Maimonides and the Merchants: Jewish Law and Society in the Medieval Islamic World

In his latest book, Maimonides and the Merchants, Mark R. Cohen reveals the extent of Moses Maimonides’ pragmatic revisions to the halakha, or body of Jewish law, introduced by in his Mishneh Torah. While Maimonides insisted that he was merely restating already established legal practice, in actuality he extensively reformulated Jewish law to inscribe commerce into a formerly agrarian society. Over and again, the language of Talmudic rulings was altered to provide Jewish merchants with alternatives to Islamic law and the Islamic judicial system.

Sponsored by The Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures and co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Center for the Humanities, and the Program in Religious Studies.