Reform Jewish scholars idealized Islamic-era Iberian Judaism against Orthodox Judaism

Evidence

For Geiger, a Judaism distinguished by its ethical imperative, namely, Reform Judaism, stood in opposition to the “absolutism of the Shulhan Aruh,” which derived its legitimacy, and therefore, oppressive character, by virtue of its merely having been written. … Moreover, he detected in the Jewish culture that flourished under Islam in the Iberian Peninsula an admirable form of Judaism that differed markedly from the Orthodoxy of central and especially, eastern Europe. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 387

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to Geiger’s rejection of Orthodoxy shaping his orientalist judgment of Islam as purer than Christianity — mirrors the pattern in Milgrom of how internal political-religious battles shape economic/scholarly evaluations.