The Jewish Calendar Controversy of 921/2 CE

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-38866-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 578 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 1071 g

Reihe: Time, Astronomy, and Calendars

In the year 921/2, the Jewish leaders of Palestine and Babylonia disagreed on how to calculate the calendar. This led the Jews of the entire Near East to celebrate Passover and the other festivals, through two years, on different dates. The controversy was major, but it became forgotten until its late 19th-century rediscovery in the Cairo Genizah. Faulty editions of the texts, in the following decades, led to much misunderstanding about the nature, leadership, and aftermath of the controversy. In this book, Sacha Stern re-edits the texts completely, discovers many new Genizah sources, and challenges the historical consensus. This book sheds light on early medieval Rabbanite leadership and controversies, and on the processes that eventually led to the standardization of the medieval Jewish calendar.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stern, Sacha

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Astronomie Zeiterfassung, Chronologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Geschichte des Judentums: Mittelalter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Abbreviations
Editorial Policies; List of Manuscripts and Sigla
Part 1 Introduction

1 The Controversy Revisited

2 Palestinians and Babylonians in Conflict

3 Discovery and Early Scholarship

4 Manuscripts, Texts, History: A New Approach

5 The Jewish Calendar: The Controversy Explained

Part 2 The Book of the Calendar Controversy

6 Introduction

7 Critical Edition

8 Diplomatic Editions

Part 3 Letters and Polemics, c. 922 CE

9 Ben Meir’s First Letter

10 Saadya’s Letters

11 Letters Miscellany

12 Babylonian Letter 1

13 Babylonian Letter 2

14 Discourse on the Midday Limit

15 Palestinian Polemic

Part 4 Later Sources

16 Short References and Narratives (Sahl b. Ma?lia?, Hayye Gaon, Elias of Nisibis, and Various Genizah Sources)

17 Palestinian Calendar Manuals

Conclusion

Glossary
References
Index of Manuscripts
General Index
Plates

Über Autor(innen)

Sacha Stern (DPhil. Oxon. 1992) is Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London. He is the author of Calendar and Community: a History of the Jewish Calendar (Oxford 2001) and Calendars in Antiquity (Oxford 2012).