The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

The Martyrdom of Sol Hachuel: Ridda in Morocco in 1834 r 117

in Rabbi Elbaz’s piyyut. He calls the Muslims ̔arelim (uncircumcised),
which is surprising given that Muslims circumcise males for religious rea-
sons. The term is therefore not consistent with reality. An examination
reveals that it is in accordance with Talmudic tradition (see especially
Tractate Nedarim 31a, dealing with vows), where it is written that a per-
son who swears not to benefit from an uncircumcised person may nev-
ertheless benefit from an uncircumcised Jew, but not from a circumcised
non-Jew.
In other words, the circumcision of a non-Jew does not alter his ̔arel
status, nor does failure to circumcise a Jew prevent him from still being
a Jew. Almost certainly then, in his piyyut, Rabbi Elbaz uses the word
uncircumcised as a synonym for “non-Jewish.” Rabbi Elbaz was known as
a great scholar and teacher of Torah and Talmud, who almost certainly
knew the Talmudic source, and he used it to justify the word uncircum-
cised in describing the Muslims of his time. It is appropriate to add the
last words of Sol to her executioner as they appear in Hayyim Haliwah’s
piyyut, ̔Am asher nivharu (People who were chosen).

Put on your sword

So she spoke, I will be killed, and I will not sin against my religion

חגר חרבך הרק ורוץ כגבור

כה דברה אהרג ולא אעבור

Sol encourages her executioner to kill her so that she may be made a mar-
tyr and not transgress any of the three prohibitions for which one should
be ready to accept martyrdom rather than violate them. The three prohi-
bitions are idolatry, murder, and sexual immorality (see the Babylonian
Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 72b). Haliwah sees Islam as idolatry and not
as a monotheistic religion. In his opinion, Sol was right in preferring mar-
tyrdom to living as a Muslim. Haliwah’s conception of Islam is similar to
that of Elbaz’s, proving that the relations between the two religions, Islam
and Judaism, were profoundly strained.
In both the piyyutim and q#sās, the Muslim community, witnesses,
judges, and the sultan are described as a gang of losers, immoral and dis-
honest, lacking ethical standards and spirituality; therefore, the only al-
ternative was to curse them for what they had done to a young, righteous
Jewess. In the manuscripts of the Judeo-Arabic q#sās, Sol’s mourners call