The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus ed. by María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, Michael Sells (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 210 Jews as “Jews” might be cause for a moment’s hesitation and a passing comment . But, the distinctive role of Jews in Joachite millennialism is central to Lerner’s thesis. Given that this is the case, it would be of paramount importance to understand what the term “Jew” means, both to Joachim of Fiore for the purposes of his vision and to Lerner for the purposes of his historical analysis . Perhaps of greater concern is the revelation of the ongoing transparency of the Jews’ ambiguous status, by this I mean the question of the idea of an indelible property inherent to the Jew. The issue goes beyond merely asking whether or not a Jew who converts to Christianity is still a Jew. Is it simply taken for granted that conversion still leaves something of the Jew behind, and that regardless of religious practice and affiliation the “Jew” remains? And why don’t these questions arise for Lerner himself, particularly since he introduces his study with a condemnation of the systematic annihilation of Jews by a society that believed that Jewishness left an indelible stain, a tainting of the blood that conversion could not erase. Lerner’s insensitivity to the assumed inalienable nature of the Jew is even more troubling when he tries to determine why Joachim and his various followers would have been so favorably predisposed to Jews. Repeatedly Lerner considers the possibility of Jewish ancestry or actual exposure to Jews and Jewish culture as somehow explaining the constant “philo-Judaic” tendencies of these Joachite “prophets.” Was Joachim Jewish or of Jewish descent? Did some of these “prophets” have personal motivations for predicting Jewish rewards? “Could it have been that the special stance of the Saxon Franciscans toward Jews came about as a result of contacts with real Jews?” (96) It is difficult to determine what is more offensive: the idea that converted Jews living in union with Christians is a form of “special treatment” for Jews, or that a medieval Christian might find Jews tolerable only if he had some pragmatic reason for doing so. Unfortunately, these issues get in the way of what might otherwise be a fairly interesting historical narrative. Joachim of Fiore’s teachings do have a unique history of transmission, and the ways in which his prophetic teachings are interpreted and then reinterpreted could lead to enlightening investigations in the theological subcultures of medieval monastics. There is also a good deal of discussion about the relationship of millennial prophecies and papal politics here, and more detail in this area would make for good reading. The path Lerner chose in this case, however, proves more troubling than enlightening. If the term “Jew” used in a religious context designates something other than a religious affiliation, and if conversion to Christianity does not change the “Jew” to a Christian, then we have not been liberated from the “persecuting society,” and we learned nothing from the horror of Treblinka. CHERYL GOLDSTEIN, Comparative Literature, UCLA The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus, ed. María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and Michael Sells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) ix + 507 pp., ill. The idea of Al-Andalus (the Muslim-controlled territories of the Iberian Peninsula from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries) is a fascinating one for Westerners , often conjuring up images reminiscent of the Tales of the Alhambra or the REVIEWS 211 Arabian Nights. Al-Andalus is frequently described as a sumptuous civilization of immense cultural production where members of the three Abrahamic faiths coexisted in an atmosphere of tolerance and pluralism. Whilst specialists comprehend the complicated reality behind the clichés, non-experts are often in need of a compass to help them navigate this little-known but important world. Indeed the topic of Al-Andalus is of interest to many scholars: Islamists, Hispanists , historians of religion, and anyone interested in understanding the complex historical relationships between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism so important to making sense out of today’s headlines. That is just where this volume is helpful. Though straightforward and clear, the title (The Literature of Al-Andalus) can be misleading since there are important sections on architecture, philosophy , and...