In this Book

  • Medieval Exegesis and Religious Difference: Commentary, Conflict, and Community in the Premodern Mediterranean
  • Book
  • Edited by Ryan Szpiech
  • 2015
  • Published by: Fordham University Press
summary

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all have a common belief in the sanctity of a core holy scripture, and commentary on scripture (exegesis) was at the heart of all three traditions in the Middle Ages. At the same time, because it dealt with issues such as the nature of the canon, the limits of acceptable interpretation, and the meaning of salvation history from the perspective of faith, exegesis was elaborated in the Middle Ages along the faultlines of interconfessional disputation and polemical conflict. This collection of thirteen essays by world-renowned scholars of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam explores the nature of exegesis during the High and especially the Late Middle Ages as a discourse of cross-cultural and interreligious conflict, paying particular attention to the commentaries of scholars in the western and southern Mediterranean from Iberia and Italy to Morocco and Egypt.

Unlike other comparative studies of religion, this collection is not a chronological history or an encyclopedic guide. Instead, it presents essays in four conceptual clusters (“Writing on the Borders of Islam,” “Jewish-Christian Conflict,” “The Intellectual Activity of the Dominican Order,” and “Gender”) that explore medieval exegesis as a vehicle for the expression of communal or religious identity, one that reflects shared or competing notions of sacred history and sacred text. This timely book will appeal to scholars and lay readers alike and will be essential reading for students of comparative religion, historians charting the history of religious conflict in the medieval Mediterranean, and all those interested in the intersection of Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim beliefs and practices.

Table of Contents

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  1. Title Page, Copyright
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xii
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  1. Note on Transliteration and References
  2. p. xiii
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  1. Introduction
  2. Ryan Szpiech
  3. pp. 1-26
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  1. Part I: Strategies of Reading on theBorders of Islam
  1. 1. The Father of Many Nations: Abraham in al-Andalus
  2. Sarah Stroumsa
  3. pp. 29-39
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  1. 2. Ibn al-Maḥrūmah’s Notes on Ibn Kammūnah’s Examination of the Three Religions
  2. Sidney Griffith
  3. pp. 40-57
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  1. 3. Al- Biqāʿī Seen through Reuchlin: Reflections on the I Slamic Relationship with the Bible
  2. Walid Saleh
  3. pp. 58-68
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  1. Part II: Dominicans and Their Disputations
  1. 4. Two Dominicans, a Lost Manuscript, and Medieval Christian Thought on Islam
  2. Thomas E. Burman
  3. pp. 71-86
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  1. 5. The Anti-Muslim Discourse of Alfonso Buenhombre
  2. Antoni Biosca i Bas
  3. pp. 87-100
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  1. 6. Reconstructing Medieval Jewish–Christian Disputations
  2. Ursula Ragacs
  3. pp. 101-112
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  1. Part III: Authority and Scripture between Jewish and Christian Readers
  1. 7. Reconstructing Thirteenth-Century Jewish–Christian Polemic
  2. Harvey J. Hames
  3. pp. 115-127
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  1. 8. A Christianized Sephardic Critique of Rashi’s Peshaṭ in Pablo de Santa María’s Additiones ad Postillam Nicolai de Lyra
  2. Yosi Yisraeli
  3. pp. 128-141
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  1. 9. Jewish and ChristianInterpretations in Arragel’sBiblical Glosses
  2. Ángel Sáenz-Badillos
  3. pp. 142-152
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  1. Part IV: Exegesis and Gender
  1. 10. Between Epic Entertainment and Polemical Exegesis: Jesus As Antihero in Toledot Yeshu
  2. Alexandra Cuffel
  3. pp. 155-170
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  1. 11. Sons of God, Daughters of Man, and the Formation of Human Society in Nahmanides’s Exegesis
  2. Nina Caputo
  3. pp. 171-186
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  1. 12. Late Medieval Readings of the Strange Woman in Proverbs
  2. Esperanza Alfonso
  3. pp. 187-199
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  1. 13. Exegesis as Autobiography: The Case of Guillaume De Bourges
  2. Steven F. Kruger
  3. pp. 200-216
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  1. Notes
  2. pp. 217-286
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  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 287-318
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  1. Contributors
  2. pp. 319-322
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 323-336
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