Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:11:45.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Jewish-Muslim Religious Rivalry in Tripolitania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Harvey E. Goldberg
Affiliation:
Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Extract

There have been various anthropological conceptions concerning cultural minorities in the traditional Middle East. One model, the cultural mosaic (Coon 1958), stresses the cultural and religious autonomy of groups in contrast to their interdependence in the marketplace. Another view emphasizes the dominance of Islamic culture which clearly leaves its imprint on the culturally variant groups in its midst (Patai 1971). Both of these viewpoints are useful as starting points, but both oversimplify and overstate the case. The first implies extreme, and hence implausible, separation between the world of work and the rest of social life. The second views the processes of cultural influence in too mechanical a fashion, leaving little room for the dynamics of interaction and reinterpretation of cultural forms in varying milieus. Recent work on Jews and Muslims in Morocco (Rosen 1972; Bowie 1976) has given a more refined picture of the complexities of social contact but has either merged the conceptual level with the interactional, or paid little explicit attention to the intricacies of cultural form. All these views, therefore, ignore the existence of a religious interface and an arena in which cultural forms recognised by both the majority and minority are the subject of “discussion” –agreement and disagreement, negotiation and compromise. We wish to illustrate this point by presenting and analyzing a text dealing with Muslims and Jews in Tripolitania. Our emphasis is on a cultural understanding of the text, not on presenting an example of Jewish-Muslim social interaction.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adadi, A. “Quntres Maqom Shenahagu.” In Vaviqra Avraham (Leghorn, 1865).Google Scholar
Baron, S. W.A Social and Religious History of the Jews, Vol. V. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957).Google Scholar
Bowie, , Leland, . “An Aspect of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Late Nineteenth-Century Morocco: A European Diplomatic View.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 7(1976):319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Ami, I. “La Qṣida chez les Juifs marocains.” In Scripta Hierosolymitana, Vol. XXII: Studies in Aggadah and Folk-literature. (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1971).Google Scholar
Cesàro, A.L'arabo Parlato a Tripoli. (Rome: Mondadori, 1939).Google Scholar
Cohen, D.Le Parler Arabe des Juifs de Tunis. (Paris: Mouton, 1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M.Gli Ebrei in Libia: Usi e Costumi. Tradotto e Annotato da M. M. Moreno, (Rome: n.d.).Google Scholar
Coon, C.Caravan: The Story of the Middle East. (New York: Holt, 1958).Google Scholar
Eisenberg, J.Isḥāḳ.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. II 1 (1927), pp. 532–33.Google Scholar
Goitein, S. D.Djum a.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. II (1965), pp. 592–94.Google Scholar
Goitein, S. D. “The concept of Mankind in Islam.” In Wagner, W. (ed.), History and the Idea of Mankind. (Albequerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971).Google Scholar
Goldberg, H.Patronymic Groups in a Tripolitanian Jewish Village: Reconstruction and Interpretation.” Jewish Journal of Sociology 9(1967), 209226.Google Scholar
Goldberg, H.Ecologic and Demographic aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853–1949.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 2(1971), 245265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, H.Cave Dwellers and Citrus Growers: A Jewish Community in Libya and Israel. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972a).Google Scholar
Goldberg, H.. “The Social Context of North African Jewish Patronyms.” Folklore Research Center Studies (Jerusalem) 3(1972b), 245258.Google Scholar
Goldberg, H.. “The Language and Culture of Tripolitanian Jewry.” Leshonenu (Jerusalem) 38(1974), 137147 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Goldberg, H.. “The Relations of the Jews of Tripolitania with their Neighbors.” Proceedings of the VIth World Congress of Jewish Studies II(1975), 123130.Google Scholar
Goldberg, H.. The Book of Mordechai: a Study of the Jews of Libya. Edited and translated with an introduction and commentaries by Goldberg, Harvey E.. (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1980).Google Scholar
Hertz, J.The Authorized Daily Prayer Book, Revised Edition. (New York: Bloch Publishing Co, 1948).Google Scholar
Hirschberg, H. Z. 1965. The History of the Jews of North Africa, Vol. II (Hebrew) (Jerusalem:Bialk, 1965).Google Scholar
Jason, H. “Types of Jewish-Oriental Oral Tales.” Fabula 7(1965), 115224.Google Scholar
Jason, H. Studies in Jewish Ethnopoetry. Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, Vol. 72 (Taipei, 1975).Google Scholar
Katz, J.Exclusiveness and Tolerance: Studies in Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval and Modern Times. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).Google Scholar
Kressel, G.Individuality and Tribalism: The Dynamics of an Israeli Bedouin Community in the Process of Urbanization. (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1975).Google Scholar
Levy, R.The Social Structure of Islam. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957).Google Scholar
Midrash, Rabbah, Freedman, H. and Simon, M. (eds.). (London: Soncino, 1951).Google Scholar
Milano, . Pionieri Italiani in Libia. Relazioni Dei Delegati della Società Italiana di Esplorazioni Geographiche e Commerciali di Milano, 1880–1896. (Milano: Francesco Vallardi, 1912).Google Scholar
Ohel, M.The circumcision ceremony among immigrants from Tripolitania in the Israeli village of Dalton.” Israel Annals of Psychiatry and Related Disciplines 11(1973), 6671.Google Scholar
Patai, R.Tents of Jacob: The Diaspora today and yesterday. (Englewood-Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1971).Google Scholar
Rosen, L.Muslim-Jewish Relations in a Moroccan City.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 4(1972), 435–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossi, E.Storia di Tripoli e dalla Tripolitania della conquista araba al 1911. (Rome: Istituto per l'Oriente, no. 60, 1968).Google Scholar
Slouschz, N.Travels in North Africa. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1927).Google Scholar
Vajda, G.Ahl al-Kitab.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. I (1960), pp. 264266.Google Scholar
von, Grunebaum G., Mohammedan Festivals. (New York: Henry Schuman, 1951).Google Scholar
Zafrani, H.Une qaṣṣa de Tingir: hymne à Bar Yoḥay.” Revue des Etudes Juives 127(1968), 366–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuaretz, F., Goweta, A., Shaked, Ts., Arbib, G., and Tayer, F., eds. Libyan Jewry. (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Committee of Libyan Jewish Communities in Israel, 1960).Google Scholar