© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI : 10.1163/157006711X561703 Medieval Encounters 17 (2011) 1-26 brill.nl/me Medieval Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture Encounters in Confluence and Dialogue Jewish Art and Cultural Exchange: eoretical Perspectives Katrin Kogman-Appel* Department of the Arts, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel *E-mail: katrin@woobling.org Abstract is paper deals with cultural exchange, an issue crucial for the study of medieval Jewish art. It aims to propose a more precise definition of Jewish pictorial art than that of a minor- ity operating within different majority cultures by discussing different theoretical concepts. e paper presents, on the one hand, historical-anthropological models of interpretation, and theoretical formulations derived from literary studies on the other. ese concepts are examined in several art-historical test cases from the field of Jewish art in which the issue of cultural exchange is particularly crucial. Conclusions drawn from these test cases may shed light on the applicability of such models in the context of visual culture. Keywords Acculturation, Catalonia, Haggadah, Ashkenaz, Bible, Egypt, Mahzor In the year 1008 a richly illuminated Hebrew Bible was produced in Fus- tat in Egypt 1 (Fig. 1). A brief look at the decoration is enough to convince the viewer that the design of this Bible owes a great debt to Islamic art. e same is true of the so-called Farhi Bible, written and decorated between 1366 and 1382 most likely in the southeast of France (Fig. 2), which can be compared to the design of an Islamic manuscript made in the 1 For a facsimile edition, see David N. Freedman, ed., e Leningrad Codex. A Facsimile Edition (Grand Rapids, MI.: W. B. Eerdmans; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998); for a discussion of the decoration, see Bezalel Narkiss, Illuminations from Hebrew Bibles of Leningrad ( Jerusa- lem: Bialik Institute, 1992), 50-53; Katrin Kogman-Appel, Jewish Book Art Between Islam and Christianity: e Decoration of Hebrew Bibles in Spain (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004), 46.