伊斯兰世界犹太人与阿拉伯人的交往

历史上的犹太人与阿拉伯人在种族上是近亲,在地理上是近邻,有着血脉相通的联系。远古时代,他们来往密切,并有着相互联姻的历史记载。第一圣殿被毁以后,流落在阿拉伯半岛的犹太人带来了犹太文化,并对伊斯兰思想的形成产生了很大的影响。公元7世纪之后,随着伊斯兰教对半岛上的反伊斯兰势力采取强硬政策,阿拉伯人与犹太人之间的关系逐渐疏远,并出现了宗教冲突。但当伊斯兰政权稳固之后,双方又出现了和睦相处的局面。特别是阿拔斯王朝时期,许多犹太人取得了很高的政治、军事地位,为王朝的发展做出了贡献。正是在阿拉伯人的宽容与监护下,西班牙等地的犹太社团才发挥了自身的创造力,形成了灿烂的文化。     

The Images of Arabs and Jews as a factor in British policy towards Palestine

Moshe Davis and Ben‐Arieh Yehoshua, eds., With Eyes Toward Zion, (Volume III, Western Societies and the Holy Land), New York, Praeger, 1991, 304 pp., $55.00.

Sergio I. Minerbi, The Vatican and Zionism, Conflict in the Holy Land 1895–1925, translated from Hebrew by Arnold Schwartz (Studies in Jewish History Series) (Mus.), New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990, 272 pp., $30.00.

Ephraim Even, The Schism in the 1922 Zionist Movement: Why Jabotinsky Established the New Zionist Organization (Hebrew), Jerusalem, Rubin Mass Ltd., 1992, 243 pp.

I. Alfassi, ed., Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization): Collection of Archival Sources and Documents, April 1937‐April 1941, Tel Aviv. Vol. I, 1990, 472 pp.; Vol. II, 1992, 472 pp.

Abraham S. Hyman, The Undefeated, Jerusalem, Gefen Publishing House, 1993,486 pp., $24.95.

Yemima Rosenthal, ed., Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel, Volume 6, 1951, Jerusalem, Israel State Archives, 1991, 916 pp. and Yehoshua Freundlich, ed., Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel, Volume 7, 1952, Jerusalem, Israel State Archives, 1992, 774 pp.

Nitza Ben‐Dov, Notes on Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Contents in the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon, New York, E.J. Brill, 1993, 168 pp., $57.25.

Morris, Benny. Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, xxii+470 pp.

Laurence J. Silberstein, ed., New Perspectives on Israeli History, New York, New York University Press, 1991, ix+281 pp.

Itamar Rabinovich, The Road Not Taken: Early Arab‐Israeli Negotiations, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991, xi+259 pp., $22.95.

Benny Morris, Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993, xii+470 pp.     

A Russian Before and After the Revolution: P. P. Efimenko,a Pioneer of Levantine Prehistoric Research

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a reappraisal of the Levantine prehistoric chronological sequence constructed by Pyotr Petrovich Efimenko (1884–1969). As a young Russian prehistorian, Efimenko visited Palestine in 1913, collected material from several sites and, in 1915, published a synthesis in which he compared the prehistory of Europe with that of the Near East. This was part of his comprehensive monograph on the Prehistory of Eurasia which was also based on his work at the sites of Mezin and Kostenki and the Palaeolithic of Russia. The current paper also attempts to evaluate the career of Efimenko particularly in light of the unfamiliarity of his work among prehistorians working in the southern Levant.     

North Africa between Christians and Arabs

Vandals, Romans and Berbers. New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa. Edited by Andy H. Merrills (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), xv + 347 pp. £55.00 cloth.     

Enlightenment and Prophecy: The Jews and Neo-Hellenic Nationalism

ABSTRACT

Even before the rise of nationalism and its counterpart anti-Semitism sensu stricto, anti-Judaic prejudices and stereotypes were widespread in the Christian Orthodox communities of the Ottoman Empire. These attitudes arose mainly from the commercial antagonism between the Christian and Jewish communities during the crisis that beset the empire from the seventeenth century onward. To examine these attitudes more closely, this article first focuses on the extreme anti-Judaic discourse in the sermons of eighteenth-century Father Cosmas Aitolos (Cosmas of Aetolia; d. 1779), an itinerant monk, who was canonized in 1961. It then turns to Rhigas Velestinlis’s enlightened vision of a tolerant multi-ethnic, multi-religious republic, which gradually replaced the Sultan’s oriental despotism, in which Jews, Muslims, and Christians were to be equal citizens. But this vision sank into oblivion, as the aspiration to national independence and to ethnical homogeneity prevailed in Greece, as well as everywhere in the Balkans. Although the early advocates of enlightened Greek nationalism embraced the language of citizenship and emancipation, they excluded from it the proviso of multi-ethnicity. Accordingly, they perceived the “Jewish Question” as one of gradually integrating a “foreign” religious minority into the Greek nation by “re-educating them in the values of Hellenism,” in the words of Adamandios Korais (1748–1833), and according them full citizenship only in the generations to come. All three distinctive attitudes towards the Jews are traceable in subsequent ideological trends and conflicts in Modern Greece.     

Remaking Sarajevo: Bosnian nationalism after the Dayton Accord

The task of rebuilding a city after war-time destruction can take many forms. In addition to the obvious signs of refurbishment and new buildings, there are more subtle forms of renewal involving a re-creation of the city’s identity and changes to its inhabitants’ views of the world. For Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Hercegovina, the cessation of the struggle for control of the city, involving various ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia, has brought about several forms of renewal, many of which have been closely related to the altered political status of Bosnia. This paper investigates ways in which the changing face of Sarajevo is associated with attempts to establish the state of Bosnia and Hercegovina subsequent to the signing of the Dayton Accord that guaranteed some measure of security to Sarajevo and to Bosnia itself. In particular, manifestations of a growing Bosnian nationalism are analysed in the context of the new state’s attempts to establish a clear identity within the deeply disturbed geopolitical setting of the former Yugoslavia. Special attention is given to the renaming of many streets within Sarajevo and to the symbolism on the newly-issued banknotes. Consideration is given to theories of nationalism and to the manifestations of nationalism in the specific context of the former Yugoslavia. There is particular focus upon the position of the Bosnian Muslims in the newly-established state and the emergence of a Bosnian nationalist agenda.     

Acoustics and Levantine rock art: auditory perceptions in La Valltorta Gorge (Spain)

This article explores the relevance of acoustics as a factor for in the production and active use of Levantine rock art in Spain. The renowned rock art area of La Valltorta Gorge serves as a case study. Two experiments are described; the first assessed whether the sites with the most painted motifs had better acoustics than those with fewer motifs. The second tested which areas in La Valltorta Gorge had better acoustics and whether there was a difference between the acoustics of the decorated area and the contiguous sectors of the Gorge where no paintings have been found. In both experiments different sounds and pitches were used. The results suggest a strong relationship between the painted areas and the sonority of the place, with the major sites generally having provided the best results, with the exception of the sonority when facing the rock art panels. It is suggested that La Valltorta Gorge was chosen to be decorated with a view to increasing the perceptual impact of the rituals that may have been held at rock art sites due to the amplification caused by the echoing and resonance.