Epistle to Yemen

The letter in the Yemen (Hebrew אגרת תימן Iggeret, teman ) is a letter of the Jewish physician and philosopher Maimonides in the Jewish community of Yemen. The letter was written probably in 1172 in Cairo ( Fustat ). The letter has two salient intentions: the Jewish community to strengthen against the threats of Mahdiden and impregnate against the advent of Messiah candidates and hope to those. He is on the one hand information about the capabilities Moses Maimonides ' to know arguments from different traditions and hermeneutics of the religions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East and combine together. On the other hand, it gives an insight into the cultural contact and economic traffic between Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. Much of what resonates in this letter to descriptions could be confirmed by later discoveries of the Cairo Geniza.

History and circumstances

At the time of activity Maimonides ' in Cairo, the situation of the Jews in Yemen was uncertain and unstable. This was mainly due to the political situation of the country. Various Islamic dynasties subjected the country within the period of a few decades. At the time of writing the letter of Yemen was under the power of Mahdiden that can be theologically assign the Twelver Shia or Ismaili Muslims. Those Muslims expect to today the return of the Mahdi, a figure which is similar in its conception of the Judeo -Christian Messiah. So spread probably egged on by mission and forced conversions within the Jewish community expectations, a Messiah appearing in Yemen and free them from their suffering. It is likely that there were many reports of pseudo - messiahs in areas where Jews were under a high religious pressure or under a threat to their community. As Sylvia Powel - Niami points out, however, the situation of the people of Yemen was economically far less precarious than the readers of Iggeret Teman might assume. Many Jews maintained good business contacts on trade routes between the West (eg Spain), the Orient with Cairo as the economic hub, controlled by the Fatimids, and later Ayyubid and the distant East, ie the Yemen and India. You can even be described as a social upper class of Yemen. By way of example shows the place where Brother Maimonides, who worked as traders and sailors and played a determining role for some time to the wealth of Maimon family in Cairo. Nevertheless, the integrity of the Jewish community was threatened in Yemen. Conversions and persecutions were not uncommon. Jews were in the grand Islamic Yemen second-class citizens, and also the fledgling rule of the Ayyubids in the entire space influenced the situation of the Jews who were able to live more freely under the Fatimids.

The call for help of Rabbi Jacob ben Nathanael al - Fayyumi prompted Maimonides finally to write the epistle. Maimonides had his hand experience and personal motivation to work for the fate of the Jews: he himself had been exposed in Spain and Morocco a conversion compulsion which he treated earlier writing. As a concrete opponent was against the Jewish community of the leader of the Mahdiden, ʿ Abd an-Nabi, the supposedly self styled himself as the Messiah / Mahdi.

The letter

Content and form

The letter follows a coarse thread for the contents Maimonides formulated the letter targeted toward its intentions. He works in each case is due to many facts and allegations and arguments, all of which he exposed as false and inadequate. The previous discussion he then faces a solution ( his argument / assertion ). This approach was taken up by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, where he applies in the Quaestiones that were a stylistic device of scholasticism.

The letter to Yemen has a predominantly edifying, strong tendentious character. Maimonides presents itself as a scholar who preaches a distant diaspora community cohesion and the doctrine of superiority. The letter is framed in polite greeting phrases. At the beginning and end of the content is like a personal letter addressed to Jacob Ben Nathanael al - Fayyumi and its community. In between takes, especially the confrontation with the enemies of the Jewish community in Yemen, the Mahdiden. They are accused with extensive factual knowledge of the author of incompetence, Disbelief, and weakness. Parallel Maimonides developed a kind of apologetic theology for the recipient of the letter, by not only courage and praise pronounce them, but also certain contents of the Torah of the intention of the letter appropriately reinterpreted. Gist of the letter is that any announcement of the coming of a Messiah from a foreign mouth must be considered incorrect. Instead announces Maimonides in prophetic language ( Koranic We - language ) itself at the coming of the Messiah. With a new method of calculation he predicts the coming of 4970/1210, a time point in the future 38 years date.

Language and arguments

As a linguistic feature is noticeable that the letter is written in both Hebrew and Arabic. In both cases, however, the Hebrew alphabet is used. The reason for this is that the letter should in his address, in its content, however, be publicly personally though. In the 12th century the Jews spoke Arabic in Yemen, which is why Maimonides with its Arabic version of the letter reached the widest possible readership. In addition to many fixed theological terms, from both the Islamic as well as from the Jewish theology, which are always kept in the original language, Maimonides uses many puns, double entenders, therefore, even to caricature the Islamic conqueror of Yemen. The Qur'an and its language serves as a repository for Maimonides arguments against the enemies of the Jewish community: he attempts to rebut the Islamic arguments with their own terms. This culminates in the formulation of a creed which parodies the Shahada: " There is no God but God and Moses is his messenger. " This is Muhammad as an envoy, which is usually called the Shahada, replaced by Moses. Theologically, this creed is not necessarily wrong: the Koran tells of Moses and called him a prophet. Christianity and Islam are dismissed as misguided, fundamentally objectionable heresies. The use of Islamic theological arguments served the Jewish recipients at the same time as an aid, as they could better counter the argumentative Mahdiden in this way.

The Batin argument

A fundamental argument against the doctrine of Mahdiden is the reference to the hidden meaning of the religious scriptures. Here Maimonides uses the term Batin (Arabic باطن - occult, mystical, hidden), which was established in Islamic theology. Thus Maimonides shows for posterity, as well the Jewish scholars in the Islamic theology ( ʿ Ilm al - Kalam ) knew about. The argument implies that reveal a secret message from the religious text which could not be discovered through pure studies themselves. The essential belief in Moses as the supreme prophet is the prerequisite for the recognition of the secret message ( Batin ). Furthermore, this secret meaning was not present in any text. Only the Torah lists these hidden meaning, the Muslims would have no knowledge of it and the Quran it does not contain even so Maimonides. All that the Koran contains, thus is mere imitation ( taqlid see ). The preclude the expertise with which Maimonides used the arguments and language of Islamic theology.

The Messiah argument

The main part of the letter is the proclamation of the coming of a Messiah for the Jews in Yemen. When preaching the passage can be seen, because he did not, as usual in the letter from the Tanakh quoting, but even as a prophet, dated the date of the dawn of the Messianic age. Maimonides identifies himself as a self- empowered and able to name the date. Because he had been allegedly passed on by his grandfather about his father, a method of calculation that was the right thing before any other calculation methods. Why, he founded not accurate. In this passage, Maimonides clearly contradicts. Because generally in the letter, but also in his other works, such as the 11th and 12th section of the Mishneh Torah on the establishment of the Kings ( Hilchos Melachim ), the physician from Cordoba believes that the time is not of men ergründlich and was probably never be calculated. The timing, according to Christian calendar 1210 is to be calculated as follows:

Effect

About the effect of the letter to the tradition of the Yemenite Jews largely silent. It is reported that the rule of Mahdiden got to the end only a few months later. From a Messiah or a person who united messianic properties on yourself, is not reported. However, whether the decline of Mahdiden dynasty in Yemen was a result of the letter, can not be said with certainty. The letter was understood by the rulers of Yemen in many parts. Especially since he was using a large amount of vocabulary and typical terms that could understand and interpret straight Shiites of that time effortlessly. Nevertheless, it is also assumed that the make -do Mahdiden were simply defeated by the political and military power of the incident Ayyubids. Regardless of the factual history of influence is especially revered to this day, especially among the Yemenite Jews, Moses Maimonides.