Monthly Archives: November 2025

Convivencia in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily – the Example of Palermo

by Theresa Bachhuber, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

(English/Deutsch/Italiano)

In the twelfth century, the Kingdom of Sicily encompassed the island, parts of southern mainland Italy, and at times territories in North Africa, creating substantial regional diversity. Focusing on Palermo—as the political capital, a centre of intercommunal coexistence, and the best-documented urban site—my project aims to understand transcultural dynamics within the kingdom of Sicily.

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CfP for a Special Issue in the journal ‘Religions’ on “Polemics and Conversion: Setting and Crossing Boundaries in Medieval Jewish-Christian Relations”

PD Dr Eveline Brugger (Institute for Jewish History in Austria) will edit a special issue entitled “Polemics and Conversion: Setting and Crossing Boundaries in Medieval Jewish–Christian Relations” for the journal Religion. The issue invites contributions examining the significance of polemics, conversion, or their interplay in shaping medieval Jewish–Christian relations from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.”

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 28.02.2026

Deadline for Manuscript Submissions: 15 November 2026

Continue reading CfP for a Special Issue in the journal ‘Religions’ on “Polemics and Conversion: Setting and Crossing Boundaries in Medieval Jewish-Christian Relations”

Talk: »Integrieren, kontrollieren und betrügen? Die Funktionsträgerinnen und Funktionsträger der arbeitenden Armen im Reich des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts«

1 December 2025

Within the Colloquium “Arbeitskreis für Jüdische Geschichte des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit,” Julia Exarchos (Aachen) will speak about »Integrieren, kontrollieren und betrügen? Die Funktionsträgerinnen und Funktionsträger der arbeitenden Armen im Reich des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts« at Trier University, 18:15 CET. For a Zoom link, please register with cluse@uni-trier.de or muellerj@uni-trier.de.

Research Spotlight: Albert Evan Kohn, review of Judah D. Galinsky, The Making of a Medieval Bestseller: Rabbi Isaac of Corbeil’s Pillars of Exile and Its Readers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025)

Building on a string of focused studies, Judah Galinsky has published the definitive assessment of ’Amudei Golah (Pillars of Exile), aptly designated “a medieval bestseller.” Isaac of Corbeil (d. 1280) authored the work in c. 1276-7 while teaching largely in Corbeil, the center of Talmudic study in later thirteenth-century northern France. While respected for his learning and the son-in-law of the famed Rabbi Yehiel of Paris, Isaac was not himself a leading rabbinic authority of his generation. Nevertheless, he produced what became one of the most popular Hebrew works of the Middle Ages. Over 200 manuscripts of ’Amudei Golah —better known today as Sefer Mitzvot Katan—survive from the Middle Ages, most of which were glossed by either Peretz of Corbeil (d. c. 1295) or Moses of Zurich (14th cent.). This is an astounding number, comparable only to that of Rashi’s famed commentary on the Pentateuch. Galinsky highlights how Isaac structured ’Amudei Golah according to his specific educational outlook and with deep awareness for the needs of his generation. This intentionality successfully transformed the work into a classic during the Middle Ages and beyond.  

Continue reading Research Spotlight: Albert Evan Kohn, review of Judah D. Galinsky, The Making of a Medieval Bestseller: Rabbi Isaac of Corbeil’s Pillars of Exile and Its Readers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025)

Two Jobs and one Post-Doc Fellowship in Jewish Studies at the University of Vienna

The University of Vienna has opened up two jobs for professorships – a Professor of Jewish Studies with a Focus on Persecution History and Antisemitism Studies as well as a Tenure Track Professorship in Jewish literary, cultural, and religious history (from 1040)– and one post-doc fellowship you can now apply for.

New book (available for pre-order) — Craig Perry, Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt: A History

Princeton University Press, January 2026.

From the publisher: “In this book, Craig Perry mines a remarkable cache of fragmentary documents preserved in an Egyptian synagogue to write a new history of slavery and the slave trade in the medieval Middle East. These documents—which range from the everyday correspondence of traveling merchants to legal queries sent to Jewish jurists—provide the richest surviving archive for the social history of slavery during the centuries when Cairo was an imperial and commercial capital at the intersection of the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds. Perry draws on this archive, known as the Cairo Geniza, to shed new light on such crucial topics as the slave trade in state diplomacy, the entanglements of gender and household slavery, and the lives of the enslaved.”