About Prof. Decter

Jonathan Decter is the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is a specialist in the Jews of the Islamic World during the medieval period and in the Jews of medieval Spain. His research focuses on the literature, thought, and social history of Arabic speaking Jewry and on the interplay of Islamic and Jewish traditions throughout the medieval Mediterranean. His most recent book is Dominion Built of Praise: Panegyric and Legitimacy among Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). His first book, Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe (Indiana University Press, 2007), was the winner of the Salo W. Baron Prize for best first book in Jewish Studies (2008). 

About the Course

This course introduces students to Jews in the Islamic World from the beginnings of Islam through the modern era. Topics include the legal and social status of Jews under Islam, the structure and schisms of the Jewish community in Islamic empires, Jewish-Muslim relations, the intellectual transformations of Judaism under the impact of Islamic and Arabic culture, and historiographic perspectives. Students will be exposed to a range of primary and secondary source materials and have an opportunity to pursue a research topic in depth.

**Contact Prof. Decter at jonathan_decter@brown.edu.