Shelomo Dov Goitein

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Shelomo Dov Goitein
University of Frankfurt
Academic advisorsJosef Horovitz
Academic work
Notable studentsDavid Ayalon

Shelomo Dov Goitein (April 3, 1900 – February 6, 1985) was a German-Jewish

ethnographer, historian and Arabist known for his research on Jewish life in the Islamic Middle Ages, and particularly on the Cairo Geniza.[1]

Biography

Shelomo Dov (Fritz) Goitein was born in the town of

Frankfurt am Main
, where he finished high school and university.

During 1918–23, he studied

dissertation on prayer in Islam. In the year 1923, Goitein fulfilled his lifelong dream and, together with Gershom Scholem, immigrated to Palestine, where he stayed for thirty-four years.[2] He lived in Haifa for four years before being invited to lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which had been inaugurated two years earlier. In Jerusalem, he married Theresa Gottlieb (1900–1987), a eurhythmics teacher who composed songs and plays for children. They had three children, Ayala Gordon
, Ofra, and Elon.

In 1957, he moved to the United States. He settled in Philadelphia and became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania ("Penn). He remained on the Penn faculty, in the Department of Oriental Studies, from 1957 to 1971.[1][3] After retiring, he later worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton where, in 1983, he won a MacArthur Fellowship; he the oldest recipient of the fellowship at the time.[3] He died on February 6, 1985—day his last volume of the series A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (vol. 5) was sent to the publisher. The first delivery of The Individual: Portrayt of a Mediterranean Personality of the High Middle Ages as Reflected in the Cairo Geniza had been sent to the University of California Press on December 26, 1984.[4]

Academic career

From 1918 to 1923, Goitein attended the Universities of Frankfurt and Berlin and studied Islamic history under Josef Horovitz. His Ph.D. thesis was on prayer in Islam. He also pursued

blood libel killings in Blois in 1171.[5] In 1928, he was appointed professor of Islamic History and Islamic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[6] He was founder of the School of Asian and African studies and of the Israel Oriental Society. In 1928, he began his research of the language, culture, and history of the Jews of Yemen. In 1949, he did research in Aden as Yemenite Jews gathered for their evacuation
to the nascent Jewish State. In 1938-1948, he served as a senior education officer in Mandatory Palestine—responsible for Jewish and Arab schools—and published books on methods of teaching the Bible and Hebrew.

Goitein dedicated his version of

1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.[7]

From 1948, Goitein began his life's work on the Cairo Geniza documents. An especially rich

Judeo-Arabic characters. After deciphering the documents, and during his time as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1955-71),[3] Goitein vividly reconstructed many aspects of Jewish life in the Middle Ages, publishing them in a six-volume monumental series, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (1967–1993).[2]
Although the documents were written by Jews, they reflect the surrounding Muslim and Christian environments not only in countries bordering the Mediterranean but all the way to India. This has thrown new light on the whole study of the Middle Ages. Goitein consulted extensively the Haskell Isaacs's catalogue of the Wellcome Collection[8] and the Cairo Geniza material,[9] of which he was considered the preeminent scholar.[10][5]

Agnon correspondence

Goitein's lengthy correspondence with the Nobel Prize-winning author

S.Y. Agnon was published by his daughter, Ayala Gordon, in 2008.[11][12] Agnon's wife, Esther, had studied Arabic privately with Goitein while she was a student at the University of Frankfurt. When Goitein moved to Jerusalem, he and Agnon became close friends. Most of the letters are from the mid-1950s onwards, after Goitein left Israel, a move of which Agnon was highly critical.[11][12]

Awards and recognition

Goitein was awarded honorary degrees from many universities. He received research awards from Guggenheim (1965), Harvey (1980), and the MacArthur lifetime fellowship (1983). He was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society (1970).[13]

He received the

National Jewish Book Award
Scholarship for A Mediterranean Society Vol. IV in 1984.

Published works

Bibliographies

Two editions of his bibliographies are available:
1. Attal, Robert. A Bibliography of the writings of Prof. Shelomo Dov Goitein, Israel Oriental society and the Institute of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1975. It includes among other articles an introduction by Richard Ettinghausen, as well as Goiteins own article:"The Life Story of a Scholar", 547 publications are mentioned.
2. Attal, Robert. A Bibliography of the writings of Prof. Shelomo Dov Goitein, Yad Ben Zvi Jerusalem 2000, an expanded edition containing 737 titles, as well as general Index and Index of Reviews.
3. Udovitch, A.L., Rosenthal, F. and Yerushalmi, Y.H. Shelomo Dov Goitein 1900-1985 Memorial comments, The Institute of Advanced Study Princeton, 1985

References

  1. ^ a b Cohen, Mark R. (2007). "Shlomo Dov Goitein", in The Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. Fred Skolnik (2nd ed.). Macmillan Reference. pp. 685–87.
  2. ^ a b "Goitein, the Geniza, and Muslim History". Archived from the original on 2001-09-22. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  3. ^ a b c Moritsugu, Ken (January 23, 1983). "Prize Liberates Princeton Scholar". Asbury Park Press.
  4. OCLC 7586531817
    .
  5. ^ a b Baskin, Judith R. (June 23, 2021). "Pulcellina of Blois". The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Archived from the original on July 17, 2021. He depicts Pulcellina as both a fearsome businesswoman and a model of piety who led prayers for other women. Yet, she is also sexualized as highly attractive to men, even as she resists their advances (Horowitz).
  6. ^ "Eulogy by Prof. Mark R. Cohen, Princeton University". American Philosophical Society Year Book 1987. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  7. ^ Gibb, H.A.R. (1938). "Reviewed Work: The Ansāb Al-Ashrāf of Al-Balādhurī". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 9 (2). Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  8. PMC 1037050
    . (here cited p. 517)
  9. Wuhsha al-Dallala
    (the agent)
  10. ^ Segev, Tom (October 14, 2011). "The Makings of History / The 'Events' of July 1929". haaretz. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020.
  11. ^ a b Gentlemen and scholars, By Dan Laor, 14.01.09
  12. ^ a b Gentlemen and scholars Dan Laor, Haaretz, Books, January 2009, p. 16
  13. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
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