Arabic Original of Maimonides’ Epistle to Yemen in Arabic Letters

Maimonides’ epistle to Yemen plays an important role in Jewish-Muslim polemical literature. In his epistle, Maimonides mentions Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and Muslims in his reply to the Muslims’ arguments for the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad. Because the epistle was written in Judeo-Arabic, it long remained unknown to those who are not familiar with Hebrew letters. Although there are English translations of the epistle, the advantage of reading the original text cannot be compared with the translation. Accordingly, we decided to publish the original text in Arabic letters so that the Arabic readers can read the epistle in its original text. In the Judeo-Arabic texts, verses from Torah and special religious expressions are preserved in original Hebrew script. These verses and expressions have been translated into Arabic and presented in the footnotes. We have detected some Arabic grammatical mistakes resulting from Maimonides’ application of Hebrew grammer into Arabic; however, we have left them as they are with a view to being faithful to the text. Finally, our transliteration of Maimonides’ epistle in Judeo-Arabic is based on the Abraham Shlomo Halkin edition of the Epistle to Yemen of 1952, which is accepted as the most esteemed version in Jewish academic circles.