Abstract The creation of humanity is depicted in both the Bible and the Qurʾān, and its details, such as the creation of woman, are abundantly discussed in subsequent exegetic literature. Applying feminist discourse analysis, I compare the interpretations of the creation of woman in rabbinic literature to those in Qurʾānic commentaries produced in the same cultural and geographical environment, second/eighth–sixth/twelfth-century Iraq under Abbasid rule. I show that in both Jewish and Islamic exegetic discourse the creation of woman from male-dependent material was diversely used to explain female characteristics and the treatment of women as subordinate, secondary beings. In addition to the numerous commonalities, the differences in the interpretive discourses reflect the multifarious encounters between Jewish and Muslim scholars in the vivid intellectual atmosphere of this context. The influence of ideas discussed in Talmudic academies was essential in the formation of distinct Islamic interpretive tradition concerning the matter.

Abstract The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed either the rise or revival of long-form amorous narratives in at least four courtly language traditions across the southwestern flank of Eurasia: Persian, Georgian, Greek, and French. This coeval occurrence of the “rise of romance” offers fruitful grounds for considering broad literary-historical questions about genre, poetics, and interconnectivity in a comparative fashion. The aim of this article is to give an account of this phenomenon in the early Persian context, with special attention to the role of poetry in transforming popular tales into elite literature. Understanding the implications of this practice may shed some light on possible factors contributing to the romance’s (re-)emergence in other twelfth-century literary traditions. As a coda, this article suggests twelfth-century Anatolia and Syria as significant contact zones where all four of the courtly languages mentioned above would have had some opportunity to interact.

Abstract This article’s subject is the migration of Apulian New Christians to Venetian Dalmatia in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. These New Christians were the descendants of Jews who had converted to Christianity at the end of the thirteenth century but who continued to constitute a group distinct from the rest of society until many had to flee Apulia due to growing repressions at the turn to the sixteenth century. Based on archival material from Zadar, Split, and Venice, this paper studies the Venetian ruled town of Split as an example of how close and multifaceted the contacts between Apulian New Christians and Venetian Dalmatia were, ranging from grain trade to permanent settlement. Although Venice tried to expel all New Christians from its territories, including Dalmatia, in the 1490s, they appear to have been tolerated in Split. How this was possible and how the Apulian New Christians integrated themselves into the local society is studied in this article.

Abstract This paper investigates the overlooked topic of maternal ties of kinship in Umayyad history through the case study of ʿĀʾisha bint Hishām ibn Ismāʿīl al-Makhzūmī, the mother of Hishām ibn ʿ⁠Abd al-Malik (r. 105–125/724–743). Using a range of primary sources, including annalistic, adab, and eschatological sources, as well as early Islamic poetry, it investigates the significance of matrilineal kinship and naming practices in the Marwanid period. ʿĀʾisha’s representations across sources illuminates how sources discuss caliphal mothers and the role of the matrilineal family in marriage and naming practices. A brief prosopographical analysis also demonstrates the widespread use of maternal names in early Islamic society – ʿĀʾisha is said to have named her son after her father. Early Islamic poets praised maternal kinship ties, indicating an appeal to caliphal constituents from the maternal family. Overall, by incorporating maternal ties of kinship into Marwanid history, we may gain a more complete understanding of early Islamic society.

Abstract The dīwān (book of poems) of the eleventh-century polymath and Hebrew poet of Granada, Samuel ha-Nagid, contains unexpected musical aspects. This article reveals a formerly unknown comment by the poet’s son, which indicates that the shorter poems of the book were all set to music and performed in the poet’s court. The article discusses the implications of this discovery and its importance for understanding both ha-Nagid’s poetry and the musical practices of al-Andalus. Unique literary phenomena such as poem-cycles and “twin poems” that share similar structure are examined through their relations to the early Andalusian nawba (suite) and to the practice of composing contrafacta respectively.

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