Historian
Salo Baron argued that
medieval Jews preferred storytelling to history, while
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi argued that past was remembered in ritual. However, the abundance of medieval works shows that medieval Jews both produced and consumed historical work.
Mircea Eliade defined Judaism as a "historical religion;" Yerushalmi disagreed, but believed Jews practiced oriented or sacred history, such as biblical history, and were the "fathers of meaning in history." However, premodern Judaism before the
Renaissance often didn't focus on post-biblical history, preferring philosophy and mysticism.
Moshe Idel posits a model of Jewish history distinct from the typical role of history in European nationalism, conceived as a unification with, and then a rupture from, Jewish religious tradition. Another example is
Demetrius the Chronographer. The earliest Hebrew books were printed in Rome starting in 1469. Early printers were aware of the strong
sofer tradition of Hebrew
scribal production.|alt=Genealogy of the Exilarchs to David and Adam, Avraham ben Tamim, Cairo Geniza, 1100s (Katz Center/UPenn)|243x243px
Attitudes toward historical writing Talmudic authorities discouraged the writing of history in the medieval and early modern era; the extent to which this was effective in discouraging actual historical production is unclear.
Moritz Steinschneider and
Arnaldo Momigliano had observed that Jewish historiography appears to slow down at the end of the
Second Temple period, and even
Maimonides (1138–1204) considered history a waste of time. Officially, secular philosophy was seen by some medieval rabbinic authorities as a
gentile activity and forbidden. Higher-class Jewish scholars were encouraged to study
medicine. Astrology was also permitted. Medicine, astronomy and cosmography were an acceptable blending of religion and science, drawing on the Babylonians. History was read at times but considered an activity pursued by other groups; however, medieval Jewish authorities in the Arab world treated the practice of secular philosophy with
salutary neglect, though banned, a blind eye was turned to its practice. In fact, as
David Berger notes, Spanish Jewry was clearly hospitable to philosophy, literary arts and the sciences.
Joseph Caro called history books "books of wars," which he prohibited the reading of as the "sitting in the gathering of thoughtless people," and the
Geonim, such as
Saadia Gaon, implied the roots of heresy or simply lack of education. Explaining through the example of Maimonides,
ha-Cohen's, and
Elijah Capsali (1485-1550)'s attitude toward history, Bonfil shows there is nonetheless a medieval historiography inherited by later writers, though he acknowledges the paucity of Jewish medieval historiography and the impact of the negative halakhic stance that should not be underestimated. Capsali, an important historian of Muslim and Ottoman history, has a medieval historical approach, with early modern subject matter. Capsali's chronicle may be the first example of a diasporic Jew writing a history of their own location (Venice). Bonfil surmises that the return to traditionalism in orthodoxy was actually a later phenomenon, a reactionary response to modernity. Notably,
Baruch Spinoza was
excommunicated for transgressing the bounds of Rabbinic thought into the growing domain of Enlightenment philosophy in 1656. Spinoza and rabbi
Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, who studied with
Galileo, shared a goal to liberate science from theology, and combined it with scriptural references. Spinoza and others, such as
Abraham Abulafia or
Ibn Caspi, became figures in the conflict between emancipation and traditionalism in Jewish political and historical ideology. , per
Marina Rustow, has stressed that the anti-rabbinic themes expressed by both
Uriel da Costa (1585-1640) and Spinoza had emerged from the crucible of Iberian
crypto-Jewish culture. Early modern
philology (i.e. the study of historical texts) had an important impact on the development of the Enlightenment intellectual movements through work such as that of Spinoza.
Richard Simon also had his work of historical biblical criticism suppressed by the Catholic authorities in France in 1678. While some Jews were willing to express doubt or disbelief privately, they feared the judgment or ostracism of the community to go too far in criticism of the establishment. of the Geonim, 1300s, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna|Responsa of the Geonim, 1300s,
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna|left Medieval Jewish historical consciousness permeated various writings beyond formal historiography. Steinschneider included a broad range of texts in his definition of historical literature, such as
selichot (penitential prayers),
qinot (elegies), communal statutes, travel accounts,
minhagim (customs), testaments, and letters. Yerushalmi acknowledged "the so-called ‘chain of tradition’ of the oral law (
shalshelet ha-qabbalah)" was the exception to the scarcity of medieval Jewish historiography, that Bonfil pointed out remained a bestseller even in the era of early printed books, leading Bonfil to view Renaissance and Baroque Jewish historical writing as a "sad epilogue" of the medieval period. Bonfil further argued that this scarcity was partly due to a perceived Jewish marginality and lack of agency in political and military spheres, which were the predominant subjects of medieval historiography. Jews of the medieval Islamic world such as
Andalusia,
North Africa,
Syria,
Palestine, and
Iraq were prolific producers and consumers of historical works in Hebrew,
Judeo-Arabic,
Arabic and rarely
Aramaic.
David B. Ruderman has stated that Bonfil's perspective on the complex dialectic between Jews and non-Jews, rather than a simplistic understanding of "influence," is a revisionist perspective with implications for understanding historiography in context be it Christian or Ottoman; Ruderman is a proponent of Bonfil's interpretation. Over 400,000 manuscript fragments in the
Cairo Geniza are an important historical source from the
Fatimid period, rediscovered as a historical source in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Geniza has been called a "lost archive." The Geniza was literally a storeroom in the
Ben Ezra Synagogue in
Fustat which contained scrap documents dating to the 9th century, and now exists as a corpus of widely-studied documents at various academic institutions.
Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon (987) and
Sefer ha-Qabbalah (1161) by
Abraham ibn Daud (ibn David) were two medieval sources available to and trusted by Jewish thinkers and early modern historiographers and are two of the most widely-cited and important early sources. Ibn David is considered one of the first rationalist Spanish Jewish philosophers. The 10th century
responsa of the Geonim are an important corpus of correspondence. Iraqi Jews in areas such as
Baghdad and
Basra, were an important community in this time period and corresponded with the
Talmudic academies in Babylonia. The medieval chroniclers such as
Ahimaaz ben Paltiel in 1054 in Byzantine Italy, who merged history with mythology and hagiography in liturgical poems, and the Ashkenazic martyrologers such as
Solomon bar Simson around 1140 in Mainz who recorded the persecutions of the Crusades, wrote that
Sefer ha-Zikhronot constitutes the "greatest, most encompassing, and diverse literary anthology of the Jewish Middle Ages that we know of," and it strove to create "an encompassing historical picture of the world and the Jewish people" and a "universal history."
Menachem HaMeiri of Perpignan (c.1249–c.1315), writing in Southern France, makes reference to many historical events in his commentary, and makes use of ibn Daud and Sherira Gaon. These medieval chronicles are part of the chain of tradition genre, as does
David ben Samuel of Estelle (c.1340) in an overview of rabbinic scholarship.
Isaaq ben Yaqob de Lattes, who incorporates both of the former in his 1372 chronicle
Shaarey Tzion (Gates of Zion) which was relied upon by
Saadiah ben Maimun ibn Danan (c.1436–93), Gedaliah ibn Yahya, David Conforte, and Hayyim Azulai. The chronicle of
Abraham bar Hiyya d. c.1136, considered the first chronicle of Jewish Christian Spain, was also utilized by ibn Daud and covers biblical, Jewish and world history until 1099. In Spain,
Menahem ben Aaron ibn Zerah (1308 or 1310, to 1385),
Samuel ibn Senah Tzartza (c.1369), and
Hasdai Crescas (1340–1410/11) recorded the sufferings of Jewish communities of Spain.
Profiat Duran (d. c.1414) wrote a survey of Jewish persecutions from the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE to the
pogroms of 1391 during which he was forcibly baptized.
Joseph ben Tzaddik incorporated a chain of tradition in his
Qitzur Zekher Tzaddiq (Compendium of the Memory of the Righteous), 1467-1487.
Abraham ben Solomon of Torrutiel continued ibn Daud in 1510 covering the events of 1492. reprinted 1906 Brockhaus & Efron Jewish Encyclopedia|alt=Yiddish Josippon 1546, reprinted 1906 Brockhaus & Efron Jewish Encyclopedia|368x368px
Josippon Josippon (or
Sefer/Sepher Josippon), also called "Josephus of the Jews," was a key medieval source familiar to
Hasdai ibn Shaprut and
Ibn Hazm, one of if not the most influential historical works in pre-modern Jewish historiography, probably composed by a pseudonymous "Joseph ben Gorion" in the 10th century based on the earlier
Josephus Flavius and his work
Antiquities of the Jews. It relies on the
Hegesippus (or
Pseudo-Hegesippus), a Latin translator of
Antiquities and Josephus'
The Jewish War. The author had access to a decent library of material and drew on
1 Maccabees,
2 Maccabees,
Jerome's translation of
Eusebius, the
Aeneid,
Macrobius,
Orosius, and
Livy. Like its namesake and inspiration, the work commingles Roman history and Jewish history.
Yosippon was republished in the 16th century and was a historical chronicle of critical importance to medieval Jews. These books were frequently reprinted through the 18th century. The work emerged from the context of
Hellenistic Judaism or
Romaniote Judaism in the
Jewish Byzantine Empire. The version of
Josippon by the young Balkan scholar
Yehudah ibn Moskoni (1328-1377), printed in
Constantinople in 1510 and translated to English in 1558, became the most popular book published by Jews and about Jews for non-Jews, who ascribed its authenticity to the Roman Josephus, until the 20th century. Born in Byzantium, Moskoni's library of 198 volumes was once considered by historians to be the largest individual Jewish library in medieval Western Europe, although as notes, there were numerous Jewish and
converso libraries 1229-1550, citing . He further notes that Moskoni's library was sold in 1375 for a high price, and that Moskoni specifically commented on the use of non-Jewish sources in
Josippon. Moskoni was part of a Byzantine Greek-Jewish milieu that produced a number of philosophical works in Hebrew and a common intellectual community of Jews in the Mediterranean. from 1706 edition of Josippon|alt=Printer's fleuron from 1706 edition of Josippon|222x222px
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) 's
Muqaddimah (1377) also contains a post-biblical Jewish history of the "Israelites in Syria" and he relied on Jewish sources, such as the Arabic translation of
Josippon by
Zachariah ibn Said, a
Yemenite Jew, according to
Khalifa (d. 1655).
Saskia Dönitz has analyzed an earlier Egyptian version older than the version reconstructed by
David Flusser, drawing on the work of a parallel Judaeo-Arabic
Josippon by
Shulamit Sela and fragments in the Cairo Geniza and the
Genizat Germania, which indicate that
Josippon is a composite text redacted several times.
Josippon was also a popular work or a
volksbuch, and had further influence such as its Latin translation by
Christian Hebraist Sebastian Münster which was translated into English by
Peter Morvyn, a fellow of
Magdalen College in
Oxford and a
Canon of
Lichfield, printed by
Richard Jugge, printer to the Queen in England, and according to
Lucien Wolf may have played a role in the
resettlement of the Jews in England. Munster also translated the historical work of ibn Daud which was included with Morwyng's edition.
Steven Bowman notes that
Josippon is an early work that inspired Jewish nationalism and had a significant influence on midrashic literature and talmudic chroniclers as well as secular historians, though considered
aggadah by mainstream Jewish thought, and acted as an
ur-text for 19th century efforts in Jewish national history. Sephardic Jews from Spain, Portugal, and France settled in Italy and the Ottoman Empire during this period, shifting the nexus of Jewry east.
Southern France, particularly
Narbonne,
Hachmei Provence and the
Languedoc region, had a large population of respected rabbis and Jewish authors, were
forced to convert or flee in the 14th century, and they sought to avoid detection, which creates a paucity of documentation and a difficult scenario for historians. Within Italy, there was also considerable upheaval with the migration and expulsion of Jews in the
Papal States in the late 1500s. The
Spanish Inquisition attempted to burn any parchment or paper containing Hebrew, and any book known to have been translated from Hebrew. This led to an estimated millions of texts destroyed in Spain and Portugal, especially centers of academic learning as
Salamanca and
Coimbra, rendering surviving manuscripts in foreign libraries rare and hard to come by. (1498–1574),
Philip Galle (1537–1612), The Chaldeans Carrying Away the Pillars of the Temple of Jerusalem,
The Disasters of the Jewish People (1569)|243x243px|alt=Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574), Philip Galle (1537–1612), The Chaldeans Carrying Away the Pillars of the Temple of Jerusalem, from The Disasters of the Jewish People (1569)|left Whether the Spanish Inquisition's records are truthful or worthy of trust is the subject of debate. Historians such as
Yitzhak Baer and
Haim Beinart have taken the view that the crypto-Jews were sincerely Jewish;
Benzion Netanyahu has argued they were sincerely Christian converts, and their secret practice of Judaism a myth, before changing his view;
Norman Roth has also argued the Inquisition's records can be trusted, which is disputed. Yerushalmi observed that the "rise of Jewish historiography in the 16th century" in the works of
Solomon ibn Verga (1460–1554),
Abraham Zakuto (1452-c.1515),
Samuel Usque (1500–after 1555),
Joseph ha-Kohen (1496–1575),
Gedaliah ibn Yaḥia (1526–87),
Elijah Capsali (1483–1555), and
David Gans (1541–1613) form "a cultural and historical continuum" in their relationship to "the primary stimulus" of expulsion from Spain and Portugal. The exceptions were
Azariah de Rossi (1513–78), and per
Mordechai Breuer, Gans. ==16th century: post-medieval and Renaissance era==