On Ibn Ḥazm’s Rhetoric in <em>al-Radd ʿalā Ibn al-Naghrīla</em>: Sobre la retórica de Ibn Ḥazm en al-Radd ‘alà Ibn al-Nagrīla

Abstract

In his polemic composition al-Radd ‘alā Ibn al-Naghrīla al-Yahūdī, Abū Muḥammad ‘Alī b. Aḥmad b. Ḥazm al-Andalusī (994/1064 CE) attempts to demonstrate the Jews’ taḥrīf (falsification) of the Torah by citing several examples. This article intends to shed some light on an important aspect of Ibn Ḥazm’s rhetoric as reflected in al-Radd ‘alā Ibn al-Naghrīla. I argue, however, that by juxtaposing some of Ibn Ḥazm’s arguments with the relevant Jewish sources, we find that in some of these examples he himself deliberately misrepresents and misquotes explicit Torah texts, undermines their authority and overlooks parallel Qur’ānic accounts of which he must have been aware. Ibn Ḥazm’s tendentiousness and double standard in this matter stem from his wish to prove that the Torah was falsified and, by so doing, to lend further support to the Qurʾānic argument regarding the taḥrīf.