Lecture
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Tuesday 25.11.2025
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
The Jewish Discovery of Islam
Tuesday 25.11.2025
How to watch
This lecture starts on 25 November at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
We examine the rise of Islamic studies in Europe, with a focus on the role Jews played in this development. The lecture covers key figures such as Rabbi Saadia Azankot, Ignaz Goldziher, Abraham Geiger, Shlomo Pines, and Shlomo Dov Goitein.
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite teaches Chinese History, Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and sometimes Jewish history, at New York University. He is author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 2005); The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, 2009); co-editor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Culture, and Politics (Brandeis, 2013); The Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a Concept (Columbia University Press, 2017); and Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History (Hawaii University Press, 2023).