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This lecture explores the shared passion for acquiring and disseminating Arabo-Islamic knowledge that connected a Muslim and a Jew in the first half of the twentieth century. Their common interest in preserving, reproducing, and classifying Arabo-Islamic sources, ranging from books to manuscripts, led Abraham Shalom Yahuda and Muḥammad Amīn al-Khanjī into a decades-long interconfessional ṣuḥba (collegiality/friendship) that encompassed formal and informal mechanisms, bridging the Mediterranean.
Abraham Shalom Yahuda and Muḥammad Amīn al-Khanjī
Taking on the dual role as scholar-merchant, Yahuda actively worked across multiple European cities, amassing textual materials to support scholarship on the interactions between medieval Jewish intellectuals and the Arabo-Islamic culture, and selling texts and manuscripts to European libraries and individuals. Meanwhile, al-Kutubī, al-Khanjī, based in Cairo, traveled widely in the Middle and Far East collecting Arabic and Islamic manuscripts and books that might otherwise have perished. Utilizing the book trade partnership between both individuals, the lecture investigates the intertwinement between interpersonal and mercantile relations by exploring the shared intentions and motivations underlying their enduring book trade partnership, their navigation of economic and political crises during various periods of their relationship, and the interpersonal tensions they faced and managed. The lecture draws on archival materials, mainly correspondence between Yahuda and the al-Khanjīs (notably Muḥammad Amīn and his sons who joined him in the business of book trade like Sāmī al-Khanjī and Muḥammad Najīb al-Khanjī). Drawing on studies on mercantile and personal relations between various individuals across the Mediterranean, the lecture reveals a complex interplay between formal and informal mechanisms in mercantile cooperation in the book trade business, suggesting different balances and models to capture the economic realities of the first half of the twentieth century.
About the Speaker
Mostafa Hussein is an assistant professor of Jewish-Muslim studies in the Judaic Studies Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His scholarship offers fresh perspectives on Jewish-Muslim intersectionalities, shedding light on the complex cultural and historical interconnections between these communities. Dr. Hussein’s forthcoming book titled Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine (Princeton University Press, 2025) provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine’s landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. He also examines various perceptions of Jews in the Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and the evolution of Jewish imageries from the late nineteenth to late twentieth centuries. Dr. Hussein has recently published a new book titled: Remembering Jews in Maghrebi and Middle Eastern Media (Penn State University Press, September 2024).
Moderator: Professor Aomar Boum (UCLA Anthropology and NELC)
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies