Trudy Gold
The Radhanites: International Merchants and Traders: Beginnings of the Jews in China
Summary
Trudy Gold discusses the life and significance of the Radhanites, early medieval Jewish merchants that were active in trade between Christendom and the Muslim world during roughly the 8th to the 10th centuries. Also explored is how the time of the Radhanites tied in to Jews beginning to appear in China.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
That’s a very, very good point. Now, they would’ve from what we know, how did they communicate with the other communities, they would’ve used Hebrew with the other communities, depends where they came from. From Spain, we know that in Spain, Jews used after the Arab conquest, they used Arabic. They certainly spoke, we know that the Radhanites, most of them spoke six or seven languages.
Who knows, that’s a very difficult question to answer. Up until polygamy was practised, it was Gershom … It was Rabbi Gershom at Mytes in 1100, who forbade polygamy in the Jewish world. But we know that in certain of the Islamic countries, Jews practiced polygamy.
I think a lot of it would’ve been done in barter, but also gold, gold coins, coins, coins.