“No Prophet Like Moses:” Muhammad’s Claim to Prophethood and Early Jewish Reactions

• In Event: "Never again did there arise in Israel a Prophet Like Moses..." The problem of Moses' incomparability in historical perspective

Abstract

Among the more widely recognized principles of modern Judaism is the idea that since the days of the biblical Moses there will never again be a prophet like Moses, an idea traced to Deut. 34:10-12 and included in Maimonides’ 13 Principles of Faith. For those Jews who lived in the realm of Islam, this was not a teaching that went unchallenged. Indeed, while Islam echoed the Jewish characterization and adoration of Moses as God’s messenger, His interlocutor (al-kalīm), and His right-hand man (in a sense), early on Islam rejected the Jewish teachings regarding Moses’ everlasting prophetic uniqueness. For Islam, Moses was not only matched by a subsequent prophet whose life paralleled his—Muhammad—but ultimately exceeded by him.
This paper will trace the nature of the Jewish reaction to the Muslim claim of Muhammad’s superiority over Moses in the early medieval period. The discussion will begin with Jewish polemics against Muhammad in the early Islamic era, polemics preserved (somewhat problematically) in the Islamic sources themselves. It will move to the anti-Muhammad polemics embedded in post-Qur’ānic midrashic accounts of Moses’ life. Analysis will then shift to the writings of Maimonides (d. 1204) and Ibn Kammuna, a 13th century Baghdadi Jewish physician and philosopher who authored a treatise entitled Examination of the Inquiries into the Three Faiths (Taniqīḥ al-abḥāth li-l-milal al-thalāth). Ibn Kammuna analyzes the concept of prophecy writ large, Moses’ prophecy in particular, and offers a refutation of the Muslim claims to Muhammad’s prophetic victory over Moses. In covering these four elements, this paper will investigate the ways in which these Jewish writers’ perception of and charges against Muhammad shifted over the years.

Author

• Shari Lee Lowin, Stonehill College