The Curse of Ham : : Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam / / David M. Goldenberg.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Goldenberg, David M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2009]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World ; 33
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (472 p.) :; 2 tables.

How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shape over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery. Goldenberg begins by examining a host of references to black Africans in biblical and postbiblical Jewish literature. From there he moves the inquiry from Black as an ethnic group to black as color, and early Jewish attitudes toward dark skin color. He goes on to ask when the black African first became identified as slave in the Near East, and, in a powerful culmination, discusses the resounding influence of this identification on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking, noting each tradition's exegetical treatment of pertinent biblical passages. Authoritative, fluidly written, and situated at a richly illuminating nexus of images, attitudes, and history, The Curse of Ham is sure to have a profound and lasting impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery, and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part I. Images of Blacks -- ONE. Biblical Israel: The Land of Kush -- TWO. Biblical Israel: The People of Kush -- THREE. Postbiblical Israel: Black Africa -- FOUR. Postbiblical Israel: Black Africans -- Part Two. The Color of Skin -- FIVE. The Color of Women -- SIX. The Color of Health -- SEVEN. The Colors of Mankind -- EIGHT. The Colored Meaning of Kushite in Postbiblical Literature -- Part Three. History -- NINE. Evidence for Black Slaves in Israel -- Part Four. At The Crossroads of History and Exegesis -- TEN. Was Ham Black? -- ELEVEN “Ham Sinned and Canaan was Cursed?!” -- TWELVE. The Curse of Ham -- THIRTEEN. The Curse of Cain -- FOURTEEN. The New World Order: Humanity by Physiognomy -- Conclusion. Jewish Views of Black Africans and the Development of Anti-Black Sentiment in Western Thought -- APPENDIX I. When is a Kushite not a Kushite? Cases of Mistaken Identity -- APPENDIX II. Kush/Ethiopia and India -- NOTES -- Glossary of Sources and Terms -- Subject Index -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Index of Modern Scholars