As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist
by Eitan P. Fishbane
Stanford University Press, Redwood City, California, 2009. 322 pages
Isaac of Akko’s historical profile as an itinerant mystic who journeyed through both Christian and Muslim-dominated lands put him in the relatively unique position of being able to reflect upon his interaction and relations with the religious “Other” in different sociopolitical environments. From the heterogeneous, though Christian-governed society of Akko, through the Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile, and finally southward to Muslim Granada and North Africa, Isaac ben Samuel traveled a road that would almost ineluctably lead to a comparative awareness in his relation to people of other religious cultures. What then were his perceptions of the Muslims and the Christians that he met along the way, and what light might this shed (however limited in scope) on the texture of these societies? How did he construe and construct their otherness as one whose religious tradition inevitable placed him on the margins? Put differently: how did Isaac of Akko experience the reality of living as part of a minority religious faith within the social context of distinct religious majorities, and how was this experience shaped by his wandering lifestyle?
(p. 43)
-- quote submitted by Camilla B.
To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library, click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com