ceived as a waste of time.^108 In Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides re-
fers dismissively to the perusal of history books (tarikh min al-
tawarikh).^109 The same dismissive attitude is expressed in his Commentary
on the Mishnah, where he describes the “Books of Ben Sirah” as
ravings (hadhayan) concerning the meaning of physiognomy, in
which there is neither science nor profi t, but sheer wasting of time in
idleness, like these books which are found among the Arabs: books
of annals (tawarikh), biographies of kings (siyar al- muluk) or gene-
alogies (ansab al-Arab), or books on songs (kutub al- aghani), and
other books in which there is neither science nor profi t to the body,
only waste of time.^110Despite his poor opinion of this literature, Maimonides’ detailed list of
literary genres, invoking their precise technical terms in Arabic, demon-
strates his close familiarity with it and probably also with specifi c famous
works. This is no surprise: Maimonides, as we have seen above, made a
point of reading the books of “ravings” before dismissing them. The
purpose for which they were written, however— presenting a historical
narrative that glorifi ed the Arabs and Islam, and transmitting their
legacy—did not interest him. He used them, as he used Sabian literature,
to study human nature.
Because of their general lack of interest in Islamic historiography, me-
dieval Jewish thinkers refer to Islam in their writings mostly in a polemi-
cal context, and their discussions of Islam (and of Christianity) remain,
more often than not, polemical or apologetic. This is also true for Mai-
monides, in most of whose explicit and implicit references to Islam and
Christianity the polemical tone prevails.^111 Occasionally, however, one
can detect in the writings of Jewish thinkers an attempt to place Islam
within a historiographical, etiological framework. In these attempts, one
can distinguish two main approaches, both of which can be found in
Maimonides’ writings: a linear approach and a comparative one.
The linear approach (the more prevalent one) arranges human reli-
gious experience on a consecutive timeline, whose climax lies in the fu-
ture, in the days of the Messiah. History is seen as centered on the Jew-
ish nation and on its destiny, while the discussion of other religions is
conquest, often favorably. See, for instance, P. Crone and M. Cook, Hagarism: The Mak-
ing of the Islamic World (Cambridge, 1977), 109– 10 and note 2.
(^108) See Heinemann, “Judah Halevi’s Historical Perception,” 170.
(^109) Guide 1.2 (Dalala, 16:11; Pines, 24).
(^110) Commentary on the Mishnah,Neziqin, tractate Sanhedrin, 210.
(^111) See, for instance, chap. 3, note 38, above; also Guide 1.50 (Dalala, 75:7– 11; Pines, 111);
Guide 1.71 (Dalala, 123: 4– 10; Pines, 178).