The history of Jews and Judaism in the Byzantine Empire has long been neglected by scholars. Indeed, until recently, students of Jews and Judaism in Byzantium have mainly relied on the books of Joshua Starr published in 1939 and 1949. Starr was the first systematically to collect the available sources on Jews in Byzantium up to the twelfth century. Andrew Sharf's general study of Byzantine Jewry from Justinian to the Fourth Crusade, which appeared in 1971, provides a useful introduction to the topic. Starr's work was expanded in 1985 by Steven Bowman who collected together evidence of Jews in the Byzantine Empire until the capture of Constantinople by Ottoman Turks in 1453. In recent years David Jacoby has published extensively on the social status and the involvement of Jews in the Byzantine economy. This was also the topic of a monograph by Joshua Holo, published in 2009. Studies of particular aspects of Byzantine Judaism have also appeared, like the encyclopaedic study of Byzantine Karaism by Zvi Ankori from 1958 or Nicholas de Lange's more recent studies on the use of Greek in Byzantine synagogues. However, despite the quality of past research there remains a need for a comprehensive collection and study of the sources that can shed light on Jews and Judaism in Byzantium.

The present volume is a welcome addition to the fields of Byzantine and Jewish history. This wide-ranging collection of studies is set to remedy some of the problems outlined above. The volume contains thirty-five essays arranged in three broad sections: ‘Setting the stage’, ‘Cultural encounters and transmission of knowledge’ and ‘Images’. The introductory section includes essays on Jews and Judaism in the late Roman and Byzantine Empire from the third until the fifteenth century by Oded Irshai, Robert Bonfil and Steven Bowman. Irshai's contribution presents a clear and well written overview of many aspects of Jewish life up to the seventh century, including discussion of community leadership, synagogue service, art and attitudes towards Christianity. Bonfil convincingly argues that Jewish life in Byzantium was not significantly affected by political upheaval in the empire and occasional anti-Jewish policy on the part of the Byzantine emperors between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. Bowman, who updates his 1985 study here, presents the history of Jewish communities in Byzantium from the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. His historical account is followed by a revealing essay by Spyros Troianos on the relationship between Jews and Christians as reflected in the laws and political theory of the Byzantine state and a review of the legal status of the Jews in Byzantium by Amnon Linder. The first section also includes a masterly study by David Jacoby of the involvement of Jews in the Byzantine economy from the seventh to the mid-fifteenth century and case studies on Jews and Jewish life in late antique Alexandria and southern Italy by Guy Stroumsa and Vera von Falkenhausen respectively. Falkenhausen's contribution builds on her earlier study, published in Italian in 1996, which presented a vivid picture of Jewish life in Byzantine southern Italy from the sixth to the eleventh century. The section concludes with an essay on the Jews in Khazaria and medieval Russia by Alexander Kulik.

The second section of the volume includes a rather diverse selection of essays on cultural interactions between Jews and Christians in the Byzantine empire. The varied topics covered include Jewish liturgical poetry (piyyut) in Byzantium by Joseph Yahalom and Cyril Alsanov, the use of Greek by Byzantine Jews and in the synagogue by Nicholas de Lange and Cyril Aslanov, the dating of synagogues in the Golan on the basis of their style of decoration by Roni Amir, and the Jews in Byzantine art and Jewish art as a marker of minority culture by Rina Talgam, Herbert Kessler and Elisheva Revel-Neher. Revel-Neher's article updates her 1987 study on the image of the Jew in Byzantine art and, perhaps, should have been included in the third section of the volume. The section also includes essays by Vincent Déroche and Patrick Andrist on anti-Jewish polemics in Byzantium and the physiognomy of their manuscripts, Judaizing amongst Christians as a form of spirituality by Philippe Gardette, and articles on early Halakhic literature and the Kabbalah in Byzantium by Hillel Newman and Moshe Idel. The concluding essays of this section examine the role of Byzantium in the transmission of Jewish knowledge, with a emphasis on circumcision, by Micha Perry, and on the cultural exchange between Jews and Christians in the Palaeologan period, with a focus on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by Marie-Hélène Congourdeau. The final contribution is a clear and accessible essay on the development and major trends of Byzantine Karaism by Golda Akheizer.

The third section is concerned with the representation of Jews and Judaism in Byzantine literature and art. The section includes essays on perceptions of Jews and Arabs in early Byzantium by Guy Stroumsa, images of the Jews in Byzantine chronicles by Rivkah Fishman-Duker, the representation of Christians in Aramaic poems from Byzantine Palestine by Ophir Münz-Manor and images of biblical women in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts by Mati Mayer. The section also includes revealing essays on the Jews in early Church historiography, Islamic, East Christian and South Italian sources and in Byzantine literature by Oded Irshai, Yossi Sofer, Vera von Falkenhausen and Yuval Rotman. The volume's concluding contributions by Joshua Holo and Saskia Dönitz discuss the Sefer Yossipon.

The volume includes thirty-two colour and black-and-white illustrations and indices of names and places. I feel it could have benefited from the inclusion of a geographical survey and maps of the Jewish communities in the Byzantine empire. To conclude, whilst not a book for the novice, the volume is a fine example of solid scholarship that will certainly facilitate further research and discussion on the history of Jews and Judaism in Byzantium for years to come.