ABSTRACT
Islam designates the followers of revealed religions as ahl al-kitab, people of the book. Over the past hundred years, the Jewish community of this island has produced close to five hundred published books. In 1903, a Hebrew printing press was imported to Jerba, and since that date, virtually every work in that language or in Judeo-Arabic written on the island and in its allied communities of Southern Tunisia was published in Jerba. The place of traditional learning in the Jerban Jewish community, and the community's vision of itself and its own local religious traditions and customs. Jerban Jews share with traditional Jews everywhere the same high regard for the study of Torah. Commemoration, filial and family piety, was in the past and continues in the present as strong motives for Jerban Jewish publications. The literary production of Jerban Jewish scholars was also constrained. Commentary and compilation are the dominant modes of Jerban Jewish literary activity.
