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Books by Alexandra Cuffel

This book explores shared religious practices among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, focusing prima... more This book explores shared religious practices among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, focusing primarily on the medieval Mediterranean. It examines the meanings members of each community ascribed to the presence of the religious other at "their" festivals or holy sites during pilgrimage. Communal boundaries were often redefined or dissolved during pilgrimage and religious festivals. Yet, paradoxically, shared practices served to enforce communal boundaries, since many of the religious elite devised polemical interpretations of these phenomena which highlighted the superiority of their own faith. Such interpretations became integral to each group’s theological understanding of self and other to such a degree that in some regions, religious minorities were required to participate in the festivals of the ruling community. In all formulations, “otherness” remained an essential component of both polemic and prayer.

Edited Books by Alexandra Cuffel

This collection of articles examines the ways in which hagiographies focusing on religious encoun... more This collection of articles examines the ways in which hagiographies focusing on religious encounter change as they move to different geographical contexts and what these changes indicate about inter-religious relations during the Middle Aages/

Religious Boundaries for Sex, Gender, and Corporeality, 2018

Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collecti... more Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collection addresses the intersection of religion, gender, corporeality and/or sexuality in various Western and Eastern cultures. The book analyses instances when religious meaning is attributed to the human body’s physicality and its mechanics in contrast to imagined or metaphorical bodies. In other cases, it is shown that the body may function either as a vehicle or a hindrance for mystical knowledge. The chapters are arranged chronologically and across religious orientations, to offer a differentiated view on the body from a global perspective. This collection is an exciting exploration of religion and the human body. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars in religious studies, theology, Islamic studies, South Asian studies, history of religions and gender studies.

Papers by Alexandra Cuffel

Provides an overview of the intersections between world history and world religions and a methodo... more Provides an overview of the intersections between world history and world religions and a methodological discussion for using an entangled history approach fro the study of the history of pre-modern religious interactions on a global scale.

Toledoth Yeshu in Context ed. Daniel Barbu and Yaacov Deutsch Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020

Entangled Religions, 2018

Introduction to all essays of the special issue Entangled Histories and Interreligious Encounters... more Introduction to all essays of the special issue Entangled Histories and Interreligious Encounters - Jews and Christians in Premodern and Early Modern Asia and Africa that is based on the proceedings of the workshop Eastern Jews and Christians in Interaction and Exchange in the Islamic World and Beyond: A Comparative View held in Jerusalem and Raʿanana in June 2016.

Minorities in Contact in the Medieval Mediterranean, ed. Clara Almagro Vidal, Jessica Tearney-Pearce, Luke Yarbrough (Turnhout: Brepols, , 2020

In 2015, a workshop convened by Ana Echevarria and Nora Berend at St Catharine's College, Cam bri... more In 2015, a workshop convened by Ana Echevarria and Nora Berend at St Catharine's College, Cam bridge invited medi evalists to discuss contacts between religious minorities in the medi eval period. Participants considered case studies from different historical and geo graphical contexts to analyse a range of groups and individuals and the dynamics of their interactions, while also discussing current uses of the term 'minority'. Concurrently another workshop, organized at Saint Louis Uni ver sity, Madrid, by Luke Yarbrough, discussed the apparent paradox of religious alterity and political power in medi eval polities. The speakers focused on persistent patterns of out-group empowerment that arose from relationships between minorities, both those who lacked access to ideo logical hegemony or political power and elites who were numerical minorities, short on legitimacy and access to mechanisms of local control. Participants also discussed the discourses that such empowerment motivated among the ostensible majorities. Both conferences spurred debate about the implications of being a minority and the limitations of the term 'minority' itself to refer to medi eval realities. It became clear that the topics at hand merited further analysis in the form of a coherent publication that could contribute to broader scholarly discussions of these problems. Although those workshops provided the initial impetus for this collection, to which some of the participants have contributed, the concept and rationale of this volume are new. The contributions of participants in the workshops are joined here by other specialists who have recently pioneered innovative approaches to the topic. The final result provides, we hope, fresh perspectives on how difference was experienced and managed in the medi eval Mediterranean.

Entangled Hagiographies of the Religious Other, ed. Alexandra Cuffel and Nikolas Jasper, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019

In a late thirteenth, early fourteenth century text, the Niẓẓaḥon Yashan, the anonymous Jewish au... more In a late thirteenth, early fourteenth century text, the Niẓẓaḥon Yashan, the anonymous Jewish author or compiler adapts Christian anti-hagiographical traditions about the Prophet Muhammad and interweaves this polemical biography of the Prophet with Jews' own anti-hagiographical tradition against Jesus, namely the Toledot Yeshu. I suggest that in this strategy, one sees an "entanglement" of popular, sometimes oral narratives, with more formalized written polemic used by medieval Jews and Christians. Furthermore, by engaging both Islam and Christianity in parallel fashions, and intertwining the polemic against one with the other, the author of the Niẓẓaḥon Yashan sought to sharpen his invective against both. The Jewish adoption of Christian anti-Islamic polemic was a calculated polemical strategy on the part of the Jewish author, on the one hand, and is a testament to the depth of cultural awareness and exchange between medieval European Jews and Christians, not only in Iberia, often recognized as one of the main centers of these activities, but in Northern European, German-speaking lands. The twelfth century has long been recognized as the beginning of a new stage of European Christian approaches to Jewish and Muslim writings, as Christians began to study both Hebrew and Jewish biblical exegesis, and later, the Talmud and Midrash on the one hand, and Arabic, the Qur'an and ḥadīth on the other. While initially, this effort was rooted in a desire to better understand the biblical text by studying it in Hebrew, the learning of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic and the translation of religious texts in these languages into Latin or European vernacular

Entangled Religions, 2019

An overview of the senses in the study of religion and religious encounter is provided, along wit... more An overview of the senses in the study of religion and religious encounter is provided, along with reflections on the ways in which various specific senses were imagined to serve as modes of communication between human beings and between humans and transcendent beings. How the individual case studies collected in this volume inform such a project and further research on religion, the senses, and the role of the senses in religious encounter is a core concern of this introductory essay. We end by suggesting new directions for additional research for an integrated and systematic examination of how senses shape and are used in human encounters with the transcendent and the (human) religious Other. senses, taste, olfaction, smell, touch, visual, hearing, grammar, language incense to express worship of the divine. As such, his study shows that smell is an element in most forms of human and non-human interaction (Stoddart 1990). It is this communicative function, not merely of smell but of most of the senses, on which we intend to focus in this volume. Each sense on the one hand roots humans in their corporeal existence, while on the other provides the means, both literally and also within the symbolic imagination, of creating

Religious Boundaries for Sex, Gender and Corporeality, ed. Alexandra Cuffel, Ana Echevarria, Georgios Halkias , Abingdon: Routledge, , 2018

In some circles, ideal Jewish masculinity was bound to a holy man’s command over mystical knowled... more In some circles, ideal Jewish masculinity was bound to a holy man’s command over mystical knowledge of holy names, especially God’s most holy and hidden name, the shem ha-meforash. The tradition of name knowledge and use of names to ascend to heaven or perform other miracles derived from the Hekhalot mystical tradition. Yet, in late antiquity, and increasingly in the Middle Ages and early modern period, Jews feared misuse of the power that knowledge of the shem ha-meforash conveyed. This anxiety was directed primarily at young Jewish men who might use this power for frivolous means. To dissuade them, Jesus was cast as the ultimate “young (Jewish) man gone bad” and his powers were associated with homosexuality, impurity, and heresy/conversion to Christianity, even as stories with the Toledot Yeshu parodied the Hekhalot mystical tradition. Within early modern Europe, the magical battle between Judas and Jesus also, potentially, represented the “battle” between Christian Kabbalists and Jewish ones.

This article examines indications from Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew and Latin sources which suggest that ... more This article examines indications from Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew and Latin
sources which suggest that one or more versions of the Toledot Yeshu, theJewish “counter-gospel”, were circulating in Egypt, Castile and northernEurope during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and that this tale wasparticularly popular in Iberia during the thirteenth centuries. The articlefocuses on the tale of the Hebrew youth and the magician in Ibn Sahula’sMeshal ha-Qadmoni, suggesting that Ibn Sahula used elements of the ToledotYeshu which his audience would have recognized, but changed portionsof the Toledot narrative. Ibn Sahula did so in order to shape it into a polemic against Jewish courtiers, too intrigued with Christian culture, women andthe study of magic, astrology, and divination at King Alfonso x’s court.

Muslims and Others in Sacred Space, 2012

Religious Boundaries for Sex, Gender, and Corporeality, 2018

Toledoth Yeshu in Context ed. Daniel Barbu and Yaacov Deutsch Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020

Entangled Religions, 2018

Minorities in Contact in the Medieval Mediterranean, ed. Clara Almagro Vidal, Jessica Tearney-Pearce, Luke Yarbrough (Turnhout: Brepols, , 2020

Entangled Hagiographies of the Religious Other, ed. Alexandra Cuffel and Nikolas Jasper, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019

Entangled Religions, 2019

Religious Boundaries for Sex, Gender and Corporeality, ed. Alexandra Cuffel, Ana Echevarria, Georgios Halkias , Abingdon: Routledge, , 2018

Muslims and Others in Sacred Space, 2012

Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 2011

This essay explores the ways in which Isaac ibn Sahula (1244–c. 1284) drew upon philosophy, medic... more This essay explores the ways in which Isaac ibn Sahula (1244–c. 1284) drew upon philosophy, medical theory, astrology, and animal lore, both to polemicize against Christians and Muslims and to goad his Jewish readers to correct spiritual behavior in his Meshal ha-Qadmoni. Christians, Muslims, and “bad” Jews are portrayed as having degraded their intellect by following fleshly lusts or false wisdom. In losing their intellect, they have lost the quality that made them superior to animals. His use of animals to portray the “inhumanity” of most humans adds a level of irony to his work, but also becomes a part of his arsenal of symbolism, which he deftly uses to criticize the religious claims and behavior of non-Jews. In some instances loss of intellect feminizes his opponents. However, Ibn Sahula's use of gender symbolism does not fall along neat dichotomies of male-spiritual, female-material. Rather, non-Jews are often characterized by hyper-masculinity, violence, and excessive lust, whereas Ibn Sahula portrays himself as a woman giving birth, Israel as maiden or woman in need of going to purify herself in a miqvah. His manipulation of gender symbolism, like his use of animals, is part of a broad defensive polemic aimed at Christian and Muslim criticism of Jews.

Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe: Gender, Power, Patronage and the Authority of Religion in Latin Christendom: Festschrift in honor of Penelope D. Johnson, ed. Katherine Allen Smith and Scott Wells , 2009

This essay examines medieval and early modern Jewish reverence for the holy deceased and fear of ... more This essay examines medieval and early modern Jewish reverence for the holy deceased and fear of the dangerous dead themselves or those who had the knowledge to manipulate spirits. I focus specifically on the relationships of women to the dead and to women as members of the dead (both holy or dangerous) in Ashkenazi (Germanic or Northern European Jewish) culture. I maintain that women's own death, especially martyrdom, granted women a degree of holiness and authority that they lacked in life, or as individuals unassociated with the dead. Furthermore, recognition of women's interest in and involvement with the dead increased in the Ashkenazi world during the early modern period. Despite continued disapproval from some circles, men and sometimes women themselves, actively encouraged women's devotion to the dead.

Religion, Gender, and Culture in the pre-modern world, ed. Brian Britt and Alexandra Cuffel, 2007

The Jewish Quarterly Review, 1999

... vmTpm onf?w )v nj)n1x . Ibid. 11. 29-31. Shimon writes as if his sister knows them, perhaps a... more ... vmTpm onf?w )v nj)n1x . Ibid. 11. 29-31. Shimon writes as if his sister knows them, perhaps an indication that they too were Andalusian. See also Gil, History of Pales-tine, pp. ... The Alexandrian cantor, Yehudah b. Aaron b. al-'Amani, wrote to his colleague in Fustat: ...

Medieval Encounters, 2013

The course will introduce its students to the ways in which Jews and Christians interacted in the... more The course will introduce its students to the ways in which Jews and Christians interacted in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Horn of Africa, especially Ethiopia, and the Indian Ocean in the period between 600-1800 CE. This is the topic of a research project aiming at establishing a new area of study – relations between Jews and Eastern Christian communities from the rise of Islam to the end of the eighteenth century. The study of inter-religious dynamics is anchored in the framework of pre-modern cultural history concerning a vast geographical area that encompasses seemingly disparate lands from Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, through West Asia and the Caucasus, to South India, all connected through trade and travel. The course has two aims: 1) to introduce the interested researchers/students into the required skills and methods (linguistic, philological, archaeological, ethnographic, and historiographic) that are needed for the exploration of this new field; 2) to disseminate the results of the JewsEast research project It is open to researchers, doctoral and MA-level students of religion, history and culture who would benefit from a deeper understanding and the reconceptualization of inter-religious relations, especially between Jews and Christians, in these zones and from presenting their own research for feedback within such a context. Participating students will be invited to deconstruct various stereotypes, including the " civilizational model " and that of a " clash of civilizations ". Instead, it proposes to see the history of Jewish-Christian relations in " entangled " cross-cultural, trans-regional contexts and to avoid ethnocentric or nationalist biases. It will teach how complex identities and interreligious communities were formed just prior to the rise of Islam through the eighteenth century and, toward the end of the course, briefly consider how these perspectives should affect our examination of these issues in the present.

This project analyzes Jews and Eastern Christian communities and Eastern Christian sources, beyon... more This project analyzes Jews and Eastern Christian communities and Eastern Christian sources, beyond the Byzantine context, namely, relations between Jews and Christian communities in the Middle East Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ethiopia, and South India. In order to obtain a truly accurate understanding of the dynamics of Jewish-Christian relations in the non-Latin world during the Middle Ages, these various regions and traditions must be studied together because they were all profoundly interconnected through the exchange and translation of texts, artistic motifs and techniques, and other goods, via long-distance trade along the “silk road”, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean, which, of course, also entailed the movement and encounter of peoples, Jews and Christians among them. The research team endeavors to answer four intertwined questions: 1) what we can know about actual “real-life” interactions between Jews and a variety of Eastern Christian communities; 2) what were the meanings and functions of invented or rhetorical Jewish identities; 3) what is the significance of Jewish-Christian polemics, both written and visual, in lands or among communities where: a) there were supposedly few to no Jews, or Jewish identity was “invented”; b) there were Jewish and Christian communities who had the opportunity to be in regular contact with one another; 4) how were Christian stories, laws, biblical interpretations, or motifs in which Jews featured prominently, or Jewish tales and motifs about Christians transformed as they were transported from one cultural milieu to another? Because scholars have examined Jewish relations with Christians, and even Muslims primarily in the context of uneven power relationships; namely Jewish-Christian relations in Western Europe or Byzantium, or Jewish-Muslim relations in the Islamic one leaving Jewish-Christian relations untouched apart from shared communal structures, this project opens a new field.

Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), 23 July-3 Aug 2018. The course will introduce doctoral and ad... more Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), 23 July-3 Aug 2018.

The course will introduce doctoral and advanced research-oriented MA students to the ways in which Jews and Christians interacted in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Horn of Africa, especially Ethiopia, and the Indian Ocean in the period between 600-1800 CE. This is the topic of a research project aiming at establishing a new area of study – relations between Jews and Eastern Christian communities from the rise of Islam to the end of the eighteenth century.

Proposals for sessions relating to Jewish topics in all disciplines related to the Middle Ages wi... more Proposals for sessions relating to Jewish topics in all disciplines related to the Middle Ages will be considered, however, since the special topic for the IMC in 2023 is "Networks and Entanglements", proposals which address this thematic concern will be especially welcome. 'Networks' have become a much-employed term in the connected world of the 21st century, and also in scholarship. Historical studies, including medieval studies, have adapted concepts from sociology and digital tools to survey, visualise, and analyse the webs of interaction and relations among individuals, groups, places, artefacts, or polities. These notions emerge from a far-reaching relational approach across disciplines. Networks thus emerge from, or are defined as, multifaceted interdependencies. They highlight linkages between the human and non-human sphere, akin to how medieval people perceived manifold connections between the macro-and the microcosm. 'Networks' can address all kinds of relationships, connections, and correlations, their manifestations and structures, dynamics, and limits.

Seeking papers and panels on Jewish materialities for IMC 2019!