The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times

Filling an important gap in the literature, this volume documents the variety and diversity of Jewish life in the Middle East and North Africa over the last two hundred years.

It explains the changes that affected the communities under Islamic rule during its "golden age" and describes the processes of modernization that enabled the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa to play a pivotal role in their respective countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The first half of the book is a thematic section, covering topics ranging from languages to economic life, from religion and music to the world of women.

The second half of the book is a country-by-country survey, covering Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine from 1800 to 1948, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt and the Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.