Natan'el al-Fayyumi

Natanʾel al-Fayyumi (Arabic: ناتانئيل الفيومي, romanized: Nātānʾil al-Fayyūmī, lit. 'Nathaniel of Pithom'; c. 1090 – c. 1165) was the twelfth-century Yemenite Jewish author of Garden of the Intellects (גן השכלים). It was an imitation of Bahya ibn Paquda's book Duties of the Heart that al-Fayyumi composed in medieval Judeo-Yemeni Arabic to counter some of the basic principles and tenets of Rabbinic Judaism expressed by Ibn Paquda. He wrote in the third chapter that God's unity is far greater than that described by ibn Paquda.

Marc B. Shapiro wrote that al-Fayyumi's work supports Jonathan Sacks' pluralistic views on religion. Like Ismaʿili Islam, the faith of the Banu Hamdan dynasties ruling most of contemporary South Arabia, Natanʾel argued that God sent different prophets to the world's various peoples, each containing legislations suited to the particular temperament of each nation. Each person should remain loyal to their own religion; the universal teachings had been adapted to the specific conditions and experiences of each community.

However, al-Fayyumi's explicit acceptance of Muhammad's status as a prophet may be unique, and was virtually unknown until recent times beyond his native Yemen. Yosef Qafih, the editor and translator of Fayyumi's Judeo-Arabic Bustān al-ʿUqul, asserts that due to Muslim attempts to catch Jews saying something against their faith–one who said that Muhammad was a false prophet would be judged for death–Nathanʾel was compelled to teach his people arguments and responses that would save them from ensnarement.

Muslim teachings speak of an evolutionary sequence of prophetic revelations, culminating in the messianic Qa'im Al Muhammad era, which would unite all humanity in acknowledging God. Ismaili doctrine acknowledges that a single universal religious truth lies at the root of the different religions. Each historical revelation plays a role in preparing the path for that universal truth.

Within a single generation, Natan'el's son Jacob was compelled to turn to Maimonides, asking urgently for counsel on how to deal with a new wave of religious persecutions and forced conversions that was threatening the Jews of Yemen, an exchange which prompted Maimonides to compose his famous Epistle to Yemen. The letters and intellectual dialogue between Jacob, Maimonides, and Saladin had a lasting effect upon Yemenite Judaism.