Non­fic­tion

Baby­lon­ian Jews and Sasan­ian Impe­ri­al­ism in Late Antiquity

  • From the Publisher
December 20, 2023

From the image offered by the Baby­lon­ian Tal­mud, Jew­ish elites were deeply embed­ded with­in the Sasan­ian Empire (224651 CE). The Tal­mud is replete with sto­ries and dis­cus­sions that fea­ture Sasan­ian kings, Zoroas­tri­an magi, fire tem­ples, impe­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tors, Sasan­ian laws, Per­sian cus­toms, and more quo­tid­i­an details of Jew­ish life. Yet, in the schol­ar­ly lit­er­a­ture on the Baby­lon­ian Tal­mud and the Jews of Baby­lo­nia, the Sasan­ian Empire has served as a back­drop to a decid­ed­ly parochial Jew­ish sto­ry, hav­ing lit­tle if any direct impact on Baby­lon­ian Jew­ish life and espe­cial­ly the rab­bis. Baby­lon­ian Jews and Sasan­ian Impe­ri­al­ism in Late Antiq­ui­ty advances a rad­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent under­stand­ing of Baby­lon­ian Jew­ish his­to­ry and Sasan­ian rule. Build­ing upon recent schol­ar­ship, Sim­cha Gross por­trays a more imma­nent mod­el of Sasan­ian rule, with­in and against which Jews invari­ably posi­tioned and defined them­selves. Baby­lon­ian Jews real­ized their tra­di­tions, teach­ings, and social posi­tion with­in the polit­i­cal, social, reli­gious, and cul­tur­al con­di­tions gen­er­at­ed by Sasan­ian rule.

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