Marina Rustow is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and History at Princeton University. She is a 2015 MacArthur Fellow and coeditor of Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History: Authority, Diaspora, Tradition.

Rustow's book provides us fascinating new insights into the history of Jewish Eastern communities of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine during the crucial and politically unstable period of the rule of the Fatimid caliphs.... Her focus on documentary and epistolary sources and on the caliphal administration allows Rustow to present a picture of Rabbanite-Karaite relations which differs from the more standard views of modern scholarship... that present Karaism as a separatist 'sect' and a threat to Judaism.... On the contrary, Rustow shows, the Karaites constituted one among other Jewish groups of the period and were fully engaged in Jewish community life as a whole.(Journal of Jewish Studies) The Cairo Geniza documents have been at the center of Jewish scholarship for over a century. Rustow has reviewed the medieval and modern models that emerged on the basis of the rich polemical literature and challenges them against the extant contemporary correspondence that describe the actual interactions.... This well-written and reader-friendly major contribution is accessible to neophyte and scholar alike, and will engender a new, nuanced view of the social relations among Jews and Muslims in the medieval Mediterranean. Highly recommended.(Choice)

• IntroductionAbbreviationsPart I: The Shape of the Jewish Community1. The Tripartite Community2. Jewish Book Culture in the Tenth Century3. The Limits of Communal AutonomyPart II: Rabbanites, Qaraites, and the Politics of Leadership4. Qaraites and the Politics of Powerlessness5. "Nothing but Kindness, Benefi t, and Loyalty": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Baghdad6. "Under the Authority of God and All Israel": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Jerusalem7. "Glory of the Two Parties": Petitions to Qaraite Courtiers8. The Affair of the Ban of Excommunication in 1029Part III: Scholastic Loyalty and Its Limits9. Rabbanite-Qaraite Marriages10. In the Courts: Legal ReciprocityPart IV: The Origins of Territorial Governance11. Avignon in Ramla: The Schism of 1038–4212. The Tripartite Community and the First CrusadeEpilogue: Toward a History of Jewish HeresyGlossaryGuide to Places and PeopleManuscript SourcesBibliographyIndex

Marina Rustow is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and History at Princeton University. She is a 2015 MacArthur Fellow and coeditor of Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History: Authority, Diaspora, Tradition.

Rustow's book provides us fascinating new insights into the history of Jewish Eastern communities of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine during the crucial and politically unstable period of the rule of the Fatimid caliphs.... Her focus on documentary and epistolary sources and on the caliphal administration allows Rustow to present a picture of Rabbanite-Karaite relations which differs from the more standard views of modern scholarship... that present Karaism as a separatist 'sect' and a threat to Judaism.... On the contrary, Rustow shows, the Karaites constituted one among other Jewish groups of the period and were fully engaged in Jewish community life as a whole.(Journal of Jewish Studies) The Cairo Geniza documents have been at the center of Jewish scholarship for over a century. Rustow has reviewed the medieval and modern models that emerged on the basis of the rich polemical literature and challenges them against the extant contemporary correspondence that describe the actual interactions.... This well-written and reader-friendly major contribution is accessible to neophyte and scholar alike, and will engender a new, nuanced view of the social relations among Jews and Muslims in the medieval Mediterranean. Highly recommended.(Choice)

• IntroductionAbbreviationsPart I: The Shape of the Jewish Community1. The Tripartite Community2. Jewish Book Culture in the Tenth Century3. The Limits of Communal AutonomyPart II: Rabbanites, Qaraites, and the Politics of Leadership4. Qaraites and the Politics of Powerlessness5. "Nothing but Kindness, Benefi t, and Loyalty": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Baghdad6. "Under the Authority of God and All Israel": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Jerusalem7. "Glory of the Two Parties": Petitions to Qaraite Courtiers8. The Affair of the Ban of Excommunication in 1029Part III: Scholastic Loyalty and Its Limits9. Rabbanite-Qaraite Marriages10. In the Courts: Legal ReciprocityPart IV: The Origins of Territorial Governance11. Avignon in Ramla: The Schism of 1038–4212. The Tripartite Community and the First CrusadeEpilogue: Toward a History of Jewish HeresyGlossaryGuide to Places and PeopleManuscript SourcesBibliographyIndex

Marina Rustow is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and History at Princeton University. She is a 2015 MacArthur Fellow and coeditor of Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History: Authority, Diaspora, Tradition.

Rustow's book provides us fascinating new insights into the history of Jewish Eastern communities of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine during the crucial and politically unstable period of the rule of the Fatimid caliphs.... Her focus on documentary and epistolary sources and on the caliphal administration allows Rustow to present a picture of Rabbanite-Karaite relations which differs from the more standard views of modern scholarship... that present Karaism as a separatist 'sect' and a threat to Judaism.... On the contrary, Rustow shows, the Karaites constituted one among other Jewish groups of the period and were fully engaged in Jewish community life as a whole.(Journal of Jewish Studies) The Cairo Geniza documents have been at the center of Jewish scholarship for over a century. Rustow has reviewed the medieval and modern models that emerged on the basis of the rich polemical literature and challenges them against the extant contemporary correspondence that describe the actual interactions.... This well-written and reader-friendly major contribution is accessible to neophyte and scholar alike, and will engender a new, nuanced view of the social relations among Jews and Muslims in the medieval Mediterranean. Highly recommended.(Choice)

• IntroductionAbbreviationsPart I: The Shape of the Jewish Community1. The Tripartite Community2. Jewish Book Culture in the Tenth Century3. The Limits of Communal AutonomyPart II: Rabbanites, Qaraites, and the Politics of Leadership4. Qaraites and the Politics of Powerlessness5. "Nothing but Kindness, Benefi t, and Loyalty": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Baghdad6. "Under the Authority of God and All Israel": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Jerusalem7. "Glory of the Two Parties": Petitions to Qaraite Courtiers8. The Affair of the Ban of Excommunication in 1029Part III: Scholastic Loyalty and Its Limits9. Rabbanite-Qaraite Marriages10. In the Courts: Legal ReciprocityPart IV: The Origins of Territorial Governance11. Avignon in Ramla: The Schism of 1038–4212. The Tripartite Community and the First CrusadeEpilogue: Toward a History of Jewish HeresyGlossaryGuide to Places and PeopleManuscript SourcesBibliographyIndex