Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2008
In contrast to many regions of the Middle East, whereJewish communities existed at the time of theProphet and throughout the centuries following hisdeath, the Tamil region of south India and theIndonesian-Malay world lacked such populations. Theabsence of Jewish communities did not, however,imply a complete unfamiliarity with Jews andJudaism. Rather, their image emerged from a varietyof textual sources in lieu of direct encounters. Inaddition to their depictions in the Qur'an andhadith literature, Jewish figures occasionallyappeared in texts produced in these regions' locallanguages. The Book of One ThousandQuestions, composed in Arabic andtranslated thereafter into many languages –including Javanese, Malay and Tamil – offers aglimpse to portrayals of Jews and Judaism in landswhere their actual presence was virtuallyunknown.