traNSLatioN aND coNqueSt • 211on Islam. Finally, we must consider the context in which at- Talmūd
was written and meant to be read— namely, a predominantly Muslim
society (even as the British were in political control of egypt, where the
book was published). engaging with islam for a non- Muslim was surely
a more perilous enterprise than dealing with Christianity. Given that
Christians were in any case viewed as the more critical demographic,
Moyal might well have felt it unnecessarily hazardous to discuss Islam
in significant detail. though there are a few explicit references to islam
in the text, there are other more subtle ways in which Moyal addresses
a Muslim audience. In particular, he presents Judaism in characteris-
tically Islamic terms^94 and thereby provides the Muslim reader with a
sense of comfort and acquaintance with Jewish religion and history.
It is necessary to begin the discussion of the use of Islamic language
within Moyal’s text with a word of methodological caution. Given the
historical relationship between arabs (and their language) and islam,
religious terminology in arabic inevitably evokes Islamic connotations
and associations. In analyzing Moyal’s arabic presentation of Jewish
history and ideas, then, there is a danger of misinterpreting each of his
uses of religious (seemingly islamic) terminology as attempts to make
Judaism appear similar to Islam. as vast as the arabic lexicon is, words
with Islamic religious resonance are not always reserved for Islamic
contexts; they may also be used to describe aspects of other religions,
where appropriate.^95 thus, we must be careful in this analysis not to
overinterpret Islamic- tinted language. however, we must not ignore
those instances in which we can decipher uses of classical terms of
Islam that appear out of the ordinary and, perhaps, designed to evoke a
sense of commonality and shared discourse among a Muslim audience.
One case in which the Islamic sense of a word Moyal uses seems to
be relevant, and perhaps intentional, is that of taḥrīf. this word, which
means “corruption” or “distortion,” in Islamic contexts typically refers
polemically to the way in which Jews and Christians allegedly distorted
their own, originally divine, scriptures. Moyal uses the term in his dis-
cussion of the Septuagint. he presents both the traditional myth of the
(^94) Levy has correctly noted that Moyal “borrows freely from the Islamic theological
lexicon” in his description of the Jews and the Jewish religion. Levy, “Jewish Writers in
the arab east,” 209. My aim here is to propose an explanation for this borrowing.
(^95) For example, I would argue that Moyal’s use of terms related to the word fatwā (a
formal statement of legal opinon in islam) falls under this category. Moyal explains that
“after the destruction of the temple and the exile of Israel from its land,” Israel “no lon-
ger worked in agricultural work and so the study and fatwas (fatāwā) on these topics [of
agriculture] decreased.” Mūyāl, at- Talmūd, 40. While a Muslim reader would recognize
this word from his or her own tradition, Moyal likely used the term as the most appro-
priate arabic word for “religious legal decision.”