Many of the seminal texts of Jewish culture - the Talmud, the major codifications of Jewish law and the
siddur (prayer book) - were written and compiled by Jewish scholars living in what is today the Middle East. The famous Talmudic Academies thrived in the Babylonian cities of Pumbedita and Sura where Saadia Gaon, the father of Judeo-Arabic philosophical and legal literature, served as exhilarch. In Egypt, Maimonodies wrote his famous Mishneh Torah and Guide for the Perplexed.
Jews were called the 'People of the Book' by their Arab neighbors and their secular scholarship and medical knowledge was highly regarded by many Muslim leaders, despite periodic restrictions on Jewish religious practice.
Synagogue in suburb of Algiers, Algeria 1916.
From the collection of Beit Hatfutsot
Ritual circumcision, Tunis 1909
From the collection of Beit Hatfutsot
Chev
ra Kadisha burial society, Algeria 1901
From the collection of JIMENA