578 further reading
R. Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Cul‑
ture (New Haven and London, 1998) provides a clear and scholarly description
of rabbinic Judaism in the last centuries of the first millennium ce. The substan-
tial collection of essays in M. Polliack, ed., Karaite Judaism: A Guide to its
History and Literary Sources (Leiden, 2004) is the best introduction to this aspect
of Judaism beyond the rabbis. For Greek Judaism in the Middle Ages, see A. Sharf,
Byzantine Jewry from Justinian to the Fourth Crusade (London, 1971).
Most books on medieval Judaism focus on specific rabbis or religious move-
ments, but S. Stroumsa, Maimonides in his World: Portrait of a Mediterranean
Thinker (Princeton, 2009) has a wider scope. D. H. Frank and O. Leaman, eds.,
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Cambridge, 2003)
contains essays on the philosophical approach to Judaism taken by medieval Jews
from the ninth to the sixteenth century under the influence of Islam and Chris-
tianity. L. Jacobs, A Tree of Life: Diversity, Flexibility, and Creativity in Jewish
Law, 2nd edn (London and Portland, Oreg., 2000) is a classic study, packed with
erudition and insights, which covers more than just the medieval period. The illu-
minating presentation of complex medieval and later texts in D. R. Blumenthal,
Understanding Jewish Mysticism: A Source Reader, 2 vols. (New York, 1978– 82)
encourages sympathetic understanding of mystical trends while precluding
simple explanations. On early modern Judaism, the best survey is by D. Ruder-
man, Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History (Princeton, 2010). D. Abulafia,
The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (London, 2011) provides
much detail and colour on Jewish Communities across the Mediterranean in the
medieval and early modern periods. For a clear introduction to the issues which
have shaped Judaism in the modern period, see the collection of essays in N. de
Lange and M. Freud- Kandel, eds., Modern Judaism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford,
2005).
Many short introductions to contemporary Judaism are available and all pro-
vide some historical background. Among the best are N. de Lange, Judaism, 2nd
edn (Oxford, 2003); idem, An Introduction to Judaism, 2nd edn (Cambridge,
2010); O. Leaman, Judaism: An Introduction (London, 2011); N. Solomon, Juda‑
ism: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd edn (Oxford, 2014). Of reference works,
C. Roth, ed., Encyclopaedia Judaica, 16 vols. (Jerusalem, 1971) is pre- eminent
and has not been wholly displaced by the second edition, edited in 22 volumes by
M. Berenbaum and F. Skolnik (Detroit, 2007), which is much less widely avail-
able. I. Singer, ed., The Jewish Encyclopedia, 12 vols. (New York, 1901– 6) is now
over a century old and therefore lacking in any coverage of the twentieth century,
but the whole work is freely available on the internet, and many of the entries on
earlier Judaism remain useful.
Among other valuable reference works, see L. Jacobs, The Jewish Religion: A
Companion (Oxford, 1995), N. de Lange, The Penguin Dictionary of Judaism
(London, 2008) and A. Berlin and M. Grossman, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of
the Jewish Religion, 2nd edn (New York and Oxford, 2011).