Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity

Simcha Gross is Assistant Professor of Ancient Rabbinics in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Coauthor of The History of the 'Slave of Chris': From Jewish Child to Christian Martyr and co-editor of Jews and Syriac Christians, he was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow for Assistant Professors at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; and a recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship for experienced researchers.

• Introduction: Toward a new history of Jews and the Sasanian Empire; 1. Jewish society under Sasanian rule: from isolation to integration; 2. Competing for power: Jewish elites and Sasanian culture; 3. Beyond 'tolerance': the logics of Sasanian violence against Jews; 4. Forgetting persecution: memory and anti-martyrdom in the Babylonian Talmud; 5. Rabbis and fire temples: navigating a Zoroastrian empire; 6. Kings and religion in the Talmud and in the imagination of Sasanian communities; Conclusion: the Sasanian Empire from the perspective of the Jews.

'Simcha Gross's brilliant new book.' Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Jewish Review of Books