A volume dealing with Judaism as it compares to Egyptian culture in a political and social relationship, by Moses Mannheimer, who at the time the book was published, was the Rabbi emeritus in Darmstadt, and also a teacher of religion there. Moses Mannheimer is also the author of numerous other books, including: Das gebetbuch und der religionsunterricht (Darmstadt, 1881), Die Juden in Worms (Frankfurt am Main, 1842, Die Judenverfolgungen in Speyer, Worms und Mainz im Jahre 1096 während des ersten Kreuzzuges (Darmstadt, 1877) and others.

Darmstadt is a city in Hesse, Germany. Jews were mentioned there from the 16th century. They were subjected to the severe restriction of the Judenordnung enacted for the whole of Hesse Jewry in 1585 and reimposed in 1629. In the 16th and 17th centuries Darmstadt Jews were compelled to attend Christian missionary sermons, like the other Hesse communities. They were granted permission to assemble for prayers only in 1695. A synagogue was erected in 1737, and the cemetery was established in 1709. The community numbered 200 persons in 1771. Its Memorbuch encompasses the years 1711 to 1863. The community flourished after the grant of civil rights to Jews. About 2,000 Jews lived in Darmstadt in 1913, and 3,000 in 1933, many of them immigrants from Eastern Europe. A new synagogue was built in 1876. However, the local Orthodox members seceded and in 1906 founded an independent community and synagogue, which totaled approximately 110 families in 1925. The orientalist Julius Landsberger served as rabbi of Darmstadt at the end of the 19th century. The last noted rabbi of the Reform community of the city was the scholar Bruno Italiener. The poet Karl Wolfskehl, the literary historian Friedrich Gundolf, and the architect Alfred Messel were all born in Darmstadt.