The Abrogation of the Mosaic Law in the Medieval Jewish Polemics with Islam: Saʿadia Gaon, al-Qirqisānī, and Maimonides
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to outline the response of Saʿadia Gaon, al-Qirqisānī, and Maimonides, three foremost Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, to the accusation of the Islamic polemics concerning abrogation (naskh) of the Mosaic Law. The question of the abrogation of the Mosaic Law, i.e., the Torah played central role in the medieval polemics between three monotheistic creeds, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
It is obvious from the works of the Jewish scholars under the concern that they discussed more or less the same set of Biblical passages and rational arguments pro and con the abrogation which we meet in the works of Muslim authors such as al-Bāqillānī or Ibn Ḥazm. Since we cannot suppose that these authors were familiar with the works of the Jewish theologians, it is more likely to assume that they got acquainted with these Biblical passages and arguments in the multi-confessional polemical sessions which took place in the 10th century in the places like Baghdad or Cairo.
The Christians, who also took part in these disputation salons, possessed better knowledge of the Hebrew Bible than Muslims and at the same time could draw arguments from copious Christian polemical literature with Judaism, and thus supply the needed polemical material to their Muslim counterparts. The polemical theses of the Jewish skeptic Ḥiwi al-Balkhi indubitably served as another channel of information.
The Biblical passages and rational arguments, propounded by al-Balkhi for abrogation and the change in God's mind (badāʾ), resound both from the works the studied Jewish scholars, and Muslim polemists.