Rabbis, sorcerers, kings, and priests
Subtitle: the culture of the Talmud in ancient Iran
By: Jason Sion Mokhtarian
Series: The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies; S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Oakland, California
Language: eng
Number of pages: 273
ISBN-13: 9780520286207; 9780520961548
Subjects: Talmud; History; Judaism; Talmudic period; 11.21 Jewish religious literature; Talmoed; Iranian influences; Medieval and early modern period
Description: "Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests brings into mutual fruition the fields of Talmudic Studies and Ancient Iranology, two historically distinct disciplines. Mokhtarian offers a revisionist history of the rabbis of late antique Persia who produced the Babylonian Talmud, perhaps the most important corpus in the Jewish sacred canon. While most research on the Talmud assumes that the rabbis were an insular group isolated from the cultural horizon outside of the rabbinic academies, this book contextualizes the rabbis and Talmud within a broader socio-cultural orbit by drawing from a wide range of sources from Sasanian Iran, including Middle Persian Zoroastrian literature, archaeological evidence, and the Jewish Aramaic magical bowls"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-258) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: 1. The sources and methods of Talmudic and Iranian studies; title: 2. Comparing Sasanian religions; title: 3. Rabbinic portrayals of Persians as others; title: 4. Rabbis and Sasanian kings in dialogue; title: 5. Rabbis and Zoroastrian priests in judicial settings; title: 6. Rabbis, sorcerers, and priests; title: Conclusion : rabbis, sorcerers, kings, and priests in ancient Iran.