Charity and giving in monotheistic religions (W. de Gruyter, 2009)
"This book is an outgrowth of the activity of an international research group on Charity and Piety in the Middle East in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages conducted at The Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), Jerusalem, during summer 2006-winter 2007
Includes bibliographical references
Introduction -- The world of late antiquity and early middle ages -- The early Byzantine State and the Christian ideal of voluntary poverty / Avshalom Laniado -- Charitable ministrations (diakoniai), monasticism, and the social aesthetic of sixth-century byzantium / Daniel Caner -- Charity and piety as Episcopal and imperial virtues in late antiquity / Claudia Rapp -- Healing the world with righteousness? : the language of social justice in early Christian homilies / Susan R. Holman -- Almsgiving, donatio pro anima and eucharistic offering in the early middle ages of Western Eeurope (4th-9th century) / Eliana Magnani -- Medieval Islam -- Christian pious foundations as an element of continuity between late antiquity and Islam / Johannes Pahlitzsch -- Charity and piety for the transformation of the cities : the new direction in taxation and waqf policy in mid-twelfth-century Syria and Northern Mesopotamia / Stefan Heidemann -- Piety and charity in late medieval Egypt and Syria / Yehoshua Frenkel -- Forms and functions of charity in Al-Andalus / Ana María Carballeira Debasa -- "When death will fall upon him" : charitable legacies in 15th century Granada / Amalia Zomeño -- Charity and gift giving in medieval Islam / Yaacov Lev -- Charity and repentance in medieval Islamic thought and practice / Daniella Talmon-Heller -- The Jewish world -- Geniza documents for the comparative history of poverty and charity / Mark R. Cohen -- Charity in Jewish society of the medieval Mediterranean world / Miriam Frenkel -- Benefaction (niʻma), gratitude (shukr), and the politics of giving and receiving in letters from the Cairo Geniza / Marina Rustow -- An indigent scholar's plea for charity : a Geniza letter / Yvonne Friedman
This book deals with various manifestations of charity or giving in the contexts of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim societies in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. Monotheistic charity and giving display many common features. These underlying similarities reflect a commonly shared view about God and his relations to mankind and what humans owe to God and expect from him. Nevertheless, the fact that the emphasis is placed on similarities does not mean that the uniqueness of the concepts of charity and giving in the three monotheistic religions is denied. The contributors of the book deal w