Books by Alan Verskin
Stanford University Press, 2023
In 1524, a man named David Reubeni appeared in Venice, claiming to be the ambassador of a powerfu... more In 1524, a man named David Reubeni appeared in Venice, claiming to be the ambassador of a powerful Jewish kingdom deep in the heart of Arabia. In this era of fierce rivalry between great powers, voyages of fantastic discovery, and brutal conquest of new lands, people throughout the Mediterranean saw the signs of an impending apocalypse and envisioned a coming war that would end with a decisive Christian or Islamic victory. With his army of hardy desert warriors from lost Israelite tribes, Reubeni pledged to deliver the Jews to the Holy Land by force and restore their pride and autonomy. He would spend a decade shuttling between European rulers in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France, seeking weaponry in exchange for the support of his hitherto unknown but mighty Jewish kingdom. Many, however, believed him to favor the relatively tolerant Ottomans over the persecutorial Christian regimes. Reubeni was hailed as a messiah by many wealthy Jews and Iberia's oppressed conversos, but his grand ambitions were halted in Regensburg when the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, turned him over to the Inquisition and, in 1538, he was likely burned at the stake.
Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah is the first English translation of Reubeni's Hebrew-language diary, detailing his travels and personal travails. Written in a Hebrew drawn from everyday speech, entirely unlike other literary works of the period, Reubeni's diary reveals both the dramatic desperation of Renaissance Jewish communities and the struggles of the diplomat, trickster, and dreamer who wanted to save them.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, January 2019
In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his... more In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Habshush wrote A Vision of Yemen, a memoir of their travels, that provides a vivid account of daily life, religion, and politics. More than a simple travelogue, it is a work of trickster-tales, thick anthropological descriptions, and reflections on Jewish–Muslim relations. At its heart lies the fractious and intimate relationship between the Yemeni coppersmith and the "enlightened" European scholar and the collision between the cultures each represents. The book thus offers a powerful indigenous response to European Orientalism.
This edition is the first English translation of Habshush's writings from the original Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew and includes an accessible historical introduction to the work. The translation maintains Habshush's gripping style and rich portrayal of the diverse communities and cultures of Yemen, offering a potent mixture of artful storytelling and cultural criticism, suffused with humor and empathy. Habshush writes about the daily lives of men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Muslim, during a turbulent period of war and both Ottoman and European imperialist encroachment. With this translation, Alan Verskin recovers the lost voice of a man passionately committed to his land and people.
The Reconquista left unprecedentedly large numbers of Muslims living under Christian rule. Since ... more The Reconquista left unprecedentedly large numbers of Muslims living under Christian rule. Since Islamic religious and legal institutions had been developed by scholars who lived under Muslim rule and who assumed this condition as a given, how Muslims should proceed in the absence of such rule became the subject of extensive intellectual investigation. In Islamic Law and the Crisis of the Reconquista, Alan Verskin examines the way in which the Iberian school of Mālikī law developed in response to the political, theological, and practical difficulties posed by the Reconquista. He shows how religious concepts, even those very central to the Islamic religious experience, could be rethought and reinterpreted in order to respond to the changing needs of Muslims. Includes a complete annotated translation of al-Wansharisi's Asna al-Matajir and his Marbella fatwa.
How have Muslims, past and present, thought about the experience of living under non-Muslim rule?... more How have Muslims, past and present, thought about the experience of living under non-Muslim rule? Does being a minority religion change the way Islam is practiced? What sort of religious freedoms have Muslims defined as being important? Can there be an authentic Islam where the Shariʿa cannot be enforced?
This anthology of fatwas showcases diverse reflections by major Muslim thinkers on the political, social, and theological ramifications of living in places with non-Muslim governments. These documents, which span the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries, reflect on the experiences of Muslim communities in such places as medieval Christian Spain, India, French Africa, Europe, the United States, and Israel/Palestine.
Providing newly translated fatwas together with informative introductions and explanatory notes, this book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Islamic law, interreligious encounters, colonialism, comparative world history, and the Muslim experience of minorityhood.
Papers by Alan Verskin
Journal of Jewish Identities, 2021
Obadiah was a philosophically-inclined convert to Judaism from Islam who wrote to Maimonides with... more Obadiah was a philosophically-inclined convert to Judaism from Islam who wrote to Maimonides with a sensitive set of questions that embraced Jewish identity, theology, comparative religion, and social and religious practice. Maimonides dealt with many of these issues at greater length and more systematically in other works, but his responsum to Obadiah offers important information about how he implemented these ideas in practice. By situating the responsum to Obadiah within the broader context of Maimonides’ thought in general and his writings on conversion to Judaism in particular, I show how he shaped the law to meet both Obadiah’s personal needs and the social needs of converts to Judaism more generally.
Alan Verskin, “Medieval Jewish Perspectives on Almohad Persecutions: Memory, Repression and Impact.” In Mercedes García-Arenal and Yonatan Glazer-Eytan (eds.), Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam: Coercion and Faith in Premodern Iberia and Beyond (Leiden: Brill, 2020): 155-171., 2020
This article analyzes several Jewish responses to the Almohad persecutions, especially those of M... more This article analyzes several Jewish responses to the Almohad persecutions, especially those of Maimon ben Joseph, Moses Maimonides, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Joseph Ibn Aqnin and Judah al-Harizi. Many scholars have argued that the Almohad persecutions failed to substantially impact Jewish attitudes towards Islamic dominance. I argue that this judgment is based upon a distortive comparison to Jewish responses to persecution in Ashkenaz. Because responses to the Almohads were fewer in number and did not gain traction in liturgy, such scholars regarded the persecutions to have had little long-term impact. In contrast, I argue that Jews were shaken by the Almohad persecutions and regarded them as being qualitatively different from the oppression that they had previously experienced in the Islamic world. Consequently, they developed new theologies to respond to these events which substantially reconceptualized Jewish-Muslim relations.
In Mario Mignone (ed.), The Idea of the Mediterranean. Stony Brook: Forum Italicum Publishing, 2017
This paper examines the friendship between a prominent Muslim and Jew, both residents of Ayyubid ... more This paper examines the friendship between a prominent Muslim and Jew, both residents of Ayyubid Aleppo: Rabbi Yūsuf Ibn Shamʿūn (d. 1226), a philosopher, poet, physican and merchant, and ʿAlī b. Yūsuf Ibn al-Qifṭī (d. 1248), a Muslim scholar and leading Ayyubid official. The essay examines the various factors which led to what might have seemed an unlikely friendship while eschewing broader explanatory models. It provides a complete translation of Ibn al-Qifṭī's biographical entry on Yūsuf which is included in his History of Philosopher-Physicians (Taʾrīkh al-Ḥukamāʾ).
During the Spanish Reconquista, a number of Maliki jurists wrote responsa that declared the Mudéj... more During the Spanish Reconquista, a number of Maliki jurists wrote responsa that declared the Mudéjar 'ulama' to be illegitimate holders of communal authority. Some contemporary scholars have characterized these writings as representing fanatical trends within Islam that privilege Islamic precepts over humanitarian concerns. By placing the jurists’ works in the context of research on the Mudéjars, it is shown that their views were motivated more by pragmatic defensive measures than by religious concerns. For the jurists, the period from the seventh to the thirteenth century is a turning point. Beginning then, jurists become less willing to tolerate the Mudéjar 'ulama' and more likely to demand their immigration to Islamic territory. I show that this position is tied to a weakening of Islamic political power and a consequent concern on the part of the jurists to more actively promote defensive measures. I show that the jurists’ new rulings were not rote enforcements of tradition but actually went against established legal opinion to deal with the new political reality. Note: An improved version of this paper can be found in chapter 2 of my book, Islamic Law and the Crisis of the Reconquista.
It is often claimed that medieval Jewish philosophy is unashamedly elitist. In contrast to Socrat... more It is often claimed that medieval Jewish philosophy is unashamedly elitist. In contrast to Socrates who had been content to discuss philosophy with whomever he met, both freemen and slaves, the medieval philosophers shunned contact with the ignorant multitude. The Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (d. 1204) is often seen as personifying this trend. According to him, human beings achieve salvation in accordance with the measure in which they succeed in channeling the emanation of the divine intellect, an activity which requires considerable intellectual ability and expertise. "As for the ignorant and disobedient, " he says, their state is despicable proportionately to the lack of this emanation, and they have been relegated to the rank of the individuals of all other species of animals: 'He is like the beasts that speak not. ' 2 For this reason, it is a light thing to kill them, and has been even enjoined because of its utility. 3 1 This paper is dedicated to Harry Fox to whom I am very grateful for having initiated me in the mysteries of the Guide of the Perplexed during my senior year of college. His close-readings of the Guide have continued to influence the way I read the works of Maimonides and his successors. I would also like to thank James Robinson and my father, Milton Verskin, for having commented upon previous versions of this paper.
Book Reviews by Alan Verskin
Jewish Review of Books, 2022
https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-history/12558/insiders-and-outsiders%EF%BF%BC/
Publisher'... more https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-history/12558/insiders-and-outsiders%EF%BF%BC/
Publisher's Description of Book:
"Karaite Judaism emerged in the ninth century in the Islamic Middle East as an alternative to the rabbinic Judaism of the Jewish majority. Karaites reject the underlying assumption of rabbinic Judaism, namely, that Jewish practice is to be based on two divinely revealed Torahs, a written one, embodied in the Five Books of Moses, and an oral one, eventually written down in rabbinic literature. Karaites accept as authoritative only the Written Torah, as they understand it, and their form of Judaism therefore differs greatly from that of most Jews. Despite its permanent minority status, Karaism has been an integral part of the Jewish people continuously for twelve centuries. It has contributed greatly to Jewish cultural achievements, while providing a powerful intellectual challenge to the majority form of Judaism.
This book is the first to present a comprehensive overview of the entire story of Karaite Judaism: its unclear origins; a Golden Age of Karaism in the Land of Israel; migrations through the centuries; Karaites in the Holocaust; unique Jewish religious practices, beliefs, and philosophy; biblical exegesis and literary accomplishments; polemics and historiography; and the present-day revival of the Karaite community in Israel."
Jewish Review of Books, 2018
A Review of Adam Gidwitz's "The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy ... more A Review of Adam Gidwitz's "The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog" (Puffin Books, 2016). This work of historical fiction, written for children, is set in medieval France and deals with the famous burning of the Talmud in the 1240s. https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/3442/talmuds-and-dragons/
Journal of Religion, 2003
Review of Lenn Goodman's "Islamic Humanism" (Oxford, 2003). Written when I was an M.A. student.
Book Chapters by Alan Verskin
Chapter 1 of "Islamic Law and the Crisis of the Reconquista: The Debate on the Status of Muslim C... more Chapter 1 of "Islamic Law and the Crisis of the Reconquista: The Debate on the Status of Muslim Communities in Christendom"
Encyclopedia Articles by Alan Verskin
Encyclopedia of Islam, 3rd ed., 2019
Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī (d. 909/1503-4 or 911/1505) was born in the Al... more Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī (d. 909/1503-4 or 911/1505) was born in the Algerian Sahara and came to be the most influential medieval scholar of West Africa. He is primarily known for three things: His persecutions of Jews, his role as an Islamic reformer (mujaddid), and his works of political thought. He was a prolific writer on a variety of subjects including Mālikī law, the ḥadīth sciences, kalām, Sufism, Arabic grammar, rhetoric and political thought.
Moses Ḥanokh Ha-Levi (d. 1901) was a Jewish community leader in Aden who was the primary internat... more Moses Ḥanokh Ha-Levi (d. 1901) was a Jewish community leader in Aden who was the primary international representative of Yemeni Jews. He introduced printed books to Yemen and gave significant support to the false messiah, Shukr Kuḥayl II. In the 1890s, he immigrated to Jerusalem.
Magazine Articles, Blog Posts, etc. by Alan Verskin
AJS Perspectives: The Travel Issue, 2022
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Books by Alan Verskin
Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah is the first English translation of Reubeni's Hebrew-language diary, detailing his travels and personal travails. Written in a Hebrew drawn from everyday speech, entirely unlike other literary works of the period, Reubeni's diary reveals both the dramatic desperation of Renaissance Jewish communities and the struggles of the diplomat, trickster, and dreamer who wanted to save them.
This edition is the first English translation of Habshush's writings from the original Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew and includes an accessible historical introduction to the work. The translation maintains Habshush's gripping style and rich portrayal of the diverse communities and cultures of Yemen, offering a potent mixture of artful storytelling and cultural criticism, suffused with humor and empathy. Habshush writes about the daily lives of men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Muslim, during a turbulent period of war and both Ottoman and European imperialist encroachment. With this translation, Alan Verskin recovers the lost voice of a man passionately committed to his land and people.
This anthology of fatwas showcases diverse reflections by major Muslim thinkers on the political, social, and theological ramifications of living in places with non-Muslim governments. These documents, which span the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries, reflect on the experiences of Muslim communities in such places as medieval Christian Spain, India, French Africa, Europe, the United States, and Israel/Palestine.
Providing newly translated fatwas together with informative introductions and explanatory notes, this book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Islamic law, interreligious encounters, colonialism, comparative world history, and the Muslim experience of minorityhood.
Papers by Alan Verskin
Book Reviews by Alan Verskin
Publisher's Description of Book:
"Karaite Judaism emerged in the ninth century in the Islamic Middle East as an alternative to the rabbinic Judaism of the Jewish majority. Karaites reject the underlying assumption of rabbinic Judaism, namely, that Jewish practice is to be based on two divinely revealed Torahs, a written one, embodied in the Five Books of Moses, and an oral one, eventually written down in rabbinic literature. Karaites accept as authoritative only the Written Torah, as they understand it, and their form of Judaism therefore differs greatly from that of most Jews. Despite its permanent minority status, Karaism has been an integral part of the Jewish people continuously for twelve centuries. It has contributed greatly to Jewish cultural achievements, while providing a powerful intellectual challenge to the majority form of Judaism.
This book is the first to present a comprehensive overview of the entire story of Karaite Judaism: its unclear origins; a Golden Age of Karaism in the Land of Israel; migrations through the centuries; Karaites in the Holocaust; unique Jewish religious practices, beliefs, and philosophy; biblical exegesis and literary accomplishments; polemics and historiography; and the present-day revival of the Karaite community in Israel."
Book Chapters by Alan Verskin
Encyclopedia Articles by Alan Verskin
Magazine Articles, Blog Posts, etc. by Alan Verskin
Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah is the first English translation of Reubeni's Hebrew-language diary, detailing his travels and personal travails. Written in a Hebrew drawn from everyday speech, entirely unlike other literary works of the period, Reubeni's diary reveals both the dramatic desperation of Renaissance Jewish communities and the struggles of the diplomat, trickster, and dreamer who wanted to save them.
This edition is the first English translation of Habshush's writings from the original Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew and includes an accessible historical introduction to the work. The translation maintains Habshush's gripping style and rich portrayal of the diverse communities and cultures of Yemen, offering a potent mixture of artful storytelling and cultural criticism, suffused with humor and empathy. Habshush writes about the daily lives of men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Muslim, during a turbulent period of war and both Ottoman and European imperialist encroachment. With this translation, Alan Verskin recovers the lost voice of a man passionately committed to his land and people.
This anthology of fatwas showcases diverse reflections by major Muslim thinkers on the political, social, and theological ramifications of living in places with non-Muslim governments. These documents, which span the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries, reflect on the experiences of Muslim communities in such places as medieval Christian Spain, India, French Africa, Europe, the United States, and Israel/Palestine.
Providing newly translated fatwas together with informative introductions and explanatory notes, this book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Islamic law, interreligious encounters, colonialism, comparative world history, and the Muslim experience of minorityhood.
Publisher's Description of Book:
"Karaite Judaism emerged in the ninth century in the Islamic Middle East as an alternative to the rabbinic Judaism of the Jewish majority. Karaites reject the underlying assumption of rabbinic Judaism, namely, that Jewish practice is to be based on two divinely revealed Torahs, a written one, embodied in the Five Books of Moses, and an oral one, eventually written down in rabbinic literature. Karaites accept as authoritative only the Written Torah, as they understand it, and their form of Judaism therefore differs greatly from that of most Jews. Despite its permanent minority status, Karaism has been an integral part of the Jewish people continuously for twelve centuries. It has contributed greatly to Jewish cultural achievements, while providing a powerful intellectual challenge to the majority form of Judaism.
This book is the first to present a comprehensive overview of the entire story of Karaite Judaism: its unclear origins; a Golden Age of Karaism in the Land of Israel; migrations through the centuries; Karaites in the Holocaust; unique Jewish religious practices, beliefs, and philosophy; biblical exegesis and literary accomplishments; polemics and historiography; and the present-day revival of the Karaite community in Israel."
https://newbooksnetwork.com/diary-of-a-black-jewish-messiah
In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Habshush wrote A Vision of Yemen, a memoir of their travels, that provides a vivid account of daily life, religion, and politics. More than a simple travelogue, it is a work of trickster-tales, thick anthropological descriptions, and reflections on Jewish–Muslim relations. At its heart lies the fractious and intimate relationship between the Yemeni coppersmith and the "enlightened" European scholar and the collision between the cultures each represents. The book thus offers a powerful indigenous response to European Orientalism.