Munazara-yi Bahr al-?ulum Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi Burujirdi Tabataba?i (1212 HQ) ba Yahudiyan-i Dhu 'l-Kifl

In the history of Islam, Muslim-Jewish polemics have been documented from the earliest times and studies on this subject abound. The present work is a case in point. In the spring of the year 1211/1796, the famous Shi?i scholar Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Husayni al-Tabataba?i (d. 1212/1797) was on his way from Mashhad to visit the holy shrine of Imam Husayn in Karbala, accompanied by a flock of his senior students. When they reached the town of al-Kifl, less than 20 km north of Najaf and home to a community of over 3.000 Jews, a delegation of the latter came to see Tabataba?i in the caravanserai where was staying, wishing to engage in a debate with him. The text presented here is an account of Tabataba?i's detailed listing of the contradictions and errors in Judaism as seen by him, a listing that remained largely unanswered. Arabic text, with a Persian translation from before 1238/1822-3.