A Shīʿī-Jewish "Debate" (Munāẓara) in the Eighteenth Century

Surviving records of Jewish-Muslim polemical literature originate almost entirely from the Sunni milieu. It is therefore difficult to establish whether polemical exchanges existed in the Shī⊂ī world and how Shī⊂ī arguments against Judaism may have differed from their Sunni counterparts. One record, albeit a «second-hand» one, recounted by some modern editors but based on earlier records, relates a munazara («debate») between the famous Shī⊂ī divine, Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi b. Murtadā Ţabāţabā⊂ī Burūjirdī («Bahr al-⊂Ulūm») and a few Jews in Dhu'l-Kifl (Iraq). The encounter is said to have occurred in 1796 and the account sheds some light not only on the nature and extent of Shī⊂ī-Jewish polemical exchanges but also on Shī⊂ī-Jewish relations toward the end of the eighteenth century. This munāzara may have been little more than a literary and educational exercise in promoting Bahr al-⊂Ulūm's erudition and the account we have of it shows clearly a predilection to rehash traditional Sunni arguments against Judaism. The voices of the Jewish interlocutors are muted and they present questions and answers that are difficult to believe. Nevertheless, there may be a kernel of historicity behind this rather unique account which makes it worthy of our attention

Ancient history · Archaeology · Judaism · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Medieval and Classical Philosophy