Jewish Retainers as Power Brokers

Jews and members of comparable trading minorities could provide premodern ruling classes with a wide range of services from tax collection to provision of luxuries. Those who performed these tasks were dependent on their patrons, but they in turn had their own clients, often from their own ethnic gr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Jewish quarterly review 1990-07, Vol.81 (1/2), p.127-149
Main Author: Zenner, Walter P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communities
Jewish culture
Jewish history
Jewish peoples
Jewish politics
Judaica
Muslims
Physicians
Ruling class
Tax farming
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Summary:Jews and members of comparable trading minorities could provide premodern ruling classes with a wide range of services from tax collection to provision of luxuries. Those who performed these tasks were dependent on their patrons, but they in turn had their own clients, often from their own ethnic groups. Using a heterogeneous collection of materials dealing with Jewish officials and courtiers in European and Islamic countries, generalizations will be presented which relate this body of data to social scientific theories of power brokerage, patron-client relations, and the retainer class. The article surveys the careers of minority courtiers and officials. It considers the functions which they performed and the rewards which they received. It also considers how they served the rulers as scapegoats and their own ethnic group as patrons, role models, and culture brokers. The negative impact of the prominence of Court Jews and similar retainers upon their minority communities is discussed.
ISSN:0021-6682
1553-0604
DOI:10.2307/1455259