Beyond Religious Borders: Interaction and Intellectual Exchange in the Medieval Islamic World

Chapter 1: Observations on the Beginnings of Judeo-Arabic Civilization

c h A p t e r 1 Observations on the Beginnings of Judeo-arabic Civilization hAggAI ben-shAmmAI An appropriate definition of Judeo-Arabic civilization would be the following : the sum total of all communications, or documents, as well as other written materials, in which Arabic-speaking Jews have expressed their spiritual and material needs, occupations, aspirations, and achievements. The focus of this definition is no doubt linguistic and will continue to be the focus in the present study, which is based on the premise that language is a major expression of the uniqueness or particularity of any culture. The definition applies to communications that incorporate certain Jewish elements, including the Hebrew script, a considerably large, or at least discernible, body of Hebrew vocabulary, and a distinct presence of references to Jewish topics and sources. It could be argued that the term “culture” suits the present study better than “civilization,” but I have chosen the latter because the written materials under discussion relate to all aspects of the lives of Arabic-speaking Jewish individuals and communities, including intellectual and theoretical creativity and literature; political, legal, and religious institutions; socioeconomic activities; and everyday private matters. Furthermore, if it were only for isolated poems whose Jewish connection is confined to the alleged Jewish origin of their author (e.g., Lāmiyyat al-Samawʾal, whose author is said to have lived in Western Arabia in the sixth century ce),1 or to philosophical2 or medical works of a general nature whose authors happen to be of Jewish origin, there would be little justification for the use of the term “Judeo-Arabic civilization” or “Judeo-Arabic literature .” Such materials would merely testify to the extent to which Jews 14 hAggAI ben-shAmm AI adjusted to or assimilated into the civilization in which they lived. Furthermore, such works would not become part of the cultural legacy of Judaism, at least not without particular adjustments to Jewish characteristics. Usually the concept of medieval Judeo-arabic civilization is understood, considering the absence of living witnesses or recordings and the meager quantity of art works, to cover written materials specifically. The oldest such materials are believed to have survived from the ninth century (or perhaps even earlier) in small quantities and from the tenth century onward in everincreasing quantities.3 The last statement may be put more dramatically. Scholars used to marvel at the literary accomplishments of Saadya Gaon (882–942), especially considering the poor achievements of Judeo-arabic literature in general, and Bible translations in particular, before Saadya’s time. The research of Blau and Hopkins in recent years and, in particular, their findings of fragments of Arabic translations of biblical and Geonic works (see below), which clearly predate Saadya by a century or so, put Saadya’s works into a different historical perspective. Considering the chances of survival of papyrus and parchment writings for twelve centuries, the volume of the materials that Blau and Hopkins have accumulated so far is impressive indeed. It is thus widely believed today that the starting point for the history of Judeo-arabic civilization is the ninth century. It is true that Geonic literature even at that period of time was written mostly in Aramaic (or a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew). However, the process of the adoption of Arabic by Jews—the Arabization, so to speak, of eastern Mediterranean Judaism— could have started earlier. A. S. Halkin, in his comprehensive essay on Judeoarabic literature, states that the beginnings of such literature probably go back to the ninth century; he then hints that some earlier activity in this field is quite possible but does not elaborate on that possibility.4 Arabic was introduced as the administrative language of the Arab state by ʿAbd al-Malik at the end of the seventh century. There are official inscriptions that date from the time of Muʿāwiya (r. 660–81), several decades earlier.5 In fact, there are some inscriptions in northern arabic that date from pre-Islamic times,6 but according to current research on Judeo-arabic civilization, Jews are believed to have been rather slow in their adjustment to the new cultural order in the eastern Mediterranean. Jewish materials in the Qurʾān might provide additional information or even hints regarding when Jews began to use Arabic extensively, for it is widely accepted that the Qurʾān contains Jewish (as well as Christian)7 materials. Judeo-arabic Civilization...