60 CHAPTER THREE
to the Almohad capital.^29 Even in these more relaxed circumstances,
however, young converts were expected to study the Quran.^30 While
bright young men were usually expected to join the Almohad cadre of
talaba, this was probably not the case for Maimonides, in view of the
above- mentioned suspicions regarding the sincerity of the conversion of
the Jews. With his insatiable intellectual curiosity, however, Maimonides
must have decided to make the best of his predicament, and to study
whatever his situation as a putative Muslim brought his way. Indeed, Ibn
Abi Usaybia specifi cally reports that after his “conversion” Maimonides
“memorized the Quran and became engaged in [the study of] Islamic
law.”^31
Maimonides never mentions the Almohads by name, but there are
quite a few instances where he alludes to their regime and to their perse-
cution of the Jews.^32 He thus compares a forced conversion that occurred
in the Yemen to “what the Canaanites (al-kenaani) have done in the
lands of the Maghreb,”^33 and to “the opponent (al-mukhalif)” whose ap-
pearance in the Maghreb thwarted Messianic hopes.^34 He may even be
alluding to his own experience when he quotes, in his “Epistle on Forced
Conversion,” the verse from Jer. 2:25: “Let our disgrace cover us; for we
have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers.”^35 Maimo-
(^29) As suggested by H. Z. (J. W.) Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa (Leiden,
1979), vol. 1, From Antiquity to the Sixteenth Century, 136; Roth, Jews, Visigoths and
Muslims, 119.
(^30) See Marrakushi’s evidence (note 21, above).
(^31) IAU, 582: “hafiza al- quran wa-‘shtaghala bi’l-fi qh.” Ibn Abi Usaybia’s source for this
was probably Maimonides’ only son, who was his colleague at the Nasiri hospital; see
Lewis, “Jews and Judaism in Arabic Sources,” 176. Ibn al- Qifti, who must have gotten his
information directly from Maimonides’ student Joseph, gives similar information in a more
nuanced way: “wa- lamma azhara shiar al- islam, iltazama bi- juziyyatihi min al- qiraa
wa’l-sala.” (IQ, 317– 19). This indicates Ibn al- Qifti’s awareness that Maimonides “pro-
fessed the Muslim credo only outwardly (azharashiar al- islam), although he behaved as a
Muslim and practiced the par ticular rules of Islam (iltazama bi- juziyyatihi) such as reciting
[the Quran] and prayer.” For a similar use of juziyyat (in the sense of the particulars of the
commandments) by Maimonides himself, see Guide 3.26 (Dalala, 371:10; Pines, 510).
(^32) See the “Epistle on Forced Conversion” (Iggeret ha- shemad),Epistles, 30 ff. Davidson
(Moses Maimonides, 509) concludes that “there are very strong... grounds for rejecting
the authenticity of Maimonides’ authorship of the Epistle.” This conclusion is probably
related to Davidson’s initial reluctance to accept that Maimonides himself had to feign
conversion.
(^33) “Epistle to Yemen,” Epistles, 83. The term “Canaanite” is probably Maimonides’ way of
alluding to the Berber origin of the Almohads.
(^34) “Epistle to Yemen,” Epistles. 104. In one of the Arabic manuscripts the word al-mukhalif
is replaced by the hybrid “al-mored,” perhaps a veiled allusion to Ibn Tumart, as suggested
by Sheilat, Epistles, 150 and note 6.
(^35) Epistles, 43; Halkin and Hartmann, Crisis and Leadership, 22. An explicit reference to
his family “having escaped from the forced conversion” (nitzalnu min ha- shemad) appears