"Until the publication of this history of the Sephardi diaspora, only limited attention had been given to the distinctive Judeo-Spanish cultural entity that flourished in the Balkans and Asia Minor for more than four centuries. Esther Benbassa and Aron Rodrigue show how Sephardi society and culture developed in the Levant, sharing language, religion, customs, and communal life, during prosperous times and during the declining fortunes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. "--BOOK JACKET.