Cohen Mark R. Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World)
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POVERTY AND CHARITY
IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
OF MEDIEVAL EGYPT
8
JEWS, CHRISTIANS, AND MUSLIMS
FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE MODERN WORLD
Series Editors
Michael Cook, William Chester Jordan, and Peter Schäfer
Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 b.c.e. to 600 c.e.,
by Seth Schwartz
A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean,
by Molly Greene
Beautiful Death: Jewish Poetry and Martyrdom in Medieval France,
by Susan L. Einbinder
Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and
Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain, by Ross Brann
Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbala,
by Peter Schäfer
In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain,
by Gretchen D. Starr-LeBeau
The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in the Early Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam, by David M. Goldenberg
Resisting History: Historicism and Its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought,
by David N. Myers
Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe,
by Elisheva Baumgarten
A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain,
by Mark D. Meyerson
The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain,
by Mary Elizabeth Perry
Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt,
by Mark R. Cohen
POVERTY AND CHARITY
IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
OF MEDIEVAL EGYPT
Mark R. Cohen
8
princeton university press
princeton and oxford
COPYRIGHT © 2005 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET, PRINCETON,
NEW JERSEY 08540
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 3 MARKET PLACE,
WOODSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE OX20 1SY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
COHEN, MARK R., 1943–
POVERTY AND CHARITY IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
OF MEDIEVAL EGYPT / MARK R. COHEN.
P. CM. — (JEWS, CHRISTIANS, AND MUSLIMS
FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE MODERN WORLD)
COMPLEMENTED BY THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION OF PRIMARY SOURCES
IN TRANSLATION, THE VOICE OF THE POOR IN THE MIDDLE AGES:
AN ANTHOLOGY OF DOCUMENTS FROM THE CAIRO GENIZA,
ON WHICH THE RESEARCH IS BASED.
INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES (P. ) AND INDEX.
ISBN 0-691-09272-9 (CLOTH : ALK. PAPER)
1. JEWS—EGYPT—CHARITIES—HISTORY. 2. POVERTY—RELIGIOUS ASPECTS—JUDAISM.
3. JUDAISM—CHARITIES—HISTORY. 4. JEWS—EGYPT—SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
5. POOR—EGYPT—HISTORY. 6. JUDAISM—RELATIONS—ISLAM. 7. ISLAM—
RELATIONS—JUDAISM. 8. CAIRO GENIZAH. I. VOICE OF THE POOR IN THE MIDDLE
AGES. I. TITLE II. SERIES.
HV17.C65 2005
362.5'089'924062—DC22 2004062446
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN SABON
PRINTED ON ACID-FREE PAPER.
PUP.PRINCETON.EDU
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
In memory of my father,
Simon Leo Cohen (1914–1995),
and for my mother, Selma Cohen
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CONTENTS
8
Acknowledgments ix
Note xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter One
A Taxonomy of the Poor 33
Chapter Two
The Foreign Poor 72
Chapter Three
Captives, Refugees, and Proselytes 109
Chapter Four
Debt and the Poll Tax 130
Chapter Five
Women and Poverty 139
Chapter Six
“Naked and Starving,” the Sick and Disabled 156
Chapter Seven
Beggars or Petitioners? 174
Chapter Eight
Charity 189
Chapter Nine
Conclusion: Poverty and Charity,
Continuity and Acculturation 243
Bibliography 253
Index of Geniza Texts 271
General Index 278
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
8
URING THE years I have worked on this book I have benefited
from the assistance of many individuals and institutions. As with
my previous projects I am particularly indebted to Cambridge
University Library; to the director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research
Unit, Professor Stefan C. Reif; and to the staff of the Manuscripts Reading
Room. I am grateful also to the Reverend Dr. David Cornick, principal of
Westminster College, and to the Reverend Dr. Janet Tollington, former li-
brarian, for their assistance with Geniza manuscripts in the nearby
Westminster College Collection. Similarly, I thank the British Library in
London and the staff of the Oriental and India Office Reading Room; the
Bodleian Library in Oxford and the staff of the Oriental Reading Room;
the librarian and staff of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris; the li-
brarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary and library staff, particularly
Rabbi Jerome Schwarzbard and David Wachtel; librarian Dr. Seth
Jerchower and the library staff of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
in Philadelphia; Dr. Avraham David, supervisor of the S. D. Goitein
Laboratory for Geniza Research at the Institute for Microfilmed Hebrew
Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem; and
the S. D. Goitein Laboratory for Geniza Research in the Department of
Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. I thank the Syndics of
Cambridge University Library and Professor Stefan C. Reif for permis-
sion to reproduce in this book two facsimiles of Geniza documents from
their library. I must add here my gratitude for another resource that fa-
cilitated my research immeasurably: the word processor Nota Bene,
where I created a corpus of around 890 documents and used its mar-
velous index and search feature, Orbis, to retrieve data that otherwise
would have lain buried and virtually inaccessible.
Support for the research and writing was provided over the years by
the Princeton University Committee for Research in the Humanities; by the
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation with a grant in 1996–1997; by the
Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, which generously gave this
former Fellow a quiet office to work in that year; by the Center for the
Study of Religion at Princeton University and its director, Professor
Robert Wuthnow, for a grant in support of the project in 2001–2002;
and finally, by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, its Rector Dieter Grimm
and wonderful staff, which afforded me the luxury of a yearlong Fellow-
ship in 2002–2003, when I finished the book.
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