AN ALMOHAD “FUNDAMENTALIST”? 61
nides seems to corroborate al- Marrakushi’s claim that the Almohads
were aware of the insincerity of the Jewish conversion, since he says that
“they [the Muslims] know that in no way do we believe in him [the
prophet Muhammad]; we only deceive the ruler.”^36 In his overview of the
intellectual “State of the Nation,” he alludes to the Almohad persecution
and to its negative effect on the level of learning among the Jews in the
Islamic West.^37 This persecution is probably the reason for Maimonides’
harsh words about Islam, and his claim that “no other religion was as
cruel to us as this religion.”^38 Notwithstanding his lasting rancor, how-
ever, the acquaintance with the regime under which he lived for more
than twenty years, and whose religion he was forced to feign, must have
left its mark on his thought. Furthermore, with his alert mind, it is not
likely that he could have remained ignorant of the content of their revo-
lution. The existence of such marks must therefore, I submit, be our
working hypothesis. In the remainder of this chapter I will try to demon-
strate that, if we bear this hypothesis in mind, we can indeed recognize
Almohad infl uence in many of Maimonides’ innovations, both on the
large scale as also in the details.
Legal AspectsOne can probably identify the echo of Almohad practices in individual
rulings of Maimonides. To cite just one example: when Maimonides rules
against the enjoyment of musical entertainment, he carefully buttresses
the ruling with citations from the Jewish sources. And yet it is hard to
read his fi erce objection to the use of musical instruments in weddings
without being reminded of Ibn Tumart’s display of puritanical zeal in the
streets of Almoravid Tlemcen.^39 The following pages will, however, focus
on issues of legal methodology.
in an autobiographical note attached to the commentary on tractate Rosh ha- Shana in ms.
Paris BN, héb. 336; see Epistles, 224– 25; Cohen, Carmiel, “The Correct Meaning of an
Autobiographical Note Attributed to Maimondes,” Tarbiz 76 (2006– 2007): 283– 87
[Hebrew]
(^36) Epistles, 41, 43; Crisis and Leadership, 20, 30; and see note 21, above.
(^37) See chap. 1, note 77, above.
(^38) “Epistle to Yemen,” Epistles, 109, 160. This aspect of Maimonides’ attitude to Islam—
namely, the polemical tone of a member of a persecuted minority is discussed in B. Lewis,
“Maimonides and the Muslims,” Midstream 25, no.9 (1979): 16– 22.
(^39) Epistles, 426– 27; Baydhaq, Tarikh al- muwahhidin, in E. Lévi- Provencal, ed., Documents
inédits d’histoire almohade (Paris, 1928), 60 (French translation, 95). On Ibn Tumart’s as-
siduous application of “forbidding wrong,” see M. Cook, Commanding Right and For-
bidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Cambridge, 2000), 458– 59; M. García- Arenal, “La