Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain.

209 Pages·2002·1.01 MB·English

by  Ross Brann

P O W E R I N T H E P O R T R A Y A L
J E W S , C H R I S T I A N S , A N D M U S L I M S
F R O M T H E A N C I E N T T O T H E M O D E R N W O R L D
R. Stephen Humphreys
William Chester Jordan
and Peter Scha¨fer
Series Editors
Power in the Portrayal
Representations of Jews and Muslims in
Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain
Ross Brann
P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
P R I N C E T O N A N D O X F O R D
Copyright(cid:2) 2002 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brann, Ross, 1949–
Power in the portrayal : representations of Jews and Muslims in eleventh- and twelfth-
century Islamic Spain / Ross Brann.
p. cm. — (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-691-00187-1
1. Andalusia (Spain)—Ethnic relations. 2. Jews—Spain—Andalusia—History.
3. Arabic literature—Spain—Andalusia—History and criticism. 4. Arabic literature—
750–1258—History and criticism. 5. Arabic literature—Jewish authors—History and
criticism. 6. Jews in literature. 7. Muslims in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
DP52 .B73 2002
946(cid:3).8004924—dc21 2001058060
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon.
Printed on acid-free paper. (cid:2)
www.pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
(cid:2)
In Memory of FKB, n”
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C O N T E N T S
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S ix
A B B R E V I A T I O N S xi
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Power in the Portrayal 1
C H A P T E R O N E
Force of Character
Three Eleventh-Century Andalusi-Muslim Views of Isma¯c¯ıl
A A
ibn Naghr¯ıla (Samuel the Nagid) (Taqaba¯t al-umam; Ibn Hayya¯n
al-Qurt(cid:2)ub¯ı apud Al-Ih(cid:2)a¯t(cid:2)a f¯ı akhba¯r gharna¯t(cid:2)a; Al-Tibya¯n) 24
C H A P T E R T W O
An Andalusi-Muslim Literary Typology
of Jewish Heresy and Sedition
Al-Fis(cid:2)al f¯ı l-milal wal-ahwa¯’ wal-nih(cid:2)al and
Al-Radd(cid:2)ala¯ ibn al-naghr¯ıla
al-yahu¯d¯ı ((cid:2)Al¯ı ibn AHazm) 54
C H A P T E R T H R E E
Textualizing Ambivalence
Ibn Bassa¯m’s Literary Miscellany, The Treasury concerning the
Merits of the People of Iberia(Al-Dhakh¯ıra f¯ı maha¯sin ahl al-jaz¯ıra) 91
C H A P T E R F O U R
Muslim Counterparts, Rivals, Mentors, and Foes—
A Trope of Andalusi-Jewish Identity?
The Problem of Andalusi-Jewish Representations of Muslims 119
C H A P T E R F I V E
The Silence of the Jews
A
Judah al-Harizi’s Picaresque Tale of the Muslim Astrologer
(Ta(cid:2)hkemoni) 140
B I B L I O G R A P H Y 161
I N D E X 185
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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
This is a book about representations of cultural and religious otherness in
eleventh- and twelfth-century al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) involving two
of its three confessional communities. Although I did not realize it at the
time, the project originated in research for a paper I delivered at a Wayne
State University/University of Michigan conference on the Jews of Islamic
lands. That paper and the encouraging response I received led me to
consider representations of imagined and historical figures as the key to a
new understanding of several well-known texts of Andalusi provenance.
An earlier version of what is now chapter 5 first appeared in Prince-
ton Papers in Near Eastern Studies 1 (1992) and in somewhat different
form in the proceedings of aforementioned conference The Jews of Is-
lamic Lands, ed. J. Lassner (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
forthcoming). Another conference paper and pre´cis of the material that
eventually was expanded significantly into the Introduction, chapter 1,
chapter 2, and chapter 3 appeared (with various errors and mistakes) as
“Textualizing Ambivalence in Islamic Spain: Arabic Representations of
Isma¯(cid:2)¯ıl ibn Naghr¯ılah,” in Languages of Power in Islamic Spain, ed.
Ross Brann (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 1997), 107–135, and in slightly
different form as “Signs of Ambivalence in Islamic Spain: Arabic Repre-
sentations of Samuel the Nagid,” in Ki Baruch Hu: Ancient Near East-
ern, Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Baruch A. Levine, ed.
R. Chazan, W. W. Hallo and L. Schiffman (Winona Lake, Indiana: Ei-
senbrauns, 1999), 443–65.
I wish to thank the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
and the National Endowment for the Humanities, whose support en-
abled me to devote a period of extended research and reflection on the
texts studied in this book, and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
of the University of Pennsylvania, which afforded me another oppor-
tunity for uninterrupted study in which I could complete the research
and writing.
Many individuals offered encouragement, comments, advice, cri-
tique, assistance, and suggestions on different parts of the work and at
different stages in its evolution. In particular I wish to acknowledge the
valuable comments, suggestions, and bibliographical assistance of Es-
peranza Alfonso, Everett Rowson, Maribel Fierro, Raymond P. Scheind-
lin, Tova Rosen, Angel Sa´enz-Badillos, Judit Targarona, Camilla Adang,
Munther Younes, David Wasserstein, Maya Shatzmiller, Heather Ecker,
and Leslie Adelson.