Acknowledgments
This edited volume is about religion, intellectualism, and culture in Juda-
ism and Islam. There are few, if any, studies that resemble it when focus-
ing on the medieval and early modern times. The authors recruited for
this purpose rank among the best researchers in their field: historians,
scholars of Arabic and Hebrew literature, musicologists, mathematicians,
and philosophers. Indeed, some chapters are a mélange. The picture that
emerges is that the relationship between Judaism and Islam is complex
and depends on social conditions, common or contradictory interests,
and religious and cultural exchanges. During the final preparations for
the publication of this volume, one of the authors, Professor Juliette Has-
sine from Bar-Ilan University, passed away prematurely. She was a dear
colleague, and we shall cherish her memory.
We express our sincerest gratitude to the following people and institu-
tions: Professor Fred Astren, director of the Jewish Studies Program at
San Francisco State University; Bar-Ilan University’s Aharon and Rachel
Dahan Center for Culture, Society and Education in the Sephardic Heri-
tage and its director, Dr. Shimon Ohayon; and William Frost, president of
the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation in New York. Without their gracious
and generous financial support, the realization of this project would not
have been possible.
We are equally indebted to Yitzhak Kerner, the former administrative
director of the Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University, and to
its former dean, Professor Moises Orfali, for their invaluable advice, as
preparation for the book was under way beginning in 2006. The help pro-
vided by Professor Eliezer Tauber, the former chair of our department,