Interpretation, History of – Medieval Judaism in Arabic-speaking Lands (from the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol. 13 [De Gruyter, 2016], cols. 95–105) (original) (raw)
Introduction: Short History of Research on Judaeo-Arabic Biblical Exegesis
Jewish Biblical exegesis from Islamic Lands: The Medieval period, 2019
since the 1990s we have been witnessing a renewed interest in medieval Bible exegesis written in the Arabic language by Jews from islamic lands. This is especially evident in a large number of recent editions and detailed studies of their Bible translations and commentaries originally written in this language, also known as Judeo-arabic.
'Arabic Composition 101' and the early development of Judaeo-Arabic Bible exegesis
Journal of Semitic Studies, 2010
Conceptions of eloquence in Arabic, as well as the Muslim theological tenet of the inimitability of the Qur'an, shaped Jewish views of writing in Arabic as well as their approach to the interpretation of the Bible. In this article I demonstrate innovative Karaite approaches to biblical exegesis, which center on revealing the structure and organizing principles of the biblical text. I propose that these exegetes were striving to demonstrate the well-organized (or so they claimed) nature of the biblical text, and that this desire emerged from their internalization of "Arabic Composition 101" -- that is, currently reigning norms of composition in eloquent Arabic, and their belief that their scriptural text surely attained this ideal of composition.
The Status Quaestionis of Research on the Arabic Bible
Semitic Linguistics and Manuscripts : A Liber Discipulorum in Honour of Professor Geoffrey Khan, 2018
In what follows, I seek to offer a status quaestionis of research on the Arabic Bible. As a newly emerging field of academic research, it has a need to clearly define itself and to develop methodological standards. This is necessary not least to close scholarly lacunae and produce new, seminal perspectives on the field. versions in Arabic, their various text types, their Vorlagen and translation strategies, their geographical , chronological and denominational distribution, as well as to the ways they were produced, disseminated and consumed can, for the time being, only be answered tentatively. This contribution thus attempts to bring together different strands of a dynamic field, which has received considerable momentum since the turn of the new millennium.
In Muslim polemical writings on the Bible written in Arabic, scriptural quotations frequently appear in Arabic transcription of the original Hebrew. This phenomenon also occurs in the Persian refutations of Christianity by the 11th/17th-century Shīʿī scholar Sayyed Aḥmad ʿAlavī. The adduced biblical materials, however, vary significantly depending on the particular manuscript or recension. Nevertheless, they reflect the common repertoire of scriptural verses invoked by Muslim authors. In contrast to Henry Corbin, who argued on the basis of the Hebrew verses transcribed in Arabic characters that ʿAlavī was a Hebraist and directly acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures, it is suggested here that the Shīʿī scholar relied instead on lists of biblical “testimonies” to Muḥammad. Although ʿAlavī’s literary sources are as yet unknown due to a lack of research, there is evidence from the manuscripts dating from ʿAlavī’s lifetime that he copied the transcribed Bible quotations from earlier Muslim writings.