When Jews Lived Under Muslim Rule

“Jews were far more secure and better off under Islam than in Christian Europe.”

That kind of claim is often heard in the context of untangling competing narratives in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In a more targeted version, it is asserted that the advent of Zionism shattered tranquil relations between Jews and Arabs, triggering virulent antisemitism in a previously tolerant Middle East.

Are these claims true?

Starting with Muhammad

By 750 CE, within 118 years of Muhammad’s death, the Middle East was nearly entirely under Islamic rule. That is not to say that non-Muslims were eliminated or had no influence, but - much like Christianity in Europe and then America - Islam became a driving cultural force in the Middle East. Therefore, it is imperative for us to examine the traditions that shaped – and continue to shape – the relations between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East.

The entrance of Caliph Umar (581-644) into Jerusalem, 19th century colored engraving, via Wikipedia

Looking at Islamic sources gives us an idea of the initial phase of Jewish life under Arab Muslim rule. Bear in mind, even if the sources themselves are not 100% accurate, they represent the messages and narratives absorbed into much of Middle Eastern culture.

Sahih Bukhari, a collection of authoritative Muslim oral teachings, tells us:

Narrated Abu Huraira: While we were in the mosque, the Prophet came out and said, "Let us go to the Jews." We went out till we reached Bait-ul-Midras. [So it says in the source – clearly the Hebrew Beit Hamidrash; i.e., a house of learning or yeshiva.] He said to them, "If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle."

Leaving aside the odd claim that planet Earth belongs to Muhammad alongside Allah, this is a clear encapsulation of the precarious life of a Jew in Islamic lands ever since. How this expressed itself in the lifetime of Muhammad is detailed in Sirat Rasul Allah, a Muslim biography written by Ibn Ishaq (704-761 CE), which says, in part:

The apostle assembled the Jews in the marketplace and addressed them: 'Make profession of Islam before Allah punishes you as He has punished the Quraysh!'

...Then the Jewish tribe asked that the apostle of Allah should not shed their blood, but permit them to carry away as much of their property as their camels could bear. He consented and they loaded as many of their possessions as they could on their camels, even demolishing their houses that they might take away the thresholds. [Incidentally, the reference to taking “thresholds” gives the story some credibility, as it seems an extreme action to the author. Yet, it is likely a reference to Jews taking their mezuzahs, which may have been embedded in, or attached to, the doorpost in some way that prevented removal.]

A not-so-lucky tribe was Banu Qurayza. According to the Muslim sources, after the Jews had decided, “We shall never abandon the commandments of the Torah, nor substitute any others for them,” this happened:

…Trenches were dug in the marketplace. Then [Muhammad] sent for the men and had their heads struck off so that they fell in the trenches. They were brought out in groups, and among them was Kab, the chief of the tribe. In number, they amounted to six or seven hundred, although some state it to have been eight or nine hundred. All were executed.

One man turned to his people and said, “It matters not! By God's will, the children of Israel were destined for this massacre!” Then he seated himself and his head was struck off.

Then, the women and children were taken captive and distributed to the Muslims (with Muhammad getting one fifth for himself). One of the Jewish women, Rayhana, who became a slave to Muhammad replied to his offer of a formal marriage thus: “Allow me to remain your slave; it will be easier for me and for you.”

Sirat Rasul Allah details what happened when Muhammad took yet another Jewish woman hostage from the Khaybar region:

The apostle chose Safiya for himself. The other prisoners were distributed among the Muslims. Bilal brought Safiya to the apostle, and they passed the bodies of several Jews on the way. Safiya’s female companions lamented and strewed dust on their heads. When the apostle of Allah observed this scene, he said, “Remove these she-devils from me!”

It was inevitable that a culture infused with Islam would be influenced by the reported behavior of Muhammad, whom Muslims call “the perfect man” and a model of morality. Naturally, this has impacted the lives of Jews in the Islamic world, whether in the form of systemic discrimination, normalized prejudice or outright violent brutality.

A History of Persecution

A valid observation could be made at this point noting that Islam was founded in an extremely tribal milieu, intertwined with local power politics. Tolerance was not a popular virtue anywhere in the early 7^th century. The relations between Jews and Arabs, specifically Muslim Arabs, might be better examined after Islam achieved dominance in the region and was no longer in a fight for survival.

Scholars in a library from the Maqama of Hariri manuscript. Courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale/Wikipedia

Unfortunately, the subsequent history does not look much better.

In the late 700s, Idris I oversaw the destruction of entire Jewish communities in Morocco. In the 12th century, the Almohads presented several Jewish communities with the classic choice between death and Islam – leading either to massacre or forced conversion. In the mid-1400s, massacres throughout Morocco most likely took the lives of thousands of Jews (the Fez Massacre, to name but one, put an end to the Jewish community in that major city). Moroccan Jews were again forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death from 1790 to 1792. In Marrakesh, more than three hundred Jews were murdered between 1864 and 1880.

• In Libya in 1785 Ali Burzi Pasha murdered hundreds of Jews In 1785, a tragic event occurred in Libya when Ali Burzi Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Tripolitania, ordered the massacre of hundreds of Jews in Tripoli. a violent crackdown on the Jewish community, leading to widespread killings and looting.

• In Algeria, Jews were massacred in 1805, 1815 and 1830. It is estimated that hundreds of Jews were murdered each time.

Notably, when the Arab Muslim invasion of North Africa began in the 7th century, the Jews fought alongside – and even led at one point – the native Berber resistance to the Arab invaders. In other words, while Jews are called “colonists” in Israel, it bears remembering there were Jews in what are now called “Arab countries” before there were any Arabs there.

Similar massacres, synagogue destruction and forced conversions occurred repeatedly elsewhere in the Middle East as well, from Egypt to Syria to Iraq. It is worthwhile to focus in briefly on Yemen specifically, as the Jews there suffered what amounts to a localized Holocaust in terms of percentages. In 1679, Jews living throughout Yemen were expelled from their homes and sent to the barren Mawza region to die of exposure and lack of resources. When the Mawza Exile decree was eventually lifted one year later, up to two-thirds of the exiled Jews had already succumbed to the ordeal and those who survived were in poor health and homeless.

The Jews of Yemen faced various persecutions over the decades: forced conversions; torture and exile of community leaders; mass imprisonment; kidnapping of orphan children for conversion to Islam or slavery; and more.

I have not touched on lands conquered by Islam that are not considered Arab today. But I will mention one particularly brutal example, which actually took place in Europe. In 1066, an Arab mob in Granada, Spain, massacred 5,000 Jews and destroyed the Jewish quarter after crucifying the Jewish vizier, Yosef ibn Nagrela.

But Compared to Europe…

Even if we grant that the Jews suffered periodic persecution under Islamic rule, it is quite reasonable to ask the question: Compared to what? Naturally, the first parallel that comes to mind for Westerners is life in the European diaspora under Christendom, with its history of ghettoes, pogroms, Inquisitions, and the Holocaust.

A Jew and a Muslim playing chess in 13th century al-Andalus. El Libro de los Juegos, commissioned by Alphonse X of Castile, 13th century. Madrid

Yet, qualitatively, the situation of Jews under Muslims throughout the Middle East was not significantly different from that of Jews in Europe. Let’s not forget, we are talking about a period of 2,000 years and entire continents - there were good periods and bad periods, good rulers and evil rulers everywhere.

For example, England doesn’t historically seem like such an antisemitic hotbed to most people. Yet, King Edward I issued an order for the expulsion of all Jews from England in 1290. It was only in 1655 that Oliver Cromwell permitted them to return legally. From that point on, the Jews lived peaceful lives, though they faced official discrimination as second-class citizens – like the dhimmi status in peaceful Islamic lands – until the mid-1800s.

In Poland, which many Jews associate with rampant antisemitism, the 1264 Charter of Kalisz specifically secured Jewish rights, including protection from harm, property ownership, and freedom of religion. King Casimir III the Great (reigned 1333–1370) and subsequent Polish kings issued several additional decrees that granted Jews various rights in Poland, including legal protections that were lacking in other parts of Europe at the time. In fact, Poland became a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution elsewhere and a period of relative peace and prosperity ensued in what became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the mid-1600s.

Ukraine, another nation stained with bloody antisemitism, at one point issued currency with a Yiddish inscription on it. This occurred during the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic of 1917-1920, following the collapse of the Russian Empire.

Fond Memories

All that noted, we know that North Africa is often remembered fondly by Jewish emigrants who left the region in the 20th century. Can we so easily dismiss their experiences?

No, we cannot – nor should we. But we can certainly place them in historical context and note the quirks of human nature, as well.

1. In point of fact, many of the Jews who claim to remember the good times in Arab lands generally lived there when those countries were under European rule or under a ruler appointed by Europeans.

2. Moreover, many of the Jews in Arab lands chose European citizenship when the various empires were extending their protection to minorities. For example, Jews in Morocco and Tunisia became French citizens, only about one-quarter of Jews held Egyptian citizenship, and many Iraqi Jews held British citizenship.

3. Many Jews who migrated from Arab lands – and Arabs from those countries, as well – will openly tell you about the pervasive prejudice against Jews in the everyday culture. Their nostalgia is, I believe, along the lines of Eastern European Jews who emigrated to America singing songs extolling the virtues of their impoverished shtetls - it is “Darbouka on the Roof”.

The Land of Israel is Different

As we mentioned, yes, there were golden eras in the history of Arab-Jewish relations. However, a claim put forward by some ardent anti-Zionists is that things were actually better for Jews in the land of Israel under Islam and before Zionism came on the scene. It is saying that Zionism changed the dynamic. And in that sense, they are correct, but only insofar as it introduced a Jew who fought back – not in terms of antisemitic attacks and persecution.

First, let’s begin with the basic fact that the Muslim Arab conquest of the land of Israel in 636-37 was a settler-colonial enterprise. And they are proud of it, calling it the “Palestine Conquest” - Fatah Filastin (yes, the same word Fatah, “Conquest”, is used as the name of the movement currently in charge of the Palestinian Authority). After the occupation, the majority of Christians in the land of Israel adopted Islam and Arabized and the building of new synagogues was banned.

With the construction of the Dome of the Rock in 691 and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 705, the Muslims established the Temple Mount as an Islamic holy site. Jews were banned from it for the next 1,000 years. Periodic social and economic discrimination in the following centuries caused substantial Jewish emigration from the land of Israel.

Other notable events under Muslim rule include:

• The expulsion of the Gaonate – the main Jewish academy of learning and religious authority – in 1071, after Jerusalem was conquered by the Seljuq Turks.
• The imposition of a dhimmi tax on Jews and Christians and the curtailment of their rights, with more intense enforcement in the 10th and 11th centuries. In the Mamluk period (13th-16th centuries), the dhimmi laws were cranked up to include additional discriminatory practices intended for humiliation. Jewish and Christian communities declined precipitously.
• The Mamluks also banned Jews (and Christians) from the Cave of Our Patriarchs in Hebron. To this day, you can still see where Jews had to stop for about 700 years, on the seventh step leading into the building, until Israel put an end to the ban after the Six Day War in 1967.
• In the 18th century, Jewish communities throughout Israel were extorted and oppressed by local tribal and regional chiefs. In Jerusalem, Ottoman authorities restricted the number of Jews allowed to live there and expelled all Ashkenazi Jews from the city due to a debt some of them owed to Muslims.
• In 1831, Muhammad Ali of Egypt took over the land of Israel. In 1834, there were 33 days of looting and murder targeting Jews in Tzfat (Safed) and Hebron. More than 500 Jews were murdered, unknown numbers of women were raped, property was ransacked and looted, and synagogues were set on fire.

That’s all before the Zionist movement as we know it was a thing.

Then there’s this inconvenient fact, which is worth noting even though it does relate to a time after the Zionist movement was already well established: there are more than a dozen Jewish communities in the land of Israel that were destroyed by Arabs before 1947. But not a single such Arab community.

This partial review is a corrective to manipulative misinformation promoted by anti-Israel terror-apologists on US campuses, in European streets, and in the international media. It is admittedly far from comprehensive. However, an honest and open-eyed review of Arab-Jewish relations can provide a new perspective on our history as Jews, on the Middle East generally, and on the State of Israel’s struggle for survival.

Of course, this does not mean that Israel is always right. Just a reminder that views on current events should be grounded in reality – however complex it may be.