| Abstrakt: |
In this article, the article traces the origins of the anti-Semitic stereotype that negatively associates Jews with the eating of onions by focusing on a 10th-century manuscript on the people of Arab-controlled Sicily, Italy, by Arab merchant Ibn Hawqal. The author first explains how Hawqal is prejudiced against all Sicilians in the text, especially Muslims, largely based on their onion consumption. Focus is then shifted to mention of Jews' enjoyment of onions in the Old Testament, and how Christian theologian Gregory the Great connected onion-eating with degradation in his work "Moralia in Job." The author then goes on to explain how Hawqal's work is evidence that onion consumption and social rank were seen as connected throughout the medieval world. |
