THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT 39
“And he may not be a min.” In the language of the Sages, minim are
Jewish heretics [zanadiqat Yisrael], whereas the heretics of other
nations are specifi cally identifi ed as such by the use of the construct-
state, and called: “the minim of the nations” [miney goyyim]. These
[that is, the minim], are the people whose foolishness dulls their in-
tellects, and whose lust have darkened their souls. Therefore they vil-
ify the law [sharia] and the prophets, of blessed memory, and deny
the prophets concerning matters about which they have no knowl-
edge [yukadhdhibuna al- anbiya bima lailma lahum bihi], and they
abandon the commandments [sharai] in contempt.”^50One should fi rst of all note that for Maimonides, heresy (zandaqa in Ara-
bic, or minut in Mishnaic Hebrew) is a universal phenomenon: it can ef-
fect Judaism as well as other prophetic religions. His defi nition of this
heresy, couched in Quranic language, is such that it could easily be ad-
opted by a Muslim.^51 A similar trait is apparent in Maimonides’ defi ni-
tion of the min in his “Epistle on Forced Conversion”, where he says:
“Theminim poke fun at the [revealed] religions (datot) and they say: ‘He
who adheres to them is a fool, he who studies them is mad,’ and they ut-
terly deny prophecy.”^52 ThisEpistle is extant only in a medieval Hebrew
translation, but the Hebrew translation, with its clear allusion to Hosea
9:7 (“the prophet is a fool, the man of spirit is mad”) catches well the
claim of this statement: the minim deny prophecy, and they mock at all
religions (datot).
Also noteworthy in the paragraph of the Commentary on the Mishnah
quoted above is Maimonides’ highly individualizing understanding of
the term min. As used in this passage, this is clearly a tag that certain in-
dividuals earn by their par ticular character traits or behavior. It does not
apply to a whole group or sect, and, more specifi cally, it does not apply
to the Karaites.
Karaite Judaism, which emerged as a distinct subgroup in the middle
of the ninth century, distinguished itself from Rabbanite Judaism in its
rejection of Rabbinic authority and in its denial of the monopoly of the
Talmudic interpretation of the Bible. The formidable ideological challenge
it presented to Rabbanite Judaism in the tenth century is evident in the
writings of Saadia Gaon. Animosity and rivalry to the Karaites are also
apparent in the writings of Maimonides’ pre decessors in al- Andalus,
(^50) Commentary on the Mishnah,Qodashim, 175
(^51) The word sharia was commonly used by Jews to denote the Torah, but note the expres-
sion “... matters about which they have no knowledge”; see, for example, Quran, 6 [al-
anam]: 144; 22 [al-hajj]: 71; 24 [al-nur]:15; 40 [ghafi r]: 42.
(^52) Epistles, 37– 38; Cf. A. Halkin and A. Hartman, “The Epistle on Martyrdom,” Crisis and
Leadership (Philadelphia and New York, 1985), 20 who translate “religion.”