Rabbinic–Muslim jurisprudence in medieval Andalusia

This article shows that the first rabbinic work exclusively devoted to the field of jurisprudence, which was written in Judaeo-Arabic in eleventh-century Andalusia by Rabbi David ben Sa̔adya, involved a ‘dialogue’ with contemporary Muslim scholars. Indeed, some of the terms used in the work can only be understood in the context of contemporary Islamic legal terminology, with the author assuming that his readers were well aware of the principles of Islamic law. Of particular interest is the author’s use of Islamic jurisprudence to reinterpret biblical verses and Talmudic discourses. This work – hidden for centuries – was preserved in the Cairo Genizah.