Arnold E. Franklin teaches history at Queens College, City University of New York.

• A Note on Transliteration, Names, and DatesPrefaceIntroductionChapter 1."Shar&#299f of the Jewish Nation": Reconceptualizing the House of David in the Islamic EastChapter 2. "The Truth of the Pedigree": Documenting Origins and the Public Performance of LineageChapter 3. Ancestry as Authority: Lineage and Power in Near Eastern Jewish SocietyChapter 4. "Designated in the Past and for the Future": Davidic Dynasts and Medieval Messianic AnticipationChapter 5. "The Shar&#299f of Every People Is Well-Born": Genealogy and the Legitimization of Minority CultureConclusionAppendix A. Halper 462: Transcription and TranslationAppendix B. Tentative List of Davidic Dynasts Datable between ca. 950 and ca. 1450NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Franklin's rich contribution to the field of Jewish history and culture in the medieval Islamic Near East . . . restores a key aspect of Jewish society to its proper place in historical scholarship, an achievement that is long overdue. Most importantly, Franklin's work fills in a major gap in our understanding of the complex negotiation and confident self-assertion of minority populations within the medieval Islamic world. For his sophisticated synthesis and analysis of a complex web of interconnected topics pertaining to Jewish prestige and power within medieval Islam, scholars of medieval Judaism and Islam alike owe Arnold Franklin a debt of gratitude." (Jewish History) "A welcome, thoroughly researched, and important study of the barely noticed shift in the attitude of the Jews of the Muslim East toward genealogy and the ways in which this shift was occasioned by their deep encounter with Islamic civilization. I applaud the ease with which Franklin incorporates such diverse materials." (Ross Brann, Cornell University) "A substantial, rich, and original work that takes a typically Jewish topic into the heart of an Islamic cultural context." (Menahem Ben-Sasson, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)