For a millennium, most of the world's Jews lived in Islamic lands. The result of this extended encounter was that Jewish literature and culture developed in intimate dialogue with Muslims. This course explores key facets of that Jewish-Muslim relationship, including: the political and legal institutions that shaped the Jewish experience of minorityhood; the Islamic religious milieu which simultaneously challenged and inspired Jews; and the popular and scholarly culture which Jews both consumed and contributed to. A major focus of the course will be on investigating the promises and challenges provided by different genres of primary sources, most of which were written between 900 and 1600. We will examine legal, documentary, and literary sources, and consider the strategies that scholars have developed to draw information from them. Prior course work in either Jewish or Islamic studies is recommended. All texts will be provided in English although students with knowledge of Hebrew and/or the languages of the Islamic world will be encouraged to put those skills to use.