Converting the Queen: gender and polemic in the Book of ‘Aḥiṭub and Ṣalmon

The fifteenth-century Book of ‘Aḥiṭub and Ṣalmon (Sefer Aḥiṭub ve-Ṣalmon), a Hebrew anti-Christian prose narrative from Iberia written in the wake of the 1413–14 Disputation of Tortosa, tells the story of a just queen who ruled an island without any worldly religion. After deciding to seek the true religion by sending out three wise men, who later return as a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian, respectively, the queen holds a debate between the Christian and the Jew. When the Muslim, who arbitrates the debate, adjudicates in favor of the Jew, the whole island joins the queen in converting to Judaism while the Christian hangs himself in disgrace. This study focuses on the role of the queen as a narratological device and as a polemical tool. It argues that the queen is presented as a symbol of both reason and wisdom—a sort of Lady Wisdom—and as a counterpoint to the Virgin Mary. In this way, the figure of the queen constitutes a Jewish response to Christian arguments according to both rational proofs and religious authority.

[1]  Miriam Shadis.  Nuria Silleras-Fernandez. Power, Piety and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship: Maria de Luna. The New Middle Ages Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. , 2010 .

[2]  Martin Warner.  Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary , 2010 .

[3]  Theresa Earenfight,et al.  The King's Other Body , 2009 .

[4]  I. Resnick.  Odo of Tournai and the Dehumanization of Medieval Jews: A Reexamination , 2008 .

[5]  N. Lange.  Jewish Philosophical Polemics Against Christianity in the Middle Ages , 2008 .

[6]  Emily C. Francomano.  Wisdom and Her Lovers in Medieval and Early Modern Hispanic Literature , 2008 .

[7]  Núria Silleras-Fernández.  Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship , 2008 .

[8]  Alexandra Cuffel.  Gendering Disgust in Medieval Religious Polemic , 2007 .

[9]  S. Einbinder.  Unveiling Eve: Reading Gender in Medieval Hebrew Literature , 2005 .

[10]  Jean Dangler,et al.  The literature of misogyny in medieval Spain : the "Arcipreste de Talavera" and the "Spill" , 2001 .

[11]  H. Hames,et al.  The Polemic of Nestor the Priest: Qissat Mujadalat al-Usquf and Sefer Nestor Ha-Komer , 2001 .

[12]  Jeremy D. Cohen.  Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity , 1999 .

[13]  ha-Levi th cent Judah,et al.  The Kuzari : in defense of the despised faith , 1998 .

[14]  E. MacDonald,et al.  The literature of misogyny in medieval Spain , 1997 .

[15]  Stephen G. Burnett,et al.  Was Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah? Alphonso de Espina's Argument against the Jews in the Fortalitium Fidei (c. 1464). , 1996 .

[16]  N. Roth.  Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain , 1995 .

[17]  David J. Reimer.  Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash , 1994 .

[18]  I. Resnick.  A Disputation with the Jew, Leo, Concerning the Advent of Christ, the Son of God , 1994 .

[19]  I. Resnick.  On Original Sin and A Disputation with the Jew, Leo, Concerning the Advent of Christ, the Son of God: Two Theological Treatises , 1994 .

[20]  G. S. Burgess.  Jean-Marie Fritz. — Chrétien de Troyes, Erec et Enide : édition critique d'après le manuscrit B.N. fr. 1376, traduction, présentation et notes. Paris, Livre de Poche, 1992 (" Lettres Gothiques ", 4526) , 1994 .

[21]  Ramón Llull,et al.  Doctor Illuminatus: A Ramon Llull Reader , 1993 .

[22]  J. Lassner,et al.  Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam , 1993 .

[23]  Amos Funkenstein.  Perceptions of Jewish History , 2023 .

[24]  D. Lasker,et al.  The Refutation of the Christian Principles , 1992 .

[25]  R. Bloch.  Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love , 1991 .

[26]  G. Dahan.  Les intellectuels chrétiens et les juifs au Moyen Âge , 1992 .

[27]  Jeremy D. Cohen,et al.  The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages. A Critical Edition of the Niẓẓahon Vetus@@@The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages. A Critical Edition of the Nizzahon Vetus , 1982 .

[28]  R. Emmerson.  The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages : A Critical Edition of the Niẓẓaḥon Vetus [review] / by David Berger. , 1982 .

[29]  D. Lasker.  Jewish Philosophical Polemics Against Christianity in the Middle Ages: With a New Introduction , 2007 .

[30]  R. Louis,et al.  Erec et Enide , 1971 .

[31]  E. Goldman,et al.  Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash , 1969 .

[32]  Jean Frappier,et al.  Chrétien de Troyes , 1958 .

[33]  J. Morgenstern.  The Book of the Covenant , 1931 .

[34]  J. Breasted.  The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago , 1919, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures.

[35]  Carreras i Candi Francesc.  L'Aljama de juhéus de Tortosa , 1912 .