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Fass Speakers Bureau (FSB) |
Mark R. Cohen
Residence : New York, NY
Biographical information
Mark R. Cohen is Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Educated at Brandeis University (B.A.), Columbia University (M.A.), and the Jewish Theological Seminary (M.H.L., Rabbi, Ph.D.), he is a well known historian of the Jews in Arab lands in the Middle Ages. His publications include more than 80 articles and reviews and several books. These include: Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt, 1980, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish history in 1981; Jewish Life in Medieval Egypt 641-1382, translated into Arabic, a survey written for readers in the Arab world, 1987; The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi: Leon Modena's Life of Judah, 1988; Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, 1994, which has been translated into Hebrew, Turkish, German,and will soon appear in Arabic and in French, and, most recently, two related books: Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, 2005, and The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Documents from the Cairo Geniza, 2005.
Cohen has been a Lady Davis Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1982-83), a Fellow of its Institute for Advanced Studies (1992-93), and a guest lecturer in the Department of Hebrew Language and Culture at Ain Shams University in Cairo. He was a Visiting Professor in the graduate program of the Hebrew University's School for Overseas Students in 1997, and in June of that year taught a seminar at the Free University in Berlin. He has also held a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.
Cohen has lectured widely in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Israel, and Egypt, before both scholarly and general audiences.
Discussion topics
- Jews and Arabs: Is the Past Prologue to the Present and Future?
The politics of the present has clouded our vision of the past. How can we relate the past treatment of the Jews in Islamic/Arab lands to the current conflict? What can we really say about Jewish life under Islam in former times? Was it an "interfaith utopia"-a "Golden Age"--or an era of unmitigated persecution? Is Islam tolerant or intolerant of Judaism? - Antisemitism under Crescent and Cross
Did Muslims and Jews in the Middle Ages cohabit in a peaceful "interfaith utopia"? Or did Jews experience antisemitism and persecution, much as they did in Christian lands. This lecture addresses this issue, which has substantial relevance for the current conflict between Islam and Jews. - The Cairo Geniza Documents: Lost Treasures, Their Discovery and What They Tell Us (illustrated)
The most exciting discovery in modern times about the Jewish past, a treasure-trove of discarded Jewish manuscript writings found in a medieval synagogue in Cairo, reveals intimate details about the economic life, community structure, family life, daily affairs, and mentality of the individual living in the Mediterranean Arab lands of the Middle Ages, more than we know about these topics for any other period of premodern Jewish history. The lecture is accompanied by visuals illustrating the discovery and contents of the Geniza. - Maimonides' Egypt
What was Egypt like when the great philosopher and legist arrived there in the middle of the twelfth century? Why were he and so many other displaced Jews attracted to this country? How did his stay in Egypt affect his intellectual and public career? - Jewish Merchant Life and Family Life in the Arab World of the Middle Ages
Take a tour of Jewish economic and family history with the aid of the famous Cairo Geniza, a treasure-trove of Jewish manuscript writings from everyday life discovered at the end of the nineteenth century. How did Jews conduct their business lives in a time that is a "distant mirror" of modern capitalist societies? - Tzedaka in Action: Poverty and Charity in the Time of Maimonides
Poverty and social welfare are "in the news" all the time. What about the Middle Ages? How did Jewish communities cope with the poor in the time of Maimonides in the Middle East? Here is an opportunity to learn how the "other side"-the Jewish "underclass"--lived in the Middle Ages and how the better-off helped them survive.
For more information please contact Carol Fass Publicity & Public Relations at 212.691.9707
