Scriptural Substitutions and Anonymous Citations

Judaization as Rhetorical Strategy in a Jewish Sufi Text1

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9206007
AutoresNathan Hofer (University of Missouri, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen61
Número4
Páginas364-395
Fecha de publicación2014-06-09
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNumen (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0029-5973 • E-ISSN: 1568-5276
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15685276-12341329
OpenAlexW2086749063
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas42

In this article, I take the theme of other people’s scriptures in a slightly different direction by highlighting a case in which an instance of scriptural engagement is characterized by a notable absence rather than explicit presence. I examine the work of David ben Joshua Maimonides, a medieval Jewish author who engaged with and quoted from Muslim Sufi texts. However, in the process of writing David systematically removed references to the Qurʾān and obscured the identity of his Sufi interlocutors, a process which scholars often describe as “judaization.” However, this descriptive use of judaization often functions to obscure the complicated negotiations between an author and his or her sources. In this case, I pose judaization as an analytical problem. I argue that David left his knowing readers clues in the text that hint at the Sufi provenance of many of his ideas. The removal of qurʾānic material and the obfuscation of his Sufi sources were actually part of a clear and deliberate rhetorical strategy meant both to subvert his Sufi texts and to bolster his claims about the relationship between Sufism, biblical Judaism, and the revivification of prophecy among the Jews

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Identity (music) · Islam · Judaism · Literature · Narrative · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Sufism · Theme (computing) · Theology · Computer Science · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies