Byzantine Jewry in the Mediterranean economy
By: Joshua Holo.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9780521856331
Subjects: Jews -- Byzantine Empire -- Economic conditions; Jews -- Byzantine Empire -- History; Byzantine Empire -- Economic conditions; Byzantine Empire -- Ethnic relations
Description: "Using primary sources, Joshua Holo uncovers the day-to-day workings of the Byzantine-Jewish economy in the middle Byzantine period. Built on a web of exchange systems both exclusive to the Jewish community and integrated in society at large, this economy forces a revision of Jewish history in the region. Paradoxically, the two distinct economic orientations, inward and outward, simultaneously advanced both the integration of the Jews into the larger Byzantine economy and their segregation as a self-contained body economic. Dr Holo finds that the Jews routinely leveraged their internal, even exclusive, systems of law and culture to break into - occasionally to dominate - Byzantine markets. In doing so, they challenge our concept of Diaspora life as a balance between the two competing impulses of integration and segregation. The success of this enterprise, furthermore, qualifies the prevailing claim of Jewish economic decline during the Commercial Revolution"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Byzantine-Jewish economic history; title: Byzantine Jews throughout the Mediterranean: fluidity and exchange; title: The inner economy of the Jewish communities; title: The integrated Jewish economy; title: Byzantine-Jewish trade and the commercial revolution; title: Conclusion: a new perspective on Byzantine economic history.