Lunch-Time Lecture with Prof. Dr. Craig Perry (Emory University): "Slavery and Jewish-Muslim Entanglement in Medieval Egypt, 11th-13th c."

The Jewish community of Cairo preserved what is arguably one of the richest archives for the study of slavery in the medieval Middle East. This talk will explore these writings to illustrate different aspects of Jewish-Muslim entanglements in Egypt and beyond. The main themes will include: the interplay of Jewish and Islamic slavery law; slave-owning and the construction of Jewish masculinities; and the lives of unfree and freed peoples in this entangled society.

Craig Perry is an assistant professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, and the Islamic Civilizations Studies Graduate Program. He is co-editor of The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 2, AD 500 – AD 1420 (2021). In Fall 2025, his book Slavery in a Medieval Islamic Society: a Jewish History, will be published by Princeton University Press.