Uriel Simonsohn
Biographic Data
| ID | 3830927 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Uriel Simonsohn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Uriel |
| FAMILY NAME | Simonsohn |
| SIGNATURE | SIMONSOHN U |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Haifa |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2069-6781 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Cultural Brokerage in Premodern Islamic Societies
Presents the first comprehensive and systematic account of the crucial role cultural brokers played in shaping Islamic societies Develops a theory of cultural brokerage informed by recent scholarship Applies concepts of cultural brokerage to a series of original historical case studies from China, Mongolia, Central Asia, Byzantium, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula Includes critical responses from leading…
Islamic Ascetic and Christian Monastic Ties in Early Abbasid Iraq
This article examines the Islamic adaptation of the Maccabean story of the mother and her seven sons as preserved in the ninth-century Baghdadi ascetic Ibn Abī l-Dunyā’s al-Ṣabr wa-l-thawāb ʿalayhi. While the story is well known in Jewish and Christian martyrological traditions, its Islamic version has received little scholarly attention. Through close textual comparison and contextual analysis, the article argues that Ibn Abī l-Dunyā did not mer…
Introduction
Interreligious Dialogue in Haifa
The Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war profoundly destabilized Jewish–Arab relations within Israel, intensifying fear, mistrust, and intercommunal tensions. Focusing on the mixed city of Haifa, this article examines the potential and limitations of interreligious dialogue under conditions of acute conflict. It analyzes the Haifa Multi-Religious Initiative, convened by the University of Haifa shortly after the outbreak of war, whic…
Cross-Religious Cultural Agency
By focusing on Jewish converts in early ʿAbbāsid Iraq, this article examines individual cases to propose a methodology for assessing the cultural agency of converts. It argues that the liminal qualities of converts – marked by marginality and ambiguity – offer key insights into their cultural impact. Through an exploration of both historical figures and literary representations, the article highlights the liminal nature of early Jewish converts i…
Exploring the Liminal Characteristics of Muslim Converts
When considering questions of integration, assimilation, and adjustment in the formative centuries of Islam it is vital to think about the individuals who converted to Islam. The gradual nature of conversion and the enduring ties of Muslim converts to their former coreligionists kept them in a liminal position. My analysis will evolve around three spheres of inquiry: linguistic, social, and practical. Linguistically, I show how ecclesiastical Syr…
The Subversion of Gender Hierarchies in Ṣaḥābī Dialogues
Visiones islámicas tempranas y medievales acerca de la autoridad materna en circunstancias de diferencia religiosa
Mientras que desde una perspectiva islámica los musulmanes debían ofrecer lealtad primordial a Dios y a Su mensaje, los lazos de parentesco podían poner en tela de juicio ese compromiso. Los ideales islámicos, articulados a través de diversos géneros literarios, reflejan esta tensión, presentando una priorización de la comunidad religiosa sobre la familia. Al mismo tiempo, sin embargo, los sentimientos de parentesco se utilizaban a menudo para in…
Female conversion to Islam
The question of female conversion to Islam in pre-modern times has received insufficient attention in modern scholarship. This is mostly the result of the methodological problem that shrouds it. One can say with high measures of certainty that in contrast to their male counterparts, the treatment of female converts to Islam in early Islamic sources is almost always in relation to a male figure. It is the premise of the present contribution that f…
The Beginnings of Islamic Law
The Introduction and Formalization of Civil Law in the East Syrian Church in the Late Sasanian–Early Islamic Periods
This essay is concerned with the social and ideological accommodations of the East Syrian Church in Late Antiquity, by first incorporating, and later expanding a body of civil law. First under late Sasanian rule and then under its Islamic successor, East Syrian church leaders sought to promote and elaborate a distinct communal law that would solidify the primacy of ecclesiastical institutions and the communal fidelity of East Syrian Christians. A…
Communal Membership Despite Religious Exogamy
The Legal and Social Bonds of Jewish Apostates and Their Spouses according to Gaonic Responsa
This paper seeks to contribute to one of the more unresolved questions in early Islamic history, namely the social ties of converts to Islam with their former coreligionists. Not only did these ties pose a challenge to confessional leaders in their struggle to curve the tide of apostasy, but also to their lay subordinates who were forced to balance between communal discipline and personal sentiments. Through an analysis of gaonic responsa dealing…
Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times
Franklin, Roxani Eleni Margariti, Marina Rustow and Uriel Simonsohn The Bibliography of Mark R. Cohen I. Community How Mediterranean Was Goitein's Mediterranean Society? Norman A. Stillman Ashabuna al-tujjar-Our Associates, the Merchants: Non-Jewish Business Partners of the Cairo Geniza's India Traders Roxani Eleni Margariti Pilgrimage and Charity in the Geniza Society Miriam Frenkel Poor Relief in Ottoman Jewish Communities Yaron Ayalon What Sor…
Conversion to Islam
The past few decades have witnessed increasing calls in modern scholarship for revisions of the portrayal of early Islamic rule history. Such calls not only challenge older historiographic paradigms but also encourage historians to seek answers in sources hitherto neglected. Accordingly, in recent years there has been a dramatic proliferation of studies offering new historical conceptions, many of which are indebted to new kinds of source materia…
Halting Between Two Opinions”
The phenomenon of individuals converting to Islam and later returning to their former religions is well attested in both narrative and documentary records from the early Islamic period. Such shifts in religious commitments posed social and legal problems for the communities to which their former members sought reentry. Specifically, legal authorities were faced with the challenge of assessing the trustworthiness of returning apostates, whether th…
A Common Justice
Focusing on the late seventh to early eleventh centuries in the region between Iraq in the east and present-day Tunisia in the west, this study explores the multiplicity of judicial systems that coexisted under early Islam to reveal a complex array of social obligations that connected individuals across confessional boundaries.
The biblical narrative in the Annales of Saʽīd ibn Baṭrīq and the question of medieval Byzantine-Orthodox identity
This article pursues a close examination of the biblical narrative in Saʽīd Ibn Baṭrīq's (Eutychius of Alexandria, d. 940) historiographic work, the Annales, to reveal a wide range of sources that were available either to the patriarch himself or to an intermediate source on which he relied. These include not only a rich Judaeo-Christian lore but also a rather significant segment of Muslim materials, most notably tales of the prophets (qiṣaṣ al-a…
The Christians Whose Force is Hard
This paper examines the context in which church leaders in the regions of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, during the first few centuries after the Arab conquest, were objecting to the appeal of the their coreligionists to judicial authorities outside ecclesiastical control. Rather than assuming that from the outset of the Islamic conquest Muslim judges served as immediate judicial alternatives, the paper shows that, at least in the early Is…
Seeking Justice among the 'Outsiders'
The phenomenon of Christian recourse to non-ecclesiastical judicial systems during the first few centuries following the Muslim conquest is at the core of this paper. This phenomenon not only alludes to a reality of legal diversity but also to the social heterogeneity that has characterized Near Eastern societies long before the Arab takeover. Through the adoption of the legal-anthropological paradigm of legal pluralism and the examination of Wes…
Communal Boundaries Reconsidered
»Vielmehr bietet [der Kommentar] auf höchstem Niveau eine substantielle Auseinandersetzung mit den Hintergründen, den Zusammenhängen, der Theorie und der Praxis des Grundgesetzes. Besseres lässt sich von einem Verfassungskommentar nicht sagen.“ Herbert Günther Staaatsanzeiger für das Land Hessen 2018 (50), 1494–1495
The Introduction and Formalization of Civil Law in the East Syrian Church in the Late Sasanian–Early Islamic Periods
This essay is concerned with the social and ideological accommodations of the East Syrian Church in Late Antiquity, by first incorporating, and later expanding a body of civil law. First under late Sasanian rule and then under its Islamic successor, East Syrian church leaders sought to promote and elaborate a distinct communal law that would solidify the primacy of ecclesiastical institutions and the communal fidelity of East Syrian Christians. A…
Female conversion to Islam
The question of female conversion to Islam in pre-modern times has received insufficient attention in modern scholarship. This is mostly the result of the methodological problem that shrouds it. One can say with high measures of certainty that in contrast to their male counterparts, the treatment of female converts to Islam in early Islamic sources is almost always in relation to a male figure. It is the premise of the present contribution that f…
Communal Membership Despite Religious Exogamy
The Legal and Social Bonds of Jewish Apostates and Their Spouses according to Gaonic Responsa
This paper seeks to contribute to one of the more unresolved questions in early Islamic history, namely the social ties of converts to Islam with their former coreligionists. Not only did these ties pose a challenge to confessional leaders in their struggle to curve the tide of apostasy, but also to their lay subordinates who were forced to balance between communal discipline and personal sentiments. Through an analysis of gaonic responsa dealing…
Halting Between Two Opinions”
The phenomenon of individuals converting to Islam and later returning to their former religions is well attested in both narrative and documentary records from the early Islamic period. Such shifts in religious commitments posed social and legal problems for the communities to which their former members sought reentry. Specifically, legal authorities were faced with the challenge of assessing the trustworthiness of returning apostates, whether th…
The Christians Whose Force is Hard
This paper examines the context in which church leaders in the regions of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, during the first few centuries after the Arab conquest, were objecting to the appeal of the their coreligionists to judicial authorities outside ecclesiastical control. Rather than assuming that from the outset of the Islamic conquest Muslim judges served as immediate judicial alternatives, the paper shows that, at least in the early Is…
Communal Boundaries Reconsidered
»Vielmehr bietet [der Kommentar] auf höchstem Niveau eine substantielle Auseinandersetzung mit den Hintergründen, den Zusammenhängen, der Theorie und der Praxis des Grundgesetzes. Besseres lässt sich von einem Verfassungskommentar nicht sagen.“ Herbert Günther Staaatsanzeiger für das Land Hessen 2018 (50), 1494–1495
Seeking Justice among the 'Outsiders'
The phenomenon of Christian recourse to non-ecclesiastical judicial systems during the first few centuries following the Muslim conquest is at the core of this paper. This phenomenon not only alludes to a reality of legal diversity but also to the social heterogeneity that has characterized Near Eastern societies long before the Arab takeover. Through the adoption of the legal-anthropological paradigm of legal pluralism and the examination of Wes…
The Christians Whose Force is Hard
This paper examines the context in which church leaders in the regions of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, during the first few centuries after the Arab conquest, were objecting to the appeal of the their coreligionists to judicial authorities outside ecclesiastical control. Rather than assuming that from the outset of the Islamic conquest Muslim judges served as immediate judicial alternatives, the paper shows that, at least in the early Is…
A Common Justice
Focusing on the late seventh to early eleventh centuries in the region between Iraq in the east and present-day Tunisia in the west, this study explores the multiplicity of judicial systems that coexisted under early Islam to reveal a complex array of social obligations that connected individuals across confessional boundaries.
The biblical narrative in the Annales of Saʽīd ibn Baṭrīq and the question of medieval Byzantine-Orthodox identity
This article pursues a close examination of the biblical narrative in Saʽīd Ibn Baṭrīq's (Eutychius of Alexandria, d. 940) historiographic work, the Annales, to reveal a wide range of sources that were available either to the patriarch himself or to an intermediate source on which he relied. These include not only a rich Judaeo-Christian lore but also a rather significant segment of Muslim materials, most notably tales of the prophets (qiṣaṣ al-a…
Conversion to Islam
The past few decades have witnessed increasing calls in modern scholarship for revisions of the portrayal of early Islamic rule history. Such calls not only challenge older historiographic paradigms but also encourage historians to seek answers in sources hitherto neglected. Accordingly, in recent years there has been a dramatic proliferation of studies offering new historical conceptions, many of which are indebted to new kinds of source materia…
Halting Between Two Opinions”
The phenomenon of individuals converting to Islam and later returning to their former religions is well attested in both narrative and documentary records from the early Islamic period. Such shifts in religious commitments posed social and legal problems for the communities to which their former members sought reentry. Specifically, legal authorities were faced with the challenge of assessing the trustworthiness of returning apostates, whether th…
Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times
Franklin, Roxani Eleni Margariti, Marina Rustow and Uriel Simonsohn The Bibliography of Mark R. Cohen I. Community How Mediterranean Was Goitein's Mediterranean Society? Norman A. Stillman Ashabuna al-tujjar-Our Associates, the Merchants: Non-Jewish Business Partners of the Cairo Geniza's India Traders Roxani Eleni Margariti Pilgrimage and Charity in the Geniza Society Miriam Frenkel Poor Relief in Ottoman Jewish Communities Yaron Ayalon What Sor…
The Legal and Social Bonds of Jewish Apostates and Their Spouses according to Gaonic Responsa
This paper seeks to contribute to one of the more unresolved questions in early Islamic history, namely the social ties of converts to Islam with their former coreligionists. Not only did these ties pose a challenge to confessional leaders in their struggle to curve the tide of apostasy, but also to their lay subordinates who were forced to balance between communal discipline and personal sentiments. Through an analysis of gaonic responsa dealing…
The Introduction and Formalization of Civil Law in the East Syrian Church in the Late Sasanian–Early Islamic Periods
This essay is concerned with the social and ideological accommodations of the East Syrian Church in Late Antiquity, by first incorporating, and later expanding a body of civil law. First under late Sasanian rule and then under its Islamic successor, East Syrian church leaders sought to promote and elaborate a distinct communal law that would solidify the primacy of ecclesiastical institutions and the communal fidelity of East Syrian Christians. A…
Communal Membership Despite Religious Exogamy
The Beginnings of Islamic Law
Female conversion to Islam
The question of female conversion to Islam in pre-modern times has received insufficient attention in modern scholarship. This is mostly the result of the methodological problem that shrouds it. One can say with high measures of certainty that in contrast to their male counterparts, the treatment of female converts to Islam in early Islamic sources is almost always in relation to a male figure. It is the premise of the present contribution that f…
The Subversion of Gender Hierarchies in Ṣaḥābī Dialogues
Visiones islámicas tempranas y medievales acerca de la autoridad materna en circunstancias de diferencia religiosa
Mientras que desde una perspectiva islámica los musulmanes debían ofrecer lealtad primordial a Dios y a Su mensaje, los lazos de parentesco podían poner en tela de juicio ese compromiso. Los ideales islámicos, articulados a través de diversos géneros literarios, reflejan esta tensión, presentando una priorización de la comunidad religiosa sobre la familia. Al mismo tiempo, sin embargo, los sentimientos de parentesco se utilizaban a menudo para in…
Cross-Religious Cultural Agency
By focusing on Jewish converts in early ʿAbbāsid Iraq, this article examines individual cases to propose a methodology for assessing the cultural agency of converts. It argues that the liminal qualities of converts – marked by marginality and ambiguity – offer key insights into their cultural impact. Through an exploration of both historical figures and literary representations, the article highlights the liminal nature of early Jewish converts i…
Exploring the Liminal Characteristics of Muslim Converts
When considering questions of integration, assimilation, and adjustment in the formative centuries of Islam it is vital to think about the individuals who converted to Islam. The gradual nature of conversion and the enduring ties of Muslim converts to their former coreligionists kept them in a liminal position. My analysis will evolve around three spheres of inquiry: linguistic, social, and practical. Linguistically, I show how ecclesiastical Syr…
Cultural Brokerage in Premodern Islamic Societies
Presents the first comprehensive and systematic account of the crucial role cultural brokers played in shaping Islamic societies Develops a theory of cultural brokerage informed by recent scholarship Applies concepts of cultural brokerage to a series of original historical case studies from China, Mongolia, Central Asia, Byzantium, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula Includes critical responses from leading…
Islamic Ascetic and Christian Monastic Ties in Early Abbasid Iraq
This article examines the Islamic adaptation of the Maccabean story of the mother and her seven sons as preserved in the ninth-century Baghdadi ascetic Ibn Abī l-Dunyā’s al-Ṣabr wa-l-thawāb ʿalayhi. While the story is well known in Jewish and Christian martyrological traditions, its Islamic version has received little scholarly attention. Through close textual comparison and contextual analysis, the article argues that Ibn Abī l-Dunyā did not mer…
Introduction
Interreligious Dialogue in Haifa
The Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war profoundly destabilized Jewish–Arab relations within Israel, intensifying fear, mistrust, and intercommunal tensions. Focusing on the mixed city of Haifa, this article examines the potential and limitations of interreligious dialogue under conditions of acute conflict. It analyzes the Haifa Multi-Religious Initiative, convened by the University of Haifa shortly after the outbreak of war, whic…
Islam (15 works) · Islamic Studies and History (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (12 works) · History (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Archaeology (8 works) · Religious studies (7 works)