ABSTRACT
The caliph, or a sultan ruling over a considerable number of non-Muslims, or a government official in charge of a city, would find it advantageous to recognize a representative religious dignitary as a connecting link between a subject minority and himself. The blooming of communal life of Christians and Jews under Islam coincided with the heyday of the Near Eastern bourgeoisie during the tenth through the twelfth centuries. Instead of trying now to do the impossible, namely to give a general picture of minority selfrule under Islam, in this chapter, the author confines himself to a case study, namely an outline of the inner organization of the Jewish community and its relationship to the Muslim government, as reflected in the documents of the so-called Cairo Geniza. The structure and working of Jewish community life must be studied on the ecumenical, territorial and local levels.
