Empire from the Margins by Martin Jacobs

Empire from the Margins by Martin Jacobs

The writings of three early modern Jewish historians highlight the divided allegiances of a Jewish diaspora living in and between the Spanish and Ottoman empires
In 1492, the year that marked the start of Spain's transatlantic expansion, the Spanish monarchs expelled their Jewish subjects and triggered a mass Jewish migration to the lands of the Ottoman empire. But while the rise of these rival empires had tremendous impact on the Jewish population's geography, the historical accounts of contemporary Jews have remained peripheral to the study of early modern imperialism.
In Empire from the Margins, Martin Jacobs seeks to understand how the history of empires appears through the lens of marginalized communities and to explore how Jews responded to Spanish and Ottoman imperial expansion. He approaches this history through the Hebrew chronicles of three sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Jewish authors. Elijah Capsali of Crete, Joseph ha-Kohen of Genoa, and Joseph Sambari of Cairo all lived in early modern hubs with global connections, and—in unusual detail for premodern Jewish historians—they described how the Spanish and Ottoman empires redrew the political, cultural, and religious map of the Mediterranean region while simultaneously transforming the transatlantic world.
As Jews, these writers belonged to an ethno-religious minority within the Mediterranean basin where the Spanish and Ottoman empires were centered, and from here they expressed marginalized views on the Spanish and Ottoman regimes. At the same time, these Jewish authors belonged to Jewish networks that transcended imperial boundaries, and they voiced conflicting loyalties between different authorities and cultures. And Jacobs shows that, in writing about the Spanish and Ottoman expansion, these authors also grappled with the Jews' precarious position in their host societies and their own multilayered identities. Their shifting positionalities illuminate the divided allegiances of a Jewish diaspora living in and between competing empires.

"A captivating and original work of scholarship, Empire from the Margins illuminates the unique but overlooked perspective of Jewish chroniclers from across the Mediterranean on the rival projects of early modern imperial powers" (Ryan Szpiech, University of Michigan)

Martin Jacobs is Professor of Rabbinic Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and author of Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim World, also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781512827699
ISBN 10	151282769X
Title	Empire from the Margins
Author	Martin Jacobs
Series	Jewish Culture And Contexts
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	University of Pennsylvania Press
Year published	2025-07-15
Number of pages	277
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.