684 Talmud
1433 and others, the Adamites, led by Prokop Holy
(d. 1434) retreated into exaggerated spiritualism and sex-
ual excesses in an autonomous military republic in eastern
Bohemia between 1425 and 1433. Initially successful, the
Adamites took control of the greater part of Bohemia and
MORAVIAbut lost the Battle of Lipany in 1434 to the more
moderate Hussites. After years of resistance, the Adamites
finally gave up their religious independence and submitted
to the regent of the kingdom, George of Podebrady
(r. 1458–71), in September 1452.
See also BOHEMIAN BRETHREN; UTRAQUISTS AND
UTRAQUISM.
Further reading:Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the
Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anar-
chists of the Middle Ages(London: Seeker & Warburg,
1957); Howard Kaminsky, A History of the Hussite Revolu-
tion(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967).
Talmud After the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud was the
most important book for Medieval Judaism. Compiled
over centuries by many scholars, the Talmud, was a
redaction of the Jewish oral law, intended to be a com-
plete written law or the Hebrew BIBLE. It started with a
largely legislative collection, the Mishnacompleted in the
early third century, that included two redactions, the
Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) completed in Palestine in
the early fifth century and the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli)
completed early in the sixth century. Only the Babylonian
Talmud was known in the West until the 12th century. A
series of treatises classified into six orders, it was the tra-
ditional object of numerous commentaries the most
important of which were by RASHI(Rabbi Solomon ben
Isaac) and his school. Deemed essential to understanding
of the Bible by Jews, the Talmud was little known to
Christians before the mid-13th century except through
the work of the converted Jew Petrus Alfonsi (1062–
ca. 1130) and by PETER THEVENERABLEin his Treatise
against the Inveterate Obstinacy of the Jews.During a dis-
putation in 1240, Christian scholars discovered a Tal-
mud, which was subsequently burned at PARISin 1242 or
- As a book it was formally condemned by Pope
INNOCENTIV in 1248. It was mined for polemical mate-
rial and condemned by Christian authorities throughout
the rest of the Middle Ages.
See alsoANTI-JUDAISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM;BIBLE;JEWS
ANDJUDAISM; PENTATEUCH; TAM, JACOB BENMEIR.
Further reading:Jeremy Cohen, Living Letters of the
Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity(Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1999); Hyam Maccoby, The
Philosophy of the Talmud (London: Routledge Curzon,
2002); Jacob Neusner, The Emergence of Judaism: Jewish
Religion in Response to the Critical Issues of the First Six
Centuries (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America,
2000); Jacob Neusner, The Reader’s Guide to the Talmud
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001); David Menahem Shohet, The
Jewish Court in the Middle Ages: Studies in Jewish Jurispru-
dence according to the Talmud, Geonic, and Medieval German
Responsa(1931; reprint, New York: Hermon Press, 1974).Tam, Jacob ben Meir (Rabbenu Tam)(1100–1171)
Jewish scholar
Born about 1100, Jacob was educated at the school of
RASHI, his grandfather, at Troyes. After his formative
years, he settled in the small town of Ramerupt in Cham-
pagne, where he prepared and sold wine and was also
active in moneylending. His business associations gave
him close contact with county authorities, and he min-
gled as well with large portions of the population, devel-
oping his skills for bargaining and negotiating. Jacob had
become a wealthy man by the time he left Ramerupt in
1146 to settle at Troyes, where he became a leader of the
Jewish community and was able devote time to scholarly
work. He wrote a series of commentaries on the TALMUD,
mainly concerned with demonstrating the agreement
among authorities. He became well known and was con-
sulted by the greatest of his contemporary rabbis on con-
cerning daily life of Jews within their own communities
and their relations with their Christian neighbors. His
Responsa, which became authoritative, were scholarly
treatises offering answers based on earlier interpretations.
From 1160 until his death, Jacob presided over gather-
ings of delegations from numerous Jewish communities,
from Champagne but then from all of northern FRANCE.
Jacob’s decisions were considered binding and were rec-
ognized as valid by communities throughout northwest-
ern Europe. With his almost unique standing, he issued
decrees and insisted that other rabbis approve them by
countersigning. At the same time he wrote Tosafist bibli-
cal commentaries and hymns. He died in 1171.
Further reading: Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-
Government in the Middle Ages(New York: Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary of America, 1924); Israel Moses Ta-
Shama and Nissan Netzer, “Tam, Jacob ben Meir,”
Encyclopedia Judaica15.779–781; Kenneth R. Stow, Alien-
ated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe(Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992).Tamerlane (Timur Lang, Timur Lank, Timur Leng)
(1336–1405)Mongol conqueror
Tamerlane was born at Kesh or Kish (Shahr-I Sabz) in
1336 in Transoxiana, south of SAMARKAND. He was a
member of a family of Turkish princes attached to MON-
GOLkhans but claiming descent from JENGHIZKhan. He
was handicapped by deformities on his right side, proba-
bly from an old wound. He set himself the task of recon-
structing the empire of Jenghiz Khan and of becoming
the greatest conqueror of all time. After years of war, in
1364–65 he freed Transoxiana from the rule of a Mongol
khan, and he became the king of that province five years
later. He maintained the fiction of Mongol power but