221 Dynasties of Jewish Physicians in the Fatimid and Ayyubid Periods Amir Mazor and Efraim Lev University of Haifa Tis article discusses dynasties of Jewish practitioners – physicians, for the most part, as well as pharmacists – in the High Middle Ages in Egypt and Syria. Based on reliable Jewish sources, primarily Genizah documents and Muslim Arabic historiographical literature, twenty-four dynasties of Jewish physicians in Egypt and Syria during the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods (1171–1250/60 ce) are surveyed, with a particular focus on fve of them in terms of their social and political status within Jewish society and vis-à-vis the Muslim authorities and social elite. Introduction Te prominent role of Jewish physicians in the medieval world is well known. Alongside commerce and banking, medicine was a prevalent profession among Jews, whose contribution in these felds was of great signifcance. Due to the depth of Jewish integration in Islamicate societies, especially during what is known as the classical period of Islam (700–1250), Jews in these professions enjoyed social prestige – ofen in stark contrast to their counterparts in the Christian world.1 However, dynasties of Jewish physicians constitute a neglected aspect of mod- ern research. A dynasty is a sequence of successive rulers or leaders, or a series of family members, who are distinguished by status, wealth, or occupation. In Jewish tradition fathers are encouraged to teach their sons an occupation (b. Qiddushin 19a); according to Goitein, this means that either the father passes 1 On the prominent position of Jews as bankers in the Muslim world, see, for instance, Walter Fischel, Te Origin of Banking in Mediaeval Islam: A Contribution to the Economic History of the Jews of Baghdad in the Tenth Century (London: Austin & Sons, 1933). For Jews as long-distance merchants, see, for instance, the numerous studies of S.D. Goitein and, most recently, Jessica Goldberg’s Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean: Te Genizah Merchants and their Business World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), esp. 50–55, 116–17, 210–11, 350, 354–58. For Jewish careers in medieval Islamic lands and Europe, see Mark R. Cohen’s defnitive study, Under Crescent and Cross: Te Jews of the Middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), esp. 77–103 (trade and banking), 134–35, 196 (medicine), and see more below, nn. 23, 26.