Jews and Islamic Law in Early 20th-Century Yemen

"In beautiful prose, Mark Wagner explores the complex contours of Yemen's shari'a-based juridical system, considering how individual Yemeni Jewish women and men navigated this legal order and the larger social orbit of Yemeni society. Moving ably between Arabic and Hebrew sources, and between rich case studies and weighty conceptual questions, Jews and Islamic Law in Early 20th-Century Yemen will be prized by scholars of Jewish Studies and Middle East Studies alike for its erudition, clarity, and originality."

~Sarah Abrevaya Stein, UCLA

"[A]rticulate[s] brilliantly the complexity of Jewish-Muslim interaction through a series of fascinating and hitherto unexplored court cases and scholars. Wagner convincingly illustrates that these two religious communities were far from being mutually exclusive, but rather were enmeshed in each other's lives in the most remarkable and unexpected ways, and in a real sense mutually constitutive."

~Bernard Haykel, Princeton University

"A highly readable and intriguing work. . . . Wagner brings to life individuals whose personal records give us an entrée into a world that is no more."

~Lawrence Rosen, Princeton University

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This book offers an important contribution to the understanding of Jewish-Muslim relations under the shari'a, and to the study of Yemeni Jews.

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~Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

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This book is broad and interesting and opens a new window for the study of the legal status of the Jews of Yemen in the twentieth century.

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~Journal of the American Oriental Society

"Jews and Islamic Law in Early 20th-Century Yemen . . . is a monograph that draws on literature studies, Islamic legal studies, history and anthropology. Students and scholars from all these fields as well as Yemeni studies in general will find this a rich and well written book."

~Arabian Humanities

"Mark S. Wagner has made an important and original contribution to the growing body of adaemic studies on Yemenite Jewish history and culture. . . Although the book's theme is how Jews negotiated life in a traditional Muslim society in which the Sharia was theoretically the overarching governing framework, Wagner also offers fascinating insights into the complexities of daily social, economic, and political life in Yemen."

~AJS Reviews

"A fascinating study indispensable to students and libraries interested in the tentative relationship between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East."

~AJL Reviews

"During the early twentieth century, Yemeni Jews operated within a legal structure that defined them as dhimmi, that is, non-Muslims living as a protected population under the sovereignty of an Islamic state . . . Wagner's work deepens our understanding of Muslim-Jewish relations in Yemen and the place of non-Muslims in Islamic law in general.6/20/15"

~New Books in Jewish Studies