A World Within: Jewish Life As Reflected in Muslim Court Documents from the Sijill of Jerusalem (XVIth Century)

The more than one million documents contained in the Ottoman sijill of Jerusalem constitute one of the richest sources of information we have on the history of Palestine and its relations with the Ottoman central government in Istanbul. Nearly one thousand of these documents dealing with the history of the Jews living in Jerusalem in the sixteenth century are brought to us here by Amnon Cohen in facsimile format together with summary English translations. By facilitating access to the sijill documents, Cohen has created an important research tool. Regrettably, only a relatively small number of sijill documents - those dealing with Jews - have found scholarly interest and funding for publication, whereas the large number of documents dealing directly with the Muslim community - documents that are of signal importance for the study of the history of Ottoman Palestine, remain unpublished.