Messianic Expectations in the Peloponnesos
The publication with commentary of a fragmentary letter dealing with some messianic manifestations and excitement in Sicily engendered a number of controversies a generation ago successfully clouding the potential value of this source for the study of East Mediterranean Jewish history in the Middle...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
HUC
1982
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 1981, Volume: 52, Pages: 195-202 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The publication with commentary of a fragmentary letter dealing with some messianic manifestations and excitement in Sicily engendered a number of controversies a generation ago successfully clouding the potential value of this source for the study of East Mediterranean Jewish history in the Middle Ages. A reexamination of this document has elicited, through the identification of the place-name in the second part of the fragment, a connection with the Greece of the Frankish Crusaders. Further hints in the document allow for a suggested dating of the events to the mid thirteenth century. The discovery of a hitherto unknown Jewish community, Andravida, in the Frankish capital of Morea, has great significance for the history of thirteenth-century Greek Jewry. Further, the messianic excitement that stimulated East Mediterranean Jewry attending the onslaught of the Mongols has a bearing on the fascinating career of the peripatetic mystic Abraham Abulafia, whose arrival in Greece was nearly contemporary with the events related in this source. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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