Cross-communal scholarly interactions

Gibson, Nathan P. and Vollandt, Ronny (2023): Cross-communal scholarly interactions. In: Brentjes, Sonja ; Barker, Peter and Brentjes, Rana (eds.) : Routledge handbook on the sciences in Islamicate societies: Practices from the 2nd/8th to the 13th/19th centuries. London: Routledge. pp. 723-740

Abstract

This chapter traces cross-communal interactions in the fields of medicine, mathematics and what the historical actors called the natural sciences. It discusses various modern interpretations of those interactions and engages with a number of historical problems researchers face when studying the extant sources. After a substantive survey of the current state of research, the chapter addresses four areas which offer fascinating evidence for interactions between scholars adhering to different faith communities: textual practices; teaching; patronage; workplaces. The chapter ends by suggesting future research directions.

• Item Type: Book Section
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Faculties: Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Near and Middle Eastern Studies
• Subjects: 200 Religion > 270 History of Christianity; 200 Religion > 290 Other religions; 400 Language > 490 Other languages; 500 Science > 500 Science; 800 Literature > 890 Other literatures; 900 History and geography > 990 History of other areas
• ISBN: 978-1-315-17071-8
• Place of Publication: London
• Language: English

References

Sources

Ibn Buṭlān and ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān. eds. Schacht, J. and Meyerhof, M. 1937. The Medico-Philosophical Controversy between Ibn Butlan of Baghdad and Ibn Ridwan of Cairo: A Contribution to the History of Greek Learning among the Arabs. Cairo: Egyptian University, Faculty of Arts.

al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Fuqaymī. ed. Hārūn, A. M. 1964–79. Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ [Epistles of al-Jāḥiẓ]. 4 vols. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khājī.

al-Masʿūdī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. ed. De Goeje, M. J. 1894. Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa-l-ishrāf [The Book of Admonition and Revision]. Leiden: Brill.

Research literature Adang, C. 1996. Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm. New York: Brill.

Allony, N. ed. Frenkel, M. and Ben-Shammai, H. 2006. The Jewish Library in the Middle Ages: Book Lists from the Cairo Genizah. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute.

Altmann, A. 1979. “Creation and Emanation in Isaac Israeli: A Reappraisal,” in Twersky, I., ed. Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1–15.

Altmann, A. and Stern, S. M. 1958. Isaac Israeli: A Neoplatonic Philosopher of the Early Tenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Basal, N. 1988. “Part One of al-Kitāb al-muštamil by Abū l-Faraj Hārūn and Its Dependence on Ibn al-Sarrāj’s Kitāb al-Uṣūl f ī l-naḥw,” [in Hebrew] Leshonenu 61: 191–209.

Basal, N. 1999. “The Concept of Ḥāl in the al-Kitāb al-muštamil of Abū al-Faraj Hārūn in Comparison with Ibn al-Sarrāj,” Israel Oriental Studies 19: 391–408.

Becker, D. 1993. “The Dependence of R. Yona b. Ğanah on the Arab Grammarians,” [in Hebrew] Leshonenu 57: 137–45.

Becker, D. 1995. “Concerning the Arabic Sources of R. Jonah ibn Janah,” [in Hebrew] Teuda 9: 143–68. Ben-Sasson, M. 1996. The Emergence of the Local Jewish Community in the Muslim World (Qayrawan 800–1057) [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Magnes Press.

Ben-Sasson, M. 1997. “The Emergence of the Qayrawan Jewish Community and Its Importance as a Maghrebi Community,” in Golb, N., ed. Proceedings of the Founding Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies. Amsterdam: Harwood, 1–13.

Ben-Shammai, H. 1997. “Kalām in Medieval Jewish Philosophy,” in Frank, D. H. and Leaman, O., eds. History of Jewish Philosophy. London: Routledge, 115–48.

Ben-Shammai, H. 2003. “The Tension between Literal Interpretation and Exegetical Freedom: Comparative Observations on Saadia’s Method,” in McAuliffe, J. D., Walfish, B. and Goering, J. W., eds. With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 33–50.

Ben-Shammai, H., Shaked, S., and Stroumsa, S., eds. 2013. Exchange and Transmission across Cultural Boundaries: Philosophy and Science in the Mediterranean World. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Bertaina, D. 2014. “Ḥadīth in the Christian Arabic Kalām of Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ (c. 1000),” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 2: 267–86.

Bertaina, D. 2015. “Christian Kalâm,” in Touati, H., ed. Encyclopedia of Mediterranean Humanism. www.encyclopedie-humanisme.com/?Christian-Kalam.

Cabrol, C. 2000. “Une étude sur les secrétaires nestoriens sous les Abbassides 762–1258 à Bagdad,” in “Actes du 5e Congrès international d’études arabes chrétiennes, Lund, août 1996,” special issue, Parole de l’Orient 25: 407–91.

Chipman, L. and Lev, E. 2006. “Syrups from the Apothecary’s Shop: A Genizah Fragment Containing One of the Earliest Manuscripts of Minhāj al-Dukkān,” Journal of Semitic Studies 51.1: 137–68.

Chipman, L. and Lev, E. 2010. “Arabic Prescriptions from the Cairo Genizah,” Asian Medicine 6.1: 75–94. Cohen, M. R. 1986. “Islam and the Jews: Myth, Counter-Myth, History,” Jerusalem Quarterly 38: 125–37. Cohen, M. R. 1991. “The Neo-Lachrymose Conception of Jewish-Arab History,” Tikkun 6: 55–60. Comes, M. 2000. “Umayya b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Abu ’l-Ṣalt,” in EI-2, 10: 836–7.

Dubovick, Y. M. 2018. “‘Oil, Which Shall Not Quit My Head’: Jewish-Christian Interaction in Eleventh- Century Baghdad,” Entangled Religions 6: 95–123.

Endress, G. 2002. “Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī,” in EI-2, 11: 245–6.

Fenton, P. 2002. Introduction to Le commentaire sur le Livre de la création de Dūnaš ben Tāmīm de Kairouan (Xe siècle) by G. Vajda. Leuven: Peeters, 1–20.

Ferrario, G. and Vollandt, R. 2010. “A Judaeo-Arabic Version of Ibn Bahrīz’s Treatise on Logic, T-S K6.181,” Fragment of the Month (blog), Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library, Sep- tember 2010. www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/ fragment-month/fragment-month-13-2.

Fiey, J. M. 1980. Chrétiens syriaques sous les Abbassides, surtout à Bagdad (749–1258) (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 420). Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO.

Freidenreich, D. M. 2014. “Walking Side by Side: Engagement with Islamic Law and Theology in Rab- binic Legal Literature,” The Muslim World 104: 413–17.

Freidenreich, D. M. and Goldstein, M., eds. 2012. Beyond Religious Borders: Interaction and Intellectual Exchange in the Medieval Islamic World. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Frenkel, M. 2017. “Book Lists from the Cairo Genizah: A Window on the Production of Texts in the Middle Ages,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 80.2: 233–52. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X17000519.

Gibson, N. P. 2015. Closest in Friendship? Al-Jāḥiẓ’ Profile of Christians in Abbasid Society in ‘The Refutation of Christians’ (al-Radd ʿalā al-naṣārā). PhD thesis. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America. https://cuislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/cuislandora:28277.

Gibson, N. P. 2017. “A Mid-Ninth-Century Arabic Translation of Isaiah? Glimpses from al-Jāḥiẓ,” in Hjälm, M. L., ed. Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims (Biblia Arabica 5). Leiden: Brill, 327–69.

Goitein, S. D. 1949. “Jewish-Arab Symbiosis,” [in Hebrew] Molad 2: 259–66.

Goitein, S. D. 1955. Jews and Arabs: Their Contacts Through the Ages. New York: Schocken.

Goitein, S. D. 1967. A Mediterranean Society. Vol. 1: Economic Foundations. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Goitein, S. D. 1970. “Minority Selfrule and Government Control in Islam,” Studia Islamica 31: 101–6. https://doi.org/10.2307/1595067.

Goitein, S. D. 1971. A Mediterranean Society. Vol. 2: The Community. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Goldstein, B. R. 2001. “Astronomy and the Jewish Community in Early Islam,” Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism 1: 17–57.

Goldstein, B. R. 2002. “Science as a ‘Neutral Zone’ for Interreligious Cooperation,” Early Science and Medicine 7.3: 290–1. https://doi.org/10.1163/157338202X00162.

Goodman, L. E. 1995. “Crosspollinations – Philosophically Fruitful Exchanges between Jewish and Islamic Thought,” Medieval Encounters 1: 323–57.

Goodman, L. E. 1999. Jewish and Islamic Philosophy: Crosspollinations in the Classical Age. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Gottschalk, H. L. 19973. “al-Kāmil,” in EI-2, 4: 520–1.

Griffith, S. H. 1994. “Faith and Reason in Christian Kalām: Theodore Abū Qurrah on Discerning the True Religion,” in Samir, S. K. and Nielsen, J., eds. Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period, 750–1258. Leiden: Brill, 1–43.

Griffith, S. H. 2004. “The Gospel, the Qurʾān, and the Presentation of Jesus in al-Yaʿqūbī’s Taʾrīkh,” in Reeves, J. C., ed., Bible and Qurʾān: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality. Leiden: Brill, 133–60.

Guttmann, J. 1911. Die philosophischen Lehren des Isaak b. Salomon Israeli. Münster: Aschendorff. Hirschberg, H. Z. 19742. History of the Jews in North Africa. Vol. 1: From Antiquity to the Sixteenth Century, eds. Bashan, E. and Attal, R. Leiden: Brill.

Hodgson, M. G. S. 1974. The Venture of Islam. Vol. 1: The Classical Age of Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Idris, H. R. 19862. “Bādīs,” in EI-2, 1: 860.

Janos, D. 2015. “al-Fārābī, Philosophy,” in EI-3, 2015–2: 108–13.

Joosse, N. P. 2018. “al-Dakhwār,” in EI-3, 2019–1: 21–2. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_32131.

Kennedy, E. S. and Pingree, D. 1971. The Astrological History of Māshāʾallah (Harvard Monographs in the History of Science 5). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Khan, G. 1986. “The Arabic Fragments in the Cambridge Genizah Collections,” Manuscripts of the Middle East 1: 54–60.

Koningsveld, P. S. van. 1992. “Andalusian-Arabic Manuscripts from Christian Spain,” Israel Oriental Studies 12: 75–110.

Langermann, Y. T. 1996a. “Arabic Writings in Hebrew Manuscripts: A Preliminary Relisting,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 6: 137–60.

Langermann, Y. T. 1996b. “Transcriptions of Arabic Treatises into the Hebrew Alphabet: An Underappreciated Mode of Transmission,” in Ragep, F. J., Ragep, S. P. and Livesey, S., eds. Tradition, Transmission, Transformation. Leiden: Brill, 247–60.

Lazarus-Yafeh, H. 1992. Intertwined Worlds: Medieval Islam and Bible Criticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Lazarus-Yafeh, H. et al., eds. 1999. The Majlis: Interreligious Encounters in Medieval Islam. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Levin, L., Walker, R. D. and Sadik, S. 2018. “Isaac Israeli,” in Zalta, E. N., ed. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition). Stanford: Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/israeli/.

Lewis, B., et al. 19862. “Ibn Zurʿa,” in EI-2, 3: 979–80.

Libson, G. 2003. Jewish and Islamic Law: A Comparative Study of Custom During the Geonic Period (Harvard Series in Islamic Law). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Meimaris, Y. 1985. Katalogos tōn neōn aravikōn cheirographōn tēs Hieras Monēs hagías Aikaterinēs tou Orous Sina. Athens: Ethnikon Hidryma Ereunon.

Meyerhof, M. 19862. “Ibn al-Tilmīd̲h,̲ ” in EI-2, 3: 956–7.

Millás, J. M. and Stern, S. M. 19862. “Abu ’l-Ṣalt Umayya,” in EI-2, 1: 149.

Monferrer-Sala, J. P. 2010. “Ibn Zurʿa,” in Thomas, D., ed. Christian-Muslim Relations 600–1500. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1877-8054_cmri_COM_23344.

Montgomery, J. 2007. “Islamic Crosspollinations,” in Akasoy, A., Montgomery, J. and Pormann, P., eds. Islamic Crosspollinations: Interactions in the Medieval Middle East. Oxford: Gibb Memorial Trust, 148–93. Nicolae, D. 2017. “Ibn Jumayʿ,” in EI-3, 2017–4: 138–9.

Outhwaite, B., Schmierer-Lee, M. and Burgess, C. 2017. Discarded History: The Genizah of Medieval Cairo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Library.

Pines, S. 19862. “Abu ’l-Barakāt,” in EI-2, 1: 111–13.

Pingree, D. 1975. “Mashāʾallāh: Some Sasanian and Syriac Sources,” in Hourani, G. F., ed. Essays on Islamic Philosophy and Science. Albany: State University of New York Press, 5–14.

Polliack, M. 1997. The Karaite Tradition of Arabic Bible Translation: A Linguistic and Exegetical Study of Karaite Translations of the Pentateuch from the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries C.E. Leiden: Brill.

Richards, D. S. 1992. “A Doctor’s Petition for a Salaried Post in Saladin’s Hospital,” Social History of Medicine 5.2: 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/5.2.297.

Salaymeh, L. 2013. “Between Scholarship and Polemic in Judeo-Islamic Studies,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 24: 407–18.

Salaymeh, L. 2015. “Comparing Jewish and Islamic Legal Traditions: Between Disciplinarity and Critical Historical Jurisprudence,” Critical Analysis of Law 2: 153–72.

Samir, Kh. 1991. “ʿAbd al-Masiẖ al-Israʾili al-Raqqi,” in Atiya, A. S., Torjesen, K. J. and Gabra, G., eds. Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia. Claremont: Claremont Graduate University, School of Religion, 5b–7a.http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/ref/collection/cce/id/16. Samsó, J. 1991. “Mās̲h̲āʾ Allāh,” in EI-2, 6: 710–12.

Schacht, J. 1986a. “Ibn Buṭlān,” in EI-2, 3: 740–2.

Schacht, J. 1986b. “Ibn Riḍwān,” in EI-2, 3: 907–8.

Schwarb, G. 2014. “The Reception of Maimonides in Christian-Arabic Literature,”in Tobi, Y., ed. Maimo- nides and His World: Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies (Ben ʿEver La-ʿArav: Contacts between Arabic Literature and Jewish Literature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times 7). Haifa: Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, 109–75.

Sezgin, F. 1970. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill.

Simaika, M. 1939. Catalogue of the Coptic and Arabic Manuscripts in the Coptic Museum, the Patriarchate, the Principal Churches of Cairo and Alexandria, and the Monasteries of Egypt. 2 vols. Cairo: Government Press, Būlāq.

Sirry, M. 2011. “The Public Role of Dhimmīs during ʿAbbāsid Times,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 74.2: 187–204. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X11000024.

Sklare, D. E. 1996. Samuel Ben Ḥofni Gaon and His Cultural World: Texts and Studies (Études sur le judaïsme médiéval 18). Leiden: Brill.

Steinschneider, M. 1893. “Schriften der Araber in hebräischen Handschriften, ein Beitrag zur arabischen Bibliographie,” Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 47.3: 335–84.

Steinschneider, M. 1897. “An Introduction to the Arabic Literature of the Jews: I,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 9.2: 224–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/1450587.

Stroumsa, S. 2011. “Whirlpool Effects and Religious Studies: A Response to Guy G. Stroumsa,” in Krech, V. and Steinicke, M., eds. Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe: Encounters, Notions, and Comparative Perspectives. Leiden: Brill, 159–62.

Stroumsa, S. 2015. “Between Acculturation and Conversion in Islamic Spain: The Case of the Banū Ḥasday,” Mediterranea: International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge 1: 9–36. https://doi.org/10.21071/mijtk.v0i1.5171.

Swanson, M. N. 2010. “ʿAbd al-Masīḥ al-Isrāʾīlī al-Raqqī,” in Thomas, D., ed. Christian-Muslim Relations 600–1500. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1877-8054_cmri_COM_24989.

Szilágyi, K. 2006. “Christian Books in Jewish Libraries: Fragments of Christian Arabic Writings from the Cairo Geniza,” Ginzei Qedem 2: 107–58.

Talbi, M. 1993. “al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs,” in EI-2, 7: 481–4.

Thomas, D. 2000. “al-Ṭabarī,” in EI-2, 10: 11–15.

Vajda, G. 2002. Le commentaire sur le Livre de la création de Dūnaš ben Tāmīm de Kairouan (Xe siècle). Leuven: Peeters.

Vernet, J. 1986a. “Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa,” in EI-2, 3: 693–4.

Vernet, J. 1986b. “Ibn al-Hayt̲h̲am,” in EI-2, 3: 788–9.

Vidro, N. and Kasher, A. 2014. “How Medieval Jews Studied Classical Arabic Grammar: A Kufan Primer from the Cairo Genizah,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 41: 173–244.

Vollandt, R. 2014. “Ancient Jewish Historiography in Arabic Garb: Sefer Josippon between South Italy and Coptic Cairo,” Zutot 11: 70–80.

Vollandt, R. 2018. “Flawed Biblical Translations into Arabic and How to Correct Them: A Copt and a Jew Study Saadiah’s Tafsīr,” in Bertaina, D., et al., eds. Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith. Leiden: Brill, 56–92.

Walzer, R. 19914. “al Fārābī,” in EI-2, 2: 778–81.

Yarbrough, L. B. 2012. Islamizing the Islamic State: The Formulation and Assertion of Religious Criteria for State Employment in the First Millennium AH. PhD thesis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Zucker, M. 1984. Saadya’s Commentary on Genesis. New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.