Maimonides' apostasy according to Muslim and Jewish sources
The article presents and analyses the different Muslim accounts regarding Maimonides' conversion to Islam and his apostasy, and indicates the similarities between the Muslim accounts and Jewish folk tales about Maimonides. It points out that the same motifs regarding Maimonides that appear in b...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2019]
|
| In: |
Journal of Jewish studies
Year: 2019, Volume: 70, Issue: 2, Pages: 318-331 |
| IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AG Religious life; material religion BH Judaism BJ Islam KBH Iberian Peninsula |
| Further subjects: | B
Muslims
B Jews B Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204 B Jewish Legends B Apostasy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The article presents and analyses the different Muslim accounts regarding Maimonides' conversion to Islam and his apostasy, and indicates the similarities between the Muslim accounts and Jewish folk tales about Maimonides. It points out that the same motifs regarding Maimonides that appear in both Muslim and Jewish accounts are interpreted differently by Muslims and Jews. While in the Muslim accounts Maimonides, as a Jew, is depicted as ungrateful, malicious and treacherous, in the Jewish legends Maimonides is presented as a wily, clever and superior Jew, who mocks the Muslims. The article suggests that the motives for Maimonides' negative depiction derived from Muslim authors' commitment to the Islamic discourse regarding Jews, while the praise of Maimonides in the Jewish tales came in reaction to the Muslim reports, aiming to conceal his conversion. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2056-6689 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Jewish studies
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18647/3420/JJS-2019 |