Rabbinic Judaism had limited philosophical activity until it was challenged by Islam, Karaite Judaism, and Christianity—with Tanach, Mishnah, and Talmud, there was no need for a philosophic framework. From an economic viewpoint, Radhanite trade dominance was being usurped by coordinated Christian and Islamic forced-conversions, and torture, compelling Jewish scholars to understand nascent economic threats. These investigations triggered new ideas and intellectual exchange among Jewish and Islamic scholars in the areas of jurisprudence, mathematics, astronomy, logic and philosophy. Jewish scholars influenced Islamic scholars and Islamic scholars influenced Jewish scholars. Contemporary scholars continue to debate who was Muslim and who was Jew—some "Islamic scholars" were "Jewish scholars" prior to forced conversion to Islam, some Jewish scholars willingly converted to Islam, such as Abdullah ibn Salam, while others later reverted to Judaism, and still others, born and raised as Jews, were ambiguous in their religious beliefs such as ibn al-Rawandi, although they lived according to the customs of their neighbors.
rabbinic judaism had limited philosophical activity until it was challenged by islam karaite judaism and christianity—with tanach mishnah and talmud there was no need for a philosophic framework from an economic viewpoint radhanite trade dominance was being usurped by coordinated christian and islamic forced-conversions and torture compelling jewish scholars to understand nascent economic threats these investigations triggered new ideas and intellectual exchange among jewish and islamic scholars in the areas of jurisprudence mathematics astronomy logic and philosophy jewish scholars influenced islamic scholars and islamic scholars influenced jewish scholars contemporary scholars continue to debate who was muslim and who was jew—some "islamic scholars" were "jewish scholars" prior to forced conversion to islam some jewish scholars willingly converted to islam such as abdullah ibn salam while others later reverted to judaism and still others born and raised as jews were ambiguous in their religious beliefs such as ibn al-rawandi although they lived according to the customs of their neighbors