Seminar Two: The Great Westwards Shift
Prof. David J. Wasserstein (Vanderbilt University, U.S.A)
Date: 16 May 2012Time: 1:00 PM
Finishes: 16 May 2012Time: 3:00 PM
Venue: Russell Square: College BuildingsRoom: L67
Type of Event: Seminar
An audio file of the seminar is available here:
Seminar Two: The Great Westwards Shift
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Before Islam, the major centre of Jewish life was in Iraq, with a secondary centre in the Holy Land. Following the conquests, the Islamic political center soon moved eastwards, to Iraq, but the centre of Jewish life shifted in the opposite direction, to the Mediterranean world, and to the far west. What did this shift mean for the Jewry of Iran, as well as those of the Arab world and especially of Iberia? Why did the period from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries onwards see an eclipse of Jewish florescence?
