For centuries, historians had relied for their understanding of restrictions on Jewish life on Islamic legal documents mandating that Jews carry bells and wear badges and distinguishing clothing. But the contents of the Cairo Genizah show that Jews were allowed a far more vibrant lifestyle, and treated much more tolerantly, than had been assumed. The Fatimid Caliphate, a dynasty that ruled from 909-1171, “embraced the organs of Jewish government even to the point of financially supporting the ancient Academy of Jerusalem, promoting self-governance by the Jewish community and assisting the progress of pilgrims to the holy sites,” Outhwaite said. Jewish merchants partnered with Christians and Muslims; they ran perfume shops and silk weaveries together. Hundreds of letters buried in the genizah show that Jewish merchant princes set sail from Egypt or Yemen to India and returned along the Red Sea and Malabar Coast if they didn’t marry Indian women and settle there. Marriage contracts in the collection show that divorce was common. While very few Jews married Christians and Muslims, there is ample evidence of close relationships with interfaith neighbors, like letters seeking rabbinical advice about husbands who kept apartments for their Muslim concubines. Instances of day-to-day anti-Semitism were less common than imagined.
via Treasures in the Wall: The Riches of the Cairo Genizah : The New Yorker.
Ismailimail 