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The Jewish Discovery of Islam The Jewish Discovery of Islam The Jewish Discovery of Islam S tudies in H onor of B er nar d Lewis edited by Martin Kramer The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies Tel Aviv University T el A v iv First published in 1999 in Israel by The Moshe Dayan Cotter for Middle Eastern and African Studies Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv 69978, Israel [email protected] www.dayan.org Copyright O 1999 by Tel Aviv University ISBN 965-224-040-0 (hardback) ISBN 965-224-038-9 (paperback) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Publication of this book has been made possible by a grant from the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation. Cover illustration: The Great Synagogue (const. 1854-59), Dohány Street, Budapest, Hungary, photograph by the late Gábor Hegyi, 1982. Beth Hatefiitsoth, Tel Aviv, courtesy of the Hegyi family. Cover design: Ruth Beth-Or Production: Elena Lesnick Printed in Israel on acid-free paper by A.R.T. Offset Services Ltd., Tel Aviv Contents Preface vii Introduction, Martin Kramer 1 1. Pedigree Remembered, Reconstructed, Invented: Benjamin Disraeli between East and West, Minna Rozen 49 2. ‘Jew’ and Jesuit at the Origins of Arabism: William Gifford Palgrave, Benjamin Braude 77 3. Arminius Vámbéry: Identities in Conflict, Jacob M. Landau 95 4. Abraham Geiger: A Nineteenth-Century Jewish Reformer on the Origins of Islam, Jacob Lassner 103 5. Ignaz Goldziher on Ernest Renan: From Orientalist Philology to the Study of Islam, Lawrence I. Conrad 137 6. The Death of an Orientalist: Paul Kraus from Prague to Cairo, Joel L Kraemer 181 7. The Road from Mecca: Muhammad Asad (bom Leopold Weiss), Martin Kramer 225 8. The Transplantation of Islamic Studies from Europe to the Yishuv and Israel, Hava Lazarus- Yafeh 249 9. The Interaction of Judaic and Islamic Studies in the Scholarship of S.M. Stem, Shulamit Sela 261 10. Evariste Lévi-Provençal and the Historiography of Iberian Islam, David J. Wasserstein 273 Contributors 291 Index 293 Preface This volume brings together the presentations made at a conference en titled “The Jewish Discovery of Islam/* and convened at Tel Aviv Uni- varsity in June 1996 in celebration of Bernard Lewis on his eightieth birthday. Participants were asked to take his famous article, 'T he Pro- Islamic Jews/* as a point of departure. In that article, Lewis underlined the prominent role played by Jews in advancing modem Europe’s un derstanding of Islam, Islamic history, and Muslim societies. According to Lewis, the similarities between Hebrew and Arabic, the parallels be tween two faiths grounded in law, and the relative tolerance of Muslim rule toward Jews, allowed many Jewish scholars to approach Islam with an understanding and sympathy then uncommon in Europe. The conference, as its title suggests, went beyond Lewis’s observa tion, to ask this question: Was there a “Jewish discovery of Islam,” dis tinct from Europe’s discovery? Does it make sense to assess Jewish trav ellers, writers, and scholars—some of them only nominally Jewish— outside the broad context of European intellectual history and orientalism? And is there an alternative context, some unifying charac teristic to the approach of these Jewish “discoverers”? Several possible answers to each of these questions are suggested by a reading of the unique collection of studies assembled in this volume. From the task of editing the collection, an answer has emerged. No appreciation of Islamic studies is complete without some appreciation of the special character of the contribution made by Jews. Most obvi ously, many Jews approached Islam in ways inspired by their understand ing of Judaism, and one basic feature of the Jewish discovery was the drawing of analogies between Judaism and Islam. But there also was an ideological dimension to their contribution. Jews fascinated by Islam were formed through participation in Eu rope’s scholarly, political, and intellectual debates. But they were also vii vUI Preface fanned by an urgent debate over the past, present, and future of the Jews— a debate fueled by the persistence of anti-Semitism, even its resurgence. Europe still vacillated over whether the Jews belonged to Europe or the East, whether they were compatriots or foreigners, whether they were a race apart or an assimilable minority. Every Jew hoped to see Europe grow tolerant of difference and regard its civilization as the product of a sym biosis with other civilizations. The thread that runs through the contri bution of Jewish scholars of Islam is the denial of a dichotomy between East and West. The Jewish discovery of Islam was not distinct from Europe’s; it was an inseparable part of it. But it was overwhelming bi ased against “Orientalism” as an ideology of difference and supremacy. This book is a tribute to Bernard Lewis, who in many ways personi fies its theme. It is more than an offering in recognition of his already widely acclaimed audition and scholarship. Lewis has been a vital link between Israel and that broad Western tradition of scholarship of which he himself is the foremost exemplar. The halls of Israel’s universities are home to many of his students, from his years of teaching in London and Princeton. More than twenty years ago, he chose Tel Aviv University as the place to invest his energies and affections. For some years now, he has been what he calls a “hardy perennial” at Tel Aviv University, visit ing during the winter months, lecturing at the university, and meeting with students. The debt owed by us to Bernard Lewis is large and continues to grow. This volume, and the conference behind it, are grateful acknowl edgments of all that he has done and still does for scholarship on this shore. The conference was the work of three sponsors: the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, which I direct; the Diaspora Research Institute, at the time directed by Minna Rozen; and the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Ad vanced Studies, at the time directed by Yuval Ne'eman. I wish to thank Professors Rozen and Ne’eman for their close cooperation and shared sponsorship. At the Moshe Dayan Center, I would like to single out my assistant, Amira Margalith, for the vital assistance she extended to me on this (and every) project. The conference was made possible by the support of the following generous friends: the late Raphael Recanati, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, Yad Avi Ha-Yishuv, the Raiman Lassner Lectureship, and the late Henry Ergas. Martin Kramer Introduction Martín Kramer The European exploration, study, and representation of Islam are begin ning to find their historians. The “Orientalism” debate, begun in earnest twenty years ago, provided a stimulus for research in all these areas—a research that has gradually edged beyond polemics. The work of Euro pean explorers, travellers, and writers from the Renaissance onward is under reexamination. Orientalist art is receiving its due. So too is the history of modem scholarship—the role of individuals and institutions in the great centers of European academe. And at some point, this ques tion will have to be answered: Did Jews make a distinct contribution to the Western discovery of Islam? Bernard Lewis first posed the question thirty years ago, in an article entitled “The Pro-Islamic Jews.” hi the development of Islamic studies in European and, later, American universities, Jews, and in particular Jews of Orthodox background and education, play an altogether disproportionate role....The role of these scholars in the development of every aspect of Islamic studies has been immense—not only in the advancement of scholarship but also in the enrichment of the Western view of Oriental religion, literature, and his tory, by the substitution of knowledge and understanding for prejudice and ignorance.1 1 2 Martin Kramer Elsewhere Lewis writes more explicitly about the nature of this contri bution: A major accession of strength resulted from die emancipation of Jews in central and western Europe and their consequent entry into the uni versities. Jewish scholars brought up in the Jewish religion and trained in the Hebrew language found Islam and Arabic far easier to understand than did their Christian colleagues, and were, moreover, even less af fected by nostalgia for the Crusades, preoccupation with imperial policy, or the desire to convert the “heathen.” Jewish scholars like Gustav Weil, Ignaz Goldziher, and others played a key role in the development of an objective, nonpolemical, and positive evaluation of Islamic civilization.2 Elsewhere Lewis goes still further: “Jewish scholars were among the first who attempted to present Islam to European readers as Muslims them selves see it and to stress, to recognize, and indeed sometimes to roman ticize the merits and achievements of Muslim civilization in its great days.”3 No other general survey of the development of the Western under standing of Islam makes a similar statement. Edward Said, in Orientalism, made no reference at all to the emergence or role of Jewish scholars.4 Maxime Rodinson, in his essay on “Western Views of the Muslim World,” omitted any reference to a contribution by Jews as such, and made no mention at all of the most important Jewish interpreter of Islam, Ignaz Goldziher.3 Albert Hourani, in his articles “Islam and the Philosophers of History” and “Islam in European Thought,” wrote nothing specific about the role of Jews in Islamic studies, although he stressed the supreme importance of Goldziher on both occasions, and recognized the link be tween his Jewish formation and his understanding of Islam.6 Lewis thus stands alone in his explicit assessment of the crucial role of Jews in the emergence of a detached, even sympathetic understanding of Islam in Europe.
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