traNSLatioN aND coNqueSt • 199sought to portray Judaism and Jewish history to non- Jewish readers
of arabic. i argue that Moyal used his exposition in two different, com-
plementary if subtly competing, ways. On the one hand, I contend that
Moyal tried to make Judaism appear less foreign and more congenial
to Muslim and Christian readers by highlighting, explicitly or implic-
itly, areas of apparent similarity between the respective faiths and by
describing Jewish principles in familiar language and terminology.
In this sense, Moyal’s work can be understood as part of the broader
genre of apologetics— though, on occasion, the text betrays certain in-
direct polemical aspects as well, especially in relation to Christianity.
On the other hand, at- Talmūd is not merely a latter- day apology for Ju-
daism (though even if it were, its effort simultaneously to apologize in
both Christian and islamic terms in the fin de siècle Middle east con-
text would surely recommend it for sustained examination). rather,
while painting Judaism in the most benign fashion, Moyal continually
and consistently recounts Jewish history in distinctly nationalist terms;
in so doing, he portrays Jewish nationalism as having ancient and, by
implication, legitimate roots. this text, in other words, is a work of
religious apologetics enmeshed within a nationalist (or Zionist) read-
ing of ancient Jewish history. Moreover, by his choice of terminology
as he describes the Jews’ antique national past in the contemporary
arabic idiom of nationalism, Moyal may have been suggesting that
not only Judaism but Zionism itself (in a particular form) gave otto-
man arabs little to fear. analyzing at- Talmūd, then, offers a fascinating
window into the arab- Zionist intellectual encounter of the Late Otto-
man period.
at first glance, Moyal’s at- Talmūd, 148 pages long, appears to be
a simple and dry introduction to Jewish Oral Law. after his preface,
Moyal presents an account of the transmission of the Oral Law from
Moses until the compilation of the mishnah. In broad outline, the text
proceeds as follows. It begins with a section about the various biblical
judges, the prophets, the Great assembly, and the tannaitic rabbis. It
then identifies each tractate of the mishnah. Next, several pages are
devoted to a discussion of the ancient Israelite synagogue in alexan-
dria. Finally, Moyal introduces, translates, and comments on the first
three chapters of the book of Pirkei avot (known in english as “ethics
of the Fathers”), with a brief interruption before the third chapter for a
discussion of the mystical book of the Zohar.
aside from a number of contemporary ashkenazic and Sephardic
rabbis whose insights Moyal tapped for this work (particularly an
ashkenazic rabbi in egypt by the name of Mendel cohen), Moyal ac-
knowledges several literary sources on which he drew. these include