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.
Covers the middle Byzantine period, describing the day-to-day workings of the Byzantine-Jewish economy via primary sources.About the AuthorJoshua Holo is Associate Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.
Reviews"This learned volume investigates Jewish economic life in a period in which the Jews did not play an obvious pivotal role in the Middle Byzantine Empire..." -Jewish Book World
Book InformationISBN 9781108745086
Author Joshua HoloFormat Paperback
Page Count 297
Imprint Cambridge University PressPublisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 440g
Dimensions(mm) 150mm * 230mm * 15mm