SOAS Research Online

Abstract

A study of Muslim polemics directed against Jews. A survey of the anti-Jewish literature of Islam shows that whilst parts of the Koran are violently anti-Jewish, later Islam tends to ignore the Jews, and when it treats of them, appears to draw considerably on Christian sources. In this connection, the authenticity of Ali fabari's work can be established. An outstanding polemist was Ibn Hazm, but his contention that the Bible is a forgery is quoted in detail in works of a century before, as the opinion of still earlier Mu'tazilis. Samau'al al-Maghribi, a convert from Judaism, a century later, marks a further stage in the polemic. The later writers who quarried from his works are discussed, and the connection between them made clear. In particular, the connections between his tract and Ibn Kammuna's work axe traced. Abrogation of one revelation by a later is the pivot of this controversy, and had a large share in developing the Muslim theory. The charge of anthropomorphism was brought against the Jews, and particular emphasis laid on their inferiority.