Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
Hebrew Union College Annual
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2019) 227-255
Keywords:
Moses Islamic interpretations
;
Muhammad,
;
Judaism Relations To 1500
;
Islam
;
Islam Relations To 1500
;
Judaism
;
Islamic literature History and criticism
Abstract:
While Islam echoes the Jewish characterization and adoration of Moses as God's messenger, interlocutor (al-kalīm), and right-hand man, Islam rejects the Jewish teachings regarding Moses's everlasting prophetic uniqueness. For Islam, Moses was matched by a subsequent prophet whose life paralleled his but was ultimately exceeded by him: Muḥammad.This study analyzes the nature of the Jewish reaction to the Muslim claim of Muḥammad's superiority over Moses. The analysis opens with a discussion of Jewish polemics against Muhammad in the early Islamic era. Problematically, these polemics are preserved only in the Islamic sources themselves, specifically in the writings of Ibn Hishām and al-Wāqidī. As these are non-contemporaneous to Muḥammad's lifetime, their historicity remains highly questionable. The analysis then compares these early Jewish responses to later medieval Jewish writings on Muḥammad's Mosesness, as found in the writings of Maimonides, Samaw'al al-Maghribi, Netanel ibn al-Fayyumi, Daniel al-Qumisi, Maimonides, Ibn Kammuna and Ibn Adret. Intriguingly, we find that the ways in which the (possibly) contemporary Jews are reported to have reacted to Muḥammad – recognizing him as predicted in Jewish tradition, rejecting him for not measuring up to Moses, or mocking him outright – are the same categories of reaction found in the medieval sources. This finding suggests that, contrary to scholarship that denies any historical value to the early Islamic texts, perhaps the Muslim depiction of the early Jewish response was in fact rooted in some historical truth. And perhaps we can thus know more about the Jews who interacted with Muḥammad than was earlier thought.
DOI:
10.15650/hebruniocollannu.90.2019.0227
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
