Judæo-Persian and Persian Textual Landscapes: Towards an Intellectual History of Medieval Iranian Jewry

February 1 - June 30, 2024

Organizers:

Julia Rubanovich (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Ludwig Paul (University of Hamburg)

There has been a persistent presence of Jewish communities in the Iranian world since the Babylonian exile (ca. 586 BCE). Ties and interactions between the Jews and the Zoroastrians before the advent of Islam in Iran in the 7th century CE have been extensively studied in the past two decades, giving rise to the now thriving field of Irano-Talmudica scholarship. In contrast, the period that follows the fall of Iran to the Muslim conquerors remains a significant lacuna in our knowledge of the intellectual, literary, and cultural history of medieval Iranian Jews. Scholarship on this period remains highly fragmented in both Jewishand Iranian studies.