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Jewish Kalam was an early medieval style of
Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern '' Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcil ...
that evolved in response to
Kalam ''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
in
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
, which in turn was a reaction against
Aristotelianism Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the so ...
. The term "Jewish Kalam" is used by modern historians, but is not a term by which Jewish thinkers designated themselves. In all likelihood, they were simply known by the
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
term ''Mutakallimūn'' "Kalamists", as they are referred to by
Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...
and other Jewish writers. The best known practitioner of Jewish Kalam was
Saadia Gaon Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; ...
, and Jewish Kalam represented the philosophical battlefield upon which Saadia attacked the proponents of
Karaite Judaism Karaite Judaism () or Karaism (, sometimes spelt Karaitism (; ''Yahadut Qara'it''); also spelt Qaraite Judaism, Qaraism or Qaraitism) is a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the written Torah alone as its supreme ...
. Maimonides in his ''
The Guide for the Perplexed ''The Guide for the Perplexed'' ( ar, دلالة الحائرين, Dalālat al-ḥā'irīn, ; he, מורה נבוכים, Moreh Nevukhim) is a work of Jewish theology by Maimonides. It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish the ...
'' frequently references and disputes positions of Kalam, both Jewish and Muslim, and in general conveys an opinion of Kalam that is highly uncomplimentary.
Judah Halevi Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; he, יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi ; ar, يهوذا اللاوي ''Yahuḏa al-Lāwī''; 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, ...
also makes reference to Jewish followers of the Kalam, but mentions only Karaite Jews.


Basic principles of Jewish Kalam

Some of the basic principles of the Jewish Kalam are as follow. See also Maimonides's characterization of the principles below. * Observation of the natural world reveals the existence of a Creator * The world/universe must have been created ''
ex nihilo (Latin for "creation out of nothing") is the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine creative act. It is a theistic answer to the question of how the universe comes to exist. It is in contrast to ''Ex nihilo ...
'' rather than from preexisting matter * The Creator is absolutely different from anything in the created world * The Creator is a perfect unity, with no division It was also believed (in contrast to Maimonides) that human moral criteria ''can'' be applied to God. To say that God is "wise" or "good" is to apply those terms meaningfully, and their meaning is related to the mundane meaning of those terms.


Maimonides' characterization

Maimonides refers repeatedly to the ''Mutakallimūn'' (Kalam philosophers) in ''The Guide for the Perplexed ''. Some examples of his characterization of Kalamic thought can be found at the end of Book I (Chapters 73–76). Maimonides continues in that section to provide a history of Kalamic thought, its sources and subsequent development, and then proceeds to condemn a certain laxity of thought to be found in this philosophical school. In particular, Maimonides takes strong issue with the Kalamic proof of God's existence and unity from the Creation of the World in time. While Maimonides himself ''does'' regard the world as having been created ''ex nihilo'' (rather than being eternally existing, as
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
would have it),See, for example, Book II Chapter 25 . Maimonides also considers this proposition as being far from obvious, and in all likelihood not susceptible to proof. He thus regards the Kalamic approach as starting from a position of ''convenience'' rather than from an irrefutable premise, and their methodology as being entirely tainted by their eagerness to produce certain results which support their prior beliefs. Additionally he considers their premises to "run counter to the nature of existence that is perceived." He writes that "every one of their premises, with few exceptions, is contradicted by what is perceived of the nature of that which exists, so that doubts come up with regard to them." However, it can be noted below, that in many cases the Kalamists were indeed more prescient than Maimonides himself in their beliefs regarding the discrete nature of matter, existence of vacuum, and other physical characteristics of the natural world.


Principles of Kalam according to Maimonides

In Book I Chapter 73, Maimonides presents the 12 premises of the Mutakallimūn, and disputes most of them. The premises are, in brief, as follows: # Existence of atoms: The world is composed of small particles which are not divisible, and which have no identifying essential properties (only accidents). # Existence of vacuum: There exist certain spaces which are devoid of all substance and material. # Time is discrete: Time is made up of fundamental ''instants'' which are not themselves subject to further division. # Every body is subject to accidents: Any body must have either an accident (non-essential feature) or its opposite. A body cannot be without accidents. # These accidents exist in the atom. # An atom has one-instant duration: An atom does not persist (its accidents do not persist) more than one moment of time. God must repeatedly create these accidents at each time instant, or they permanently go out of existence. # Accidents in bodies also do not persist and must be recreated. This and the previous principle constitute a denial of
causality Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cau ...
. # Only substance and accident exist: Bodies differ only in regard to their accidents. # Accidents subsist in a common substratum: An accident cannot subsist in another accident. # Any state of affairs which can be imagined is admissible in intellectual argument. # All kinds of infinity are impossible. # The senses may be in error: The senses should not be trusted in matters of demonstration. Not all of these principles were elements of the Jewish Kalam as practiced by particular thinkers. For example, ''atomism'' was a principle embraced by earlier Karaite Jews but not by the Geonim or later Karaites.
Harry Austryn Wolfson Harry Austryn Wolfson (November 2, 1887 – September 19, 1974) was an American scholar, philosopher, and historian at Harvard University, and the first chairman of a Judaic Studies Center in the United States. He is known for his seminal work on ...
, in his study on the Jewish Kalam, considers it doubtful whether any Jewish thinkers ever embraced the denial of causality.


Arguments of Kalam according to Maimonides

In Book I Chapter 74, Maimonides reproduces the seven methods by which the Mutakallimūn demonstrate that the world is created in time. In Chapter 75, Maimonides reproduces the five methods by which the Mutakallimūn demonstrate the unity of God. In Chapter 76, Maimonides reproduces the three methods by which the Mutakallimūn demonstrate the incorporeality of God. Needless to say, Maimonides finds most of these methods to be philosophically inadequate and naïve.


Jewish Kalam personalities

Among the personalities associated with the Jewish Kalam are the following, many of whom were Karaites:


Rabbinites

*
Saadia Gaon Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; ...
*
Hai Gaon Hai ben Sherira (Hebrew: האי/י בר שרירא) better known as Hai Gaon (Hebrew: האי/י גאון, חאיי גאון), was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon of the Talmudic academy of Pumbedita during the ...
*
David ibn Merwan al-Mukkamas David (abu Sulaiman) ibn Merwan al-Mukkamas al-Rakki ( ar, داود إبن مروان المقمص translit.: ''Dawud ibn Marwan al-Muqamis''; died c. 937) was a philosopher and controversialist, the author of the earliest known Jewish philosophi ...
*
Samuel ben Hofni Samuel ben Hofni (Hebrew: שמואל בן חפני, or full name: רב שמואל בן חפני גאון bbreviation: רשב"חor שמואל בן חפני הכהן; also: Samuel b. Hofni or Samuel ha-Kohen ben Hofni; died 1034). He was the Gaon of ...
:Note: Jewish Kalam is adopted by the Rabbinite Academies of
Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by t ...
,
Fustat Fusṭāṭ ( ar, الفُسطاط ''al-Fusṭāṭ''), also Al-Fusṭāṭ and Fosṭāṭ, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by t ...
,
Lucena Lucena, officially the City of Lucena ( fil, Lungsod ng Lucena), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines. It is the capital city of the Provinces of the ...
, Toledo and Córdoba as the Babylonian Jewish Academies in
Sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
,
Pumbedita Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha, Pumpedita, or Pumbedisa; arc, פוּמְבְּדִיתָא ''Pūmbəḏīṯāʾ'', "The Mouth of the River,") was an ancient city located near the modern-day city of Fallujah, Iraq. It is known for having hosted t ...
,
Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...
and
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
closed and transferred their intellectual and religious heritage to
al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
.


Karaites

* Jacob Qirqisani * Yefet ben Ali *
Jeshua ben Judah Jeshua ben JudahJoshua ben Judah, Heb. Yeshua ben Yehuda or Yehoshua ben Yehuda, Arab. Abu al-Faraj Furqan ibn Asad. was a Karaite scholar, exegete and philosopher, who lived in eleventh-century Iraq (or Persia, according to some sources) or ...
*
Daniel al-Kumisi Daniel al-Kumisi (? in Damagan, Tabaristan – 946, in Jerusalem) was one of the most prominent early scholars of Karaite Judaism. He flourished at the end of the ninth or at the beginning of the tenth century. He was a native of Damagan, the ...
* Joseph ben Abraham *
Jeshua ben Judah Jeshua ben JudahJoshua ben Judah, Heb. Yeshua ben Yehuda or Yehoshua ben Yehuda, Arab. Abu al-Faraj Furqan ibn Asad. was a Karaite scholar, exegete and philosopher, who lived in eleventh-century Iraq (or Persia, according to some sources) or ...
*
Judah Hadassi Judah ben Elijah Hadassi (in Hebrew, ''Yehuda ben Eliyahu'') was a Karaite Jewish scholar, controversialist, and liturgist who flourished at Constantinople in the middle of the twelfth century. He was known by the nickname "ha-Abel," which signifi ...
Because the composition of written works was yet uncommon at the time that the Jewish Kalam flourished, there are few surviving books from this era. Instead, what we have are selected quotes and paraphrases such as found in Maimonides and Saadia, but mostly we have what Wolfson calls "mere names," individuals who are identified as prominent Kalamic thinkers but who left no evidence of their work or lives. Wolfson provides a list of some of these "mere names." He also suggests that ''all'' the Jewish thinkers of this period were likely referred to as Mutakallimūn, as suggested by references from
Moses ibn Ezra Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as Ha-Sallaḥ ("writer of penitential prayers") ( ar, أَبُو هَارُون مُوسَى بِن يَعْقُوب اِبْن عَزْرَا, ''Abu Harun Musa bin Ya'qub ibn 'Azra'', he, מֹשֶׁה ב ...
and others.


Legacy of the Kalam

Jewish Kalamic thought had influences on many later Jewish philosophers, including Judah Halevi,
Joseph ibn Tzaddik Rabbi Joseph ben Jacob ibn Tzaddik (died 1149) was a Spanish rabbi, poet, and philosopher. A Talmudist of high repute, he was appointed in 1138 dayyan at Cordova, which office he held conjointly with Maimon, father of Maimonides, until his death. ...
,
Bahya ibn Paquda Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda (also: Pakuda, Bakuda, Hebrew: , ar, بهية بن فاقودا), c. 1050–1120, was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Al-Andalus (now Spain). He was one of two people now known as Rabbeinu Behay ...
, and Maimonides, who criticized it vigorously. Many of the works of the Jewish Kalamists were not translated from Arabic into
Mishnaic Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew is the Hebrew of Talmudic texts. Mishnaic Hebrew can be sub-divided into Mishnaic Hebrew proper (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which was a spoken language, and Amoraic Hebrew (also c ...
, and so their influence greatly diminished as the Golden Age of Arabic-language Jewish scholarship drew to a close.


See also

* Bahshamiyya


Notes


Bibliography

* * *{{Citation , last=Wolfson , first=Harry A. , author-link = Harry Austryn Wolfson , title=The Jewish Kalam , journal=
The Jewish Quarterly Review ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Jewish studies. It is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Pe ...
, volume=57 , pages=544–573 , year=1967 , jstor=1453517 Jewish philosophy Kalam