This volume is the first comprehensive anthology of early Yiddish literature (from its beginnings in the twelfth century to the dawn of modern Yiddish in the mid-eighteenth century) for more than one hundred years. It includes the broad range of genres that define the corpus: Arthurian romance, heroic epic, satire, lyric, drama, biblical/midrashic epic, devotional literature, biblical translations, glosses, medicine, magic, legal texts, oaths, letters, legends, autobiography, travelogue, fables, riddles, and adventure tales. One hundred and thirty texts in the original Hebrew alphabet, edited...

The field of early Yiddish studies has so far only been accessible to specialist scholars. This remarkable study opens up to a more general audience the cultural richness of that broad and deep corpus of literature that stretches from its beginnings in the Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century. The literature spans a wide spectrum of genres, from love lyric to kabbalistic treatises, and from travelogue to Renaissance adventure epic. The diverse world of Ashkenazic Jewry comes alive in this survey of its literature.

A unique analysis of the intensive interest in Jewish culture of early modern Christian Humanists as a part of their comprehensive program of study of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. The book focuses on how that interest was particularly manifested in a score of treatises on Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Yiddish language and literature.

Little attention has been focused the representation of Muslims in medieval Germany. Proceeding from a grounded use of contemporary cultural theory and close textual analysis, this study focuses Muslims in several core texts representing drama, epic, and lyric written by the most important writers of medieval Germany. Far from simply adding medieval Germany to the growing scholarly list of the 'pre-post-colonializing' European cultures, the study provides important new perspectives.

Broadens the perspective of recent work on the discourse of the Muslim Other in medieval Christendom by investigating pertinent texts, art, and artefacts, situating these local discourses of the Muslim Other in the larger cultural context of proto-Eurocentric discourse.

Broadens the perspective of recent work on the discourse of the Muslim Other in medieval Christendom by investigating pertinent texts, art, and artefacts, situating these local discourses of the Muslim Other in the larger cultural context of proto-Eurocentric discourse.

Little attention has been focused the representation of Muslims in medieval Germany. Proceeding from a grounded use of contemporary cultural theory and close textual analysis, this study focuses Muslims in several core texts representing drama, epic, and lyric written by the most important writers of medieval Germany. Far from simply adding medieval Germany to the growing scholarly list of the 'pre-post-colonializing' European cultures, the study provides important new perspectives.

This book is a comprehensive introductory manual that guides beginners to a functional reading knowledge of late medieval and early modern Yiddish (c.1100-1750). It is the first such manual to exist for that language, whose early literary tradition comprises a range of genres as broad as other contemporary European literary traditions. The guide is organized as a series of progressively more complex lessons, focused on key texts of the literary corpus, which are presented in their authentic form as found in manuscripts and early printed books. The lessons seek to accommodate readers ranging...