Christianity and Judaism under Islam in Medieval Iraq: Da'ûd al-Muqammas and Sa'd b. Mansûr Ibn Kammûna

• Main Author: Karin Almbladh
• Format: Article
• Language: Danish
• Published: Donner Institute 2008-09-01
• Series: Nordisk Judaistik
• Subjects: Christianity and Judaism; Jews > Iraq; Christians > Iraq; Middle East > History; Middle Ages; Mongols
• Online Access: https://journal.fi/nj/article/view/69615

In the present paper two attitudes towards Christianity among Jews in Medieval Iraq are discussed, viz. Da'ûd al-Muqammas (second half of the 9th century) and Sa'd b. Mansûr Ibn Kammûna (second half of the 13th century). Da'ûd al-Muqammas was writing in a period when Christianity may have been an attractive alternative for intellectual Jews. His major work still available, 'Ishrûn Maqâla, "Twenty chapters", is an anti-Christian tract demonstrating the continuing validity of Judaism. Addressing a Gentile readership in his Tanqîh al-abhâth li'l-milal al-thalâth, "The examination of the inquiries into the three faiths", Sa'd b. Mansûr Ibn Kammûna upholds the validity of Judaism and Christianity against the claims of Islam in a period when Islam had been reduced to the same status as Judaism and Christianity in the early Mongol rule of Iraq.