Meshovah niẓaḥat: Jewish-Christian Polemics in Kaf naki by Rabbi Khalifa Ben-Malka of Agadir

Abstract:

The fifth part of Rabbi Khalifa Ben-Malka's Kaf naki (Clean Hand), Meshovah niẓaḥat (Triumphant Response) portrays a series of interreligious disputations that he conducted with Christian colleagues in Agadir during the first half of the eighteenth century. A study of Meshovah niẓaḥat reveals that, while these debates represent a direct continuation of medieval interreligious polemic, occasionally the traditional arguments took on a new garb—for example, those proofs relying on the era's geographic or scientific discoveries. Ben-Malka was well-versed in the intricacies of theological debate and was familiar with the most sophisticated tools the medieval polemical tradition had to offer, as well as with post-medieval Jewish anti-Christian literature. His writing opens a window onto eighteenth-century Jewish-Moroccan intellectual history while simultaneously raising a number of questions. Further study will be necessary to paint a fuller and more diverse picture.