Jews in the Abbasid Literature - Selected Models -

Literature in the Abbasi era, which includes prose and poetry, is full with unexplored themes. These themes, which shape new visions, still need to be studied fully in depth. This is why this study focused on “The Jews in the Abbasid literature: Selected Models”, in an attempt to reveal the received image about the Jews according to literary men and their poets in that era. It travelled to the depths of many books in order to reveal the image of the Jews in that era and clarify their social status as expressed in their poetic and prosodic works subjectively. This could be fulfilled by analyzing those scripts and linking them to the reality of the era itself along with referring to what we had so far about the Jews from history books. This study has been divided into an introduction, a preface, three chapters and a conclusion. The introduction talked about the topic of the study, research methods, the reason of the topic’s choice and the most important references, which the researcher depended on. The preface dealt with a quick demonstration on the Jews from the Islamic era to the Umayyad era, and their image in the Arabic literature by depicting their social status and their real presence in the Abbasi era. It also talked about the professions they had and the fields of knowledge they excelled in, and the fields of knowledge they were known for. The first chapter tackled the image of the Jews in the poetic works of the poets in that era, namely: Abu Anna was, Muslim Bin Al-Walid, Abu Al-Ala’ Al-Ma’arri and Al-Motanaby. The second chapter embarked upon the Jews in the prose of the Abbasi era including its various genres, namely: short story, narration, speech, jokes, proverbs, religious creeds, historical news and morals. In this sense, this study analyzes the image of the Jews in that era by exploring what other writers said about their different associations and intellectual trends, and by going through the production of the Jew writers about themselves. Finally, the third chapter explored the sources upon which other writers depended when they wrote about the Jews. Thus, it gave a comprehensive image about what was written about them.