely language-contact, diglossia and the status of both Arabic and Hebrew in the medieval Jewish literary system. Equally important is the issue of the script-in-use (Hebrew or Arabic), which was a major subject of debate among the Rabbinates and the Karaites. Indeed, the language and the script used in these manuscripts will help us re-evaluate the established theories about the language-situation and literary systems in medieval Islamic and Jewish societies. The value of translating the Hebrew Bible into Arabic was unparalleled in medieval inter-religious scholarship. For Muslim scholars it was their only access to the Jewish Bible. The contribution of the Karaites to this field is enormous, and this work offers us a unique window into the Karaite theory of Biblical hermeneutics.
Reviews
"The work's importance for the field of biblical studies goes considerably beyond the very solid benefits from this critical edition of Jeremiah. It adds much to the history of the Bible's reception in an area which has been much neglected in biblical studies." - Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
Abstract
Hassan Najmi´s novel Gīrtrūd represents an example of the postmodern novel with its tra... more Abstract Hassan Najmi´s novel Gīrtrūd represents an example of the postmodern novel with its transtextual characters expressed fictionally. Hassan Najmi transforms the one-dimensional flat character, Mohammed, in Gertrude Stein´s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas into a three-dimensional dynamic character. In Gīrtrūd, the narrator Hassan becomes Mohammed´s voice – the very incarnation of Mohammed. They become each other´s double, fiction, reality, and mask of alterity. Through a kind of narrative game, the narrative voice – local form – reads, interprets and overwrites Western material/texts. As a postmodern novel, Hassan Najmi´s Gīrtrūd, narrates the story of Moroccan fiction in its complex relation to Western literature.
This article deals with Abraham Serfaty´s contribution to postcolonial studies in his early theor... more This article deals with Abraham Serfaty´s contribution to postcolonial studies in his early theoretical essays on Zionism, Arab nationalism and Arab/Moroccan Judaism. As a prominent intellectual and political theorist and activist, Serfaty´s double critique of both Zionism and Arab nationalism shows how both ideologies concur in denying the Arab Jew subject any kind of agency.
09.20-09.50 KEYNOTE
MOROCCAN FAMILY LAW: TRADITION,
MODERNITY AND HYBRIDITY
Joshua A. Sabih, dr.t... more 09.20-09.50 KEYNOTE MOROCCAN FAMILY LAW: TRADITION, MODERNITY AND HYBRIDITY Joshua A. Sabih, dr.theol/dr.phil, Professor in Arabic, Hebrew, Jewish & Islamic Studies, Copenhagen University Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
09.50-10.20 KEYNOTE BETWEEN JEWISH AND ISLAMIC LAW: INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS, FAMILY LAW, AND GENDER IN THE MOROCCAN LEGAL SYSTEM Jessica Maya Marglin, PhD, Professor of Religion, University of Southern California Jews have lived in Morocco for nearly two thousand years. Under Islamic rule, they were considered dhimmis, i. e. non-Muslim monotheists who accepted a second-class status and recognized the superiority of Islam. In exchange, Jews were granted a significant degree of autonomy - including the right to administer their own legal system. Jewish courts in Morocco - and indeed across the Islamic world - were vibrant institutions that handled the majority of intra- Jewish legal affairs. Jewish courts were especially important for matters of family law, especially divorce, marriage, and inheritance. Morocco’s legal system was highly pluralistic, accommodating the co-existence of Jewish and Islamic judicial institutions.
Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, an... more Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, an... more Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
Japheth ben Ali's Book of Jeremiah: A Critical Edition and Linguistic Analysis of the Judaeo-Arab... more Japheth ben Ali's Book of Jeremiah: A Critical Edition and Linguistic Analysis of the Judaeo-Arabic Translation his volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Arabic Bible translation. Within Medieval Judaism, the Karaite Jews became a prosperous community under the banners of Islam. One of the most salient signs of the Karaite community's strength and internal cohesion was the extensive scientific contribution that it made to the fields of Biblical studies, Hebrew philology and philosophy. This book presents for the first time a critical edition of one of the works of the leading Karaite scholars in biblical exegeses and translation, Japheth ben Ali's Judaeo-Arabic translation of the "Book of Jeremiah", drawing on five medieval manuscripts. As the majority of Karaite works, including Bible manuscripts, are in Judaeo-Arabic, relatively few of them have been published. A number of the Karaite Bible manuscripts were written in Arabic script, resulting in their being neglected by scholars, despite the significance of these manuscripts to the history of medieval Judaism and Bible textual Studies. The author of this volume focuses on some of the most important issues in the field of sociolinguistics, namely language-contact, diglossia and the status of both Arabic and Hebrew in the medieval Jewish literary system. Equally important is the issue of the script-in-use (Hebrew or Arabic), which was a major subject of debate among the Rabbinates and the Karaites. Indeed, the language and the script used in these manuscripts will help us re-evaluate the established theories about the language-situation and literary systems in medieval Islamic and Jewish societies. The value of translating the Hebrew Bible into Arabic was unparalleled in medieval inter-religious scholarship. For Muslim scholars it was their only access to the Jewish Bible. The contribution of the Karaites to this field is enormous, and this work offers us a unique window into the Karaite theory of Biblical hermeneutics.
Reviews
"The work's importance for the field of biblical studies goes considerably beyond the very solid benefits from this critical edition of Jeremiah. It adds much to the history of the Bible's reception in an area which has been much neglected in biblical studies." - Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
his volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Ara... more his volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Arabic Bible translation. Within Medieval Judaism, the Karaite Jews became a prosperous community under the banners of Islam. One of the most salient signs of the Karaite community's strength and internal cohesion was the extensive scientific contribution that it made to the fields of Biblical studies, Hebrew philology and philosophy. This book presents for the first time a critical edition of one of the works of the leading Karaite scholars in biblical exegeses and translation, Japheth ben Ali's Judaeo-Arabic translation of the "Book of Jeremiah", drawing on five medieval manuscripts. As the majority of Karaite works, including Bible manuscripts, are in Judaeo-Arabic, relatively few of them have been published. A number of the Karaite Bible manuscripts were written in Arabic script, resulting in their being neglected by scholars, despite the significance of these manuscripts to the history of medieval Judaism and Bible textual Studies. The author of this volume focuses on some of the most important issues in the field of sociolinguistics, namely language-contact, diglossia and the status of both Arabic and Hebrew in the medieval Jewish literary system. Equally important is the issue of the script-in-use (Hebrew or Arabic), which was a major subject of debate among the Rabbinates and the Karaites. Indeed, the language and the script used in these manuscripts will help us re-evaluate the established theories about the language-situation and literary systems in medieval Islamic and Jewish societies. The value of translating the Hebrew Bible into Arabic was unparalleled in medieval inter-religious scholarship. For Muslim scholars it was their only access to the Jewish Bible. The contribution of the Karaites to this field is enormous, and this work offers us a unique window into the Karaite theory of Biblical hermeneutics.
Den arabiske tænknings 1600 år historie er mangfoldig, både hvad angår udvikling on inspirationsk... more Den arabiske tænknings 1600 år historie er mangfoldig, både hvad angår udvikling on inspirationskilder. Den er en historie om debatter, kontroverser og dissidente strømninger, hvor tradition og innovation konfronterer, erstatter og omgås hinanden, og hvor religiøse doktriner, filosofiske systemer, videnskabelige teorier, og politiske ideologier sammenflettes.
In the field of Bible translation, modern translations of the Bible into Arabic have not received... more In the field of Bible translation, modern translations of the Bible into Arabic have not received the scholarly attention it deserves. The attention that Pre-modern translations of of the Bible into Arabic and its various language varieties that have been produced by Arabic speaking Jews and Christians can be seen in the high number of scholarly contributions. It is undeniable that these translations had a huge impact on medieval Arab-Islamic culture, its lingual, literary and religious landscapes.
This paper shall re-vist the issue of Todorov's typologi of roman policier as a kind of genre tha... more This paper shall re-vist the issue of Todorov's typologi of roman policier as a kind of genre that contains within it many other genres " espèces ". I shall in this regard demonstrate how
Abstract
Modern Moroccan literature is without a doubt an excellent example of a transnational li... more Abstract Modern Moroccan literature is without a doubt an excellent example of a transnational literature due to at least the simple fact that post-independence literary tradition is inscribed within the intersection of Arabic and French – if Western – lingual and literary traditions. Moroccan writers, resident in Morocco or abroad – a member of what we today call “Moroccans of the world” - write not only in Arabic, but also in other European languages. Despite the fact that Moroccan Jews constitute a community to reckon with in Israel and in the diaspora, a very few Moroccan writers have been translated into Hebrew. This paper will investigate the issue of reception of two prominent Moroccan/transnational writers: Taher Ben Jelloun´s translated novels and Mohamed Choukri´s novel Bread alone and the issue of identity politics vis-à-vis the Moroccan “national” minority in Israel, and Arab-Israeli relations. In addition to the growing number of Moroccan authors writing in ex-colonial power’s language, French for instance, a new generation of immigrant writers are beginning to shift into writing in Dutch, English, Italian or Spanish. There is however one particular group of Moroccan Jewish authors in Israel either continue writing in French , shifted completely into writing in Hebrew, or in both. Due to the increasing influence of this Moroccan-Israeli writers in the cultural and literary Israeli landscape, the issue of the Moroccan Jewish identity has in recent years contributed to a change with regard to the perception of Moroccan literary works, their selection for translation, and readers’ expectations.
The reading list for a discursive workshop on the definitions, conceptualisations and uses of the... more The reading list for a discursive workshop on the definitions, conceptualisations and uses of the term Arab Jews, held at the University of Edinburgh's department of Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, 1sr-2nd July 2016
Uploads
Hassan Najmi´s novel Gīrtrūd represents an example of the postmodern novel with its transtextual characters expressed fictionally. Hassan Najmi transforms the one-dimensional flat character, Mohammed, in Gertrude Stein´s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas into a three-dimensional dynamic character. In Gīrtrūd, the narrator Hassan becomes Mohammed´s voice – the very incarnation of Mohammed. They become each other´s double, fiction, reality, and mask of alterity. Through a kind of narrative game, the narrative voice – local form – reads, interprets and overwrites Western material/texts. As a postmodern novel, Hassan Najmi´s Gīrtrūd, narrates the story of Moroccan fiction in its complex relation to Western literature.
MOROCCAN FAMILY LAW: TRADITION,
MODERNITY AND HYBRIDITY
Joshua A. Sabih, dr.theol/dr.phil, Professor in Arabic,
Hebrew, Jewish & Islamic Studies, Copenhagen University
Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual
at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into
its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to
reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the
Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according
to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional
character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and
another for Muslims.
09.50-10.20 KEYNOTE
BETWEEN JEWISH AND ISLAMIC LAW:
INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS, FAMILY LAW,
AND GENDER IN THE MOROCCAN LEGAL SYSTEM
Jessica Maya Marglin, PhD, Professor of Religion,
University of Southern California
Jews have lived in Morocco for nearly two thousand
years. Under Islamic rule, they were considered dhimmis,
i. e. non-Muslim monotheists who accepted a second-class
status and recognized the superiority of Islam. In exchange,
Jews were granted a significant degree of autonomy - including
the right to administer their own legal system. Jewish
courts in Morocco - and indeed across the Islamic world
- were vibrant institutions that handled the majority of intra-
Jewish legal affairs. Jewish courts were especially important
for matters of family law, especially divorce, marriage,
and inheritance. Morocco’s legal system was highly
pluralistic, accommodating the co-existence of Jewish and
Islamic judicial institutions.
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual
at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into
its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to
reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the
Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according
to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional
character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and
another for Muslims.
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual
at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into
its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to
reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the
Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according
to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional
character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and
another for Muslims.
his volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Arabic Bible translation. Within Medieval Judaism, the Karaite Jews became a prosperous community under the banners of Islam. One of the most salient signs of the Karaite community's strength and internal cohesion was the extensive scientific contribution that it made to the fields of Biblical studies, Hebrew philology and philosophy. This book presents for the first time a critical edition of one of the works of the leading Karaite scholars in biblical exegeses and translation, Japheth ben Ali's Judaeo-Arabic translation of the "Book of Jeremiah", drawing on five medieval manuscripts. As the majority of Karaite works, including Bible manuscripts, are in Judaeo-Arabic, relatively few of them have been published. A number of the Karaite Bible manuscripts were written in Arabic script, resulting in their being neglected by scholars, despite the significance of these manuscripts to the history of medieval Judaism and Bible textual Studies. The author of this volume focuses on some of the most important issues in the field of sociolinguistics, namely language-contact, diglossia and the status of both Arabic and Hebrew in the medieval Jewish literary system. Equally important is the issue of the script-in-use (Hebrew or Arabic), which was a major subject of debate among the Rabbinates and the Karaites. Indeed, the language and the script used in these manuscripts will help us re-evaluate the established theories about the language-situation and literary systems in medieval Islamic and Jewish societies. The value of translating the Hebrew Bible into Arabic was unparalleled in medieval inter-religious scholarship. For Muslim scholars it was their only access to the Jewish Bible. The contribution of the Karaites to this field is enormous, and this work offers us a unique window into the Karaite theory of Biblical hermeneutics.
Reviews
"The work's importance for the field of biblical studies goes considerably beyond the very solid benefits from this critical edition of Jeremiah. It adds much to the history of the Bible's reception in an area which has been much neglected in biblical studies." - Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
Hassan Najmi´s novel Gīrtrūd represents an example of the postmodern novel with its transtextual characters expressed fictionally. Hassan Najmi transforms the one-dimensional flat character, Mohammed, in Gertrude Stein´s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas into a three-dimensional dynamic character. In Gīrtrūd, the narrator Hassan becomes Mohammed´s voice – the very incarnation of Mohammed. They become each other´s double, fiction, reality, and mask of alterity. Through a kind of narrative game, the narrative voice – local form – reads, interprets and overwrites Western material/texts. As a postmodern novel, Hassan Najmi´s Gīrtrūd, narrates the story of Moroccan fiction in its complex relation to Western literature.
MOROCCAN FAMILY LAW: TRADITION,
MODERNITY AND HYBRIDITY
Joshua A. Sabih, dr.theol/dr.phil, Professor in Arabic,
Hebrew, Jewish & Islamic Studies, Copenhagen University
Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual
at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into
its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to
reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the
Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according
to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional
character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and
another for Muslims.
09.50-10.20 KEYNOTE
BETWEEN JEWISH AND ISLAMIC LAW:
INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS, FAMILY LAW,
AND GENDER IN THE MOROCCAN LEGAL SYSTEM
Jessica Maya Marglin, PhD, Professor of Religion,
University of Southern California
Jews have lived in Morocco for nearly two thousand
years. Under Islamic rule, they were considered dhimmis,
i. e. non-Muslim monotheists who accepted a second-class
status and recognized the superiority of Islam. In exchange,
Jews were granted a significant degree of autonomy - including
the right to administer their own legal system. Jewish
courts in Morocco - and indeed across the Islamic world
- were vibrant institutions that handled the majority of intra-
Jewish legal affairs. Jewish courts were especially important
for matters of family law, especially divorce, marriage,
and inheritance. Morocco’s legal system was highly
pluralistic, accommodating the co-existence of Jewish and
Islamic judicial institutions.
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual
at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into
its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to
reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the
Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according
to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional
character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and
another for Muslims.
hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual
at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into
its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to
reconcile tradition and modernity. As a reformist project, the
Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according
to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional
character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and
another for Muslims.
his volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Arabic Bible translation. Within Medieval Judaism, the Karaite Jews became a prosperous community under the banners of Islam. One of the most salient signs of the Karaite community's strength and internal cohesion was the extensive scientific contribution that it made to the fields of Biblical studies, Hebrew philology and philosophy. This book presents for the first time a critical edition of one of the works of the leading Karaite scholars in biblical exegeses and translation, Japheth ben Ali's Judaeo-Arabic translation of the "Book of Jeremiah", drawing on five medieval manuscripts. As the majority of Karaite works, including Bible manuscripts, are in Judaeo-Arabic, relatively few of them have been published. A number of the Karaite Bible manuscripts were written in Arabic script, resulting in their being neglected by scholars, despite the significance of these manuscripts to the history of medieval Judaism and Bible textual Studies. The author of this volume focuses on some of the most important issues in the field of sociolinguistics, namely language-contact, diglossia and the status of both Arabic and Hebrew in the medieval Jewish literary system. Equally important is the issue of the script-in-use (Hebrew or Arabic), which was a major subject of debate among the Rabbinates and the Karaites. Indeed, the language and the script used in these manuscripts will help us re-evaluate the established theories about the language-situation and literary systems in medieval Islamic and Jewish societies. The value of translating the Hebrew Bible into Arabic was unparalleled in medieval inter-religious scholarship. For Muslim scholars it was their only access to the Jewish Bible. The contribution of the Karaites to this field is enormous, and this work offers us a unique window into the Karaite theory of Biblical hermeneutics.
Reviews
"The work's importance for the field of biblical studies goes considerably beyond the very solid benefits from this critical edition of Jeremiah. It adds much to the history of the Bible's reception in an area which has been much neglected in biblical studies." - Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
Modern Moroccan literature is without a doubt an excellent example of a transnational literature due to at least the simple fact that post-independence literary tradition is inscribed within the intersection of Arabic and French – if Western – lingual and literary traditions. Moroccan writers, resident in Morocco or abroad – a member of what we today call “Moroccans of the world” - write not only in Arabic, but also in other European languages. Despite the fact that Moroccan Jews constitute a community to reckon with in Israel and in the diaspora, a very few Moroccan writers have been translated into Hebrew. This paper will investigate the issue of reception of two prominent Moroccan/transnational writers: Taher Ben Jelloun´s translated novels and Mohamed Choukri´s novel Bread alone and the issue of identity politics vis-à-vis the Moroccan “national” minority in Israel, and Arab-Israeli relations.
In addition to the growing number of Moroccan authors writing in ex-colonial power’s language, French for instance, a new generation of immigrant writers are beginning to shift into writing in Dutch, English, Italian or Spanish. There is however one particular group of Moroccan Jewish authors in Israel either continue writing in French , shifted completely into writing in Hebrew, or in both. Due to the increasing influence of this Moroccan-Israeli writers in the cultural and literary Israeli landscape, the issue of the Moroccan Jewish identity has in recent years contributed to a change with regard to the perception of Moroccan literary works, their selection for translation, and readers’ expectations.