Editing Jewish philosophy (section)

=== Who influences whom? ===
{{further|Early Islamic philosophy}}
Rabbinic Judaism had limited philosophical activity until it was challenged by [[Islam]], Karaite Judaism, and [[Christianity]]—with Tanakh, Mishnah, and Talmud, there was previously no explicit requirement for a philosophic framework. From an economic viewpoint, [[Radhanite]] trade dominance was being usurped by coordinated Christian and Islamic [[forced conversion]]s and torture, compelling Jewish scholars to apprehend nascent economic threats. These investigations yielded intellectual exchange between Jewish and Islamic scholars in jurisprudence, mathematics, astronomy, logic, and philosophy. Jewish scholars influenced Islamic scholars, and Islamic scholars influenced Jewish scholars. Contemporary scholars continue to debate who was Muslim and who was Jewish—some "Islamic scholars" were Jewish scholars prior to forced conversion to Islam, and there were episodic willing conversions of Jewish scholars to Islam (such as [[Abdullah ibn Salam]]). In contrast, others later reverted to Judaism, and still others, born and raised as Jews, were ambiguous in their public religious beliefs, such as [[ibn al-Rawandi]]. However, they lived according to the customs of their Muslim neighbors.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Around 700 CE, ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd Abu ʿUthman al-Basri introduced two streams of thought that influenced Jewish, Islamic, and Christian scholars:
# ''[[Qadariyah]]''
# ''[[Bahshamiyya]]'' ''[[Muʿtazila]]''

The story of the ''Bahshamiyya Muʿtazila'' and ''Qadariyah'' is as important, if not more so, as the intellectual symbiosis of Judaism and Islam in Islamic Spain.

Around 733 CE, [[Mar (title)|Mar]] Natronai ben Habibai moved to [[Kairouan]], then to Spain, transcribing the [[Talmud]] ''Bavli'' for the Academy at Kairouan from memory—later taking a copy with him to Spain.<ref>"Geonica", By Ginzberg Louis, Pg. 18, {{ISBN|1-110-35511-4}}</ref>

==== Karaism ====
{{main|Karaite Judaism}}
Borrowing from the [[Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400)|''Mutakallamin'']] of [[Basra]], the Karaites were the first Jewish group to subject Judaism to ''Muʿtazila''. Rejecting the Talmud and Rabbinical tradition, Karaites took radical liberty to reinterpret the [[Tanakh]]. This meant abandoning foundational Jewish belief structures. Some scholars suggest that the major impetus for the formation of Karaism was a reaction to the rapid rise of [[Shia Islam]], which recognized Judaism as a fellow monotheistic faith but claimed it detracted from monotheism by deferring to [[rabbinic authority]]. Karaites absorbed certain aspects of Jewish sects such as the followers of [[Abu Isa]] (Shi'ism), [[Maliki]] ([[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]]), and [[Yudghanites]] ([[Sufism|Sufis]]), who were influenced by East-Islamic scholarship yet deferred to the [[Ash'ari]] when contemplating the sciences.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

==== Philosophic synthesis begins ====
{{further|Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400)}}
{{Location map many | Iraq
| caption=[[Asuristan]] (shown: modern [[Iraq]]), also called [[Talmudic Academies in Babylonia|Babylonia]]: Centers of Ancient Jewish scholarship
| label=[[Pumbedita]]
| position=left
| lat=33.419  | long= 43.312
| label2=[[Sura (city)|Sura]]
| pos2=left
| lat2=31.883  | long2= 44.45
| label3=[[Baghdad]]
| pos3=right
| lat3=33.325  | long3= 44.422
| label4=[[Basra]]
| pos4=left
| lat4=30.5  | long4= 47.816
| width=150 | float=right
}}
The spread of Islam throughout the Middle East and North Africa rendered Islamic much that was previously Jewish. Greek philosophy, science, medicine, and mathematics were absorbed by Jewish scholars living in the Arab world due to Arabic translations of those texts in remnants of the [[Library of Alexandria]]. Early Jewish converts to Islam brought with them stories from Jewish tradition, known as ''[[Isra'iliyyat]]'', which told of the ''Banu Isra'il'': the pious men of ancient Israel. One of the most famous early mystics of [[Sufism]], [[Hasan of Basra]], introduced numerous ''Isra'iliyyat'' into Islamic scholarship—stories that went on to become representative of Islamic mystical ideas of the piety of Sufism.

[[Hai Gaon]] of [[Pumbedita Academy]] began a new phase in Jewish scholarship and investigation (''hakirah''); Hai Gaon augments Talmudic scholarship with non-Jewish studies.  Hai Gaon was a savant with an exact knowledge of the theological movements of his time, so much so that [[Moses ibn Ezra]] called him a [[kalam|mutakallim]].  Hai was competent in arguing with followers of Qadariyyah and Mutazilites, sometimes adopting their polemic methods.  Through correspondence with Talmudic Academies at Kairouan, Cordoba, and Lucena, Hai Gaon passes along his discoveries to Talmudic scholars therein.{{Incomprehensible inline|date=February 2025}}

The teachings of the [[Brethren of Purity]] were carried to the West by the Cordovan [[hadith scholar]] and [[Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world|alchemist]] [[Maslama al-Qurtubi]] (died 964),<ref>{{cite journal|last1=De Callataÿ|first1=Godefroid|last2=Moureau|first2=Sébastien|year=2017|title=A Milestone in the History of Andalusī Bāṭinism: Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī's Riḥla in the East|journal=Intellectual History of the Islamicate World|volume=5|issue=1|pages=86–117|doi=10.1163/2212943X-00501004}}</ref> where they would be of central importance to the [[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain|Jewish philosophers of Islamic Spain]]. One of the themes emphasized by the Brethren of Purity and adopted by most Spanish Jewish philosophers is the [[Microcosm-macrocosm analogy in Jewish philosophy|microcosm-macrocosm analogy]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Jacobs|first1=Joseph|author1-link=Joseph Jacobs|last2=Broydé|first2=Isaac|author2-link=Isaac Broydé|year=1906|title=Microcosm|editor1-last=Singer|editor1-first=Isidore|editor1-link=Isidore Singer|editor2-last=Funk|editor2-first=Isaac K.|editor2-link=Isaac K. Funk|editor3-last=Vizetelly|editor3-first=Frank H.|encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|location=New York|publisher=Funk & Wagnalls|volume=8|pages=544–545|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10798-microcosm}} {{cite EJ|last1=Kraemer|first1=Joel|title=Microcosm|volume=14|pages=178–179|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/microcosm}}</ref> From the 10th century on, Spain became a center of philosophical learning as is reflected by the explosion of philosophical inquiry among Jews, Muslims and Christians.<ref>"A literary History of Persia" Book IV, Chapter X. ON THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF THE CALIPHATE, FROM THE ACCESSION OF AL-MUTA WAKKIL TO THE ACCES SION OF SULTAN MAHMUD OF GHAZNA, Page 339, by EDWARD G. BROWNE, M.A.</ref>