READINGS IN MEDIEVAL JUDEO-ARABIC Maimonides’ Responsa and Epistles Liran Yadgar, Judaic Studies
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This reading group aims to introduce the participants to Medieval Judeo-Arabic (Arabic in the Hebrew script), which was a form of Middle Arabic used among Jews all across the Islamic world. In the group, we will read texts from the reponsa of Maimonides (d. 1204) that may provide a glimpse into the everyday life of Jewish communities in medieval Egypt. Each meeting will begin with some points of vocabulary or linguistics relevant to the texts under examination. The meetings will be accompanied with background readings that are recommended but not mandatory; their goal is to familiarize the participants with the historical background in which the Judeo-Arabic texts were written. 1. Introduction: What is Judeo-Arabic? Stillman, Norman A. “Judeo-Arabic – History and Linguistic Description”; and Yosef Tobi, “Literature, Judeo-Arabic.” Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (online access at http://search.library.yale.edu/catalog/9345765). Hopkins, Simon. “The Languages of Maimonides.” in The Trias of Maimonides. Ed. Georges Tamer. Berlin, 2005, pp. 85-106. T-S 16.290, in Baneth, D.Z. “From the Correspondence of Maimonides” [in Hebrew]. in Sefer zikaron le-Asher Gulak veli-Shemuʼel Klain z.l. [Studies in Memory of Asher Gulak and Samuel Klein]. Jerusalem, 1942, pp. 50-56. [For photos of this document on the website of the Cambridge University Library, see http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-00016-00290/1 ] T-S 8J14.18, in Fenton, Paul B. “A Meeting with Maimonides.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 45, 1 (1982), pp. 1-4. 2. Standing during the Reading of the Ten Commandments Maimonides. Teshuvot ha-Rambam [Responsa]. Ed. Joshua Blau. Jerusalem, 1960, 2:495-499, responsum #263. Background reading: Novak, David. “Moses Maimonides.” in The Decalogue through the Centuries: From the Hebrew Scriptures to Benedict XVI. Eds. Jeffrey P. Greenman and Timothy Larsen. Louisville, 2012, pp. 81-96 (read pp. 81-86).
Photo: Detail of a fragment from Maimonides’ Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn, T-S Ar.25.103, 1 recto (courtesy: Cambridge University Library, http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-AR-00025-00103/1)
3. A Scandal at the Congregation Maimonides. Teshuvot ha-Rambam [Responsa]. Ed. Joshua Blau. Jerusalem, 1957, 1:189-191, responsum #110. Background reading: Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society. Los Angeles, 1971, 2:217-219 (preachers). Zinger, Oded. “‘What Sort of Sermon is This?’: Leadership, Resistance and Gender in a Communal Conflict.” in Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times: A Festschrift in Honor of Mark R. Cohen. Eds. Arnold E. Franklin et al. Leiden; Boston, 2014, pp. 83-98. Arad, Dotan, and Esther-Miriam Wagner. “The Preacher who Speaks like a Parrot: Two Versions of a Letter by R. Joshua ha-Nagid” (Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, January 2013). http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/fotm/january-2013/index.html 4. On Listening to Arabic Music & the Appropriate Blessing over Eating Qata’if Maimonides. Igrot ha-Rambam [Responsa]. Ed. Yitshak Shilat. Jerusalem, 1987, 1:426-427. __. Teshuvot ha-Rambam, 2:376-377, responsum #213. Background reading: Tobi, Yosef. “Maimonides’ Attitude toward Secular Poetry, Secular Arab and Hebrew Literature, Liturgical Poetry, and toward their Cultural Environment.” in idem, Between Hebrew and Arabic Poetry: Studies in Spanish Medieval Hebrew Poetry. Leiden, 2010, pp. 422-466. Salloum, Habeeb et al. Sweet Delights from a Thousand and One Nights. London, 2013, pp. 79-80; Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens: Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq’s Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook [Kitāb al-ṭabīkh]. Trans. Nawal Nasrallah. Leiden, 2007, pp. 422-424. 5. A Separation Maimonides. Teshuvot ha-Rambam, 1:71-73, responsum #45. [This is one petition out of two concerning this woman; see ibid., pp. 49-53, responsum #34] Background reading: Melammed, Renée Levine. “He Said, She Said: A Woman Teacher in Twelfth-Century Cairo.” AJS Review, 22, 1 (1997), pp. 19-35. 6. The Routine of an Elite Physician Maimonides. Teshuvot ha-Rambam, 2:302-304, responsum #158. Background reading: Cohen, Mark R. “The Burdensome Life of a Jewish Physician and Communal Leader: A Geniza Fragment from the Alliance Israélite Universelle Collection.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 16 (1993), pp. 125-136. 7. Maimonides’ Introductory Epistle to Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn, Guide for the Perplexed Maimonides. Moreh ha-nevukhim. Dalalat al-ḥā’irīn. Ed. and trans. Yosef Qafih. Jerusalem, 1972, 1:1-2. Background reading: Harvey, Steven. “Maimonides and the Art of Writing Introductions.” Maimonidean Studies, 5 (2008), pp. 85-105. Kraemer, Joel L. Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds. New York, 2008, pp. 359-366 (on the addressee of the epistle in the Guide, Rabbi Judah ibn Joseph ibn Simon).
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8. Reading Judeo-Arabic Documents from the Yale Manuscript Collection Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Ms. Hebrew 42 (fragment from Maimonides’ Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn), and Ms. Hebrew 43 (fragment from Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah). Background reading: Langermann, Y. Zvi. “The Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn and Its Commentary among Jews of Arab Lands” [in Hebrew]. in Minhah le-Mikhaʼel: Mehkarim be-hagut Yehudit u-Muslemit, mukdashim li-Profesor Mikhaʼel Shvarts [Tribute to Michael: Studies in Jewish and Muslim Thought, Presented to Professor Michael Schwarz]. Eds. Sara Klein-Braslavy et al. Tel Aviv, 2009, pp. 67-90. REFERENCES & DICTIONARIES Blau, Joshua. Dikduk ha-ʻArvit-ha-Yehudit shel yeme ha-benayim [A Grammar of Medieval Judeo-Arabic]. Jerusalem, 1980 (second revised ed.). __. The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic: A Study of the Origins of Middle Arabic. Jerusalem, 1999 (third revised ed.). __. Milon le-tekstim ʻArviyim-Yehudiyim mi-yeme ha-benayim [A Dictionary of Medieval Judeo-Arabic Texts]. Jerusalem, 2006. [Downloadable pdf. file: http://bit.do/blaudictionary ] __. ha-Sifrut ha-ʻArvit ha-Yehudit: Perakim nivharim. al-Mukhtār min al-nuṣūṣ bil-lugha al-ʻArabiyya al-Yahūdiyya [Select Texts in Judeo-Arabic Literature]. Jerusalem, 1980. [Downloadable pdf. file: http://bit.do/blauselecttexts ] Diem, Werner, and Hans-Peter Radenberg. A Dictionary of the Arabic Material of S.D. Goitein’s A Mediterranean Society. Wiesbaden, 1994. Friedman, Mordechai Akiva. Milon ha-ʻArvit ha-Yehudit mi-yeme ha-benayim li-teʻudot ha-genizah shel Sefer Hodu ule-tekstim aherim [A Dictionary of Medieval Judeo-Arabic for Geniza Documents from the India Book and Other Texts]. Jerusalem, 2016. Khan, Geoffrey. “Judeo-Arabic.” in Handbook of Jewish Languages. Eds. Lily Kahn and Aaron D. Rubin. Leiden; Boston, 2016, pp. 22-63. Yeshaya, Joachim J.M.S. “In the Name of the God of Israel: Judeo-Arabic Language and Literature.” in Scripts beyond Borders: A Survey of Allographic Traditions in the Euro-Mediterranean World. Eds. Johannes den Heijer et al. Louvain, 2014, pp. 527-538.
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