The historical biography of a true Jewish heroine in her day, Gracia Mendes. Born in 1510 in Portugal, the book details this woman's extraordinary personality until her death in 1569 in Constantinople (today's Istanbul). Her life exemplified a perseverance by the Jewish culture to survive and triumph even in the worst of conditions. As a young girl, Gracia secretly married successful Jewish spice trader, Francisco Mendes. But at age 27 she became a widow, yet she went on to raise her children and run the family business all on her own. Her travels led her through Antwerp, Venice, Ferrara, Ragusa, and finally to Constantinople, from where the Ottoman Empire dominated former Byzantium territories and offered shelter for battered Conversos (converted Jews). The text recounting the last fifteen years of Gracia's life at the center of the Empire is particularly revealing. Birnbaum's biography has the unique distinction of being the first among many studies to pay tribute to a woman during this period. It is also one of the first titles to pay equal attention to the lives of the Conversos in Christian West Europe and in the Muslim East.

An author and subject index to selected and American Anglo-Jewish journals of general and scholarly interests.

This volume of essays intends to present diverse aspects of monotheistic kingship during the Middle Ages in two general-theoretical articles and a series of "case studies" on the relationship of religion and rulership. The authors discuss examples of the role of religion--based on both textual and iconic evidence--in Carolingian, Ottonian and late medieval western Europe; in Byzantium and Armenia; Georgia; Hungary; the Khazar Khanatel; Poland, and Russia. Two studies explore the issue in medieval Jewish and Islamic political thought. The editors hope that these special inquiries will engender more comparative studies on the subject.