This lecture explores the shared passion for acquiring and disseminating Arabo-Islamic knowledge that connected a Muslim and a Jew in the first half of the twentieth century. Their common interest in preserving, reproducing, and classifying Arabo-Islamic sources, ranging from books to manuscripts, led Abraham Shalom Yahuda and Muḥammad Amīn al-Khanjī into a decades-long interconfessional ṣuḥba (collegiality/friendship) that encompassed formal and informal mechanisms, bridging the Mediterranean.
Mostafa Hussein, is an assistant professor of Jewish-Muslim studies in the Judaic Studies Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His scholarship offers fresh perspectives on Jewish-Muslim intersectionalities, shedding light on the complex cultural and historical interconnections between these communities. Dr. Hussein’s forthcoming book titled Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine (Princeton University Press, 2025) provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine’s landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. He also examines various perceptions of Jews in the Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and the evolution of Jewish imageries from the late nineteenth to late twentieth centuries. Dr. Hussein has recently published a new book titled: Remembering Jews in Maghrebi and Middle Eastern Media (Penn State University Press, September 2024).