"You can get there from here!": Exegetical Excursions from Judaism to Islam

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"You can get there from here!": Exegetical Excursions from Judaism to Islam

Judith Romney Wegner

This chapter is part of: Leonard H. Ehrlich et al. 2004. Textures and Meanings: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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With Judith Romney Wegner’s essay we move from the interaction of religion and philosophy to the “cross-fertilization” of Jewish and Arab thinkers. Wegner adopts an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective to explore ways in which Arab scholars strove to avoid conceding that the source of Islamic terms was an extraneous culture. During the eighth century C.E. classical Islam declared that the Qur’an was purely Arabic, despite evidence of the influence of other languages. Wegner provides numerous examples, including “qur’anic incorporation of a midrashic embellishment to a biblical text. Her illustrations underscore how Jacob Lassner demonstrated that borrowings are “consistent with the perceived needs of those who borrow.” Wegner ends her essay with a brief comment on “the monumental work of qur’anic exegesis known as Tabaris Tafsir, and a methodological caution as to who borrowed from whom and when. Cross-cultural influence can work both ways. Further research is needed into the history of the “intertwined worlds” of Jewish and Islamic exegesis.

Description

With Judith Romney Wegner’s essay we move from the interaction of religion and philosophy to the “cross-fertilization” of Jewish and Arab thinkers. Wegner adopts an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective to explore ways in which Arab scholars strove to avoid conceding that the source of Islamic terms was an extraneous culture. During the eighth century C.E. classical Islam declared that the Qur’an was purely Arabic, despite evidence of the influence of other languages. Wegner provides numerous examples, including “qur’anic incorporation of a midrashic embellishment to a biblical text. Her illustrations underscore how Jacob Lassner demonstrated that borrowings are “consistent with the perceived needs of those who borrow.” Wegner ends her essay with a brief comment on “the monumental work of qur’anic exegesis known as Tabaris Tafsir, and a methodological caution as to who borrowed from whom and when. Cross-cultural influence can work both ways. Further research is needed into the history of the “intertwined worlds” of Jewish and Islamic exegesis.

Details

Published	Published By
Aug. 1, 2004	University of Massachusetts Amherst
Citation
Wegner J. 2004. "You can get there from here!": Exegetical Excursions from Judaism to Islam. In Leonard H. Ehrlich et al. 2004. Textures and Meanings: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst