Radical History Review: Volume 56; Memory & History, on the Poverty of Forgetting the Judeoc... Book

A scholarly and somewhat dry history of the Land of Israel in what is known as the Arab or Early Muslim era. Moshe Gil was one of Shelomo Goitein's grad students, so we are immersed throughout the narrative in the Cairo Geniza documents, with long Arabic patronymics and various business arrangements described in excruciating detail. The various ethnic and religious communities and factions that were players in the country back in those days are thoroughly covered, as well as the power struggles between the different tribes, dynasties and factions. Historians tend to rush past this period and, indeed, there weren't any earth-shattering events in the Land of Israel between the Arab Conquest and the Crusades (although there were some mighty disastrous earthquakes) and one might be forgiven if you came to the conclusion that "nothing much happened." However, Professor Gil's weighty tome is here to show us otherwise, if you can stand the dull prose, the constant use of sentence-long names and the $10 footnotes. His book will reward the assiduous reader who really wants to learn about this much overlooked and intrinsically interesting period in the history of the southern Levant, but there ought to be an easier way to go about it. A map or two would not have gone amiss.