This founding work of the history of religions; first published in English in 1954; secured the North American reputation of the Romanian émigré-scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986). Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no less than half a dozen European languages; Eliade's The Myth of the Eternal Return makes both intelligible and compelling the religious expressions and activities of a wide variety of archaic and "primitive" religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to the "archaic" is no longer possible; Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding this view in order to enrich our contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. Jonathan Z. Smith's new introduction provides the contextual background to the book and presents a critical outline of Eliade's argument in a way that encourages readers to engage in an informed conversation with this classic text.
#3520780 in Books Princeton University Press 1984-09-21PDF # 1 #File Name: 0691054193273 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Lewis Continues to AstoundBy Robert J. PrugerI've read a fair number of Bernard Lewis's books. He continues to do astounding work (far better than other scholars in this field who are 1/2 his age); and "The Jews of Islam" is a wonderful example. I would have given it 5 stars; but I've read some of this content before.Bias is an unfortunately all-too-human trait. Yet Dr. Lewis has an amazing capicity to be fair. His critics (and he has many; mostly undeserved) could take a page from his approach. He is scrupulous in examining how jews faired in Moslem-dominated societies over the last 1;400 years and compares that to their treatment under European-dominated Christendom (what a wonderful word that only Lewis would use today). if you want to understand how one of the root causese of todays middle eastern conflict; you can't do better than Dr. Lewis.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. if u want to understand better the current situationBy marina ErgasThe book is clear ; a synthesis of a few hundred years of Hystory ; makes u understand better the actual situation between Jews and Islam7 of 12 people found the following review helpful. A short HistoryBy Muzaffer MuctehitzadeThis book is about the Jews lived in Muslim countries. It is not about any certain Jew or famous personalities. Whole story is in general terms. I found the history during the early periods of the Islam very short and on the surface. Key relationships were not elaborated.Most of the information; may be because of availability of the sources was regarding the Jewish community in Ottoman Lands around 15 to 17th centruries. Information about the Jews in other countries is almost non existent but impression was given to make an opinion that it was not as good. There is a section in the book that talks about paralells between Judaism; their way of life and Islam to imply that Islam simply is an extention of Judaism but I find no correlation between their life in muslim countries which the book is supposed to be about and their religion for Muslims did not differentiate Christians or jews; they were both considred monotheist.Over all it is an easy reading but not satisfying for me for it lacked systematic and concrete points.
