Explicit cruelty, implicit compassion: Judaism, forced conversions and the genealogy of the Banū Rushd

Abstract

In his seminal biography of Ibn Rushd al‐Ḥafīd, better known in the Latin West as Averroes (d. 1126 CE), Dominique Urvoy referred to the “Jewish” symbolism of Averroes’ confinement in Lucena, a city in today’s Spanish province of Cordoba. In this regard, Urvoy quoted the Maghribian historian ʿAbd al‐Malik al‐Marrākushī, according to whom the choice of Lucena was due to a rumour that Averroes had Jewish ancestors and that his family was not rooted in any Arab tribe of al‐Andalus. Urvoy does not further explore the connection between Averroes’ confinement in Lucena and his alleged Jewish ancestry, nor does he make any statement on the credibility of the rumour. This paper revisits the question of Averroes’ alleged Jewish ancestry and its consequences in the light of new evidence, which I discuss in the context of the Almohads’ treatment of the Jews who lived in their dominions under the status of dhimmīs or tributaries. I argue that the Almohads’ treatment of the Jews and the alleged insincerity of their conversions to Islam seem to have met an unexpected target in the person of Averroes, the most important Muslim intellectual of that period. To develop this argument, I will carry out a careful examination of Averroes’ genealogical chain as it is presented by a number of contemporary and non‐contemporary biographers of his grandfather, Ibn Rushd al‐Jadd (d. 1126 CE). As I show in section two, there is a chronological incoherence between the genealogical chains which might add credit to the claim that Averroes had Jewish ancestors. This claim becomes explicit in the rumour voiced by Ibn ʿAbd al‐Malik al‐Marrākushī and it is implicit in the choice of Lucena as the location of his confinement. Subsequently and after reviewing the reasons put forward by different scholars to explain Averroes’ falling into disgrace and the role that Averroes’ alleged Judaism might have played in his confinement in Lucena, I focus on some Muslim historians’ strategies to show him compassion, to compensate him for his suffering and to return him his stolen honour.