Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

AQUINAS AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 45
section the main attention will be paid to a text written by Judah
Halevi (c.1075-1140), because here we come across a seemingly very
modern phenomenon: a comparative study of religions. Judah wrote
this text in Arabic under the title "The Book of Refutation and Proof
in Defence of the Despised Faith", but it soon became known as 'the
Kuzari'. This name is derived from the Khazars, an independent
kingdom in the southern part of Russia, where the king is said to have
converted, together with his people, to the Jewish faith, after having
listened to the expositions of their beliefs by a philosopher, a
Christian, a Muslim and, finally, a Jew98• In the text by Halevi, the
parts are not divided very equally: while the philosopher, the Christian
and the Muslim are put on stage for a few lines only, the Rabbi fills
the rest of the book with his sometimes very particularist interpretation
of Judaism?'. Maybe this particularism has something to do with the
fact that Halevi was the first to write an extensive apologetics for the
Jewish religion'P'. But the story is in itself very interesting and it is
probably based on historical events, since similar stories are told about
other Slavic peoples, with the difference that the Russian ruler
Wladimir finally decided to convert to Byzantine Christianity'?'.
The difference between the somewhat idyllic picture of a king who
freely chooses the best religion for his people on the basis of
arguments provided by religious leaders of several faiths, and the real
situation of enforced conversions in the process of reconquista by the
98 I consulted a recent French translation: Juda Hallevi, Le Kuzari:
Apologie de la réligion méprisée. Traduit sur le texte original arabe confronté
avec la version hébraïque et accompagnée d'une introduction et de notes par
Charles Touati (Bibliothèque de I'école des hautes études, sciences réligieuses,
vol. c), Louvain - Paris 1994.
99 Cp. Sirat, A History of Jewisb Philosophy in the Middle Ages, p.
117.
1(10 See H. Schreckenberg, Die christlichen Adversus-Judaeos-Texte
(11.-13. Jh.), Frankfurt a.M. -1988, p. 122.
JOl Sirat, o.c., p. 114. Wil van den Bereken discusses the Slavic 'Story
of the past years', written in 1116, and compares it with the Kuzari in his De
mythe van het Oosten: Oost en West in de religieuze ideeëngeschiedenis van
Rusland, Zoetermeer 1988, pp. 16-36.